That being said, Ive been an iPhone user for three years now, and I got an iPad 2 last month and I love the $&@# out of it.

The reason why is that it’s GOOD ENOUGH. It may not have every great feature, it may be mediocre as a phone, and it may be maddening that it doesn’t do some things that it absolutely should, but it’s got enough excellent features to get you by, and there are hundreds of thousands of apps to do thousands of things. The biggest advantageis that you’ll know what you’re getting. For better or worse, iOS runs only on Apple devices, while Android OS is available on many manufacturers’ devices.

I’m not saying it never happens, but it’s fair to say that mac viruses are a rarity.

The Microsoft Office suite on the Mac is a great set of applications, and can exchange documents with the Windows version seamlessly, with no friction whatsoever. If you use Excel, Word and Powerpoint, you can do whatever you need on a Mac.

I am writing this on a Macbook Air–I’ve had it for about six weeks. Light as a feather, up to TEN HOURS of battery life, and stays quite cool. It takes some care to get the most out of it: don’t keep a lot of windows you don’t need open, and install clicktoflash, so that Flash doesn’t run automatically. You’ll notice the difference in power drain (and temperature). The other thing is that with no hard drive, it runs absolutely silently most of the time.

I think it may have required a reboot once in this time–quite stable.

I bought a cheap external DVD drive, but don’t use it much. That’s the only real compromise.

I sold my office desktop as well as the home laptop the Air replaced. It’s so light that even on foot, carrying it back and forth to my office at Agnes Scott is not a hassle.

The Mac vs. PC arguments are usually pretty fruitless and dogmatic, but even the most fervent of Windows people will admit that Apple is a champion of industrial design. And the Air may be the best computer they’ve ever made.

A good digital SLR takes a far better picture than anything built into a phone, but what’s the chance that you have it with you when that “Eye on the Street” opportunity just pops up on you when you are walking home from Twain’s at 11 on a Friday night?

But that trip to the Grand Canyon is going to seem less grand if all your photos are from a 2mb phone.

At heart, a phone camera and a serious camera serve two different functions, and shouldn’t be held to the same standards.

I’ve been an Apple fanboy since the Mac SE, and love my iPhone. But I suggested an Android for my folks. If you’re not already fluent in one or the other, the Android is just plain cheaper. And the iPhone isn’t good at phoning, really.