eightzero

GeorgeBMac said:

AppleInsider said:

...

Features and Pricing

When it comes to health and fitness, both devices excel at fitness tracking and offer nearly the same level of detail in information when working out and tracking daily activities. Both the Apple Watch and Fitbit Versa offer heart rate, steps, calories, and workout tracking. They are also both waterproof up to 50 meters.
...

Well, that's only true for casual exercisers....   For serious runners, there is only one:   Garmin.   In fact, they start our runs by saying "Start your Garmins".

The difference is due to a couple things:   

-- The Garmin has "better" software -- mostly because the Apple Watch software is mostly attuned to casual athletes.  However, as the article noted, it is aided by the fact that you can install third party trackers on it - Strava is very popular.   I use iCardio.

-- The Garmin has an 'always on' face 
-- The Garmin is controlled by physical buttons which are easier to use while exercising

Plus, for the Apple Watch, once you engage all the features, the battery may not make it through a long race.

Among serious runners that I know, only one uses an Apple Watch -- me!   (It's other benefits out weigh its limitations)

I have purchased my last Garmin product. Yuck. 

My Apple Watch 4 is a huge improvement over the original. Much longer battery.

I'm curious to see how to set up payment to your card from the bank. I'm guessing we'll be able to simply point the camera at a blank check, and it will pick off the routing number and account number and confirm this for an ACH transfer. 

I'm also curious what kind of "payment due" notifications will be provided. Yes, you can monitor, but if no statement arrives in the mail, I will want an alert, or even better, a way to set up an automatic payment. 

"This Summer" means any time before September 23, 2019, given that Apple is based in the northern hemisphere. 

davgreg said:

Soli said:
People on these forums keep claiming that they receive better deals for an across-the-board cash back on their current card but I haven't seen a single free card that offers a minimum of 2% back for Apple Pay-based payments.

USAA gives me 0.0% APR. I do not need 2% back on a card charging 14.9% or greater.

I don't get this. The APR on a card is immaterial to me because I never finance anything on it. I sort of get using a 0% card to float a large purchase, thus using the cash that would otherwise pay for it in some other interest-bearing instrument. But current rates are so low as the difference between that and a 2% cash back deal seems negligible - and there is an impact to one's credit score.

I'd sign up for a credit card that gave me 3% or more cash back and charged 30-40-50% APR...because I'd never be subject to that fee.

mac-daddy said:

The interface of Apple TV is solid, it's the damn remote I can't get used to. Way too simplistic. 

Ayup. When I first got it, I thought I could tolerate the remote. I was wrong. I don't use my AppleTV hardly at all now because of it. 

One of the disappointments I have with Siri is when I ask her to "name that tune" she can ID a song that is playing. But not when she is connected to CarPlay and I have the radio on. Maybe that will be remedied in the Shazam stuff.

I'd really like transit systems to know just how dangerously noisy their buses are. I'm sitting at a bus stop, and up comes a bus...and it lets fly with its airbrakes. It is actually painful. I've actually used a different app to measure it. I've seen over 115dB. Ouch. Sure wish we could collect this info, and give it to the transit agencies and even the bus makers. Sound suppression systems are probably easy to make and inexpensive to deploy. AppDevs ready go