New “Apple Buying Advice” Website by Josh Centers

I agree with the advice on not needing cellular on the watch but disagree on the iPad. My wife and I are retired and take long trips (2-3 months at a time) in our RV. Verizon limits my hotspot data to 15gb per month. I can burn that up in a short time. My cellular on the iPad is unlimited and while it may be deprioritized it’s never been a problem. Not uncommon for the two of us to go through 100-150gb of cellular data a month.

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I need a new iPad. My iPad Air 2 needs a new battery and I’d rather put money toward a new iPad than just fixing this older one. So I am looking forward to learning when a new iPad Air will be released.

I think they intentionally make them as thin and minimal as possible knowing that most people will use a case. The Otterbox Defender is indeed a big, chunky monster, but I recommend it because it’s what I use. I also have small children who sometimes grab my phone and fling it across the room, and my armored iPhone is in near-mint condition. I did have a reader say that the case could degrade battery life by trapping heat in, which is worth investigating, but I don’t have a great way to test.

My wife uses a much slimmer purple Otterbox with a built-in pop socket, and it’s also great. I might add it as a recommendation, but it seems like most people either have strong case opinions already or buy the cheapest thing they see at the store, which is perfectly fine.

I do mention that some folks are better served with a cellular iPad, and they usually know if they are. RV life is a perfect use case for a cellular iPad. As is frequent business travel. But I figure it’s an unnecessary expense for 90%+ of people.

I have a recommendation for you on the site! I think the base iPad would be a great upgrade to the Air 2—it was a huge upgrade from my 10.5-inch iPad Pro in most ways. If you want a new Air, I would hold off. A new one is anticipated in March. In my opinion, the base iPad is great for most people. It’s been my mom’s main computer for the past few years.

Josh, I did read your recommendation for the Base iPad. What is the difference between the base and and Air iPad?

I wish Apple would produce the 128 gig again. I need more then 64 gigs but less then 256!

It’s more like the iPad Pro in that it doesn’t have a Home button and it supports the Apple Pencil 2. It doesn’t have Face ID, but instead a Touch ID sensor in the top button. I also think the screen is a little nicer. The Air has an A14 while the iPad has an A13, but I don’t think there’s a big practical difference between the two.

Same here! When my father-in-law bought his iPhone SE last year, I recommended spending the extra $50 to upgrade to 128 GB and it was a no-brainer. He’s very glad he did. Buying more storage than you need is a one-time problem. Having less than what you need is a constant problem.

FYI, I just heard from Norton and they have recategorized the Apple Buying Advice website as Technology/Internet instead of malware. I’m glad they cleared that up quickly.

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Cases are one of those personal things…sorta like whether you have a washer and dryer in your full time life RV…one either hates them or loves them. We’vealways had cases on ours but have always had the Incase line which while it does add a little weight provides some drop protection and grippy-ness as well. Everything but the models with the square sides has always been a bit slippery for our tasted and with the camera bump the case allows them to lie flat on a table.

You’re right though…those heavy ugly monsters like the Otterbox are way too much…unless that’s what you need, in which case they’re not way too much.

I was still seeing the old headline - but that may also be linked to Slack’s fun random outage in the last 24 hours.

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I’d welcome an article discussing which models of iPhone and iMac are worth owning and keeping, or, buying used. I’m in my 70s and no longer have any work justification for the hottest newest hardware, but I also really hate buying hardware that’s destined for an early trip to the landfill.

For example the iMac11,2 --can’t be updated, doesn’t to Night Shift, and has what appear to be slow or flaky graphics. Or the iPhone4, truly a useless dinosaur. Not a lemon but not something I’d recommend. But what’s better in the used category?

Josh, this is very very well done and informative.

I do think you’re giving the M1 Mac mini short shrift, though. Even though it doesn’t come with a monitor, unlike the iMac you get to choose from a wide variety of options. I’m personally running with a 34" LG Ultrawide curved monitor that gives me way more real estate than any iMac option. Yes, it’s not a Retina display, but it’s a nice display and a whole lot bigger!

