My Internet Journal (diary) where I jot down random thoughts
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,700 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 5 years to get that many views.
I’ve come to realize that I am truly fickle-minded. Especially when it comes to gadgets. Not too long ago I said that I was interested in the Nexus 4. However, LG seems unable to keep up with demand and it’s always in a sold-out state. Add to that, my current smartphone, the HTC One X, seems to have more glitches than when I first bought it. Or maybe I’m tired of having to deal with glitches in general.
This experience has definitely steered me away from any and all Android variants. It’s either the Nexus or nothing from here on. Unfortunately, as I just mentioned, it isn’t readily available. In fact from the inception of the Nexus line it alway seemed that you had to jump through hoops to get one.
As much as I am a gadget enthusiast I’m a consumer first and the consumer experience has always been priority for me. And as reluctant as I am to admit it, Apple is tops when it comes to customer service and the customer experience in general. The iPhone 5 is readily available in all their stores and in all carriers’ brick and mortar store as well. Just walk in and buy one. And I know what to expect with the iPhone. Yeah I mentioned that I’m a little bored of the interface as I’ve used an iPhone for about 3 years and with few exceptions I know all the tricks. But on top of knowing what to expect, there aren’t any glitches with the interface and all the apps I use o iOS are pretty consistent and efficient across the board.
That has been my experience with iOS at least. I can’t say the same for my Android experience. And now that Google Maps is once again available for the iPhone. It’s pretty much a no-brainer. I’m back on Team iPhone. At least for another 2 years. Maybe by the then, Google will have the same great customer service backing their Nexus line which will then make it a more appealing device for me because of its customization abilities as well. We shall see.
So about a year ago I made the decision to choose iTunes Match and Pandora One for my music needs. By December 20th, my Pandora One subscription will expire and I’ve decided to use Slacker Radio Plus this time around. As much as I enjoyed Pandora One, I missed listening to radio stations offline a lot more than I thought I would. Also I’ve noticed that I in fact cannot tell the difference between 190 kbps (Pandora One sound quality) or 128 kbps (Slacker Radio). Since I cannot tell the difference between those sound qualities, Slacker’s music library and ability to cache their stations for offline listening seems more appealing to me than Pandora this time around. Also, unlike Pandora, when I’m listening to a genre of music, Slacker’s music stays consistent within that genre. That wasn’t always the case with Pandora. Sometimes with Pandora there would songs that would be completely out of left field of the genre that I would be listening to.
So Pandora One is out and Slacker Radio Plus is now in. And what about iTunes Match? Oh that’s still in. You can’t beat all your songs backed up for only $24.99 a year.
I tried to live in an all Chrome world. I really did. It went well for two days. And then I wanted t do something that wasn’t possible on an all Chrome World. I wanted to download mp3s that I bought on Amazon to my computer to put into my iTunes Account, which would then match them and also upload them to my Google Music Account. None of that is possible on Chrome alone. I don’t do this often. Most of my time is still on just my Chrome browser. But occasionally, there will come a time when I will need to use something more than just my Google Browser.
Along with that, Black Friday came around and I saw a great deal on a PC on Amazon. I purchased and am now happily using my new Windows 8 machine and my MacBook Pro has been shipped and inspected by Gazelle (looking forward to my check so I can pay off the card I used to buy my new computer). Windows 8 isn’t so bad. I do like the tile interface. It doesn’t seem more than just a skin though. Once you click on a tile to open an application it looks like any Windows computer you’ve used in the last decade, for the most part. My new item was only $200 dollars more than the $249 Chromebook I wanted to get, which still seems t be sold out.
Was happy to have tried the little Chrome experiment even if it didn’t last too long. But at least I know now more than ever, that I don’t have to download that much software on my computer. Just the essential ones. The rest can be done on the browser.
JULIO FROM NY 