You only need the phone for communications (eg. reading messages and emails on the watch). if you're just doing fitness tracking stuff you don't need the phone. It doesn't, however have GPS so if you want to actually track position like that then you'd need the phone. But if you just want to monitor steps and heart rate and such then you can leave the phone at home. You can also store music directly on the watch and listen with a bluetooth headset.

So that's the *purpose* of every single computer you own? Bully for you. That is not the purpose of every single computer *I* own. And I guarantee you it's not the purpose of every single computer most people own. What's more your statement is false on its face. iPads, etc *can* be programmed -- by anyone with the skill and tools to do so. You just need specific hardware and software and services in order to do so. Just because you're not willing to tool up for the task doesn't make it Apple's problem. It's your problem and nobody else's. I'm sure there are many tasks I can't make my iPad do even with all the effort and knowledge in the world.. but hey.. I can't make my car fly like and aeroplane either. That's life.

I've got it on an iPhone 5 and an iPad Air and both work very smoothly. Haven't had any OS crashes or glitches (a couple apps are a bit more crashy but I hope an update from them will fix that) and speed and battery life don't seem to have had any reduction.

So far the things that make iOS 8 really attractive (handoff, continuity, new document picker) are waiting for either Yosemite or updated apps so I wait patiently but am satisfied with the upgrade as far as it goes

Wow.. good role model there.. Timothy McVeigh. I repeat.. Wow.

Very cool! I had no idea they added that feature. Thanks!

Next we just need wifi access controls and I'd be pretty happy.

There's nothing to understand or care about.. If an app wants access to my contacts it needs to ask me. If I say no then it doesn't get access. If I say yes.. it does. The answer from the first request is remembered. If I want/need to change my answer I can go into settings and do so. But by default an application exists in a state of "can't access anything until the user approves".

I'm not sure how much easier it could possibly get for a user.

My main complaint is that there aren't enough categories. At the very least I want the ability to say which apps can and cannot access the network (both wifi and cellular.. preferably with separate permissions).

I've not read that they exhibit this bug. I've only seen 10.9.0 and 10.9.1 mentioned.

I don't have any non-mavericks machines anymore otherwise I'd test it.

Yes. 10.9.1 has this problem (not sure about earlier versions). 10.9.2, which is in beta, patches the problem. Should be released soon.

They also released 6.1.6 which patches this bug.

I agree with you completely. This is the thing about these machines that I'm just not getting. Why are the graphics cards different? Nevermind the lack of a second PCIe port (which is bad enough).. they're also mirrored so the two cards are *completely* different.

Strange decision.

Indeed. I don't discount that some (many?) will need more local disk. I was merely pointing out that some of us need barely any and it's good to be able to get that. Nothing non-pro about it.

Why is it a joke? The 256GB is perfect for my needs. We only put the OS and applications and various caches on the local drive of any of our machines (Linux or Mac OS). The rest (about 200-ish terabytes) is network attached.

I think your definition of "pro" is different from mine.

If you are running Lion or earlier you can download old versions of XCode here:

https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action?name=Xcode

If you've upgraded to Mavericks you're going to have to run Lion in a VPN or compile on an older machine.

I don't remember the last time I actually had cable service. Maybe 10 years ago. Back then I rented a lot of DVDs and went out to movies. I'm quite happy these days to watch what's available on netflix and iTunes. I love not having to put up with commercials and for the most part I can watch what I want when I want and even where I want. I haven't done the math but given the number of shows I watch in a year I can't see my investment in iTunes content and my netflix membership adding up to anything close to a year of cable bills. Even if it did the convenience factor is more than enough to make up for it.

With the exception of mail I *was* using third party apps (google maps, iCab mobile and corus radio in this particular instance)

None of the tasks I was doing had anything to do with "background notifications". Radio and nav were running properly in the background.