📱 2022-09-06 06:00:02 – Paris/France.
As I've written before, this year I'll be interested in Apple's "Far Out" event from a personal perspective, rather than a professional one. Ironically, I won't be covering it in any capacity for the first time since 2014 because a friend thoughtlessly timed his wedding on the same day. (Or maybe Apple is inconsiderate?)
Either way, I won't be watching the entire Apple event, but I'll no doubt check in via snatched looks at the festivities. Because this year I will be getting an iPhone 14 Pro after my longtime Samsung Galaxy S10e decided to swim with me on my vacation.
This will only be the second iPhone I've owned, having used an iPhone 3GS in 2008. It's a phone I'm still nostalgic about, even though my addiction to Peggle caused me to miss my commute stop on more of a chance, and I can't wait to see if Apple can recapture that magic.
But I won't go all out on the extras, I'm afraid, Apple.
Thanks but no thanks
(Image credit: future)
This isn't a criticism of other Apple hardware, but rather an acceptance that while the Apple Watch and AirPods look good, I'm very happy with my third-party extras, made by Garmin and Bose.
Pro tip: It's worth watching what people who review things for a living end up buying for themselves. I have a shelf behind me full of perfectly adequate smartwatches that manufacturers haven't picked up yet after my testing, but instead I paid good money for the Garmin Forerunner 245 a few years ago, and I don't haven't looked back. It's a great running watch, and was a useful companion as I tried to get back to my running best after a tedious battle with long Covid.
(Image credit: Garmin)
Granted, it's not the prettiest wearable in town, and next to the Apple Watch Series 7 it looks very plain. But that's why I bought another cheap Garmin wearable: the Vivomove Style, which is a slightly less fancy version of the Vivomove Luxe. To the untrained eye, it looks like a regular analog watch, but it has two cleverly hidden OLED displays for flashing notifications.
(Image credit: Garmin)
Brilliantly, both are linked to the Garmin Connect app, meaning sleep, steps and heart rate are tracked and recorded no matter what I'm wearing at any given time. Even if I change in the middle of the day, they will eventually synchronize their activity into an overall picture of my effort (or laziness).
As for the audio, I must confess that I am not a real audiophile. I don't think my ears are particularly sophisticated, so I'm not criticizing the headphones. As such, I'm very pleased with the brilliant audio offered by my trusty old Bose QC 35 II, even though I had to replace the foam inlays due to overuse.
(Image credit: Bose)
I was so impressed with Bose that I turned to the company again for my running headphones, with the Bose SoundSport wireless headphones. They're also decent, and I find them much more reliable than the sets of true wireless earbuds I've used, which have always sounded massively flaky – perhaps that makes me unfairly wary of AirPods.
In short, I see no reason to switch to Apple's own products here, no doubt as good as they are. The price is certainly a bar, but even if they were cheaper, I'm not sure I see the point. Unless Bose and Garmin's apps are terrible on iOS, I just don't see myself changing.
There is, however, one area where I am already fully registered.
The “One” Exception
(Image credit: Apple)
Quite unusual for an Android and Windows user, I have an active Apple One subscription – and can't wait to use it on the hardware it's actually designed for.
I made the switch shortly after Spotify's Joe Rogan fiasco, but it was also about value. My partner and I already have an Apple TV Plus subscription (Severance is wonderful, if you haven't looked at it yet) and the Apple One family subscription gives us Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade and 200GB of iCloud storage for a fairly reasonable price of $19,95 per month.
Admittedly, I don't use iCloud or Apple Arcade much yet, but that will all change when the iPhone 14 Pro is in my hands. And while Apple doesn't officially support Windows for Apple Music, I found the $1,99 Cider app does a brilliant job of bringing the streamer's extensive catalog to Windows 11. It even connects to Last.fm!
In short, Apple One feels like good value for money and offers something other third parties can't: Spotify can't get me games, Netflix can't get me music, and Dropbox can't get me music. television.
When it comes to the Apple Watch, AirPods, or HomePod, I'm pretty happy with third-party alternatives. Maybe that will change over time if I learn to love my future iPhone 14 Pro, but right now I've only got one foot in Apple's church door.
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SOURCE: Reviews News
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