12 Month Windows

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...