Wuthering Waves for Mac is available

 If you've been watching my blog, you've seen that I've played Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin Impact, Seven Knights 2, and Solo Leveling: Arise on the computer (and on phone occasionally), plus a number of handheld-only games.

I saw that Wuthering Waves was available for Mac and I want more games on Macs, as Windows seems to be going in the wrong direction again, for me.

I'm a bit less enthusiastic about buying from the Mac App Store instead of Steam.  I'd rather have my games available on every platform, including Mac, Windows, and Steam Deck/Linux.  Occasionally, something I bought on Steam will suddenly have a Mac version, but that is happening slowly.

 My M1 MacBook Air (from 2020) has 8 graphics cores, so it's decent for what it is, but hardly great.  I ran Resident Evil 7 on it and it was smooth but not great.  It's the same with Death Stranding and Divinity-Original Sin 2 and others.  Baldur's Gate 3's minimum requirements are much higher than my machine has,  so I haven't bothered.

In any case, I recently changed phones, so I updated my Mac and my watch to the latest operating systems to match.  Performance is down.

 Regardless, Wuthering Waves seems to be very close to Genshin Impact, Solo Leveling: Arise, and Honkai: Star Rail with some changes.

This feels like a combination of the other three.  It's an open world-type of game, so it's like Genshin Impact, but it occasionally requires testing to ascend, which makes it similar to Honkai: Star Rail.

As with Genshin Impact, I've gone all over to activate the various devices for Fast Travel.  This makes certain that I can go quickly and heal quickly, when necessary.  Unlike Genshin Impact, there are more than a few of these devices.  Additionally, some of the devices can add to the maps on your Terminal, i.e., your communications device.

After about a week, I'm at Union level 31 and my main character, Rover is at level 54, on the way to level 60.  As well, his weapon, Red Spring is at level 50.

 I've got ten other Resonators.  I started with Baizhi, Yangyang, and Chixia.  Since the start, I've got Verina, Lingyang, Yuanwu, Sanhua, Youhu (who comes in Convene regularly), Taoqi, and Calcharo.  Going through the first set of acts, I've seen most of the characters appear.  Are three 5-star characters good?  Calcharo happens to have great abilities, while the other two are like 4-star characters.

It's important to keep on top of achievements in Maps, Pioneer Podcast, Guidebook, Trophies, Data Bank, and even Store and Quests.

There is a lot of climbing and just like Genshin Impact, the characters will climb when you're not wanting that to happen.  There is a lot of fighting, also, as with any gacha game.

The characters speak good Japanese.

I haven't spent any money on the game.  I'm not even sure what I'd buy, if I felt the need.

 Obviously, at Union level 31, I'm making some progress.  Some of it is easy, but there are difficult tasks and I've had to go through some of them three times.  However, compared to Genshin Impact, it feels so much less difficult.  I was at AR 43 when I de-installed that game and I never felt as though I was making progress.  I never got to the point where I had access to Inazuma.  In WuWa, I haven't made it too far outside JinZhou, except for Mt. Firmament, which I'm trying to solve now.

Update 2025.04.17: This morning, I hit Union Level 40, so I did the ascension test and finished it first time with Rover (Spectro), Baizhi, and Calcharo. Now, my main character can go to level 70.  As well, I completed the ascension on his weapon and that can go to level 70. That's decent progress for a few weeks' time.

Update 2025.04.27: Got to Union Level 45 today.  I guess the training wheels are being removed now.  Two days later, the new (1st anniversary) version will arrive.  Working on the weapons and finishing some quests, so I'm feeling a bit more prepared for what will happen.  I'm still struggling with main quests.  As well, a few confrontations seem to be far above my level, requiring characters at level 90 or higher, rather than my level 70. 

Update 2025.04.29: The anniversary update is complete.  The "Cubie" rubbish isn't endearing to me.  Who would allow them to spend money on that, instead of a proper update?

I suppose I should try to embrace the ridiculousness and try to win some stuff. 

Update 2025.05.01: I embraced the ridiculousness.  I got through level 5 and then, it wanted me to finish two Main Quests that I can't finish with level 70 characters and level 70 weapons.

Update 2025.05.07: Finally at Union  level 50, which means my maximum character level is 80.  The unfortunate part of this is that the opponents have automatically had their levels raised, even in Simulation Training.  Maybe, if there are four or five characters at level 80, I can finally finish  a couple of Main Quests.  I was stuck on the Vault and got partway through the Black Shores tower, but couldn't finish the second tower. 

Update 2025.05.14: At Union level 52, I'm struggling.  Calcharo and Rover (Spectro) are at level 80 and have 5-star weapons at level 80, but I can't get Baizhi ascended.  I'm working on my two Havoc-oriented characters, Taoqi and Danjin, but getting them to level 80 and their weapons will take time.  I've only used Danjin in a limited number of battles and I've yet to have Taoqi to the level of the other main characters I've been using.

Update 2025.05.16: Baizhi is at level 80 and so is her weapon.  Got Danjin ascended, so I need to get her to level 80.  She'll be helpful in the Main Quests. Once I got to Union Level 53, it feels as though things became more even.  Certainly, having three characters at level 80 has helped.  Looking forward to see what other areas there are to visit.

Update 2025.05.22: I kept seeing some items for the anniversary that were locked up for 30 days.  Today, they were unlocked and I used the Convene tokens and got Ciaccona, as well as another Danjin.  That brings my total to 4 5-star characters.  Getting Ciacconna up to level 80 will take a while, but doesn't everything? 

 

Update 2025.06.17: Got past the level 60 ascension test.  I don't know if it will help anyone else, but you can see the helpers the characters consumed to be strong enough.

Once through the test, I happened to have enough to bring Rover up to level 86 right away.  I've been working on upgrading the skills for the last week or so because my characters weren't strong enough with level 4 skills.  I'm hoping that quite a few quests can be completed once everyone is at level 90.  I need to move Ciaccona past level 50 at this point.  Calcharo is the only 5-star character I have that is at level 80. 

Update 2025.06.21: Still working on Resonator resources to Ascend Baizhi and Calcharo past level 80.  Handling Calamity Class creatures is interesting with Rover at level 90 and the other two at level 80.  Supplies help, but luck is important and timing is everything.

Getting the other 5-star characters up to level 90 is difficult.  Working on the 4-star characters to get the resources to level up the 5-star characters.  When raising skill levels, I found that I need a third item and that you can only gather those (through battle) a limited number of times per week. 

Update 2025.10.09: The version 2.7 update was claiming that it needed 40.8 GB of storage in order to update.  I had around 144 GB free.  It wasn't enough.  I got it to 159 GB free and that wasn't enough.  I removed most every game and creative applications.  I got it to 349 GB and after the update, I'm back to 149 GB. 200 GB for an update?  Wow! 

Update 2025.12.14: Still going but I cannot seem to get the 5-stars up past level 80.  If I could even get Linyang and Verina up to level 90, I might have a chance to move the more impressive 5-star characters up a few levels. 

Update 2026.01.13: I've been trying the new areas added in version 3.0.  Daily Tasks are still set in the original areas.  I thought that they might reach out a bit, but perhaps, I need to finish a main task or three.

I've been concentrating more on Where Winds Meet and Solo Leveling: Arise and I've set the main interface in that one to Korean, along with the voices, since I'm learning Korean.  I don't want to be bored, do I? 

