Apple Operating Systems (macOS, iOS, watchOS, & tvOS) Catch-All

Mr GT Chris wrote:

I'm still rocking my iPhone SE, my preferred size (and price!).

My wife is doing the same and wishes they'd come out with a newer one in that size. My Pixel camera really puts hers to shame and it's frustrating for her taking pictures of our daughter. But she hates the monster phone sizes, so she soldiers on.

I think I am going to give Apple Arcade a go. It's priced right (for now), works with the whole family, my wife prefers mobile gaming, and we have AppleTVs on every tv.

I'm also hoping this service has real games with no freemium garbage.

TheGameguru wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

So what happened to the iPhone 9, now that they're calling the new phone the 11? It's not quite Windows Vista level naming, but still pretty amusing.

Well it would be weird after having the 10 (X) to go back to the 9... I think they skipped it because of the whole anniversary thing.

Oh, I assumed they weren’t going back. I was just surprised they called the next one 11. Weird.

DSGamer wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

So what happened to the iPhone 9, now that they're calling the new phone the 11? It's not quite Windows Vista level naming, but still pretty amusing.

Well it would be weird after having the 10 (X) to go back to the 9... I think they skipped it because of the whole anniversary thing.

Oh, I assumed they weren’t going back. I was just surprised they called the next one 11. Weird.

My guess is the original plan was to keep using 10 (like the macOS) for their premium phones and then use the 9 for the eventual low end upgrade to the 8. Then when the XR was a hit they chucked everything and went with 11. Also, too many people pronounced it the wrong way.

PaladinTom wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

So what happened to the iPhone 9, now that they're calling the new phone the 11? It's not quite Windows Vista level naming, but still pretty amusing.

Well it would be weird after having the 10 (X) to go back to the 9... I think they skipped it because of the whole anniversary thing.

Oh, I assumed they weren’t going back. I was just surprised they called the next one 11. Weird.

My guess is the original plan was to keep using 10 (like the macOS) for their premium phones and then use the 9 for the eventual low end upgrade to the 8. Then when the XR was a hit they chucked everything and went with 11. Also, too many people pronounced it the wrong way.

I'm sure someone within the company wanted a model iX, to be pronounced "eye-ten," in a potential 9 slot...

Apple keeps introducing new iPhone models without a headphone jack!

I keep sticking with my 6S instead of upgrading!

It’s probably not coming back. Other manufacturers have been dropping it as well.
I was certain it would be a hassle but I’ve had an X for two years and honestly I don’t miss it.

Once you get some wireless headphones it is fine. I haven’t missed it in a couple of years.

I still have wired noise canceling headphones and I just adjusted to them having a dongle at all times.

The only real hassle is that if I’m on a flight and I decide to start playing my Switch I have to do something like leave the dongle plugged into my iPhone so I don’t lose track of it.

I read recently that Samsung has deleted all their YouTube videos where they made fun of Apple for dropping the jack, since they've done that themselves...

I'm OK with losing the jack so long as the dongle is included/cheap. I just want something that fits in one hand better. If I want a bigger screen I'll tether my iPad Pro.

It just occurred to me that I'm more likely to replace my SE with an Apple Watch at some point than I am with a new iPhone. The watch is more likely to give me what I want, which is a cellphone connection with maximum portability. The only downside is I need to be able to download music and podcasts because I spend a decent amount of time in places where I can't get a signal. And I don't expect they let you tether a tablet to a cellular Watch yet.

I have wireless earbuds for bath time but when I'm on the go I like being able to switch my earbuds quickly between multiple devices. I'm sure one day every single device will support bluetooth and allow me to switch between them seamlessly but we're not there yet.

My phone barely keeps up, battery-wise (some days)... I like that I know my corded buds won’t run out of juice. Podcastin’ (with some surfin’, or Youtubin’/Twitchin’) all day, yo.

I go back and forth between the Earpods and the wired lightning connector headphones. I can still go most of the day with moderate to heavy use without needing to recharge so even with the wired headphones it just hasn’t come up where I would need to charge while wanting to listen to something.

