Tag: Apple

New Addiction: Kleptocorns

New Addiction: Kleptocorns

by Ellie_Avora ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

This post is a little more out of the ordinary than my usual concepts. Today I’m going to discuss an app. Yup you heard it here folks! We’re going to talk about an application found on the app store and Google play store (if you use an android device). Ahead of time I apologize for the black around photos and what not. It is an application so photo’s weren’t coming out like they should and even with cropping it’s still there. To continue, I felt like a professional adult the need to spill my heart out on the pages on something adults don’t normally download. But let’s be fair we’re all kids at heart. Let’s be honest, we all have that one app on our phone that’s just the best time waster. We may be on the subway in New York city making the commute home or you could be that one individual in the doctor’s office who got there at you’re appointment time but you’ve been waiting in the waiting room for 3 hours (big thanks to my doctor’s office every time). This is sure to keep you happy and entertained during those adulting moments. Today we’re discussing the new app that was just released yesterday on November 6th called Kleptocorns.

Background Information:

A little background information on this application is it was created by “HyperBeard inc.” currently it has 4.9 stars and is still killing it with the reviews upon its launch. There are in-app purchases such as being able to get new unicorns quicker without the need to earn coins every few days for free to reach being able to get a new unicorn buddy. To be fair, it is a little off-putting for me sometimes as it takes forever to make more than two unicorns when first starting. But hey! Apps need to make money through in-app purchases somehow which is where we come to the next thing. There are indeed in-app purchases! Don’t we just love them (I can taste my sarcasm as I type this)? The in-app purchases are to earn something called gems faster. Their prices are a lot more affordable than some applications on the market with in-app purchases but still, sometimes these are annoying. Depending on who your app is aimed at and the market if your 10-17 most likely you won’t be spending your hard-earned cash on a unicorn. But yes in-app purchases they’re in there.

Who is This app for?

Let’s be honest, this app is for anyone who has a love for cute and adorable. If you’re an anime and cartoon fan, you’ll fall in love instantly. If you need a time waster yes! This is also for you. You could waste hours on this game trying to grind for coins to get new unicorns and accessories to dress your cute little pal up in. I would say the age range for this type of application would normally be marketed for tweens to young adults if I had to guess the target market. I am still somewhat young and odd so obviously, I’d have this game on pre-order. But honestly, adults can have just as much fun with this application as it’s targeted audience in the app store it’s under family so that just tells you it can be for pretty much anyone who falls in love with the graphics. As I’ve explained before in all of us we’re kids at heart even if we don’t want to show it it’s there. We’re all expected to grow up so quickly in today’s society I feel this app gives us our youth back to an extent and it’s so simple that it’s both fun and enjoyable.

Mini-Games:

Oh my gosh! Don’t get me started. Too late I’m already there. The in-game mini-games are more fun than you expect them to be. Remember when we were all younger and our parents might have taken us to a carnival or maybe you didn’t have the experience, but you went later on in your lifetime. The mini-games are similar to carnival games. They’re very chance related and if a kid plays this game it’s almost like children’s gambling. Good luck with that one’s kids! If you don’t want your kids participating in carnival-like games and thrills on an app just don’t point out the small icon to the bottom right of your smart devices screen and you should be fine. It’s such a small button that honestly, I forget it’s there a lot of the time and when my unicorn is out grabbing objects (which it always is because that’s how my broke self gets coins for free without spending money on in-app purchases). But if you’re using this as a time waster and don’t want to run this app and another app to do whatever it is you do than there are mini carnival games for your enjoyment.

Unicorns & Dress up Accessories:

This is the cutest part of this game! If you’re into virtual pets or can’t have a pet of your own whether you’re in an apartment or mom and dad won’t let you have one for whatever reason. This is a great little companion. When your unicorn comes back from its hunting journeys through space and time there is a health meter in the shape of a heart in the bottom right-hand corner that shows you a percentage. You always want that at 100% to do anything this is where you can care for your little unicorn. Yes! You can care for your unicorn. Pet, bathe and feed it treats to raise its health and with that when you have enough coins you can buy cute little customizable items to further customize your little unicorn. I think it’s an adorable addition to customize your unicorn in the way you want within reason. I remember when I was a kid and had a Nintendo DS after saving up which felt like years for it and being able to dress up my dogs in Nintendogs or my pets in the Littlest Pet Shop Winter Pet Series game that was out at the time.

