Aaaaaaanyways— that probably should have been a blog post (or at least a threaded conversation), but just some thoughts while I’m waiting for my HomePod this morning.
Aaaaaaanyways— that probably should have been a blog post (or at least a threaded conversation), but just some thoughts while I’m waiting for my HomePod this morning.
Apple believes in “openness” as so far as it doesn’t mess with their hardware-selling business. Google believes in “openness” as long as it doesn’t mess with their personal-details collection business. Amazon just wants you to one-click buy everything.
Google and Amazon’s business models may allow you to buy other competing devices—but their goal isn’t to lock you into a hardware ecosystem, it’s to lock you into personal-details sharing. Of which, it’s much harder to come back from.
Re: This article from The Verge
I don’t necessarily disagree with the premise that the HomePod further locks people into Apple’s ecosystem. But I think it misses the point (or at least ignores it) that every piece of tech we buy locks us further and further into something
I’ve seen enough movies to know that three black SUVs parked in front of your house is rarely a good thing
First day of daycare and parents already asking us questions we don’t know the answer to. Better get used to it
Last run of the day, first black diamond of the day
High of five degrees out on the ski slopes today. Low of 95 degrees in the hot tub tonight
Oh man— what are we forgetting for baby’s first five-hour road trip??
The more I think about the HomePod, the more important AirPlay becomes (and not just because Star Trek: Discovery caused me to order one). AirPlay 1 has been mostly solid for me, but let’s hope AirPlay 2 is coming soon.
Going to see Phantom Thread and then coming home to watch the second half of the Kentucky game. Anything else I should be watching?
It feels like there should be a gradual increase of happy hour prices rather than just charge you double five minutes later
On Sunday, I wanted to watch Star Trek: Discovery, but with my house still full of extended family, I went downstairs to watch it down in my office. I quickly aborted after turning on the TV and remembering just how bad the sound is from the built-in TV speakers.
I immediately flipped over to the Wirecutter: I’ve been meaning to order wireless speakers to replace the Harman Kardon Soundsticks that I’ve been using as computer speakers for the past twelve years. I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and order a nice pair that could double as both computer speakers and AppleTV speakers.
For this to work I needed bluetooth speakers, so I had to go with the Wirecutter’s upgrade pick. $250. Pricey, but about what I was expecting to pay.
It was only a few seconds after adding the speakers to my Amazon cart that some Apple Math started creeping into my head:
Wait a second. If I’m paying $250 for these speakers, is it worth $100 more to just to get a HomePod?
The always great reporting by Serenity Caldwell already had me wavering. After listening to this week’s The Talk Show and just a general want to find a need for this device, I was ripe for caving in.
Paired with Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil (play audio from your Mac to any speaker!) and the AirPlay capabilities of the AppleTV, I’m now a proud owner of a HomePod preorder. We’ll see if it sticks.
(It probably will stick)
So not only has CBS All Access milked $10 from me to watch one show, but it’s also squarely on them that I’ve spent $350 on a HomePod. If only Star Trek: Discovery had been on network TV…
Staring down a 3.5 day work week with a big ski trip (and Baby Vale’s first vacation!) at the end. It’s going to seem like an eight-day week
I almost said to Julie, “I’m going to play a little Stardew Valley and then be up to bed” but I didn’t because we all know there’s no such thing as a little Stardew Valley
1:30pm brunch reservations after a 9am church service means you have to be very careful not to blow through all your potential conversation topics
Supreme irony I posted what I did right before a movie about basic decency, privilege, and the differences in how we all live our lives.
Not that it matters, but she didn’t say one word after the previews.
