ios – Ehler

I’m Not an Apple Fanboy

For the foreseeable future I plan to use some version of an iPhone for my cell phone, a Mac for my computer, and an iPad for my tablet. I plan to pick up an Apple Watch as my first and future smart watches, and I continue to sink more money into powerful apps that would not follow me if I ever did decide to switch out of the Apple ecosystem.

But while I love their products, and follow their news closely, I am loathe to call myself an “Apple Fanboy,” and I think approaching Apple—or any company—as a fan is not a positive thing.

I subscribe to r/Apple, and listen to the Mac Power Users podcast and am a member of their Facebook group. I see a lot of posts on there, and miss very little from the RSS feeds of MacRumors, 9to5Mac, and AppleInsider among other blogs that focus on topics related to— or exclusive to the Apple ecosystem. On some of these sites (such as the MPU group), I see healthy discussion that allows me to get more out of my devices, and sometimes discourse over broader tech ideas. However, I see a lot of very different coverage from some Apple news sites or communities I visit.

First, I want to acknowledge something about the sites whose content I’m discussing. Apple is one of the biggest companies in the world, and there’s a lot of discussion from an investment perspective that happens. And it’s not just these sites I’ve mentioned that do it; I see a great deal of web coverage out there on any tech companies that is also market discussion. It’s hard to separate, and there’s certainly an audience of people who aren’t geeks who have an interest in Apple (or any tech company for that matter) that is purely financial.

Regardless of the motive for the coverage, I see a lot of content that seeks to defend Apple regardless of its errors. Recently, this has been discussion about the Macbook/Macbook Pro keyboard issues, battery throttling, or the market performance of Apple’s product lines in 2018. There is great effort to take legitimate grievances about how Apple has handled problems they’ve caused themselves and dismiss them. Obviously, in the broader climate of news coverage, this happens in far more nefarious and impactful ways than discussing dust under some keys, but it’s nevertheless strange to see sites dedicated to covering Apple exclusively dismissing these problems in their editorials.

I’ve also seen responses to accusations about Apple stagnating, that focus entirely on the sales of Apple compared to its competitors and making the wrong conclusions. When people complain, for example, that iOS’s notification system is archaic and a problem, Android’s fragmentation isn’t the answer. Or when the Touch Bar on the 2016–17 Macbook Pros is highlighted as missing the mark, Microsoft’s bad Surface sales [1] fails to solve Apple’s own failure. There is a current reward to Apple playing it relatively safe in choosing new features, but Apple would probably be seeing the same revenue with an iOS release that added some keyboard buttons to the iPhone that are arbitrarily locked to the iPad.

There are certainly cases to be made in defense of Apple in these instances, but the nature of most of the arguments I’m seeing is somewhat disingenuous. With the battery throttling, for example, it was somewhat blown out of proportion in its severity[2], but the people writing Apple a free pass on their deceptive comments and lack of transparency aren’t giving us a more accountable tech sector.

And while Apple’s received a few knocks of bad press recently, I don’t want to cast this as a 2018 issue in coverage. The same approach to issues like labor with Foxconn and Steve Jobs’s professional behavior is a problem. While I don’t think that a tech blogger ultimately should be held to the whole book of journalistic ethics, things are still out of perspective. And community members and fans of Apple products shouldn’t get a free pass either. Too much criticism that could actually improve products and services is met by a cadre of internet knights who feel that one of the five richest companies on Earth need their defending.

I don’t want to leave this post as some sort of hit piece on Apple itself. There are ways Apple has impressed me as a company, particularly by encouraging iPhone users to sign up for Donate Life, and the stance they took over the San Bernardino[3]. And regardless of their failings as a company, the products have still very much earned my preference. At the end of the day, I’m much more critical of Apple’s treatment by its fans than the company itself.

