Apple Macbook Air 3 months on

It is now 3 months since I purchased and started to us my Apple Macbook Air with the M2 Chip and with the Ventura Operating system which at the time of writing, 19 May 2023 is version 13.4.  So I thought I would give another update on my thoughts about it.

This is the first laptop that when it arrived did not come with any additional bloatware.  Bloatware is stuff on the desktop, that often hides most of the desktop and comes from the manufacturer (I have experienced) which frankly makes it unusable and the only real solution that I ever found fully works was to re-install Windows, for that is what it was on, with a clean install and start all over again.  Having to do the clean install, means that you spend hours setting things up which means you can't really start using it right away as you should be able to do so.  

With the above, this is also the first laptop where I have not felt the need to change anything to feel comfortable with it.  Comfort of use is important for me as I really don't have the time to make changes to make the system comfortable to use,  I really just want to get on and use it, which I have found that I have been able to use. 

With the hardware,  I have found it to been speedy and able to do all the tasks that I want it to do without any stress at all.  I am really impressed with the M2 Chip and have found that the 8gb of memory more than enough.  As it does not have a fan inside, as most, if not all other laptops seem to have, the only sound that you get from it is the sound of the keys as you type. I have not used the touch pad much, as I like to use a mouse, when I have done so it is good, but I can not honestly compare it with other touch pads as I have explained.

Connecting the printer, the one I use is an HP, one was very easy via the wireless connection and I have found that the printer responds quicker for requests for printing than it did when I have used other laptops in the past. 

I have had to learn about connecting Bluetooth devices,  like for example the mouse and my mobile telephone.  This is not something I had used regularly before which I do now and now that I have made the connection it is no longer a problem.  I did see on websites, that if you do not have another Apple made device there is a slight difficulty with compatibility because Apple wants to make sure it wont harm your device.

Visually it is great, the display I can not fault and watching TV programmes or videos very good and the built in camera is also very good.  The sound quality is the best I have had.

I did struggle with the keyboard at first, now 3 months later, I struggle when I have to go back to using another keyboard as this one seems so easy to use.  I do really like that they keyboard can be lit from under it as that helped me to find my way around as I could see each individual key.

Ventura

Ventura is the current Operation System for the Mac based computing systems and is now on version 3.4 as it was just updated.  The updating of the system is something that I think could be explained better,  as Microsoft Windows tells you what it is doing as it goes along.  It is quite a worry if like me you are a new user and not used to how things are done when the screen goes black and there isn't an explanation as to what is happening.  Having said that I have set things to automatic updating and once they are available the updates are completed in less time than I have experienced with Windows updates.

Using Ventura is very easy and I really like it.  I like the "dock" where you most used things are and you can add or remove things if you don't use them.  The only things that I have added have been my office application and security. 

I have another internet web browser installed,  I rarely use it because I really like Safari which is the pre-installed web browser.  In yet another first it is the only pre-install web browser that I have continued to use without switching to another one.

3 Month Conclusion

You could get a far cheaper laptop than this one and there are plenty of them about.  You can also get lap tops within the same price range if you really wanted to do so.  I continue to look to see if I have made the correct choice and I always come back to the conclusion that I have done so.  Okay I had to use my savings to buy this one, these I am building up again so it really wasn't that much of hardship at the time and what are savings for ?  

For me the most striking thing that I have found is that I have not wanted to change anything, not the hardware or software.  Yes I have deleted some things I do not use and will never use to clear up disk space although looking at it I really didn't need to do that as I have plenty left over unused.

Before I got this, I did ask other users about their experiences with Mac and other Apple products and each one said two things, the were expensive  and yet they were worth the money as they were very very good.  I did not hear a single negative comment and 3 months on I can not give a single negative comment either and that is my 3 month conclusion. 

Thoughts on the Coronation of King Charles & Queen Camilla 6 May 2023

 I have seen many, many thousands of words written and probably as many tweets about the Coronation of their Majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla on Saturday 6 May 2023.  These have been in the range of stupid, nasty, ill-informed, to oaky, to complete "royalist",  and those who are making political points.  None of these views expressed have as yet (as far as I have seen) made the point that we are able to make these, because we live in a democracy and if we were to live else where we would not have been able to have done so. 

Some have made the point about spending so much money on the coronation at a time of inflation and the current term emotional term "crisis".  In 1953,  for people in Britain things weren't much better and the nation was still recovering from the war which had only ended 8 years before. There was also a Conservative Government, so there is a symmetry here.  The greatest differences since then have really been in technology which means most, if not all people now have a television which is in colour and they can watch it the coronation easily which was not the case back then.  Another thing that would have been impossible back then is that this coronation could be seen by billions across the world live, when in 1953 they would have only seen it when the news reels got to them, days or even weeks later.  Technology has also made it possible for people to comment instantly one way or another.

Although I have only seen the news reports I believe there were protests against the Coronation and that the Police may have acted very harshly to those making the protests.  If, this is the case and I have no reason (at this time) to believe otherwise then this needs to be investigated fully and the Police need to explain things.  I have no other view on this other to say I that I believe that it is correct that peaceful demonstrations  should be allowed at all times in a democracy and I stress PEACEFUL  here.

I have seen comments about Penny Mordaunt who is a Conservative MP and who carried the Sword of State and then the Sword of Offering during the coronation.  She was doing this not as a member of a poltical party but in her role as Lord President of the Privy Seal and yes she looked nice and did her duties very well.  On the Isle of Man the Sword of State is carried on our national day so it was a familiar thing for us.

I have also seen comments about the Conservative Prime Minister who read, what was confusingly called a lesson and whose religion is not the same as the "Church of England".  As far as I understand the Prime Minster at the time of the coronation of the monarch has a role in it so that was not unusual either. 

Queen Camilla

From what we know,  the Queen as she is now known never believed she would be Queen and even less than 25 years ago perhaps no one would have wanted her to be.  Some people have made comments about her smiling through out,  looking at her I thought she was calm, but nervous and thought that the smile was an outer reflection of the inner nerves.  Further to this, if you look up Wikipedia you will see just how much she does for charities that goes un-noticed.  I further looked back at the last time there was a Queen to a King, that was the King's grand mother and it is very clear that they both played a supporting role, not a major role in the coronation. 

King Charles

The King came to be our King at the death of his mother our Queen Elizabeth 2, during the months since then his every move has been analysed and commented upon.  Comments have been made about his facial expression and about him seemingly being ill at ease and grumpy.  I looked and compared this with the Queen during her coronation 70 years ago, she had the same expression on her face.  I thought the King was wonderful through-out the whole thing and I really don't know how he could have done any better.  His vow to serve, not be served was something his mother did and he was carrying on that tradition. 

The Service

I was fascinated by the service and how closely it resembled the "coronations" of the rulers of Ancient Egypt, although the historical record from those times isn't that clear about any coronation,  yet the ruler made vows to The Holy Greatest Father Amun Ra to up hold maat and to serve the people.  They were given the symbols of statehood which are shown on the thousands of statues through out Egypt as it is now known and accepted their role was as being both head of state and of the theocracy as well.  

I did find the service over long and boring and thought the head priest took a greater prominence than they should have done and I thought a few times, they are making it about them not the King and Queen.  I didn't see the need for the inclusion of another service (mass?) within the coronation as this could have been done privately or at a later time.  I thought the additional asking for everyone to swear allegiance to the king unnecessary.

The Coronation

I again was struck as to how similar this was to all coronations throughout history.  I did understand the symbolism of the robes and everything during it.  To me the King acted with humility and great dignity throughout. I did have a tear in my eye when I saw the actual moment of the placing of the crown on the head of the King as this really marked the end of the Second Elizabethan age and the start of the new Carolean age.  Another emotional moment for me was when the Prince of Wales then came and swore to allegiance to the king and then kissed the King in a moment of tenderness and the thank you from the king to his son was perhaps the most wonderful part of the whole thing.

