Why the Apple Watch Will Crush

I've been hearing a lot of tech dribble about how the Watch (Sorry, non-Apple users. This translates to “Apple Watch” on a Mac.) will be a lackluster release at best and a dismal failure at worst. These "experts" site the number of Android-wear watches sold total less than one million and the Watch is dependent on an iPhone to do anything and it's starting price of $349 is too expensive and so on and so forth. These are the same "experts" who said the iPad was "just a big iPod Touch" and the iPhone was destined to fail because it lacked a physical keyboard. The point is, a complete industry exists who's sole purpose is to predict Apple's doom at every turn. They don't ever have to be right. They don't even have to site accurate data. All these journalist businesses have to do is generate clicks, and pissing in Apple's Cheerios is a proven method for success. It's just like someone at MotorWeek writing a piece about how badly a new Ford sucks. Right or wrong, it's bound to get a few million Chevy fans fired up.

So, I'll just ignore all the link baiters and counter what few semi-legitimate points I've read. First, there's the one about how few wearable (Android, Pebble, etc.) devices have sold to date.

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Where Are the Tim Cook Haters Now?

Let me start with a disclaimer: I own quite a number of shares of Apple Stock and have been trading it since 2008. The smile (smirk) on my face comes from the increasingly rapid approach of my family’s financial security.

Having said that, I’d like to take a moment to chide all the bandwagon business and tech journalists who called for Tim Cook’s head in 2013. I won’t call them out by name, but they know who they are. One of the beautiful things about the Internet is there’s no take backs! To see a list of articles from myriad journalists who got it completely wrong just Google “Fire Tim Cook”.

Go ahead.

I’ll wait.

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CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 2: The Best Thunderbolt Dock Gets Even Better!

I’ve owned the original CalDigit Thunderbolt Station since it first shipped in October of 2013. I instantly fell in love with the device with its driverless Mac connectivity and wide array of ports. Having owned a MacBook Pro since 2006, I’d resigned myself to the fact that my Dell days of sliding my Latitude into the docking station and all my peripherals working instantly were gone forever. I used to joke that my MacBook Pro looked like an octopus sitting on my desk with an external hard drive, monitor, network cable, audio out and multiple iOS devices using every available port on the machine. The CalDigit Thunderbolt station reduced the myriad connections to two, the MagSafe power and one Thunderbolt cable right next to it. The Thunderbolt Station handled everything else. Aside from the aesthetic improvement this produced, it greatly reduced the time it took to get my MacBook up and running on my desk.

Well, when CalDigit sent me an email last year announcing their imminent release of the Thunderbolt Station 2 (TS2) with Thunderbolt 2 support and the addition of two eSATA ports, I didn’t hesitate to pre-order one. It wasn’t that I particularly needed the eSATA ports or the increased speed of Thunderbolt 2 (yet), but CalDigit did cure the only beef I had with the original Thunderbolt Station. It took up a bit too much desktop space. The new TS2 is designed to stand vertically, reducing its footprint by a factor of five or six. My new MacBook Pro does have two Thunderbolt 2 ports, but the two external drives I use for backup and media storage are both USB 3 devices so I haven’t experienced any speed increase on either drive (nor did I expect to). I do plan to upgrade my external storage to Thunderbolt in the near future and CalDigit’s T3 RAID is at the top of my list. It’s there because of how well both Thunderbolt Stations have worked for me. I have to believe the same quality extends to all their products. I’ve always been skeptical of hardware vendors’ claims of “zero configuration”, but CalDigit delivers. The total setup for my MacBook Pro consisted of two steps: 1.) plug in the power and 2.) plug in the Thunderbolt cable. That’s it! Everything works and everything I plug into the Thunderbolt Station works without a single visit to the System Preferences app.

Just like its predecessor, the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 2 delivers true “plug-n-play” configuration, rock-solid performance and reliability. I you’re looking to rid your Mac desktop of an unwieldy octopus, the TS2 is just the ticket.

So Long TUAW. Gonna Miss Ya!

I guess it’s just the way things are these days. Long-time staples of the Mac community are dropping like flies. Last year, Macworld Magazine ceased publication of their print version and let go (fired) a large percentage of their editorial/writing staff. Shortly thereafter, IDG, Macworld’s parent company announced their annual Macworld conference was on indefinite “hiatus” and this year’s conference wouldn’t happen. The event that hosted the introduction of the iMac in 1997, the iPod in 2001 and the iPhone in 2007 is no more. I know, the official word is “hiatus”, but c’mon, let’s be real here. Jesus is more likely back and living in New Jersey than the Macworld Conference ever happening again. Now, TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is shutting down and being folded into another AOL publication, Engadget. The reality is, most of the TUAW writers and editors have been given a pink slip so the unique Apple-centric content that was TUAW is (most likely) gone forever.

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