Category: iOS

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I got a new iPhone, headphones and watch

iPhone 16 Pro Camera Control

It’s that time of year again, and as a tech reviewer and photographer, I usually get a new iPhone to have better tech, get camera improvements, be able to make recommendations, and answer your questions. This year was no different. I got the new iPhone 16 Pro.

Let me answer the first question I get when I say what I just said: “Why didn’t you go with the iPhone 16 Pro Max?” People are usually shocked when I say, “I don’t like the bigger phone!” After all, what’s not to like? It’s a bigger screen, usually longer battery life, and a feature or two that the regular “smaller” Pro model doesn’t have. So why wouldn’t I get the 16 Pro Max? Here’s why: I had a 13 Pro Max, and all I remember saying for an entire year was, “I can’t wait till the iPhone 14 Pro comes out so that I can go back down in size.”

I didn’t like the bigger iPhone at all. It wasn’t hand-friendly for one-handed use, and I always felt like I was going to drop it. It was too bulky for my pocket. I just didn’t like it, and I don’t miss it.

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Take advantage of Siri Shortcuts

Shortcuts

Most of you know I’m a fan of smart home technologies. I spend a lot of my spare time thinking of new Automation ideas. However, not every device or application is compatible with smart home systems. For example, Apple HomeKit has no category for robot vacuums. I still can’t believe that robot vacuums aren’t a supported HomeKit category, but it’s not. This means I can’t create a HomeKit automation to vacuum based on certain conditions like “start vacuuming after the last person leaves the house.” However, my latest robot vacuum, the Roborock S7 MaxV does support Siri Shortcuts.

Siri Shortcuts are awesome

In the case of the Roborock vacuum, I can simply say, “Hey Siri, vacuum the family room.” The vacuum will start and head to the family room to complete the task.

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How to Add Your COVID-19 Vaccination Card to Your Apple Wallet

Apple Wallet Vaccination Card
Apple Wallet App

Depending on where you live and the places you like to go, you may be required to show proof of your COVID-19 vaccination status.

Apple took a step towards making this easier with iOS 15. When this feature first rolled out I was kinda out of luck because Walgreens (the pharmacy where I got my shots) didn’t have support for digital vaccination cards. Oh well. I moved on and just used Clear to store my card. Not as convenient, but it was better than nothing. I figured one day pharmacies like Walgreens, CVS, etc. would get on board and there would be some big announcement when they do. Well, that wasn’t the case! Walgreens quietly added support that I just discovered.

How to Add Your COVID-19 Vaccination Card from Walgreens to your Apple Wallet

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Don’t Use an Apple AirTag as a Pet Tracker – Use a Whistle Instead!

Apple introduced their AirTag (a Tile competitor) for those looking for an easy way to keep track of things like keys, purses, wallets, etc. However, many have been tempted to use them on their pets too. There certainly isn’t anything wrong with this thought process, but it really depends on your situation and where your pet may go missing.

How do AirTags work?

With an AirTag there is no subscription fee, no WiFi, and no GPS. It works with Ultra Wideband technology to show itself to the Find My app on your iOS devices. In order for your lost/misplaced/stolen object to show up on the Find My network it would have to be within range of another Apple device such as an iPhone, iPad or Mac. Let’s say you left your backpack with an AirTag attached to it/in it, in the library and you drove home. Now you’re miles away from your backpack.

You are way out of the range of bluetooth or even the 800 foot range of Ultra Wideband technology. However, if someone else is in the library near your backpack with an iPhone, iPad or Mac your backpack AirTag would automatically be picked up by the Find My network and show its location in the Find My app on your iOS device. Luckily the people near your backpack don’t need to do anything special. There’s nothing they need to install or activate. It all happens in the background. Your AirTag in your backpack would privately be detected and shown on the Find My network just being near another Apple device. Cool!

This is not ideal for pets depending on where they may get lost

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Before you upgrade your iPhone or iPad to iOS 11…

Apple will release the highly anticipated iOS 11 update tomorrow Tuesday, September 19th 2017. However, unlike previous iOS updates this one is likely to leave some of your apps behind.

P.S.A.: Before I go any further, don’t even think of installing iOS 11 without having backed up your iOS device first! Now on to the topic at hand:

With every operating system update since the beginning of time there have always been incompatibilities with 3rd party applications. In most cases the applications have small glitches and sometimes the more severe incompatibilities cause the applications to crash upon launching. However, this time you may have some applications that will never work again!

Apple is dropping support for 32bit applications in iOS 11

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The Best Lightning Cables for the Money – Anker Powerline II Dura Review

On the left is an Apple Lightning cable, in the middle is the new Anker Powerline II Dura and on the right is a NewerTech Lightning cable.

If you use an iPhone, iPad or iPod then chances are you’ve worn out the supplied Apple Lightning cable. They usually wear out around the connectors, exposing wires or simply failing to work anymore. I stopped buying Apple branded cables for this reason. I tried other brands, but they all seem to fail at one point or another. Some wouldn’t even give error messages indicating that the cables weren’t completely compatible. Sigh.

Anker makes the BEST Lightning cables for the money! Continue reading “The Best Lightning Cables for the Money – Anker Powerline II Dura Review”

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The 1st HomeKit Enabled Security Camera has Shipped! D-Link Omna 180 Review

When it comes to home security cameras I have pretty much standardized on Google’s Nest Cams. However, the one thing that is not likely to appear in any Nest products is HomeKit support. HomeKit is the standard that Apple created for home automation and is supported in iOS, Siri, Apple TV, and the Home App that’s now built-in to iOS 10. So that means that you either buy accessories that work with HomeKit or competing platforms. Since until now there were no shipping HomeKit enabled security cameras, it really didn’t matter which platform you went with. However, that has just changed now that D-Link has shipped the Omna 180 Cam.

Viewing the Live feed from the Omna 180 cam in the iOS 10 Home App.

The 1st shipping HomeKit enabled security cam is lacking features that other cams have…

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Ecobee 3 Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat Review

ecobee-3-on-my-wall

I know it’s been a while since I’ve done gadget reviews here. However, I’ve just moved into a new home and for the first time in several years I’ve been looking at and buying smart home gadgets. I must admit that the amount of choices out there now are quite daunting. Even if you find the right gadget based upon the feature set that you’re looking for you also have also decide which platform to go with. Platform?

smart home platforms

Yes, just like you decide to go with iOS or Android, Mac or Windows, etc, your smart home gadgets work together based on alliances and partnerships. For example, I was pretty sure that I would go with a Nest thermostat. I had been looking at them for years. I liked the design. Nest even acquired Dropcam, the company I was using for all my wifi cameras. However, somewhere along the way Nest was acquired by Google. That acquisition put them at odds with Apple. I have nothing against Google or the Android platform, but all of my mobile devices are iOS based. Therefore I wanted to go with devices that work with Apple’s HomeKit platform.

The Ecobee 3 Remote Sensor Advantage

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