Yes he's being attacked and torn down - I'm sure I wouldn't enjoy such scrutiny. Esp since I know the internet makes things up and offers personal attacks from hidden people.
As I'll tell anyone who wants to listen to my minor rants - the Watch has a split personality. And fails at both. Is it a watch or a host for apps?
As a watch it is limited by battery life and waterproofness. Use the watch too much and the battery can be dead in hours (just raise and lower your arms while eating dinner in a family style restaurant will kill it - I know - I've done it several times)
Apps? Most stink. The screen is too small, the UI too simple, and the CPU too slow. most apps are simply extensions of notifications (many stink are just "me too" features on the watch). But I suspect the lack of useful apps is caused by the limited powers of the watch. Launching an app gives a swirling progress for quite sometime - nothing is instantaneous. Many times using the phone will beat the swirl. Why use the watch?
So it becomes a fancy Notification bar - which is does pretty well. I also think the iOS "individual apps" paradigm is growing old - Apple needs to move to a task based UI. And then I think the Watch would follow. "What do you want to do?"
Ask for Siri. Yeah - talk to me later.
It isn't a watch and apps are a failure. All for $400. Look at the competition in the $400 range. I'm not sold on this experiment.
Nothing has changed. This is why the Feds have protected this so far. It is a burden for companies to figure out sales tax. Amazon has been fighting this for years - they [claim to be willing] happily collect sales tax if the States would standardize the tax formula.
Shipping is way easier as it is a linear model. "shipping an item from zip to zip that is 1,000 miles apart, at $0.50 per mile per pounds gives....X"
Not so for sales tax. For instance in my state there is a Sales tax, and then each Town is allowed to have a Local Option Tax... which is an increase of the sales tax for purposes of paying school funding. Plus Drinks that contain Sugar are taxed by the amount of sugar in them - but only if it is sugar Added. Except for natural drinks like OJ. And more exceptions for the wise business that... greased the pockets of the politician (probably an exception for dairy products).
The sales tax depends upon the Zipcode and the product being sold (Clothes in my state are tax free upto $100 - except for jackets or something).
The State does not supply a table of items and their sales tax. Each company figures it out themselves based upon the rules. And where is the tax sent to? Local or State level? Does it depend upon Zip code?
I think you're missing the point. They would instead compel you to provide that passcode.
If a safe was locked - they'd ask for the combination or key. In the modern world it is your fingerprint or passcode. They aren't stealing it. There is a warrant.
And as others are suggesting - what is the limit to the warrant? There is a lot of stuff on the device ("remember me" accounts to banks, email., chat etc). So if the warrant was for an email thread between two co-conspirators, but they opened your bank account app and saw large numbers of money transfers --- is that discovery allowed?
If they pull over your car for a broken tail light - what else are they allowed to Discover?
This is all very strange. Let me see if I understand this: The "people" give money to the BBC - the BCC creates really amazing shows to please the people. Seems like they use that money very responsibly. As an American I watch some shows & BBC radio. Although - to be honest - most BBC shows are now viewed via Netflix. But I used to buy (buy!!) current Top Gear on iTunes. This is top quality stuff.
So this is why I'm confused by the purported contents of this White paper. Bury good shows at off times or create crappier shows? What the heck are those people paying for? If I had to pay a tax like that - I'd want really good stuff created. Competition - it's a good thing. Good stays around, crap dies.
Otherwise I'd want my tax money back to spend on Netflix/Amazon.
RIght - next they'll be playing football on LED game machines. how I fondly remember these single purpose machines. Also remember figuring out a bug that if you played a split offense and moved the QB down one row you could stand still and wait several moves and the defense would move past you. Leaving the goal wide open.
For all those who say "let stupid solve itself" - I for one actually like this idea. Not for smartphone users. But for kids and other adults - large trucks and trains can block the crosswalk light. My son is learning to cross the road himself and currently knows to Stop at the Yellow mat on the sidewalk (we have these big yellow rubber mats installed in the sidewalk). The road itself has either White painted stripes or inlaid faux Brick crossings.
So having a row of Red Lights on the ground like a little fence seems like a great safety idea. Like Railroad crossing gates. A fence at foot level.
