watchOS 3 Battery Life Update!

After driving myself crazy for a few days trying to figure out why the new watchOS 3 was killing the battery on my Apple Watch, I ran across several articles that offered some great tips that seemed to have worked:

  • Trimming The Dock: Don't go crazy and add 25 apps to your dock. These apps are constantly refreshed in the background. Narrow it down to the top 4 or 5 apps you want instant access to. Which leads me to the next tip...
  • Background App Refresh: Unlike the previous versions of watchOS where apps were suspended until opened, the newest version of the OS allows for apps to refreshed automatically in the background so there's no delay when opening the app. As stated above everything in the dock is refreshed automatically, but you can set it to have as many or as few apps refreshed as you want. In my case somehow every single app I had installed was set to update in the background. Turning that off (iOS Watch app>General>Background App Refresh) singlehandedly saved my sanity and battery.
  • Turn Off Mail Fetching: Pretty self explanatory. Mail accounts that aren't push need to be set to check for mail at longer intervals.

Hopefully these will help anyone else having the same issues I had.

AmericanaFest 2016

Over the last 5 days the list of bands/artists I've seen would normally make for a good year, the fact I did it in less than a week is testament to how great Nashville is:

John Prine
Steve Earle (3 times)
Lucinda Williams (twice)
Jason Isbell (3 times)
Amanda Shires
Dwight Yoakam (twice)
Bonnie Raitt
Billy Bragg
The Lumineers
John Moreland
Nathaniel Rateliff
Margo Price
Buddy Miller
Wynonna
Shawn Colvin
Lydia Loveless
George Strait (not a fan, but come on, it's George freakin' Strait)

Not to mention probably a dozen more I've forgotten about.

And meeting Lucinda WIlliams and hanging out with Steve Earle? That's a couple of items off the bucket list right there.

Thank you to Lisa for being my show going partner and to Uber and Lyft for getting us everywhere safely. Between the heat, the beer and the lack of sleep I think I need a vacation to recover from my vacation. I wouldn't change a thing though.

watchOS 3 Battery Life

All the pre-release hype surrounding watchOS 3 has proven to be true. It makes the 1st gen Apple Watch feel like a completely different piece of hardware. Faster, more responsive and easier to navigate. All that said, there's one big caveat:

The battery life is now horrendous. One of the nicest features of the Apple Watch (at least compared to the iPhone) was truly all day battery life. I'd start the day at 5:45 AM at 100%, do a minimum 40 minute / 3 mile run first thing in the morning, use my watch multiple times all day and *always* have at least 40% battery by 9 PM.  Since upgrading to watchOS 3? I slept in this morning (10 AM) and haven't ran or worked out at all and have purposely avoided using it just as a test, and I'm at 47% battery at 2:15 PM. At this rate the watch will be totally dead by 6. 

This is completely unacceptable.

8 hours battery life on a watch is ridiculous. Especially when I've done less than normal every day use. Any ideas? I've removed every app from the dock except Workouts, changed my email from push to checking every 30 minutes and turned off pretty much anything that could be taxing the battery and these are the results I've gotten. My next step is restoring the watch, re-pairing and starting over. I really don't want to have to do that, but I'm at my wits end. 

UPDATE: I've discovered some tips that have returned my battery life to pre-watchOS 3 results. See here for more info

R.I.P. Gawker

Today Peter Thiel and his clandestine proxy lawsuit successfully shut down Gawker. A site I was never a devoted reader of, but one I respected for running the stories other media outlets wouldn't touch.

This isn't about losing a site that millions of people visited daily though, it's about how anyone with enough money and an axe to grind can not only force someone out of business, they can do it while hiding behind what was effectively a shell corporation and funding someone else's attack since their own was unsuccessful.

I understand the meaning of "freedom of speech", but that speech isn't really free when someone who doesn't like what you have to say can sue you out of existence.

It's a sad day for the internet and journalism in general.

Forgiveness

Life's too short. Grudges accomplish nothing. Wasting too much time holding onto anger only brings more negativity. It also drains positive energy and keeps you from moving on and finding happiness. It's a no win proposition.