The coronation of the Queen was a far shorter and simpler moment of history as befitted her role.  I thought once more she acted with great dignity knowing at that moment her life was changed forever and her name would go down in history. 

Overall

This was the first Coronation that I have seen,  I doubt that I shall see another.  It was a moment of history, not only for the nation (Isle of Man) and for me/us on a very personal level.  It is a requirement of maat that we accept the head of state, not without question and only as long as they act with maat. I believe that the King will do so.  Apart from the very confusing religious parts which dragged on,  I was quite spell bound by what I saw.  

Having watched the inaugurations of Presidents of both the USA and France I was struck on how similar they were to the Coronation, with their pomp and everything else.  

Honestly, I never thought I would have ever found it such an emotional experience to watch and that I would only view it as history.  It was an emotional experience, which I can not fully explain and I am sure I am not the only one who felt that.  

I have just written this from a personal view point not from any other.  I am glad I watched it along side my wife as we both had a similar experience.  

YOUR MAJESTY KING CHARLES 

YOUR MAJESTY QUEEN CAMILLA

LORD AND LADY OF MAN 

With humility we acknowledge you as head of state on the Horus Throne 

Apple Mac AirBook with M2 chip and Ventura OS. My thoughts 1 month on

 It is now a month since I wrote about my using the Apple AirBook with the M2 Chip in - I should have said that it has 256 GB of storage as it is now known and 8GB of Memory and cost £1,249:00 to buy. 

A month ago I was just getting used to it, yet even then the conclusion was that I loved it and  I thought it was really worth paying the extra for it.  So do I still think the same way. 

Now having had the chance to use it every day, it still is nicer to use than any Windows Laptop that I have used and now I am have un-windowed myself I actually prefer the keyboard settings and the design of it. Yes I am still not quite as instinctive as I was with a windows keyboard, then I have been using one of those for years and this is just a month of daily use.  

I wrote that I liked the touch pad and it was very responsive and easy to use, I still do, but I use a mouse which is connected via bluetooth (which was easy to do) as I like the feel and control of the mouse that I have.

I have found the display a lot better and I am able to continue to work for longer than I was ever able to do with other hardware that I have used in the past.  This is both a good thing and a bad thing, good in that it means that you can get more things done, bad in that as we all know it is good to/important to take breaks away from the screen regularly.

The M2 chip is a delight speed wise and the storage is more than enough, checking I still have over 200GBs left of useable space.  I say useable space, because as with all Operating System they use up some of the space to work, here the OS and system data are taking up about 24 GB combined. 

Battery use is very good and you can make it better by adjusting things.  I have not noticed any real difference when I using just on Battery or on mains apart from the usual powering down to save on battery is less than on mains  which is expected.

Ventura as an operating system still impresses me with its niceness, I know some will think it is a silly thing to say, but it is nice to use.  I still find myself having to look at wear things go, that is okay as it means I am learning.  I really love the Calendar and the weather applications,  both are easy to use and the weather application is very accurate now that I have set to where I live. 

I did find it frustrating at first to be able use applications not found in the application store as there was always a warning about them.  As I use them all the time this is no longer the case.  Deleting applications is still something I don't like having to go through the hoops to do and Windows is far is easy to do.  In-fairness it has only been a month and in time I'll possibly not have this problem.

During the month I changed my Android mobile telephone for a new one and while to process of using bluetooth is the same, it seems to have slowed down after this when downloading photographs to the AirBook. I don't know if this is the fault of the telephone or what,  I kind of think that if I had gone for an iPhone I wouldn't have had this problem.

