george kaplan

I would love this ability for my EV on Apple Maps. 

Who knew Steve Ballmer had German relatives working for Tesla?

If Peleton plans to charge an extra $350 to set up and deliver a treadmill, I’ll just cancel my order and maim my kids myself.

All of the services are forcing the consumer into a rotation scenario: Netflix for two months on, then two months off. Same with Disney+,Hulu,  Discovery+, HBOMax, etc. I carry the high-end Netflix for the 4K content, but $240/year is way too much money for that. However, $120 for half the year? I might do that.

It takes some discipline to do (and to maintain the schedule, even if some series drops you’ve been waiting to see). The objective in getting rid of cable was to save money, and the fact these services are free of contracts means you can stop and start at will.

You get Netflix for one or two months, and you stripmine it. Then take off one or two months, when new content will be loaded, and when you resume on Month 3 or Month 5 (depending on whether you’re watching every other month or two months on/two months off), there will be a bunch of new movies and show episodes to watch. Some report they feel like they’re getting a better value, because with fewer choices, the consumer is more apt to use more of the active service and watch shows the owner might not have selected with 3 or 4 other options.

The only constants would be Amazon Prime (since part of the annual Amazon fee) and AppleTV+ (because part of the bundle of services and storage), and the grandfathered Showtime/Paramount+ bundle from Apple. I will drop Showtime bundle that the moment they raise the price, but can’t make myself let it go so long as the deal is that strong.

AppleZulu said:

george kaplan said:

So the Wemo has a wider viewing angle than the Logitech, and the Logitech provides color night vision, excellent HDR (more important than many realize until it’s installed and being used), costs $50 less, and looks less like something you’d have an oncologist look at.

This is an option that I don’t think a lot of people fully understand. Color night vision is implemented by having a bright visible-light spotlight that’s either always on or turns on with a motion sensor. 

Black-and-white night vision is achieved using infrared lighting that isn’t visible to humans or animals (but is visible to the camera, which translates it into visible B&W for you and me). Looking directly at the camera, the most you’ll see at night are some very dim red LEDs. 

It’s personal preference, but I don’t want doorbells and security cameras that disturb the natural nighttime darkness. Depending on proximity, your neighbors might not like that, either. 

So for some of us, cameras and doorbells with “color night vision” are a firm nope. 

I get what you’re saying—however, the light comes on only with proximity triggering, does not light up the night sky (just the 10 feet or so from the doorbell position), and provides a superior ability to ID a person who has come to your door who may not be a nice person. The infrared cameras (I have those too, of course) will change the color of the garments worn, and provide a significantly degraded image quality if providing an ID of that person is needed. You can see actions mostly clearly, but rarely the actor.

In my neighborhood, no big deal, but I get that you might not like that feature (which can be toggled off in settings if desired). Still, aside from the wider field of view (which doesn’t close the deal in my circumstances, but may for others), the feature set of the Logitech plus the lower price point mean I am not looking wistfully over the back fence at the Wemo. I am simply happy there are more choices, which can lead to wider options and lower price points.