Tag Archives: Apple

UPS = Un-Professional Service

Apple, Rant, Technology, , ,

You be the judge

My wife has suffered from Multiple Sclerosis for decades. She is a shut-in with limited mobility. Her iPhone 5s began to reboot continually, and since it is her ONLY PHONE I decided to get her the latest iPhone Xs MAX. It was supposed to arrive this Friday (September 28 or later).

UPS (United Parcel Service) sent me an email notification over the weekend telling me it would arrive Monday September 25th between 3 PM and 7 PM. It needed to be signed for. HOWEVER the driver arrived a few minutes before 2 PM, knocked lightly on the door and immediately left one of those “stickies” saying they would attempt ONE more delivery on the next day.

So I called to complain. By the time I finally got through the automated phone system to a real person I was well and truly steamed. Although attempting to assure the person on the other end of the phone that I knew it wasn’t his fault, I asserted in no uncertain terms how I felt about their automated phone system and the difficulty in talking to a human being. I also explained the situation and asked when the package would actually be delivered. The advice given to me was to be ready at 1 PM.

So while I was at work, my wife dutifully began waiting by the door at 1 PM for the UPS man. At work I tracked the progress of the UPS truck on a map via the “handy” UPS tracking website. At around 3 PM his truck was on my street a few houses down and I FaceTimed my wife on her iPad (recall that her iPhone does not work) to let her know that her new phone was almost there. Then for some inexplicable reason the UPS truck left our neighborhood. I tracked it continually until 7 PM when it finally got back to our house. Throughout this time I texted and FaceTimed my wife with updates. She was ready when he came to the door.

When the UPS guy finally got to the door my wife met him and asked why he didn’t come to our house at 3 PM when he was right there. His answer … he was specifically told by his supervisor to make us the LAST delivery of the day. UPS was punishing me for complaining!

Think about that for a minute.

So I called back UPS, navigated the phone system, and got through to another human. I rehashed all of the above and asked if it was UPS corporate policy to retaliate against customers who have complaints about service quality. I was of course assured that this was not the case and that someone higher up the management ladder would get back in touch with me. That was 24 hours ago. Nothing nada zip zilch.

What would you do if you were in my position?

Apple Support

Apple, Essay, Internet, News, Opinion, Rant, Reblog, Technology, Welcome to the Future, , , ,

Apple Support Rocks

Saturday March 27 approximately 1:00 PM … sanity is restored

It may be a while before this posts, that is, between now and when I finish it.

In my previous post I commented: Arthur C. Clark once said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” except when it f*ck$ up, then it is like a curse from Marie Laveau. (I added the Marie Laveau bit)

Note: My friend also updated his iPhone 6s Plus and thought it went without a hitch. HOWEVER he just discovered that his App Store app is gone. He just called Apple Support and was told that he needed wipe his iPhone and and restore from scratch. Based on my experience there may be another approach but after three days of this I told him I would help him another day. That will be another blog post. UPDATE – my friend had set up Settings > General > Restrictions to turn off access to the App Store and that is why the App Store app disappeared. Sadly he only discovered this after resetting his phone to factory default … TWICE.

Based on personal evidence I conclude that the iOS 10.3.2 upgrade is flawed. I now extremely reticent to upgrade my other devices. 

Additionally I still don’t have all of my ringtones back. I now have most of them but not all. It may be less frustrating to just buy them again if I really want them. You see ringtones are entirely different from music or apps (or iBooks?) purchased from iTunes. Perhaps they are a throwback to the early days of cellphones. Ringtones cannot re-downloaded after purchase. It is a onetime thing. Backing them up requires syncing your iPhone to iTunes on a PC or Mac. I only got back the ones I did through the effort of upper level Apple iTunes Support.

My problem with this entire debacle is that I am so spoiled when it comes to Apple. I expect these kinds of issues with Windows and Linux. With Apple I expect it to “just work”. It always has for me. This time – for me – it failed to “just work.”

