Technology

Please Take My Money CVS

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CVS POS Terminal

Prior to my big move while I was on the topic of writing about target and NFC payments regarding Target I had to go to CVS and pick up something. While I was waiting to check out I was reminded that CVS has the shiny new point-of-sale terminals with the big logo for tap to pay that doesn’t work. If I remember correctly they used to allow it and then when Apple Pay came out they turned it off.  It was because they were a partner of CurrentC and didn’t want their competitor to work.

Whatever happened to companies going sure I will take any form of your money so you can buy our stuff? It reminds me that I wanted to create a web series about “Please Take My Money”.  It started with Macy’s.  I wrote about it a few years ago: If I wrote more about it, I would chronicle all the challenges I’ve experienced with companies not simply letting me buy their stuff or give them money when it should be really easy. In CVS’s case it’s they want to save money on the transaction fee they pay credit cards.  To do that they turned off all cordless payment systems that competed with CurrentC. Thankfully that service that was only good for the retailers and not the consumers failed.  Apple Pay still not working at least at my local CVS.

Dragon Anywhere vs Siri

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For a little over a year I was using Dragon Anywhere on my iPhone to dictate my journal entries and this blog. I found it very useful. It was pretty accurate. It was much better than Siri however not as good as the Dragon Desktop app on my Mac.

The app was great for when I was walking and could dictate things I was thinking about. I found myself doing much more writing when I could reliably use that app. The downside however was the price. It cost around $15 a month. Over the summer I stopped using it for a few weeks and got wondering if I really needed it.

When I started to use dictation again it was right around the time that iOS 11 gold master was available. I was trying that out along with the dictating some texts. I noticed that the dictation function was more persistent than previously. That means I could talk for longer without it dropping off. The user interface also stayed on screen for the dictation icon instead of reverting back to the keyboard all the time. This made it easier to actually dictate more in the native keyboard. On top of that it seemed that Siri had gotten much better at dictation. It is still not better than Dragon however it is much more compelling to drop the $15 a month expense of dragon now.

Interestingly I’m not missing dragon that much. I am however not dictating as much as I did previously. I’m not sure if that was just a psycho I’m going through where I write less and then go back to it. Or if ease of using Dragon really is worth it. Right now my primary objective is to cut costs so in unnecessary $15 charge is gone something else to replace it however I feel that’s much more compelling and on related. That’s for another story.

I find time to write when I’m walking. This blog entry for example is being written, dictated while I’m walking to pick up my kids from school. It’s a great time filler and allows me to clear my head. What I really need to do is set aside time when I’m home and use my computer and the dragon software there. It’s much better at recognizing words however it requires dedicated personal time but I’m not always willing to give up..

At Least My Amazon Tap Is Ready For London

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I followed a how to on Reddit for how to get my Tap working in the UK. It wasn’t straight forward like an Echo since it apparently is not sold in the UK. I was prepared for a challenge however it worked on the first attempt. For the next day i have to remember the time it gives me will be in GMT. MC and I are also going cold turkey and have the Tap giving us weather in Celsius. Apparently its a thing. Thankfully the Tap can convert stuff for us when we have no clue what it is telling us in Celsius.

A Test of The HorcruxNet

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When explaining my Resilio personal cloud setup to someone at work they replied that i have my own personal Horcrux minus the killing.  I liked the idea so I think i am naming my Resilio backup setup HorcruxNet.

The network is having its biggest test this week in its 3 or so years of existance.  I am moving.  Movers are packing up our stuff tomorrow.  That means i am putting my electronics into “Cleaning Lady Safe Mode”.  it is what i used to have to do when our cleaning lady showed up.  I would unplug everything so she didn’t mess stuff up.  She did a few times.

I have expanded my network to have replica or partial replica copies on my laptop.  I also have 3 working remote sites thanks to friends and family hosting some nodes.  While we move and my two primary full nodes (my Synology) and mac mini) will be offline for about 4-5 weeks.  During that time my remote hosts will hopefully keep humming along.  With my home network offline i doubt there will be much changes however since my laptop has a partial replica if i do make changes it will propagate out.

I love a nice well configured computer system if I do say so myself.

Amazon Tap, Tapped Me Out

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I bought an Amazon Tap so my spooky spying music speaker can travel with me around my new house.  I know officially the Tap isn’t sold in the UK however I have read a few people who documented the hoops (and there are a few) to go through to get it to work.

My Tap arrived yesterday and setup was super easy.  I did notice that the wake word is Alexa.   Unlike the Echo you are not able to change it.  I was cleaning up around the apartment and took it with me to listen to Spotify.  After about an hour it stopped working.  it kept saying it lost its connection.  My Echo and all other devices working fine. I repaired the tap with my wireless yet it still isn’t working. I bought another Amazon speaker partially because it was branded easy to set up and get working.

I didn’t have the mental energy to deal with trying to reconfigure this. By the 3rd restart of the device while it was in its charging base it started working again.  Lets see if it stays working ok.

