A honest Apple MacBook Air Review: First Impression

I had a dream of owning a Macbook Air since the launch of the first MacBook Air in January 2008. Totally loved the machine for its thin, lightweight and most importantly its beautiful design. Still remember the beautiful "I am a young soul" ad it had. But back then I was a student and waited for me to start earning to buy the machine. So finally in December 2013 I decided to buy one. But since then the whole experience has been disastrous.

First the purchase process. I went to a local Authorised Apple Dealer in Panjim Goa. When I visited the shop near Hotel Fidalgo they told me that they did not have the machine in stock. When I inquired if they could provide me the same before 31st December 2013 they said they will have to speak to the store supervisor who will give me a call the next day to inform about the same. They also noted down my name and phone number on a book. Sadly I did not get any call next day and I had to visit the shop again next day and upon inquiring why they did not bother to call again they just gave a blank look. The store supervisor present there told me that they could give me the machine in a 3-4 days time however I will have to make full payment in advance and only then the order would be processed else they will not get the machine. Since I did not have a choice I returned to the store with my cheque book to make the payment however before making the payment I tried to confirm if I would get free iWorks as informed by Tim Cook at WWDC. However the employees in the store had no clue about the free iWorks and told me that again the store supervisor would call me next day with details. Luckily I did get a call but the supervisor refused to comment anything about free iWorks but instead gave me an online link of Apple uptodate Program and a helpline phone number and asked me to speak to them and find out about the feature of the laptop which I was going to purchase from them. Upon calling the number I was told that they are not the right people to speak to and I will have to call up the sales team and was given yet another number and the sales team informed me that I will have to call the local dealer  to know if my laptop qualifies for the free iWorks. Yup ! I was back to the point from where I started. All this for the famed apple purchase experience !

Finally I decided to take the risk and go for the purchase and made the payment. I received my MacBook Air after three days time on Saturday 28th December 2013. I was super excited to finally own a Mac. Wohooo !! A dream come true.Sadly my excitement was short lived. The experience of unboxig was great.The devise looks amazing, like a piece of an installation art. Super light weight. Ultra Thin. In short the look and feel is just amazing. Upon filling in the details and setting it up I finally logged in the devise. One of the first thing I did was to visit the App Store and download the latest version of OS X Mavericks. I also put XCode and Twitter for download. However after few minuits it gave me an error message saying unknown error.

I also tried starting twitter and XCode download but the same error occurred. The download used to work for a few minuets and then fail. This problem occurred again and again. There was no problem with my internet connection as I was able to browse websites as well as able to download data on my Dell PC. When I called up the support centre Mr. Rakshith who asked me to make a few changes in the network settings and downloads started working. He also asked me to download a small app to check if it works. I downloaded Pocket and it got downloaded and installed properly. I also managed to download twitter which was unable to install for which Mr.Rakshith told me that it was the problem of the 3rd Party app maker and they could not help. I also kept Mavericks again again seemed to work fine. However after another half a GB of download it again filed and the the problem continues. I also tried to download flash player to run youtube videos but even that installation had error.

During this process I had not connected the power supply for a long time and must say the battery life is  just out of this world and full marks for apple on this. However when I tried calling apple support centre again for support and to inform that the problem has persisted I got a recorded message that they were alwready closed. In a world where even startups areA shifting to 24X7 support Apple has support timings till only 6.30 pm. Now I am waiting for the apple support centre to open so that I could try and fix the issue which I have no clue when it is going to be sorted out.

The whole issue is becoming more trouble as I am used to some extraordinary service for my laptop from Dell. Whenever I faced the problem with my Dell Laptop the person from Dell Service centre was at my home the very next day and sorted out the issue. Once my charger got spoilt when I was in Mumbai and they Dell executive made sure that the new one was on my desk very next day. For Apple however if there is any fault you have to try troubleshooting the devise on your own with help from Support Centre which has got working timings from 19th Century. Also if it needs to be sent to repair then I think you need to personally go and give it to authorised service centre of apple or to the dealer from where you purchased it.

Overall from this experience I have released following:

• Apple MacBook does not work out of the box as they promise. You will have to spend a lot of time to get it working functionally and as in my case a lot more then it takes for a Windows PC.
• When it comes to service apple is average. It does not comes anywhere close to the service provided by a company like Dell.
• Apple is not about great engineering. Its about extraordinary marketing.
• All this bad experience when I am paying almost two times the cost of a PC make it just not worth it.

While may would some how try to convince you about their MacBook experience being amazing simply because they have already paid twice the amount they would have paid for a PC but here I have decided to truthfully list out the issues faced by an Apple user. This is my honest MacBook review. My old Dell Laptop was not as beautiful as this Mac and the battery lasted for one fourth the time but then it at least did the work I bought it for. MacBook is just a beautiful glowing piece of art that suits for Art Galleries not a office where people are trying to do some serious technical or managerial work.

