About Jamie's computing interest

This section is more about my technology than it is about me.

About my interest in computing

Since about the age of 7, I have always had an interest in computers and technology. We got our first family Windows 95 system in 1997 when I was six - a Tiny desktop featuring a Pentium II with a 3GB hard drive and 64MB of RAM.

At the age of 7, I got my first computer, a 600MHz Pentium III and boy was it fast. It started up in about 30 seconds running Windows 98. It also had a dedicated 4MB graphics card (unbranded).

From age 7, I decided I wanted to go into teaching. At first this was primary school teaching. In secondary school I changed this slightly when I decided I wanted to become a secondary school History teacher. This did not last long and I suddenly wanted to become a secondary school teacher in IT/Computing as I discovered my talent.

People were coming to me with problems they had with computers and my nickname Binary Balfour came about.

By third year of school, not only my friends knew me as Binary Balfour as teachers occasionally referred to me as just 'binary'. Teachers were also often asking me to help them with IT problems and so on.

The technology

The following are the specifications of my desktop PCs (all custom built):

More

• MacBook Pro: CPU | Integrated GPU

Everything Apple

I experienced my first Apple product, the iPod Shuffle I won in a competition at school. In June 2009 I got myself an iPhone 3GS, a phone I loved and hated at the same time. Later in that year, I tried to convince my mother not to get an iMac and to get an all-in-one PC instead. She totally went against my advice and got one. That iMac was the Mac that introduced me to Apple properly.

After a few months of playing about with it I admitted to really enjoying it, but was not turned to Apple at that point. I traded my iPhone in a got a Windows Phone 7 based phone because I had previously being using Windows Mobile 6. In December 2010, I decided to use some of my savings along side my mother to purchase an iPad, mainly as I was in hospital at the time and therefore wanted my mother having something to do whilst she was visiting me and staying there over night. We pretty much went halfers on a 16GB 3G iPad 1st generation. My aunt had one before and she brought it to me in October 2010 when I went into hospital where I was originally very skeptical of it. In about March 2010, I sold my half of the iPad back to my mother because she wanted to own the whole iPad.

In September 2011, I finally decided to make the change from my PC to Mac. I ordered the first Mac, a MacBook Pro 13" Late 2011 (Thunderbolt version) and I have never looked back since. I'm very much in love with OS X and there's nothing anyone can say to sway me away. I don't mind paying a premium for something that works. As a temporary solution to my jealousy of my brother's iPhone and being stuck with a rubbish Windows Phone, I got an iPod Touch 4th Generation. After 16 of 24 months with the Windows Phone I got rid of it, thank goodness. I then got an iPhone 5 16GB and a 4G contract in October 2012. In February 2014 I bought my own iPad Air 32GB 4G. This time I am happy to say, I will be kept it, until it was replaced by an iPad Pro in 2020.

I then got a new MacBook and this time went for the top model available in 2014, a 2013 Retina display model and then a new iPhone 6 64GB as well as a Mac mini to top off 2014.

Then in 2018, I got myself an iPhone XS before getting my first Apple Watch (a Series 3 then replaced a few days later with a Series 5) in October 2019. Then in August 2020 I got an iPad Pro to replace my iPad Air, a pair of AirPods Pro in October 2020, a new MacBook Pro with an Apple M1 chip in November 2020 and a new iPhone 12 in December 2020.

My devices

Airpods Pro (2nd generation)

Apple Watch Ultra 2

Mac Mini 2012

MacBook Pro 14 inch 2023

iPad Pro 2020

iPhone 15 Pro

Current

• Apple Watch Ultra 2 (A2986)
• Apple iPhone 15 Pro (A3102)
• iPad Pro (2020) 128GB (A2229)
• MacBook Pro 2023 14" with Apple M3 Pro (A2992)
• Mac mini 2012 2.3GHz i7 quad core 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD 16GB RAM (A1347)
• AirPods Pro (A3047)

Previous devices

These devices are my previously used products. I still have a lot of these.

• AirPods Pro (A2084)
• MacBook Pro 2020 13" with Apple M1 (A2338)
• Apple Watch Series 7 (A2478)
• Apple Watch Series 5 (A2093)
• Apple TV Third Generation (A1469)
• MacBook Pro with Retina display October 2013 15" 2.3GHz Core i7 (A1398)
• MacBook Pro late 2011 13" 2.4GHz Core i5 (MD313LL/A)
• Apple iPhone 14 (A2882)
• Apple iPhone 12 mini (A2399)
• iPhone XS 64GB (A1921)
• iPhone 6 32GB (A1522)
• iPhone 5 16GB (A1428)
• iPhone 3GS 8GB (A1325)
• iPad Air (2014) 32GB 4G (A1475)
• iPod Touch 4th Generation 32GB (A1367)
• iPod Shuffle 2nd Generation 2GB (A1204)