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.

Apple Event – 15.09.2020

September 15, 2020
5 min read

Although it is strange to watch September Apple Event and not see new iPhones, we do live in different times, so here we go. The presentation itself was good, the same style as WWDC 2020 and I enjoyed watching it (in case you are wondering, I realize that it is an hour long ad by a trillion dollar company).

Apple tried to manage expectations when it announced the event (a lot of journalists covering Apple immediately said there won’t be new iPhones) and at the very start of the presentation Tim Cook said they will talk Apple Watch and iPad today.

Apple Watch

Apple Watch Series 6

Same design as last year, although they’ve added three new colors – Gold, Blue and Red. I think they look good, especially the blue one (it will look great with the new blue iPhone).

There is a new sensor which will measure your blood oxygen levels. The manual measurement takes only 15 seconds and it does periodic background measurements, even at night if you sleep with your watch on. Although Apple didn’t say it, but it is helpful for the COVID-19.

The Always-On display got 2.5 times brighter outdoors.

Starting price remains the same at $399 in the US.

Apple Watch SE

The same display size and design as a Series 6, but without Always-On display and with an older S5 chip, which is 2x faster than Series 3. It is available both without and with cellular.

The price starts at $279 and Series 3 still remains in the lineup for $199.

Right now, if you are able to find discounted Series 5 it will be a much better deal – it has an always-on display, more health sensors and the same processor and design.

Solo Loop and Braided Solo Loop

New bands for Apple Watches that don’t have a clasp or a buckle. That means you have to buy one that fits you, it has a lot of different sizes. What interesting, it says on the ordering page that it is not compatible with Series 3 and older watches, but I always thought the band connectors were identical.

Family Setup

You can now use your iPhone to set up an Apple Watch for someone in your family, who doesn’t have an iPhone. They will have a dedicated phone number and cellular connection. This is an amazing feature for kids or older family members and another step to the iPhone-less future for the Apple Watch.

Apple Fitness+

“First fitness service built around Apple Watch.”

Interesting how they presented it as something only possible with an Apple Watch. There will be 10 types of workouts, provided by world class trainers, with Apple Music (you don’t need a subscription for the service to work). New workouts will be added every week.

The new service is available on the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. It will show all the metrics during the workout on the screen and when a trainer will remind you to check your heart rate, the metric will get bigger.

When you start your workout on one of your devices, it will automatically start the workout on the Apple Watch.

There is an absolute beginner program, with all the basics covered and personalized recommendations in the app.

It will cost $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year (Family Sharing included) and you will get 3 months free with an Apple Watch purchase.
Unfortunately service is available only in handful of countries, so we will have to wait for it’s launch.

Other

There are a lot of new watch faces, including GMT which shows multiple time zones at once, typography with a lot of combinations, Chronograph Pro and a lot more.

Apple also announced that it will remove power adapter from the box, basically trying to present the cost-saving measure as an environmental thing.

Everything else that will be changed and added in watchOS7 got covered in the WWDC2020 presentation.

Apple One

The long rumored bundle from Apple is here, but unfortunately it’s not that simple. First, the name – Apple One. There are actually Three different bundles and only Two available everywhere.

First one – for $14.95 you get Apple Music, TV+, Arcade and 50GB of iCloud storage.

Second – for $19.95 you will get the same bundle, but with 200GB of storage.

And Premier – for $29.95 you will get 1TB of storage and News+ and Fitness+ as additional services.

The Premier one is available only in the countries where Apple News+ and Fitness+ are available and there are not a lot of those.

Because of the iCloud storage, the only one that makes sense for me is Premier, which will be unavailable. It is possible to add more storage to the first two, but at that point I’m not sure it will be a good deal. So no Apple One for me.

iPad

8th generation

This is the same plain iPad with a better processor (A12 Bionic), which means it will be more powerful. The design remains the same, with Touch ID button and screen bezels. It will still only support 1st generation Apple Pencil. But for the price of $329 it is an amazing value.

iPad Air

The iPad Air on the other hand got a complete redesign, it now looks the same as 11” iPad Pro, with rose gold, green and sky blue options available.

For the first time in a very long time, iPad gets new SoC before iPhone and iPad Air has A14 Bionic, which is industry leading 5 nanometer processor.

It also has a Touch ID sensor which is now in the Top Button (yeap, they’ve renamed Power Button in this one).

What is similar with the iPad Pro, except for design – it now has USB-C connector, support for 2nd generation Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard.

What it lacks is Pro Motion (120Hz) display, FaceID, camera array and microphone and speaker system.

