How many Apple devices/computers do you own, why, and how do you manage them all?

[tbayrgs]

I myself was (and still am to an extent) contemplating using the Shuffle for cycling and gym as you do.

But how comes you have 2 Minis and 3 Apple TVs? Do you keep all the Minis in full sync with each other (I'm assuming you use dropbox premium account for that?)?

The Mini server is brand new, replaced an old MacBook and serves as main computer for everyday use in the home office. The older Mini functions primarily as a HTPC attached directly to the TV in our living room but also is occasionally used by my kids (easier for all 3 to gather around and use it, larger screen and all). There really isn't much that I need access to on both minis (other than media) so file sharing isn't a problem. All of our media is kept on an external HDD unit directly attached to the Mini HTPC and I just point iTunes libraries on both computers to it.

The TVs are on the other 3 TVs in the house and are served media via home sharing from the Mini HTPC.

Dropbox is primarily used to share files between the new Mini and our 2 iPads and 2 iPhones.

 

[njsa04playa]

We have quite a few...and manage them quite well:

-2010 13" MBP for me. Main computer I use around house day to day. I'm typing this post with it.

-2010 13" MBP for wife. Her main computer

-2009 13 MBP for daughter.

-2010 11" air for wife. Her travel computer

-2010 13" air for me. My travel computer

-2010 15" MBP. Of all the computers we have, this one gets used the least. Prime candidate for being sold.

-2009 13 MBP at work.

-2011 21 iMac at work

-2011 27 iMac at work

-iPad for me. Use it to read, play games, etc.

-iPad 2 for wife. She uses it to read, etc.

-iPod touch. Daughters

-2 iPhones. Wife and I

-2 Apple TV's

-Mac Pro in home office. Use for video editing.

-3 MacMini servers. Two at home (shared iTunes library, photo server, DNS/DHCP, using Apple Remote Desktop to manage all the computers, backup using Time Machine, pretty much anything you use servers for. Third MacMini is colocated; hosts family website and serves as a offsite backup for the two servers in the house.


As for managing them, use Mobileme for syncing bookmarks, keychains, etc. (at least until next summer). Also use Dropbox and the manageability features of ARD (syncing apps, etc).

We are late to the Apple party....had similar setup for years using IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads, and home built servers running various flavors of Windows Server (started using NT, then 2000, then 2003....then 2008) using Active Directory. While that setup worked quite well, it wasn't the easiest to setup and manage.....it has been far easier in the Apple world.

whoa this is quite a lot, if you are interested in selling the 2010 15 inch then pm me

----------

13 inch macbook pro, used for school and home web browsing, hooked up to 23 inch display when working at the desk

samsung galaxy tab purely as an eReader

iPad used for web browsing w/out flash, games, and netflix

samsung netbook, for out and about word processing and light web browsing

ipod touch 4th gen for music on the go and web browsing in bed

ipod shuffle for running and lifting

PLUS the shocker.... a blackberry bold as a cellphone, use it mostly for texting/bbming and of course phone calls

in the future will either get a mac mini or aTV for a new media center (any opinions?)

and maybe switch the mbp 13 for an imac 21.5 inch

 

[3bs]

2010 MBA 11" ultimate
2009 MB (gave to sis)
6th gen iPod nano (rarely use it except for gym etc)
iPhone 4 16GB
4th gen Time Capsule
Apple Magic Mouse (rarely use it)
iPod shuffle 2nd gen (stopped using)

 

[njsa04playa]

2010 MBA 11" ultimate
2009 MB (gave to sis)
6th gen iPod nano (rarely use it except for gym etc)
iPhone 4 16GB
4th gen Time Capsule
Apple Magic Mouse (rarely use it)
iPod shuffle 2nd gen (stopped using)

i havent seen a lot of macbook white owners, how were ur experiences?