Anyway … back to Apple Support … throughout this entire ordeal every Apple Support person I have dealt with from Tier One to Upper Levels has been gracious, calm, and absolutely committed to resolving my issues. I don’t expect technology to function flawlessly at all times (Apple excluded – as I said I’m spoiled), but what do appreciate are companies dedicated to having happy customers. Apple certainly qualifies in this regard. Attention Tim Cook – you should be very proud of your support team.

iPhone Hell Continues

Apple, Internet, News, Rant, Stuff, Technology, Welcome to the Future, , , ,

And so it goes 

In order for my iPhone to see my Apple Watch I had to reset it to factory settings and now begin the task of reconfiguring it back to the way I liked it. I was on phone with Apple until 2 AM last night.

Now I begin the task of remembering, downloading, and reconfiguring every <expletive deleted> app on my iPhone and Apple Watch. Setting up email and remembering or changing passwords. Not how I had planned my day.

One thing is certain … my iPhone and watch will be leaner and meaner.

 UPDATE – I am installing the latest Apple Watch version now (might as well there is no reason not too)

ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH

Apple, Internet, Rant, Technology, ,

Rant for December 11

Comcast Internet tech came to house. Richard was very diligent. Comcast staff, not contractor. Spent much time monitoring signal. Identified spurious transmission errors. Determined that I was the only one of four on the “node” – good news. Bad news – the other three connections were “unterminated”. Richard terminated them. He also replaced the cable from the house to the node. Problems “appear” fixed.

…

Got email from Apple from AppStore Re: purchase of Burley Men at Sea

WTF????? – I didn’t buy this.

Hours on chat / phone / website to Apple. AppleID compromised. Got a refund. Changed my password.

Filed from http://www.ephesusgrill.com/ Katy TX
PS … I ordered a $40 bottle of Turkish wine with the intent of having some and bringing it home. Ha ha – I drank it all. Safely home now.

One millimeter

Apple, Essay, Opinion, Rant, Review, Technology, , , , , ,

[begin rant]

One fucking millimeter. There I said it … millimeter … or if you prefer millimetre.

iPhone 6s   The only thing that’s changed is everything

No … not everything.

My old iPhone 5s died. OK so it didn’t really die, but the female charging port on the phone got damaged from accidentally ripping the charging cord out of the phone … one … too … many … times. Getting the phone to charge involved just the right amount of ceremonial incantations, fiddling with the Lightning connector, and careful positioning of the iPhone and cord. On the Monday before my birthday the phone died and would not charge. So I ordered a new iPhone 6s Plus, which as luck would have it arrived on said birthday. (Happy Birthday to me, etc., etc, etc.)

I love everything about it … except …

Sir Jonathan Paul Ive, can I call you Jony?

So Jony, the whole world knows how fucking brilliant you are. There, I did it again … brilliant. Yes, you … are … brilliant. You’ve even been knighted for brilliance, for Christ’s sake.

You are brilliant … and you are obsessed. Obsessed with industrial design. Obsessed with elegance. Obsessed with perfection. You are also obsessed with thinness. Obsessed.

But when does obsession cloud judgement? When does the obsession for thinness negate superb industrial design?


One fucking millimeter. If you had made the iPhone 6 series one millimeter thicker, the camera lens would be flush with the case … like the iPhone 5 … and EVERY other iPhone before it. No one … and I do mean no one … would have noticed or cared if the iPhone 6 series was one millimeter thicker.

What could you do with an extra one millimeter of thickness? Make the case a tad thicker and stronger. Make the battery thicker and add a few extra minutes of run time. Who knows? Who cares?

The important thing is that one millimeter is the difference between a smooth backside and one with an ugly zit that keeps the phone from laying solidly on on flat surface without rocking. One millimeter means not worrying about scratching fine old wooden finishes. One millimeter is the difference between obsession and … perfection.

Any chance of fixing this in the iPhone 7?

[end rant]

Giant iPad Spotted

Apple, News, Technology, , , ,

Numerous sites are reporting that Apple may release a giant iPad dubbed the iPad Pro.

Contrafactual.com has just received these images of the new giant iPad being tested by NASA, despite Apple’s attempts at secrecy.  
  
  
Contrafactual.com can neither confirm or deny the validity of these photos.

Elon Musk

Apple, Electric Vehicles, Mars, Opinion, Space Travel, Technology, , , ,

is the next Steve Jobs. 

There … I said it.

