iThread (AKA Apple Thread)

[GataNats]

New Apple TV is a first day

[1995hoo]

New Apple TV is a first day

I wonder whether the new Apple TV's remote will be sold separately and will work with a previous-generation device. My wife absolutely hates the touchpad remote.

[HalfSmokes]

I may be old, but I hate voice remotes. It’s much faster to just scroll or type

[1995hoo]

The Washington Post has this:

Best of all, owners of other recent-model Apple TVs don’t have to buy the whole new system to get the remote. Apple is selling the remote separately for $60. Apple TV 4K orders start April 30 and will be available in the second half of May.

I may look into that. I'd rather dictate to the remote if the alternative is to have to scroll and click letter-by-letter in order to type something, but the ring-style design on the new remote looks easier to use than the touchpad on the current one. (Of course, I can also pick up my phone and use that to type because the Apple TV will hand off control to my phone, but it doesn't do the same for my wife's, and she doesn't usually have her phone if she's at the downstairs TV anyway.)

[imref]

Verizon is offering really good deals on trade-ins on the iPhone 13. I was able to trade in a 64GB iPhone 7 and a 256GB XR with a shattered glass back for two iPhone 13s with 256GB for about $90 each. (regular iPhone 13, not the pro or max).

[wj73]

Agree. Traded in my 64GB iPhone XR for a 128GB iPhone 13 Pro for an $800 credit, so the 13 Pro is only costing me $200. Couldn’t resist.

[HalfSmokes]

Anyone else hate the new safari?

[imref]

Anyone else hate the new safari?

Yeah. On both Mac and iPhone. I moved the url bar back to the top on the phone

[1995hoo]

I haven’t been inclined to get a new phone because I like my iPhone X, but I have something like $230 of Verizon "device dollars" plus whatever I could get for the trade-in, so I’m considering whether it makes sense. I kind of figure my current phone will only decline in trade-in value.

[imref]

I haven’t been inclined to get a new phone because I like my iPhone X, but I have something like $230 of Verizon "device dollars" plus whatever I could get for the trade-in, so I’m considering whether it makes sense. I kind of figure my current phone will only decline in trade-in value.

i had $90 in device dollars but the trade in deal made the iPhone 13 essentially "free" save for the upgrade fee and tax, so i couldn't use the device dollars toward it.

[HalfSmokes]

Personally I’d stick with the x. My wife has one and it’s not noticeably slower than my 11

[Natsinpwc]

Personally I’d stick with the x. My wife has one and it’s not noticeably slower than my 11

I have an iPhone X that is about three years old and paid for. Seems fine. Don’t see any reason to upgrade at this point. 

[wj73]

I have an iPhone X that is about three years old and paid for. Seems fine. Don’t see any reason to upgrade at this point.

I liked my XR except that it doesn’t have 5G. Mr WJ73’s iPhone 12 has 5G, and when traveling this summer we noticed how much faster it was than my 4G. Most times he didn’t even bother connecting to the hotel WiFi when 5G was available as the 5G was much faster even than the hotel WiFi.

[1995hoo]

I did note that a lot of Verizon's current deals seem to require you to purchase an unlimited-data plan. To me, that would cancel out any savings I might realize. I telecommute (I was doing so even before the pandemic, and I haven't actually been into the office since January 2020), so I use wifi at home and I don't use much cellular data at all most months. It looks like unlimited data would cost me $60 or $70 a month, which is considerably more than I pay for 5 GB a month right now.

[1995hoo]

Totally unrelated: My wife is sleeping late this morning because she doesn't need to get up and go anywhere. I just heard her Apple Watch pinging from the other room, so I went and looked and saw it was playing a "Find My Apple Watch" sound. Of course she can ping it from her phone, and I can ping it from mine because we share our locations, but neither of us pinged it (her phone is downstairs and I didn't ping it from mine). Anyone have any idea how that might have happened?

[Natsinpwc]

I liked my XR except that it doesn’t have 5G. Mr WJ73’s iPhone 12 has 5G, and when traveling this summer we noticed how much faster it was than my 4G. Most times he didn’t even bother connecting to the hotel WiFi when 5G was available as the 5G was much faster even than the hotel WiFi.

