Much is made of the halo effect. Whether in the world of Apple, Google or Samsung, users are encouraged to take advantage of the interoperability of the “ecosystem”.
Absolutely!
I sat at my Mac, iPad and phone at my side, Apple Watch on my wrist. My Homepods played in the background, and I took my calls on AirPods. Even my smart bulbs were “made for homekit”.
Don’t tell anyone, but...
Life with home automation by Amazon, phone by Google and computers by everyone is absolutely fine (watch by Timex). For interoperability across the computers (and phone, I guess) apps are the key. What things can I find that allow me to change platform without any stress?
MS Office. Hardest on Linux, but doable through web apps. The restraining factors on Linux? I need to be online and the web apps lack full functionality.
For writing? Markdown. My writing is kept in MD / TXT files on cloud servers. I can use different apps on different machines, or some universal ones - the key is that the files themselves are universal and portable. So, I use Marktext, or IA Writer mostly, although there are plenty more out there.
Notes? Joplin. Free and everywhere.
E-mail, Passwords, Calendar, VPN, Cloud Drive - Proton. EU-based, privacy-centric and works everywhere.
Browser - Vivaldi. EU-based and privacy-focused.
Search. Kagi at the moment. Paid for by monthly fee, not data-harvesting and pages of sponsored search results.
Artificial Intelligence?
Hmmm. Another secret. AI is another mechanism to relocate money from your pocket to somebody else’s. The corporate valuations are nonsense. The functionality is non-existent. I know, I know, it can write e-mails for us. Thing is, we’re all actually managing OK writing our own e-mails.
None of the mighty tech firms can make a reliable digital assistant for basic functions. What makes you think they are on the cusp of providing you with an advanced one? And why would you pay for it upfront?
Moving forward, I’m allergic to reliance. The tech companies are trying to harness Trump to fight regulation, Trump is harnessing the tech companies to prop up his dictatorship. That won’t end well. Some privacy-focused companies will prosper, some will be acquired and some will fail. For consumers wanting to stay safe(r), agility will be the key.
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