Do many mix Apple and Google?

[Cloudane]

Just curious.

I've changed things around constantly in a quest for perfection and a little bit of boredom. Right now my setup (of what I use most of anyway, ignoring my desktop) is:

MacBook Air running OS X - browser is Safari, because Chrome is terrible on MacBooks (has the CPU fan going a lot, drains the battery) but I use Google's services. Gmail for mail, Google Calendars and Contacts rather than iCloud, replaced Notes with Google Keep, replaced Photos with Google Photos. I have the Google apps running via Safari as applications by using an app called "Fluid" which lets you create standalone applications from websites.

iPad Mini 2 for all my iOS needs (I do also have a second hand iPhone 5S for dabbling with)

Google/Huawei Nexus 6P as my mobile phone daily driver. Naturally, this doesn't have the same dissonance as my MacBook - it's a Google device, a Google OS and runs Google applications and services 100%. I love everything Google does. Its cloud services seem so much quicker and more reliable than iCloud, the Music service is free and fully cloud-hosted without any of the antiquated iTunes nonsense and the subscription option serves to enhance rather than to confuse you. Because I've read their Privacy Policy and understand how they do things, I haven't fallen for the "Google sells all ur dataz!" FUD and find their ability to deduce so much about me fascinating (if very important to keep secure - all of my computer and smartphone accounts are thoroughly under lock and key). Location history is both scary and awesome. I ran my iPhone 5S for a couple of days with the Google app and allowed it to log my history and was disappointed that it didn't keep track of my lunchtime walk. It only knew (from wifi) that I'd been to work.

This works pretty well for me. A big temptation for an iPhone would be when owning a Mac, you have all the continuity stuff. When I had an iPhone 6, I found that I very very very rarely used the app continuity. The remote SMS was extremely useful, but MightyText does the same thing on Android AND lets you view and dismiss notifications too which is even better! I want to love iPhones and admire the way they tightly guard your battery life, but have found that "just not obsessing about having the thinnest phone ever, and having a decent battery instead" gives better results, even with things like MightyText running. (iOS only allows notification access via Bluetooth LE to save that weedy battery).
Browser syncing would be better if Chrome was any good on Macs I subscribe to Xmarks right now and that solves bookmark and open tab syncing (the latter needed a tweak to work in the latest Safari). But the open tabs only get pushed like every 15 minutes or so which is quite annoying.

Overall the combination works out pretty well for me. I'm just curious how many have this level of crossover between two extremely bitter rivals. The biggest risk is that they'll fall out enough to ban each other in some way...

 

[Fancuku]

I mainly use Safari on my MBP. Chrome is used with some forums that Safari refuses to keep me signed in.

I have an iPad mini 3 but I almost never use it. I have an iPhone 6S as my go to for iOS but don't use any of Apple's services. I use Google Music (non-subcription, my personal collection only) for music on the go, Thunderbird as the email client on the MBP, and save all my photos taken with the iphone to my Amazon Prime photo cloud thing because it's free for us Prime members.

I guess I am all over the place but it works for me and I can't complain.

 

[C DM]

I think ultimately a lot of people just use whatever works for them and whatever they might be used to or happen to like without much worry as to where it really comes from, at least not as so far as who might be a rival of whom or anything like that. Meaning that many likely mix those two and probably even more.

 

[ardchoille50]

I moved everything from Android to iOS in 2012 and slowly began to rid myself of non-Apple devices. in 2014 I purchased a Mac mini and began moving my desktop items over to OS X. Today, my home is completely Apple.. and I'm a happy camper.

 

[Cloudane]

Indeed it's whatever works best for people, just seemed an interesting subject. The only reason I worry about them being rivals is in case something happens like Apple removing all Google related apps from the App Store (from the "using an iPhone as a Google phone" side of things). Or even Google taking their ball and running off home.

At one point it was unthinkable that they'd allow them on in the first place, as in the earlier iOS days they were strictly against duplicating the functionality of anything that comes with the phone already, but seem to have relaxed on that in more recent years. But I think now that they're on they couldn't easily backtrack without annoying a lot of people.

 

[elf69]

I have imac at home with firefox as browser.

for work macbook with firefox for personal stuff and chrome as work stuff.
chrome is signed into our work account to sync across all machines in company and google docs, etc.

Samsung s7 edge phone.

never had excessive fan or battery drain with chrome on my 2009 macbook.

I dont like safari although do use it on imac for ne radio station while I browse on firefox.

 

[Tech198]

if this also include services as well,then i am all Mac, but i do use Gmail..

I like a mixed bag

none of the plain stuff. But i do use a PC too

 

[maflynn]

I use a mixture of Google services, though I no longer use Android. I think Chrome works well, at lest better then IE on my PC, I use Maps, Google's search and youtube. I don't use gmail or any other service but what I do use works well for me.

 

[Kebabselector]

Mostly Apple for me. No google services other than Youtube, One drive for Microsoft One Note.

 

[Beech07]

I am an all Apple device home. I use Google for email, contracts, calendar, photos and the office suite and have been for many years. I want to use all iCloud and have tried to go all in, but Google's functionality brought me back. I keep testing with an all in iCloud approach because I want to keep things as simple as possible, but haven't found the ideal solution yet.
Are the all iCloud users satisfied?

