I’ve Become An Apple Fanboy

I managed to go 44 years of my life without buying a single piece of Apple hardware for myself (I’ve gotten two iPods for my wife). And in the last month, I’ve gotten an iPad 2, and the Apple TV.

How do I like them? They’re both wonderful. The iPad has become my default device for Twitter and RSS, and even for reading my e-mail (I still compose e-mail on the PC). I’m in love with Facetime, and wish I could get it for my EVO, because it’s a much better video calling experience than Qik or Fring. Actually, I’d love it if I could get Facetime for Windows too, so then my mother could make video calls to her two granddaughters. Yes, I know there are other ways to do video calling, but Facetime is just so incredibly easy to use.

As for the Apple TV, I think I like it better than my iPad. I can stream anything on my iTunes to it, including music, TV shows, and movies. I can set it up to have a screensaver made up of pics of my kids. And yes, I can do all of these types of things other ways too, but the Apple TV makes it painless. It has NetFlix integration (haven’t tried it out yet, can’t comment) and pay-per-view movies. Also has streamed MLB and NBA games, however I don’t plan on using that service. And the device itself is tiny. About the size of two decks of cards.

I could actually even see myself with an iPhone, if it was on Sprint, and had 4G, and better cameras, and a better UI, and Flash, and…ok, nevermind. I can’t see myself with such a wimpy phone.

Actually, the lack of Flash support irks me on the iPad too. Some days it really irks me. Yes, I know about Skyfire, but what about apps like Twitter clients that launch an internal browser? I assume it’s using some sort of hooks into the system browser, right? So, even if I had Skyfire, I wouldn’t get Flash from tweet links.

Maybe I’m wrong there. I haven’t tried it.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. There’s one other thing that sucks on the iPad. The App Store. When I buy an app from the Android Market, if I uninstall it in half an hour or less, I get my money back. Not so from the App Store. And unlike the Android Market, there aren’t many free apps. I must’ve installed half a dozen at least of Twitter clients and RSS readers, before I settled on ones I liked. And I paid for every one of them. And most of them I couldn’t uninstall fast enough.

Ok, I’m not an Apple fanboy after all.