For $599 right now it looks like a much better purchase than 11” iPad Pro and Apple tablet lineup remains weird and complicated.

Sunday Endorsement – 31.05.2020

May 31, 2020
5 min read

📱 Tot Pocket

I was very skeptical at first. I mean, who wouldn’t be – €21.99 for a very limited note taking app. But after much consideration and keeping in mind the possibility to refund (yay Europe) I decided to give it a try. I’ve been trying to find an easy to use note app for a long time and nothing could come close to what I wanted. Notes.app was where I kept all my notes and didn’t feel like simple jotting app, I’ve tried Bear for a year, but it just replaced Notes and I never was a Markdown fan, I wanted something with rich text support. Drafts came close, but I always felt overwhelmed by it and after a week there would be tens of notes which I couldn’t remember what they were about.

Tot is light, colorful (it even changes the color of keyboard to match the dot and what surprised me most – even 3rd party keyboards get colored). I didn’t like icon at first, but recently they’ve added Mobius, which is now my favorite. I use all but one dots for something already and love it.

One disclaimer I have to add – I’ve had a data loss with the app. Just yesterday I was walking around town, listening to the audiobook and adding some notes, including citations I’ve transcribed myself. When I came home and opened an app – there was nothing. Just one word I’ve put as a placeholder when I created the note. And now I can’t shake the feeling of distrust. I hope it was a one time thing, but I’m not sure when I will be able to trust the application fully again.

I can’t recommend an app costing €21.99 to everyone, but if you look at screenshots and read the description you will know if the app is right for you. It is for me.

📺 Drive To Survive – Season 2

“Netflix are a bunch of cunts, aren’t they? I would love for them to play that.”

At the beginning of the season two they immediately let you know – this time it’s bigger, we have Mercedes and Ferrari now, but that somehow ruins it a bit. It became more pristine. The most controversial things were mostly when drivers and principals mentioned the documentary or Netflix.

But I still would recommend watching it. And I feel like it is much more interesting to those who have never watched F1, because otherwise you would already know what happened.

One additional note – I was the victim of advertising. After watching the show I went for a walk and had such a strong desire for a Red Bull I went to the store and bought one. Marketing works.

📜 Stratechery – The Google Squeeze

Half a year old article, but still very interesting. I never though how much advertising there is on Google. The screenshot which shows the results, where you have to scroll 3 pages in order to get to the organic results is worth the read alone.

I’ve compared the article with my own usage and it is the same in some instances and completely different in others. I hate the hotel module of Google. It always feels like some shitty websites want to give you a very bad deal. When I’m looking for a hotel I always go to booking.com. Always. And, as it turns out, that’s what they’ve tried to do – incentivize people to go straight to them. I guess it works.

⌚️ Pride California Watch Face

With the most recent update of the Apple Watch there are a couple of new Pride watch faces. One of them is California with Pride colors. It is my favorite watch face right now. I’ve been meaning to write about watch faces and how they all are bad for some reason or other. There are customizations, but it always feels like there could be more. But in terms of look – this one is just amazing.

One note – the process was a bit cumbersome. I had newest update on my Apple Watch, but new colors weren’t there. I updated my iPhone to iOS 13.5 and could choose a new California color, but it wouldn’t show up on my Watch. Only after restarting the watch did it work.

📚 Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

I’ve laughed a couple of times while listening to the book. It is probably the best memoir by a businessman I have ever read. It is more about motivation and drive and less about the decisions themselves. I’m sure that in order to build such a monumental company there have to be more controversial stories, but this book is not the place for them.

Ending is just beautiful. The book itself is very personal, but ending takes it to the new level. I didn’t want for it to end. One of the strongest recommendations I can give. Everyone should read it.

Apple Watch Series 5: Review

October 10, 2019
8 min read

I’ve got my first watch as a present in the middle school. It was a very nice watch for a kid and I still have it. Since then I’ve started appreciating watches and was wearing them daily. The last one I had was a vintage soviet watch Raketa, I’ve found and restored. You had to manually wind it about once every two days.

I’ve never used the phone to tell time, only watch. When I’ve bought Fitbit – it was an additional accessory on the right hand. Analogue watch always stayed on my left, no matter what.

That is until we’ve travelled to the New York City two years ago, where I got Apple Watch. I liked the Series 3 a lot for two main reasons – activity tracking and notifications. The one thing I didn’t like? The ability (or more precisely the lack of) to tell time. I was even considering wearing two watches – Apple Watch and an analogue one, but this would look too dorky, so I’ve decided to manage with just an Apple Watch.

