Post #394,384
9/10/14 12:37:57 PM
|
iCame, iWatched, and actually iDidn't come
Count me underwhelmed, and a little baffled at all the hoopla. It's an impressive piece of tiny tech, and I suspect that the "digital crown" approach to navigation will be replicated by other manufacturers, patents permitting, but nothing I've learned so far tempts this 62 year-old to contemplate the acquisition of one of these baubles. Then again, I've yet to avail myself of the entire universe of iOS technology except to the extent that this has infected the Mac OS. I've admired other folks' iPads without wanting one myself. I'm only now considering an iPhone, because the social and professional pressures on me to have a mobile phone keep increasing from one year to the next; because Apple has dropped the prices on the 5s, until yesterday the top of the line; and because the new models seem unappealingly bulky.
BTW, does anyone here have an iPhone or Android equivalent? What kind of data usage do you rack up over the course of a month? Does Siri add significantly to the total?
cordially,
|
Post #394,393
9/10/14 1:35:57 PM
|
Nexus 4 on T-Mobile.
I don't watch movies, haven't used "Ok Google", make few phone calls. My monthly limit is 2 GB. I've never come close to using that much, even when using Google Maps. I was worried that Maps would be a huge bandwidth hog, but it's not bad at all. I mainly use it for Pimlical (a day-planner/calendar), SMS, and it keeps track of my 3 GMail accounts. (I've used 42 MB so far this month). And occasional web browsing at the airport and the like. The Nexus 4 is a 16 GB phone, but only 12.9 GB is available for use. I have 4.3 GB free (5 GB apps, 1.6 GB photos, 0.24 GB audio, etc.). More storage is nice, especially if you don't want to change phones every 2 years. The new iPhone sounds nice, but there's no way it's worth close to $949 (6+, 128 GB) to me. HTH a little. Cheers, Scott.
|
Post #394,415
9/10/14 10:43:10 PM
|
Wish I could use T-Mobile.
It's much cheaper than Verizon. Unfortunately, when camping in the boonies, it's usually Verizon or nothing. And that's using an external motor home rooftop antenna and a 3 watt amp. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
|
Post #394,395
9/10/14 2:20:32 PM
|
I'm always on WiFi when I'm surfing the web
At work, I only use it for phone calls, texting, calendar and email alerts. When driving I only use it for maps/navigation. At home and at many restaurants and other public spaces I'm on WiFi.
In short, my plan includes 4gb/mo and I never come close.
If you watch movies while waiting in lines, ymmv.
|
Post #394,396
9/10/14 2:28:33 PM
|
If I understand you correctly, then
...access via, say, a public WiFi hotspot is not counted against your ceiling. Good to know. I wouldn't be likely to stream movies: if I'm that bored in public, I'll find something to read. Do you have an opinion about your service provider?
cordially,
|
Post #394,398
9/10/14 2:48:53 PM
|
Yes, WiFi is separate.
Some of the phones/plans will even let you make calls via WiFi, but it's not common.
There are plusses and minuses to each of the service provider. A lot depends on how strong a signal you get wherever you are (weaker signals eat batteries faster, too - the amplifiers have to work harder, etc.). Look around at what you can get in terms of "pre-paid" or "month-to-month" in your area. No discount on the phone that way, but much cheaper and more flexible in the long-run.
My T-Mobile month-to-month bill is $30.50 (including taxes) every month for 2 GB data/unlimited texts/100 minutes of calls. No contract.
Good luck.
Cheers,
Scott.
|
Post #394,403
9/10/14 5:00:15 PM
|
Speaking of WiFi calling...
|
Post #394,405
9/10/14 6:16:17 PM
|
well, goddamnit...
I gone and done it. Reports to follow.
|
Post #394,455
9/11/14 2:13:02 PM
|
Re: well, goddamnit...
Now and again it will be convenient to have a mobile phone, I suspect. I doubt very much whether I'll be doing much thumb-typing. There is a nice little $3 app that permits me to aim the device at the night sky and see what star, planet or constellation I'm looking at. (It would have been gratifying to have this a month ago on a clear night in Sonoma when I pointed out the "Big Dipper" to the spousette and she vehemently maintained that this was in fact Ursa Minor. Well, I was an astronomy-obsessed child back when she was cantering around the school playground pretending to be a fucking horse, and I know from the goddamn Big Dipper.)
I'm abstractly impressed with the fact that I can hold in my hand a device considerably more powerful and out-of-the-box more functional than the behemothiacs that represented the state of the art when I was born in 1952, but I'm inclined to think that I will not warm to this piece of kit the way I did to the Mac (to which I brought not merely indifference but outright loathing for Apple Computer after two unhappy years using an Apple ][+), which was love at first hands-on encounter and since that time a comfortable long-term marriage. I see this one more as a business arrangement.
cordially,
|
Post #394,457
9/11/14 2:18:13 PM
|
Then you haven't played "Osmos" yet, I take it?
|
Post #394,463
9/11/14 3:55:33 PM
|
++
|
Post #394,467
9/11/14 4:43:42 PM
|
Metaphor for business
Small is easy to maneuver but vulnerable. Spends time avoiding getting run over, and taking small bites to grow.
Get bigger, you move slower but can swallow bigger prizes. Unfortunately you need bigger prizes just to maintain your current size while continuing to avoid even bigger players.
