Tag Archives: iPhone

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?

Lint

Apple, Essay, Stuff, Technology, Video,

So …

I have an iPhone 6s Plus. The lightning plug port had stopped charging – sort of. The plug wouldn’t stay in and I would have to carefully hold it “just so” to get it to charge. I had the same problem with my original iPhone 5s. It was the reason I upgraded to the 6s Plus.

So I called my local Batteries + Bulbs. $80 to replace the charging port. BUT the nice lady I spoke to suggested using a toothpick to clean out any lint. I used a toothpick and compressed air (computer dust spray) and cleaned out a fair amount of lint.

PROBLEM SOLVED

The charging plug snaps briskly in and charges. Son’s iPhone … same problem … same solution.

 
PS – I also cleaned out my old iPhone 5s … problem solved.

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.

Hell week continues

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

Oh for the good olde days 

 
Maybe Jim Stafford had it right …

     Well, I think of that girl from time to time

     I call her up when I got a dime

Or maybe a cocoanut telegraph?

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.

 •  •  •  •  • 

Re-configuration continues slowly and methodically. Now I need to call Apple to figure out how to get all of my ring tones back. Mañana. I’m going to bed early tonight.

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)

iOS 10.3.2 Trashed My iPhone

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

WARNING – RANT ALERT

The latest iOS 10.3.2 update has completely trashed my iPhone 6s Plus and by “trashed” I mean blasted it back to factory settings. I spent over five hours in online chat and phone calls with Apple support working between my iPad, MacBook, and iPhone. Only now do I have a semi working iPhone.

Here’s what happened – I set my iPhone up to upgrade to iOS 10.3.2 at about 6 PM before walking next door to have a beer (or two) with the neighbors as we often do. When I got back expecting all to be OK, my iPhone was in continuous reboot mode. It would briefly display the logon screen then immediately flash to the spinning wheel icon before re-displaying the logon screen, over and over and over again. The only way to break the cycle was to connect it to my MacBook and follow the instructions in the links below (provided by support).

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203899   and   https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201412

I finally got it to the point of restoring from a backup and after going through all of the steps and waiting for everything to restore, it eventually went back into continuous reboot mode again. I ended up starting over from scratch several times and even attempting a restore from a backup made two days ago. I eventually got all the way to the end and … continuous reboot mode … again.

Arrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh

So start over again, but this time set it up as new iPhone without doing a restore. Luckily all of my contacts, photos, iTunes, and notes are safely in iCloud and available on my other Apple devices. They also appear to be mostly available on my iPhone, but I still need to reconfigure my email settings, selectively download and reconfigure apps (most of which require logon ID and password configuration), reset and reconfigure my alarms, and set my icons back to where I like them. I had also saved many web pages as icons so I will need to reconstruct these as well.

I also need to reconnect my Apple Watch, Fitbit Scale, and on and on and on.

UPDATE – can not get my Apple Watch to connect

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]

iOS 9 Keyboard

Apple, Essay, News, Technology, , , ,

When iOS 9 came out for iPad and iPhone, the default appearance of the keyboard changed. The Mrs is visually challenged and did not like the new look of the keyboard. She wanted the old one back. The difference is that the old keyboard displayed CAPITAL LETTERS all of the time. The new one displays either lowercase or UPPERCASE depending on whether or not the shift key was depressed.

OLD KEYBOARD

 

 
New Keyboard 

 

Although not obvious it is possible to revert to the old keyboard default as follows:

Settings > General > Accessibility > Keyboard > Show Lowercase Keys 

Toggle Show Lowecase Keys off

 
Let me know in the comments below if this was useful to you …

iTextEditors

Apple, Edits and Updates, Review, Technology, , ,

What do you use your iPad (or iPhone) for? 

Ever had a need to edit text files or code?

Brett Terpsta maintains a list of iOS text editors and features that is nothing short of phenomenal. Titled iTextEditors, this webpage lists each text editing app in a dynamically filterable matrix of features.