From Cellular to Mobile

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One of the first things I need to get in England is a phone. More specifically a UK Sim card for my iPhone. It sounds pretty simple. You can get them pretty much anywhere. Seriously the recommendation was to buy one in a Tesco (a Grocery Store) Surprisingly for an American they’re super cheap compared to US plans. I think we pay around $130 for two iPhones and one iPad with about three or four gigs of data and unlimited minutes between them.In the UK you can get close to unlimited or unlimited minutes and three or four gigs of data per line for about 15 to 20 pounds a month. What I found is not all plans are created equal.

I’m probably a stickler for technical details more than most people however there were a few things that I’m concerned about. For one what is the service look like where we want to live and near my office? When I had AT&T in time square I basically could not use my phone for three years at work. That’s not really acceptable in 2018. Since we own our phones were looking for a pay as you go or a pay monthly without contract.

I’m going to try 3. The reviews have been decent. I’m concerned about coverage but I’ll have to be there to test it. The advantage they have over everyone else is for about the same price they offer complete roaming in Europe and the US for no additional charge. That means calls to the UK and data usage is like I was still in the UK even when traveling. I would need to continue the use of voice over IP solution when calling US phone numbers however that’s not different from when I would be in the UK as well. That set up seems like the most liberal roaming policy of everyone. It’s even better than the T-Mobile options I have in the states now.

One thing I learned that I heard rumors about previously was you by prepay some cards from the grocery store. That’s a little different from the US. While on our house hunting trip I bought a 3 & EE SIM card at a Tesco.  I wasn’t able to use 3 Sim card I bought.  I was able to use the EE card for my phone and i bought another one for my iPad. I didn’t really pay attention to signal strength in the neighborhood we were looking to get a house. I also wasn’t near the office very much. I was hoping to settle on a carrier during the trip and then keep the number when we moved. What I learned when I went top up the prepay card while I was there was to do a top up remotely you need a local address. Even though I had a local debit card it’s still tied to my US address until we move. At the time of this writing we don’t have a house sorted so I will either not use the number I got or once the house is sorted I can top up a card and be ready for when we arrive.

I know I can do most of this when we get there however especially for technology challenges like this I want to be prepared. This particular challenge won’t get resolved until were actually living there. I will likely post an update once I have figured out what we will do and then see how it goes.

Please Take My Money Target

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CVS POS Terminal

One Saturday not to long ago we went to Target to spend some gift cards that we had lying around that we need to use before we moved. While I was there I wanted to grab a coffee at their sort of Starbucks. You know it’s says Starbucks but it’s not. I know it’s not since I can’t use my Starbucks card.

While I was at fo-Starbucks I noticed they had a tap to pay/NFC reader on their point-of-sale terminal. Since I try to use Apple Pay everywhere I can in hopes that one day I won’t need to really carry a wallet.  I was happy to try to use it.. Then I tried. The checkout clerk said oh it’s Apple it won’t work. The machine only takes Samsung Pay. I didn’t really want to argue the technical details of NFC payment terminals with a fo-Starbucks Clerc.  To be clear however what he said is not entirely true. Apparently target is deliberately limiting their system to Samsung pay or simply telling people anything else will not work. And NFC chip is an NFC chip. If I had one in my credit card I should be able to just tap it on their system.

I find it frustrating when a retailer is misleading customers about their deliberately limiting their choice at the same time. Let’s face it there’s nothing stopping them from doing it. And I don’t think it’s a legal issue however it’s a bit shady to tell me it just doesn’t work.  As it turns out Target cannot use the failed CurrentC.  However they decided to use their own app to make payments only.  That way they keep the loyalty information and save prices on credit card transactions.  That credit card transaction savings is a good thing.  A good thing for them since they are not passing the savings on to the consumers. On the plus side this entire engagement reminded me to be thankful that CurrentC was a complete and utter failure.

I sadly paid with my chip and PIN (only using a debit card since the US hasn’t figured out PIN’s for credit cards yet) and still enjoyed sipping my Cappuchino while pushing the girls in the shopping cart.

Photo is from a CVS POS were likely I had the same issue.

My Half Baked Review Of My iPhone X

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I got lucky and my iPhone X arrived on launch day va the original 1-2 weeks late.

Initial feedback I have is good. The size was the main reason I wanted it. For this size screen in this size phone it makes it totally worth it. Notice the size in both photos. The X is the middle phone. Barely noticeable difference to the 6S and super small vs the 7+. Feels really food to hold vs the 7+.

Most apps worked without any issues. Several I use do not have an Z optimized version so things look smaller for now. For launch day I was pleased by how many apps were optimized for the new screen size. My only major app issue is Airwatch that I need for work apps. It would not work and would keep looking me to authenticate. I had to remove the app and reinstall it and everything was fine.

The cheap old Wireless charging pad I had did not work even if it was supposed to. The iPhone saw it but after about 30 minutes I saw no difference in charge. I need to investigate getting a better one. I will likely wait till I am in London for that so I don’t have to deal with her another power plug converter.

For my most expensive iPhone yet I am pleased with the upgrade. Now I have to prepare and ebay my 7+. I will not miss the hearty device.

Better Late Than Not at all: iOS 11 GM

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I am becoming terrible with drafts and the blog. I wrote this in mid September (this year at least) and never published or scheduled this.