I know this is the only story/narrative I’m sourcing in this article, but there are two reasons. The first is that I don’t want to individually call out any individuals who I’m criticizing in the Apple press for a number of a reasons. The second is that I know this is the single point in this post someone would be most inclined to leave an angry comment about. ↩
My iPhone 6 is feeling pretty slow these days, but I don’t think that older phones being less desirable is anything new. I don’t think any more iPhone users have gone out to get new phones due to throttling than Galaxy users have gone out to get new phones due to lack of updates or battery degradation that doesn’t see throttling. All the same, the problems with other phones don’t vindicate Apple’s missteps on their own. This sort of “look at this other company,” deflection is what I see 11 year-olds doing when they’re reprimanded for being on their phones. It’s not an acceptable standard for adults, much less multibillion dollar companies. ↩
While it’s easy today to see the positive PR that built, and be cynical about Apple’s privacy stance as nothing other than marketing, it was a ballsy move at the time. It’s easy to forget how much negative reaction there was to this in general. ↩

My Relationship with my iPhone

My Smartphone History

Smartphones ascended to being an indispensable tool that most people owned as I was in high school. After a few feature phones, I considered myself privileged enough to get my first one in 2010, an HTC Incredible. The primary appeal for me at first was not apps (though they were exciting and constantly advertised) but to be able to send texts longer than 160 characters without them breaking apart, and conversation threading. Since then, I’ve owned an iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

I enjoyed the earlier iPhones a great deal, having previously used an iPod Touch. I eventually jailbroke the iPhone 5 and enjoyed some increased functionality. The size and battery life of the Note 2 were very appealing to me, but that phone lasted a very short while. It developed a problem where it would drain batteries quickly and the refuse to be turned on while charging. After a number of replacement batteries failed to solve this, I gave up on the phone as a repair would have cost quite a bit and our family plan had an upgrade credit rolling around.

I can only think of three phones that have really excited me from their announcement in the past few years. The first was definitely the iPhone 6 Plus, which I would have got instead of the 6 originally if I had not been in marching band and found it unfeasible to high step while keeping it in my pocket. It was just a little bit bigger than the Note 2 actually, but the 6 served me well.

The second phone announcement that excited me was the Google Pixel. I think Android is a great platform, but I personally find its fragmentation annoying from a user’s perspective. I remembered constantly checking for Android updates that had launched quite some time ago on my Note 2. Regardless of the advice of any tech sites, I tend to update my OS on all of my Apple devices on the day they launch. I’d had my iPhone 6 about two years when the Pixel drops, and I seriously considered getting one.

The Ecosystem Chain

The reason I stuck with my iPhone 6 was that I valued the features it added to my Mac too much. I wrote about how I’ve found my MacBook Pro to be the best computer I’ve ever used, and there’s a lot of reciprocal value with my iPhone. The first is being able to text from my Mac, both iMessage and regular SMS. I do most of my messaging with the people I’m close to through one of the two, and cutting off SMS would be frustrating. Today there are decent applications to allow texting from your computer if you’re on Android, but I didn’t see any of them as being nearly as functional in 2016. I also get a lot of use from AirDrop, mostly from my iPhone to my Mac as a way of transferring videos and photos directly rather than having to wait on a cloud service. It sounds small, but it saves so much effort and time.

As I began to try and use my iPad a bit more, my iPhone became even more essential. Yet, despite adding value to my Mac, I felt like my Mac chained me to staying with an iPhone. I was a bit dissatisfied with iOS at the time, and the iPhone 7 did not seem like a worthy upgrade at the time. I resented my iPhone just a bit, and wished for a smarter digital assistant, and better handling of notifications. While I saw flaws in the Pixel, it certainly looked good. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice the features on my Mac though, and I still don’t see myself leaving the Mac platform.

Learning to Love my iPhone Again

As I’ve gotten more and more out of my Mac find the apps that work best for me, I’ve also adopted them on my iPhone. OmniFocus, Airmail, and Fantastical in particular are critical to how I work every day, and all three are incidentally exclusive to the Mac and iOS platforms. I’ve gotten more and more into finding the best apps for what I do, and I’m increasingly finding that the some of the best tools available (whether they’re what I choose or not) are not available on Android.

Maybe it’s silly to like my platform more because of a deficiency in the competing platform. I know the developers of many of these apps have no intention of ever making them available on Windows or Android though, and at the end of the day, it’s not a deficiency that I see disappearing. But as iOS 11 has expanded my iPad’s usefulness and I’ve gotten an Apple TV, I’m starting to see the Apple ecosystem as more of a boon than a chain. Despite bugs I do think that iOS 11 has expanded the usefulness of my iPhone, particularly in letting me take tasks down on my commute in OmniFocus through Siri.