 

Touching (or clicking on) the app name opens a pop-up window with additional information not captured by the feature matrix. Touching the More info … link takes you to a review of the app.

  
  
I am currently using his page to decide which text editor(s) might be worth adding to my stable of apps. 🙂

http://brettterpstra.com/ios-text-editors/

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 …

The Cost of Ignorance

Apple, Essay, Humor, Internet, News, Opinion, Reblog, Satire, Science, Technology, Video, , , , , , ,

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

Carl Sagan

Continue reading The Cost of Ignorance →

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

20130921-132842.jpg20130921-132905.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…

View original post 401 more words

Machines at War 3

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

MaW3

Do I look like a gamer? Look here. (Don’t answer that)

Ok, so I suck at First Person Shooters. Number 2 son calls me “the turret”.

But I do like head-to-head Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games. My friend and I used to enjoy playing each other on Command and Conquer Red Alert for iPad. That is, until we discovered MaW3. Without a doubt the best military RTS game, bar none, is Machines at War 3 by ISOTOPE 244.

20140803-212933-77373554.jpg

Available for iOS, Mac, and Windows on the iPhone and iPad App Store, Mac App Store, Steam, and directly from ISOTOPE 244.

I can’t say enough positive about this game. Don’t take my word for it. Read the review links at ISOTOPE 244. This is one amazing and phenomenal game. James Bryant has accomplished a tour de force. It is elegant, masterful, and flawless. It even plays well on a iPhone 5s.

If you like the RTS genre, please – please, check out MaW3.

And now back to skirmish mode … (Roger that Sir! Reinforcements, we need reinforcements. A ha ha ha ha, taste my laser! Oh the humanity.)

Arrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!

Blogging, Edits and Updates, News, Technology, , , , , , , ,

UPDATE

Fixed by WordPress for iOS 4.0.2

Released 15 Apr 2015

I’m playing whack-a-mole

I’m playing whack-a-mole

WordPress for iOS

Is just like whack-a-mole

• • •

First: Dates saved based on Time Zone offset, so when ever I edited a post the time regressed. Eventually the date changed and all my links broke.

Then: I learned about scheduling. This was a workaround because I could change the date.

Next: WP released an update that fixed the time offset problem. I got used to future scheduling.

Then: The Preview functionality stopped working. It coincidentally stopped working about the time we all started getting Invalid Certificate warnings.

So: I found a workaround
https://contrafactual.com/2014/04/07/iphone-app-previewcert-error/

Now: I can no longer schedule posts for the future. All my posts are Immediate. The scheduling feature is what I use to space out my posts. The option is still there … It just doesn’t work. 😦

I am not crazy

Blogging, Edits and Updates, Technology, , , , , ,

Well OK … maybe a little bit

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
This issue has been fixed in 3.9.1

http://ios.wordpress.org/2014/02/12/wordpress-for-ios-3-9-1-released/
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

But at least the WP folks are aware of the Timestamp/URL issue I have been troubleshooting with iPhone App 3.9

http://ios.wordpress.org/2014/01/30/wordpress-for-ios-3-9-released/#comment-61129

Ongoing WP Problems

Blogging, Edits and Updates, Technology, , , , , ,

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
This issue has been fixed in 3.9.1

http://ios.wordpress.org/2014/02/12/wordpress-for-ios-3-9-1-released/
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

I am editing and updating Timeline, my previous post. Today is February 2nd, but after my last update of Timeline it shows up as February 1st!

<EXPLETIVE DELETED>

Troubleshooting

Blogging, Edits and Updates, Technology, , , , , , , , ,

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
This issue has been fixed in 3.9.1

http://ios.wordpress.org/2014/02/12/wordpress-for-ios-3-9-1-released/
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

In 42 days of Pain and WordPress iPhone App FAIL I describe the problem I am having with the latest WordPress iPhone App by Automattic (Version 3.9, January 30, 2014)

Step 1

I go to Contrafactual and choose Menu > Topics and chose Day 46

This is the URL
https://contrafactual.com/2013/10/08/day-46/

Next I use the iPhone App to edit and publish Day 46

I click on Menu > Topics and chose Day 46

No problem ???

