iPhone 12 Pro Max — Exit Interview

November 11, 2021
3 min read

I started writing this after listening to the ATP episode (where I got the idea) which was after Apple announced the iPhone 13 lineup and had a bit of trouble. I could have put it in a tweet — the iPhone 12 Pro Max is good, with some caveats. But after I got my iPhone 13 Pro, transferred all the data, used it for a couple of days and picked up my previous phone — I had a bit of nostalgia. I wasn’t regretting the upgrade, but I’ve had this feeling — it was a superb phone, which helped me get through the year, and I love it.

After a year, I can definitely say — the Pro Max is a different kind of beast. As I mentioned in my review it is big and so for me, it meant I’ve used it a lot — to read, watch videos, play games, even write. Now that I’ve used a smaller phone for a bit, I use it differently. It almost feels like Pro Max phone can be your only computer.

Design

I love it. After a lot of going back and forth between Midnight Blue and Gold, I chose Gold and bought my first non-black iPhone, and I still love the colour. I love the edges, the substantial weight. What I actually don’t love is the size. With those edges and going a bit bigger, Pro Max is finally too big.

Camera

I’ve upgraded to the 12 from iPhone XS Max, which, although I didn’t think at the time of my review, in hindsight had the worst camera comparatively of every other iPhone. The photos were over-sharpened, there were many details lost. While looking through the photo library, I can easily spot photos taken with XS Max (and not in a good way).

So updating to the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera system was marvellous. This was the first time I was genuinely surprised while looking at photos taken with the phone. And as a result, I’m selling my Olympus camera. Don’t get me wrong, the “real” camera still takes better photos, but the hassle of taking it with me, transferring and editing photos is not worth it anymore for me. Photos became truly “good enough” with that revision of the iPhone.

Battery

As is every year with a phone, it starts with an astonishing battery. iPhone 12 Pro Max was not an exception. I would start my day at around 7AM and end it at 11PM, and it still would have 40% battery left with normal use. After a year, it is not the case, unfortunately. With battery health at 95%, I find myself charging the phone in the middle of the day or ending it with less than 10%.

Verdict

All in all, I think iPhone 12 Pro Max is one of the best iPhones to date. The camera is so much better, the design is great. There are not a lot of things lacking. I’ve enjoyed using it a lot and will even miss it.

Some Thoughts On Apple Event – September 2021

September 18, 2021
2 min read

It was yet another Apple event during the pandemic. I’m sure if you’ve watched at least one you will have a feeling about how it went.

iPad

Although updating the “no description iPad” iPad is great – it is an astonishing value for money, what surprised everyone was an updated iPad mini. It got an iPad Pro like design – doesn’t have home button, supports 2nd generation Apple Pencil and is available in a couple of different colors. This is iPad I’ve been waiting for and will definitely be getting one.

Apple Watch

It’s funny how wrong rumor sites were. It’s a nice upgrade with a bigger screen, I actually noticed a couple of months ago how big the bezel around the screen is in the current version and it looks like the Series 7 will solve that.

What I don’t like are the colors. I need to see them in person, but from the photos I only like stainless steel ones and they are either not available in Latvia or are ridiculously expensive.

I think Apple Watch is a perfect device for a two year upgrade. The battery in my Series 5 is sure ready to be replaced. I just need to choose the version.

iPhone

Although it might look like nothing much on the outside, it seems to be totally reworked on the inside. I love the bigger battery and updated cameras. I didn’t care much about Cinematic video, since it looked like the first Portrait mode version (not good).

The blue Pro looks okay, but I will need to see it in person. Pink non-Pro model looks amazing, I would get it if I was buying one.

I will be upgrading to the 13. This time just a regular Pro, since Pro Max doesn’t offer anything better in terms of camera. 

I know a lot of people are somehow disappointed by the event, but I thought it was a strong one. There were no boring demos or store updates, we’ve got some new devices and even a surprise. You can count it as a success in my book. 

MagSafe Wallet Review

August 27, 2021
3 min read

I’ve been a fan of minimalistic wallets for a long time. My last wallet before MagSafe was ETRO card holder, where I had 7 cards and a bit of cash at all times.

