The Hateful Eight Teaser Trailer

I don't think I've ever been this excited for an upcoming holiday movie season. Between Star Wars, Snowden and The Hateful Eight it's hard to rank them all (although I give a slight edge in terms of sheer excitement to Star Wars). One of the movies that has been on my radar since we started hearing rumors about it is The Hateful Eight, Quentin Tarantino's Western which revolves around eight westerners who seek refuge in a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass during a blizzard. With the usual Tarantino suspects (Jackson, Russell, Roth, Madsen, Dern) this is surely to be another blockbuster.

Check out the new teaser trailer below. Movie hits theaters in limited release Christmas day and nationwide January 8th, 2016.

The Dead Weather - Dodge and Burn - Album Sampler

The more music associated with Jack White that I can get into my life the better. The Dead Weather finally announced a new LP that will see a release on September 25th, the first album since 2010's Sea of Cowards. For anyone not familiar with The Dead Weather the band consists of Jack White (The White Stripes), Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age) and Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs).

Check out the album sampler below which you can find on Third Man Records Soundcloud page.

P.S. - I miss The White Stripes.

Apple Watch Review - 2 Months In

I know what you're saying. Not another Apple Watch review. When it comes to adopting Apple products I dipped my toes into the Apple Watch pool a bit later than I normally would. The watch was announced in September 2014 and found its release in April 2015. I told myself I would not be an early adopter but certain circumstances and life events "forced" me to hop onto the Apple online store and place an order for one.

I've now been using it for two months and wanted to get my thoughts out about the hardware, software and features I use to help integrate it into my life.  This won't be  a long drawn out review but a breakdown of three of the major elements of the watch:  Hardware, Software and Apps.

Can You Show Me Your Apple Watch?

This is the number one question I get on a daily basis from colleagues and friends. The interesting thing is this is one of the harder pieces of tech to demo to an audience. It's not a device that you can whip out and hand to someone to fiddle with. That's the whole point of the Apple Watch. It's not a device you spend a lot of time on/in/with. It's a complimentary device. The second you take it off it's locked down with a password. You can show off some apps and glances and all the wonderful watch faces that you can customize but the second you turn your wrist outwards to display the watch to an audience the screen shuts off.

I find the best way to explain to someone how the watch works and what its coolest features are is to simply let them try it on and fiddle around with it for a while. This is a lot more of a personal experience than handing someone your phone to test out. I wouldn't say it's on par with Jerry letting Kramer borrow his bathing suit but you get my drift. Strap it on their wrist and start sending them SMS messages, phone calls, emails and let them experience the haptic feedback and the sheer ease in triaging your daily notifications and reminders. The subtle tap on the wrist letting you know you have something to attend to is a lot less jarring than the usual iPhone notification.  

As I mentioned the watch is meant to be a complementary device to your phone. Not something you spend hours immersed in. I find myself reaching less for my phone and being much less rude in public every time my phone makes a bleep or bloop. The subtle tap on the wrist alerts you of a message and keeps your incoming alerts private from others around you. I found myself disabling more and more notifications that I would normally get on my iPhone simply because they just proved to be less important than I originally thought. I had not realized just how many apps I had enabled to push me notifications.  

The Hardware

The Apple Watch itself is a beautiful piece of technology. I was originally on the fence as I hate large watches mainly due to my tiny wrist. The 38mm and 42mm options sounded nice but when I thought about the rectangular shaped face I figured the watch would look like a monstrosity on me. I decided to take advantage of an Apple Store Try-On Appointment and check it out for myself. To my surprise, not only did the 42mm watch fit comfortably, it didn't look like the oversized watch I thought it would be. It was light, discreet and comfortable while still providing a large enough screen for me to get tasks done. I spent a good 15 minutes trying on various bands and color combinations. There were a few common themes. All the bands were extremely comfortable. The color choices were all tastefully designed and while bright colors are not my cup of tea I could see myself finding a place to wear the blue or white bands.  

After wearing the watch for a good 20 minutes I found myself not even realizing it was on my wrist. It's that light of a watch and so comfortable I was immediately sold. Strapping the watch to your wrist has a bit of a learning curve to it as each band has a unique method for clasping to your wrist. After a few days of using the sport band it has become rather easy to attach. Keep this in mind. This is a piece of clothing. The most important thing is that it doesn't make you uncomfortable.

