Tag Archives: MacBook Air

Friday the 13th

9 Mar

A day before the ominous Friday the 13th in December last year, my MacBook Air crashed and died. I never saw it coming although there were tell tale signs of instability after installing MacOS Catalina 10.15.1 a few weeks earlier. I caved in and updated because of iTunes and my iPhone XR. To cut a long story short, I had to update the OS in order to have the latest version of iTunes that could sync with the iPhone XR. Otherwise, I could not back up my phone, something that I don’t do that often.

So all was fine and dandy except a few small matters like several of the softwares. The Adobe and Microsoft softwares that I have—essential but not critical—could no longer be used because the versions I have were not supported with the 10.15.1 OS. But since I hardly use those softwares these days and I could back up my iPhone XR, this was all that mattered I rationalized.

On that faithful eve of the ominous day, I had my Skype launched and ready to have the weekly session with M1. Suddenly, the app was acting up and I had to restart the laptop. Several times in fact. A prompt came up and caught my eye – the OS needed to be updated with Catalina 10.15.2.

Reflecting back the several instances of instability and the recent wonky behavior of Skype, I thought perhaps it was best to update the OS. Bad idea, really bad, bad idea.

The laptop could not install the OS and hung several times. A black screen kept appearing with each restart. Uh oh. Even with Global Network Recovery and all the steps I could find online could not save my MacBook! Oh no….

The next day, Friday the 13th I went to Machines, a local authorized Apple reseller to see what could be done. To my dismay, Machines no longer provided support for older devices. Oh no! The apprehension of this ominous day struck.

My 11” MacBook Air is a 2012 model and deemed a vintage device and as such, do not qualify for further technical support. I was advised then to go to a third party repair shop. Do I have a choice at that point?

So off to a third party repair shop I went. Thankfully, these guys fixed the problem (they took a few days though) and I also had all my data recovered for an additional fee. Phew. My MacBook Air is now downgraded to MacOS Sierra 10.12.6 and should remain at this version for optimum performance.

But less than a month after that, the laptop acted up again resulting in the decision to do a total reformat. This was after backing up all the recovered data to an external drive. So so problematic.

While updates are good, it does not necessarily add value to older devices. One should be cautious before doing so, otherwise be prepared for some stress of losing data and then a little hole in the pocket to fix the damage and retrieve the precious.

Hopefully nothing disastrous will happen to my laptop on this ominous date this coming Friday. And I have since been backing up my iPhone XR on iCloud.

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Looking Back at 2019

31 Dec

Well well… it looks like another year has gone by again. Time to file the memories away to recall later fondly and another set of annual resolutions to make. Or break. But the end of 2019 is much more than another year gone by, it’s the end of a decade!

Looking back, I’ve had my fair share of good memories and heartaches with many things happening in the year. After all, there’s 365 days. What stood out most for me can be summed up to these.

Both girls are all grown up, with one having graduated and continuing on with grad school in the US and the other just starting college in Ireland. Proud parent moments. Then there’s me reaching the milestone big five birthday. Happy me occasion.

My carving hobby resulted in a mixed growth in Gigglesville’s population this year. There were only 13 new Citizens to reach 194 (I couldn’t push myself to reach 200), the Whales grew to 48, with 30 new ones while the Gnomes had only two new giant ones to make three dozen as of 2019. It could be better.

But with this carving activity, there was a price to pay: my aggravated injuries. My golf game suffered as a consequence and for the first time, I find myself not giving the sport any priority anymore. I lost the will to excel when injuries persisted. Hopefully this mindset can change to a more positive one come 2020.

Besides the sports injury, my endometriosis pain was well, a pain to deal with this year. More acute than ever, I was at the mercy of a monthly recurrence, it was dreadful. So I started the 16/8 intermittent fasting diet to manage the painful backache and cramp attacks. With a controlled diet and a list of food to avoid, losing a fair bit of weight along the way was a booster and motivation too besides minimizing the agony. It helped.

Not everything was rosy and good though. My iPad Mini has been wonky and unreliable with each passing day, my MacBook Air had to be resuscitated but nothing compared to losing our beloved English bulldog, Rooney aka official pet number one to old age and sickness. It was the saddest day of our lives and suddenly, the house was emptier than ever and our lives changed.

Looking back, if I were to put 2019 into perspective of a phrase, ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ aptly summarizes the year for me. Now as I ponder what to expect for the new year and new decade, I hope it will be one that focuses on ‘the good, the better and the best’. No resolutions needed though.

To everyone, here’s wishing you an awesome 2020 ahead, Happy New Year and Goodbye 2019!

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Becoming Obsolete

6 May

My iPad Mini is slowly becoming obsolete. Last week Pinterest couldn’t update and it riles me to have that number sitting in the corner of the App Store icon for a few days. But I left it as is because there was no mention of needing iOS10 and I could still use it.

However, this morning Pinterest was suddenly being installed although I didn’t do anything and it looked like it was stuck. So I restarted the iPad Mini, thinking this would help. The next thing I knew, my Pinterest icon was gone from the iPad! Yikes.

I then went into App Store to try to reinstall but there’s nothing for me to even click on to download. Why? Why? Why? It looks like arm twisting tactics here to push me to get a new iPad Mini.

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How do I download PInterest when there’s nothing to click on?

