Broke down and decided to get the stainless steal band. The sport strap just wasn’t cutting it. Glad I went with this vs the steal mesh Milaies Loop band.
Technology
Apples Perception Problem
Apple has a perception problem if when I am out to dinner our waiter is arguing with me that he bought an Android Wear watch because Android is more “open” than Apple. I am cool if you want to live Android over iOS however liking Android because it is more open means that Google is successful at spinning how their OS is perceived and Apple hasn’t been.
I smartly dropped the topic and two other friends of mine agreed it was not worth the conversation. MC and my friends wife just rolled their eyes at us (literally or figuratively). It did all start because MC asked him if he was wearing an Apple Watch this whole thing would never have started. I thought the whole conversation was pretty funny.
Spacecraft Names vs Artificial Intelligence
With my new work laptop on its way I know I am a bit geeky when my thoughts on my walk to the subway home turn to what naming scheme I might use for my personal devices. I have used NASA space craft names for years but as I was walking listening to music my mind wandered to thinking what else I could come up with that would be cool.
One thought came to mind is to use AI or Android names from popular movies or TV shows.
See this is what happens when I clear my mind.
The Apple Watch Worth it, For Me?
I have had my Apple Watch for a few days now. It hasn’t been enough time to write an exhaustive review about features, however I am not writing a full technical review. I am writing about my experience with it to date.
Physically the watch face looks ok to me. The band is a nice rubber band but its still not great. I know I bought the cheap band. Some of the other ones look much better however no super awesome band will take away from the fact that this is still a digital watch. The watch itself is pretty thick and boxy. It is well built but not beveled like someone at work pointed out. Ascetically pretty decent. Not fantastic but overall not horrible.
Someone pointed out in a review I read that the main things people will really regularly use a smart watch for is 1, telling time, 2 activity tracking, and 3 notifications. I generally agree with this. The other functions are nice to have’s but not anything that I would use often. The using the watch for example as a viewfinder for the camera is nifty but i am not going to use that very much.
Using those three main functions I wanted to see how the Apple Watch fared for me. First as a watch it wasn’t great. I was just ok. I personally had issue with the watch taking a while to go on when i moved my wrist to look at the time. It isn’t a lot of time but it is very noticible. I also don’t have the best vision so once i am looking at the watch face I have to focus on the hands to know what time it is. Most people may glance much faster at it and then the waiting for it to light up may not be a big deal. For me waiting for it to light up and then having to look at it and get the time was just too long. I know I could possibly solve my issue by just using the digital time however I have been an analog watch person for over a decade now and I don’t want to change now because the Apple Watch doesn’t turn on fast enough.
As for activity tracking I am honestly still confused by the three circles that the watch uses to track me. Move isn’t really a step count I think. I am not sure and if i can’t easily figure that out then it is too complex. Tracking my standing is cool however if the watch knows i am active why does it matter that it knows i am actually standing. My Up band alerted on lack of activity. It just seemed simpler. In any event the activity tracker seems good enough. The main issue with the watch as an activity tracker is that it is built into the watch. On one hand that is great. One less thing to wear. Of course what if I wear another watch? Or as in my case I want to track my sleep habits as well like i have been for a few years with my Jawbone UP. For me if I were to keep the watch it wouldn’t be my only watch so I would need an activity tracker anyway. My Jawbone UP24 broke last week so I just ordered a new Jawbone UP2. I will blog about that hopefully soon. In any event I am not giving up my dedicated tracker so the Apple Watch as an activity tracker is redundant for me. For others it may be great or the best function now that they can get rid of another wrist band. I for one am happy to own a basic activity tracker like the up that doesn’t have a screen on it and just tracks what i do since that is the only reason i own it.
The 3rd main reason to have a smartwatch would be the notifications. This is where my problem lies. The Apple Watch is good at this. Really good. In the few days i have had it i have loved the meeting notifications and the ability to snooze them and not forget to be somewhere. The timer is helpful also however not much easier than just dictating to Siri on my phone. Telling me about a new text was great, however there were a few that I never got on my watch but did get on my phone. Overall I liked the notification features of the watch. That in lies my problem. This watch along with all smart watches are a huge distraction or so I thought. I initially got concerned the first full day I had it when the girls were climbing all over me to play with it. I was concerned about the distraction. I am trying to adhere to be here now when I am home. Because of the distraction I was all set to return the watch. Then I read another blogger who said the notifications on the watch were great because it allowed them to keep the phone in their pocket and actually be less distracted. I was intrigued. That was exactly what I wanted. Because of that the watch got a reprieve and I will keep trying it for a while longer.
Apple Watch First Impressions
I know that it is a huge step down from either of my daily wear watches however that isn’t stopping me from trying the Apple Warch. I am a geek for cool technology after all. So far first thoughts in the few hours I have worn it are nifty and did I really put down an Onega for this?
Going to see how a few days of use changed my opinion for better or worse.