In the previews for Shape of Water and I’m 90% sure I have a movie talker next to me. Pray for us both
I mentioned last week that I was trying to figure out how to fix the Apple Watch’s activity tracker. Elizabeth Lopatto somewhat beat me to the punch by detailing her move goal problems with the Apple Watch:
The first week I put it on, the Apple Watch says I have to make 300 calories’ worth of movement in order to achieve my goals. So I do. This isn’t hard, and a couple days later, I actually triple my goal, which feels good. I know this because the Watch tells me. It feels good to get the little gold star and the silly badge that confirms I’ve made my stand goal, my activity goal, and my exercise goal for the week. The next Monday, the Watch tells me I should shoot for 750 calories.
This is when the failure begins.
The constraint on the Move goal is my rest days. I don’t do yoga on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Instead, I cook, usually in big enough portions that I can use the leftovers for lunch the next day. The relevant thing here is that cooking takes time; I can’t work out and cook at the same time. Without rest days, I hardly cook at all, which means I spend more money on takeout, which is generally worse for me than the foods I prepare myself.
The Apple Watch doesn’t care about any of this. Rest days are the limiting factor on my ability to hit my move goal — while I easily hit 700 calories by the Watch’s measure on my workout days, I move a lot less when I take time off from working out. But rest days are crucial for exercise: they let your body recover. Without recovery, you don’t get the strength you’re trying to build, and you place yourself at risk for overuse injuries.
At times I remind myself of what Blahnik said: this is a minimum. You’re supposed to beat it. This reminder makes me feel worse, not better. I stop letting the Watch set my Move goal. It is too unkind to me.
The idea of a move goal is great, the execution is somewhat off. The current move goal feels like it was designed in whatever is Tim Cook’s fitness equivalent to Jony Ive’s world of white.
There’s two pieces to how I would fix this:
First, the daily move goal should take a cue from the exercise and stand goals and be a static metric: something akin to the 10,000 steps that Fitbits and old-school pedometers used to set as goals (though, I agree with Lopatto that ‘steps’ isn’t exactly right). If Apple is set on ‘calories’ as that metaphor, that’s fine. It can stay. It’s not like ‘calories’ is exceedingly accurate right now, so setting a static calorie goal for everyone is at the very worst value neutral in the accuracy department.
Regardless, the focus of the daily move goal should just be meeting a minimum baseline of activity– essentially making sure that you’re doing more than just sitting on the couch all day. I do think there’s value in maintaining daily fitness goals, but good news! That’s already being achieved with your 30-minute exercise goal.
Second, your new “move goal” is now based on burning a user-adjustable amount of calories per week (exactly like the current move goal operates, but on a weekly instead of daily basis). Apple Watch badges (like move streak, perfect week, and perfect month) should remain. But instead of tying them to daily goals, tie them to the weekly goals.
Let’s say your current (daily) move goal is 500 calories and that you wanted to set your weekly move goal at essentially the same level: 3,500 calories. If you average 600 calories for five days of the week and 250 calories the other two days, congratulations– you’ve met your 3,500 calorie move goal.
This achieves two things:
You can still challenge yourself and have rest days. How many calories you burn in a discrete day is irrelevant as long as you get your 30-minutes of exercise, your twelve stand hours, and meet whatever the baseline activity is for the day. What matters for streaks now is how many calories you burn in a week.
Weekly goals are more easily achievable, but are not any worse for your fitness– 3500 calories burned in a week is mostly the same as 500 calories burned in seven consecutive days. This eliminates some of the “failure bracelet” aspect that Lopatto mentioned in her article. Sure there will be some weeks that you struggle to meet your move goal, but there will be a whole lot fewer of those than individual days you struggle to meet it.
I love the idea of the Apple Watch and I mostly love its execution: last year I lost 50+ pounds by keeping a 150-day move streak alive. But guess what? As soon as I lost that streak, I lost a lot of my motivation to work out.
I’m not saying that the Apple Watch needs to go easier on the fitness aspects of people’s goals, but I am saying that the Apple Watch needs to go easier on the behavioral aspects of them.
I’ll reconsider getting the HomePod:
From best I can tell–there’s not a lot of information out there— it just currently doesn’t fit my needs.