i play all . com

over the years, i’ve learned not to jump on the “new” bandwagon and wait at least a month before upgrading to a new product, software or gadget.
so i’m not in a rush, especially seeing hillarious videos like this one (NSFW 150k+ views).

but, to give apple credit, 2011 MB Air has fixed my 2 annoyances with previous Air: lid up the keyboard & removed pointless “eject” button (thus moving music play keys, where they are suppose to be). so i was excited to test 2011, especially that my in-laws got it & there was no risk of having to go back to Leopard Snow, etc.
apple failed terribly on not putting back the infared for the remotes (yeah, “get apple tv” – $100 – “philosophy” – but you can’t really send power point presentations to apple tv via airPlay, can you?). and to add salt to the wound, they have removed FrontRow app (although there’s a hack for that).

so … i’m writing this on my 2010 Air & will keep it ’till  x-mass,  if not longer … why?

2011 Air, or Mac OS X Lion – i should say – doesn’t feel like a finished product!

- firefox dmg file couldn’t mount. my very first impression wasn’t good: download firefox, mount dmg, move to applications & … “can’t open” (WFT? did i just upgrade to windows?). had to re-download twice, delete files & restart the system to get it to work …. brand new, $1400 laptop!
- after using the Air for few hours, system preference crashed! really apple???
- when downgrading the resolution to lower 1152×720 – can’t see bottom menu in iphoto. yeah, minor bug, but contrary to apple’s belief old folks can’t see ant size fonts at native – 1440×900 resolution. i’ve gotten used to upscaled, not so good looking 1152xx720 resolution. but not to have iPhoto scale down accordingly?
- mail app – can’t increase font sizes. the option is there … but doesn’t do anything … yep, restarted. nada. again, very frustrating for old people, who can’t see ant size fonts on the screen!
- video “anatomy of mac” is still leopard on the support site. support section of apple’s website doesn’t seem to be aware of Lion’s existence … yet (but i guess it’s more efficient for the co. to have old folks come to the store to take lesson … maybe up sell them on some crap they don’t need)
- drop box folder – doesn’t work out of the box … until you enable sharing on it …
- gestures – not implemented on applications like firefox. now this is probably firefox’s fault, but still when making a fundamental OS changes like: stuff scrolls up, instead of down (thank god there’s an easy way to disable that). or making 3 finger left/right swipes, switch os “pages”, instead of website’ visited pages …. should give devs a bit of notice? have a discussion to make sure those “revolutionary” videos, correspond with the actual product experience?
[no apple, safari is not the greatest browser out there ... it actually sux. e.g. have you heard of a standard cmd-K shortcut to search? cmd-1,2 to switch between tabs?]
ohh & if you want to understand why 2-finger left/right swipe is a disaster. try to explain to a 70 year old a difference between: 1 finger swipe, 2 finger swipe & 3 fingers … the difference between going left, right, up (the middle one, might be up by then )
- totally agree with the guy from the video above on, Launchpad doesn’t feel like part of the OS: can’t select multiple apps & move them, can’t manage them via finder. & the name “Launchpad” – again my old folks have no idea that means “application” …
- AirDrop … doesn’t work with older macs. how dumb is that?
- dashboard – while you can probably remap “Launchpad” (f4) key back to dashboard … dashboard itself is kinda lost in the “mission control” (another dumb name) … but, ok – that’s a minor annoyance at most.

good?

huh … 2011 MacBook Air, looks nice … but pretty much the same as 2010 (yes, now with a lid up keyboard). did not notice greater battery life. speed … maybe 5-10% faster (but honestly didn’t spend enough time with it).

ok, so i do like the instant integration of yahoo (don’t think that’s automatic with gmail) – when you sing-in the first time, it asks you to plug in the user/password into mail app, it works for contacts & iChat too. nice.

interestingly features, i’ve looked forward to: autocorrect, versions, mail, airDrop … now seem cosmetic conveniences i can live without on Snow Leopard.

so overall, can’t say i’m compelled to upgrade, actually.

overall – Lion OS X feels sloppy.

what’s going on apple? not making enough money? jobs left & attention to detail – we’ve got to love so much about your products – went out of the window with him?
no, i’m not an apple hating a**hole, but i do expect near perfection for a laptop that’s $1400!

but i still love apple

why? no choice, frankly. & i’m brutally reminded of windows in the 90s … by having to wait (3 hours & counting) to migrate my in-law’s PC to mac:
1) upgrade my in-laws’ win XP to SP3
2) so i can install apple’s migration assistant (bit lazy of apple to require SP3 …)
3) so i can migrate … mear 3gb worth of data
will keep you posted, how that goes

[update: sp3 upgrade failed 3 times, then kinda went through, then apple's migration assistant refused to install even after win said SP3. 4 hours later, i've decided to take a USB stick, copy all content of "my documents" & successfully dropped it on the mac ... all of which took, 15 min]

my brief love affair with google+ got stuck on the 3rd date (i mean day :

like:
- simple sharing rules concept – aka circles

… shockingly that’s all. it’s funny how many hoops we are willing to jump through, because we got fed up by,  a free,  yet very unpredictable social network, called FB
[my FB peeves: sucky twitter integration, api that breaks weekly, reason why i loved fb to begin with: auto posts of all of my social tools: youtube, pix, music, blogs, etc - have anyone noticed how they don't automatically show up in your feed any longer???]

not ready: (but back to google+ … “the hope”)
- no twitter / fb integration.
had to rethink this one … w/ improved sharing rules, all posts will have to come out of + now (instead from twitter, until now), but … even though  i “found” this twittermail solution, it cuts posts off, after 43rd character …
- no simple google contacts -> google+ import. nor fb, nor twitter
(dragging your first friend into the circle seems cool. dragging 100 of them seems like too much work)
- can’t adjust sharing settings after initial post (so when one of my buddies starts cursing, etc … now all of the world can see)
- can’t delete other’s replies to my posts???
- can’t edit post’s (link) description
- can’t delete/edit a contact added on + (i actually edited that contact on g contacts & now i have 2 separate contacts on +)
- spam – yep, in “incoming” i’ve received an invite from “cheap flights” already (i polish, but still)

conclusion:

google, i love you, but … i was looking for a better social network alternative, to make my life easier. i’m going to wait, until you become a cougar … then we can resume our date (i hope).

after paying off my mortgage, 2 days later my back account was raped by another monthly payment withdraw  from the scummiest bank on earth, called chase.

i called & was informed that i need to provide them with proof, which i did.
called again 3 days later and was informed that the refund check was indeed mailed to me, except they have mailed it to … you guessed it … my mailing address, for the property i just sold …

i requested cancellation of the check to be mailed to the new address. was told 3 business days

now a week later, i’ve received a call that my check could not be sent, due to some dumb policy that when you change the mailing address it can’t be sent for another month.
i ripped the rep a new a-whole, asked for a supervisor and of course miraculously the rules were bent.

except it will take yet another 3 business days … we are approaching a month of chase stealing money from me & holding on to it.

all i can do is share this story with you, so you don’t make the same mistake and do any kind of business with this corrupted, beaurocratic, shady and greedy corporation. (RT & Facebook “like” is appreciated)

ps: in case you were wondering, i did not chose to take a mortgage with chase. i was misfortunate to have them purchase my mortgage from WAMU.

signed: the little guy