My previous ETRO card holder

The cards in the wallet were – ID, driver’s license, insurance card, 2 credit cards and one to get into the office, oh and also one loyalty card.

Apple MagSafe Wallet

MagSafe Wallet on the other hand holds only 3 cards without cash. Turns out – it was easy to get rid of the 4 cards. Office card goes to the backpack, since I don’t go there without it. I don’t need a driver’s license, because police can check my ID. I’ve had credit cards just in case, mostly to get cash at the ATM, since everything else accepts Apple Pay, so I just removed one – they are similar in fees (as there are none). The loyalty card turns out was available in the app for a long time.

So after a short management of cards I was ready to rock the new Wallet and I love it. Of course the quality is great and it feels nice. The way I hold it on my iPhone 12 Pro Max actually allows it to function similar to the pop socket.

MagSafe Wallet with Apple Silicone case

The cards are very easy to get out, now I use my ID a lot, because you have to show it together with a vaccination certificate and it is pretty easy even with one hand. It holds very well on the case, but it doesn’t feel too secure with just the naked phone. I think magnets are a bit to far when the phone is naked and glass is too slippery. When you put a case in between – magnet from the case itself is much closer and silicone gives it a much needed grip.

What I love is that it goes very easy on and off, so in the office or at home I just take it off and use my phone without it and when I go out just snap it on.

I use it for almost two months and love it. I’ve never even considered “wallet cases” before, because they are bulky, heavy and a lot of the times look bad, but this is just perfect. If you can manage with just three cards and some cash in the pocket (I finally have a reason to use my fancy leather money clip).

Bonus photo – here is how it looks on the iPhone 12 Mini. It perfectly aligns with the sides and adds a lot of bulk in comparison, but it’s still manageable.

iPhone 12 Mini with a MagSafe Wallet\

Apple Podcasts Subscriptions — Not Good

July 5, 2021
3 min read
IMG_3975.jpeg

I wrote just a paragraph regarding Apple Podcasts Subscriptions in my post about April event as there were not many details. After hearing and reading more about the service, I think that in the current form, it is bad both for podcasters and users.

On the good side, premium podcasts will be available world-wide. Apple Podcasts is the biggest player in the world, so you’ll have a big audience. Apple has probably the best chance of charging users because they’ll always have a current card on file.

On the other hand, this is only limited to Apple Podcasts app, which is not available on Android. On iOS, many people are using 3rd party apps, and they won’t be able to listen to those premium shows. The 30% cut is pretty big, I don’t understand why podcasts with the audience will use the system, since they are the ones bringing all the customers so why pay Apple so much.

As a podcast listener, when I choose to support the creator, I want him to have as much money as possible, as most of the time those prices are quite low. I’m currently paying for a couple of podcasts around $5 each, in this scenario $1.5 from monthly transaction will go to Apple. Why? I learned about those podcasts from different means, they themselves created value for me to pay, I’m happy with a current model, so I don’t get what Apple is providing that is worth 30% apart from credit card processing which costs much less.

What’s more, when you subscribe through Apple, you become their customer, not podcasters. So, the creator doesn’t know a thing about you, he just knows how many people subscribed. He can’t communicate with the listeners, offer additional perks — like community in Discord or a coupon code for merchandise drop. Sure, he can give information in the podcast itself, but how would he check if you are paying?

One of the podcasts I’m paying for is Dithering. It was actually the very first podcast I paid for. I had doubts at first, but still subscribed pretty early on and enjoyed it very much. Once the card I used expired, and I got a short podcast episode in Overcast with Ben informing me about that. It was outstanding, I went to the website, updated the information and the episodes kept coming.

I’m not sure what Apple can provide me as a user. I love Overcast audio processing too much to switch or even to use in parallel another app, so I can’t think of a single thing that would force me to install Podcasts app back.

Hollywood Is In Trouble And Why Friends Reunion Was A Bad Idea

June 24, 2021
3 min read

The creators of Friends decided to end the TV show on the most positive note — Chandler and Monica had their babies, Phoebe planned one with Mike, and Ross and Rachel were back together. The only one left out, actually, was Joey, as he didn’t become a superstar or met anyone.

