Android fans don’t have to read this to know that Apple has issues. Apple fans don’t need to read this if they’d prefer not to know. But I have some Apple complaints.

QueerJoe’s Apple Complaints

First of all, I am as enthralled with Apple products as any rabid Apple fan is. I find the prospect of new phones, watches, Air pods, and computers all very exciting. But I’m also not one of those valiant defenders of stuff that isn’t great. When people complain to me about an Apple product, I don’t take it personally as if I designed the product myself. You know who you are.

I LOVE my Apple Watch. Yes, love. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to just bring my watch up to my face and ask it important questions.

The most useful questions I ask my Apple Watch are when I’m writing up a knitting pattern. I have it calculate gauge, stitch counts and inches to centimeter calculations. Having a hands-free calculator can be quite convenient.

However, there are some annoying habits this thing has. And I’ve come to find out that when I ask my mom’s Alexa similar things, they are done much better.

Remind Me To Buy Cucumbers

Telling Siri to remind me to do something, like buy cucumbers only adds it to a list. But if you never go to the “list app” on your phone, you’ll never be reminded of it. Reminding me and adding it to a list are two very different things. I saw an Apple video on how to set it up to actually be reminded and it was this ridiculous multi-step, confusing process. I would have had to watch-pause-watch-pause-watch-pause the video over and over again. Not worth it.

Address Navigation

I found a really stupid thing this past May when I was going up to the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat. I was en-route to Easton Mountain and needed to change my navigation to stop at Aaron’s house. “Hey Siri, navigate to Aaron’s home.” Aaron’s home address is in my Contacts. It asked if I’d like to add this to the current trip or create a new one. I added it to my current trip. As I neared Albany, it started taking me to Aaron’s house in what seemed like an odd way, but I followed it figuring it knew better than I did.

What I didn’t realize is that it had taken a random, generic address from my e-mail that only listed Aaron’s address as Albany. And it navigated me to the Albany Airport. Why would it go looking for a different address than was in my contacts?!?! Quite annoying.

This Is What I Found On The Web

This one isn’t so bad, but Alexa does it much better. When I ask a Siri some questions, it will provide me with a list of web references instead of answering what should be a pretty direct question. “What’s the best gay knitting blog?” will return, “Here’s what I found on the web.” And of course, they list my blog. But when I ask this type of question while I’m driving and it gives me web references, it can be frustrating. I can’t really focus on my Apple Watch listing of web references while I’m driving.

Just like my country, I think it’s Apple is great in many ways. But I also have ideas about how it can be better.

Current Crochet

Work on the crochet, short-sleeve shirt continues.

It’s slow and steady progress. Which I’m fine with. I have no other projects demanding immediate attention.