From: thomas.e.elam@gmail.com   
      
   On 2/15/26 6:08 PM, pothead wrote:   
   > On 2026-02-15, Tom Elam  wrote:   
   >> The two longest lasting phones I have owned were a Blackberry at about 5   
   >> years and an iPhone 14 Pro at 3+ years. In between a series of Android   
   >> phones. The 14 Pro will do for at least another 1-2 years. The wife has   
   >> an iPhone 14, same story.   
   >>   
   >> Android tablets were tried for something like 10 years. All were   
   >> disappointing. Slow, limited updates, and clunky OS. My iPad experience   
   >> has been the exact opposite. Frequent updates, plenty fast, and   
   >> consistent OS. The current oldest is Gen 7, 6 years old, and running   
   >> great with a fully patched OS. None of my Samsung tablets came even close.   
   >>   
   >> IMHO Apple deserves the price premium. Good hardware, incredible   
   >> support, durable. No regrets.   
   >   
   > I agree completely with your assessment of your Apple devices. I too had   
   > a Blackberry and at the time I enjoyed using it and it did last a long time   
   > despite the abuse from me.   
   > I also have had several Android devices from Motorola, Samsung and LG. Mostly   
   > top tier devices for the most part.   
   > They have never been as smooth as my iPhones which I have been using since   
   one of   
   > the early models. I currently have an iPhone 14 as well.   
   > One of my biggest complaints with Android has been the massive amount of   
   bloatware   
   > that they come with. Apps from the manufacturer as well as the carrier. And   
   some   
   > can be a PITA to remove.   
   > I've never used an Apple or Android tablet so I can't comment on that.   
   > My only complaint with the iPhone and Apple was iTunes as I don't use a   
   desktop   
   > Mac so it was quite clunky to me. Android was better in that regard because   
   it   
   > was seen from the PC as just another file system. To me that is logical.   
   >   
   >   
   >   
      
   Yesterday I took the next step and bought a MacBook Air. Probably just   
   before the next update, but what the heck. Got almost everything up and   
   running except 2 standalone utilites that are Windows-only. A few years   
   back the poor state of Quicken and an M1 MacBook Pro that failed to boot   
   13 days after purchase derailed the process. Quicken has been updated   
   and now works OK. I have two Windows 11 machines around that can run   
   those utilities. This is being sent on the Air/Thunderbird.   
      
   Still a few kinks to work out, thanks to Google and YouTube I'm   
   confident I'll not be needing Parallels.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)