The fact that my phone runs well with its age makes me appreciate it that much more. I’ve never wanted a Samsung phone again after my Note 2, and the Pixel 2’s bungled launch made the grass look less green. And with the money I’ve dropped on iOS apps, I’m far less inclined to switch platforms than when I was younger. And maybe some maturity has made me less envious of the platform I’m not on (and would be true if I were on Android now).

I’ve named two phone announcements that have excited me out of three; the third isn’t actually an announcement, but rather the preliminary leaks of the 2018 iPhones. While they’re obviously subject to change, a plus-sized edge-to-edge iPhone I personally find worth holding out for. Even though the iPhone X has a screen larger than the iPhone 6-8 Plus, it’s not as wide, and I would love to get a phone with a Plus-sized form factor and a screen even bigger than the X. No single iPhone release since the 6 has been terribly impressive to me as of yet. However, when you add the upgrades up, jumping from a 6 to a 2017 iPhone is a major upgrade. I’ve tried to compile these differences for my own benefit (my partner also has an iPhone 6, and I thought it would be helpful for her as well; I can’t guarantee the accuracy, all based off of my own research). Adding whatever additional upgrades the 2018 iPhones bring will make that all the more impressive, but the ideal form factor of an iPhone is enough for me to upgrade regardless of specs.

Smartphone Recommendations

I don’t want to pretend I’m some guru that everyone goes to asking about tech. But if I were recommending smartphones right now, it becomes very dependent on what kind of user someone is. It’s worth noting that I’m only taking into consideration “premium” or “flagship” handsets, I’m not familiar with other availability, but there’s better resources out there if that’s your price point. For someone getting their first smartphone or someone less tech literate, I would certainly recommend an iPhone. Which specific model depends on personal factors (keeping their phone in a pocket, purse, etc.) but certainly a 2017 model. The polish and review of apps, and how simply functional the phone is with only stock apps make it a good fit for those who feel less equipped to deal with making informed decisions on their devices.

I think for anyone who considers themselves to be more adept at technology who does not have buy-in to the Apple ecosystem, I would recommend a Pixel 2 despite its screen issues. I’m not some journalist who gets previews of phones, and I haven’t used an Android phone since my Note 2, but as I understand it, there’s still a lot of bloatware on Samsung phones. Between Bixby and useless Samsung utilities, you’re better off getting Google’s imagining of what a smartphone should be. I haven’t done much investigating into HTC, Motorola, or Huawei lately, but nothing’s come my way to make me second guess my recommendation of a PIxel for those who would benefit most being on Android.

Android is a great operating system, and the customization is great for most of its users. Yet if you have the resources and you consider yourself a power user, I find that if you can be in Apple’s ecosystem on Mac and iPhone, it’s well worth it. The exclusive apps to iOS are incredibly powerful, and work amazingly well with a Mac. None of the phones I’ve had provided meaningful synergy with Windows, no matter how many web applications I was using on my PC. Moving between devices was generally an obstacle and at best out of the way. In addition, the rest of the Apple ecosystem provides benefits. It’s my perception that the iPad has matured much farther than Android tablets are ever going to. Apple TV remains a bit overpriced in its market, but it’s a powerful box all the same. And while I don’t own one (yet), the Apple Watch seems to be leading the wearable market.

If you’re not in the Apple ecosystem and want to get the most out of your device, I don’t know exactly how much I can recommend the iPhone. Many of the apps I use would be less effective if I couldn’t access them on my computer, and they’re only available on Macs. That said, despite the deserved bad press Apple has gotten this year, I find my iPhone more and more useful. Between the long lifespan of my current phone and other strengths of the platform, I don’t think anyone is going wrong picking an iPhone right now, and it’s been long enough that I’ve used an Android phone that I can’t say what strengths are present on the platform. Equipped with more Apple technology though, I truly feel like I’m getting the most out of my phone.

My Journey to the Mac

I don’t remember when I first started using computers, but I know from my family it was before I could read. I eventually had “my” computer, which was the hand-me-down from the family computer. Out of these desktops, there was a WIndows 95, 98, and an XP. I had total reign over them, which usually involved figuring out how to run games on them. Anything that wasn’t working I had to fix myself for the most part. When I was 13, I got my first laptop, a Compaq Presario which ran Vista. It was a nice laptop, but eventually it died and I replaced it with some terrible HP laptop that ran Windows 7. When I graduated High School I used that graduation money to buy a gaming PC, an ASUS G75VX running Windows 8. That computer still runs, but it does so slowly even after a hard drive replacement, so it almost exclusively gets used for the occasion I want to play a game on it.

