Apple.

Our new(ish) car has Apple CarPlay (and Android Auto) built into the entertainment system. It’s a corded affair but it meets our needs and after going for years without the functionality in our Jeep Cherokee, we have enjoyed using Apple CarPlay.

Most of the time.

I have a love-hate relationship with Apple Maps. At times it shows us traffic lights that aren’t there, or it labels roads with route numbers that never came to fruition. But I think the biggest frustration I have with Apple Maps is that it doesn’t “plan ahead” when displaying maps in rural areas and cell signal is suddenly lost.

As you can see, I have apparently driven off the edge of the planet, even though I still have a 5G signal on my iPhone. Whereas Google Maps will download ahead as we drive merrily along, Apple Maps doesn’t seem to be as proactive in the practice. Google Maps has other issues, hence the reason I use Apple Maps.

Maybe there’s a setting or something that I need to tweak. In the meanwhile, it’s a bit maddening driving in a pedestrian version of a Tron grid.

I don’t have a lot to write about today’s announcements during WWDC24 from Apple Park. Is that what we call the spaceship? Apple Park? I should go there and get the full Apple Park Spaceship Experience. I hear it’s a real “E” ticket ride.

As a daily constant user of Apple products, I was interested in what the latest iterations of all the operating systems was going to bring the to the masses. I even blocked time off in my work calendar so I didn’t miss a beat. I walked away feeling kind of “meh+” about the whole thing.

A.I. doesn’t really get me worked up with excitement. I mean, it’s kind of neat, but it’s just a computer program cleverly grabbing whatever it can and regurgitating it back to the user based on some sort of input. It sounds intelligent, but A.I. isn’t really intelligent. It’s the new hype thing though and all the companies think they’re going to make money by mentioning “A.I.” in their products. But in too many cases it’s like saying Tide Pods are Gluten Free.

Anything to beef up Siri’s capabilities with a dose of sanity and basic functionality is a welcomed addition to the experience, so there’s that.

I definitely don’t need to make cartoons out of images of my friends to let them know they should have a happy birthday, and in that way I feel like Apple REALLY dumbed down and/or cheapened their line of products with gimmicks like this. I usually feel a warm and fuzzy from Apple; this doesn’t give me a warm nor fuzzy. But integrations with calendars and relating my schedule to things I have to do and the like… that’s something I can get on board with.

I was really surprised at how little time, comparatively, was spent with the Vision Pro enhancements. I feel like Apple has lost a bit of their enthusiasm for their Spatial Computing platform, even though it was just released in February. I don’t feel bad for the folks that spent $3500+ on these new devices, as I feel like it was sold long before it was ready to be useful, but I was surprised there wasn’t a little more movement forward with the platform.

The other thing that surprised me was the on-board A.I. processing is limited to the latest and greatest “Pro” edition of the iPhone, and that’s it. Obviously it’ll work with new phones coming out this fall. But if I had the latest “consumer” edition of the iPhone and I was left out of the loop I’d be a little perturbed. I still have an iPhone 13 Pro that works quite well, so I knew I wouldn’t be in that mix.

I took this photo way back in 2007.

I loved my Apple PowerBook G4. It was my first Mac laptop, after owning a used PowerMac G4 for a little while to make sure I wanted to jump back in the ecosystem. The photo was inspired by Apple fan iJustine. Back in the day she had a photo of her laying in bed with a PowerBook but I can’t find it anymore. I found her exuberance for Apple products a delight.

My new M2 Pro Mac mini is working splendidly. I did quite a bit of video editing over this past weekend. I’ve been watching tutorials on using Final Cut Pro so I can get better at it. I’ve been using Final Cut Pro for a long while. In fact, I was making videos using Final Cut Pro before the iPhone came out.

Here’s another oldie from about 17 years ago.

Some of the Final Cut Pro tutorials have been by iJustine. I found her demo of Final Cut Pro for the iPad very compelling. I didn’t give the application much credence, but after watching her demo I tried editing some videos on my iPad and it was surprisingly easy and efficient. Apple offers a 30 day trial before the subscription kicks in.

I’m good with that.

I was telling how much positive energy I’ve been feeling since playing around in the creative space again, namely, making videos and the like. It’s a good feeling to create something instead of consuming Internet bits and bytes all the time.

I was reading a blog post today from one of the Apple websites I follow. The blog post was a round-up of pundits’ opinions on the state of Apple and its devices in 2023. Predictably, the pundits all gave the iPad lineup a failing score and cautioned that popularity of the platform is plummeting fast.

I guess the pundits have never noticed the point of sale device most likely used at their favorite coffee shop or restaurant, or the number of pilots using iPads as “Electronic Flight Bags”, or the number of students at their favorite haunt plunking away on an iPad of some sort.

I’m finding pundits tedious at best these days.

