Misogyny?!

Right now you have got to be asking yourself where I am going with my Blog today. Last week I picked up my new iPhone 3G. For those of you that do not know me very well, I am a gadget junkie. My real reason, for switching companies and getting the iPhone, was to have mobile service in all these countries I travel to. It's pretty isolating to travel to another part of the world by yourself and be cut off from the part of the world you know. But the Gadgets....HUGE bonus.

The first thing I immediately hated and was very disappointed in, that the screen did not react the way my Palm Pilot or my other PDA Phones did. I couldn't tap the screen with my beautiful, pink and white acrylic nails. DAMN you Apple for making the screen work by skin touch and not the nail (or stylus).

What's this got to do with Misogyny? Well, for those of you that don't know what Misogyny means:

–noun hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women.

Now that's pretty harsh to say about a company that made this wonderful gadget and decided only short nail people will enjoy touching the screen. Surely, the men with big fingers have got to be feeling our pain as well. Anyway, Erica Watson-Currie from Newport Beach, California (no relation to me btw) spoke with Times writer Michelle Quinn and said, "Considering ergonomics and user studies indicating that men and women use their fingers and nails differently, why does Apple persist in this misogyny?" adding that she's reluctant to cut her nails for the purpose of using her iPhone. "It's the machine's job to accommodate its users, not the other way around."

Compromise? Quinn actually spoke to ergonomic consultant Anthony Andre who came up with a compromise: nail polish that can interact with the iPhone screen like your fingertip does. Quinn's name suggestions, 'Touch Screen Taupe' and ' iPhone Indigo'.

On behalf of all us ladies that don't wear polish, I say, "Booooooo". Apple, come down out of that tree to the real world and fix your damn screen. If Palm can make it happen 10 years ago, so can you!!!!

Elaine
(writing from Valencia, CA today)