My Choice of an iPhone 6
When the iPhone 6 & 6 Plus came out I originally wanted the Plus. With my eyes I wanted as big of a screen as I could get. However I did have a Galaxy Note whoever version was out right after Teagan was born. I tried it for a few days and quickly returned it because it was unusable with one hand. Someone needing to hold a baby a lot having two hands free isn’t always possible. Those thoughts in my head and the fact that the Plus wasn’t really available right away led me to the 6. Even with the 6 i was concerned about its size. I need that one handed use. I was pleasantly surprised when I got the 6 that it is generally usable with one hand. The screen size was much better than my old 5.
This upgrade cycle I opted for the 128gig version. I had the 64gig for the 5 and the 4S before that. I may have had a 64 4 if they made them but I can’t remember. When I got the 5 I really needed the space. As I used it and day to day used my iPad more I found the storage not to be as limiting as it used to be. That being said I did come close enough to filling up all 64gig’s that I didn’t want to chance another year or more with that much space. I spend the extra money on the larger storage. I also opted for the white version this year. For a few years I kept wanting white but either canceled the order and changed to black or couldn’t get the white. This go round I didn’t want to make any excuses and I got the white.
So far I have been very happy with my choice. I even toyed with a 6 Plus for a few days last month. I confirmed my original thoughts that it was too big and I returned the phone. I made the right choice for me until next September. Then we shall see what else comes out.
I am not ashamed that I get excited by LED lightbulbs
Today MC and I took some of our holiday to goto Home Depot. We are looking at renovating our kitchen and we needed to investigate some details. After we finished doing that I wanted to check out the lighting section. Our fixtures in the ceiling are not big enough to allow me to put in 75 Watt equivalent CFL bulbs. I have enough trouble seeing on a bright sunny day outside so I can use every extra lumen I can get. I recently read about a flat LED bulb from Phillips. The shape of the bulb had me curious if a 75 Watt equivalent would fit in the ceiling fixtures. The only problem has been that the last Home Depot and every online store I have gone to have not had them in stock. I am not ashamed to say I was very happy to see that this Home Depot had them in stock. I picked up 4 of them to see if they would work out. I was happy to see that the bulbs do fit perfectly in the fixtures were only 60 watt equivalent CFL’s fit before. In our bedroom it was amazing how an extra 300-400 lumens make the room so much brighter.
Besides the fact that I now have brighter lighting in the apartment, these bulbs shouldn’t need to be changed until after Amelia is out of College. That is assuming we still live in this apartment. The LED bulbs will also allow me to dim them. Master plan is to put in smart dimmer switches that plug into my home automation system. The possibilities get interesting once i do that. I hope to write about that once my plans start to materialize, but I am excited by the possibilities. Yes I said it i am excited about new light bulbs and light switches. I had to think about why that was. The reason I came to is I always loved Science Fiction. I don’t yet have swooshing doors that open when i walk up to them but I can have lights that dim depending on the time of day or go off when people leave the room. That on top of the fact that my iPad seems to do more than those PADD’s in Star Trek The Next Generation my 12 year old self would think I am living in a great Sci-Fi future. Take that Star Trek!
My Evolving Use of Cloud Storage
Last year I canceled my pay Drobo subscription. I still have the service but with a lot less storage. At the time I wanted to build my own “cloud” storage system. In reality I wanted to take my data at home and make it syncable via the internet like a cloud storage provider to my devices were ever i was. Originally I bought a Transporter that I had hopes would take a 1TB drive and let me sync data to my computers. That dream lasted about a week. Their sync software was problimatic for me. Instead I opted for a Synology NAS DS412+. The added app’s functionality and redundant storage allowed me to move all my data to the Synology and no longer rely on my aging Drobo(s) as my primary storage system. The Synology also allowed me to move some multimedia functions i did on my mac mini off to the NAS. So far I have been very happy. The Synology Cloud Sync app gives me Dropbox like functionality with my personal stuff. The other file access options the Synology offers gives me access to all my data. To do that with any other provider would be prohibitivly expensive because of the amount of data stored on the NAS.
The timeing for this change to self hosting my data was perfect. I couldn’t realistically do what I am doing now earlier because when I had Time Warner my upload speeds were horrible (1.5mb). After I moved to Fios my upload speeds jumped to between 25-35mb. I have no problems using the Synology.
The problem with the Synology is that as much as the NAS itself is designed to last and has some drive resiliance in it, I do not have an offsite backup. I used to copy my data manually for a while but now a days that is not a good idea. it is also not feasable with the amount of data i have now.
After leaving Dropbox I read more and more about the potential issues with public cloud providers. Such as Dropbox knows what you upload and wont keep a duplicate copy of a file of music if others have it. That means they can (and i believe they have) removed content if there is a DMCA request. I am also increasingly uneasy about US based hosting providers and the easy the government can get access to data. I am not a criminal and don’t really have anything to hide in what I am storing however those are not reasons why I should be ok with the ease of government access to my data. I will talk about that more in another post. In relation to cloud storage I am glad I do not use Dropbox, however I put myself in the same situation with another provider.