Get really big and you don't have many predators. You can't really move all that fast anyway, but it doesn't matter because everyone is avoiding you. And because you're just coasting you can maintain your size for a really long time.
And at all sizes, you much prefer swallowing something you know you can handle, rather than go for the big prize that just might be too big.
|
Post #394,468
9/11/14 6:08:15 PM
|
Indeed!
|
Post #394,459
9/11/14 2:53:47 PM
|
StarWalk is pretty amazing
If that's the one you're referencing.
I use my phone for email, Kindle, texts, G+, maps, finding restaurants when we're out and about, and occasionally reading web stuffs. Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
|
Post #394,412
9/10/14 10:35:53 PM
|
I have an iPhone 4.
Originally on a 2-year contract w/unlimited data on Verizon, but on 3G that's a joke. Text, which I did not use was 25 cents per.
Now it's on a Verizon "pay as you go" plan w/unlimited voice and text and 500 MB data at almost $50/mo with taxes and fees. There's a 500 MB/mo bonus for setting up auto pay. Again, on 3G it's tough it for me to use the 500 MB given I don't watch video stuff. I do use text messaging much more now. Also, via apps, I control both my house thermostat and the garage door from wherever. In a pinch, I use it for email and browsing. Heck, I did that from Ukraine over a slow ship's WiFi connection in 2012.
Recently, my wife got on the same plan but with a iPhone 4S which was purchased from Verizon for $200. The prior phone was dumb LG cell phone. So we text each other a lot now.
We also each have an (WiFi only) iPad. Mine is the original iPad, a hand-me-down from the wife who has the iPad-2. While she does have a Lenovo Win-7 laptop, she uses her iPad quite a bit. Also, it's the device of choice for Facetime with kin. My iPad (w/o cameras) is mostly used for playing Sudoku and reading books. :) That's because the MacBook Pro is usually near by as well. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
|
Post #394,430
9/11/14 3:42:23 AM
|
Watch nerd here
There are few watches I want less than an Apple Watch (and, only a hair's breadth behind it in the "I don't want one" stakes, the Motorola 360 et al)
Dreadful-looking things. And having to charge your watch up every night? lolwut, as the kids say.
Nah, my Omega's place on my wrist is safe for a while yet, I think.
|
Post #394,433
9/11/14 8:00:17 AM
|
If it can be used and actuallly lasts 18 hours or so, it'll sell.
I assume a big reason why it's not going to be available until next year is the battery life. Pulling it off and putting it on a charger every night isn't a big deal, if it's actually usable all day. But having to take it off during the day to charge it would be a huge issue and make it a tiny niche product. At least that's my take. The big knob is a good idea, if not exactly new.  (from http://hecollectsdicktracy.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html ) If they were smart, they'd make a left-hand version, too. I'm not getting one, though. Maybe version 3 - we'll see. (I was kinda burned on a v1 iPad - it had far too little RAM to be useful for much of anything on the web.) Cheers, Scott.
|
Post #394,434
9/11/14 8:05:05 AM
|
Left vs. right is a setup task
Just flip it over and tell the UI to be upside down. Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
|
Post #394,438
9/11/14 8:20:51 AM
|
Smart. Thanks.
|
Post #394,442
9/11/14 8:38:11 AM
|
And then the knob's in the wrong place
Matron.
Should have centred it.
|
Post #394,441
9/11/14 8:37:42 AM
|
it won't last 18 hours
You can bet your life if it did, they'd be crowing from the rooftops about it.
Oh, these things will sell, of that there is no doubt, but they'll sell to the minority demographic of nerds and Applefans.
They're just not fit for purpose, any of them; a watch has to be a fire and forget thing. Between solar power and kinetic systems, watches run effectively forever. Any watch has to run for at least 24 hours If it's a fitness watch, it has to be able to go into the shower and into the pool. If it's an outdoorsy watch, it needs to work off the grid, all the time, and be robust.
And at £350 and upwards (yeah, the $->£ conversion is a bitch), it needs to have a lifespan of more than two years, and I'm not at all convinced a device made to mobile phone standards will manage that. I've had this Omega (orange PO, fact fans!) for six years now and it's just as good now as it was when I bought it. It'll be just as good in ten or twenty years, too.
It's not just that the current crop of smart watches don't tick all of these boxes, they don't tick any of them.
They fit one use case - the urban hipster who doesn't work a particularly long day or has easy access to a charger, who has his phone with him all the time, and who doesn't want to do anything more than count his steps and get notifications of his email/tweets/whatever.
And yes, it's going to be a "him".
Bottom line: your wrist is a really dandy and convenient place to put a clock. It's a retarded place to put your phone.
|
Post #394,469
9/11/14 6:59:08 PM
|
Ah, but that's not where the phone is
You just carry your watch accessories in your pocket, like you would everything else.
|
Post #394,501
9/12/14 12:23:48 PM
9/12/14 12:41:26 PM
|
$2650 for the 128 GB 5.5-incher.
If you can order one...$132.44 (presumably + taxes and fees) per month x 20 months. And that's not even an unlimited talk and text plan. And it is on AT&T... [edit:] Missed a quote in the href. Sorry! Cheers, Scott.
|
Post #394,503
9/12/14 12:33:21 PM
|
Broken link
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
|
Post #394,504
9/12/14 12:41:50 PM
|
Sorry. Should be Ok now.
|
