I haven't posted anything about the upcoming Apple Watch, and hence, nothing about yesterday's press event that was sure to be the "coming out" party for the watch. Basically, I had no intention of buying one, so, while I found some of the discussions about it interesting, I wasn't thinking about it on any kind of deep level.
Nevertheless, I watched much of yesterday's event via live stream (and the rest via liveblog; I had a couple things going on for some of it).
I did find the price reduction of the Apple TV mildly interesting, as it shows that Apple wants more of those devices out there. And they're good devices; I do have one, although I don't use it a whole lot. But what it would take to get me excited about them are a couple things: a faster processor (A7 or A8 should be easy enough), an app store, and a real gigabit connection (for playing high bit rate, HD content). Lopping thirty dollars off the price is nice, but doesn't come close to addressing any of those three issues.
The HBO thing is a little bit tempting. I don't watch any HBO shows, although I'd like to watch 'Last Week, Tonight'. The bits of that that I've caught on youtube are just incredibly good. Best in-depth news show on the air (and no, that's not meant sarcastically. I don't think anything, on any network, even comes close. Better in width, perhaps, but not even close, in terms of depth), and I like the specific issues they've been tackling.
The point is, I'm not sure if that show is worth that much, but it's tempting. I'll probably at least take advantage of the free month, next month. And it might get me to take a look at some of the other shows (Game of Thrones should be right up my alley, although I've actually had zero temptation to watch it. Not sure why).
If I still used notebooks, I'd be going bonkers over the new MacBook. That looks like an incredibly sweet machine. They weren't kidding about all the work going in to making that one possible; there were some really nice improvements.
Like Siracusa, I'm wondering why there isn't a second port (symmetrically on the other side), but that's the only thing close to a weakness that I can see. Well, and, to a lesser degree, that access to that port is going to be a bit of a mess, wire-wise. But if I still used laptops, I'd be all over that thing. I certainly want to see a Magic Trackpad for my iMac with those technologies built in.
With that CPU, and that much memory, the MacBook isn't a workhorse of a machine, but it looks amazing for light-duty work.
ResearchKit is definitely an example of Apple putting the right foot forward. I'm a little skeptical about adoption, but the potential is there for a major game-changer for medical research. And I'd love to see it happen. Heck, it'd make it easy enough (at least, it might), that I might get involved in some studies, even without compensation.
This is something that probably wouldn't've happened under Jobs (I'm 90+% sure it wouldn't have, at least before Jobs became so ill), but that is a great idea. Cook, I think, has very different strengths and weaknesses than Jobs, but I find it far from clear that he is an inferior CEO, despite all the nay-sayers I've heard.
Getting on to the meat of the event, they finally got to the Watch, itself. And I'm still not terribly excited about it, although much of that has to do with not being a watch-wearer. It occurred to me, while watching the event, though, that it would probably be a great fit for my wife. So I'll probably order one for her on day one. For me, I'll think about it more seriously when the second generation comes out (next year, presumably).
Basically, the fitness stuff would be nice, and I'd really like having Apple Pay so easily available. But those are really the only things for which I, personally, would use one. Those aren't worth that much to me. But there were some really cool apps they talked about.
The funniest, I thought, was the speakerphone. Nothing new, technology-wise, in that (although you do have to wonder if developing that was what drove the development of the Continuity features in iOS and OSX), but what I found funny about it was what it would likely do to battery life. Still, it's a great capability, even if it will chew your batteries in no time.
Showing posts with label announcement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label announcement. Show all posts
20150310
20140915
Catching up on technology
I watched with some interest, Apple's announcements last week. I chuckled a bit at how the video, which I'd had on for ten or fifteen minutes without issue, died horribly right at 1300, when the keynote started. In fact, I wasn't able to bring it up again, and resorted to watching Ars Technica's liveblog of it.
And what do I think?
Eh, I'm skeptical about the larger phones. My suspicion, without playing with one, is that it's too big. Even the littler one. We'll see, I guess. I did find the adjustments to improve one-handed use interesting, but have no idea how well they'll work.
Outside of that, I loved the camera enhancements, especially on the larger model. I was surprised that going to phase detect autofocus would only double the speed of focus-finding, but that's still a big deal. And image stabilization? That's pretty cool.
ATP had some interesting talk about it, but I wanted to add a couple things to their coverage. Marcus stated that DSLRs use in-lens stabilization, rather than sensor-based. That's true for Canon and Nikon, but not for Sony. In-lens is the only option with long lenses, but doesn't matter much at more normal distances.
I'm curious about how good the stabilization is. Nikon's best allows four stops of improvements (they only have a couple of lenses with this much), but they have many with three. I don't really know what Sony's best (on-sensor) stabilization can do, and have no idea with Apple (not that they're likely to talk about it).
