Tag: MacBook Air

Apple Watch and MacBook

I don’t understand why the press is talking about the 18-carat $10K+ Apple Watch as though it's a big deal. Who cares if someone with that kind of money to spend, spends it on a watch? And just because an expensive version of a product exist does not mean the average consumer should feel slighted. We could be discussing the $400-$600 “consumer-friendly” options. This price tag means the Apple Watch may not be a mass consumer product but … neither were iPhones when first announced 8 years ago.

I agree with some of my friends. The Apple Watch is not for me at this time. I don’t yet have a compelling use case for such a device and can’t justify the spend.

I could, however, change my mind in a few months when I start to see hands-on reviews of the Dexcom G5 glucose monitor from people with T1 diabetes who’ve connected it to the Apple Watch. My impression is that the Apple Watch is like having a limited set of the core features of iOS on the wrist. It’s got a voice commands, social messaging, calendar and notifications. The ability to view and respond to these, even in a limited way, from my wrist is compelling when I add in the medical monitoring aspect.

Right now, I carry in my pocket, a double-matchbox sized device — the Dexcom G4 receiver — at all times. It’s receiving data from the small transmitter and the glucose sensor under my skin. The alerts from the receiver are audible, loud and escalate in volume unless I hit the “snooze” button. To see my data, especially after hypo or hyperglycemic alert, I pull the transmitter from my pocket and hit a button. This isn’t ideal in a meeting, while driving, etc. I would love to have my readings sent quietly to my Apple Watch for quick review on my wrist. Without the medical monitoring notifications, the Apple Watch for me is a “nice to have”.

I have reservations about the new super-model thin MacBook. USB-C is an industry-standard and that Apple is using a standard is a good thing. However, having one port on the MacBook is limiting. I would have preferred two or more ports. With my MacBook Air, I have two USB and one Thunderbolt port. Despite that, I still had to invest in adapters for Ethernet, DVI, and VGA since the Air has no Ethernet port and most presentation projectors have not been upgraded to support Thunderbolt. I can charge my MacBook while connected to an external display, an external storage device of some kind all while listening to music.

With one USB-C port, how will I accomplish that? Apple is offering $80 USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter that provides a VGA port, a USB port, and a pass-through USB-C port. Apple also offers a USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter that offers the same feature for HDMI. I guess that means USB-C allows device chaining. But what about connecting to Ethernet? What about connecting my FW drives? What about connecting the Thunderbolt appliance people just bought? How will this work if I need to use this MacBook in the scenario I describe above? I don’t have high hopes for the success of this iteration of the MacBook. And what the heck is going on with fanboys and wanting a 12” MacBook? What's that about?

Published via Desk App.

The MacBook Air and iPhone 6 Plus as mobile office

I was explaining to a co-worker that the iPhone and iPad are mostly battery. He was asking how one replaces the battery and I explained that the iPhone 6 will provide about an average of 10 hours of useable time so swapping out batteries is not much of an issue. That led to me looking stuff up on iFixit to show him the battery etc.

  • The iPad Air gets about 10 hours on a full charge.
  • The MacBook Air gets about 9 hours on a full charge.
  • The iPhone 6 gets about 10 hours on a full charge.
  • The iPhone 6 Plus gets about 14 hours on a full charge.

That got me thinking about something. I could run an entire business with just two or three Apple computing products. If you are a consultant or small business owner or busy executive, the Apple products will offer just what you need to get through a full day of work or travel.

Grab and pack your devices in the morning. If driving use your iPhone to provide travel directions. I use Waze almost every day to find the fastest route to work. But over the weekend the Waze service had some issues so I used Apple Maps1. Apple Maps successfully routed me to and from the Maker Faire in New York. I missed a few turns and Apple Maps instantly re-routed me without a word of notice. As though everything was just as it was meant to be.

On the train2, you can use your iPhone to check your schedule or make some early morning calls. Pull out the iPad and make some minor changes to a document or maybe use your iPhone’s as a personal hotspot to catchup on the news.

If it’s a plane ride, use the iPhone as a boarding pass and to check for any last-minute flight changes. Once the plane is in the air, use the MacBook Air to make last-minute changes to a presentation or update a financial report. Done with work? Pull out the iPad Air and read a book, catch up on the news3 or watch a movie4.

Because of the iOS 8 handoff feature, you can start writing an email on your iPhone and pick up where you left off when you sit down at your Mac. Use Handoff with apps like Mail, Safari, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Maps, Messages, Reminders, Calendar, and Contacts or any third-party app that supports it.

When you arrive at the destination, switch back to the iPhone to contact clients update family of your status.

But you don’t need all three — iPad Air, iPhone 6, MacBook Air — devices. Given the 5.5” screen, the iPhone 6 Plus would obviate the need for a separate iPad Air and iPhone 6. The iPhone 6 Plus screen is only slightly smaller than an iPad Mini and has the advantage of a cellular radio. It's a phone and an Internet connected "mini" iPad Mini.

The iPhone 6 Plus and MacBook Air just might be the perfect mobile office.

Thoughts?

  1. I noticed that Siri’s voice has been updated. She sounds less robotic. ?
  2. I use the Embark app to check the New Jersey Transit train schedule. ?
  3. I use Unread for RSS feeds and Pocket to download web articles to read later. ?
  4. Netflix and iTunes on iOS only stream movies so I would need to download the movie before leaving home. ?

Anyone else having OS X 10.9 issues?

I’m not having a good experience with Mavericks on my 2008 iMac. I think the upgrade messed up my keychain in some way. Mail, Contacts and Calendar (my Google account) no longer sync — I’m constantly prompted to enter passwords over and over again. Removing the account and adding them back doesn't resolve the issue. Since my contacts and calendar are hosted by Google I don’t have access to them locally.

Facebook, Twitter, Flickr integration are also not working. I've removed them from the "Internet Accounts" panel in System Settings but the system won't let me add them back.

The iCloud Keychain won’t activate at all. I get an error message that my Mac failed to contact the iCloud server. Sigh!

What's annoying is that everything works fine from my wife's 2013 MacBook Air. I don't have any problems using any of the new features from my account on that MacBook.

In the mean time, I have switched to using AirMail and I may also switch my contact over to Cobook. AirMail takes a while to start-up but once it gets going it does a great job. I especially like that I can attach documents directly from cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive. Cobook also has an iOS version. I like that close integration.

Anyone else having OS X 10.9 issues?