A couple weeks back, I was pointed in the direction of a short piece in The New York Times by Dan Mitchell. My friend-tipster was roped in by the headline, “The Thin Skin of Apple Fans,” and I too was suckered into reading the write-up.

I am an Apple fan after all; what’s this guy have to say about me . How might I be offended by the stereotype this time around? Then it hit me…

The man had gotten me to give him the win with just the title of his article. Does his piece have its own merit though, or is it nothing beyond the fleeting wisdom in the headline?

The popular thing to do lately has been to point and laugh at Apple users for myriad legitimate reasons — a good number of us, sometimes all of us as we’re each capable, are complete idiots for the cause. Indeed a documentary, MacHeads , was devoted to those among us that might be a little too excitable for the fruit of Cupertino. The case, though, is often made that those we claim to be the extreme of the group are really the core — no pun intended, honest.

Enter Mr. Mitchell with his piece profiling Salon writer Farhad Manjoo. In Manjoo’s book, “œTrue Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society,” Manjoo talks about his experiences with Apple fans, specifically in regard to their skewering of him over his criticism of the iPhone.

What, exactly, did Manjoo say that was so vile, so negative, so inciting of Sir Fanboi of Cupertino’s rage?

He said it was too expensive. This after he praised the iPhone as the fans expect it to be praised — revolutionary! best phone ever! Steve Jobs’ offering of messiah! does the dishes! — but still the Apple fans trolled away, calling him “Apple-hater” and questioning him as to whether he was on the books for Darth Gates.

Why a reaction so visceral? Manjoo points to a 20-year old study showing suspicion of bias against a person’s own view in reporting. In the same way, anything negative said about Apple, no matter how slight and no matter how insignificant when taken against the context, will stick out to the Apple user. Manjoo groups us all in together as being of the same ilk: none of us can approach an Apple product with objectiveness and we want everyone to do the same.

Is that really a fair thing to say though?

Often, an online friend of mine will say to me that Apple users are annoying and preachy and pompous and annoying (he said that already, right?) and that he absolutely cannot stand smug, smug, smug Apple fans. To him, every Mac owner is the Justin Long personification of Mac. To him we all wear skinny girl-jeans and flash the sexiest smirk we can muster at the poor PC user.

I avoid discussing my personal computing choice with him.

He lashes out at the average Apple consumer, all the while railing on and on about how Windows-based products are wildly superior and how anyone not using Windows is somehow challenged or deficient mentally. Any criticism of his product of choice is immediately dismissed as hate speech.

I don’t see an article about the thin skin of Windows fans, though.

More to the point: why the focus on Apple users? I can understand the focus on the outright fanatics among us, but why the insistence on lumping all of us into the same category?

We’re not all crazy, and not all of us bruise easily.

But, I mean, the Mac is the clearly better choice, right?

Right?

Right!?

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Never, ever.

As such, Macgasm Friday becomes Macgasm Tuesday, pushed out on the heels of Apple’s announcement of new design. “Of what?” you ask. Read on, dear reader.

Early this morning, Apple shuttered their store. The true fanboy — and perhaps the more knowledgeable poseur — knows what this action means: Apple is preparing to further enrich, enlighten, and improve our lives with the commissioning of a new metal-cased, Leopard-based prophet.

Behold your new Elisha, friends — the brand new MacBook Pro.

The buzz for the past few days has been centered on the idea of a new MB Pro — spurred on by the new notebook SKUs that hit the Apple Store and Best Buy (blech) with price points of $1,999 and up (too high for a MacBook, just right for a MacBook Pro).

Finally, a face to the buzz, and the end product was certainly deserving of the buzz — on the inside. No changes to the form factor and design, but we are treated to more power. The top of the line Pros now sport 2.5 GHz Core 2 Duos.

Of note: no Blu-ray, no new-style keyboard. Maybe the hyped-up buzz was a bit much.

