If I ever win the lottery my first purchase — before either a new car or house neither of which I need or want — will be a maxed out Mac Pro with six Pro Display XDR monitors running at 6K. Then again it might be eight of the same running at 4K. No given the space in my study it would be six at 6K. Two in landscape directly in front of me and the other four in portrait either side.
1 Like
I’d definitely move first to a slightly larger house, buy a nice car.
THEN
I’d get a maxed out Mac Studio with 3 x Studio Displays and 2 or 3 Thunderbolt raid boxes 2 x maxed out for space with SSD drives and the other the same with spinning drives.
THEN I’d be visiting the Lego store
It’d be a very expensive day
1 Like
- Kobo Aura One
- Bose Quiet Comfort headphones
- Dell Monitor (no glare, hooray!)
1 Like
I have all Apple hardware with the exception of two Google minis. I picked them up four or five years ago because they gave better answers than Siri and would respond to follow-up questions.
And they were on sale. 
$60 for 2.
1 Like
- Sonos speakers
- Keychron keyboards
• Logitech mouse
• LG ultra wide monitor
Kindle Paperwhite for ebooks. Lighter and works better outside. Still use my iPad for some books and magazines.
3 Likes
After owning the Series 1 and Series 5 Apple Watches, I switched to a Garmin Venu 3 and can’t see myself going back.
Things I love:
-
Battery life. I wear the Garmin all day, including while asleep, track a walking workout every day, play disc golf once a week, and occasionally do an extra cardio activity on Sundays. I charge it for about 30 minutes once a week or so, usually while I shower. Yes, I take long showers.
-
Activity tracking and metrics. The tracking and metrics are more comprehensive than the Apple Watch, especially for sleep. Plus, coaching programs (e.g., Couch to 5K or training programs for longer races) are built-in, eliminating the need to buy them from the App Store.
-
Garmin Connect. In addition to the iPhone app, I use the Garmin Connect website, where I can review, analyze, export, and manage all my activity and health data.
-
Watch face store. There’s a very active watch face developer community. While many watch faces are ugly or drain the battery too quickly, with many hundreds of faces available, even if 4 out of 5 aren’t great, that still leaves so many interesting, configurable, and affordable (or free) options. I don’t understand Apple’s reluctance in this area.
Things I miss:
-
Apple Health medication reminders. I used to easily check off my medication reminders from my watch.
-
Ring camera snapshots. When our Ring cameras are triggered, I only get notifications on the Garmin, but I have to check my phone for the actual image. I miss seeing snapshots directly on my watch.
In fairness, I feel Garmins are fitness watches with some smartwatch capabilities, while Apple Watches are smartwatches with some fitness features. Just different strokes for different folks.
4 Likes
I used to have a Mac OS Server (a beefed up Mac mini with extra disk drive). It was for years my primary email server. As it was Intel-based and vintage circa 2007 it eventually reached EOL and I have not replaced it … yet.
My current plan is to re-activate my domain name then use a RaspberryPi 5 to run an in-house IMAP server, SpamAssassin, and Sieve. Possibly SquirrelMail for the odd occasion when I need to access my email off-site not that in the intervening years since the demise of the OS Server and now has there been any need to do so. Also to setup a similarly configured RaspberryPi to become a database server (using MariaDB). Likely the DB server will need a web server so that’ll be yet one more RPi5. There are several other services that Mac OS Server provided which I am likely to mimic on a further bunch of Pis. Might even venture as far as a file server offering NFS, SAMBA, etc. I never used LDAP so no need to have a Pi running that.
A Pi-in-the-sky idea is an Asterisk-based PBX also running on a RPi5; principally to block fraudsters trying to scam me. FreePBX runs on Pis but I need to find a suitable FXO to connect the PTSN line to the PBX. I could go with a VoIP provider but why “reant” when I can “own”.
Who knows I might resurrect the OS Server’s hardware to run RaspberryPi Desktop.
1 Like
Exactly the same here.
Also gone with Sonos speakers around the house rather than HomePods
Would LOVE something to replace the Amazon echo in the kitchen though
1 Like
Hadn’t considered speakers. I have a pair of Creative jobbies plugged into my Mac mini.
“… I will not tell anyone but there will be signs”
I hope your second purchase will be 5 gallons of SPF 50 sunblock
1 Like
I imagine you’d go with studio displays instead of Pro Displays to be able to get more Lego from the lottery winnings 
?
