Apple News

 

Apple News was the big deciding factor on which tier of Apple One I would select. I was pretty certain that I would use Apple Music and TV enough to justify that bundle. I wasn't as sure about News because it is an app/service that I had never really used before. However, since Twitter has become X, it has also become a cesspool and I was interested in reducing my reliance on it for news. Additionally, the Indy Star is behind a paywall and by upgrading to the Apple One tier that includes News, I get access to the Indy Star for about the same price as if I paid for the Indy Star by itself, so I decided to pull the trigger on the app.

After using News for several months, I'm generally happy with it. You can set up channels based on sources or topics, which creates a news feed curated for you. There are some adds within the articles themselves, but they aren't too obnoxious and there are no adds on the news feed itself. One of the best parts of using this app is that you don't have to deal with cookie disclaimers, pop-up ads and videos, etc. It is a much cleaner experience than clicking on links from X. This cleaner and less annoying approach to reading news that I care about is a much better experience than using X. With that being said, I wasn't able to completely get rid of X because of the individual contributors that I'm interested in. However, I was able to trim down the number of people I follow and thus the time I spend on X by quite a bit on a daily basis.

When you subscribe to News, you get access to daily puzzles which is a service that I didn't necessarily want but I do use periodically. Primarily I do the mini crossword puzzle, even if the clues frustrate me sometimes. Subscribing also gets you access to 100+ magazines, most of which I don't have interest in, but there are a handful I will check out from time to time. Retro Gamer is a magazine that I didn't even know existed that I've come to enjoy. The News app reminds me of RSS apps I used to use in the past. Its an app that collects your news stories in one place, and allows for easy access without the annoying cookies and pop-ups. The free service is good, but if you want to pay for the subscription you get access to pretty good additional content. You still have to scroll a lot, so it doesn't eliminate that part of internet reading, but for a low cost you get access to tons of content for the same price as 1 or 2 of the sources individually. 

Apple Arcade

 

I have access to Apple Arcade as a part of my Apple One subscription. The issue that I have with Apple Arcade is that it is the third gaming source that I have behind Playstation and Nintendo, and the fourth gaming source if you count Steam. That isn't Apple Arcade's fault, per se. However, it is important because as a gamer, I want to play the best games that are available and I'm not sure Apple Arcade can say that they have the best games available. Out of the 200+ games available, there are probably 15 or so games that I'm interested in. I'm actually OK with this ratio, but the trouble is out of those 15 games, I've either (a) already played them on a different platform, or (b) I have access to them on a different platform where they're better. NBA2K, for instance, is significantly better on the PS5 than it is on Apple Arcade. 

Apple Arcade has games available for Apple TV, Mac, and iPhone & iPad. Some games are only available on certain platforms, however, and I find this frustrating. For instance, I've been on a huge Final Fantasy kick lately, and Arcade has Final Fantasy I & IV. I do not currently have access to these games on other platforms without purchasing them. However, they are only available on iPhone or iPad. I don't have interest in playing these games on my iPhone with touch controls. If they were available on Apple TV or even the Mac, where I could play with a controller, I would be significantly more interested in the service.

So where does this leave Arcade in the grand scheme of gaming? I'm not really sure. I like the app and interface quite a bit. I think the game selection is OK but not great. I don't think it is all that appealing to serious gamers. I think it could appeal to people who enjoy gaming but don't want to invest in a console or PC for some reason. This includes people who enjoy gaming on their phones and tablets. For me, I'm a bit lost on what to do with it. I'd love to see it expand to more games on the Mac & Apple TV, where you could play on a larger screen and with a controller. I'd also love to see Apple TV get a Playstation Remote Play app (This has nothing to do with Arcade, but I bring it up as an example of how Apple could expand its gaming footprint.). For the time being, I will loosely keep an eye on the games that are available but likely won't participate in it much unless it gets upgraded quite a bit.

Red Dead Redemption (Second Post)

 

I decided to play through Red Dead Redemption again since it was re-released for the PS5 last year and was available on Playstation Plus. This is the first time I have played the game since it came out on PS3 in 2010. I remember enjoying the game, but I also remembering it being a bit buggy, to the point of locking up the PS3, which is an unusual situation for a console game. The PS5 version of this game looks and plays fantastic. There were no lock-ups or technical issues. This game is nearly perfect. The environment and gameplay are fantastic. The only slight negative I would give this game is that the gameplay, at times, is a bit repetitive. But that is being nit-picky, because despite this, the gameplay is so darn fun that it is very easy to look past this slight negative. The story is intriguing as are the characters you meet along the way. John Marston is a likable and memorable video game character. He's probably one of my favorite video game protagonists. I didn't particularly like how the government killed him at the end of the game, despite doing everything they ridiculously demanded. Killing agent Ross as John's son to end the game, however, was super satisfying. I want to acknowledge the soundtrack as well, which is supercool. Again, I really can't say enough good things about this game. It does everything very well and was quite enjoyable to play through again.

