In many of the journals here people refer to their iphones or ipads. Do you all prefer the Apple products or are you just using the terms generically?

Way back at the beginning of the PC era I decided that although the Apple products were nice I could not accept the price difference between Apple and IBM and the even cheaper clones and I have never purchased an Apple product so I use a Nokia android phone and a Samsung tablet.

Does anyone else not use Apple?

Mike 

I think I can speak for Rachael here.  We both hate Apple (our phones are androids), but the iPad is the best tool for the job for us.

We've followed the same path Mike, and for the same reasons.

My only experience with an iPad was a few months at the end of my career, when I was helping develop an app for it so I needed one.  I liked it, probably better than either of the Android tablets I've owned personally, but not enough to go get one.

I've had a succession of Android phones.  My price point is in the $250 - $300 range which precludes almost any Apple product.  My current phone was made by Motorola; previous models have been a mix of that and Samsung products.

When my current tablet, also a Samsung, is ready to be retired I'll reconsider my stand on the iPad but I'm hoping that's a couple years off.

For the most part, I have always avoided Apple products. As a former software developer I always found their user interfaces restrictive and unappealing. And as you mentioned, cost was a factor as well.
But, I’ve since changed my mind with regard to iPads. I got one last year, and have been quite impressed. I’ve found it integrates well with the services on my Android phone and Windows laptop, including Google docs, as well as Excel and Word. I’m typing this on the iPad right now.

Android phone and Chromebook. I'm a newspaper editor and when on the road find the Chromebook and Google docs work best for remote work. 

I do have an Ipod with podcasts, music and audio books. I've heard tell the kids these days figure out how to do all that on their fancy phones, but I go with what I know.

I've had them both and hate them each equally.  I plan to destroy an Apple phone that I hated for years by blowing it to bits with my double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun - but first I have to retrieve some photos from it. My hatred for Apple was legendary amongst my co-workers, but nowadays I have developed an equal hatred for Android. 

I had an android phone, then an Apple phone (and at the same time another Apple phone required for my job), and now I have android again.  I had an Apple watch at the same time I had Apple phones, and I now have an android watch that pairs with my android phone.  So I have some experience with both systems. 

I was happy with the older android operating systems - it seemed as though I could control it and make it work the way I wanted it to work.  I HATED the Apple operating system because it was the opposite - you had to learn to adopt to the way the system wanted to behave, instead of it behaving as I wanted it to behave.  Unfortunately, my relatively new Android phone works and behaves almost identically to Apple's system now - anyone can easily switch back and forth between the 2 because of that, and as long as you are happy with the system being in charge then you are golden. 

Enough of my complaining - technology is evolving to be in control, it is WE who must now learn to adopt to technology - and I'm old school enough to see the danger in that.  People think so little for themselves anymore, they just rely on technology to tell them what to think and how to behave - OK, I said I'd stop complaining but I haven't so now I really will stop. 

I do like the smart watches that pair with the phones - in my case it makes it possible for me to answer a phone call on my watch while cycling, for example.  And it's just so Dick Tracy cool to be able to do that.  And you can use the watch to check for AFIB, or to just check your heart rate after a hard climb, and you can use it as a compass while cycling, and numerous other helpful things.  The bad part is that you have to carry another charging cable for the watch.

As far as notebooks or tablets go, either system easily gets the job done for journaling while on tour.  I prefer to carry a windows "netbook" with me - these are lightweight low-powered machines that are perfect for light duty stuff like email and internet work.  I've purchased these things for as little as $99 on sale and used them for years.  Because they are relatively under-powered, the battery will last a long time - so if I end up in a campground without power I can still write up the day's adventure and wait to post it till I get wifi.  They don't have much storage on the solid state drive, but it's plenty to hold the day's pics and video until I upload them - and a USB drive can give you lots more storage than you need.   I've also used android tablets, but then I end up carrying a bluetooth keyboard along and a bluetooth mouse - so I actually was carrying more weight with the tablet and accessories than I am with a lightweight netbook that has a built-in keyboard.  

Whatever works for you...

I’m an Apple fan - iPad, iPhone, MacBook. I never could master dos and have stuck with Apple since the days of my first Macintosh SE30

Hi Susan

Wasn't there an Apple Lisa before the Macs?

A lot of people struggled with DOS so Microsoft had to follow Apple into the WIMP system.

Windows

Icons

Mouse

Pull down menus 

Mike

I'm using a Samsung S9, re-batteried just before our current Erie Canal tour. It's giving me fits. I started posting photos. which took hours of missteps to figure out the procedure.  When I captioned them the captions seem to only appear in the edit mode and not visible to the public. I've pretty much given up on my Low Bridge entries until I get home and on my computer.

I bought my first Mac, a 512Ke, in 1986 in grad school.  I have used Apple products ever since. About six years ago, my employer gave me a Windows laptop to use and it was the most abysmal thing I have ever tried to operate. It didn't help that it was the lowest end of the HP hardware line so the device itself just felt flimsy and cheap, but the interface was so confusing and goofy (because I was used to Apple) that it was unusable. I gave it back, went and bought a used MacBook Air for work use exclusively. My productivity on the Windows laptop was less than half of what it was on my Macs because I spent so much time having to fight with it to get it to do what I needed to do.  I am sure that if I had started out a Windows computer and converted to a Mac, I would've had a similar experience.

For a while I did web hosting for my employer and another organization, setting up an old Macintosh IIci as a server in my house. I installed NetBSD on it and, oddly enough, found the command line very easy to deal with once I got a ways up the learning curve. I periodically think about taking one of my old unused laptops and installing a Linux distribution to play with.

I have attempted to use android phones belonging to other people and found them just as baffling to operate as windows. Both are just different enough from what I'm used to to be confusing.

I bought the iPad 3 when it became available and was very impressed with its utility, although it is designed as a consumer device rather than a productive device.  I then bought a 12 inch iPad Pro which was much more usable in many ways but difficult to total around (specifically, it was really useful for sheet music); I currently have an iPad, don't remember which edition; it's a few years old but new enough to update the most recent iPadOS. It's small, lightweight, pretty rugged, easy to carry. If I was to go on tour somewhere, and intended to take a device which is questionable, this is the one I would take. I would probably just take my iPhone with its very small charger, however, and maybe some reading glasses.  😉  I like to keep my luggage down to about 10 pounds if at all possible, preferably just in my Carradice saddlebag and maybe a small handlebar bag.

I am amazed by the number of devices I see people toting around with them in some of their journals. Multiple cell phones, a GPS (or two), laptop, tablet, all the required chargers, etc.  It's your tour, whatever makes you feel safe and prepared is important, but it sure seems like an awful lot of hardware to carry and maintain.