Mandar Apte

UI/UX Designer from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Category: Hardware

Computer Hardware

  • My Experience Using Apple Watch for 5 Years and Apple’s Gamification Strategies

    In 2019, I bought myself an Apple iPhone 11 Pro 256GB and Apple Watch 5.

    I have used an Apple iPhone 5s with 16GB since 2016. But I was dissatisfied with the storage that it allowed me to use. Out of 16GB, 10GB was the operating system, 2GB was for Apps that were able to fit it, 2GB was for Photos that I captured, then I had to delete to make space for the next ones, and 2GB was for other apps’ data.

    It was total dissatisfaction with the Apple iPhone 5s.

    In the year 2016, I had sciatica. So I used to walk for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening or night. So I just walked 850 kilometres in a month to eliminate sciatica pain. I used to maintain my diary of walking approx kilometre completed in a day/week/month/year. But I was out of sync with my blood pressure, heart rate, calories burned etc.

    When Apple iPhone 11 Pro and Apple Watch 5 got released impressed with features like ECG, Fitness app, and Health app capabilities. And I choose 256 GB storage for my iPhone as that’s what I require to sustain all photographs, music, videos and other data for a year or two without deleting it.

    I used Apple Watch daily for three years to track my outdoor walking exercises, ECG, Heart Rate Monitoring, Calory burning, Exercise hours tracking, Standup Hours tracking, receiving notifications, receiving phone calls on my watch, reading SMS/Messages on my watch itself etc.

    I was thrilled.

    But one day, I broke my Apple Watch’s Crown or Wheel. I was devastated. I contacted Apple Service Centre. They said Apple Watch is unrepairable. And you are out of warranty too.

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  • With the release of macOS Big Sur & macOS Monterey, the user cannot format External Hard Disk to ‘Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)’ format as there is no option to do the same.

    With the release of the macOS Big Sur Mac Operating System, Apple has removed the option under Disk Utility to allow users to format External Hard Drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) format.

    There is only one option for Mac OS Extended (Journaled) but no choice with encryption. It only allows users to format Hard Disk with Apple File System APFS without encryption, with encryption & with case sensitivity.

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  • My Experience of buying my first iMac from Unicorn Infosolutions Pvt Ltd. I received a secondhand machine for the total price I paid. This is a story of fraud and piracy in bright daylight in Mumbai.

    I got a job as a Graphic Designer in a good company in 2007.

    I completed my Final Year Project on Apple Inc. in my previous graduation year.

    So, I was way more familiar with Apple Computers than I required. With a new stream of money, I started receiving money because of the job. I bought my dream computer, a 24-inch iMac.

    Someone from my company told me about Apple Premium Reseller, Unicorn Infosolutions Pvt Ltd, located at Andheri West near Fun Republic Mall.

    The year that I bought iMac was March 2008. I visited their store near Fun Republic Mall. The physical RAM that was coming with the iMac was 2GB. At that time, they told me I must buy more RAM if I wanted 4GB RAM. So I said I will opt for 4GB RAM. They told me they could provide me with pirated apps that were preinstalled and Pro Apple Apps like Final Cut Pro, Logic Studio, and Adobe Creative Suite. I said I was not interested. But this was when I sensed something wrong with the purchasing process.

    The Unicorn person told me they would not deliver the Apple iMac to the home I had to carry to my house, which was 20 kilometres away. I said no problem, I will take it myself.

    After using that iMac, I started experiencing issues and feeling cheated by Apple Premium Reseller when I purchased what was supposed to be a new iMac from them.

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  • Here is a solution if TP-Link Router is not loading some particular websites

    If you are having a problem loading or browsing a particular/specific website, then you can follow the steps below to resolve that problem.

    Step 01: Navigate to your TP-Link router’s web interface. i.e. Normally http://192.168.0.1/

    Step 02: Log in to your TP-Link router’s Administration Web Page

    Step 03: Go to > Advance > Network > Internet > Click on Advanced Settings

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  • If your Mac intermittently drops the TP-Link Router’s Wi-Fi Network Connection, here is a fix.

    I know it happened to me when I purchased a new TP-Links router. But after setting up the router with my ISP (Internet Service Provider), my Mac / iMac / MacBook / MacBook Pro / MacBook Air / Mac Mini started dropping connection intermittently every 5 minutes or every 2 minutes.

    After trying everything, here is a list of settings I used to get a stable connection from my router to my Mac.

    Step 01: Sign in to your Router’s Admin Page

    Step 02: Navigate to Wireless or Advanced > Wireless > Wireless Settings

    Step 03: Uncheck ‘Smart Connect’. i.e. Disable the Smart Connect Feature.

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  • Colour Behaviour Study of Japan / True Black on Real Life Physical Paper & on Computer Displays or Screens

    I am now documenting some thoughts about black colour behaviour on Physical Paper & computer displays or screens.

    I was from a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) – Applied Art background, so we had subjects like Illustration, Calligraphy, Typography, Print Media Design, Logo & Symbol Design, Branding & Identity Design.

    We used to design our assignments using Japan Black ink which is very dark in contrast & which creates high contrast reach feeling of black colour tone on white paper.

    So when we print our designs in Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw, we fill the design with (CMYK) Cyan: 100%, Magenta: 100%, Yellow: 100%, K(Black): 100%, then using only K: 100%. These CMYK values use to create high-contrast Japan Black ink fill on White Paper.

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  • Nokia E Series & Software Updates Issue

    Few months back I bought Nokia E Series phone.

    After I received some Mail App & OVI Map Update notice… I updated my device with the latest software…

    But, My all configured emails start failling to update & synchronize.

    I really had a bad time with this updates… What the use of updates if same app stops to work at all…

    I tried to remove specific email but it was of no use… Remove mailbox function enable to start…

    Now I have updated my device with new updated OS version & all my data & settings has vanishes… But I have backup of the same…

    After restoring my settings & files from Backup issue of Mail comeback…

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