 

Update 2026.02.04: Version 3.1 is ready.  It claimed that it needed about 80 GB when I had around 250 GB free.  Perhaps, it should mention all of the extra bits and bytes.  Until I had about 100 GB extra was it happy.  At some point, I will have Wuthering Waves on my Mac and there won't be room for operating system updates.  I'm still on macOS 15.7.3, so I shudder to think about the requirements for 26.3, which should be out in a week or so.  Apple has been withholding updates for whatever reason, to get me to 26.x on iPhone, Mac, and Watch.

 The new version of WuWa doesn't look much different.  The update came with some goodies.  Hope they're good for you.  

Update 2026.04.30: WuWa has been updated again and it seems that they looked into the way it ran because it feels more responsive.  I used to struggle with which part of the buttons were active, and that's been corrected.  It feels like a fresh game. 

Like a Dragon Ishin!, Fate/Samurai Remnant rather than Assassin's Creed Shadows

 Maybe, from my name you can guess that I'm Japanese.  I'm fairly traditional in my likes and dislikes but I treat everyone with respect from the start.  Only the other person can reduce the respect I feel for them.

Ubisoft just pulled out of the Tokyo Game Show 2024, due to controversy over Assassin's Creed Shadows in Japan.

I have:

• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
• Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China
• Assassin's Creed Unity

All of the Assassin's Creed games are boring to me.  Technically, they're well made but they could be churned out of the same game generator with different artwork.  Most of Ubisoft's games are similar.  I read someone's comment that the games have no soul.  They don't seem to lend any emotional attachment that I can see.

I wanted Shadows because it's the first one of that series on Mac.  Macs have had enough power for quite a few of the Ubisoft games but they didn't want to spend the money.  It's understandable.

I don't know every detail about the controversy but sticking to typical Japan from hundreds of years ago would be appreciated.  Apparently, they didn't care to do that.  Japan had enough trouble from Westerners hundreds of years ago.  Why create more?  Many tourists don't have respect, so why should a games company?

I saw a deal on Like a Dragon Ishin! Deluxe Edition, which puts you in the role of a Sakamoto, something I can handle most days.  For US$20 instead of US$60, I was quick to buy.  That was quicker than the uncertain man with his head bouncing down the castle stairs.

The really good thing is that it is certified for Steam Deck, which means it probably works well with some tweaking.  I wonder how the new processors from AMD will be next year.  I hope Valve is already designing for an upgraded Steam Deck with a Van Gogh replacement and OLED technology.  The current one I have is fine for many situations, but there are times when it drops because where it should be and I have to be patient.

Anyway, if you haven't heard of gameplanet.com, you're like me.  I've been shopping Steam, Humble Bundle, and Fanatical.  I finally took the Mac Game Store off my Mac.  Game Planet works with ASUS, which is my Windows 11 machine.

Update 2024.09.28: I just did something crazy.  I bought another samurai-era game: Fate/Samurai Remnant.  It's a Koei Tecmo game.  They're big on preserving a sense of history and they've been making huge games about old times in Asia, especially Three Kingdoms games.  I'm sure I saw that the latest was number 14 (XIV) just today.  In any case, I bought the Deluxe Edition for about US$49 instead of US$100.  When I see anything over $40, I have to think a while.  The credit union wanted me to think a while, as well, and asked me if I was really buying it.  I am concerned about fraud because my $10 Walmart gift card was used a couple of weeks ago about 40 miles from here.

When I started it, I started the Japanese version and it reminded me so much of being in Japan, I almost came to tears.  Sadly, I've been in the U.S.A. so long, my ability to read Japanese quickly is less than it needs to be.  Narration was amazing.

Also sadly, until now, I've never met a game that didn't use the Escape key to interrupt things and show an option for the menu or title screen.  Right-mouse button was unexpected.

I need to dedicate some time to playing both games.

Update 2025.03.23: Apparently, the AC Shadows game is working fine on game consoles.  I even saw something about it being "optimized" for Steam Deck.  However, for PC or Mac, it's not as playable.  On Mac, they say "Works on this M1 MacBook Air" which is suspicious.  I can't imagine that it's actually enjoyable at all, if it's having trouble on an M4 Max SoC.

 Of course, releasing a game is often the most important part and fixing it happens after they get the money.  That said, it may take the a year to clean it up.  Ubisoft is in no hurry.  Their games launcher always seems to have an update.  I have to wonder if they'll ever have it as stable.  It took Valve too long with Steam but it's quite good now.

 In any case, if you bought AC Shadows, enjoy it.

Disappointed in Apple announcements

 While a new set of phones is an annual happening, I'm surprised that Apple wouldn't try to be more giving.

The iPhone 16 will have USB, type C connectors but will have USB 2.0, 480 Mbps speed.  The Pro models will have 10 Gbps speed.

The iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro will start with 128 GB of storage, even though the 16 Pro will be US$999.

I can't believe that 10 Gbps speed and 256 GB of storage across the line would have impacted their profit margins so much that they would so negative results.

Apple are just too worried about their balance sheet and not how they're perceived.  It's true that moving to Android would be a huge problem for many people.  Today's crowd seems so convenience-oriented that not getting the exact pumps of mocha they wanted will ruin their whole day.

Long time using Macs

I've been an Apple Mac user since 1993 when Atari was failing and Windows wasn't ready.  My first smart phone was an LG Optimus on Android 1.3, as I recall.  It barely had enough storage to update itself, after I un-installed my applications.  I went to the iPhone 4S afterwards and missed the "you're holding it wrong" problem.  I'd had a second generation iPod touch, so switching wasn't a big change.

I give Apple credit for coming up with some good experiences.  Windows and Android wouldn't be where they are today without Apple's leadership.

When I put MacOS Catalina on my mid-2012 MacBook Pro, Mac users were complaining about how horrible it was.  Just prior to that, I had an Omen by HP (2018) laptop computer and Windows update 1709 ate itself and I had to recover Windows 10 from scratch.

More announcements on the way

They didn't mention Macs.

The pandemic is over and the sales of stay-at-home equipment might never recover.  However, they haven't announced any M4 Macs.  The M4 is barely in iPad.  The iPad mini hasn't been updated since 2021.

If they said that the products will be available by Christmas, it would at least be something more than we've been told to date.  You'd think will the Qualcomm Elite X laptop computers actually out for sale that they'd be more energetic about saying something.  Those machines haven't been as horrible or as great as expected but they're available.  If someone starts converting games to work on ARM, I'll be ready on my M1 MacBook Air.  With all of the development studio closures and the layoffs, I'm not sure any of that will be happening soon.  The Resident Evil engine is working on ARM, just fine, though.

Maybe, there aren't enough M4-series SoC to make enough MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Studio, and Mac Mini units.  They might as well ditch the Mac Pro line.  They screwed that up.  For something similar, Qualcomm is supposedly hiring Intel engineers to likely create desktop machines with interfaces to outside devices, such as graphics cards and internal drives.

Apple needs to "think different" because doing the same thing year-after-year isn't great.  Their security is better than the others but they tend to put certain software updates on the back burner until they make the news report.  Microsoft wouldn't even bother to respond in most cases, but would point the finger at someone else, if necessary.

Extensible Macs?

Will there ever again be Macs that have replaceable storage, graphics hardware, or memory?

I bought my M1 MacBook Air with as much as I could get.  It was 1 TB of storage, 16 GB of RAM, and the most cores that the SoC had available.  Even refurbished, it cost quite a bit.  Compared to an Intel quad-core i7, it was a huge step-up in performance.  The graphics hardware still needs more work to compete with AMD or Nvidia but compared to the GeForce 650M or 1050 mobile, it was good.

