Matisyahu's Blog

Well, hopefully on Monday I’ll be able to pick up my scooter after having it in the repair shop for the week, I haven’t heard anything back but I hope that means its ready to be picked up but with that being said I haven’t received my vehicle licence yet so I’m going to have to follow that up on Monday to find out what is happening (maybe I’ll be lucky and it arrives on that day).

I bought a Tile bluetooth tracker and got it all setup although I later realised that I bought the one with the non-user replaceable battery but if I do get another one I’ll remember to get the pro version which includes a user replaceable battery. With all that being said, there is still work being done on bluetooth trackers that integrate into Google’s ‘find my’ network but there is no time line other than at the moment Google is working with Apple about dealing with those who are using trackers for nefarious purposes.

So how is my Firefox experience, on the desktop going great but, on the phone, not so much – I deleted it and tried to reinstall but ended up getting this message:

Google support has been about as useful as a screen door on a submarine, so I question why I pay for Google Workspace when all Play Store support keep sending me emails with step-by-step instructions to do what I have already attempted. As the error message implies, the issue is with them not me given that I can download and install any number of random applications without problem – the problem only occurs if I try to download and install Firefox from the Play Store, it is the only app that is impacted by the issue. As a result of this glorious experience, I am evaluating whether I should keep paying Google for a Workspace account given that they cannot fix something that should be a matter of flicking a switch on Play Store or whether I should look at alternatives such as Microsoft’s own Office 365 – for half the price I can get the completely web based service for NZ$9.70 per month or pay slightly less than what I am paying today which gives me access to desktop applications as well.

I’ve installed Microsoft Edge on my computer, and it is amazing how much faster it is, how much better the spell checker is plus it also has grammar checking as well. I have to admit, I’ve been a long time Microsoft basher, but Microsoft have definitively improved over the last few years with the improvement to their online services with copilot showing that they still have some spring in their step. Maybe what I need to do is use my Gmail account for the basics then use Office 365 for all my ‘serious stuff’ that I need to get done. I also wonder how Microsoft has made Microsoft Edge (which is based on Chromium) so much more light weight when compared to Chrome given that they both share the same code base – anyway I guess I’m enjoying the honeymoon period and I’m sure I’ll come across some rough edges but so far, I’m pretty happy with how things are working at the moment. On a side note: my contacts are synchronising to the Microsoft cloud without any issues.