W♥M

Techtober

iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera Details From dramatic framing flexibility to next-generation portraits, see what you can do with our most powerful iPhone camera system. The 48MP Main camera is more advanced than ever, capturing super‑high‑resolution photos with a new level of detail and color. You’ll see the improvements in your portraits. And now you no longer have to switch to Portrait mode. If your subject is a person, dog, or cat, iPhone automatically captures depth information. So you can choose to instantly see your photo as a portrait, with an artful blur effect. Or later in the Photos app. For iPhone 15 Pro Max, we designed a 5x Telephoto camera with the longest optical zoom of any iPhone ever to fit in our compact Pro camera system. Now you can take sharper close‑ups from farther away — like a phenomenal photo of your friend or a goal in your kid’s soccer match. 5x optical zoom with the 120 mm lens. Read More iPhone So in November 2021, I purchased the iPhone 13, and have been very happy with both the device and my ability to connect multiple devices. Speaking of hotspot, there is a 5 mbps cap when you tether. That’s still faster than my old DSL ....

iPhone 15 Pro Max
apple.com

You know I love my iPod (before it was replaced by the cellphone) and my iPad (own the original iPad and currently loving the new 11 inch iPad Pro), but I was never an iPhone guy. However, all that changed when I switched phone service to Visible… and because there were no restrictions on the iPhone, I decided to switch to the iPhone 10.

It worked so well with the iPhone, that I bought the new iPhone 13 in November 2021. Then I bought the iPhone 14 Plus in October 2022.

In keeping with tradition, I’ve upgraded to the new iPhone 15 Pro Max recently. I think after that hefty price tag, I am going to stop upgrading until they come out with some amazing new features.

Here are the new things in the iPhone 15 Pro:

USB-C: Finally! Thanks to the UK, Apple caved in and now their iPhones uses the universal serial bus. Now I can use the same cable that charges my iPad with my iPhone. I’m all for this new change. Also 20x faster file transfers.

Titanium: Lighter, harder, looks great. This is the same alloy that they make spacecraft out of. Lightest iPhone Pro models ever. Titanium is here to stay.

A17 Pro: Apple’s fastest chip yet, they claimed it’s 40% faster than the competition. In tests, it beats the Google’s Pixel 8, and the new iPhone can play a console game, like Resident Evil 4.

Action Button: This replaces the silent switch. You can change this to a physical camera button, so you can use your phone as a traditional camera.

Dynamic Island: A gimmick that was introduced in last year’s model, but it’s been improved thanks to the upgrade cameras.

Upgraded Camera: The new periscope has a 5x optical zoom.

I’m mostly interested in the telephoto lens in the new iPhone. According to Apple, the iPhone 15 Pro Max provides the longest optical zoom at the equivalent of 120mm. This is great for taking concert photos, or just take some “close up” photos in general.

In my own test, taking photos at the back of the venue, I found that the new 120mm camera on the iPhone is pretty impressive (considering that it’s on a tiny pocketable device). I know there’s less details on the iPhone camera, but no cellphone can beat a real camera. Still, the iPhone photo is still very usable.

Apple claims it’s their best camera ever, and from what I’ve seen, I’m a believer.

iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Sony A7IV

Read More Google a Google home, as everything is built around the Google Home Hub application. If you don’t mind giving Google your information, you can use many of their services - for free. That’s the attractive thing, it’s mostly free. …

Nest Audio
google.com

I recently purchased the Google’s Nest Audio Speaker on clearance at Target. I didn’t have a need for the speaker, but seeing as it’s normally $100, I couldn’t pass it up for 50% off.

If you stream music and subscribed to audio services (such as Spotify or Google Music), I think this is a great speaker to have in your home. It sounds great, it fills the room. It’s a very capable speaker. It is just that I do not subscribe to any music services. I own all my music on CD that I ripped myself.

You can also use it as a Google Assistant, asking it all sorts of questions. If you have a Google Nest Hub or Lenovo’s Smart Display or Smart Frame … you do not need the Nest Speaker.

I’m currently using it as a Bluetooth Speaker (you need to enable this feature on your Google Home App), and it’s fine. There is a slight delay and audio sounds out of sync compared to the video… I’m sure there must be a way to fix the syncing issue.

I do somewhat regret buying it … because I don’t really have a use for the speaker. Perhaps I will evict it to the garage. Maybe if I need to stream music in the garage from my iPhone, it would fill the room.