The EU is calling for removable, easily-replaceable batteries for phones.  Apple pretty quickly abandoned replaceable batteries in Macs back in 2012.  That's why my previous "last" Mac was from the series just before that.  My M1 MacBook Air doesn't have a thing that I can change easily.

Computers aren't as disposable as phones.  I've had 20 year old computers that were slow but fine.  Getting 5.25 inch floppy diskettes to not degrade is another matter.

Apple has shown and sold us machines that need their help to be repaired.  Can they do better?

Have the watches really changed?

I didn't mention the Apple Watch at all, until now.  I don't know that there is anything truly compelling, except for Sleep Apnea detecting.  The size has changed somewhat and the charging is better somewhat.  They haven't figured a way to speed up the transfer of updates to the watch, I'm sure, and I don't remember my 2nd generation iPod touch being so slow, even if it really was.

My Series 7 Apple Watch is sufficient.  It feels as though Apple has made it worse with each update.  The only good things I can say for it are that the original band is still okay, it detected that my heart rate was 192 BPM, and if I'm out walking to the store and forget to start the Outdoor Walk, it will give me an option to start it around 15 minutes later.

Update 2024.09.16: I was just reading an opinion piece about how iPhone 16 Pro didn't get so many pre-orders/reservations because AI wouldn't be available right away.

I'm thinking that people didn't reserve as many because AI would be forced on them.  Besides, the majority of people are probably spending their money on items that are more important to them.  Spending US$1000 or more probably isn't a priority for them.

Update 2024.09.17: Warning!  Updated to iOS 17.7 and macOS 14.7 today.  Went to California DMV to renew my license.  Filled out the application on my phone through the process to be ready for the window.  I got a notification and my application was GONE.  I could not log into the system through the California DMV app but Apple should have been checking since so many people working there live in California.  Maybe, someone at headquarters will return with a story and the fix will be out next week. 

Update 2024.09.30: Macs and iPad mini are supposed to be announced in October.  Hopefully, every Mac will have an update to M4 processors, including the Mac Pro.  The iPad mini will likely get an iPhone processor and hopefully, one that is an A18.  If the iPhone SE replacement in 2025 gets one and the iPad mini does not, it would be unfortunate.  They should have a fix for the wavy display problem, also.

Update 2024.10.07: Mac Studio and Mac Pro will have to wait until 2025 for upgrades.  The MacBook Air was always going to be delayed until spring, along with the iPhone SE.

Update 2024.10.18: iPad mini has been announced.  Going from the A15 to the A17 Pro will be enough to make it more powerful and just enough to keep it going for a year or two.  The better display hasn't happened.  This is the treatment I expect for the iPhone SE, but then, the iPad mini hasn't been the best seller, since it's almost the only tablet of a smaller size.  When the Google Nexus 7 (2012 and 2013) were new, I would compare those with the iPad mini.  Now, it's difficult to find competition for it.  The last 7 inch tablet I bought had performance like 2012.

This seems like pandemic hangover.  They started planning, were interrupted by the pandemic, and have had a rocky recovery.  Quite a few executives have left Apple in the last couple of years, but that also seems like pandemic hangover.  However, they desperately need a visionary.

Update 2024.10.29: The M4 iMac and Mac mini are out.  The MacBook Pro must be next.  The way executives are leaving, you'd think that Apple don't have a plan. Certainly, this release the products one-by-one without an event has been different.  It doesn't lead to "We watched an hour for...that!" reactions although people can and will complain about anything.

Update 2024.10.30: The M4 MacBook Pro models have been announced.  The good thing about all of these announcements is that the base RAM is 16 GB.  The bad thing is that they didn't increase the minimum storage.  How many can deal with 512 GB?  I'm still cleaning out my 1 TB drive regularly to make sure I have enough room.  It feels as though even a minor installation takes a lot more space than expected.  Obviously, Universal Applications take more space because of two executables--one for Intel and another for Apple Silicon.  We last dealt with such issues when moving from PowerPC to x86.

Even the MacBook Air is now at 16 GB of RAM.  Since the CPU and GPU share RAM, it's important that they have more, but usually macOS is so efficient, you'll barely notice a problem, unless you're working on high resolution video...or playing a AAA game that doesn't exist yet.  There are some of those on the way.

Update 2025.06.13: Since the M4 MacBook Air has been out for a bit, I've been considering a change.  My current M1 MacBook Air is the most complete model.  On Apple's website, the middle selection, configured to 16 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage, and 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores is similar to my MacBook Air, but only $50 extra than what I paid for my refurbished machine.

 What's more, they showed me a $390 trade-in value.  That makes it somewhat affordable although the sales tax is based on the full value.  After 2.5 years, spending another US$1000 to replace this machine might be worth it.  The performance difference is bigger finally. 

 Update 2025.09.04: There are announcements in just under five days for Apple Watch and iPhone and iPad.  Macs should be announced in October.  Will people trade their phones for new models after just one year? 

Update 2025.10.30: The announcements were phones and watches.  Apple still can't understand the difference between "faster" and "as fast".  They didn't announce the M5 iPad Pro or the M5 14 inch MacBook Pro.  I'm waiting for the M5 MacBook Air in 2026.  The M5 looks very powerful.

Gaming without a desktop or laptop computer?

 You've thought about it, haven't you?

Since the Steam Deck has taken hold, and the ASUS ROG Ally has arrived, mobile gaming computers are real and good.

I admit that back when Epyx Games designed their handheld gaming machine with color display, I was interested.  Atari bought it and put it out under their name.  When Nintendo brought out Virtual Boy, it piqued my interest.  However, bad, tiny displays weren't enough for me.

I looked at the Nintendo Switch several times.  The newer, OLED-equipped Switch really looks good, but it's not very powerful for 2023.  So many people bought them in 2020 and 2021 because they were stuck at home, the company did well.  For me, I want different games, and mostly, those games don't end up on Switch.

So, here I am with a Steam Deck and it's good.  I have over 182 games available in Steam, 62 are in the Great on Deck category, and I have 42 games installed.

Earlier, I was watching a YouTube video about installing a game launcher that could handle non-Steam-based games.  You have to exit Steam and go to the Linux/KDE desktop, use the virtual keyboard, and more.  Without a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, it sounds difficult.  It sounds like my 8-bit days before the GUI arrived. The good thing is that there is a GUI.  I'm not sure I want to bother with GOG Galaxy or the Epic Games Launcher on a Steam Deck in desktop mode, though.

Play Games or Mess with the computer?

This reminds me so much of my time at work getting Win98SE and WinNT to work.  Then, going home to my MacOS machines.  I really don't want to mess with the computer.  I bought Steam Deck to play games, not to become a Linux laptop replacement.

Windows Local or Windows Remote?

The good thing about Steam is that it allows you to Stream a game from another machine.  I can stream a game from Steam Deck, Mac, or Windows.  I can even play remotely on Android or iOS.

GeForce NOW will also allow you to run Windows games remotely on Android or iOS.  However, unless you're a premium subscriber, you may be waiting in the queue quite a while.  The Razer Kishi V2 works fairly well, but only supports/is supported by a handful of games I have.  It did not work with my OnePlus 8T and, while it works with my Google Pixel 6a, the Pixel 6a isn't as powerful as the 8T.  Gaming is not so happy, even for light, casual games.  Playing from a Mac is fine, but seems a waste.  I don't have a Kishi V2 for iPhone.

Valve has really worked hard to make Steam Deck a success and I'm pleasantly surprised how many games work well.  I'm not too quick to jump on the latest trends, but Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush from Tango Gameworks and Bethesda are pretty bug-free for new releases.