It was only natural that there were no new episodes after that, although based on the success of the show, I’m sure it was tempting. That is, until the pandemic.

This reunion showcased the bigger problem for Hollywood. It loses everything right in front of our eyes. They are loosing production to tech companies. Can you imagine? Some Silicon Valley nerds are now kings of movies and TV shows. If you want something made you don’t go to the establishment, you go to Apple, Amazon, or Netflix. And nobody cares about the stars anymore. With the growing popularity of TickTock and Instagram, influencers are the new kings.

And it was only accelerated by the pandemic. First they started to complain about how hard it is for them, in their mansions. Then they tried to show their life and this is when the wall broke down. Before it was something magical, something people craved peaking in. The whole paparazzi industry was created. Now you could just see it all in the open, and people stopped caring.

I knew about Friends TV show because local station put on some episodes when I was a kid. Now, when I try to remember, it seems that there were a couple of episodes that were shown over and over, but still, I liked it.

Only when I was about 20 years old, I’ve decided to watch the whole series and I fell in love. The most shocking thing was the end — all this time watching random episodes, I didn’t know how it ends (as an aside — don’t watch the end of Tom and Jerry). But even binge-watching this TV show, I got invested in the characters, in the story, in the relationships.

After that, I’ve watched the whole series about 4-5 times. Every time knowing what will happen next, but I didn’t care. I loved the show, I still do.

The first minutes of the Friends Reunion made me cringe. That is until Matthew Perry came out, at that point I couldn’t believe somebody thought it would be a good idea. They risk losing the perception of those young fun people living in New York. You see them getting old, Matthew at times couldn’t even say a sentence. Even Joe Biden looks more alive.

I know that time passes and even Jennifer Aniston can’t stay perfect forever (she is close though still), but that is why humans invented fiction. So, we can go to that happy place, to see our favourite characters at their best, not as fucked up by drugs old people.

Friends Reunion is breaking that magic. If you didn’t see it already, my advice — don’t. There is nothing to gain and everything to lose.

WWDC 2021 — It Is Not About the OSes

June 12, 2021
5 min read

It’s that time of the year again, when Apple shows all the new things in all the different OSes. This year though, the presentation was a bit light on narrative, but pretty packed with features.

What became obvious pretty fast — it doesn’t make sense to divide this presentation by OS and I think in the future Apple will just talk about services and apps because everything works everywhere.

Since we are not there yet, they still talked about each OS separately, but more often than not it ended with a “feature is available on all other platforms as well”.

FaceTime

Even if all those features were announced last year it still would have been a bit late, not to say — fall of 2021. But better late than never. I was surprised how janky the Voice Isolation demo sounded, but I hope it will be good in the released version.

SharePlay is an interesting feature, but I don’t see myself using it much. We’ll soon have cinemas opened for vaccinated people, and I’m not a big fan of watching TV shows with friends. But there are probably people who want this. I could see myself watching sport events like that, but I don’t think local TV providers will support this feature soon (or at all).

Focus

In 2021 Apple re-invented profiles which you could’ve found on Nokia phones 20 years ago. You can now create Focus modes for work, home etc. It allows you to make different home screens for different modes and allow notifications only from certain apps or people. This also means, that you can put multiple launchers for one app.

There is Summary for notifications, which will show only the most important ones and Do Not Disturb will show a message when someone tries to reach you via iMessage (similar to Slack).

iCloud and Privacy

You can add people you trust for an Account Recovery, so when you forget your password, you will be able to restore it with their help. You can also choose people as legacy contacts, so they can access your Apple account in case of your death.

On a lighter note, Mail now has an option to hide your IP, location and whether you’ve opened a message, basically rendering tracking pixels useless.

Privacy Report which was introduced last year in Safari for websites will now be available for apps. It will show how often an app has accessed Location, Camera, Contacts, Photos in the last 7 days, as well as all the domains the app is contacting.

Siri has on-device speech recognition, which for me is not so much a privacy improvement, but a massive improvement in speed.

Paid iCloud is now iCloud+ with Private Relay — which encrypts Safari traffic (almost like a VPN). It will also let you hide email, by creating random one for forms on websites.