When am I ever spending time in the garage for anything? I guess I can throw a party and move the Nest Audio to the party room. I do not know what to do with this speaker.

Read more Technology.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Weekend Gamer Update: Memorial Day Weekend

Windows 11 Pro Product Description Instantly productive. Simpler, more intuitive UI and effortless navigation. New features like snap layouts help you manage multiple tasks with ease Smarter collaboration. Have effective online meetings. Share content and mute/unmute right from the taskbar (1). Stay focused with intelligent noise cancelling and background blur. (2) Reassuringly consistent. Have confidence that your applications will work. Familiar deployment and update tools. Accelerate adoption with expanded deployment policies. Powerful security. Safeguard data and access anywhere with hardware-based isolation, encryption, and malware protection built in. Read More MicroSoft That’s because I just bought the Microsoft Office Professional 2021 lifetime license for $30, after reading about it on C-Net. The article referenced Stack Social, which I’ve never heard of until today. …

It’s Memorial Day Weekend, which means I have this Monday off and it’s a long weekend for me. As usual with these holidays, there are a lot of sales and deals all across retailers. I’m planning on going to a few Half-Priced Books to take advantage of their 20% instore purchases. The problem with HPB is that their stocks are limited and are vastly different from store to store. You never know what you are going to see, day to day, store to store.

Best Buy is selling a lot of Bluray for under $10… but the cool thing is that the new Pixel 7a is being sold for $450, the first sale price since it was launched on May 10. That was fast! Even though it’s a $50 savings, it’s still not enough for me to want it. I’ve already committed to buying the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro Max, so I need to set aside roughly $1,200. I was never an iPhone guy, until I started using the $25 unlimited data/phone service from Visible. Now, it’s impossible for me to break away from the Apple ecosystem.

Anyway, over at Stack Social, I just purchased Windows 11 Pro for $40. This is the full product key, not an “upgrade” key, meaning you could use it on a freshly built computer. I just basically upgraded my Windows 11 Home on my current computer.

For most people, Home is just fine for everyone. There are some differences, such as local accounts and Hyper-V and some extra security options (as well as more faster updates), but for the most part, I personally didn’t need to upgrade to Pro… But the sale price was so good (it’s normally $199), that I couldn’t pass it up. As of this writing, I don’t have buyer’s remorse.

When Windows 11 first launched in late 2021, video gaming was a problem with stutter and lag… but it was related to driver issues for video cards. Now that it’s been out for a few years, there are no issues with gaming. Since I started using Windows 11 Home in Nov 2022, I have been impressed with its performance over Windows 10.

Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition

Speaking of games, Epic Games is offering Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition for free. You guys know I love Fallout, so naturally, I’m going to encourage you guys to get it for free. Of course, I already own this on various platform (GOG, Steam, Xbox, etc.), and you can usually find it on sale.

This is the Ultimate Edition, which means all the DLC are incorporated in this game, so there’s a ton of great content to go through.

Of all the Fallout games, New Vegas is one of my top three. A lot of fans did not like the game when it first came out, but over time, I believe they’ve turn around and would agree with me that it’s a great game. The game is 13 years old, and it could benefit from a remaster or remake of the game, in my opinion.

Also, ROG Ally Update: On the day that it was available to pre-order on May 11, 2023, I overreacted and immediately ordered it from Best Buy. It was at a location and a time (noon-ish) and at Best Buy, that I normally don’t buy from online, and at such a high amount, that the unusual activity alerted my bank to issue a stop on my bank card. I had to basically go to the bank and told them that I did purchase the ROG Ally. Unfortunately, the bank already put a stop on the payment. That’s fine, I suppose I’ll just have to go to the physical store on June 13th to see if I can just buy one at their store. It kind of sucks because my local Best Buy closed this year, so I need to travel to another city to visit a Best Buy now. You know, all this could have been prevented, if ROG Ally would just make it available at all retailers… meaning if I had purchased it from Amazon, my bank would’ve just allowed it.

I suppose it’s probably better this way. Now that I’ve seen early reviews, it’s not exactly “twice as fast” as they’ve been claiming. The truth is, it sounds like the ROG Ally is about the same as the Steam Deck… the only difference is that the ROG Ally runs Windows 11 out of the box. Basically, once I get the ROG, I’m calling it my ROG GOG because it’ll be my GOG and Battle Net machine. I just cannot wait to play Diablo IV on handheld.

