Tag: apple

On low standards

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek2 Comments

I wActivity-for-iOS-app-icon-medium-220x188.jpgant my Pebble back.  In fact, after a week (?) of Apple Watch ownership, I’m kind of tired of Apple as an entity, for the first time in quite a while.

(Before you say it: yes, I’m aware I can turn this shit off.  And I’m going to, as soon as I’m done complaining about it.  I shouldn’t have to turn annoying shit off.  This annoying shit should not happen.)

I am a smartwatch fan, as the three entries under this one that WordPress will select will no doubt demonstrate.  I have simple goals for my watch: I want it to alert me when I get an important notification (“important” being determined by me) and I want it to be a watch and an alarm clock, and to have a battery life compatible with being both.  I was worried about the Apple Watch’s battery; I plug it in while I’m reading at night and it’s fine, and it appears to be good to go to make it two days without a charge with no real trouble.  It’s at 80% right now and hasn’t been charged since last night.  That’s fine.

I just got a notification congratulating me for standing for one minute during each of the last twelve hours.

Read that sentence again, and drown in the banality of the universe.  And realize that I was on my feet for the entirety of at least seven of those hours.  I walked four and a half miles while I was at work, 9000 steps (less than usual; it’s Wednesday, my half day) and collapsed on the couch at home and fell asleep.  I didn’t hit either of my “fitness goals.”  I can’t set a step goal, which is kind of annoying.  I feel like that ought to be available.  But I can for damn sure be nagged to stop doing things and freaking meditate like some sort of techno-hippy once an hour and be congratulated at the end of the day because once per hour in the past 12 hours I, I dunno, got up to take a piss or something.  But the watch doesn’t notice seven straight hours on my feet.

Bah.

Also, whatever was in the iOS update that pushed out Tuesday bricked my phone, and I was nearly late to work trying to figure out what the hell had gone wrong and restoring my most recent (ie, months old) backup.  So I’m not super keen about technology right now in general.  But yeah:  Bah.

(WordPress probably ought to not choose this entry as another chance to constantly re-add Uncategorized as a category or delete half my tags while I’m adding them.  Just saying.)

On having owned an Apple Watch for around seventeen hours

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek9 Comments

xNope.jpg.pagespeed.ic.xecQlXJhisMy watch, just now, upon having determined via vile sorcery that I was awake but not yet out of bed, just vibrated on my wrist to suggest that I get out of bed and move around for one (1) minute.  This is related to my health somehow.  I note, looking at it now, that apparently getting up at 3:30 in the morning to take a piss apparently also counted as exercise.  It was certainly difficult, I’ll agree to that.

And here’s the real bullshit:  I did it.  I have left my warm, cozy bed, a bed that had an attractive woman in it, and now I’m up.  Because my watch decided to tell me to.

I don’t mind when my watch wakes me up with an alarm; that’s part of what it’s for and I set those on purpose.  I’m not sure how I feel about the idea that it basically just told me to get my lazy ass out of bed on a day when I’m not supposed to go to work and don’t have to take the boy to school.  Part of me thinks that’s neat and the rest of me feels like it’s probably the first five minutes of a Black Mirror episode about a dystopia.

RIP

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy5 Comments

Pebble went under today, which makes me very sad.  How long until I have an Apple Watch?  Do you think I’ll even last through my weekend?  Will I last through tomorrow?  Who knows!

(I almost forgot to blog today.  I was seriously a minute or two away from going to bed.  Sorry, this is all you get.  Hugs!)

In which I demonstrate restraint

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek4 Comments

compare-iphone-7-201609.pngI am… not immediately pre-ordering an iPhone 7?  Like, for real?  This is a thing that’s not happening?  I don’t understand; I currently own an iPhone 6, and before that I had a 5.  I re-order my phones when a new number comes out.  The 7 is out, or at least it’s about to be.  And yet I paid my phone bill this afternoon, meaning that I went directly to the very place where one might go to order a new iPhone, and yet somehow there is no new iPhone with my name on it either beginning to be shipped to me or being manufactured for my eventual ownership.

I’m confused.  I’m New Tech Guy.  I’m Ooh Shiny Guy.  What the hell?