Two weeks ago, it was something else. I found out I couldn’t launch iFlix (not Netflix but similar entertainment provider) because it required iOS10 and my Mini cannot update beyond iOS9.3.5. Sigh…

And several weeks ago, it was Skype that couldn’t be used because it also required iOS10. I checked online if there were anymore older versions of Skype (that can run on iOS9.3.5) but apparently, Microsoft no longer support old devices for it. The only solution if I wanted to use Skype is to buy a new iPad Mini, according to discussions on community forums out there!

Gee… I don’t think I want to do this especially when I now have an iPhone XR that is much faster and sufficient for my needs. Anyway, I didn’t download Skype on the phone nor do I want to have the app on my desktop computer. I simply resolved the usage predicament by bringing my MacBook Air to the office for the weekly Skype session with M1. Easy peasy. As for Pinterest, it is on the phone too.

It’s just a matter of time before the iPad Mini will be relegated to being another bedside clock, along with iPod, M2’s old iPhone 5C and my recently retired iPhone 5S. Sigh…

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Farm Heroes No More

23 Jan

I have stopped playing Farm Heroes on my iPad, iPhone and the laptop. After such a long time at it, I find that I cannot go pass Level 1105, so no point in continuing the game. It was fun while it lasted.

As for my other games, I still do Candy Crush Soda (to collect the Daily Bonus) and Candy Crush Saga (on the office computer occasionally as it has been deleted from the iPad and iPhone) besides the two Monster Busters.

There does not seem to be a whole of appealing games offered these days, at least to me. Maybe it’s for the better as I can stay off my devices and go back to reading (which I did) and carving (which I will).

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Giving Up

3 Aug

I finally decided to ‘give up’ two more games on my iPad, deleting them several nights ago. Remember Candy Crush Saga was canned awhile back?

It’s not a total give up but a technical one because I still play these games in Facebook on the laptop (at home) or desktop (in the office). My iPad has been so slow, rendering it almost useless, it’s aggravating.

I don’t have pictures and music on the iPad, so I suspect it’s the games’ data accumulated when I play them and it hordes the space on the device thus slowing it down. With the RAM dropping down to 200MB or thereabouts most times, what can I do? I can’t even read anything on Safari, let alone crush some candies!

So I canned both the Monster Busters apps. This is on top of clearing away other apps that I don’t use any longer. I even deleted the Facebook app!

On hindsight, maybe it’s a good thing to make me less dependent on my iPad as I find myself doing more meaningful things in my free time, like carving up a whole township of Gigglesville citizens!

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Slowing Down

5 Dec

I’ve slowed down playing the two candy games on my iPad for two reasons lately. Firstly, it’s my iPad. Device just does not want to cooperate to launch both Candy Crush and Candy Crush Soda, it’s annoying. Secondly, I am getting kinda tired by the games. 

So I just play them on the laptop whenever I am home or sometimes offline in the car. Maybe it’s for the better that they are no longer an obsession.

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It’s Not Right

3 Oct

Ever since my iPad Mini updated to iOS9.3.5, everything has not been right. It has gotten so slow and unstable. And when apps get updated, it’s worse. I am having problems with my two virtual candy games – unstable upon launching and quits instantly, so can’t play. Hrmph. Strangely, the apps only work if I don’t connect to the wifi but this is such a hassle especially when I am home.

So over the weekend, I was down to only two devices to crush some candies – the MacBook Air and my iOS7.1.2 iPhone5S. Sigh…

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Hrmph

2 Aug

Level 1864 of Candy Crush was tough to go pass because the challenge was different on different devices! Again, another difference. Hrmph. Why King.com? Why?

I was on the iPad and clearly it’s a much more difficult task compared to the same level on the laptop in Facebook. Hrmph.

Needless to say, I took the easier route but now have to play on the laptop because the iPad has yet to update with the next chapter. I am now at Level 1877.

 

Requirements on the laptop in Facebook

  

On the iPad

 

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Well, Well… Am I Surprised?

23 Jun

A few days ago, I lamented about King.com being inconsistent with their board setups for Candy Crush for different devices. And this has occurred many times on several levels. Guess what? They are at it again.

This time on Level 1735. On the iPad, it is definitely harder compared to the game in Facebook. No wonder I was having a tough time trying to figure it out. It was when I went into YouTube to see what others did that I realized the boards were different. 

So obviously after learning this discrepancy, I played the game in Facebook and within the five lives, I made it with some lives to spare.

 

See where the popcorn squares are located

  

For the iPad, the popcorn squares are at a tougher place!

 
  

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Times Have Changed

9 Jun

I look at M2 now having her school holidays and can’t help but reminisce what I did during my school holidays when I was 15 dinosaur years ago. 

Frankly, I don’t recall doing what she is doing now – sleeping in every morning (Mom would have my hide!), having late brunches, staying indoors as much as possible and surrounded by all the Apple devices: the iPhone to talk to friends on WhatsApp, the iPad for some playtime in between the studying at the dining table in the afternoon, the iPod and MacBook Air for goodness knows what else.

I do remember watching a fair bit of TV, playing with my dog in the garden, climbing my favorite tree, whacking a few tennis balls against the wall of the car porch, talking to imaginary friends and occasionally talking to a real friend on the house telephone. Half the time I was outdoors and never once I sat at the dining table to study!

Yep, times have changed. Gone are the days when one simply enjoys the outdoors, breathe in the fresh air and not worry about keeping up. It was always a happy-go-lucky situation. Nowadays, it’s a constant worry to keep up, staying connected and being indoors!

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