My first week in the Apple eco system
It’s just been over a week since I got my MacBook and my iPhone and I can honestly say I’m enjoying the experience. The move from a Windows/Android based set up was brought about by an official update for my Surface Pro damaging my Surface. I embed took the step of trying to reinstall the OS but that’s always failed in the 70% range and now it’s a lovely expensive paper weight. Being without a PC to develop my projects was too much and I wasn’t about to lay down thousands for something that had just been destroyed after two years.
As a result I went into the Apple store and had a play with a MacBook Pro. I had already discounted the other systems as not powerful enough to do what I wanted. One major concern was having no touch screen. After two difference PCs (both were Surface Pros) having a touch screen was important to me for I could draw my art work onto it. For example just how important this was was my iPad and Apple Pencil along with my Note 8 and it’s stylus. In the end it turned out there was another way. The touch bar. Now I thought this was just a gimmick when I first heard about it, a way for Apple to get around the touch screen issue. Turns out I was wrong. Without realise I’m using the touch screen all the time. Want to visit a bookmark, well that required just a key press and then some touch bar interactions with colour icons for each site. That’s awesome. It’s even more awesome when the same set up is possible with iPad and iPhone so everything is grouped together.
Now the original plan to to stay with Google services, ie photos etc. Turns out that the power and simplicity of iCloud changed my opinion on that. No longer do I have to transfer things between devices. Now a screenshot taken with my iPad can be sent on via iPhone. Yes I had that with iPad and Note8 but it required manual intervention to work. And most apps couldn’t see the folders from my iPad anyway making it a difficult and frustrating experience. iCloud changed that.
There has been a learning curve that’s I’m still trying to learn some basics yet have mastered some of the more complex things but there is one feeling I cannot escape from my experiences in Apple land. Enjoyment. Even deleting work emails, once I’d figured out how to select multiple messages and delete them (not archive them) I was actually enjoying the cute animations of the piles of work emails piling up on a pile on my screen. It was a nice touch that allowed me to not only preview the email but do so while in a pile that can easy allow you to move on to the next one or remove that from the selected pile. Never ever experienced that with Windows. I had to check each email individually which sounds fine but with hundreds of emails to check a shift and a busy work load, it’s just not possible to do this the Windows way.
There have been issues of course. I still haven’t figured out drop and drag without holding two keys down and using the track pad which frankly seems obscene to have to do it. I’m sure there is another way, I just haven’t learnt it. Now this in part has been an investment that quite easily can get out of hand. I’ve now got an Apple Watch and it again just works. Even set up was as simple as putting it next to my iPhone. You cannot beat that with any other OS that’s I’m aware of. Apple has really catered to anyone and everyone by allowing it to be simple. But now I’m in the eco system I can add food data alongside exercise data allowing me to see just what I’m eating and what the balance is health wise.
This is something that is important to me to understand where I am with my intake and my exercise to ensure I’m eating a more balanced meal. Now as someone recovering from an injury (been to see the physio at the hospital this week, this is all important data. And I believe it will help me when I’m able to get back to the gym in getting into a much more healthy way of living. All of this could have likely been done in Android. But I never saw a way to make apps work like Apple has. My phone is the centre of my data experience and this is how I like it. It will be driving my behaviours in a good and healthy way from now on and I like that.
Yes it’s been a long time coming as I have been so anti Apple for so long now many people have been gobsmacked just how far and quickly I’ve embraced the experience. Maybe it’s something to do with my age. Mid 30s and I have less time for getting things to work together and provide a sound experience. Now it’s all about that experience I don’t have to work on and that’s great for me now. And it doesn’t universally apply to everyone.
limeminion 