Apple Music

 

The Amazon Music app was why I switched to Apple Music and Apple One. Specifically, the Amazon Music app on Apple TV. One of the common ways we listen to music at home is through the sound bar and speakers connected to our TVs. I was using the Amazon Music app connected to our Apple TV via HDMI as the interface. I thought this would provide a higher quality connection compared to bluetooth, and honestly it was just easier to access the content through the app on the TV versus connecting my phone to the speakers via bluetooth. The Amazon Music app on Apple TV drove me nuts, however, because it didn't display the quality of music that was streaming (even though the app for the phone and on the web clearly display this information), and that bothered me because I wanted to make sure I was streaming at the highest possible quality. The sound quality was fine, but I wanted to be sure of the streaming quality. Additionally, Amazon Music has at least some music videos but you can't access them on the Apple TV app, just the mobile app, which made no sense. Lastly, the TV app would commonly log you out, necessitating a 2-factor authentication process that honestly was just annoying. These three things, in addition to an overall desire to rely on Amazon less, made me switch from Amazon Music to Apple Music. I'm into the Apple ecosystem so deeply, that I thought it made more sense to go this route instead of Spotify, plus the price on Apple One made sense to me because of the Apple TV bundle as well as Apple News (more to come on this in a future post). Now that I've explained why I made the switch, let me tell you my thoughts on Apple Music after having used it for a few months.

The short story is that I like Apple Music a lot. The TV app has never logged me out. It allows me to go into settings and adjust streaming to lossless, and I can press an icon when songs are playing that confirm that they are streaming in lossless audio. This isn't done by default, which I find kind of odd, but nonetheless the option is there. The music videos are available on the TV app, and there are a lot of them. My only criticism on the videos is that the interface on accessing them could be improved. The mobile app is also better, in my opinion. It isn't littered with podcasts and audio books and other non-music features. It just has music, which I like. Amazon used to have a desktop app for Mac, which apparently they no longer support because when I got my new Mac last year I wasn't able to download it. I like that Apple Music has its own separate app on the desktop, primarily because it brings back one of my favorite features of desktop listening - the mini player. It's so nice to have a small, rectangular box in the corner of my widescreen monitor showing me what is playing and allowing me to pause or skip to the next song. I don't know that the music selection is better than Amazon Music, and in fact for some playlists I actually like Amazon better. But I think the apps and ways of accessing the songs is much better with Apple Music, and like having the comfort of knowing that it is streaming in lossless audio on the TV.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Book)

 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a book of 3 short stories about a hedge knight named Dunk and his squire Egg. Set in Westeros around 100 years prior to the events of A Game of Thrones, Dunk wanders Westeros looking for work after his liege lord dies from a cold. The three separate stories form an overarching character arc for Dunk. At the end of the first story, it is revealed that Egg is actually Aegon Targaryen, a prince. Having read the books and watched the TV show A Game of Thrones, I'd say this book is written in a similar fashion. George Martin does a great job setting up scenes and the environment, but I'd say at times the number of listed characters can become a bit much to process. This is true in this book as well as in A Game of Thrones, though having watched the TV series helped me to understand the characters in the books quite a bit. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is also a hit show on HBO, though I haven't had a chance to watch it quite yet. I won't summarize the individual 3 stories contained in the book, but ChatGTP does a good job of summarizing the larger picture that the stories paint:

Dunk begins as an essentially nobody: a huge, poorly educated hedge knight with little money or status. Egg, meanwhile, is secretly a prince. Despite their radically different backgrounds, they become genuine friends. Egg is Aegon V Targaryen, who will eventually become king. That makes the stories especially interesting in hindsight. Dunk is essentially the common man's perspective on Westeros, while Egg gives us a window into the Targaryen royal family.

If you like A Game of Thrones then you'll like the stories in this book. They are well written and intriguing. One of my favorite parts of the book are the illustrations by Gary Gianni. Not only are they well done, but they do a good job of showing what is happening in the scene, and I think that visual cue added to my understanding of what was going on and how it would've looked. I liked having the illustrations, and I wish more books would incorporate them.

