A Sign I Need an Apple Watch
I don’t know about you, but I take this as a definite sign.
The watch band of my trusty, Kickstarted Pebble watch has a tear. The inevitability of getting an Apple Watch is nigh.
Gee Why
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Six Minutes. Today’s Starbucks Mobile Order
My first experience with Starbucks Mobile Order & Pay resulted in a minute-long visit to Starbucks. Today’s experience showed the inconsistency of this experience. Six minutes. That was my time in and out of the same Starbucks.
I placed my order before filling up gas at Sam’s Club. The app said 3-7 minute wait with a one-minute drive. After filling up, I drove around to the Starbucks parking. I went straight to the pickup area, thanking that I could bypass this line.
But at the pickup area were others waiting for their pickup, either mobile ordering or in-store ordering. There was also one patron whose drink supposedly got lost and getting the re-order was tough with language problems. Frappuccino or cappuccino? Even I could tell what she was saying. So as that was being sorted out, the clock kept on ticking. The baristas were shuttling back and forth getting food and drinks ready as I waited and watched.
Then my drink (a grande Cold Brew) was called. Sadly, it was sitting in the back of the pickup area all this time. It was on a tray with other drinks so I thought it was part of a bigger order. But nope, I was waiting while my drink was waiting. The store was busy this morning, and that’s something the Mobile Order and Pay can’t account for. Busy workers are busy and can’t be expected to track everything perfectly. So anyways, my drink was ready in the stated timeframe, but I didn’t receive it until six minutes after walking in.
Fastest Visit to Starbucks. Ever.
Ever. Did you hear me? Ever. I walked in. I was handed my my drink. I walked out. I didn’t clock my time, but it must have been less than a minute. When’s the last time you ever bought something in Starbucks and was done with your entire transaction in less than 60 seconds?
Thanks to the nationwide launch of Starbucks Mobile Order and Pay service, this experience is now possible for all mobile app users. Using the expanded Starbucks mobile app, you make your order, customize the heck out of it (if wanted), and finally place and pay for your order at a nearby location. The app approximates your driving time (based on your location) and also estimates your drink creation time. When you get there, you walk straight to the pickup area and claim your drink. Even better if the workers recognize you and can pull your drink from the other mobile orders awaiting pickup.
As far as I know, you can’t order ahead and set a specific pickup time. When your order is placed, it’ll be made and be available at the pickup area in the next few minutes. Also, I don’t think there’s a notification informing you when your drink is ready. I guess there’s no point since you’re supposedly on your way.
Now, will this mobile ordering method lessen the overall Starbucks experience? Maybe, since you no longer have the chance of interacting with the workers. But then again, you’ve been to a Starbucks with a line 8 to 10 deep and reconsidered. Waiting behind the customer making a mass order for the workplace is never fun. Never. Especially when that person is paying individually to rack up the Bonus Stars. With this app (and some preplanning), you can avoid these queues and get your caffeine fix.
Found KD7 at Ross
The hit-or-miss treasure trove that is Ross Dress for Less produced another gem last week. Saw Kevin Durant signature sneaks shining brightly in the shelves of otherwise routine kicks. The KD7 “On the Road” launched in October of 2014, and a year later, it’s made its way to Ross.
Sadly, there are two problems with these kicks. They’re half a size smaller than what I wear now. Years back, I was a Nike 9.5 but been wearing size 10 for the past decade. And although greatly discounted, these shoes were mistakenly marked and priced as Kobe 9 Elites. Even though there’s KD’s huge initials emblazoned on the tongue, someone thought these were Kobe’s $200+ kicks. So the Ross discounted price came out to $80 which is on the high side for Ross. But even at $80, that’s nearly 50% off of the original cost.
Pulpconnection’s Holiday Gift Guide 2015 Awakens
Yes, it’s time. The fall season is upon us which means we fastforward to winter and Christmas and the annual Pulpconnection Holiday Gift Guide. The recommended items will make awesome gifts for that Pulpconnector in your life who’s addicted to passions and pulp (and some downright bizarre things).
