I hear people time and time again that are not fans of Apple products.  I also hear people that most definitely are.  And generally, the people that are not make the claim that those that are are fanboys or hipsters, that they have just drank the Apple Kool-aid and would buy an Apple product even if it 

was just a dump that Steve Jobs took into a box and slapped an Apple logo on the side of it.  While I'm sure those people do exist, I also think that Apple is a very innovative company, and that there are people that like for and choose their products for good, informed, intelligent reasons.  I am one of those people.

Let me start by saying that I am not your typical everyday "user".  I have always been fascinated with computers and gadgets since I was a little kid, and have now grown up to be pretty much a complete and total computer geek.  I'm not hardcore into theory or hardware or networking or really even software (at least not as much as others I know), but I am a Windows web application developer, and have known my way around a Windows PC pretty well for quite a while now.  I also pride myself on being up on what is the latest in the tech world, at least from a general user's experience.  So I usually hear about the latest gadget about as soon as it comes out.

My first Apple product was an iPod Mini several years ago.  MP3 players were just starting to become popular, and Apple's was the most well-known on the market.  So I purchased one.  It worked well and served me for several years before I ended up giving it to a friend, still in great shape and working just fine.  I can't remember if I had any problems with it, as any iPod issues I've had over the years all kind of run together, and I've always done the same thing with issues that I can't fix - I took it to the Genius Bar at the local Apple Store.  And they always did either one of two things, regardless of warranty or what product it was: 1) fix it or 2) replace it.  Apple iPods, over the years, really became kind of the defactor standard of what people looked for in an MP3 player, as well as by far the most well-marketed.

Given my good experience with my iPod Mini, I went on to later purchase another iPod, one that also served me well for several years.  I still have it, and again, it still works pretty well, although I rarely use it anymore.  And I know it hasn't been replaced, because I had it engraved when I bought it and it still has that same engraving on the back.  So given my good experiences with Apple iPods, once the second generation iPhone came out and went down a bit in price, I bit the bullet.  I had a Windows smartphone before that, and I just new an iPhone had to have a better user experience.  I was right.  I was blown away by how things just worked on the iPhone.  How it was so much more intuitive, so much easier to use.  How what had taken me seven steps on my previous smartphone took me one step on the iPhone.  Once again, I had a good experience with Apple.

So cut to a few years later.  I'm still a Windows developer, always using a Windows PC.  And there are definitely complaints I have about Windows PCs and Windows software.  I was having to upgrade every few years.  It was always a different brand of PC, the brand really didn't seem to matter much.  And I would always have some kind of problems with them.  Once I had to call Dell to have a Dell technician come to my house to fix my laptop.  Once I had to send one in and wait for it to come back.  I'm not saying Windows PCs are bad, not by any means.  But Ricky (my boyfriend) had started using a Mac for his job and decided to order one of his own.  Something about it appealed to me, and I decided to try out the world of Mac computers for myself.  So I ordered one.  It came in a nice pretty box, easy to set up, and fun to use.  Here's the thing... no one can say that Apple doesn't do a killer job with marketing.  The aesthetics of their products are just not comparable to any other company on the market.  So they're pretty... that's not the only reason to buy or use a product, obviously.  So what was my experience with this new Mac that made me really like Apple?

I've had my MacBook Pro for about a year now.  And here's my impression of it... I LOVE using it.  More so than I have ever liked using a PC (and I'm a programmer, so you know they must have some appeal to me).  It is simply put, fun to use.  And yes, I have bought more Apple products since then - an iPad and an Apple TV.  And when the iPad first came out, I thought it was ridiculous.  It seemed to be missing so many components that my netbook had that I didn't see how it could be at all useful.  But after getting a Mac, I get it.  The iPad is the bridge between your computer and your phone if you are an Apple user.  It's your go-everywhere computer.  I've always liked the idea of a go-everywhere computer, that's why I bought my netbook.  But after having a MacBook and seeing how the iPad was that bridge between that and my iPhone, I thought I might give it a shot.  And now I see how it's better than a netbook.  Does it do everything a netbook can do?  No, not really.  But it's what I need when I want something portable I can take anywhere.  It does the things I need to do, and it does them way easier than a netbook.  I've already blogged about the iPad, so I won't go into detail about that too much - just see my previous post if you want to know more.