Also of note: Apple is claiming the same 5-hours of “wireless productivity” for the two 15″ models as they did for the MacBook Air. Interesting.

Further: LED backlighting is also now available.

I wonder, though: did Apple cheap out with the iSight camera here like they did on the MB Air? We’re usually treated to 1.3 MP, but the Air came equipped with a dismal 0.3 MP camera. Seeing as a 1.3 MP camera wouldn’t have added any bulk to the Air, should we assume Apple is just lowering the standard across the board?

Regardless, this upgrade in the MacBook line is welcome with open arms.

What were you hoping for with the new MBP? Does multi-touch do it for you, or were you hoping for something more?

(link)

Update! (9:05AM ET) MacBooks (no suffix) are also seeing improvements in their processors with the better-of-the-two white models and the black model getting the bump up to 2.4 GHz. It looks like that’s it though. No LED backlighting, and no multi-touch. GPU changes across the board…

Update! (9:40AM ET) MacBook Pros are featuring processor speeds up to 2.6 GHz. Also, we’re seeing a 3MB or 6MB L2 cache on the CPUs, and RAM on the graphics cards is getting beefed up…

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

See, not that much happened this week in the world of Mac. Sure a new 2GB iPod shuffle came out, but we talked about that. There were some nifty software updates, like Handbrake and Adium, but we talked about those, too. There was lots of iPhone news, though, but I don’t talk about the iPhone out of respect for my Canadian blogmaster.

Hence my lateness, kind reader. That, and I was pleasantly occupied sharing substitution duties with fellow MG writer Kenneth Gaines for this week’s Macgasm. Yes, quite pleasant indeed.

So, with this lack of sustenance from the cornucopia of Cupertino, I come to you with an interactive MGF of sorts. I come to you with questions. I expect you in turn to come to me with answers. Let’s rap, friends.

Here we go. Quaking with excitement, yes?

Your humble author wants to know a few things: Of the apps you use, which do you absolutely love; which do you absolutely hate; which do you tolerate, but wish were better; which do you use, and you don’t know anyone else that uses?

So then, let the discourse begin, and in the meantime, email me with things of import at chris(at)macgasm.net.

And do call Steve. I desperately need material.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Just me? Oh — still, I’m certain your desktop hasn’t always been as pristine as it is in the glamor shots on Flickr.

ShoveBox can help clean up a lot of that clutter, and we want to help out the person who might just get the most use out of it; we’re giving away a license to the two people who have the messiest, most cluttered desktop!

It’s easy to enter; just put a screengrab of your messy desktop into our Flickr group and tag it “My Messy Desktop”. We’ll pick the five worst, and put them up to a vote right here at Macgasm.net. The top two are the winners!

We’re going on the honor system here, folks; so don’t just trash your desktop, grab it, and clean it up. We want the real deal.

Not many restrictions: the contest is open to readers with valid email addresses. Sorry, people who write for Macgasm aren’t eligible. Also, PC users need not apply since, you know, it’s Mac software we’re giving away. Oh, and the deadline for entries is March 11, 2008 at 12:01AM UTC-4.

Good luck, and try to stay clean!

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

And this here is the Valentine’s week in review.

New weekly feature at Macgasm.net goes AWOL “” I was called into Josh’s office early this week and received my first written warning. One more strike against me and I’m given a company iPAQ. Most importantly, though, my sincerest apologies to you, the reader, for causing you undue detox. Come, drink again from the intoxicating fountain that is Macgasm Friday.

