Well, its dark a lot, but it is really dark in the morning. I decided to start writing again. I am sure you both are thrilled. (Again, self flattery).

After some weeks of running iOS 13 and Mac OS Catalina, all I can say is “meh.”

There just isn’t anything to get too excited about for me. There are not really useful features that wow me. Sidecar is okay, but I wish it was a little more intuitive. Dark mode is goos with some apps, and not good with others. But the hype about it is over the top.

I have almost completely switched to my 2 iPad Pros for work. I don’t really use my laptop. My firm has some crazy restrictions on using the Mac’s native email client on Mac OS, so these are my main drivers for communication. They are nice machines. I can’t say that the typing experience on the Apple “Folio” keyboard is great; it isn’t. However, it isn’t awful and it isn’t heavy. My second Pro, a 2d generation, sports a Logitech keyboard that is fabulous, and connects to the connector and has lights, but it is pretty heavy. I do think that the 2d gen. Apple Pencil is really terrific. It is just a lot better than the first gen.

I have also gone to Mac Minis both at home and at work. I don’t need great monitors, but I want two of them. I can get more bang for my buck with the Mini. As I steam toward retirement, the “bang for the buck” thought seems to crop up more and more.

Finally, I have been a loyal Dropbox user for years. I still like the functionality better than Box. I don’t like the fact that my “stuff” is on someone else’s server. I don’t like the pricing, and I don’t like the way sharing has become a sales pitch for Dropbox. Enter my Synology NAS. The ability to host my own files, share them and sync them seems really appealing. There is also a note capability, more like Bear than Evernote. I had been an Evernote devotee until it just became too busy. I switched to Bear. The Synology DS Note, mimic’s Bear.

Now here is the thing: this is all in my house, so I have that to worry about. But for now, I am testing.