Posts Tagged ‘Apple’

Best iPhone 7 accessory – Apple AirPods not available from the Apple Store, but Argos only!

Thursday, April 27th, 2017

So now that I’ve turned to the “Dark Side”, I  might go “95% Dark Side” and I’ve snagged possibly the best iPhone 7 accessory, – Apple Airpods. The Apple AirPods are a pair of bluetooth wireless headphones. They are not currently noise cancelling, I’m sure that will appear in Apple AirPod v2. (Available from an Apple Store, in 18 months time!)

Apple Airpod sealed box

Apple Airpod sealed box

and they are brilliant…

Apple Airpods, unboxed

Apple Airpods, un-boxed

the airpods charge automatically when you put them back in their case, which looks like a box of dental floss!

Apple Airpod - dental floss case

Apple Airpod - dental floss case

iPhone Charging Widget

iPhone Charging Widget

brilliant quality product, which detects when you’ve inserted them in your ears with a simple bong, and your connected. Also includes a tap sensor, so you can use the inbuilt microphones, to call people.

Apple Airpods out of the case

Apple Airpods out of the case

If I’ve spoken to you in the last few days, then I would have spoken to you via my Airpods. Just a word of warning, check they fit your ears, and don’t fall out, because there are no plastic fitting buds.

What is a little odd, is these are currently on a 6 week delivery from the Apple Store, but Argos have stocks for Click and Collect!!?

buy-airpods-apple-uk-000555

Apple Store – Out of Stock – 6 Week Delivery ?

buy-apple-airpods-in-ear-wireless-headphones-white-at-argoscouk-your-onlin-000556how very odd ?

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Andy returns to the dark side, well almost – 90% Dark Side!

Wednesday, April 26th, 2017

A number of years ago, I backed Apple, and invested in an iPad and iPhone, only to be burned, when Apple abandoned that platform, and left me with bricks which could not be upgraded, stuck on an iOS version with no applications available in the Appstore to support those expensive gadgets!

Fast forward a number of years and Google launched it’s first Android phone in 2012, the Google Nexus 4 – I blogged about it here – Andy’s Google Nexus 4 – that was over four years ago, and decided it was time for a switch to Droid in 2013.

In all those years Droid has served me well, BUT I’ve been experiencing more and more issues in the last 12 months with Droid applications failing to work correctly compared to iOS applications, also iOS application seem to be made available for iPhone and iPad before Droid (e.g. Airline eTicket systems), and also some applications are never developed or supported, e.g. Android Pay still does not support American Express -Do American Express have issues with Android security ?

Considering there are more Android phones in the world, than iPhones, it is indeed odd, that iOS is the preferred platform for some applications, but the Development time is longer, and also Apple verification can take a while, but with latest development kits, e.g. Xamarin – code can be quickly ported for Windows, Android or iOS applications from Microsoft Visual Studio. So this still puzzles me?

One thing I do know, is that Apple controls the hardware, the OS, the applications and therefore may make it a better applicatio  target, like Sun Solaris, Sun manufactured the hardware, and manufactured the OS – a strong platform, also similar to IBM, and AIX, developed specifically for IBM computers.

An opportunity arose to purchase a new phone, I could have purchased a new Google Pixel or Samsung something, but the costs are similar to an Apple iPhone, but the quality of Apple products are far superior in my opinion, and Google and Samsung products are overpriced, but believe because people will purchase Apple products at x GBP, they can also charge x GBP for their products.

So I decided:- to Return to the Dark Side, almost! I’m about “90% Dark Side” – I’ve opted for a Jet Black 256GB iPhone 7 .

But still using the Google ecosystem, e.g. Google+, GMail, Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Photos, not that horrible iCloud thing!

Jet Black 256GB iPhone 7 & Decoded Case

Jet Black 256GB iPhone 7 & Decoded Case

Jet Black iPhone 7

Jet Black iPhone 7

Jet Black iPhone 7

Jet Black iPhone 7

So we will see how long this lasts me, before I change back, come back in four years, and read the blog to find out, I could have decided to get a Blackberry or Nokia Windows Phone!

This was one of the major reasons, I change airtime companies, see Goodbye Orange @EE, and hello @ThreeUK! #makeitright

Oh, and the iPhone 7 – I’ve had it 4 weeks now, and It’s @#!”£$%^& Brilliant!!!!

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Programming with Sphero 2.0

Friday, November 22nd, 2013

I’ve had my Sphero 2.0 less than two weeks, so you can use your Android or Apple smartphone to control your Sphero 2.0, but I want to program it, so it comes out during the day, entertains the cats, and then goes back “home” to charge up…

so far these are my efforts, using a Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit Linux computer, a bluetooth USB adaptor, and the ROS (Robot Operating System) and Sphero SDK.

ROS (Robot Operating System) provides libraries and tools to help software developers create robot applications. It provides hardware abstraction, device drivers, libraries, visualizers, message-passing, package management, and more. ROS is licensed under an open source, BSD license.

Starting roscore

Starting roscore

Starting rosrun, pairing with Sphero

Starting rosrun, pairing with Sphero

Here is a video, of the Sphero pairing with bluetooth usb adaptor, and then sending commands, to change colour from blue, green to red, and then unpairing the Sphero.

full throttle….zoom zoom …

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Wont be long now…..until…..iOS 6 is released!

Monday, August 6th, 2012

ios6beta4

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25 Billion App Download Day approaches

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

appstore25billon

The App Store is about to hit 25 billion downloads.

Download the 25 billionth app and you could win a US$10,000 App Store Gift Card.

Apple have setup a counter here

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Bye Bye Steve Jobs – The IT World will miss you!

