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.

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.

WWDC 2019 Keynote Impressions

June 11, 2019
2 min read

Most people jot down some notes about keynote overall and then write or talk about each release in more detail. I’ve went my own way, first going through impressions for each OS – tvOS, watchOS, iOS, macOS, iPadOS and also for Mac Pro.

Now I want give my overall impressions about presentation. I mostly agree with Marco – Apple started listening again. And the reason is pretty simple on it’s surface – iPhone sales. Although thanks to increasing prices for a couple of years revenue from the iPhone didn’t fall, but unit sales plateaued. So now Apple has to sell iPhones more aggressively and give more attention to all other products in the lineup.

This was noticeable in every announcement, it wasn’t apologizing per se, but it felt like Apple was overcompensating. There were ver big changes that got at most one sentence mention during the Keynote and a lot of them were just a text on the slide with “everything else that’s new”. 

There was something for everyone, be it developers, users, professionals. We’ve got new OS, new hardware and new frameworks. We’ve even got the trailer for TV show. All of this in just 2 hours. The pace was unbelievable. Presenters were very proud of the product, just look at the display demonstration. 

I like how passionate, knowledgeable and funny Craig Federighi is. I’ve seen some of the first of his presentations and it’s not even close. It’s a very big growth in presentation skills. This year the biggest joke was about iTunes and with Craig delivering it – it landed perfectly. 

Overall, this was very strong keynote, one of the best in recent years actually. And this gives hope that Apple is able to make products and also improvements to those products afterwards, even if those aren’t iPhone.

WWDC 2019 Keynote Impressions – watchOS

June 5, 2019
3 min read

Don’t have a lot of time for writing today, so it’s very fitting that watchOS is next in my series of posts about WWDC. There were not a lot of changes and most of them might seem minor at first glance, but could have some big implications. 

Watch Faces

The most noticeable thing for the users are new Watch Faces. They look good on the big screen, but I’m not sure they will be functional and will they be available to the older watches? Also, we didn’t get any information on old watch faces – will they be updated? In my opinion, after Apple focused mostly on Health features of the Watch, watch faces became the worst “feature” of the device. It’s hard to find the best one, especially if you don’t have Series 4 Apple Watch.

Chimes and Silent Taps

If I started with the negative aspect, let’s get all out of the way. Chimes and silent tap every hour. I don’t think I imagine myself using silent tap like ever, but maybe someone needs this function, but chimes? Who would need their watch to sing every hour? Just … why?

More personal Health app

One of the most interesting features that got presented was – Activity Trends. This is one of those features that shines on the iPhone, but you still need Apple Watch to gather all the information. Apple Watch gathers so much data, but there is no story behind it. This year Activity Trends brings much needed analysis of the data.

A couple of health related features are very welcome additions. Not for me personally, but I could see how helpful Cycle Tracking would be for women. I know there are apps on the AppStore, but with Apple stance on privacy, this is great addition. 

Hearing Health – this could help a lot of people. I could see being at the concert and moving somewhere farther away from the sound source if the watch tells me it’s too loud. 

App Store and independence

Probably the biggest feature of this years release of the watchOS – App Store. Sure, at first it looks funny, how you search and scroll, look at screenshots on such a tiny screen, but this is just another step towards independence of the Watch. I can see how in 2-3 years you would be able to buy cellular Apple Watch and set it up without ever needing to connect to the iPhone. 

From the development point of view Independent apps, App Store, Streaming Audio and SwiftUI – all those things will help to untie the Watch from the iPhone.

And this last bit is what I meant in the very beginning. Every one of those features by itself may seem minor, but bring them all together and you’ve got a strong contender for the future.

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.