I've slowly been switching away from Apple products. The R&D is stale, the walled garden is getting annoying, and they're falling way behind in features. I'm down to 3 Apple Products left.
- I've had a long history of MacBooks, and I'm done. I recently switched over to a Lenovo X1 Extreme Gen 2 with i9, 64Gb RAM, 2x 1TB SSD, and WiFi 6 AX. With a 4k touchscreen OLED that gets 100% Adobe RGB, the screen is gorgeous. I have ports again: HDMI, Ethernet, USBC, USB3.1A, Kensington, SD Card, headphone, SmartCard. No more dongle dumpster fire. My Wacom 2048point pen is fantastic for drawing with multiple buttons for custom settings. I can replace my RAM, SSD, WiFi, clean the fans, change the battery, all with a phillips screwdriver. I've bought and enabled CompuTrace in the BIOS, allowing deeper theft protection that Apple doesn't have. Yes, battery life is WAY down, but I'm rarely far from a charger for that long. Macbooks are stale, I don't care what you say about resale value.
- I sold my Apple Watch, and went back to normal ones. I enjoyed my mechanical automatics, and the look of skeletal frames. I appreciate not having to plug it in daily, or really push myself to close the rings. My Wahoo Roam records all my exercise with HR strap. If Apple changed from square to other designs, and opened up custom faces, I could consider going back. I also really want a VO2 Max sensor like you'll see in Garmin watches.
- AirPods Pro, the recent firmware updates are increasingly reducing their function for me. The noise cancel was great, but I find it more annoying with the touch and hold vs the tap tap of the originals. They've now started a cracking noise which is documented all over this site. With many other competitors catching up, not seeing the benefits anymore.
- Apple TV, I don't think I'll change this one. It's still hands down the best device for streaming content. My TV has all the services I use built in, but trying to use DPAD on remote is impossible vs voice entry. Roku is slow. I'll probably never depart from this.
- iCloud. I've stopped paying for space. My O365 account comes with 1TB and I sync the photos and files seamlessly to my OneDrive. My iCloud just holds my iPhone backup now. OneDrive works better with Office documents, and I just find it a better experience.
- TV+, Arcade, News: I never really thought to buy into these services, and never will. They don't appeal to me.
- I sold my iPhone 11 Pro Max, and went back to my iPhone SE 1. I missed a phone that fit in the hand, works via fingerprint which is a bonus in these mask wearing days, sunglasses and bike helmet wearing. Yes the battery is really bad, and the camera is marginal, but it gets the job done. I don't have to stretch the fingers to work the keyboard, and using SwiftKey, I can text without looking at phone again. If only it was water-resistant and had Qi.
I've been thinking for a while of dumping the iPhone and AirPods and going back to Android. I was an Android person for many years until a girl I dated demanded I switch to IOS for FaceTime or she'd leave, so I switched. (For clarification, 10 out of 10 natural green eyed redhead, my Achilles heel) I still have an Apple Card I'd have to cancel, and some apps that I'd have to figure out, but otherwise not much holding me back. I miss the creativity of manufacturers, the open environment, rooting for features, custom ROMS. I've got a long history over at XDA. I'm tempted to hold off for these "Apple glasses", as I was a user of Google Glass and really enjoyed them.
I switched to iPhone for a girl but at the time fragmentation was a mess in Android, cases for iPhones were easier to find, and being forced to one form-factor provided an easier app experience. Nowadays cases can be found for any phone, USBC is more available, and apps are pretty seamless one to the other. I wouldn't need adapters for my battery banks, laptop, plug a flash drive into a phone. The Windows "Your Phone" app is solid for texting via laptop. I can install Firefox, set it as a default browser and have it sync to laptop. I'd still recommend an iPhone for my parents, and folks that need that ease of use, but Android opens the door to endless possibilities with styling, features, specs, colors, and more.
I added some pics from my past, 3 of my nexus phones at once, and my old G4 and Macbook Pro which I has custom engraved by laser. I go back with both Apple and Android simultaneously. When I bough my iPhone 3G, I was quoted and photographed in the local news for being the idiot first in line at an ATT store overnight waiting. When I bought my Verizon Droid, it was the first real Android 2.0. Oh I miss that sliding keyboard. I had an HP iPod, a Mini, a Nano, a Touch, and a Shuffle. I've had an iPad, a Mini, and a Pro. I've owned all 3 versions of AirPods. I miss my sexy black MacBook from college.
After all my years and support of both Apple and Android, and Mac and Windows, I've reached the point where I'm ready to cut off Apple. This isn't a rant, it's not a vent. It's a goodbye letter to a company I loved, one who has lost it's "think different" by making everything the same.
