DuclearcApple tree takes root
- Posted on: June 25, 2019
- Read Time: 5 minutes
Around 2013, my [then] girlfriend was about to take a trip to the U.S. and offered to bring me back an iPhone.
“I don’t need an iPhone!”, I remember saying. “Apple is just expensive for no reason. Claiming a bunch of exclusive features you could actually get from a bunch of other brands for much less money”.
I had good reason to say that. Back then, I had a Galaxy Note [I] – aka: the original one – and I was utterly in love with it. In many ways it still is the best phone I’ve ever had. In the sense of how much it’s features amazed me and because it managed to always do what I wished. No matter how ludicrous, improvised, or just “un-phone-like”. It never let me down.
…until it broke.
I don’t remember why or how it broke. But it did. And so did my heart along with it. That phone was my everything tool. Notebook, book, media editor, camera, recording device, computer(1) replacement… It just worked. I had never had a phone like it before and I was convinced there was no suitable alternative on the market.
Specially not an “Apple phone”.
I mean, I had a “phablet”. I hadn’t felt the need to ever acquire a Tablet while I had that Note I.(2) Because, again, it just did everything. So Apple and their phone+tablet money greedy combo could just shove it! And I was determined to prove it.
Upon my girlfriend’s first offer, I rebelled completely and convinced my parents I needed a Samsung laptop. And it needed to be Samsung because my phone was from Samsung and I was gonna prove that an “ecosystem” was not an exclusive feature. Samsung had smart TV’s and automatic sync as well. I saw advertisements saying so. So why on earth would I get an Apple “kit” for? Because it was cool? Fashionable? Expensive?
God, no!
In retrospect, I can’t say I was dumb for doing so. I didn’t know anybody to ever try to do what I was doing, so I didn’t have much other than the internet to go with. And googling was a tad complicated, considering I didn’t even know how to express my search at the time (I didn’t know the term “ecosystem” nor “sync”). And “the thing that apple does to make sure your stuff is everywhere without you having to press a button” search attempts didn’t really turn up anything useful.
So I got a Samsung laptop. And we already had a Samsung TV. Plus my Galaxy Note. I thought I was all set.
But nothing worked.
- No, my phone couldn’t be used as a remote control as advertised. (3)
- No, my laptop and my phone would never – ever!- sync without my saying so, as advertised.(4)
- And, nope, there was no way in hell I could get that laptop’s bloody bluetooth to work. At all!(5)
Towards the end of my college days, I quit. My Galaxy Note was broken. My laptop was a resounding disappointment. My girlfriend had brought the iPhone anyway… So I figured I ought to give Apple a try, same as I did Samsung. So I saved up, and bought myself an old MacBook Air on eBay.
That experiment, was has been an enormous success! For one, that Air still works. And until last year (when it was still eligible for OS updates), it was still used regularly. Also, that machine has seldom – if ever – given me syncing issues. Same as the Galaxy Note was the phone that most impressed me, the MacBook Air was the computer that most impressed me. Not in the least because it turned what to me was, until then, a pretty ordinary [i]phone into mini hub to all the files on my MacBook Air.(6)
Honestly, Apple passed my test with such flying colours that I never really looked back. In fact, I almost became one of those people, in the sense of one who tries to convince their friends of Apple’s “superiority” (in my case, for entirely selfish reasons(7)). I will admit that are better phones out there. Same for computers, digital assistants, you name it! But superior products isn’t what it’s about for me anymore. It’s about how they interact. How they share and manage my data. As I’ve said, the Galaxy Note was the best phone I’ve ever had. But even now I wouldn’t trade it back. The vastly inferior iPhone is a better fit for my system. It allows me more than the Galaxy did in many ways, just by communicating with everything else. Thanks to that, I’ve even largely given up on having a computer, upon finding that the iPad Pro – for the most part – replaces that and my pen and paper primitive notebook I always carried around with me. And I’m happy with my choice. So, even though I’ll theoretically(8) admit that nowadays once everybody has copied the formula it’s probably much easier to change Ecosystems (whose features really give Apple a real worthy competition), I admit that I don’t want to. And I find this a solid proof of the quality of Apple’s products and services. To have me and millions of other customers satisfied to a point that they don’t feel the need to switch to something else it’s quite a feat. I’m open to criticism here, but – as I’ve said – I’m happy with my choice. And, let’s face it, that’s what it’s all about. It just works.
footnotes
- I remember having written a college essay on it once, by plugging in an external keyboard and just typing my essay as a “note”, which I then wirelessly(!) printed on my work’s printer. I never felt so much like Inspector Gadget as in that moment!
- Says the person writing this from an iPad, only 6 years later.
- yes, I checked if it was possible with the model at the time.
- yes, I tried with all the possible settings on both devices. I believe I even had something akin to a chart at some point.
- I even took it back to the store for repares and eventual replacement. But none of it helped.
- and it’s worth reminding: when you’re in the final years of college, your files are your life and access to them is CRUCIAL to surviving!
- I want all my texting to happen on iMessage rather than WhatsApp.
- I can’t know since I never really tested it. (Nor do I want to put myself trough the trouble of doing so!)