Watching the Mac-TV.de on Trial

After an hour of boredom, one bottle of Corona and some browsing through the iTunes’ Podcast-Directory, I’ve decided to download some episodes of the Mac-TV.de podcast and watch them on trial. I didn’t knew the Podcast before and regarding the place it has in iTunes’ Podcast-Directory (pretty much at one of the first rows of the “Technology” section) I really expected some cool podcast covering topics around Apple products.

The first podcast I’ve watched was the one about Apple’s “Time Capsule”, released on the 13th of March 2008. The first impression I had was “Okay, they explain it a way so that every Mac user understands it“. I mean, that’s nothing bad. Of course, for an advanced viewer it gets partially pretty bored, because of the length and simplicity of technique explanations, but eh. I don’t know Time Capsule myself, so I’ve been curious about the stuff they tried to show within their podcast – while emphasizing “tried“. The presentation itself was pretty lousy, the moderators seemed to my like they were doing their job for the first time. Not that they just skipped things which were interesting to know, they didn’t even try to answer the right questions regarding the product. Not even simple stuff like the product’s energy consumption (talking about Apple’s Green Checklist) or how to turn that thing off, if I don’t want to keep it running 24/7 while being in holidays. However, when it got to the price comparison and the calculations, I just couldn’t listen to these two guys any longer. Again, boys, what does €170 + €250 result? No, not €320. It’s €420. Too bad, they didn’t ask me if I’d like to buy their AirPort Extreme (€170) and an extra hard-drive (€250) for €320.

However, the next podcast I’ve tried to watch, was the one from the 24th of May 2008 named “Anonym surfen mit Tor und Vidalia” (Surfing anonymously with Tor and Vidalia). Again, tried. I couldn’t listen to it after (not even) ten minutes anymore, because the presentation was that bad that my ears, eyes and balls hurt. They tried to show some green lines and red dots within a world-map, while using a zoom that pretty much made a pixel-mosaic out of it and its content. Besides, the constant zooming (in, out, in, out, in, out, in, out, in, out, in, out, in, and so on) made me scream after a while. So, last chance, moving right along…

The third and I think last podcast I watched from these Mac-TV.de guys was the one from the 28th of October 2008, in which they tested out the brand new MacBook and MacBook Pro Unibody models. Again, a lousy, amateur-like presentation. Why do they prepare Keynote foils and show them on the huge flat-screen in the background, when they constantly forget switching to the topic they are talking about? Besides, come on guys, what clientele do you try to reach with your tests? Grandma and Grandpa? The moderation guys had two brand new, amazingly sexy MacBooks (the regular one and the Pro) on their table, and all they were talking about was which of the two keyboards gives their fingertips a better feeling, how nice it is, that the cooler does not do like “brrrrr” but more sound like “whooosh” and that the new glossy displays are so likable, that I could even shave whatever part of my body by using my MacBook. Oh come on. I think that some people still did not understand that glossy displays aren’t that crappy when they turn on their LED-backlight to a level which actually makes you recognize more than just the shapes of the windows lying on your desk. For sure a glossy display is a crap when I’m setting the backlight to the lowest level possible and have a three-hundred-watt spotlight at my back, shining directly into my notebook’s display. I mean, dude, what scenarios are you testing these MacBooks for? Sitting on the beach of Bora Bora without having enough battery-life left for more then 50% luminosity?

I’m not sure, if these guys believe 99% of the Apple users to be plain stupid, or if they just don’t think about what and how they’re actually presenting products on a podcast, but one’s for sure: Mac-TV is really the wrong name, for a podcast that would make me hate each product they presented, if I wouldn’t know better. I guess, I’m not wrong by calling this podcast the Mac-based pendant of the german “Computerbild“.

Or, to use the modern internet language: Fail. *deleting the podcast*