Category: Tech

Gear by Joe WilcoxDec 3, 20187:06 pm

Google Pixel Slate Fast, First Impression

Pixel Slate arrived at the Wilcox household on Nov. 28, 2018, from Google Store, with the order correctly fulfilled. Initial out-of-the-box reaction: “Oh”. Underwhelmed. Five days later: “Wow”. The Chrome OS tablet is understated in all the ways that matter. My brain just needed a wee bit of time to appreciate the many nuances, rather than one obvious thing flipping the “ah-ha” switch.

The Slate will largely complete my transition away from Apple products, started in late July. The Chrome OS slab is set to replace iPad 10.5 and possibly could displace my beloved Pixelbook, as well. We shall see about the latter. The delayed “Wow” response means something. That said, Google’s tablet, like first-generation Chromebook Pixel, feels too much proof of concept: The hardware’s potential awaits future software, and supporting services, refinements. As such, based solely on a few days use, I don’t see the device as being right for everyone, or even most anyone. However, Google geeks will find something truly exotic to get excited about. Android and Chrome OS enthusiasts, rejoice! Linux lovers, too!

Gear by Joe WilcoxDec 1, 20186:47 pm

Thank-you, Google Store!

My six-week saga, where Google Store sent the wrong Pixel phones, is nearly over. I would like to thank the Advanced Support Technician team member who worked with me to end the drama and restore my (previous) confidence purchasing gadgets from the retailer. The generous solution minimizes any further complications and leaves me with a usable phone—with “Preferred Care” that I paid for correctly attached. Sometimes satisfaction is a process, rather than immediacy.

To recap: The 128GB Clearly White Pixel 3 ordered on launch day arrived on Oct. 17, 2018 as a 128GB Just Black Pixel 3 XL. Uh-oh. I agreed to keep the larger phone, following the online operation’s difficulty generating a return authorization. Then, on November 2, I dropped the device and shattered the screen. But Assurant couldn’t honor the insurance claim because of the shipping error; the phone covered wasn’t the one possessed. Frustrated, days later, I bought an iPhone Max XS from Apple Store but returned it two-and-a-half hours later. My Pixel preference was so great that on Black Friday I purchased another XL with expectation of taking a loss on the first. But when the new one arrived, November 26, the IMEI on the order didn’t match the phone. Meaning: In the event of defect, or need for repair, once again there would be trouble. Are you confused yet?

Web by Joe WilcoxNov 29, 20189:57 pm

AT&T sinks FilmStruck

For two years, I have been an annual subscriber to FilmStruck. Tonight the relationship ends, as AT&T shutters the service. Go back a few months, when making promises about consumer benefits, AT&T merged with Time Warner. Since, services like Direct TV Now cost more, while others are going or have gone. There is, or was, nothing like FilmStruck on the Internet—well, for content obtainable legally. Not that AT&T brass care.

The service was a cinephile’s dream. Where else do you see movies cataloged by director, or are there fascinating extras available almost nowhere else? I chose “Night to Remember” as Featured Image because it is one of my favorite classic films and for the accompanying interview with the last living Titanic survivor (before she died). Her recollection is rare footage that punctuates the movie’s storytelling.

Gear by Joe WilcoxNov 29, 201811:55 am

Resolution of my Google Store Pixel 3 XL Order Problems moves at Snail’s Pace

After Google Store sent me the wrong Pixel phone, I foolishly placed another order, and a similar distribution mishap occurred. Bad is now worse; I confess my stupidity and also write to caution other potential Google Store shoppers: This could happen to you.

To briefly recap the first instance: In October, I ordered Pixel 3 Clearly White 128GB. On the 17th, the Pixel 3 XL Just Black 128GB arrived instead. Google Store couldn’t process a return without conducting an “investigation” because the make, model, and IMEIs didn’t match. I agreed to keep the phone. Then, on November 2, I dropped the XL and shattered the screen. But the insurance provider, Assurant, couldn’t process repair or replacement because the device covered doesn’t match the one I have. The situation is unresolved, weeks later. Current crisis, briefly: I foolishly took advantage of Black Friday discounts and purchased from Google Store another Pixel 3 XL, which arrived on November 26. But the IMEI on the order doesn’t match the phone received. That makes the purchased Preferred Care warranty useless, and a device return can’t be properly processed for the same reason.