During the try-on appointment the watch was in a demo mode so the ability to mess around with apps and other features was not possible.  I could tell from the on screen demo the watch was snappy enough. The watch sports an Apple S1 processor and includes 8GB of storage space. If I could have walked out of the store with a watch on my wrist that day I would have.   

Once receiving the watch I was finally able to test out the internal hardware. All built in apps such as the calendar and activity were very responsive and suffered no lag in load times and operation. I found myself being very careful about which third party apps I installed. I recommend opting not to have the watch setup program install all apps at once and choose them one by one. Not all third party apps are functioning well at this point due to the fact they are not installed on the device itself, a feature which is coming with Watch OS 2.0 this fall.    

One of the things I was worried about after purchasing the watch was the update cycle for this product. It's not going to follow the same schedule as the iPhone and I don't see myself updating this device like I would an iPhone. I'm guessing most people will be on a similar upgrade cycle like the iPad for this device. That means the internal hardware will need to stay in line with the advancements that are made in the software being developed for the device. I'm pretty impressed with the performance of this device and I suspect I won't upgrade the device for 2-3 years, if I do at all.

Overall the Apple Watch is a gorgeous and comfortable piece of hardware that can be dressed up or dressed down for any occasion. The last thing you want is a wearable that gets in the way and slows you down. The Apple Watch is responsive and its first revision of the hardware does not get in the way of using the device itself and will generally improve your workflow.   

The Software

It was great to finally get my hands on my watch and dive into Watch OS. After reading all the reviews of the watch this was my biggest fear. I had doubts about actually using apps. If I was going to spend more than a few minutes in an app on the watch I might as well be using it on my phone. That is the line you need to draw when choosing apps to install on the watch. The way I look at it is if I can quickly load the app, pop in and pop out then it's a perfect candidate to be installed.  

Watch OS is quite confusing at first.  I set out to organize the "honeycomb" style home screen where all the apps reside. I spent a good bit of time putting third party apps to the left of the watch app and stock apps to the right. After getting everything setup and using the watch for 2 months I came to the realization that I rarely go to this screen. I would expect this is the case for most. What I find I do most when I need to access apps is to trigger them with Siri or simply use the glance. I never thought I would be using an Apple device and the apps would be the least important aspect.  

The first thing you are going to do is customize the watch face. Let's face it you are going to be looking at the face every time you engage with the watch so you might as well make it perfect. I immediately fell in love with the Modular face as it allowed for the most customization and placed all your important information right on the face. You can change everything from the complications and their locations, color of the text and the number of complications themselves. I find myself changing the color of the face and text all based on the color of shirt I am wearing that day. The calendar stays prominently displayed right in the middle of the face.  

Getting around the OS takes some getting used to but just like any new device once you adapt to the subtle changes it all becomes muscle memory. You invoke Siri by holding down the Digital Crown and you pull up your Apple Pay cards by double pressing on the side button. Single pressing the Digital Crown acts as a back button and single pressing the side button pulls up your favorite contacts. I haven't used the Digital Touch feature for sending sketches and heartbeats to friends yet mainly b/c I do not have any friends or family that have a watch yet. The idea to me sounds gimmicky but I assume it's much more of a personal experience when you have someone close to share them with. 

The workout app is one of the standout software features of the watch. While it could use more presets (weight lifting, etc...) I find its ease of use and display of important information to be essential. I think the gamification of exercising will entice people who are not normally active or athletic to find exercise more enjoyable thus proving the watch to be an ideal complementary health device. While I was pretty active before owning the watch I find myself pushing even more to fill up all the rings on the activity monitor.  

Overall the combination of iOS and Watch OS is a good fit together. The integration of notifications, messages and health have made my life much better and efficient. The performance of the software will only get better over time as Apple makes tweaks and squashes bugs. Watch OS 2.0 is promising some nice improvements, most notably allowing third party apps to be installed directly on the watch itself as well as the support for third party complications.  