So let me go thru all of Menu > Topics and see what links are broken

Broken links: Day 42, Day 51, Day 52, Day 53

All posts I edited on Friday January 31

Below are the URLs for the above posts

Original https://contrafactual.com/2013/07/11/hzv-day-42/
Current https://contrafactual.com/2013/07/10/hzv-day-42/

Original https://contrafactual.com/2013/12/10/day-51/
Current https://contrafactual.com/2013/12/09/day-51/

Original https://contrafactual.com/2013/12/17/day-52/
Current https://contrafactual.com/2014/01/26/day-52-2

Original https://contrafactual.com/2014/01/29/day-53/
Current https://contrafactual.com/2014/01/27/day-53/

So, yesterday updates posted to a different URL, but today there are no apparent problems. ?????

Cue Rod Serling …

Look at the time stamp on Troubleshooting below. I published this at 3:28 PM

20140201-153203.jpg

Followed by this

20140201-154830.jpg

42 Days of Pain

Blogging, Edits and Updates, Technology, , , , , , , , , , , ,

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
This issue has been fixed in 3.9.1

http://ios.wordpress.org/2014/02/12/wordpress-for-ios-3-9-1-released/
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

In my previous post, I described the problem I having with the latest Version 3.9, January 30, 2014 release of the WordPress iPhone App.

When I go back to update older posts (in this case edits to the Day 42 / The Nudist War serialized novel), the update gets written to a new URL:

https://contrafactual.com/2013/07/11/hzv-day-42/ vs
https://contrafactual.com/2013/07/10/hzv-day-42/

This means that ALL of my links are now invalid. If you try to read the series you will get

20140131-215056.jpg

Really annoying 😦

I am sure that Automattic will fix this, but it could be a while.

I have submitted a public question about this at:
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/iphone-app-39-saves-updates-to-a-different-url?replies=1

I don’t know if this is an iPhone-specific problem or more widespread, but if you edit an older post and the URL changes you now know why.

cb

WordPress iPhone App FAIL

Blogging, Day 42, Edits and Updates, Essay, Horror, HZV, News, Opinion, Technology, The Nudist War, , , , , ,

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
This issue has been fixed in 3.9.1

http://ios.wordpress.org/2014/02/12/wordpress-for-ios-3-9-1-released/
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The latest WordPress iPhone App by Automattic (Version 3.9, January 30, 2014) writes update to the wrong folder.

For example the first entry of Day 42 (The Nudist War) has ALWAYS been located at:
https://contrafactual.com/2013/07/11/hzv-day-42/

After editing and saving it is now located at:
https://contrafactual.com/2013/07/10/hzv-day-42/

Arrrrrgggghhhh

I discovered this after going back and editing earlier posts.

I thought the post had disappeared until I did a search on Day 42.

Next step … Contacting Automatic 😦

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 →

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.

More iPhone 5s observations

Technology

I’m dictating this again. The dictating really is very good on this machine. It’s good as long as I make short sentences. I find that sometimes with very long sentences it tends to get hung up. Other than that I think the dictation works really well and probably should be used more often than it is.

I have now had the iPhone 5s for over a week. I find that it works very well for watching videos whether they are YouTube or actual movies. As I mentioned the dictation is good. The typewriter is a bit small for my fingers. Also some websites don’t seem to scale to the screen in a easily readable fashion. I still find that the larger screen size of the iPad makes it much better for reading websites.

