A Family Friend Retired This Week at Age 6

Trade In Your iPhone And More For Cash

We met this friend in June 2006.  We had known his family only slightly since 2005, and heard of him only for a few months when we met.

Actually, he came to live with us in June of that year.

And today he retires…at age 6.

Yep, he’s done.  Ready for pasture, or resale.

You see, I am talking about the first Mac computer we ever owned.  He’s finally been replaced by a whipper snapper of a Mac Mini

The family I am speaking of, of course, is the Apple line of products.  Our “gateway drug” to Apple addiction was a 1st generation iPod Shuffle (we still have it and it still works).

Since then we have owned:

1. a Mac Book Pro (still in use; great computer)
2. another 1st gen iPod shuffle (still works, but is missing the top).
3. 3 iPod nanos (one I won at a DreamForce conference)
4. a 1st gen iPad (won from a vendor through work)
5. a 2nd gen iPad (bought for Mrs. TT)
6. 1 3rd gen iPod
7. 1 2nd gen iPod Touch
8. 1 second hand iPhone 3 (jailbroken and used on T-Mobile by Mrs. TT for 1.5 years) — still used as a repurposed iPod Touch.
9. 1 4th gen iPod Shuffle (reward points purchase).
10. 3 iPhone 4s’s (still in use and better than the day we bought them)

Apple has had a fair bit of my change over the past 7 years.

But I have to confess that while the first Apple item I bought was an iPod Shuffle, the second I bought was Apple stock (in 2005 at $63.90 a share).  I wish I had invested everything I had at that point…we would have a lot more than we do at present if we had.  Few stocks have had as good a run, and certainly few companies as much revenue, as APPL since 2005.

Would I buy the first gen Intel iMac again?  Absolutely.  I have spent a total of 2 hours over the course of 6 years keeping it going.  It has more than returned the dollar value back to me in the form of time.  I’ve paid nothing for anti-virus (didn’t even have anti-virus on it for 5.5 of the 6 plus years), had no support concerns, and paid $29 for the last OS upgrade.

Even more valuable has been how well it has met the demands of Mrs. TT.  She’s one of those magnetic people that fries PCs when she enters a room.  But not this Mac (okay, I jest here, but only a little).

Some of you will read this and add a comment about how you cannot afford Apple hardware, how expensive it is, how much it is just smoke and marketing mirrors.  In all honesty I think your time is more valuable than the difference between the cost of a PC and the cheapest Mac, especially over 6 years of time.

If you would like to see what technology I can recommend, please have a look at this page.

 

by Thad on October 5, 2012 · 4 comments

in apple