Where to begin? Have you ever watched  a Steve Jobs product unveiling? Watch Elon Musk as he unveils the model D or Dragon V2. They are both on this blog.

Jobs: changed the industry with his first company; Apple.

Musk: changed the industry with his first company; PayPal.

Jobs: was simultaneously CEO of two companies; Apple and Pixar

Musk: is CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and … Solar City.

Jobs: gave us amazing technology that changed our lives

Musk: electric cars, coast to coast free charging stations, freakin’ rocket ships, man. How amazing is that!

Jobs: “the journey is the reward”

Musk: “Mars”

I could go one, but you get the idea.

Elon Musk is the next Steve Jobs.


The Bloomberg View | GTAT

Apple, Economic Issues, News, Opinion, Technology, , ,

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-10-06/apple-sapphire-supplier-breaks

Bottom line of the above article (my words):

Apple loaned GT Advanced Technologies money to build the sapphire plant which GTAT would pay back out of the monies Apple paid for the sapphire. BUT if certain conditions were not met, Apple could demand all of its money back … NOW.

Bloomberg and other analysts interpret this as a collapse in the Apple – GTAT relationship. Very bad for GTAT.

At one dollar a share, GTAT could be a takeover target play … or it could fold its tent and disappear into the night.

Are you a gambler? 

Apple Responds

Apple, News, Technology, , , , , , , , , ,

Bent

Apple Responds to Bendgate

Via The Huffington Post

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5883298

Only nine customers (plus one intentional YouTuber) … out of ten million … have complained.

Full statement from Apple:

Our iPhones are designed, engineered and manufactured to be both beautiful and sturdy. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus feature a precision engineered unibody enclosure constructed from machining a custom grade of 6000 series anodized aluminum, which is tempered for extra strength. They also feature stainless steel and titanium inserts to reinforce high stress locations and use the strongest glass in the smartphone industry. We chose these high-quality materials and construction very carefully for their strength and durability. We also perform rigorous tests throughout the entire development cycle including 3-point bending, pressure point cycling, sit, torsion, and user studies. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus meet or exceed all of our high quality standards to endure everyday, real life use.

With normal use a bend in iPhone is extremely rare and through our first six days of sale, a total of nine customers have contacted Apple with a bent iPhone 6 Plus. As with any Apple product, if you have questions please contact Apple.

Bendgate

Apple, Essay, Internet, News, Opinion, Science, Technology, , , , , , ,

Op-Ed

No pictures, no links, no embedded videos.

By now surely you and everyone else in the world has heard of Bendgate. The iPhone 6 Plus can be bent. It’s thin, it’s light, it’s a large, it’s flat, it’s aluminum. The laws of physics and material strength properties apply.

For Apple to have made a phone this large and thin and light and also have it be impervious to bending, one of the following things would have to change: the material the back is made of, the shape of the back, or the thickness of the back.

Thicker aluminum would make it stronger and heavier and more expensive. Titanium would make it stronger but much more expensive. Steel would make it much stronger and much heavier. I can only assume that Apple choose the grade of aluminum that they did based on a combination of strength and price point.

A curved back would make it stronger. A corrugated back would make it much stronger. Either would make it thicker. Either could be considered less aesthetically pleasing.

Making the iPhone 6 Plus thicker or at least making the back thicker would make the phone … well, thicker … and heavier.

There’s another way to make the iPhone 6 Plus stronger and thicker and heavier. Buy a case for it. There are sure to be a variety of cases for the iPhone 6 Plus. Many people religiously buy cases for their phones anyway. Why should this be any different?

If you watch the videos you see that a fair amount of stress must be applied to bend the iPhone 6 Plus. It’s not like you laid it on the table with half of it on the table and half of it off and came back in an hour and found it bent at 90 degrees as if it were in a Salvador Dali painting. You have to try very hard to bend it. Or you have to sit on it. Or do you have to wear very tight pants.

I sport a naked iPhone 5S. It gets its own pocket … in the front. I often take it out of my pocket when I sit down. I don’t want to put it in the case, so I have to be extra careful with it. The same would be true for an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus.

This is much ado about nothing. This is in the same category as people who intentionally microwave their phones. Or shoot arrows at them. Or see what it actually takes to destroy them. On YouTube, where the goal is to get as many views as possible.

