Re: Official Apple Thread

[Theicecreaman]

Haha I just tried the lullaby thing.

My friend asked it today, "Who has the phone number, (his phone number)" and it offered to google it He wanted to know how it pronounced his name. It really does suck at times For you use, however, it would be useful. You said that your Honda Civic DOES or DOESN'T have the "press this button for Siri" functionality? I know you wanted that, if I'm not mistaken.

[Wonko the Sane]

It will as soon as Honda implements it. It'll take one of the existing steering wheel buttons and make either a press and hold or a double press activate Siri from what I've read. So that's gonna be really great.

Did you get it to the point where it actually sang you a lullaby? Try the story yet?

[Theicecreaman]

The lullaby works, but for the story it said it already did it (the lullaby).

[Wonko the Sane]

Yeah you may have to wait a while then try again. The story one wasn't as quick for me to get, I had to keep asking in different ways until it finally relented. It was actually bashful about telling it, like started and stopped a couple times saying nono that's not it...

[Theicecreaman]

Oh alright, I'll try it some more.

So, what's the verdict on upgrading to the new iPhone? Are you going with Verizon or sticking with AT&T?

[Wonko the Sane]

I've decided I have to stick with AT&T and I'm not happy about it. What pushed me over the edge was not being able to use data and voice at the same time even with the new LTE.

Also, it seems that whenever Verizon switches from LTE down to 3G (which is really 2G... it's insanely slow) the internet drops for a huge amount of time while it reconnects and such. That would suck while driving and using maps.

And their "3G" really is so slow compared with AT&T's legit 3G, which is the whole reason I stuck with AT&T last time even though Verizon has better voice coverage. I need the data more than I need the voice. Verizon's LTE kicks AT&T in the pants, but it seems like it's not nearly established enough and there's no Voice over LTE and I just couldn't justify the extra 30-40 bucks a month for that kind of compromise.

So I'm thinking whenever I upgrade next (2 more years probably) I'll switch to Verizon. By then they should have Voice over LTE and the network should have plenty of coverage that it never needs to switch back to the crappy 3G service.

[Theicecreaman]

Yeah, I think it also depends on location. There are maps showing where their 4G is, and it seems to be pretty much everywhere over here. When are you getting the new iPhone? Or are you even?

Oh, btw, how long does it normally take a Facetime call to register? I called my friend yesterday on Facetime because we were meeting up somewhere, but I could not see him. I saw him once I initiated the call, but it did not show up on his phone--it just kept on ringing. And I know he updated to iOS 6. Maybe the cost of it working over 3G is the fact that it's just slow.

edit:

So I just learned something new about the new update. I only have the first name of a particular contact in the contacts thing on my phone, and I do not have him as a friend on Facebook. However, his Facebook profile picture still shows up! That's so weird. I remember when I tried the Microsoft Outlook website this summer, it did the same thing. It showed me the picture of a previous professor I had who emailed me, even though I did not even have her as a contact. Am I the only person who thinks this kind of thing is totally creepy?

I turned off Facebook friends from showing on "contacts" and "calender birthday reminders" immediately when I upgraded a few days ago because I don't like having numbers of people from whom I never asked for such things. I like my CURRENT contacts syncing profile pictures from Facebook because that's pretty awesome, but not having EVERYONE's numbers appear on my contacts. It's so weird.

[Wonko the Sane]

That Facetime thing does sound like Verizon over 3G. Does he also have Verizon or does he have AT&T? It sounds like your phone didn't have enough bandwidth to push the image to him or he didn't have a big enough pipe to download it or something like that. Usually it's instantaneous. So sounds like network issues.

I'm going to try reserving mine tonight though for pickup tomorrow at a store nearby. And I wasn't kidding when I said I'm really not happy that I have to stay on AT&T. I wish Verizon's plans weren't so expensive. I think I'd rather have them as a carrier... on the other hand, they're both the descendants of Ma' Bell so they're probably both equally evil. I just keep hearing from so many people how much better Verizon is. And their LTE definitely is wicked fast.

