A decision was made....

For a very long time, I have been in the Apple ecosystem. The first iPhone I bought was the iPhone 4 and I haven’t looked back (currently rocking the 13 mini…sidebar, the best iPhone size ever). I’m also on my second apple watch. I’ve had multiple iPads and a MacBook Pro.

For those who have kept up with me, I have been iPad only for a long time. My MacBook Pro was getting older and Apple decided to stop allowing it to be updated to the newest OS (that is a topic for a different day). I decided to use my iPad Pro for everything computer related. I used it while broadcasting games on the radio and ESPN+. I used it for research. I wrote blog posts, checked emails, etc. I did it all. I even recorded podcasts using the iPad Pro.

Recently there’s been a big push from iPad only users back to the Mac. Content creators such as Matt Gemmell and Chris Lawley, who were proponents for iPad only, have both switched back to the Mac. I’m in a group chat with a bunch of people from all over the globe and a lot of them have given up on the iPad. 

Differing reasons have people switching. But a lot of this can be pinned on Apple. They have a great device that they seem to be limiting. They talk about the processor and the speed. They talk about the ability with the M-chips. But, at the same time, seem to be holding the device back. Most people point to multi-tasking as the main culprit. Others site the lack of pro-style apps for the iPad Pro.

Despite all of that, I have still been using the iPad religiously. I don’t have an issue with anything that was mentioned above. That being said, I’m here to announce that I have recently purchased a new laptop. It has nothing to do with anything mentioned above and I still plan on using my iPad. So why change? Good question and I’m glad you asked.

I’ve recently taken on some extra responsibilities at the church I attend. This includes website maintenance, blogging, etc. With this also includes creating graphics for posts. I thought this would be fun to do with the iPad. Well, it turns out it was not. It was hard to navigate the website properly. Creating graphics took twice as long as it should. Uploading posts was taking too many steps. Part of this is because its web based, which made it hard to navigate and see everything on an 11” iPad Pro’s screen.

So broke down and decided to purchase a laptop. Not just a laptop, though. I bough a PC laptop. I stepped away from the Apple ecosystem and bought a Windows based laptop.  To even make things more convoluted, I did not buy Microsoft 365 either. I have decided to use Google Docs for any type of writing, spreadsheets, etc. The company I work for made the switch from MS to Google about two years ago and I have become well versed in using this platform. Is it as good as MS? Probably not. Is it functional for what I need? Absolutely. And I save myself $100+ a year.

What this is forcing me to do, though, is to start using more cross platform apps. I’m transitioning all my notes from Apple Notes to Obsidian. Looking to change password managers because I’ve been using Apple for all of that. I’m not sure where I’m going from here, but I can tell you that switching to Android is not out of the realm of possibility either. We will see. For now, I’m going to get used to grabbing a laptop instead of my iPad.