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Flight's Delayed (12/19/99)
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It's official: we're declaring AirPort to be Apple's "Most Maligned Product of 1999." For a while there it looked like the iBook was a solid lock, what with all the comparisons to toilet seats, make-up compacts, and Hello Kitty fashion accessories; it's amazing what a little masculine insecurity can kick up. But now most of the furor over the iBook's unconventional looks has given way to the numbers, which show it to be one of the best-selling portables on the market. Sure, you still see reviews that claim the iBook is slow, you still hear complaints about the admittedly paltry 32 MB of RAM in the shipping configuration-- but for the most part, people acknowledge that the iBook is a success.
Not so with AirPort, we're afraid. Occasionally you might stumble across a glowing review (heck, we're thrilled to pieces over our AirPort setup, which has been trouble-free from the get-go), but we're sensing a lot of anti-AirPort angst from reviewers and users whose experiences haven't been nearly as happy as ours. Remember, even the mighty Ted Landau of MacFixit fame was pulling his hair out over Base Station problems, so it's not exactly a surprise that mere mortals like the reviewer for the Washington Post had enough difficulty to declare Apple's wireless technology "stuck in the frustrating foreground." And the latest piece of anti-AirPort bile comes from Walter Mossberg,the Wall Street Journal's tech columnist. According to the Mac Observer, Walt showed up on CNBC to rave about the new iMacs-- and call the prospects of getting an AirPort Base Station working "impossible for anybody without some technical knowledge and help."
Ouch. Apparently Walt spent over four hours getting wirelessed before he was surfing sans cables. Not a good thing. Apple claims that they're aware of the difficulties many people are experiencing, and hope to make set-up a lot easier with a new iteration of the AirPort software due next month. In the meantime, we consider it a darn shame that such terrific technology is being saddled with a reputation for being difficult. AirPort was the iBook's killer app when it was unveiled way back in July, but between delays in getting the products out the door and now the issues with set-up, wireless may not catch on as quickly as it should. On the other hand, we've got ours. What else matters?
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SceneLink (1982)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 12/19/99 episode: December 19, 1999: Steve Jobs: always a bridesmaid, never a bride-- at least as far as Time is concerned. Meanwhile, AirPort's occasionally hellish setup continues to take a beating in the press, and Fox spreads a bit of holiday cheer to Mac users the world over...
Other scenes from that episode: 1981: Always a Bridesmaid (12/19/99) Sigh... Another year, another snub from the meanies at Time Magazine. Poor Steve Jobs; here's a man who pulled off one of the greatest turnarounds in history in a classic story straight out of Hollywood (boy cofounds company, boy is ousted from company, boy returns to save company by building translucent computers), and he can't seem to catch a break in the "Person of the Year" awards... 1983: Mac-Friendly Fox (12/19/99) So we were kicking back on the couch Sunday night, watching Fox with one eye and surfing on the iBook with the other. Our Christmas cards were all sent, most of our shopping was done, and, after a heinous all-night frenzy of giftwrap and packing tape (don't try this at home, kiddies-- we're trained professionals), almost all of the presents for out-of-state friends and family was firmly in the hands of the U.S...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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