All in all I love the iPhone 5S, however I am looking forward to the next generation iPad and iPad and iPad Mini when they come out next month. I do hope that I will be able to afford to buy one before the end of the year. I think I will go back and read the Desiderata just in case.

iPhone Observations

Opinion, Technology,

So … After my first weekend with the iPhone 5s, I have some observations to make:

Keeping in mind that this is my first smart phone of any kind …

  1. I really like the power to investigate anything I want at any time without worrying about finding a WiFi hot spot
  2. The iPhone fits easily in my pocket
  3. I can carry my entire music collection on it @64GB, with room to spare
  4. Most websites are easy to read
  5. But some aren’t
  6. I would not want to have to give up my iPad for the small screen of the iPhone
  7. I wouldn’t want to maintain this blog with the iPhone on a regular basis
  8. The iPhone 5s appears to have a really good camera with many nice features (but no zoom, including a zoom), HD video with slo-mo, burst mode, better low light without flash, better color corrected flash
  9. Taking pictures with an iPhone is less cumbersome than using an iPad (and you look less dorky)
  10. The finger print security is seamless and easier and faster than keying in a code

There has been some hoopla about hackers finding a way to by-pass the finger print security. But when you look deeper, it involves getting both your phone and your finger print and some esoteric process of making a synthetic copy of your finger
print. This is spook stuff (spooks as in NSA, CIA, KGB, MI5, etc.).

In day to day use the finger print authentication is PDA*. This is truly an example of Arthur C. Clark’s “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

The 64-bit A7 chip is blazing fast; all of the usual online experts agree. I can’t wait to see next month’s iPads running on this.

* Pretty Damn Awesome

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

Why I like Apple

Essay, Music, News, Welcome to the Future, , , , , , , , ,

Any sufficiently evolved technology is indistinguishable from magic. – Arthur C. Clark

Usually I compose offline, read / edit / reread / edit … POST / reread / “how did I miss that?” / edit / POST / reread / aaarrrggghhhhh! / edit / POST / reread / [expletive deleted] / edit / POST …

This time I am doing it live. So what you read … NOW … may be totally different from what you read …
…
…
…
NOW.

So as you read this, don’t assume that you are reading the final version.

Now if you follow the web at all, especially if you follow the geek tech sites, you know that the world is in the midst of another “Apple vs …” kerfuffle. I really should strive to use kerfuffle more. Anyway this time it is Apple vs Samsung, or perhaps Apple vs Google, since the Android operating system used by Samsung is made by Google. Last time it was Apple vs Microsoft.

Now perhaps forty-eight percent of all Internet traffic is devoted to Apple, Apple vs Samsung, Apple vs Google, Apple’s innovation or lack thereof, AAPL stock price, Apple’s cash horde, Apple this, Apple that …

OK I just made up that forty-eight percent figure, but you get the idea.

I am not going to tell you why should like Apple. I actually don’t care what you like. That sounds callous, maybe there is a better way to put this. If you like Samsung, Android, Google, Microsoft, or even if you HATE Apple, that’s fine. Just don’t reply with a flaming attack on me or Apple because I will just delete it. I am not here to pick a fight. AND it is my blog. Ready? OK Let’s go!
 

Why I Like Apple

Ignoring for a minute that I have always liked Apple, I probably like Apple most for all of the reasons the Apple-haters hate it. It is a closed ecosystem. What do I mean by this? Apple makes the whole thing. Well OK they design all of it and have many of the parts made or assembled by other international subcontractors, but they control the entire process. They make the hardware. They make the operating system, they vet the apps, they sell content. The end result of this kind of cradle to grave design to delivery system is that, by and large, it just works.

I work with non-Apple hardware and software all day long every day usually trying to figure out why it doesn’t work (it’s my job). When I get home at night I just want to use something to surf the web, read and respond to email, watch videos, listen to music, read a book, maybe play a game, write fiction or essays, and update my blog. I do not want or need an open system that I can hack, jailbreak or otherwise reconfigure. I just want it to work.

 
Enter the iPad

Too make a long story short, my kid sister, who is now on olde woman (she is so going to kill me, Muahahaha), got me an iPad for father’s day three? four? years ago. The very iPad upon which I am typing now. Did I mention that I maintain this blog 100% on an iPad? It is a very olde iPad by iPad standards. It is first generation. Next month or so, Apple will announce the fifth generation iPad in time for Christmas. Every generation of iPad has roughly doubled the performance of the previous generation, so my olde decrepit iPad is truly an ancient outdated slab of uselessness. And did I mention that I just downloaded 2001 A Space Odyssey onto it? And I maintain all of my finances, bank, 401k, stocks, etc. using it?

