In his latest TidBits Adam wrote “Although most TidBITS readers likely use iPhones…”. This got me to thinking. I am a Mac loyalist mainly because it’s a supported Unix platform. I am far too cheap to use iPhone… a simple Motorola Android, or in China a XiaoMi, is fine for me. I would never splurge on an Apple watch, I make do with factory second Seiko. I do use an older iPad mainly for reading. Am I one of the few loyal TidBITer’s that is not completely in the Apple ecosystem?
I’m ambidextrous. I use Windows and Linux computers, and occasionally will fire up an old SGI system for nostalgia. I did have a secondary flip phone until a year or two ago.
As a software developer, hobbyist, and overall computer enthusiast, I own and use a bit of everything.
I have gravitated to the Apple ecosystem over time. Mostly because Microsoft was really ticking me off with their policies in the 90’s. So I started using Linux desktops on cheap PCs. When I had enough money for a proper computer, I was actually considering getting a small Sun workstation for my next home computer, but that was about when Mac OS X was announced and demonstrated. I decided instead to get a PowerMac G4 because it cost about the same (I paid about $3000 for a fully-loaded model) and I would have access to commercial Mac apps in addition to all my open source favorites.
Phones? My first smartphone was a first-generation Motorola Droid. It was great when it was new, but the Android ecosystem quickly evolved far beyond this phone’s capabilities. I was unhappy with it a year later and replaced it when my 2 year contract ran out. My next phone was an iPhone 4s. I had wanted an iPhone since the original product announcement, but I was on the Verizon network and the 4s was the first CDMA-compatible iPhone.
I also use an Android (Samsung Galaxy S7) for work, mostly because I need to side-load apps developed by my coworkers and it’s a pain in the neck to do that with iPhones. But I have no desire to use Android for my personal phone. I don’t trust Google, and Android without the Play Store isn’t very interesting.
I don’t use a tablet, but my wife loves her iPad.
TV? Our first smart TV has a built-in Roku device for streaming. It works, but has always been slow and a bit klunky. Our Sony Blu-Ray players can stream video, but there aren’t many apps and they are almost completely unusable.
I got a 3rd gen Apple TV from my employer, when they were retiring the one they were using for conference room presentations. It worked well, but was on its way out before we got it. I got Apple TV 4K devices because I was happy with what worked on the 3rd gen unit and I don’t trust Google (so no Chromecast). And it’s really nice to be able to AirPlay my laptop and phone to the TV.
I don’t use a smart watch, but my wife and daughter got Apple Watches and love them.
So yeah, I’m pretty much embedded in the Apple ecosystem, but it was a gradual transition and not a conscious choice. I and my family decided that the Apple products were better, even if more expensive. And the fact that they interoperate extremely well is just icing on the cake.
But that having been said, we also have Windows PCs, Linux PCs, Android phones, Nintendo and Sony game consoles and all kinds of other electronic devices.
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It’ll be interesting to find out. I’m heavily embedded: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Watch, Pencil, and TV.
I’ve started using Apple computers with an Apple II, and have had numerous desktops and laptops since (an iMac and a MacBook Air these days). I wouldn’t want to miss the Unix underpinnings of macOS, which tie in nicely with the various servers I work with.
But I never seriously considered using an iPhone or iPad - I have philosophical issues with Apple’s overly tight control of the App Store. (Those are just being played out once again in numerous countries where Apple is fighting tooth and nail against any forced relaxing of their control.)
OTOH, I’m professionally invested in the Java world, so using -and developing for- Android seemed a more logical choice. That, and Google’s more relaxed approach to what’s allowed in the Play Store (not when it comes to monetization, though), made the difference for me.
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Interesting question, and one ripe for a poll. How would these categories and answers work? This is NOT the actual poll—I’m just making sure I have the questions and answers right before I open it, so please don’t answer the questions directly.
For each category below, what is your primary device?
Computer
- Mac
- Windows PC
- Linux machine
- Chromebook
- I don’t have a computer
Phone
- iPhone
- Android smartphone (Samsung, Google, Motorola, etc.)
- Feature phone (non-smartphone)
- I don’t have a mobile phone
Tablet
- iPad
- Ebook reader (Kindle, Kobo, etc.)
- Android tablet (Samsung, Lenovo, Amazon, OnePlus, etc.)
- I don’t have a tablet
Watch
- Apple Watch
- Wear OS smartwatch (Google, Samsung, etc.)
- Fitness smartwatch (Garmin, COROS, Suunto, Fitbit, Whoop, etc.)
- Plain old digital watch
- Analog watch
- I don’t wear a watch
TV
- Apple TV
- Roku
- Amazon Fire TV
- Google TV/Chromecast
- Game console for streaming (PlayStation, Xbox, etc.)
