I’ve been meaning to write this, as well as many other things, for some time.
Back on Father’s Day my wife and our girls gifted me with an Apple Watch [Darth Vader model; black on black]. It was quite a surprise and I must say I’m thrilled to have this little piece of tech.
First a little about the watch, then I’ll get to my Apple Device rankings by need of importance to me.
The Apple Watch, like everything else Apple, is beautifully designed. I’ve told many people I would not have spent $400 on this device for myself. It’s nice, but it’s something I’d feel guilty about buying for myself. Hey, $400 can be used to solve a lot of other problems. I was thinking id buy a 1.0 Watch when the 2.0 version came out and I could get the old one for $99. Keep that in mind if you want one of these and can handle a year old model — not that it will happen, but you never know.
Now that I’ve had the watch for a while I know I’m definitely not the target audience. It feels like the watch is for people obsessed with notifications. It’s for a younger generation, the millennials.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to own one, but I don’t take full advantage of it. I use it for five things.
- The Time – it’s a great looking watch!
- Message taps – I no longer miss text messages from my wife. This is actually a big deal.
- Phone taps – See #2. Missed phone calls are a thing of the past.
- Activity – I didn’t think I’d use this feature. Turns out I like it. It reminds me to get off my butt from time to time. That’s good.
- Slack – This is the one work related notification I allow to come through, but only if a message is directed at me, which is quite rare.
I have a bunch of apps on the watch I could probably remove at this point because I just don’t use them. In fact, I think the only other app I’ve used from time to time is blueHula’s Beer Timer.
On to the original intent of this post. Here’s how the four Apple devices I own rank in my life. Most important to least important.
- iPhone – To call this a phone is such a misnomer. It’s a computer in your pocket with a phone app. Seriously powerful and darned useful in everyday life. I’m composing this post on it.
- MacBook Pro – It’s almost a toss up between the phone and the laptop which should hold the number one spot. I use a MacBook every day to work on iOS Apps and I love the hardware and OS.
- iPad Mini – The distance between spot two and three is huge. I still use a first generation iPad Mini and I love it. I believe the Mini is the perfect size for a tablet. I use mine on the weekends to read my RSS feeds(Reeder), stuff I’ve stashed away in Pocket and Readibility, read Medium, and Twitter(Twitterrific). All using native device apps.
- Watch – Beautifully designed and a fine watch.
If push came to shove I could easily give up the iPad Mini and the Watch. In fact my Mini is on permanent loan to our youngest daughter so she can experiment with FiftyThree’s awesome Paper and Pencil.
That’s it. Opinions may vary. I’m still an Apple Fanboy and I can’t see that changing.