I am still using Safari, the built in browser as my main browser and still wish I could have Ublock and Facebook purity able to use as I really like these things.  I have now had a chance to see the difference between the Edge browser which comes pre-installed with Windows and this and while you are able to use Ublock and Facebook Purity,  Safari is in my opinion a better browser within an operating system.  I have gone for other browsers as a back up, without transferring all the sensitive passwords across as you shouldn't for security reasons,  I hardly use them as for everything that annoys me about Safari I do really like it.

In the month that has passed I have had one major slip in that I lost, probably deleted, something I was working on and couldn't recover it as stupidly I had not done a back up.  That has been the only thing that has gone wrong.

So

One month into using a Windows Laptop I would have changed most of it by now.  One month on using the system I have now, I have changed nothing apart from adding my office application and making adjustment that I need as far as display settings.  

If you are on a very tight budget and don't use a laptop as your main item for communication and work related things and social media then a Windows Laptop is probably the best solution for you.  The thing to remember is that Windows Laptops are cheap and their second hand value means that you are unlikely to get more than 10% of what you pay for it back.  If you are okay with that then go with that. 

I do believe however that even with the extra cost involved and you can get monthly payment schemes if you need to do so, that the Apple MacBook Air is the better option.  You can go even higher and get the MacBook Pro version, yet for most users I think the difference between the two may not be worthwhile.  Apple products are well know for having a good resell value and that is another reason why I am suggesting getting one.

Taking all things into account I have liked my first month of using things I find it hard not to use the word love, because that really is the word that sums it up.  

Would I recommend one to another, most certainly without hesitation.  I will update this in another couple of months when I have had 3 months use of it to see if I still feel the same.

Safari internet browser - a personal review

 Safari is the internet browser that come pre-installed on Apple operating systems including the latest version Ventura.  

It is not unusual for operating systems to come with an internet browser, Windows for example used to come with Internet Explorer, which many of us probably used first of if we used windows and now comes with Edge.  I know that various Linux operating systems come with Firefox pre-installed.  There are a lot of benefits to having one pre-installed as it means that we can quickly go on line either to change our browser choice or for other things we want to do.  

I do not know the history of internet browsers on other systems only that as far as I am aware, Firefox was the first to offer an alternative to Internet Explorer as I chose to use it as my browser and I remember the excitement of having a different browser to use.  Since the choice of browsers has grown, with Google Chrome and Chrome based browser now dominating this area and more recently browsers like Brave and now DuckDuckgo offer a greater deal of privacy (we are told) than other browsers do. 

I first came across Safari when it was available on Windows and I really liked it then and would have continued to use if it had not been taken off that Operating System. So that was the last time I used it and since then Firefox has mainly been my browser of choice until Brave. 

What I dislike about Safari is that I can not as yet use Facebook Purity or Ublock Origin for twitter trending and on some sites there is more adverts than page to view.  With the latter there may be a way of stopping those, but I have not found it yet.  These are the only real negatives that I can think of.

What I like is that it is fast and pages load quickly.  You can bookmark easily and can ask it to remember passwords and it reminds you if you have used the same password on different sites. You can clear your history if you want to, but it will remember your history and date it which comes in handy if you've visited a site and can't remember what it is called as I could not the other day.  You can open it in a Private window if you wish to do so, say for a payment transaction. There is also a very helpful Help if that makes sense.  

Safari comes with the now expected, open where you left off or at the home page which you can set either with a web page of choice or the Safari Start Page, which I like as all your favourites sites are there and I find this useful.  As with many other browsers the Start Page is customisable  to suit you. 

There is the usual choice of search engines to use, Safari by default uses DuckDuckgo (on Ventura) which is as good as any, but sometimes I like to use Google as that is perhaps the best. 

You can have as many or as few tabs open as you want at one time.  Unless I am switching when copying and pasting I only have one open and in honesty we can only really read one web page at a time. 