When the Series 4 came out, I didn’t feel the need to upgrade. There were a couple of health features like fall detection (I think I don’t need it yet) and EKG (it is still not available in Latvia) and changed screen design. Sure, the Series 3 looked really old the second I’ve seen Series 4 in person, but I still couldn’t force myself to upgrade to another watch that you have to shake in order for it to tell time.

This year when the Series 5 was announced, I had to upgrade. How couldn’t I? They fixed the most important thing! I’ve had 42mm Series 3 and decided to get the big one again.

Display

The always on display is such a crucial feature of the watch that after half a day of using it, I couldn’t even imagine how it was possible to live without it. At first I had to learn not to turn my wrist too aggressively, but then it became natural, like so many years before.

When your hands are on the keyboard typing or you are driving, just a little glance at the wrist and you know what time it is – what a novel concept!

In total Apple fashion, they’ve though the feature through, there is an option to hide sensitive complications while in always on mode, I would argue it should be on by default, but it’s not. For me it shows time, weather and date, but doesn’t show reminders, activity and progress in Streaks. That is a great feature, if you commute, for example, people won’t be able to glance at your wrist and read information.

The full screen display with rounded corners looks nice, if you have those new complications along the corners or full screen watch face. 

Notifications

This is the thing that changed the least after two years. It is the same mess if you don’t manage them, but if you do, it is possible to live with them. The one feature I would really love is the ability to manage notifications in the messaging apps on the chat by chat basis. A couple of chats would definitely buzz my wrist, but most would stay on the phone, probably silently.

Activity Tracking

When I wrote the review of Apple Watch Series 3, I had my first perfect month. Since then I’ve had 23 more. Since the day I bought a watch, I didn’t miss a day, closing all three rings. I’ve had Active calories ring set to around 500 most of the time, but for the last two-three months the goal is more than 900. The challenges for the month became, well … more challenging. Something changed in the algorithm and I don’t get easy ones anymore (like closing all the rings for a month, which I already do), right now those challenges really push me. I have to plan in advance how to complete them. This is great, but I would still love to have a less challenging month once in a while – some rest is also needed.

Battery

When the Series 4 came out, there were a lot of raving reviews saying how good the battery was. For some it was a two-day battery, for some it allowed to start tracking sleep. This year is different. On a big watch with the normal use from 6am to 23pm with one hour and a half workout there is about 15% of the battery left. On Series 3 after the same day there would be more than 50% left (and my watch is two years old).

On Twitter some are trying to turn everything off (like noise monitoring or always on display), with no luck, so the reason could be in the software (there are some reports WatchOS 6.1 beta fixed it). This one is definitely on Apple, I shouldn’t manage battery life and I have to be able to use all the feature that they’ve advertised.

On the other hand, they said it is “all-day battery, which lasts 18 hours”, and it does (although “all-day” one would think is a bit more than 18 hours). It’s just before battery was so good, I never would even think to manage it. You just put it on a charger before going to sleep and that is the whole management. The one time I had to think about battery was during the 14 hour flight, but that’s expected.

I’ve tried to restore the watch and set it up as new, as it helped some, but battery life stayed the same. In order to stay sane, I’ve decided to try not to think about the battery and see how will I manage.

Watch Faces

I agree with Marco Arment – there is still a shortage of good watch faces. Previous generation watches faces look so bad on the new screen, that they should probably be removed from the new watches. The most easy to use yet configurable are digital faces. But as someone who was wearing watches before Apple Watch, I like to use analogue and there are not many good ones. I love Navy Blue California face, but it looks good only in the full screen mode, which has only two complications and one of them is limited in choice, so I can’t use it during the day, because I actually use complications.

Meridian face would be a step in the right direction, but I don’t like the white background shining at me and black just looks really bad.

So that leaves me three watch faces I use a lot – switching between black California face with circular dial and Infograph Modular. And in the evening or when going out – Navy Blue California face with full screen dial.

Taptic Engine

Apple has a lead in a couple of places, some big – like an A-series chip, some small – like haptics. It is very enjoyable on the phone and it is changed a lot on the watch. I’ve noticed new engine immediately, it’s so much nicer. I like how it works when you use Digital Crown, it is so delightful. Vibrations for notifications are also quite nice. This is a small thing, but the one that gives you a joy using the device.

Room For Improvement

As my main gripe about the Apple Watch was fixed, I have a couple of small wishes going into the future.

As I mentioned the algorithm in challenges changed, so I have to plan how to complete them. Adding complication that shows progress would help a lot.

As someone who closed all the rings for more than two years, I would really love to have the ability to have a day off (I can even show a note from the doctor if it would be necessary).

