I recently heard about an going contest called 31 Days of the Dragon where people can enter to win one hell of a machine: the HP HDX "Dragon" 20inch laptop. I took the time to enter at one of the participating sites and ended up telling my whole life story as to how winning the Dragon would "rock my world." If anyone is interested feel free to check out this site:
http://www.31daysofthedragon.com/
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=clyCeze93BU
I entered through the site DigitalHomeThoughts.com(http://digitalhomethoughts.com/) and posted this reply to the forum:
As a current Mac user, the Dragon would surely rock my world from its foundation. For the first time I would be able to tap into the full potential of the PC to create and edit my short films and shoot review videos for my YouTube channel. Using the huge screen and keyboard to write new poetry via MS Office and make new blog entries for my blogsite would be amazing. The Dragon would give me the ability to completely make the switch from Mac to PC...and possibly even iPod to Zune!
For a few years I had been a full-fledged supporter of Apple from purchasing my first iPod 3rd generation player and my first 12inch iBook. This was a result of my not-so-remarkable PC experience with an IBM ThinkPad running Windows 98 with a 7GB harddrive and hardly any RAM for functionality. In order to use iTunes I had to install an updated OS that was at least Windows 2000, so I purchased the XP Home Edition upgrade. After the install I quickly learned that my IBM could barely handle XP let alone iTunes, but this was my first laptop and I simply didn't know any better. For a couple months I had become accustomed to waiting at least 2 minutes to download ONE song and I really thought this was normal for iTunes!! To make matters worse, I didn't have any space on the harddrive to store any downloaded music so I decided to manually update my iPod and then delete the original song from the computer completely (idiotic...I know)! To make this even better, I actually thought that nothing bad could happen to my beloved 3rd gen iPod to where I could lose ALL of the $500 worth of music I had bought via iTunes...I was so wrong. I learned the hard way the second time I dropped my iPod onto concrete and then found myself spending the next few days in vain to try and get rid of the "sad Mac" icon on the flickering screen! That was when I went online, bought a new 4th gen ClickWheel iPod and my first iBook and was BLOWN AWAY by the performance of iTunes and the laptop! I was a Mac fan for life and no one could tell me any different...this was in 2003.
It is now 2008 and I have been through a lot in my Mac-crazed years from the introduction of the color screen iPod, the Nano, the Shuffle, the video iPod, the IntelMac lineup, the Mighty Mouse, the iPhone, the AppleTV, the iPod Touch, the MacBook Air and other gadgets. I even worked for a few months at the first Apple Store at my local mall in Downtown Norfolk and had a great time, but that was when things began to change for me. Working for Apple was not the enlightening life-changing epiphany I had expected, it was simply another part-time job where sales numbers and figures seemed to be more important than the overall customer experience. The realization that not everyone is satisfied by the Mac really hit home as I would talk to potential switchers who would eventually decide they were better off staying with their PC. After eventually leaving the company to persue other interests I never thought that I would ever consider a PC for anything in my life, but I was wrong.
I currently attend a technical school which is of course dominated by the PC, and I learned early on that my MacBook Pro, even with Parallels or Boot Camp, was no all-in-one saving grace for my computing needs. To gain efficient access to school data offsite from school I needed to run Internet Explorer instead of Safari or Firefox, and to ensure software compatibility in my completed assignments I needed MS Office instead of iWork. As a result I recently purchased my second PC laptop, a HP TX2110, and I am simply amazed at the functionality I got for the money I paid ($930)!! If one was to walk into an Apple Store with $930 for a laptop they would be sadly mistaken, and this notion really began to make me angry as I compared my HP to my 15inch MacBook Pro. To think that something so expensive could be justified by simplistic form factor design and a single brand name really caused me to feel jipped after all these years.
I was willingly blinding myself to the fact that there are worthy alternatives for different customers when it comes to personal computing, and this was a real shame. What is even more sad is that people are often caught up in heated Mac vs PC debates that are endless and non-productive. As of right now I go between the Mac and PC worlds with my laptops and feel that it grants me a substantial advantage as I continue to attend school for my degree in Wireless Communications. But eventually I will have to settle with one side and I think that the PC will have to be the final choice.
I am using my MacBook Pro right now for multimedia purposes (music library managment and video shooting/editing) since I do all of my office and school work on the HP TX2110, but the Dragon will surely give me a chance to make the full switch to PC. As a powerhouse model it would certainly provide a welcoming and worthwhile environment where I could efficiently manage all of my personal data once it transferred from my Mac. At that point I would be able to permanently say goodbye to my MacBook Pro and cut the ties to Apple. I guess times really are changing for me.
TRENT
YouTube member - absolon3
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