12 Month Windows

Over the past several months I've been making the switch away from Apple and taking up with the likes of Windows and Android instead of MacOS and iOS. Don't get me wrong, the strides Apple has made in the hardware industry are outstanding and there is certainly a use case for Apple hardware in professional settings of all kinds. I'm not here to trash Apple, but to instead point out that often when we look upon something as "The Enemy" we are doing a disservice to ourselves. For decades I was a staunch Apple supporter, always looking for the next best product from Apple, constantly upgrading my hardware when Apple would release something new, trying to keep up with the best they had to offer because I felt it was THE BEST. In many cases, objectively, Apple simply is the best. But after all that time and money spent in Apple-land I could never find that spark that spoke to me the way my PowerBook 145B did way back in 1993. I've owned PowerBooks, G3 Towers, iBook...

As somebody who had been an Apple User since the Apple IIe, I want you all to know how much weight this carries when I say this... The Surface Laptop Studio is hands down the best laptop I have ever used. Yes, part of that love comes from Windows 11, but not all of it. See my previous review of the Razer Blade 15 Advanced. But let's talk about Windows 11 briefly, because I think without it, this machine wouldn't have had a chance to succeed. What I'm about to say is going to make some people angry. I don't care about them. Fuck those people. Go be angry somewhere else. Windows 11 is the lovechild of macOS and Windows 10. It has taken all the best features of both Operating Systems and combined them into a slick, intuitive operating system that has something for everybody. I will eventually get around to writing a full review of Windows 11, but I don't want to get distracted and go plummeting down that rabbit hole. ADHD isn't a joke... I've been down rabbit h...

I received my Razer Blade 15 Advanced on August 13th. I've been using it ever since as a gaming machine and my daily driver for my work-from-home position. Here are my thoughts on this machine. There are far more capable people out there to evaluate the nitty-gritty game performance with test results and so forth. I'm not going to attempt to go into that level of detail These are my impressions as an average user of this tech without benchmarks. My goal is real world experience. My configuration: 11th Gen Core i7 RTX 3070 1TB SSD 32GB RAM Full HD Display (1080p) 360FPS Refresh Rate Right out of the gate, for the most part, this thing seems to fly - except when it oddly doesn't. For gaming, I've got no issues with it. The 3070 performs under load providing smooth gameplay and no dropped frames that I'm able to detect. It runs the internal display plus two external 4k displays without pitching much of a fit. The fans are loud when they run which, oddly, they seem to d...

While Apple frequently makes a big deal about paying attention to the small details, they miss some of the bigger ones. Last night, or technically very early this morning, I friend of mine in California was setting up a new laptop and asked for help. I simply had him open the Quick Assist App. I began a session and he joined it with the code that was produced. I was then able to help him directly on his system get things set up the way he wanted and in a way that would help streamline his use of the technology. Apple has nothing like this without having to pay for special software AND be on the same network. The more time I spend delving into Windows, the more I find how useful it really is, and how walled off Apple is, even from its own users. I sold my iPad Pro and instead bought a Surface Go 2. The machine, keyboard, and Surface Pen all cost significantly less than what I'd paid for the iPad Pro and the Magic Keyboard cover and was covered by the sale of my 2 year old iPad Pro. ...

I'm delving back into the world of Windows after a hiatus. This blog was started almost 9 years ago now with the intention of experiencing Windows instead of Mac for at least 1 year. It didn't pan out that way, and while I've jumped back and forth a few times between the two, I've always ended up back on a Mac. This time, I'm trying something a little different. I'm keeping my MacBook Pro and getting a high end Windows machine to do work on. The Mac will primarily focus on my personal stuff like novel writing and photography while the Windows Machine will be for my professional side of things, including my ad writing and tech roles that I do from home as well as beginning to stream on Twitch. I want to see what happens to my preferences as I'm more able to bounce back and forth between the two. Will I still gravitate toward the Mac for all my stuff, or will I move more to Windows for everything? One of the things I have always been impressed with from an App...

Dear Christopher, I have spent years jumping back and forth from Apple to Windows and back again. Same with iOS to Android and back. Here's the thing that's important, however. The part where I continue to come back. The user experience really is that much better. Sure, there isn't the same kind of customization available on macOS or iOS, but at the same time, they are far more user friendly in general. I could point out about a dozen things I feel Android does better than Apple, but then there's also the privacy concerns of using any Google service right now. I think there's an article floating around out there about privacy, and the title is something like: "You pay Google with data, and Apple with Cash." Microsoft has made a major comeback in recent years, and that's good. Albeit, the OS is still clunky as hell on anything not built by Microsoft, the idea behind it is solid. If you're going to buy anything Microsoft, buy hardware that was ...

My favorite phone ever was the Motorola Moto X 2nd generation from 2014. It allowed a plethora of customizations for a truly unique appearance that could be tailored to the individual - not to mention the various customization options available for Android. The problem was more with how Motorola at the time, having just been sold away from Google, was suddenly being run. I had some issues, met with terrible customer service and eventually returned the phone for a full refund. But that phone was pure gold. At the time, I went back to the iPhone and stayed there until I tried the Pixel XL. I ended up sending that back not because of the feature set, but simply because it didn't feel fully baked yet. I would probably have been much happier with the Pixel 3 XL from this year, but by the time that was announced, I had made the decision to stop hopping around in mobile space and just stick with Apple. A big part of that decision came from two experience I had with the company...