While I do have another browser installed, I hardly ever use it, because I really like Safari for all of the minor complaints I have about it, it does a great job and really that is all I ask of any browser.  For all of the reasons I have stated here I would recommend using it as your default browser and yes I do really like it.

Having checked I know that Safari is available across all hardware that has IOS installed, like iPhones and iPads. 

On choosing a new Mobile telephone or Cell Phone as it is also known as

 I have recently treated myself to a new Laptop, a Macbook Air M2 which I really love and is proving to be for me the best that I have had.  This made me think of getting an iPhone so I could link the two together and because our present mobile phones were over two years old, I thought why not get two and replace them both.  I knew that the iPhone would not be cheap, as my Laptop was not cheap so I looked on the official Apple web site at all the models and after comparing them all, The iPhone SE 64GB at £449:00 seemed to be the best suited for our needs and it was getting very good reviews everywhere I looked.  However that would mean for two of them it would mean a total of nearly £1,000 or exactly £898:00 which was just £101:00 less than an AirBook with the M1 chip and that is a lot of money to spend on something that you carry around and that is before you consider the additional costs of Data usage or just sim card usage. So I decided as much I would love to be able to justify the spend could I really do so? 

LOOK AT YOUR TELEPHONE BILL

I wonder if you like me just accept your telephone bill each month and pay what is due?  I looked at it and realised that I had done a monthly payment plan for our two telephones along with the sim plan in 2019 about the same time when we changed our broadband. What this meant was, when I looked at the price of our telephone now we had paid out over the time more than the telephone is actually worth! It was quite a shock to realise that.  

LOOK AT THE THE TARRIF VERSES THE COST OF PAYING FOR THE TELEPHONE OUT RIGHT

You may well be in for quite a shock when you do this and you need to look at all the Tariff plans cost per month particularly if they include data and over what period that package is. 

Having done this, you might concluded it is better for you to pay for the phone outright and then get a SIM only deal which I found out does work out cheaper (or did for me). Ask yourself do I really need any data or do I just need to use my telephone for calls and texting while I am out.  If you have unlimited broadband at home, you can connect you phone to the internet should you need to do so at no extra cost as I do. 

LOOK AT WHAT YOU REALLY NEED YOUR TELEPHONE TO DO AND IS THERE ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE THAT WILL DO THE SAME THING CHEAPER

All mobile telephones will connect to the internet and all will make telephone calls and will let you text message, all have a camera of sorts on them and various applications for video and games it you need and you can download other things if you really need to use them as well. 

If you really want to stick with Apple then you have a limited range to chose from.  Even here if you check you might get an older model like the iPhone 12 which still works and can be updated you just need to check.  I would only say one thing, get them from an officially recognised Apple Approved retailer so if anything does go wrong then you have a direct point of contact. 

If however, you are not stuck on getting an iPhone then there is a vast range of companies that do mobile telephones using the Android system, which you may be more familiar with if you have a mobile already. With so much choice, they can vary in quality so that is something be aware of.  The most well know in this sector are possibly Google and Samsung as well as others like Sony who are also known to many people. These I found out are most often pushed on websites suggestions about the best mobile telephones.  Some sites are honest enough to state, that they may be paid if you take up their suggestions others I have found are not so up front with this information.  

With regard to the best sites and the review sites, it is worth remembering that these are only recommendations based on the reviewer's own preferences and may not be suitable for what you want.  

SHOPPING ON LINE MIGHT NOT BE THE CHEAPEST WAY

People think that shopping on line is often the cheapest way of getting things and sometimes it is. When getting a new mobile it might not be so as there might be hidden costs involved, like postage for example and what happens if there is a fault with the item, will you have to bear the cost of returning the item.  

If some thing is at a price that seems too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

GO TO YOU LOCAL TELECOM SHOP OR MOBILE TELEPHONE SHOP WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN BEFORE

If you have been a customer of a local Telecom Shop and still are with your present contract it is worth while going to the shop, because what they have on line might not be the only mobile telephones they have.  It is only natural that they want you have the latest items and this will be prominent on their website,  there is nothing wrong with that as many people want names they know and the latest version. 