- Other smart TV
- Plain old TV with no smart features
- I don’t have a TV
I might suggest you add “Smart TV not connected to internet.”
(Or is that the same as plain old TV? Except a smart TV is newer, even if it’s not connected.)
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Maybe “Standard TV or disconnected smart TV”?
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In the 1980s, I was using a DEC PDP-8/A for my home computer, but I had a microprocessor lab with x86 and Motorola 68000 processors. I decided that I needed a “PC compatible” for professional reasons (I was mostly building terminal emulators at the time). I was mainly attracted to the Mac because I thought the 68000 was a far-superior processor architecture. When a good friend bought a Mac and invited me to look at it, I stopped by his place on the way to buy my PC, and it changed everything. It was 1984, and I bought a 128k Mac the same day. I’ve never particularly cared for Apple, the company, but the Macintosh was just so clearly a superior product. I have owned dozens of Macs since; all the user-facing machines at my company were Macs, and a lot of friends and family used Macs because they were inspired by (or knew they could get free tech support from) me.
I was also an early adopter of Linux, and started installing Yellow Dog Linux on out-of-date Macs to populate my server farm.
I got a second-generation iPhone (“3G”) not for the phone as much as for the connectivity. I’ve owned a few iPhones over the years.
In 2015 Google convinced me to jump ship and become a beta tester for Project Fi (now Google Fi) which let me escape the abusive relationship I had with my cellular carrier (AT&T, still on the original iPhone unlimited data plan) but it meant switching to a Nexus 6 Android phone.
When the Nexus 6 died, I went back to the iPhone but I was increasingly uncomfortable with Apple’s emphasis on cloud, services, subscriptions, and proprietary non-interoperable technologies. When the whole we’re-a’gonna-scan-your-photos-on-your-device CSAM controversy occurred, along with several times that Apple enabled cloud backups and cloud services (Keychain) without my consent, I realized that I really wanted out of using such an essential tool over which I had no control. I switched to a phone running GrapheneOS. The switch was remarkably easy (though I missed Carrot Weather) mostly because I had consciously avoided Apple’s cloud and proprietary subscription technologies.
A few years ago, I retired from my medical practice and felt I could afford some disruption, and it seemed that a lot of the arguments for switching away from iOS applied to macOS as well. At that point, I was running over fifty Linux-based servers so I was pretty familiar with the technology. I bought a new Framwork laptop. Surprisingly, switching from almost four decades of macOS use to Fedora Linux for my daily driver went far more smoothly than I would have guessed (again, facilitated because I wasn’t using a lot of Apple-specific technologies). My MacBook Pro is on a shelf next to me, but I think in a couple of years I’ve fired it up twice to use a program that I didn’t want to re-learn on the Linux side of a single use.
I still have an Apple TV. My wife still uses an iPhone (and I have half a dozen old ones that I keep around for software testing and other little chores). I’m still on TidBITS Talk because, well, there might not be a better tech community on the Internet.
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How about a semi-smart TV?
I’m not sure how smart ours is. It’s a 2015 Vizio that only works with its own app store (and no longer). No browser. I have been able to rent movies from Amazon on it, or watch YouTube videos because it came with those apps.
I initially had the exact same thought. I have a Samsung TV, but have purposefully not engaged any of its “smart” features, having been burned by the Vizio it replaced. But since I have an Apple TV connected to it, and I assumed the point of the poll was to determine how deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem respondents are, I decided making that distinction wouldn’t provide any useful information (IMO, of course).
I think every category needs an “other (describe in comments)” option. Because there are lots of obscure devices and we’ve got plenty of readers who use them.
I don’t think I’d count a book reader as a tablet. At least not single-tasking book readers like an e-ink Kindle. (A Kindle Fire is different - it’s an Android tablet tied to Amazon’s app store instead of the Google store).
Do you want to distinguish between a standalone Roku device and a smart TV with built-in Roku? Likewise for the Google family of streamboxes.
Also consider a set-top-box provided by a pay TV provider (cable, fiber or satellite).
Since you’re asking about primary usage, I don’t think “plain old TV” makes sense, since that’s not a source. But I would include “over-the-air / antenna”.
And I would suggest that “smart TV” is only applicable if you’re using its built-in streaming features as your primary video feed. If you use a smart TV with an Apple TV, or a set-top-box or an antenna in lieu of its built-in streaming features, then your most commonly-used source should be the correct answer.
