What's up with me?

Over the past few months, I've been posting about my experiences during summer, graduation, and tech stuff. I really haven't talked about one of the things I should be posting about: ME. I always thought that this should be less about me but I noticed something off and my blog lacked ME in it. This is why I decided to put up a post about how I'm doing and what I'm up to.

First off, I'm working already. It's been more than 2 months since I started but it's only 15 days ago that the real deal began. So far, I'm okay at dealing with work life and its unpredictability, though my impatience tends to get in the way sometimes. The office environment is nice despite the serious and quiet aura. You can approach people fairly easily. The office itself is one big area, there are no walls in between. Overall, I love my job and wouldn't want it any other way.

I'm not rushing things, especially with love. It's not even meant to be really thought of (except maybe the house and the family thing). I'm currently soul-searching and getting to know myself even more than I already do. I really wanna have time to learn more on mobile development. I wanna be healthier. There's so much that I wanna do right now that I almost can't sleep. Too bad I have to because of work tomorrow.

That's all for now. Don't worry, I will post more. It could even get random if I want to. Good night.

A Week with iOS 7.

Coincidentally, Apple released iOS 7 Beta 2 hours after I posted this. I laughed at myself too hard because of this. I did a week with iOS 7 Beta 1, so I hope no one complains about it. Thanks.

I always thought that Apple wasn't really very open when it comes to radical changes. Maybe in the past, they would but only because they were clearly the underdog at the time. Now in 2013, Apple is one of the most successful technology companies in the world. And with Android now dominating the smartphone market, they are now starting to become the underdogs in this space as well. With all that in mind, Apple has announced iOS 7, which is a radical refresh of the "world's most advanced mobile operating system".

Being the geek and Apple fan that I am, I decided to take iOS 7 for a spin for a week. I gotta say that while I generally love the new user interface, there are still quirks (which are NOT bugs) which irked me a bit. I actually installed it before going on this 1 week test drive and had a temporary setback to downgrade before re-updating for the purpose of giving my thoughts on it.

Before going RAGE MODE on me, I would like you to know that I KNOW that it's BETA software so all the bugs I experienced during this test drive did not influence any of my thoughts. I'll do a proper review of iOS 7 once it's out in the Fall. My thoughts are only going to be divided into three parts, here we go.

BEST PART:

CONTROL CENTER

This for me is one of the biggest fundamental changes to iOS, and I'm glad they're finally doing this. I know, I know, you're gonna say "this was in a jailbreak tweak" or "Apple copied from Android". So yeah, they may have copied or this was present in jailbreaks for a long time, but normal people who use iOS devices (unless they see their friends with Android phones) don't really know this but felt the pain of going through the Settings app just to turn off the Wi-Fi. With iOS 7, Control Center is here to save the day! Wi-Fi can be turned on or off by just swiping from the bottom of the screen. You can turn on Airplane Mode, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, and Orientation lock from here. You can adjust brightness, music controls, and access the flashlight, timer, calculator, and camera from here as well. The good thing about this is that it can be accessed from any screen! A quirk though is that when you type on the keyboard and you do the slide motion to switch from the letters to symbols, Control Center manages to pop up. Hopefully they can fix this quirk by Fall time.



WORST PART:

DESIGN AND GESTURE INCONSISTENCIES

Yes, even though I'm a fan, I can still criticize Apple for stuff I think is stupid. Gestures have inconsistencies in iOS 7. Even though I can swipe from the left in Messages, I can't do that from the Now Playing screen to another screen in the Music app. If they don't really fix this part, there may be a bit of confusion. The design of the top bar is bigger in the lock screen than in the home screen. I have to agree that there are parts in the new OS that may confuse longtime users. A little tutorial should help ease the confusion a bit.

While the typography and translucency look good, they shouldn't do it when the video player appears because it looks like the text and progress bar cannot be seen clearly. Helvetica Neue Ultra Light is good, but they should use it in places where they can make the font bigger. Then, have a bigger weight on those hard-to-read places so that it can be more readable.

OVERALL IMPRESSION:

Overall though, I really liked using iOS 7 even though it was in its first Beta. The new user interface should make current owners of iOS devices feel like they're getting a new phone entirely. I wasn't able to test the other features like AirDrop since it requires having the newest devices (even though I ran it on an iPhone 5, I had no one else with newer devices to test it). The Camera took pictures fast and switching through modes was quick thanks to the swipe gestures. They put the grid in the Settings though, so that's a bit inconvenient.

Apple still has time to clean up the interface and add new bells and whistles enough for current users and first-time buyers to once again be attracted to iOS. Hopefully the next-generation iPhone and iPad could help.

V: Bonding at the Bay with Cousins! :)

Happy moments seem to connect with each other lately, particularly during this summer. I loved the fact that I got to spend most of the weekends with family and friends (even though I could feel tired sometimes when a trip is just one week after the previous one). Unlike the other ones, this was planned like a month before. My Dad wanted us cousins to bond during summer even for just one weekend, so he made it a reality and had an overnight stay in Plantation Bay. ^_^

It may not be our first time here, but it sure was our first time that only we, the cousins, were going overnight. Despite the phone attachments we have, (it's so obvious, we even brought phones even while biking) we hang out a lot and went together all the time. :D

We ate dinner on the poolside which really felt like the beach since it was saltwater rather than freshwater. It was an American-themed dinner, which explains the hotdog and the fries there. After that, we went to the game room to play a lot of table games like Air Hockey and Table Tennis. We also played Darts (I suck at it). We got tired after 2 hours of playing and went back to the room. We had a lot of fun in the room until 1am and slept. When we woke up the next day, our parents went to get us and have McDonald's for breakfast. Mactan Newtown recently opened a McDonald's there and it really looks good! After that, we had our final moments in Plantation Bay and went home.

I wouldn't want to end my summer in any other way than with family. :D