What is it like only owning Apple's "productivity" products instead of an iPhone?

[Elarion]

My wife and I have the standard "non-Apple" setup. Both with android phones, both with desktop PCs, and we share a ThinkPad 14s with a 5850u in it. I really like tinkering with technology though, and she really likes drawing, so we were looking at the iPad Pro with Procreate. The issue is though, our only exposure to Apple has been through iPhones in the past. We did not enjoy the lightning cable, the home screen disaster, our paid android apps being unavailable, the overprocessed photos, the inability to plug the phone into a PC and pull files on and off easily, the lack of a back button, the forced iCloud everything, the inability to delete our Apple accounts without a multiple day conversation with Apple customer support, the inability to text from our PCs, Apple's general attitude towards other brands and products, the inability to sideload, Siri (just in general, dear god, she's so much worse than Google Assistant, and that's saying something), forcing an iCloud subscription for anything beyond 5GB, the keyboard sucks, notifications, seemingly EVERYTHING was a subscription cost instead of a one time purchase, bad volume controls, can't message anybody without an iPhone if you're sending photos/videos, etc. The list is quite a bit longer.

 

However, neither of us have ever used a MacOS device or an iPadOS device. On these things, a lot of what we had issues with on iPhones is not as much of an issue. We don't need the granular volume control, we don't need messaging, notifications, etc. The iPad has USB C and the MacBooks have a proprietary charger, as many laptops do (though our ThinkPad using USB C sure is nice). I've always wanted to mess around with these two operating systems, but have never had a chance. They're expensive ($2,230 for both + pencil), but you do get two devices out of it, that, from what I've heard, are quite good. I'm not sure that the MacBook Air would outperform our ThinkPad, but from what I've heard about the M1 chips, it just might, and it certainly will on battery life.

 

The hard part is, the integration with other Apple things. We aren't going to use their crappy, carpel tunnel inducing $80 mouse. We aren't going to use their crappy $300 iPad keyboard. Those would be the ONLY two Apple devices we would own.

 

Is something like this still worth considering? Or is it actually just as annoying as only owning an iPhone and no other Apple products, and I just have no idea?

[Radium_Angel]

Preface: Long-time Windows user, switching to MacOS X shortly.

 

I won't use anything iXX from Apple. Like you, I have found it to be a shit-show from an inter-operability standard.

But OS X is different. I bought a 2013 Mac Pro to tinker with and love it. Applications just work (I use LightRoom for my photography), Steam is available, OS X talks to my NAS devices without issue. Apple account is encouraged, but not mandatory. Siri and crap can be turned off/not used.

 

Been quite pleased with it, much better than the horror that is Win11.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Lifelong Windows user here, recently switched to macOS daily via 2019 MacBook Pro 16".

Owning a non-Apple phone with an Apple machine is by far superior and a better experience than using an Apple phone with a Windows or Linux machine.

 

I'll start by saying I would kill to have this laptop, or one similar to it, but with Apple's MagSafe power adapter. USB-C is nice, but MagSafe is superior to everything. Similarly, Apple's trackpad is also superior to anything found on a Windows laptop. The keyboard, barring the 2016-2018 models, is nicer to type on than most of the other Windows laptops I've used in my life. This video from LTT talks about Sleep States, and one really big thing Apple does way better than Microsoft in ~99% of cases: battery life and sleep.

 

As far as software goes, everything I do on Windows I can do on macOS, except gaming. I'm okay with that because I don't play games from my laptop anyway. I have never used iCloud. Most things can be configured, as well: I have Siri turned off, and the Siri button removed from the Touchbar. Similarly, I can also configure the Touchbar to do different things. I can even have it just display Function keys if I want to.

 

I'm not gonna say macOS is superior to Windows, but I do enjoy the experience of using a MacBook more than a Windows laptop.

 

You are not forced to use Apple's keyboard or their mouse. I would recommend their keyboard just because the macOS keybinds are a bit different, so it's useful to know which key actually does what without needing to think about it, but it is not required. I've used a 2010 27" iMac with Apple's keyboard, a Cooler Master keyboard, and a Cooler Master mouse. It works just fine.

