The Useful Duck!

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Monday, December 8, 2014

Apple withdrawal

My daughter just got a Samsung Galaxy s5. She loves it! I'd kind of like to switch...
She had an upgrade and had been studying phones. She had an Apple iPhone 4. I have the iPhone 5s.
I've been a little frustrated with my iPhone.
It is almost the perfect phone. This "almost" with Apple is getting a little tiresome. Apple (in my opinion) has been almost the perfect computer since OS 9 was discontinued.
I won't discuss how annoyed I am with iTunes or the apple store.
My wife was working, she cares for an elderly lady down the road, and I didn't feel like cooking so I took Lulu to Third Street Pizza and we walked around downtown McMinnville and finally ended up at Corner Stone Coffee where we had Mocha's and listened to a hippie couple sing coffee shop music. It was a cultural experience...
But I digress...
While we were setting in Third Street Pizza enjoying a thin crust pizza made the way Figaro's does not make pizza, (meaning, they don't buy their pizza sauce from the ACME restaurant sauce supply company that has four products in 55 gallon drums, red sauce (if you want to go Mexican), gelatinous goop (Chinese), nasty sweet tomatoe sauce (for Italian and Pizza restaurants), and bulk coffee creamer.
But, again, I digress...
I was in the midst of a lecture on finding vintage Acoustic Research speakers in a Pizza place and was about to tell the story of finding old Dynaco AR-25s in the local electric motor repair shop when Lulu pointed out to me that she had no idea what I was talking about but was using my suggestions of "Smile and Nod," to make me feel like I was having a conversation. To which I countered by asking her opinion on the question of Might vs Right and if the End Justifies the Means, and went off on Arthurian legends vs the life of Christ and if Jesus actually visited England and she noted that the end does not justify the means and that the labors of Hercules probably made him a better person and then she pointed out that she doesn't listen to about half of what I say and that her Samsung s5 could get ten networks and one of those was not locked.
Whereupon I compared with my iPhone 5s and found three, none of which I could break into using "password," or "admin" or "12345," (the extent of my network hacking skills.)

She also pointed out that you can move the curser around on your Galaxy without selecting blocks of text, you don't hit delete every time you type "m," and you can hang up the phone first, to end a conversation.
It is kind of silly that you know you are talking to a fellow iPhone user without headphones when no one hangs up and you can hear someone muttering in the background as they try to figure out how to get through multiple screens to get to the hangup button.
She does miss her apps and Siri. She used to talk to Siri. (It may be lonely being an only child)
So here's the deal...
Apple spent all their time creating Siri and making a cool looking glass brick of a phone that is not water resistant and you have to buy a case for it anyway, and they neglected to do the obvious, like give the phone to someone to use and figure out that people will get annoyed if they hit delete instead of "M" every stinking time.
The reason people die while texting is more to do with using their iPhone than it is the act of texting. With my old cheap phone I could text and drive without looking at the screen. Now that I have my beautiful iPhone, there is no way, even with speech to text, because you still have to find the correct non-button to touch, and you must proofread before you send. Jumbled words are easier to read than iPhone guesses at what jumbled spellings should be.
For example: I texted yesterday to my wife, "I got the Christmas stuff out of the trailer." The text appeared as, "I got Crisy's stuff out of the trailer," which implies I'm hanging out with tweakers on Sunday afternoons.
The crazy thing is that I think almost all my iPhone problems could be solved with a new OS. I don't mind the small size, I can deal with not hanging up the phone, I just want it to get something right on the first attempt. Just change something for the better and do it without taking up more memory. I sure can't add an extra memory card now can I?
But, I could still steal music if I really wanted to...
Here is my question: Did they build the perfect phone, pass it around the office whilst laughing like maniacs, and then just throw in annoying things so they could make incremental operating system upgrades-so they could reset all the apps to use cellular instead of WiFii? AND lose your music so you would switch to Amazon Prime instead of the iStore?
Who knows, but now I must got to work. My chair is making my bottom go numb...
(note to readers: I have been getting commentary on my speling and punctuation; and I must remind you of the social contract involved in reading this blog... I write it and then I post it. Proof reading is for sissy's. (not that there is anything wrong with that) It filters out the uptight people that would be offended by photos of children shooting semi-auto rifles into a ball of black smoke and flames...)

11 comments:

  1. At the coffee shops with the singing hippies you can usually get the Wi-Fi password at the counter. Oh, and Chrissy wants her stuff back.

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    Replies
    1. Next time you are in Oregon you should contact me. The Republic cafe is famous for things other than Orange Chicken.

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    2. But how do you expect the United States gubment to track you if you don't have a smart phone. I'm thinking of using the Freedom of Information act to see if I can get field maps of all the places I've planted. I wonder if folks from Canada can do FOIA requests?

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    3. That was supposed to go under Ralph's comment.

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  2. One more reason I may never own a "smart phone".
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/samsung-galaxy-ace-ii-x-battery-explodes-causing-bedroom-fire-1.2860750

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    Replies
    1. I guess iPhones also were overheating. The type of batteries?

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  3. I will never comment on your spelling. i tend to do posts extremely early when there is only coffee and bitterness... i dont have time for grammar. plus sometimes i intentionally misspell things and make up words just to make the grammar-intolerant burst into flames.

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    Replies
    1. Coffee and bitterness and mornings go well together. I scorn the grammar-intolerant!

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  4. You should be happy you are smarter than your phone. Someday this may change. LBof the C: Counterfeit LiPo
    batteries lack the features that protect them against over heating. Never buy a "knock-off" for your camera, or cellphone.

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  5. 1. you've done a good job if your child only listens to half and more or less knows what you are saying 2. I'd like something w/ real buttons just for texting 3. www.sportmansguide.com has some nice explosives that can be set off via gunfire 4. I've lost tract but think I've had at least 15 or 20 phones, two of them droids and three iPhones. When my iPhone 5 dies I'm headed back to the droid world. 5) iTunes defies explanation...I hate it.

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