bigkid posted:sinclair posted:Without a remote I will definitely not be getting DCS. But since PS-3 locomotives are DCC, then I'll just control them that way.
Mike was at my LHS a year or so ago and I went down. He was hyping the app and WiFi. Went to try to put it on my phone, and couldn't, my phone was too old. It was an iPhone, but not the latest and greatest, and the app needed a newer version of iOS then I had. So with a puzzled look (Like "Why would someone not have the latest and greatest?" Sorry, not all of us are made of money.) he handed me and my son his phone to try the app with. I spent enough time with it to know that I'd never like running my trains that way. And my son kept pushing the physical button on the phone, zero interest in the touch screen, so that told me the app was a no go for him to. Kids love real buttons.
Unless your apple phone was really old, IOS upgrades don't cost anything. There does come a time when older phones don't have the resources to run a newer version of the OS, but there are plenty of apple devices out there not of the latest generation that run IOS 11 and will run IOS 12 when it is fully released (if it already hasn't been). Not questioning if you run an older phone or why, I understand what you are saying, but unless you need new hardware OS upgrades don't cost anything.
It's a 4s. Yes it's old. I don't believe in going out and getting the new iPhone every year. I use it until it absolutely doesn't work any more. And if I did get the newest iPhone I wouldn't be able to use over 75% of the apps I do use because they haven't been updated in equally as long, nor are they even in the app store anymore. But then I'm one of the guys that is still unhappy that Apple quite making iPods. I am not a fan of all-in-one type devices. If I ever do get DCS, I wouldn't ever run my TMCC/Legacy locomotives with that remove even though it can. I like to keep things separate. It's easier to control and keep track of things. I do have a universal remote for my TV/DVD/Radio and such, but find it much faster to just pick up the 2-3 dedicated remotes and control things that way then trying to find the controls in the touch screen of the universal remote.
It's good that someone from MTH did post. But there is one point I'd like to make. They talked of how they dropped conventional locomotives because people stopped buying them. That makes sense since they offered both conventional and command at the same time. But the logic is flawed in trying to apply that to WiFi verses remote like they did. To really know if this is what currently works in the market they need to offer both the TIU/Remote and TIU/WiFi bundles at the same time. By dropping the remote bundle, of course the WiFi bundle is going to sell, it's the only bundle out there. Most new to the hobby won't realize they can buy the TIU and remote separately as their LHS won't tell them that, they'll only offer info on the bundle. If MTH had offered both bundles for at least 2 years and then said they dropped the remote bundle because of poor sales, then there would be no question they made the best market choice.