After reading this article - I wondered how petrol / gasoline vehicles measure up when tested in the real world.
Obviously the laboratory test is broken and requires some updates to better simulate the real world. This is a common problem that I deal with everyday (in a different industry) - it can be very complicated to build a test env. The question always is "what is the real world?" - and making sure test results are meaningful plus data that can be trended.
I came here to ask the same question. Although with a different take.
What should I stock up on? Should I purchase an underground bunker (probably not near an ocean). Since Mother Nature is coming to get all of us - how do we as individuals fortify and plan to fight back.
The oceans aren't coming to get me. But clean water could become an issue. Dry landscapes and future forest fires. Bigger badder snow tires (I didn't even need to use mine this year). Heavy rains in late spring - choose housing location wisely. The pattern of the past several years: less snow in winter, early warm&dry spring, followed by incredible rain in June, then hot July with little precipitation until January.
My children are probably in for a world of hurt. Although my funeral pyre will be easy for them - just leave me outside on a hot day in July.
I'm not sure your position is supported by recent publications. While I agree that people define "baseline" - the current concern is that teenagers are looking to porn as "what normal is." Teenagers make up their own truth in the absence of education. For example "you can't get pregnant the first time"... etc.
I read an article recently that young women (girls) are being "trained" by young men (boys). Boys are watching porn and they expect girls to behave the same way. Girls want to be part of the in-club and are adapting - convincing themselves (for example) that oral sex isn't sex. Free to do it at will without consequence. They are not developing a healthy relationship with sex. Other forms of sex are now entering this new base-line. Forms that girls don't really want to do - but again adapt to remain in the club.
There are fears that STDs will rise because these "new" baseline forms of sex aren't considered problematic by teens - and therefore aren't protecting themselves....because of the "you can't get pregnant" line of reasoning.
My point is that teens may not be choosing their own baseline. Peer pressure is forcing unhealthy choices on them. You can't drink until 21, some states are proposing "can't smoke" until 21. Well thought out reasoning is not a skill teens have;-)
Teaching our young what "healthy" looks like is probably the place to start. Okay - maybe parents not literally teaching them. Open the dialog and remove the taboo.
How timely - Last night I logged onto vzw to check on my account status and saw a link for "reduce your network usage via FreeBee" - a Verizon version of "Binge On"
Intrigued I poked around and noticed that Hearst media and AOL are the primary companies offering content (Just look for the Bee). But I couldn't figure out how it worked - was VZW inserting the "bee" into my web stream - was it an ad on the websites. It isn't offered if you are on Wifi for instance.
Then in the FAQ I saw this strange comment: "A brand may direct encrypted content through a proxy in order to enable FreeBee Data. If the proxy option is chosen, the content will be temporarily unencrypted so the brand can be billed for the data usage."
Proxy? What proxy? Is VZW doing MIM stream editing? Using the gov't SSL keys? Proxy at the business level? or consumer to web level?
From ArsTechnica: "Hearst Magazines, AOL (which is owned by Verizon), and Lantern Software's GameDay"
I seem to remember that the pairing of X-Y chromosomes has something to do with it. I also recall a college class that we were shown photos of naked people who had obvious physical characteristics of "male" or "female." ---- but their X-Y were opposite. Technically the person with the penis was female.
So it ain't as easy as it seems. It was also something I squirreled away in my brain (this was 30 years ago) - and when transgender became "a thing" (talking about critical mass in the media) - as hard as it is for me to comprehend this may not be "a choice" for some. They aren't choosing this - it is the way they are.
The law is trying to define what Science already has - I'm not sure why. To what end?
Could there be real fraud by people who use existing laws to make claims? Outlaw that. The legal system has tried several times to define people & moral values and each time has failed. Definition of a person for purposes of counting in census & Purchase of Alcohol come to mind.
Obviously the Apple Watch is not "just a watch" - for instance Apple Pay is a cool extra. If the battery lasted "days" rather than "hours" it might be more useful and I'd be more kind in my review.
Our child was hospitalized recently and I spent the night on a cot in my clothes - wearing the watch (came as I was). Due to my movements the watch screen would wake and thus in "low power" mode by morning. I also wore it to dinner once and the act of raising my arms to pass a dish or cut food killed the battery - couldn't believe the red low-battery warning as I walked to the parking garage. Really?!
