Today, Apple held its annual developer conference, where the company announced new versions of iOS, macOS, and iPad OS along with hardware that includes 15-inch MacBook Air. Any other year, I would have watched the keynote and downloaded developer builds of the new platforms. Instead, I cancelled my annual developer subscription that was about to renew.
How time flies. In December 2022, I started a complete fruit-logo exodus. This morning, Samsung emailed that my iPad Pro had been received for credit towards the Galaxy Tab S8+ acquired last month. My smartphone is Galaxy S23 Ultra, replacing iPhone Pro 13. I gave up the 16.2-inch MacBook Pro for Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio.
I invested a lot of years in Apple and its computing platforms; many good memories evoke from creative endeavors and joy using the products. As I have expressed before, but not recently, joy is the number one benefit of any computing device. Happiness is the surest path to customer loyalty.
I am not happier on Android and Windows because even seven months isn’t long enough time to build up enough good feelings to match the enormous pile that belong to Apple. But they will come, in time. Because there is so much more I like about Android and Windows devices user experience—and surprisingly so.
What’s missing is Apple’s magic elixir that goes back to the pirate days of cofounder Steve Jobs, his core teams, and their think differently customers: A sense of belonging. That I will miss. It’s time to move onto community that bonds around something more meaningful than expensive gadgets and their supporting software.
That brings us to the Featured Image, captured on June 2, 2023, along Adams Avenue near the junction of San Diego neighborhoods Normal Heights and North Park. Boundary Street is across the way behind the 7-Eleven. I used Leica Q2 Monochrom to capture the clock and street. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 200, 1/1600 sec, 28mm; 2:46 p.m. PDT.