New Computer Setup

Just recently we moved to a new house and I now have a much larger office. I am always looking for new ways of using the stuff that I have so I decided to make a desk set up using my iPad mini just to see how usable it is and as it turns out, it works quite well.

… and here it is

What we have here is an iPad mini, a small bluetooth keyboard, a phone stand and series 1 Apple pencil.  In the background there is a Polk sound bar that it will connect with via Bluetooth and under the desk is the Polk bass box that goes with the sound bar.  

So it looks cute but is it usable?  

I wondered if a set up like this (minus the sound bar) would work for travel and the answer is absolutely yes.  In fact I am typing this post on this set up with no problems what so ever. I am using the default font size, but if I wanted to I guess I could make the font bigger. 

I like to use the pen like you might use a mouse and I make good use of keyboard shortcuts which helps but frankly I see little difference between using this and my iPad Pro.

I normally run this with the power connected but I don’t have to. I can get a days worth of work out this without power. I wondered if putting the iPad into low power mode would increase the battery life and I am sure it would but I did find that the Bluetooth suffers if you do that. Keyboard and pencil are ok, but audio is unusable.

I should add that I am not a gamer. I use the reminders and notes applications, along with web surfing, and a few apps but nothing that is going to tax the hardware too much. 

Conclusion

I wondered if a set up like this might work for travel and yes it would, obviously without the sound bar! I have a nice Sennheiser headset that will work if I need to make calls, and listen to music, as well as some Apple earbuds. The whole thing packs down pretty small and it only requires one cable, which makes things simple. I hate carrying a ton of cable.  The ipad charge cable will also charge the ear buds and the power brick is nice and small.  I will need to test more, but at the moment I don’t see any reason not to use this especially for travel.

Creating a home page

I like Blogger as a platform. It's easy and quick and doesn't bug me about the crap that Wordpress does, although I have used Wordpress in the past, and I like it enough.  There were a couple of things I wanted to do with my blogger account.  I wanted to have a static front page and I wanted to add a custom URL.  Apparently this is not always easy.

Setting the Static Front Page

Well, here's a shout out to the guy that helped me with that issue:  http://www.southernspeakers.net

Now I will say the article is a little out of date, as Blogger has changed since this was written but with some searching in the Blogger settings and this article I was able to create a static front page.

Assigning the URL

This is pretty simple to do.  

Settings

You can see what the original Google account URL was, and you simply add the new custom domain, and then enable the redirect. There are some changes to the domain provider that needs to be implemented. In my case, I use Dotster.com for my URL management and they have instructions on how to change the DNS records to redirect to your blogger account.

Sometimes you may have to wait a few minutes for the DNS changes to propagate. This can be frustrating but patience is the key here.  You will notice that I have not included many screen shots and detailed instructions.  This is deliberate as the interface changes as the systems involved get updated.  The best you can do is get the general feel for where to go and what to do and try things.  This is what I had to do even given the documentation available to me. 

Using a phone as a backup router

I have two phones, and I need two separate phones for reasons that I have outlined in other posts. One is my US based iPhone and the other is an Android phone that I use for my UK number and UK apps.  Given that I don't use the UK phone too much, I figured there might something else I could do with it.  The Android phone I am using is a POCO 3M which is made by Xiaomi.  It is a dual SIM 5G Android and it works very well. It's actually an excellent phone.

So what to do with this phone? Given that my wife and I are moving again soon, a wireless router might be a fun idea.  Now I could tether with my iPhone and that would work just fine, but I am curious as to how this would work with the android phone. 

The Wireless Router Project

By getting a 5G data plan, I can run a wifi network for my iPad if my main internet connection goes out.  The diagram shows my proposed set up.  I have a primary ISP connection (1Gx1G fiber) that feeds three mesh routers (only one shown in the diagram).  The android phone is usually connected to the WiFi but has UK phone service on it, that does work in the US but I have the roaming and data turned off.  However I can receive calls which is all I really use it for, 

I drew this...

Tethering

Most modern phones will allow tethering or the set up of a hotspot.  However, usually when a hotspot is enabled, the phone data connection will switch from the WiFi, because this is now the AP for the hotspot, to the mobile data connection (3/4/5G).

The hotspot config is simple and described everywhere on the internet so I am going to assume you know how that is done.  The POCO takes two physical SIMs so I can control which SIM does what (see screen cap below)

SIM Configuration

What I found during testing, and this came as a surprise to me, is that the WiFi connection continues to work, even when in tethering mode!  Even better is that if the WiFi connection to the phone goes down, the data connection will automatically switch over to mobile data.  This of course is awesome because this is what an actual router would do with two ISP connections. 

Performance

I measured performance on my iPad Pro using OOKLA speed test.  The table below shows the performance figures.

                                                                       _Down            Up            Ping___

    Direct WiFi connection:   516mb / 483mb   23ms

    Hotspot using Mint 5G:     31mb /   4mb  103ms

    Hotspot using WiFi:       133mb / 124mb   10ms

I used IP Chicken to verify which connection was in use.

