Fear of Fish

Have you ever noticed that most things you want to do on a Mac are simple? The term 'It Just Works' they use really is true. I can send pictures and sounds to my blog really easily with Bluetooth File Exchange, I can easily connect to wireless networks without wondering wtf is going on. These are examples of actions that are sometimes mind boggling-ly hard to get working on a Windows machine.

Now, I'm Microsoft Certified, so the chances of a regular user being able to do that are very remote. That's what keeps the PC repair industry going, which I used to be in. My friend runs a PC repair business and he praised the day when Vista came out, because he was presented with a whole new flow of revenue as everybody upgraded.

However, I digress. I'm only writing this post to let you know that Apple have failed me. My friends know me as the Apple fanboi who let them get away with murder, purely because they are leagues ahead of the competition.

Setting up your Apple MacBook to dial the internet, through a 3G phone (or GPRS or Edge). Here are the steps:

• Download Modem Scripts for your phone from Ross Barkman's Site
• Place them into your /Library/ModemScripts folder (as described on his site)
• Open Network in System Preferences
• Create a new Location called "Mobile" or whatever you like, and select that Location
• Open Bluetooth in System Preferences
• Add a new device (or configure an existing one) and in the wizard give it the details that you can find on Ross Barkman's GPRS info page
• Dial the internet through Internet Connect (with Bluetooth selected in the toolbar)

Now, to get to the point where you know that it's not that hard to get going, you have to spend hours frustratingly wondering why you can't figure it out to start off with. I'm not comparing this to a windows machine, because most phones come with software that will configure this all for you.

I am, however, putting out a plea to Apple to ease this process. The USA may have free wireless internet throughout the country, but in Europe and other continents they still charge us ridiculously high prices for that privilege.

Please Apple, can you fix it for me so it's click click easy?