Samsung Gear S Replaced; Samsung Galaxy Note Edge and Android 6.0.1

So, I received my replacement smartwatch.

What can I say, other than "it works"?  I thought I'd get one in a box with a new cradle.  Nope.  They gave me the watch replacement and that is all.  At least it works, though.  We'll see if it'll last a year.  I'm not so sure.  This whole owner experience was fine until the watch died and I got to see how Samsung handles warranty claims.  Although they did good, I've the feeling I'll be pissed 18 months from now when the replacement watch dies without warranty coverage.  I don't even know if the watch is new or refurbished.  I'll investigate whether the watch is new (or a refurb) and find out if a new watch has a full warranty (it should)....and, I'll also discover how well the warranty coverage is for a refurb.

I had to activate the new watch and pair it with my phone.  While that wasn't complicated, it wasn't as simple as it should be, either.  I'll admit, though...it was simpler than when I got the first watch...this one wasn't glitching like the first one.

I also upgraded my phone (Samsung Galaxy Note Edge) from v5.0.1 to v6.0.1 (Marshmallow).

The phone had issues from the onset when trying to install the new firmware.  I kept getting error code 404.  I must've tried like 4 times before clearing the cache (each time I tried, I had to redownload the damned firmware...it was a PITA).  Clearing the cache worked and Marshmallow finally installed.

v6.0 consumes a lot of power.  I've been finding myself having to recharge during the day.  I used to get by without having to charge the phone after letting it charge overnight.  Fast Charge doesn't seem as fast as it was when I was using v5.0 (yes, Fast Charge is enabled).

Yesterday, I was taking a picture of my dog and the phone locked up.  It would freeze at the Verizon screen during boot-up.  It did this 4 times (each time, I had to remove the battery to unfreeze it).  I couldn't get past the freeze.  I ended up doing a factory reset.  This was a PITA.  Yes, I had a recent backup (I did a full backup the night before, using the Verizon Cloud app), but restoring it was very slow (did it over a wifi connection).  I believe my initial upgrade attempt worked but something crucial became corrupt in the process (it took like 24 hours to manifest).

I'm still trying to get the phone back to normal.  I've not yet played with much of the features.  The interface is a bit different in some places.  I don't know of any of the major enhancements.  I suppose I could research them but all I really care about is that I've a functional phone.  If I could find out if there's a fix for the abnormal power consumption, I'd be happy.

UPDATE (6/24/16) - I've experienced no freezing or rebooting or reboot loops since the upgrade to v6.0.1.  This is good news, as my daughter was also experiencing freezing and reboots (I ended up having Asurion replace the unit).  My daughter is still using v5.0.1, though, so I'm wondering if she will eventually experience those issues again -- I'll ask her how her phone is doing...last I asked, I thought she said that the issue was still occurring but was less frequent.

Samsung Gear S

Over the last ten months, I've enjoyed my Gear S.  Here's my user experience thus far:

The watch's voice command feature is very sensitive.  It activates when it thinks it hears a command, usually when I'm talking to someone else.  It's annoying.

The latch features on the charger cradle broke.  The fittings are plastic and snap into the watch.  The latches broke after 6-7 months of ownership.  This usually means you can no longer charge the watch (because the two of them won't stay attached).  This is why I hate proprietary cabling.  It means you have to either coerce Samsung into replacing the cradle or you've to put on your MacGyver hat and somehow latch the cradle to the watch.  If you get a replacement cradle, it will more than likely develop the same issue eventually (some people report their replacements breaking within a week of receiving them).  I usually wrap the band around a pill bottle that has a similar size to my wrist...that keeps the cradle to the watch during the charging period but do I really have to do this for a $400 watch???

What I like is that if I'm driving and don't want to take my eyes off the road, but I get a text or an e-mail arrives, I can usually look down at my watch for 1 sec to get a summary of the text or e-mail.

I can use the watch as a standalone device (in case my phone breaks, if I forget it while going to work, or if it runs out of power).  While I can't use it to browse the internet, I can receive reminders, texts, and calls.  I can even respond to texts.

My watch stopped working maybe three weeks ago while I was on a cruise.  It just died.  It wouldn't charge, it wouldn't turn on, and the indicators wouldn't blink...nothing.  Luckily, this happened before the 1-year manufacturer's warranty ended...I was at the 10 month mark when it died.  I went to the Samsung website and created a case for them to fix it.  They paid for the shipping to their facility and for the shipping back to me.  It turns out that they couldn't repair whatever it was that was damaged/faulty, so they sent me a new one.  It should be delivered to me today.

I get to see how long the replacement will last.  I'm getting tired of buying technology that almost seems like they're designed to self-destruct.  I think most manufacturers purposely build merchandise that doesn't last long, so that they can get a second chance at a customer's money, in the hopes that maybe the item breaks after the maker's warranty.  I'd insure the watch if I could, but I also don't want to end up feeding more money into the system ($12 a month for Asurion insurance coverage where, if the item breaks, it'll cost $200 for a replacement/repair...screw that).  Home owners' insurance may cover it, but there's a steep deductible to worry about.

While I love wearable tech, I'm not going to be spending huge sums of money for shit that's not going to have the legs to last 2-3 years.  No.

iMac Repaired

I got my iMac back last Thursday, but was unable to do anything more than pick it up from the Apple Store, since I had to immediately go on bereavement leave.  I got back home today and I've just now finished installing Mountain Lion.  It is NICE!

Yes, my hard disk had to be replaced, but I've verified that S.M.A.R.T. isn't showing errors.  I'm now installing patches and will go through Time Machine to determine what I wanted restored to the drive...this'll be a week-long process.

So, stay tuned for whining and praises of Mountain Lion!

Backup Drive Corrupted

I was on vacation and upon return noticed that my periodical backups hadn't been running since the 21st of Jan.  I back up data using Time Machine, to a LaCie 750GB drive.

I hadn't restarted the iMac in awhile (to which the drive is attached), so I restarted it...that didn't get it working.  I also restarted the drive itself...no resolution either.

I opened up Disk Utility and it saw the drive, so now I'm running a "verify disk" and "repair".  I'm hoping this fixes the issue, but I'm now wary, as it's taking quite a while, but this is probably due to the size of the drive.  Also, maybe there's a ton of errors?  I don't know.

I'd hate to lose the data on this drive.  Perhaps I need to think of some type of backup procedure of the backup drive (maybe backing it up every six months or so).

It might be time to look at a different solution.

EDIT:  Yeah... Disk Utility couldn't repair the partition, so I had to erase it to get it working again.  It is fine now, but I think I'm going to need to periodically back up the back-up drive.  Lost a LOT of pictures and such.  I'm actually thinking on using a cloud-based storage solution.