[Elarion]

32 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Lifelong Windows user here, recently switched to macOS daily via 2019 MacBook Pro 16".

I'm curious, do you think it's necessary to get a Pro model to truly utilize the computer? We were only looking at the MacBook Air because it was a comparable price to the ThinkPad that we bought ($1,000). Since we both have desktops now, the days of needing a $2,500 laptop were hopefully behind us. The M1 Air is $1,000, the M2 Air is $1,200 (but I heard the M2 isn't as good), the Pro 13 has the M2 as well at $1,300, and the Pro 14 and Pro 16 have the M1, but sit at $2,000 and $2,500...

[Imbadatnames]

A lot of your issues points to inexperience with the OS, also with certain things like Siri for example it’s not as good as Google because it doesn’t harvest data in the same way Google does and it’s purposefully blocked off due to privacy concerns. You can pull files from iCloud without plugging the device into a windows machine and you can use Google drive if you so choose and you can have your Google drive in the files app so you can just not use iCloud anyway. 
 

MacBooks can all be charged via USBC, MagSafe on the models that have it is just better. 
 

Performance wise it depends what you do, single threaded the MacBook wins in multi core the 5850U wins. In video editing however the MacBook would destroy it for example. The MacBook will also hold its performance on battery, the 5850 will not. 
 

You can use regular Bluetooth peripherals with the iPad, the MacBook has its own trackpad and keyboard. 
 

The M2 is more powerful than the M1 and has a much better media engine. The 14 and 16” have the M1 Pro and M1 Max depending on what you spec, these are a completely different class of chip and you get things like HDMI and SDXC ports along with a 120Hz Mini-LED display. Personally I’d either go base M1 MacBook Air (8GB/256GB) which can be found discounted a lot of places or jump straight to the base 14” (8 core 16GB/512GB) M1 Pro-unless you want the larger 16” display. If you want more power spec up that one. 
 

Think of the M1 as an i3, the M2 as an i3 that’s a gen newer, the M1 Pro as an i7 and the M1 Max as an i9

[Ultraforce]

Posting not because I have answers but because I'm intrigued by seeing responses I only use the iPhone and Apple Watch and moved over from Android in 2015 with the iPhone 5S due to a terrible experience with the HTC One V and Android 4.

[Crunchy Dragon]

10 hours ago, Elarion said:

I'm curious, do you think it's necessary to get a Pro model to truly utilize the computer? We were only looking at the MacBook Air because it was a comparable price to the ThinkPad that we bought ($1,000). Since we both have desktops now, the days of needing a $2,500 laptop were hopefully behind us. The M1 Air is $1,000, the M2 Air is $1,200 (but I heard the M2 isn't as good), the Pro 13 has the M2 as well at $1,300, and the Pro 14 and Pro 16 have the M1, but sit at $2,000 and $2,500...

I couldn't afford an M1 Mac with a screen bigger than 13", which was a real deal-breaker for me. 16" 2019 MBP was the next best option.

[Elarion]

12 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I couldn't afford an M1 Mac with a screen bigger than 13", which was a real deal-breaker for me. 16" 2019 MBP was the next best option.

That's fair. The 14" screen on my X1 Carbon is already quite tiny, can't imagine going down to a 13" screen.

[D13H4RD]

I've owned my 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro for about a month at this point, and I've so far not had much complaints, going from almost a decade of successive Windows generations from 7 all the way to 11, after a brief stint with macOS (then called OS X) from Snow Leopard to Mavericks.

 

There's definitely some annoying bits.

• The Magic Mouse is terrible (I own the original and it's just bafflingly bad ergonomically), so I use the MX Master 3S, and it definitely takes a while to adjust the tracking sensitivity and whatnot to my liking mostly due to mouse accel (I have it set to the slowest tracking speed in the OS settings and set the DPI with the Logi app)
• The keyboard is good but the caps lock delay trips me up more often than I would have wanted, and there's unfortunately no real way to change the behavior.
• Most of my apps worked perfectly fine with Apple Silicon, with the majority being already native compatible. Rosetta 2 was a bit mixed though, depending on the app. AfterShoot was flawless, basically working as if it was native, but Topaz Denoise 3.2 was absolute broken to the point of being unusable due to it crashing every time, necessitating an upgrade.