Apple really is great at marketing.  I mean, not just aesthetics and how pretty their boxes are.  They know how to integrate their products so seamlessly that you want to go out and buy different products from them because you can see how well they fit into the Apple products you already own.  If you really look at Apple and their plan for the future, you can see that they don't want to just sell phones or laptops or MP3 players.  They want to sell consumer technology solutions.  A company that tries to sell more of their products instead of just one, and does it effectively?  Seems like a pretty successful company if they do it right.  I mean, look at Apple.  Do they look like they're doing it right?  I think so, speaking from a marketing major's standpoint.

I know that Apple is far from the only solution out there, whether it is about what phone to buy, what computer to buy, or whether to even have a tablet or netbook.  But their solutions work, and they work well.  There are even phones and other products out there that do more than Apple's do.  But for me, all my Apple products do what I need them to do, and they do it well, and their customer service and support works well for me.  And it always has.  So I don't really need to check out an Android phone.  My iPhone does exactly what I need, and I know the next one will do even more.

Are there better products out there than Apple products?  Well, like I said, I know there are products that "do" more, I'm sure.  But for me, Apple works and works well.  Their solutions do what I need them to do, and after years of using their products... I find less problems and more reasons to utilize them more.  The company has served my technology needs for several years now, and only continues to introduce even better products.  What reason would I have to switch?

 

Yes, I know... there are already about a million reviews of the iPad out there already. Heck, it's almost to the point you can find a review for the iPad 2 already. It's not released yet, but every news or tech site out there seems to think they know exactly what it's going to be, feel, and look like as well as do. Even the Wall Street Journal has put their two cents in. But at this point, they are all still rumors. (Which by the way, as I tweeted earlier today, I'm kind of sick of not seeing any "real" news on tech sites. Everything is so full of rumors about products yet to be released that it seems like we're writing the news before it even happens. Can you say "irrelevant"?) But I digress. I actually purchased an iPad late last year. And yes, I was a huge skeptic when it first came out, so feel free to call me an Apple fangirl. I even have the sweatshirt to go with that role. (I bought one at Apple when I visit their headquarters last fall. So I guess I am a fangirl, having even been to the Mecca itself.) I do find a lot of things to like about Apple. Today, though, I'm just going to discuss the iPad. When it first came out, I found a lot of things wrong with the iPad. It was missing a lot of the things that my less costly netbook had. A LOT of things... a keyboard, a USB port, a full operating system, upgradable storage capacity - the list goes on. And really, isn't it just a big iPhone? So what made me change my mind? Well, I'll be honest. It was somewhat a frivolous purchase. I'll admit, I probably don't NEED half of the tech things I spend my money on. But it's kind of a hobby of mine. If you saw my Google Reader feed, you'd realize what a gadget geek I really am. And Apple has kind of started to fascinate me. Part of the reason for that is my major as an MBA. I've started to kind of turn into a marketing geek lately as well. Logos, branding, companies and how they market themselves... I find it all very interesting. And I've really kind of wanted something portable that I can carry with me as my "go everywhere" computer - something I can just always have with me in my purse. Sure, my iPhone is sort of that. But it's not quite enough. And carrying a laptop with me everywhere becomes a bit much. I carried my netbook with me all the time for a while, but was still finding it lacking. And after having a MacBook for a while, I started to see how the iPad really was the bridge between the iPhone and notebook computer. So I caved and made the purchase. Now, let me admit that I still get my own and others' skepticism about the iPad. There is a lot that it doesn't have. There are times I wish it had an easier way to type up papers or blogs, which pretty much requires a keyboard. I do have a bluetooth keyboard, but I don't want to carry it around all the time. That kind of defeats the purpose of how portable the iPad is - who wants to carry/buy an extra accessory? Same goes for the camera connector kit. If I'm taking my iPad on vacation, shouldn't I be able to easily upload my photos for people at home to see? I have yet to find a good way to do that. And all of these things add up to a lot of extra accessories to purchase, so that your $500+ piece of equipment ends up costing you even more once you get that cover, camera connector, and keyboard. And don't forget headphones, of course you'll need those. But in spite of all of this, I have to say I pretty much love my iPad. If you travel much at all, I highly recommend it as the ultimate travel device to have. On a plane, it is the perfect size to fit on your tray table, especially if you get the right cover/stand. I have a cover that doubles as a stand, and it's perfect. I wouldn't want anything else on the 11 hour flight that I will have back from Moscow next month. With it, I can watch movies that I put on it, read the Kindle books I have downloaded, play an almost unlimited number of games, listen to all my music, or even check my email and surf the web if the plane has wifi. It really is a solid go-to device. And the battery life is amazing. I watched a two-hour movie on it on a bus to Chicago a few weeks back and only used 4% of my battery life. If you have an iPhone, you know how astounding that is. As far as the argument that it's just a giant iPhone - well, yes. And no. Sure, it uses iOS just like the iPhone. But there are a lot of apps that have a very different iPad version from their existing iPhone app. There's a lot of new things you can do with 6 more inches of screen space. I don't know about you, but I honestly don't do a lot of web surfing from my iPhone. A lot of sites take me to their mobile version, which usually has a lot less functionality. And let's face it, normal web sites aren't designed to be viewed on a phone. But on the iPad? Sure - because the screen is the size of a small computer, basically. Another thing that's less than ideal on the iPhone - watching videos. Whether it's movies I've put on the device myself, or streaming Netflix (which is a whole other level of awesomeness in itself), I'm not particularly fond of watching much of anything on a 3-inch screen. I rarely use Netflix on my iPhone if I want to do much more than just listen to a movie or TV show. One convenience that the iPad has over a netbook or laptop that is almost as understated as the battery life is the "always-on" functionality. You can literally leave it on the same way you do an iPhone. No boot time, just press a button and you have everything at your fingertips. And especially with the use of syncing apps such as Dropbox and Evernote and the ability to have my Google Calendar and email on the phone, I pretty much have everything I need for school always with me, which is huge for a grad student. Apps such as DocsToGo enable me to view and edit papers for school even, which I wouldn't even really dream of doing on my iPhone. My goal here is not to sound like an Apple commercial (Apple does a fine job of that on their own). I just wanted to share my own experience as an iPad convert. It may not be worth the money or even be the device for you, but it works well for me, and I'd highly recommend it as a beneficial device for everyone, especially my fellow travelers out there. Revolutionary? Maybe not, but it's a win with me.