I would also encourage spending the extra money to get 512MB storage on an Apple Silicon Mac. 256GB is way too confining and you could find yourself shelling out money too soon for additional external storage.

Hi, everyone. I’ve received messages about people not being able to enter their birthday on the mailing list signup form, which I didn’t even know Mailchimp asked for. I have deleted the field entirely, which also deleted the birthdays collected so far. I want to collect as little personal information as possible.

I’ve shared it a couple of places and still see the old headline. Sorry, not sure what’s up with that.

That’s a good idea, but I would need a lot of free time for that sort of research.

There’s nothing wrong with the Mac mini. It has the same M1 as most other current Macs. It has a niche, but I wouldn’t call it “best for most.”

I always encourage more storage. You can never have too much. But I think most people are served fine by 256 GB. For instance, I’ve been trying to help a young woman with her MacBook Pro that she’s owned for three years and she had used maybe 60 GB of the 256 GB capacity. I am not one of those people. If Apple offered a reasonably priced 4 TB option, I’d upgrade in a heartbeat.

The real crunch seems to be iPhones and iPads. Many base models didn’t have enough storage and now the owners are constantly fighting their devices. I am so glad the iPhone 13 comes with 128 GB by default.

My sister and her family have been living the nomadic life for the past 2-3 years. They got a mobile hotspot device that connects to their cellular carrier (T-Mobile, I think), which provides Wi-Fi internet in their mobile home and the immediate vicinity. Their iPads, laptops and other Wi-Fi devices all connect through that Wi-Fi connection.

Of course, some places they visit have really bad cellular coverage, which means they need to find an Internet café of some kind in order to do their day jobs. But most of the time, the mobile hotspot works great.

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Very nicely done, @jcenters. I like your simple layout and the on-point advice. I bet this will be a great resource for many non-techy folks who just want some quick and reliable advice on which model to buy.

Just one little bit of nitpicking: on the Mac page you still reference the 15-inch MBP. That should read 16" these days I suppose.

If you don’t quite make up for your expenses through your affiliate links, drop me a PM and I’ll be glad to send you an Apple Pay donation to make up for the difference. Sweet website! :slight_smile:

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Is there a way Josh could put a subtle “donation” button on the site, to cover maintenance and updates? I’m sure many of us would like to support his efforts.

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It can be hard to find a truly unlimited hotspot plan. I used to have one via an AT&T reseller but it was discontinued. It was a life saver in one location where we had poor Verizon service but good AT&T. Since we are no longer full time it’s less of a need.

Thanks for an excellent and nicely concise site. Good timing for me on several purchasing fronts for the family.

I will suggest it to friends who ask for purchasing advice. I have sent them to other “Buyer’s Guides” in the past, but they are too wordy and tech for a lot of people.

I look forward to seeing your updates this year after upcoming product announcements from Apple.

And please do consider the good suggestion to add a donation button. It would get nice to be able to continue to read this without you needing to add ads someday, even with your affiliate link revenue.

Well done, Josh!

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Same here: The main image is not shown in Safari, nor in iCab, but renders OK in Chrome. I’m in Japan.

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Thanks for confirming it’s not just me, Mark!

@jcenters, if I right click in Safari and choose “Download Image”, I get a file named ABA-logo.png. But when I try to open that in Preview.app, I see:

image

Acorn.app 6.6.1 also refuses to open it (saying just The document “ABA-logo.png” could not be opened).

In Terminal:

$ file ABA-logo.png 
ABA-logo.png: RIFF (little-endian) data, Web/P image

So - I suspect that, despite the file extension, the file that is being served isn’t actually a PNG… it is WebP - Wikipedia, which my older browser & OS don’t understand.

If you’re still using DOS, I’d highly recommend Norton Commander. Excellent product for its time and platform constraints. :joy:

Back when Peter Norton was running the company and developing the software, it was great. Once Symantec (since renamed NortonLifeLock) acquired everything in 1990, it all started to spiral downhill.

See also: Peter Norton Computing - Wikipedia

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