BWare

Continuing in the vein of positivity and not just bitching [1]

• Electric toothbrushes. Just zone out for two minutes and your teeth are brushed, et voilá! And way better than you can do it by hand. Also get a cheap $12 AA battery version for traveling, and using on the dogs. Way better for brushing the mutts’ teeth [2].
• iPads. I didn’t know what I would use this for [3], but now I use it for everything. I’ve done lots of trips with this and not a laptop. I’d still rather have the laptop in general, but for general use and carrying around…
• eBooks. I still buy books and check them out from the library, but books on the iPad get read a lot more. Especially when traveling – no more carrying 15 books on long trips, or searching for English bookstores [4]
• iPhone X swipe gestures. I had both an X and a 7 for a while at the same time, and it was painful to go back to the 7. The gestures are just better [5]. I can’t explain why.
• iPhone X face ID. Ditto. It kind of changes everything. In small ways, but an improvement. It also means its possible to use the entire screen for display, which is a Good Thing. It will in fact probably drive me to purchase a new iPad with Face ID when that comes out, whether I need it or not.
• Apple Pay. Ditto. I can not carry my wallet. It makes me think that my driver’s license should be authenticated similarly so I don’t need to ever carry a wallet, except that of course the government (or Google or whoever they contracted it out to [6]) would not do it correctly and it would be both a privacy and functional nightmare [8]

 
[1] Don’t worry I’ve got those coming up. Cf healthcare, driving, gray cars driving in the rain without lights, US shitty driving habits, ugly modern cars…
[2] Do not mix up.
[3] Well, I did. Pictures. I got it to show photos, when the first Retina display came out. It’s a wonderful portable portfolio device.
[4] Also no more people striking up conversations about the book I’m reading, or meeting people in bookstores…
[5] With the exception of skiing and climbing. I’ve had my fingerprints go away enough doing both that the screen wouldn’t swipe up.
[6] Which is why I don’t use the traveler apps from the US Gov’t, or sign up for Global or TSA Pre [7].
[7] Also because I get them greater than 50% of the time anyway, so why bother. Perhaps when I don’t have status anymore, but then I presumably won’t be flying that much anymore so…
[8] I’m not a libertarian, but the incentives are all wrong for anyone but Apple. Sad but true.