It is that time of year. The time after the Apple announcement listing release dates for iOS and when it actually is available for the general public. The thing is if you are in the beta program you can get the General Master version now. I dabble in the beta versions but so not put them on my iPhone. With the GM out it is always a question of do I install it on all my devices. It is always a question yet I usually do install it.

So far in the past 24 hours I have installed it on my iPad Pro and thought it was great. That got me to install it on my work iPhone. Once I knew that was stable in installed on my personal iPhone. Now either everything will stop working together or I am set!

Next up do I play with a late beta of macOS on my laptop?

This isn’t so topical anymore since the final versions of iOS and macOS have been out for a while. I didn’t want my writing to goto waist.

I get up at 3 AM for only a few things…

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There only a few things that will get me up at 3 AM. The two main reasons are A and T. They do that more times than I would like but overall they are great kids.  Other things might include a flight that I really couldn’t get at any other time but first thing in the morning. Even then I would try to avoid it at all costs. Then of course there’s an Apple launch event. I’d be lying if I said I never got up at 3 AM before to order an apple device. In recent years I haven’t. Last year I wasn’t even sure if I wanted an iPhone 7. I opted to get one at the end of November.  I wasn’t motivated enough to get up in the middle of the night then.

In previous instances of me getting up to order a phone (or a tablet) I was exceedingly frustrated. I would get up at 3 AM or one time 6 AM thinking I can still get ahead of the rush. My early morning attempts were semi failures due to technical problems with Apple systems. One time I spent 45 minutes trying to place an order only to go to bed and get up at 6 AM to try again. By then it was a month wait for the product. I might go back and troll my blog history to find out what product it was that i had that happen.  I’m not too crazy, I don’t think. I only attempted this maybe twice before. I have waited out in the freezing cold for two hours for an iPad once. MC was dating at the time and she still decided to marry me. That’s how you know you have a winner.

Flash forward to this week and I had to think about if I wanted to get up early for this launch event. In the end I had sound reasons and motivation to do so. It boils down to my move overseas. We aim to move around the first week in January. That means if the constraints around supply chain for the new phone are anywhere near true, and they likely are I might not get my phone in time for my move. If anyone’s actually reading a technical post like this they might wonder why, or who cares? The answer is an iPhone cost the same in dollars as it would in pounds or close to it. That means to buy it in London it’s 30% more expensive due to conversion rates. Since I knew I wanted to buy the phone my option was to either get it before I go or pay the extra price. This phone is expensive enough so I wasn’t willing to pay more for it when I got there.

I decided that if I was not able to order the phone Friday morning and have it delivered in a reasonable time prior to the end of the year I would not get one. My alternative would be either to get an iPhone 8+ or simply stick with my 7+ until I’m back in the US for a while over the summer. The fact that the iPhone X is as thin as the iPhone 8 with a bigger screen than my current plus is so compelling for me to want it. I love the screen on my current 7+ however that phone is just way too big. Whenever I hold my work iPhone 6S it just feels more natural.

 Thursday evening I told myself I was going to bed early, maybe before 9 PM. That never happened so I went to bed around 10:15 PM. I set my phone alarm. In order not to wake MCI also set my Fitbit silent alarm to go off a minute before my phone alarm. I was aggravated when the Fitbit said it was low on battery life. I took the chance that it would last until the next morning. It did. The silent alarm went off as expected and I was able to get up and turn off the phone alarm. I know I was successful when MC asked me when she woke up if I’d gotten up in the middle of the night to do my order.

I settled into my desk with my iPhone and iPad plus a web browser ready to go hoping to have one of them work quickly. I was ready to go about two minutes ahead of schedule. A few minutes after 3 AM Eastern time my iPad started working with their store app. My initial plan was to use my IPhone upgrade program. Oddly when I tried to do that from the iPad told me I needed to do it from my phone. The challenge was the phone wasn’t loading the app. I had thought about this and the upgrade program is nice however I don’t really need it. Set aside money each month for a tech fund for purchases just like this that I know I will want to make. Whenever I sell gear I put it in the fund also. Instead of using the upgrade program I simply bought the phone out right. I got my confirmation email at 3:08 AM. Within that eight minutes from when it launched I was told a delivery time of November 10 through the 17th. It officially launches on 4 November. I’m really wondering who is actually getting the phone on the fourth?

Since I did not use my upgrade program I will need to buy my iPhone 7+ outright and then sell it on eBay to recoup the costs. It’s a minor inconvenience however I did not want to mess around with switching to my phone and waiting for it to work.

I was back in bed around 3:10 AM. Unfortunately I had trouble sleeping since I was wide awake by that time. It felt like no time passed before 6 AM rolled around and I had to get up for my morning routine.

I think getting up at  a ridiculously early hour to preorder something is for everybody? No course not. For me  I am into technology that just works. This is something that I use constantly that’s always with me so I find it worthwhile to do what I did. I know many of my friends likely don’t understand it or don’t “get it”. And that’s okay. There’s also those friends who messaged me at 330 asking me how I did. Obviously they were also up trying to score one.