Gear

iPad Pro 10.5

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If you know me, you know that I go through hardware fairly quickly.  A high gloss fetish is what my friend Pinoyboy calls it.  It basically means that when something new and shiny is available, I can hardly resist it.  This means in the last twelve months, I’ve had bought three iPads, two MacBooks and two iPhones.  It’s just who I am.

Earlier this year when Apple announced the new iPad, the replacement for the iPad Air, I picked one up.  At that time my current iPad was an iPad mini 4 and I wanted a larger iPad. I really liked the size of the new iPad, but the screen was not as good as my iPad mini and it felt a little sluggish compared to the iPad mini 4.

Then Apple introduced the new iPad Pro with the 10.5″ screen.  I was intrigued by the bigger screen and after listening and reading about what people thought regarding the new iPad and how it was so good that it could be your primary computer, I was intrigued. As I usually do, I searched around for a friend who needed the device I currently had and sold it to them at an excellent price, and then I went out and grabbed an iPad Pro 10.5” 256GB with LTE, yeah I went big!

And boy do I not regret my purchase this iPad is quite simply the best iPad, no the best Apple device, I’ve ever owned. It is fast, thin, light and feels exactly the right size. When I travel, I used to take with me my work laptop, my personal MacBook Pro and my iPad mini, but now, I take only the iPad Pro and my work laptop. There is nothing I can’t do on my iPad Pro, I can do email, I can blog, I can watch movies and TV, read, surf, you name it. I really am super happy with it. The iPad Pro 10.5 with the Smart Keyboard is the perfect travel companion.

iPad Pro 10.5

The Apple Watch Series 3 Edition – Space Grey

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With Series 3, Apple has brought a brand new finish to its Ceramic Edition — Space Gray.

Last year, Apple Watch transitioned its Edition line from 18K yellow and rose gold to white ceramic. That took it from tens of thousands of dollars down to $1,299 for 38mm and $1,349 for 42mm. Still more than an iPhone X but much, much less than most ceramic watches.

Even though mechanical and computational watches have completely different value propositions, it does keep Apple Watch Edition at the very top end of Apple’s offerings. In essence, it’s for people who want an Apple Watch but also want it in ceramic.

And this year, with Apple Watch Series 3, it’s also for people who want it in space gray ceramic.

-Rene Ritchie – iMore.com (link to his review)

I truly can not express how much I want one of these. I’m usually able to completely talk myself into buying anything, but I can’t justify the cost ($1349) when I’ve bought two Apple Watches already! It’s a thing of beauty (except that dumb red crown).

The Apple Watch Series 3 Edition – Space Grey

Reading… not listening

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Every year I make a list of intentions, not resolutions.  New Year’s resolutions never work out for me.  I’m not very good at making changes to my life and sticking to them.  Instead of making resolutions, I make intentions, five of them usually and I do my best to make them happen.

This year one of my intentions was to read more.  It’s not that I don’t read. I do read a lot for work, to keep up on the latest news and to learn more about things that interest me but I’m talking about recreational reading, reading for fun. Most of my reading for fun is done using Audible and that’s more listening than reading and so one of my intentions was not to change the amount of books I listen to on Audible but to add to that by actually some  books to help improve my vocabulary and hopefully, like this blog, my writing skills.

So in January, I started off by reading a book called the The Caped Crusade: Batman and The Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon, an amazing book about well the Rise of Nerd Culture and I loved it. I read it on my iPad and honestly, it took longer than it should have and I attributed that to reading on the iPad.  While a great experience there were a few things about reading on an iPad that were not ideal.

First of all, it’s a big device, and it’s not the lightest thing in the world and all of that could be overlooked if it weren’t for the interruptions. The iPad is full of distractions that end up being interruptions. From text messages to emails to the multitude of other apps that are available, I found it really hard to get lost in the book and hence, I didn’t continue reading books, I just went back to listening to them.

Cut to last month when I decided to buy myself a Kindle Paperwhite. It was on sale and so I decided to replace my original Kindle with this new fancy Paperwhite.  It was a fantastic decision, the device is super light, small and has a wonderfully lit screen.  I’ve already read my first book, Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie and am halfway through The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  I flew through the first book and truly feel like I’m getting back to my old speed with reading and I couldn’t be happier. The only downside so far is that this just adds to the huge list of things I’m trying to do on a weekly basis, but I have to say, this is a habit I want to fade away again.

Reading… not listening

iPhone 8

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I certainly know this will come as a surprise for many of my friends and readers but I’ve made a decision to NOT buy a new iPhone X. In fact, I purchased instead an iPhone 8 Plus just the other day.

I figured you might want to know why, so here is my list of reasons:

It’s rumored to be in very short supply

Now I realize this could be just  a rumor, but the rumor mill is saying that it’s going to be hard to get one, and I’m kind of tired of feeling like a chump every year ordering an iPhone.  Getting up at 3am ET isn’t my favorite thing.  I found out that yesterday I could walk into the Apple Store on Boylston Street and pick up one up, no muss, no fuss.

Living on the edge isn’t really an option right now

Now that I’m traveling so much for work, I need a phone that works like I expect it to.  I’ve lived on the edge for years and I still wish I could, but I want to have devices on me when I’m away from home that work as I expect, I’m not happy about it, but in the end, I think it will be better for me.

Waiting a bit isn’t going to kill me

Honestly, I feel this overwhelming desire to not be chasing the new this time.  The iPhone 8 is an amazing upgrade and honestly if the iPhone X hadn’t come out this year along with the iPhone 8, this would have been my choice of phone.  Now I won’t lie when the hubby gets his iPhone X in November, or December, or January LOL, I’m sure I’ll be regretting it, but let’s be honest, waiting an extra year for the phone ins’t going to kill me.

So, is it nice?

Hell yes.  The glass back of the phone is so good-looking.  I went with the Space Gray phone even though, I liked the Silver and was seriously tempted by the new Gold color. The way the glass changes the color on the back of the phone just makes the Gold look fantastic. The reason I went with Space Gray yet again comes down to the black vs. white front panels.  The iPhone X remedies that by making all the front screen panels black and I wish they would have done that on the iPhone 8, but alas, they did not.

I was never really happy with the iPhone 7 Plus, I had a lot of issues with the Bluetooth on that phone and most of them seem to be fixed with the 8.  Also, the 8 is a bit heavier due to the glass back but honestly, it feels right, much more solid, more substantial.  It’s quite a bit quicker and the battery seems to be lasting a bit longer than the iPhone 7 Plus’ did.  Speaking of the battery, even after just a week I’m crazy about the Wireless Charging.  I’ve bought two pads, one for work and one for home and I even replaced my aging, Asus 24″ monitor with a new Dell 24″ Ultrasharp with a Qi charger in the base.  I am not having the issues most of the reviewers are complaining about with “landing” the phone on the charger, and with the wireless charging, my phone seems to be always topped off and I love it.

Yeah, but what about that iPhone X?

I know, I know, making this decision seems about as unlike me as possible and I sure do like the iPhone X.  I am really interested in the larger screen in the smaller body design, the OLED screen and the Face ID which I think will be a game changer, but, I’m not crazy about the notch, which I know is no big deal and will grow on me, I’m a little concerned about Rev. A hardware and my apps possibly not being updated for the new screen quickly enough for my tastes and I really don’t feel like chasing one for months just to get a new phone.

I could be wrong about all of this, and I probably am, but I’m going for it and we’ll see how it all turns out shortly.

iPhone 8