Whether or not the Apple Watch Ultra is for you, depends largely on what you plan to use it for. If you had or wanted an Apple Watch, but were held back by battery life, and perhaps button usability – then the Ultra largely solves that. Similarly, if you wanted more advanced running/workout metrics, then WatchOS 9 on the Apple Watch Ultra also solves that too. And, if you never knew you wanted an emergency siren on your wrist for when you fall off an embankment, then the Ultra is for you too (but seriously, that feature is surprisingly well executed).
However, as good as Ultra is for most existing Apple Watch users (or more mainstream prospective users), it fall short when it comes to features that you would need to complete an actual ‘ultra’ – that is, a long distance running race, or trek, or really any adventure in backcountry. These gaps fall into a couple different camps. Sure, there’s the bugs like the openwater swim one, or the disappearing compass backtrack one. I’m less concerned about those at the moment. Instead, it’s the navigational feature gaps, and sensor pairing/broadcasting gaps that are more key for Apple.
I suspect long term I’ll probably settle on the Alpine Loop (orange), simply because it’s most aesthetically pleasing to me. For most sports, any of the three options would work. However, I would be slightly hesitant with using the Trail Loop in either surfing or a mass-start triathlon (specifically due to contact with others during the swim, not because of the swimming aspect itself). Mass-start triathlons have a long history of drowning people’s watches due to the often abrasive wrestle-mania nature of the first few hundred meters.
Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro are now in the hands of customers, and one notable new tidbit that has come to light is that the MagSafe Charging Case can broadcast its charging status to the iOS Battery widget even when the AirPods are in your ears.
Customers who personalize their second-generation AirPods Pro charging case with an engraving will now have that engraving reflected directly on iOS as they pair and connect their AirPods Pro.
But certainly the highlight of the Marvis Pro 8 update is “Metadata Builder.” With this new option, users can choose which metadata of a song they want to see in the app’s Now Playing and Mini Player. You can add details such as the name of the connected audio device (for headphones and wireless speakers), genre of the song, composer, ratings, and more.
For Apple Watch Ultra, the Redpoint functionalities automatically assigned to the Action Button include starting a new climbing workout, logging the difficulty of a route, and logging the tick type of a route, allowing climbers to interact with the watch without getting climbing chalk on the screen.
The new update lets photographers shoot directly into Capture One on the iPad to be able to see a large preview of your shots as they’re being taken and you can apply a preset to them by default to get a good idea of how the final image is going to look.
It’s now my only meditation app, and I think it’s all most people really need.
Apple is expected to break its average iPhone price record twice in the coming months as customers choose to buy costlier “Pro” models that boost the tech giant’s margins.
Demand for the new iPhone 14 unveiled earlier this month is already robust enough to project that the global “average selling price” — or ASP — will rise to a record $892 in the September quarter and $944 in the December quarter, according to Counterpoint Research, a data provider, which bases its projections on consumer demand, market intelligence, and talks with suppliers.
Yankees star Aaron Judge could break a home run record at Friday’s game against the Boston Red Sox, and you’ll be able to watch the game for free through Apple TV’s Friday Night Baseball broadcast. But in tweets ahead of the game, New York Attorney General Letitia James confusingly called for the game to be brought over to New York’s local Yankee Entertainment and Sports (YES) cable network, and after slightly walking that back, called the steps to watch Apple’s broadcast “burdens.”
Mozilla, the non-profit proprietor of the Firefox browser, has accused Google, Microsoft, and Apple of "self preferencing" and nudging consumers towards using their own browsers.
Examples of consumer harm stemming from this self-preferencing behavior include limited or frustrated choice, lower quality, lower innovation, poor privacy, and unfair contracts, according to Mozilla.
Here are some books that I've enjoyed over the past three months...
Different Seasons, by Stephen King. Okay, I didn't much enjoy one of the four short stories in this collection. But, three out of four is considered a thumbs up for me.
In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss, by Amy Bloom. I didn't know how I feel after reading this; I still don't. But life is beautiful and sad.
Meredith, Alone, by Claire Alexander.
Station Eleven, Glass Hotel, and Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel. For reasons that eluded me now, I've started with Glass Hotel, and I enjoyed it so much that I've read the other two books. In my humble opinion, Sea of Tranquility is the best among the three books, followed by Glass hotel. If I have started with Station Eleven, I might not have picked up the other titles.
(The three books are set, probably, in the same multi-verses. But they are not a series.)
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Thanks for reading.