The Apps

As I mentioned earlier using apps on the watch can be a real nuisance. Most of the things you do with the watch can be performed quite well with everything that came preinstalled. You really have to ask yourself prior to installing any apps is just how much use you would get out of them by using them on such a small screen. I based my choices on how much time I would need to spend in the app. Anymore than a minute and it makes much more sense to whip out my phone and enjoy the experience of the app on a larger screen. Using this evaluation process I narrowed down my third party app installs to a total of 20. 

Stock Apps

These are some of my favorite stock apps that came preinstalled with the watch and that I get the most use out of:

• Workout - This out of every app gets the most use. I fire this up every time I begin a new workout at the gym. Offers options for indoor/outdoor run, cycling and elliptical. Those are the three presets I use the most. Pro Tip: Start an open ended "Other" session when doing weight lifting.
• Activity - I pop into this app multiple times a day to to check out detailed information about my ring progress. Diving into this app provides information such as total number of steps, calories (resting and active) and any period during the day in which I missed a "stand" opportunity.
• Maps - The Maps app on the watch is great to the point where it's made me consider switching back to iOS Maps on the iPhone. If you start navigation on the iPhone the watch will pick that up via Handoff and provide you haptic taps on when you need to turn. 
• Messages - I didn't think I would be using Messages as much as I do. It's quite easy to send and reply to new messages with the watch. Siri is remarkably accurate and the handy quick replies make it easy to get a response to someone without pulling out your phone.
• Phone - I'll admit I only use this one in and around my home. The microphone on the watch is great so you don't need to hold your arm up for minutes at a time to have a conversation. Simply make or answer a call and walk around normally and the watch will pick up everything you say. To me making calls with the watch is more of a novelty than an essential feature. 

The implementation of the stock apps is really great and quite frankly if you never install one third party app you will get everything you need out of the watch. Fact is you do not need a watch version of an app (Tweetbot for example) in order to receive a notification from that app. The built in iOS notification center handles it all. In fact I am still able to interact with a Tweetbot notification by Favoriting or Retweeting right from the watch.  

Third Party Apps

These are some of my favorite third party apps installed on my watch and that I get the most use out of:

• 1Password - 1Password allows you to set up specific entries to appear on your watch for quick access. I was hoping to be able to access my entire password catalog but after thinking about it this implementation makes more sense. Being able to quickly access the four most used passwords is perfect for the watch.
• Fantastical - Fantastical adds more power features than the built in calendar app offers including the ability to mark reminders as complete. Brings a really nice looking glance as well.
• Power - Power is a nifty utility which allows you to quickly glance and see what your iPhone's battery level is currently at. It also provides notifications when you battery is getting low. Read the review I wrote here.  
• Delivered! - Delivered! is a package tracking app I have been using for a few years on iOS. I know everyone is a fan of Deliveries but I find Delivered! to be a better bang for the buck as it offers real time push notifications for package updates. It also offers a free OS X app to quickly add new packages which sync across iCloud. 
• Dark Sky - I'm a weather freak. My favorite weather app for iOS is Weather Line but my runner up is Dark Sky. Dark Sky offers hyper aware notifications for precipitation which is key when you are living in Florida. Every morning I get a notification telling me today's forecast and throughout the day I get notified about incoming rain. 

Third party apps are in a weird place right now. I give developers credit as they were given limited access to the device itself and needed to develop apps that were not only useful for a watch but also optimized based on the limitations they were given. Watch OS 2.0 is going to introduce native third party apps which will improve the performance greatly. I imagine I will be giving third party apps more of a chance once the update goes live in the fall.

Glances

Here is a list of the glances I use to quickly access information on my watch (from left to right):

• Settings - Allows you to quickly access settings such as airplane mode, do not disturb and silent mode.
• Power - Quick glance for the Power app discussed above.
• Now Playing - Quickly access the Now Playing screen of the currently playing track on the iPhone. This includes any audio playing through the iPhone (podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud, etc...) not just the music app.
• Fantastical - Fantastical's wonderful glance.  App discussed above.
• QuickSwitch - Quick access to WeMo toggles.
• Workflow - Allows access to workflows that were shared via the Workflow iOS app.
• U-Verse - Quick access to my U-Verse DVR, remote and scheduler.
• Delivered! - Window to check out package delivery statuses.
• Shazam - Quickly scan currently listened to tracks for identification.
• Heartbeat - Stock watch glance to take your heartbeat and check your pulse.  

