iThread (AKA Apple Thread)

[bluestreak]

I bought the magic keyboard for the iPad Pro. It’s expensive, but amazing. It allows me to use my iPad almost as a laptop.  It finally has a proper keyboard and a trackpad. I needed a new laptop, now I don’t need one. This is the best thing Apple has designed in years.

[DCFan]

iOS 14

[imref]

iOS 14

I'm waiting for 14.1

[1995hoo]

I'm waiting for 14.1

I plan to do the same. There are always bugs, and there's always an update within a week. I had forgotten about the update until I unlocked my phone this morning at breakfast, at which time I saw 14 app updates waiting and said, "Oh, right ...."

[Kevrock]

I bought the magic keyboard for the iPad Pro. It’s expensive, but amazing. It allows me to use my iPad almost as a laptop.  It finally has a proper keyboard and a trackpad. I needed a new laptop, now I don’t need one. This is the best thing Apple has designed in years.

Yep, the iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard is my favorite device.

[HalfSmokes]

I'm waiting for 14.1

I just check macrumors for a few days- if nothing pops up, I update

[bluestreak]

It is a significant upgrade. Especially for better organization of the phone and having access to info. The widgets are a complete Android rip off, but Apple does it better I think and it’s really cool. And the App Library really has cleaned up my phone.
But I typically do these in Beta. This one has been pretty stable for the last couple of versions so I don’t anticipate major problems.

That being said, everyone here is right, it hurts nothing to wait.

[imref]

It is a significant upgrade. Especially for better organization of the phone and having access to info. The widgets are a complete Android rip off, but Apple does it better I think and it’s really cool. And the App Library really has cleaned up my phone.
But I typically do these in Beta. This one has been pretty stable for the last couple of versions so I don’t anticipate major problems.

That being said, everyone here is right, it hurts nothing to wait.

the Apple fitness service looks really interesting.  I will probably go ahead and get the Apple One bundle.  Right now I'm paying $3 per phone for backup data for four phones and 2 Macs, plus $14.99 for Apple Music. (family plan), so I'm already at $27.00. For $29.95 I'd also get Apple+, the gaming service, and the fitness service.

Now I just need to buy an AppleTV box.

The new watches look cool but my Watch Series 3 is fine for my needs.

[DCFan]

Now I just need to buy an AppleTV box.

Totally worth it. I use it in lieu of another cable box (I have ATT TV here) plus I can watch Limbaugh do his program on it.

[HalfSmokes]

I have music plus the 2tb plan- I don't see the tv and news being worth the $10 a month difference

[1995hoo]

Totally worth it. I use it in lieu of another cable box (I have ATT TV here) plus I can watch Limbaugh do his program on it.

We have two Apple TVs, two Amazon Fire Sticks, and one Amazon Fire Cube; the Fire Cube is connected to the same TV as one of the Apple TVs. I've found the Apple TV works significantly better for watching the Nats via MLB.tv than the Fire Cube does. Ms1995hoo prefers the Fire Cube's remote to the Apple TV's remote because the latter uses a touchpad-style device to move around the screen and she prefers the more tactile ring-style device the Amazon remote uses. Of course in theory you can voice-control either one, but I've found that can be hit or miss.

The Apple TV app store is far superior to Amazon's for one simple reason alone: Apple's lets you search from within the app store and Amazon's doesn't (at least not that I've been able to find). I also like that when I click into a search box, if I have my iPhone sitting nearby the Apple TV will let me type in the search using my phone as a keyboard instead of flicking around from letter to letter.

[bluestreak]

The Apple TV remote is bar none the worst designed piece of technology that I have used in the past 5 years. The touchpad is clumsy and non-intuitive, Apple’s obsession with thinness makes the thing way too easy to lose in couch cushions. It’s completely symmetrical and therefore your can’t tell what end is up when you pick it up. And the button layout is just plain dumb.

It’s like they purposely hired engineers that had never used or ever planned on using a remote control.

[DCFan]

Ms1995hoo prefers the Fire Cube's remote to the Apple TV's remote because the latter uses a touchpad-style device to move around the screen and she prefers the more tactile ring-style device the Amazon remote uses.

The Apple TV remote is........different shall we say and takes getting used to. It took a bit of practice to get the hang of it. I have the ATT TV app installed so I can go in that and pull up the guide and watch the same things that are on the other TV with the actual cable box.

[bluestreak]

We have two Apple TVs, two Amazon Fire Sticks, and one Amazon Fire Cube; the Fire Cube is connected to the same TV as one of the Apple TVs. I've found the Apple TV works significantly better for watching the Nats via MLB.tv than the Fire Cube does. Ms1995hoo prefers the Fire Cube's remote to the Apple TV's remote because the latter uses a touchpad-style device to move around the screen and she prefers the more tactile ring-style device the Amazon remote uses. Of course in theory you can voice-control either one, but I've found that can be hit or miss.