Might be a good time to buy some AAPL stock, what with the price drop and all …

Bragging Rights

Apple, History, Reblog, Technology, ,

My how time flies. One year ago today I entered the modern age. It’s been a good year. Still using my iPhone 5s to maintain this blog, organize my life, get my news and information, taking lots of pictures, watching videos, listening to music.

Siri is by turns amazingly helpful, surprising, and frustratingly stupid. Somewhere along the line I got a tiny crescent moon shaped crack in the upper left corner outside of the screen. My son dropped his and the damage is worse but the phone is still usable. Mrs uses her iPhone continuously to play her music collection. Her gold 5s is pristine.

Contrafactual

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What you see above is (was) my old phone. Your basic 5+? year old bog standard Samsung flip-phone as issued by Verizon. I have been a Verizon customer since it was GTE back in the ’90s. In fact my first product was a pager, not a phone (but I digress).

Anyway, remember back a few posts ago when I said that YOKS (Ye Olde Kid Sister) got me the first generation iPad for father’s day out of pity because the all time geek did not have an iPhone?

20130921-135627.jpg

Yesterday #2 son and I got up at 7 AM and drove over to the new Verizon store on the edge of town. I had stopped by the previous evening to confirm that they would have the iPhone 5s in stock. We got into the short line (# 0010) and waited the half hour until they opened at 8 AM. We each…

View original post 401 more words

WATCH

Art, Fashion, Health, News, Technology, Video, , , , , , ,

Unless you have been living under a rock … a rock without internet, cell phone, TV, cable, satellite or radio access … you know that Apple announced the Apple WATCH today. What you may not have seen are the videos. WATCH is a thing of beauty which mere words cannot do justice.

Clicking the image below (or the link below it) will take you to the official Apple site. WATCH the videos

WATCH

http://www.apple.com/watch/films/

iWANT

Perfection

History, Music, Video, , , , ,

Nineteen Seventy-One, the year I graduated from high school. Badfinger is riding high in the charts. Heir apparent to the Beatles, backed by George Harrison, published by the Beatles’ Apple Corps (no relation to Apple Computer, but that is another story), with a number of hits already playing. No Matter What, Come and Get It, and Day After Day had been or were playing regularly on AM radio. Come and Get It debuted in the 1970 Peter Seller / Ringo Starr movie The Magic Christian.

Continue reading Perfection →

Thin, Very Thin Transparent Aluminum

News, Technology, Video, , , , ,

Transparent Aluminum

I first told you about Transparent Aluminum* here.

I have talked about it several times since.

GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has the technology to make thin, very thin sheets of it.

 

Apple has a large plant in Arizona where GTAT is making Transparent Aluminum for them by the ton (literally).

Last February 2014
 

* in case you have forgotten transparent aluminum is sapphire, Al2O3

And now … the rest of the story

Health, Internet, News, Social Issues, Technology, , ,

From The Loop

As reported by Reuters

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook in a 2013 speech at Auburn University described people with disabilities “in a struggle to have their human dignity acknowledged.” He said, “They’re frequently left in the shadows of technological advancements that are a source of empowerment and attainment for others.”

And now … the rest of the story

What Tim Cook continued to say, but Reuters left out

“… left in the shadows of technological advancements that are a source of empowerment and attainment for others, but Apple’s engineers push back against this unacceptable reality, they go to extraordinary lengths to make our products accessible to people with various disabilities from blindness and deafness to various muscular disorders. I receive hundreds of e-mails from customers every day, and I read them all. Last week I received one from a single mom with a three year old autistic son who was completely non-verbal, and after receiving an iPad, for the first time in his life, he had found his voice. I receive scores of these incredible stories from around the world and I never tire of reading them.” “We design our products to surprise and delight everyone who uses them, and we never, ever analyze the return on investment. We do it because it is just and right, and that is what respect for human dignity requires, and its a part of Apple I’m especially proud of.”

The Loop takes Reuters to task with strong words for the surgical removal of the rest of (and key part of) the story.

I applaud Tim Cook and his team at Apple for their vision and accomplishments.