Those annoyances aside, this machine is great. It's not the absolute fastest but it definitely feels very, very responsive and when it really mattered, the machine absolutely delivered, even on battery. 

 

Its battery life is actually pretty great. It actually lasts longer doing photo processing work with Adobe's suite than my ultrabook streaming 1080p video. It playing very nicely with my iPhone and iPad was a nice bonus as well. Used it as a webcam for a research proposal presentation.

 

Obviously, Macs are not for everyone, and I'm not saying that it's right for you, nor am I saying that you should just embrace the world of Tim Apple (cringe). I'm just explaining my experience with my MacBook Pro so far, in a way that hopefully might fit your questions.

[D13H4RD]

On 12/21/2022 at 11:53 PM, Elarion said:

but I heard the M2 isn't as good

The M2 Air is an objectively better machine than its predecessor in many ways. It's just that it is also objectively poorer value as well.

 

To spec an M2 MacBook Air to fit the needs that you specified (such as 512GB of storage and 16GB of memory), you would be within spitting distance of the base-model 14" MacBook Pro, which not only gets you much faster silicon, but also a much nicer screen, dedicated SD card slot + HDMI port, better speakers and some other extras, with a not-so-significant weight and size penalty.

 

Unless portability is of paramount & absolute importance, the 14" MBP is really the way to go for the price you would pay.

[saintlouisbagels]

I've owned an iPhone since 2016 and I've finally switched over to MacOS late last year because of the incredible performance of the M1 chips (MBP 16" M1 Pro. I don't really think I'm a power user but I use my computer allll the time.

 

Plugging into PC

There's almost no reason to plug in the phone to a PC. I haven't plugged mine in in years due to Spotify replacing my need to add iTunes songs.

Lightning Cable
I've only replaced 1 lightning cable in the last 6 years and it was due to corrosion on the contacts. I prefer it over USB-C. It just feels better, and I don't feel like I'm going to break my device if I try to blindly plug in at a weird angle. USB-C to Lightning cables offer USB-PD so faster charging speeds are available to us too.
 

Files Between Devices/Backing Up
I pay a few dollars for iCloud storage, so I always feel secure that I can access my texts, pictures, notes, etc. on any of my devices.
If I need to transfer photos, videos, documents etc, I use Google Photos/Drive. Or now that I have a MacBook, I use AirDrop

I've never needed to transfer massive video files before, so I can see the lack of USB3 type-C being a big problem.
 

Lack of a Back Button
Never personally run into this problem.
I'm never in a situation where I can't access the app-specific back button, or been unable to swipe 'back'

Inability to Text from our PCs

Curious about this one. How do you text from PC?
I really wanted MacOS because I wanted to text from a computer. Other than that, I have Discord and Google Chat for friends, and Teams/Slack for work
 

The Keyboard Sucks

What does this mean lol? I always use the default keyboard app on every device, so don't all keyboards suck?
 

Can't message anybody without an iPhone if you're sending photos/videos, etc

This is exactly why I use Discord, FB/IG Messenger, Google Chat, etc.
It's fucking annoying that the Android side doesn't have a unified messaging service.

MacBooks have a proprietary charger

MagSafe only came back in the last year, that was because people really wanted it back. I've only used my MagSafe a few times in the last 12 months. Charging over USB-C is available, so this seems like a moot point. Especially if you have a dock setup at home - you'll probably never reach for Magsafe

 

We aren't going to use their crappy, carpel tunnel inducing $80 mouse. We aren't going to use their crappy $300 iPad keyboard

You aren't locked to these devices buddy. Buy whatever mouse and keyboard you want.
I use a Logitech mouse for my Macbook, and their desktop Magic Keyboard for my iPad.

 

Overall

I love my iPhone and I fucking love my Macbook Pro 16. There are a lot of things about Apple products that don't translate to a spec sheet. The M1 Pro blazes through everything. I edit 32MP pictures on the go and there's never any performance issue. I have NEVER heard the fan activate and I've never felt the laptop get uncomfortably warm. The battery life is absolutely incredible. I can go through 2 work days without charging. I had a 15hr flight to Vietnam and I watched a full 24ep season of anime and still had over 12 hours remaining. The trackpad is incredible and I sometimes forget to reach for my mouse. The build quality feels so damn premium and makes me excited to use it - I imagine this is similar to why photographers go for Leica cameras when the competition is a fraction of the price while providing superior features.