Problems resolved! Please see: “Thank-you, Google Store”

Apple by Joe WilcoxNov 26, 20185:15 pm

Microsoft Investors Punch Back at Apple

In May 2010, I wrote about Apple’s market cap passing top-valued Microsoft; it’s only fitting to follow up with an analysis about the unbelievable turnabout that, like the first, marks a changing of technological vanguards. Briefly today, the software and services giant nudged past the stock market’s fruit-logo darling. A few minutes after 1 p.m. EST, the pair’s respective market caps hovered in the $812 billion range, with Microsoft cresting Apple by about $300 million. By the stock market close, a rally for Apple put distance from its rival: $828.64 billion to $817.29 billion, respectively (Bloomberg says $822.9 billion, BTW). Consider this: As recently as October, Apple’s valuation touched $1.1 trillion. But since the company announced arguably record fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on November 1st, investors have punished shares, which currently are down about 21 percent.

Apple has long been a perception stock, even when under the tutelage of CEO Tim Cook company fundamentals deserved recognition. But perhaps Wall Street finally realizes the problem of iPhone accounting for too much of total revenues at a time when smartphone saturation saps sales and Apple pushes up selling prices to retain margins. More significantly: Apple has adopted a policy of fiscal corporate secrecy by stepping away from a longstanding accounting metric. I started writing news stories about the fruit-logo company in late 1999. Every earnings report, Apple disclosed number of units shipped for products contributing significantly to the bottom line. No more. Given current market dynamics, everyone should ask: What is Cook and his leadership team trying to hide?

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 18, 20186:40 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Grape

Strangely, feline sightings along Shirley Ann Place are rare. I have only ever seen two kitties outdoors, and you will meet both consecutively as the series resumes pace after a deliberate slowdown. The first earns nickname Triumph—chosen for posture and demeanor. Our first encounter was Sept. 24, 2018, sitting atop a recycle can. The Featured Image, from Leica Q, was captured the next day. Vitals: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/60 sec, 28mm, 5:42 p.m. PDT.

I shot the companion portrait, during the first meeting, using Google Pixel 2 XL. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 50, 1/289 sec, 4.459 mm; 8:30 a.m. The kitty has triumphantly presented several times since, but these two humble photos are the best ones so far.

Apple by Joe WilcoxNov 15, 201811:52 pm

My Google Store Travail

Google Store’s bureaucratic ineptitude is beyond belief. My recent, unresolved customer crisis is an experience in artificial unintelligence. For a parent company whose core competency is supposed to be indexing, crunching, and disseminating information, it’s inconceivable that something so simple as fixing a single order error could escalate into a tragically comic Catch-22. I should have abandoned all efforts long before reaching the point of penning this post and looking back to the Apple Way.

To summarize: I received the wrong Pixel phone nearly a month ago. Google Store struggled to process a return authorization, because the device in hand didn’t match the one in the order. I eventually agreed to keep the thang, so long as the retailer could transfer the extended warranty—so-called “Preferred Care”—that I had paid for. But the process proved to be complicated, then necessity, after I unexpectedly needed to file a damage claim. You’ll have to read on for the sordid punchline, but suffice to say it all ends in a comedy of compounding errors.

Problems resolved! Please see: “Thank-you, Google Store”

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 31, 20189:54 am

Happy Halloween 2018!

I am mummified by how many apartments, condos, and homes in the neighborhood are dressed up for Trick-or-Treat day. Many of the decorations are elaborate, and about all are playful. Our Featured Image presents the front lawn inflatable that the owner of Bruce—one of the furballs from my “Cats of University Heights” series—put up; hehe, she paid five bucks for the thing 13 years ago during an after-Halloween sale.

The longhair tiger tabby is deliberately soft-focused, in this portrait captured on Oct. 17, 2018 at 6:29 p.m. PDT., or about 15 minutes after sunset, using low-light trooper Leica Q. Vitals, aperture and shutter manually set: f/1.7, ISO 1600, 1/125 sec, 28mm.