Yours,

Weekend Gamer

Read more Weekend Gamer.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Google I/O 2023

Read More Google a Google home, as everything is built around the Google Home Hub application. If you don’t mind giving Google your information, you can use many of their services - for free. That’s the attractive thing, it’s mostly free. …

Here’s all the products announced at Google’s I/O 2023.

Pixel Tablet
We’ve seen similar designs from Lenovo, but hopefully the upcoming Google Pixel Tablet will be a faster and better experience. Like that other design, the Tablet is a picture frame when you dock it to the magnetic charger and speaker. If you want to use it as a tablet, you just pick it off the stand… think of it as a tablet that is always charged.

I’m not entirely sure if I will use it on a daily basis, since I already love my iPad 12.9 for the big display and fast processor… the Pixel Tablet is kind of a step down.

Pixel 7A
At $500, the “A-Series” of Google’s phones are the affordable version of their Pixel phones. I’ve been unimpressed with their previous A phones. The phones are not fast or flashy, they’re basically a budget/cheap version of their regular phones… Having said all that, I think the 7A is the phone that I’m actually interested in. That’s because, for the first time, their A phones are going to include wireless charging. I have been all-in on wireless charging, it is hard for me to go back to the old way of charging my phone.

While I’m not in the market to replace my iPhone 14, I might pick up the 7A as my backup phone… mostly because for a limited time, Google is throwing in a free Pixel Buds A-Series if you buy the new 7A phone. I have a Pixel Bud Mint Color and I think it’s one of the best earbuds I own. I love that rubber nub that locks the buds in my ear.

I guess it all depends on if I can buy the Asus ROG Ally (the better and faster Steam Deck) or not. I have already devoted my budget of $800 to buy the new handheld gaming PC.

Pixel Fold
As soon as I saw the price for this upcoming Google’s folding phone, at $1,800, that’s a hard pass for me. As cool as it looks, there’s no way I’m spending that kind of cash on sometime that is unproven. I would love for the price to be sub $1,000... that is the magic number for me.

As a fan of technology, I’m always interested in seeing new products. My complaint about Google has a bad reputation about introducing something and then not supporting it. Plus, I hate to say it, but their products look boring.

Still, I love the fact that I can find any Google products in retail stores, such as my local Target or Walmart. Knowing me, I might just end up buying their Pixel Tablet on a whim, while standing in line at a Best Buy or something.

Read more Technology

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

My Movies 4 Pro

Read More DVD I usually put on one of my DVDs (see picture) and sleep mode on my television, the noise it makes gentle puts me to sleep. ...

As many of you guys know, I’m an avid collector of DVDs since 1997. I even bought my first DVD of Reservoir Dogs before I had a DVD player! I love this format, because coming from VHS and Laserdiscs, this new DVD format was smaller and more versatile and collectible.

I had a very large collection of DVD, so it made sense, at least for me, to keep track of them using an application on my computer. And since 2000, I was using DVD Profiler. When they released their software for iOS in 2010, I was one of the first people to buy it. It was great for a while… but unfortunately, the software has not been updated since 2018. There are some bugs in the iOS software that drove me nuts. For example, you couldn’t create a brand new DVD entry - it would only add DVD that exists in their catalog.

Then recently, when I bought my Lenovo Legion Gaming PC, I tried to sync my DVD Profiler on my phone to my computer and my DVD was destroyed through bad syncing. I didn’t have a DVD Profiler backup (my only backup was on my old Fallout Gaming PC). No problem, I guess I can start over. Unfortunately, scanning in the UPC of DVDs and Blurays was not great on DVD Profiler. It took forever for the camera to focus on the UPC, it would be impossible to scan in my entire collection.

The final straw happened on Friday, when nothing worked on DVD Profiler, because their servers was offline. It was time for me to move on.

Looking online for alternatives, I came across My Movies 4 Pro for $15. There is a ‘demo’ version for you try out, if you aren’t convinced. The demo only lets you add 50 entries.

So far, it’s a massive improvement over DVD Profiler. The UPC scanner is amazingly fast, and if you have a lot of films, like I do, this will save you a lot of time.

My Movies 4 is also available for the PC, but it actually works a little differently on the PC. It’s more of a movie streaming application that uses Windows Media Server… so I recommend just using the My Movies 4 app as a standalone app.