I was like a lot of PC users, turning up my nose at the Mac platform. The year I replaced the hard drive in my last PC, I began to see how much work Mac users around me at the University of Iowa were able to do more effectively. When that PC was in the shop I was using the nearest computer lab to where I was living, which was exclusively a Mac lab. It was…nice. I began to look more and more into it and eventually I bought the 2015 13” Macbook Pro. As I mentioned in my tech set-up post, it’s the best computer I’ve ever used.

There’s a lot that goes into that evaluation. For one, the computer is super ergonomic. Because I have massive hands, I can reach the bottom of the trackpad with my thumbs and the top of the keyboard with the rest of my fingers. My Compaq Presario was the same way, but its trackpad wasn’t as nice. The trackpad on my Mac can be clicked at the top of the trackpad for a normal left click, and not one of those awkward double-tap clicks either. Even the right-click region seems to be 1/4 of the trackpad’s area. While I don’t use the “look-up” hard press a lot, the Force Touch features of the trackpad make it a much more natural experience in my opinion.

While I’m not one of these people in love with making everything lighter and thinner at the loss of functionality, my MBP doesn’t lack any functionality, and its lightness is very nice. I can sit at the most awkward of angles and still balance my laptop very well. Its port set-up is nice, though I don’t use the thunderbolt ports often (they’re a versatile port for adapters for, say, ethernet).

There’s something nice about the keyboard too. Using ⌘ doesn’t seem like it would be that different from CTRL on a PC, but being able to use the same modifier key to ⌘↹ into a program and then paste or quit it is very nice. While some programs provide exceptions, the use of the modifier keys usually follows a pretty logical progression.

What makes this computer a real dream though is definitely macOS. From the exclusive software to the flexibility of the OS, it’s wonderful. I spent a little bit of time on Linux Mint on my last PC and it really hit home how an operating system should work without getting in your way. Windows gets in your way. I see posts all the time complaining about Windows’s awful default settings getting restored by new updates. I currently run Windows 10 on that old PC of mine and it is a nightmare.

I don’t know why there is such an urge among Windows users to cast scorn upon Macs. I was one of them. I’ve only experienced macOS since Yosemite, so maybe it was actually less pleasant before. There’s the stigma that Mac users don’t know how to use their computers as well. As someone who considers themselves a power user, I’m doing less digging around with a registry editor or manually loading up dll libraries for certain software, and instead finding better app synergy and scripts other people have written for Alfred that make my life easier.

I write all of this not just to gush about my Mac, but because I want to lay out how committed I am to Mac as a platform for the purpose of discussing synergy between Apple devices and my journey with phones in a future post. On Mac Power Users, they sometimes talk about the “delight” of using an iOS device when they contrast it with their work on a Mac. I don’t get that, but I do feel the “delight” they describe when I’m working on my Mac after a life of Windows use.

My Tech Set-up

Here’s a quick break down of what I’m running to do what I do. Technology is an incredibly important part of what anyone in any field is doing, and education is no exception. It’s worth laying out what I use as an entire field before getting into any specific details in future posts. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it’s what I feel is worth sharing or important enough to me. I’ll make updates to this as time goes on.

Devices

2015 13” Macbook Pro, upgraded from stock.
This is my primary computer, and it’s easily the best computer I’ve ever used. I’ll talk about what I’ve used in the past down the road, but this computer rocks. There was a post from Marco Arment about the predecessor of this computer, the 2012 Macbook Pro. The 2015 is essentially the same design as I understand it (form factor, ports), but with a force touch trackpad. (He also is highlighting the 15”, while I have the 13”) This being my first Mac, I haven’t used Apple’s non-force touch trackpad for an extended period of time, but when I’m on someone else’s Macbook, I am not a fan of the older trackpads.

