Author: The Prepared Expat

Recommended App: World Time Widget

~ The Prepared Expat ~ 6 Comments

I’m excited to share with you World Time Widget by Lewis Smith! I wrote last week about why I recommend it, but wanted to provide a review this week so you can see how it works and why you’d want to get it. Some time apps are complicated and thus not useful, but World Time Widget focuses on doing one thing and doing it very well. Unlike many timezone apps that are spammy, pester for reviews, or display annoying ads, World Time Widget is designed simply and cleanly to get you the information you want, as you want it. Continue reading →

Apple Watch is about Content Reception (Updated)

~ The Prepared Expat ~ 6 Comments

My thanks to this week’s sponsor, World Time Widget, an app that puts timezones  in your Today View. Read my full review or why you’ll like it.

Abdel Ibrahim wrote an excellent piece over at WatchAware.com wherein he writes:

From the Watch Face, you are able to see your Glances and notifications. In order to see apps, you have to engage the Digital Crown. This makes it seem pretty obvious that Apple has purposely designed apps not to be front and center like they are on iPhone. Instead, Apple Watch apps are mere repositories where stored information can be pushed to the user in the form of Glances and via Notification Center.

This may sound a little weird, and I think to some of us it is. We’re used to apps being the focal point. But on Apple Watch, on initial waking, they’re not.

Astute observation. The “home state” isn’t the app screen, it’s the watch face. It’s only seems weird because of expectational debt. But there is excellent reason why it differs, and it relates to what Apple Watch uniquely offers the user. Continue reading →

Recommended App: World Time Widget

~ The Prepared Expat

This week, I’m recommending World Time Widget, made by Lewis Smith. If you’re like me, you know and interact with people across multiple time zones. Coordinating meetings and calls with different time zones is a pain, especially if the calls are international. Then, just when I feel like I’m used to the time zones, Daylight Savings Time starts/ends and I have to remember which states and which countries shifted, which didn’t, and I have to relearn it all over again. Ick. I realized I was spending valuable mental energy trying to figure this stuff out and why not get an app for that? Rather than an app I have to open up, what if there was an app that put that info in a Today widget so it was always available with one swipe? Enter World Time Widget, a dead-simple app that solved this problem for me. Continue reading →

The Apple Watch, China Edition

~ The Prepared Expat ~ 8 Comments

My thanks to World Time Widget for sponsoring this site. World Time Widget is the simplest and best way to track timezones. Read my full review or why I think you’ll like it. By now it is widely surmised that China will be a huge market for Apple Watch Edition.  Shortly after Apple’s Spring Forward event, Scott Galloway of L2 think tank said:

The high-end model they should call the ‘China’ watch as it’s clearly targeted at emerging markets, aspirational consumers who are looking to spread their feathers (flaunt their individualism and wealth) with what has become the ultimate self-expressive benefit brand: Apple

With China’s gift-giving culture, rapidly rising middle class, and regard for Apple as a luxury brand, most assume Apple has positioned Apple Watch Edition for China. What few realize, though, is that the product Apple has positioned most brilliantly for China is not Apple Watch Edition but Apple Watch. The explanation of why starts with this picture: 2897e8f977398fc04115f04781b66f71

Continue reading →

Sponsor: TechHunter.co email service

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My thanks to TechHunter for sponsoring this site. TechHunter.co finds the best Amazon tech deals each day and delivers them to you on its website, Twitter (@TechHunterCo), RSS feed, and via an email digest.

I’ve found the email digest a great way to see the most-discounted items each day, on everything from monitors to hard drives to cables to cell phones to projectors to cameras and much more. If you’re in the market for a particular item, or just always on the prowl for good tech deals, check out TechHunter.co and start saving time and money today!

The Apple Watch Halo Effect

~ The Prepared Expat ~ 4 Comments

My thanks to @TechHunterCo for sponsoring this site. TechHunter.co is a site that finds great tech deals each day so you don’t have to.

When the iPod was released, it created the well-known iPod Halo Effect: many iPod users (up to 20%) bought a Mac after owning an iPod. Then, as the iPhone debuted, it too had a Halo Effect on Mac & iPad sales. Mac sales and marketshare have never been higher, and a huge reason is iPhone. As large as these Halo Effects were, though, the Apple Watch will have an even greater Halo Effect by converting Android users to iPhone, increasing engagement with Apple’s brand, and helping users experience the exponential benefit of the Apple ecosystem. Continue reading →

Sponsor: TechHunter.co

~ The Prepared Expat

TechHunter is a site that scours Amazon for the best tech deals each day and delivers them to you via email, its website, Twitter, or RSS feed. Hundreds of items go on sale each day, but TechHunter wades through them all and finds the very best discounts each day, saving you time and energy. Whether computers, monitors, cables, cell phones, hard drives, projectors, cameras, or anything else tech-related, TechHunter finds the deals so you don’t have to. Continue reading →

Apple’s Vision of Computing

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My thanks to @TechHunterCo for sponsoring this site. TechHunter.co is a site that finds great tech deals each day so you don’t have to.

Apple’s Spring Forward event and Apple Watch are not without controversy, much of it arising from Apple’s choice to release the expensive Apple Watch Edition and foray into “fashion.” Most analysts understand that fashion is important, but few actually understand why. The more observant have argued that, in order for Apple to built a computing platform of wearables, the form must first be attractive, and so Apple must care about fashion.

While this is true, it unhelpfully views Apple’s goal as being a platform and the means of achieving that goal as being fashionable products. A close examination of Apple’s marketing, however, suggests that fashion is not merely a means to an end, since a computing platform is only a part of Apple’s vision. Rather, the form and function of AppleWatch both serve a bigger vision: that the future of computing itself will be deeply personalized, even intimate. Continue reading →

The Focus in Apple Watch

~ The Prepared Expat ~ 8 Comments

Thanks to Iconic: The Ultimate Tribute to Apple for sponsoring this site. Iconic is a stunning book of photography that lives up to its name. Learn more!

When the Apple Watch was first announced, a popular critique in tech circles was that it showed a lack of focus, that it did too much, including things it was not well suited to do. One piece often referenced said this:

Messy.   Too many options.  This is such a huge blunder. Instead of a single, perfect product, we got a jumble of features and choices.   There should have been just The One.

For Apple that famously emphasizes focus, saying “a thousand no’s for every yes,” having so many options seemed odd. What had Apple said “no” to in the Watch? What could it not do? Why did Apple, a company so focused on focus, make the Apple Watch capable of doing virtually anything?

These questions are answered by deeply understanding what the product is: a personal, even intimate, computer. The more personal a product, the more its hardware and software together must reflect and adapt to the individual wearing the device. Continue reading →

Automating Instagram Posts into DayOne

~ The Prepared Expat

After MacSparky featured my home screen, I was contacted by several folks who were interested in my Instagram and DayOne workflows. I love DayOne and use it constantly to chronicle my life (read why I recommend it so much). I found, however, that if something was important enough I posted it to Instagram, I would also want to post it to DayOne. Doing that each time takes a lot of repetitive steps, so I looked at methods of automating the task on the Mac. These methods, unfortunately, are rather complex, so I set out to do it myself on iOS. There are three ways below that can help you do this.The best solution by far is the third, but depending on what apps you own or want to buy, you may choose to do it differently. Continue reading →