When I got my first Mac, I have never thought I will become a Mac person, having used Windows my whole life up till entering NUS. The iBook G4 happened to be the cheapest computer available for freshies, so I bought it. That white, overly heavy, yet fun and fresh laptop still remains one of my favorite Macs up till this day, even as it sits in a drawer untouched for years. I hope the LCD still works (LCD displays have a tendency to explode by themselves if you leave them in the Singapore living room weather, this happened to my 2007 MacBook).Then I joined the Mac User Group in NUS, firstly as the VP, and then as the representative and the rest is history.
I never managed to have enough money then to own more than one PowerPC Mac, which is a pity. I always wanted to own a G4 Cube.
Then of course the iPhone came out and suddenly Apple became the company everyone wants to buy their consumer devices from.
Many years of buying Apple devices and keeping up on Apple news eventually resulted in a career shift during COVID-19 where I began working for Apple. Once you start working for the company you admired for a long time often the fantasy ends. Which was not exactly the case for me, I do see more negative aspects of the company and its ways, and while I do not follow Apple news daily any more (more like weekly now), I still remain a strong Apple fanboy. It is almost always better to be Apple’s customer than to be Apple’s employee.
Speaking of which, Tim Cook’s “I promise you celebrations” really meant celebrations for the executive teams and some influencers, as they spent hoards of cash inviting artistes to perform in Apple Stores around the civilized world, but only invite themselves and local influencers. Their worldwide employees? A poster, T-shirt, pin, or what we term as swag, were given to each employee. And Apple often gives out swag, so these are nothing out of the ordinary. For locations with campuses, employees were allowed to join in uneventful beer bashes (small scale rather than big), which is just a bit of free beer and lousy finger food. I guess only Apple employees in Apple Park are actual employees worthy of celebration (Sir Paul). And that is what is negative about an Apple employee, more often than not you are under appreciated and wonder why you toil for the company.
I am no longer an employee, so i hope to continue enjoying their products for the next fifty years at least. Now John Ternus will you please make me my 12 inch MacBook replacement already.