Actually, I know the answer, if I’m being honest.  I’m perfectly happy with my current phone– the upgrade to the 6 from the 5 was a no-brainer because of the bigger screen, and I’ve got no complaints about it, no matter how hard I try.  And I will have complaints about the 7, because one of the ways I use my phone a lot is in the car, with the phone plugged both into the auxiliary jack on my car stereo and the… well, power thingy.  I don’t mind the idea of ditching the audio port in general, but it interferes with how I use the phone in my current car, and the phone gets a lot of use as an audio device in my car.  I don’t often use headphones one way or another, so the idea of eventually spending $140 on a wireless set doesn’t appeal.  I’m not gonna whine about it much, but right now this change doesn’t work for me.

Additionally, from what I’ve seen the best change to the device is the camera, and the biggest change to the camera is on the Seven plus.  The two-camera thing looks really cool. Being able to shoot bokeh photos with my phone seems really neat.  But I’m not sure I need (well, okay, need has nothing to do with this, I’m not sure I want) the bigger phone that I would need to buy in order to get the better camera– and, again, I have no complaints about my current phone, which includes the camera.  I love the idea of a better camera but I don’t really need it right now.

So… am I, like, maturing or something, or is the fact that I’m thinking new car, then new phone so that my phone can interface properly with the car a sign that I’m actually a bigger idiot than I was before?

(Oh.  Let’s not talk about the new Apple Watch until I have hard data on the battery life.  As soon as I don’t have to charge it every single night, I’ll jump ship.  I love my Pebble, but I’m waiting for Apple to catch up in a couple of key areas and then I’m done.)

In which I dislike some things and like other things

On By Luther M. SilerIn TeachingLeave a comment

It has been… a really rough week.

For like ten minutes now, that’s been the only sentence of the post.  I had four kids in my afternoon class inside the office before they even got to my class for real— one for bullshit heading down the stairs, two for post-lunch bullshit on the way up the stairs, and the fourth for what she was doing when I came back into the room after dropping the previous two off.

I came home early yesterday because I simply couldn’t cope with the idea of dealing with my afternoon class.  Just couldn’t do it. I basically had a panic attack in the morning and insisted that they cover me in the afternoon.  Luckily, our building secretary loves me so she was able to take care of it.  I came home and collapsed into bed for a few hours and then spent the evening job-hunting again.  I made it through today, and a couple of suspensions from the Magnificent Four will likely help with tomorrow, but…

Yeah.

Anybody knows anything about a job I might be good for– especially if it involves telecommuting and I can do it from anywhere, because chances are I’m not uprooting my family to move to you– let me know.

One good thing that’s happened this week: my Pebble Time Steel finally showed up!  It’s one of these two watches:

apple-watch-vs-pebble-time-steel-1200-80

One of those two models cost $250 and is on my wrist right now; the other costs $17000 and… is not.  I know I’ve made this point a bunch of times before– probably every time I’ve mentioned the Pebble Time Steel– but I just find it so insanely ridiculous that I can’t stop talking about it.

A quick review?  Well, it’s basically the same as my original Pebble, with a color screen, a bit more stylish… styling, and a few days more battery life.  There’s also a microphone on it but apparently that feature’s not available for the iPhone version of their app yet.  In other words, I love it, but most of the differences between it and the original are cosmetic.  The new Timeline interface is interesting but hardly life-altering.  I still halfway suspect that my next watch will be an Apple Watch but they need to radically improve the battery life before I jump ship.  The battery on the PTS is supposed to last ten days between charges.  The Apple Watch needs to be charged every night.  The prettier screen simply cannot overcome that difference, especially when you include the considerably higher price of the Apple Watch.

So, yeah: point is, I like it, and eventually somebody’s gonna crack my skull open for it and then be very disappointed.  But, hey: I won’t have to teach anymore once the mugger kills me!

