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This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
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Author
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Topic: Apple Watch
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Terry Lynn-Stevens
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1081
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Dec 2012
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posted 03-10-2015 10:23 PM
quote: Scott Norwood
As for laptops, I rather _dislike_ what Apple has done to laptop design. Glossy LCDs, chiclet keyboards, lack of connectivity (bring back serial ports! or at least Ethernet!), non-removable batteries, and non-user-serviceable parts are all awful ideas that started with Macs and spread (like cancer) to many PC laptops. The only good thing that Apple ever did in its laptop designs was the magnetic power connector which, oddly, seems to be about their only design element that has not been copied by the industry as a whole.
From what I see, Apple is trying make the case of portability and wireless use for the new MacBook, there is a picture of a girl on top a building sitting on table using her Mac, Apple makes the case of tethering the MacBook to your iPhone. There is also a picture of a girl using Beats headphones while sitting on what look like public transport. Or another pic where a couple is sitting in the back of the vehicle using it. Wouldn't the iPad tablet be much better in all of these circumstances? I don't get the whole "hot spot" thing they are trying to push with the new MacBook. It seems to me that the new MacBook is more like a 12inch iPad with a fixed keyboard. There also appears to be push to use the MacBook on battery use, I wonder what will happen to battery performance after two year, perhaps you will need a new MacBook by then?
quote: Scott Norwood
non-removable batteries, and non-user-serviceable parts are all awful ideas that started with Macs and spread (like cancer) to many PC laptops.
Apparently there is no fan inside the machine, I am not that into the PC or laptop world so I am not sure if this is a first or not.
quote: Scott Norwood
The limited battery life should be a deal-breaker for many people. Even the cheapest wind-up clock will run for more than twenty-four hours without attention.
Someone dug into the Apple disclaimers and they claim that the watch battery will good for only 3hrs if you take a few calls. I assume your iPhone battery will be dead sooner as well as the phone should be technically taking the call as well.
quote: Mike Blakesley
So who knows? Five years from now we could all be sporting iWatch 4.0's.
I would purchase something like a fitbit for the health monitoring benefits. I think that stuff is kinda of cool, I would maybe buy new glasses with a monitor near my ear or something along those lines. I really do not want to wear a watch in any way shape or form.
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Dave Macaulay
Film God
Posts: 2321
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 03-12-2015 06:01 AM
A lot of phones can go more than a day if used judiciously. Some even have (gasp!) replaceable batteries: you can pocket a backup if you really need to stay "in touch".
Apple's focus on making things thinner and ignoring what that loses (ports, battery access, battery life) doesn't impress me. When form and style eclipsed functionality they went too far.
The first few Macbooks and Powerbooks were revolutionary, and every other laptop maker quickly copied the thin screen - no more inch thick lids with wide bezels and a small low resolution screen. Average weight went from 7lb+ waaaaay down to compete with the Apple competition. I knew a lot of techs who switched to Apple because they were lighter. Once Apple switched to Intel CPUs you could even install Windows to avoid the restrictive and dictatorial Mac software prison. Now that you can get a very nice Windows laptop with HD display and a powerful CPU and GPU that doesn't weigh a ton (and at a decnt "apple tax" free price) I don't see so many Macbooks.
There will be a teardown video on YouTube within days of the new Macbook release: these are always entertaining, seeing what they've done to make them harder to service than the last generation was. I though changing any screws (only use screws when glue won't quite work!) to new heads that needed unavailable screwdrivers (and swapping in those screws if you sent an iThing in for repair) was typical Apple arrogance.
If you think the iWatch is big - have you looked at a watch counter lately? Watches are used to tell time by basically Luddites and old ladies/geeks. They are either jewelry, status symbols, or both. Many men's watches would be good wall clocks or Flavor Flav could put one on a chain and look normal (for him...). Women's watches haven't gotten quite so monstrous - females seem to have more fashion sense than us.
I expected the iWatch to be bigger than it is.
What's with the special gold for those with $10K in loose change?