You know who you are, and all is forgiven. My life will always be better with you in it than without.

What It Means

It's remarkable that possibly the best protest song of the last 20 years was written by a band of white guys who are (unfairly) synonymous with "southern rock".

Drive-By Truckers have created a 21st century masterpiece, but don't just take my word for it:

The Lefort Report

Stereogum

Rolling Stone

He was running down the street
When they shot him in his tracks
About the only thing agreed upon
Is he ain't coming back
There won't be any trial
So the air it won't be cleared
There's just two sides calling names
Out of anger out of fear
If you say it wasn't racial
When they shot him in his tracks
Well I guess that means that you ain't black
It means that you ain't black
I mean Barack Obama won
And you can choose where to eat
But you don't see too many white kids lying
Bleeding on the street

In some town in Missouri
But it could be anywhere
It could be right here on Ruth Street
In fact it's happened here
And it happened where you're sitting
Wherever that might be
And it happened last weekend
And it will happen again next week
And when they turned him over
They were surprised there was no gun
I mean he must have done something
Or else why would he have run
And they'll spin it for the anchors
On the television screen
So we can shrug and let it happen
Without asking what it means

What it means?
What it means?

Then I guess there was protesting
And some looting in some stores
And someone was reminded that
They ain't called colored folks no more
I mean we try to be politically
Correct when we call names
But what's the point of post-racial
When old prejudice remains?
And that guy who killed that kid
Down in Florida standing ground
Is free to beat up on his girlfriend
And wave his brand new gun around
While some kid is dead and buried
And laying in the ground
With a pocket full of skittles

What it means?
What it means?

Astrophysics at our fingertips
And we're standing at the summit
And some man with a joystick
Lands a rocket on a comet
We're living in an age
Where limitations are forgotten
The outer edges move and dazzle us
But the core is something rotten
And we're standing on the precipice
Of prejudice and fear
We trust science just as long
As it tells us what we want to hear
We want our truths all fair and balanced
As long as our notions lie within it
There's no sunlight in our ass'
And our heads are stuck up in it
And our heroes may be rapists
Who watch us while we dream
But don't look to me for answers
Cuz I don't know what it means

What it means?
What it means?

Joe Henry

Despite having an encyclopedic knowledge of music, I was totally unaware of Joe Henry until I saw one of his records named in a recent "50 Best Americana Albums of All Time" list. Intrigued, I did some searching and checked out his Wikipedia entry. Among his numerous accolades including Grammy Awards, production credits and having his songs covered by much bigger artists (Madonna for example) one thing stood out:

In 1993 he recorded 2 albums with The Jayhawks as his backing group.

What? 2 records featuring one of my favorite bands of all time that I knew nothing about? Wnoa. A quick search on Apple Music and I discovered they were both luckily still in print and available for streaaming. So I did the 21st century equivalent of dropping the needle and was completely mesmerized for the next 90 minutes. Here was everything I love about those classic early Jayhawks albums in 23 songs I'd never heard before. Sure, the voice singing the majority of the lead vocals was different, but the beautiful harmonies, lush production and amazing lyrics were all there.

I can't begin to recommend the albums 'Short Man's Room' and 'Kindness of The World' enough. It's hard to believe I'd never listened to these until last night, but my world is immediately a better place for having found them. Yours will be too.

DNC 2016

This week's Democratic National Convention perfectly summed up all the all the reasons I've been a literal card carrying democrat for as long as I've been able to vote.

While Trumpapalooza presented a dystopian vision of America complete with unhinged violence and blood in the streets, the DNC restored my faith in both politics and this country. One showcased a demagogue who's convinced he alone is the savior for all that is wrong, the other emphasized that all races, sexes, nationalities, etc. working together is the only solution. One promised to strip away all the progress we've made over the last 8 years, the other swore to push it even further.

Most importantly, one made me ready to find a bomb shelter and prepare for impending armageddon, the other made me unbelievably proud to be an American.

#ImWithHer