“Sometimes I think the companies that make cell phones, gadgets and PCs never actually use their own products. In particular, one of my biggest complaints is how these vendors put annoying little lights on everything but fail to illuminate their products in ways that are actually useful,” Mike Elgan writes for Computerworld.
“My PC and other computing equipment make my office look like a jet cockpit. I have two LCD monitors, each of which has two indicator lights that flash even when the PC is turned off. The attached sound control has a light on it. My keyboard has multiple lights. The power cord has lights, the printer has lights, and the power button is illuminated. My cable modem and Linksys router flash like crazy all the time. Together, these useless lights create a visual cacophony of blinking, multicolored lights that make me feel like I’m taking part in a NASA stress test for astronaut candidates,” Elgan writes.
Elgan writes, “Worse, my PC, a Dell XPS system, features a decorative blue light in the front bright enough to actually read by. Dell’s XPS gaming laptops cast the most hideous red lights through vents, which you can dim but not turn off. Clearly, the vendor thinks bright, decorative lights are cool. You know what would be cool? Hire a case designer with good taste. That would be cool.”
Elgan writes, “It’s only a matter of time before Apple produces a TV ad showing the guy who says, ‘Hi, I’m a PC’ covered in Christmas lights.”
Full article, including Elgan’s “Gadget Bill of Lights,” here.
We don’t know about you, but we can’t drift off to dreamland without our MacBook Pros’ pulsating sleep lights. As for other lights, we totally agree with Elgan.
Lights that have no useful function, like that orange activity LED on PCs, I can never understand, but lights that serve a purpose– like the indicator light for the built-in iSight– makes sense.
In fact, I hate those stupid orange LEDs. I like Apple’s white ones because they go well with the hardware, are softer and more natural- feeling, and the fact that Apple seems to be the only one who uses white.
I always was under the impression that- like my iMac- the ‘books sleep lights were controlled by the ambient light sensors as well. Odd how Apple did it for the iMac and not the MacBook or MBP…
I don’t mind lights on things to an extent. At least I know the device is working or the batteries havn’t gone flat. But why why why did Apple make the current crop of MacBook Pros with that horrible green light for camera and caps/num lock? Blu or white would have looked nicer.
Airport Extreme Base Station uses a blinking orange circular indicator light.
I cover the sleep light of my MacBook if it’s sleeping in the same room as I am.
Lights? Absolutely.
The sleep pulse on my MBP is bright enough to wake me up!
I cover it with a magazine and all’s well, but puhleeze Apple, include a dimming control (unless I’ve missed something — help…)
Do lights & screens drive me crazy? Don’t mind if i do. zzz zzzip hoo ha mrp!
ThunkDifferent.com
Lights like that annoy the hell outta me, but my PowerBook is fine if I put it to sleep with the lid up – the sleep light is much much dimmer than if you close the lid to put it to sleep.
That’s why I love apple and I’ll never buy any other computer – the little details.
Generally, a steady light doesn’t bother me too much – – its the flickering and/or blinking lights that are a nuisance.
Since the wireless modem / router is in the office, its mostly out-of-sight-out-of-mind. Thank God I’m not in a dorm room
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The “blinkie” that bugs me the most is the one that’s on my Blackberry, which resides on my nightstand. I’ve gotten pretty good at putting it down ‘just so’, and/or covering up the LED so that my room doesn’t look like one of those seedy motel rooms from a 1950 movie with the big neon blinkiing sign right outside.
And finally…isn’t it nice to be able to complain about little things like this, instead of how loud the cooling fans are?
-hh
For the poster unhappy about the startup chimes, they DO have a purpose on the Mac. They tell you that it has successfully started up. If for some reason, there is a hardware issue that prevents startup from completing, such as memory issues, it will issue an alternate chime that has a very down-sounding tone, that just sounds bad! Fortunately, it is rare, but it has a function.
Now that said, on your MacBook, you can just hit the mute button, and it will mute the startup chime the next time you reboot.