The Mythical Unicorn (Tablet)
The two most difficult things that I have to deal with when helping my parents with their computer is figuring out where they downloaded or saved a file to and dealing with application windows.
If my dad minimizes a window, it’s “out of sight, out of mind” and he just re-launches the app to get a new window. Since it’s a laptop, my parents hardly ever shut it down since it’s faster to close the lid to put it to sleep. Faster, that is, until there’s about fifty Firefox windows open and Windows grinds to a halt. Then they can’t even figure out how shut the thing down since the drastic-yet-reasonable action of pulling the power plug doesn’t exactly work when there’s a built-in battery.
Thankfully, my mom pays very close attention when I show her that videos that she downloads from my sister (currently living overseas) will end up in the Downloads folder (shortcut available right on the Desktop) but if a file isn’t where she expects it because my dad moved it or she simply forgot, I’ll end up having to log in remotely to drag and drop it back to where it belongs.
Marco Arment and John Siracusa both make the point about the any-day-now Apple Tablet that it’s not the hardware that will make it successful but the potential of the software. Apple will be able to fully abstract away from mouse clicks, menu bars, files, folders, windows, and processes. It’s not just an iPhone that’s the size of a MacBook — it’s a whole new way of thinking about what a computer is and how you use it.
Internet nerds who insist that such a computing device is a pointless toy or doomed to fail either don’t have to provide tech support for their family or have successfully blocked out all memories of having done so.
