I got to the store before it was open and had to wait for 10 minutes before I could get to the Genius Bar. The guy there was very helpful and we agreed on getting the hard drive replaced in the iMac. It wasn’t as expensive as I thought it might be! It’s going to take the week before it will be done. I only get one day off per week so I have asked if they can make sure it is done ready for next Wednesday. He did initially say it would be 7 to 10 days, but I pushed him on trying the hardest for next Wednesday. Otherwise it will be two weeks here in Barcelona.
I have and SSD drive in my bag and I asked if it would be possible to fit this into my old iMac. He told me that they can only change the parts like for like. I can understand that being the case if it’s under warranty with AppleCare. It does seem a little bit strange that they can’t do it when we’re talking me having to pay for the parts getting put in. The other possibility was to take the iMac to an authorised repairer, but I think that’s probably would’ve ended up costing more money. I also asked him to have a look and see if they could remove the SD card stuck inside of the optical drive. It would be nice to have the use of the optical drive once more! I don’t use it very often but it’s good to know it is there if needed. This iMac will end up being the computer of choice for my wife when she wants to do her video work. I’m going to pass it onto her when I buy a new iMac later in the year. Possibly! With this enforced Post-PC experience there is a chance that I might simply get a small MacBook or MacBook Pro and use that for my writing work. As long as it works with Dragon Dictate it doesn’t really have to be that fantastic I terms of specs. You don’t even need such a huge screen for the writing work. But I’ll still be able to use the iMac when needed anyway!
Sitting in a cafe drinking tea
I do like a good cup of tea and the tea I have isn’t too bad. It is not as good as the English black tea I like, but it’s not as bad as drinking Earl Grey. I am in the shopping centre called La Maquinista in the northern part of Barcelona.
I have connected the iPad Pro up to the Wi-Fi of the cafe, but it is not a very good connection. It would be better for me to use the hotspot Wi-Fi from my phone. I could go back across to the Apple Store and use the Wi-Fi over there, I expect it would be better than here. I thought I might still be able to connect to it but it seems to be quite short range!
Ended up back in the Apple Store to finish off the editing of this piece. Easier todo the editing on the iPad than the iPhone. I was trying to do a Facebook update in the cafe and it just wasn’t going despite it only being text.
There’s a lot of people working in here and for the moment it is not too busy with customers. It gets crazy in here and quite loud at other times of the day. Here’s a picture of a hippy type working in the Apple Store. There a range of person types working, one or two females and not all are youngsters.
Writing into Ulysses
It’s really handy to have the Ulysees application on the iPhone in situations like this because I can dictate into it just as easily. In fact I think it is probably easier to dictate into the iPhone as I can put it closer to my mouth with the iPad. They Siri dictation is more accurate and seems to work faster when is able to recognise the words better.
Using Maps
This morning I have the choice of using the maps application on the iPhone as well as the navigation system of the car. The car system is good because it has a larger screen. I was running the maps application on the iPhone as well because I wanted to compare the two. Really I should have stuck with one because having two running, just got me confused. Mind you, I do have to admit that part of the confusion was being told to go left and I went to the right. I think it is what is generally referred to in the trade as a senior moment. At least I was able to use the GPS system to find my way after getting lost. Even when I arrived at the shopping centre I did not to go into the outdoor carpark and tried to get in the underground carpark. When I did this I ended up having to do another trip around the place to find the entrance. No problem in the end as I was still 10 minutes early for the appointment.
A good day out.
When I have got this finished I will hit the road again in the direction of Girona on the motorway and I’ll be back in time for lunch. One week to go of the Post PC Experience and I’m still happy with the way it’s going. Even the dictation is working great with Siri. Only typed in this last paragraph and done the editing using the keyboard, all the rest with Siri and accuracy has been at about 95%.