 

[muzammil150]

I was interested in purchasing a Thunderbolt Display to complement my 11 inch MBA 2011, but realised for the same price I can just purchase the base 21.5 inch iMac instead. But I couldn't see how I would ever use two computers and deal with the hassle of splitting up work between them, especially as I also have an iPad and iPhone.

However, I've seen some Apple users who own iMacs, Macbook Airs AND Macbook Pros. And then they also have iPads and iPhones, and maybe even iPods and Nanos.

Now in real life - at least my own real life - this many devices means it's literally impossible to make use of all of them. If you want to work mobile, an MBA should be fine...so where does the MBP go? If you have an iPhone, how do you make use of an iPod and Nano? Which of these becomes your main device? Don't you feel cluttered? And how do you justify these without feeling guilty? I'm curious.

Others prefer the more sensible iMac as main power station and Air as mobile work station. But how do you manage the two and keep them in sync, on top of using your iOS devices?

Personally, I'm planing the following setup:
1. MBA 11" 128GB SSD Core i7 as my main and only computer
2. Thunderbolt Display for home multitasking sessions
3. iPad for non-work general use and mainly content consumption
4. iPhone for communications and fall-to device I can always rely on wherever I go.

Some may find my setup even too much (although I have found my own good uses for them all). I'm just a little curious how others manage anything more than this. It would be interesting to know.

I have an Ipod nano 2008 3rd gen 4gig for music back up. a late 2009 21.5" base model imac for main desktop/ virtualization/ server, 2009 ipod classic for main music player in my car, early 2011 mac book pro base model for desktop replacement on the go, a mid 2011 macbook air to use when the other machines are busy downloding formating and converting files and i have an ipad2 for watching late night movies and looking up stuff at late night. and i have a 16gig iphone 4 as primary pocket device.

 

[Hirakata]

2010 iMac 27"
- Main computer
2009 Mac Mini
- HTPC
2008 MacBook Pro
- To be mobile
1997 PowerMac 7300
- All Frankenstein-ed out and running Tiger via XpostFacto like a champ. Tucked away in a closet and used as a home server.
iPhone 3GS
- For, uh, making calls
iPod Touch 2nd Gen
- Mainly to control HTPC
iPod Nano 2nd Gen and 3rd Gen
- Music
iPod Mini 2nd Gen
- Music
2 iPod Shuffles 2nd Gen
- Music
Airport Extreme
3 Airport Expresses to have music throughout the house...

 

[dXTC]

Okay, here's my household's current gear:

Me:
iMac, 21.5" 3.02GHz Core i3 (2010). This is my main computer; I use it for composing music (GarageBand and Cakewalk SONAR via Boot Camp), as well as converting DVDs via HandBrake and light-to-medium Web surfing. It also serves as the house's main iTunes content server for Home Sharing.
Macbook Pro, 17" Core i5. This is usually my travel machine and a sort of secondary backup for my iMac. When on the road, it serves as our Internet station and portable cinema, as well as a portable GarageBand studio for vocals.
Two iPod nanos, 5th gen, blue and silver. The blue is my main portable media player. The silver one was a replacement for a stolen 2nd gen blue nano, which was my first real piece of Apple hardware; it contains a subset of the blue's music playlists, some family-friendly shorts and movies, and plenty of room for shooting video. They both sync to my iMac.

My wife:
iMac, 21.5" Core i5 (2011). It's the newest addition to the family. She uses it for storing and manipulating photos, Web surfing and project printing, for now; that usage will expand in the near future, as I'll explain next.
iPod touch, 3rd gen, 32 Gb. This is her main portable media and app device. It's currently synced to an old Compaq XP machine, which serves as an auxiliary iTunes content server from time to time. One of our upcoming projects is a full iTunes library migration to her iMac; she hates how slow iTunes loads and operates in Windows. After the migration, her iMac will be the auxiliary content server.

My daughter:
iPod shuffle 4th gen, 2 Gb, pink. Music player; replaced a Sansa Shaker, which in itself was a nice, kid-friendly little player, but has sadly been discontinued. Currently syncs to the Compaq, and will probably continue to do so, as we plan to repurpose the Compaq for her use once my wife's library has been migrated.

