About six months ago, I got bored of my iPhone 6S+ and sold it. Unfortunately, I was never impressed with the iphone 7 or 8 models. I pondered with the thought of buying an iPhone X but after insurance costs and tax, I could also easily buy two brand new surfboards. I ended up getting one new surfboard and buying a lightly used Samsung S8+. This blog post is about my journey, joys and frustrations with each device.
Starting with the obvious. The Samsung Galaxy S8+ is slimmer, slightly longer and has an AMOLED screen to die for. Neither one of these devices is very pocket friendly but I think wide is better than long in most of my pockets. It is not very friendly out of the box with it's default settings like Apple. I hated the Samsung keyboard but love Google's G-Board which is a free download. I also like the fact that I have a whole team of virtual assistants. If one is not responding properly, I call on the others. Google Assistant, Alexa, Cortana and Bixby are all there for my beckoning. SIRI used to be very moody with me. If I didn't have great signal, she was totally useless. While I loved the stability and security of Apple's iOS, I was getting angry with their imperious attitude and fact that they often made things far more difficult than needed. This was before they got busted for covertly throttling processor speeds with a software upgrade. For people like me that enjoy creating and using their own ringtones, Apple even hid the tones option in one of their recent software upgrades. Fortunately, a little know trick with Apple's GarageBand application makes it easy to make your own ringtones. Technologically speaking, the S8+ is years ahead of the iPhone 6S+ or even the X for that matter in my opinion. I particularly like the Retina Scanner for ID unlocking. That's not the problem. With the exception of my RipCurl Search GPS watch application, most of the Applications are the same for me on both Apple and Android. The cameras are outstanding on both but I would say the S8+ is better. Last week, I took the Samsung S8+ with me on an international trip and bought another iPhone 6S+ because I missed my GPS watch application and the simplicity of the device and iOS. Information technology services is my calling in life so if I find the S8+ to be extremely complex to set up and optimize, it's no walk in the park. Like a dummy, I intentionally left the iPhone home so I could get the full international experience on the Samsung device. The first problem I encountered was after arriving in Mexico. My T-Mobile plan is 100% local and unlimited there but my phone did not now that. I kept getting an annoying data roaming costs may occur and to either press cancel or settings to turn data roaming off. The problem is I could not find where to turn of this annoying message which haunted me every 5 minutes. I thought my iphone was a nuisance everytime I butt dialed the last person I called from my pocket. The Android would launch Apps I didn't even know I had. It would regularly turn off Bluetooth, wifi, and everything else. Once I hit under 10% battery life, the screen would go so dark, I couldn't see it making the phone useless. What really sealed the deal and convinced me to dump this thing and go back to the iPhone 6S+ happened on the last day. I left for the 45 minute airport drive to Zihuatanejo with a full battery. I closed every application and slipped the phone in my shorts pocked...without locking it. Once I arrived at the airport, I looked down at my pocket and noticed the flash light turned on by itself and 6 applications had opened resulting in a totally dead battery. I had taken my wireless charger and inserted it in my checked luggage. I assumed the Micro USB cable that plugged into the charger would also plug into the phone directly. Wrong! The phone has a micro C model, making it impossible for me to charge my phone on the plane. The bottom line is when you get used to taking LYFT and have to take a cab and pay double because your phone let you down, it's time to find another. Anyone looking for a good deal on a Samsung S8+? I've gone back to my iPhone 6S+ and will live with it's shortcomings until the new X series debuts.
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This almost happened 6 months ago but Sprint bailed out. What's become abundantly clear is Sprint is now in a class by itself... Last! That's for a number of reasons. Sprint was wrong buying Nextel's IDEN technology. They were wrong to launch 4G WiMAX with Clearwire which they eventually bought out, before LTE was adapted as the 4G global world standard putting Sprint years behind the competition. To make matters worse, their fellow "second tier carrier", T-Mobile is no longer a second tier carrier but has leaped past AT&T to become Verizon's fiercest rival. The reality is Softbank is losing money on Sprint and wants out. They previously balked because they did not want to relinquish control. They really have no choice. Did I also mention that Sprint still relies on their CDMA 3G network backbone. The real downside here is that they are the only carrier that does not support voice and data simultaneously over acellular network like all the other carriers. My opinion is Sprint cannot afford not to sell to T-Mobile. Even if AT&T or Verizon were remotely interested, the FCC would have a hard time pushing a merger with these two. Anyone who has seen those commercials with the ex-Verizon "Can You Hear Me Now" Dude saying that the network quality difference is only 1% is delusional.
Previously, Globalstar's Unlimited plan was $199.99. They dropped the price to $99.99 and offered a FREE refurbished GSP 1700 package that was great. This morning, Globalstar announced that the FREE GSP 1700 package is now FREE on their $64.99 100 minute plan and above. Get yours today by contacting us.
With Apple announcing that they are pulling the rug on their 32bit architecture, those with older devices that have not been upgraded to the latest software are going to have problems. Our friends at Cult of Mac made it easy to check whether your current applications are 32 or 64bit and whether they have already been upgraded by the developer. Here you go...
How to check if your favorite app is 32-bitThis change won’t have a dramatic affect; developers will have already updated their most popular titles to support 64-bit architectures long ago. But if you’re using an old piece of software that hasn’t been updated in a while, you might have a problem. You can check whether or not your favorite apps are 32-bit inside macOS by following the steps below:
Apple has already stopped accepting 32-bit app submissions to the Mac App Store, so you’ll only find 64-bit software in there. The company has eliminated 32-bit apps on iOS, too. Forced migrations never seem to go well. Remember when Microsoft decided they no longer wanted to support Windows 7 Professional, and XP. They forced everyone to migrate to their new Microsoft 8 (now X) and it was not pretty. In fact, it took years for Microsoft to work the bugs out of Windows 10. When Sprint decided they made a huge mistake buying the IDEN Network from Nextel, they shuttered it. Never mind the fact that many businesses and government agencies used their two-way radio services for emergencies. The replacement technology that Sprint replaced it with was so awful, I was advising my clients to hold on their IDEN as long as possible. Then, un-announced, Sprint began shutting down their IDEN network resulting in me losing a major University account. Today, Sprint is hanging on by a thread and will likely end up getting bought by T-Mobile. I'm beginning to wonder if Apple management is stuck on stupid. First they introduce the iPhone 8 which is more or less identical to the iPhone 7, followed 30 days later by another new model, the iPhone X, which allegedly gets discontinued this year and replaced by a new line of iPhone X models. This was a bit unusual. Then Apple gets busted for covertly slowing down the processors of iPhone 6 and 7 series models by sneaking in a nasty software feature. Today, they just announced they are pulling support for 32bit applications. Nothing is worse than having a great device that is in fantastic working order but useless because the applications and operating system are obsolete. The manufacturers seem to intentionally make it so the newer operating systems require more processing speed and memory than your current device supports. I'm beginning to get pissed off about this and have a closet full of older computers that are in perfect working order like my 6 year old PowerBook below which was one of my all time favorite computers. It still works but Apple abandoned it long ago. I realize that sometimes you have to move on and get new technology. On the other hand, if it ain't broken, why try to fix or replace it. Does anyone else out there feel like they are being strong armed into buying new software or hardware?
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March 2021
CategoriesAuthorJoel Saltzman has over twenty years of wireless industry experience. He is currently CEO and Chief Wireless Analyst for Dr Wireless. |