The iPad on the direct WiFI connection has excellent performance,  The performance when connected to the android phone (using the WiFi still) is 20% of the direct connection but given that I am not a gamer, this performance hit really doesn't affect my usage of the iPad. It 'felt' about the same.  The 5G performance (and I don't have a great 5G connection at my home) was definitely slower but again, I didn't really feel it that much.  Performance is good enough for email, chat, casual browsing and writing blog posts.

How does the iPhone fare?

After the Android test, I figured I would see if the iPhone would do the same, however it does not.  The way the iPhone is set up , you can see the iPhone hotspot is always on (As seen from my iPad).

The WiFi hotspot is always there

Connecting the iPad to the WiFi and running a speed test (checking my IP number with IPChicken) gave me about 300x300mb/s. If I connect to the hotspot, I get 4G data and if I shut off the wifi, the hotspot dies with it so not the same as the Android phone.  However, I get better data rates with Tello than with Mint 5G

                                                _Down            Up      

    Direct WiFi:    300mb / 300mb

    Hotspot:         40mb /  15mb

Conclusion

The use of the Android phone as a mobile router with fail over between WiFi and mobile data works extremely well.  The next step is to see how well it holds up when my internet goes out.

Phone Repair

Last year I had to go to the UK and assist my parents due to their health issues.  No big deal but while my iPhone would work there, my carrier did not.  Because I was there for an extended period of time and because my phone registers as a US phone, I was not able to use some of the UK based apps I needed to use (Like the NHS app for doctor appointments, my UK banking app etc,)

I figured out that the easiest thing for me to do was get a burner phone while I was there with a cheap phone plan,  The good news here is that phone plans in the UK are cheap and I was able to get a plan for about £10 per month.  The phone I ordered from Amazon; I got myself a semi decent android phone and I was pretty happy with it.

A New Phone

It's a Xiaomi POCO M3 and and I paid about £170 for it (~$200).  It's actually a pretty amazing phone, with the following specs; " Xiaomi POCO M3 Pro 5G - Smartphone 6+128GB, 6.5" FHD+ 90Hz Dot Display, MediaTek Dimensity 700 with dual 5G, 48MP AI triple camera, 5000mAh, Cool Blue".

Manufacturers Photo

Disaster!

Fast forward to a few month back; I anm back home in the US and my step son was about to head to Europe to follow the Rolling Stones on tour.  Very exciting, but he needed a phone he could use while he was there because he had a US only iPhone.  So I lent him the Android phone and when it came back it was all scratched up and the glass over the camera assembly was smashed (not just cracked but actually in pieces).

Camera Assembly

I have no idea what he did, but off I went to the local phone repair place and had a quick chat about fixing it,  Now you may have noticed, there are no Xiaomi or Huawei phones to be had in the US. This is, I believe because there is a ban on the import of some Chinese manufacturers here, so the phone repair place was unable to get the parts to fix my phone.

To The Internet

I did a brief search of Google and found a place in the UK that could provide the appropriate kit to repair the phone. I ordered the appropriate glass for the phone and sat back and waited as it would take a while for the post to get to me.

While I was waiting I got out my Swiss Army Knife, and slowly and carefully popped the broken glass out.

With the glass removed

The Repair Process.

The repair itself is pretty simple. remove the broken glass, which I did with a small Swiss Army knife, then clean the area with the supplied wipe, apply the adhesive strip and then apply the glass. Sounds easy and it was.

The adhesive panel

Oh Dear

Except that what looked exactly like the right glass for the phone isn't quite the right glass for the phone. It's slightly too small and I am not sure why. perhaps there is a year by year variation in the phone design and what I got is not the right year. Or maybe the supplier in the UK shipped the wrong glass kit by accident. Frankly I don't know but what I do know is that glass panel is not quite the right size.

The Repaired Item.

So does it work? Well yes, sort of. The camera is ok; I have a fully working camera.  However the LED flash is partially covered and so there is no flash to speak of and the LED torch (flashlight) function is very weak.

For now, the repair will stand. This is not my primary phone; I only use this phone for the UK number and apps, so I don't really care about the camera operation.  When I go back to the UK I will most likely either replace it or have it repaired.  

LinkTree

A few weeks back I discovered Linktree. 

What is Linktree?

Linktree is a social media link aggregator, sort of.  For example, if you have a blog, Instagram and Twitter accounts that you want people to follow, you can add these links to your Linktree and just publish your Linktree.  There are two tiers; free and paid (pro).  The free tier has fewer features than the pro, but if you are a social media influencer, the pro version gives you a lot of tools. 

It is an interesting idea so I got myself a free account and set up a basic Linktree presence. 

The app is optimized for mobile use, but does work on full web browsers just fine, and has a web interface for configuration that gives you more capabilities than the mobile app interface.

I just like the idea that I have my blog, Instagram and Twitter accounts tied together in a nice simple package that I can refer people to.

This is what it looks like in Safari on my iPad:

https://linktr.ee/hoodrat.engineer

Notice the line of icons under the main links for social media; Instagram, Twitter, Discord, YouTube and email.  What I need now perhaps is a QR code to point people to my linktree.

How to create a QR code.

Given that I am a simple and humble blogger I don't need anything complicated so a 10 second Google search got me to https://www.flowcode.com/.  Now just about any of these QR code sites want you to open an account. I am mostly ok with this so I followed the instructions for the Free QR Code Generator. 