They also advertised improvement in panorama capture, and I wonder how that works. For sure, there's a lot of room for improvement over my 5S.
They also talked about improvements in both CPU and (especially) GPU, although I don't yet see any need for that. Although I'm looking forward to an iPad Air with that improvement. I play more games with that, and am much more likely to notice the difference. Of course, there's also the issue that nothing's being written for the extra cycles yet; maybe that will change. But I doubt it.
I thought the memory change was weird; moving the base to 32GB would be a lot better, although putting the up-steps to 64GB and 128GB a significant improvement (though a declining benefit with streaming music/movie services improving). I have yet to get close to 32GB of use on my 5S, but am well over 16GB, without any movies, few photos, and with iTunes Match enabled. So I agree with the ATP hosts that 16GB is getting to be ridiculously limiting.
The iPad-style layout on the 6+ in landscape is an interesting hybrid. I can certainly think of situations where I'd like it, but I don't think I'd like it universally.
The other thing that will, I think, be a huge deal in the long run, is Apple payments. I'm wondering about the security of the whole system (should re-watch the video to get the explanation), as it sounded a bit fragile, but hopefully I'm wrong on that. If I am (and I hope so), then it should be a really good system, adding a world of convenience.
To facilitate it, there are two completely new pieces in the new iPhones. A security chip, that will keep your credit card info in some encrypted fashion that is inaccessible to the rest of the system. If it becomes allowed (it probably won't), don't use any third-party tool to access that. And an NFC beacon, which will be used at the Point of Sale (POS) to do the payment. From what I remember, you (in some order) tap the phone and use TouchID, so you pay without pain.
This has incredible potential, although I think it'll be iffy for a while.
But the Apple Watch... wow, has the media been waiting for that for a while. And boy, do they deserve every bit of pain it has caused them.
I read a review from a watch geek, and it seemed that the watch piece was very, very good. I haven't worn a watch in decades, personally, and eschew jewelry, so it has no interest to me from that perspective. Functionally... I don't know. The only part that seems very appealing to me is the use of Apple Pay. Basically, touch the watch instead of the phonee, so you don't need to take that out. Again, some impressive convenience.
As a fitness tracker... dunno. That's one reason I would consider one, although I wonder how good it will be. It won't be useful as a sleep tracker for the simple reason that it'll need to be charged at least daily (and I think battery life is going to be a serious limit on the first generation). The ability to distinguish between running and biking is pretty cool, although I'm not sure how useful it is. Does it really matter, as long as it tracks both?
The "taptic" vibrations could be cool, although it would take some tuning to figure out how much stuff to filter out for each person. The idea of twitter or facebook vibrating on every incoming message is pretty horrific. Especially when driving.
I think, though, the fact that it turns the display on when you bring the watch up to view it is a major saving grace, in terms of battery life. I assume it also turns itself off after a set period of inactivity. So, to get back to driving, I would assume it would turn on when putting your hands on the wheel, and turn off again pretty soon. At least, I hope so, as the alternatives would blow.
All in all, it definitely leaves me curious, although I still wouldn't be able to use its killer app, as I won't have a 6/+ (6-series) iPhone at least until the next generation comes out. And probably not until the 7 arrives (I'm with Casey, in that I don't think the current numbering scheme will even last until 10. Although with numbers incrementing every other year, that still gives them quite a while to change it).
So do I want to spend $350+ on an Apple Watch. Almost certainly not, at least for another year. But I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where they go with it.
And what do I think?
Eh, I'm skeptical about the larger phones. My suspicion, without playing with one, is that it's too big. Even the littler one. We'll see, I guess. I did find the adjustments to improve one-handed use interesting, but have no idea how well they'll work.
Outside of that, I loved the camera enhancements, especially on the larger model. I was surprised that going to phase detect autofocus would only double the speed of focus-finding, but that's still a big deal. And image stabilization? That's pretty cool.
ATP had some interesting talk about it, but I wanted to add a couple things to their coverage. Marcus stated that DSLRs use in-lens stabilization, rather than sensor-based. That's true for Canon and Nikon, but not for Sony. In-lens is the only option with long lenses, but doesn't matter much at more normal distances.
I'm curious about how good the stabilization is. Nikon's best allows four stops of improvements (they only have a couple of lenses with this much), but they have many with three. I don't really know what Sony's best (on-sensor) stabilization can do, and have no idea with Apple (not that they're likely to talk about it).
They also advertised improvement in panorama capture, and I wonder how that works. For sure, there's a lot of room for improvement over my 5S.