Dear Mark Hamill, I’m writing because I think we need to have a conversation about Luke Skywalker. I doubt I can change your mind about how you have always viewed him, but I hope you take a moment to hear me out. I was raised on Star Wars. It’s the first movie I ever remember seeing. Rumor has it that I saw every single movie in the theater, even though I wasn’t even a year old in the summer of 1977. In 1980 I remember walking out of Empire strikes back at the age of 3 because it was “Too loud.” We went back another time with ear protection from my dad’s workshop. I saw Return of the Jedi in theaters nine times during Kindergarten. I rarely missed a showing of the movies when they would appear in theaters over the years, and I was highly disappointed in the changes Lucas made to the original three with digital additions. Not all changes were bad, I feel as though the update to the Emperor in Empire was a good choice, but the change of voice for Boba Fet was clumsy and sad...

For the first time in a long time, I'm excited about the direction mobile technology is taking. I think that the Google Pixel Phone is one of the most innovative pieces of technology to come along in a long time. While Apple touts their iPhone 7 as the best iPhone they've ever built (it is), the technology inside it is so incremental as to be nearly laughable when put next to the Google Pixel (and I say this as somebody who has used Apple almost exclusively - or gone back to Apple - since the mid 1980s). There are many blogs who are quick to point out that the Pixel and the iPhone look very similar, but I'd like to point out that there are only so many variations on a rectangular glass brick before it starts looking like everything else. I don't care about the outside appearance as much as I care about the internal software and hardware. It is in that arena that the Pixel far outshines Apple. Google assistant is now something that is so far beyond where Siri is (as ...

I'm trying to make the decision as to whether or not I want to keep this blog up and running. It's recently become more and more difficult to keep up with it, and the things I have to say are the things I've always had to say. That's not to say that things won't change, but no matter what, Apple still has the better OS on computers, Android has the better OS on Phones (though iOS still beats Android on tablets, but that has more to do with developers than the big companies who make the products developers code for. Microsoft is making some pretty big leaps and bounds in the strive to be relevant again. I think the biggest push for Microsoft is the ability to recompile code built for alternate platforms into software that works with Microsoft systems. It's going to be a very exciting decade that's coming up and it will be interesting to see where the chips fall, but for me, I'm just going to use the devices I have and stop trying to spout my opinions ...

My public disappointment and struggle with Motorola caught the attention of their corporate offices and ended in a resolution that was, while not what I would have wished for, softened the over all blow of what had occurred. To be honest, I'm not surprised that such an incredible failure occurred. First, let me say that I have done my stint in customer service supporting technology. I understand some of the pitfalls and policies that make it difficult to help the customer at times, but I also remember that the company I worked for at the time had a chain of command that you could send customers up when it was absolutely necessary. Myself to my manager, my manager to their boss, their boss to customer relations. It was customer relations that would then spend the time trying to restore the relationship with the customer or just provide a refund depending on the situation. One other important thing to mention here is that the customer service center I worked for was based right h...

I have typed in the past about my love of the Moto X and how it is the best smartphone available right now, still better than that Galaxy S6. I stand by that review of the phone - it is amazing and I have nothing bad to say about the phone. That said, Motorola has provided me with the worst customer service on the planet. The absolute worst. They are fucking terrible. I purchased a brand new Moto X through the Moto Maker. I customized it. I then paid the extra for the accidental damage coverage on the device because I have a small child and I'm a klutz. Sure enough, about three weeks after I'd purchased it, I dropped it on the pavement and the screen shattered. I called to do an Advanced Exchange (they put a hold on your credit card, send you a phone, and then you send back the old one and they don't bill your card). They said I would have the new phone within 5 days. I honestly believed I would have a tracking number within five days, but not the phone, so my exp...

Seven days ago I opened up the package with my shiny new Moto X 64gb Pure edition and shut down my iPhone 6+ for the last time (Well, I still have to pull photos off it and wipe it, but I wanted that to sound dramatic). I haven't really looked back in those seven days. There are things I find I miss now and then, but nothing I miss more than what I've gained by switching to Android. Notifications are better, notification center is cleaner, I have access to widgets on my various home screens, Google Now is a swipe away instead of finding the app icon and launching it, the card view multitasking is far superior to the completely asinine multitasking view in iOS, and the system is seemingly more responsive. Going back to multitasking for a moment, maybe I have bad fingers, but on my iPhone I could never quit stuck apps easily, I'd think I was swiping up, but all the open apps would suddenly scroll across the screen instead of the app I was trying to quit simply going awa...