Ex-Samsung Lawyer …

Essay, News, Opinion, Technology, , , , , , , ,

… Admits Samsung Couldn’t Tell the Truth if their Lives depended on it

Strong words

Read the full article at Patently Apple

20140508-002327-1407013.jpg

The Patently Apple article is a synopsis of an article originally published by Vanity Fair.

 

Disclaimer: This blog is written and maintained on an Apple iPhone 5s using the Automattic WordPress for iOS app.

iPad Air FAIL – Update

News, Opinion, Technology, , , , , , , , , ,

So back on December 8th I posted my original iPad Air Fail post.

I had suggested reviewing the following thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5532206?tstart=0

It is a long thread
20140109-173809.jpg
Despite the glowing reviews of the mainstream press and tech community, there are still many frustrated users out there whose iPad Airs have regular Safari crashes, App crashes, and even full reboots.

Continue reading iPad Air FAIL – Update →

iPad Air FAIL

Technology, , , ,

What’s an Apple fanboy to do? There seems to be a problem with a small number of the Apple iPad air models. I say a small number, I hope it’s a small number.

See below (note, I am NOT Lsmith123)


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5532206?start=375&tstart=0

Lsmith123
Re: Ipad air low memory crash
Dec 8, 2013 12:45 PM (in response to Yellowtail714)
Frustrated that another support email resulted in being told that Apple we’re not aware of this issue so I made a video of the problem to prove that I wasn’t doing anything unusual:

If anyone wants to see two iPad airs next to each other doing the same thing I will be happy to provide that video as well 🙂 for more fun I will make one of me at the Apple store doing this on their demo units as well – although I expect I won’t be allowed to do that 🙂

I am an Apple fan, but this is really starting to annoy me now. Not the so much the fault, rather the complete denial by all Apple support employees that this is a known issue.

Siri, does iOS 7 crash?

News, Technology, , , , , , , , , , , ,

I am an Apple fanboy, some have even called me an Apple apologist. Be that as it may, I am closely following a thread on the Apple support discussion site that suggests that there are problems in the Apple orchard. To wit, iOS 7 has memory management problems that cause the Safari browser and other apps to crash or the iPhone/iPad to crash and reboot. Both cases leave a ‘LatestCrash‘ and/or ‘LowMemory‘ log in

Setting > General > About > Diagnostics & Usage > Diagnostics & Usage Data

(You must have ‘Automatically Send‘ checked)

 

Additionally many experienced folks are suggesting that the mere 1GB LowMemoryof RAM found on the iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Mini with Retina Display is woefully inadequate to support the A7 CPU 64-bit architecture.

The Ipad air low memory crash thread on the discussions.apple.com site had 18,652 views and 280 posts at the time of this post.

I have had a handful of crashes on my new iPhone 5s, nothing too worry about, but others appear to have been less lucky. If you are experiencing problems since upgrading to iOS 7 or are having problems with your new iPhone 5s, iPad Air, or iPad Mini with Retina Display you are not alone.

500,000 iPhone 5s units

News, Reblog, Technology, ,

… per day!

Source: Boy Genius Report
http://bgr.com/2013/11/27/iphone-5s-production-foxconn/

Foxconn has 100 production lines, 600 people per line and a total of more than 300,000 workers dedicated solely to building the iPhone 5s — and that’s just at one factory in Zhengzhou, China. How many iPhone 5s handsets can all those people build? According to the report, they’re pumping out a staggering 500,000 iPhone 5s units each day.

Transparent Aluminum

News, Science Fiction, Technology, Welcome to the Future, , , , , ,

1986

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_aluminum#Transparent_aluminum

[Transparent Aluminum] was notably mentioned in the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Panels of ultra-thick acrylic glass were needed to construct water tanks within their ship’s cargo bay for containing two humpback whales and tons of water. However, the Enterprise crew, without money appropriate to the period, found it necessary to barter for the required materials. Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott exchanges the chemical formula for transparent aluminum for several sheets of the material from a manufacturer called Plexicorp. When Dr. Leonard McCoy informs Scott that giving Dr. Nichols the formula is altering the future, the engineer responds, “Why? How do we know he didn’t invent the thing?”