Safari

Safari got a redesign on all platforms. Tabs are now very compact and in line with the address bar. There are also tab groups, which you can name, and they sync across devices. On iPhone, the most significant changes are — address bar is on the bottom, you can now slide across tabs with the same gesture as you do sliding across apps and web extensions will be available on mobile.

QuickNote

On iPad, you can swipe from the corner with the Apple Pencil and a small Notes window will appear where you can make a note. If you do it on a website, it will show you the note next time you visit it. The QuickNotes sync and work across devices.

Universal Control

This was probably the best demo of the keynote. You can use a single mouse and keyboard to control all your devices. Just put your iPad besides the Mac and you will be able to move the cursor from Mac to the iPad without any setup.

My mind was blown, when Craig added the iMac on the left of the MacBook and used the mouse to go all the way from the iMac to the iPad through the MacBook in the middle and dragged the file across three devices just to drop it on the iMac.

iPadOS 15

This actually is a bit of an exception, since there were a couple of iPadOS-specific features. First, as everyone could have guessed they added Widgets, with some bigger options (up to a quarter of the screen). App Library is also available on the iPad now and is accessible with an icon in the dock and by swiping to the last page.

The multitasking is rethought… again. It is more visual, with buttons and hints.

It is possible to develop and submit iOS and iPadOS apps to the App Store from Swift Playgrounds.

Miscellaneous

  • Apple Maps are even more amazing in San Francisco.
  • Government IDs, house and hotel keys and work ID in Apple Wallet
  • Low-power mode on macOS.
  • You can AirPlay to the Mac (both the video and sound).
  • Multiple timers on Apple Watch (but only on Apple Watch).
  • Conversation Boost — focuses AirPods Pro on the person talking to you. You can reduce the amount of ambient noise in the settings.
  • Shared With You — things shared with you in iMessage will appear across multiple apps (Music, News, Podcasts, etc.)
  • Live Text — you can copy and paste text from the photo (seems to work flawlessly in the demo). And it can recognise objects.
  • Shortcuts for Mac, which will replace Automator.
  • Health Sharing — you can see data of your parents or kids. Alerts, like for heart rate or steadiness. Apple doesn’t have access to this information.

Purple iPhone 12 mini

May 20, 2021
2 min read

When iPhone 12 mini and 12 Pro Max came out, it was very hard to get the latter on the first day (believe me, I jumped through all the hoops possible to get it), while the smallest one was in abundance in every store. I handled it at the store once and loved the size.

So, when recently my mom decided to upgrade her iPhone 7, I recommended the all new 12 mini in purple. She asked for help to set it up, so I had an opportunity to use it for a bit in a non-stressful environment of a masked-up store.

It fits perfectly in the hand, I was a proponent of bigger screens when the Plus size phones came out, but maybe it’s an age thing, or device fatigue, but the mini size feels perfect.

I even seriously considered changing my 12 Pro Max for 12 Mini, but I use my phone for photography a lot and I can’t say I am a great photographer, so whatever help I can get from better technology — I’m up for that.

I actually checked using Smart Folder tip from David Smith and 31% of photos were taken using telephoto lens. And this year I feel like I use it even more, so the absence of this lens would be very noticeable for me.

In a perfect world, where iPhone mini gets a better camera system and iPad mini gets updated with Pro-like design, the combination of M-series 13” laptop, iPad mini and iPhone Mini would be perfect, but now, I still have my gold iPhone 12 Pro Max and massive iPad Pro.

Apple Event — April 2021

April 20, 2021
5 min read

Long time since the last event and finally, we got one in 2021. There were many rumours, so let’s see what came true.

Services

The first and the most boring thing announced — Apple Card Family. You can now share credit as a couple and you can order a card for your 13-year-old. If you are in USA, that is.

Apple also announced Apple Podcast subscriptions. There were no details shared, except that you will be able to subscribe for ad-free listening, early access and more. What’s good — it will be available in 170 regions and countries from the start, which will be next month.

iPhone

Apple
Apple

It was surprising to hear “iPhone” as a part of the spring presentation, but there is just the new purple color for iPhone 12 and 12 Mini. Looks good and I like the precedent of updating colours. They did this with red before, but this is more similar to seasonal Apple Watch band additions.