My Experience, Thoughts, & Rating:

My overall thoughts about this app are I’ve been playing it since I got home last night at 12 in the morning and couldn’t sleep because of insomnia. I played this during the time I was up and then played it a little more when I woke up. It’s cute, entertaining, fun and overall just a great time waster and something to do that will keep you smiling. Also, if you’re not smiling it will make you smile it’s one of those feel-good apps where you can do what you want in it at your own time and own pace. I love games and applications like this! The only thing I wish was a little better was earning unicorns I have to wait days depending on how much I play or even weeks just to get a new one to have and take care of. I highly would recommend this game and I can see where the 4.9 stars on this app come from, I give it about the same in my opinion and hope to see more from this game in the future as they roll out updates.

Experience at the Apple Store

Experience at the Apple Store

by Ellie_Avora ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

First, I’d like to apologize for my absence but this post will explain everything as to why I’ve been gone. I need a computer to type up posts and sadly I’ve had one on and off for a bit now so I do apologize for not being active but I hope you enjoy this read!

To preface this, post the Apple store I’ll be typing my experience from is located in the central Florida area. I won’t say which one in respect to the company and their policies around online information about their stores but to give you an idea the experience was not at all a good one for me. I, however, own Apple products because I’m stuck inside of Apple’s ecosystem I love my Apple products for everything but games and that is where I can tell all of you that I do have a gaming laptop that I use for online games and my virtual world shenanigans. This is my experience and my opinions and what I went through when trying to get my 2018 13-inch MacBook Pro fixed because of overheating issues and a few other problems involving the top casing. Your experience, of course, may not be the same or as bad as I went through as far as customer service but this experience in its entirety has made me skeptical about going back to this particular Apple store. I’ve concluded because of my experience that if I have an issue and since my products are all covered by Apple care plus except for my iPhone that I’ll be sending it to be fixed via packaging. I hope you all enjoy this story about my experience at the Apple store as a disclaimer as I’ve stated above not everyone will go through something like I did this was just what I went through and I’m not a very happy Apple customer because of it. This is my experience and ideas regarding my visit. With that being explained over 3-4 different times let’s jump right in!

My issues with my MacBook:

To begin, I wanted to first explain all of the issues my MacBook pro 13 inches with retina display and touch bar with 256 gigs of SSD and why I was taking it to get fixed in the first place. These issues are listed as:

  • Speaker cutting in and out with any type of audio
  • Overheating issues everywhere 
  • Fans not running with high taxing programs where I needed to photo or video edit
  • Receiving video card messages when the video card is there
  • Trackpad not always registering taps or “gestures”
  • And the worst one my STAR keys otherwise known as my S-T-A-R keys getting stuck or typing a letter more than once after clicking it

As you can see a lot is going on I kind of held out on a lot of these issues until the Apple store in Florida near me opened up so I could take it and didn’t have to drive more than an hour to get support for it. They closed down the Apple store closest to me for renovations during the summer and opened back up September 3rd of this year. 

Appointment Made & Taking it in:

Obviously with all of these issues after I talked to the online Apple support first since I get 24-hour support online and through the phone and after 5 times resetting the SMC in my laptop they created an appointment for me at the new Apple store closest to me which is about 30 mins away. Okay, cool right? I’m getting everything fixed. My appointment time was 12:45 in the afternoon I got there a little bit early just in case. Nobody greeted me when I first walked in which is something they did before the renovation I didn’t care though the store was packed with people and everyone seemed busy. Some people were standing around but being the somewhat shy person that I am I walked in and stood at a space in the middle of the store. Hoping that if I looked “lost” someone may come over and ask if I needed help. Bad idea on my part so after about 5 minutes of standing there I walked up to a woman and said “Hi there! I don’t mean to bother you I know you must be busy, however, I do have an appointment today at 12:45 and I just wanted to know where I go or who to talk to so I can get checked in.” honestly, I think I was being quite nice about the overall situation so she pointed me in the direction of a young man in a blue Apple shirt. Awesome! So, I go over to him its 12:05 at this point and he turns to me and says, “We go based off of scheduled time so if you want to go grab a coffee or some lunch and then come back you can. You have a lot of time to do so then you’re not sitting in the store forever, just make sure when you come back to tap one of us and let us know that you’re there and tell us where you will be so we can send someone to you.” Okay! Cool! So, what do I do? I go to the food court to order a drink and a large fry eat it quickly and go back to the store. I still showed up a little early just in case. I like being punctual when I have appointments. During this time, I did what I was told to do I tapped the same guy and one other and pointed to square ottomans on the ground in front of a screen with a projector and explained I’d be sitting over there. As I waited, I’ll be honest I was a bit bored as an older lady came in looking for someone to help her as she had an appointment herself to get her iPhone fixed. Nothing worked when she tapped on applications her phone app would work now and then but never continued for more than a few moments. She sat next to me and I could tell she was frustrated with the situation she said something similar to what I did when I first came in and had no idea where to go or who to go to or even what to do. It was very disorganized, and no one was being helped who had appointments. They were all talking to people who had questions about the products and playing with them but of course not purchasing. During this time, I and this one woman became friends our conversation went a little like this at the beginning:

Me: This seems very unorganized doesn’t it?

