12 Month Windows

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...