Category Archives: Gadgets & Apps

Apple Watch. More than a timepiece

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Apple is having one of their product unveiling/press events tomorrow. Me and a couple of my Apple Fan Boys are getting together to watch. Everyone’s expecting to learn more about the upcoming Apple Watch. My buddies can’t wait to get one of these strapped to their liver-spotted wrists. I’ve never been a watch guy but then, I wasn’t a phone guy or a table guy, so who knows. I just don’t like jewelry on my hands. Never wore a wedding ring.

But don’t get me wrong, I’m excited about this new product category from my favorite company. And I’ve followed the tech press as it has speculated about features and price. And price is what I want to talk about today.

If the top-of-the-line Apple Edition carries a price tag of ten or twenty-thousand dollars (or more), a bunch of folks are going to lose their shit. Both fans and haters. I can’t imagine spending that kind of dough on a watch but a lot of folks will. And the fancy pants model won’t do anything that the low-end model can do, so why pay more?

I don’t know a lot of rich people so it’s really unfair of me to speculate about what makes them tick (get it?). But the only reason I can imagine wearing a watch that cost $100,000 (or more) is you want folks to know you are rich. I mean, nobody’s trying to sell “This thing keeps great time!”

And a watch has a few advantages in this regard. Yeah, if you saw me get out of my Lamborghini you’d know I was something special. Or if you visited me in my Malibu mansion. But if you want folks to know you’re a little bit special whenever you go out in public, you gotta wear it.

Now I can’t tell a five-thousand dollar suit from a thousand-dollar suit. But a watch is something you never have to take off (if it’s water-proof). It’s right there on your well-tanned wrist. And if it’s a Rolex or one of the other high-end time pieces… Whoa! Who the fuck is this guy with a 100K on his arm?

I’m starting to sound a little mean or envious here and that’s not my intention. I’m just trying to understand the thinking behind a luxury purchase.

George Kopp: Quadcopters

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Earlier this week I posted video of the Missouri State Capitol, shot from a drone piloted by my friend George Kopp. There were some good questions in the comments so sat down with George a couple of days ago to get some answers. He’s been playing with quadcopters for the last year and a half and has learned a great deal. In this 18 minute chat he talks about the evolution of the devices; controls; fly aways; no-fly zones; pricing; flying times and range; and regulations.

“Hey, Siri” hands-free

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hey-siriApple’s Siri gets lot of shit but not from me. I use it more all the time (and I like “Okay, Google” as well). But Siri became even more useful when I learned I could summon him/her just by saying, “Hey, Siri” as opposed to double tapping the home button. This only works when the phone is plugged in but that makes sense if you think about it.

When I’m reading in bed in the evening the phone is charging on the bed-side table and I might say “Hey, Siri… set alarm for 7:30 tomorrow” or “Hey, Siri… new reminder. Pick up dry cleaning tomorrow afternoon.”

This feature is even more useful in the car (I just started using a cradle). “Hey, Siri… Instant Message my location to Barb” or “Hey, Siri… how far am I from Nashville?”

While it’s not difficult to reach over and double-tap the home button, I find the “Hey, Siri” feature remarkably useful.

Online banking

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For years (I’m embarrassed to admit how many) I’ve kept a wad of cash in a money market account at my local bank. For a long time I thought of this as my “savings” account, as opposed to my day-to-day checking account where I kept a few thousand bucks.

In the last couple of years I’ve moved most of those funds to my investment portfolio but kept some (too much) in the money market account. Last week I got curious about exactly how much the money market was earning. A whopping .15%. The lady at the bank apologized when she told me.

When I asked my financial advisor for ideas he recommended a savings account with an online bank. He pointed out that the good ones are FDIC insured, just like my local bank and because they aren’t supporting all that brick-and-mortar infrastructure, they can afford to pay better interest rates. I went with Ally where I’ll get .90%.

My initial experiences have all been positive. Security seems very tight. I can talk/chat with someone 24/7. And their iOS app is very good. By that I mean, simple.

Once it sunk in that my money is not really in the vault of the bank across the street, I got comfortable with the idea of an online bank. I’ll keep a checking account with my local bank but as tools like Apple Pay gain wider acceptance, that might not always be the case.

Apple Pay

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George Kopp and I went to Panera today for lunch and to try out Apple Pay. [The video is vertical because George thought it might get more of the transaction] This took a few extra seconds because I forgot to put my thumb on the Touch ID button. Had I done so it would have automatically used the first credit card in my Passbook app. As it was, I had to tap on my VISA card and then do Touch ID. I’m just not sure how paying for something is going to get easier/faster than this.

UPDATE: I stopped by Walgreen’s for a flu shot and on the way out picked up a bag of cookies to see if I could pay with Apple Pay. And, because nutrition is important to me, I swung by McDonald’s and got some fries. What I found most interesting is at both places, the person behind the counter had obviously never heard of Apple Pay. But when I passed my phone over the scanner, the registers made a happy beep and the transaction just happened. All the counter people did was enter the amount.

I see two possible futures for Apple Pay. (And I think we’ll know in six months) It will either be an unqualified success or it will go the way of the Amazon Phone, Microsoft’s Zune or Google’s Wallet. If it flops it will be because there was insufficient demand; retailers decided they didn’t want it (for reasons good and bad) and refused to make it an option; or some other combination of factors I’m not smart enough to see.

But it won’t be because people started getting their thumbs hacked off to fool TouchID or any other Mission Impossible bullshit.

Your grandpa’s bank

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oldbankI’ve enjoyed my VISA Amazon rewards card (from Chase) and I’ve used the points to make purchases. But rewards cards (at least this one) is not part of the Apple Pay system. No problem. Took about 5 minutes to get approved for a card that will work with Apple Pay. Haven’t decided on whether to keep the Amazon card.

My “back-up” card is a MasterCard issued by my local bank. So I stopped by to ask if they had any information on when/if they would support Apple Pay. The first guy I spoke with had never heard of Apple Pay.

“Have you heard about Ebola?” I asked him. It was a joke!

While he was calling different departments to see if anyone knew about this new “Apple Pay thing,” the lady at the next desk gave me a little lecture on how their bank (Central Bank, Jefferson City, MO) didn’t jump on every new thing that came along.

“We were one of the last banks in this area to offer online banking,” she proudly announced. “We’re very conservative.”

“So, this is Your Grandpa’s Bank,” I teased.

Stony silence.

Like the music business and television and newspapers, the banking industry is due for some major disruption. I really don’t need them for much these days and have started looking for ways to use them less.

Coffee Zone Time Lapse Video

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An hour of video using the time-lapse feature on the iPhone 6 boils down to 30 seconds. A pretty cool effect. This is my local coffee shop (Coffee Zone) between 7-8 a.m. today. If you watch closely you might see someone’s breakfast get knocked over and cleaned up. That’s Jordan behind the counter. I’ll try to be a bit more creative with this in my next effort.

SWAT app

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Screen Shot 2014-10-14 at Tue, Oct 14, 11.21.02 AM“With a single press of a button, stream live video of your interactions with police to our secure servers. Know what to do if you’re approached by police on the sidewalk, in the car, in your home, or at a protest. Know what to pay attention to if you experience or witness police misconduct. Fill in the information you need to file an official complaint, and send it automatically to the police department. Use your phone’s location services, camera, and time and date stamps to collect evidence.”