technology
NO LONGER THE APPLE OF MY EYE
I
Michael Cross on the latest trends and kit
REVIEW
t looked like an up-ended shoebox, fitted with a black-andwhite TV screen little bigger than my hand. A keyboard in matching beige was by a telephone-style coiled cord. In 1987 the Macintosh Plus was the cutting edge of home technology. Its arrival (the delivery man offered to set it up for me) began a love affair that’s run, with a couple of bumps, for a quarter century. Sadly, that’s now coming to an end. Even in the 1980s, we Apple owners thought we were a bit special. After all, the price (after journalist discount) was about twice as much as an IBMcompatible PC and a multiple of the Amstrad word processor which most of my colleagues were buying. My excuse was that the Mac was far and away the best machine for desktop publishing (which I never got round to) and that as a science writer I needed to be at the cutting edge. In truth it was a fashion statement. When we had guests around, I’d leave the Mac turned on, displaying a ball bouncing around the screen, and imagined myself in the company of renowned Mac users like Douglas Adams and Richard Dawkins. I must have looked a right berk. I got my money’s worth, though. That Mac Plus lasted me six years, including three lugging it around Asia.
LOW-COST LAPTOPS No doubt what’s the coolest
laptop computer around at the moment. The new MacBook Air combines the best features of the iPad – solid-state ruggedness and long battery life – in a stylish titanium shell. The snag: you’re looking at £1,000 for the 11-inch model with the mid-range memory specification. If all you need is the wherewithal to browse the web and file copy when you’re out and about, that’s money down the drain. Nowadays, you
“
In truth it was a fashion statement. When we had guests I ‘d leave the Mac turned on
“
don’t need to spend much more than a quarter of that. So-called ‘netbooks’ – low specification compact laptops introduced at around the £200 mark a few years ago – have steadily been creeping up in performance and value. Models, and deals, change rapidly but a shout-out around journalist colleagues and a trip to London’s Tottenham Court Road suggests the following are worth a look. Samsung N Series. A colleague says he cannot fault his N140: “Lightweight, good display, decentish keyboard (a bit cramped, but that’s more down to the nature of the beast itself and the fact that I have large hands), and an excellent battery life.” The current model, the N145, is £249 at the Micro
Modifications included the addition of a plug-in modem for Telecom Gold email and a 20-megabyte hard disc. More importantly, the Mac OS enabled me to upgrade to the web world painlessly without having to call a help desk, or even open a software manual. I’m no fundamentalist. For laptops I’ve generally gone non-Apple, on grounds of size, weight and battery life. That may change with the amazing new Macbook Air, but at the moment I can’t justify the cost (see below). And for years I even had a custom built Windows desktop. Nonetheless, replacing that with a 27-inch iMac last year felt like coming home. It’s an allin-one package of functional beauty that worked immediately and hasn’t crashed once. It even cost roughly the same number of 2010 pounds as the Mac Plus did 1987 pounds. My problem? Nothing to do with technology, but with Apple’s apparent ambition to control the whole value chain of information through iTunes – the first to crack the problem of handling small payments for music – software, and news. The last straw is its demand for 30 per cent of payments for publications downloaded to its devices. Publishers are complaining: journalists concerned about information monopolies should, too.
Anvika high street chain. – Acer Aspire One (also sold under the Packard Bell brand). A colleague swears by her Packard Bell Dot M/U. “I love the fact that screen and keyboard are slightly bigger than a lot of standard netbooks (11.6”), so it’s much easier to work and type on, and the battery life is up to 8 hours.” In this range, my eye was caught by the new £280 Aspire One 533, a similar spec to the Samsung but a touch lighter. Sure, photographers, designers and multi-media types will want more oomph, but for writers it seems daft to pay thousands. The sad truth about reporters’ laptops is that they break down and/or get stolen. Best to buy one you won’t grieve unduly for.
theJournalist | 29
648_JOURNALIST_MARCH_P29.indd 30
6/4/11 16:02:52