So.. it is jewelry for a specific action and you remove it when finished? Wearing a regular watch for those other times? For $400?!?!? I could buy a health band for a lot less + my Timex.
As for sex - my wife said I couldn't use the health heart rate tracking feature;-)
Yes - but it goes beyond that little Profile (my account is used on the AppleTV so Kiddo channel is under mine).
Notification emails go to her, changes are in her control, whatever is there...she never needs to ask me to change anything. My wife always points out the second-class woman world to me.
We worked for the same company - (met and got married). She called to change her name - but since I made more I was the account owner (men always make more)....and she wasn't allowed to update her profile with her new (legal) name --- they had to ask ME if it was okay for her to make this change.
Many other things are like this for her. Only one controller allowed - and usually the man. So - if having her own account for Netflix provides 100% control... it's worth a $1.
I've had the watch several months - since the fall of 2015. So far - I'm not sure I need it. My calculation also includes cost and features of competing devices - including plain old watches. I keep telling myself "I'm first - this is an experiment - watch and learn - maybe it will be something cool." Short version - cool concept but not worth the money. Poor battery, poor apps, poor interface mode.
What I do like - having notifications and information right on my arm without needing to pull my (ever increasingly large) phone out of my pocket (and soon probably a napsack). Being able to quickly be alerted or acknowledge a text is nice. Monitoring my health activity (have I exercised this week?) is a nice nag. And I'll admit the Dick Tracy phone call on the arm has been unexpectedly useful. Bending your arm and taking 2 second to decided if the alert requires action is fabulous "we're waiting in lobby upstairs" - great. "reminder to pay bill (tonight)" oh thanks - almost forgot, "Twitter says multiple people retweeted same photo" - yeah Ignore.
Siri on the arm has been less than useful. Usually goes, "okay Siri...okay Siri...OKAY Siri" (nothing)... ohh oops It's "Hey Siri" (sorry Dave - I'm not available right now). Most become "Please unlock and continue operation on iPhone." Apps on the watch are lame (and can't use Siri) - most are just extensions of the notification bar. "new podcast available" -- so what!? Twitter is lame because they notify you that "a friend liked a post" -- also...who cares?! The arm is becoming a noise source. I'd like higher signal. I find myself uninstalling apps or turning off notifications. Even a pizza company has an app - but it doesn't show Progress. Just silly text - but the website has a progress tracker (Order recvs, making item, in oven, out for delivery). That would be a cool watch app (we order pizza for the baby sitter when we decide to stay out later). I think most are lame because the available UI is limited.
Imagine having the iOS Notification bar on your arm. Like many of you, I've turned off most notifications because there is always a notification somewhere on this planet being routed to my phone (ding - Notification that a notification is available). But the default mode of the watch and most apps are no better - if anything more noise and less signal. Google Inbox uses many characters to show message date/time/from/subject which leaves little space for the actual email. I was at the museum with friends and we'd all text "we're at the fish tank, heading to dinosaurs" and I could simply look at my arm -- Yup, got it!! Headed that way now. Didn't need to press buttons. Just done. got it. move on.
Which brings me back to...WTF is this thing supposed to do? Tell me the time? $30 Timex does that. What else? Text messages - yeah that's cool. Health monitor ? okay but can't swim with the watch ($30 Timex is water resistant to 10atm). Rubber Band on the basic sport model stinks - only $200 to replace it with a metal one. Bands for the $30 Timex cost ~$20. Can't wear it to the beach. So it isn't a watch replacement. Okay - Not a Watch.
Plus having battery charge anxiety at the end of the day. $30 Timex is still using the same battery it came with 6 years ago.
So why am I paying $400 for a device that can't replace a $30 Timex? $400 buys a very nice plain old watch - Solar powered, dive watch, deflects bullets. Seriously - if a high end watch company came out with a watch that showed text messages it would put an end to Apple Watch.
If it cost under $100 my ROI would be justified. A useful toy. I fear this may be another Newton.
well - I for one completely forgot about the grandfather thingy. Been using Netflix for a short while - ~6 years, so I'm part of the grandfathered price.
Now that I'm reminded - I recall them saying the price was only guaranteed for the next 2 years.
