At the end of elementary school/middle school, all of my friends had a cell phone. Back then, everyone had either a flip phone or maybe one with a slide-up keyboard; around here, smart phones didn't really become popular until I was in the seventh grade. Having a cell phone was jug about the coolest thing back then and I was the total loser who, was not only a nerd, but also didn't have a phone. I bought a TracFone for my thirteenth birthday, but after I realized how much minutes cost; I gave up on keeping up with it. One of my mother's incentives to getting me come live with her, was the idea of her getting me an actual phone.
That Christmas my father handed my stepmother and I, two identical packages wrapped in paper with shiny bows on them. Of course, he told us we had to wait until all the other presents were opened and when that was all done and over with, we finally tore the paper off. My first phone was a Samsung Character; a simple black phone with a touch screen and a slide up keyboard. My father had bought his first smartphone and ended up getting two of them for only a dollar apiece; that being said, our bill was for unlimited texting, unlimited calling, and a small amount of data. Mine and my stepmother's phones didn't have access to the internet, but his did. Since I was a bratty kid, I threw a fit, but now that I look back at it, I'm happy that I didn't have access on my phone.
Speed it up almost four years later, I still don't have a smartphone and I don't want one. In four years, I've used four different phones, all of which had slide up keyboards and a touchscreen (with the exception of my previous one). My stepmother took her phone off the bill after the contract ran out and for a while, we had another phone on our bill, but that was also removed not long afterwards. My father broke that fancy smartphone after having it for a little over a year and right after he upgraded to the most current version, we began to have money trouble (that is not a topic that I will talk about for certain reasons; I'm very opinionated if you lovelies haven't noticed). He reverted to using his original flip phone until we were given a "free" upgrade (we kept having trouble with the amount on our bill and they told us that they'd give us the phones; the next month, they tried to charge us for them; we didn't have to pay for them in the end); in this upgrade, I received my current phone, an LG Silver II, and my father got a fancier flip phone. We currently pay for unlimited texting and 1200 minutes; I don't mind it though because it's for the best and I have internet at home to use.
Now, here comes the big question; what brought on Kayla's current rant? Apple's newest iOS 8.4 update.
That same Christmas I received my first phone, I also received my iPod Touch (4th generation). At the time, I didn't have internet at home, but I thought that it was so cool that I now had a device that I could play games on and listen to music; all of which I'd download if I was at a location with wifi. I've always loved my iPod and even after I shattered the screen of my 4th gen (I had it for almost two full year and it still worked afterwards), I ended up buying the most recent generation the following Christmas.
I loved the iOS 8 update because it was so much easier to use than the previous versions (I've had an iPod since iOS 5 was around) and it was easier to download and keep track of my music; the only issue I've really had with it is this gray gradient on the backgrounds; for example, if you have a while background, it sometimes looks a dark gray. Two days after I arrived to Florida, I was given a notification about a most recent update. I shrugged my shoulders and decided to download it not knowing what mistake I was making. Yes, every update brings its bug fixes, but this one changed one of the biggest things that I use; the music app.
iOS 8.4 was the update that introduced Apple Music. Apple Music is basically a music subscription service (something that former Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, opposed) that you can use to listen to your favorite music "on demand." Though you can opt to take it off your music app (which doesn't actually get rid of anything), it still called for the entire music app to be redesigned. An example of this is, is in the previous update, there was specific tabs at the bottom of app to where you could choose whether you want to look at your artists, songs, albums, etc; now, its lumped into one tab called "my music" with a drop-down menu. It also used to be that under the "artists" tab, you could pull up all of that artist's songs, no matter the album. Now, if you have more than two albums by that artist, you cannot view all of the songs by that artist unless you add them all to the new "up next" feature.
While I'm talking about the artists tab, I'll show how Apple Music is sticking around even though I opted out of it; for this example, I'll be using the first thing on my list, All Time Low:
When you click on the artist, their name, their picture (if their music is on iTunes), two tabs that say, "My Music" and "Connect", and their albums (and songs, if less than two albums). Parallel to the artist's name there is a little box with an arrow (the share box I assume) and three dots. Due to the fact that I have Apple Music off, this share box doesn't work; another thing that doesn't work is whether or not I "follow" an artist on iTunes (like I do with this one specific band). When you click on the triple dots though, it gives you list of options, one made for the purpose of Apple Music and two more that are internet oriented; these options are Make Songs Available Offline, Start Station, and Share Artist. When you click on the artist's name, it pulls up another Apple Music feature which doesn't work since I have Apple Music shut off.
Another thing is, it used to be, to save memory on my iPod, I'd delete songs from certain artists so I'd have room for even more music. Now, when you try to delete songs it comes up "delete purchase." Even though you can restore your purchase, you have to look up the artist through the store and click on that specific song to download again; you cannot go through your "purchases" option on the store to restore them to the device. You can download songs by themselves through the "purchase" option, instead of downloading the whole album; if you have internet, that is.
There are two more tabs that are internet oriented: Radio and Connect. Radio has been there since iOS 8 came out, but Connect is something completely new. Connect shows the artists that you follow through iTunes; the artists that you follow, are typically the musicians that you typically purchase items from on the site. Now, these tabs are virtually useless when iPod owners are offline and that makes a full loop to where I began (if that makes any sense).
Some people can't afford a $700+ phone with a $100+ phone bill every month. Some of us have our little keyboard/flip phones with a limited amount of call minutes and text messages and we can't afford to have anything more. I don't understand why Apple feels the need to only cater to the people who can afford their expensive phones and can now afford to pay almost $10 a month for their music streaming service. When I originally bought my iPod (when I didn't have internet) I'd import the physical albums that I owned and transfer them to my device; the only time I'd buy from the store is if I had the money to buy one of the cards.
As of right now, I'm hoping that they'll tweak the app to make it easier to use for the people who don't always have internet. iOS 9 is supposed to be released sometime this fall and I'm really hoping that they won't be catering to iPhone users; they probably will anyways though. I love my iPod, but if this keep up, I'll just start downloading music for free online (which I try my best not to do right now).
Enough of that... On with the next topic.
So, with my Floridian freedom, my father allowed me to get my hair highlighted. I've never had anything done to my hair before so this was a big thing for me and I thought that I'd show it off to you guys with a few pictures.
The top image on the right is my hair previously. The picture was taken the day of Jeremy's graduation back on May 30th. On the left, is my hair now. My cousin's wife, Kayla, did my hair for me and we over-highlighted it a little bit (the bottom image showing some of the brown that's left in my hair), but I like it. This color suits me a little bit and it brings out my eyes (in better lighting). I did a small photoshoot yesterday on the beach for a couple of my senior pictures and had to get dolled up; the first image is from before then.
The last thing that I thought I'd share with you all is that my birthday is this Tuesday (the 14th); I'll finally be seventeen years old and I'm scared to death. It seems like it was only a month ago when I was fourteen years old and writing Black Veil Brides fanfiction. Just the heads up, I'll probably be posting a blog that day, but it probably won't be as ranty as this one. ^^;
Well, I think this is long enough.
Until next time,
Kayla VI