iPhone 6 Plus
This phone is old but still trucking. I actually just changed out my iPhone 6 with a Plus (I didn’t buy it new, I got it from a family member), but my iPhone 6 was similarly running really well. I’m impressed with how well it runs for being three years old, though I’ve checked the battery health and I see I’m likely not getting throttled. Both my original 6 and my current 6 Plus were upgraded to 64GB storage. I’m eager to upgrade, and the new features of newer iPhones look nice, but no single release has “wow”ed me since the iPhone 6.

iPad Air 2
When I was attending the University of Iowa, I was the last class to get a free iPad through a generous grant for student in the College of Education. I never thought I’d use tablets, and wouldn’t have bought one for myself when I got this one. I used it as an additional alarm clock for the first year-and-a-half I had it before I started using it for D&D books. I get more use out of it now, occasionally reading music off of it, or reading it while getting ready in the morning. I’m somewhat limited by the storage capacity (16GB, but it was free), and the screen size when it comes to reading music.

I wear a Citizen watch with only a date complication every day. I bought my first watch to help sate my slight obsession with knowing the time when I was taking recital attendance and couldn’t check my phone in college. This one was a bit of an upgrade, with a nice metal band (my old leather one started to fray).

The last PC I bought was an ASUS G75VX. I bought it to play games on, and it has aged horribly, mostly thanks to its traditional hard drive.

Yamaha P70
I got a pretty good deal on this piano, it was a used former rental that was being phased out by the local music store. It’s 88-key and the weighting is pretty decent. It’s by no means compact and it lacks the sort of controls you would want for serious music production. I have a sustain pedal hooked up to it, and do some light practicing on it

My tuba is a Miraphone BB♭98 “Siegfried” – It’s huge, but it’s also big. My mouth piece is the Arnold Jacobs Canadian Brass mouth piece, which is based off the Helleberg design. I love both and will probably never buy another horn or mouth piece.

Apple TV 4th gen 64GB
I picked this up right after the 5th gen came out. I don’t have a 4K TV, but the extra storage was probably unnecessary in hindsight.

Services

Apple Music
I switched to Apple Music from Spotify on the day of Apple Music’s launch. I’m doing Apple Family Sharing with my girlfriend, and paying for the family subscription for Apple Music. Their first year it was probably at its best, when they were paying people to make ridiculously specific playlists. The biggest appeal of Apple Music is its Siri integration and how nice the integration of my existing iTunes Match library was.

iCloud 200GB
200GB is $3/month, and it’s enough to back up my iPad and iPhone, along with all my photos. Now that they have family sharing with iCloud, I can back up my girlfriend’s iPhone too.

Other cloud service
I double backup my photos into Google Photos, and use the free tier of Google Drive for a lot of documents. I need a cloud service at the 1TB tier, and I think Dropbox is the right solution for that due to its integration and sharing abilities.

Overcast
I’ve found myself listening to more podcasts with my commute since I started student teaching. I used Apple Podcasts until I switched to Overcast, but I haven’t ever tried its competitors. I’m paying the $10/year to support Marco and get the upload functionality.

Instapaper
I’ve been using Instapaper for awhile now and I still can’t believe it’s free. I save tons of articles here, and it’s an awesome reading environment. I might prefer Pocket, but I can’t justify spending $45/year for the minor improvements.

Pastebin Pro
I was using Pastebin as an informal blog on college football back when I was a pollster on r/cfb. It’s nice being able to just dump text somewhere to share with others, and a lifetime subscription was on sale when I was looking into it. I don’t use it a ton, and the official app for iOS isn’t 64-bit compatible. I’m trying the PasteMe app, but the jury’s still out.

Software

All of these are worth talking about in greater detail at a later date, and I’m not going to dig into it that far

OmniFocus 2 Pro iOS and Mac
This runs my life. I’ll write about my specific use of it, but this is something that others have written about ad nauseam.

Alfred 3
This is the most important app on my Mac. If it were to break, I would be paralyzed in my computer use. It’s one of a million little things that make it harder for me to use other people’s devices. It’s the one piece of software I’m so completely in love with I have never looked into the alternatives for. I can’t say that for any other app, even OmniFocus.

OmniOutliner 5 Pro for Mac
I’m on the TestFlight of OmniOutliner 3 for iOS and planning to buy the pro version once it releases to the public. I thought an outliner sounded stupid, then I downloaded its trial on a whim, and was proved wrong. I get a lot of use out of this for various projects.