And yes, the whole Facebook integration thing is definitely creepy. The reason Facebook wasn't integrated sooner is because they wanted access to all of Apple's user info including contacts and such, and Apple denied them on privacy grounds. And/or Steve Jobs did. Now, for whatever reason, they allowed Facebook the access they wanted. You have to go into your settings, look for Privacy or Facebook or both and somewhere in there you can turn off some of that stuff. Like disable its contacts integration and such. It's all on by default I heard. It's all part of Facebook's evil evilness.

I'm not sure if that settings thing is different from the one you said you already did, but I heard about how you can disable that kind of privacy invasion stuff with a bit more granularity now in iOS6 so that's cool.

[Theicecreaman]

Well, I still want it to sync people's profile pics because that's pretty awesome, so I just kinda hid everything I did not want to see. Also, I used to occasionally get calls from people who I assume found my number on Facebook (I did not answer these), so now I can see who is calling.

[Wonko the Sane]

Well Facelessbook is still evil.

Also, it appears every Apple store in my state is out of the iPhone model I want. So I won't be getting one tomorrow after all. Sadface.


In other news, I just read that Apple's maps contract with Google wasn't up for another year. Google wasn't happy with the renewal agreement Apple proposed, Google wanted to add more of their new services and have it say Google somewhere apparently, which I don't think is too much to ask. Hey, more mapping services? Great, do it. But Apple apparently didn't want that.

But even so, they had a whole year left on their current agreement which Apple could have used to polish up their own maps instead of releasing the half useless piece of crap that it is. Google was apparently caught off guard too, and haven't even submitted their app yet. The thing I read said they are months away from having their app ready for submission.

I have no idea how accurate that report is, but I really hope those months turn into weeks because Apple's maps are so unbelievably useless. I might have to buy the Garmin app or something. I actually heard from the tech podcast guy I listen to that Waze is a good free app and also Motion X Mapping or Maps or Pro or something like that is really good too, except I think you have to pay for that one. He said Waze is either hit or miss depending on your area. So maybe those are worth looking into.

[Theicecreaman]

...this is good business for other mapping firms!

Right now, I'm finding Google Maps through Safari to be working perfectly fine for me. If I need turn-by-turn directions, I can use Apple Maps or MapQuest, but I normally don't need that because I know where I'm going usually.

I love Google Maps for navigating cities/buildings/stuff like that. It just takes longer to load the Safari web app, and I don't think there is any Street View.

[Wonko the Sane]

Can Apple's maps do this???

[Theicecreaman]

Wow, that is freakin' awesome. Never knew about that.

[Wonko the Sane]

Yeah I saw it on Google+ this morning and it's awesome. I think they also have Mars and the Moon integrated into maps.

So I'm trying again tonight to see if I can reserve an iPhone for tomorrow, wish me luck! So far all the stores show "unavailable" but some people are saying it just might not have updated inventories yet. So I've got my fingers crossed. The more I use Siri on my iPad, the more I want it on my iPhone too.

I actually found a use for the useless sports info they added to it today... we needed to know when the NBA season began and ended today at work because none of us were basketball people, and Siri told us much quicker than googling it would have. Then it failed to tell us when the post season was, turns out we just had to ask when the playoffs were instead. Like I said, not basketball people so we didn't know. Siri is pretty useful if you just talk to it the right way (insert relevant chick joke here) and ask it the right questions (insert relevant i,Robot reference here) and gently caress it every few hours (insert relevant innuendo here).

[Theicecreaman]

http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/

and

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57522362-93/as-apple-says-sorry-google-maps-gets-a-little-better/

[Wonko the Sane]

Letter from the bossman? It still says my local post office is a high school that hasn't existed in at least 50 years.

[Wonko the Sane]

So I found a couple neat new things Siri can do that are actually useful. Tonight I saw a commercial for that new movie Hotel Transylvania, and some of the voices sounded vaguely familiar so I asked Siri: "Who are the actors that play in the movie Hotel Transylvania?"