Vargen wrote:

It just occurred to me that I'm more likely to replace my SE with an Apple Watch at some point than I am with a new iPhone. The watch is more likely to give me what I want, which is a cellphone connection with maximum portability. The only downside is I need to be able to download music and podcasts because I spend a decent amount of time in places where I can't get a signal. And I don't expect they let you tether a tablet to a cellular Watch yet.

The newer watches do have a couple GBs of memory that let you store music or podcasts right on the watch so you don't need your phone for playback. I am not sure if you can download them directly on the watch or if it goes through your phone to do it though.

I’m pretty sure you have to have an iPhone to even setup a watch. Maybe an iPad would work, but I’m not positive. I definitely understand it as an accessory.

I wonder if they'll sell Apple Watch 4 as refurbs? I'm finally ready to jump in and I want the EKG functionality.

Help: I share a google drive video and pics to family friends with iphones. They can view them but only download them without any notification where they are being downloaded to. They don't show up in their photos app.

I just tried checking on my girlfriends phone and it is very vague what is going on when you hit "download". (I switched to Android a couple years ago because of stuff like this.)

EvilDead wrote:

Help: I share a google drive video and pics to family friends with iphones. They can view them but only download them without any notification where they are being downloaded to. They don't show up in their photos app.

I just tried checking on my girlfriends phone and it is very vague what is going on when you hit "download". (I switched to Android a couple years ago because of stuff like this.)

In the Files app there is a folder called ‘iCloud Drive’ and in there should be a Downloads folder.

Okay, thank you!!

Did a clean install of macOS for the first time ever. Took a bit of fiddling to get a USB stick setup with an install of Mojave (Apple really wants me to use Catalina). Thought I'd left the days of OS reinstalls behind with Windows but I guess I'd had this install literally since late '06 (would have been even longer but my iBook HDD died and could only recover some files). For the past couple of years my Mac Mini had been randomly resetting 1-2 times a day. Then the last 6 months I've been getting crazy stalls, insanely long restart start times, no amount of killing processes seemed to help. Was considering buying an SDD upgrade kit from iFixit to replace my Fusion drive but decided to first try a HDD wipe and clean install. Seems to have done the trick and have a lot of HDD space back as well. Phew...

The reason I stuck with Mojave was because I have at least 3 32 bit apps I wanted to run, my printer USB controller, the PS Vita data manager, and an old version of a video encoder. However, as I was going through the process I realised that my router finally had released the 64 bit app for my printer. I considered switching Catalina but decided to hold off for the time being. Then, with all this HDD space, I installed Steam, Epic GSs, and a bunch of games. Lo and behold, probably 90% of my game library is incompatible with Catalina. Dodged a bullet there! And I thought Macs were getting better for games...

They were. Then Apple decided 32-bit apps were no good, and pretty much shot Mac gaming dead.

Long-time Mac user. Crapalina is the worst MacOS update ever. I actually enjoy using my Windows 10 machine more than my Mac now, and I've never had that happen before.

- Older programs aren't compatible (e.g., my version of Quark, which I have to use about once a month, and don't want to pay to upgrade.)
- Some newer programs aren't recognized/haven't been updated yet. (Audacity, e.g.)
- Annoying, protect-me-from-myself intrusive security settings. Garg! Stop!
- Random crashes. On a Mac? WTF?!?
- Cup-of-coffee boot times. I'm running an older machine that had 2- to 3-minute boot times under Mojave, but I've timed it at 10+ minutes with Crapalina. For whatever reason, it takes ages for programs (Chrome is the worst!) to load and become responsive after a reboot.
- Program launching doesn't work sometimes, forcing a reboot to fix.
- Keystrokes and clicks sometimes just stop registering, forcing a reboot to fix.

I admit that some issues have improved since the first week, but I honestly have seen zero plusses to this upgrade, except for the cool island desktop photo that changes with the time of day. There is nothing that's made me say, "Wow, that's helpful! Thanks Apple!"

Thanks for that, GB, now I know not to upgrade I've been thinking about it, mostly because I want to do a fresh install, but now I think I will keep my MacBook Pro at Mojave for the time being.

Mojave it is! Dodged a bullet!!

I noticed that Apple is still doing regular updates for High Sierra so Mojave should be good for sometime.