Elsewhere:
Two tv 2s. One in the main room, one in the master bedroom; for iTunes library playback and NetFlix, with the occasional YouTube video.
Airport Extreme Base Station (2009 with SDB). Our main wireless router as well as a wired network switch for the Ethernet-only Compaq. Its built-in Bonjour proxy wakes up my iMac when my daughter wants to watch something from our library via tv.

 

[Makosuke]

how about xmarks?

Haven't tried that one yet, but it at least looks interesting. I admit that due to a combination of paranoia and having an in-house server on hand, I tend to prefer internal rather than cloud synching solutions.

Yes, I know, I'm a luddite by geek standards, but I still prefer to have full internal control of my own data when reasonable.

how well does this work for you? would it be more efficient if everything was on just one computer

Quite well, actually, for the most part. All on one computer definitely would not work well for me; for one thing, my wife and I are often using computers at the same time, so we'd need at least two no matter what.

And while on average I like to sit on the couch when computing, there are times when I really do need a 27" IPS screen to get things done. Thanks to the quad-core MPBs, speed isn't so much of an issue with a laptop anymore, and I could probably get by with a MPB docked to a desktop display when necessary if it were only me. The new TB displays would make that totally workable, too--with a gig Ethernet port, I'd have full-speed access to my data with only the single connection.

Having the server on hand is fantastic, though--both the peace of mind of having it quietly backing up all the important data without any intervention from me, and the convenience of being able to run Bittorrent without leaving a computer awake at night. The HTPC end could be handled by an Apple TV, but I'd still need a computer awake to serve the media, so why not just make that computer do everything?

 

[dzigg]

Haven't tried that one yet, but it at least looks interesting. I admit that due to a combination of paranoia and having an in-house server on hand, I tend to prefer internal rather than cloud synching solutions.

Yes, I know, I'm a luddite by geek standards, but I still prefer to have full internal control of my own data when reasonable.

Quite well, actually, for the most part. All on one computer definitely would not work well for me; for one thing, my wife and I are often using computers at the same time, so we'd need at least two no matter what.

And while on average I like to sit on the couch when computing, there are times when I really do need a 27" IPS screen to get things done. Thanks to the quad-core MPBs, speed isn't so much of an issue with a laptop anymore, and I could probably get by with a MPB docked to a desktop display when necessary if it were only me. The new TB displays would make that totally workable, too--with a gig Ethernet port, I'd have full-speed access to my data with only the single connection.

Having the server on hand is fantastic, though--both the peace of mind of having it quietly backing up all the important data without any intervention from me, and the convenience of being able to run Bittorrent without leaving a computer awake at night. The HTPC end could be handled by an Apple TV, but I'd still need a computer awake to serve the media, so why not just make that computer do everything?

I'm in the process of doing the same, the difference is I'm using my old 2006 macbook white as the server. I did try to use it as HTPC (using Plex) and connect it to my HDTV but I guess the machine is just too old to process HD videos.. Guess I have to buy Apple TV or other Plex / XBMC enabled device.. I want Mac Mini but it's too expensive..

So right now the white MB is my wifi router, file server, and torrent / jdownloader machine. Although the file server part is not finished yet, need external hard drives.

Other mac I owned are MBA 13" 2011, iPad 1 64gb 3g, and an old iPhone 3G.

I do have a hackintosh desktop, but I only used it mainly for games.

 

[thejakill]

PowerMac G5 with two monitors. I use it as my main computer for iTunes, quicken, etc. Runs Leopard.

Black MacBook for work runs Snow Leopard (still use Rosetta).

New MBA 11' for writing and browsing. Runs Lion.

I back everything up using time capsule to a Mybook 1 TB drive.

iPad 2 for videos and iBooks.

iPhone 4. Kids have old iPhones and apple tv.

Have iPod 60GB for entire music collection and 3 shuffles for cars and mountain biking.

