This iPhone review is amazingly detailed. And this quote makes me want to upgrade: “Apple’s iPhone CPU have gotten so performant now, that we’re just margins off the best desktop CPUs”

The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets

I’ve had my Series 4 watch for a couple of weeks now and summarized my experience with it so far: Series 4 Apple Watch Experience

Series 4 Apple Watch Experience

For reference I updated from a Series 0 to a Series 4 with a cellular plan.

  • To get the bad out of the way first, my only real disappointment is Raise to talk to Siri. Sometimes it works like magic but 50% of the time it doesn't activate. It makes me feel awkward and self conscious when I talk to my watch and absolutely nothing happens. I have not figure out why. OK, the rest is positives...
    • Well, there is one other thing that really bothers me though I knew about it ahead of time: The Watch should be able to stream music to my car's Bluetooth. Inability to do this is a major chink in the "ok to leave your phone at home" concept.
  • Size: I went from the 42mm to the 44mm and was a bit worried about the size since my wrist is on a bit small. But the 4mm looks ok on me and feels smaller and lighter than the old 42mm.
  • Appearance: When the iPhone X came out I didn't plan to do an upgrade. But while having a battery replaced at an Apple Store I gave it a look and a feel (!) and instantly wanted to upgrade. The Series 4 doesn't have the same impact but it definitely looks better than the Series 0 and has something of the look of the iPhone X.
  • Display: Really bright, very clear, and functionally seems much larger than the physical increase would indicate. I turned text size down to the smallest setting.
  • Water: I like to listen to music when I shower and it was always annoying to be in there when songs came on I wasn't in the mood to listen to. I wear the Series 4 whenever I shower and I can use both touch and voice to control my music. This is pure joy for me.
  • Infographs: I am using both of the Infograph faces. I have a Modular face set up for weekends and the other set up for weekdays because I have a different focus on those days. I welcome the addition of these new faces but I like symmetry and some of the complications around the edge have one design (e.g. arced with a color gradient) and others have a clashing design (circular). It took me quite awhile to come up with complications for each corner that didn't feel off balance. I'm only using 2 of the sub-dial slots (top and bottom, left and right are empty). Aside: for some reason the AQI complication often fails to display any data even though the UV complication always works.
  • Sleep: I now sleep with my watch on. Partly because I am using AutoSleep to track my sleep pattern and quality and partly because I hate having to unlock my watch when I first wake up. It's great to be able to give Siri commands via my watch as soon as I get up (my iPhone sleeps in my office, not my bedroom). And AutoSleep works well.
  • Battery: I've had the watch a couple of weeks and I have never gotten it charged to 100% since I'm sleeping with the watch on. I usually charge the watch a couple of hours in the evening and with that the battery hasn't dropped below 18%.
  • Performance: It's great. Don't know what else to say about it.
  • Wallet: My Series 0 wasn't responsive enough to ever use the wallet/Apple Pay. I would always feel like a nerd when I tried and then it would fail in a shop full of people. The Series 4 works perfectly so I use the Wallet several times a week.
  • Connectivity: With all the options in Series 4 with cellular it has naturally been quite good. But it's only a 4/5 stars so far. Normally it will operate just fine if my iPhone is far away within the house or I leave it at home. But occasionally the watch seems to spend quite a bit of time figuring out it can't talk to the iPhone and needs to switch to WiFi or cellular as appropriate. The delay can be on the order of 10 seconds which is more than enough to be highly annoying. I'd rather it err on being more aggressive in connecting on it's own.
  • Health: Sometimes it would take me more than a minute on my Series 0 watch to start a workout. It was incredibly frustrating to have it lock up while trying to do so. Naturally it works perfectly now. The heart info feeds into AutoSleep and my workouts but I have no known heart issues so I can't speak to the other features. Also, I haven't fallen...
  • CARROT: I'm a long time fan of the app and on the Series 4 it is a delight. I paid for the upgrade so I can use it's complications on my watch faces.
  • 1Password: I sync a few credit cards, library card and my drivers' license info. Essentially this is "I forgot my wallet" mode.
  • Radarscope: Because it's cool to have a weather radar on your wrist! It works well on a Series 4.
  • Apps: I do have 24 apps installed but other than those noted above nothing else is particularly remarkable (e.g. Yelp, Hilton).

His and hers sake samplers

Today’s Texas vs OU 🏈 game will go down as a classic. Talk about a thriller!

My morning: Dad’s happy. Kids happy.

A sketch our 14 y/o daughter made while bored in her animation class today 👁 ✏️

IGG Software’s v7 update to Banktivity is one of the best dark mode adaptions I’ve seen. It looks lovely on my MBP.

