4 reasons why I write about Apple instead of something else.

Joshua Schnell | Tue, Nov 3, 2009

I’ve spend a great amount of time over the last year wondering if we’re doing the right thing here at Macgasm. Are we covering a genre that will be successful, or would we be better served jumping on some other popular bandwagon. Over the last couple of months I’ve been pretty resolute about my decision. So, I thought I’d put together a quick list of the reasons that I absolutely love covering Apple and the world that surrounds it.

The Applications

We take a lot of flack for being unable to customize our Apple experience from Windows users, and in the early days it really annoyed me, but we’ve got something way better than customization. We have amazing applications that do what they promise, and at reasonable prices. Pixelmator comes to mind here. It’s an amazing image editing application, and it weighs in at a measly 67.84 for us Canadians. I’d like to see a rival application on another operating system. As far as I’m concerned we have some of the best programs out there, and people take notice. Writing about these applications are more of a treat than they are a pain in the butt. Half the articles just write themselves because the applications just work. There’s a multitude of applications and a ton of innovation being made. The kicker, the image icons. It sure makes one’s blog look a lot sexier when you have application icons that are as gorgeous as they are on the Mac.

The Developers

The next logical extension after the sweet applications that we have access to is the kick ass indie developers that are holding up the mac community on their shoulders. Google got it right when they linked the phrase “standing on the shoulders of giants” to their scholar search, and I’d argue that this phrase can be applied to the developers that make our lives easier. There’s no shortage of applications to get the job done, and there’s enough variety that we can write about a topic two or three times and not feel like we’re repeating ourselves. Take for instance both 1Password and Wallet, they both do the same thing (pretty much anyway), and they’re both great at it. I’d have no problem recommending either. Once you add in the fact that the indie developers really get how the community works, and you now have a recipe for a lot of content. They get you what you need, and they get it to you fast. I spent some time in college working on a general tech website, and I have to tell you, some other communities can really take a page out of the indie Mac developers play books. It’s a real treat working with these people day in and day out, and not too many people can say that.

The Hardware

There’s innovators and there’s stagnators, and Apple’s definitely on of the innovators. The technology industry is filled with innovating companies, and when you can participate in discourse that surrounds those companies, you’ll be rewarded on a personal level. It’s a lot more fun talking about things that push the envelope than it is talking about things that hover in time. Apple puts out hardware that’s easy to get emotionally tied to, and it helps to elicit passionate discourse one way or another. I absolutely hate the original Mighty Mouse, and I’d defend that stance to the death, but on the flip side, this unibody Macbook Pro I have is probably the best machine I’ve ever owned. It’s easy for me to talk about, because I’m passionate about them, and that’s directly attributed to Apple. Plus, if Apple ceased to exist, then this blog would close in a hurry, so we have to thank them on some level, don’t we?

The Community

I’ve spent a lot of time in different technology related communities, and absolutely nothing comes close to being as supportive and understanding as the Mac Community. It absolutely blows my mind. I can’t even being to explain how that happened, but it’s certainly noticeable, and most people in the community realize it. I’ve never once been told by another user that I need to pay a consulting fee to get help, and I’ve certainly never been told to “RTFM” or “Google it” when I go looking for help. Instead, I get a bunch of active volunteers, who seem to be sitting around waiting to help others. That’s something I can get behind, heck, that’s a philosophy that we built the website on. It makes loving the Apple community easy, and it certainly helps those new to the scene in ways that’s some other communities are seriously lacking around the internet. Everyone’s here to help, and that’s why I do what I do. It’s a lot nicer to help people than it is to deal with a bunch of trolls yelling RTFM at me all the time.

Image Credits: corebasis and kylekrall and Blakes Seven
and TheNixer

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