Hopefully the "family" plan will be better. My wife has her own basic subscription too (she used to be a DVD only person until we got married and I bought her an iPad). I think we could save a buck by combining. eh. She likes the independence and a buck is worth that.
I don't know - if you want to be first you need to take a risk. I saw the New Beetle on a TV show over Christmas vacation in 1998 and in January plunked my deposit down. The dealership didn't even have brochures yet - or any details really. Said I was the second person to make a deposit.
Matter of fact - I had to list my favorite 3 car colors up-front on the order because they didn't know who was going to get what. The dealer simply said, "they are going to call me and say 'there are 10 cars available currently in, black, green, red...which ones you want?" hah - I didn't even know if it was going to be Red, Blue, or Manual shift. I had to prioritize my options (I want stick most, red color, but will take blue or green).
Seriously - I didn't know how big/small the car would be. When it arrived they let me drive it around the parking lot with the plastic wrapper still on it. It was like driving a spaceship - totally cool. And I was the only one on the road for weeks - talk about being a rock star.
You want that experience? You gotta be first. And there's no test drive. .
You can *always* sell it. I could have sold it a month later for $5k (+) over what I paid...but kept it for 10 years.
This is obvious. For me touching a butt isn't that it is a robot butt - but that somebody might be watching me and think that I'm doing something inappropriate.
Think about what happened when Andrew McCarthy got caught bopping the love of his life in the movie Mannequin. Like, dude, get a life.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes he's being attacked and torn down - I'm sure I wouldn't enjoy such scrutiny. Esp since I know the internet makes things up and offers personal attacks from hidden people.
He could be the real deal. We may never know.
As I'll tell anyone who wants to listen to my minor rants - the Watch has a split personality. And fails at both. Is it a watch or a host for apps?
As a watch it is limited by battery life and waterproofness. Use the watch too much and the battery can be dead in hours (just raise and lower your arms while eating dinner in a family style restaurant will kill it - I know - I've done it several times)
Apps? Most stink. The screen is too small, the UI too simple, and the CPU too slow. most apps are simply extensions of notifications (many stink are just "me too" features on the watch). But I suspect the lack of useful apps is caused by the limited powers of the watch. Launching an app gives a swirling progress for quite sometime - nothing is instantaneous. Many times using the phone will beat the swirl. Why use the watch?
So it becomes a fancy Notification bar - which is does pretty well. I also think the iOS "individual apps" paradigm is growing old - Apple needs to move to a task based UI. And then I think the Watch would follow. "What do you want to do?"
Ask for Siri. Yeah - talk to me later.
It isn't a watch and apps are a failure. All for $400. Look at the competition in the $400 range. I'm not sold on this experiment.
Nothing has changed. This is why the Feds have protected this so far. It is a burden for companies to figure out sales tax. Amazon has been fighting this for years - they [claim to be willing] happily collect sales tax if the States would standardize the tax formula.
Shipping is way easier as it is a linear model. "shipping an item from zip to zip that is 1,000 miles apart, at $0.50 per mile per pounds gives....X"
Not so for sales tax. For instance in my state there is a Sales tax, and then each Town is allowed to have a Local Option Tax... which is an increase of the sales tax for purposes of paying school funding. Plus Drinks that contain Sugar are taxed by the amount of sugar in them - but only if it is sugar Added. Except for natural drinks like OJ. And more exceptions for the wise business that ... greased the pockets of the politician (probably an exception for dairy products).
The sales tax depends upon the Zipcode and the product being sold (Clothes in my state are tax free upto $100 - except for jackets or something).
The State does not supply a table of items and their sales tax. Each company figures it out themselves based upon the rules. And where is the tax sent to? Local or State level? Does it depend upon Zip code?
Scale this out to all 50 states. It is a burden.
I think you're missing the point. They would instead compel you to provide that passcode.
If a safe was locked - they'd ask for the combination or key. In the modern world it is your fingerprint or passcode. They aren't stealing it. There is a warrant.
And as others are suggesting - what is the limit to the warrant? There is a lot of stuff on the device ("remember me" accounts to banks, email., chat etc). So if the warrant was for an email thread between two co-conspirators, but they opened your bank account app and saw large numbers of money transfers --- is that discovery allowed?
