MobileViews Blog

Month: September 2020

  • MobileViews Podcast 333: Initial impressions-iPadOS 14 & Apple Watch Series 6

    1. Todd’s pre-pandemic & pandemic note taking journey
    2. iPadOS 14 impressions
      • Battery widget, by default, doesn’t show percentage of charge numerically. Need to delete, re-add the widget, and select from the three available widget appearance types before re-adding
      • Non-Apple widgets are second class citizens
      • The P-Calc widget is functional. Other widgets are really more like app launchers with information in the widget icon
      • Scribble not supported by the non-Apple apps I’ve tried so far
    3. Charty for iOS
    4. Apple Watch Series 6
    5. Jon’s tip: Back Tap discovery – in Settings -> Accessibility -> Touch -> Back Tap, can be hooked to a Siri Shortcut – and Siri Shortcuts can be used to make menus of other shortcuts, so you have your own shortcut menu!
    6. ElevationHub for MacBook USB-C Power Adapters

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

  • MobileViews Podcast 332: Sept. 2020 Apple iPad & Watch announcements

    We’re back after nearly three months when we talked about the WWDC event. Jon Westfall and I actually recorded an episode in early July with Chris Spera. However, we had a lot of audio problems and I need to spend some time trying to fix the audio (echoes) for podcast 331 one of these days.

    Apple Watch Series 6
    What the tech reviewers don’t understand: Most people don’t buy a new Apple Watch every year/release. As a Series 3 owner, the 6 is a huge leap forward features-wise: I don’t have fall detection, ECG, always-on display, altimeter which appeared before the 6 but after the 3
    Doesn’t ship with a power adapter (does include charging cable)
    Brighter always-on display (my Series 3 doesn’t have always on)
    SP02
    Cool Feature alert – Siri Shortcuts can now automate some watch functions – so have it auto switch faces at different times of the day!

    Apple Watch SE
    Generation older processor
    No U2 Ultrawide Band
    No ECG
    No SP02
    Apple takes a swipe at a few niche industries with Apple Watch Family setup.

    iPad Air is like an iPad Pro spec-wise
    Touch sensor on power button for ID instead of front button or Face ID. I think they got this backwards in a time when many of us are wearing face masks. It is ok to have Face ID for the mostly solitary/indoor iPad. The iPhone, on the other hand, would benefit from getting Touch ID restored.

    The only Pro features missing from the new Air are:
    LIDAR (I’ve never found a use for it yet)
    Wide angle camera
    Face ID
    Quad-speakers

    iPad 8th-generation
    Supports only 1st gen Apple Pencil

    Apple One bundle
    Three price tiers. Not worth it unless you are already invested in Apple’s cloud services
    Individual/family plans: Music, TV+, Arcade, 50GB iCloud
    Premier: above + News & Fitness

    What wasn’t announced:
    New iPhone
    Apple Silicon based Mac or Macbook
    No “one more thing”

    iOS/iPadOS 14
    Empty widget windows in sidebar – solved by Jon
    AirPod Pro sometimes doesn’t disconnect when in charging case. Drains battery (oddly just the right side)
    Probably due to new auto-device-switching feature
    AirPod Spatial Audio
    Scribble
    Captions for photos & videos
    Mirror selfies?
    App Library on phone but not iPad
    https://www.apple.com/ipados/ipados-14/features/

    Jon backed a Workstation bag (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1149741805/moose-designs-multi-functional-workstation-bag?ref=user_menu) on Kickstarter, and bought a PiBoy DMG (https://www.experimentalpi.com/PiBoy-DMG–Assembled_p_16.html)
    And a bamboo skin from dBrand for his Macbook Pro