Find My — AirTags

AirTags are released. Finally. Although not sure if many people are waiting for them. They use Find My network, you can personalise them with text or emoji. There are cases, including $300 — $400 Hermes ones.

If you have iPhone 12 with U1 chip, you can use Precision finding which shows you the precise location of the tag and navigates you to it. They cost $29 for one and $99 for the pack of four. Available April 30.

What’s good is the battery is standard and replaceable, so after more than a year of promised battery life you still will be able to use your AirTags.

Apple TV

Apple TV+

The only TV show trailer was of course for Season 2 of Ted Lasso, which can’t come soon enough. Apple shared the date of the release of the second season — July 23rd.

Apple TV 4K

Update to the same old Apple TV box. Now it will have A12 Bionic, which will enable to play High-frame rate HDR content.

They also added a cool Color Balance feature, which uses camera and sensors on your iPhone to calibrate the picture of Apple TV.

New square-sided remote, with a 5-way navigation click-pad, which is also touch enabled and has a circular gesture for rewinding (like an iPod). There is a power button to control TV and Siri button is on the side now.

It still costs $179 for 32 GB which is too much.

iMac

Apple
Apple

When they showed the new iMacs with M1, the first thought was — why did they leave the chin?! We’ve quickly learned that the whole computer fits into the chin, but I would rather have a thicker device and a display with a smaller bezel than this.

There are seven different colours, muted in the front, joyful in the back. It has an iPad Pro inspired design which makes it very thin, wiith 24” screen size in just a bit bigger body than 21.5” iMac.

1080p camera, together with M1 image-processing potentially will produce a great picture. New 6-speaker system is able to support Spatial audio.

I don’t understand why a desktop computer needs a magnetic connector, which is also attached such that it would be inconvenient to put it against the wall. On the other hand, ethernet port in the power brick is a nice touch.

There are also some new accessories. Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad are now white with color accents matching new iMacs. Magic Keyboard on the other hand, got the biggest update. It also matches the color of the iMac, but now it comes in three versions. First, similar to the old one, but with a couple of new buttons (like emoji-picker). Second, with added Touch ID and third with Touch ID and number pad.

There are two main configurations — $1299 which comes in 4 colors and $1499 which comes in 7 colors. But it is not the only difference, the more expensive one has 8-core GPU instead of 7, two additional USB 3 ports (lower-tier has only Two Thunderbolt ports) and it comes with Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.

iPad Pro

The most surprising announcement was that iPad Pro has an M1 in it, which makes it 50% faster than previous iPad Pro. It also has a higher tier 8-core GPU and new 2 TB configuration. New Thunderbolt port with USB-4 now supports Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution.

Speaking of the display, 12.9” iPad Pro will now have the display similar in performance to the Pro Display XDR. It uses Mini-LED technology and now has both outstanding brightness and contrast ratio.

Of course, it has 5G, so you can have fast internet access whenever you go (in ideal conditions).

Moreover, a big update to the front facing camera, it now has Ultra-Wide sensor. Apple presented the Center Stage feature, which keeps you in the center of the picture and if you move it will crop accordingly. Looks nice in the demo.

It will be available in the second half of May for $799 for 11” and $1099 for 12.9”.

Now that iPad Pro is more powerful than ever, there still is a question of software. Even with M1 in May, it will power iPadOS 14, which won’t be able to use all this power. Some hope for the WWDC in June?

And at the end, I will leave you with two questions which popped to mind when they announced M1 in iPad Pro:

  1. How long until we see macOS on an iPad?
  2. When will Apple add 5G to the laptop?

Facebook: It’s Time

April 12, 2021
4 min read

Everyone and their mother wrote about the recent Facebook user data leak. If you didn’t notice or decided not to care because it’s yet another fuck-up by the blue app, who can blame you? But what is interesting, as Wired reports, is that it’s hard to find where this data actually came from. Facebook just says it’s from 2019 leak and now it just got published. Nothing to see here. But there were a couple that year. Surprise.

In short, the leak available online contains data on roughly 533 million users. E-mails, phone numbers, Facebook IDs and a lot of other information. The leak included information on various politicians and Mark Zuckerberg himself.

