October 6, 2022

Frustrating things of owning Apple Devices – iPhone, iPads, and Macs

Frustrating things of owning Apple Devices – iPhone, iPads, and Macs

I have been owning Apple devices for a long time and have always been fan for its quality, ease of use and ecosystem. However, there are few frustrating things about owning Apple devices and how accidental damage could ruin your entire user experience. Accidental damage may happen to anyone or during anytime, it’s the responsibility of the manufacturer to ensure that the device is restored to the working condition in the simplest way and at affordable option. Apple devices has exception to all those concerns, as following are my issues of owning Apple devices and how my experience with the ecosystem is impacted.
  • Lack of trusted third-party service centers: If at all you had accidental damage to your Apple Devices – iPhone, iPad, Watch or Macs, then the only reliable option is to check with authorized service centers with exorbitant pricing and with hefty replacement charges. Even with large adoption of Apple devices in recent years, there has not been trusted third-party service centers with proven track record to have hassle free repairing option and second opinion on possible solution for accidental damage to the Apple device.
  • Simple diagnostic tools and unavailability of spare parts: As we know, with exorbitant Apple service or repairing options, we are left with two options of getting it repaired for hefty charges or getting it repaired with duplicate spare parts from third-party service centers. However, a simple diagnostic tool to identify the issue even if device failed to boot up and open market availability of spare parts from Apple directly would be most sensible option for most Apple device users.

Hope, Apple addresses the concerns from long-term users about how frustrating it has been to repair or find a solution to repair accidental damage or software corruption in the device. To read more such articles, please feel free to check out the “G R Team Sites”

September 8, 2022

Lack of Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio support in Disney + Hotstar

 In recent years, the OTT has taken everyone by storm with its market share and number of people or youngsters watching the content every day. Both Netflix and Disney+ have been front-runner in gaining new subscriber or bringing the regional content to the masses, both have their own pros and cons. However, one major disadvantage in Disney+ OTT platform is their lack of support for Dolby Atmos and Spatial audio. Following are my reasons on why Disney+ OTT platform should adopt to this new feature at the earliest

  • Competitors advantage: Amazon Prime have adopted to the Dolby Atoms sounding options and Netflix have gone one step further by adding Spatial audio feature to its content. The Dolby Atmos have been now available consistently with content from Amazon Prime, the sound experience was good and helps users across Android/iOS ecosystem to enjoy the content. While Spatial audio is more specific to Apple ecosystem, adopting this advanced sound feature for its content would force its subscribers to engage in the OTT platform and enables its users to experience the content with advanced sounding option.
  • Delayed feature adoption is a missed opportunity: With technology advancements and new sounding features available each day, the delayed feature adoption would eventually lead to subscribers exiting the OTT platform and continue their subscription to the other platforms.

Hope Disney+ understands the importance of introducing new technologies such as Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio options to its content. For more such information or articles, please feel free to check out the articles published in “G R Team Sites”

August 5, 2022

How latest iWork update impacts old Mac users



I have been using iWork applications like Numbers, Keynote and Pages applications for my day-to-day personal activities and always felt comfortable for its ease of use and default cross device support. However, apple has stopped support for iWork applications for users still using older Macs and does not have any option to enable backward compatibility feature. I was completely frustrated with these recent announcements from Apple and following are my issues with the latest update for iWork applications. 
  • Lack of Pivot Table and new features support: Most important feature that Apple had introduced in the latest version of the iWork in Numbers is the support for Pivot Table. However, creation and viewing of pivot table is limited only to the latest version and user will not be able to open or access the files updated with the latest features available in Numbers. 
  • Unsupported latest versions of iWork: Another major drawback introduced in the latest version of the Numbers is that users would not be able to view or access the Numbers file created with the latest version or new features of the iWork suite. For example, if you had created a new version of the iWork document on the go with your iPad or iPhone and by mistake you had utilized any latest feature, then the document cannot be accessed or viewed in old MacBook machine. 
It is completely baffling to see Apple withdrawing support of new features to the older version(s) of Mac operating system, as Microsoft were able to continue their dominance in the office suite due to support of new features even to the legacy computer. Hopefully, Apple rethinks its strategy and ensures the legacy MAC operating system or MacBook has access to latest iWork features. To read more such articles, please feel free to check out the “G R Team Sites"