From MOVIECLIPS.com:

2013

MERRIMACK, N.H., Nov. 4, 2013 — GT Advanced Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq:GTAT) announced that it has entered into a multi-year supply agreement with Apple Inc. to provide sapphire material. GT will own and operate ASF® furnaces and related equipment to produce the material at an Apple facility in Arizona where GT expects to employ over 700 people. Apple will provide GT with a prepayment of approximately $578 million. GT will reimburse Apple for the prepayment over five years, starting in 2015.

http://allthingsd.com/20131104/apple-inks-major-sapphire-supply-deal-with-gt-advanced-technologies/

Sapphire is currently used as the substrate for LED manufacture and is used by Apple in the lense covers of various ‘iDevice’ cameras as well as the fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5s. The Apple – GT Advanced Technologies deal suggests that Apple needs an assured supply of Sapphire for current and future devices. Such future applications could include Sapphire screens and/or wearable products. (http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2013/09/apple-invents-a-fusion-process-that-will-add-a-sapphire-laminate-layer-to-iphone-ipad-future-iwatch-cover-glass.html)

From Pocketnow.com:

From GT Advanced Technologies:

Sapphire is second only to diamond in hardness (that is, scratch resistance). The formula for Sapphire is Al2O3.

Sapphire = Transparent Aluminum

See also (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire)

Dictation

Blogging, Essay, Opinion, Technology, , , ,

Ever since iOS 6, Apple has included a microphone icon on the keyboard.

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Above you can easily see the microphone icon. Next to it is the icon for changing between international keyboards.

One of the things that I don’t like about the iPhone is the fact that the keys on the keyboard are too small for my fat fingers.

I’m testing what I can do with dictation. In fact this entire post has been dictated using my iPhone. It’s really very amazing; yet another example of Arthur C Clark’s “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

One of the things I’ve noticed is that the microphone for the iPhone is on the bottom and so I have to be careful about how I hold it otherwise I cover the microphone with my thumb and of course then it doesn’t work. I also just noticed that it doesn’t like the word “thumb”. I get “some”; I get “from”; but I don’t get thumb.

However I think it’s good enough. I plan to begin dictating all of my posts on my iPhone. I think I’ll use it on my next installment of Day 42 (DayZ of DiZeaZe).

Bragging Rights

News, Technology, Welcome to the Future, , , ,

20130921-132842.jpg 20130921-132905.jpg

What you see above is (was) my old phone. Your basic 5+? year old bog standard Samsung flip-phone as issued by Verizon. I have been a Verizon customer since it was GTE back in the ’90s. In fact my first product was a pager, not a phone (but I digress).

Anyway, remember back a few posts ago when I said that YOKS (Ye Olde Kid Sister) got me the first generation iPad for father’s day out of pity because the all time geek did not have an iPhone?

20130921-135627.jpg

Yesterday #2 son and I got up at 7 AM and drove over to the new Verizon store on the edge of town. I had stopped by the previous evening to confirm that they would have the iPhone 5s in stock. We got into the short line (# 0010) and waited the half hour until they opened at 8 AM. We each got the “Space Gray” 64 GB model. I might have gotten the Champagne Gold model if they’d had it, but as we all later found out, they are in extremely limited supply. Space Gray is fine for me.

We decided to try to get them on release day for fear they would quickly sell out and be unavailable for weeks. It appears we were right. While standing in line I was speaking to the fellow ahead of me and he told me that he had originally gone to a different Verizon store, but the line was already wrapped around the side of the building.

Impressions

Fast, really fast, to quote South Park “hellafast”. At least compared to my gen 1 iPad. But it should be. It has 4x the RAM. The Geekbench overall rating is almost 5x better. I am surprised that the Geekbench number was’t even higher based on pure specs, but maybe Geekbench isn’t optimized for 64 bit CPU. Web surfing is MUCH faster even on LTE. Videos play smoothly on LTE.

The finger print scanner works as advertised. It is very slick.

Although the battery life is probably close to that of my iPad, it feels as if the battery drains a bit faster. It definitely needs to be plugged in overnight.

Assuming that the new iPads are based on the same 64 bit A7 chip, I will absolutely be   getting a new iPad or iPad mini later this year. Whereas the iPhone fits in my pocket, the screen is too small to work on all day long (I am still posting this from my olde iPad).

