Free Fable Legends, Lenovo to ditch the crapware and Apple Watch replacing your care keys?
I think I'll tackle those in reverse order.
Tim Cook thinks the Apple Watch could make car keys obsolete. So what? What about the Apple Watch makes it better than car keys aside from the consolidation aspect? Biometric readers? Consolidation is a great thing, and a great risk all in one. What things like heart bleed, Superfish and Edward Snowden *should* have taught us all by now is that no security measure is unbreakable or guaranteed. I was never under this delusion myself. But if you think migrating the function of your car keys to your smart watch makes all your problems go away you're daffy.
Also, if it isn't about security, and just about consolidation... then why not my phone? Or my coffee cup? Or my shoes? Most car companies already offer keys which are just fancy fobs which unlock doors by proximity and allow the car to be turned on by the push of a button. And like the Apple Pay conundrum... I STILL NEED TO CARRY MY F***ING KEYS ANY WAY! I can't lock or unlock my house. And my car keys are (like I suspect they are for many) on the exact same key ring.
In fact, this is a WORSE idea than Apple Pay. While many car manufacturers offer fobs. It is generally only on certain models and certain trim lines. Any car which doesn't use such proximity tech wouldn't even be eligible.
And the problem gets EVEN WORSE. At least with Apple Pay, my iPhone is highly likely to get me through the day. The Apple Watch has a rather dubious battery life ranging from (according to rumours) from under 4 hours in use to not much over a day idle. That is a wide and scary margin. Especially as battery life in the device degrades over time. Imagine getting stuck late at work and then not being able to leave because you were dumb enough to trust your watch as your means of getting into and powering up your car.
And lastly... what happens if the watch dies while you're driving? Even worse, and then you subsequently need to get gas?
Enough rant. If I planned to own an Apple Watch and a supported car I might try it once for shiggles. It is one of those show off things like Siri that most people won't use in practice. Argument boils down to two points; duh and who really cares?
Lenovo, in the wake of the Superfish nonsense is promising to de-clutter their PC's. Or are they? I own a Lenovo laptop (did a fresh Windows install long before Superfish) and probably 90% of the bloat was Lenovo software. Their press release says they will only install drivers, Lenovo software and commonly desired utilities. I'll wager the bulk of that remaining 10% falls under the desired utilities. So, basically, on an average install... you'll see exactly the same things, minus Superfish. Hardly all it is cracked up to be.
The big news for Microsoft this week is Fable Legends being "free to play". It truly IS free to play, but it is an interesting model. Basically, they will have a revolving set of free characters. So, over time you should be able to complete the game for all characters for free. If you don't want it to revolve you need to pay. Though in game currency can also be used which is a nice bit. I think the revolving character thing will be annoying as hell and drive people off rather than encourage sales though. I think a subset of permanent free characters and a complete story line would be more compelling. But if this thing plays out right, it could be a really cool/helpful thing for Win10 and Xbox One.
Tim Cook thinks the Apple Watch could make car keys obsolete. So what? What about the Apple Watch makes it better than car keys aside from the consolidation aspect? Biometric readers? Consolidation is a great thing, and a great risk all in one. What things like heart bleed, Superfish and Edward Snowden *should* have taught us all by now is that no security measure is unbreakable or guaranteed. I was never under this delusion myself. But if you think migrating the function of your car keys to your smart watch makes all your problems go away you're daffy.
Also, if it isn't about security, and just about consolidation... then why not my phone? Or my coffee cup? Or my shoes? Most car companies already offer keys which are just fancy fobs which unlock doors by proximity and allow the car to be turned on by the push of a button. And like the Apple Pay conundrum... I STILL NEED TO CARRY MY F***ING KEYS ANY WAY! I can't lock or unlock my house. And my car keys are (like I suspect they are for many) on the exact same key ring.
In fact, this is a WORSE idea than Apple Pay. While many car manufacturers offer fobs. It is generally only on certain models and certain trim lines. Any car which doesn't use such proximity tech wouldn't even be eligible.
And the problem gets EVEN WORSE. At least with Apple Pay, my iPhone is highly likely to get me through the day. The Apple Watch has a rather dubious battery life ranging from (according to rumours) from under 4 hours in use to not much over a day idle. That is a wide and scary margin. Especially as battery life in the device degrades over time. Imagine getting stuck late at work and then not being able to leave because you were dumb enough to trust your watch as your means of getting into and powering up your car.
And lastly... what happens if the watch dies while you're driving? Even worse, and then you subsequently need to get gas?
Enough rant. If I planned to own an Apple Watch and a supported car I might try it once for shiggles. It is one of those show off things like Siri that most people won't use in practice. Argument boils down to two points; duh and who really cares?
Lenovo, in the wake of the Superfish nonsense is promising to de-clutter their PC's. Or are they? I own a Lenovo laptop (did a fresh Windows install long before Superfish) and probably 90% of the bloat was Lenovo software. Their press release says they will only install drivers, Lenovo software and commonly desired utilities. I'll wager the bulk of that remaining 10% falls under the desired utilities. So, basically, on an average install... you'll see exactly the same things, minus Superfish. Hardly all it is cracked up to be.
The big news for Microsoft this week is Fable Legends being "free to play". It truly IS free to play, but it is an interesting model. Basically, they will have a revolving set of free characters. So, over time you should be able to complete the game for all characters for free. If you don't want it to revolve you need to pay. Though in game currency can also be used which is a nice bit. I think the revolving character thing will be annoying as hell and drive people off rather than encourage sales though. I think a subset of permanent free characters and a complete story line would be more compelling. But if this thing plays out right, it could be a really cool/helpful thing for Win10 and Xbox One.
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