Tag: Apple

The Shiny is Mine

Apple Watch Edition & iPhone 11 Pro

So, another day, another visit to an Apple Store. This time off to Chadstone Apple Store. Headed out super early in the hope of heading off the queues for phones and watches.

Decided to bite the bullet and get the new Apple Watch Edition Series 5 Ceramic. It’s so beautiful!

My Apple Watch Edition Series 5 - Ceramic, shown here with my Pride 2019 woven sports loop band.

This isn’t the band I chose. I didn’t open the box until we were already on the way home and found they had given me the wrong band. I was after the Alaskan Blue Sports Loop, but they gave me the Alaskan Blue Sport Band. So we had to stop in at Highpoint on the way home and swap the band over.

You actually get two bands with the Edition watches. The ceramic comes with a white sports band, with a fancy white stud rather than the stainless steel + a band of your choosing.

iPhone 11 Pro - Green — *iPhone 11 Pro – Green – Image by Apple*

In addition to the watch, I got me a shiny new iPhone 11 Pro (not the Max version). It has three cameras on it, a zoom, wide, and ultra-wide.

Tags Apple, Apple Watch, iPhone 11 Pro

Daily Life

Shiny: Apple & Nintendo

I know I talked just a week ago about all the cool things Apple is putting out, and how I would probably get a new phone and watch because I skipped the last iteration…

However, we’re looking to move into an office in a couple of weeks, and we’ll have some fit out costs, not many, but we need at least one more desk for Yin, some shelving and a few other little things.

If I were going to get a new watch, this is the watch I would like to get… Series 5 white ceramic but at $2,079 it’s not likely to happen yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Update: 17:43

I feel it’s a little classist that the Highpoint Apple Store isn’t stocking the ceramic Apple Watch Series 5.

Only stores on the east side of town will stock it, when it becomes available. 😓

OK, Yes, I went to Highpoint to see if I could get one.

Link’s Awakening

In addition to new Apple things… Nintendo also released “Link’s Awakening” today!

I haven’t played any of its previous versions (apparently this is the 3rd, the original in 1993, then 1998 for the Gameboy Color), so I’m excited to have a go at this one. The version of Link in this game is so cute.

Tags Apple, Apple Watch, Link, Nintendo Switch

Daily Life

Apple Day 2019

Upshot of today’s Apple Announcement.

The iPhone is ALL about the cameras now. It has three iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max. It’s pretty much the only thing Apple mentions on their website. Sure there’s a little bit about the improved battery, and the new processor, but it’s the cameras they are selling it on. And I’m buying…

I skipped last year’s model because the upgrade wasn’t worth it for me. I don’t use my phone heaps since being house-bound, I mean, since working from home. But I do like the new cameras and I have already grown to like the new green!

*Tim Cook in front of the new iPhone 11 Pro in the new green colour*

Apple Watch Series 5… I really want to get one of these too… again, we skipped last year’s model because the only thing appealing in it was the ECG, and it’s a feature that wasn’t launched here in Australia, still isn’t actually, but hopefully it’s coming soon. Goodness knows what the hold up is. I guess our medical board is hard to get approval through. But given we skipped last year’s we’ll likely get this upgrade.

*Stan Ng with the new Apple Watch Series 5*

I really would like the Edition ceramic version, but can’t really justify the cost. In fact I’m even looking at the aluminium rather than the stainless steel to save the money… but that may change once I see them in person. 🤓

Other than that, Apple Arcade launches on the 20th of this month, along with the rollout of the new iOS, it looks like Arcade will be $7.99 at launch. I don’t play a lot of games so I won’t be on this one.

Then there was Apple TV+ which is the new streaming service from Apple, it will also be $7.99 per month at launch, and it comes with what seem like a bunch of great titles, but do I really need yet another streaming service? Oh, but it comes free for 12 months when you purchase a new apple device capable of watching Apple TV+, so I guess I’ll get it for the first 12 months when I get my new phone. It launches on November 1.

Tags Apple

Daily Life

3am Wake Up Call

Apple's announcement for their special event September 10, 2019.

The life of an Apple Fanboy, awake at 3am to watch the Apple event live… 🤭💤

Of course we could just sleep in and watch the replay later… but we’ve been doing this for so many years now, it has become tradition.

Tags Apple

Family & Friends

FaceTime is Awesome

FaceTime with Jennifer, Georgia, and Emily

I love that FaceTime lets us have, well, face time with my family in New Zealand. Especially as it is Emily’s 7th birthday! How can it be that she’s 7 now!

Facetime also means the kids will know our faces when we arrive there in just over a month for Mum’s 70th… so they won’t spend half the time wondering who the strangers are. 🤪

Tags Apple, FaceTime, Family

Daily Life

WWDC 2019

Awake again at 3am for another Apple event! This time the keynote of the WWDC 2019.

So much cool stuff is coming from Apple. iOS 13 is looking awesome, but MacOS 10.15 Catalina has me more excited. Especially SideCar which will let us use our iPad as an additional screen… AND as a graphics tablet. No more Wacom on my desk, it will all happen with the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil.

There’s also the new accessibility features coming via the improved voice control.

AND THEN there’s the massive changes coming to the Swift platform with SwiftUI for development. I’m excited that it will take care of all the fiddly coding bits for us. I might finally finish building the app I’ve had in the works for over 8 years. 🤣

The iPad Updates coming include the ability to insert a USB drive, something folks have wanted for a very long time.

And next level multitasking, even the ability to have multiple windows of the same application open.

With the new iPadOS… and all the other new features the iPad is definitely going to be a computer solution for most casual computer users.

Tags Apple

Daily Life Technology

Too Excited for Words

But I’ll have a crack… OMG Leopard is only 9 days away and I couldn’t be more excited… but the sadness is. I won’t be around to get my hands on it until the Sunday afternoon.

I see a complete reformat and reinstall happening. At which point I will probably partition my drive and put WinXP professional on my Mac too. That way I can get rid of the dodgy PC they gave me at work. Sweet.

300+ features are being announced for Leopard and none of them are secret which is unusual. You can see them all on the Leopard page at apple.

If they aren’t holding anything back, one is left to wonder what will Steve’s “one more thing” be? A new MacBook seems to be the biggest rumor. Or perhaps a tablet based ultra-portable with a complete tactile interface like the iPhone and iPod touch. Probably not the latter given that these days manufacturing doesn’t seem to stay much of a secret and we would probably have heard already if such devices were being produced.

Looking at my dock at the moment, Stacks would have to be one of the most important updates for me. Closely followed by Automators new record tool, which kind of sounds like recording an action in Photoshop.

And to give props, it seems that a few things are coming over from Windows, such as the path bar and the “New Sidebar”.

But things like Desktop sharing and iChat theatre and Quick Look are just amazing. If my family members don’t buy Macs with their next upgrade I just may have to disown them.

I mean Tethered camera support, to control your camera direct from you mac.

And network Scanning. In a house with multiple computers two of which are laptops, that is going to be a joy.

You just have to go check out Leopard, see if your not as excited as me!

Tags Apple, Leopard, Mac OS X, New Release