OK let’s make a short story long. So my sister who had an iPhone (I still don’t have an iPhone, I have an olde battle-scarred Samsung “dumb as a stump” flip phone) called me a few years back to tell me she just got the new iPad. Mrs and I had her on speaker phone so we joked with her thanking her for getting me an iPad for Father’s day which was coming up. Well she felt so sorry that the all time geek of the family didn’t even have an iPhone, that she got me an iPad for father’s day. This iPad. Woo Hoo!

(standby more to come … later … It is 1:21 AM here… Will pick up tomorrow … See it isn’t finished yet)

[8:12 AM Wed. … Just a quick addition, adding the A. C. Clark quote at top and a few more lines below]

Where was I? Oh yes, the iPad. So my sister got me the first iPad not long after it came out. It was the perfect example of “it is interesting, but do I really need it? would I really use it?” I was skeptical. It was really really cool and all, but just how useful would it be? I certainly never would have bought it for myself.

I CAN NOT LIVE WITHOUT THIS THING. I use it for everything. Well at least everything that it is capable of doing (it can’t cook or clean house, but I would use it for that if I could). In no particular order: I maintain this blog. (using it now). I check email (personal and business), I get my news on the web, I get my weather, (with the help of Google, Bing, Wikipedia, WordPress) I ask it questions and it gives me answers I can use, I read articles and videos about how to do stuff, I listen to music, I watch TV, I watch movies, I read books, I learn, I satisfy my curiosity, I take it with me everywhere, it runs all day long.

(uh oh … Gotta run … Later … More to come)

[updating off line now]
I manage my finances, pay my bills, actively manage my 401k, manage my stock account, track prescription drugs and medical EOBs, play games usually in versus mode with a friend. Now obviously Apple doesn’t provide all of these services, but the iPad easily and seamlessly accesses all of them.

My friend who is dyslexic, uses his to read web articles to him. He stated that this has allowed him to learn more faster than ever could before.

 
Wife’s iPad

Eventually the Mrs discovered my iPad. And by discovered, I mean she confiscated my iPad for her use. Last year I got her an iPad of her own, a gen 3 “iPad with Retina display”. It blows mine away in terms of performance and image quality. Apple released the gen 4 last fall and will release gen 5 this fall. Wife’s iPad has 4x the performance of mine. Gen 5 iPad should be 4x performance of her’s. Which would be 16x the performance of my poor olde iPad.

I had her iPad engraved at the sweatshop factory.

[Wife’s name]’s iPad
Keep’a yo hand’s off

She loves it. I put her favorite game, Mahjong Solitaire on it. Loaded her favorite music to it. We soon discovered that she could stream SiriusXM oldtime radio to it. Then we discovered free podcasts on iTunes of all of her favorite oldtime radio shows. I got her a set of the Bose over-the-ear noise-canceling headphones. I set her up with a Google news icon. Just this weekend I set her up with a playlist of her favorites. She frequents the hospital monthly to bi-monthly, so she takes the iPad and headphones to keep her company.

The Mrs is the poster child for technophobic anti-computer Luddite. Yet, she loves her iPad. She recommends it to everyone she meets. She follows the news from Google news. Checks and replies to emails. Talks to me via iMessage, keeps her doctor appointments on it. Tracks her temperature on it. Follows the weather, listens to music and radio drama.

 
iLove iTunes

Much of what I have discussed isn’t unique to Apple. iTunes on the other hand is Apple. This is where A. C. Clark’s magic really begins. The iTunes store was announced ten years ago in April. Recently it surpassed it’s 25 billionth song download on February 6th, 2013.

