Friendly reminder that comments are welcome, but please don't link to other sites in your text unless it's to your personal (social network) page or relevant to the post. Thank you!

Sunday, November 17, 2019

*Shakes fist in air... in anger*

Damn, you, Ryan and Brad! You got 80s music stuck in my head!

For two weeks now, I've got Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy" in my head... all because I was watching American Horror Story: 1984 and they were a 'featured' band in one of the episodes. If you haven't seen the series or the season, I'm not going to spoil it for anyone, but if you want to remember someone's youth and cheeky slasher movies, watch this show... as laughable as it is in some places.

So... I broke down last weekend and went to the Verizon store. Got myself the iPhone 11 ((product)red color / version) as well as Apple Watch Series 3 (Space Gray). The model I got was the basic one that has 2 cameras instead of 3, because who really needs all that in a phone? I honestly don't want to start using my phone as a camera.. the features are nice, don't get me wrong, but like I've always said: I've got too much invested in Canon products to give those up. I like my DSLR now that I have one (since you can't find 35mm film anymore).

Since I upgraded from the 6S to the 11 (I guess there's really not a name for it besides "11" because it's not the Max or the Pro), is simply just that - an upgrade plus an added camera. The extra lens does wide angle shots and better night / limited light shots, as well as having different filters (portrait, stage, etc). I haven't fully tested it out this week, but the phone itself acts like my old one. Same stuff but minus a home button. Which is so fecking weird. For close to 7 years I've gotten used to double tapping a home button to do things on the phone and now I've got to press a side button. And try to shut that sucker off... I dare you. They make it hard. You've got to press the volume control plus what should be the power button, all together, to get the option to shut it off.. without creating a screencap. The single power button is now Siri plus a screen wake up. Crazy.

I also had to change some of the display settings because now you tap the screen and it wakes up as well. One little move and the phone lights up. I can't have that - it's in my pocket all day and I don't need the battery draining while I'm at work.

The Series 3 watch is interesting. I have been thinking of upgrading the tracker I was using, so I opted to get a time piece that can sync to my new phone without having to install third party apps and have the watch stop working. Long story short, with the iOS 13 update, non Apple watches / fitness trackers have lost some parts of the Bluetooth connectivity (stuff within the apps on the phone and watch). It happened to a friend with a FitBit and it happened to me with a knockoff. So I got the Apple version in hopes things will work out better.

Well... it has to be charged every other day. Seriously. Every 2 days it needs to hang out on the wireless charging pad (seriously - it's a magnetic charging pad and not a lightning cable) because it loses juice quickly. Even my sales guy admitted his loses power in 2 days. Another sales person said the same, as well as some reviews online. Therefore buyer beware: Apple Watches may be expensive but you're also relying on recharging them quickly.... unlike the phone, which came with the lightning charging cable. You have to buy the wireless charger separately. As well as the phone can last about 3-4 days depending on usage.

Outside of that, I had to change some notification settings. First and foremost: if you have custom ringtones (or love the stock ringtones), be prepared to not have them working while you're connected to the watch.

Huh?

Through the power of research, I found out that when you get a text message while your phone is in your pocket, the message comes through your watch and will make a bing and vibrate. Your phone stays silent. So if you're not paying attention, you're going to miss a text. If you're on the phone (playing a game or looking at something), your phone will ring using whatever ringtone you have, and the watch stays silent. You can't have both at the same time... even if you "mirror iPhone" on the watch, notifications only come through on one of them, depending on use. Phone calls, so far, do have the ringer on with the phone plus the watch, but you also get the option to answer the call on the watch if you have the cellular on.

The watch also doesn't do sleep tracking. That's one thing where you do have to install a third party app if you want to check your nightly snoozing. There's an activity app already installed on the watch to be able to manage your steps and fitness, but there is nothing for sleeping. Although the Health app on the phone has the option to import and utilize sleep data, it'll be an empty field unless you install something ("freemium" [free apps] or "premium" [paid apps]). Which kind of defeats the purpose if you're looking for an all in one watch that can do everything under the sun. That's part of the reason I was looking to get something new - I didn't want to start installing other things to help me succeed with the new technology and with my life. At least the old tracker I had, as "cheap" as it was, sensed when you were sleeping and sent the information to the apps, saying what you were up to.

The bloatware apps on the watch are interesting and you can move them around however you want. I've got some haphazard diamond thing going on and everything is "in order" of what they are. The fitness stuff (heartbeat, workout, installed apps [myfitnesspal, runkeeper], breathe and activity) are on one line. All the alarm apps are on another. Music related apps are together as well (podcasts, radio, music, voice memo). OCD kicked in and I felt the need to get related items to hang out with each other. The face itself is Astronomy and actually tells you where the planets align every day (past and future). No, it doesn't include Pluto, sadly enough. Apple thinks 8 planets exist and not 9.

With a plastic cover over the face and a bumper, I'm trying not to kill my watch. With my line of work, that's all I need - break the screen within the first month. The same goes with the phone - I got the gorilla glass plus an Otter Defender case. And FYI: The new defender cases don't come with a protective cover for the screen. So if something falls on it, you're done, but if the phone falls on  the ground, you should be safe. At least I hope I will...

For now, I guess that's it. I'll update more when I get more used to everything.

Until then...


Cheers;







See also:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for sharing!