If they pull over your car for a broken tail light - what else are they allowed to Discover?
This is all very strange. Let me see if I understand this: The "people" give money to the BBC - the BCC creates really amazing shows to please the people. Seems like they use that money very responsibly. As an American I watch some shows & BBC radio. Although - to be honest - most BBC shows are now viewed via Netflix. But I used to buy (buy!!) current Top Gear on iTunes. This is top quality stuff.
So this is why I'm confused by the purported contents of this White paper. Bury good shows at off times or create crappier shows? What the heck are those people paying for? If I had to pay a tax like that - I'd want really good stuff created. Competition - it's a good thing. Good stays around, crap dies.
Otherwise I'd want my tax money back to spend on Netflix/Amazon.
RIght - next they'll be playing football on LED game machines. how I fondly remember these single purpose machines. Also remember figuring out a bug that if you played a split offense and moved the QB down one row you could stand still and wait several moves and the defense would move past you. Leaving the goal wide open.
Image of one such device: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.eng...
I know - $400 for a hair dryer?
They also make these incredibly expensive room fans. $400+ for a Fan!!! a Fan!! that blows air on you.
Boy they sure are experts at moving air around... and now they can blow Hot Air too !!!
no no - I read that to mean "we haven't found anyone who has [successfully] created an ad - but we're still hoping somebody will !!!"
gosh darn it you creative people - nose to the grindstone !!!
For all those who say "let stupid solve itself" - I for one actually like this idea. Not for smartphone users. But for kids and other adults - large trucks and trains can block the crosswalk light. My son is learning to cross the road himself and currently knows to Stop at the Yellow mat on the sidewalk (we have these big yellow rubber mats installed in the sidewalk). The road itself has either White painted stripes or inlaid faux Brick crossings.
So having a row of Red Lights on the ground like a little fence seems like a great safety idea. Like Railroad crossing gates. A fence at foot level.
A better UI !!
After reading this article - I wondered how petrol / gasoline vehicles measure up when tested in the real world.
Obviously the laboratory test is broken and requires some updates to better simulate the real world. This is a common problem that I deal with everyday (in a different industry) - it can be very complicated to build a test env. The question always is "what is the real world?" - and making sure test results are meaningful plus data that can be trended.
I came here to ask the same question. Although with a different take.
What should I stock up on? Should I purchase an underground bunker (probably not near an ocean). Since Mother Nature is coming to get all of us - how do we as individuals fortify and plan to fight back.
The oceans aren't coming to get me. But clean water could become an issue. Dry landscapes and future forest fires. Bigger badder snow tires (I didn't even need to use mine this year). Heavy rains in late spring - choose housing location wisely. The pattern of the past several years: less snow in winter, early warm&dry spring, followed by incredible rain in June, then hot July with little precipitation until January.
My children are probably in for a world of hurt. Although my funeral pyre will be easy for them - just leave me outside on a hot day in July.
I'm not sure your position is supported by recent publications. While I agree that people define "baseline" - the current concern is that teenagers are looking to porn as "what normal is." Teenagers make up their own truth in the absence of education. For example "you can't get pregnant the first time" ... etc.
I read an article recently that young women (girls) are being "trained" by young men (boys). Boys are watching porn and they expect girls to behave the same way. Girls want to be part of the in-club and are adapting - convincing themselves (for example) that oral sex isn't sex. Free to do it at will without consequence. They are not developing a healthy relationship with sex. Other forms of sex are now entering this new base-line. Forms that girls don't really want to do - but again adapt to remain in the club.
There are fears that STDs will rise because these "new" baseline forms of sex aren't considered problematic by teens - and therefore aren't protecting themselves....because of the "you can't get pregnant" line of reasoning.
My point is that teens may not be choosing their own baseline. Peer pressure is forcing unhealthy choices on them. You can't drink until 21, some states are proposing "can't smoke" until 21. Well thought out reasoning is not a skill teens have ;-)
Teaching our young what "healthy" looks like is probably the place to start. Okay - maybe parents not literally teaching them. Open the dialog and remove the taboo.
