eightzero

I like my ATV4. I needed to replace a failed HDTV, and I got a good deal on a Roku 4k smart TV. The only thing I now use the ATV for now is playing movies from my iTunes library (and that isn't often.) Roku 8 came with a channel guide for OTA TV. The TV even has a rudimentary "go back" function with a USB stick for OTA content. It isn't actually a DVR, but if you miss the big play, you can go back. Pretty slick. I'm a big Apple proponent, but the Roku remote is far superior *for my needs* than the ATV Siri remote. The latter is a big...meh. 

To be clear, the app requires you allow it to use location information (track you continuously) as  part of the deal to get the movie price, right? IOW, to get the generous offer, you agree to provide it the location data they ask for? My recollection is that you have to turn location sharing on in the app settings in iOS, so presumably if you don't do that, you can't use the app, and get the deal.

bdekok said:

I tried iTunes Match a few months after it came out, and I’m reticent to try it again as it deleted almost one third of all my music from my computer.  I don’t mind if it can’t match the music and not copy the music to the cloud if it has issues, but I mind very much that it deleted my data.  That’s just rude and borders on illegal.  I never gave them permission to do that.

It took weeks determining what was lost and replacing it again, and I’m sure I didn’t get it all back.  It was outrageous and cost me a lot in time and frustration without any compensation, and yet they charge for this service?

Never again, it just hurt too much.

This was one of Apple's greatest gaffes. Apple's Big Thing to me was being able to confidently say to my poor PC colleagues "I've never lost data to a Mac." 

If you're big into music, curating an maintaining it is a huge deal. Apple blew it, and perhaps now paying the price. 

An alternative might be to buy iCloud storage and manually copy the library there. The article seems to say you can then Siri it on HomePod from there. But then yet another sync process to go through.

Apple could easily solve this by making Siri on HomePod access any music library on the connected network. But of course, then they are out the fees. And that fee is important to them.

lkrupp said:

SpamSandwich said:

A continuing annoyance with retailers in the US is their insistence in requiring a signature with the use of ApplePay. Completely unnecessary and undermines the security built into the system. Maddening.

There is little doubt these days that the U.S. has become a technology backwater, a tech third world country. Hell, we’re still not on the metric system. True broadband Internet access is almost non-existent outside a few big cities. Companies like Apple, Space X, and the rest can’t find enough qualified U.S. high-tech workers because our educational system is woefully inadequate. 

You see evidence of this all the time. The US is populated by dolts. There are some great quotes about this: Isaac Azimov decried the assertion that someone's ignorance was as valid as another's knowledge. Carl Sagan pointed out that we live in a technological society where very few people are technically literate. I have family members that think an iMac is "too complicated" to use Messages. On and on.  

"it isn't perfect" is a bit of an understatement. I'd pronounce it "adequate." Running the workout app eats battery. Perhaps this has been addressed by Apple, but any day I run that app for a 30 minute walk costs me about 3 hours of battery. My wife has the 38mm version. She is quite active, and gets maybe 12 hours out of her original AW. If you want "all day" battery...well...get a fitbit.

The badge things are quite spotty. Sometimes they simply delete themselves. I "earned" on last month (saw it show up as complete) and then it simply disappeared. 

I like my AW, and didn't buy it for the fitness stuff. I like the idea of "closing rings" and it is sort of entertaining on its own. But it isn't really for a serious athlete, or anyone that is using it consistently for fitness. And perhaps the intent - it was intended to get people to stand up once an hour. It does that fairly well.

My opinion, YYMV.