The State Of Apple In 2018 – What The Tech Ep. 386

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• nbplopes

  03 February, 2018 - 11:10 am

  <p>Even though I've noticed that videos are not commented as Article here is another try …</p><p><br></p><p><strong>The Battery / Throttle iOS Debacle:</strong></p><p><br></p><p>I think at the center of this is not so much that batteries degrade and systems need to change behaviour in order to compensate with the degradation. </p><p><br></p><p>EDITED: The problem of this event is not well put. There is no problem throttling the system to compensate for battery degradation. The problem is that Apple solution “concealed” other solutions. In particular, by not going down where they should had gone to inform the user that the slowdown was due to under par battery performance,. For the regular user there was little to be done but upgrade his device. A solution that cost the user several hundred dollars more than simply replacing the battery.</p><p><br></p><p>A line about it in some maintenance software update is simply not enough for something that obviously had such an usability impact. People should not be required to be iPhone technicians or to read it all to save hundreds of dollars. In fact, the absence of such requirement is what make Apple products great and why Appl asks users to trust their judgement,</p><p><br></p><p>That is why I think they are apologizing. They know that they screwed it up. I apreciate that. I really do. </p><p><br></p><p><strong>Mac OS:</strong></p><p><br></p><p>I have a Macbook Pro 15 from 2015. At the time I bought it I had the choice of buying the 2016 model with a touch bar or the this one. For many reasons I went for this one.</p><p><br></p><p>I have no instability of my system. It works day in day out, nothing stops working … hopefully it will keep that way (knock on wood). But If I had the problems Andrew reported in his 2016 model and as it seams other have, I would obviously not happy at all. Freezing touch bar, problems that can only get away with a reboot? Reminds me of of an OS ….</p><p><br></p><p>Hopefully Apple move to focus on stability both in iOS and Mac OS is genuine and this can get sorted out. </p><p><br></p><p>Personally I find that they cannot risk their image of robustness. That is what convinces people to get in deeper and deeper into their ecosystems. Without it, we might be as well buying other stuff and save some $$$.</p><p><br></p><p>Hopefully along with stability they will focus on feature completeness in the context of Continuity. One the Message synch. But another is GSM Phone Calls on Mac OS. Yes it works when paired with an iPhone. But we cannot use Siri to make a call, only FaceTime calls work when using Siri. In fact, even with FaceTime, Siri sometimes replies : "You need to continue on the FaceTime App". Sometimes it does the call. Its confusing at points.</p><p><br></p><p>This is to say, that even without new features, betting on feature completeness would be a big plus for me this year … And get iMessage in Mac on feature parity with iOS.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>iPhone X:</strong></p><p><br></p><p>I have one. The only criticism I have is the price. But its definitely the best Smartphone ever made until now for me. Its workings are predictable and robust. Pretty fast too. On battery life, I'm quite happy. I charge it day in day out. </p><p><br></p><p>For photography its good enough for me:</p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://scontent.flis8-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/26994170_2046478132262372_4395362899888388749_n.jpg?oh=eba44d2ed7ce9e7103a60c714e0cdc70&amp;oe=5B237F82&quot; target="_blank">26994170_2046478132262372_4395362899888388749_n.jpg</a></p><p><a href="https://scontent.flis8-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/26903643_2042531195990399_2043286720157111206_n.jpg?oh=5e352872609a29e49b94fe3219707138&amp;oe=5AE8DEB7&quot; target="_blank">26903643_2042531195990399_2043286720157111206_n.jpg</a></p><p><br></p><p>It looks solid and its a very pretty phone and have all the App one could very possibly need and more.</p><p><br></p><p>I'm not convinced that GPS implementation on iPhone X is not buggy. I find the GPS less accurate that my iPhone SE for instance. They need to fix this ASAP on what would be otherwise a perfect experience for me.</p><p><br></p><p>The notch, its probably not the best design decision they ever made, neither Face ID is flawless in my experience, I need to input my code every day for one reason or another, still fast, but they got so many other things right with this device that these things kind of fade in comparison. I think that is Apple's best trick.</p><p><br></p><p>My experience is way far from a horrible mistake. Really way far. In fact I could say that overall it the best phone I've used until now.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Apple TV 4K:</strong></p><p><br></p><p>Here the operation is fluid. The UI is good looking. Yet, I the remote is not a good implementation. I find myself too many times wanting to do something and it does another. I get lost when I want to just go back to the last screen too many times. </p><p><br></p><p>Image is great but expected. I guess it does well</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Apple Music: </strong></p><p><br></p><p>Works as well as Spotify if not better. The only drawback is that its limited to Apple ecosystem to make the most of it.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Apple Watch:</strong></p><p><br></p><p>Experience has been solid. Health tracking, so on and so forth. Brilliant integration with the other devices.</p><p><br></p><p>Air Pods: The Integration of the AirPods with the other iOS and Mac OS devices is very good. But there is room to improve … a lot of room.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>My Experience with Apple Hardware:</strong></p><p><br></p><p>I had in 2017 several unexpected not so good experiences. In 2017/2018 I bough, a MacBook Pro 15, iPad Pro 2017, AirPods, iPhone SE, iPhone X, Apple TV, Apple Watch 3.</p><p><br></p><p>From these, I had to return my initial iPhone X, iPhone SE, Apple Watch 3 and AirPods. 4 out of 7 devices.</p><p><br></p><p>In the instance of iPhone SE, Apple Watch 3 and AirPods I had to wait 2-3 weeks for a replacement. The iPhone X, all it took it to open it and use it to notice that something was not ok. It took me 5 days to sort it out and get a new one.</p><p><br></p><p>In the context of hardware problems …. pair this with the rising prices …. this is not a good customer experience at all. Hopefully all of my devices will be working steady now …</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Committed?</strong></p><p><br></p><p>I don't think myself has a person who commits with brands. Simply put, I cannot find any other maker that provides me this level of integration between a Smartphone , a PC, a Smartwatch, a Setopbox, Wireless EarPods, Tablet … not to mention HomeKit… much less in cheaper.</p><p><br></p><p>Get me one that does this as well and I will switch. I tried to switch 4 years ago to Windows and got burned. That Moved to Windows / Android and got burned and came back full fledge last year.</p><p><br></p><p>Cheers.</p><p><br></p>