And here is what I ended up with:

Does it work?

Home Automation - Bedside Lamp

I like home automation.  I feel that repetitive tasks can and should be automated where ever possible. It saves one from the drudgery of the mundane and allows you to focus on what is important.  Now of course, turning on and off lights is not hard, but I do like my bedside light to turn on when it gets dark so that I am not walking into a dark room.

I have a Gosund (now GHome) smart socket that I got from Amazon, for controlling my bedside lamp. Using the Gosund app, I set up a schedule so that it turns on every day at about sunset.  It then turns off at about 10, however the minor inconvenience for me is turning it off manually.  In order to do that, I need to open the app, and turn it off that way.

The Gosund App

What I need is a way to turn off the lamp without having to open the app, select the correct smartplug and manually turn it off.  I wondered about using a wifi smart switch but that all seems a little silly just to turn off a lamp.  Might as well do the whole thing manually.

I use an iPhone and iPhones have the ability to interpret a double or triple tap on the back of the phone. Perhaps I can do that?  I usually put my phone on my bedside table face down so that would work.

Siri Shortcuts

In the Gosund app I created a rule for toggling the lamp status; On or Off. In the app you can also publish these rules to Siri, so it can be used in shortcuts. Once you have the shortcut set up, 

Settings

Settings > Accessibility

Settings > Accessibility > Back Tap

Settings > Accessibility > Back Tap >Double Tap

Once this configuration was completed, a quick double tap to the back of the phone did indeed turn the lamp on and off. This is perfect for what I need now.

Hey oh Hey

I am mostly an Apple user but I recently spent some time with my parents who have a couple of Amazon Dots. Using the Amazon devices has made me appreciate just saying Alexa and not having to say hey.  Using Siri and constantly having to say hey just feels so unnatural compared to saying Alexa.

"Alexa set a timer for 5 minutes, call it coffee" is what I would say to set the timer for my french press coffee. By the same thing with Siri just feels so unnatural; Hey Siri ....

Its not so bad if you only want one thing but if you have a number of commands, its hey this and hey that. I don't know about you but when I ask a human to do some thing, I don't preface it with hey.  Hey John, do this for me.  Hey john, do that for me.  Do that two or three times and it just sounds rude.  With Alexa, its not so bad, and even with repetition, it does not end up sounding rude. 

The other issue with Siri is that you cannot change this.  For some reason, Apple do not want you, the user to be able to change the name of your personal assistant.  It is stuck at 'Hey Siri' which really is not a name at all.  Most annoying.

Now at this point, someone is going to point out that this has a lot to do with syllables for voice recognition, etc. but I don't care.  Really I don't care about the underlying technology.  Rather than being designed for the technology, this AI should be designed for the USER!  And as far as I can tell, users don't usually start requests with hey.

If it turns out that Siri is too short, which I believe it is being only two syllables; then as much of a pain in the ass as it will be for Apple they either have let us rename Siri (preferred) or rename Siri themselves to something else.  Going forward, that is really the only way if Siri is to maintain a market presence because I suspect people are not going to enjoy hey hey hey all the time.  I don't use Siri through voice commands that much, in part because saying Hey just feels so wrong.  Even so, I still find having to call Siri 'hey Siri' is just too wrong for me.

Google Can Be So Confusing

As you know, I am currently invested in the Apple eco-system but I still use some Google products.  For instance, my primary email is a Gmail account.  I have an iCloud email address but I never use it.

I am always looking at apps and how I can use them. Just recently I have been focused on Apple products but today I took a look at Google's offerings.  Its confusing to say the least, but there are also a lot of apps that mirror the Apple apps.

The biggest issue and largest confusion I had with the Google offering is the communication software. In the Gmail portal we have Chat, Rooms and Meet. Then there is stand alone Meet, Duo and Hangouts.

So apparently Hangouts is dead but is still there, and after some digging to see what was going on, it turns out that Duo is likely to get folded into Meet, maybe.

• Google Duo is equivalent to Apple Facetime (but rather stupidly the two can't talk to each other)
• Google Meet is the equivalent of Zoom (but again they can't speak to each other)

Apparently CHAT is just for chatting with other Google users, and ROOMs is a part of CHAT.

So, to conclude, if you have friends with a mix of Apple and Android, use WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal, all of which have text, voice and video capability, as well as groups and channels putting them on par with Discord and Slack, and of course Zoom for large video groups. 

I have all of these apps and I am so confused!

My Top iPad Pro Apps

I have written a fair amount recently about the iPad Pro and some of the shortcomings of the soon to be released iPadOS15.  However it is not all doom and gloom, some of the apps on the iPad are awesome and I thought I would balance the blog by writing a little about the apps I like to use. 

I have mentioned my use case before.  It is mostly IT certification studies, language studies, and some social media, research and idle web browsing.  I am not a gamer and I don't use much in the way of content creation apps (like the so called power apps).  So considering my use case, what are my top iPad Pro apps?

Reminders

Yes, the humble Apple reminders application is probably my number one application.  I use this all day every day as I have reminder lists for daily tasks, random tasks and a whole bunch of other long and short term reminders.  I am sure there are other apps out there that may be as good or better but I like this one - it is simple, clean and easy to use.  