Her: Oh yes! I thought I was the only one to feel that way.

Me: Oh no no no! not at all, I had an appointment to get my MacBook fixed what about you?

Her: My phone isn’t working and I’m an at-home nurse, so I have to have it as most of my work is done on it.

-she shows me her phone and how it doesn’t work, the woman is in her early 60s –

From this point on we continued to talk about programs, writing, jobs, kids, family, boyfriends, her life in the past until the present. She was such an interesting and kindhearted woman and I’m glad I was able to cross paths with her and listen to her story and some of the things she had experienced in life. She did make somewhat of an impact on me that day. Then someone came up to her and said “Hi! My name is (I forget the name) How can I assist you today?” at this point, I remembered that she came in after me and then decided to check the time. At that point, it said 1:00 pm. Wow! 1? My appointment was supposed to be 12:45 what on earth happened? At this point, a young man was walking quickly past me, so I decided to tap him to get his attention. He stopped and turned to me and I said, “Hello there! I don’t mean to be rude, but my appointment was at 12:45 and it’s now 1:00 pm. I know you’re busy but I was curious as to when I’d be helped to see everyone who came in after I have gone before me and I went ahead and let two people know that I was going to be over here waiting for my appointment.” He rushed over to one of the cubes and was inputting something into his iPad he was quiet for about 3 minutes then turned to me and said, “Hello! My name is Z (won’t say the full name because of policies) How can I help you today?” Wow! Okay. At this point, I’m at a loss for words and trying to figure out just everything. I looked at him and told him the issue with my laptop he asked me if I wanted to move to the table instead to get my laptop up and running so he could do a diagnostics test. I told him I was leaving on a trip soon and it would be nice if I could have my MacBook with me because it’s smaller than my gaming PC and it can fit right into any bag I bring. He asked when I needed it by, and I said if possible, I need it before October 8th. He told me it would be available well before then and said that Apple was going to send it out for repairs. I was happy by this because I honestly wanted a functioning laptop. I mean hell it might not be able to run virtual worlds, but I can do browser-based things, type up documents, and blog during my time on vacation. I was told to keep an eye on my e-mail specifically my iCloud e-mail since it would tell me when to come in to pick up my laptop and was estimated about 2-5 business days for it to be returned to the Apple store for pick up. The whole escapade at the Apple store took me way longer than it probably needed to luckily, I had nothing important going on that day but still what if I did? I left and a few days received the e-mail on my iCloud account after about two days to come in and pick up my MacBook.

Picking up my MacBook:

I’ll be honest, after the situation that happened a few days before I was hesitant to go back into the store. This time around they had three security guards in there standing by the door I walked in with my Vera Bradley messenger bag with my laptop case and this time instead of waiting in a space with little people in the middle of the store I got up close and personal with the woman who pointed me in the direction of the guy who checked me in a few days before. She was helping an older man purchase an Apple watch and since this particular store I found out works off commission she saw me and said she would be right with me as soon as she got something so she could finish up the purchase. I explained it was no worries and to take her time I was just picking up my MacBook Pro from out of store servicing. I waited there next to her for about 30 minutes and she told me to go over to this one girl who shortly opened up after this 30 minutes that I waited. Could she not have called someone on the walkie talkie beforehand and grabbed someone for me. It only takes 3-5 minutes to hand me my laptop with a paper telling me what was done or replaced. Okay so moving on the second woman told me to go and sit at the table and someone would be with me shortly. Okay! So, at this point minutes became hours and I was somewhat restless everyone was trying to make sales with people who weren’t purchasing the products and all I wanted was my MacBook. Finally, after about 3 hours of waiting this guy comes out with my MacBook and asks for my license to verify that it was me. I showed him everything and he gave me the laptop and told me if I wanted to stay and set it back up I could and walked away. I had a sheet telling me what had been done on it. From the paper, it looked like a lot had been done but I was astonished by how long it took me to get serviced. Why 3 hours? That is almost like a crime waiting that long. I’ve never been so disappointed with Apple’s customer service. This specific Apple store causes me extreme anxiety now and I hate going into it. After everything was set up and what not I took it home, however, something happened that I didn’t expect. 