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 29, 20181:06 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Bashful

We celebrate National Cat Day with a feline that I nickname Bashful, for cautiously approaching me during our first meeting but pulling back because of passing cars; good thing for saving any (or all) of the nine lives. I captured the Featured Image, using Google Pixel 2 XL during our first encounter on Oct. 1, 2018. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 52, 1/1017 sec, 4.459mm; 4:17 p.m. PDT. The companion portrait is second-to-last photo—the other of the same animal—taken with Leica M10. I since sold the camera, which fate will be explained in another post. Vitals: f/4.8, ISO 200, 1/350 sec, 50mm; 4:14 p.m.

Bashful lives in the same cottage complex as Friends, but along another corridor. I have seen the kitty several times since, often in the same vicinity.

Mobility by Joe WilcoxOct 17, 20189:35 pm

Google’s Newest Pixel Phone Color: Not White

Perhaps you know that the newest Google Phones come in “Not Pink”, as a third color choice. I discovered a fourth today when receiving a Pixel 3 XL “Just Black” instead of the smaller Pixel 3 “Clearly White”. Three support calls—spanning more than two hours—later, Google Store specialists struggled to resolve the order error. In their database, my “Not White” XL shows up as a retail model, based on the IMEI, which in no way resembles the number for the device supposedly shipped (and, of course, wasn’t). I did receive Pixel Stand, as expected, so that’s something right.

There is an absurdity about Google making me prove the error by providing photos of the shipping label, phone, and product box because they’re “vital for our investigation”. I obliged about the label, because the correct order number is on it. Request for phone pic came later, and to that I balked. The IMEI should identify model and color, but the image is necessary to truly confirm color is black—or in Joe’s new parlance “Not White”—a store shipping specialist explained. That’s not my problem. Truth will be confirmed when the phone is received, right? Wrong.

Living by Joe WilcoxOct 16, 20189:14 pm

I Quit Nextdoor Today

More than a year after first hearing locals rave about Nextdoor, I joined the social network, on Aug. 29, 2017. Late this afternoon, I deactivated my account. In principle, the concept is well-conceived: Build community among people living close to one another rather than interact across the far reaches of the InterWebs on the likes of Facebook. In practice, my experience is something else: Busy-bodies spend too much time complaining about their neighbors. I liked University Heights more when knowing less about the people living here—or the amount of hit-and-run accidents, package thefts, and other so-called crimes or problems amplified by hundreds of virtual megaphones. My sense of safety and well-being has greatly diminished from using Nextdoor. So no more!

No single incident precipitated my exit. Little things accumulated—like last week’s Cookies with the Cops meeting, where one police officer explained that if a so-called incident isn’t documented, “it didn’t happen”. He referred to the Get It Done app as the go-to place for non-emergency interaction with San Diego’s finest. He likened anything else to phone chains of old, where gossiping along a line of calls turned one thing into a hundred.

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 6, 20186:56 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Alfredo

Some felines living around the neighborhood’s canyons have more than nine lives. Some survivors look like they have used them all but linger onward. Such is the case of Alfredo, a feral residing along the ravine at the Adams Ave. overlook—for an estimated 15 years. He was captured ages ago, neutered, and released. This afternoon, I encountered him for the first time since starting the series (two years ago this month) searching for food where E.T. usually eats. I snapped a dozen or so photos, using Leica Q, approaching closer and closer; someone occasionally spoke to the kitty as he meowed grovingly outside a security door.

The gent eventually came out with canned cat food, which despite hunger, Alfredo resisted. If you think the Featured Image portrays a sickly beast, you are right. Alfredo’s caretaker, who grew up in the house, believes the kitty has cancerous lesions around its nose and mouth—malady he has seen before among white furballs. The homeowner hopes to trap Alfredo. The technique is to put food inside the contraption that the cat can eat, then walk away. The food is pushed further inside each feeding until the cage door triggers. But he described Alfredo, no matter how famished, as “wily”—perhaps being cautious having been trapped and released as a youngster.