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

I’ve just picked up my iPad, and learnt Steve Jobs has died peacefully today, surrounded by his family.

Deeply saddened by his passing, but his legacy with live on, in the devices we now use everyday.

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Fecking Apple! Poor Service Mobile Me eMail Very Poor

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

(I was going to write s one eye t, but I thought some children follow the blog so maybe not appropriate!)

Apple (Steve Jobs) you’ve really p****d me off now.

What do you notice about the following screenshot?

No email in over 1.5 hours?

No email in over 1.5 hours?

No email since 4.00pm. Now it might be usual for you not to receive emails in a 1.5 hour window, but not me. I checked a little further and found my iPad was not receiving any mail, and couldn’t log into Apple’s Mobile Me email, no error message. So I tried using a notebook and a desktop computer and still couldn’t login to Apple Mobile Me email, all the other options were working iDisk, Gallery etc. Again just the rotating twinky, staring at me on screen for minutes not doing anything.

Apple Mobile Me status indicated that Service Status was normal. So I called Apple Technical Support, that gave me a URL to have a Live Chat with an Engineer.

Nothing like a email from them warning of the Outage for Maintenance!

So I had a little rant, about better off with GMail, Hotmail or Yahoo, that provide better uptime and storage management, this was the response. I’ve never had any issues with Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail.

So, there you go two weeks extension!

I bet they wouldn’t treat Mr Steve Jobs, Mobile Me Account like this.

Apple – Service – Zero Points.

And on that very note, APPLE if you would like to talk to me about Service Delivery, or Indsutrial Strength IT Servicesjust let me know!

I’m going to Leave Some Fecking Feedback!

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A few Wintery Pictures from North Yorkshire

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

We didn’t have much snow last night, so it remains the same at about 2-3 feet in places. But it’s still very cold, and I believe colder tonight.

snow-in-winter08-jpg

Yes, these are our Holly Tree’s!

snow-in-winter10-jpg

and this is on our Pear Tree!

Lindsey and I went for a walk today, to check how bad the roads were, but it was cut short, when a blizzard arrived and it was bitter cold. Later in the afternoon, I thought it was about time to check the cars over, and remove the 2 feet worth of snow which has covered them for over a week and start them up, but it wasn’t such a good idea, there was not enough space on the driveway for all the snow I’d brushed off the cars, and when trying to move my car out into the road, I got stuck in the snow, moving it back onto the drive and had to dig the snow off the driver to get my car back on, as the car was sliding and wheels were spinning!

anyway here are some nice Wintery Pictures from North Yorkshire … Keep warm..

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Samsung Galaxy Tab[let] – How much?

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Samsung launched it’s tablet today called the Samsung Galaxy Tab:-

  • 7″ touch-screen tablet PC
  • Android Operating System
  • Voice & video calling
  • Internet
  • Social Networking
  • e-Mails
  • Google Maps Navigation
  • Games, movies & music
  • Camera with LED Flash
  • Electronic reading

and it’s wait for it £529 GBP same price as the iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G

I know which I’d buy! (oh, I’ve already got one!) Long live Apple!

Okay so it’s got Flash 10.1, but will have iOS 4.2 Software Update. Coming soon to iPad. It was released today to developers (me and others!), and the new Skyfire mobile web browser will have Flash support!

Skyfire will issue its Flash Video-enabled browser for the iPhone on Nov. 4, allowing consumers to finally run Flash-based websites on the iPad!

So stick that Apple Haters, and go and by your Samsungs, and Google Android…..

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NEWSFLASH! Evicted from The Orange Shop, 16/17 Coney Street, YORK TODAY!

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

I went into The Orange Shop, 16/17 Coney Street, YORK today at approx 14:00 to make an enquiry about the iPhone 4 32GB Black on an Orange Contract. I was greeted by a Sales Person called Mark.

He was quick to explain to me, that Apple fix the prices of the iPhone 4.0 32GB Black, and Mobile Airtime companies cannot set the price of the phone, he asked if I wanted it on Pay As You Go or Contract, I replied I was interested in a Contract, he told me the cost of the phone was £319, and monthly costs of £35, for 18 months.

tesco-mobile-logoI told him the monthly cost was tool high, and I mentioned Tesco Mobile at £20 a month,

and in his next breath Mark said

“if you go with Tesco Mobile you’ll get no signal, because Orange have more transmitters across the country than Tesco Mobile

Personally, when a Sales Person resorts to this sort of tactic to make a sale, it make me suspicious, I always remember a old friend/work colleague, when I worked in Sales, hundreds of years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, telling me NEVER disrespect the competitor to make a Sale.

When Mark told me this, I gave him my mobile phone, and asked him to tell me what current network it’s on, it happens to be Orange (he didn’t know this before I handed him the phone, he didn’t even bother to ask me). I then reminded Mark, that I’ve probably been with Orange as a Customer, longer than he’s been an Employee, which now is about approx 11-12 years, and I don’t have reception at home with Orange, but I do with O2, Tesco Mobile, Vodafone, T-Mobile and 3! So I don’t think what he’s saying is valid and I don’t like the way he’s slagging off the Competition, at this point he asked me to LEAVE THE SHOP! He then started stating I’m now SLAGGING him off!

I pointed out as I left the Shop, I was surprised they were happy to lose a potential sale, and told him I would make him famous, and Tweet later about this incident! I don’t know why Mark lost his rag with me, and I hadn’t even had my Red Bull for the day!

So Happy Sales Mark……..

Looks like I’ll be joining Tescos Mobile then…..so much for 11 years Customer Loyality! (not that Mark would know, he didn’t ask the question!)

PS Mr Orange/Mr Tescos if your reading this, iPhone 4 32GB Black on Contract in the post would be very nice Free of Charge!

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