 

There's a lot to like about Apple's product, but it takes getting use to. Trying to use it exactly like a Windows device will just cause a lot of headache.

 

[Imbadatnames]

5 hours ago, D13H4RD said:

The M2 Air is an objectively better machine than its predecessor in many ways. It's just that it is also objectively poorer value as well.

 

To spec an M2 MacBook Air to fit the needs that you specified (such as 512GB of storage and 16GB of memory), you would be within spitting distance of the base-model 14" MacBook Pro, which not only gets you much faster silicon, but also a much nicer screen, dedicated SD card slot + HDMI port, better speakers and some other extras, with a not-so-significant weight and size penalty.

 

Unless portability is of paramount & absolute importance, the 14" MBP is really the way to go for the price you would pay.

You don’t need 16GB on MacOS, 8GB is fine.

[D13H4RD]

10 hours ago, Imbadatnames said:

You don’t need 16GB on MacOS, 8GB is fine.

I would still spec for 16GB if you plan on using the machine long-term for medium-level productivity at least, especially when you're using apps that are known to be very heavy on memory.

 

Since it can't be upgraded after purchase, I prefer to get the most of what I can afford at the point of purchase, even if it might be more than what might be needed today.

 

All comes down to how you plan to use the machine, really.

[YellowJersey]

Since when do you "own" an apple product?

[saintlouisbagels]

On 12/24/2022 at 4:49 PM, Imbadatnames said:

You don’t need 16GB on MacOS, 8GB is fine.

On 12/25/2022 at 2:33 AM, D13H4RD said:

I would still spec for 16GB if you plan on using the machine long-term for medium-level productivity at least, especially when you're using apps that are known to be very heavy on memory.

I thought 16GB was fine up until like 4 days ago lol.
Lightroom has recently been eating up 14-15GB of RAM and using about 8GB of swap... so 16GB definitely the minimum someone should buy, while 32GB should be the recommended

[Imbadatnames]

4 hours ago, saint_louis_bagels said:

I thought 16GB was fine up until like 4 days ago lol.
Lightroom has recently been eating up 14-15GB of RAM and using about 8GB of swap... so 16GB definitely the minimum someone should buy, while 32GB should be the recommended

Eh Lightroom will say it’s using more than it needs though, for what it is it shouldn’t be using 16GB of RAM, not when things like resolve can run smaller projects on 8GB and be fine.

[discarded]

On 12/22/2022 at 1:04 AM, Elarion said:

, can't message anybody without an iPhone if you're sending photos/videos, etc.

Monal IM & ChatSecure are two XMPP apps with end-to-end encryption available on iOS, to free you from Apple spyware when it comes to messaging. On Android you'd use Conversations or similar (  https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.siacs.conversations  )  to interact with others using the XMPP messaging standard. On Windows, Gajim and others. I have not used any of the iOS apps since I don't own an Apple device but I have communicated with  iOS people this way. A 'degoogled' custom firmware device is really the only way if you dislike Surveillance Capitalism.

 

The beauty of Conversations is encryption is enabled by default, so there is no need for users to enable the padlock when setting up. The only thing you as a user has to do is look for a Free XMPP Server online (not server software unless you want to host your own XMPP server). Then create username and password online (no personal info required unless you want to) and then open the app & log in with your fresh details as an Existing user account.

 

XMPP being an open standard with free open source software available, you are free to just look around and try a server you are happy with...a lot like getting a free email address (incidentally, your username will look like email but isn't)

 

Keep in mind that both Apple iOS and  Google-based Android devices collect permissionless location tracking 24/7 regardless of your location, wifi and bluetooth settings. This is true on all 'normie'  devices you buy today (devices that haven't had open source custom firmware installed, such as LineageOS). Apple has no options and Android has very few https://cweiske.de/lineage-devices.htm

 

For some insight about permissionless 24/7 location tracking (even when SIMless):

https://youtu.be/0s8ZG6HuLrU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RXs1e7FcJg

 

A faraday bag is a useful item..