The iPad lineup was never designed to be a Mac replacement. There are plenty of things one can do with the iPad. Whole suits of popular software (ahem, Microsoft Office, Adobe Products, Final Cut Pro, etc) available for the iPad. Plus, since Apple strives to give you all the tools you need by default (Photos, Notes, Mail, Web Browsing, etc), it is certainly up to the task for the average consumer. Hell, all the tools I use as a cross-platform power user are available on my iPad Pro and today it’s on the rare occasion that I can’t accomplish something using my iPad. It’s a nifty device to bring along when I don’t want to lug a computer around. And if I want to play a game of Solitaire or something? It’s perfect. Plus, it’s the best platform for watching movies on the go, reading a book, and a whole lot of other consumption related activities.

Yes, I’m writing this blog entry on my iPad.

Instead of getting into it with some of the Apple pundits that basically get paid to share their opinion of Apple products and nothing more, I decided it was easier just to delete a few of these folks out of my RSS feeds.

I’m not the Apple fanboy I used to be, but I will not jump on the doom and gloom bandwagon of Apple when 1. they’re one of the richest companies in the history of human kind and 2. their products are ubiquitous in society. Is the iPad perfect? No. But it’s certainly not the garbage dump worthy of a failing grade a bunch of people who get paid to be outrageous make it out to be.

Use the tools that work best for you. End of story.

Forty years ago today, the world was introduced to Macintosh.

And here’s the famous commercial (4K Restoration) that prepped the world for what was coming from Apple.

Today Apple announced they’ll start accepting pre-orders for the highly anticipated Vision Pro, Apple’s “spatial computer”. It’s a VR/AR (visual reality/augmented reality) device using goggles. Deliveries start on the 2nd of February and the unit starts at $3,499 US.

That’s a lot of money.

I’m having a hard time understanding the use case for this device, especially at this price point. The Vision Pro will undoubtedly be an amazing experience for the user, and when it comes to wearing VR goggles on your face, I’m sure Apple’s experience will exceed anything we’ve seen before.

But the old guy in me wonders, why do we need this? Is it to have an unlimited number of “monitors” in front of your eyes? Is it to further immerse the user in an online world, shielding them from the realities of real life? Other than a super nifty computing experience, how does this new spatial computing paradigm make this world better?

Vision Pro Glasses? Sign me up. Take my money. But fairly heavy goggles tethered to a battery pack in my pocket? For $3,499 US? Pass.

My husband is relieved. The credit card company is not.

Apple is expected to sell 350,000 units in 2024. That’s $1.25 billion dollars. There’s a lot that could change in the world via $1.25 billion dollars.

The whole purpose of iCloud syncing in iPhotos is your snapshots are instantly available from any Apple device after you take a photo. That’s what Apple likes to tout in their marketing messages. I want to believe it’s true but it’s simply not.

Granted, everything works great when you’re home on your home internet connection. Most of the time. But when I’m on vacation I don’t want things to fall apart, and iCloud syncing just falls apart once you’re out and about. The last thing I want to do when I’m engaging in a few days R&R is troubleshoot IT issues.

I took a bunch of photos during our vacation day yesterday. We also had quite a few photos taken by Disney cast members which I imported into iPhoto via my iPhone.

None of these photos showed up on my iPad nor my MacBook Air. Yes, I’m a fool that brought along both on vacation because that’s what I do.

I took a peek at my iPad and it had paused iCloud photo sync to preserve battery power. The iPad was plugged into the wall. iPhoto sync on my MacBook Air had been paused due to “poor network connection”, though a speed test shows Disney’s Internet connection is more robust than what’s found in most of the United States.

A bit of cajoling and tapping on messages and things got moving. Almost. Then the imported photos didn’t appear on the iPad but they did appear on the MacBook Air.

I had also created a shared album with my husband so we could easily share photos between our accounts because after all, “It Just Works”. Though it’s not working. It needs more cajoling and noodling. AirDrop is a crap shoot at best.

So we send text messages back and forth with the photos.

I like what Apple is trying to do, and I’m willing to pay the premium price so I don’t have to think about these things because after all, I am on vacation and I don’t want to spend our vacation troubleshooting IT issues.

But Apple needs to step up their game here.

On Monday I noticed in the credits of the Apple “Scary Fast” event that the entire 30 minute production had been shot on an iPhone 15 Pro Max.

I find this impressive.

Apple released a “behind the scenes” video showing how this was done and it’s amazing to me that an iPhone can be used to film an entire promotional video. This area of technology is moving forward quickly.

This has further inspired me to use my iPhone as my primary video device when storm chasing. At the moment I’m still using an iPhone 13 Pro, but I’m sure the next iPhone in my pocket will be the “Pro Max” version of whatever is the latest at the moment.

I wonder what Hollywood productions are being shot on iPhone (outside of the current actors’ strike). I imagine the days of miles of film and large cameras on top of a rig are long gone.

Just for fun I took a random shot on my iPhone 13 Pro just prior to writing this blog entry. It’s the corner of my work desk.

To my amateur eye I find the quality of this two year old iPhone to be amazing.