iBoy
Friday, August 10, 2012 at 2:59AM After much internal debate I have found myself settling back to one smartphone and one tablet; an iPhone 4S and iPad 3. And then my rather old standard-definition TV broke and I found myself finally joining the HD age and deciding not to buy a smart TV. I bought an Apple TV to go with my new TV purchase to bring the number of Apple products in our house to seven.
My wife owns an iPhone 3GS and so does my son. My daughter has an iPod touch. I have the iPhone 4S and iPad 3, the iMac and the Apple TV complete the set. And Apple TV opened my eyes to what a set it is. I had previously dismissed Apple TV as a toy, but now realise that it makes more sense to buy one to add to am HDTV than to buy a Smart TV. I also discovered the joys of AirPlay and just how convenient that feature is. It is a joy to use everything together and I have to applaud Apple on the way it all works.
If only iCloud was a seamless and invisible in use. It still isn't good at all in my opinion, but still I find myself coming back to the iPhone. Despite most of my freelance writing being about Android, I rate the iPad as by far the best tablet on the market and even though I don't think the iPhone 4S is the best, it really isn't, it is easy and I am lazy enough to want easy. I have too much to do each day and want to not worry about tweaking things and analysing the experience. Mobile technology to me is all about getting things done and having tools to help me do that. As it stands, the iPhone and iPad still enable me to do more in a more efficient way than the competition, but I am more than happy for that to change.
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Reader Comments (5)
When I spoke to my son today, he told me, in so many words, that I could still be his dad because except for my phone and tablet all my other computing/gadget stuff is Apple! Once in the Apple ecosystem things do work together well - there's no gainsaying that. I agree that iCloud still has a way to go and honestly I wonder if Apple is ever going to be able to get it right. Their history doesn't suggest optimism. But like you, I love my newly acquired Apple TV and AirPlay with my MBA has me absolutely giddy! Since all my gadgets are essentially toys and not essential to my job (my company provides all the tools I need for my job) using an Android phone and tablet aren't at all disruptive for me. But glad you've found good workable solutions for your situation!
That's the great Apple eco system. Air mirroring is amazing too, try latest Real Racing HD from
your iPad.
Also Apple TV gives you your entire iTunes media library, Flickr and more. Neat. Plus easy rentals.or films etc
Hot topic today. It's not just the eco system of Apple it is also the great customer care. So even if the device is not the best out there, you know it will always be supported. Also, Apple devices have great backups so you can restore with ease.
Google on the other hand has shocking customer care. Shocking. Really shocking.
I do envy iOS users for AirPlay. Samsung's going to launch its AllShare thing soon which should do a similar job for the S3, but it's proprietary. So is AirPlay, but we expect that from Apple and not from Android.
Nvidia's amongst those working to get a standard agreed and that's fairly imminent, but it'll take a while for the hardware to follow (I'd have thought it could be done in software on the phone side but it's not looking that way; hopefully it can though).
I guess that's the advantage of Apple's 'we control everything' approach; no need to get industry consensus and ratification.
Of course once the wireless side of things is sorted, including wireless charging (also imminent for the S3) then that removes another of Apple's big advantages, which is the plethora of docks available. Docks will become generic.
The only remaining advantage iOS would have for me then is the abundance of quality games, which are still a bit thin on the ground on Android (although to be fair there are still more than I'd ever have time to play).
I use Android, but I see more and more people who aren't into technology getting Apple products because they just work.... together.