Head Tale

Shea was home and planning to watch the livestream of the event but it was so crappy, we ended up having a nice family evening of watching the archive of the event after the kids went to bed.  Here’s some random thoughts (or if you want a more humourous take)…

• The reason she’s so pumped is she has an iPhone 4 that’s slowed to a crawl after I upgraded to iOS7, not realising how much it would degrade performance on an older phone.
• As expected/leaked, the first big announcement was two larger sized phones – iPhone 6 and iPhone 6Plus.  Shea will likely get the Plus as her phone has basically replaced her laptop for almost all computing needs and she doesn’t carry it in her pocket anyhow.
• The option to get 128GB models is nice too and as a general rule, I always go with “Buy the highest storage option available” whether it’s for a desktop, laptop or mobile device so that’s likely what I’ll do when I replace my own iPhone 4S (though I might just get an iPhone 6 as the plus isn’t as practical for me.)
• The iWatch announcement was again, something that had been predicted/leaked but still interesting to see Apple once again jump late into a new product category but with an eye to perfecting what has come before.  At the same time, I don’t think this marks the end of other smart watches including the Pebble I have on my wrist.  They’re almost completely different products – the iWatch is like a Ferrari and the Pebble is like a Pinto.  Interesting to read the reaction over at /r/pebble
• U2 giving away their newest album for free to 500 million iTunes customers (although it wasn’t quite as easy as “It’s in your iTunes right now!” that they announced.  I had to go to my account, find the Purchased tab then click on “Download Albums Not on This Device” or something – possibly because I downloaded to my iPad first) was either a really disruptive move or a final nail in the coffin of the traditional music industry.  (The biggest band in the world giving their album away for free – or at least via a nice payment from Apple rather than $10 per disc/digital album from the end user – makes me think the latter is closer to the truth.)
• The announcement of Apple Pay is getting perhaps the least attention of all that was announced but may actually be the single most important factor in taking Apple to another level as a company.
• Glad I bought the kids some Apple stock earlier this year! 😉  I hope I’m proven to be right with my decision to buy the kids some Apple stock earlier this year! 😉