They also talked about improvements in both CPU and (especially) GPU, although I don't yet see any need for that. Although I'm looking forward to an iPad Air with that improvement. I play more games with that, and am much more likely to notice the difference. Of course, there's also the issue that nothing's being written for the extra cycles yet; maybe that will change. But I doubt it.
I thought the memory change was weird; moving the base to 32GB would be a lot better, although putting the up-steps to 64GB and 128GB a significant improvement (though a declining benefit with streaming music/movie services improving). I have yet to get close to 32GB of use on my 5S, but am well over 16GB, without any movies, few photos, and with iTunes Match enabled. So I agree with the ATP hosts that 16GB is getting to be ridiculously limiting.
The iPad-style layout on the 6+ in landscape is an interesting hybrid. I can certainly think of situations where I'd like it, but I don't think I'd like it universally.
The other thing that will, I think, be a huge deal in the long run, is Apple payments. I'm wondering about the security of the whole system (should re-watch the video to get the explanation), as it sounded a bit fragile, but hopefully I'm wrong on that. If I am (and I hope so), then it should be a really good system, adding a world of convenience.
To facilitate it, there are two completely new pieces in the new iPhones. A security chip, that will keep your credit card info in some encrypted fashion that is inaccessible to the rest of the system. If it becomes allowed (it probably won't), don't use any third-party tool to access that. And an NFC beacon, which will be used at the Point of Sale (POS) to do the payment. From what I remember, you (in some order) tap the phone and use TouchID, so you pay without pain.
This has incredible potential, although I think it'll be iffy for a while.
But the Apple Watch... wow, has the media been waiting for that for a while. And boy, do they deserve every bit of pain it has caused them.
I read a review from a watch geek, and it seemed that the watch piece was very, very good. I haven't worn a watch in decades, personally, and eschew jewelry, so it has no interest to me from that perspective. Functionally... I don't know. The only part that seems very appealing to me is the use of Apple Pay. Basically, touch the watch instead of the phonee, so you don't need to take that out. Again, some impressive convenience.
As a fitness tracker... dunno. That's one reason I would consider one, although I wonder how good it will be. It won't be useful as a sleep tracker for the simple reason that it'll need to be charged at least daily (and I think battery life is going to be a serious limit on the first generation). The ability to distinguish between running and biking is pretty cool, although I'm not sure how useful it is. Does it really matter, as long as it tracks both?
The "taptic" vibrations could be cool, although it would take some tuning to figure out how much stuff to filter out for each person. The idea of twitter or facebook vibrating on every incoming message is pretty horrific. Especially when driving.
I think, though, the fact that it turns the display on when you bring the watch up to view it is a major saving grace, in terms of battery life. I assume it also turns itself off after a set period of inactivity. So, to get back to driving, I would assume it would turn on when putting your hands on the wheel, and turn off again pretty soon. At least, I hope so, as the alternatives would blow.
All in all, it definitely leaves me curious, although I still wouldn't be able to use its killer app, as I won't have a 6/+ (6-series) iPhone at least until the next generation comes out. And probably not until the 7 arrives (I'm with Casey, in that I don't think the current numbering scheme will even last until 10. Although with numbers incrementing every other year, that still gives them quite a while to change it).
So do I want to spend $350+ on an Apple Watch. Almost certainly not, at least for another year. But I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where they go with it.
20140325
Engineered for gaming?
Just glancing at announcement of new Nvidia GTX Titan Z, and I'm quite amused to hear that it's for multi-monitor gaming. How many people are going to drop three grand on a graphics card for gaming?
I'm sure the number is non-zero, but I'm guessing it's a mighty small number. For sure, none of my friends who are heavily into gaming, or their friends, would spend remotely close to that much.
It would be cool to see an ECC RAM version in a Mac Pro in the future, though. Especially at a more sane price.
And I do wonder how it would do for bitcoin mining.
I'm sure the number is non-zero, but I'm guessing it's a mighty small number. For sure, none of my friends who are heavily into gaming, or their friends, would spend remotely close to that much.
It would be cool to see an ECC RAM version in a Mac Pro in the future, though. Especially at a more sane price.
And I do wonder how it would do for bitcoin mining.
20130913
New phones?
[note: I wrote this a couple of days ago, but am just getting around to posting it.]
I've been thinking about the iPhone 5S since it was released yesterday. I'm contemplating buying one, as my iPhone 4 is getting a bit long in the tooth.
But a lot of what's improved won't do much for me. Finally getting Siri would be nice. The extra CPU power (20-40x as much, judging by the graphs) never hurts, but I wonder if it'll really matter. Maybe some games would run without getting as hot, since the processor won't be taxed as much? If so, that'd give a bit of battery life improvement, which is always welcome.