Previously I used Wunderlist, and even stuck with it when it became Microsoft To Do, but when I eliminated my Windows PC, I migrated out of the Microsoft environment and haven't looked back. 

Notes

Yet another of the basic Apple apps.  I generate copious amounts of notes; whether they be for my IT certification studies, German language studies, or my medical research.  Is it perfect? No but I really like the simplicity of Notes.  I also have GoodNotes installed in the iPad Pro but I really don't use it.   Most of my notes are typed and the humble Apple Notes app does exactly what I need it to do. 

Documents by Readdle

This is where the bulk of my documentation goes.  As a file manager it works well, but it also includes a browser, VPN, document readers and media players.  I paid for the additional PDF add on so that I can create PDFs.  I do this when I archive projects; I put all of the documentation in PDF form and zip it into a compressed file.  Then the compressed file gets thrown into an archive folder.

Another great feature is the way I can connect to my other cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive. Not only can I connect, but I can transfer or copy files between services and this is a very useful capability for me.  My wife and I share the Dropbox account and have a number of shared folders in there so access to that is important.

I tend not to use the build in browser.  There are some issues with rendering some web sites, for instance, Gmail does not always display correctly, but again, there is nothing inherently wrong with the browser, except that it is a mobile browser.  Same goes for the VPN; when I use a VPN I use NORD, but if I did not have that I might well use Document's built in VPN 

Spotify

This is an app that gets used on my iPad, iPad Pro and iPhone and at work, I use the web version.  I also have it installed on our Apple TV box.  Spotify is everywhere and the wife and I share a family account.  Spotify just works, has a great library, and is system agnostic.  This is a great feature because I can take it with me if I ever jump from the Apple environment. 

YouTube

I use YouTube a surprising amount.  There are several YouTube content creators that I follow and find entertaining, but I also use it for meditation, music, language studies, documentaries and of course, goofing off.  I have posted a couple of videos there myself but I at the moment I do not create content.  It is something I am considering but I am not sure the world is ready for me on video.

Safari

So it's not that I like Safari.  If you have read my comments about the iPad Pro browsers you will know that I am not a fan of the mobile browsers used on the iPad.  The reasons for this are quite straight forward; I want the ability to import and export bookmarks and to render site and pages correctly.  I have used Edge, Firefox and Safari on this iPad Pro, and one thing that for me, puts Safari ahead of the other browsers is the integration with the keychain app.  Logging into web sites requires a lot fewer clicks and pokes with the pencil than the other browsers do, and while its a simple thing, it adds up. 

Photos

I have a love hate relationship with Apple Photos.  As you can tell, I am a fan of using the built in apps; why pay for an app when I have one built in with no ads and has close integration with the other apps.  I am not a content creator as such, so I don't need Photoshop editing capabilities.  About all I do in terms of editing is cropping and rotating, so Photos will suffice my needs.  However I really hate the menu bar layout and the fact that I can't change it.  I have written about that previously so I won't elaborate on that here.

I do use the app a lot though.  When I document things, I like to take a lot of pictures, including pics for this blog.  Often times I will delete the pics once they have been incorporated into my document or blog post or what ever, so I am not really building a collection. 

Slack

This is an app that is also always running in the background on my iPad.  I keep my own Slack space for friends and family.  I like Slack for several reasons including; it is free, it has no ads, it just works as it is enterprise software and not mickey mouse software developed by some kid in his basement.  I also have access to other Slack groups and enjoy the simple messaging capabilities that it has.

So that is my list.  You will likely have noted that apps like email, calendars, financial apps and games are missing.  That is because I don't use them.  I am not much of a gamer, and for most other application requirements, I log into the web version of the apps because they usually have better functionality, makes better use of the iPad screen space, and just work better.   All of my banking, Google apps, and other apps like Trello, Udemy etc are all accessed via the browser.  Sometimes there are issues with the sites rendering correctly (Udemy and video auto play is an issue) but these are mostly minor.   If there are major issues I can always switch to the app, if the app is better.

So those are my top apps.  Let me know what your top apps are.

Why Siri Still Sucks

(But also, sort of doesn't)

Siri sucks and we can't get rid of it.  There, I said it. I never use voice commands because for some reason Siri can never understand me.  I have a very flat British accent, so I should be easily understood, but apparently not. Siri, for me is just a waste of time, battery and processing power.

Also, when my phone is locked, Siri can't do anything anyway, so I have to unlock the phone first. If that is the case, then I can just go ahead and do what I need to do anyway, without Siri's assistance.  After all I now have the unlocked phone in my hand ...

But there is something that is worth having and that is the shortcuts.  Now I am all about the process improvement.  Lets six sigma that shit - in other words I am lazy and want to click as few things as possible so investing in automation pays back in time.

And this is what short cuts can give us.  Now I don't have that many short cuts, but the ones that I have created are very useful.