You can easily check if you are affected on HaveIBeenPwned website. It’s actually a good resource to keep at hand because it checks all the available leaks. My data wasn’t in this one, but there were a couple of others to worry about.

Regardless of the result I started wandering, what information Facebook has on me. I went to Facebook settings (actually opened Facebook for the first time since November) and requested a download of all the information from my profile. After a couple of hours I got a link for around 500 MB of data.

It starts with the obvious — all your posts, friends, likes, comments, photos and videos. There are also devices, IP addresses and locations you’ve logged into Facebook. If you’ve used voice features, there would be recordings (not for me).

There are also some things that Facebook tries to guess about you, like for example your interests (which were pretty meh for me):

Or life stage description of your friends:

It also keeps every profile you’ve visited and when, what you were searching for and what languages you might speak.

Then there is a list of companies who uploaded your contact information to Facebook to spam you with their offers — almost every popular app or store you’ve registered in.

The most interesting is your activity outside of Facebook. In my case, among others there was a local bank Luminor which reports to Facebook every time I open the app.

I know it’s automatic, but let it just sink in, a bank in Latvia is telling a social networking company in the US about every time I’ve opened their app. Just why?

There is much more activity from another bank — Citadele, but I found it hard to understand what it corresponds to.

You can actually turn off this activity outside Facebook “feature”, but as Facebook itself warns before you do, it’s not actually turning it off.

Although I know it’s hard to actually delete information from the Internet and there are shadow profiles on Facebook, I still think this is the only logical step. As I mentioned, I wasn’t using the social network for six months, so I don’t think I will miss it.

Surprisingly, the process of deleting the account looks fairly straightforward, you just choose Delete:

It even reminds you to download all the information (which I already did):

After that, you have 30 days to reinstate your account, which I did once accidentally.

If you log in to Facebook by mistake in those 30 days, it will just … log you in, without even asking and the “deletion” process will be stopped. So, you have to be careful. I had to go through the deletion procedure for the second time.

There are still Instagram and WhatsApp installed on my phone. I’ll have to decide about those later. Although moving from WhatsApp is impossible now because of work, I already started minimizing the number of chats I have there. Instagram on the other hand I think will have the same trajectory as Facebook, I will use it for some time and at some point I just won’t.

Apple in 2020: My Report Card

March 15, 2021
7 min read

I like an annual look at Apple fromSix Colors, with commentaries from prominent people. Nobody asks me, but I have opinions, so here is my report card. Yes, I know it’s March already, but as there were no events or product releases from Apple I think it’s still relevant. 2020 was a good year for Apple in terms of hardware and not so great in terms of regulations and developer relations.

Mac

Grade: A

How can you give a different score when there was a release of Apple Silicon? It seems that M1 is just perfect, although I didn’t buy a new laptop yet, I’m very tempted. Last year was a turning point for the Mac and let’s hope it will continue that way.

The problems with keyboard are over, Apple designed processors are remarkable, we are just waiting for new hardware (redesigned iMac among other things, please).

For the last couple of years I didn’t use Mac much, so can’t give a mark regarding software quality, but I don’t mind Big Sur, from whatever use I got from it.

But all the changes Apple made tempt me to return to Mac and I think that tells a lot.

iPhone

Grade: A

This is the great year for an iPhone. First, iPhone SE — perfect budget phone, yes the design is a bit old, but internals are great and for that price it’s unbeatable.

Next, the iPhone 12 lineup is solid. Although, there are reports that Apple overestimated the demand for the Mini (and I believe them, just because when it was hard to find Pro Max every store had iPhone 12 Mini in abundance in every color), I loved holding one. If the camera was on par with the biggest one I would buy the Mini without hesitation.

Every time I buy a new iPhone, I get the one with the best camera and this time was no different. I got iPhone 12 Pro Max in glorious gold color and I love it. Still, after 4 months, sometimes I catch myself looking at it and enjoying it as a physical object.

One could argue there is one thing Apple missed with the iPhone this year — high refresh rate display. I would agree, but the current display is so good, I don’t see the difference even using it simultaneously with the iPad Pro (interestingly, I do see the difference when using Pro and non-Pro iPad).