When we first went to our local shop I discovered 3 telephones that were not on their web site and weren't given pride of place on display.  One I thought was very good and to me the specifications weren't that much different to the iPhone although it was just £119:00 which meant two of them would still be less than what we paid for one iPhone.  Rather than rushing in and getting them then and there we came home and looked on line to see if we could find any information about the maker of the phone and mostly what we found out was that it a good company and their phones were considered to be generally of good quality. 

When we returned to the shop a few days later, we said to the person who served us that we wanted to buy the telephone and would like 2 of them. After he had checked on the stock, he returned and said I don't have two of the 64GB phones in, but they sent us 128GB by mistake in black which since you are buying two of them you can have at the same price as the 64GB phone, which we were only too pleased to do. And agreed to continue with our SIM only plan, which meant that our monthly outing has reduced as a direct result. 

So the lesson here is by going to your local shop you not only get to see the phone, but you might get lucky as we did and get a real bargain !

Your local shop, should be able to transfer your data and settings for you free of charge, if they want to charge you, then if you have the internet at home you can do it quite easily by following the instructions for your new phone set up on line.  While they did one telephone for us, I was able to the other telephone and I am not that technically minded and I found it easy to do so without a hitch. 

TO SUM UP

1) Check your contract is it coming close to the end or has it ended and you've not been told

2) Go to the settings on your telephone and see what model it is and when it was made, it might be older than you think 

3) See how much you have paid out for your telephone, is it more than its present value, hint it probably is.

4) Really think about what you need from your phone, do you just need to take photographs, text message and make telephone calls.  Do you really need mobile internet or do you use the internet mainly at home?

5) Fix a price that you want to and are able to pay for a new telephone if you were able to pay for it right out. Would the price of a monthly plan exceed that price even if it was just for a SIM only plan. 

6) Do some research on line remembering that the big names are not the only ones to look at as there might be other brands that do what you want at a far cheaper price.

7) Go and see a range of mobile telephones in your local telephone shop and yes ask questions. Remember the person you are asking the questions may have a personal preference or may be on a commission or have a target to reach.  

8) Don't rush into buying things as you might regret doing so if you do.

9) REMEMBER IT IS REALLY A PERSONAL MATTER OF CHOICE - YOUR CHOICE AND AS IT WILL BE YOU USING THE TELEPHONE NOT ANOTHER.

Our son had been saying to us for the last few years that we were silly paying monthly for our mobiles and that we could save money by buying the phone and going SIM only and I really that was a bad idea, now I see he was correct. By really looking around you can find a telephone that will do the same job, everything you want and cheaper without a lack in quality than the big brands.  This is the lesson we have learnt and I hope that may be one person will look at this and think I could do the same. 

As a foot note to this, we showed our son the telephone and he said we had made a good choice for the price of the telephone and what we wanted from one and we should keep the old telephone as it still works as a back up which were are doing - so that is an extra tip for you.

APPLE VENTURA 13.2.1OS Personal thoughts on it

I have now been using Ventura for about 3 weeks now. The version I have installed is numbered 13.2.1 as I have already had updates, firstly from the pervious Monterey which was installed on my MacBook Air  when I purchased it and really didn't get a chance to see what that was like.  

As far as I am aware Apple Macs of all types come with a version of the Apple Operating System already installed and the newer the hardware then the newer the system installed will be. The same with Windows PCs or other types of hardware makers will have their own Operating Systems on them. There are many reasons for this and this is not the blog to go into details about the whys and wherefores, this is the case. 