Now I will say that the Gallery and Automations in Shortcuts are useless.  Nothing in there fits what I do, but here is what I have created.  Most of these are really very simple, and I have the organized as follows:

• Mobile - Shortcuts I use primarily on my iPhone
• Settings - Shortcuts for use primary on the iPad
• Blogging - just some blogging shortcuts
• German - shortcuts to assist in my German Language studies
• Apps - A bucket for other general shortcuts

Lets take a look at some of the shortcuts. The first one I want to look at is Scooter.  I used to live in downtown Denver and there are a lot of scooters in that area.  The Scooter short cut turns on Bluetooth, and opens all of my scooter apps - Bird, Lime, Lyft, Razor and Spin.  This way I don't have to hunt for the app I need, its already open and BT is ready to connect.  It saved me a little time when I needed to get a scooter.

Another app from that group is the Music shortcut.  It turns on Bluetooth, opens Spotify and makes sure the volume on the iPhone is set to max.  I use this if I am driving - it gets me connected to the car sound system quickly and efficiently.

The other use case I have is for the email shortcut in Settings.  As I have mentioned previously, I prefer to use the web version of Gmail and not email apps.  This shortcut opens up Gmail in Safari in one click instead of opening Safari, finding Gmail in my bookmarks and selecting it to open. 

Most of my shortcuts are exactly that; simple and quick shortcuts but they allow me to organize my desk top the way I want it, and find what I need efficiently.

So Siri and the voice commands suck ass.  Siri is supposed to learn to make suggestions but none of the suggestions ever make any sense what so ever.  However the shortcuts have been pretty useful, and I suspect as my needs change over time, so will my short cuts.

Are Apple devices for me?

So that is the question I have to ask myself.  Are Apple devices for me?

Why am I asking this question?  Well the recent release of iPadOS15 has shown where Apple are putting their focus and its not where mine lies. 

As I have noted in previous posts, I want better file handling, a full version of Safari and less of what I like to call fluff or bullshit apps and upgrades. 

From https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/ipados-15/

• New multitasking features
• More versatile widgets and the App Library
• Quick Note for system-wide fast notes
• Universal Control across iPad and Mac
• "Focus" to reduce distractions
• Build iPhone and iPad apps using Swift Playgrounds
• Portrait mode, Spatial Audio, and SharePlay in FaceTime calls
• Translate app on iPad for the first time
• Text recognition for images
• Safari, Maps, and Notes app redesigns

I put most of these changes into two categories: fixes that should have been implemented in iPadOS14 and updates for children.  Look, I understand kids use iPads, but honestly, I really don't care about emoji or memoji, I don't share media with other people so I don't need all the media sharing functions (which are too late now anyway - Pandemic is almost over) - I'm just not 12 years old.

I just want a full browser and a decent file manager.  I want to be able to turn off all the kiddy crap, the 'helpful' shit that Apple likes to throw in (its not helpful) and I want the OS to work a little smoother. All these multitasking features that have the YouTubers excited are honestly late and should have been implemented a few years back.  And someone explain to me what the hell FOCUS is because that also sounds like bullshit. 

I am sure I sound a little salty about all of this and to an extent I am.  I have a device that was touted as a PC killer, that is apparently unable to survive without a PC (that PC being some sort of Apple MAC of course).  Not all of us are childish and want emoji etc.  Some of us actually do work with these things and want a professional computer.  Now this where the Apple fans will jump on me and say that I should have got a Macbook, and maybe they are right, but I like the iPad form factor.  There is a great deal to like about this machine, especially the touch capability that I cannot get with a Macbook.

It's not like the iPads are cheap; is it too much to ask that these expensive tablets, that have the horse power of comparatively priced PCs, have the same capabilities?

The iPad Pro needs a full Browser

And why it will probably never get one.

One of the recent announcements from Apple for the iPadOS15 release are the changes to Safari.  I am all in favor of changes to Safari.  Now don't get me wrong here; I use Safari, and I use it for a couple of reasons.  The browser works ok as mobile browsers go but its integration with the password manager is very good.

I have tried using Firefox and Edge on the iPad, and while both worked well as browsers, their integration with the password manager was clunky at best.

So what changes have been made to Safari? Well mostly cosmetic changes and the addition of tab groups. This makes me sad as what they should have done is put the full browser on the iPad.  It certainly has enough processing horse power to run a full browser.  Or if it is not possible to port the full browser over, how about adding some of the full browser capabilities. 

There are two reasons I have for wanting a full browser:

• import and export of bookmarks
• Correct rendering of some web sites

I have a couple of suspected reasons why this has not yet and most likely never will be implemented.  Currently to import and export bookmarks, you have to do this with the full version of the browser and that means you have to do it on a Mac.  I have written about this in a previous post; in the past I have spun up an AWS server to migrate bookmarks from Edge to Firefox because you cannot do this on an iPad.

Recently when I moved from Firefox to Safari, I had to create an account on my wife's Macbook and do the migration there, and have that sync back to the iPad.  A complete waste of time of course but that is the only way to do it.  This sort of thing is how Apple ensure that you purchase a Mac of some sort to support your iOS devices (among other reasons of course).

Which leads me to why the iPad will most likely never have a full browser.  A full browser will in all likelihood eliminate the need for many of the apps in the app store.  I wonder how much revenue Apple would lose if that happened?  If I can use the web site then why do I need the apps?  In fact my iPad has very few apps on it, as I use the browser for almost all the apps I might otherwise have from the app store. In most cases the experience is much better than the apps.  My banking, investing, email, project management etc. are all done using web portals, and not iPad apps. 

