What's in a description? Apple

In a recent Tech Crunch article about the decline of Google, its products and its ethics, I fell in love with this phrase to describe Apple :

A gorgeous velvet glove enclosing an exquisitely sleek titanium fist.

Other posts on words:

Handy

Genocide
Digitalization
Digital Slime

Why I Love my iPad

Two months ago, I didn't have an iPad.

Two months ago, I didn't know I couldn't live without one.

That's a picture of my iPad on the left there.  It has an orange cover because ING Direct Bank (where I'm a director) gave all their directors an iPad for receiving board information and of course ING Direct's colour is orange.  I had been planning to buy one the next day, so this was a very welcome suprise.  And the content management system we're using for board material is definitely a winner.

The stimulus for me to finally buy an iPad was an upcoming five-week trip to India: I wanted to stay in touch and I wanted to store the thousands of photos I expected to take there, but I didn't want to lug around my regular laptop.  It felt like the right time to join the iPad tribe!

The iPad delivered everything I'd hoped for and more. In fact, I'm smitten. Let me take a note from Elizabeth Barret's famous sonnet "How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways".  I'll list things that thrill me about my iPad.  It's hard to put these in order, because they are all important to me.

1. The iPad screen is absolutely gorgeous.  The picture displays are vibrant.  After I transferred my photos to my computer for storage and manipulation, it really brought home just how great the iPad screen is.  Compared to the iPad, the photos looked washed out on my computer.  They all looked in need of a bit of Photoshop juice to spike the brightness and colour.  
2. The touch screen is, of course, totally addictive.  In a previous post, I described how much I like the Kindle.  I find myself touching the Kindle screen these days in the futile hope that it will respond to my fingers! I heard an anecdote about a young child of three who was fiddling on his father's computer.  When he touched the screen, nothing happened.  "Daddy, this computer is broken".  This device is forming the expectations of this new generation.  It won't be many years before the mouse will look as antiquated as the old DOS command line, or a rotary dial phone.
3. The iPad's size is marvellous.  It fits in my purse.  It's always there for doing practical things like taking notes, or indulging in games.  I might feel this way about an iPhone, but I'm too cheap to pay the data charges - it's nice to be able to do everything on WiFi.
4. The iPad turns on instantly!  On my laptop, I turn it on when I come downstairs in the morning.  Then I go and make my breakfast while it chugs along getting started.  Halfway through my preparations, I go and click on the browser to bring it up.  When I've finished making my breakfast, everything is (finally) ready for me.  As I become accustomed (or addicted) to my iPad, this clunky behaviour makes me more and more frustrated.
5. I love the apps.  I've always been devoted to the game Boggle, and I love playing its equivalent Word Seek app.  A couple of my grandchildren are fascinated by this game as well.  Another granddaughter loves the Oven Break game, and my sister-in-law and I are enamoured of friendly Talking Tom Cat.  There's still lots to explore here.
6.  The cunning magnetic foldable cover/stand for the iPad makes me smile every time I use it.  What a clever innovation!

There are a couple of disappointments with my iPad.  There are places in my house where I can't get WiFi connection on the iPad; I do get WiFi on my laptop in those same places.   Cleaerly, there's room for improvement in the WiFi's reception.  And I sure wish the battery lasted longer.  The cord is too short to comfortably use the iPad while it's plugged in.  But these are minor blemishes on a wonderful new companion.

Steve Jobs

How sad to see Steve Jobs unable to continue at Apple.  From when he was very young, Jobs has broken all the rules and made it work for him.  I wonder how many university drop-outs have used him as a justification for their actions.

And so the speculation swirls as to what will happen with Apple.  Tim Cook, Jobs' successor, has been written about in very flattering terms, but he's all about how to do business: he's fixed various supply chain problems and been critical to Apple's success in bringing products to market.  Jonathon Ives, Apple's famous and revered designer, is all about how to design obscenely beautiful and usable products.  But Jobs is the one who has decided what to do.  His vision, his passion, his uncompromising expectations, and his micromanaging attention to detail have pushed Apple to deliver only the best.  How do you replace an influence like that?

There's been a lot written about Steve Jobs this week - almost like eulogies while he's still alive, although deeply imperilled.  He's certainly been a significant force in society beyond just business.  He came full circle at Stanford when he gave the commencement speech in 2005.  It's worth listening here for his take on life in general.  You've probably heard the value of telling stories as a way of making your point.  Jobs' three stories prove the point.

An Apple Experience

Recently I wrote about great customer experiences at ING Direct, especially at their new cafe in Toronto.  Amazingly, I've just had another customer experience worth writing about - at the Apple store in downtown Toronto.

Apple store - Toronto Eaton Centre

Past experiences at the Apple store revolved around the Genius Bar  - getting expert help with my iPod at the promised appointment time.  This time, I was in a hurry to buy a blue wireless Jambox speaker.  There was one left on the shelf, in black, and the store was thronged with customers and buzzing with activity.  As far as I could see, the many Apple staff in blue t-shirts were all occupied with customers.  I was never going to get out of there in time for my next appointment!

Then, one of the staff instructed me to go to one of the iPads lined up on the long tables, and click in the bottom right to call for a salesperson.  The screen instructed me to stand there and someone would come to me.  After a minute or so, I clicked again and was told there were 2 people ahead of me and did I still want to wait?  I clicked on yes, and a salesperson promptly showed up.  I told her what I wanted and she walked me to the back of the store, where she sent someone off to the back room to fetch the blue Jambox, the last one in stock as it happened, and put it in a bag for me.  She had a mobile device in her hand (an iTouch?), with a card reader.  So she captured my credit card info and asked me to sign on the touch screen, then walked me to the door, and grabbing my receipt off a printer mounted under a table near the door.  Presto, I was finished in time for my next (ugh dentist) appointment.

What a fabulous experience.  Quick, efficient, and showing off Apple technology all the way.