That said I took the time this week to use my local newspaper’s list of all my races and responses from the candidates to create my draft ballot. Early voting for us starts October 22nd. It’s worth the effort and I’m thankful for the opportunity to vote.

h/t to Mom 2/2

As far back as I can remember my Mom emphasized the need to get to know politicians at every level and to vote in every election. A rather un-America perspective since most Americans only go vote in the “biggies”. Her wisdom was that grass roots change happens locally first. ½

Daughter’s pen/ink line sketch for art class

Four years ago today. I was rather amused by how the potted plants behind her seemed attached to her head. 📷

The Fallout videogame series is my favorite. But I’m only mildly excited for the release of Fallout 76 next month because it will be multi-player (and potentially full of griefers). I’m not sure the beta period will give a good idea of griefers-prevalence.

Glorious morning. 📷 🌞 ☁️

Live. Laugh. Love. 📸 ❤️

Trying to get our 14 year old daughter to spend effort preparing for the PSAT this month has been a frustrating exercise. Always difficult striking the right balance to get the desired result.

⛅️ ☀️ 🏡 📷

My Micro Monday is @ddykstal because everyone needs a badger and chief entropy officer in their timeline.

Just published What’s keeping me in this relationship (with my Mac)? wherein I explore my devices, apps, and start eating an elephant.

What’s keeping me in this relationship (with my Mac)?

As chief technolust-er, procurement officer, and father of a couple of growing kids I have been thinking a lot about the optimal technology plan as our computers pass 5 years of age and the kids break into their teenage years. It used to feel like we needed a couple of computers plus iPads (not to mention phones and gaming consoles). I’ve begun to question this assumption quite seriously but have found it difficult to come to a conclusion – partly because the kids’ preferences are mercurial and also the future demands of school work are unpredictable (e.g. our daughter is pursuing the digital animation track in HS).

I decided to find a simpler elephant to eat, at least for now, and sat down and enumerated the tasks that drive me to use a Mac vs an iOS device. First up the list of “can’t be done on my iPad” items.

  • I use the Banktivity budgeting and finance management app. It has a richly featured iPad version that I use heavily. Unfortunately the iPad version is missing the full custom reporting package found on macOS. I only need to check these custom reports once or twice a month, and create new ones rarely, but it is a barrier to completely leaving a Mac behind.
  • Income tax preparation. I use TurboTax because I don’t trust doing it online and want to ensure I have the full ability to run it locally in the future.
  • Video processing/rendering (it's slow enough on my MBP)
  • Major Photo editing projects. There are a lot of great photo editing apps for iOS but I find them slow when dealing with large and RAW images. It's OK when processing one or two but I don't have enough time or patience for doing a large project using iOS apps.
  • Software and electronics development projects
  • A few random forms and web sites which don’t work properly on mobile Safari (can't believe companies can't get this right)
  • A couple of server processes (though these are no longer indispensable)

And now the list of “could be done on my iPad but not as easily”:

  • Heavy duty spreadsheet work. I spend a fair amount of effort managing investments and our financial plan. By way of example the Numbers spreadsheet that covers most of this has around 10 different tabs most filled with wide tables. I can do simple updates and tweaks on with my 10" iPad Pro but the screen just isn't wide enough to permit simultaneous clarity of the details while at the same time enabling an effective big picture view. I've contemplated if the larger iPad Pro would be sufficient but I'm not sure. Added context: I have a wide screen monitor on my MBP.
  • This one is a bit of a "to be determined" but I've long used Photos on the Mac to create our Christmas Cards and Calendars. Given Apple's decision I imagine this will become more difficult on the Mac. I have yet to explore options on my iPad so I'm not sure if the Mac will still have a clear advantage.

This was a useful exercise for me. The “can’t be done on iPad” list, though lengthy, is almost entirely comprised of activities I do infrequently. The only outlier is software and electronics development projects which tend to have me at a Mac throughout a day or a few days. The conclusion for me is I don’t need a Mac any more. I can share a decent Mac with the kids.

N.B. No actual elephants were harmed in the writing of this post. 🐘

Manchester United is off to a terrible start this season. Such lackluster play against weaker teams. Jose Mourinho can’t seem to coach consecutive good seasons. ⚽️

My thought of the day: Action beats Reaction

I watched some people leave locked Windows laptops unattended while they went outside to talk or went the “facilities”. In case you don’t know, not only can they be stolen they can be hacked, even when locked, in a matter of seconds.

Big hacks come in tiny packages | CSO Online

Normally when I hit a coffee shop first thing in the morning I get a ton of stuff done. Today I’m just sitting here alternately staring into space, having thoughts, and watching people. I guess that’s what I need. Not even listening to anything.

I find this perspective a bit mind-bending. I feel like I’m sitting cross-legged on an asteroid watching the sun go by with earth a distant spot of light.

Watch a movie made by a robot—on the surface of an asteroid | Popular Science