Frankly putting a full browser on an iPad effectively turns in into Apples version of a Chromebook because at that point, you only really need the browser.  At that point, the only difference between the iPad and Chromebook would be some of the content creation apps, and gaming.  And as my use case features neither of those, I could use a Chromebook. 

I have reviewed Chromebooks in the past and while I like the concept, I still think the iPad is better.  But you can see the danger here for Apple.  So I am disappointed in Apple for not making Safari better on the iPad but at the same time I see the danger in them doing so and a potential loss of revenue, that they may not want to take just so that I can import and export my bookmarks.

iOS 15 Thoughts

With the recent announcement of iOS15 and iPadOS15, it has caused me to think some more about how I use my iPad and other iDevices.  As some of you know from previous posts, my daily PC is a 2020 model 12.9" iPad Pro.  As a daily PC, it works very well for me.  Bear in mind that my use case is a little different from some of the folks you see on YouTube doing reviews etc.  

I typically use my iPad for web browsing, research, studying, email, and social medial (Blogger, Wordpress, Twitter and so on).  I have not entered the realm of video yet, but I am considering it.  So I guess you could say I am not a power user and I am definitely not a gamer.  

There have been plenty of reviews of iOS and iPadOS15 out there and I am not going to add to that.  However I am going to discuss some specifics that pertain to my use case.

File Management

I have wanted to see a proper file manager since iPad version 1.  The file manager has of course got a lot better since then but the fundamental problem is that the file management on iPadOS is application based and that makes it tough to change as it would require a dramatic re-write of the operating system. It would also impact a large number of applications.  However the fact is that if like me, you work on projects with a variety of file types, and you want to archive them in one place, thats a tall order when everything is application based.  

I get around this by capturing documents as PDFs and putting all of those in one place.  I just hope that i never have to revisit any of these projects, as part of the archiving process is to delete the originals.  There are also some advantages to this of course.

However, its not all bad news.  We did get the progress bar!  This is something that was sadly lacking - file transfers were quite the guessing game until now.  Glad to see that (basic level of) functionality has finally been included. 

One last comment on file management and that is the new sidebar that is being added to the Apple applications for basic file management in the application.  There are some aspects of the side bar that just irritate the living shit out of me.  And that brings me to an app I spend some time in; the Photos app.

Photos App

Please for the love of all that is holy give me a way to turn off the memories function. It is obnoxious and intrusive. I positively hate it.  Apparently in iPadOS15 we are getting more of this function!

The built in library menu needs to, at a minimum, be minimized but I would prefer to be able to use the edit function and turn it off.  I never use these functions, and frankly the FOR YOU function is completely useless and could be deleted completely.  I have no idea why it is there as it serves no useful function. 

It would also be really useful if I could move My Albums to the top of this menu as that is the function I use the most and it sucks to have to keep scrolling down to the bottom to find it. I never use the Utilities and I never use Media Types. Again, for me these entries serve no purpose.

This begs the question, why is the most useless function in the Photos app getting expanded on?  Am I missing something here?

Something that should have been added is a way to see what pictures are NOT in albums, or at least a view where I can only see pictures not in albums.  I like to organize my photos by events, and the albums allow me to do that. It is my preferred way to work.  The Photos app defaults to all pictures all the time and it makes sorting them really awkward.

iPhone Apps

This has also been a complaint of mine,  I use my iPad on a Magic Keyboard.  It's always in landscape mode.  The problem arises when I need to use an app that only has an iPhone version - like the Instagram app. In the current and previous versions of iPad OS these iPhone apps only work in portrait mode.  This seems like a bit of a short coming and I would refuse to even load these apps on the iPad because that is a jarring surprise every time I click on one of these apps.  Best just not to have them.

Thankfully Apple have finally realized that this is a problem (not the fastest out of the gate are they?) and resolved it in iPadOS15.

So what else is there in iPad OS15 that I am looking forward to getting?  Nothing.  There is nothing else that really impacts me as a user. Most of the 'enhancements' (and I would argue that these are not enhancements but rather bug fixes and completion of software items released before they were truly ready) don't actually impact the way I use my iPad.  The items that would have impact on daily use, have not been implemented.

iCollect

 So as the title states, iCollect. Over the past few months I seem to have collected a few i-devices.  Apple loves me I think. 

iPad Pro

This is my main machine, my desktop replacement. I used to be a desktop PC guy, but for a number of reasons (spending too much time playing Command and Conquer, and the fact that I HAD to be in the office to use it) I decided to eliminate it and move to a tablet as my main tool for online tasks.  On this iPad pro machine I do all the stuff that I would have done on my old desktop.  I have no regretted that decision.

12.9” iPad Pro 2020 with Bluetooth mouse

iPad Mini

I like the mini.  It is as capable as the larger iPad (at least it is for what I do - I recognize that the iPad Pro has a lot more processing and graphics horsepower than the mini), but so much smaller.  I generally use it as an alternative e-reader. I love the screen quality, but also the flexibility in use.  I can also chat on Slack, browse Twitter and IG and check my investments.

iPhone SE

My phone of course.  This is the heart of my communications although I almost never make phone calls.  It’s all text, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and Slack. And of course a whole bunch of other apps. I even trade bitcoin on this thing.

i-Watch Series 4 (44mm)

This was a hand me down from the wife and it is of course, rose gold.  I don’t wear it although I could wear it as a pocket watch and I have a nice black case for that. However its current use is as a bedside clock, a function it excels at.