I'm not about to buy Hogwarts Legacy this year, partly, because it's massive, and partly, because it's expensive.  I would rather buy Baldur's Gate 3 sooner but it's going to be buggy and expensive, also.

Then again, if certain games arrived on Mac, I'd be spending to show my support for native Apple Silicon gaming development.  Some games work fine as Intel-based applications but more speed would make things go more smoothly.

It's interesting how many indie games are available for Mac and Windows at the same time while big studios can't seem to muster the courage.

Is playing handheld good enough?

I've played a number of games on Steam Deck, but some of my favorite pick-up-put-down kind of games, like Unreal Tournament 2004, don't work easily.  For the most part, you can play almost anything.  Games that require a keyboard and mouse will be difficult.  I currently have 44 games installed and they mostly work the way I'd expect but I removed one or two because they didn't work correctly.  Valve continues to make improvements in the Proton compatibility layer.

On iPhone and Android, I've been playing the Galaxy on Fire series for around 11 years, since the original Google Nexus 7 tablet with Nvidia Tegra processor and the second generation iPod touch.  Using gyros for the movement was surprisingly good, although it might have looked silly while playing in a waiting room.

Using a Steel Series Nimbus+ for the iPhone and a Razer Kishi V2 for a Google Pixel 6a makes certain games much easier to play.  It's a bit sad that Android controllers can't be more compatible with a wide variety of phones.  My OnePlus 8T just didn't work with the Razer Kishi V2 but the Pixel 6a isn't as powerful.  Now, Razer has a Kishi V2 Pro.

I still find myself at the computer, whether Windows or Mac, to play games that can't easily be played on Steam Deck, Android, or iOS.

I mentioned UT2004 earlier and it's one that I pick up for 15 minutes and then, put away.  I play Toxikk that way as well.  I haven't spent much time on Honkai: Star Rail or Genshin Impact on my phone.  They're too much for my Google Pixel 6a, but run fine on my 2022 iPhone SE.  The display dimensions aren't very good on the iPhone SE, as it doesn't really have a widescreen display.  It does have a powerful processor, though.  Genshin Impact demands a lot of my Windows 11-based machine.  Those fans run quite a bit while playing, even for a few minutes.  Teyvat is shown in great detail.

Which handheld will succeed to break the need for a laptop computer?

I'm looking forward to seeing Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and Legion Go take hold and change the face of gaming.  It's time.

Update 2023.12.14: Attached a keyboard and mouse to my Steam Deck and played Toxikk and Unreal Tournament 2004 as if I had a laptop computer.  It was a good experience, even though I need to adjust to the keyboard.  UT2004 actually ran better on Steam Deck than it ran on my Ryzen 7 5800H through the AMD application launcher using AMD graphics.  That experience on the 5800H was surprising, considering that my experience in 2004 was better on a Mac clone with an ATI card that was probably priced around US$200 in 2004. ATI's XClaim VR was the card from 2004.  The Steam Deck was awesome.

Cheap keyboard/mouse combo from Temu wasn't bad.  Longevity?  Who knows?

 Update 2023.12.26: I have Hogwarts Legacy on Steam Deck.  Performance is good so far.  I need to acclimate myself to the controls or I won't go far. 

Update 2024.01.13: Ayaneo has just announced a Steam Deck-like device using a SteamOS-like operating system, Ayaneo Next Lite.  It's starting just a bit cheaper than Steam Deck, but who knows whether they'll continue to support the operating system or not.  The company has so many devices that it may just be throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.

Update 2024.03.08: Ayaneo Next Lite will be shipped with Windows 11, for some reason.  Orange Pi Neo has been announced with Manjaro Linux Gaming Edition.  Supposedly, it will be less expensive than Steam Deck, even with Hall Effect triggers and a higher resolution display.

I've been acclimating myself to SteamOS desktop and updates through Discover.  Trying to work a machine without a good desktop interface is difficult, but this one is good.  When I was experimenting with Ubuntu back around 2005, there was a lot to dislike.  GNOME desktop wasn't good and Ubuntu's Unity was different, not better.  People raved about KDE but it wasn't that far along, either.

In any case, it's good to have a handheld device that can replace a desktop computer in a pinch.

Update 2024.03.19: Windows 11 Update KB5035853 has caused problems on Ally and others like it that use an AMD APU.  Too many times Microsoft isn't paying attention, but with millions of configurations, how can they test enough of them?

Update 2024.05.27: Things are better and there are more alternatives yet.  ASUS has an Ally X with some redesigns to fix and make things better.  We'll see if it corrects ruining the SD Card by overheating it.  It's still fairly expensive and Armoury Crate isn't much of a game launcher.

The newer Steam Deck OLED is a better performer and the display dazzles all but the most frugal.  There are over 15,000 games Verified or Playable now.

I've been playing a few games from Netmarble, some for Android, some for Windows.  I haven't got to the point where I want to try games outside of Steam on the Steam Deck.  I downloaded two launchers for the desktop, but haven't done much to try them.

Update 2024.09.09: I noticed this week in a couple of articles that AMD is close to a new generation of APUs for handheld devices.  There was a mention of Escher, which was in the same category as Van Gogh, the APU in the Steam Deck.  There was also a mention of Z2 and Z2 Extreme, the processors in the ASUS Ally and Legion Go. Supposedly, the Z2/Z2 Extreme will arrive first quarter of 2025 but the replacement for the Van Gogh may take longer.  It would be interesting to see how Valve handles a replacement for the current APU, not only in software, but in game verification.  Obviously, it has to be fully compatible, but will it support more to deal with technical difficulties we've seen on Steam Deck?

Update 2024.10.24: SteamOS has been updated to version 3.6.

I know that Legion Go and ROG Ally X are making improvements in handheld devices.  I don't see myself switching at this point.  I have a Windows 11 Pro machine and it seems as though the performance has become worse with every update.  Anything extra that they can eek out of Steam Deck would be appreciated.

Update 2024.12.28: At CES, there should be an announcement between Valve and Lenovo that the Legion Go will come in a SteamOS version.  Valve has been busy working on SteamOS to add drivers and such to make their distribution of Linux work for any handheld that works like the Steam Deck.

Steam Deck itself has been available in Australia for a bit, but it still has a long way to go.  The operating system is working well and many games run without major problems.  The minor problems often offset the problems that Windows has.

Update 2025.01.24: It has been a couple of days since I got a notice from Nintendo that the Switch 2 was being announced.  They didn't really go into enough detail about what it is.  I will guess that it isn't powerful enough because they always go less powerful than they should.  The extra port and the controller-as-a-mouse functionality is interesting.  However, after the number of portable gaming systems in the last few years, will it be enough?  Will the Switch 2 have enough power to play games without a Nintendo character, i.e. AAA games?

Waiting for Valve to do something about Steam Deck feels like being in the waiting room of a doctor who has bad news for you.  They might have cleaned up SteamOS 3.6 enough to calm down the problems.  They're not big enough to have a huge distribution network, so things are moving slowly.  By the time they have it under control, they'll probably announce Steam Deck 2.

I've been considering moving to SteamOS for my Windows 11 Pro laptop computer.  It takes so long just to get it to the login page, even though it's using an M.2 SSD.  The 24H2 update gave me hope and then, it's no better.

Update 2025.02.26: Valve's Steam Deck is three years old.  My Steam Deck is about two years old.  The device still doesn't have a major distribution network but sells well.  The company is working on a Steam console and apparently, another VR headset.  Is SteamOS enough to upset Windows?  The company is still working on a one-size-fits-all version of SteamOS to be installed almost anywhere.

