Tag: iPhone

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A Less Expensive USB-C Hub for your Mac/PC, iPhone 15 or iPad

With the introduction of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro phones, I’m connecting more peripherals to my iPhone 15 Pro than ever. For the first time, I can connect to gigabit ethernet, which is GREAT for those times when I need to sync a ton of raw photos and 4K videos to the cloud.

The Plugable 7-in-1 USB-C hub is plugged into my iPhone Pro. I currently have it connected to Ethernet, USB-C power and a microSD memory card from my drone.

When I first blogged about this, I recommended a great 9-in-1 USB-C hub, Hyperdrive. However, it was expensive (about $99). I discovered a 7-in-1 USB-C Hub with the same connectivity minus one USB port and one audio port. If you can live without these two additional ports, then you can save money by getting the Plugable 7-in-1 USB-C hub (about $40) instead.

The Plugable 7-in-1 USB-C Hub gives me four things in one.

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These 3 Pieces Make a Great iPhone iOS 17 StandBy Charging Stand

One of my favorite features in iOS 17 is the new StandBy feature. This feature lets you display beautiful widgets while your iPhone is wireless charging in landscape mode on a MagSafe charging stand.

You can add the widgets you want to easily control apps while in StandBy. Above, I added an Apple Home widget for smart home control of scenes and accessories.

MagSafe Charging Stands Are Pricey!

My favorite 3-in-1 Charger is the Belkin BoostCharge Pro. It’s the one on my nightstand.

If you buy a name-brand MagSafe charging stand, you could easily spend $90-$150 for it. In all fairness, those stands can usually charge 2 or 3 devices, such as your iPhone, AirPods case, and Apple Watch. However, if you’re looking to charge your iPhone on your desk or nightstand and take advantage of StandBy in iOS 17, I have a great solution for you that costs less.

My favorite 3-in-1 Travel Charger is the Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe. It stays in my suitcase for travel—a very clever design for traveling as it folds down to just a cube.

If You Get These 3 Pieces, You Can Have a GREAT MagSafe Charging Stand For Your iPhone That Costs Less.

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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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Why Apple Needs to Dump the Lightning Port on the Next iPhone Pro

Before you pick up your pitchfork, here me out. There was a rumor floating around that Apple was considering removing the Lightning port altogether and that is NOT what I’m proposing here. I actually think there are times where using the physical port is better/faster than doing things wirelessly. We can certainly debate this at another time.

It’s time for Apple to switch from Lightning ports to USB-C ports on iPhone

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Searching for the perfect 3-in-1 Wireless Travel Charger

I have three devices that I charge every night. My iPhone 12 Pro Max, my AirPods Pro and my Apple Watch. Each one of these devices can charge wirelessly. At night I simply want to set all three devices on a single charger and wake up fully charged. This is easy at home. As a matter of fact I have two favorites:

Logitech Powered 3-in-1 Wireless Charger

The best all around 3-in-1 Wireless Charger is the Logitech Powered 3-in-1 Dock and the Belkin Magsafe 3-in-1 Charger (for iPhones with Magsafe).

Belkin Magsafe 3-in-1 Wireless Charger

I would have no problem recommending either of these two chargers because they work. However, both are designed to be stationary on a nightstand or a desk. They are NOT designed for travel and frankly they are just too big and bulky for travel.

What makes a perfect 3-in-1 Wireless Travel Charger?

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SliceCharge Pro – the wireless charger you’ve been waiting for

Apple’s AirPower was supposed to be the only wireless charger you would need. One charging mat that lets you charge an iPhone (or Android), Apple Watch and AirPods. Apple decided to cancel the AirPower before it ever shipped. They sited quality/technical difficulties. I can only imagine that this was because you would have been able to put your phone, watch or AirPods anywhere on the mat. Since the Apple Watch doesn’t use a standard Qi charger I’m sure it was hard to make it work when placed anywhere on the mat.

There are lots of Qi wireless chargers on the market. Some are designed just to charge a phone while other bigger mats are designed to charge two to three devices. I originally went with the Nomad Wireless Charger as it was one of the first to have an integrated Apple Watch charger. The Nomad solution works fine, but what I didn’t like about it was that it was one configuration. You lay your phone on it either vertically or horizontally and you put your watch on the dedicated spot. If you want to charge a third device then you put the phone vertically in the middle. What I don’t like about this is that you have to put the phone on it just right (not to far forward and not too far towards the front) or it won’t be on one of the three charging coils and therefore it won’t charge. I have woke up on occasion only to realize that my phone didn’t charge because it wasn’t sitting on it just right.

SliceCharge Pro offers six high speed charging coils instead of three or four

inside view of the 6 total charging coils

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My 5 Favorite Smart Home / HomeKit Gadgets

iPad Pro running Home App Smart Home
Apple Home App running on my iPad Pro.

I’m a huge fan of automation in general especially when it comes to smart home stuff. My new home was built two years ago in May 2016. I got the chance to start with a clean slate and put in all the smart home tech that I wanted pretty much from day one. Sadly the builder wasn’t really into smart homes (aside from running ethernet drops) yet so I had to do it all after the house was completed. When people think smart homes one of the first things that comes to mind is lighting and that is pretty much where I started too, but it didn’t stop there. Since most of the things in a smart home are controlled via your mobile devices I also wanted to make sure that most if not all things I did worked with Apple’s HomeKit since I’m an iOS user.

1. My Lighting

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The Thinnest iPhone X Case I’ve Ever Seen

Often when you choose a case for for your smartphone you usually choose between a nice thick case that offers more protection for drops and other mishaps or you choose a case that is thin and protects against scratches. I tend to go for thinner cases as I rarely drop my iPhone. I would go without a case at all if they were scratch proof or less slippery. The thin iPhone X case by totallee is hands down the thinnest case I’ve ever used.

The pros and cons of a thin case

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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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