So my wife asked for an Apple Watch for her birthday. Then she decided to get me one for mine, even though it's a couple weeks off yet. This is a neat device. I love this Night Sky star gazing AR app that I found. At least, I will if it works as well outdoors as it does here in my office.

It feels kinda heavy though. That's probably because the included strap won't quite adjust right to my wrist, and because I haven't worn a watch on my wrist since 2004. I had both my watch and my cellphone die at about the same time. Replacing the phone out-of-contract was so expensive that I decided I'd just use the clock on that rather than spend any more money replacing the watch. Anyway, I tried out the fabric band my wife got and I think I'll have to grab one myself.

I did run into a problem where a bunch of the default apps wouldn't install. At all. It was very frustrating. Then it occurred to me to see if it needed an OS update. It did, and it took the better part of an hour to download and apply, but afterwards all the wayward apps had also been downloaded and installed.

So what else can I do with this thing, aside from "a whole bunch of fitness stuff"?

Yeah, I dislike the default wristbands as well, simply because it's either too tight or too loose. So I get one with a magnetic clasp, and it just snaps on snugly. Something a little like this.
Honestly, I'm not even sure. Aside from my rings and fitness sessions... Well, I don't use it for much.
Except maybe pinging my iPhone when I've misplaced it.
But I wanted to say thanks for the Night Sky app, I've been looking for something just like that!

To me the best reason for having watch is so you don't have to carry your phone around all the time. You get text messages to the watch instead, you can answer calls with it, you can listen to airpods with it, and you can do Siri with it. Leave your phone on your shelf or charging or whatever 90% of the time.

My wife and I just got Apple Watches for X-Mas and I am loving mine. Here's some of what I use it for.

I've been trying to be really healthy this year so I adore the fitness stuff and so I've also added a habit tracker app (Done) and a water tracking app (Water Minder) to ping me throughout the day so I can tick off these activities right from the watch. I've also added a "gentle" reminder app (Yapp) that sends me random notifications with various reminders, resolutions, inspirational quotes, etc.

The killer application for me though has been AnyList. It's a tremendously powerful grocery list app that I've posted about in the iOS apps thread which allows me to tick items off my shopping list right from the watch!!!

For work, calendar and Microsoft Teams reminders are great as well. I've found that I now really do take my phone out of my pocket less throughout the day. Just make sure to curate all of your notifications on your phone!

I also use BBC News for breaking news alerts, Todoist for my to do list, Multi-Timer for concurrent timers, and Dark Sky for weather alerts.

If you use 2 factor authenticator apps, they very likely work on Apple Watch. I use both Microsoft Authenticator and Authy which both work great.

And lastly, if you use Apple Pay on your phone you can now double-tap the side button and make payments right from your wrist! If you're a Mac user, you can also set it up to unlock your Mac and if you use HomeKit you can control all your smart stuff from your wrist too as well as some other smart apps like Ecobee.

I have similar feelings about the Apple Watch. It’s lots of little stuff.

We use Hue light bulbs and a couple of Homepods, so the ability to control lights and music from the watch is useful.

Ever since I got my Apple Watch a couple of years ago I wake up to the alarm on the watch. It’s much more pleasant to wake up to a gentle tap on the wrist than a loud noise.

The Apple Watch has storage for music, podcasts and audiobooks. So when I’m winding down at night I dock my phone (to reduce exposure to blue light) and use my watch to play music and podcasts to wind down to.

I use it to track workouts, pay for stuff and tell time. Basically less phone time again.

I use it to scribble out brief replies in situations where I can’t have my phone on me (the gym locker room, a theater before the show starts).

Finally, I like it as a fashion accessory. I buy cheap knockoff watch bands and rotate colors so I have interesting pops of color to look at during my day.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/WC8seUo.jpg)

In the end I don’t see it as a vital tool, but something I really like that I wouldn’t give up.

Hmm. Neither the Remote nor the Now Playing apps can talk to my iPad. Granted, nothing I’ve seen outright says the watch interacts with the iPad in any way. On the other hand everything else synchronizes and works across the rest of Apple’s ecosystem so this is still disappointing.

The Keynote remote app doesn’t seem to be working at all.

I’m digging the activity rings more than I thought I would.