I watched someone install a version of Red Hat's Fedora offshoot called Nobara.  There seems to be an Nvidia version that I could use, as well as a SteamOS version.  It started up like it was still 2004, but eventually booted into a SteamOS-looking interface, similar to when I use my Steam Deck with keyboard and mouse.

Update 2025.04.06: Guess what isn't going to arrive in the USA?  The Nintendo Switch 2 is being delayed, due to the tariffs from the White House. 

Update 2025.11.15: Valve announced Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and a second generation Steam Controller just recently.

 I've got the original Steam Controller (somewhere) and it's both really good and really bad, at the same time.  Hopefully, the new one will be amazing since they've learnt a lot from the Steam Deck usage.

Steam Machine is just a Linux-based box computer for Steam-based games.  Anything that runs on Steam Deck will run on Steam Machine, but FASTER.  Will it be as good as current Playstation or Xbox models?  It may not matter.

 Steam Frame is another matter.  The Valve Index was expensive and then, Apple made it look inexpensive.  I suspect that it only sold a few hundred times.  I would like a VR headset, especially one that has the processing inside it as Apple has done.  If they have the energy for it as they've had for Steam Deck, they might do well.  Samsung just introduced another entry into the market.

 Valve could really use a Steam Deck with much more processing power.  The AMD Escher variant was designed to replace the Van Gogh variant and they should be planning to use it. 

Update 2025.12.23: The LCD version of the Steam Deck is finished.  When supplies run out, they won't be sold any longer, except for refurbished models, I'd expect.

I wish that this meant that a follow-on product was in the works, but they seem to be allowing anyone and everyone to load SteamOS. 

Update 2026.02.25: The Steam Deck is four years old today.

 I waited a while to buy mine.  They had so many shortages and couldn't deliver for the longest time, so I waited.  Now, with AI servers needing RAM and storage, things are slowing to a standstill.

I saw the other day that AMD is not providing firmware updates for the Z1 or Z1 Extreme APUs and Lenovo made a similar announcement.  SteamOS seems a better bet but can they cover all AMD APUs? 

Apple Update Day

There have been loads of updates today:

• macOS Sierra 10.12.4
• iOS 10.3
• tvOS 10.2
• watchOS 3.2

Most of these were up to an 8th beta test version.

I don't have an Apple Watch, so that isn't a problem, thankfully but there is a rather large load on the internet connection trying to update everything.

I've updated Apple TV and my iPhone but I'm not updating my MacBook Pro because I can't get a number on the size of the update, and I'd rather not pay overage charges.

Besides this, iWork has been updated on the computer and the phone.

The most significant change is the new file system: APFS.  It's live on iOS devices.  I wonder if it's working on the Apple TV or Apple Watch.  It should be interesting to see how the phone changes with a modern file system, rather than some relic of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s with the electrodes sticking out of the neck to remind people of the creature they've been using.

I'm not noticing a huge difference at this point, and the phone seems to be working as well as it was--no glitches.

Better performance is always appreciated, so hopefully, that happens.  When the file system can be implemented on my MacBook Pro, I'll probably be much happier.  I'll be ready to update macOS Sierra in a few days.

OK Google vs. Siri

In the late 1990s, I used my Mac Clone with Mac OS 8.5 and PlainTalk to dial the modem, get my e-mail, start my web browser, and keep me current without touching a keyboard or mouse each morning.

It seems as though we've gone backwards since Mac OS X and while I have a built-in microphone, I don't use it much.

Then came Siri, with all the canned advertising requests.  It seemed that Siri worked beautifully, if you asked it the correct questions.  As the service became available in Japanese, I tried it both in English and Japanese.  At the time, I thought that Mac OS 8.5 did a better job.

A few times, I've used OK Google with the Google app to show me relevant information and it's not always okay, but it usually understands me and finds what I want.

I was concerned about tornadoes tonight, as the sirens were screaming for a couple of minutes.  Siri didn't know where I was and wanted me to access privacy settings.  I re-stated the request with a zip code.  It told me that it didn't look as though there would be tornadoes today.  Oops, that wasn't what I wanted to know.

The question wasn't that difficult but I suppose it could have been slightly vague.  However, OK Google had given me results for several news articles related to the area a few minutes earlier.

I also asked both for the location of San Jose State University and I got various information from OK Google, and again I got "I don't know where you are." as Siri pointed me to privacy settings again.

I could understand if it had trouble with names, but I saw the text and it had written "San Jose State University" just fine.  Then, it cleared the display and told me about privacy settings.

I disabled Siri again.  I might try it in Japanese again.  There might not be as much confusion, except that I'm not in Japan now.  I just tried OK Google in Japanese.  You must tap the microphone icon, as the "OK Google" phrase does not seem to work, but the results were as impressive as they are in English.

Update 2013.11.26: I saw an announcement today that Honda/Acura have added Siri Eyes-Free to certain models, as Chevrolet did earlier.  I hope those users have more luck than I did.  It's certainly an interesting idea.  My 2012 VW Golf TDI has phone-related voice commands but I don't have navigation as part of the car, so I would imagine that would enhance the experience quite a lot.  Buick's voice control over music seems as childish as their advertising but it might be useful.  I sometimes wish Apple would implement voice search but it would have to deal with multiple languages and they're not ready for that.

Update 2013.12.08: I've been using voice search a bit on the Nexus 7 tablet.  Apple said that Siri required the iPhone 4s' special noise reduction chip and that the iPhone 4, with its more primitive technology from the same company couldn't do the job correctly.  Why is it then, that all these Android-based devices work so well?  I doubt Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro processor has such technology nor did my (now ancient) LG Optimus S.  Of course, Apple wants you to ditch the old and buy the new, but it's probably not just about the money, Apple's developers probably can't get things to work correctly.  There are occasions where OK Google doesn't work with certain names, even when I'm quite crisp with my enunciation.  However, it seems to work better some days with UK English selected instead of US English--my accent drifts quite a lot.  Using UK English tends to get results from the other side of the ocean, which isn't always helpful.

Update 2013.12.17: I've tried to use the new Chrome plug-in for searching by voice.  I couldn't stop laughing at the horrid results.  It rarely got any of the words correct, and I was using it on a rather powerful MacBook Pro with a 2.6 GHz i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and an SSD.  Imagine the results for a lower end machine with a 5400 rpm hard drive.

Apple: revised for 2014

A few things stand out from the Apple presentation today:

• No more 15 inch MacBook Pro with the older displays
• iPad 2 continues to be sold, starting at US$399
• Mac Pro is finally being updated, starting at US$2999

Of course, the iPad mini has been revised with a 2048 by 1536 resolution at 326 pixels per inch (ppi) display.  However, the price has also been revised US$70 higher, starting at US$399.  That seems a bit much, especially when they're still selling the (electronically) ancient iPad 2 for US$399 also (and people apparently want a full-sized tablet, even with low resolution but why shouldn't the price be $299?).  They have made their money back on the iPad 2, I'm sure, so why charge so much for the iPad mini revision?  Could it be that inclusion of the A7/M7 pair has upped the cost that much, along with the higher resolution display?  Alternately, they could drop the price of the iPad 2 to US$299 but that would disrupt iPad mini sales.  It would seem rather high cost given that the 9.7 inch iPad Air has the same resolution in a less dense display.  Also, there are still reports of low yields of the higher density 7.9 (what happened to 7.875, too much precision?) inch displays.

(Update 2013.11.06: I tried the iPad Air at the Sprint store and it was quite a comfortable beast.  It seemed rather warm just sitting on the plastic display, running the demo, so I can't imagine how it would be running Galaxy on Fire 2 HD.)

