I was going to say Apple Christmas, but that actually starts on the 19th or a couple of days later when shipments of new iPhones start showing up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looks like this year I may update my Ultra. It\u2019s got the O2 Sensing back online although it\u2019s not on device like it was in the original Ultra. They\u2019ve supposedly shifted the computations over to the iPhone to get around Massimo\u2019s patent lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Massimo has responded by filing suit against that too. But the sensors are still there, the appeals are still pending, and Massimo hasn\u2019t figured out that they could make a hell of a statement by simply saying, \u201cHey, we\u2019re a healthcare monitoring company. We make a ton of devices used in the medical industry and are interested in making everyone\u2019s health better. To that end, Apple can use the disputed technology freely with the proviso that they make mention of our company\u2019s technological innovations. Upon which the blood O2 sensing in the Apple Watch is based.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would be a hell of a PR move, save everyone time and money, end a bitter dispute, and put Massimo front and center, in a positive light. Yeah, Apple may have gotten away with something, but the larger win might be worth it and their case may have been enough to make Apple less likely to play around without paying patent royalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At this point the only people getting rich in this dispute are the legal firms anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are rumors that Massimo is spinning off their consumer monitoring device into a separate company or division, probably in an attempt to isolate their actual medical division from the legal conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d bet Apple would go for it. America is the only country where they have to disable the onboard sensors. I\u2019m not sure, but I think the EU courts told Massimo to go pound sand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new Ultra has other features that make it a decent upgrade to the Ultra v1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still deciding about it. And I\u2019ve got plenty of time. Pre-Orders are reporting 8 – 12 weeks out for delivery. I\u2019ll be interested to see what the initial reports are from people who get the first units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The iPhone 17 Pro is also interesting. It seems that I\u2019m only interested in iPhones when they have blue as an available color. The cameras (front & back) are vast improvements over what I\u2019ve got in my current phone. The battery life and cooling system are also of interest. My phone gets a little toasty in some use conditions. Fortunately, I don\u2019t encounter those conditions often enough to have it be a pain in my butt, however it would be nice to not have to concern myself with those situations at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll give it some thought, maybe I\u2019ll just wait for another \u201cBlue\u201d year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Given the change back to an aluminum frame, maybe I\u2019ll wait & see what the real world usage feedback is, before making a move. It\u2019s a very expensive product and if mine is working fine, perhaps waiting another couple of years wouldn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Probably the most interesting thing is the AirPod Pro 3. I really like my AirPod Pro 2s. They\u2019ve been out for a few years now. It\u2019s likely the improvements will make me demand Apple take my money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Better heart rate sensing during workouts would be welcome. I\u2019m pretty confident I understand why my heart rate is all over the place when I\u2019m walking or doing other activities in colder seasons just using my watch. Perhaps a secondary set of sensors would prevent the dropouts. But cold is cold and the human body is always going to divert blood flow away from the body surfaces to maintain core temperature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s possible the ear canal works the same way. Equally possible is that heart rate measured at the ear canal would be less affected, since the body is going to keep the brain fed as a priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The improvements to sound quality is a win, and translation functions might be very interesting. I wonder if people will be less likely to be nasty if they realize everyone around them knows what they\u2019re saying even if it\u2019s in another language? Likewise, I wonder if Apple translation will be adapted to translate some of the urban speech that now sounds more like another language as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rough math, if I updated everything. It\u2019s the cost of a new laptop. Wow!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then again, the power of the phones in our pockets has eclipsed the first few laptops I owned very significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The question probably comes down to \u201cSo I need that kind of computing horsepower in my pocket, or on my wrist?\u201d Better questions to ask might be in the arena of tracking, and privacy. Having a smart assistant in my pocket opens the door for having that assistant \u201crat me out\u201d to someone who is not my friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ll update to the new OS immediately. Maybe I\u2019ll wait for my devices to do it automatically. It\u2019s likely that waiting for the automatic update to take place will take a week or so, that might allow me to avoid the inevitable first release bugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was going to say Apple Christmas, but that actually starts on the 19th or a couple of days later when shipments of new iPhones start showing up. Looks like this year I may update my Ultra. It\u2019s got the O2 Sensing back online although it\u2019s not on device like it was in the original … <\/p>\n