Might get the new nano when it comes out. Still waiting to see what direction they take it.

 

[Omniver]

2011 MBP 13" with 22" monitor
2011 iMac

iMac running Lion Server, using Portable Home Directories to keep the family's 6 accounts in sync between iMac and MBP. Also have centralized parental contols across both for the kids' accounts Doesn't matter which computer anyone logs into, essentially identical and users can use either at any time.

2 iPads (1 & 2), hers, his
2 iPhones (3GS & 4), hers, his (although she'll get the 5 when it's out)
1 Pod touch 4, son

All iOS devices are managed via profiles set up with IPCU. Son's touch is locked down and uses Mobicip for a browser which gives me remote management. Planning on trying out the configuration server on Lion Server soon for remote mgmt.

 

[bobr1952]

Well they are all in my signature. Not all that many for me and all do different things so there is not much to manage. But once I get a Macbook Air, then I'm not really sure what kind of life my almost 4 year old iMac will have--maybe semi-retirement.

 

[APlotdevice]

At the moment I just have my iPad and an old first gen iPod shuffle. I plan on purchasing an iPod touch at some point. And possibly an AppleTV.

Up until about a year ago I still had my "ancient" PowerMac 6800. Alas I had to give it up when I moved.

 

[Tsuchiya]

Interesting thread, I do wonder how people juggle so many systems when I consider my computing needs.

My plans are sketchy at best, but I'm considering the following:

-Mac Pro for my home office. Purely for heavy video editing/content creation and backup. I want a few drives in there, each for different content.
-Either a 17" Macbook Pro so I can work on the go
or
-13" Macbook Air.

It depends on how much I'll rely on the Mac Pro for. If I use that alone for my work, then I'll go for the Macbook Air for everything else, but if I need to work away from home then I'll go for the MBP.

My 2007 Macbook Pro will then be used as a home/lounge computer

All depends on how my budget works out in the upcoming year I suppose.

As for portable devices, right now I have an iPad 2 for casual browsing about the house, AirPlay and an iPhone 4 which I use for music as well. I've got some old iPods in my desk drawer which don't get used at all, but they have sentimental value so I can't get rid of them

 

[Cheffy Dave]

We have a 2007 BMB,2.2/6GB/256 OWC SSD,2008 BMB,2.4/6GB/64GB OWC SSD,MBP,2.4 320GB WD HDD 4MB RAM, 3 2010 MBA's,11",1.6/4MB/480 GB OWC SSD,3iPhone 4/64,2 first gen iPod Touch, 2 iPad 1,WiFi/64, and one iPad
#2. the BMB's are tethered to desks,with monitors on ergonomic arms, as is the MBP. The MBA's, are our portables, my wife and I run our business with ours, taking them on the road, my Daughter goes to University with hers.
We use File Sharing,Dropbox,Home Sharing, everything is encrypted and each machine is backed up with Time Machine, and off site with Carbonite.

 

[Bossworld]

Try not to keep too much in the way of electronics, convergence is the way forward.

That said and done have far more games consoles than is healthy, but in terms of PCs:

Macbook late 2007
Media center PC
Toshiba netbook.
iPhone 4

Have just purchased a new MBA 11" so will sell the old macbook and the netbook (no point having both). Had a PSP but sold that (for not much ) because I just wouldn't carry it anywhere, and it's much easier just to grab a game on the iPhone on the go.

I honestly don't see where an iPad fits in, clearly some people will have a use for them but to me it's just another device I'd have to carry around, whereas my phone is always on me if I want to quickly google something.

 

[Young Spade]

and it's much easier just to grab a game on the iPhone on the go.

I honestly don't see where an iPad fits in, clearly some people will have a use for them but to me it's just another device I'd have to carry around, whereas my phone is always on me if I want to quickly google something.

As a college student, I'd love to have one instead of my MacBook Pro to take to school. Because I'm majoring in Microbio, I only take light notes or use my mbp to look up information, no heavy composition.