(I also realise you might just prefer the smaller size)
I like the thread idea. I don’t feel I can answer in the full spirit since I have both Apple and non-Apple in several categories, so I didn’t exactly make a choice against Apple. My favorite non-Apple thing is the refurb Dell workstations I buy for $200-400 each. Tons of RAM and the ability to go up to 256GB, older Xeons, usually a workstation graphics card that’s about as powerful as an Nvidia XX60 from a couple generations ago. You can do a lot with them.
1 Like
I’ve tried 30” and 32” displays and they’re too large for me.
I currently have 2 x 24” displays at home for work and that’s good, I can open my Dell laptop at any time to add a third (which comes in handy sometimes).
My M1 Mac Mini only supports 1 display, and I don’t have room on my personal desk for 2 monitors anyway.
I’d love to have 3 screens, especially as I’ve won significant money on the Lottery so I’d also retire from work and have time for personal projects. There wouldn’t be a Windows computer in sight. 
3 Likes
My main computer is an M1 mini. But for Windows/travel I use an LG gram. It has a short battery life, but I’m always somewhere where I can plug it in. I have to work with corporate networks which often don’t support Mac well or not at all. Using Jump Desktop at home, the gram runs in one of my Mac Spaces, and that works well. For years I used Intel Apple notebooks and VM Fusion, but it always was a struggle of varying degrees. With ARM Windows computers coming down the pike, M chip Apple notebooks running Parallels may be an option in the future.
For monitors I use two 27 inch 1080 HP displays in a concave (I call it “pseudo curved.”) arrangement. When I upgrade I plan to get higher resolution curved monitors, probably Samsung. The Apple Studio Display is way too expensive and inflexible for me, though I can understand why someone doing specialty work may prefer it.
1 Like
I’ve not directly replaced my iPad (the screen failed after only 11 years) I loved it, but realised whilst it served a number of purposes - it fitted none perfectly. Instead:
- For Notetaking - Supernote Nomad (A6X2) would possibly have gone for A5X2 if iw had been available. The feel of the handwriting and the lack of distractions - make this way more suited
- For Games - SteamDeck (certainly faster than the old iPad) more importantly I only play games when I intend to
- For everything else - when I replaced my phone I went to an iPhone Max
The HomePod (original) does nothing well. I think it also “falls between multiple stools”, a disappointing initial design
- For Music and radio, We are now using Roon throughout the house
- a squeezebox or Raspberry Pi & DAC, into an old hifi - give markedly better sound.
- Roon works well with BBC radio - the HomePod doesn’t (in any fashion that could be described as Smart).
- As a smartHome hub both connectivity and the voice recognition is poor. The AppleTV (especially with a wired connection) is markedly better. Despite setting the AppleTV to being in control HomeKit keeps redefining the HomePod as being in control. I can’t understand why it has trouble distinguishing between “on” and “off”
- We had been using Hoobs to link up non-Homekit devices. We are now transitioning to Home Assistant
1 Like
My only major hardware that I use which I prefer over Apple is my Denon home theatre system with Bose surround speakers. I have some HomePods scattered around the house but I really appreciate high quality sound. The Denon is such great hardware in particular as it supports Atmos and sounds amazing. The upscaling of stereo to 5.1 is also really impressive, especially for old TV shows. I have an AppleTV hooked up, of course, so it is normally being controlled with Apple software.
1 Like
We use a Roon Nucleus for our music server. (The model I have has been discontinued.) At the time that we purchased it—about five or six years ago—it was a better option than the available Apple alternatives, which were either my Mac’s hard drive or a networked Mac mini. The only connection between our hi-fi equipment and our Apple gear is the Roon app on our Macs and iPads.
Do cameras count? These days, I mostly use my iPhone camera as a device for information capture. When I’m out and about, I’ve almost always got my smaller mirrorless camera in my bag to take photographs with.
1 Like
In the same vein, I have Bose Quiet Comfort II wired ear buds. Great sound in a small package. Also don’t think this fits in the categories outlined but I have a 24+ year Bose sound dock and speakers system. Bose wanted to sell me a new set for $10K but I found they also sell a Bose Bluetooth connector $80. So connected that to my existing sound dock via the aux connector and presto! Blue tooth music from my iPhone/ipad through my Bose system. $9,920 saved. Okay - confession. My wife pressed me not to replace the Bose system with HomePods as it still worked perfectly. She won and was right (no surprises there). And for the anti Bose sound system camp, I know the saying “no highs, no lows, must be Bose”. But hey I think the sound is great and infinitely more value than a potential $20K Bang and Olufsen system (even though the design aesthetic and sound is wonderful.
3 Likes