Perhaps the first thing you notice about Ventura is how different is to Windows, which takes some getting used to at first, then it all makes sense and I have found it didn't take long to get used to.  If you are using Windows 11 then you will be quite familiar with the "dock" which is where your most used applications are placed for easy access.  You can add or takes things away as required. As you open things to use they will appear on there and if you use them regularly, like for example Libre Office as I do it is a good idea to leave them there.  Only Finder, Launch Pad, System Settings and Bin can not be removed from the dock and there is no why you should really want to do so as they are very useful things to have such quick access to.  

Another big difference to windows is that rather than having to date, wireless, battery and power options along the bottom, these are at the top of the screen and are hidden if you use an application in full screen mode.  I like this as it means that you don't accidentally change a setting while doing other things as I have done so in the past. You can easily access these things should you need to do so, by moving the cursor to the top and it will drop down slightly so you can see them.  If you need to bookmark a page quickly you can also do so, by moving the cursor to the lefthand side where a panel will open with your bookmarks in and it that way, so you have two ways of doing so. 

 Setting up my printer was easy and while it was a bit more of a problem to find out how to connect with Bluetooth, once I found out how to do so it was okay and now using it, it is far quicker than the connection I had on Windows.  Connecting the wireless was also very easy and I had no problems at all doing so. 

Ventura does come with what I suppose we could call an office type application, it is not all in one place and called very different things.  Pages is similar, to Word and you can use it as such as it also comes with many different templates,  there is also Keynote and Freeform, which from what I can gather are similar to things in Microsoft Office, which I have never used apart from when doing a course many years ago, so can't really make a judgement on them.  If you really need to use Microsoft Office then it is available in the application store (AppStore) or you can get it directly from Microsoft or through the official Apple website.  I only use Libre Office and while it is not official recognised by Apple it works works well and I am certain will be soon (or I hope so). 

On the subject of Applications,  I hate the word Apps as it is lazy,  Apple is very security conscious and so they have to be approved by them to be added to the Application (App)Store, so they don't contain any nasty surprises.  You can down load things from outside the store as I have, you will be reminded that they've not been approved and asked if you really want to do so.  The only time I have found this to be a problem is when I used UMark watermarking software which I had done so on Windows as a free version, it stopped working after the trial version ended and tried to force me into buying the Professional version which I didn't want as I don't use it that often enough to warrant the cost. 

I would suggest that if you are used to using Windows as I am that it is worth investing in book guide and the one I would recommend is Teach yourself Visually MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, by Guy Hart-Davis.  I have the 6th Addition which while slightly out of date as it was publish before Ventura was out, it still is invaluable as there isn't a great deal of difference in the Operating Systems that make it redundant.  WH Smiths also have The macOS Ventura Manual 2023 in stock, or did and I also got that for reference.  

CONCLUSION

In the time that I have used Ventura,  I have found it to be great,  I  love it and the more I use it, the more I understand it and the better it becomes.  I really think that those behind it have thought about the people who will use it not what they think that people will use it for.  The inbuilt help is great as is the online help from Apple, by far the best that I have ever seen before.  I actually like the extra layers of security that are built in.  While I can use alternative browsers, I am using Safari most of the time, because it is that good and in my experience far better than most other browsers.  Generally, I have found it relaxing to use with very few frustrations and even the system updates (which I have experienced one of) are quick.  Personally I have been able to fault it on anything that does or that I have tried to do with it.  

I can not say what it would be like on other hardware, in fact I do not know if it is available on other hardware.  On the Mac hardware which it comes from it is a perfect match.  

One final thought don't try to turn Ventura into Windows, because you are used to using Windows, as I did at first, forget Windows and just enjoy Ventura as Ventura. 

APPLE MacBook Air M2 my review

 In January this year, 2023, it was suggested to me by my wife that I might like and iPad, which is not something I had considered before and didn't really think I would benefit from having.  However with that suggestion in mind I began to look at the possibility of getting one. 