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All of these need an “Other” option, because it’s virtually impossible to cover every possibility with explicit choices. I can come up with options in current use for each category that aren’t covered here. I also suggest the following changes/additions:
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Under “Computer”, I’d change “Linux machine” to “Linux/Unix machine” or add Unix as a separate option. Yes, there are people who use Unix rather than Linux at home (there’s a sizable contingent of people who want a Unix-like experience but don’t like Linus Torvalds’ way of managing the platform). Or just let Unix fall under an “Other” option.
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Under “Watch”, I’d make it clear whether “Fitness Smartwatch” includes watch-like fitness trackers that don’t have any kind of display and thus aren’t technically “watches” by virtue of not being timepieces, and if you think it shouldn’t, add that as an option.
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Your “TV” category is confusing, because it appears to be conflating TVs, the display device, with streaming devices, as if they are the same thing. I suggest changing it to “Streaming Device”, and replacing “Plain TV” and “I don’t have a TV” with “I don’t stream television”. After all, Apple TV isn’t a television set; it’s a streaming device.
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I have an old Android phone I like to play with. I think, if iOS didn’t exist, I could get along very well with Android.
I’m curious about how prevalent AirPods are. I’ve never owned any, but I know they are sometimes used even among people who don’t otherwise have Apple devices. (I do have both a Sony and Bose noise-cancelling headset, and am very happy with both of them.)
I don’t use AirPods myself, because of my hearing aids. Except for when I’m exercising, my hearing aids serve as my audio connection to my iPhone, so AirPods would be superfluous. (I have cheap Bluetooth earbuds that I use when I’m working out instead of my hearing aids.) I have a cheap pair of over-the-ear headphones that I use with my MBP, because connecting my hearing aids to a device other than my phone is a pain in the tuchis.
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I have:
- iPhone
- MacBook Pro M1
- AirPods Pro 2
- iPad
Used to have a HomePod Mini and Apple TV.
No desire for Watch or Vision.
I could lose the iPad and not miss it. I mostly use it as an additional display with Apple Pencil support for macOS. It’s a great way to draw.
I’ve bought and used countless Macs since the 128k in 1984. I use Linux a lot at work alongside several Macs, and stay away from Windows whenever I can (which these days is almost always).
I have an iPhone (which I used to like a whole lot more) and AirPods Pro. I no longer have any iPads because I just don’t see a use case — my Apple silicon MacBooks already have plenty battery life and are super portable. I miss AirPort Extreme (and dread the day my last unit dies).
I don’t see the appeal of an Apple Watch. The only time I wear a watch is when I go on my daily runs and then it’s the most simple Garmin GPS just to get time and distance with zero web or phone syncing. I run for myself, not for social media or strava or whatever else the current fad is.
I have zero desire to get an Apple Vision Pro or any type of HomePod. Since I don’t have a TV, I also have no use for an Apple TV.
And I’d prefer to see Apple focus more on Macs and macOS than an all these other things. Unfortunately, it appears they are going more in the opposite direction.
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I like the idea of “Other” because for a lot of categories my answer is going to be Other.
I agree.
Same.
Apple also competes in (for hardware):
- Displays
- Virtual reality headsets (Vision Pro)
- Headphone & earphones
- Intelligent assistant (HomePod)
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I am approximately in the titular category: my favorite, by far, Apple product is the Mac. I think the hardware, especially after Apple dumped Intel, is extraordinary in just about every way (I have no interest in a touchscreen or cellular Mac).
I have owned many Macs since the 128k Mac (updated in our shop to 512k). Fortunately the macOS matured well before Apple changed the UI for the worse, but the regression was not nearly as egregious as it was with iOS 7. Whenever I do something on an iPhone or iPad and go back to the Mac, I feel a breath of fresh air - things are so much easier for me on the Mac than on all other Apple platforms. Furthermore, the Mac is Apple’s sole “open” platform - a big plus for me since I like to do calculations and other science things which cannot be done in iOS or iPadOS.
I have had iPhones since the first one and enjoyed the UI until iOS 7 sucked all the delight out of using it for me. iOS 26 is different, not better in my opinion. I rarely use third party apps - except for Kindle and a few simple game apps I use all the stock Apple apps for most things. Unlike the Mac, where there are several “must have” apps, I have not found any iOS apps that charmed me (except for a few aviation apps when I was an active pilot). In recent years, particularly with the overloading of touch to distinguish actions by length of touch, the UI in iOS has become very awkward and complicated and lacks the standard elements which make the Mac such a joy to use.
I find the watch useful for the usual things - exercise and messages and a collection of things like the outside temperature and reminders. The health features are useful as I age. It also tells time.
I am very impressed with the engineering which went into the Vision Pro and don’t consider it a dead end, unlike some Apple pundits. I think the tech will eventually become very useful, though likely in a different device than the VP.