Last semester, I had a netbook and an iPad and didn't really use the ipad because I stayed on campus, there was no reason why I couldn't just take the laptop since I'd be back in the room right after class.

I'd love to have it back now though lol; of course, I'd only have the iPad if I had a very good laptop now, but the MBP does everything I need, so I'm no complaining.

 

[dlimes13]

I'm in a similar situation as the OP, expect I have a MBP 17". I have pre-ordered the Thunderbolt Display from MacMall for $969 shipped (no tax, save about $100 from Apple). I'll have my desktop at home when I dock the MBP, and I'll have a portable MBP at the same time as the same machine. I think of it as a Hybrid iMac. Also have and iPad 2 and iPhone 4.

One thing I do not get is the big deal of "I can buy an iMac for $200/$100/insert your $$ here more". One key thing: it's for a 21.5" display, NOT A 27! Yes, you can get a full computer for not that much more, but you are getting a 21.5 inch display! A HUGE difference from the 27!

 

[mountains]

My computers/devices are pretty simple compared to some of the folks here.

-"Hackintosh" desktop computer running OS X 10.7/Windows 7. This computer is my main productivity tool. I use to write code, do accounting homework, and anything else class-related that pops up. Windows is mainly on it to run games in my spare time.

-MBP 13" (early 20011). I take it to class, the library, and anywhere else I need to go. I like the portability, but I prefer the MBP's form factor and slightly better battery life to the more portable MBA.

-iPhone 3GS. It's an iPhone.

I kind of want to build a file server computer, but I don't know I actually need one. It beats the hell out of using a hard drive to store DVD ISOs, though.

 

[ataboc]

I have a 2007 maxed out macbook hooked up to an external display.

My wife and i both have iphone 4s.

Sometimes less is more.

 

[Young Spade]

I have a 2007 maxed out macbook hooked up to an external display.

My wife and i both have iphone 4s.

Sometimes less is more.

I don't know why the "less is more" comment is here, as there is no direct comparison with another setup... but

MBP + Smartphone is all I will probably ever need; my daily regimen doesn't call for more than that; the iPhone 5 needs to happen.

 

[PDFierro]

I was reading through this thread and I was just like wow. I could never own that many devices. I guess if you have a family then there's a reason for owning that many, but I'm part of the less is more crowd.

I couldn't use more than one Mac daily and have all my different files and everything on multiple devices. iCloud makes that easier, but just one Mac and a iPhone works for me. I'm also a minimalist, so there you go.

I'm considering the Thunderbolt display, and even that might be unnecessary, but I would get use out of it.

 

[kingtj]

Our family's Mac usage?

Our family consists of my wife and I (both of us work in technology-related jobs and she used to even work as an Apple store "genius", years ago), and our 3 kids.

Currently, our computer environment consists of her aluminum iMac and Macbook Air, two Mac Pro systems of mine (the original 2006 model which currently serves streaming video and runs a projector downstairs for watching movies, as well as storing my iTunes music collection), and my 2010 Macbook Pro. Additionally, my wife and I have first gen. iPads and 2 of the kids have second gen. iPod touches.

Besides all that, I have a couple of Windows 7 machines (one is an older HP Touchsmart all-in-one, and the other is a home-built AMD Athlon 64 machine), both of which are now in the kids' bedrooms.

This probably sounds like a crazy amount of computer gear, and for some people I guess it would be. But honestly, we make pretty good use of all of it! All of our kids are into using the computer for learning programs and kids' games (including the "Club Penguin" website), so without enough available computers for all three of them to use at the same time, it turns into a fight over who gets a turn next, or regular begging to use one of our machines that we're either in the middle of using, or would prefer the kids not mess around with.

