I take it for granted.
I know you aren't supposed to do that in relationships, but, in this case, I suspect my MacBook Air is flattered.
How many tech products can you rely on without thinking?
How many have you ever relied on?
iPhones? Hah. I've smashed the screens once or twice. They've stopped working too. And when I took them to the Apple store, the verdict was always the same: they have water damage.
Water coincidence that this meant I'd need a replacement, I thought at the time.
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the prevalence of water-damaged iPhones.
My MacBook Air, on the other hand, has never faltered. Not once.
Which, frankly, is odd for a product that celebrated its 10th birthday yesterday.
No, I haven't had the same Air for 10 years.
In fact, I first bought the 2010 version, one that was a little more developed that the original.
But not once has a MacBook Air of mine simply given up the ghost and let its spirit fade into the ether.
This is my third. Or is it my fourth? (I sometimes indulge myself when I feel like a new, shiny computer, especially when there's a slightly newer version. I'm human, ergo weak. The older ones still work.)
Largely, they've all looked and felt similar, yet I've never seen something that was so obviously superior that I had to send the Air to the Old Laptop's Home. (It's a cupboard under a bookshelf.)
Yes, there's been an Air of progress over the years.
MagSafe, for example, which Apple has now taken away in favor of selling as many losable dongles as possible.
At the core, however, I couldn't believe that a computer could be so light and thin. And, well, work.
This is how Steve Jobs presented it in 2008 at Macworld. He didn't pull it out of a hat, but out of an envelope.