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  • Apple Watch Series 9 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2 -- Specs, price, and features, compared

    taddtadd
    charlesn said:
    tadd said:
    Does that cover it? 
    You've actually scored 0 out of 4. Case is not the same. Ultra 2 is all titanium vs. stainless steel as the best metal for the Series 9. Ti is more premium. Next, the price for the larger 45mm SS Series 9 is $749, not $699, and it's still not as big as the 49mm Ultra. That may not sound like much of a difference, but if you want to actually interact with your watch beyond telling time--checking and sending texts or emails, looking at your calendar and to do list etc... every mm increase in size matters a lot on a small screen like this and makes your watch much more usable. Band is not the same. The Ultra gives you a choice between 3 bands designed for the Ultra that cost $99 dollars each if you buy them from Apple. The standard bands that come with the $749 Series 9 cost $49 each. If you pair the Series 9 with a more premium band, which you can do, the prices is then $799, same as the Ultra 2. Face is not the same. Besides the size difference, the Ultra-exclusive faces like Wayfinder and Modular Ultra are pretty extraordinarly. And I have really loved the red "night mode" on Ultra that I've been using for the past year manually and that is now automatic with Watch OS 10. It's definitely cool, but it's no gimmick--it keeps your watch usable in dark environments without calling attention to itself or blinding everyone around you. And then, on top of all this, there's the list of other  Ultra extras that you've noted. There's no question that the Ultra offers better value than the SS Series 9 which, if you spec it up to come as close as possible to Ultra specs actually costs the same $799 price. Of course, the choice of a watch is about more than value and price. You may not like the way the Ultra looks or how it looks/feels on your wrist, in which case "better value" is meaningless. The SS Series 9 also looks like a dressier watch, which may matter to you as a buyer as well. It's not surprising given the "adventure watch" positioning of the Ultra. I will say that the Ultra might be the only Apple product that ever debuted for much less than expected. The rumor mill had pegged it at $999 and--considering all its pluses vs the existing Apple watches--no one would have been surprised with that price. 
    I did not know about Wayfinder and Modular Ultra.  Maybe they should have been mentioned in the article. Or did I miss them? 

    I think you are telling me that the Ultra is a better deal than the SS Series 9, which is where I was heading with my comment/question. 
    Night mode also sounds good.  I only recently saw that in a Youtube review after I posted my 'summary'.  
    So, slightly larger display, more pixels, brighter display, fully adjustable brightness for night mode, action button, 2x battery.  Wayfinder, Modular Ultra, and a really nice watch band.  

    I'm convinced.  I have an SS Series 4 cellular watch with the "graphite" milanese band, right now.  After 5 years the watch can no longer be charged just during shower and breakfast to last the entire day.  Now I leave my SS Series 4 on the charger overnight.  So.. I'm pondering replacing it.  I like the idea of starting with a battery 2x as big as the SS Series 9.   

    I figure that I got 1800 days out of my SS Series 4,  for around $850.   So 45 cents a day -- the cellular connection cost was $10 to $20/month over the life of the watch.  That's more than the watch cost.    

    It sounds like the Ultra costs only $50 more than the SS Series 9 which I would have gotten if the Ultra didn't exist.  

    I don't suppose the Milanese band would work on (or is available for) the Ultra 2?  I really like it (the Milanese band).  
    watto_cobra

  • Apple Watch Series 9 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2 -- Specs, price, and features, compared

    taddtadd
    I think I have this correct.  Feel free to correct:
    Ultra-2 for $799 has the case, band and face of the $699 Series 9.  
    Ultra-2 has:
    2x battery life
    about 2x the thickness
    additional 'Action' button with configurable function
    brighter display 3000nit vs 2000nit
    Heart-Rate-Zones, Custom Workouts
    more water-pressure handling for divers
    very slightly more pixels of display
    very slightly larger display
    1 available color vs several on the Series 9

    Does that cover it? 
    watto_cobra

  • New Apple TV 4K with A15, HDR10+, more storage debuts

    taddtadd
    caz-adam said:
    illrigger said:
    Hear that? It's the stampede of people rushing to get the old model before they go out of stock.
    Why?

    Ethernet scores over WIFI if only because when I change WiFI routers/access-point locations/distribution strategies (for creating a firewall between my home gear and my work gear most recently), the Ethernet connected devices don't care.  The only reason I want WiFi in the house is for smartphones, tablets, laptops.  But VOIP phones, home computers, connected cameras, printers, electronic/embedded projects, TVs and set-top boxes can all be Ethernet connected.  I like it that way.  DHCP and having the routers know the IP addresses of every wired device is most excellent.  Even changing Ethernet equipment doesn't lose the Ethernet access for each wired device. 

    Getting rid of Ethernet in the set top box is a mistake from my perspective.  The good news is that I already have the one 4K AppleTV I need for now and it doesn't appear that they added any feature I was looking for so I will put off buying at this time.  I could imagine adding a 4K AppleTV elsewhere in the house and that will give me pause.  Right now my portable/bedroom/office Apple TV is a 1K unit.  

    elijahgwilliamlondonrezwitsAlex1Nwatto_cobramuthuk_vanalingam

  • iPhone 14 Pro owners complain of shaking camera in third-party apps

    taddtadd
    CheeseFreeze said:
    You’d expect their API’s to be used by themselves, so there’s no difference between a 1st and 3rd party app in that regard. It’s an abstraction layer in a sense. 
    Sometimes the OS/hardware vendor has to push for included/factory applications to be written before the OS/hardware is ready to be released, and sometimes that requires the internal software engineers to work with the OS engineers directly.  Sometimes this has the internal software engineers using function calls that are never to be released to the public because they are unsafe (from the perspective of the hardware or OS).  The published API, being well protected from causing crashes/hardware abuse, is released with the OS and with the already written factory applications, has also not been as fully tested as might be desired. It also results in bugs showing up in 3rd party applications that may not occur in the factory applications or vice/versa. 

    watto_cobra

  • New Apple Watch Series 6 has blood oxygen sensor & bright new colors

    taddtadd
    Minor typo.   

    S6 chipset that's up to 20% than the previous S6 chipset
    fastasleepwatto_cobra