- Doing a three year JD degree in my mid thirties
- Having three kids during said 3 years
- Owning an iPhone4, my first Apple device
- Having a home computing ecosystem three Windows 3 laptops and an HP Media Server
I'll chalk up my decision to jump wholesale into the Apple world to the above factors. Even if I am misguided or mistaken they are as good reasons as any. Let me explain how I think each of these pushed me closer to pulling the trigger.
Rewind three and a half years ago to my first day of law school. The first thing that really shocked me was the Apple adoption rate. I would say that no less than 80% of the class was using MacBooks. It's not that I overly vulnerable to peer-pressure - clearly I stuck with the PC and Windows world until year of 2013... But seeing all of these people having the "magical" experience I have always heard about - gesturing their way around the OS like they were mind-melded with their laptops - made me curious. How far had Apple come since 1976 when Steve Jobs sold his first computer? They must be doing something right... right?
Speaking of doing something right, owning my first Apple product was a very positive experience. Coming from a Nokia N95 to an iPhone4 was a joy. The Nokia was smaller, lighter, and probably had more features but some of the most important features never really worked. Browsing pictures and videos on the phone was choppy and video playback was sketchy. The iPhone was not perfect but for the most part it did what it set out to do. I am not a major user of Apps but the ones that I had worked well. The iPhone also led me to purchase an Apple TV and once again it was nice to have two devices work seamlessly. I had (and have) no problem shelling out 5 bucks to rent a movie once or twice a month and doing so required zero technical expertise. It was also great to be able to share photos on the big screen instead of having them sit unused on some hard drive.
Creating, managing, and consuming media is where Apple shines. This is where having 3 kids comes in because each new kid requires about 250GB of storage per year for all the photos and videos my wife and I end up taking. I needed a way to enjoy all of those memories and to share them with others. I found that the combination of iPhone, iTunes, and ATV was a great way to do this. I can't even tell you how cumbersome and complicated it was attempting to do the same with my HP media server.
So on it goes, three years of using the iPhone and the ATV and the iPhone4s and iPhone5 pass me by and I am still happy using the same phone. That says a lot about the quality of the product. I like my toys and yet I was content to use the same phone for three whole years.
So I finally decided to throw down the gauntlet. The new 27 inch iMac has arrived, and the old hardware is going up on Kijiji (I might hold onto one Windows laptop as a safety net). I've also finally upgraded my iPhone4 to a 5s and added another ATV to the house.
The Verdict? I'll let you know once I get accustomed to things.
In future posts I intend on documenting my transition with all of the ups and downs, all of the frustration, and all of the fun. Which brings me to the name of this Blog. Spending 20 years or more on Windows has created certain expectations about what personal computing should be; About how things should work. These are not easy habits to break. I am definitely a fish out of water, a stranger in a new land. But I do know a few words in the local dialect. The iPhone and ATV has provided some insight into the ways of Apple. I know how to use iTunes. That should be enough. Right?
Anyone out there thinking about making the leap? Recent converts? What are your thoughts?
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