All Apple All Day

People love Apple. That's a strong statement, and I mean it in a very real sense. I don't mean to say that ALL people actually love Apple - but many do. And that is unique. 

Merry Christmas from AAAD! Last year, I got an Apple Watch Sport. (The gold one, with the blue Sport strap.) No Apple Watch Series 2 (or even Series 1) for me this year.... I'm going to be sticking with my original Apple Watch Sport for a while.  That said, the Gold Sport really dresses up nicely with the Apple Black Leather Loop.

This is a really, really good deal.  Even if you don't want DirecTV Now. 

I'm really trying here. We're ALL-IN with cord-cutting via Apple TV. We've dropped DirecTV, and we signed up for both DirecTV Now AND Sony Playstation Vue. (editors note: Head to Head Review coming tomorrow!) And now Apple has given us their TV app! We'll give it a few weeks.... but so far, calling this a half-measure would be kind. It's a tentative first step - but right now, it may be a Ping-level failure to launch.

Is the sun setting on the Golden Age of Apple? Apple is famous for their secrecy. We don't KNOW their long-term strategy.  Or even their short-term strategy, most of the time. 

We finally did it - the AAAD household are now cord-cutters. And so far, so good. The impetus for this change? Sony's PlayStation Vue service is now available on AppleTV. Here are our (very early) thoughts....

Mac Mini: 2005-2014? The Mac Keynote was, as expected, all about the new MacBook Pro.

I've been waiting to pick up a Mac Mini.  Before I make any decisions, though, I'm waiting a week.

We have quite a few internet devices in the AAAD household. We also have a 10-year old, and it's difficult to limit screen time, or monitor what he sees when he IS on the internet. Circle with Disney should help. We've had it for 2 weeks - here are my initial impressions.

We signed up for HP Instant Ink last summer. It's been 14 months, which gives us enough time to look at our printer usage and billing, and determine whether this was a good deal or not.  

Yesterday was iOS 10 day. And for several iPhone owners, that led to some problems. For me, it meant that Messages became unusable, crashing on startup. It was so bad that checking the settings for Messages would crash Settings! Now, everything seems to be working fine. Here's how I did it.

As I'm typing this post, it's a little after noon, Central Time, on September 13, and my iPhone 6 is updating to iOS 10. I could have waited. I'll be picking up an iPhone 7 Plus on Friday, and that will definitely have iOS 10 installed. But who can wait for that? iOS 10 means HomeKit. And HomeKit is the reason AAAD exists. Let's go.

After literally years of waiting, HomeKit got a bit more than lip service today.  Tim Cook discussed the new Home app as one of iOS 10's key new features.  Home will provide centralized control for all of our HomeKit-compatible devices. So far, most of us don't have any of those devices.  But that will change!

We know we're getting a new iPhone next week. We don't know what it will be called.

Losing your car keys used to be annoying.  That said, it wasn't financially crippling. If you dropped your key into a sewer grate, you could get new keys made for a few dollars.  But, time marches on. Today's "smart keys" cost hundreds of dollars to replace.  Which is why you should invest in a Tile.