The 2015 guide awakens with The Force from the upcoming Star Wars film. Commemorating The Force Awakens, Nixon is releasing Star Wars-themed collections. The Dark Side is up first with watches taking cues from Stormtroppers, Imperial Pilots, and Lord Vader himself. This is no Jedi mind trick. Indeed, the Darth Vadar chronograph is priced at $2500.
Personally, I’m a fan of the brown and olive drab of one Boba Fett. Check out the below video at the 0:35 second mark.
STAR WARS ™ | Nixon: Dark Side Collection Part 1 from NIXON Europe on Vimeo.
Former Pulpconnection Gift Guides 2012 | 2013 | 2014
Starbucks Mobile Order & Pay Coming to Hawaii Next Week?
The ability to place your Starbucks order and pay using its mobile app is coming to Hawaii in the coming week. At least the Pearl City Starbucks location is advertising this mobile feature.
Get Schooled with Kanye’s Yeezys
How do middle school kids learn if Kanye West can actually run for President of the United States in 2020? You use Kanye’s Yeezy line of kicks as props to draw students into the lessons of primary elections, caucuses, and the Electoral College.
Well played, Ray.
Too Hot, Need More Ice
One of the unexpected side effects of the recent and prolonged hot and humid weather is the need for more ice. The refrigerator’s built-in ice maker just can’t handle the demand. With a family of Sahara water bottles, there are days when the ice bin goes empty, so it’s time to go old school with some basic ice trays.
Who knew buying ice trays are now so complicated. Silicon versus plastic. Covered or non-covered. Residue, freezer burn, cracking. I’ll go simple with this Rubbermaid Easy Release Ice Cube Tray
BackBlaze versus Spotlight – Loser!
For too long, my Mac Mini was sluggish. It’s a 2012 model decked out with 16 GB of RAM and an Intel Core i7 processor. But when my 2007 iMac running the bleeding edge Mac OS X 10.11 was snappier than my Mini, I had to dig deeper to see what was going on.
I always felt BackBlaze was involved with the slowdown but hey, offsite backups are worth a speed penalty right? But it never really made sense. Even with online backups complete, things were still slow as BackBlaze sat idle. Looking at the activity monitor, all the RAM was consumed and sometimes, the bztransmit process would utilize 100% of the CPU.
Finally, a Google search lead me to the answer. BackBlaze and Mac OS X’s Spotlight were essentially nagging each other to no end, making my Mac Mini crawl along. As backups occurred, BackBlaze would log the changes, and that would then trigger a resource-intensive Spotlight index process. As more files were backed up (and logged), the Spotlight index would launch again and again and again, overwhelming the Mini’s resources.
So the answer (that wasn’t already configured in my BackBlaze setup)? Exclude BackBlaze from Spotlight. That’s it. Immediately after making the Spotlight exclusion, my Mini came to life, much faster than ever before. What a loser! I should have researched this previously instead of waiting all this time.
Here’s a few more Spotlight exclusions that may help out even more.
Island Snow Hat CDN Test
Needed an image to test out DreamHost’s DreamObjects CDN service so here’s the latest pics on my iPhone. These are cool-looking hats from the new Island Snow location in Kailua.
Installing El Capitan
I definitely didn’t see this one coming. I fired up my dormant iMac, the Mid-2007 model, and updated its software. Mac OS X 10.9 installed fine, so I kept going, recalling that the 10.11 “El Capitan” GM Candidate is available. A long time later, 10.11 is running on a 2007 iMac with 6 GB of RAM powered by Core 2 Duo processors.
Green and Silver Swell Bottles at Starbucks
Here I thought the stainless steel Swell water bottles would sell out at Starbucks island-wide. Nope, you still can readily find the special orange Hawaii makeup at local Starbucks locations. Not only that, but you can now get green and silver Swells as well.