To my great surprise, it listed off the starring voice actors then showed me a movie card for it with other info.

I was like

Then, I asked it to add "Hotel Transylvania" to my movies note (which contains a list of movies I want to see when they're released on DVD) and, lo and behold, it appended "Hotel Transylvania" to the list.

I was like

And then I asked Siri to start an eight minute timer for me while I was cooking dinner and it was like "..." "..." "..." "..." "..." "..." "..." "..."

I was like "Whew, for a moment there I thought Siri was replaced with an actually useful robot assistant thing that worked reliably. Nevermind Siri, I'll set the timer myself. You go back to doing whatever you were doing."




Edit:

So I tried out Apple's new earphonepodthings. They're better than the old headphones, but only marginally. The mids and highs are still extremely tinny, and even more airy sounding than the old headphones. But the bass is more pronounced, as in you can actually hear it now. I'm pretty sure they sacrificed the mids and highs for better lows hoping nobody would notice, but it kind of hurts my ears if the volume is too loud. Compared to my Senni's: Total crap. Obviously.

The best part of the new podphonearwhatchamacallits is the case they come with. Oh and they do fit better, so there's that.

[Theicecreaman]

I guess they're good if you go running with them, but I don't wear earphones while exercising, so I never ever ever ever ever used the Apple earphones that came with my iPhone.

I'm surprised they aren't better, though. I mean, $29.00 for a pair of 'em? You'd think they could come up with something better.

[Theicecreaman]

So I found something that might interest you while I was looking at this: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57523224-37/apple-rolls-out-fix-for-iphone-5-wi-fi-network-data-bug/

First off, I don't see the update thing yet, but here's the kicker. Go to settings-->general-->about-->advertising.

You will see something called "Limit Ad Tracking." By default, it is turned off. At least it was for me. You should probably turn that shit on.

As for the update, I'm still waiting, and it has yet to show.

[Wonko the Sane]

Wow good catch. I remember reading about that a while ago but had completely forgotten to go find the setting to turn that on. Basically, apps used to use some other number to track everyone's phones without anybody knowing about it. Apple caught on and is now forcing them to use something else and giving users the option to say no. So that's cool.

As for that update, are you sure it isn't only for the iPhone 5?

[Theicecreaman]

Oh yeah. true My bad, I didn't read all of it haha.

[Theicecreaman]

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-57526281-233/google-maps-with-street-view-on-ios-what-it-can-and-cant-do/

[Wonko the Sane]

Yeah... I didn't expect much from the web app version. Web apps have always sucked on the iPhone. A full native app is always a better option.

Hopefully it really isn't going to take months like the rumors say.

[Wonko the Sane]

Almost a month later, still no Google Maps app. Apple maps still suck. The local post office is still mislabeled a school (I submitted a correction a while ago). Makes me go

They update the iPad much sooner than their normal yearly cycle to be twice as fast as the new iPad I just upgraded to 3 months ago. Jerks. Makes me go

They release an iPad Mini and talk about how amazing it is that all their new products are larger, but are somehow magically thinner and lighter. They claim it violates the laws of physics. It's called the law of distribution, morons. A two year old can figure that out using Legos. And Tinker Toys. And Play-Doh. Behold how thin and light the Play-Doh becomes when you moosh it down into a huge flat square! Makes me go

They still haven't updated iOS6 to fix all the stupid little bugs in it, yet they want more money from me. Makes me go

iTunes still sucks and is still totally broken. Still can't WiFi sync. Still sucks a ton of CPU resources until I kill the process. Still waiting for the update they promised in October. Makes me go

Definitely not feeling the Apple love right now.

[Theicecreaman]

What are they even thinking nowadays? First, Apple Maps is released. Now, they release a brand-spankin' new iPad which makes owning the last one pointless.

Silly Apple. Fruits are for kids

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