All things considered — iPhone 12 Pro Max is the favourite thing I bought last year, and I bought many good things.

iOS 14 is also solid, with addition of widgets, the first time in a while I downloaded public beta before a release because I wanted new features like incoming calls as a notification and Picture in Picture.

iPad

Grade C

As an iPad Pro user I didn’t see much change. iPadOS 14 gave nothing, it’s hard to call 2020 iPad Pro new, so there was no need to upgrade. The only new addition this year is The Magic Keyboard, but it is too expensive for what it is. I know Apple products are expensive, and I gladly pay for them, but not this time, especially for 12.9” iPad Pro.

I’m waiting for a new new iPad Pro and probably will go for a smaller one (if everything else remains equal). I hope last year was a year of Mac and this year Apple will give attention to the iPad.

Watch and Wearables

Wearables: Grade: B

Watch: Grade B-

The only new product in wearables are The AirPods Max which I guess is a great product, but too pricey for many. I see myself buying them in the future and I think it is a compelling product for a niche audience.

I finally bought a pair of AirPods Pro, and they are great. Spatial audio is great, but unfortunately, it is not adopted by different services, so there is not much use.

Apple Watch on the other hand (sorry) didn’t compel me in any way. I bought one for my wife, but not because of some new feature, but because she wanted one, so I bought the latest. With Series 5 there was a big selling point — always-on display, they could’ve left everything else untouched I would’ve still bought one the first day, but with Series 6, there is nothing even remotely similar.

Apple Watch SE, although a nice addition, is overpriced for what it is and will probably become more viable after a price drop.

Apple TV

Grade: F

It’s just laughable. I did buy one last year or a year before, but wouldn’t have now. I have everything Apple offers on my LG OLED TV (Fitness+ the only thing missing, but it is missing everywhere in the world and hardware has nothing to do with it). Apple TV box wasn’t updated in years and still costs a lot. You can’t even compare it to other boxes, sure there is a privacy angle, but common, it’s comically expensive and internals are outdated.

Services

Grade: C

I’m starting to get frustrated. I didn’t understand why Apple News+ is not available in my country, but okay, there could’ve been some rights issues or something, it’s not Apple’s content, but Fitness+, really? Apple makes all the videos, so in this case they do own the content, why not make it available everywhere? I hope they know people over the world speak English… And because of that Apple One Premiere is not available in Latvia. So to have more storage, I have to pay extra and the idea of a bundle and one payment is not working.

I did subscribe to the family Apple One bundle plus an additional 200 GB of storage, so Apple is taking my money monthly.

The really great thing about services — Ted Lasso, of course. I’ve watched it three times already, it’s so good.

HomeKit

Grade: C

I only started to use smart home appliances and I don’t see much from Apple. Home app is not great, Apple doesn’t provide accessories themselves, so I’m not even sure what to grade here.

Hardware reliability

Grade: A

All my Apple hardware worked perfectly last year (maybe because I didn’t buy a laptop with a butterfly keyboard). The only thing I’m afraid of — problems with AirPods Pro, but so far they work, so can’t say anything bad.

Software quality

Grade: B

Although the iOS 14 and watchOS 7 are solid, I still have some inexplicable problems from time to time. Mail stops showing messages until a restart is the latest. Notifications in Big Sur are bad, but luckily, I don’t use macOS a lot.

Developer relations

Grade: C

I think Apple had an awful year with developers. It tried to improve it with the commission cut at the end of the year, but there were still many questions. The whole Epic saga and Hey fiasco gave a lot of bad publicity. Whoever you support in both situations, Apple still doesn’t look good.

Environmental and social issues

Grade: C

It’s hard to give a high score to a company which is so heavily reliant on Chinese labor and precious metals mines. Whatever Apple tells, it remains a badly kept secret that working conditions there are below humane. I know Apple can’t change everything, but they are so vocal about some things, that you start question why they are not about the other.

They tried to do a lot of good regarding Covid-19, but contact tracing went nowhere, I would say fortunately, but that is another topic altogether.

Taking a charger out of the box, while understandable, still doesn’t sound like something totally because of the environment.