Apple Notes
I keep a bunch of long-term notes or things that need heavy formatting in here. I can’t justify spending money of Evernote when Apple Notes is free, especially considering how little I’m on Windows.. Even if you’re on Windows occasionally, you can access this through the iCloud web interface.

NValt and Simplenote
I’ll let smarter people explain this better than me. Macademic has three posts (one, two, three) on this, MacSparky has probably more than one.
I use this for a lot of things, because it’s fast

Fantastical 2
I use this on both iOS and macOS. I have multiple Google accounts, each with multiple calendars, plus iCloud calendars. It’s super easy to look at what I need with Fantastical’s calendar sets, it’s easy to put in information with their amazing natural language input, and their scrolling view makes it easy to get information for someone like me. I haven’t tried its competitor Busycal, so I can’t really compare the two. I do lament the lack of calendar sets on the iOS version of this app though.

Airmail 3
Airmail’s not perfect, but it’s what I use. It’s super flexible and has helped me turn my terrible email habits into (fairly) good ones.

1Password
Everyone needs to be using a password manager. I actually bought 1Password upfront before they started offering their subscription service. Syncing it myself was one of the things that made it more attractive than competitor LastPass, and I continue to do so. I also don’t think Lastpass has the same integration into so many iOS apps to fill passwords, but I could be wrong. I would 100% recommend 1Password to anyone looking for a password manager, though I will say its Watchtower feature probably isn’t enough, and you should augment it by putting your email into this.

Reeder 3
This RSS reader is pretty nice, but maybe it’s not the best solution. I’ll write about my experiment with RSS in 2017 2018.

Sibelius 8.7
I’ve got the Sibelius upgrades active through March. There’s a lot to say about notation software so I won’t get into it here.

Finale v25.5
I use Sibelius primarily, picked up the upgrade to v25 right before I switched.

Logic Pro X and Finale Cut Pro X
I don’t use these a ton, but Logic Pro is a pretty amazing practice tool sometimes. I’m no power user and I’m still trying to learn to make the most of both of these apps. There’s an amazing deal for students and teachers to get both of these (plus Compressor, Motion, and MainStage) for $200 (normally these five would be $630)

Safari
When I switched to using a Mac, I continued using Chrome until a weird bug on YouTube of all places kept causing the weirdest crashes. Around the same time, I was finding it more annoying to use Chrome on iOS and I decided to try Safari on both. I haven’t gone back. I liked Chrome on iOS, but Safari is a better experience in a lot of ways, and the synergy from using it on my Mac as well is great.

PDFExpert
The PDF editing in this app is stellar. I was using PDFPen Pro, but it was buggy and ultimately not as powerful. PDFExpert lacks OCR, but this is my default PDF app all the same.

Paprika
I was looking for a recipe app for awhile, but somehow Paprika didn’t wind up on my radar until I saw it on sale (shoutout to MDM for highlighting awesome sales). Paprika makes it really easy to log recipes from websites or type them in from a physical recipe. They sync the recipes through their own servers, and the account systems make it possible to share your library with family members by signing in with the same account. I use it on both my Mac and iOS.

Capo
It does exactly as advertised. Decent way to get chords or other material to start an arranging project. Haven’t tried it on iOS, just on my Mac. It’s pretty accurate with chords, but I found myself frustrated being unable to correct an egregiously bad tempo analysis. I’ve never tried it with art music, just with contemporary music.

iOS Apps

It’s important for me to keep a metronome and tuner on my front page of apps. FrozenApe’s Tempo remains the best metronome I’ve found and worth the money. TonalEnergy Tuner is a bit overkill, but it’s grown on me since the app I was using went incompatible with iOS 11.

Stamp
I have a lot of friends who use Spotify, and see a lot of Spotify playlists when I’m searching the web that I want in my library on Apple Music. It was easily worth $10 to be able to port them over. I haven’t tried other apps, but Stamp works on iOS. Word of warning though against the bundle, because it simply doesn’t work with iTunes after 12.5 on Mac. It might still be worth it for you if you’re exporting to a service that’s not Apple Music, but they don’t advertise this shortcoming, so I’m not sure what else is there.

Scanner Pro
I’ll buy a ScanSnap one day, but for now when I need a document available quickly or on the road, Readdle’s app does a pretty decent job of making it look like I actually used a scanner.