I try and keep my glance selection to a select handful to prevent congestion on the glance screen. If you enable too many you will find yourself endlessly scrolling through your list which defeats the purpose of the "quick glance". Try and organize them in a scheme that makes the most sense for your use. I organize mine by most used on the left to least on the right and they are categorized as best as possible. 

Conclusion

The Apple Watch is not a device you need. It's not something that you will interact with all day like you would a phone. If you are, you are using it wrong. The watch is a complementary device and while most will consider it a pricey "accessory", if used correctly, it can add a whole new aspect to your productivity. I'm in a weird place with the watch. The luster has definitely worn off since day one. I don't find myself obsessing about the device like I would my phone. I'm typically an adopter of every iPhone model but I can't see myself upgrading the watch, if at all. 

The Apple Watch adds a level of ease to your life once you get used to its operation. Apple Pay is much quicker on the watch than it is on the phone. Interacting with messages or calls is a treat but more of a novelty for me. Being able to glance at sports scores quickly is a luxury. Here is a breakdown of my likes and dislikes.

Pros

• Beautiful design and well constructed
• Perfect timekeeper
• Fitness tracking + Health motivation
• Handling of notifications
• Voice dictation
• Great battery life (in my testing, full day with some left to spare)
• Customizable

Cons

• Expensive (even at $349 for the 32mm base model)
• Buggy software (should be ironed out in Watch OS 2.0)
• Slow third party apps (another issue which should be sorted out in Watch OS 2.0)
• Requires an iPhone to use a majority of features

The fact of the matter is this.  If I forgot to put my watch on in the morning and left for work I wouldn't even consider turning around, heading home and picking it up. My phone on the other hand would instill a small level of panic. The watch is a nonessential device.    

That is where I am at with the Apple Watch. Your mileage may vary. 

Edited 8/12 - Correction of 32mm to 38mm.

Updated Site Logos

After a few weeks of messing around with my rudimentary Photoshop skills I decided to throw in the towel and ask for help. My original logo was taken from the idea of a camera shutter icon but I've always wanted something more personalized that didn't have a stock image feel to it. I inquired with a buddy on Twitter about taking the camera shutter logo to the next level.  

What you see above is the new header image for the website. You will find this in the weekly newsletter as well. I'm using a different color combination in each but the style is the same. The footer of the website is using a modification of this banner that is a logo only. 

I want to give a huge shoutout and thank you to Adam Smoot who helped come up with the modifications and had the creative mind to come up with the signature logo idea. Check out his new blog here and give him a follow on Twitter. 

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Power for Apple Watch

While using my iDevices I am always thinking of ways I wish they could be improved either by OS updates or with a third party app that introduces a feature I have been clamoring for. It's amazing that no more than a week before Power for iPhone and Apple Watch was released that I said to myself, "I wish I could add a new complication to my watch that displays the battery life of my iPhone".

Power by Surenix is an iOS app with a complimentary Apple Watch app which allows you to quickly check your iPhone's battery and also receive notifications at preset intervals about the status of your battery.  

With Power you can easily see, in real-time, your iPhone battery life with a single tap or swipe on your Apple Watch. Power will notify you on your Apple Watch when your iPhone battery is running low and/or is fully charged, even if it is not in the same room as you. You are also provided with useful information, including indications of when your iPhone is charging or whether it has been fully charged.

Power is set to check your iPhone battery life hourly and will only send you a notification when your iPhone battery is within the following range:  100%, 95%-85%, 55%-45%, 25%-15%, or 0%.

I'm hoping when Watch OS 2.0 is released in the fall that Power will receive an update to support third party complications.

Power is available for $0.99 on the App Store.  

Interesting Links

Friday is finally here. I was thinking about Friday the second I stepped into the office Monday morning.  Here is what you may have missed this week and what I found interesting.