In which we need to have a talk, #Apple…

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, idiocy8 Comments

First things first.  This is my desk:

IMG952015030995190718063Now, normally it doesn’t look like this, but I’m trying to make a point, and that is: it is extraordinarily difficult to be more of an Apple fanboy than I am.  I literally have one of every device Apple produces, and there are two iPads in that picture.  I have so many Apple devices, in fact, that I forgot one while taking the picture– although I wouldn’t have disconnected my Apple TV from my set in the living room anyway– and I currently can’t find my old clickwheel-style iPod.

This is my current watch:

Pebbleblack

The only difference here is I have a leather strap on mine, as the rubber one my initial Pebble came with broke in half a couple of weeks ago.

I do not want an Apple Watch.  Ordinarily (some of you will laugh at this, but I swear that I at least think it’s true) I do not believe my opinion to be a bellwether of broader reality, but I have to believe that if I don’t want an Apple Watch, then no one wants an Apple Watch.  I own every device that Apple produces and am at this exact second wearing a smartwatch, a device that I have on multiple occasions referred to as my favorite tech purchase since my original cell phone back in 1998-99 or so.  I am a white male with sufficient disposable income, a demonstrated interest in tech gadgets, and a distinct preference for Apple hardware.  There literally cannot be a more accurate picture of the target demographic for this item than I am.

And I have no interest in this thing.

It gets worse.  There are two watches in this picture.  I have preordered one of them.

php0wcxtwThe watch on the right is a Pebble Time Steel.  It will cost me $270 at the end of the month when the Kickstarter finishes and Pebble actually charges me.  It comes with a backup strap made of metal in addition to the leather one, and is made of stainless steel.  I’ll get it, if I remember right, at the end of June.  Maybe July, I’m not sure.  My current watch will be fine until it shows up.

The watch on the left is an Apple Watch Edition and it costs SEVENTEEN THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS.

I love you guys.  Truly.  I do.

But you are out of your fucking minds on this one.

SKYLIGHTS now on iBookstore

On By Luther M. SilerIn Writing2 Comments

Unknown…so you iPad and iPhone folks can get your Mars on now if you like.

Skylights on Amazon is still here. (Meanwhile, the Amazon rank is up to #46,216.  MOAR!)

Skylights on Smashwords is here.

I am continuing to monitor Barnes and Noble and Kobo; they ought to be live soon (the files got sent to them by Smashwords the same way they got sent to Apple) but I doubt I’ll update the site again tonight.  Hang out around Twitter if you’re partial to those platforms.

 

Why not, one more

On By Luther M. SilerIn GeekLeave a comment

10333261_10152665882218926_678557424501595820_o

Click for massive embiggenation.

The weather has been, with the exception of a brief rain squall yesterday afternoon, absolutely perfect for the last couple of days.  Fall is my favorite season and has been for a long time; clear, cloudless sixty-two degree days are the reason why.  It’s going to be warmer for the rest of the week– mostly upper seventies– but there’s no real chance of rain for several days so it ought to be really pretty around here for a while.

A very brief review of the iPhone 6: it is, once again, too damn slippery, meaning that I had no choice but to put it in a case.  I don’t like phone cases, particularly on phones that clearly have had some effort put into their design, although Apple’s official case (I got the red one) is cut out at the bottom so that you can see some of the gold.  It ends up having a sort of Iron Man colors effect, which I kind of like.  Unlocking my phone with my thumbprint is fantastic.  (Yes, it’s hackable, if a thief is very patient and willing to go through the 25 steps necessary to steal and transfer my thumbprint.  Somehow I’m not worried.)

I feel like the glass on the front of the thing is more fun to touch than the glass on my previous phone.  I’m aware that that sentence may not seem like it makes any sense.  I’m not sure I understand it either.  But I like holding this phone more than my last one.  And I prefer the larger size, although I deliberately didn’t order the 6 Plus because there are limits to how big the screen of a phone should be.  The camera is rather improved over the previous one, as I think you’ve seen already.  And it’s fast and the screen is gorgeous and sooner or later Continuity and Apple Pay will start working and blah blah blah phonebrag.

The main disadvantage is this:

iphone-6-24

My wife took one look at my phone and said “Your phone has whatever face.”

“What?” I said.

“You know, like the emoji,” she said.  In other words:  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And now I cannot stop seeing that.  Every goddamn time I look at the phone.  Arrgh.