We’re back after nearly three months when we talked about the WWDC event. Jon Westfall and I actually recorded an episode in early July with Chris Spera. However, we had a lot of audio problems and I need to spend some time trying to fix the audio (echoes) for podcast 331 one of these days.
Apple Watch Series 6
What the tech reviewers don’t understand: Most people don’t buy a new Apple Watch every year/release. As a Series 3 owner, the 6 is a huge leap forward features-wise: I don’t have fall detection, ECG, always-on display, altimeter which appeared before the 6 but after the 3
Doesn’t ship with a power adapter (does include charging cable)
Brighter always-on display (my Series 3 doesn’t have always on)
SP02
Cool Feature alert – Siri Shortcuts can now automate some watch functions – so have it auto switch faces at different times of the day!
Apple Watch SE
Generation older processor
No U2 Ultrawide Band
No ECG
No SP02
Apple takes a swipe at a few niche industries with Apple Watch Family setup.
iPad Air is like an iPad Pro spec-wise
Touch sensor on power button for ID instead of front button or Face ID. I think they got this backwards in a time when many of us are wearing face masks. It is ok to have Face ID for the mostly solitary/indoor iPad. The iPhone, on the other hand, would benefit from getting Touch ID restored.
The only Pro features missing from the new Air are:
LIDAR (I’ve never found a use for it yet)
Wide angle camera
Face ID
Quad-speakers
iPad 8th-generation
Supports only 1st gen Apple Pencil
Apple One bundle
Three price tiers. Not worth it unless you are already invested in Apple’s cloud services
Individual/family plans: Music, TV+, Arcade, 50GB iCloud
Premier: above + News & Fitness
What wasn’t announced:
New iPhone
Apple Silicon based Mac or Macbook
No “one more thing”
iOS/iPadOS 14
Empty widget windows in sidebar – solved by Jon
AirPod Pro sometimes doesn’t disconnect when in charging case. Drains battery (oddly just the right side)
Probably due to new auto-device-switching feature
AirPod Spatial Audio
Scribble
Captions for photos & videos
Mirror selfies?
App Library on phone but not iPad
https://www.apple.com/ipados/ipados-14/features/
Jon backed a Workstation bag (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1149741805/moose-designs-multi-functional-workstation-bag?ref=user_menu) on Kickstarter, and bought a PiBoy DMG (https://www.experimentalpi.com/PiBoy-DMG–Assembled_p_16.html)
And a bamboo skin from dBrand for his Macbook Pro