Well, I was planning on updating my blog design, and I started working on it and decided that 1) I actually kind of like this design and really didn't find one I like much better at the moment and 2) I don't really have time to work on a new design for it anyway, at least not the time I'd like to put into it. The holidays continue to be relatively busy, and school will be starting up again in a little over a week. Oh, and just in case you missed it and were wondering (I'm sure you were), I got an A- in Marketing and a B in Operations Management, my two classes last semester. Next semester I am taking three classes: Leadership & Ethics in the Business Environment, Applied Marketing Research, and Emerging Economies. The Leadership class is my last core class, I believe. There was another one, an international studies one, but I believe since I am taking the Emerging Economies course and it includes international studies, that I don't have to take that one. The Applied Marketing Research class is online, one reason I picked it up since I already am taking two other classes and this one brings me up to 9 credit hours for the semester - yikes! And then, the Emerging Economies class, of course, as I have already talked about on Twitter and Facebook, will take me to... Russia! It is basically a study of the Russian economy and includes a trip to St. Petersburg and Moscow over spring break. So I get to visit this beautiful place, among others: I'm VERY excited, as this will be my first trip overseas. Considering how little travel I really did growing up, I found it funny that when my professor was asking us if we would need our passports any time in the next few months (she was going to collect them to send to an agency to submit to get our visas), I actually had to say YES, I would need it - for the trip to Aruba I took earlier this month. It seems to becoming obvious to myself as well as everyone that I LOVE to travel as often as possible. I'm starting to get teased about how often I do, actually, by jealou--I mean, by friends and co-workers. ;) Ricky and I are constantly looking for an opportunity to get out of town. I already have three sets of airline tickets purchased for trips in 2011! On that note, I'd like to make my readers aware of a couple of things. Number one, I think I'm going to ditch the "travelatte" blog. It's just not really getting a following, and as this blog (my normal one) already HAS a following, I'm just going to post any travel stuff on here since I don't really have the time to keep up with two anyway. So if you get tired of it, well too bad, I guess. You'll know where I'm going whether you like it or not. :) Also, I'm taking down the Photos page, which most of you probably didn't even realize existed. All it really is is a feed of my Picasa photos, and I don't use Picasa anymore, so it wouldn't be getting updated anyway. But I'll probably incorporate a link to my Flickr page in here somewhere soon. And one more thing - I'm closing my public Twitter account. I don't want/need two accounts, and as I rarely use the @sherylh96 one, I'm just going to "shut it down". I may keep the account technically there as I've used that username for so long, I'd like to make sure it's mine on Twitter, but I will not likely be using it anymore. I will, however, continue to use my private Twitter account, @sherylhugill. And I will accept your follow request... if I like you. So that's that. Now, here is the latest scoop. My update, year in review, year-end blog post, whatever you would like to call it. I'm not really one to sit looking back too much, so I'm not sure how much I can reminisce about 2010, really. It had plenty of great travel, not surprisingly, and may possibly be considered my "coming out" as a self-confessed travel geek. I mean, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York in 3 weekends? I also got my tropical islands in, visiting both Hawaii and Aruba this year. I broke my own record for number of times I've flown in a year, topping out at 5, I believe. (Hawaii, San Francisco, New York, Phoenix, and Aruba, in case you were wondering.) Aside from travel, I also completed my first full year in grad school. I am now halfway through my MBA program - scheduled graduation is in May 2012, so I still have some time to go. Ricky and I have no been together for 2 years. Our "anniversary" is pretty easy to remember, as our first date was sometime between Christmas and New Year's 2008 - on the 29th, I believe. Our second date (and first kiss at midnight!) was New Year's Eve, so we tend to celebrate it then. Moving in together has gone relatively well, most of the time. I blame him for my recently developed initiation this year into the cult of Apple. I can claim I had an iPhone before meeting him, but who knew I would also end up using a MacBook Pro, iPad, and Apple TV? Yeah, we are an Apple couple for sure. I'm looking forward to 2011 and seeing what it holds. 2010 has required some adjustments, and some are still being made. But life is good. I hope yours is too. I'm excited for the plans I am already making for 2011, whether it's classes, new opportunities, or travel plans. I'm sure it will be a journey worth taking. Happy New Year as you ring in yours, and may 2011 be your best year yet!