 

[Michael Goff]

I am an all Apple device home. I use Google for email, contracts, calendar, photos and the office suite and have been for many years. I want to use all iCloud and have tried to go all in, but Google's functionality brought me back. I keep testing with an all in iCloud approach because I want to keep things as simple as possible, but haven't found the ideal solution yet.
Are the all iCloud users satisfied?

Can't speak for anyone else, but I definitely am.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

Just to cite @Tech198, there were times when I used a "mixed bag" and w/o any problems.
More than a year ago I came back to iOS for numerous reasons, one of them was to leave Google for good.
For personal use I prefer Apple products.

 

[Phil A.]

I use Apple, Google and Microsoft - basically I just use what's best for a particular situation without getting hung up on who produced it

 

[maflynn]

basically I just use what's best for a particular situation without getting hung up on who produced it

That's generally how I do things, I find the best tool for the job. With that said, I'm not really jazzed up by Google's use of my information for targeted advertising. I have owned and maybe in the future will own an android phone, but I don't really use gmail and other services because I don't like google's business practices. Other then that, though I do find the best tool for the job.

 

[Phoenixx]

I use both, and use a full range of programs and services with zero preference for any platform. I will use whatever best does the particular task I am wanting to do. My main setup consists of a standing desk made out of industrial racking with an iMac with two additional screens, and a Windows setup with three screens directly above my Mac. A forth screen connected to my Windows machine sits on a separate desk for gaming.

 

[Cloudane]

Mostly wish Chrome worked half reasonably on my Macbook Air. It's 5 years old, but still..
Got xmarks installed for syncing bookmarks and tabs but it's nowhere near as elegant and it seems you need to switch all the other syncing off if you don't want duplicates all over the place.

Maybe it'll be more feasible if Apple ever release new Macbook Pros / Airs.

 

[lowendlinux]

I run Linux on my Laptop, my desktop is Linux / OS X, my phone is a Nexus 6, and a have a Linux droplet on Digital Ocean for syncing across devices. When I get the urge I'l get a domain and setup an email server and so my syncing and cloud storage on that. I do keep an iCloud account, Drop Box, and Gmail/Google Drive for some stuff but long term I want to ditch Android for Ubuntu Touch or Sailfish then I'll finally be on all my stuff.

 

[dan1eln1el5en]

Work Windows
Home Apple.

As I do mobile dev. I also had a few Android devices, but they simply don't "do it" for me. and not tempted either.

 

[akash.nu]

All Apple for personal use and I keep an Android phone for business use. Simply because I don't want to send wrong emails or texts or updates to wrong platform.

Also, we develop iOS and Android apps so have gazillions of other Android devices at my disposal.

 

[Phoenixx]

Indeed it's whatever works best for people, just seemed an interesting subject. The only reason I worry about them being rivals is in case something happens like Apple removing all Google related apps from the App Store (from the "using an iPhone as a Google phone" side of things). Or even Google taking their ball and running off home.

At one point it was unthinkable that they'd allow them on in the first place, as in the earlier iOS days they were strictly against duplicating the functionality of anything that comes with the phone already, but seem to have relaxed on that in more recent years. But I think now that they're on they couldn't easily backtrack without annoying a lot of people.

I'll be really straight up here. If Apple removed the Google apps from the app store, I would instantly ditch their products. I don't think I'm alone in wanting alternatives available on my devices, when Apple seem progressively incapable of doing a good job of writing software.

 

[Cloudane]

Still struggling with the mix here!

Love Android phones. This isn't one for tinfoil hatters and a lot get squicked out at seeing much how your entire life is recorded, but I love how at any time I can look at a neat little map of everywhere I've been. You can get this by running the Google app for iOS but it's nowhere near as accurate (as it doesn't enable the GPS if it detects you're walking around like Google Fit does). On the system side of things, I like being able to do things like bring up a (third party) car interface whenever it senses I'm in the car (auto connection to bluetooth stereo). The sort of low level automation that Apple doesn't allow, and slightly more battery intensive things they avoid in order to keep the battery small and the device thin.

But if you're on Android you're going to want to run Chrome. That gets you the browser tab, bookmark and history syncing which I find really useful. It gets you the best versions of MightyText or PushBullet for receiving desktop notifications on the Mac (and dismissing them from there), and sending text messages from it.

But Chrome sucks on macOS (same for other browsers on the same engine such as Opera). It hammers the CPU, sending the fans into overdrive and guzzling the battery. Play a Youtube video and you're looking at a 20% load on this 2011 MBA. Play it in Safari, or even Chrome on Windows, and it sits below 5%. I've tried running xmarks and the desktop version of MightyText so I can use Safari, and it just adds clutter and doesn't work as nicely as Chrome.

Such a mess. The link between mobile and computer is quite important to me, and it's starting to feel like the choice is either put up with an iPhone to get iCloud or ditch Apple altogether and move to *shudder* Windows to get a decent version of Chrome. It doesn't help that the Dell I'd want (decently specced XPS 13) costs exactly the same as the Macbook Pro I'd want, negating the old "Macs are more expensive" argument. Get a MacBook and you can run either OS (albeit the trackpad sucks on Windows). Get a Dell and it's Windows or Windows. Well, or Linux, heh