My Apple Addiction

This was originally my Macintosh page, until I realised that my addiction is general rather than specific. It is all things Apple that I can’t resist, not just Macintosh.

Macintosh

I began using Macs in 1985, starting with an original Mac 128k in my last year of high school (the school had a grand total of two for student use). You might remember the type – all-in-one box, 128k RAM, no hard disk, 400k floppy drive.

My first personal web server was my workstation, Makatoa which served its first document in June 1994.

Makatoa was a Mac IIsi (September ’93 – March ’94). Since then, I’ve had a Power Macintosh 6100/60 AV (March ’94 – September ’97. Quite literally from the first shipment of Power Macs to hit Australia), then a Power Macintosh 7300/200 (September ’97 – October ’98), a 333MHz Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (October ’98 – March ’00), a Power Macintosh G4 (March ’00 – Feb ’03).

At home, I’ve had a G3 iMac DV Special Edition (Graphite) (2000), a 20″ Intel Core Duo iMac (2007). That one was a work of art moonlighting as a computer. Upgrading from the old iMac to the new iMac was so easy that it was almost a disappointment. I upgraded the RAM and hard drive to an SSD over the years. It served me well. Then work and home converged with a laptop driving an external monitor and keyboard. After that I had a Macbook Pro 15″ (2015) with 2×24″ monitors, then a Macbook Air 13″ M1 (2021) with a 30″ curved monitor, then a Macbook Air 13″ M4 (2025) with the 30″ curved + 23″ portrait monitor – this last one was a bit sooner than usual, only because I wanted to run two monitors.

iPod

This is a great example of the skill and art of Apple’s design folks. Looks beautiful, works naturally. I started with a 40Gb (Christmas present), but with the amount of running I do, I decided eBay it and shift down to an iPod mini, which was just perfect. In 2007, I sold the mini and shifted down again to a silver 1Gb 2nd generation shuffle. This thing weighs 15 grams! Because who needs the full-size one when you have an iPhone?

Airport Express with AirTunes

iTunes is great, but it’s even better when I can play it directly to the loungeroom stereo. Full digital music and I can set up an 8 hour playlist for a party and just let it rip. By the 2010s, this was taken over by an AppleTV, but the Airport Express is still going providing Wifi in my garage (2025!).

Newton

This little baby was way ahead of it’s time. Actual handwriting recognition. I started with a MessagePad100, then went to a 120. I’ve still got two of them in my drawer. I would have loved to get a 2000 or 2100, but never really got around to it.

iPhone

I started with an iPhone 3G, on the first day it was available in Australia (July 2008), moved up to a 3GS when my contract ran out, skipped the 4, and then waited for a 4S to arrive, and got it on the first day. Now I’m up to a 14 Pro.

iPad

A bit of a pattern here: I got it on the first day. 64Gb + 3G. Awesome. This is the computer of the future for the vast majority of people. Happy to stick with it and skipped the iPad 2 but got a new iPad in March 2012. Great speed improvement and the Retina display is incredibly. I shifted to the iPad Mini 2 around 2014, then a 4th gen in 202 and a 6th gen in 2024.