A Return to the Apple Harvest

After a three year hiatus, I’m trying to get back in the habit of writing again. My blogging output has been almost non-existent since I moved back to Prague in March 2019. I’ve published a couple of posts on my Prague blog, one on my business blog but this site has remained fallow since February 2019! 

You’d expect that having spent the best part of three years living alone and in and out of lockdown there would have been plenty of time to indulge me. After all, it’s not as if technology stood still even though many other things were put on hold. But, back in full-time employment in Prague after a year’s absence, I had plenty of things on my plate and my blogs fell down to the bottom of the backlog.

Picking up after such a long time, it’s difficult to know where to start. So much has changed in both the Apple ecosystem and the world at large. I expected to be back in Prague until the end of 2019 but the contract went so well that I was offered an additional year. I went home in March 2020 for my birthday weekend, and two days after my return to Prague we went into total lockdown. The opportunities to return to the UK were few and far between then and now although finally, things seem to be getting better. The unexpected outcome of the lockdown is how much new kit I’ve acquired (and how the heck I’m going to get it all home when I finally leave!)

The Apple Harvest in Prague - 2020-22

Like many potential readers of this blog I have made the transition to Apple Silicon and bought my first ever Mac Mini. I’ll write a separate post about that experience and how it came about. I’ve also swapped out my Apple Magic Keyboard and mouse and now use the Logitech MX Keys and MX Anywhere 3 mouse as my main input devices. I’ve become a big fan of other input devices, namely the Elgato Stream Deck and most recently the Xencelabs Quick Keys device. 

Having spent most of the last two years working from my apartment there are a few other devices that I’ve acquired to make the experience as comfortable as possible. One is a light bar, another is the Twelve South HoverBar Duo for my iPad Pro. 

With so many new devices and the limited ports available on the original M1 devices a new hub became an essential to compliment my i-tec Thunderbolt 3 docking station. The CalDigit TB4 Element Hub fitted the bill perfectly. 

I’ve also become a convert to HomeKit. My home in the UK has been ‘smart’ since I installed a complete Hive control system but that was primarily driven by Alexa. When Hive announced that their systems would now be compatible with HomeKit I decided to go down that road here in the apartment in Prague. I’ve had plenty of fun with that which I’ll share in due course.

My Apple Watch helped me focus on my health during the dark days of lockdown when, initially, we weren’t even supposed to go more than 500 meters from your door. I recently upgraded to the Apple Watch 7 which finally ticks all the boxes. It’s amazing how far this product has changed from the Series 0 which I started off with. 

Music and video have been a mainstay and I was thankful that I packed my HomePod and Apple TV when I first came back. These were joined by a HomePod mini which sits in my bedroom and helps control the smart home. 

I upgraded my iPhone from the X to the 12 Pro, indulged myself with a pair of AirPods Max, and fell foul of the curse of the AirPods Pro but with a happy ending. 

I’ve also had some interesting experiences with mass storage, including a catastrophic disk failure on my last visit back to the UK in September 2021 which highlighted the importance of a robust backup strategy.

Hopefully, that’ll be enough to whet your appetites. Next time I’ll explain the reasoning behind buying the M1 Mac mini along with my new dilemma of what next!