The littlest MAC!

Other honorable Mentions

I have a couple of other devices that I use; a Boox e-reader and a Huawei Honor band 5.  The band I use all the time but the Boox has been supplanted by the iPad Mini so I might pass it on to someone via CraigsList. I haven’t decided about its fate yet but I know I prefer the iPad mini to the Boox.  Of course the Boox has the edge in terms of battery usage by a wide margin but at this time I am not sure how important that is.

iCloud vs iCloud Drive

 ... or what I have learned so far about how the iPad handles files.

I have made no secret of the fact that I have an issue with the way the iPad handles files, both in terms of local storage and in terms of cloud storage. Frankly it is terrible. However I think I have come to understand how this all works and its a bit of a shift in the way you look at data.

If, like me you have come from a PC background, then you expect a file system to operate in a certain way. Generally speaking the file system is integrated into the OS.  With the iPad, this is not the case at all.  

Third party File Apps

While iOS now comes with FILES for handling files, its not that great. There are some much better file management tools out there and my favorite right now is Documents by Readdle. It handles file management well, but it also allows the opening and viewing of many file formats. 

I have audio, video and various other file types in my documents, and for the most part, Documents handles them all quite happily.

There is also Goodreader. I have it installed but have not really used it yet.  Seems like it does almost every Documents will do but looks a little clunkier.

iCloud vs iCloud Drive

But this is the crux of why I am writing this. It took me a while to get my head around this but iCloud and iDrive are two different things. 

iCloud is your total storage space which includes backup service, photo storage, and Apple application file storage as well as iCloud drive, a general file store. 

iCloud Drive is that part of the iCloud storage that acts like a USB or external hard drive. It has a file system and holds all of your documents. 

The beauty in both iCloud Drive and iCloud is that it can sync across all of your devices, reducing the amount of data you need to store because a lot of your data is common to all of your devices.  So imagine combining DropBox with a backup service and that is essentially what you have with iCloud.

It takes a little getting used to if you are a PC person like me, but it works, and for the most part, works well.

Day One and the Human Syslog

So for a while now I have been trying to figure out how to make a sort of syslog for humans.  The theory goes like this:

We do things in our lives that we may (if we are OCD like I am) want to keep track of. Things like doctor visits, life events, emails to people, social media posts and so on. 

Some people are good at this journal thing and can quite easily keep a diary or journal of the things they need to remember, but I am not one of them.

However I figured out that a lot of this information can (and should) be able to be imported into a Syslog, automatically.  If this is the case, then the volume of manual input journal items becomes less, and thus less of a chore.

My wife uses an app called Day One, and recommended it as it does have some simple hooks into other applications.  So I downloaded it and this is what I have created so far. 

I paid for the premium version of the app so that I have the ability to use multiple journals and the various input methods.

I have the following journals:

• All Entries - this is stream showing all your log entries, This is auto created.
• My Log - this is where I write my own log entries
• Work log - this is where I write work log entries
• Physical Health - I log anything to do with my physical health here
• Mental Health - Currently empty ....
• Instagram - all my Instagram posts are reposted here
• Auto Log - this is where all the auto generated content is directed to,

For the manual logs (mine, work, and the health logs) I can create templates to make the job a little easier.  

The Auto log journal accepts inputs from a variety of sources.  All of these currently feed the auto log.

• Blogger RSS feed - puts a link to any blog post I publish
• Pocket to Day One - any link I put in pocket is also pushed to the log
• Google Calendar Import - any even on my specified calendar is pushed to the log
• Email to auto log - I can cc or bcc emails to the log

This is my first attempt and I suspect I am over complicating the thing. 

Do I really need to have the links to my blog in the feed for instance?  What problem or purpose is that solving?

What I want to do is have a clear visibility into activity that potentially goes back a few years.  In a recent doctor visit I was asked the dates of certain procedures that I have had, and if I had something like this on my phone I could have looked it up,  Of course, I did not have that information when I needed it.

I suspect this will require a lot more noodling but I think I have the right app at least.

Medical Technology

I don’t usually post medical stuff as it is not something I usually consider my field of technology, and I also have a whole other blog about that, but today I make an exception.

Today I took a day off work and had a colonoscopy.  This is my 4th in 5 years and while I really detest having these things, I have them for good reason.

Back in 2015 I knew I had a colon problem. I won’t get into the gory reasons why I knew this, but lets just say I knew.  A quick visit to my family doctor (GP for you Brits out there) and I had my first colonoscopy lined up.  

I had this back when I lived in GA, at one of the Atlanta Gastroenterology centers.  The procedure really is painless, short and I encourage everyone to have one for screening purposes. In my case, my issue was discovered, and found to be a polyp. The polyp was removed and subsequent testing indicated that it was cancerous. Lucky for me, it was just the polyp and the cancer had not spread any further, 

Having removed the polyp, I had to have a follow up colonoscopy shortly afterwards and another colonoscopy to check for further polyps a year later.  So in the space of almost two years, I had three colonoscopies. 

