Tag Archives: Email

Technology

Life Inside Apple’s Walled Garden

2 Comments

For many years now, I have been a firm believer in having a cohesive, seamless technological experience. I don’t like mixing technologies/products from different ecosystems, as they never work as well. For many years, I had heavily invested in Microsoft’s ecosystem and products. When Windows Mobile croaked, I had to make a decision and I went with Apple. Since then, I have moved almost all of my services to Apple’s ecosystem & am enjoying the comforts of Apple’s Walled Garden.

To lock myself completely in this garden, I also had to move all my family members inside it. Over many years, I was successful in doing so. Below is how life is like, living inside Apple’s Walled Garden:

Apple's Walled Garden
Apple’s Walled Garden, PC: Macstories

What?

FunctionProductComments
Email/
Calendar/
Reminders		iCloud+ Custom domains are supported. Email works very well (on Apple devices). AirDrop is useful for sending larger files.

Calendar supports shared calendars.

Reminders supports shared reminders.
Desktop OSmacOSWorks very well with Apple services. The M1 Macs are very fast and energy efficient.
Mobile/Tablet OSiOS/iPadOS
Photo StorageiCloud+HEIF format used by Apple results in efficient storage of photos and allows lossless editing.
Photo SharingiCloud Shared PhotosWorks very well. I share photos to my family; they can comment/like. Is like a private Social Network.
ProductivityPages/Numbers/Keynotes
Cloud StorageiCloud+I wish they had a tier between 200Gb and 2Tb.
Instant MessagingiMessageVery well refined ; I now use it exclusively & have a lot of fun playing games inside iMessage apps.
Music StreamingApple MusicCurrently unbeatable with the introduction of Spatial & Lossless Audio.
Movies (Buy/Rent)iTunesLarge collection of movies available, especially in 4K HDR.
Maps/NavigationApple MapsNot as good as Google Maps, but at least they don’t track my movements.
Audio/Video CallingFacetimeUnparalleled quality, supports Spatial audio and Memojis.
BrowserSafariVery fast & responsive .
NotesApple NotesFunctional, supports sharing notes with family.
Password ManagementiCloud PasswordsCan detect and alert user to compromised passwords. Also has a TOTP generator.
HealthApple HealthVery intuitive and supports data inputs from a huge range of apps and services.
Home AutomationHomekitLarge number of Homekit devices available on the market. They all work seamlessly without separate apps.
My Walled Garden

It does take a decent amount of money to enter this walled garden, but once you’re in, the recurring costs are not high. Most of their services are decently priced (and can be shared with family) and devices last for years and have a decent resale value.

Rant, Work

A note on Work-life balance

10 Comments

Some people take work too seriously. I regularly see people (especially in South East Asia) living, breathing, eating and sleeping work. It’s so bad that there’s no semblance of work-life balance at all.

Here’s a typical day for some of these people:

  • Check work email and teams (Online 24×7) messages when you wake up for a few minutes in the middle of sleep during the night.
  • Wake up in the morning, check teams messages first thing, reply to emails
  • Get ready and go to work, glue yourself to the computer
  • Go out for lunch. Check teams messages and emails all the time, discuss work related things with colleagues
  • Go back to work, glue yourself to the computer
  • Go out for dinner. Check teams messages and emails all the time, discuss work related things with colleagues
  • Leave work at 8, check teams chats and emails during the commute home
  • Take calls from home till 11
  • Go to bed, check teams chats and emails on the phone when in bed
  • Work from home on the weekends
  • Miss your colleagues during holidays, so come to office any way on your holidays
  • Wash, rinse and repeat
Work Life Balance
PC: Pinterest

I fail to understand how (or why) some people give their entire life to work with no regards to their health, personal/family time or hobbies. I have been through such (short) phases a few times in my life, too and have come out suffering mentally every time. This makes me wonder even more how some people do this day after day, year after year.

Now, I don’t care too much if such people don’t have care for work-life balance, don’t have hobbies or don’t have friends outside work. I don’t care that for them their entire life revolves around work. But I do start caring when this behaviour becomes the norm at an organization and people expect the same from you.

For me, I am paid a salary and in return, I work. It doesn’t mean that I am not motivated at all, I always try to give the best I can, but I prefer to draw clear boundaries between work and leisure.

I don’t have Teams or work Email configured on my personal phone. If there’s something urgent, they will call me. Unlike the above people, I also do my best to give 100% during the 8 hours I am actually working, I don’t stand around with my colleagues and gossip. Also, I don’t want to see work colleagues at all outside work hours or on weekends. I have a separate social circle for those times.

I am acutely aware that my way of working is not the norm anymore; thankfully I am in a position where I can get away with it.

As a great man said once “Work is work, life is life”. Ironically, he was a workaholic, himself, who later burnt out.