The world is changing.  This is officially the very first blog post that I have typed on a Mac.  I know€¦ crazy, isn€™t it?  Why am I doing that, you ask?  No, I didn€™t borrow Ricky€™s computer.  No, I didn€™t Hackintosh my netbook again.  I actually bought my very own, very first, Mac.  O. M. G. Yep, I did it.  I bit the bullet.  I have considered getting a Mac for a while, and I knew it would be a MacBook (aka laptop).  Ricky, of course, praises the whole Mac experience.  I have used Macs a bit, at work when I was at IUPUI as well as when I have borrowed Ricky€™s or €œHackintoshed€ my own Dell netbook for a while.  But I never really saw the need to spend so much extra money on a laptop when I could get one for 1/4^th the price of what a MacBook would cost me.  But then I started hearing from people about how long Macs last, and that the extra cost was worth the extra investment.  And I decided they were right.  These reasons, along with a couple more, prompted me to make the decision to finally purchase my own.  I got an education discount on it because I€™m a student at IU, and right now they are also offering a special where you can get a free iPod as well.  I didn€™t need an iPod touch, but I thought a new iPod Nano would be nice to use for exercising, since lately I€™ve been using my iPhone.  And it€™s kind of inconvenient (plus scary, if you think about the possibility of dropping it!) to have to carry my iPhone with me when I go jogging.  So I snagged a purple (of course) 16GB iPod Nano along with my new MacBook. After anxiously awaiting the shipping period of a week, my new MacBook Pro (along with the Nano) arrived today via FedEx.  I was VERY excited.  I€™d been tracking them both on FedEx every day since I ordered them.  And now, here they are!  It€™s really interesting, kind of a new feeling for me, or at least one that I haven€™t felt in a very long time€¦ using a computer that I don€™t know everything about.  I have been using a PC with Windows since 1995, and computers in general for even longer than that, since I was about 12 years old or younger.  I mean, I know my way around a Mac well enough €“ but it is still definitely an unfamiliar operating system and NOT one that I know everything about.  It€™s kind of cool, though€¦ it€™s rekindled my passion for learning about computers.  I€™m very excited to learn my way around Mac OS X, and hopefully even try my hand at programming iPhone apps at some point.  I know, I know€¦ those of you out there that have tried it say that the language sucks.  But I may give it a shot anyway, just to see for myself. So here I am, blogging on my brand new (and very first) MacBook.  I hope we have a lasting and wonderful relationship!