Apple, the whole "thinner, lighter" thing has been overdone.  My iPhone 4S has to wear armor to survive a fall, so it's bulkier and heavier, not thinner and lighter.  I appreciate that you want to design things with more aesthetic value, but there is a point where the devices aren't going to a museum display, and will be used by everyday people.  (I don't expect anyone from Apple to read this, and they don't seem to care anyway, but I thought I'd write it.)  I expect that the new MacBook Pro that is thinner and lighter will get some lawsuit about the palm rest being hotter and unbearable.

I wonder how many people use a Mac Pro now.  I haven't used one since the G4 days and I got mine at significant discounts.  Both were originally US$3999 each.  Of course, the base Apple II+ configuration was US$2495, as was the original Macintosh.  I believe the Macintosh Portable was US$6499.  Someone at work in 1990 had the Portable and I couldn't imagine spending that much money on any computer, short of a minicomputer system.

When people use Maya or other 3D software, or AutoCAD or various other technical design software, do they bother with Apple equipment now?  I know that Linux-based systems are often used on the back-end of projects but commercial desktop software is slow to move there.  As much as Apple and Microsoft and Google are herding us in a certain direction, we end up having to live with it because the commercial software we run isn't about to be moved.

The Macintosh operating system, (Mac) OS X, has been updated as Mavericks--something to do with a surfing spot in California.  As 10.9, it should be better, but I'm concerned about their slipshod implementations.  Look how long it took them to implement FileVault without losing data.  Resolution Independence never really took hold, but can be used on a per-application basis.  Memory Compression is their big, new technology and I think I'll wait, rather than having working memory corrupted, no matter how free they make it.  I wonder if anyone else remembers RAM Doubler from Connectix?  I used that quite a lot in one of my 1990s Macs, and it seemed to work flawlessly, but the Single-Tasking Mac OS 9.x (with Task Switcher) was much less complicated, although convoluted.

Let me remind you to take a moment or several moments to check the requirements and compatibility of your special, necessary software before you upgrade your operating system.

What I'm not saying is that I was ready for an iPad mini with the enhanced (but apparently not great, as far as color gamut goes) display--at US$349 but I'd want a 32 GB model, which would be US$100 more, and since reality hit, and it's US$50 more than what I expected, I'll be waiting.  I'd prefer to put money into an enhanced phone like the 32 GB iPhone 5c that has enhanced LTE band (2 bands on Sprint, my current carrier) support.  Since my iPhone 4S has no LTE support, and since LTE is starting to take shape, I'd like to be ready for 2014, when I'm expecting decent real-life LTE coverage and use.  (Yes, AT&T and Verizon have coverage, but putting LTE on a tower and saying that a town has coverage is not useful.  It has to work, and work well.)

Update 2013.11.17: I got the iPhone 5c and it's quite good, as you'd expect of what is mostly 1 year old technology.  I also looked at the iPad Air and it's very desirable, but only for situations where I wouldn't be trying to use it at stores or restaurants.  The Google Nexus 7 and EVGA Tegra Note 7 tablets are far more usable, if everything Android is in place and working smoothly.

WWDC -- iOS 7 -- 1984 is back!!

I'm both shocked and amused at the visual changes to iOS with version 7.

The technical changes are of more interest to me, but I was rather shocked looking at the revisions to what is usually eye candy.  It feels as though the original Macintosh operating system interface has been given a renewed life.  Back in 1984, we had a white with black interface, but iOS 7 is getting a white with colour interface, for whatever reason.

After seeing it, I can say that it's not blue and it's not silver/brushed metal/whatever.  The huge emphasis on blue since the original Mac OS X public beta in 2000 drove me mad.  If you're going to use a colour, use one that I want.  i.e., make it flexible to my whim.  However, Apple only once was ready to give us that ability and they pulled it away from us after displaying it--Themes in Mac OS 8.x.

Monday's announcement and images show us something different.  They said that they ran out of green felt for Game Center.  Okay, we get it, you didn't like trying to mirror real life because it would only be a pale (or perhaps, over-saturated) comparison.

The variety of colour in the latest screenshots make me wonder if Apple will be supplying iPhone in multiple colours to match iPod touch.  What I've seen doesn't seem completely good with the current black or white phone bodies but might be considered sufficient with a variety of colours, and black and white.

I read that Apple put their marketing people in charge of the new icons somehow.  I thought that they either hired the laid-off Nokia artists who made the child-like icons for their phones prior to Windows Phone or Apple copied elementary school children's art work.  They've said that it's a work in progress.  The last time I remember knowing marketing people who were in charge, our product was named Computron 7000.  Never, ever let marketing people do anything unattended!

I'm not sure about the rest.  Control Center sounds good but how do they know what we need and will it be flexible?  I don't care for their calculator, so if it cannot be replaced, I'm probably going to go to mine.  I already have a flash light app, so I could go to that also.    My point is that Apple, in their desire to provide the best experience (and that's important) for the majority of the people, don't always get it right but they, and we have to live with their decisions.

I'm thrilled that they've figured out how to put more things in a folder 6 years later.  It feels a bit like they're making the same mistakes over and over and over again, from Apple II to Mac OS to Mac OS X to iOS.  It's good that they've re-worked Notifications.  I'm still getting notifications hours later, after I've seen them and dismissed them.  I may be assuming too much, but I'm guessing that iOS 6 will never be fixed.  I wonder if iOS 7 will just give us a new nightmare.

This might sound incredibly negative.  I'm actually pleased that they're making progress but adding things like multi-tasking for all apps, support for game sprites in 2D games, and an official set of APIs for physical game controllers.  I'm thinking that Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall stood in the way of functionality.  I'm with Steve Jobs that the customer should have a great experience, and the user interface needs to be honed, but without progress, you will find your competition winning at something you hold dear.

Update 2013.09.25: I've had iOS 7 on my phone since two days ago.  It really reminds me of the early Macintosh days when everything was white and black, but with a bit of color added.  Of course, flat means that graphics can be rendered more quickly than detailed, more 3D graphics can be.  Also, ending the fuzzy green card table look in Game Center or the leather-bound calendar or the notepaid with poor perforations helps to make things go more quickly.

The experience is better and will eventually be smooth once version 7.1 is out, but it looks like crap on my iPhone 4S.  It looks like the first release of software, not the seventh version.  The slide down notifications works a bit better and the slide up Control Center is somewhat convenient.  However, the grab and pull down method of getting a search window seems inconsistent.  Funny, I complained about all the blue and now, it's all the white.  It's like a device they'd designed for the movie THX-1138.

WWDC Monday: turning 2012 obsolete

We all know it's coming as soon as we buy something: it's turning obsolete as soon as it has been released.

A car depreciates the moment you sign the paperwork and drive off the lot.  An electronic gadget starts toward obsolescence the moment it arrives in the real world and can be bought.  Even humans and other living things start to decay after they're born--we live to die.

So, it's no mystery that once new laptop computers are revealed by Apple at WWDC on Monday, mine will be the previous generation.  Oh, no!

As I had said when Apple released the first MacBook Air, the company would develop all of their laptop computers in a similar form for the long term.  They've accomplished some of that but they're still holding on to an earlier type.  I suspect it won't be until 2014 when they cut all ties to past laptop computer designs that are still current at this moment.

More than that, they desperately need to replace the Mac Pro--the tower-encased work horse created for the most professional pursuits of creativity.  Will they still have Xeon processors?  These processors have kept the price abnormally high, but have kept the performance equally high.  Will they be replaced with simpler, 8 core i7 processors?