My only complaint is that My Movies 4 may take forever to “synchronize” with their servers. It takes a long time sometimes because the app takes a moment to download the high resolution front and back cover of the DVD or Bluray. Since I set my app to the highest resolution, it takes a moment for everything to sync. When it syncs, the app won’t allow you to add anything, so you’ll just have to wait until it is all downloaded.

The beautiful thing about the syncing process is that any DVD/Bluray that you add on your phone will magically appear on your iPad. This works much better than the old DVD Profiler, which requires you to manually sync to your PC (since the database is stored on your local computer).

For the most part, My Movies 4 catalog works well. Sometime I do run into a film that is not on their database. You can manually add in the UPC and photos of the cover artwork, so it works as you would expect (you couldn’t do that on DVD Profiler if you have a new iPhone).

Pro Tip: If you own a lot of discs, set the scanner to Multi-Scan and also set the Country to “All”. This is especially useful if you own a lot of movies from other countries. I wish I had known this when I started rescanning my collection!

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Black Friday 2022

Read More Black Friday Sure, I didn’t need all those extra things in my life, but I couldn’t pass up these deals. The prices are Black Friday level (even better in many cases). …

With Black Friday coming up this Friday (November 25), we are already starting to see some really good deals on Bluray/UHD discs. Some of my favorite A24 films are on sale, including X, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and The Green Knight. I bought a ton of discs this week. Most UHD discs are $10 and Bluray are either $5 or $8. It’s really the only time that I make mass Bluray purchases.

Over at Target, the best deal I’ve seen is $200 for the Xbox Series S. That’s $50 off and a $50 Target Gift card (which is as good as cash). I’m very tempted to try and buy it, even though I already own the Xbox Series X (the superior version). But the price is so good that I’m really thinking about it. If you are going to buy an Xbox this year, you might as well get Elden Ring for $40. This is the lowest price I’ve seen for this amazing game. Honestly, Elden Ring is my Game of the Year.

Walmart has the best deals on 4K TV. They have a 50 inch ONN 4K LED for $150. Onn is Walmart’s brand, and for that low bottom prices, I’m not sure if it’ll have the quality. On the bright side, the TV has Roku built into the television. If you want to upgrade, Walmart also sells a TCL 65” 4k TV for $228 (also with Roku).

If you’re looking for a Macbook, Best Buy is selling the M1 MacBook Air 13.3” for $800 (a $200 savings). If you want this year’s MacBook Air, with the M2 chip, you can get it for $1,050… but from what I’ve read, it’s not worth the upgrade.

LG 48” 4k WebOS TV for $570

Also, the best OLED TV prices I’ve ever seen is for the LG 48” 4k WebOS TV for $570. This is a $730 savings, and I’m definitely looking at this very closely. I think the biggest problem is that I rarely watch TV. I spend all my time sitting at my computer and watch YouTube videos or movies I’ve ripped from my Bluray…

So maybe the better money might go to another 4k monitor? My current favorite monitor is on sale for $230. I bought the monitor for $320 in Apr 2022 and absolutely love the “Picture in Picture” feature: “There is another feature that they highlight, and I found it really useful. The monitor has the ability to do Picture in Picture (or as Samsung lists it PBP). What this means is that the monitor can display two simultaneous sources on the monitor at the same time. You have some options, side-by-side or a small popup screen (which you can position in four areas and with varying sizes). The P-i-P is the best thing about this monitor.”

If you’re looking for a new PC or laptop, I would recommend looking at MicroCenter’s Black Friday sale. They have my Lenovo Legion PC for the same amazing price of $850. I’ve said it before, the video card (3060) costs $400 by itself(!), so to have it come with your computer, it’s a steal.

MicroCenter also sells really cheap Wyze cameras. Their v3 camera with color night vision is $30. I currently own two Wyze cameras that I use for my security cameras.

This year, I’ve already started my Black Friday shopping last week. Most retailers already started their sale last week. I’ll be looking at bigger purchases sometime this week, since some retailers won’t unveil their biggest deals until closer to Friday.

Read more Black Friday, Movies and Television.

