Nice icons, huh?
The good news this WordPress Dashboard Monday morning is that I was able to add this image to the right here on my iPad Air.
The last 10 days or so I’ve been sent scurrying to the small screen of my iPhone 4 to affix all images on the tiny dashboard from the teeny camera roll after finishing with the text here, my comfortable home with the Bluetooth keyboard that doubles as a kickstand, the place where my eyes can see for relative miles and my stubby fingers can find the right place to tap with the least chance of setting off an improper and cataclysmic neighboring action.
That major inconvenience started the day I uploaded the new Apple iOS 8. The new operating system may indeed come with many new innovations to make my life grander. Apple has been sending me alerts about said life-changers that have popped up the last few days the first time I’ve punched in my security code in the morning. Yeah, I’ve scrolled through. No, I haven’t jumped off the cliff into the deep end of iOS 8.
Saturday, though, while I was watching my beloved alma mater Maryland Terrapins win their first Big Ten football game ever by beating the home team Indiana Hoosiers by using Big Ten 2 Go app on this very iPad Air, the message that I had an iOS 8 update popped up.
After that sweet victory, I uploaded it and its promise of bug fixes. I dashed to my WordPress dashboard and posted a test image. The dreaded jpeg error message did not pop up. It was my second win in a span of five minutes.
I went to my home screen to look at the icons. And lo-and-behold, the new script had also restored images in all of the WordPress images the rest of you had placed on your blogs. Sick of the time-consuming Reader, I’d instead placed a hundred or more of my friends in folders on my home screen. But iOS 8 had turned them into white-lined shapes instead of familiar figures.
The replacement of the icons made me happy. I had tired of having to read the titles to go where I wanted. The pictures seemed to pop the entire puzzle into my head somehow, like a map of the stars. I knew where you all were intuitively when they were there. Without the images, left with just the words, I was a man dropped off in the dark woods on a cloudy night.
Then yesterday afternoon, while I was trying to comment on my friend Ann Koplow’s fine blog, the screen froze. I tapped and swiped and pinched and closed and reopened. Finally, Safari allowed me to post my comment on her Sunday post, titled “Airheads.”
But when I went to my home screen to look for my next friend to read, the icons had returned to their pictureless state during that screen-lock phase. See the screen capture photo above taken this morning as the prime example.
Now, is this a WordPress problem or an Apple problem?
Frustrated with the failure to communicate between the new operating system and my old blogging platform, seven days ago I picked up my iPad and drove over to Syracuse’s Apple store in the mega shopping, dining and entertainment complex Destiny USA. The greeter for software problems — yes, they are that specialized — raised an eyebrow that I had not made an appointment online first. He said I could wait a couple hours until an expert was free, sign up for the next available eight hours hence or call Apple Care at the number he wrote on his business card.
From the comfort of my home office — my recliner, if you recall — I called the 800 number, and the kind service rep asked me to email myself a photo from my camera roll. When I was able to access my own jpeg on my own email sent to myself from my own iPad, he deemed it a WordPress problem.
Googling, obviously, he seemed surprised when I was able to cite him the headlines and dates of what he began reading to me as possible causes of the issue from the WordPress side. Old, older and oldest problems, I said, assuring him I’d researched this thoroughly on WordPress forums before going to Apple. He went to the Apple Store and sent me the name of a 99 cent App that he said would allow me to load photos on WordPress no matter the issue. If we were on FaceTime or Skype, he would have been able to see my look of disgust. I should not need an app to load photos on WordPress. Never have, never should. After we said our polite goodbyes, I searched his app at the store for giggles. It no longer exists.
In the midst of Apple’s release of a new operating system for phones and iPads, WordPress decided to close down its help staff operation for four days. I do not know if the timing was coincidental.
I went on the forums. I typed in my question and asked for an email response upon return of a happiness consultant. Still waiting. Update: I can now upload images, thank you.
But, of course, that return to icon nowheresville has me a bit nervous.
I don’t know if I can pull the trigger.
Before that, I had mentioned to my dear wife Karen that perhaps we should be thinking of taking the trip to the big box to trade in our iPhone 4s for those iPhone 6s.
When we bought them more than two years ago, I also purchased the service contract that guaranteed pretty good money on said trade-ins. We want the none huge-screen models, since we both have iPads for that cause. Mid-level memory should do it. I can’t wait to get my hands on the improved camera, for this blog, in fact.
My dear daughter Elisabeth upgraded to the iPhone 6 already. She showed it to me while we were golfing with George III and George II, and I loved its look.
However, however, however. But, but, but …
That iPhone 4 with iOS 7 was my saving grace for 10 days of posting images on this blog, my fallback position. What would have happened if I’d already made that purchase, I shudder to think.
Have you encountered problems with software operating systems or WordPress operations for blogging, and if so, what have they been? How did you go about trying to solve your blogging woes? Have you purchased the iPhone 6, and if so, what do you like or not like about it?