Click on the image above to see detailed download history.

iTunes Match debuted on November 14th, 2011. With iTunes Match, all of your music is available all of the time on all of your devices, whether or not you purchased your music from iTunes. For a small annual fee, Apple provides access to all of your music. If you did not purchase your music from iTunes and iTunes identifies a better quality version on iTunes, you get access to the better version. The beauty of iTunes Match is that you can download all or part of your music at anytime to any of your devices … or you can stream your music via WiFi or a cellular connection without downloading it (or any combination thereof).

I subscribe to iTunes Match. Mrs and I have full access to all of our music and playlists anywhere, any time we have WiFi access. This is seamless magic.

Did I mention instant gratification? … What was that song by you know who? … Oh yeah, that’s the one. … iTunes has it? Downloading now …

 
Apple App Store

Similar to iTunes Match, any app you buy at the Apple App Store, is always available for re-download. So if I need to clean out some space I can delete apps knowing that I can always download them again.

 
iBooks and iTunesU

Similar to iTunes and App Store. Delete books to clean up. Download again as desired. Nice backlit reader with fully adjustable text. Good for olde eyes.

More instant gratification. Think about book … Find book … Downloading now …

 
Bluetooth

More magic. You just read a review of the Bose Mini Bluetooth speaker. It connects easily and reconnects automatically, or at worst at the push of a button. Same with Bluetooth in my car. I can set up a music playlist, leave my iPad in my brief case, and automatically start listening when I startup the Prius.

 
WiFi

Access to the Internet is automatic with our iPads. Whether at home or at the hospital, or Starbucks, or our local breakfast cafe once set up the iPad remembers and automatically reconnects when in range.

Although I am doing my part for global carbon dioxide production by going paperless. I sometimes need to print out coupons, so I bought a cheap HP WiFi printer. Connection of the iPad to the printer was seamless and easy. Yet more magic.

 
No Worries Mate

Is your antivirus software up to date? Would you know? One the things that iPad (actually iOS) haters hate about iPad is the “app sandbox” design concept. This is what I love most about the iPad.

If you use a computer, and if you are reading this you are probably using a computer, you know that you can use a file browser (Windows Explorer) to view / copy / paste / delete files just about anywhere on a Windows computer. Same is mostly true for the Mac. If you can view / copy / paste / delete a file or executable, so can a hacker, virus, worm, spyware, etc. The iPad is different. Each application runs in its own dedicated storage space. Take for example the web browser Safari. It and all of its data all live together in the same directory. It can not get out of its prison. Viruses can not install themselves on an iPad. It just can’t freakin’ happen.

I don’t have, need, or use antivirus software on the iPad. The only danger is a rogue developer writing a malicious app. That is where the Apple iOS App Store comes into play. This is again a sore point with Apple Haters (haters gotta hate). Apple has strict and draconian control about what can be published on the App Store. This means that an app gets tested by Apple to confirm it is not malware or spyware. I like this. I have enough to worry about. Yeah, yeah, every so often you hear that someone has snuck something snarky onto the Apple App Store to prove it can be done, but really … no worries.

An iPad can be “jailbroken”. This is a process whereby the owner can be granted full access to the underlying OS as the “root” user. However you can now no longer download from the App Store and will need to find a different site. There are many sites, but making sure that you are now getting safe apps is your responsibility.

If you want to poke around in your iPad, monitor storage space, performance, memory utilization, etc. I highly recommend System Status by Jeri Techet, available at the App Store. 20130821-195836.jpg

 
In Conclusion

iPad … Cat-Beard Tested, Momma Approved

Be seeing you …

[Final upload Wed. Aug. 21, 2013 @ 7:15 PM … While drinking wine at the bar of a neighborhood Italian restaurant waiting for my take out order … final (?) edit 8:03 PM … Three glasses of wine … Final proof read by Mrs at 9:00 PM … Final upload at 9: 40 PM]

[Woke up unexpectedly at 4 AM On Thur. Aug. 22nd, 2013 … adding more edits and thoughts]

… or what you read … NOW

 
Next >> Wrestling with Worry