Vu’s Early Black Friday Bluray/UHD purchases

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

iPhone 14 Plus, eSIM, and Visible

Read More Visible I’ve been using internet-only telephone service called Visible for three months now… and I feel I’ve experienced all the pain and strain of using their service. The short story is that this is a very inexpensive mobile service . …

So, I recently bought the new iPhone 14 Plus, which is a 6.7 inch larger iPhone, but not “Pro” level. A quick review: the iPhone 14 Plus is the same as the iPhone 13, only slightly bigger. I wouldn’t recommend upgrading. I bought the new one so I can gift the old phone, but otherwise, there’s really no need to upgrade.

iPhone 14 Plus

Going to the new iPhone 14 was a little tricky, because the iPhone 14 do not have a physical SIM tray. So you can’t just yank out your SIM card and put it into the new phone. Instead, you have to use eSIM. eSIM are less convenient, but it’s more secure. For example, someone can steal your phone, they can’t just do a “SIM Swap” (it’s horrible if your passwords are tied to your phone).

The other thing about going all eSIM is that it has better anti-water/moister protection.

The last benefit about eSIM is that a phone company can just activate a new phone number/account in a few seconds. In the past, if you wanted to open a new line, they would have to mail you one of their SIM cards.

Having said all that, I truly wish there was a physical SIM option.

For what it’s worth, activating the Visible service, using eSIM, on the new iPhone 14 Plus was relatively easy. You have to key in some unique numbers from Visible and you have to tell them the phone’s EID. The only trouble I ran into was that I needed internet for the new phone to activate properly (as the old phone was disconnected once you transfer to the new phone).

Anyway, since getting rid of my DSL home internet earlier in September, I’ve been looking into other unlimited cellular plans with tethering or hotspot options.

If you are in the same boat of getting rid of your home internet, I’ve broken down some of the options available.

Right now, I’m quite happy with Visible, with both the pricing and the ability to use hotspot to multiple devices using my iPhone. Even though there is a speed cap of 5mps, I don’t actually mind this, as I was used to speed slower than 3mpbs on DSL. It is fast enough to stream YouTube and get my email… and it’s free unlimited hotspot. If you don’t want to hotspot, you can always plug in your phone to your computer and it automatically will share internet with the computer.

Anyway, looking at the other phone companies, none of them comes close to offering unlimited hotspot. Most of these service cap at 5GB, 25GB, or 50GB. The only true “unlimited hotspot” on the list, are Google Fi and AT&T… but you are going to have to pay through the nose at $65 or $85 a month. With AT&T, you do get HBO Max… but I don’t think it’s worth $85.

To sum it up, If you are looking for an unlimited data/phone line, based on features and pricing, I would recommend Visible. I’ve used the service for over a year… and for the past two months, the phone has become my home internet as well. I have had no issues with it, so far.

In November, or so, I will have to switch over to one of Visible’s two new plans: Unlimited $30 and Unlimited Plus $45. Since I’ve been enjoying the unlimited internet so much, I may spend the extra $45 because I’m interested in the new Ultraband 5G speed… plus some limited roaming in Mexico and Canada.

	Name	Plan	Price	Network	Limitations and Notes
	Visible	Unlimited	$30	Verizon	Hotspot speed is capped at 5mbps One connection at a time* * iPhone does not have this restriction
	Google Fi	Unlimited Plus	$65	T-Mobile Sprint	Hotspot up to 10 devices Data slow after 50GB 100 GB of Google One
	Tello	Unlimited	$30	T-Mobile	Speed slowed to 2G after 25GB
	Mint	Unlimited	$40	T-Mobile	Hotspot is limited to 5GB Data slow after 35GB
	US Mobile	Unlimited Premium	$45	Verizon	Speed slow after 100GB Hotspot limited to 50GB eSim International Data: 10GB
	AT&T	Unlimited Elite	$85	AT&T	Includes HBO Max Speed slow after 100GB Hotspot speed slow after 30GB

Read more Technology.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

iPad Magic Keyboard for my iPad Pro 12.9

Read More iPad I’ve been living with the iPad 12.9 Pro (2017 Model) since March 2018. After using the iPad daily for about two months, here are my thoughts …

I caved in and bought a used iPad Magic Keyboard for my iPad Pro 12.9 (2020). You see, between my Asus Electropunk Laptop and iPad, there is no comparison in terms of portability. The laptop weighs a ton, I never want to travel with it. Instead, if I need to do some work, the iPad and Keyboard combination works best for me.

Previously, I was using the iPad and Keyboard Folio, which is fine, but I didn’t exactly love the typing experience. Plus over time, the Folio is showing some wear and tear.

