Making the Switch (again)
Most who know me know I’m not a fan of any particular OS or company or technology brand. I started out using the very first 128k Mac then years later switched to PC when Apple couldn’t provide enough laptops for my company, then years later switched back to Mac when I needed to develop cross platform applications. I’ve been using a Mac OS for at least 6 years now — maybe a bit more.
One of the things I really like about Apple products is the overall ecosystem and intelligent Integrations including desktops, laptops, iPhones, iPad and the watch.
While I never was the biggest fan of Steve Jobs, I did respect his uncanny ability to identify a new market and provide just the right product at just the right time. Better than anyone ever.
All that said, it’s time for another switch.
I’m now In the process of going back to Windows. Actually, I’m dictating this on my new Microsoft Surface Pro 4 with Windows 10 OS.
Things got me thinking with Apple’s poor watch implementation and the fact it wasn’t even a good wristwatch much less a functional wearable piece of technology. Some of you may have read my Medium blog post on how I tried using it for over a year and finally switched back to my Pebble.
It’s no secret that Apple and 3D graphics have never been close friends — most of all the best 3D shops have always used PCs. Now, as I start doing more work in the VR and AR world, it’s become even more problematic as it’s impossible to use a Mac to do any of it. And most interesting, Apple’s flagship technology Mac, the Mac Pro “trashcan” was last updated in 2013! Yup, you read that right. It has second tier graphics cards which disqualify it for any sort of serious 3D work, and is still priced higher than most current state-of-the art PCs.
To make matters worse, if you want to have a “headless” Mac, and you don’t want to shell out $4K for the trashcan, your only real option is a Mac Mini — and Apple recently crippled it to using only the i5 processor which they actually downgraded from 2012 when it had the faster i7 processor.
And Apple never did offer a new display-only product as they discontinued the Apple Display just last year — after it had not changed in 5 years.
A bit over a year ago, I purchased the Macbook 12 — with the first ‘butterfly’ keyboard. What a mess. Imagine typing your fingers… hard… on any hard surface table or desk. You’ll soon find your fingers start to hurt like crazy. This is the exact same feeling you get trying to type on the new Macbook 12 keyboard — plus the buttons don’t always ‘hit.’
Lots and lots of folks end up having Apple replace their butterfly keyboards only to find the next one isn’t any better. And then there’s the mess with the USB-C connector. Only one data connector in the whole computer and it also doubles as the power. Another series of expensive dongles to purchase.
And of course there’s always the little things that get you. iTunes is the single most difficult application in the world to operate. You’d think by now Apple would’ve have figured out they need to break it into smaller pieces: 1 music app, 1 video app, 1 iPhone and iPad backup app. Just like the iPhone — small apps that just work. I quit it years ago and now use Amazon Prime Music.
And of course, the latest slap in the face by Apple: the new MacBook Pro — yes, again with the new butterfly keyboard (ouch).
It’s just about the most expensive laptop you can buy, and doesn’t go any faster and has a shorter battery life than older MacBook Pros. And in lieu of any real innovation, they’ve tried pawning off the “new touch bar” as some sort of forward thinking feature. Riiiiiight. Here’s what it screams: “We here at Apple can’t figure out how to make our OS work as a touchscreen, so please look at this pretty little gimmick to take your mind off of expecting to touch the screen.” The problem is, anyone who uses an iPad regularly can’t help but trying to tap a MacBook’s screen.
Of course they try saying “laptops shouldn’t use touch screens” but then you walk into an Apple store and see huge murals of iPads with attached keyboards and you know a finger will be soon touching the screen. Very much reminds me of Microsoft’s ex-CEO Steve Balmer comments on iPhone, “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.” C’mon Apple, time to let us touch our MacOS screens! (like Windows has been doing for years).
So, I went out and bought a Surface Pro 4. Yeah, it’s fast (i7 and 512 SSD), but what I really wanted to do was try out the integration of tablet vs laptop. And I think they did a dandy job — I found out I prefer it in tablet mode, which rather surprised me. The design is superb (the stylus is magnetized and attaches to the bezel — wish my iPad Pro did that!) and overall ease-of-use is good.
Microsoft software pretty much sucks, but that’s not news. I’ll miss Keynote. Powerpoint looks — old. And OneNote is one sorry program. Turns out there are a number of different variants of it and two different ones were shipped on my Surface. I went in to see the ‘geniuses’ at the Microsoft store and showed, to their astonishment, how you can group objects in OneNote. But nobody could figure out how to ungroup an object after it’s been grouped. Nothing on the web either. Sheesh. Not to mention the color picker is pretty much the very same ugly piece of crap it’s been since Win 95 — still no eyedropper. But, I do like how they’ve shoehorned a touch screen UX onto the desktop experience. I think they did a rather nice job all things considered.
My guess is Apple is in the middle of it’s own “Balmer phase” and within a couple of years they’ll have to find a new visionary — like Microsoft did. FWIW, MS with the new Surface line of PCs (the Surface Studio is amazing!), and the new Hololens Augmented Reality are all very innovative products reminiscent of the work Apple used to do.
I’m hoping MS gets it’s act together on it’s phone too. I’ve heard some interesting rumors. We’ll just have to wait and see.
I feel comfortable I replaced a MacBook and two iPads with a single Surface Pro 4. At the minimum, my bag just got a whole lot lighter.
