All In With Apple Again

It’s happening. Again. I’ve been switching up my workflow by using Apple’s apps instead of Google’s or other third-party apps. At first, when I switched from my Android phone back to iPhone, I didn’t think I’d do this. I should know myself better than that; I love to use all the different tech solutions! Also, Apple’s ecosystem is alluring.

Switch Flip

Having returned to an iPhone, I’m reminded how Apple’s iOS is just so simple, elegant, polished and cohesive. You use one part, see how nice it is and how well it works, so then you want to try more of Apple’s solutions – both software and hardware ones.

The cohesive nature of Apple’s products makes going all-in logical, simple, and almost irresistable. Apple is known to make “the whole widget,” which means they design both the hardware and the software to work seamlessly together.

This, of course, is obvious throughout just the iPhone’s software, its default apps and operating system, iOS. A common design language permeates iPhone.

Those are some of the basic reasons why I switched back. And there are more.

Family Sharing

Apple Music – My wife and I both like Apple Music streaming. Going from $20/mo (two individual accounts) to $15/mo (one family account) is a no-brainer. This works best when we’re both on iPhone.

iCloud – It just makes sense, and is more simple, to use the cloud backup solution that’s native to the device you have. With Apple devices, it’s iCloud, so my Google Drive set-up is being upended.

The Big Stuff

Notes – This one has been tough. Evernote is great, but there’s a lot of good I can say about Apple’s Notes app too. The number one strength of the Notes app is its cohesion to the iPhone itself.

The system level integration, by default, gives it great advantage. This means the simple and elegant common design language, both in form and function, puts Notes a notch up.

Photos – First, let me say it, I love Google Photos. If I had to score them, Google’s photo solution gets a 10 out of 10, and Apple’s gets a 9 out of 10. So why did I switch back to Apple Photos? Two main reasons: one, it’s default. So it shares the iPhone’s cohesive design, plus it utilizes the built-in iCloud backup system.

And two, after getting my wife to migrate to Google Photos when I did, several months later she voiced her preference for Apple Photos. So it makes sense for me to share the Photos experience with my wife.

Calendars, Mail, Reminders, Contacts – For many of the same reasons above, the basic productivity and utility apps and services on iPhone are my preference. Reminders, especially, is fantastic, even with Siri voice control, so it wins over Google Tasks.

Other Stuff

Sign in with Apple – This is new to me. Typically, I refuse to reuse the same online identity for various account logins. But I’m really thinking about using Apple’s privacy focused solution! It seems secure and convenient, and it relates to iCloud Keychain, Apple’s password management solution (which is excellent).

Privacy – I had already begun to move away from Google, having installed the DuckDuckGo tracker-blocker extension in the Chrome browser – it works so well! I also changed my default search engine back to DuckDuckGo (I used this for a long time before with great results).

On Apple, more private searching and less ad-tracking is default. Win!

Pages/Files/iCloud Drive – Can’t lie: Google Docs and Drive are great. I might stick with them. But for now, I’ve switched back to Apple’s solutions. (I’m typing this draft post in Pages via the Chrome web app now; it’s quite good.)

iLife

Nerding out on mobile computing tech is a thing I do. And Apple does this kind of tech best, so my new-to-me iPhone has been fun to switch back to.

Maybe it’s obvious, but I tend to switch up my tech workflow in general because I get bored and want something new. Call me human, I guess. That said, I really like Apple’s stuff above all, so I’d like to unpack my bags and stay for good.

For now, yeah, I’m all-in with Apple again. Over the years, the healthy fruit continues to make awesome devices and services. So there’s a strong chance that I remain an Apple convert and don’t revert elsewhere. I’m committed…until I’m not.

So, shocker, I’m also looking at getting more Apple devices: iPad, MacBook, Mac mini, Apple Watch, AirPods… Pretty much whatever has an Apple logo because it stands for quality, reliability, simplicity, privacy, elegance, and more.