Is The Mac Pristine Or Just Prissy?
After many years as a PC user, I opted for a Mac this time around. To save more than a few bucks, I purchased the Mac configured with the minimum amount of memory and ordered a memory upgrade from a non-Apple source that I would install myself, a task I had completed on at least a dozen PCs over the years.
As directed, I removed the battery from its compartment, exposing a cover that shields the memory. The cover was held in place by 3 screws (circled in red on the photo below). Once unscrewed, the cover could be lifted to access the memory.
Those screws nicely illuminate an issue peculiar to the Mac.
According to the instructions, one removes these screws with a Phillips screwdriver – but not just any Phillips screwdriver. A 00 gage Phillips screwdriver was required.
Perhaps my initial error was that I paid scant attention to the “00″ specification although I did notice it, thinking that despite reading far too many manuals, online instructions, tips from power users, etc., I could not recall another instance in which the instructions for any job on a computer listed the exact size of screwdriver (or any other tool) needed. In any case, I had collected a batch of small screwdrivers and other tools I had previously used to work on computers and was confident one of them would do the job on the Mac.
Below are three of the 10 or so screwdrivers from my tool inventory, including some taken from kits of miniature tools marketed as being sized for computer work, that proved to be “the wrong size.”1
Neither of the two discount stores I tried the next day sold screwdrivers smaller than 0 gage although both had several screwdriver sets on display. Radio Shack, it turns out, carries a nifty six piece set that includes the much sought after 00 Phillips (although the store manager told me no one else had ever asked for a specific size; he and I searched through all the screwdrivers on hand, reading the labels until we found the correct set) for about $6.
Manufacturing Pristinity
Those three screws do appear to be milled to close tolerances such that anyone using a screwdriver only a bit larger than the recommended 00 Phillips, a tool it seems most folks wouldn’t own as part of a typical home tool box, or even a 00 gage screwdriver with a flat edge would have a difficult time unscrewing that cover. This may be part of a technology quality policy at Apple or there may be a strategic reason these screws are made to fit a screwdriver that isn’t common but also isn’t difficult to obtain (e.g., to prevent owners or the offspring of owners from cavalierly exploring a fragile component of the computer without making it impossible to get into the memory compartment).
Marketing Pristinity
I am one of those individuals whom the press has enthusiastically described as being persuaded by ownership of an iPod to consider moving from a PC to a Mac. While I’ve also been influenced by friends who are Mac proponents and some technology writers I respect who have come to advocate Macs, I have been impressed with the design of the iPods I’ve owned.
And, there is little doubt that the same kind of thoughtfulness went into the design of my new Mac notebook – or that Apple’s marketing theme focuses on the quality of design.
That is not, however, an unmixed blessing.
Shiny and New
To rephrase Madonna’s lyrics, Apple makes products that look shiny and new – and that affects how users perceive them.
After accidentally dropping the iPod I bought him onto a concrete road, scratching it permanently, my son was not only upset with himself but was immediately and exponentially less interested in that item; he pled with me, Apple, and anyone else who would listen to replace his perfectly functional iPod with a new, unblemished one.
My own iPodian behavior is only moderately sublimated compared to my son’s. Check out my own ancient iPod below.
Yep, the first thing I did on viewing my glossy white toy was buy a heavy duty case to protect it.2 And, as demonstrated by comparing the encased iPod (on the left) and the same iPod unclad (on the right), the cover did its intended job.
The clunker, of course, is that the only time the slick looking white surface of my iPod is visible is when the grime-embedded cover is removed.
In an analogous fashion, the risk that I might scratch even an internal aspect of my new Mac clearly inhibited my approach to removing those screws. To put this in context, I have never hesitated, when confronted with a new beige box PC that proved resistant to my efforts to follow instructions to “remove the front bezel by pressing the tab release marked with the arrow in the … ,” to use a screwdriver (usually one somewhat larger than an 00) as a pry bar to effect the removal of that bulky bezel. And if, as it sometimes did, that maneuver left a gouge in the plastic, I was bothered not a whit.
For my Mac, however, I delayed installing the extra memory for a day, spent an hour shopping for that 00 Phillips and $6 to buy it although I probably could been more aggressive, using one of those flat edge screwdrivers to remove the screws. Even more telling, my kids, both of whom are typically more than willing to put their own and, especially, my possessions at risk to immediately satisfy their whim of the moment, were unwilling to pursue such a course in this this case.
Yet, there is clearly a value to my enjoyment of how the Mac looks and operates. It’s a question of what price one pays for that value.
Currently, the only conclusion I can confidently offer is “How about that?” Taken to extremes, either the DrHGuy-Mac approach or the DrHGuy-PC approach can be made ludicrous. We’ll see how it goes. My hunch is that there will be more examples of this sort of thing in the future.
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- Yes, two of those pictured are not Phillips screwdrivers. After all my Phillips screwdrivers failed to do the job, I tried these flat tip screwdrivers in hopes that they would engage the screw head sufficiently to remove the screw. They didn’t. [↩]
- For the record, I am one of those who grew up in a community of adults who wrapped their furniture and car seats in protective plastic, a practice my friends and I routinely ridiculed. [↩]
what you work on that ipod with a 000