Mark Bialczak 
I still have a flip phone, Mark! Smiles! I pay $30 a month to my daughter who has a major updated phone, which I have never asked her what it is. I see her and hear her asking it questions, it makes me smile. I like the ads of television and the movie ads for “Her,” where people (Joaquin Phoenix in the movie) fall in love with their phones. I can take really good pics with my flip phone, I send them to my daughter’s fancy phone, she goes in November each year and prints them off. (Shutterby company? maybe?) As far as WP, I am frustrated with the way some of the blogs I ‘follow’ don’t show up and then others I have not chosen, they are suggesting I follow are there! Also, people sometimes randomly comment, not always, which is fine with me, but then WP doesn’t ‘recognize’ them! Sigh! Hope this Hump Day finds you happy, Mark!
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Thank you, Robin. You flip over your phone. You are so optimistic always, my friend, except when you get a leaked-on rug and a super who won’t take the smell away. 😦 It was a good Wednesday here. I hope your Hump Day was great, too, Robin. 🙂
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Mark, I am one of the odd people that refuse to get a cellphone.. Whenever I’ve had one, I paid for minutes and everyone blew up my phone with “emergencies” that in my opinion were not emergent. And I encounter so many people with bad phone manners, that I am taking a lone stand against progress. LOL! (Yes, really.) But, of all my peeps that have the new iPhone, I admit, it does look really cool. In fact it looks so cool that I’m almost tempted to get one, but just never give out my number (which would be weird!). As for the WordPress problems, I am thankful not to have had any yet, but I have several people I follow that have have loads of problems since about 6 weeks ago. Good luck, my friend! 🙂
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Plus side of the iPhone: Taking photos for my blog and texting my daughter, she of that mode of communication generation.
Minus side: people think they have you at their beck and call every second of every day of your life.
So I can empathize with you, Rachel.
And WordPress and Apple better start communicating better. Many cross-users will start to get irate soon if they don’t.
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Well, the camera part of the phone is really the only reason I want one. LOL! (It’s a lot lighter than my 22 lb professional camera!)
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Lighter and less obvious! 🙂
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Yes, that’s true, too! So many times I want to sneak a photo, but can’t. At least not without looking like a dork! LOL!
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I find it fascinating that when people lugged in cameras, photos were, like, forbidden. Now in the phone-camera age, photos are encouraged, expected, every damn where!
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Yes, I think phone cameras are impossible to regulate. Though I’ve still been to concerts recently where they will search you and make you leave the “professional” camera at home. Though they do allow point-and-shoots most of the time. Paul McCartney was the worst for not allowing any outside anything.
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I think the strict regulators want to control two factors: Their image and their checkbook. That’s my take on the pro camera ban, Rachel.
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Remember back in the early 80s (and probably before, but I wasn’t allowed to go to concerts before them) where some guy would walk around in the parking lot with a trenchcoat after the show and he’d have 4×6 photos in his coat for sale of the band from previous shows where his team had sneaked in a camera?
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Yeah, bootleg photos right next to cheaply made bootleg T-shirts. I do remember those days, Rachel. I was allowed to go. And go, I did!
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I LOVED the cheap bootleg t-shirts! In fact I’ve had several of the bootleg shirts outlast the official shirts! I had both a Beach Boys and a Guns n Roses bootleg shirts that lasted years after the officials ones disintegrated.
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On the flip side, I’ve also had several of the bootlegs shrink to GI Joe size after the first spin around the dryer. I’m thinking of the first Who farewell tour, a long-sleeve T purchased outside the Cap Centre in Largo, Md., in 1980, Rachel …
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Oh, no! I don’t dry concert shirts in the dryer…It usually makes the pictures crack. I hang them on a hanger and let them air dry.
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Lesson learned the hard way when I was young and restless and careless with the laundry, Rachel. 😦
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Glad your problem was solved.
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Knock on wood, still. Thanks, Kim.
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I would still have a flip phone if I could. I have an iPhone but never upgrade to the new operating system until I hear everyone else give it praise. I made the mistake of uploading it day one a few years ago and it messed my entire world up completely! I’m such a baby when it comes to technology…I want things to remain the same, so I know how to use them!
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Smart plan with the new operating system, CBXB. Flip phones were the bomb, weren’t they? The cameras sucked eggs, though, unfortunately, and I couldn’t text on mine worth a damn, either. The actual phone calls were great, though. 🙂
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Oh the texting on flip phones….! I forgot! And the camera did suck eggs, so I guess I’m happy with my forced upgrade to a smart phone BUT I will not budge on my operating system method!
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Stick to it! Guess what, though. All my white-out icons on my home screen went back to the photos on their own today, no bug fix patch or nothing. This is so damn puzzling, CBXB?!%@%%#*
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Hi there!
Hope all is well across the World!
here in Stockholm its a Beautiful fall day today. Blue sky and sunny!
Cant wait to go outside!
Have a great day!
hugs
/A
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Hi Anna. I’m glad to hear fall is treating my friend well in Stockholm. ❤
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Ahhh, yes. I have experienced problems…thank you very much. 💻. I am typing this from my phone using my stubby fingers. 😜
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Really, Mrs. B? Back to the phone? I thought the MacBook was acting better. Argh!!! (Not stubby fingers for you, too, don’t tell me.)