The Witcher (Season 4)

 

Switching the main character of any TV show is difficulty, so when Henry Cavill, who played The Witcher - Geralt of Rivia, stepped away from the character and show, there was fear that the show could go downhill. Unfortunately the fear became reality, as season 4 of the show was significantly less interesting than the previous seasons. Liam Hemsworth replaced Cavill as Geralt, but I'm not sure it was even his fault that the show went downhill. Liam looks like Geralt, and the Witcher by his nature is a man of few words. Liam could grunt and participate in fight scenes as well Henry, and so in that respect I didn't see a major drop off. The biggest issue with season 4 was the writing, and the only way this could have been because of the actor swap is if the writers purposely changed their approach to accommodate Liam. I didn't read that this happened, but I guess I don't know. I did read that Henry left the show because he was not happy with the direction it was going, so if anything it seems like the way season 4 played out was going to happen regardless of who played Geralt.

The issue with Season 4 is the pace of the plot. After the exciting events of season 3 reach their climax, we're left if our three main characters - Geralt, Ciri and Yennifer - seperated once again. Geralt goes on a season long journey to reach Nilfgaard, where he believes Ciri is located. However, the "Ciri" in Nilfgaard is a fake Ciri, planted by Vilgefortz. The real Ciri has joined the street gang known as The Rats. While her story is probably the most interesting one of the three main characters of season 4, I have a little bit of a difficult time liking the fact that the most powerful character in the show has resorted to becoming a common street thief.

As mentioned above, Geralt spends the entire season trying to get to the fake Ciri in Nilfgaard. One episode doesn't even feature Geralt, and another episode is a flashback episode of the characters traveling with him where the plot doesn't advance at all. Liam's Geralt character says very little the entire season, and again I don't know if that is because Liam can't act or if it is because the writers decided to make him boring, but this show has a Witcher problem, which is a big deal when he is the main character of the show.

After Yennifer's team finally breaks Vilgefortz's lock on portals, she is able to quickly portal to Nilfgaard and determine the Ciri there is not the Ciri everyone is looking for. It takes her most of the season to accomplish this, but once she can portal she is there in an instant. That's essentially her story for season 4. Vilgefortz seems more concerned with Yennifer and her group of mages than finding the real Ciri, which seems odd. The only person who seems really interested in finding Ciri is the Nilfgaard spymaster, who hires an assassin to go after her. He ends up killing the Rats but isn't able to finish off Ciri. 

To wrap this up, all 3 main characters essentially stay separated the entire season. Ciri, the most powerful person in the world, is now a street thief. Geralt spends the entire season walking on a trail, accomplishing nearly nothing. Yennifer hangs out with her mages, trying to recuperate from the aftermath of the battle from season 3. There's no clear main antagonist anymore. It's just a big letdown from what had been a pretty decent show in seasons 1-3.

Omega Watches

 

When it comes to watches and watch brands, I've always liked Omega. As I've mentioned before, I'm a bit of a sucker when it comes to watches and advertising. I was introduced to the brand via James Bond. Pierce Brosnan's Bond. Bond started wearing Omega watches in the 1995 film GoldenEye, and he has worn an Omega Seamaster in every film since. Of course, GoldenEye the game is when I really became a Bond fan and have watched every movie since playing the game. The game features the 300m diver watch on the pause menu that Bond wears in the film. 

When I decided to start a watch collection, I wanted to focus on certain watch categories with wearability. For instance, I wanted a daily dress watch to wear to work, a less dressy watch to wear on the weekends, etc. This was my focus over having a large number of watches or focusing on rare watches that interest collectors. With that approach, however, I've decided to place an emphasis on Omega watches for my collection. This doesn't mean that every watch I buy will be an Omega, as I like watches from other brands as well and Omega watches aren't exactly cheap. However, I plan on taking them into consideration when I'm thinking about getting a new watch for a certain category. This isn't just about James Bond. Bond was just my introduction to the brand. I like a number of their watches, and after buying a Seamaster Aqua Terra, I have a 300m Diver and Speedmaster Professional on my wish list. 

Beyond Bond, Omega has a rich and interesting history that appeals to me. The most appealing part of their history revolves around their Speedmaster Professional watch and its history with NASA and the moon. Since watching the 1995 film Apollo 13, I've been interested in NASA's space missions, specifically the ones that took place during the Space Race and Cold War. Omega's involvement with NASA during this time, being one of the first watches in space and the first watch worn on the moon, is super cool. 

The other part of their history that I find interesting is their involvement with the Olympics. Since 1932, Omega has been the official timekeeper of the Olympic games. With this has come a number of timing and scoring innovations, including the starting gun linked with timing and the touch pad in the swimming pool linked to timing. 

Finally, I have to mention my all-time favorite Omega ambassador. Above, I said that James Bond introduced me to Omega. That is only partially true. Around the same time that the GoldenEye game was released, one of my favorite athletes was an ambassador for Omega, cementing the brand on my radar. Of course I'm talking about Anna Kournikova.