Windows 2 Apples Episode 2

Windows 2 Apples

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In my first podcast I gave some background on my history with Microsoft products, my first impressions of the 20-inch Intel iMac as well as my initial impression of the of the Apple design philosophy. I had planned to focus on the iLife Software highlighted so often in many of the Apple commercials, however, I would like to spend this podcast reviewing a few additional issues I have with the iMac hardware and utility software.

As is often the case features with strong positives also have negative flip sides that are easy to ignore or gloss over if viewed from a biased position. I have already mentioned my distress at finding an unlabeled magnet at the bottom right corner of my iMac which although aesthetically pleasing and clever is also in my opinion dangerous as well as almost unusable in meeting the objective of holding the controller to the side of the case.

When I initially researched the Apple computer line and accessories I was encouraged by the very positive reviews of the iSight webcam. For many years I have used a wide variety of Webcams when communicating with distant members of our design team and customers as we developed computer based physiological monitoring systems. It was often convenient and very efficient to simply take the camera and point at a section of a circuit board, a component or enclosure and then in real time review the pros and cons of that particular board layout or component with engineers and clients as far away as Germany, Japan and Taiwan.

Of course, this strategy required that I be able to take the webcam in hand and focus on the part or device we were reviewing. The best webcam for the PC in my opinion was produced by Intel and has sadly been discontinued. All other webcams have paled in comparison but at least I have had many from which to pick and experiment with over the years.

Most iSight reviews gave me hope that the iMac could be used with the seemly superior Apple webcam. In fact I believe a number of Apple advertisements and press releases claimed that the iMac had “finally” brought video and audio teleconferencing to the forefront of the Internet by enclosing the highly touted iSight webcam and a microphone in the iMac monitor enclosure.

Claims of Apple legitimizing A/V conferencing were made while blissfully ignoring the fact that for many years Windows PC users have had a slew of Webcam and microphone accessories available from many different manufactures and that these devices worked well with all popular web conferencing software and audio / video enabled chat room services.

True to the reviews, the built-in iSight camera in fact produces an excellent image and the built-in microphone seems to do a relatively good job of recording speech. It was designed of course to be elegant and as unobtrusive as possible but as in many current PC laptops the design suffers from a very limited viewing angle.

Unfortunately, straight on clearly focused, high resolution, color correct pictures of my face are not particularly flattering and the built-in the camera is of no use to me when trying to review a board layout or to show my friends how cute our cat is as he naps at my feet. It is for all intent and purposes a component I will almost never use.

At least with my ACER Aspire Windows Vista laptop I can rotate the camera a maximum of 225 degrees enabling me to record and/ or stream the scene directly in front of me while “magically” maintaining the correct vertical orientation of my subject.

The internal microphone, as good as it is, still picks up far too much ambient noise and most people using their Macintosh computers to generate podcasts such as this are forced to use external USB microphones. I say forced because as I was shocked to learn the iMac audio input jack unlike any other PC I have ever used is a line in jack … line input is the only audio input on the iMac and excludes the use of almost all off the shelf microphones and microphone headset combos. This seems this extremely bizarre and limiting given the iMac is promoted as “the system” for producing creative audio and video projects such as netcasts.

When I first realized how limited the iSight camera was in terms of positioning I assumed I could simply purchase an external iSight webcam, however Jobs in his divine wisdom has apparently decided the built-in cam is the only Webcam I should ever need and took the external iSight cam off the market! I have been spoiled by the Windows PC accessory market and frustrated by the lack of Webcam manufactures that can claim to fully support the Mac operating system. The few available 3rd party iMac webcams do not generally get sterling reviews.

To my dismay I also discovered that there was no way to tweak or modify the settings for my internal iSight camera. Admittedly, the iSight cam and software normally do an excellent job of automatically adjusting to varying light and focal distance but there have been times where a simple Windows like tweak would have made it ever so much more useable.

Perhaps these limiting design decisions are are to be expected from a company culture that because of its exclusive control over the hardware can dictate to its minions and customers what is best for them. I believe this is also the primary reason the Macintosh community can comfortably embrace the belief that Apple computers are less prone to system failures and are inherently more reliable. I am just as certain Windows systems would be much more stable and reliable if manufactured by single company and if the user’s ability to modify settings and features were as restricted as those in the Apple product line.

Given the external iSight cam has been pulled from the market why not make the iSight cam a cleverly docked component that could be removed from an internal mounting and tethered to the computer via firewire wire port. Why not include a standard microphone jack? Why force users to download 3rd party applications just to make simple adjustments in the Webcam settings when this option has been a given in the PC world since the introduction of webcams?

Too many design decisions seem to fly in the face of consumer needs and make the system less flexible than it could be with a few simple concessions in elevating function at least equal to form. I am not Apple bashing when I make these observations … I make them because I want the perfection that Apple advertisements, Apple fans and the stock market numbers keep suggesting Apple has already achieved. I want a better computing experience and an alternative to Vista and the plethora of Linux distros. After all I can only experience the wonders of OS X on a system manufactured by Apple … there are no other companies licensed to use their OS in a competitive piece of hardware.

For the most part becoming familiar with the iMac and Apple community is a refreshing and exciting adventure for this old PC hack but I am ever so much more frustrated when the Mac does not live up to the considerable hype.

In the next episode I will focus on the iLife software experience and the iMac as an out of the box tool for creating WEB 2 media rich content.

Until next time trust that change is forever with us and tomorrow is always a new adventure.