This year I’m doing my best to boost AAPL. In the recent weeks, I’ve picked up the Watch with a black leather loop and blue sport band. I’ve also gotten the latest refresh of the Retina MacBook Pro 15″. I wanted to get back to having a Mac as my main computer, and while I almost went with a Mac Mini, decided it was better to have a mobile option. The main purpose is to work on this blog more, and also support a side project I’m working on.

My thoughts on the Apple Watch – I agree with what most of the respected tech reviewers have said: the device isn’t a must-have, but has definitely become useful. A couple of my favorite uses: Activity monitoring, timer setting when cooking, remote camera action, and quickly reviewing and dismissing or acting on notifications. There are some annoying bugs, though, with how iMessages handles message queueing. But it’s a version 1 device…

The new rMBP is great. I’m in love with the screen. It’s one of those things where I now hate working on anything else – such as my work laptop. I’m also rediscovering how I hate Windows.