Research

I began looking at the various iPads, which I thought was the generic name for them, only to discover that that this isn't the case and the generic name for them is Tablets  and there are a vast amount of them made by various companies. There is equally a vast price range as well, from what I could find out by looking at various websites,  the very cheapest for under £100 to the most expensive nearly £900! 

There are really only two main competitors in this market that come top of every list that I could find and they are Samsung, whom I am familiar with due to having a mobile telephone and Apple which I had never used and new little about apart the name. Samsung works using the Android operating system which was developed by Google amongst others and is based on the Linux Kernel. Apple has a different operating system called ISO which is  UNIX like (source of information from wikipedia) and is exclusive them and used across their hardware. 

With this information I further researched as to which was in the opinion and I stress here opinion of most of the trustworthy and perhaps most independent review sites and from my reading of them all it seemed that Apple and the iPad was the best of all of the Tablets, which seemed to make sense as with the little knowledge that I had they seemed to have been doing them the longest. 

Please note that FULL SPECIFICATIONS ARE ON THE OFFICIAL WEBSITES AND IT IS IMPORTANT TO READ THEM. THESE SITES ALSO SHOW YOU THE LATEST ITEMS AND WHAT YOU COULD EXPECT TO PAY.  

Final Choice and why I made it

Having been around various places,  I eventually went to iQ the official Apple reseller on the Isle of Man, where I was guided, not pushed into seeing the difference between the MacBook Air with the M1 chip and the M2 chip and other differences, which can been seen on the official Apple website, however it is best to see them in real life from my experience to fully understand them.  There is a price difference of £250.00 between the M1 & M2, which seems a lot and yes some might bulk at that, but for me personally I thought the additional specifications were worth it for what I would use it for, so I went for the higher priced and better (in my opinion) specifications. 

My thoughts on it

What you get in the box is just the MacBook Air and the mains contection with the lead, which is really only what you need.  

There are various colours that you can get, I think I got Space Grey, whatever that is, probably just a fancy name for a shade of grey!

I have found it really light in weight compared to my previous lap tops and also I estimate about half the depth. 

The build quality is super, it feels solid and while I would not suggest doing so, if you dropped it accidentally, I think it would probably survive without too much damage.

The keyboard while familiar in someways, it is different to the Windows keyboard. The function buttons are in the same place, but  there are control, option and command as well as a fn key as well.  The two other things that take some time to get used to is for the # it is not in the same place, it is beside the number 3 and you have to press option and 3 to use it.  Also the @ is above the number 2 so you have to press the shift key to use.  It doesn't take long to get used to do this.  While making comments about the keyboard, it is really a delight to us, the best I have ever used. 

I am not really someone who likes the touch pads,  this has changed my mind to a certain extent as it is so easy to use and very responsive.  Having said that I did use a wired USBC mouse at first until I purchased a bluetooth one which works a lot better without any lag that I can notice.

The display is super and I have no problems with the clarity of it and I have not suffered from any eye strain.  The slightly smaller (than I am used to using) screen size is more than made up by these things.

There is no noise at all as it doesn't have a fan, nor does it get overheated even after a few hours usage. It is wonderfully responsive and you can do a lot and it just copes.  I think it is the quickest that I have used. 

Final Verdict - Is it worth it

Is it worth it,  for me the answer has to be yes.  Apple have taken great care to design and have built the Mac Book Air and it really shows.  Since my purchase I have looked at other Lap Tops in this price range and while the seem to have everything but the kitchen sink in them,  I really think I would have regretted getting one.  This scores in that it does everything well, without having all the extras, which most of us will never use.  It scores very highly on the portability as well with it being so light. 

Okay slight niggles, but then realistically technical development has moved on in that it doesn't have card reader port for me to use from my camera, but then perhaps I can transfer my pictures from it wirelessly or through bluetooth, I have not tried that yet.  There is always a workaround.

Honestly this is the best laptop I have ever used and I really love it.

I have not included the Operating System in this review, because since I got it, it was updated and I want to do a review on that verses Windows 11.