Bob called the meeting to order at 7:10pm. Attendees were Jenny, Ed, Wes, David, Bill, Fred, Marv, Lonny, Bev, Richard and Estelle. (Sorry if I missed you!)
Jenny brought a batch of networking devices (switches and routers) for The Monthly Giveaway Pile. Next month…a mystery.
Bob started talking about the Watch that was unveiled last month by reviewing an in-depth TechRadar article. Bob asks why he needs an Watch? Bill, who is getting one, points out that you can look at your wrist and know what time it is! Amazing! But for someone like Bob who hasn’t worn a watch in 25 years, looking at your wrist would be a different workflow than pulling out your phone. It may be more convenient, but it is also much smaller than your phone screen. (And yet, at 37-42mm wide, it’s still pretty big for a watch, says Jenny, whose current watch is only 23mm wide.)
There is a very extensive collection of apps available for the watch – at least 20 apps by Apple already, and third parties will definitely be out by then. The fitness apps are ones that seem to (so far) have the most direct tie to being on a watch, utilizing the motion and pulse sensors.
“What would I use this for?” is something a lot of people say when Apple first comes out with new devices. Bob remembers wondering that about the iPad, and many have said that about the iPad Mini. As history will tell us, when it comes to new products and the markets for them, it’s best not to second-guess Apple.
Also unveiled at the keynote last month was a new 12″ Macbook model that comes in three colors, silver, gold, and space gray. It’ll be interesting to think of the target audience who will want the new laptop. The new 12″ is smaller, thinner, lighter, and has a retina display. The battery life is shorter and the graphics card isn’t as good, and a major drawback for many users is the single USB-C port that is expected to be used for power, USB, display, and ethernet. But for others, the size and the weight in particular – the new 12″ Macbook is a pound lighter than the 13″ Macbook Air – are just as big of selling points as the single port is a drawback. Apple has already produced a $79, USB-C-to-multiport adapter, and since USB-C is not proprietary Apple technology, you can bet third parties will create adapters and sell them even cheaper.
The group pulled up the Apple store website on screen and compared various models of Macbook and Macbook Pro. Each model has different a graphics card, processor, and size and weight specs, so there are a lot of different factors to choose from now.
Ed gave a synopsis of his Disk of the Month, which includes the latest Firefox and utilities for video streaming and printing.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30pm, after which several members reconvened at the local Denny’s.