 

[Elarion]

On 12/24/2022 at 10:21 AM, saint_louis_bagels said:

I've owned an iPhone since 2016 and I've finally switched over to MacOS late last year because of the incredible performance of the M1 chips (MBP 16" M1 Pro. I don't really think I'm a power user but I use my computer allll the time.

 

Plugging into PC

There's almost no reason to plug in the phone to a PC. I haven't plugged mine in in years due to Spotify replacing my need to add iTunes songs.

Lightning Cable
I've only replaced 1 lightning cable in the last 6 years and it was due to corrosion on the contacts. I prefer it over USB-C. It just feels better, and I don't feel like I'm going to break my device if I try to blindly plug in at a weird angle. USB-C to Lightning cables offer USB-PD so faster charging speeds are available to us too.
 

Files Between Devices/Backing Up
I pay a few dollars for iCloud storage, so I always feel secure that I can access my texts, pictures, notes, etc. on any of my devices.
If I need to transfer photos, videos, documents etc, I use Google Photos/Drive. Or now that I have a MacBook, I use AirDrop

I've never needed to transfer massive video files before, so I can see the lack of USB3 type-C being a big problem.
 

Lack of a Back Button
Never personally run into this problem.
I'm never in a situation where I can't access the app-specific back button, or been unable to swipe 'back'

Inability to Text from our PCs

Curious about this one. How do you text from PC?
I really wanted MacOS because I wanted to text from a computer. Other than that, I have Discord and Google Chat for friends, and Teams/Slack for work
 

The Keyboard Sucks

What does this mean lol? I always use the default keyboard app on every device, so don't all keyboards suck?
 

Can't message anybody without an iPhone if you're sending photos/videos, etc

This is exactly why I use Discord, FB/IG Messenger, Google Chat, etc.
It's fucking annoying that the Android side doesn't have a unified messaging service.

MacBooks have a proprietary charger

MagSafe only came back in the last year, that was because people really wanted it back. I've only used my MagSafe a few times in the last 12 months. Charging over USB-C is available, so this seems like a moot point. Especially if you have a dock setup at home - you'll probably never reach for Magsafe

 

We aren't going to use their crappy, carpel tunnel inducing $80 mouse. We aren't going to use their crappy $300 iPad keyboard

You aren't locked to these devices buddy. Buy whatever mouse and keyboard you want.
I use a Logitech mouse for my Macbook, and their desktop Magic Keyboard for my iPad.

 

Overall

I love my iPhone and I fucking love my Macbook Pro 16. There are a lot of things about Apple products that don't translate to a spec sheet. The M1 Pro blazes through everything. I edit 32MP pictures on the go and there's never any performance issue. I have NEVER heard the fan activate and I've never felt the laptop get uncomfortably warm. The battery life is absolutely incredible. I can go through 2 work days without charging. I had a 15hr flight to Vietnam and I watched a full 24ep season of anime and still had over 12 hours remaining. The trackpad is incredible and I sometimes forget to reach for my mouse. The build quality feels so damn premium and makes me excited to use it - I imagine this is similar to why photographers go for Leica cameras when the competition is a fraction of the price while providing superior features.

 

There's a lot to like about Apple's product, but it takes getting use to. Trying to use it exactly like a Windows device will just cause a lot of headache.

 

I plug my phone into my PC at least once a week, whether to add more music to it, or to pull photos and videos off of it.

 

The lightning cable thing only annoys me because I have plenty of USB cables for other devices. I always have USB C on me. Laptop, mouse, headphones, keyboard, etc. My backpack has 3 USB C cables in it, and 7 devices that need USB C. My wife's backpack has 5 devices that need USB C. We can share our cords with each other and anyone that needs USB C. So yeah. Screw lightning.

 

File transfer might not be a huge issue for some, but it is for me, and I'm not going to use their locked down ecosystem software.

 

Universal back gesture is just better. Doesn't matter that it works on iPhone, it could be better, and it would be easy.

 

You can text from PC using the Your Phone Companion app that Windows natively provides, or you can use the Google Messages app in a browser. Can't use Macs for work, so can't text from an iPhone for work purposes.