More thought through watch faces, especially analogue ones. I’m not sure Apple has to allow 3rd party watch faces, but they definitely have to step up their watch face game.

And of course battery life. I know it technically lasts “all day”, but if you want to go out in the evening, you have to either charge the watch or forget about it, because it just won’t last.

Conclusions

Last year when the Apple Watch Series 4 got announced, even though it didn’t change the form much, the bigger screen with rounded corners looked fresh. Comparing two watches, you could definitely see how Series 3 was a previous generation. Using it day-to-day, though didn’t bother me much, because you don’t have something to compare to all the time. This is why I had no desire to upgrade.

This year they sold me after the words “always on display”. My guess is, this feature would be the reason for many to buy a new watch. It is a game changer. Yes, I have problems with the battery life, but I didn’t even think for a second trying to turn off the always on display to preserve battery life. It wouldn’t be the product I’ve bought.

Apple September Event

September 11, 2019
8 min read

Yesterday Apple held its biggest event of the year. As was rumored we’ve seen three new iPhones, watch and so much more. Luckily this time not all rumors came true, we’ve had a couple of surprises. On the other hand, some were expecting too much, so as always my strategy of not reading rumors before the event pays off.

 Arcade

If you didn’t notice, Apple is services company now, so it started with two of them. Apple Arcade is gaming service, starting from 100 exclusive high quality games. You will pay the subscription fee and play whatever game you want on iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV. The games in the trailer look amazing. Considering that Apple announced support for xBox and PS4 controllers, this could be a very big deal for many.

As it often is, game demos are the weakest part of Apple presentation, after Tim Cook said “I won’t waste your time with usual updates” we’ve watched three game demos in a row with one of them being Froger, in 2019.

It will be available September 19 in over 100 countries around the world for a price of $4.99 per month for the whole family. And Apple will give 1 month free trial.

Considering the price, I feel like this is the one to at least try. As I said games look good, the lineup of developers looks strong with some big names and indie.

tv+

As every company under the sun Apple is launching original content. tv+ will have three shows at start adding more every month. Tim Cook was so excited that the trailer for the Morning Show was “one of the most watched trailers ever” it wasn’t even funny.

We also saw a trailer for the TV show See, which looks very promising.

It will cost $4.99 per month for family and will be available in over 100 countries. What was surprising, you will get 1 year of the service included with the purchase of any Apple device. Considering Apple only has a couple of shows at the start and doesn’t have any backlog this is very smart strategy.

iPad

This one was a surprise. There were some rumors about new iPad, but most thought it would be shown in October event later this year.

What Apple did is update it’s most popular iPad, the original size one. It is now 7th generation iPad, they’ve changed screen size a bit, increasing it to 10.2 inches (instead of 9.7). It has updated specs and is shipping on September 30 starting from $329.

Interesting how Apple doesn’t compare it to other tablets (because that market doesn’t even exist), all of the comparisons were with top selling PC and of course iPad beat it in every aspect.

Up until now, this was The iPad to get, considering the price and power you get. It remains the one device in Apple lineup which you can consider inexpensive and well worth every dollar you spend.

watch

Tim Cook started with the video showing how Apple Watch save lives with its ECG function. What was nice this time – it also showed how Apple Watched helped get healthier by asking you to close your rings or stand. Those videos are always Apple at its best.

There will be three new studies – Hearing, Women’s health and Heart and movement study. Those are great, but unfortunately available only in the United States.

And here is the announcement I was most surprised by – new Apple Watch. Watch Series 5 will have THE feature, the one many asked for from the very beginning – always on display, while still having all-day 18 hour battery life.

All the watch faces were optimized for low-power mode when it shows time, so you don’t have to tilt your wrist or tap the screen. This is the feature for getting a new watch, especially if you didn’t upgrade to the Series 4 last year.

As everything in the US, Apple Watch now has a compass. As most of the cities in the US were built considering the directions, this will be helpful to Americans, but also around the world, Maps app will now be able to show where are you heading more precisely.

There will also be international emergency calling in more than 100 countries if you have cellular Apple Watch. Amazing feature, which I hope nobody has to use.

This year Series 5 is available in a couple of new finishes – two Titanium models and white Ceramic. They look great, but will cost accordingly.

Apple Watch Series 5 will start at $399 for GPS model and $499 for cellular. You can already order one and it will ship on September 20.

