Apple Launches A “How-To” Site

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Personally, I think that it is a good idea that Apple launched a “how-to” site with videos and online tutorials. They have handy topics like “how to use a screensaver” and “how to customize your mouse. They have other awesome topics like “how to find the home folder.”

Whether you share a Mac with others or have one all to yourself, you can find all of your personal data—documents, downloads, music, and more—in the home folder Mac OS X created just for you when you set up your Mac (or when someone created an account for you). You can spot your home folder easily: it’s the one with the icon of a house and your account name.
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My question is this…if you are so dumb that you need someone to explain how to use a one button mouse, what are the odds you’ll be smart enough to click the link to get to the instructions? That’s like putting the instructions for “how to use a door knob” inside the house. If you can’t work the door knob, what are the chances you’ll be able to get in and get the instructions?
 
No, it's Apple's attitude towards its customer base. People say, "Macs are more user-friendly out-of-the-box. The interface is intuitive. Commands and tasks are carried out as I would naturally expect them to be."

How to:
  • Buy a Mac
  • Plug in your Mac
  • Turn on your Mac
  • Move your mouse
  • Click your mouse


:D
 
Steve said:
Personally, I think that it is a good idea that Apple launched a “how-to” site with videos and online tutorials. They have handy topics like “how to use a screensaver” and “how to customize your mouse. They have other awesome topics like “how to find the home folder.”



My question is this…if you are so dumb that you need someone to explain how to use a one button mouse, what are the odds you’ll be smart enough to click the link to get to the instructions? That’s like putting the instructions for “how to use a door knob” inside the house. If you can’t work the door knob, what are the chances you’ll be able to get in and get the instructions?
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If you actually look at the site, the "how to customize your mouse" does not actually tell you how to use a mouse in the first place. It already assumes you know how. It only tells you how to configure the mighty mouse buttons, the alternate click with a keyboard command (lame), and the sensitivity settings.

As much as I hate Apple and its obsession with the prefix "i", I don't believe they are that dumb to put a "how to point and click" tutorial on a point and click website.;)
 
I think it's a good idea. While many here are not n00bs, there are a lot of them out there. Plus anything that attracts buyers is another potential customer for Apple, especially the tech-shy types.
 
Yeah but if its incredibly simple things as stated
well my god thats just sad, it's much better to simply include a better instruction booklet right?:confused:
 
I thought newbs buy Mac's because they are the easiest thing to use. Apple always bragged about how they had the smallest instruction manuals for setting up and using their computers. Are Mac users really getting dumber? I'd consider this an insult.
 
w1retap said:
I'd consider this an insult.
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that's what I am saying. . . I like to make fun of Apple as much as the next guy, maybe a little more...but this is just wrong. I have a seriously hard time thinking Mac users are so dumb they need a tutorial on the Home folder.
 
I can see this being easily accessed. Apple could potentially include a "Have you ever used a Mac?" prompt in with the first-time locale, and user setup. If a user says no, they are immediately taken to the video tutorials when done.

And come on guys, the mouse bit is stretching it a bit. Apple assumes you at least know that; the guide was about customizing the individual buttons, not "push here to perform a click." :p
 
Oh my god it was agony!. "Here we have ical.. itunes.. iphotos.. imovies" ahhh I hate it!! Haha. Why did apple use such an annoying naming scheme! MS is doing the same crap with the word Live, but at least it's a word and not the letter i.
 
My issue with Apple in general is they "expect" their users to be tech savvy and design it to be intuitive, but I've seen people just as dumbfounded using a mac as a pc. the only problem I find with a mac is that their help and instructions are pretty damn vague.
 
Slade said:
My issue with Apple in general is they "expect" their users to be tech savvy and design it to be intuitive, but I've seen people just as dumbfounded using a mac as a pc. the only problem I find with a mac is that their help and instructions are pretty damn vague.
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Yeah, the totally intuitive OS is a myth. I will give credit to Apple for mostly doing a pretty good job of smoothing out rough edges in their software and OS X is one of the easiest OSs to learn. There are some exceptions, but the quality of the software shipped on Macs is pretty good and generally easy to learn and use.

But OS X stumpers are really frustrating (the kinds of things that don't work on try 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 but then suddenly work for a while, then repeat). Apple's support pages are *not very good* for many technical problems and the pool of elites for support online lag Windows and Linux counterparts by far.
 
I wouldn't say that OS X is any "easier" to learn than Windows. They are both very similar with their subtle differences here and there, although OS X is generally more streamlined in terms UI and number of steps taken to accomplish work or a task (especially compared to Vista). It still takes learning, especially if you are a longtime Windows user. It is much more similar to if you were using Ubuntu, to be honest.

The main difference for me is the underlying BSD structure vs current Windows + legacy support going back to the stone age. Something like that makes a huge difference when you are talking about stability of an OS over the course of 3+ years.
 
