I’ve been an Apple user since I was 15, and got introduced to the old OS 8 and OS 9 systems at school. I liked it, and when the eMacs came out, and our school bought 20 I was the one to install all software with the teacher. Yet at home we’ve had a windows computer, and my dad bought me a Compaq II. A crappy low bow, which I tweaked to hold 3 displays and various drivers. It ran Windows Me. Yes. Millennium. Every other week I had to reinstall windows because of the missing NTLDR. It became very quickly clear to me, that my future and Windows didn’t lay together.
Yet, the budget didn’t allow any computer that was over 100 euro or something like that. Horrible! I did get an iPod.
In between, a collegue bought himself an iMac, and I got to use it for those moments that I could. I loved every second of it. When at work we finally made the switch to mac, I updated everything too. My contacts, my music, my files. I got myself an iPhone, and everything worked great. I synced at work, and just used my home notebook for some surfing.
When I got my notice, I had the choice, going back to windows exclusively again, or just bite the bullet, use my savings and my last pay check, and buy an iMac. And so I did. A 20″ iMac, that stayed with me for quite a bit time, before I sold him, and upgraded it to the latest generation iMac. Still 21.5″, but I don’t need more screen estate.
In between, a new iPhone, and of course the iPad joined my device family, followed closely by the family-adored AppleTV, an Airport Extreme and two Airport Expresses. My dad also got himself an iMac, and a quick stint gave me access to a MacBook for some months.
I love my iPad, it’s a great way to read news. Be it papers, RSS, twitter, Facebook or just some casual mailing and browsing. It’s a funky little device. It can even do some basic image editing, what I really do need.
But now the time has come that I need a lot more mobile work than earlier. I need to capture, edit and upload images from location, collaborate with people on websites, and other such mobile projects. Also, since a few months, I’ve gained an addiction to Coffee bars. Not just for the coffee, but a place where you can drink, sit, and enjoy free WiFi. So an iPad is too light, an iMac too big. So, enter the latest generation MacBook Air.
First of all, I’m not sure how it will work in my device family, once the new-factor has worn off. Will I stop using my iPad, will I quit my iMac? I remember when I used my old MacBook, I mostly used that device everywhere, and rarely was on my iMac. Yet, things are different now.
My MacBook Air has only 128 GB of SSD memory, so I won’t keep full Aperture libraries on this machine, nor will I have music or much pictures on this feisty little thing. This is good however. While this is a small, movable animal, like a Leopard or a Panther, while my iMac is ferocious Mountain Lion, with 12 GB of RAM, and 7 TB of storage space. (See what I did there with animal analogies). My iPad is a different thing, it’s a thing to cuddle up in bed or the sofa, and read.
I think I’ll start to draw some lines, to have my MacBook Air to create things on the go, iMac to create at the desk, and use my iPad to consume, and take some times off.
We’ll see.