November 13, 2021

Advantage of online Time-machine backups in MAC

Advantage of online Time-machine backups in MAC
The MAC operating system has been the most reliable and ease-of-use operating system for most users, as their settings are simpler and help users to get their work done with simple tasks. However, there was one area where MAC operating system should really improve their capabilities and bring-in their expertise to enable users to backup their laptop through Online. With rise in online cloud storage service providers, most users do not mind spending less money for backing up their important data in cloud. In addition, I wanted to detail few pointers on how online time-machine backup functionality in MAC help users: 
  • Dongle & wire-free: Rather than depending on dongles and wires, users can restore their important files on-the-go through cloud back-ups and immensely helps users traveling frequently during their work-routine. 
  • Reduce dependency on physical hard drive's: By enabling online backup to cloud, it enables users to reduce their dependency on their physical hard drives, lower additional weight, or luggage during travel and accidental damages.
Hope Apple addresses the above concerns and enables online or cloud time-machine backup solution in their operating system. Read more such articles at "G R Team Sites"

September 28, 2021

Replacing broken Mobile Phone screen with duplicate copy and its regrets

Replacing broken Mobile Phone screen with duplicate copy and its regrets

Short recap: 
My wife's mobile screen was broken shortly before the COVID lockdown restrictions and with limited options available, I went to local mobile shop for mobile screen replacement. However, the mobile shop technician had offered cheap mobile screen replacement and had given heads-up that touch sensor would not work due to duplicate screen. With no other options available, I had to agree with the replacement of cracked mobile screen with the duplicate screen and had to let go off the fingerprint scanner.

Impact of screen replacement:
Soon after the screen replacement, I was able to notice the difference between original screen and the replaced duplicate screen, the screen was flickering more than usual and at times the screen would get locked without any action. This was continuing for a while and my wife had to live with this issue, since she had broken the screen due to accidental drop. Few weeks with the duplicate screen, this time my kid dropped the phone and again the screen was broken, and the onus was left on me to lookout for further practical options available. 

Future course of action 
With my wife’s mobile phone screen broken again for second consecutive time and lost trust with duplicate screen options available, I had to either replace entire mobile Phone or check pricing for original screen replacement. To know further about my decision about mobile phone screen replacement, please feel free to check out the articles published in G R Team sites.

August 9, 2021

iPadOS new feature suggestion - Kids user mode

With the new normal and COVID situation, the kids spend most time on electronic device and to avoid damaging their eyesight, I have made my kid to use iPad for online classes and games. However, while my kid was using iPad for daily activities, I felt disappointed while doing the following 
  • Pre-defined brightness levels and lock unnecessary apps: In current iPadOS, when my kid opens the iPad, at once after few minutes the brightness level is increased to the fullest and there is no possibility to lock the brightness levels. Additionally, when my kid opens the iPad, all applications are available to explore and there is no choice to restrict the viewing of kids-only applications. 
  • Protection from unwanted advertisements: Additionally, when my kid was using the gaming applications or learning applications, mostly the app interface is interrupted with unnecessary and irritating advertising videos or banners. There should have been possibility to restrict advertisements in kids’ applications and limit only few advertisements in a day. 
  • In-app purchases: When kid uses gaming applications, they often tend to click buy option or they were always notified of buying added benefits for a certain price. Kids unaware of pricing factor, often requests parents to either buy those things or accidently approves purchases while playing games. There should have been possibility to restrict in-app purchases for kids and can be enabled only if parents approve those in-app visibility possibility. 
  • Restrict Kids user mode for specific time limit: When my kid was using the iPad, I was not able to set time limit for using the iPad and post that time limit, the iPad should be locked and should not open for any activities. Now, when the iPad is locked, my kid gets furious and wants the adult to enter the passcode to bypass the time limit restrictions. 
Hope, Apple brings up kids only user mode in their next iPad OS version and it would be helpful for parents, who were struggling to manage their kids with iPad. If you were looking to read more such articles, please feel free to check out the G R Team Sites.