Windows 2 Apples Episode 5

Windows 2 Apples Episode 5

Before I begin let me assure you I wanted to see Apple shame Microsoft with a painless and inspired install of iLife 8. When the package arrived I had already spent hours watching one of my Web hosting services struggle to stay on line and was ready for some Apple magic.

Instead, I was met with one challenge after another and I am firmly convinced that as clever as Jobs and his team are they can screw up big time. Two DVDs were shipped with my order … the iLife install and a trial version of iWork. No manual of course only a few pages describing system requirements and install instructions … instructions which first admonished me to make sure my OS was up to date. I did try to check for OS updates but after the progress bar had stalled at the 30% mark for at least 20 minutes, I cancelled the query and inserted the DVD. I first read and then agreed to the Terms of use (yes I always read the fine print) and began what I was sure to be an uneventful install.

After the install was begun and supposedly doing its thing I tried to register my iLife 08 only to be met with a request to enter the registration code supposedly to be found on my iLife packaging. I look and see 3 series digits. Of course the print is tiny and nothing labeled as the registration code. I flip a coin and try the 1st I.D. beginning with an M but have trouble deciphering the next to last digit … is it a 1, an I, an L, lowercase l, or perhaps a lower case i. None of the above work so I try the other two longer series of digits with no luck. I look down more only to see more hairs have fallen to my keyboard and I am not happy at all. Why not simply label the dang thing as my registration code and make it large print!

I look at the packing list and again see 3 possible series of digits one of which I hope is the mysterious registration code. The one beginning with an M has a slash as the next to last digit … not an i, or L but a slash. In the 30 years I have been working with computers and software I have never seen a slash character in a registration code. This little twist in the Apple way of doing things cost me at least an additional 10 minutes of my time bathed in rush of stress hormones. Apple is not alone in this obscure labeling of codes and model numbers but I had hoped they were going to raise the bar rather than set it a tad lower.

After I finally register my new iLife I look and the install is only a third of the way through … must be one whopping huge install I mumble and fix lunch and make a few phone calls. Sixty minutes later I again peek at my iMac screen to see the install meter still stuck at the 30% complete mark and after putting my ear to the iMac case and hearing nothing I as a well schooled Windows user assume the system is hug and try to force the install to terminate. Several soft re-boots later I had to use the trusty power switch to shut my system down.

After my cold re-boot, I braved another attempt at installing. This time I was told the DVD could not be read but the install proceeded anyway and soon announced iLife 08 was now on my machine. I decided to start GarageBand and was, as in the past, was informed the Midi drivers were not loaded but this time the Mac kept running and the GarageBand startup screen was displayed. To be safe, I closed GarageBand and again launched. This time no warnings of missing files were displayed and the new Magic GarageBand icon on the intro screen attracted my attention. I clicked and was greeted with a stage replete with clever representations of musical instruments as well as the option to view video tutorials. Wonderful I thought … remembering how they had helped in the past. I dutifully click to view the tutorials, which launched Safari and the Apple Web and I began to understand why the software update query had stalled.

It seemed obvious, all the other new iLife 8 customers were over whelming the Apple site resulting in many pages loading painfully slow. Most of the on line tutorials would only lead me to a now familiar Quick Time logo with a question mark in it suggesting it was not responding. My knee jerk response was to check QT on other sites. I encountered no issues with other sites nor with my ISP and it seemed clear Apple could not handle the traffic.

Why not ship the tutorials and eliminate this strangle hold on the Apple servers and Internet pipes. A few additional cents in pressing a companion DVD or CD would have been much more cost effective as well as accommodating Apple users with slower connections or no connection at all. This poor planning is telling. Even with the brilliant Mr. Jobs at the helm and a very creative team at his side skimping on a complementary video tutorial disk has I am sure cost Apple in lost good will and perhaps even sales because their WEB was temporarily reduced to a crawl by the hoard new iLife 8 customers.

Worse yet, when I finally got the new and improved iWeb 8 to log on to my .Mac web it locked up and I was again forced to do a hard re-boot. By now Apple is making Microsoft look darn good. I have since been able to connect with my .Mac web and to view a few jerky tutorials but will have to wait till the storm subsides to run the full library of tutorials. Perhaps this just a poorly implemented Machiavellian scheme to get users to read rather than watch.

Apple could have dropped the trial iWork disk and enclosed an off line tutorial disk instead but it is of course all about bottom line after all and there is no special handling for Apple customers only the same old take it and struggle with it philosophy embraced by Microsoft and most 3rd party vendors. I would have been happy to have paid Apple for a tutorial DVD but was never given the option.

Perhaps I can log on to Apple in the wee hours of the morning and with eyes burning after a very full day of staring at computer screens finally begin to appreciate what I have purchased. But another chance to experience an Apple “it just works” experience has again escaped me.