Play it again, Google!

It is official. On July 25th, I was finally able to install the Google Play Store on the Kindle Fire. I had to use a combination of about four different tutorials in order to get it to work, but that's beside the point.

It was a little frustrating at first, but I managed to be able to do it without rooting the device. I don't remember the exact order, but I used the Windows Instructions found here and following that, I also downloaded and set up the *.APK files on the Amazon Kindle Fire found here and installed them using ES File Explorer as well as ES Task Manager.

Once I installed the ES File Manager and ES Task Manager apps, I was able to run them and install the necessary services as noted above. After running the APK files for Google Play (which only installed settings and the Play Store) I was able to run and download most apps that were available. Initially, I wasn't able to install Pok'emon Shuffle or Pok'emon Go, but after a day or two, they installed without any issues, especially after an update. To date, the only app I cannot install on the Kindle that I had on the Samsung Galaxy S3 is Microsoft Office.

In a way, it's kind of a moot point right now regarding whether or not I have the RTD app, because I do not currently live within the boundaries of the Denver Metro area. At some point, I will need to see if I can download the app that is used by Salt Lake Express, so that I can have easier access to the information regarding when the Walmart Shuttle arrives and departs.

On another note, I have officially tried Pok'emon Go, and I don't see what the hype is. It honestly just feels like a fancier version of the GameBoy games without the RPG part. Both Pok'emon Shuffle and the Pok'emon Trading Card Game (the latter of which I uninstalled, due to storage concerns) are honestly a lot more fun for me. Even Nintendo's self-proclaimed "flagship" game, Miitomo is a lot more fun, and it is basically Nintendo's take on The Sims. Until I get a MicroSD card, I will probably uninstall it and put the Pok'emon Trading Card Game back on because I find it more enjoyable.

Sure, there is no consistently reliable public transit in Rexburg, but honestly, there's not much to do here, either. As I have heard people say before, "Walmart is Rexburg's mall." Therefore, it only makes sense that the Walmart Shuttle is its primary form of public transit. Sure, there are other far-reaching services, such as TRPTA and the actual Salt Lake Express, but both of those cost money, and unless I am desperate to go to Idaho Falls, or have tickets to attend #LDSConf live, I don't really see me having much use for either of them, especially now that I have a bicycle.

I was also able to get new wallpaper for the Kindle Fire, so now it looks almost identical to the Samsung Galaxy S3 that I wrote about almost a year ago. Probably the main key difference is the lack of Android widgets because FireOS replaces them with its own variations that tie in to Amazon services. At any rate, it's nice to have the Play Store and its exclusive apps back, even if it is at the cost of on-board storage. 

Windows 10: It Doesn't Score That High

About a year ago, I preemptively wrote a review of Windows 10, and voiced my skepticism of it without really giving it a fair trial. Since then, I have gone off to Rexburg, Idaho to attend school at BYU. 

Coincidentally, I have received a chance to try the operating system, because their campus is gradually upgrading their systems to it. I recently got to sit down and try one of these computers, and as they say on courtroom dramas, "the previous motion is sustained." Solitaire runs slower than it did on Windows 7, but it seems that the upgrade process is smooth. There are definitely some good ideas with the platform, but as does every first generation Windows release (pre-service pack), it leaves a lot to be desired.

For example, a solitaire game that didn't even load after a couple of minutes is outright pathetic. Second, the customization options felt as though they were somewhat lacking. Normally, a person can scale back their Windows' visual features to make it look like Windows 95, thus making the computer run faster. However, this is not the case with Windows 10. Sure, there are promises of "mods" or whatever on the internet that promise to restore that kind of functionality, but honestly, that's not really a practical option, and that goes for both economic value and the effect of system performance.

Would I upgrade for myself? Probably not. In fact, I'd be more likely to save up for a used Macintosh before I ever bought a computer with Windows 10 pre-installed. Besides, if I need it that bad, the school offers the Education edition though a few different outlets, including its bookstore and DreamSpark. For now, I feel perfectly comfortable with Windows 7, 8 or even XP.      

Eight: Ahead of its Time and Gone too Soon

Wow. It's seriously been six months since I have written a review?! This changes now! When I started school at Brigham Young University-Idaho about two months ago, my sister-in-law loaned me her laptop on the grounds that I keep up with my assignments and get good grades in all of my classes that add up to a total of twelve credit hours (C's or better).

Windows 8's controversial "Metro" or Start Screen that replaced the Desktop and Start Menu by Default. Oh if people only realized of the transition from Windows 3.1 to 95!

Now that I am in the second half of the semester, and I have one class under my belt, with two weeks down in another class for the second block period, I have finally had a moment to sit down and write this review. Windows 8.1 was/is a very good concept for an operating system. The problem was that it tried to do too much at once. 

Microsoft's plan was to have "one operating system for every device in your life." The problem was, at the same time that 8 was being developed, Microsoft was also experimenting with the ARM processor architecture. 

This platform being different from the x86/Intel platform, one would think that Microsoft would have learned this lesson from the fiasco of porting Windows NT to PowerPC and other less-dominant platforms of its era. However, since the company has changed hands multiple times in the past twenty years, these lessons get lost with time, much like the key to the City of Ember was lost as it was passed down through each mayor until it ended up in the hands of the descendants of a previous mayor.

But anyway, back to the review. Between the change of interface on its users, and the lack of support from software developers, much like (Windows Media Center), Windows 8 was doomed from launch day. Numerous reviews talked about the confusion between Windows 8 and Windows RT, including the fact that the latter did not have backwards compatibility with older Windows software. Various critics cited failed marketing tactic as the main reason for Windows 8 being the biggest failure since Windows Vista.

And that's another thing: mobile applications from the Windows Store (apps) on Windows 8 are/were forced to run in full-screen mode. On a smartphone, like the HTC One M8, or tablet, like the Microsoft Surface, this is just fine, but in a corporate/desktop environment, where the average user doesn't have a touch screen in their standard office (and upper management is too stingy to pay for upgrades), this kind of interface this kind of interface is, to be quite honest, a step backwards, especially if you are the type of experienced computer user like myself that remembers the good old days of MS-DOS, where every application ran one at a time, in full-screen (Real) mode. At least Windows 8 didn't revert THAT far back (although if it had, the Paris Airport could have upgraded from Windows 3.1 with no hardware costs whatsoever).

Classic Shell for Windows 8.1. This is an add-on that not too many people whom use the OS are familiar with. Had it been advertised more, it might have saved Microsoft's bacon.

Another part of the problem with slow adoption of Windows 8, was that nobody except the technologically gifted was aware of the software extensions that gave Windows 8 the familiarity of its predecessors. Sure, there were articles on websites such as CNet for applications such as Stardock's "Start8" that restored functionality of the start menu, but these cost money, and weren't guaranteed to be friendly with the operating system, but these had the potential to hose your registry if something went horribly wrong. 

Around the same time as the introduction to these third-party applications, Microsoft introduced their own extension known as "Classic Shell." Unlike third-party applications, Classic Shell works more efficiently on the Windows platform, since it is designed in-house by Microsoft itself. Having this programming benefit means that the interface works more seamlessly with the OS and isn't prone to adware that traditionally asks the user to pay for upgrades or other products from the company (although I hear that the Windows 10 version of Solitaire does this--but that's another review).