Yesterday I wore the Suunto Peak 5 alongside the Apple Watch SE rather than the Apple Watch SE and Garmin device as I usually would. The reason for this is that I want to continue playing with Suunto devices, and I’d like to wean myself off of the Apple Watch, for at least a week or two.
In the process of doing this I was reminded that although the Apple watch is pivotal within the iOS app ecosystem Garmin is very well connected with other services.
This morning as I woke up I decided to strap on the Apple Watch Series 4 and use it for part of the day. In the process I thought that I would check my EKG reading. That’s when I saw that the EKG app is no longer supported on the Apple Watch Series 4. Now is the time when that watch could be recycled. Apple no longer supports it so within half a year to a year it will be vintage.
People will always ask me why I wear two watches and the answer is now “because one is a smart watch and the other is for sports, and people accept that quite easily. The reasons I used to give are no longer needed. I learned how to keep a short answer convenient, and easy to accept.
I saw an article today that said that people prefer the Series 8 and 9 to the Apple Watch SE and the Ultra.
A few days ago we saw that talks between Apple and Meta had amounted to nothing. There was talk about including Meta’s AI efforts into Apple Intelligence, unti Apple said “Forget it” or somethign to that effect. I skimmed the headlines but don’t remember the details.
This is significant. The reason for this is simple. The EU is being criticised by Apple for the Digital Markets Act and Apple is trying to give the EU a bad name by saying “We won’t make Apple Intelligence available in the EU because we’re not clear about the DMA.
Apple Intelligence may not come to Europe. It blames the Digital Markets Act, regulatory uncertainty and compromised security if it needs to give access to third parties. Whether this is valid is not is uncertain but it does bring relief.
If Apple Intelligence doesn’t come to Europe then the key reason for getting Apple’s M devices or Apple 15 Pro and Pro max devices degrades. It means we get to save 2000 CHF or more, at least temporarily.
The problem with tech is that mobile phones, computers and more have reached a plateau. This plateau implies that the desire and need to get the latest and best new devices is gone. I am writing this blog post on a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 gigs of ram, that cost about 100 CHF compared to my 2016 mac book pro that cost 1600 CHF.
The Ad
Apple came out with new mediocre devices that are thinner and with AI focused hardwware.
In three days I will have closed the activity on an Apple Watch 1750 times. I have a love hate relationship with the device. That Love/hate relationship started when I broke the screen on my Series three watch when climbing but continued on when I got into the habit of allowing the move goal to be raised every single week. In the end I was walking four hours per day, every day, during lockdown, to fill the rings.
During the Via Ferrata I did on Sunday I was asked why I wear two watches and I answered with a joke before giving the serious answer that I wear two watches at once because I want the data from both watches. I was asked why I need the data from both watches and that’s where there is a change that is happening at the moment.
A Waning in Garmin Watches By wearing the F-91 for a few days and wearing the Garmin watch less and less I find that my desire for heart rate, steps, recovery and other things to be recoreded is declining over time.
Over the years I have used Aperture, Picasa and the Apple Photos Apps. In that time they have organised my files chronologically, automatically, as soon as I took pictures, in some cases.
What They Do Aperture was well behaved. It would organise photos by year, by month and by day, so it’s easy to migrate a library from drive A to drive B. Apple Photos on the other hand makes a pig’s breakfast.
People want us to see the Apple Vision Pro VR kit as revolutionary but it isn’t, for a simple reason. Several years ago I was going to the World VR conference and loved playing with various VR kits but they almost all had the same problem. They cost an arm and a leg to buy.
The HTC Vive was an alluring device because of how well it worked and how good it felt but it was made unreachable by its price.