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Mark I haven’t had any serious issues with WP but I 98% of the time use my computer. The phone I have, though ‘smart’ isn’t convenient at all for ‘writing’. I have noticed however a HUGE decrease in WP activity. I don’t care for the Reader and seldom use it, I follow everyone by email. This can get overwhelming but I can save what I can’t get to right away. But I do depend on Fresh Press to discover new reading material/bloggers. And this has been sparsely updated of recent days. I thought it was WP it’s self. But now I wonder if a lot of this ties in to problems like you’re experiencing.
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It could all be related, Colleen. Also I think they didn’t Fresh Press people when they took that tiime off for the secret meetings.
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That could be it indeed. As I read your post I thought that might be it.
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I am a Samsung Note Girl phone wise…but everything else is Apple.
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Why’d you go Samsung on the phone in an Apple-otherwise world, Red?
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Because I’ve always had a samsung phone and know them well, I guess. I still push back on the Apples in my world, as I’m a PC born girl, I suppose. I’m trying to fit in, but Apple annoys me with their decision making…
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I hate PCs with a passion, though. I think Microsoft is run by mouth-breathers and droolers.
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It’s all a racket, Chum.
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True, dat, Aud.
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I updated the ios last week and then the patch a few days ago and yet I still get all of the same exact error messages that you are experiencing. Can barely use my iPad.The icons don’t show, can’t upload photos and Lord, Safari freezes if I as much as look at it. My ulcer can’t take much more.
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I can’t believe your big fix patch didn’t take care of the photo upload problem, Apple Pie.
My Safari freeze is getting worse as the day goes on since I wrote the morning post. The more images on the page, the more it freezes.
Apple better do something about this one. Too much at stake for too many iPad and iPhone users to botch it. Too many Samsung Galaxies waiting to swoop in.
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It’s horrid trying to edit a draft and it freezes when you backspace. You close, then come back, but you’ve lost your edits. It freezes before the draft saves. Im starting to wonder if some of the issue is a Safari bug.
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The back space does seem to be the Dashboard edit trigger, doesn’t it, Apple Pie? I think you are on to something there.
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i have probs with wp with each new ‘upgrade’ intended to make blog world easier, i always find the opposite to be true. as for the upgrade, i’ve opted not to go with it and not with the ip6 either. i’ll sit it out for a while and see where it goes )
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Your pragmatic ways are way impressive, Beth.
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Gosh that must have been so frustrating for you!!! Glad you’re all sorted, although you sound like you dont quite trust ’em!
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Foil me once, shame on you, as they say, Ali. Fool me twice, shame on me. Do I give them that chance? Yes, that is my dilemma with the iPhone 6 purchase at this point.
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I use a Samsung and love it but everyone else in this house has an iphone. Theyve all had issues of one kind or another. I never got sucked in by them because I was perfectly satisfied with what I had. If this is the only glitch you’ve had, maybe you can get past it. Their customer services leave something to be desired though…
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Dora just told me that she likes her Samsung, too, Ali. I loved my iPhone and iPad right up until this iOS 8 thing, by the way, so …
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Ugh. Technology is the only thing that we accept these kind of problems with.
Imagine buying a car and its windows keep rolling down, or the air conditioner blasts you in the face in the middle of the winter. Imagine calling the car dealership and they say, oh you’re on a three year contract to keep the car and it says here you opted not to purchase the window and air-conditioning warrantee for an extra $10 per month so….. we can give you an upgraded car but you will have to buy out your old contract and sign up for another 3 years with the new car… would you like to buy the window, air conditioning warrantee?
Just sell me stuff that works dog gammet! If it doesn’t work. Fix it. Stand behind your product. And don’t charge me!
haha sorry ’bout venting here. 😉
Diana xo
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My space is your space, Diana. I asked the leading questions, did I not? 🙂 So, you don’t quite agree with long-term technology service contracts and up-sells, do you, I get an inkling?
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haha they’re messing with us Mark, at least that’s the way I feel. 🙂
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Scary – I haven’t ventured into that world yet. I hope you find the solution to your problems Mark.
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I know you are waiting for the better mousetrap before you take the leap, Paul. You may be waiting a long time. I still swear on Mac over Microsoft even with this latest fauxfaffel. 🙂
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I always worry when it’s time for those updates. I’m limited on my computer knowledge but have not had any problems yet. Just recently I switched to Samsung, never was a fan of the I phone, but that’s just my opinion.
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I wish you great things with the Samsung, Dora. All the TV commercials make it seem like the cat’s meow. I hope it purrs for you, my friend!
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Well, every time they “upgrade” the site LOL.
I’ve had issues on my ipad, but that is also an old original that can’t update anymore so that is to be expected. The only other things I have seen are on my phone sometimes the app doesn’t update to the site when I make changes.
So, hit or miss.
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You know, Jeanette, every time they put up the WP “for a better posting experience” I tend to run the other way. Because, like you say, “every time they update the site” …
Sigh. Just let me post stuff like I always have, please and thank you. Is that too much to ask?
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Nerver MB …c!
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Hey . . MB! Honey
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Hello, C. I hope you are well.
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oh oui mb
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oooh tanks …c
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