On September 16, 2014, one day before the release of Apple’s iOS 8 and three days before the iPhone 6 starts shipping, comes the launch of LeBron’s latest, the 12.
Here’s a preview of The Twelve in the annual Dunkman colorway.
Definitely not the same vibe as the unboxing of an Apple device, but the LG G3 was efficiently packed in a fitted box.
A few things though. After opening the box, you pick up the phone and marvel at its lightness. Only after fully emptying the contents of the box do you realize the (heavy and huge) battery is not installed. Also, there’s no mention of having to install the battery or a guide how to install the battery. It was easy enough to do, but I would have thought the Quick Start guide would say something about the battery. Anyways, once the battery is installed the L3 isn’t featherweight anymore.
Check out the clunky charger. After seeing it, you start to really appreciate Apple’s designs and attention to details, even with its accessories.
That was a crazy launch of Apple’s latest iPhone 6. Pre-orders opened on September 12, 2014 at 12:01 am, meaning 9:01 pm HST. But, you couldn’t actually connect to the Apple Store until much later. Heck, I think store.apple.com is still down, nearly two hours later. But the Apple Store apps fared better (maybe by design).
Anyways, after several stalled attempts, I finally got to the iPhone 6 pre-order screens. My goal – 4.7in iPhone 6 in silver with 64 GB (the middle option). Initially, this configuration looked available on the Apple Store app, but clicking elsewhere then coming back caused a screen refresh where mostly all configurations showed “currently unavailable.” Then one combination finally yielded an “add to cart” option – 4.7in silver with 128 GB. While I planned to go beyond my current 32-GB iPhone 5 configuration, Apple’s convenient storage bump to 64 GB was the obvious choice unless none of these were available. So, I succumbed to the hype and proceeded with the purchase of a 128-GB model.
I encountered a few more errors along the way, but a confirmation email seems to verify my iPhone 6 order went through. How about you? Did you get what you wanted?
Remember times past when the sales of iPods led to Windows users switching to Macs? I wonder if a similar situation will occur with the Apple Watch and the iPhone. Because you need an iPhone to link with an Apple Watch, will this spur more iPhone converts as the Apple Watch gains momentum?
And before you pooh pooh the starting price tag of $350 for the Apple Watch, just remember how much iPods used to cost.
iPod purchases led to purchases of $1000+ Macs, so could a $350 Apple Watch lead buyers to a $650 (unsubsidized) iPhone 6?
Fluffy like a croissant.
Sweet like a donut.
That’s all you gotta know as Safeway’s version of the cronut has changed names yet again. When the cronut apex was upon us, Safeway advertised Donut Croissants. Then came the more sophisticated French name of the Dou’ssant. Darn delicious I say. Now Safeway has dropped the pretense and has simply gone with the Croissant Donut. Still same price, different packaging, but still there.
Uttered the first time since the death of Steve Jobs, the one more thing was the expected wearable, the Apple Watch.
Hmmm, the typeface used on Pulpconnection isn’t displaying the Apple logo when typing Option-Shift-K. This should be the logo ?.
Gotta test if posting triggers an email notification. Plus here’s a bonus picture of the OG Liliha Bakery.
There, it’s done. Pulpconnection is back, and this time it’s running on Dreamhost’s managed WordPress service called DreamPress. Over the years, I went from a shared server to a virtual private server (VPS) that gave me more control but meant that I had to exert more control. That’s good and bad. There were times when things went haywire, and I didn’t know why. Of course, craziness could still happen with DreamPress, but at least, there’s dedicated support and more importantly a scalable platform. Instead of me allocating more memory to servers, DreamPress does the magic. How I don’t know. Like I said, magic.
The cost too of DreamPress is hard to argue. Right now, DreamPress is discounted to $20 a month. Try squeezing in enough memory allocation on a VPS for $20 a month. Doesn’t get you much. So by switching to DreamPress, I can reduce my VPS resources significantly for my other projects, more than $20 a month.
There’s more to learn about DreamPress, but overall I think there’s less to know like fine tuning WP installs and optimizing WP. The biggest learning curve for DreamPress is actually getting DreamPress to work for Pulpconnection. Dreamhost has an automated feature that converts existing “one-click” WordPress installs to DreamPress. Unfortunately for me, Pulpconnection wasn’t a one-click install or maybe it was back in the day but doesn’t now qualify as “one-click.” So what does that mean? A manual transfer to DreamPress.
For this Mac user, working via the command line is a frightening endeavor. Fortunately, there are good instructions, specifically this Migrating to DreamPress post. Read it and reread it. It’s all there. Okay, I noticed one or two minor changes, but they weren’t show stoppers. The scp secure copy created an extra subdirectory for the copied files but that was fixed with the Move to Parent feature in Panic’s Transmit.
The other scare was importing the Pulpconnection SQL database backup. From PHPMyAdmin, I found the Import tool, but the database was simply too large for the max import size. Dreamhost chat tech support came through by directing me to import through the shell. I had to literally write out the command line on paper to make sure I had all the parameters correct. Less than a minute later, the SQL import was silently done.
So here we are. Hopefully, less technical headaches and notifications that Pulpconnection servers had to restart for whatever reason. And definitely less stress for me. 🙂
It’s about time to change up the venerable iPod. Sure, it transformed Apple and led the company into new business lines, but the device itself is becoming an anachronism right before our very eyes. The basics of the iPod has pretty much been subsumed by other Apple iDevices. As a music player, the iPod still gets the job done, but nowadays, it’s about multifunction and flexibility. Listen to music, play games, AND be online – you get the picture.
So why not revamp the iPod line? Keep the iconic name but repurpose its ambiguous name. How about a multipurpose home device? One that acts like a WiFi basestation or extender. Supports Time Machine backups over the air? For certain models, why not? Include speakers? That could be possible to act as an AirPlay end point.
Charging station… now this has some promise. How many Apple chargers and cables do you have. Enough right? I have a basket of assorted cables and chargers to rummage through. How about the “new” iPod acting as the central charger that has USB cables to connecting your Lightning or 30-pin connector cable? Wireless charging anyone? Perchance the iWatch? You want yet another charging station for the iWatch or an integration of all the charging systems?
And of course, while charging your iPhone with the new iPod, the iPhone is backing itself up to the internal iPod storage then to iCloud (over time). How about caching new app updates to the iPod storage? Instead of reaching out to the Internet for updates, your iDevices just need to connect to your high speed, household Wifi to pull in the recent updates.
Yup, the iPod can ride again.
And to make tinkering even more fun challenging, I learned that WordPress 4 just released along with a bunch of updates for WP plugins.
