uktechie

You know, I have to agree with Neil's comments in the podcast. The red dot is really ugly and spoils the appearance of the Watch. I was horrified when I first saw it and it seems like a pointless distinction.  I don't care whether friends see the red dot and admire my Watch's 4G capabilities - I just want a plain Apple Watch. 

Applying a grey sticker over over the red dot sounds like a great plan and I look forward to the first ever "grey dot sticker review"...

I'm typing this on my new iPad Pro 10.5" and I'm delighted with it. 

The striking features for me, having upgraded from an iPad Air 2 are:

1. Brightness, colour and deep blacks: The display looks stunning with photos and videos and significantly better than on my iPad Air 2.

2. Stunning stereo sound. The stereo effect is excellent, and the volume, bass and clarity are superb.

3. Speed and smoothness of the UI. Everything is really slick and smooth with not the slightest hint of lag. The CPU power and 120Hz display work really well together to achieve this. 

if my Watch had LTE I'd want it to share the same number and account as my iPhone - I wouldn't want the hassle of a different account, subscription or  obile number on my Watch. Just the setup effort would put most people off and I doubt many would pay a high fee for a separate Watch contract. 

When I receive a call I want both devices to ring simultaneously, as they do now, and I'd like the option of making voice calls from my Watch if my iPhone battery is flat. 

iPhone already shares its credit card details and WiFi password to bpthe Watch so sharing the iPhone SIM to a Watch's virtual SIM makes sense. I appreciate the security and implementation are complex but it's the way I'd expect Apple to go. It may only be supported by limited carriers initially but carriers wouldn't want to lose all those well-off tech-savvy iPhone customers who splashed out the extra for an Apple Watch: they're probably some of the most valuable customers. 

I'm a huge Apple fan - the person most of my friends and neighbour's turn to for Apple advice and I love Apple products, but unlike previous years, I'm struggling to think what Apple could offer that would make me rush out to upgrade. 

I upgraded to the iPhone 4s as soon as I could to get Siri - which I still use 20+ times a day. I upgraded to a 5s for the fingerprint sensor and now the 6s for Force Touch and larger screen. Similarly, I've ordered every iPad as soon as it was available from the iPad 1 onwards. I have a 2013 MacBook Pro with 1TB SSD, Retina display, i7 and 16GB RAM and still smile every time I use it - it's a real joy to use. I have an Apple Watch too and using Find My iPhone shows an embarrassingly large number of Apple devices in our house as the whole family love them. 

The thing is, I'm really happy with what I've got... The MacBook Pro is fast enough for what I want. It never feels slow - I never wait for anything. Same with my iPad and iPhone. The resolution of the screens is easily as good as my eyes and battery life is fantastic on my MacBook, iPad and Watch - admittedly I'd like better battery life from my iPhone but it's not a big problem. 

I appreciate others want more power or better displays but I do expect sales to slow down as people stop upgrading so frequently. I have friends who upgraded to a 6s and have yet to discover Force Touch or use Siri, so we're really getting into more obscure features now that fewer people use.  

For me, it's the software that need improving. Siri could be so much better. It often gets the words right but fails on obvious meanings when it really should just work. iCloud Drive often lets me down and files fail to open with impenetrable error messages and streaming to my Apple TV is very unreliable (possibly not Apples fault - I need to dig deeper). Bits of emails are often lost when sending from Mac Mail to Windows Outlook. Launchpad often refuses to let me type an App name and there are numerous other niggles that spoil the experience. 

I can't imagine life without my Apple devices, but what would excite me is more reliable and better software. 

This is great news - BBC iPlayer is huge in the UK and probably the most popular streaming service by far. 

BBC iPlayer is free for everybody in the UK and has no adverts. A lot of UK TV, including BBC channels and Freeview, is 'free' providing you pay the £145 TV license which is required to watch any form of live broadcast TV, regardless of its source. Providing you don't watch anything live on BBC iPlayer and only watch catchup content - even just an hour old, there's no obligation to buy a TV license. I know people that only BBC iPlayer and nothing else. 

The main reason for its popularity though is the fantastic content, covering a vast range of genres - documentaries, dramas, comedies, music, politics, entertainment etc. 

BBC iPlayer is available on pretty much every device and service already, including iPod, iPad, iPhone, Sky satellite receiver, BT Vision, YouView, Virgin cable etc. and widely watched by kids, teenagers and adults.

Access is restricted to UK IP addresses for licensing reasons, as described above.

Having BBC iPlayer on Apple TV isn't likely to make people rush out an buy it but it does fill an odd gap - it's absence was inexplicable.