Oh and I finally have a camera again. I used the iPhone to take the pictures of my old phone. By all accounts it is a good camera. Standby for cat pictures …

iPhone lovers: you can hate me now 🙂

Apple haters: you can continue to hate me. BTW the iPhone 5s appears to be the fastest mobile device of any kind as of today (Source: AnandTech)

PS
“And I’d have given anything
To have my own PacMan game at home.
I used to have to get a ride down to the arcade;
Now I’ve got it on my phone.”
Brad Paisley, Welcome To The Future

As promised in 2001, I now have 2001 A Space Odyssey on my phone. I also downloaded PacMan. 🙂

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Bloggers' Rights at EFF

Who

About, , , , , ,

Having covered the why and what of Contrafactual, I will now address the who. This turns out to be an interesting dilemma for me. I have always been a very private person, my wife even more so. When I told her about this blog she emphatically insisted “Don’t tell them my name.”

I have never been a big fan of social media. Don’t get me wrong. I just never felt that it was for me personally. Although I have a Twitter account, I could never imagine why anyone would dote on my every activity. So needless to say I don’t post on it. Same for Facebook. I got an account to see what my son was up to. He rarely calls, but he posts daily. It was the best way for me to follow his actities, especially when he was living abroad. Finally there is LinkedIn. Yeah got an account there too, solely for business contacts.

I am not a joiner, never have been. Yet here I am on a mission to write something everyday and submit it to the world for critique. As they say in the spy movies, what I tell you will be on a “need to know” basis. (They also say “I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you.” This would however be a bit extreme in this case.) If your web sleuthing skills are good and you must know all about me I certainly can’t stop you. If and when this blog makes me a rich and famous celebrity, I will deal with the inevitable lack of privacy.

My real name is Christian Bergman, I go by Chris, and often sign emails with cb. I have a day job that pays well, but it is irrelevant in the context of Contrafactual. I have read many times that one’s profession or job does not make the person. I fully subscribe to this. The job does not and should not define the person. I strive to have a life outside of nine-to-five that is distinctly my own.

I have been married to the same woman for over thirty-five years. I have two children: sons. One lives three hours away by car. The other lives at home. I also share my home with four cats. Three of them claim me and/or my wife. The fourth claims my son. Stories and pictures of the cats will be shared in the near future.

Authors I have read and enjoyed over the years:

  • Richard Dawkins
  • John Scalzi
  • Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Douglas Adams
  • Michael Crichton
  • Douglas Hofstadter
  • Robert Heinlein
  • Arthur C. Clark
  • Roger Zelazny

2001 A Space Odyssey (Kubrick / Clark) the movie and the book and Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein) were watershed events of my teenage years.

I am a child of the Space Age, who grew up south of the Florida Space Coast. My early memories include the original Mercury Seven launches. I still remember the little Mercury Capsule model that came with my Science Service (now Science News) subscription. Throughout the 1960’s, I watched every mission, fixated on our black and white TV. Later when I was a teenager, my dad took me up to see one of the early Saturn V launches (9?, 10? … the mission not my age). As soon as I had my driver’s license, I drove up to watch the Apollo 16 & 17 launches from a point on the coast eleven miles away. A few years later, a stroke of luck put me at the main press site three miles from the launch pad of the final Saturn V launch (Skylab) … forty years ago. My final trip occurred on summer break from college when I drove up to watch the last Apollo launch, the US half of the US-Russian Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Even today I continue to follow private and government space programs. I have a keen interest in SpaceX. I also follow most unmanned missions as time permits.

I play chess. I have just discovered Frozen Synapse for iPad. I am excited by the sneak peak of Morning Star Alpha for iPad. I follow the trials and tribulations of Apple with great interest and I even own a few shares of AAPL stock. One of my other fantasies is to become an iPad game developer. Contrafactual is actually written and maintained using a first generation iPad.

I love scotch. I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch. Single Malt Scotch.

  • Bruichladdich
  • Port Charlotte
  • Octomore
  • Aberlour A’bunadh
  • Ardbeg Uigeadail
  • Laphroaig

Sipping only and not to excess.

Recently watched (all or up-to-date):

  • Doctor Who
  • Breaking Bad
  • The Prisoner (1967)

So, now you have something about me to chew on for a while. Be seeing you …

cb