Mrs PWC has an IPhone 6. The big one. And does not want to upgrade unless they start making the big ones again.    She doesn’t use it much. Uses an iPad for her internet browsing.

[imref]

I have an iPhone X that is about three years old and paid for. Seems fine. Don’t see any reason to upgrade at this point. 

Better battery life, camera, and 5G. Like I said above, I upgraded my XR with a shattered back glass to a 13 for about $90 in one-time fees ($35 upgrade fee + tax).

I did note that a lot of Verizon's current deals seem to require you to purchase an unlimited-data plan. To me, that would cancel out any savings I might realize. I telecommute (I was doing so even before the pandemic, and I haven't actually been into the office since January 2020), so I use wifi at home and I don't use much cellular data at all most months. It looks like unlimited data would cost me $60 or $70 a month, which is considerably more than I pay for 5 GB a month right now.

Yeah, that's true. We already had an unlimited family plan for $180 a month for four lines.

[bluestreak]

If you take pictures indoors or in low light or at night, the 11 is miles above the X or XR. The night mode is leaps better. It’s literally almost like magic.

I always laugh when folks talk about not upgrading like it’s some badge of honor or they are being so much smarter than the rest of us. If you’re keeping your phone 5-7 years, you’re missing out on tons of tech that likely makes your experience significantly better.

And I don’t think you’re even saving that much money. Apple devices hold their value. If you keep it in good condition, the money you save by holding onto the phone for 3 years is negligible. Because anything you saved on the new phone, you lost on the decrease in value of the old one.
If you’re keeping it over 5 years, then you’re saving money I guess, but you’re depriving yourself a lot of advancement for a little monetary gain.

If you can’t be bothered to sell your old phone, I guess this doesn’t work for you, but if you don’t mind, upgrading every year or two makes a fair amount of sense.

[wj73]

I did note that a lot of Verizon's current deals seem to require you to purchase an unlimited-data plan. To me, that would cancel out any savings I might realize. I telecommute (I was doing so even before the pandemic, and I haven't actually been into the office since January 2020), so I use wifi at home and I don't use much cellular data at all most months. It looks like unlimited data would cost me $60 or $70 a month, which is considerably more than I pay for 5 GB a month right now.

Makes sense. We can’t get broadband out here in the boonies, so no WiFi.  We have to rely on cellular and use a ton of data, so I was already on an Unlimited plan. I didn’t have to upgrade to a more expensive plan to get the savings.

[1995hoo]

The camera is the one real thing that has me considering an iPhone 13 Pro (not the Max, which is too big for my taste because it won't fit in the cupholders in any of our cars).

[imref]

Word to the wise: migrate your Authenticator app to your new phone before wiping the old one. Google and Microsoft Authenticator apps are tied to a specific phone and aren’t migrated through the normal backup and restore process. Royal pita.

[imref]

if any of you are using an authenticator app like Google or Microsoft Authenticator, and you change to a new iPhone, make sure you go through the appropriate steps to migrate your authenticator to your new phone 'before' you wipe your old phone.

What a PITA.

[imref]

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/apple/apple-will-start-letting-fix-iphone-rcna5859

[wj73]

FYI, the iPhone 13 really is waterproof as advertised. We were snorkeling yesterday, and I was having trouble taking pics through the waterproof case I’d bought. Finally said the heck with it and took the phone out of the case to get a few pix. The phone was and is perfectly fine, and continued to function underwater. I did have to use a hair dryer on low to dry out the lightning port when I went to charge it later, so next time I will protect the port with a bit of plastic wrap wedged into my phone case at the port. The only problem taking pix underwater is that the touchscreen doesn’t work well. Apparently it has trouble sensing your finger when using it in the water.

[The Chief]

FYI, the iPhone 13 really is waterproof as advertised. We were snorkeling yesterday, and I was having trouble taking pics through the waterproof case I’d bought. Finally said the heck with it and took the phone out of the case to get a few pix. The phone was and is perfectly fine, and continued to function underwater. I did have to use a hair dryer on low to dry out the lightning port when I went to charge it later, so next time I will protect the port with a bit of plastic wrap wedged into my phone case at the port. The only problem taking pix underwater is that the touchscreen doesn’t work well. Apparently it has trouble sensing your finger when using it in the water.

If this were an Amazon review I would swear it was a prank