The iPads are probably the items we could most do without, in a pinch. I bought mine on the day of release, not even sure exactly what I'd do with it -- but trusting Apple enough to know I'd probably like it. Since then, I've used it on short business trips or vacations where I just wanted to check email and web-surf. But mostly, it's an entertainment and e-reading device for use in bed, really. That's where the iPad excels. (After all, they said Jobs himself suggested much of its development as he was in a hospital bed.) My wife finally got hers once a refurbished one was cheap enough, and for her, I think it's the same way. We play "Words with Friends" a lot on them, sometimes against each other ... and she likes reading "The Daily" on hers right now. The kids also like to borrow them to watch cartoons and video clips on them.

My 2008 Mac Pro is my "go to" machine for 90% of my regular computer use. I do everything on it from playing online games to scanning in all of my paper documents (using Mariner Paperless for that, great program!), to storing all my photos I download from my digital camera. Microsoft's RDC client is handy on there too, so I can remote in to systems I take care of at work. I don't do a LOT of it, but I also use it a bit for video editing.

I think my wife uses her iMac the same way ... as a "primary" computer to spend most of the time in front of doing whatever she's working on. My Macbook Pro and her Macbook Air serve similar purposes for both of us; alternate machines to take on the go, whenever a "real computer with a keyboard" is needed. I don't use my Macbook Pro a whole lot, but it pays for itself when I do. I have my own side business doing on-site computer service and consulting and sometimes I need it to troubleshoot people's wi-fi or networking issues, or even just use it as a quick way to download needed device drivers and burn them onto CDR (or save to a flash drive) so they can get their own computer back online and working.

 

[kingtj]

re: managing multiple machines

I just realized that after I wrote those details out of our computer environment at home, I never really mentioned how we manage all of them.

First of all, I have to disagree to an extent about them being a pain to manage. In our situation, we have a lot of data that we don't WANT existing or accessible across multiple computers. That's the biggest argument for keeping a couple Windows machines around at home. As long as they're configured to print to an appropriate printer someplace in the house, that's all we want them sharing on the LAN, really. They're loaded up with all the games and other "clutter" the kids are interested in, and I don't want them accidentally deleting or modifying the photo collection or documents we've got on the "adults' computers".

I recently put together a dedicated NAS server using the freeware "FreeNAS" software package, and all of the computers back up to it centrally. (The latest FreeNAS is finally compatible with Apple's Time Machine in Lion. They see it like a big "Time Capsule" out on the network.) It doesn't even need a monitor, mouse or keyboard attached to it once it's set up and running. All it needs is a bunch of hard drive storage space in it and a sufficient amount of RAM. Ultimately, it cost no more than trying to buy external USB or firewire drives to back up all the individual machines onto.

I do have DropBox set up, and find it's great for things like downloading photos taken on my Android phone, so I can get to them from the Mac Pro later. I also use it for those few "key documents" I might need to access from any random place, at any random time. (EG. I keep a copy of my latest revision of my resume on there, a PDF copy of the repair manuals for my car, a template of the invoice form I use for my business, etc.)

But all in all? Each computer gets automatically backed up to the FreeNAS so no data is at risk of getting lost. Otherwise, each computer pretty much houses its own particular sets of data and applications appropriate for what we do with it and who primarily uses it. "Management" of everything would be far more of a problem if all of us were trying to use only one or two computers for everything.

Managing multiple computers is a pain in the ass. You'll need a way of syncing files, and preferably a software KVM to use a single mouse and keyboard for your entire setup.

iMac 24 + Cinema Display, shared with my windows notebook via a crossover switch
Mac Mini media center, in combination with a debian plex media server
Airport Express, AP Extreme, Time Capsule, set up in different corners of the house for adequate coverage
iPhone 4
iPad 3G

 

[wrinkster22]

1- iPod photo- Family's first iPod, this was best mp3 of its time
1- iPod classic/video- brothers iPod "nuff said
1-airport extrme- for WI-FI
1- airport express, for streaming music
2- iPod touches, again different generations
2- iPhone 4's on for Mom, one for Dad (white and black respectivley)
4- ipod shuffles, various generations, bought because thought were lost then found....
1-apple composite cable...