"Apple’s gold is a metal matrix composite, not a standard alloy. Instead of mixing the gold with silver, copper, or other metals to make it harder, Apple is mixing it with low-density ceramic particles" (from slate.com).
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 03-12-2015 09:31 AM
quote: Dave Macaulay
A lot of phones can go more than a day if used judiciously.
My HTC 4G LTE could go a couple days between charges with light use, but that was when the non-removable battery was new. All of those rechargeable batteries steadily become less and less efficient. After enough charge cycles the battery must be replaced. "Oh, wait! I'm sorry. You can't change the battery. Looks like you have to spend a bunch more money on a brand new phone."
quote: Dave Macaulay
Apple's focus on making things thinner and ignoring what that loses (ports, battery access, battery life) doesn't impress me. When form and style eclipsed functionality they went too far.
I think it's all about gouging as much money from customers as possible.
The product is dressed up to look fashionable, but it's so damned disposable. With glued in parts and batteries if something stops working the customer is forced into a choice between two very shitty options: 1. Spend a bunch of money and go through some considerable inconvenience paying someone else to fix your device. 2. Skip the inconvenience but spend a whole lot more money on a new copy of that product.
Since Apple pushed this sort of crap onto its customers and those customers ever so lovingly bought it a whole bunch of other electronics companies have been shifting to the same bullshit. I feel like Apple could get away with frying babies in ovens if the ovens were emblazoned with Apple logos. The marketing dept. would come up with some clever way to rationalize it. The problem is the enormous amount of slack the public and especially the media gives Apple does not extend to all those other companies trying to copy Apple's greedy moves.
Still, those companies are taking their chances with glued in parts and batteries. They've got to listen to their shareholders, those of whom are also watching Apple's currently lofty stock prices.
quote: Dave Macaulay
Some even have (gasp!) replaceable batteries: you can pocket a backup if you really need to stay "in touch".
A big selling feature for Samsung's Galaxy phones has been the removable battery. Guess what? The new "S6" model coming out in April has no removable battery and no micro SD card slot. "Hey everybody! It's finally just like an iPhone now!"
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
I'm kind of surprised Samsung went with the "S6" model number, even though it logically follows "S5." The problem is "S6" sounds strangely similar to the word "sucks." I guess Samsung didn't notice all the heat HTC caught when one of its HTC One models didn't have a Micro SD card slot; HTC had to bring the card slot back on later versions.
quote: Dave Macaulay
Now that you can get a very nice Windows laptop with HD display and a powerful CPU and GPU that doesn't weigh a ton (and at a decnt "apple tax" free price) I don't see so many Macbooks.
I still see a shit ton of MacBooks on TV shows and movies. There's so many of them when an non-Apple computer makes an appearance in a movie or TV show it sticks out like a sore thumb. Obviously a paid product placement from that PC maker. I hear there's a hell of a lot of Sony spam in that new Chappie movie that's bombing at the box office.
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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 03-12-2015 01:49 PM
Nothing like Apple to get hackles up...
Some of the comments I'm seeing here do echo commentary I saw in quite a few places when the iPad came out. At the time, it was difficult for people to understand its usefulness, especially at the price Apple was asking.
The nice thing about Apple and its products is that millions of units are sold, so their products are tested extensively by the market very quickly. Conservative estimates put it at 15 million and 20 million units in 2015 (if that happens, it will leave other "smart wearables" in the dust), so that's a lot of people putting it through its paces and seeing if it's something worthwhile.
While many people think that watches are not worn anymore, they are a fashion accessory for some (likely the same audience that will be first to purchase an Apple Watch, especially the more expensive ones). I still wear a watch when I'm on the go, because glancing at my wrist is far easier than pulling my phone out, just to check the time. The younger generation likes to think that watches are passe, and something that their dads and grandfathers wore, so why would they do it?
However, plenty of people are wearing fitness trackers of some sort (Fitbits, Garmin Vivofits, Jawbones, etc.), and some of them not only track health stats, but have watches built into them. I would imagine that the Apple Watch provides the same functionality, and more. I've been using my iPhone 6 to track steps, and it's actually pretty useful, but I don't carry my phone everywhere I go, so I can see where having that functionality in a watch would be cool.
