3 ms·
As a college freshmen in 2003, I used my once in a lifetime Apple Student Developer 20% discount on a stacked PowerMac G5 dual 2.0GHz. I loved that machine and
by JeremyHerrman 9y ago
As a college freshmen in 2003, I used my once in a lifetime Apple Student Developer 20% discount on a stacked PowerMac G5 dual 2.0GHz. I loved that machine and couldn't believe how snappy OS X was on it. The way I tested UI speed then was clicking on a menu item (say the File menu), and moving my mouse back and forth on the other menu items as fast as I could — the G5 was the first computer I had that could keep up and show all of the sub menus in a flash without stuttering.
- baddox 9y agoIt’s funny how little tests like that can make such an impression. I experienced the same thing with iPhones, which had the bizarre feeling (now more normal and expected) of the content being attached to my finger when I scrolled at any speed, even back when the newly revealed content would just be a blank grid until it had time to paint the real content. I distinctly remember scrolling web pages as fast as I could on my friend’s original iPhone when it was first released, although I wonder how horribly sluggish that would feel now. I had been trained by twitchy FPS video games from a young age to recognize even small frame skips in moving content, and the rarity of such frame skips is what enamored me about the early iPhones (although I didn’t “switch” to iPhones until the iphone 4) and made me dismiss Android phones for many years (Android flagships have been good in this department for a few years now).