One More Thing

Posted on 23 Mar 2009 at 12:00

 

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As Jennifer McRobbie says goodbye to MacUser to devote more time to Britney, she looks back at how much technology has changed since 2005.

Back in 2005, when I was a wild-eyed and poverty-stricken art teacher in South London, I received an email from MacUser's newish editor and formidable vegetarian, Nik Rawlinson. I had met Nik a few times, usually under the influence of Bacardi (me) and broccoli (him) and I was intrigued. The Mighty 'User was down one columnist, it transpired, and Nik wanted to know if I'd be interested in writing something for the back page. I thought about it for a while, drank a cup of Horlicks and replied that, yes, I was interested. I felt it fair, though, to admit that while I was something of a web geek and Mac-addict, I was neither an expert nor a writer. Obviously.

The next day I set to work, reassured by Nik that the column need only be 'tangentially related to the Mac' and by Husband that it would 'be nice to have a woman in the mag'. I wrote 800 words bemoaning a ridiculous lawsuit against Apple by a man who had scratched his iPod. Amazingly - I didn't mention troubled singing sensation Britney Spears once.

Nik thought my column was good and asked me to write a few more. I kept writing for three-and-a-half years, until now, dear reader, for this is my very last MacUser back page. I know! Life will barely be worth living. For either of us! But before we do anything rash, like arrange a quickie wedding in Las Vegas or make a bizarre pact involving badger entrails, let me recount the wonders that we've shared over the months and years.

Lots has changed in the world of technology since 2005, particularly so in the case of Apple products. The iPhone launched, blowing every other phone, ever, out of the water, and launching a new platform on the world that may yet prove to be the dominant operating system as the market shifts slowly from desktop to pocket. The iPod got much fancier. The MacBook Air came out of an envelope and no one quite believed it. Apple moved to Intel. Of course, I merrily glossed over these issues, preferring to concentrate instead on hot topics such as the price of cinema snacks, which is the friendliest TomTom voice, and how Madonna stays taut. ('Exorbitant', 'Tim' and 'Virgin sacrifice', respectively.)

The best thing that's happened to gadgets in the short time I've been writing is the increasing universality - and, more significantly, acceptance - of new technologies. A couple of years ago, owning an iPod was seen as decadent and pretentious, social networking was considered the refuge of lonely, sweaty people in labs, and if a woman entered an out-of-town computer superstore, she was generally gawped at or ignored. Now the word 'iPod' is used generically for 'any MP3 player', my dad is on Facebook and everyone, regardless of gender, can walk into a computer store and be ignored, patronised and mis-sold on an equal basis. Yay!

No longer dismissed as toys for boys, technology is finally achieving true cultural recognition, and is rampaging through everyday life. I recently visited a state primary school in which every room had a Smart Board, every child had access to a laptop, and every class had a kid that could operate both more proficiently than the teacher. I can talk directly to my transport operator via Twitter to find out where exactly my bus is at any given moment (usually stuck behind a combine harvester now that I live in the West Country). That's progress, and it's fast as all hell. Resistance is futile.