What also interesting, Apple leaves Series 3 in its lineup for $199. It is great entry price, but only if you don’t care about the look and newest feature. By itself it is ok, but if you ever come across Series 4 or 5, two year old model looks very old and dated.

iPhone

The main star of the event – iPhone. Last year, I think Apple confused buyers with releasing three models which were hard to differentiate for average consumer (believe me, I know, the amount of questions I got about which one should someone buy was like a customer sat – through the roof). Fortunately this didn’t stop iPhone XR to become the most popular iPhone and smartphone in the world.

This year the lineup is much more clearer. First, there is iPhone 11. Which you can consider the standard one – everyone who wants to buy an iPhone this year should get this one. It has 6.1 inch display, Haptic Touch and Spacial Audio.

It also has two cameras this year, but instead of adding telephoto, the second camera is ultra-wide. This will allow you to switch to x0.5, which means you will be able to capture 2 times more of the scene from the same point.

This is also shown in the new camera interface. When you launch it, it will look more immersive, showing you the whole available picture instead of black bars.

Although there is no telephoto camera, Portrait mode is still made using hardware, so it will work on animals, unlike the iPhone XR.

Apple also showed Night mode, which in presentation looked great, but we will need to see comparisons with Google Pixel, where night mode is just out of this world. Hope Apple delivers.

If photography is something Android manufacturers, especially Google, mastered, in videos Apple is still unbeatable. Adding to that ultra-wide and cinematic stabilization, makes it even more impressive.

Front camera was also updated, it is now wider 12MP sensor which will take normal selfie, until you rotate it sideways and it will get wide.

Apple also added 4K video support and slo-mo to the front camera and invented the word Slofies – which is probably officially the worst word of 2019.

A12 processor leads the industry, the overhead it has is not even funny, it is still faster than all the newest Android phones and Apple made it even faster. A13 Bionic is the new processor inside iPhone. It is so ahead, it will take Android manufacturers a couple of years to catch up.

What iPhone XR did have, was amazing all-day and then some battery life. In iPhone 11 it was improved – adding 1 hour.

It will be priced starting from $699 and as I’ve already mentioned, this is the one to get.

iPhone 11 Pro

As Phil Schiller said – this is the first phone Apple called Pro and it is worthy of its name.

There are four new colors – Midnight Green, Space Grey, Silver, Gold. And at least on photos the green looks amazing, I will be surprised if it will be available on first day in enough quantities. The back has a nice matte finish now, which doesn’t even look like glass anymore.

There are two phones iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, with the same sizes as last year of 5.8 and 6.5 inches. It will also have A13 Bionic processor, but one of the biggest improvements is battery life. 4 hours more for iPhone 11 and 5 hours more for iPhone 11 Pro Max. As a XS Max user I can tell you this will be amazing, it will bring phones closer to the main iPhone 11. It will also have 18 watt adapter in the box, so you will be able to charge it faster.

There is now three cameras. The ultra-wide was also added to the Pro models. One amazing thing 3rd party developer Filmic Pro demoed, was shooting video with two cameras at the same time. So you have more different footage for the same moment.

Apple also showed sneak peak for a feature coming later this year called Deep Fusion. What it does is it takes 9 photos (8 of them before you even press a button) and combines them to bring a lot of detail. On stage it looks great, we will have to wait for it to come out.

The iPhone 11 Pro will start at $999 and iPhone 11 Pro Max at $1099 with pre-orders this Friday and shipping on Septemver 20th.

Apple will also keep in it’s lineup iPhone XR for $599 and iPhone 8 for $449.

Some already are saying this was the weakest Apple event in recent history, but I think it was good. Making already great iPad even better, always-on display on the Apple Watch making it even better in the market with almost no competition. And iterative update on the iPhone, which should be expected, as this is a mature market already.

Apple Watch: My Experience

November 12, 2017
5 min read

When Apple Watch first came out, there was not a lot of reasons to buy one in Latvia – we don’t have Apple Pay, there were not a lot of apps for the Watch – we don’t have Uber, most of our homes are not smart and we still go to the stores to buy groceries instead of them being delivered to our houses. That’s probably why local retailers still don’t sell Apple Watches here (even official Apple resellers). The one I’ve found a month ago was the carrier selling 38mm Apple Watch Series 0 for about 460$ (yes, in 2017).

So when we were travelling to New York City this September, as per tradition – we’ve gone to the Apple Store (this time to the Grand Central), I’ve walked around and came right to the table with all the watches and here it was – 42mm Apple Watch Series 3, a couple of question to the employee, tap of the credit card, typing my e-mail and 10 minutes later I was out of the store with my first smartwatch. I’ve got GPS only version, as again, cellular doesn’t make much sense in Latvia, as carriers don’t support those and I’m not sure they will in pretty long time.