How timely - Last night I logged onto vzw to check on my account status and saw a link for "reduce your network usage via FreeBee" - a Verizon version of "Binge On"
Intrigued I poked around and noticed that Hearst media and AOL are the primary companies offering content (Just look for the Bee). But I couldn't figure out how it worked - was VZW inserting the "bee" into my web stream - was it an ad on the websites. It isn't offered if you are on Wifi for instance.
Then in the FAQ I saw this strange comment: "A brand may direct encrypted content through a proxy in order to enable FreeBee Data. If the proxy option is chosen, the content will be temporarily unencrypted so the brand can be billed for the data usage."
Proxy? What proxy? Is VZW doing MIM stream editing? Using the gov't SSL keys? Proxy at the business level? or consumer to web level?
From ArsTechnica: "Hearst Magazines, AOL (which is owned by Verizon), and Lantern Software's GameDay"
http://freebee.verizonwireless...
http://freebee.verizonwireless...
http://arstechnica.com/busines...
it is designed to be blurry for a reason .... Plausible Deniability !!!!
The guys in the lab have to adjust it to be just off-focus before launching. Duh - everyone knows that.
I was going with martian finger print on the glass. or spec of dust and/or sunlight hitting the lens.
I seem to remember that the pairing of X-Y chromosomes has something to do with it. I also recall a college class that we were shown photos of naked people who had obvious physical characteristics of "male" or "female." ---- but their X-Y were opposite. Technically the person with the penis was female.
So it ain't as easy as it seems. It was also something I squirreled away in my brain (this was 30 years ago) - and when transgender became "a thing" (talking about critical mass in the media) - as hard as it is for me to comprehend this may not be "a choice" for some. They aren't choosing this - it is the way they are.
The law is trying to define what Science already has - I'm not sure why. To what end?
Could there be real fraud by people who use existing laws to make claims? Outlaw that. The legal system has tried several times to define people & moral values and each time has failed. Definition of a person for purposes of counting in census & Purchase of Alcohol come to mind.
Seems they could figure this out automatically by tracking what people...uh...watch.
tee hee -- Or a priest.
Geez - it's a no win situation. If I had to ask her to make changes she'd ask "am I your secretary?!"
nope - if a $1 buys a happy marriage I'll go without the expensive coffee.
Obviously the Apple Watch is not "just a watch" - for instance Apple Pay is a cool extra. If the battery lasted "days" rather than "hours" it might be more useful and I'd be more kind in my review.
Our child was hospitalized recently and I spent the night on a cot in my clothes - wearing the watch (came as I was). Due to my movements the watch screen would wake and thus in "low power" mode by morning. I also wore it to dinner once and the act of raising my arms to pass a dish or cut food killed the battery - couldn't believe the red low-battery warning as I walked to the parking garage. Really?!
So.. it is jewelry for a specific action and you remove it when finished? Wearing a regular watch for those other times? For $400?!?!? I could buy a health band for a lot less + my Timex.
As for sex - my wife said I couldn't use the health heart rate tracking feature ;-)
Yes - but it goes beyond that little Profile (my account is used on the AppleTV so Kiddo channel is under mine).
Notification emails go to her, changes are in her control, whatever is there...she never needs to ask me to change anything. My wife always points out the second-class woman world to me.
We worked for the same company - (met and got married). She called to change her name - but since I made more I was the account owner (men always make more)....and she wasn't allowed to update her profile with her new (legal) name --- they had to ask ME if it was okay for her to make this change.
Many other things are like this for her. Only one controller allowed - and usually the man. So - if having her own account for Netflix provides 100% control ... it's worth a $1.
I've had the watch several months - since the fall of 2015. So far - I'm not sure I need it. My calculation also includes cost and features of competing devices - including plain old watches. I keep telling myself "I'm first - this is an experiment - watch and learn - maybe it will be something cool." Short version - cool concept but not worth the money. Poor battery, poor apps, poor interface mode.
What I do like - having notifications and information right on my arm without needing to pull my (ever increasingly large) phone out of my pocket (and soon probably a napsack). Being able to quickly be alerted or acknowledge a text is nice. Monitoring my health activity (have I exercised this week?) is a nice nag. And I'll admit the Dick Tracy phone call on the arm has been unexpectedly useful. Bending your arm and taking 2 second to decided if the alert requires action is fabulous "we're waiting in lobby upstairs" - great. "reminder to pay bill (tonight)" oh thanks - almost forgot, "Twitter says multiple people retweeted same photo" - yeah Ignore.