Some random tech thoughts... A few times I have attempted to leave the Apple Ecosystem and I've gone back. This shouldn't say anything about the products I gave up to return to Apple - this says that I was a little out of my comfort zone and went back to what I was familiar with. I'd like to stop doing that. I really wanted to give up on Apple for 12 months when I started my blog, 12monthwindows. I still do. I'm becoming less and less enamored with the company as time goes on. I stopped being a outright fanboy a few years ago, and since then I've been slowly losing my respect for them. Now, I don't believe them to be any more evil than any other tech company - that's not why I'm starting to like them less. I think on the evil front, Samsung is probably winning that crown (if you want to call it winning), but even then, not so evil that I wouldn't purchase one of their televisions (I still don't like TouchWiz for their Android UI). Par...

As much as I am an Apple fan, I often find myself excited by the ideas presented by other technology firms. For example, my previous post boasts the Moto X as being the best smartphone currently on the market. I continue to stand behind this claim even as I use an iPhone 6+. The technology that is included in the Moto X reminds me in many ways of the sort of direction Apple would have taken a number of years ago. At the same time, I’ve been very excited about the direction Microsoft has been taking with its Windows platform. Many people hated Windows 8, but I never did. I think it was flawed, but I think OS X is flawed as well. I think what’s coming with Windows 10 is beyond innovative and amazing and I think that its price tag is something very new for Microsoft. With the money they won’t be making off their Operating System, what revenue stream will fill that void? Then you’ve got Hololens - their augmented reality glasses that make Google Glass look like a Gobot Compared to a Tr...

As my few readers know, I used a Moto X for while - twice. The first time was the 1st gen Moto X which ended up going back to Motorola because AT&T was dumb. I then waited until the next release round as I discovered that they would be releasing a new Moto X sometime in the fall. It was released around the same time as the iPhone 6 and 6+. I got the 2nd Gen Moto X and I loved it, yet I still returned it and replaced it with the massive iPhone 6+, which is certainly no slouch. If you were just to compare the internals of the two devices you would think that the iPhone 6 and 6+ has quite an advantage over the Moto X - but as Apple liked to advertise with the release of the original iMac, specs aren't everything. It's what you do with the specs you have. So, if I'm using an iPhone 6+ why would I be saying that the Moto X is the best smartphone on the market currently? Why would I have sent that beautiful piece of technology back to Motorola instead of simply continui...

One of the best hardware features on the MacBook (Air or Pro) is the trackpad. It's likely the best one on the market. It's accurate, it supports multi-touch, and has an excellent texture. It works like a dream on the Mac side of things, supporting gestures which allow quick navigation within the operating system. On the Windows side of things, it's much different. Obviously the hardware feel doesn't change, but the way the hardware interacts with the OS is drastically different. Gone is support for gestures and multi-point input (outside of a two-finger right click). None of the Windows 8.1 specific gestures function with the Apple built driver, so you're kind of stuck in this weird limbo experience. If you don't know what the trackpad is capable of in Windows 8.1, then you don't know what you're missing out on, but if you are aware of what is possible, then you will feel a little frustrated at the lack of ability to perform the quick actions to ...

After much searching of the interwebz and finding no easy solution, I decided to start poking around myself. So the symptom is that you're running Windows on your Mac via Boot Camp and you setup iCloud mail in Outlook 2013, but when attempting to setup the iCloud contacts folder as an Address Book the check box that says "Show this folder as an e-mail address book" is grayed out and cannot be checked. As reference, I'm running a Late 2013 15" MacBook Pro retina with a discrete graphics card (which has nothing to do with this issue, but full disclosure and all that), but I've found this issue referenced multiple systems (including non-apple systems). The solution, it turns out, is far easier than anything I found online. Perform the following: 1. Right click on the Windows button (Windows 8.1) or click on the Start Button (Windows 7). 2. Open Mail control panel. 3. Click E-mail Accounts button 4. Click the Address Book tab 5. Click "New...

For the longest time we were fighting for the smallest, thinnest phones, laptops, and other pieces of technology. That trend appears to be reversing itself in recent years with the advent of "the phablet." When I first saw the gigantic Galaxy Note I almost lost the Coca-Cola I was drinking out my nose I thought it was so insanely huge. Now I have an iPhone 6+ and I'm officially a Phablet owner. What does this mean? For somebody who thought that the size of the Galaxy Note was obscenely over sized, I now find the size of my 6+ to be perfect for me. Perfect in ways my previous phones have been imperfect. First of all, I no longer feel as though I need to carry around a laptop and a tablet and a phone. I now have my phone, which is big enough to be a small tablet, and my laptop. It's easier to carry around than either an iPad Mini or Nexus 7 (or any of the other smaller form-factor tablets) and I find it's more useful than a tablet. I also ordered myself an iWerk...

While much is being said about the iPhone 6+ camera and it's strengths, the camera I have on my iPhone 6+ has failed spectacularly after only a week of use. Now, as with any piece of electronics, there will be failing units, my concern is that I was quickly able to find posts in various places of others having the same issues - which means there are likely others out there who are having yet even more issues who don't go onto blogs and post about their experiences. Specifically, the Vibration Reduction feature of the camera has failed so completely that it thinks the phone must be in constant motion even when it's still because it activates and creates a blurry, double image. You can even hold your ear up to the phone and listen to it click and whir inside - certainly not a good sign. I've been an Apple customer long enough that I have no doubt they will be wonderful when I take it to the genius bar later today and either repair the defective part or replace the w...