I can haz RAW? “” I own Aperture. I rarely use it, but I’m familiar with its benefits. Will I buy Aperture 2? Eh, I don’t know. (I’d so totally heart a demo copy, though, Steve.) Aperture 2 boasts “œover 100″³ new features since the first go-round; at the heart of the new features is RAW image processing, allowing you to fine tune your camera’s image profile. Also of note: Aperture 2 is only a $99 upgrade for current Aperture users “” well, legal users I’d presume. (Link)

And now a note on how I can correctly read a press release “” As Cupertino promised and as I correctly interpreted, Apple TV Take 2 finally dropped within two weeks of that presser from January 30. Plenty of spots have their own walk-through up, and I don’t own an Apple TV, so I’m purposefully remiss in touting the shiny newness of the upgrade; I just trust that Cupertino righted the wrongs from its first go with ATV. (Link, with a chuckle)

Software, natch “” This week brought updates for Skype (link) and Office 2004 for Mac (link). The Skype update still lacks in allowing us the same control as Windows users of Skype “” read, complete audio control sans need for simple hacking. The Office update fixes some issues with Entourage.

Appleâ„¢ “” Already renown for their fantastic computers, PMPs, mobile phones, and mediocre-at-best set-top media receivers, Apple’s now filed to protect their name when it comes to hand-held gaming devices. Your humble author refuses to speculate on what this means, but he has put down a fat deposit at Amazon.com on i[insert gaming-related noun here]. I’d love for you to tell me your thoughts on this. Comment me, yo! (Link)

Tips are welcome. Hit me at chris(at)macgasm.net. Until next week, friends”¦

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

So that’s where I’ll start with this wrap-up for the last week of January, 2008.

New weekly feature at Macgasm.net — I’m Chris Roberts. I’ve been blogging (poorly) in some form or another for the past 6 years. I run my own A/V/tech biz, host and produce podcasts, get epic lulz from my two dogs, and have a wife — sorry, fellas. I’ve been buddies with Josh here at the ‘gasm for about 4 hours now, and I was more than happy to come aboard. He was super-awesome in letting me design my own demise here, and I thought the weekly-roundup-and-commentary-style was (1) not tired and played-out at all and (2) perfect for the lazy, pseudo-hardworking “professional” blogger like myself.

So, I’m in your computers every Friday. I’m planning on doing my best to bring you the week-in-review of everything Apple — “planning on” because my only success with committment has been with my wife, and that’s only because she’s so incredibly hot. Josh? Not so much.

Oh, and you’ll also get this high level of wit along with all the news. Exciting, yes?

I can’t do it without you, though. So hit me regularly with newsworthy bits or cute puppy pictures at chris(at)macgasm.net.

Change your MBAir battery in 20 easywarranty-voiding steps! — The fine and apparently deep-pocketed folks over at iFixit have ripped apart the MacBook Air so you don’t have to. What they found may shock — SHOCK! — you. It turns out the MBAir is incredibly thin. I know! It surprised me, too. Beside that, they found that 19 screws stood — sat? — between them and a battery removal. Steve must have a thing for 19 — another 19 screws hold the display to the rest of the Air. Something else they found that you might have already known: the 80GB HDD is the same or similar as the one found in the iPod Classic. Still, though, the fact that Apple was able to pack any of this into such a small form factor is still pretty slick even when considering the impending battery doom. (Link)

Whither Apple TV upgrades? — The dozens of Apple TV Take One users were heard groaning loudly when the two-weeks-from-Steve’s-keynote deadline came and went without the promised software upgrade. With the upgrade comes the ability to purchase content right on the Apple TV, eliminating the need for a computer to handle the iTunes transactions. Also included is support for HD and Flickr/.Mac photo viewing. The new software, which was supposed to drop earlier this week, won’t be hitting devices for yet another two weeks, according to a press release from Cupertino. Sad times. (Link)

A P.S. from your humble author: TUAW clearly misread the presser; the “end of February” promise was touting content. The upgrade will be within two weeks, per the release. Just saying; we here at Macgasm can read better.

And with that… — I’m out for this week. A short deadline will give you a short column, no doubt. Again, huge thanks to Josh for welcoming me, and thank you for sparing 30-45 seconds of your time to skim the article. I want — nay, long for — you to be a part, so get at me, chris(at)macgasm.net, with anything you think might be meritorious.

Don’t worry, my standards (for now) are pretty low.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.