Siri on the arm has been less than useful. Usually goes, "okay Siri ...okay Siri...OKAY Siri" (nothing)... ohh oops It's "Hey Siri" (sorry Dave - I'm not available right now). Most become "Please unlock and continue operation on iPhone." Apps on the watch are lame (and can't use Siri) - most are just extensions of the notification bar. "new podcast available" -- so what!? Twitter is lame because they notify you that "a friend liked a post" -- also ...who cares?! The arm is becoming a noise source. I'd like higher signal. I find myself uninstalling apps or turning off notifications. Even a pizza company has an app - but it doesn't show Progress. Just silly text - but the website has a progress tracker (Order recvs, making item, in oven, out for delivery). That would be a cool watch app (we order pizza for the baby sitter when we decide to stay out later). I think most are lame because the available UI is limited.
Imagine having the iOS Notification bar on your arm. Like many of you, I've turned off most notifications because there is always a notification somewhere on this planet being routed to my phone (ding - Notification that a notification is available). But the default mode of the watch and most apps are no better - if anything more noise and less signal. Google Inbox uses many characters to show message date/time/from/subject which leaves little space for the actual email. I was at the museum with friends and we'd all text "we're at the fish tank, heading to dinosaurs" and I could simply look at my arm -- Yup, got it!! Headed that way now. Didn't need to press buttons. Just done. got it. move on.
Which brings me back to...WTF is this thing supposed to do? Tell me the time? $30 Timex does that. What else? Text messages - yeah that's cool. Health monitor ? okay but can't swim with the watch ($30 Timex is water resistant to 10atm). Rubber Band on the basic sport model stinks - only $200 to replace it with a metal one. Bands for the $30 Timex cost ~$20. Can't wear it to the beach. So it isn't a watch replacement. Okay - Not a Watch.
Plus having battery charge anxiety at the end of the day. $30 Timex is still using the same battery it came with 6 years ago.
So why am I paying $400 for a device that can't replace a $30 Timex? $400 buys a very nice plain old watch - Solar powered, dive watch, deflects bullets. Seriously - if a high end watch company came out with a watch that showed text messages it would put an end to Apple Watch.
If it cost under $100 my ROI would be justified. A useful toy. I fear this may be another Newton.
well - I for one completely forgot about the grandfather thingy. Been using Netflix for a short while - ~6 years, so I'm part of the grandfathered price.
Now that I'm reminded - I recall them saying the price was only guaranteed for the next 2 years.
Hopefully the "family" plan will be better. My wife has her own basic subscription too (she used to be a DVD only person until we got married and I bought her an iPad). I think we could save a buck by combining. eh. She likes the independence and a buck is worth that.
I don't know - if you want to be first you need to take a risk. I saw the New Beetle on a TV show over Christmas vacation in 1998 and in January plunked my deposit down. The dealership didn't even have brochures yet - or any details really. Said I was the second person to make a deposit.
Matter of fact - I had to list my favorite 3 car colors up-front on the order because they didn't know who was going to get what. The dealer simply said, "they are going to call me and say 'there are 10 cars available currently in, black, green, red...which ones you want?" hah - I didn't even know if it was going to be Red, Blue, or Manual shift. I had to prioritize my options (I want stick most, red color, but will take blue or green).
Seriously - I didn't know how big/small the car would be. When it arrived they let me drive it around the parking lot with the plastic wrapper still on it. It was like driving a spaceship - totally cool. And I was the only one on the road for weeks - talk about being a rock star.
You want that experience? You gotta be first. And there's no test drive. .
You can *always* sell it. I could have sold it a month later for $5k (+) over what I paid ...but kept it for 10 years.
Yeah - I came here looking to see where I could submit my reimbursement form to get those free 20 weeks !!?!
Grammar Grammar.
This is obvious. For me touching a butt isn't that it is a robot butt - but that somebody might be watching me and think that I'm doing something inappropriate.
Think about what happened when Andrew McCarthy got caught bopping the love of his life in the movie Mannequin. Like, dude, get a life.