My MacBook Was Stated to be Fixed but Was it?

I was home assuming my newly fixed product would work the way it’s supposed to. Especially since I paid $300 for Apple care plus and then technically the laptop itself is $1,500-$2,000 like come on. I just want my expensive product to work. If I pay the money, I expect that money to be placed into a product that works. I understand there are complications even with well-built technology, but this MacBook just went into servicing. Within 5 minutes of being on my laptop when I got home the keyboard and the computer itself started to heat up again. Don’t get me wrong at least I can touch and type on the keyboard without frying my fingers, but it gets abnormally warm still. Especially for just having a word document and e-mail open. I checked to see if anything was taking up CPU or anything like that and nothing. Everything seemed fine… I’m so frustrated some of my issues like the keyboard, sound, and touchpad, were working a lot better but the main issue I was concerned about still wasn’t fixed. Sadly, it’s too late to get my laptop in before I go on vacation so I’m going to take it with me as it is. But after I come back as much as I don’t want to I have to go to this dreaded store I want to talk face to face with an actual person not just send it in a box. You never know what postage trucks do to packages, etc. 

In conclusion, in all my life I’ve never had a product that doesn’t just work the way it’s supposed to. Better yet I’ve never had a product that when you take it to get fixed it still isn’t completely fixed. Like what do I have to do to have a product just work? I’m so frustrated the store experience was frustrating, the customer support experience was better but still frustrating, and the pickup process was just appalling. I’ve never been so disappointed before. But through it all, I tried to stay positive and hold my composure because I know it’s not the associate’s fault that my stuff isn’t working and it’s not their fault that there is a sea of people in their store that aren’t buying anything but lead them on as if they are. But really after two trips into that trap of a store, I would have hoped my product would have at least been fixed for the issue it has. When I take it I hope it’s better I can only hope.

Is it Possible For Someone to Use Both Microsoft and apple Having Both Products Coexist in Everyday Life?

Is it Possible For Someone to Use Both Microsoft and apple Having Both Products Coexist in Everyday Life?

by Ellie_Avora ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Is it possible for someone to use both Microsoft and Apple and have both products coexist in everyday life? To be fair recently I’ve been on a YouTube review kick where I’ve been watching technology reviews on new computers, tablets, and tech. Specifically, in the reviews that review computers and tablets, there are constant debates in the comments between what operating system (OS) is better. However, what people tend to not understand is some people own both a product that runs Microsoft and a product that owns Apples Mac OS. I would be one of those people and I wanted to share my experience with all of you and that it is indeed possible for someone to own both and that both OS’s work well for the different things I’m trying to accomplish. To begin, I feel I need to add a disclaimer before I begin just so there is no hate or negativity because I don’t need that negativity all in my personal space. Everything that is going to be said is my experience, opinions, thoughts, and feelings on both sides I don’t think one OS is better than the other and feel both OS’s have their strengths and weaknesses. Though at some points it may seem as if I prefer one OS to the other, I’m completely unbiased I’m just explaining how I’m able to use both OS’s in unity and how they both work and are used in my daily life. This is a lot different of a post than I normally do however, I’ve been on a technology kick and wanted to add my thoughts and opinions. Being a virtual world guru I’m also a huge techy and enjoy using and playing with new tech when I can get my hands on it. With that all being said onward!

Microsoft OS has always been a huge part of my life, every computer my family and I have had have been PC’s that run Microsoft Office. We needed Microsoft Office for school and creating documents and PowerPoints we also enjoyed playing PC games and just browsing the internet while checking e-mails. To be fair third-party computers that run Microsoft’s OS are normally cheaper by a lot this is the complete opposite of an Apple product. Any person will also realize that this is why Microsoft OS is easier to find in a family household. It’s because it’s cheaper to own a PC than it is to own a MacBook but there is a huge reason for this that I’ll get into aa little later when I discuss how I use my MacBook in my everyday life. I currently own a Samsung 7 spin which I’ve had for years and this honestly is being passed on to a younger family member. Then recently on sale I was able to get myself on Amazon a gaming computer it’s a budget one but it runs like a charm and I love it. I have the Acer Predator 300 series so the one before the newest that come out. It has 258 GB of storage, with an i7 8th gen processor, 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, and ports lots and lots of ports such as a USB 3.0 port, ethernet port, HDMI, etc. I use it for gaming (obviously!), typing up documents, making spreadsheets, and PowerPoints, view documents and sort them on various flash drives and external hard drives and code websites and various coding using CMD. Needless to say that it does everything I need it to do and behind all of that power you would think I could edit video and photos on it too and you can. However, for most products that run Microsoft, you have to give to get. So, I, for example, got the faster power but with that, I had to give up battery life and a true to color screen which is something you need if you do digital art and photo editing. This isn’t terrible however, that brings me to the drawing board what can I get that will help me with my photo and video editing and other creative things I need to do on a computer. Though Microsoft is good for managing files, documents, and gaming I feel an Apple Mac or MacBook with the Apple OS is better for creativity and expression.