Activity tracking
Some time ago I was reading a couple of articles saying how Apple Watch helped them be more active and even lose some weight, for example, Jim Dalrymple and his weight loss story, I was very skeptical. I’ve had Fitbit before counting my steps and it wasn’t motivating me a bit, I’ve just tracked steps without really going out of my way to reach the goal. In a couple of months, I’ve lost my Fitbit and never got a replacement.
But with Apple Watch it was very different, right from the first day I was closing all three rings and it somehow mattered. First, it was easy, as I was in New York City for the first time, so 2 out of 3 rings were usually closed at about lunchtime, but at home, it got a bit harder, I’ve had to make a bit of an effort to close those rings. Now, I try to finish my lunch early, to have time for a walk and on some days with my wife we «walk the Watch».
Through the day, the Watch keeps reminding me to stand and I’ve got a habit to go and have a glass of water, which helps again.
So far I’ve lost 4kg in about one and a half week (change in a diet also helped) and had my first perfect month in October.

Notifications
I’ve long had a thought that Apple was destroying Notifications Centre when they’ve removed the grouping by an app, it became impossible to use the Notifications Centre for me and I’ve mostly relied on the icon badges all over the home screen, which, as you can imagine, is not very good solution. Just after getting the Apple Watch notifications became a bit more useful. They all appear on my wrist first and I can manage them from the watch, leaving some of them to see on the phone and replying to others using dictation, which became pretty good, even in Russian. Having my watch buzz every time I receive a notification, also helped find the ones I don’t need and turn them off.

This is just one of the examples how Apple rewards you for being all in in the ecosystem. Like how Apple Watch can unlock your Mac, for example, which at first was hard to get used to, because I have developed a habit of opening the lid and starting typing first character of the password right away which canceled unlocking with the Watch, but after a couple of days I’ve got used to the automatic unlock.
The second cool thing was when my phone was charging in the bedroom and I was in the other room, I’ve put my Airpods in the ears, opened Overcast watch app, chose an episode and started playing the podcast from my phone. It felt really nice.

Time
This is a bit silly and a bit surprising, but probably the worst thing about Apple Watch is how bad it is at telling time. I’m not saying it tells the wrong time, far from it, as far as I’ve read it is one of the most precise time peaces, but having to raise the wrist to see time is pretty bad. I’m one of the rare people who was wearing a watch before getting smart one and was very used to just glancing at my wrist to see the time, now I can’t do that. I have to flick the wrist every time I want to see what time it is, which, while working, is not a good experience.
Taking into the consideration that on a normal day, I have about 65% battery power left and Apple Watch having an OLED display, I think it is possible for it to have always on time. It could be a feature off by default, but I would love to have it as an option.

After having a watch for a little more than a month, I can definitely tell that I like it very much and will continue to wear it daily. I’m still closing all three rings every single day and trying to raise my Move goal in the beginning of every weak even if by just a bit. It is a solid product with the bright future ahead of it. I’m not seeing a lot of them in Latvia, but that’s probably because you have to go out of your way to find one, but when we were in NYC I was shocked to see so many of them on people wrists and now I can see why.

One more thing

September 15, 2014
4 min read

It has been almost two weeks since Apple announcement and I still have not written about the Apple Watch. After rewatching the Watch part of the presentation, reading a crapload of articles, listening to a lot of podcasts and most importantly thinking about the product, I’m ready to give my opinion on the product. (As if anybody cares).

Before the announcement, I actually was convinced Apple would show a wearable, but not a watch, something else, something different. This time, I think, Apple made Samsung’s product.

The Next Chapter in Apple’s History

It is hard not to notice how excited Tim Cook was presenting this product, he chocked a bit a couple of times and they’ve received standing ovation after the first video introduction. Straps looked great in that video, I didn’t know historic value of some of them, but you can read about that in a great piece by Benjamin Clymer. I was worried about magnetic strap, but it seems it’s pretty solid.

Tim Cook talked about Digital Crown, how you cannot just use touch screen for most things, because your fingers would be in the way of content, so you zoom in and out or scroll through the list using this crown. However, later Kevin Lynch used the Digital Crown only handful of times and actually scrolled a lot on the screen (probably, not even that, but the Demo was scrolling on the screen).