That's not compelling enough to get me to part with $350 of my money, though. (At $200, I'd likely buy it.) I'm happy to see where this goes and what improvements might be made in the second gen devices. Just because it's not a good fit for me right now doesn't make it useless and a bad product. I'm not about to look down my nose at millions of people that make a different choice and marginalize them with terms like "sheeple" and such.
To each his own, and I applaud Apple for giving it a shot. They rarely get things perfect the first time out, but they tend to learn quickly and deliver something that gets progressively better and is attractive to an ever-growing number of people.
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Lyle Romer
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1400
From: Davie, FL, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 03-12-2015 11:02 PM
quote: Dave Macaulay
Apple's focus on making things thinner and ignoring what that loses (ports, battery access, battery life) doesn't impress me. When form and style eclipsed functionality they went too far.
quote: Bobby Henderson
I think it's all about gouging as much money from customers as possible.
I'm sure that was a part of the design decision but there are other considerations. I'll list some here off the top of my head.
1) As mentioned above, it allows for a smaller, thinner device.
2) Less parts make up the housing. You don't need to produce a battery door that has tooling costs.
3) The plug connector that is internal is much cheaper than a battery contact block. Yes, we're talking less than $1 difference but multiplied by millions of units, it adds up.
4) Lowers the chance of stupid consumers killing their phone using a defective battery made in some back ally in china.
5) Less likely to have something break when the phone is dropped. With removable batteries the door tends to fly off and the battery shoots out.
I personally hate the non removable batteries but there are good arguments to design phones with them. When I worked for Motorola years ago designing the phones for Nextel, we debated using a non-removable battery on a low end phone purely for cost savings. At the time, the reason we didn't do it was that battery life hadn't gotten good enough yet and heavy users tended to have spare, charged batteries to swap.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 03-12-2015 11:31 PM
quote: Joe Redifer
Holy crap! HBO isn't worth $15 a month in any way, shape or form! Netflix offers far more valuable content at less of a price. Screw HBO. What do they have that's worth watching, anyway?
HBO is one of the few reasons I've kept my satellite TV service this long. I don't really care about any of the Hollywood movies they show; if it's a movie I cared to see I probably would have rented it already. But HBO does have some very good original programs.
Game of Thrones alone will attract subscribers to the HBO Now streaming service. The first season of True Detective was very good (the 2nd season is supposed to revive Vince Vaughn's career). The Leftovers was another good series. HBO usually has some good documentaries, like the Oscar-winning Citizen Four.
Pay TV customers have wanted to pick their own channels for their own package for a very long time. I'd be happy with HBO, Comedy Central, AMC, FX, TNT and a few sports channels. Most of the other cable networks have gone to shit, deviating from their original programming genre to marathons of reality TV bullshit.
I don't even tune into the Weather Channel anymore. The NBC-Universal-Comcast folks transformed TWC from a straight-forward, boring yet still respectable network into a reality TV infected, sensationalist sewer. They show reality TV whenever possible. And then when they actually do bother covering the weather TWC now takes it upon itself to name winter storms and have Jim Cantore go totally batshit crazy at the sight of thundersnow. The crap going on with The Weather Channel is a good symptom of what's wrong with cable in general.
It seems streaming services are really the only way how pay TV customers are getting any illusion of choice. One downside is the exclusive deals Netflix and Amazon are making with movie studios and networks is viewers are having to subscribe to more than one streaming service or do without certain programs.
The nice thing is more and more real content from cable networks is making its way into streaming services. Maybe if I can manage to "cut the cord" I won't be giving up much more than just some live sports programs.
As for the Apple TV device, I did a little more reading about the HBO Now deal with Apple. The exclusive deal is apparently just for the first three months after HBO Now is launched. The exclusivity will go to Apple TV and iOS devices. By the end of summer HBO Now could be popping up on Roku, Chromecast, Fire TV, etc. So that makes the Apple TV & HBO deal quite a bit less impressive, especially considering the old age of the Apple TV device itself.
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