The shocker of the iPad Magic Keyboard is that it costs $350 new. This is really an insane amount of money to pay for a keyboard… and I felt like it was the barrier to entry for those in the market for a keyboard for their iPad. There are many third party keyboard maker, but I decided to go with the Magic Keyboard because it uses the smart connector.

After playing around with it, like putting the keyboard light brightness to the max, I was shocked that within a few minutes, I went from 100% charged to 84%! I turned off the light on the keyboard immediately. Wow, what a battery drainer.

In the few minutes since I started typing this review, I started noticing the battery quickly dropping. It went from 84% earlier to 81% in a few minutes… Judging by the battery drain, I feel like you need to plug this in if you intend to do a lot of work on the iPad.

The best perk about this keyboard is that you can assign the four physical button at the bottom-left of the keyboard. The four keys are Globe, Control, Option, and Command. I’m a PC user, so using the CMD+C or CMD+V is annoying to me, because of the layout. I’m just used to the Ctrl key to be the furthest left of the PC keyboard. Thankfully, you can reassign the Globe key to CMD, making a better keyboard (in my opinion).

I also like the mousepad, but it doesn’t always work with all the applications. For example, it doesn’t seem to work with Google’s Keep. I am assuming it will work better with native Apple Applications, such as Safari or their iOS Mail App.

The other thing you should know about the Magic Keyboard is that it is a little heavier than the folio. Weight may be necessary so it can anchor the “floating” iPad. As for versatility - it is only a keyboard or it can only close to protect the iPad. That’s all you can do with it.

If you need to use the iPad as a tablet, like reading digital comic books, you have to remove it from the keyboard. I think it was intentionally designed this way… which I don’t like. You see with the Folio, you can just fold the keyboard all the way to the back and use it as a Tablet, if you don’t need the keyboard.

In the end, if you need a keyboard for your iPad, I would recommend either the Folio or the Magic Keyboard, it just depends on how much money you want to spend. I have to admit, typing on the Magic Keyboard is 100% better than on the Folio.

I think my biggest concern is the battery drain. It’s already at 70%, as I finish writing this.

Update: I thought perhaps it’s just a fluke that the keyboard was draining the iPad’s battery like water (even if you have the lights on the keyboard turned off)… but after using it for a week, I can confirm that you need to plug in the keyboard if you intend to type a lot. If you are not using the keyboard, obviously it won’t draw power.

The magnet is very strong and can really hold the iPad in place. You can rock it around in a moving vehicle and know that it won’t go flying off.

PS, the other cool thing about this keyboard is if you need to lock your iPad, you can use the keys: CTRL+CMD+Q and it will lock the iPad right away.

Photo below is my Magic Keyboard with Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (from Mighty Skins) and my iPad with Death Dealer by Frank Frazetta from Skinit. I’ve previously ordered a Skinit for my Xbox Series X, and I love it. The printing looks very good and it seemed durable.

Apple Magic Keyboard and iPad Pro 12.9

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ @weheartmusic

Clockology

Read More Apple I didn’t intend to get it, but after contemplating about the Black Friday prices for the new Apple Watch SE for about $200, I couldn’t pass it up. As you know, starting last year, Apple ....

One of my biggest complaint about the Apple Watch was that there weren’t many official face options for your watch. While that remains true, I have since discovered Clockology. This changes everything.

With Clockology, you can create any sort of clock face that you want. I have downloaded a few from the internet, and I’ve modified a few of them for my needs.

The app is very powerful and contains a lot of nice perks. The only drawback is that weather and certain features are not available on the non-paid version. Normally, I wouldn’t mind paying once for a feature, but unfortunately, it’s currently subscription-based (about $20 a year).

Since I don’t have access to weather, I’ve removed a lot of those features when I tweaked these clock faces.

The other thing about Clockology is that it is really clunky how to get it to work.I’ll summarize, you need to download a special “enable beta” file. Once you download the file, you need to “Watch Sync” … and voila, the Clockology will now work on your watch.

Since it’s an app on your watch, you need to keep Clockology running… which means you might have to look in your settings to let it run in the background and so on.

So, I take it back, regarding limited clock faces for the Apple Watch. Now with the Clockology app, it’s unlimited what I can do… and now my new problem is deciding which clock face to use! I’m partial to the Star Trek’s LCARS or Fallout’s Pip Boy.