• The long awaited Big Boi and Phantogram collaboration has finally been completed. No date is available for the release of the album but we can expect it soon. The Fader has some details.
• An exciting report surfaced Tuesday about the possibility of Apple expanding the Beats channels. According to anonymous sources via 9to5Mac Apple's contracts with major music labels will allow expansion of Beats radio to five additional channels.  
• Another week, another Apple rumor.  This one from MacRumors via Digitimes which suggests the iPhone 6c will launch in the second quarter of 2016.  
• iMore reports that five weeks after the launch of Apple Music the tech giant has reached the 11 million subscriber milestone. This is pretty impressive for a service that has been available for just over a month. 
• Great interview over on Evening Standard with Jimmy Iovine.  He goes into detail about Apple Music, Zane Lowe and facing the wrath of Taylor Swift. 
• Speaking of Taylor Swift. She recently gave an interview to Vanity Fair and one of the revelations was regarding Apple Music and how she stood up to the tech giant which ultimately turned out to be a huge victory for both sides.  
• Cult of Mac has an interesting nugget regarding a patent application recently filed by Apple. This new feature would add digital mixtape functionality to iTunes which would allow you to share custom created tapes with friends. 

Enjoy your weekend!  

Portfolio on Facebook

I decided to bite the bullet and create a Facebook page for the Portfolio. The main purpose for the page is to cross post all articles and galleries. I'm not active on Facebook as I prefer Twitter but if you are one of the many who enjoy reading their news on Facebook please feel free to like my page and enjoy the content in your newsfeed.

Thanks and enjoy.  

DJ Shadow + Cut Chemist - Afrika Bambaataa Tribute Show

One of my favorite musicians/DJ's of all time is DJ Shadow. I'm ashamed being such a huge fan that I have never had the opportunity to see him live. There was always a running joke amongst my friends that South Floridian's always had to travel to Georgia in order to see a quality show. I'm guessing the lack of South Florida exposure for DJ Shadow is two-fold. His live shows require a massive amount of gear and the travel costs/coordination of doing a show in South Florida must be a strain.  I guess it doesn't help when you get kicked off the decks at Club Mansion for not "playing enough commercial hip hop". That would certainly put a foul taste in your mouth.  

DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist went on tour last year (Renegades of Rhythm) and if you were lucky to catch them you were able to witness some hip hop history.  Both DJ's pulled records directly from Afrika Bambaataa's personal collection to recreate a 100 minute set which took you through a lesson in turntablism and breakbeats.  

One of the performances was recently posted to YouTube.  You can view the set in its entirety below.  Enjoy.  

Portfolio Newsletter

Bit of site news. I recently added an option to the Subscribe page to sign up for a weekly newsletter which includes all the previous week's posts from the Portfolio blog.  This will be delivered every Saturday morning around 6:00 AM and will include links to each post. This is what a sample newsletter will look like.

Feel free to sign up by using the form below or visit the Subscribe page. I'm using Mailchimp for the service and respect your privacy.  No information is collected other than your email address.

Enjoy.  It goes well with a morning cup of coffee.  

Beats 1 Replays

I love Beats 1. It brings the nostalgia of listening to quality terrestrial radio. I'm probably in the minority when it comes to enjoying the DJ voiceovers and commentary though. One of my biggest gripes about the Beats 1 service is the inability to listen to past episodes I may have missed or wanted to play again. While individual DJ's are uploading the playlists of the tracks they played during the show to their Connect accounts it did not provide any of the DJ commentary/exact copy of what was broadcasted and discussed on that show. The process was rather cumbersome as you needed to go to the radio section of your music app, browse for the show and hopefully that particular DJ uploaded his or her playlist. We need a better solution. Enter Beats 1 Replays.  MacStories broke the news...

Now, if you've missed a show and would prefer to listen to it whenever you'd like, you can find the Replay (again, through Connect) and tap to start listening. The easiest way to find Replays is to look for the DJ's curator page on Connect (such as "Julie Adenuga on Beats 1"), tap the Connect tab, and look for a playable Replay.

As MacStories points out it does have some limitations. Beats 1 Replays won't display current track information so you lose the ability to love songs. Not a deal breaker for me.