Some of you may have heard of or subscribe to the RSS feed for the website 1000awesomethings.com.  I actually don't follow the RSS feed, but every once in a while, a post from there pops up in my Google Reader shared items, usually shared by Isha.  I don't remember how I found out, but I realized that the author of this site recently published a book containing some of his "awesome things", called The Book of Awesome.  I love this concept, both of the book and the site... basically just taking note of some of the great things that make you happy in this world.  Simple things that can take a bad mood and completely turn it around or at least improve it a little.  The book and website both list very specific things, a lot of times things that happen, such as "when the thing you were going to buy is already on sale" or "finding your keys after looking forever".  While I do think these things are pretty awesome, I have my own list of things that make me happy, and a lot of them are very simple everyday things, things that when I think about them or do them or partake in them, it makes me feel better or improves my day.  So I decided to list a few of these things for my faithful readers. Coffee and Coffee Shops While I like the taste of coffee, I think that a big thing that I really like it for is the ritual.  Drinking coffee is a daily morning ritual for a lot of people.  It's something you can look forward to when you get up, or something you can look forward to in the middle of a busy day.  It's something that can get you going or something you can relax with.  It's a simple daily pleasure.  I stop almost every day at Starbucks on my way to work to get a cup.  Part of the reason is to get coffee, of course, but part of it is also just to stop in to the coffee shop.  I like seeing friendly barista faces and having the break in my day.  It just adds something to it.  I also love the ambiance in coffee shops.  There's no better place to meet a friend just to chat, or to take some time to read a book, or to work on writing or doing homework.  And Starbucks has made this even better lately with their free Wi-Fi. Bookstores I own way too many books.  Well, maybe not.  I'm not sure you can ever own too many.  But honestly, I probably own more than I will ever read.  And I still love to visit bookstores and 99% of the time will not be able to leave without purchasing something.  One of my favorite things to do on my lunch break at work is to go visit Borders.  I love going in, grabbing a cup of coffee from the cafe there, and then browsing to see what there is to see, from the newest bestseller to what is on the bargain rack, it all fascinates me.  There is something calming about being able to go there and browse the racks of books and absorb yourself in knowledge. Traveling Traveling has to be one of my most favorite things in the world.  I didn't travel too much as a kid.  Our family vacations were usually short trips to Kings Island or to visit family in Kentucky or Oklahoma.  Now, as an adult, since I have started flying places and trying to visit more distant lands, I am totally in love with traveling.  I like every part of it, from flying, to road trips (although for long distances, I prefer flying over a bunch of hours in the car), to hotels, to trying new places to visit and eat.  When I know I am planning a trip, I will go crazy just researching where I am going.  I look things up on Google Maps.  I find out what there is to do in a place via Wikitravel.  It's actually pretty obsessive, but I love it all.  I'm lucky I'm with someone who loves travelling as much as I do, otherwise they would get left at home a lot! Apple I know the first thought that probably pops into your head when I say that.  It's that I'm a fanboy (or fangirl, in my case) just like so many others.  And I will admit, in some ways, that probably is true.  Do I want an iPad? Sure.  Do I want an iPhone 4?  Duh.  But, I also have my reasons for not getting them (which is another blog post entirely).  But I love Apple's aethetics.  I love the way things work on my iPhone 3GS.  I love visiting the Apple website just to see what the latest fun product they have is.  And I like visiting the Apple store just to play with everything.  I have been the owner of multiple iPods, and am now considering buying my first Mac (whoa!).  Even though I have heard the language absolutely sucks, the thought of attempting to write an iPhone app brings back my programmer roots.  Apple is just a lot of fun to me. Superman I think this fascination may have started when I was a teenager.  One of my favorite shows was Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.  And while I haven't kept up that well with it, I also have several seasons of Smallville on DVD.  I don't know if it's the mythology of this famous superhero, what with his secret identity and goal of rescuing people from the perils of this world, or if it's the muscles and the red and blue cape and costume.  Honestly, maybe it's just the tall, dark, and handsomeness of Dean Cain that first won me over.  But the whole story of this seemingly nerdy journalist that secretly saves the world while falling in love with his cute co-worker is one of my favorite stories ever. These are really just a few of the things that I get excited about.  When I first started thinking about it, I immediately came up with a list of twenty just off the top of my head.  So now it's your turn... tell me, what are a few of your favorite things?