Giles’s Thanksgiving Smorgasbord: iPlayer, Flickr, Dropbox, MacBook Air And A Cheap Padded Envelope

By

applepie

Happy Thanksgiving! This year to observe the holiday we asked each of our writers to tell us a bit about the things they are most thankful for in 2012: specifically, the Apple product, app, service, third-party accessory and person they most relied upon and were grateful for this year. All through the rest of the day, we’ll be posting these thanksgiving observances. Here’s Cult of Mac Reviews Editor Giles Turnbull’s list of the things he’s most thankful for this year. You can find the rest of our Thanksgiving Smorgasbord entries here.

Person???

Thanks Flickr!

Not one person – a team of them. The team that makes Flickr. Flickr came under fire earlier this year, and I was quick to leap to its defence. I remain a happy Flickr customer, and really hope that Yahoo’s new boss Marissa Mayer is working on the right way to maintain and update it in the years ahead.

App

The BBC in my pocket

Regular readers might know that I’m a typical British radio nut. When I’m not listening to the radio, I’m either listening to music in Spotify, or asleep. The BBC iPlayer app is a constant companion, helping me catch up on radio shows I’ve missed in the last few days. Whenever I have a chore to do – washing dishes, folding laundry, cooking supper – iPlayer is often the first thing I turn to. Once I have something good to listen to, the chores don’t seem half as bad.

Service

Dropbox: couldn’t live without it

Dropbox, without a doubt or a second’s hesitation. Apple can wave iCloud in front of my face as much as it likes, but Dropbox is the service I turn to every single day for moving and syncing stuff between devices. It’s central to my daily workflow now. I love it.

Apple Product

My little buddy.

My 13 inch MacBook Air. I bought a fully tricked out Air this year, and it was an excellent investment. It’s fast, it’s light, it goes for hours, it has space for all my stuff. This is the best computer I’ve ever owned. Yes, it cost a lot of money, but it’s the tool of my trade, it’s how I earn a living. It was worth every penny.

Third-Party Accessory

My little’s buddy’s buddy.

With the purchase of my Air came the need to protect it from scratches when I take it from place to place. I looked at all the cases in my local Apple Store. I looked at many more on the internet. I gave it a lot of thought. What I came to realise, though, was that I only wanted the Air protected while it was in my bag. When it’s out of the bag, it’s on a desk. It doesn’t need protection there. So all I needed was something I could slip it into and slip it out of quickly. Something that would provide the protection from scratches I wanted. Something that wouldn’t slow me down. I thought back to when Steve Jobs announced the first MacBook Air. I had an “Aha!” moment. This large padded envelope cost me about 40p. It does just what I need.

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