For as long as I can remember, I’ve been on some sort of laptop vision quest.
In college, I used a 15-inch PowerBook G4, followed by an early 15-inch MacBook Pro. Then, I bounced between the 13-inch MacBook Pro and the 13-inch MacBook Air, depending on what machine I was assigned at work. When I left my job, I bought a 15-inch MacBook Pro. It was my only Mac, and I wanted as much power as I could put in my backpack.
Since wrapping up HomePod vs. iPod Hi-Fi video, my HomePod has been in our kitchen, sitting where our Amazon Echo has been for the last year and a half. I unplugged the Echo and put it away, leading to many questions about where Alexa went, voiced by our three year old son.
That was about three weeks ago, and in those three weeks, the entire family has gotten acquainted with HomePod and this iteration of Siri.
Small, round and heavy
The HomePod in my kitchen
Fills the room with sound
Thumping bass without
Distortion with clear mids, highs
Made my Echo sad
Siri is still not great
Falling down on simple tasks
Confused and alone
Will it soon improve?
Can Apple make Siri better?
Timers can’t be that hard
The HomePod is the second $349 speaker Apple has pitched over the years. It seemed obvious to compare it to the iPod Hi-Fi:
These things come in cycles.
There’s revolution, followed by evolution. The Apple II, then the IIe. The Macintosh, then the Macintosh SE. The Titanium PowerBook G4, then the aluminum models.
Both sides of the revolution/evolution coin have their winners. The IIe became Apple’s bread and butter for years, introducing an entire generation to personal computing. The SE and SE/30 are among the most-loved early Macs, and it is still hard to talk about the 12-inch PowerBook G4 without smiling.
I reviewed my original Apple Watch after three months of usage. I wrapped up that article1 with this:
I’d recommend it to anyone who is strongly tied to their iPhone and is looking for something to track their fitness.
That combination is what sets Apple Watch apart from things like the much-cheaper Fitbits of the world. Having one wearable to deal with notifications, fitness and more is great, but by no means necessary.
I wanted to do something a little different for the iPhone X, so I filmed my day setting it up and using it:
I’ll be posting part 2 later this weekend. Enjoy!
The Mac has had a stressful time over the past few years.
The professional portion of its user base has been wondering about the future as the Mac Pro grew older and less relevant and notebooks got thinner and lighter.
However, as 2017 unfolded, the company has made a routine out of voicing its love and commitment for the Mac. The iMac Pro and the future-but-not-here-quite-yet-and-oh-God-please-have-card-slots Mac Pro that Casey Liss is super excited about are both part of that message.
I’d argue that the newest release of macOS is part of it, too.
As he was introducing High Sierra and making yet another weed joke at this year’s WWDC, Apple software boss and international Dad Model Craig Federighi said:
We wanted to spend this year perfecting [the Mac].
[…]
High Sierra is all about deep technologies that provide a powerful platform for future innovations on the Mac.
And we couldn’t help ourselves, so we also added some refinements.
I’ve had my 10.5" iPad Pro for just about a week now, and while I’m not really ready to a full review of it, I do have a bunch of miscellaneous thoughts I wanted to share:
The 13-inch MacBook Pro without a Touch Bar is a weird computer.
In many ways, it’s the new MacBook Air. If Apple could have sold it for $999, perhaps it would be the new MacBook Air. If the 12-inch, single-port MacBook had earned the Air name, maybe this computer would have been the MacBook.
Naming stuff aside — including the need for ATP to dub this computer the “MacBook Escape” — it’s a pretty enjoyable notebook. It strikes a great balance, as I wrote in my review:
Seven years ago, I published my original iPad review. I thought it would be fun to revisit it today.
I really had no intention of buying an iPad on launch day, but I was very curious about it. About an hour before the local Apple Store closed, I called a friend of mine to see if he wanted to go with me to check out the demo models. I figured I was safe from an impulsive decision, but they still had models in stock:
