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Anybody ditched the MBP for Windows's laptop but remaing to use iOS device? How is the experience?

H

hajime

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
8,091
1,366
Hello, I am using iPhone and plan to buy an iPad PRO 12.9" soon. With the MBP, it is easy to backup IOS devices (including settings?) and transfer photos/videos to the MBP. I wonder what will happen if I ditch the MBP for a Windows laptop. Could you please share your experience on backing up iOS devices and file sharing between the iPhone/iPad and Windows laptop?
 
There is icloud for Windows? I guess moving photos, videos and annotated pdf files from iOS devices to Windows laptop can be done also via Dropbox.

I cannot think of a way to back up iPhone (sync phone directory and contacts, settings) with Windows laptop.
 
What you can do with iCloud for Windows
  • Safely store your photos and videos in iCloud. With iCloud Photo Library, any new photos and videos that you take on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch automatically download to your PC. And you can upload new photos and videos from your PC so that you can access them from your other devices too.
  • Use iCloud Photo Sharing to share photos and videos with just the people you choose. Then invite friends to add their own photos, videos, and comments.
  • Get your documents on every device you use with iCloud Drive. Simply drag your documents into the iCloud Drive folder on your PC and access them at any time, on any device.
  • Keep your iCloud Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Reminders up to date automatically between your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.
  • Keep your Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Google Chrome bookmarks on Windows the same as your Safari bookmarks.
  • Update your iCloud preferences, see how much iCloud storage you're using, delete items to free up storage, and update your storage plan whenever you want.
[doublepost=1528224703][/doublepost]If you put MS apps on your IOS device your windows laptop should also receive all reminders, sms, notifications etc etc only thing really missing but in the pipeline is call answering
 
I have synced all my contacts and calendars to my PC workstation via iCloud. It works a treat. You just need to set up 2fa on iCloud and get an app password somewhere in the security section.

This also adds my iCloud drive to File Explorer if I need to transfer anything over. But my main Cloud platform is Google Drive.

I haven't tried photo sharing as I don't really use it.
 
phillytim said:
Are Notes still unable to sync from iOS to PC, even with iCloud for Windows?
Click to expand...
I have to use the browser log in to iCloud to access my notes. However, I can edit and sync notes fine with my Mac laptop and iPhone.
 
I'm quite deeply locked into the Apple ecosystem with a late 2013 MBP, iPhone 6s and iPad Pro 10.5. However, my MBP is beginning to show its age and I'm considering going for a cheaper Windows laptop because I can't justify spending 2500 dollars for a new computer. My iPad Pro does most of the stuff I want it to do. I would rather rent a linux server to run heavy RStudio work. However, I would still like a computer to do stuff like download playlists from youtube with youtube-dl,

What would I lose from this switch? From what I can tell I'll lose:
  1. Ability for save passwords automatically with Keychain Access - remedied by using 1Password
  2. Lose some security (though perhaps not too substantial) and increased vulnerability to malware
  3. Worse experience when switching my headphones - might just buy another pair of bluetooth earbuds specific to Windows laptop.
  4. A bit more pain in backups due to lack of Time Machine
  5. More pain in editing Pages or Keynote files - need to go through iCloud.com
  6. Can't Airdrop files from my computer to my iPad Pro.
  7. Lack of dictionary support throughout the OS
  8. Lack of consistency between apps in UI and keyboard access (I really, really hate the inconsistent keyboard shortcuts between let's say Outlook and Excel. Enter vs Alt-enter). And I can't really customise in-app keyboard shortcuts with Windows
  9. Slightly decreased stability
  10. No spotlight
  11. No quicklook
  12. Slightly inferior trackpad (if it's a Precision Trackpad) to almost useless trackpad
  13. Need to check that the USB port(s) has sufficient power to charge my iPad
  14. Need to re-install Windows every so often because registry and dll's.
  15. More annoying to ssh or do something that I'm used to doing in terminal.
  16. I don't really care for notes or call answering - handoff and universal clipboard aren't really that useful for me. Don't really care too much for Siri/Cortana and True Tone on my laptop.
Am I missing anything? I think I would value the above at maybe 300 dollars, so if the price differential between a Mac and Windows machine is more than that, I would likely have to go for a Windows laptop.
 
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