I believe they must.  Apple have been working toward more reasonable pricing lately.  No, they aren't going into budget-class territory.  There is no reason to fight for the bottom end.  However, they can bring more power at a lower price.

Intel boasts the Haswell series of Core i processors as being less needy for power.  Certainly, whole systems seem too needy, especially when it comes to graphics hardware.  We've gone from 300 watt power supplies to much more than 650 watt requirements for many middle class graphics cards fit to a system.  As the CPU becomes less thirsty, will the GPU just soak up the rest?

When the various Macs were using G4 processors, they needed very little energy to survive, in contrast to the Pentium 4.  Even the PowerPC G5 wasn't incredibly ravenous.  It would be good to see a laptop computer that supposedly can last 7 hours on battery last more than 12.

I was reading something about nVidia's 600 series GPUs being re-badged with higher numbers for 2013.  Whatever Apple decides to use, I'm sure they'll be somewhat more powerful, but careful to conserve battery life.  The 650M graphics hardware in my machine can drain the battery so much faster than the Intel HD 4000 hardware, but then, there is so much difference in performance.  The HD 4000 uses less juice, but is it nearly as efficient?  I'd think it isn't.  Intel bought a third rate graphics hardware company to "help" the industry and they haven't really made a lot of progress with it.  It's still quite laughable.  How AMD/ATI and nVidia continue to dominate without tripping over the patents of each other is amazing.

So, when Monday afternoon (GMT-4) arrives at 13:00, will I cringe that my computer has suddenly shifted into the past?  No, it's quite powerful and will be after any announcement.  It's all perspective, of course.  If you live for tomorrow, you'll miss today.

I've seen the details now and I suspect that my MacBook Pro is safe--there was no replacement today.  The MacBook Air people should be feeling the strain, as those machines were given the newest Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Haswell processors.  The battery life on the bigger machine has improved to a rated 12 hours.  It's not as good as I would have expected but it's very good.  Once the new (Mac) OS X arrives in autumn, that should help also.

 Speaking of which, OS X Mavericks is the first Apple operating system to make me smile for a while.  They've actually been working on the functionality, instead of spending most of their time on eye candy.

Virtual Memory has long been a problem for Mac OS X.  Considering that Mac OS X has had its roots in the Mach (micro-)kernel project and BSD UNIX, it's a wonder that Virtual Memory would have ever been a problem.  The various BSD-based operating systems (OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD) have been really stable.

Apple, in their infinite wisdom, thought that they could fix the world with an enhancement and it's been hell ever since.  I used to be a PowerMac user with the fastest (Ultra) SCSI hard drives and the virtual memory swapping was always at the wrong time.  I suppose for most people using a web browser and e-mail client, it wasn't a problem.  However, I've been at the edge of free memory far too often--even on my newest machine with 16 GB of RAM.

I'm hoping that this new Memory Compression technique will put things right.  It says a lot about processor power when they can do such a thing.  Back when the Motorola 68000 series processors were new, virtual memory was something only big business machines would do.  Motorola came out with an add-on that allowed virtual memory, but when you consider how slow all of the components were, it was much better to limit memory space to available RAM--16 MB or 4 GB.  Of course, the 16 MB limit of the 68000 was rarely used.  It was more likely restricted to 4 MB by an artificial limit.

Replacing the networking hardware was an expected change, as they were a bit behind the times already.  It's not that everyone has been running to stores to find 802.11ac (Gigabit WiFi) equipment, but the major vendors already have it out there.

In any case, Apple are finally pushing toward the future again, having put it on pause earlier.

Update 2013.07.21: Apple are in the middle of a Back-to-School clearance, so there is no new iPhone, iPod touch, Mac Book Pro, etc. until supplies are exhausted.  I suppose it's good for all involved but once a year changes aren't really enough to keep up with other companies.  I thought that Apple were trying to be more flexible.  Hopefully, they'll also have enough displays for a high density iPad mini, but I wouldn't bet on anything, given all the delays.

(Mac) OS X 10.8.4 seems to be much better

Call me a skeptic and call me cynical but I've been deceived so many times that Apple has fixed things that I don't believe anyone else.  It's my belief that by 10.x.4, the version of the operating system is finally stable.

Mac OS X 10.3.4 finally had a decent amount of functionality and stability that I could abandon Mac OS 9.x, for instance.  10.4.4 and 10.5.4 signalled some great stability, although 10.5.x was a step backward for PowerPC-based machines.  The speed and stability was in 10.4.10.

I pretty much considered Leopard (10.5.x) a disaster.  It improved the pathetic performance on Intel-based machines to fair, while ruining it for PowerPC-based machines.  It was about this time that Avie Tevanian left the company.  If he was frustrated with Scott Forstall, I could understand that.

Snow Leopard (10.6.x) for Intel-based machines only, was a step in the right direction, as it seemed to make one faction happy--the new (often iPhone-related ) Mac buyers, who had no legacy equipment.  I have a 2009 MacBook that works pretty well with it, especially compared to my hobbled late 2004 PowerBook on Leopard.

Blah blah blah...I'm trying to establish some background but I write too much that may not interest anyone.  Sorry!

Anyway, Apple developed Lion to be a little this, a little that and Mountain Lion to improve on it.

I'm still a little uncomfortable with Mountain Lion because as soon as I connect my trackball the interface changes and some applications have a dual mode to deal with the new scrolling and scroll bars, etc.

My number one gripe with Mountain Lion is the delay.  I've got a 2.6 GHz i7 processor with 16GB of RAM and a 480 GB SSD.  It's nearly as fast as you can go--and there have been huge delays from 10.8.0 to 10.8.3.  There have been delays starting applications and delays quitting them.  10.8.4 seems to erase the delays.  Update 2013.06.10: talking to a buddy with a MacBook Pro with nVidia 320M graphics hardware, there is no noticeable enhancement.

I'm interested to see how it handles when I have 1000 photos to transfer from a CompactFlash or SD card and then, attempt to process them.  Usually, the fans start running and the temperature rises to near 100 degrees C--too hot--unless it's iStat Menus that can't count.  That was with the cooling pad running beneath the machine.  I switched to a 3 fan cooler from Targus and it helps a bit more.

I suspect that this is next to the last update for 10.8, since WWDC is next week.  I wish they'd fix iOS 6.x because I hate seeing notifications that show up 13 hours later.  Instead, they'll foist an additional set of problems upon us, and those who can't upgrade will be lost without security updates even.  I'm not being cynical--that's just history.

Update 2013.09.03: Geez, waiting for an update to anything, despite security issues, can be hell.   It's been about three months, and I see weekly reports about 10.8.5 but nothing.  There have been a couple of security updates, but nothing much to fix bugs.  I've been finding more and more than the 2012 MacBook Pro and 10.8.4 won't work with my USB thumb drives.  There seem to be conflicts with USB drivers that weren't there before the 10.8.4 update.  As a backup, I tried the same thumb drives with 10.6.8 on the 2009 MacBook and it worked just as well as it did previously.  I just need to make the data available to multiple machines.

It shouldn't be a surprise that an operating system fix breaks as many things as it fixes.  In any case, September 10th is coming, and there is an expected announcement of the new iPhone models, but computers (other than MacBook Air, already updated) should be updated and operating systems should see updates.  There will likely be iOS 7.0, as there will be new devices, but (Mac) OS X 10.9 should be available also, and possibly 10.8.5.  I certainly need fixes.