They’ve also showed 11 minute video, which, if you believe Tim Cook was made this morning and Jony Ive narrated it (that part was true, I guess). There were a lot of functions showed and that’s not a good thing, in my opinion. Sending someone a heartbeat, so he feels it on his wrist, why would you do that?! In addition, in the video, Ive said the phrase “using GPS and Wi-fi from your iPhone” – I can see how the watch uses the GPS from the phone to save battery life, but why Wi-fi? There was a moment with hundreds of photos on the screen of the watch, why would you do that? I’m rarely nostalgic enough to want to see photos right away on my watch and if I’m showing someone, I’ll pull out a phone. Another thing is Stocks widget. Maybe I don’t get something, but who needs to look at the stock price on his wrist? Tim Cook after presentation, maybe, but that function is there, just to feel the screen, nothing more.

They have mentioned Siri couple of times, but used it only one’s. Speech recognition is one of the strong sides of Android Wear, so Apple has very good competition in that space. You can also read your Twitter timeline, on a watch. Again, something that’s done best on a smartphone, and would probably be painful on a 1.5” screen.

The one thing I like about that watch is it’s fitness and health capabilities. I would use it as a fitness tracker, the app looks great and it seems like there are many great ideas in that space. Again, there are different devices for that kind of usage.

Two things unanswered:

  • How much would the model you will actually want would cost. Starting price at $349 sounds a bit pricey, as it is, but it’s even more interesting how much the best one would cost?
  • Battery life. The phrase Tim Cook used was “It’s simple to charge at night”. Everyone seems to think it will last a day, which is okay, compared to Android watches (most of them can last a day), but still, many of us were thinking Apple would do something different.

I’m sure they’ll sell a lot of those, but I can’t see the real use for that watch, especially at such a price. It looks somewhat good, it’s thick, but as often with Apple products, looks good. It doesn’t do much of the interesting stuff, I think Google Now on a watch is more advanced. The only interesting thing I saw was Fitness capabilities. I won’t buy one, because I’ve decided on my next phone, and as you can guess, it won’t be an iPhone. More on that later.

On anticipation and celebrities tweeting

September 9, 2014
3 min read

It’s September 9th finally and I’m very much in the anticipation of Apple presentation. This time I’m really interested in company’s announcements. I’m not sure why, but it feels like something big is coming (and it’s not a pun on the screen sizes). I try hard not to read the rumors. Yes, I know there will probably be two new bigger phones with 4.7 and 5.5 inch screen and there probably will be some kind of wearable. This is the information you get without even trying. All the websites and podcasts are talking about that. But I try not to open “news” about upcoming products. If all those mock-ups and information about internals are true, then I would rather be surprised during the presentation. If all this information is false, then what’s the point of reading and posting it. (I know what is the point for publishers, I’m not that stupid). I’m just waiting for Apple to impress me. It’s like going to watch a movie, when your expectations are too high, you probably would not enjoy it. So, if you can, you should isolate yourself from all this talk, which is of course easier said than done, because of the Internet.

It’s hard to find links about something other than Apple event. Everybody tries to get his last minute predictions. It’s interesting how predictions work. If you didn’t guess – nobody will care, maybe your biggest haters, if you get something right, you can for the rest of your life link to that triumph.

But this time, I feel like Apple has outdone itself. There is no hint in the invitation to journalists. Just “Wish we could say more.” That’s the first time, as far as I can remember, we’ve always gotten at least something to deconstruct. Also big room, a lot of journalists, even Gizmodo is invited and some fashion press.

One more thing, I’m considering what my next phone will be and that’s the last presentation I’m waiting for. Last year in a similar circumstance I’ve chosen HTC One instead of iPhone 5S and still think that was a right choice. There is plenty to hate about HTC One, but until iOS 8 I’ve enjoyed Android more, let’s see how it changes with the new OS and then the update to Android, later this year.

That’s not a celebrity you’re following on Twitter, it’s an assistant  Why would anyone think that celebrities are tweeting? First, they do not care. Why would Britney care about Twitter and what somebody is saying about her. Second, I don’t really care what Britney talks about. Fans enjoy her account as it is, I am sure. They retweet and mention her. If she was, indeed, writing herself, I don’t think much would change. All her fans would continue following her and those who weren’t interested would not be interested in any case. Maybe mentioning in the bio, that someone else is writing on behalf of celebrity would be nice, but that will never happen.

Charging the watch two times a day

September 6, 2014
3 min read

There are some news on the smartwatch front – reviews for the Moto 360 came out and all your dreams will come true with this watch. Its battery life will last for about… 12 hours. Are you serious Motorolla? This is not even funny. I guess most geeks would be ok with charging it every night, but then charging it in the middle of the say also. Someone has to remind this company they’re essentially making a watch. A WATCH. I have this beautiful, old watch from the USSR. It has to be wound up… Every two to three days. I’m now very interested in what Apple will show us on September 9 event. Probably won’t buy it, but still, it’s interesting to see if they’ll show how it’s done.

image

Since I’m in the market for a new phone, I’m looking closely at what companies are announcing this week. Interesting that many don’t mention release date or prices. It shows they just want to show whatever they have before Apple. Which is fine, I guess.