 

The keyboard has worse autocorrect, no long press for numbers, worse layouts for symbols, and worse swipe. An utter downgrade in every way compared to the big three Android keyboards (Samsung, Swiftkey, and GBoard).

 

Android phones don't degrade the image/video to the worst possible quality though. Yeah, it's not full res, but Apple intentionally makes it as bad as possible.

 

So long as MacBooks can do USB C, I'm fine with it.

 

I wasn't aware other peripherals worked with MacBooks.

 

This is why I made this entire post though. I already know that iPhones are utter shit and there are FAR more reasons than I listed why I would never own one. I wanted to know about the MacBooks, since I've never had experience with them.

[rikitikitavi]

On 12/21/2022 at 6:04 AM, Elarion said:

carpel tunnel inducing $80 mouse

macOS is much better with a trackpad (so built in or the bluetooth) and not an insignificant part of it are gestures.

You should have a very good reason to use a mouse, like ‘this app’ is unusable otherwise (game).

 

Also…

M1 Air is plenty fast for most, includes the people who think ‘oh no, it will throttle’.

 

And…

The frustration people have with different OSs is usually due to being unwilling to learn (or unlearn). Too many times I’ve heard ‘this is so stupid, it can’t even do this’, even though [this] is simply in a ‘different menu’.

[Guest]

I'd love a Mac. 

You can use regular mouse and keyboard with USB at least on the Intel mac's. 

 

They're great and simple machines. 

If you use the built in software, they're amazing imo. 

 

However, if you just get a really good windows PC, it doesn't matter. You can just get good windows programs and still spend less money. 

 

As for the iPad... Idk, I don't use tablets but I'm sure they're nice for like watching Netflix in bed but even then, why not just spend the money on a 2 in 1 Windows laptop? 

 

I'd immensely love a Mac but the price isn't justifiable for me. If money is no issue, spend 3-5k on some Macs. 

[Commodus]

20 hours ago, Elarion said:

I plug my phone into my PC at least once a week, whether to add more music to it, or to pull photos and videos off of it.

 

The lightning cable thing only annoys me because I have plenty of USB cables for other devices. I always have USB C on me. Laptop, mouse, headphones, keyboard, etc. My backpack has 3 USB C cables in it, and 7 devices that need USB C. My wife's backpack has 5 devices that need USB C. We can share our cords with each other and anyone that needs USB C. So yeah. Screw lightning.

 

File transfer might not be a huge issue for some, but it is for me, and I'm not going to use their locked down ecosystem software.

 

Universal back gesture is just better. Doesn't matter that it works on iPhone, it could be better, and it would be easy.

 

You can text from PC using the Your Phone Companion app that Windows natively provides, or you can use the Google Messages app in a browser. Can't use Macs for work, so can't text from an iPhone for work purposes.

 

The keyboard has worse autocorrect, no long press for numbers, worse layouts for symbols, and worse swipe. An utter downgrade in every way compared to the big three Android keyboards (Samsung, Swiftkey, and GBoard).

 

Android phones don't degrade the image/video to the worst possible quality though. Yeah, it's not full res, but Apple intentionally makes it as bad as possible.

 

So long as MacBooks can do USB C, I'm fine with it.

 

I wasn't aware other peripherals worked with MacBooks.

 

This is why I made this entire post though. I already know that iPhones are utter shit and there are FAR more reasons than I listed why I would never own one. I wanted to know about the MacBooks, since I've never had experience with them.

I wouldn't say iPhones are trash, far from it, but that's another thread, really. I will note that you can use third-party keyboards on iOS, though, including SwiftKey and GBoard. 

 

I know numerous people who use Macs in tandem with Android phones. You don't get the tight integration between devices, of course, but you can still manually transfer files... and of course, the odds are that your favourite cloud-based service has a Mac app. The Unix command line terminal is also handy.

 

The MacBook Air M2 is better than the M1 in general, by the way — it's just a question of whether or not you find it's better at MSRP.  It's faster, thinner, frees up a port (thanks to MagSafe) and of course has that larger display. I would add that you sometimes find the M2 model on sale at sites like Amazon and B&H (including 16GB RAM configs), and that Apple sells refurbs with a wide range of RAM and storage options.