Serpico said:
I wouldn't say that OS X is any "easier" to learn than Windows. They are both very similar with their subtle differences here and there, although OS X is generally more streamlined in terms UI and number of steps taken to accomplish work or a task (especially compared to Vista). It still takes learning, especially if you are a longtime Windows user. It is much more similar to if you were using Ubuntu, to be honest.

The main difference for me is the underlying BSD structure vs current Windows + legacy support going back to the stone age. Something like that makes a huge difference when you are talking about stability of an OS over the course of 3+ years.
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Well, I guess the speed of learning can vary. I had never used a Mac before last week when I bought my Macbook, and within 24 hours I was up to the same level of understanding in Windows. I do agree that OSX, from a viewpoint, looks much like Ubuntu.
 
The fact that they have to have this shows the calibur of people buying this stuff...

I thought it was sooooo easy?
 
Dude... Microsoft has instructions on how to open the box. The new version of VMware ESX (presumably only used by IT pros who know vaguely what they're doing) has as its front page in the admin app an explanation of what a virtual machine is.

Everyone's got tutorials for the stupid. Apple ain't the only one.
 
I'd just like to point out that NOT TECHNICAL does not equal "DUMB."

There are plenty of smart people who have paid me in beer and gift certificates to teach them how to use their technology, even at the most basic levels.

As an extreme example... I taught my 80-year-old grandmother how to add phone numbers to her cell phone... she's not dumb, she's just not technical.

Trying to teach my 54-year-old friend how to use Google SketchUp was a little harder, but he found value in it. He makes gorgeous furniture, but is not tech-savvy enough for design software use to come naturally in most cases.
 
kcarlile said:
Dude... Microsoft has instructions on how to open the box. The new version of VMware ESX (presumably only used by IT pros who know vaguely what they're doing) has as its front page in the admin app an explanation of what a virtual machine is.

Everyone's got tutorials for the stupid. Apple ain't the only one.
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FWIW, I'm been a Unix SysAdmin for a year, and one of my coworkers has been one for 12 years. I spent a half an hour the other day trying to describe a Hypervisor, and explain the differences between paravirtualization and full virtualization. Everyone has different levels of expertise and different ways of understanding systems.
 
Night Black said:
Well, I guess the speed of learning can vary. I had never used a Mac before last week when I bought my Macbook, and within 24 hours I was up to the same level of understanding in Windows. I do agree that OSX, from a viewpoint, looks much like Ubuntu.
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Mostly because Ubuntu is Linux and OS X is BSD, so there are similarities there in terms of where things go and how things work. The GUIs for both still have their differences.
 
Night Black said:
Well, I guess the speed of learning can vary. I had never used a Mac before last week when I bought my Macbook, and within 24 hours I was up to the same level of understanding in Windows. I do agree that OSX, from a viewpoint, looks much like Ubuntu.
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You must not know much about Windows then...
 
hey be nice.


but yea I think this goes against apples whole notion that it just works out of the box though
 
Night Black said:
I do agree that OSX, from a viewpoint, looks much like Ubuntu.
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Umm...I think you mean: "Ubuntu, from a viewpoint, looks much like OSX." :p
kcarlile said:
Dude... Microsoft has instructions on how to open the box. The new version of VMware ESX (presumably only used by IT pros who know vaguely what they're doing) has as its front page in the admin app an explanation of what a virtual machine is.
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LOL! You must be joking!! :eek: :D
kcarlile said:
Everyone's got tutorials for the stupid. Apple ain't the only one.
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Amen to that! Ever read help stuff in the Welcome Center on Vista? It's got stuff like "the difference between a Desktop, Laptop, and PDA," "introduction to the internet," and "how to use a mouse" It's actually quite funny reading them. :)
anthrex said:
but yea I think this goes against apples whole notion that it just works out of the box though
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It does work out of the box. Some of the less technically inclined individuals out there just need something that says "here is where you find the address book on a Mac."
 
SharpieFiend said:
You must not know much about Windows then...
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No, I can agree with Black here. It took me less than a day to map my brain's Windows functionality to Mac OS functionality. All computers operating system are fundamentally the same, even if they use different design philosophies (NT/BSD/Linux).

Well, OK, the fact that I already knew some Linux also helped me significantly in the transition. :p
 
I think Apple is doing a good job. Their new how to site is a great idea. There is things I'm sill learning in OSX.
 
You can take a computer, dress it up in pretty clothes, teach it to be forgiving and understanding when you play rough, and take away every complication in the world, but at the end of the day, it's still a computer, and its going to confuse people. And this is coming from a life-long Apple user.
 
Note to Steve: Apple stopped shipping one-button mice almost three years ago. That joke is tired.

:)
 
This is actually a good move by Apple because if their user have enough "How-to" knowledge, they won't buy a Mac in the first place :eek:
 
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