Because I have so much data and I need to really be thinking about a 321 backup sceme I started using Crashplan and Amazon Glacial. Crashplan I recently canceled because I was having problems with my copy of data on my Drobo that i would sync to Crashplan. The crashplan app kept thinking that the drobo was disconnected and would keep creating new copies of my data. When it takes weeks to sync a backup using crashplan having a new copy get created every so often is not good. With that issue and the fact that the Crashplan Synology app caused my Synology to perform super slow to the point that I uninstalled it I gave up on Crashplan and canceled it.
Amazon Glacial has been good so far. The challanges with Glacial is that the cost per month varries by how much i use it. It is also much more expensive than Crashplan for the amount of data i have. Another challange is getting data out is expensive in the event of a major issue. Thankfully i havent had to worry about that yet but it is a concern. The most current concern I have is that Amazon is a US based company and my data is hosted on US servers. For now I am living with that risk. My rational side says I dont do anything to warrent the government to want my data however I would rather that not even be an option.
One alternative to Dropbox I have been looking at is Mega.NZ. They don’t have any access to my data once it is uploaded. They offer 50gig free. It is good to replace dropbox for some files i have and to give my most important stuff an offsite backup but it is not enough to backup my music, videos, and photos. Their 1tb option is doable for me but even that isn’t enough to backup everything. For now I will continue with Glacial as my backup. I am investigating working with a friend or two to replica sync our Synologies between each other. The cost of that may not be worth it but it is an interesting idea.
The Time I Smashed My iPhone 6
By the time I sat down to write this post a year and 1/2 or so likely has gone by. This is one of those situations where I wasn’t blogging enough yet I wanted to capture this story. I recall enough of the details to get some basic story written down. It stands out in my mind because it’s the only time to date or I’ve destroyed a phone. It’s one in a rare few times I’ve dropped a phone.
It was a cold wet day and I was coming home from work like I always did. I’m not sure if I was pulling my gloves off or just fumbling for my keys and I went to swap my phone from my right hand to my left hand. I don’t know what happened however it just slipped away from me. I tried to grab it however I was unable to. When I picked up the phone the front screen was smashed. There is not much I can do at the time since I needed to get home and relieve the babysitter so she can leave for the day.
Once the kids were in bed I went online to see when I could schedule an appointment at the Apple Store to try to get it fixed. I was lucky to be able to get an early morning appointment the next day.
I brought the phone in and let the techs do their thing. I was concerned that my worst-case scenario would be I’d have to buy a completely new iPhone. I did not get the insurance initially now I was regretting that decision. As I spoke to the Genius Bar tech they said that the initial amount of money would be no less than around $100 plus tax. The exact price is fuzzy in my memory but it was not much more than that. They asked me if I was okay with that and I was like absolutely since it was a lot cheaper than I thought it was going to be. Then the tech cautioned me that if it was more than the screen that was damaged they would need to replace the entire iPhone. The refurbished replacement would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $350. Again he asked me if I was okay with that. Even then my response was yes yes yes since a full replacement would still be 1/3 of the price I thought I was going to have to pay. The tech then said it was okay that the work would be done by lunchtime. It was around 8 AM and I was perfectly fine with that too. It felt like this tech dealt with a lot of angry or argumentative people since every time he asked me a question he seemed to brace or assume that I was having a negative response. The funny thing was it was expensive I wasn’t pleased to have to spend money however it was far better possible outcome than I anticipated. I signed all the paperwork left to go to work.
I was smart in making my appointment at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store that was open 24/7. It’s also on my way to work. And a short walk from the subway. That made it easy for me to hop on the subway and go back at lunchtime. When I got back I was happy to find out that the only thing wrong was the screen. That meant the repair was only around hundred dollars and change. I was extremely pleased and paid the fee and had my phone good as new. I did ask if I could purchase insurance on the phone now since I thought it was within the 30 days of when I bought it. Sadly since there was already damage to it I was ineligible for AppleCare. I plan on getting a case to try to prevent the problem from happening again.
I was in and out quick enough that I was able to get lunch and returned to work in under an hour. All in all the situation could’ve been a lot worse I was pleased enough with the outcome.
I Finally Killed Off Google Doc’s
I have finally succeeded in killing off any remaining documents i had hosted in my personal google account. This action was a bit harder than i expected it would be. I won’t go into further details on a public post due to security concerns however i am glad that I was able to go through and move everything i still needed and delete everything I didn’t need. Exporting data was easy to an offline file but moving things that others still needed to collaborate on was a challenge and requires giving out new URL’s unless i was moving the document to someone else in the same google work domain. I wasn’t doing that so it was challanging.
This milestone was one of the last I need before I can delete my remaining google app’s id that i used to use as my main account. The last milestone may be the most difficult but that will be the topic of another post, Android Apps.