I’ve used Apple products for a number of years. Years ago, I started using an iMac and liked it a lot. I also had an iBook computer and used it well. I had no issues with the actual computers but the problem was they didn’t play well with others…meaning, it didn’t work well in our home network of computers. The Scientist would spend hours trying to get things to work together. There was also the issue of expensive software, made worse by the added costs here in Australia. Eventually, I quit the Apple computers and the Scientist created a custom PC for me and that was that.

Meanwhile, years ago I also bought a PDA which eventually got stolen and was replaced with another one. A couple years later I got a much better one but then the PDA seemed to become pretty much obsolete and I was left with nowhere to go. I eventually decided to get an iPod touch as it did mostly what my PDA had done and it also stored music and played apps. I saved my money and paid cash for mine. Even though I had just bought my iPod, Apple expected me to shell out an additional $10 to get an update to the OS, which didn’t make me very happy at the time. But the worst was to come a week later when the next gen iPod touch was released and mine was on its way to being outdated almost immediately. I did get a couple decent years out of that one but then support started drying up and I couldn’t update any further. I’d already invested a fair bit of money on apps so I decided I’ve combine phone and iPod and got an iPhone on a one year contract. Luckily I got in at the right time and my current model is still being supported two years later. I won’t expect that for too much longer though.

In the early days, I was able to sync my email with my iPod and my iPhone quite easily. I used MS Outlook and with a couple tweaks all was well. Then Apple brought in its iCloud and everything fell apart. I have had trouble ever since with getting my information in Outlook to sync properly with my iPhone. Appointments would show up in one place and not the other. Same with contacts. Sometimes I would be able to find them and other times not. And somewhere along the way, I lost data on my computer as everything was syncing. It’s like it goes into a deep, dark hole and only re-emerges by chance. I still haven’t solved that problem properly so have had to take a different approach to recording information. It certainly doesn’t make life easier that way though.

Then yesterday came along and I my new Neil Finn cd arrived in the mail and I wanted to add that to my computer and my phone. Adding the song to iTunes was no issue. But for some reason my iPhone showed up on my computer but not in iTunes and not on a Phone Cleaner product I’ve been using. I spent about an hour searching for an answer and did happen upon a support page at Apple that told me what I needed to do. The particular problem was the driver for the USB had disappeared at some point. I think this may have occurred about the time I updated iTunes last as there had not been a sync since then. I had noticed this but hadn’t taken time to do anything as it wasn’t a major issue at the time. Anyway, it took about an hour or so to find and fix the problem and now it’s working again.

I will add that I have two iPads too, one which was meant to be used by Lego Lover for homeschooling but didn’t happen. It is now unofficially the property of Game Fanatic who uses it between all his other devices.

As my iPhone is already over two years old, I realise the continued support won’t be there a whole lot longer. The predecessor has already dropped off support for many apps. When the time comes that I have no further updates available, I am switching to something different. Not totally sure if I want to go to the Android or the Windows phone but I have had enough of Apple. Once the system is no longer able to be updated, I will likely use the current phone as a music player…like I did for my old iPod until I mistakenly left it at the gym and never saw it again.