starbucks joys

it would figure that the day immediately after i post about their broken app that starbucks would release an update to fix it.



and i can report it works for the android L preview (actual screenshot above).

as i stated yesterday, all of this didn’t stop me from swinging by my favorite store this morning and trying something new (for me). now, i can resume my first-world life.

thanks, starbucks!

starbucks woes

i love starbucks coffee. i am a regular at the store on cedar bluff. i know the personnel, and most know me. i even know former employees. and i spend a good chunk of money with them.

but this past month has been frustrating with regard to payment options.

it started with the upgrade of their android app. about a month ago, i started getting email announcements of a new app with features and a new interface. i became excited. new apps are always a small thrill. but when they don’t work, it can be quite the disappointment.

after eagerly checking google play store more frequently than normally, i finally saw the starbucks app on the updates list. i clicked to make it new, waited, and jumped to my main screen, and tapped the app.

it started up…but then crashed. i tried again. same result. i went through the stand rituals of clearing cache, clearing data, and finally reinstalling the app. crashed every time.



i decided to go back to an older app (unofficially starbucks). after shuffling around a backup of that app’s database, the payment screen wouldn’t display the payment barcode.

i also had the bright idea to do a screen grab of the barcode from the working app on an older phone, but drm protection squelched my plan.

since the app didn’t work, i was loathed to pull out the physical card with which to keep up. when trying to pay, the card registered empty. great.

i am running android L preview. if it had been released less than thirty days ago, i wouldn’t be too upset. it has been out since june, long before i started receiving the teaser emails. that means plenty of time to test against the future operating system. it would have been in their best interest to develop toward this change.

it has always felt as if starbucks treats their android customer base as an afterthought. it took them years after the apple device owners had an app to provide one for the other group. and this app might not be problematic to merely the cutting edge crew. read the latest comments in the store to find many others having new-app issues.



if you haven’t upgraded yet, don’t.

i can still pay with credit card, cash, or make my coffee at home until they fix this. it’s definitely a first-world problem. i will continue to be a fan and buy their coffee. it just bugs me. and i have a blog.

android L on my nexus 5

the horrible battery life of the android 4.4.4 (kitkat) update has finally pushed me to installing the android L sdk on my nexus 5. i followed this simple guide from lifehacker to swap out the rom.

i did screw up a little. i made backups of all my stuff including imaging my 4.4.4 rom. but then i forgot tot pull them off my n5 before executing the update which effectively wiped it all out. (the titanium backups for some reason didn’t send to my dropbox despite having space free. now, i can’t back up components with it since it’s not android L ready at the time of this post.)

so far, it seems stable. the interface is clean, and i like the notifications especially on the lock screen.

time will tell whether the battery life will improve from the two steps backwards with 4.4.4.









—

update: after running the sdk for a while, the battery life is improved over the kitkat 4.4.4 upgrade. that last kitkat upgrade was pretty bad. let’s hope the full L-release doesn’t take us back a step again.

oh, i did find a few apps not L-ready. amazon’s shopping app’s buy/share buttons are functionless. no matter how many times you press them, nothing happens.

also, weather underground’s app has the daily/hourly precipitation percentages missing from the display. that one is a little odd, but that seems to be the only problem with the app.

day four at the beach

we had been hearing about a storm coming toward us: hurricane authur. it was to hit on thursday, so we made the most of the beach today.

many waves to catch. we take these soft, water-designed balls we toss in the ocean playing a game of keep away. it's boys against the girls. we are outnumbered, but we always win. go us!

burns are better. trying not to make things worse. previous places still hurt but not as bad. i should be good by tomorrow.

ate some chinese food for dinner. not as good as our own china lee.

we played some more poker this evening. mom wasn't quite the threat she was the night before. these games have been fun. there are some shrewd players in my family.

day three at the beach

got up early for sunrise. got some good pics. (will post them on flickr and update post.)

also got more beach time today.

found out that my forehead and stomach suffered from sun burning despite my use of spf 15. might have washed off while i was catching some waves doing a little body surfing.

mom cleaned up at poker this evening. not sure if i should be impressed or worried?

day one at the beach

ahh…back in north myrtle beach. i love this place. the weather in was stormy, so the nice weather today is welcomed.

kiersten and i made our second annual trip down to main street via the beach. didn’t realize it beforehand, but that’s a seven mile round trip walk. i was in better shape this year than last. (a year ago i was just past a knee procedure.)

wore enough sun protection…except for my feet. tops of them burned. but i had put enough on even overdosing them since i know how they tend to burn. walking in the water must have saltwater washed them.

boston marathon

a few weeks ago, my sister ran the boston marathon. she had qualified last year after completing the knoxville marathon.

i planned a trip to watch her run the twenty-six point two. she, her husband, and i spent a few days visiting the historical city where our country had many if its beginnings.

among the sights, we ate at the union oyster house, walked the freedom trail, saw old north church and bunker hill, and toured the uss constitution.







on easter sunday evening, i joined david and wendi at the pasta dinner designed to give the runners a load of carbs the night before the big race. so many people!



the next day, i met up with david in the boston common. wendi had jumped on a bus earlier than planned because it was a chilly morning. david and i walked around for a while, visiting mike’s pastries for the second day and then camping out at cheer’s to eat some lunch. we had some time before my sis was going to be close enough to catch.

however, our planning of the public transit system has some flaws. the biggest was failing to calculate the number of stops to reach her at boston college. we ended up turning around and catching her within a mile before the finish line. due to a faulty camera, i was only able to get a few shots of her, all of which missed her on approach. (she is wearing the white cap pointing toward us in response to our cheering.)



when she crossed the finish line, her time was 3:52:10. this was only ten minutes longer than her qualifying time, a time which i think is pretty good since boston was a course she’d never run before.

i think she did great! i’m very proud of my sister! this is an amazing accomplishment!