Anyway, I have put together a few of my favorite Clockology clock faces that I’ve downloaded and tweaked to my needs. Download here: drive.google.com.

Enjoy,

- Weekend Gamer

Monty Python

Fallout

Super Mario Bros

Cyberpunk 2077

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Apple Watch SE

Read More Apple The iconic iPhone 7 has been announced by Apple yesterday (September 7th). It is the latest and greatest from the company, and they are getting a lot of negative feedback about the lack of a headphone jack ....

I didn’t intend to get it, but after contemplating about the Black Friday prices for the new Apple Watch SE for about $200, I couldn’t pass it up. As you know, starting last year, Apple introduced their “budget” Apple Watch, the SE, which strips out some features.

What’s missing from the SE is a faster/latest processor, no ECG and blood oximiter sensors, no always-on display, and lacking UWB or 5GHz Wi-Fi communication capabilities. If you absolutely have to one of those things, then you need to buy the new Series 7.

My biggest complaint is that you must have an iPhone to use with the Apple Watch. I believe you can only have one active watch at one time, so if you own multiple Apple Watches, it only works with just one.

The other complaint is that battery life is absolutely bad. You need to charge it every day. To be fair, most smart watches requires you to charge once a day. My Amazfit GTR 2 advertised battery life of 7 days, but in reality, it’s really only two or three days. So battery life just sucks all across the board.

My last complaint is there aren’t many watch faces officially available from Apple. I’m assuming that it will get better over time. There are many third party watch face makers, but none of them are very good. The really good one costs subscription fees, which I would rather not pay for. If they sell individual face for, say $1, I wouldn’t mind paying for one or two… but unfortunately, there’s not many choices.

Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the new watch. I feel it’s “fast enough” for my needs, and it has all the health tracking abilities in other smart watches. My two health focus is sleep tracking and heart beats… but obviously, you can use it to track various other things, like standing up or walking/running.

One of the coolest thing going from my Amazfit watch to the Apple Watch is that Apple has some applications built for WatchOS… which Amazfit some some Android Watches don’t have. For example, I used the calculator on my watch (for tipping) and showed up the compass on the watch to my brother.

Another perk in the Apple brand that you may not be aware of, is all the many, many, many accessories you can get for the Apple Watch. Need a new wrist band ? There are a million bands out there. Don’t want to pay $100 for Apple’s Milanese Loop ? There are knock-offs you can get for $15 (which is exactly what I did for a similar Milanese Loop at Walmart).

So, if you’re keeping track, I’m officially 100% into the Apple Echosystem, owning the new iPhone 13, iPad Pro 12.9 (2021), Apple TV (HD), and, now, the Apple Watch SE (2021).

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Divinity: Original Sin II on the iPad

Read More Larian Studios I have been hyped about Baldur’s Gate 3 since Larian Studios announced their teaser in August 2019. I’ve already mentioned that I was a massive fan of Black Isle Studios …

You know I’m a big fan of Larian Studios, the Belgium company that is currently developing Baldur’s Gate III (which I already pre-ordered) and the successful Divinity series. While I haven’t loved the original games from 2002, I came around with 2014’s Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel Divinity: Original Sin II.

Sadly, I haven’t beaten either of the Divinity: Original Sin saga, but from all my hours of gameplay, I love it. So much that I’ve decided to spend $25 to see how Divinity: Original Sin II will work on my iPad Pro 12.9. I saw that it supported Bluetooth controller and keyboard, but I will likely just use touch to play.

In the past, I’ve played around with Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II on the iPad, but those games originally came out in 1998 and 2000 (and yes, I bought and played them back then).

With Divinity: Original Sin II, which originally came out in 2017, on the iPad, I was just eager to see a semi-recent, modern game on the iPad. We all know that Apple have never been known for video games… so I’m glad to see companies, like Larian, take a chance.

So, for some bad news, those with older iPads, they cannot run the game. The game will run on iPad Pro 2018 to 2021 (basically any iPad with the A12 Bionic chip or later). The other bad news is that the game will take up at least 18GB of storage, so if you have an 32GB iPad, it’s going to take up half your space!

Even many users might feel that $25 is expensive (especially for an iPad app), you have to understand that this is a first-class game. I’ve played the PC, I’ve paid $50 for the game originally, so $25 is really bargain, in my opinion…. But it’s true, $25 is a million times more expensive than the typical $1.99 iPad.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com