Chance to Change !

What is common thing about Google Search, Yahoo ! and Facebook ? Besides the fact that they all have revolutionised the internet, all of them were college projects of their creators.* This truly tell you the importance of a college project project. For most of the students the finale year project is the biggest project of their college life hence this post is directed towards the finale year projects. However  it is equally valid for all engineering projects.

Your finale year project is one chance to change the world. But then what should be your finale year project ? How do you go about it ? Here are few points:

1. Create stuff that Amazes you.

You need to remember that at the end of the day the project is your baby. It has to be something that you would love to show off. It has to be something that will be proud of. Create stuff that you will be startled looking at. The best project is when you create something that others thought was impossible and still you managed to create it. And even if you are not able to get the final output I am sure you will be satisfied be your work.

2. What an Idea !

The Idea is the Heart of the project. The reason why Facebook is a big hit is not because it has some complex technology but because it is based on an amazing Idea of connecting people. The features of status updates, Like, Comment etc are part of an amazing Idea called Facebook. The part of developing the Idea of the project is one of the best part of the final year project however not many people spend enough time on it. Many times the ideas is just picked up from the net or students ask the faculty for their Idea. This should be strictly avoided. Do not refer to other sources for the Ideas of the project. The Idea should be yours. It should be a creation of your mind. The Idea of the project is the central theme of your project. Sometimes it takes even a year for a good Idea to develop and it undergoes a major changes with time. e.g. in case of my project we started an Idea of creating a GPS controlled car and ended creating an Internet controlled Robot. The finale idea, though absolutely different from the starting Idea, did evolve from the original one. This process of evolution of Idea is the most exciting one. Come up with an Idea, Check its FEASIBILITY, See if someone else has already created it, check how you can go about . Spend time and your Idea will metamorphose from a cartpiler into a beautiful butterfly.

3. Keep it Simple

Which is a bigger invention ? A bipedal robot or a stapler ? I feel a stapler is more important as it has influenced my life a lot more then a Bipedal Robot. A stapler is such a simple devise yet so awesome. I am sure you use it frequently in your life (People who take lots of supplements during exams are eternally grateful to this devise :-)). What makes it so great is the simplicity. Simple to create yet so revolutionary. Remember the simple things influence our life a lot more. So keep your project simple on technology and focus on application.This will also ensure the feasibility as well as will help in keeping the costs low. The project should be simple to create but should have profound impact on human life just like the ‘'simple machines’.

4. Focus on Application.

To have a great impact your focus of project should be on application. By application I mean what the project is providing/giving you. e.g The Application of a bed mattress is to provide comfort while sleeping. The application should come first then the simplest possible technology to achieve this application should be used. However most of the student follow exactly the opposite process. They pick up the technology and then somehow try to fit it into some application. I am sure all (almost all :-) ) the computer engineering students will be able to create a website to update a database entry when a button is clicked. However its the right application of this simple technology created the awesome ‘Like button’ on Facebook. Remember that if your project becomes available for the general public to use (and this has to be your final aim) then the public is going to choose to use it based on the application not on the technology used.

5. Create something that YOU would use.

Forget if others like your creation or not. Don't think if others will use it or not. Make a point to create something that you will not only like but also you would love to use. Create something that has capability to become part of YOUR life. After all this is your ‘chance to change’ the world and most importantly change YOUR own world.

6. Be the Donkey !

When I was a kid I was told a story of a Donkey who praised his own tail. I was taught that this Donkey was stupid. During my visit to IISC –Bangalore while speaking to Prof. Murthy I told him about how we got coverage for our project in various local media. He replied “So why did you do all this promotion of your project? Isn't it for publicity ?”. We dint knew what to answer. After all we were always taught that self publicity is bad thing to do. But then he went on to explain why all the self publicity of the project was the best thing that we did. When you have worked hard and created. the world will not come to know on its own so it is very important that we tell the whole world about it. You have to shout out about your awesomeness. This a very important change in culture we need to bring in India if we want the world to recognise our technology. If you keep quite someone else will claim it as his own. Apple products are great not just because of its design and technology but also because Steve Jobs stands on the stage at Macworld WWDC and tells the whole world how awesome, revolutionary, unprecedented, great, unbelievable etc etc their products are. Promote, Publicise because you deserve it. Remember the Donkey wasn't stupid, he was the smartest.

7. Do what you love.

The most important factor in selecting the project is to work with a technology that love to work with. By the time we reach in the final year of Engineering we all have some favourite technology, Technology we are sure we can spend hours on. For me it was Robotics and Internet hence I worked on a combination of the two.

To sum it up there is a beautiful Steve Jobs Quote which says

“ You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

Note for Engicos : The Project is something that should absolutely NOT done for marks. After all everyone ends up getting similar marks in the project. You have nothing to lose so go ahead and create...

* Facts confirmed from http://www.fortystones.com/college-ideas-that-changed-the-world/