April 24, 2018: Back to Android

Tuesday. Today, after many years of using iPhones, Paul and I went to the T-Mobile store and got me a Samsung Galaxy S9 Android phone. I was not super happy with my iPhone 7+, the audio was terrible and never worked properly, and the camera quality was quite bad with a big smudge in the middle of every picture. It was too large, but you had to get the big size to get the features that I had wanted. It wasn’t a bad phone per se but it was super expensive and failed to live up to expectations. So rather than spending a small fortune to just throw money at the Apple ecosystem, I am trying the alternative after many years away.

In my first day, I have to say that I am very happy with the Galaxy S9. The size is really great. I’d still like it just a tiny bit smaller, but it is a world better than the iPhone. The screen quality feels slightly better to me, but I can’t be sure there. The camera quality is way better. Apple is clearly way behind there. I am not sure how much I like the rounded edges, though. That will have to be seen how that appeals to me over time.

We have been talking about moving devices over to Android because we have been saddled with iOS devices for so long and while they are well built and last forever, they are super costly and limiting. If it was just me and Dominica, it would be one thing. But we need devices for the girls as well and with Android we have way more flexibility for that. Their iPhones are not too much of a problem, but their iPads are and their phones and tablets need to be able to share applications. So making the move over to Android while painful at this time will, over time, greatly lower our costs and provide, we hope, for a stable source of applications for all of the devices that the girls use rather than having them split between different platforms like they are today. We are planning on the kids getting Kindle Fire devices for Christmas, most likely. Their iPads are getting old and we cannot afford to be buying them new iPads. Overall, the iPads were not expensive given how long they held up. But cheaper devices that can be replaced more often make way more sense for kids so that we don’t have to be so incredibly concerned about them getting broken.

The exterminator came by today. We are using the same service that we were using when we used to live here.

Today was another really long day. We are spending all of our time trying to figure out what has happened over the last several years and put everything back together. It is very difficult, and very stressful.

Tonight everyone had insomnia. I have a feeling that there is going to be a lot of that.

Liesl caught whatever Luciana had the other night, she is sick tonight.