The Apple TV app store is far superior to Amazon's for one simple reason alone: Apple's lets you search from within the app store and Amazon's doesn't (at least not that I've been able to find). I also like that when I click into a search box, if I have my iPhone sitting nearby the Apple TV will let me type in the search using my phone as a keyboard instead of flicking around from letter to letter.

I have a fire TV cube and an Apple TV. They are both great for various things. But I think that the Fire TVs voice control is great. I can basically walk up to the tv, say “play the Marvelous Mrs Maisel” and it turns on tv, switches input and starts playing from where I left off.

[bluestreak]

The other thing that’s huge about iOS 14 is the ability to change the default email app to something like outlook and change the default browser.

[1995hoo]

I have a fire TV cube and an Apple TV. They are both great for various things. But I think that the Fire TVs voice control is great. I can basically walk up to the tv, say “play the Marvelous Mrs Maisel” and it turns on tv, switches input and starts playing from where I left off.

I've found the voice control doesn't work well for things like YouTube TV. I can't seem to get it to tune to a specific channel a lot of the time—sometimes it will tune to the wrong channel due to similar names (NBC Sports Network instead of NBC Sports Washington), other times it just won't tune at all.

Neither the Amazon remote nor the Apple TV remote gives a good level of fine-tuning when fast-forwarding or rewinding, such as when skipping commercials during Jeopardy.

BTW, you can use your iPhone as a remote instead of the Apple TV's bundled remote. I almost never do this and my wife has never tried despite complaining about the bundled remote. Main reason in her case is that she normally only uses the Apple TV downstairs (where the Apple TV is the only such connected device, no Amazon device) and she doesn't like to have to take her phone downstairs when she's not otherwise planning to use it.

[The Chief]

Am I the only one on WNFF who uses Roku?

In seriousness, I'm sure each platform has strengths and weaknesses, my initial purchase was mostly motivated by not wanting to be tied into Amazon or Apple ecosystems.

[imref]

Am I the only one on WNFF who uses Roku?

In seriousness, I'm sure each platform has strengths and weaknesses, my initial purchase was mostly motivated by not wanting to be tied into Amazon or Apple ecosystems.

I have a Roku stick but I only used it last year to watch college basketball on ESPN+.  Our LG smart TV has all the other apps I need built in already.

[HalfSmokes]

Am I the only one on WNFF who uses Roku?

In seriousness, I'm sure each platform has strengths and weaknesses, my initial purchase was mostly motivated by not wanting to be tied into Amazon or Apple ecosystems.

I had one, I'm decided I'm fine in a walled garden

[1995hoo]

My mom has a Roku, but I don't know how often she uses it. My father bought it a few years ago. It's old enough that she can't download TV apps to it, which proved crucial earlier this summer when she wanted to subscribe to Disney+ to one month to watch Hamilton but couldn't access Disney+ on that device. I got her an Amazon Fire Stick and installed the Disney+ app on there and she was able to watch it just fine. I figured she'd have an easier time operating the Fire Stick, plus she's a Prime member so I thought the Amazon device made more sense (not to mention it cost me a lot less than an Apple TV would have, which matters because I'm not sure how often she uses either the Roku or the Fire Stick). I think my father got the Roku in part because it appears to have a slot for an SD card, so it was an easy way to view pictures on the TV (compare to using a slide projector in the old days).

[bluestreak]

If you have a bunch of Apple Stuff, get the Apple TV, if you have a bunch of Amazon Stuff get Fire TV. If you don’t care, get the Roku, it seems to get the newest apps quick enough. Although if you want to get in super cheap, get the Fire TV stick when it goes on sale for Black Friday/Prime Day. I think I got one for like 15 bucks.

[The Chief]

They all seem to carry/offer the same apps/services anyway, so yeah, I fall into "don't care" I guess.  The performance of the cheap $30 Roku still amazes me compared to the godawful slowness of our old FiOS box (and streaming products from 10 years ago).  It's also nice that it supports streaming local content from my PC 

I was a late adopter on the streaming device/cable replacement bandwagon so I'm in awe of all of it regardless of brand.

[bluestreak]

Apple only gave app developers a day’s notice before releasing the update. So most non-Apple apps aren’t compatible today. I’d definitely wait a week before upgrading.

[imref]

14.0.1 is out, they fixed a bug with resetting default apps.

[1995hoo]

I downloaded 14.0.1 last night. Other than the widgets, I don’t see much difference so far. I had my apps organized into groups anyway (aside from some constantly-used ones), so the App Library thing doesn’t really matter to me. The weather widget is nice. I notice it appears you have to push it all the way to one side or the other—seems like you can’t put it in the middle with app icons to either side.