[Action_Johnson]

On 12/21/2022 at 6:04 AM, Elarion said:

My wife and I have the standard "non-Apple" setup. Both with android phones, both with desktop PCs, and we share a ThinkPad 14s with a 5850u in it. I really like tinkering with technology though, and she really likes drawing, so we were looking at the iPad Pro with Procreate. The issue is though, our only exposure to Apple has been through iPhones in the past. We did not enjoy the lightning cable, the home screen disaster, our paid android apps being unavailable, the overprocessed photos, the inability to plug the phone into a PC and pull files on and off easily, the lack of a back button, the forced iCloud everything, the inability to delete our Apple accounts without a multiple day conversation with Apple customer support, the inability to text from our PCs, Apple's general attitude towards other brands and products, the inability to sideload, Siri (just in general, dear god, she's so much worse than Google Assistant, and that's saying something), forcing an iCloud subscription for anything beyond 5GB, the keyboard sucks, notifications, seemingly EVERYTHING was a subscription cost instead of a one time purchase, bad volume controls, can't message anybody without an iPhone if you're sending photos/videos, etc. The list is quite a bit longer.

 

However, neither of us have ever used a MacOS device or an iPadOS device. On these things, a lot of what we had issues with on iPhones is not as much of an issue. We don't need the granular volume control, we don't need messaging, notifications, etc. The iPad has USB C and the MacBooks have a proprietary charger, as many laptops do (though our ThinkPad using USB C sure is nice). I've always wanted to mess around with these two operating systems, but have never had a chance. They're expensive ($2,230 for both + pencil), but you do get two devices out of it, that, from what I've heard, are quite good. I'm not sure that the MacBook Air would outperform our ThinkPad, but from what I've heard about the M1 chips, it just might, and it certainly will on battery life.

 

The hard part is, the integration with other Apple things. We aren't going to use their crappy, carpel tunnel inducing $80 mouse. We aren't going to use their crappy $300 iPad keyboard. Those would be the ONLY two Apple devices we would own.

 

Is something like this still worth considering? Or is it actually just as annoying as only owning an iPhone and no other Apple products, and I just have no idea?

If you get a tablet, they all kind of suck compared to an iPad.

 

I swing both ways, I need to use MacOS for work when I'm on set, but in my office and at home, I have PC's. 

 

Good things about Apple and their "walled garden":

Airdrop

iMessage integration

Battery life

Ease of use

Ease of color calibration

All their products are "the whole package" - 14" MBP is a great example of this. No compromises anywhere

 

Bad things:

Software support

iOS filing system is FUCKED and hell to transfer data off of. 

if power goes out, your drives could be toast because of APFS/HFS+

Apple's Peripherals like keyboards/mice are terrible. 

Sometimes expensive for what you get ($1600 studio display for example)

 

It's like a nice neighborhood with well manicured lawns, but mega HOA fees... It's honestly great when it all works together and you're deep into the system. It all handshakes so well it's kind of creepy. Also, it doesn't have the weird legacy identity crisis windows has. Also, the battery life part I can't stress enough. The 16" M1 Max MBP has been life changing for my career, truly. BUT IT'S SO EXPENSIVE.

 

You have no say over hardware options, you can really only play iPhone games on them, and rely alot on finger gymnastics to get stuff done if you're not fluent in the keyboard shortcuts. Multi monitor support blows on MacOS too.

 

I'm pretty agnostic, I see the value in both, I'm fortunate enough to have the opportunity through my job to be able to use both systems. There's alot Windows and Mac can learn from eachother. 

[Spindel]

17 hours ago, Action_Johnson said:

 

if power goes out, your drives could be toast because of APFS/HFS+

I call bullshit to this claim. 
 

[WhitetailAni]

6 minutes ago, Spindel said:

I call bullshit to this claim. 

My experience with APFS:
1. Very good at efficiency on SSDs.

2. If the partition descriptor (idk what its official name is, whatever tells a computer that X partition is APFS) gets corrupted your data is gone. There is no recovery.

[wasab]

Mac air is too little storage. I wont go anything below 1tb ssd in this day and age. It's arm m1 cpu is amazing for battery life tho