Showing posts tagged simplicity

Tech reviews by people

It’s becoming more obvious that specs don’t matter these days, or at least that what really matters is harder to compare. People who need product recommendations will only find experts writing for other experts. Nobody knows what RAM is or what 802.11n means. They care about ease of use, time-to-Facebook and how long will the battery last.

I asked some regular people to tell me about their favorite or least-favorite device and explain me why.

My father on its iPhone 4:

The iPhone is a Swiss army knife that amazes me everyday with its intuitive features.

My sister Sarah on her Sony Xperia mini:

I chose it instead of an iPhone because it’s smaller and thus fits well in my pocket. I don’t know how to start a new paragraph when writing an email but for texting, making calls and Google things, it’s fine. It also takes great pictures.

My sister Sarah on her 7.1 megapixel Olympus camera (that’s actually how she refers to it):

My phone takes better pictures. Don’t buy it.

My sister Sarah on her MacBook Pro:

Just like any other Mac, it doesn’t crash and doesn’t get viruses.

My mom on her iPhone:

I been using it for a few years. It replaced the huge mess in my purse. If you run all day, just get one.

My friend Louis on his Eee PC:

Don’t buy that. After only a month, the battery is dead, it’s extremely slow, event while editing text. Yes, it’s lightweight and pretty cheap, but you should spend a little more to get a laptop that does the bare minimum.

I remember clearly my father recommending the iPad to his sister:

It’s easy to use, you don’t need to charge it very often, it’s light and small and you can do everything with it and it’s always connected to the Internet. Perfect for when you go on vacation.

Now, look how Best Buy describes a top-selling laptop to regular people. Below are the main product features:

VISION Technology by AMD / AMD Quad-Core A8-3500M Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon HD 6620G discrete-class graphics / 8GB DDR3 SDRAM / Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive / 15.6” LED high-definition display / 640GB hard drive (5400 rpm) / AMD Radeon HD 6620G graphics / Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n) / Built-in 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN

Nobody talks about how how open their operating system is or the lack of Flash support. I’m stating the obvious here, but we’ll get there eventually. People needs tech reviews by people.

So much complexity in software comes from trying to make one thing do two things.
(Reblogged from minimalmac)
Minimalism in computing is not about how your computer looks. It’s about how you use it — ensuring it has everything you need and nothing you don’t.
Chris Bowler in Computing Simplicity?
(Reblogged from chrisbowler)
(Reblogged from mnmal)