Wednesday, February 27, 2002 |
00:50 - The NY Times Likes iPhoto
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/28/technology/circuits/28STAT.html
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David Pogue of the New York Times spends two pages talking about how digital photos are threatening to become the new killer app of the post-Internet boom-- and he spends about 80% of that space talking about iPhoto.
It's not pure gushing praise, nor is it critical to any degree that would indicate being uninformed. It's just a frank look at the software that best exemplifies the nascent photography revolution, with the equivalent Windows XP functionality mentioned in a dismissive afterthought. It's clear that Pogue is looking for breakthrough technology to write about, and he's a picky commentator; proliferate camera-specific software that makes you navigate through folders doesn't impress him. Smooth thumbnail resizing and one-button driver-free photo importing does.
It's easy to dismiss Apple software as being stuff that anybody could do given enough time-- and indeed it probably is just that. But the fact is that Apple is the first to the table with the best new ideas, over and over again, and in many cases Windows developers never do quite catch up. The all-around feature set of iTunes is now matched, 14 months later, by a number of programs on both Windows and the Mac; but none of them are so lovingly crafted for usability as iTunes is. Just look at Mp3Desk for an example of UI design gone horribly, horribly wrong. (And look, it requires WinAmp to be already installed-- it's just a front-end. I think that's just precious.)
So now NY Times readers are faced with an article that focuses not on computers, not on Macs, not on a particular piece of software-- but on a rapidly emerging way of making computers useful; and the central pillar of the theater of digital photography that the Times uses to showcase it is iPhoto. Pogue doesn't say it's perfect; far from it. But he does make very plain how clearly he thinks Apple sees what we will all want out of our computers when we do photography in the years to come. iPhoto has its rough edges and its frustrating lack of certain features, but what it does it does better than anybody else.
That's the kind of publicity I like to see.
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