Appled

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I changed to a MacBook. (19/6/21) I’ve had it for quite a few months now and the change has been mostly good, especially since I bought an iPhone 12 (18/8/21) and it links seamlessly with the MacBook.

Some things are much better.

  • The integration of the iPhone and the MacBook makes it very easy to manage photos and music. I can drag tracks or Albums into Music on the MacBook and they end up on the phone too.
  • I’ve started using Siri.  It’s very good.  Maybe Alexa is just as good, I never got around to using it. I use Siri to select radio stations on BBC Sounds, as the BBC app is so rubbish.
  • “Books” on the MacBook and the iPhone is excellent.  I tend to read books on the iPhone now instead of my Nook. I can drag a book from the Calibre Library (or anywhere else) into Books on the MacBook and a few second later it’s available for download on the iPhone.

Some things I have had to change

  • I now use Apple’s iCloud instead of Google Drive.  I was quite happy with Google Drive and Sync and would still be using it if they had not changed it. But iCloud is just as good.
  • My standard browser is now Safari, it’s OK and I trust the way it saves passwords. Unfortunately at present it wont accept Start-page as a default search engine.
  • On my Lenovo I used the tracker ball, On the MacBook I mostly use a Logitech Pebble Mouse.
  • The absence of a decent html editor has pushed me to change my sites to WordPress. WordPress sites are much more difficult to set up, much easier to manage, and much slower.
  • I’m using Libre Office instead of my old 2003 version of Word.  There is not much to choose between them.

There are some things I miss though.

  •  There is no decent html editor for the MacBook that comes close to Microsoft Expression Web 4.
  • There is no decent lyric and setlist app that comes close to Lyric Pad. I am keeping my old Moto G5 just to run Lyric pad.
  • I’m using Preview instead of Photoshop CS2 as my old version won’t run on the MacBook.  Photoshop was much better.
  • I’m using Libre Office instead of my 2003 version of Excel.  Excel is better. The MacBook spreadsheet “Numbers” is awful.
  • Xplorer2 Lite on Windows is much better than Finder on the Mac
  • The iPhone hotspot is no where near as solid as the Android one. The MacBook hotspot keeps disconnecting from the Internet if it’s not used.  I actually bought a sim for my old Moto G5 so I could use the hotspot with hassle.
  • The audio latency makes Audacity unusable.

So I still use my Windows machines for Photoshop, and MEW4. I’m using my ancient Samsung Tablet for LyricPad, and Readly, and my old Moto G5 (which only works when connected to a charger) for a hotspot.

I am not a complete convert to Apple.