Samsung showed two phones – Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge. First is similar to the previous one and like most of their products is boring and has problems grabbing attention. Second one, at first glance, seems more interesting. It has this curve screen, but like with many samsung products, again, it doesn’t know what to use it for, so you are mostly presented with setting for the new cool feature.

Nokia presented low end and middle end devices with flagman class camera. It’s interesting in theory and it does cover my needs – camera and battery life, but it’s a Windows Phone. I love how it looks, but even by Android standard, new apps don’t come out fast enough.

The most interesting device so far is Moto X. As I can see they’ve corrected everything they’ve done wrong. I’m not sure about the bigger screen, 5.2’’ is by no means too big, but still most people consider 4.7’’ a sweet spot, so we’ll see. They’ve also improved the camera, it now features 13-megapixel sensor, that is standard in flagships nowadays. That was actually the biggest problem with the previous model. I love wooden and leather backs, that’s probably the main reason I won’t buy this phone – it probably won’t sell officially in Latvia and buying it from someone, you would have to be OK with whatever they’ve chosen and it would be hard to find the one I’d like. But I have a couple of friends who already decided that Moto X will most probably be their next smartphone.

Up until that point it looks like, nothing has come out, that I would like or would be able to get and the only announcement, we have left, if I’m not mistaken, is the one on September 9th.

This post almost didn’t happen, posting it last minute, but still, the streak is going on. It’s six days now, I think it’s the longest I’ve been writing something, especially the 500 words (and yes, this paragraph also counts towards this number).

My thoughts on smartwatches

September 4, 2014
4 min read

You know you have a problem, when one of the best designs in the category looks like this:

image

Or almost round Moto 360. As most of the people don’t use their watches to see time, your product should look good on the wrist, there is no other way around this.

It’s not the best practice to draw some kind of conclusions based on personal anecdotal evidence, but I’ll do just that right now (you could feel it will be this way, by reading the begging of the sentence). I do wear a watch, it’s analogue, pretty big watch by Tomy Hilfiger. I love watches, I use them (I don’t even notice what time it is when I pull out my smartphone), I also wear the Fitbit Flex on the other hand and like a watch, it is an accessory for me, I have a couple of different color bracelets. If they’d looked ugly (like most smartwatches), I wouldn’t even consider wearing them. So that’s my thoughts on design.

The other important thing is what do you use the watch for. On IFA Samsung showed Gear S, which is mini smartphone strapped to your wrist. It’s bulky, 2’’ screen is just too big to wear on a wrist. It has standard wristband and you can change it, which is good, I guess, but won’t help you much. Here is a promotional video of the device.

Let’s look at possible uses for the device from this ad and some hands on from different blogs:

  • Notifications – there are two types of people, in my opinion, those who have too many notifications, so their wrist will constantly buzz (many tech journalists complain about that) and then, there are those, who don’t have as many notifications, so you can just pull your phone out of the pocket. I’m in the latter category and I don’t see a point in this idea of getting notifications on my wrist.
  • Accept or Make calls – this one looks cool, from my understanding, you can’t do that on many smartwatches, but if you watch the promo video, you’ll see, you have to keep your wrist close to your face and in that case – why even bother? – just use a phone with loudspeaker turned on, or better yet Bluetooth headset.
  • Easy text input – let’s repeat this one more time. Easy. Text. Input. Using the QWERTY keyboard on 2 inch screen. Do you even hear yourself Samsung? After using bigger screens I can’t type on the iPhone, let alone the smartwatch.
  • Navigation – this one is interesting, but again, you could just as well use your smartphone. Also, using my phone for navigation, you just see how it drains battery, what about the smartwatch? Will it drain the battery as fast? My guess would be – yes.
  • Music and Tracking Activities – I’ve combined these two, just because it makes sense. Here again, will it be able to keep charge while Bluetooth and GPS are on? If it can, it would be one good use for this watch.
  • UV information – this is just ridiculous, but maybe someone needs it, I just won’t even comment.
  • Tracking Sleep – when I first got my Fitbit Flex and started tracking sleep with it, for about a week I felt uncomfortable wearing it while sleeping, I can’t even imagine wearing 2’’ phone on my wrist.

I think the best you can do with the category of devices you wear on your wrist is some kind of health and fitness use. Without this watch and notification bullshit.