Update 2013.11.25: Time has come and gone.  10.8.5 and 10.9 and iOS 7.0.4 are all out.  Updated devices came along and 10.9 will help immensely with battery life.  10.8.5 will help with overall stability.

I've been considering a change to 10.9.x but I want to wait until it's fairly stable, especially when doing such a large download.  I might put it on the 2009 MacBook.  It's supposed to be a bit more conservative overall, so it might work better than 10.6.8, though I have my doubts.  I'd rather test it on a not so critical machine than to upset my workflow, even though Mountain Lion could use some fixing.

A tale of two tablets

In a few minutes, Apple will start their presentation of several new products including the 7.85 (7.9 inch, actually) inch iPad, if that's actually the size, only they know at this time.  Six days later, Google are going to announce their next Nexus phone and re-formulated Nexus tablets, probably including a 10.1 inch model.

At this point, these tablets may be the only tablets you'll want, unless of course, you're okay living in the somewhat limited Amazon.com land.  I'm a fan of the Kindle Fire HD but it's not for me, as I'm not looking specifically for a book reader.

In the last 10 days, I bought a Nexus 7 tablet--right before the rumours started about the doubled storage version for the same price.  I was impressed by the display and disappointed with the jerky performance.  I could read Japanese and Chinese clearly and that's unusual in a 1280x800 display.  On the other hand, while playing my favourite mobile game, Galaxy on Fire (THD, in this case), the graphics would be flowing smoothly and suddenly jerk, as if different parts caught up with each other.  Had I not been using 3 (2 on iOS, 1 on Mac OS X) other versions of the game, I'd think that the game developers were not very good.

For most people, will this be a problem?  No.  They'll browse the web and handle e-mail and play Furious Pigeons, errrm, Angry Birds splendidly--I never use that word--splendidly.  They'll realize that the Nexus 7 tablet is the best thing since sliced bread and enjoy that they only paid US$249.99 for it.  I would have, except for the one issue--I may again.

Now, when Apple reveals their new tablet, and their enhanced 9.7 inch tablets, they'll have a rush of people buying the new models.  What's new about that?  They always have someone rushing to buy their products after the announcement.

I'm expecting that all tablet models will have agreeable LTE/4G connections in countries where LTE is fairly well populated, especially Australia where the government attacked Apple on LTE that didn't work with their networks.  The "new" iPad will be revised further to include their latest processor (A6X) with enhanced graphics capabilities and overall increased performance.

Rumours in the last few days suggest that the 7.85 (7.9) inch tablet will start at US$329 (correct!) instead of US$249.  I suppose this is reasonable for the increased display area.  Someone has to pay for that extra 0.85 inches.  I'm sure they've tested the heck out of it and performance will be as smooth as the idiomatic hot knife through butter.  Take that Google and announce something that smooth on the 29th!

I'm also looking forward to changes in the iMac, Mac mini, and more today, but most of the attention will go to the tablets.

Update: I'm confused as to Apple's attempt to put us to sleep with the iPad mini.  It's a good tablet but it's made up of older bits that did a very good job when they were new, but it's 2012, not 2011.  The Nexus 7 hardware with iOS would be great.  I'll probably buy an iPad mini when they're refurbished.  Since Google's presentation didn't happen, due to Hurricane Sandy, the new hardware arrived without much notice.  The Samsung-based Nexus 10 is a capable tablet with revisions on the latest ARM designs, and it's beaten handily, apparently in some early testing, by the fourth generation iPad.

Update 2: I returned my Nexus 7 tablet, with much trouble, and ended up buying a new 32 GB model for roughly the same price.  This one seems to have build issues, and the accelerometer seems to dislike calibration.  I really like the size and portability, but what's with making one that works correctly?  Is there so much pressure to grind these things out that few of them are good out of the box?  I saw some drop and water testing and was surprised that the Nexus 7 didn't survive.  Now, I'm doubly careful, and I'm extra careful anyway.  It's obviously not any better than the previous model, except for the storage capacity.  It's a missed opportunity, but perhaps Android 4.2.x will make it better.

Apple retail is unfriendly, almost hostile now

I saw this article on MacRumors: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/08/28/apple-retails-emphasis-on-profits-continues-tied-to-operational-perspective-of-cook-and-browett/

The last time I visited an Apple store in a mall, it felt uncomfortable.  It was tremendously crowded and the employees seemed to force smiles.  Software availability was at a minimum, and there were so many iDevices that there wasn't much room for traditional computers.

The first time I visited an Apple store was just after September 11, 2001.  Apple opened a retail store in Tampa's International Plaza near the airport.  A couple of friends lived northwest of there and I drove from the Orlando area to get them and go to the store together.  When we started to walk toward the mall, we stopped for a moment and realized the silence.  It was eerie.  There wasn't much activity other than people going to the new mall but all air travel had been suspended, and next to an airport, you'd expect to hear planes occasionally.

Finding the Apple store, there was a queue/line to enter.  I felt like one of the fanatics being there early enough to see the store open for the first time.  (I have a love-hate relationship with Apple, so it was strange.  I love their hardware designs, especially internally, but I'm always frustrated with their operating systems and lack of fixes.)  Being with friends, one of whom sold Apple equipment, I was interested to see how they would react.

As the store opened, the staff were cheering, and handing out t-shirts in tubes.  I was immediately reminded of The Gap clothing store, where I never shopped.  (Mind you, I've shopped at Old Navy and Banana Republic.)  The equipment was out on (fake) wood tables lining the walls, while there were two huge rows of software centrally located.  Given that Mac-related software was almost impossible to find at the time, this was as close to heaven as it came for a Mac user.  Of course, everything was at full retail pricing, even though you could occasionally find software elsewhere at a discount.

The store was pleasant and Apple made sure that employees kept you comfortable.  I remember mentioning that they should serve cappuccino and biscuits.  It had that kind of a feel.

I'll jump forward to 2006, to a store in the Los Angeles/Orange County area.  The previous year, I bought a PowerBook, and the company was making the transition to Intel processors when I was there at the store.  I was looking at a MacBook and its unusual keyboard.  (If you ever saw an iBook with most of its keys missing, you'll understand why they changed the keyboard.) A staffer started talking to me, and asked how I was, and if I was interested, and as soon as I got through the name "PowerBook", he turned and walked away.  How rude!  Considering the article, this was far earlier than 2009, when they were revising the store and its policies.

In 2007, as the iPhone became the holy grail and fandom, I became less and less settled with the fanatics.  I noticed that Apple were feeling similarly, banning some Mac-related website authors from their media events.  Having been at the Genius Bar in one of the Orlando area stores, I was practically assaulted by an iPhone owner who put the phone within 6 inches of my face, telling me how beautiful it was.  He could hardly catch his breath, he was so excited.

it seems with every new iDevice release, Apple has become a distant relative, even though I had a second generation iPod touch and now have an iPhone 4S to replace it.  My current computer is a mid-2009 MacBook on 10.6.8.  I'd like to update it, but they'll put that !@#$ Mountain Lion on it and it's not what I want.

In any case, I don't look forward to visits to the Apple store, especially if I have problems with the iPhone.  I did this once already.  (Seriously, Apple, if the phone's operating system can't clean up after itself, why should I do it manually?  This stinks like Multi-Finder and setting memory allocations.)  The probably is finding Apple equipment otherwise, although some Best Buy and fewer Target stores have Apple equipment available.  However, you don't have to deal with the fanatics and in Best Buy, you'll probably find more software available, since Apple has pushed everything (but Adobe software) to their online store.

It's just not fun or interesting now, and maybe Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer will see that and realize that profit > customer is not the correct relationship.