Why people love Apple and its products: careful attention to detail

"I just noticed something about Apple's Mail program that perfectly illustrates why people love Apple and its products. Like most e-mail programs, Mail's main window is divided into columns: 'From,' 'Subject' and 'Date,' etc.," Leander Kahney writes for Wired News.

"While I was adjusting the width of the columns, I noticed that the date changes format depending on the width of the column. If the column is wide, the date is displayed as 'February 27, 2006.' But if you narrow the column, the date changes to a shorter format: 'Feb 27, 2006.' If you narrow the column even further, the date format changes to the shortest format possible: '2/27/06.' In addition, the time an e-mail message is received is also displayed -- if there's room. If the column is narrowed, the time disappears altogether," Kahney writes.

Kahney writes, "Compare this to the way other software behaves... The best software... sometimes displays an ellipsis as you narrow the column, the three dots indicating that information has been truncated... But only Apple's Mail actually changes the format. When I first discovered this, I sat there delighted, making the column wide and then narrow, beaming as the date format switched smoothly and seamlessly between numbers and text to perfectly fit the space allocated. Part of the magic of this discovery was the serendipity. If it had been a 'feature' -- a behavior purposely brought to my attention by Apple -- I would have shrugged and said, 'so what?' But because I discovered it by accident, it struck me as artisan touch; a craftsman's attention to detail."

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Next time someone asks you why you use a Mac, point them to this article and tell them to multiply this instance of "attention to detail" by about a million. That's why we choose the Mac over substandard, mediocre-at-best Windows. The little things add up to create a vast gulf between Mac and Windows. They likely will not believe you, but at least you tried to help them out of the windows morass.

Macintosh. Because life's too short.