Had To Repent My Sin of Visiting An Apple Store!

[kblanco]

So I was with the family early Saturday morning and we were walking in the mall before the stores opened, cause you know exercise in the morning so you don't feel bad about being lazy in the afternoon watching movies.

But we walked by the Apple Store while closed and even before the store opened between 8am and 9am (I forget exactly what time we were there) and on a Saturday morning nonetheless there was already a crowd of people on the benches in the walkway just waiting for the store to open. It's like a cult I tell you! I snickered about the cult that Apple has going as we walked by.

Well I later went inside to ask a question about an old IPod I have and basically got the brush off as I wasn't interested in any of the shiny new Apple toys. However I did go across the way to the Microsoft Store also in the mall and basically across the isle just to cleanse my soul. You buy Apple, that's okay (like I was telling the nice Microsoft Store guy, it's just that you paid to much...) but these people were lined up on a Saturday morning like it was the last chopper out of Saigon or something!!!

 

[bjacks12]

The sad part is that Microsoft is also evil!

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Killer closer kblanco!

 

[kblanco]

The sad part is that Microsoft is also evil!

I know! Evil maybe but the Microsoft folks were really nice though. My mother and I spent some time in the store asking about Windows 10 as I had just upgraded my mother's computer from 8 to 10 and we had a few questions. Mom really likes the shiny Windows phones they had out. Surprisingly they were really cool looking and if the Microsoft app store wasn't mediocre compared to the Android app store I'd be tempted to switch. Mom's tempted as her phone is really old but I'm going to get her to go Android so I can help her with her phone if she needs tech support. Those Apple people are snobbish however. Guess you can be when you're charging upwards of $500.00 to $700.00 for a phone and I'm rocking an Android for $150.00 (Moto G) that'll hold it's own quite nicely...

 

[mikedt]

Well I later went inside to ask a question about an old IPod I have and basically got the brush off as I wasn't interested in any of the shiny new Apple toys. However I did go across the way to the Microsoft Store also in the mall and basically across the isle just to cleanse my soul. You buy Apple, that's okay (like I was telling the nice Microsoft Store guy, it's just that you paid to much...) but these people were lined up on a Saturday morning like it was the last chopper out of Hanoi or something!!!

....I later went inside to ask a question about an old Zune I have and basically got the brush off as I wasn't interested in any of the shiny new Xbox One toys....

We finally got Microsoft Stores in China...yay!!

...and very likely the Apple Store wouldn't help me much with my old iPod either....

Apple is evil
Microsoft is evil
Google is evil

 

[bjacks12]

I know! Evil maybe but the Microsoft folks were really nice though. My mother and I spent some time in the store asking about Windows 10 as I had just upgraded my mother's computer from 8 to 10 and we had a few questions. Mom really likes the shiny Windows phones they had out. Surprisingly they were really cool looking and if the Microsoft app store wasn't mediocre compared to the Android app store I'd be tempted to switch. Mom's tempted as her phone is really old but I'm going to get her to go Android so I can help her with her phone if she needs tech support. Those Apple people are snobbish however. Guess you can be when you're charging upwards of $500.00 to $700.00 for a phone and I'm rocking an Android for $150.00 (Moto G) that'll hold it's own quite nicely...

To be fair, most Android flagships retail in the $500-700(and more) range.

My N6 originally retailed for $699.

 

[lunatic59]

Can't say that I have ever set foot in an Apple store, although I have peered through the window while strolling through the mall. They probably look at me and hope i DON'T come in so they'd have to wait on a geezer. I don't care as long as they stay off my lawn.

 

[bjacks12]

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/for-seniors-use-the-ipad-online-user-guide.html

 

[kblanco]

So I've gone and done it, just to spice things up I've installed the Windows Phone 8 launcher on my Moto G. It allows me (or you) to satisfy that guilty pleasure of rocking a Windows Phone with the power and apps of Android under it. I've looked over the lists of various Android launchers that come out from time to time on the various tech websites, and I've read about a few of the Windows Phone launchers (and the Windows Phone itself) and just decided that I was bored and wanted to spice things up a bit. I mean really, whatever launcher you use (I was using Nova launcher for a long while) they all boil down to the same look eventually. The home screen of my Moto G looks like the home screen on my old-old (IOS 6.1.6 old) IPod Touch.

So I decided to give into my guilty pleasure and go Windows Phone, sort of. They were really sweet looking in the Microsoft Store I saw over the weekend so I figured what the hell. I'm obviously not going to give up my Android, I'm invested in the culture and all, but my device looks different than everyone else's which was my goal. You can go with a theme someone else created or you can strike out on your own. It's a little involved to set up as I found I had to task many of the tiles to the apps I wanted them to point towards, but once you get things up and running it's pretty unique looking. A co-worker even remarked about it being sweet and all in appearance...

 

[lunatic59]

Drop some screen shots. I'm curious.

 

[kblanco]

For those who've asked to see pics of what I've done with the Windows Phone 8 launcher, my apologies but I've been unable to snap screen grabs of my phone. Using any number of screen grab apps, and also learning that the phone itself is equipped to do so, I've been unable to grab the screen for all you to see. That being said however I did use my old Ipod Touch to literally photo the screen. So my apologies for the lack of quality in some of the pics but you'll be able to get the idea.

Okay, with that out of the way I wanted to say that I desired to make a change partly just because I was bored a recent afternoon but also because I've become bored with the appearance of my phone's home screen. I mean which ever launcher you might use, stock or third party, they all boil down to the same result in being a very similar home screen with icons on a grid. Like I said in a previous post, my 2015 Android home screen looks identical to the home screen of my Ipod Touch I've had for however many years??? That and you've possibly got some really nice or even beautiful pics you use as your wallpaper just to pock-mark it with icons.

So in the pics below you'll see that I've ghosted the icons and their respective tiles using the transparency setting in the launcher (the launcher is supposed to mirror everything the actual WP8 OS is supposed to be capable of). This lets my wallpaper shine as nearly as possible but you can also use the color selection to make the tiles any color (as a group or individually even) that you'd care to. If you use a solid color for the wallpaper and/or the tiles, then the whole thing really pops! I've sized the squares so that the often used items are large while the lesser items are not. It may seem a bit crowded with the smaller tiles, but I've always had folders with Nova Launcher and the stock Google launcher so I decided to just be different and only include two folders this time. The large tile to the far right that looks different in many of the pics is a live tile that shows photos from my gallery. If you've got several pics and can't decide which pic you might like on your gallery icon then this'll scroll through each pic in your gallery. Why other launchers don't have this feature, perhaps they do, I don't know??? I think so far the only things I don't like about this launcher is that 1) folders don't close automatically after selecting an item contained within. You come back to your home screen and you have to close it yourself. Also 2) the "Okay Google" voice function isn't there, so I simply made a tile that points to the function. Surly you can spend half a second to hit a tile and then say "Okay Google..."?

But thanks and let me know what you all think!