Apple OS I’ve recently switched to almost fully within the last year I’m completely new to the interface and to be honest the OS. I have used Apple products in school before, but they instructed you on what to do so I never really got to experience and explore Apple’s Mac OS as I can now. I own the recent MacBook Pro 2018 edition with touch bar with 258GB of storage and an i5 processor in space gray. You’re probably thinking an i5? But were onto i7’s and even some computers have i9’s. So, with that being said I should explain that I ended up winning this computer in a raffle when I was in college through a club, I was a part of throughout my college experience. So, the MacBook for me at least was free. But I’ve found as an audio, video, and photo editor and doing digital design and sketching that Apple was better in this area. I have come addicted to garage band which is an Apple exclusive program. I recently got into the world of Podcasting but have always had a professional mic for when I gamed and was talking with people online which I did quite often. Garage band has made all the difference when editing audio, it is my life and even though I tried Microsoft programs for audio editing I didn’t like them as much. To be honest, it was because, for someone just starting with audio editing, I wasn’t used to such an advanced interface and to be fair Apple kind of dumbs down their applications for everyone to use even a beginner starting up a podcast like me. I love garage band so much that my MacBook is where I do most of my audio and electronic music recording and I haven’t looked back. Video and photo editing are just ten times better on the MacBook Pro because of the Retina display which is what Apple’s computers are known for. The screen is true to color and so it’s easier to produce edited videos and photos based on realism because it shows every color that you need perfectly. Creative programs, applications, etc. are just so much better through a MacBook and I haven’t looked back. The huge downfall is it couldn’t replace the gaming on my PC. I play light games such as The Sims 4 and of course virtual worlds which can be a little demanding but that is an Apple MacBook’s downfall but then again, they weren’t created for gamers. Apple computers have always been considered to be more “premium” than a PC because of how they’re made. They don’t normally have a ton of ports anymore on their newer products so you have to purchse dongles but if this doesn’t bother you then read on. I don’t want this post to get too long talking about specs, but they’re supposedly made with premium and higher-end materials. You can tell the difference when using a Mac versus using a PC. The Apple’s Mac OS is a learning curve and a lot more simplistic but, some things just didn’t make sense to me but that’s also coming from someone who just recently started using Apple’s Mac OS. I feel it’s good for what it does! It’s good for creative individuals such as myself who do a lot of creative editing and use Adobe Suites. MacBook’s also run Microsoft Office software but they also have their products for creating documents, slides, and spreadsheets but I use Microsoft now and then on my MacBook. I prefer using my PC for documents and whatnot though.

With that being said both will offer a fast and fluid computing experience. If you’re part of an older demographic I feel Apple’s items are a bit more simplistic and use gestures on the mousepad instead of hotkeys on the keyboard. All in all, I feel that this demographic would have a better experience with a tablet than a laptop. I’d also recommend a tablet for someone who just needs a simple computer to do simple things on. There are IPad’s which is Apple’s tablet currently running on iPad OS which is Mac OS but simplified for their tablets it’s a user-friendly experience. Or if you’re looking for customization there are Android tablets. There kind of dying out but Samsung is coming out with the Galaxy tablet S6 which is a more premium Android tablet, but it is a tablet that can give a computer experience. The iPad Pros can give this type of experience but if you’re just someone who needs to do minimal computing or tasks one of the cheaper iPads will do just fine. Now that I’ve gone with my rant on tablets versus computers….

Overall, I feel in my experience that both MacBook’s and PC’s can coexist in my daily life, they each have something unique to offer and each is specific for a specific type of individual. I feel Apple is beginning to branch out a little bit more with their products, but they’re still limited to the creative and productive individual whereas there are just some things that PC tends to do better such as bringing the everyday gamer and productive user together in harmony. That’s okay! with time the line will be blurred between the ongoing debate on which OS is better than the other but until then Microsoft users will always complain about Apple OS and Apple OS will always complain about Microsoft but in the end it just comes to the users personal preference and what they want to get out of their computing experience.