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• Jeffsters

  03 February, 2018 - 11:36 pm

  <p><strong>The Battery / Throttle iOS Debacle:</strong></p><p> </p><p>The issue here was communication. The addition of this behavior was in the release notes. But who reads release notes!&nbsp;Computers have done this for years and Apple just took a feature and extended it to phones without thinking through how interested parties, with an agenda, could twist it into a liability.&nbsp;Anyone that believes Apple did this to increase upgrades is mistaken. But nothing I, or Apple, says will change that so enough said<strong>.</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Mac OS:</strong></p><p> </p><p>I too have a 2015 and a 2017 (work) and neither I have any issues with. I find that when the touch bar is useful it's VERY useful but not often enough for me to miss it when using the 2015. Touch ID is really cool but both unlock with proximity to my watch so it's a push there.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>iPhone X:</strong></p><p> </p><p>Don't have one. Bought the 8 Plus. Don't want to give up on Touch ID just yet and I'm thinking there will be a cool phone later this year so I'll wait a bit. My friends that have an iPhone X seem to love it and give me a hard time for buying the 8. Can't wait to leap frog them later this year. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Apple TV 4K:</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>I have six Gen4 around the house and one 4K that is used in my media room with the 130" screen with 4K projector. I love the apps and free movie upgrades to 4K. I also connected a digital antenna and now get local stations on all my Apple TVs. I agree on the remote that when I'm using it, scrubbing for example, it's awesome, other times… I've used the previous generation remote, works fine, but more often use my iPhone. I've also taken two old iPhone 5s and made them remotes for TV and HomeKit devices so for now I'm good!</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Apple Music: </strong></p><p> </p><p> Love it. Never been unable to find and play a song I want on any device. I can't wait to get a HomePod!</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Apple Watch</strong>.</p><p> </p><p>I never go out without it but mostly for notifications and the ability to take a call when carrying my phone isn't practical.</p><p><br></p><p> <strong>My Experience with Apple Hardware:</strong></p><p> </p><p> I really don't have any issues to point to. My daughters iPhone 6 had a swollen battery back in October and they replaced the whole phone for the cost of a battery. Not bad!</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Committed?</strong></p><p> </p><p> Agree with you on the value of things working in concert. Everything else is a kludge. When Microsoft went into the phone business, with that iPhone funeral procession, I thought maybe there might soon be competition! Windows, Surface RT, Windows Mobile, and Band…oh well!&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>NOTHING is perfect but I nothing else I've experimented with even comes close.</p><p> </p><p> Cheers.</p><p> </p>

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