wanderso

Been a Mac owner since a second hand SE/30 in '92 and my mom brought home a Mac in '85. Too many models to share here, including some purchased when Apple was 90 days from running out of cash and needed an infusion from Microsoft!  Many friends thought I was crazy to still be buying new Macs in those days.

Owned several of their peripherals too: inkjet printer made primarily by Canon, external CD Rom drive, QuickTake 150 digital camera, several upgrades of iPod, iPad, iPhone, AppleTV. 

I agree with others that I am missing the ease of upgrading, especially soldered on memory I see as a mistake! Yet here I am updating 2 Mac Minis to SSD this evening for a friend as that still makes a nice speed boost.  

The faithful carried Apple in its darkest hours. There would be no iMac iPod and (later) iPhone without us. Microsoft would have had no company left to give a cash infusion to survive and aid in closing out the court case.  Not the case about the patent; rather the European Union monopoly case against them. 

Now Apple is bigger than Microsoft. 

I think there is a soft spot at Apple for computers.  Even with growth in other areas, I think they will still be making them for many more years.  Ford still makes the Mustang. It's part of their heritage.  Apple will still make computers - its their heritage, too. 

I use a non-Costco branded Visa when I shop already, so I expect it will work. 

I purchased a Pioneer AVH-1440NEX  that includes Apple CarPlay, DVD, and HD Radio last week for $259. Adding an adapter for steering wheel controls was another $50, and $20 for a custom dash kit to match my vehicle, along with a wiring harness. 

I instalked it it last Saturday and am pleased with the performance of CarPlay and the system in general. 

Is the system wired to the phone using USB rather than wireless? Yes, but that is just fine. I can use Bluetooth if I don't need CarPlay or want others to connect their phone to play music. 

While i I wait for Apple to support Waze maps natively in CarPlay, I am using the Pioneer app to port Waze to the receiver screen. 

Ite grewt that more new cars support CarPlay, but don't forget aftermarket options. My install was less than a 1 month car payment for most people. 

What I wonder is if fast charging reduces the life of the battery. Electric cars that also rely on lithium batteries see a significant drop in battery longevity if always choosing rapid chargers.  I realize the voltage and wattages are dramatically higher in that case, but the battery packs in these cars are still made up of hundreds of small battery cells.  Roll the clock forward a few years and there may be complaints from phone owners that had higher wattage chargers instead of the 5 watt model. Perhaps the convenience of fast charging is worth replacing the phone battery more often?  Does dramatically higher charging wattage increase the risk of a sudden battery failure? An enemy of batteries is heat. I expect that phones on high wattage chargers have a much warmer battery when charging. 

The stores were (and are) so important.  I purchased macs over the years from The Computer Store, CompUSA, Fry's Electronics, PowerMax, The Mac Store, Apple.com, MacWarehouse, FutureShop, PowerMacPac, and the Apple Store. Notice that some of those are now defunct.  The independent, dedicated stores selling Macs didn't have the quality of store displays, but were enjoyable to purchase from and kept the Mac alive in the dark days.  Most are gone now, but a few key remain.