My girlfriend, Alison, recently bought an Intel Macbook Pro and she loves it. And when I say loves it, I mean will spontaneously erupt with comments like “I love this computer!” while stroking it gently.

Yes, it’s a little weird, but it’s a testament to the thought and care that’s gone into the system. Her overall feeling about the machine helps her gloss over items like the fact that it runs really hot or that turning on the accidental input detection on the trackpad causes the machine to spontaneously hang for no reason.

One of the things she loves the most about it is a tiny desktop widget which looks like an egg timer and sounds like an old-fashioned alarm clock when it’s done. It’s painfully simple and it makes Alison happy when she uses it – “It just works like I’d expect. I don’t even have to think…” This is the flow that Kathy Sierra was talking about and we should all strive for it in our products.