But in terms of meaningful improvements for me? The camera is really the only thing. I like the larger sensor (I shoot full-frame, so I'm of the opinion that it'll only be too large when they can't get a lens in the housing anymore) and larger max aperture. Those will both help in low light. There's some potential for the larger aperture to allow for creative depth-of-field effects, but my suspicion is that the sensor is still too small for that to be noticeable.
I also really like the 720p slomo output. 120p is freakin' awesome. I can certainly think of some things for which I'd love to have that (although a longer lens would be very useful for many of those).
The burst mode and in-focus picking both have the potential to be big difference-makers as well, although it will require some real testing to figure that out.
The dual-color flash will help in low light, too, and probably in a more dramatic way, most of the time. This is really what I wanted to talk about, though. It'd be great to have something like that as an add-on flash for my Nikon. Of course, the coordination between the two would be difficult to mediate. Probably every company would choose its own solution, so flashes become as interoperable as lenses (which is to say, almost not at all). Plus, there's definitely some issue with the detection; auto-white balance on my SLR is pretty good, but sometimes fails pretty hard (this is why I shoot in RAW. I can losslessly correct in post). In fact, that parenthetical leads to the only major change I'd like to see in the iPhone; RAW output.
I don't know what to make of the M7 motion coprocessor. It's certainly got potential. I'd been contemplating a fitbit, so this might completely obviate the need for one. It might also help me to get up from my desk more often during the workday, which would have significant health benefits.
The TouchID sensor... I'm having a hard time getting excited about it, after finding out that the NSA is grabbing data directly off smartphones. So a fingerprint sensor just says to me, "How about I just give you a fingerprint to put into the records". Hard to get excited about that.
[One good thing I read today is that the part mentioned in the keynote, that it read sub-epidermal layers, means that it's much harder to fake. Gelatin copy won't work, nor will a dead finger. Kudos, there. And maybe that's why they bought the company that makes the sensor, for that differentiator.]
Anyway, not sure yet, but I'm certainly leaning towards upgrading. If I can keep my current data plan, that would make it a slam dunk. If not, then it gets a bit more complicated. We'll see.
I've been thinking about the iPhone 5S since it was released yesterday. I'm contemplating buying one, as my iPhone 4 is getting a bit long in the tooth.
But a lot of what's improved won't do much for me. Finally getting Siri would be nice. The extra CPU power (20-40x as much, judging by the graphs) never hurts, but I wonder if it'll really matter. Maybe some games would run without getting as hot, since the processor won't be taxed as much? If so, that'd give a bit of battery life improvement, which is always welcome.
But in terms of meaningful improvements for me? The camera is really the only thing. I like the larger sensor (I shoot full-frame, so I'm of the opinion that it'll only be too large when they can't get a lens in the housing anymore) and larger max aperture. Those will both help in low light. There's some potential for the larger aperture to allow for creative depth-of-field effects, but my suspicion is that the sensor is still too small for that to be noticeable.
I also really like the 720p slomo output. 120p is freakin' awesome. I can certainly think of some things for which I'd love to have that (although a longer lens would be very useful for many of those).
The burst mode and in-focus picking both have the potential to be big difference-makers as well, although it will require some real testing to figure that out.
The dual-color flash will help in low light, too, and probably in a more dramatic way, most of the time. This is really what I wanted to talk about, though. It'd be great to have something like that as an add-on flash for my Nikon. Of course, the coordination between the two would be difficult to mediate. Probably every company would choose its own solution, so flashes become as interoperable as lenses (which is to say, almost not at all). Plus, there's definitely some issue with the detection; auto-white balance on my SLR is pretty good, but sometimes fails pretty hard (this is why I shoot in RAW. I can losslessly correct in post). In fact, that parenthetical leads to the only major change I'd like to see in the iPhone; RAW output.
I don't know what to make of the M7 motion coprocessor. It's certainly got potential. I'd been contemplating a fitbit, so this might completely obviate the need for one. It might also help me to get up from my desk more often during the workday, which would have significant health benefits.
The TouchID sensor... I'm having a hard time getting excited about it, after finding out that the NSA is grabbing data directly off smartphones. So a fingerprint sensor just says to me, "How about I just give you a fingerprint to put into the records". Hard to get excited about that.
[One good thing I read today is that the part mentioned in the keynote, that it read sub-epidermal layers, means that it's much harder to fake. Gelatin copy won't work, nor will a dead finger. Kudos, there. And maybe that's why they bought the company that makes the sensor, for that differentiator.]
Anyway, not sure yet, but I'm certainly leaning towards upgrading. If I can keep my current data plan, that would make it a slam dunk. If not, then it gets a bit more complicated. We'll see.
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