#Google#Apple

Without realising it, I have slowly been migrating a lot of my Apple pages documents, and Keynote lectures to Google Drive. The reason is quite simple, Apple does not play well with other OS and Google just does.

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I have several personal examples of what I mean here, first I am writing a major construction update for Mitchells Construction, and the publisher, Routledge asked for the Apple Pages singular file to be split into separate chapter files and be converted to Word.

Now I hate word, its just not a nice program, bloated and has a weird way of working, But Google does do Word using their nice and easy Docs program, it also easily migrated the file to very good .MD or Markdown, so Google suddenly became the working platform for the book,

As it happened we and I mean the writing team I had put together, were complaining about Dropbox and its creation of copy files was instantly solved by the move to Google Drive, and its sync, and all comments also came across, so the team is now happy.

As part of our writing, I was building up my new website, www.frogupordown.co.uk built, in Google Sites, it’s easy to use and the point and click ease to add my slides was a major point in migrating all my lecture slides over to google, I might add, this is ongoing, there is a lot of them!

It’s at this point, I suddenly realise I am talking to Google Gemini a lot, and I mean, 10 - 15 times or more a day, asking , discussing construction, asked to proof read, and do research.

Enter here Google Keep, its like Apple Notes, but its not. and after using it, I don’t like the comparison, its easier to use, more tightly integrated in every thing, and that includes Gemini.

I frequently ask for some of Gemini’s research or comments to be placed in a new Keep file, just because I can open it up as a side bar on most of the Programs I’m using in Google, and it’s so handy.

Oh and before I forget, Google Gemini keeps all of our conversations and has a nice link creator I use it a lot to find conversations.

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Suddenly Google is becoming a lot more important to me than Apple, in fact Apple gets in the way, so much so, I have changed over to Chrome, it solves so many niggly little things.

I have even changed over to Google Calender simply because the writing team prefers to use the Google Meet. It’s simple and easy to use, plus It interacts with Google Docs so well.

My iPhone is mostly now Google Apps, I still used a couple of Apple apps, but I have created a single screen for Google and moved it to the front . Oh have you tried Google TV yet, I use it a lot now linking all my different movie channels, including Apple TV and of course, YouTube for all mr Google purchased movies.

A feature I really like is the way I can link notes I have made in my day book, simply by opening google drive on both my i{hone and also my Pixel 3a and using the small icon to the bottom right over the + button to create a pdf, with the camera. It asks to save it to a folder, and if you do not want the inspired file name to replace it. Now the good bit, its so easy to create a link and paste the link into a set of meeting minutes, it creates a nice little icon. Hovering over the icon with the mouse, brings up a small reminder. A realy nice way to link my written notes in my day book to the actual google doc.

So how long before I move completely, well living on the Apple Google fence is a lot easier, using the right apps, and my Macbook Air is ok, What has happened is I have downgraded my Apple subscription, do I really need iCloud, as I continue to move files over to Google Drive, simple answer is no. I will monitor disk space and react accordingly, but the more I move over the better it becomes.

I have tried several times to set up a Linux machine on an old MacBook Pro. Opening up google on the linux machines web browser, means I have a new access route to google files. An interesting safety route. And one I am exploring, I even have a new email address on a Swiss site.

It made sense after writing a couple of articles and bits for the book, to import photos I have in Apple into Google, I spoke to Gemini and I now have a permanent link set up, importing photos into google. Yet another nail in Apple’s dominance in my life.

Looking into the future, I just can not justify the cost of an Apple machine despite the new power and privacy. Google Docs running on the range of Chromebooks, opens up the difference between Apple and Google, Apples reliance on power chips to keep what ever is coming as far as the Siri AI replacement and its use on their machine, in direct contrast to Google who use servers to do the power work. As far as I can see, there is no difference in performance, its just down to privacy.

For me Apple is spending its time trying to keep that privacy, and I just do not see it in my future. Whatever I write is not that private, the exception is banking and my bank is looking to keep that information secure and private.and away for all eyes except mine.

So my computing future will not include Apple for much longer. They have forced me into ever more expensive machines that I suspect a lot of people will just not need. Google on the other hand opens up ever increasing power to me on machines I can afford. The classic example is running Gemini on my old Pixel 3a XL. with no loss in speed or service.

The argument against running their data centres is, I think, short lived, I can easily see Google’s ideas for collecting power via a satellite and beaming it to earth as viable, and Elon Musks idea of space data centres equally as exciting, and viable.

So Google is it, My last Mac is in front of me. And I hope it will last at least a year of more, so will my iPhone 15, although I might be tempted with the Pixel 10 when the new 11 comes out.

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