Google Pixel upgrade coming soon

The contract on my cell phone is up at the end of this month.  I own a Google Pixel 2XL phone. I love it.

On Saturday, I went to Best Buy to take a look at the Google Pixel 4a phone. It is roughly the same size as my first Google Pixel phone. It's smaller in size than my current phone, but the screen real estate is the same.

Rumour has it that the Google Pixel 4a supporting 5G networks will be the same size as my current phone, which is 6". I feel like holding off upgrading till that phone is on the market. I like the larger size. I need to figure out how much that phone will be when it's out and determine what I want to do. Options are always good.

I am excited to do a cell phone upgrade. I do love my current phone. I will still use it, as I don't have a decent tablet and I like having a backup phone.

Mac mini issues after a software upgrade - again!

My Mac mini is dead. Yep, again.

I have High Sierra as its operating system. There was an update. I gave it a shot. All I get after the installation and countless reboots is a white screen with the Apple logo, and a grey status bar that does not budge.

I spent last night troubleshooting online with two different support guys. They were great, but I got disconnected from the text chat session.

I will be giving it a try later on tonight. Here's hoping that the connection doesn't die again.

Android 9 Pie and my Pixel's dying battery

I wonder whether Google has been hearing about my current and probably only woe with my Google Pixel phone.

My phone is nearly two years old. These days, the battery doesn't hold a charge as well as it used to. A couple of days ago, my phone had 34% battery life and then it automatically shut itself off. I tried booting it up and it simply didn't have enough juice to stay on.

The good news is that whenever there is an Android update, Pixel phones tend to be the first to get it. This time, it's Android 9, also known as Pie, that is out.

I installed it. One of its biggest features is adaptive battery. The idea is that the operating system learns my phone usage patterns. It then direct power to apps that I need. It's essentially predicting my day-to-day battery usage. That's cool to me.

So far, I've noticed that my phone's battery drain at a slower pace. There is also a battery saver option. Nice!

The next Google Pixel phone gets revealed in early October. Chances are that I will upgrade to it. I love my phone. I am hoping that the new phone's battery is better. For now, I thank Pie for extending my battery's life for another couple of months, at least.

Corporate discount on Microsoft Office for Mac - CB-approved

Well over a year ago, I upgraded my Mac mini to the latest operating system at the time. The upgrade went horribly wrong to the point where I had to go get help at the Apple store.

I had a pretty old version of Microsoft Office for Mac installed before the upgrade blew everything up on my Mac mini. The Office version was 2004. After getting my operating system reinstalled, reinstalling Office 2004 would not work.

I have been without Microsoft Office on my Mac mini since. I also have a Macbook Air. It does not have Microsoft Office, either.

On Friday, I received a forwarded e-mail from Sharky. He is a development manager who likes me. My guy constantly teases me over the fact that Sharky lusts after me.

Anyway, the e-mail stated that employees can get a home copy of Microsoft Office for Windows or Mac for $13 each. Wow!

Part of me thought that this price was too good to be true. However, the e-mail came from our company's IT department. It was a valid e-mail offer!

I went ahead and paid $13 to have Office installed on my Macbook Air. All Office applications work well.

My guy was so proud of me for saving so much money on software. He is my sweet cheap bastard (CB).

Technology baffles me, but at least my photo-syncing issues are fixed!

I have always been a troubleshooter. My latest issue with upgrading my Mac mini to the Sierra OS and then attempting to sync my photos to my phone has been fixed. I simply don't know which change that I performed actually fixed everything.

Technology is odd. I am immersed in it at work. It's an interest of mine, too. It's such a love-dislike relationship.

Anyway, I have done a few things to fix this issue:

1. Changed the properties of my Photos library so that read and write access is granted to all programs accessing it.
2. Powered off and on my external hard drive, which houses my iTunes library.
3. Tried to rebuild my library by pressing the Option + Command (Ctrl + Alt) keys. I didn't get the repair option, so I loaded my photos library as normal.
4. Started iTunes. I tried syncing both my iPod classic (yes, I still own one, as it fits my entire music collection, which is large) and iPhone. Both actions prompted an error message indicating that my photos library was unavailable.
5. Closed my Photos program.
6. Tried syncing my iPhone again. My photos synced!
7. Synced my iPod again. It synced successfully, too!

Again, I did a bizarre set of steps. It will be a miracle if all this syncing works tomorrow. I can then get on with writing about my last spanking.

There are days where I want to book some time away from technology, fly to some tropical location, lounge around, and write in a ruled notebook with a fountain pen. It sounds perfect right about now.

Software upgrades late at night don't always go smoothly

I don't know why I do it. I suppose it's because I tend to be a night owl, so I am most productive at night.

What am I referring to with the it reference? I tend to say yes to upgrading the operating system on my phone, tablet, or computer from midnight into the wee hours of the morning.

I don't know why I do it. I just do.

Yesterday morning, at around 00:30, I saw an update for an iOS update on my iPhone. My phone was syncing on my Mac mini. I normally do these system updates through wifi.

I decided to go ahead and begin the upgrade. Bad mistake.

The software download went well. Unfortunately, my phone stalled on the "Waiting for iPhone..." screen.

I ended up rebooting my Mac book mini. By then, it was closer to 02:30. I couldn't stay up any longer and went to bed.

I woke up four hours later. I was a zombie all day at work.

The good news is that my phone had the update successfully applied. In future, I need to take into considering that sometimes glitches happen, which will cause more aggravation than necessary.

The moral of this story? I should continue upgrading through wifi like I normally do. I don't have such stalling issues.

Of course, I should do such upgrades much earlier in the day. This upgrade took me away from blogging. At least I am making up for it now.