My love story began as a nodding acquaintance in the basement of a newspaper office. I would step into the small partitioned room with three men furiously tapping away on a computer with an orange keyboard and see flickering green letters come alive on the screen.
A few feet away was another computer. All white, with a slot for a floppy drive, and a small rainbow-coloured half-eaten-apple as the logo. The keyboard brought alive some of the most beautiful letters on the screen. Zapf Dingbats, Garamond, Helvetica and other typefaces with their curvy elegance would get printed out in real time. I was hooked. The computer was used for printing out headlines in the newspaper office in Nagpur.
Years later, when a friend visited the US of A, I asked her to get me an iPod Shuffle. I got a bright blue device that fit perfectly into the small pocket of my jeans. Loaded with my favourite songs that could be shuffled randomly with a white flywheel, it was a delight to listen to Dire Straits or Roxette (yes, I am old) while going for a jog. It was a big upgrade from a chunky MP3 player called Creative Zen that required me to use great ingenuity to switch songs. Also, the Shuffle was 10 times smaller. ‘Life is Random’ never sounded more fun.
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It turned into a roaring affair when I stood in the queue on the midnight of March 2, 2010 and handed out a wad of cash to get hold of the iPhone 3GS. It was curvy, it was pillowy and it responded to touch. I filed the story of the purchase for my newspaper standing outside the shop in Begumpet in Hyderabad.
Apple launched MacBook Air with an Intel chip and I had it within months of its launch. Writing, reading, blogging, browsing and clicking selfies using the built-in camera was a joy. The best part, I didn’t have to worry about viruses like the other folks who used four square boxes. I could even watch DVDs on the small white box of love. While Ctrl+Alt+Del was the go-to command on the office computer, on my MacBook Air, I never had to resort to such drastic actions. Then Apple launched an 11-inch MacBook Air and I had it within months. Slimmer without the outdated CD slot, it was a breeze. I was not just using the Apple products, I was an evangelist. Friends too fell in love hearing my love story.
Then disaster struck. I bought an iPhone XS. Apple insisted that I use Siri. I didn’t want to. Who wants someone else to be listening all the time? Even now it says, ‘Finish setting up your iPhone’. I don’t want to.
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In May 2019, Apple launched a MacBook Pro featuring a 2.4 GHz Quad-Core processor. I switched it on and then tried to switch the language. Nothing. The keyboard was dead. I never had to hit chatrooms to find solutions for issues with my MacBook. But once I began searching for the problem, I realised I was in trouble. Big trouble. Solutions like resetting the SMC (system management controller) and resetting Parameter RAM didn’t work. The keyboard stayed dead. Apparently, the butterfly keyboard had problems since its conception and I realised that many fanboys of Apple were furious. Some of them even signed a petition demanding a recall of the failed keyboard. I was ready to formalise my divorce as I walked into the Apple service centre. After testing my patience for a week, I got my MacBook Pro and it is working fine.
Now, I am told the newly-launched 16-inch MacBook Pro has the older keyboard design and is more springy.
Maybe I should… Should I?