Back to the Apple

I love my gadgets.  Part of it is the novelty, I'll admit that.  They've also made my life better in a lot of ways.  Music and talk radio any time you like, for one.

When smart phones first came out, I knew that was for me.  I was disappointed when I found out they were almost $100 a month to have one.  I knew that would change eventually, and I was right, but in the meantime I had one option.  Apple made the ipod touch, and it had no competitors.

Nothing else offered mobile computing without the cellular connection.  First I just used WIFI.  Later I moved on to a mobile hotspot.  I loved that thing, and use it for hours everyday; reading, music, podcasts, and so on.

I was familiar with Apple being on the cutting edge.  At that point I'd purchased several ipods, and none had competitors at the time.  Yes, latter competitors came along, but by then Apple had something new.

There was of course a downside to Apple.  Having no true competitors made them a sudo monopoly, and they acted like it.  They used DRM, and made changes to their products in updates that took away functionality.  They made a habit of taking two steps forward, and one step back, so you'd have to buy the next model that put that function back.

When they purchased Lala.com just to close down a competitor, I was out.  By then smart phone prices had come down, and I took the opportunity to move on.

But here I am, years later.  Almost all of the Apple products I purchased years ago still work great, and are still very useful and relevant.  My Macbook Air is almost ten years old, and I'm still the guy with a trendy looking slim laptop.  I write this blog post on it now.

Meanwhile, My two and a half year old Note II is outdated, and falling apart for the second time.  I've already done some repairs and spruced it up after the first year.  So I got myself last generation's used, like new, iphone and ipad mini.  And they are... amazing.

Once again, Apple makes me feel like I made a deal with the devil.