After the last one was clear so I was supposed to schedule my next one in three years just to make sure where we no more polyps. Well today was that day, and a small polyp was indeed found.  I have to wait a few days for the pathology results but I am not concerned.

The moral of this story is manyfold; if I were not living in this age, that polyp would never have been found I would likely have died a painful death of colon cancer.  The technology that we have can be put to good use by good people and this is yet another example where literally lives can be saved by the tech that we have.

But lastly, I would encourage everyone to have a screening when your doctor recommends it. In my case, my problem was around the time when I was due for me first screening, so I would have had one anyway, and in my case I can say I survived cancer, because of early screening.

New Phone Plan

I have a new phone plan. I have talked about the phone plan before and I have finally pulled the trigger on a new plan. I have ported my number from Verizon to Tello. 

We were paying $50/month for the Verizon plan. The plan was an unlimited plan so unlimited data is good right? Except that I can’t really tether with it.  We also are still in quarantine and most of the time we are on WiFi. So that unlimited data does me no good - my most recent Verizon bill showed 0.05GB data used over a month.

So the new plan is from Tello which uses the Sprint network.  It has unlimited talk and text, and 1GB of data. While it is not a lot of data, I can tether with it. So far so good, but the best bit is the $10/month fee.

Given that I am not using data, and almost never use the phone to talk, I think this should be fine.

I will report back after a couple of months on how well this plan works.

iPad OS 14 is here

I took the plunge and updated my iPad to IOS14, and so far I have been very underwhelmed.  These are my thoughts on the new version of iPadOS.  According to articles out on the internet, there are 14-25 major changes to iPad OS and over 100 smaller changes. Out of all of those changes, these are the ones that I have actually made any of use of or noticed.

Widgets

These got a lot more complicated and unnecessary.  I really don't use them that much, so I just don't care. The only thing I noticed was that it took me a little longer to get them set back up the way I had them before. 

Change Default Programs

This I do use. Safari is a piece of junk and currently I use Edge so I found this useful.

New and Redesigned Sidebars

I like the idea of the sidebar, but (especially in Photos) I don't like the fixed categories at the top of the sidebar. They do absolutely nothing for me except get in my way. It is the same for the Media types and shared albums but at least those can be collapsed.  They need to allow the removal or collapse of the default side bar menu items. 

These fuckers I do not need. Ever.

Updated Shortcuts App

I have struggled to find anything worth doing with the short cuts. Is it me, or is that mostly crap. What I did notice was the folders which might be useful as I now have three i-devices, but frankly I really can't find anything helpful that the shortcuts do.  I have the same issue with my IFTTT account also.  Great idea in principal, but execution sucks ass. 

A lot of the other improvements and upgrades are introducing the sort of functionality is aught to have had anyway, so in many ways, the OS upgrade is simply keeping pace with everything else out there. Not really anything to write home about IMHO.

Frankly I think this was a missed opportunity.  I would like to see a better way of organizing apps and no I don’t need the App Library or drawer or what ever they are calling it.  I have that now on my phone and I find it more of a pain than anything else.  Maybe also put some effort into bringing the file system and file management into the 21st century.

And that's it. Out of all the changes made, these are the only one's that have actually had an impact on me. I wonder what drives these changes because most, from what I have been able to read about appear to be quite trivial and yet this iPadOS14 was billed as a major change. Makes you wonder. Now if only they had created a decent file system ...

More iPad File Handling

One of the most annoying things to get used to is the way the iPad handles files.  

A desktop machine does two things where file handling is concerned;

• There is a data base of file extensions mapped to applications so the file manager knows what to do with the file if you ask to open it.

• The file manager has access to all the files on your disk.  This behavior can be limited to avoid corrupting the operating system, through the use of elevated rights but fundamentally you have access to everything.

This is not the case with iOS.  Each application keeps a small data base of the files it knows about and that is all.  So for instance, when using Documents, I can open and read Google files (sheets etc) but I cannot edit them.  Documents knows what these files are and can read them but cannot launch the Google application to allow editing.

So this means that working from the file manager as I would on a full PC is not practical on an iOS tablet and I have to come up with a better way of operating.

Just last night I was trying to move some files around and ran into problems.  My wife and I have a joint space in Dropbox and we keep our photo album in there.  The photo album is structured as a a folder with each sub folder being an event, and each folder is named by date and the event name.

We had been for a hike and had taken some photos and I needed to move the pictures from Apple Photos to Dropbox, and put them into a folder with the appropriate date and name.  Doing this from the file manager is impossible.  What you have to do is go to the Dropbox application, create the folder, and then upload the pics from the Apple Photos application.  Apparently one does not need the file manager and this is an interesting approach to file management, at least it is for someone used to a desktop machine.

 

It really was a great day for a hike!

So as I get used to this new way of working, I think the take away here is that one doesn’t necessarily need the file manager, just the individual applications - so rather than looking for a file manager that works the same way a desktop file manager works, I have a group of applications that is labeled file management and consists of Dropbox, GDrive, OneDrive, Apple Photots, Files and Documents. This is essentially my ‘file manager’.