My favorite tech of 2023.

Siri, ugh! Need I say more?

Important and useful increasing the life of devices.

Not a technology I thought I would be discussing.

Yay!!

Sometimes it doesn’t work.

Great tool for iPad users even if you don’t draw.

This week I discuss Apple’s new Journal App.

After the thoughts on Apple’s Scary Fast video drop.

Initial thoughts on the Scary Fast Apple Event.

First time, for me, smart home additions.

When technology doesn’t work it can be very frustrating. Maybe we should be amazed that it ever works.

The Refoss garage door add on turns any garage door opener into a smart appliance. Works great.

So far so good.

The saga of purchasing products on release day at an Apple Store.

My thoughts on Apple’s latest hardware announcement.

Only tech news I’m talking about.

Ramblings on electronic document signing.

Apple Watch and health.

Apple makes great products on their own. But the system continuity makes them all work together. Hard to beat.

A couple handful of iOS keyboard tricks.

The ugly necessity.

Ask your techie friends for help. They will.

What do I mean by technology?

WWDC 2023: macOS Sonoma Preview

My thoughts on iPadOS 17.

WWDC 2023 iOS 17 Preview

WWDC 2023: My impressions of watchOS 10.

WWDC 2023 common OS updates across all.

WWDC 2023 Overview

Use it!!

Car seats have technology?

The system for keeping a pool clean and inviting is neat technology.

Third HomeKit installment covers door lock and sensors. Information on installation, use, and automation possibilities.

Easiest place to start smart home setup is lights.

How to start a new home.

Using the health functions of the Apple Watch.

Try it and you might like it.

Safari Tab Groups - A great way to tame your Safari tabs.

Stay focused to accomplish.

Today on my microcast, Technology Bytes, I discuss Adaptive Cruise Control.

I drive a Honda Civic so I will be discussing Adaptive Cruise Control as implemented by Honda. Honda also includes what they call Low Speed Follow in their adaptation.

Adaptive Cruise Control is a technology that allows a vehicle to set a cruise control speed that is met when no cars are in close proximity going slower than the set speed. If a vehicle is going slower in front of the one using Adaptive Cruise Control that car also slows. In other words, it adapts to the speed of traffic at the moment. It is very nice to have and make driving in traffic a much better experience.

In the Honda world you can set the sensitivity (distance) you want to keep from the vehicle in front of you and it also will adjust speed all the way to stop if that is what happens. If the traffic starts moving within a couple of seconds of the stop Adaptive Cruise Control with Slow Speed Follow will start to move as well. It is almost magical. If the traffic stops for too long the driver must press the accelerator to get the vehicle moving but soon after Adaptive Cruise Control will re-activate.

I believe this to be a great safety feature as the camera looking at traffic is never distracted. If the drive is distracted the vehicle will not collide with stopped traffic. The Adaptive Cruise Control also fights driver fatigue. Stop and go traffic is the worst driving condition and wears on the nerves of every driver. Adaptive Cruise Control minimizes this effort and fatigue.

I believe that Adaptive Cruise Control should be a requirement for all vehicles driven on roads in the United States. I also believe that the government should require all drivers to activate Adaptive Cruise Control during any freeway driving (or distance driving on two lane roads). I have know idea how that could or would be inforced but if possible it would do much to eliminate accidents from distracted and fatigued drivers. Also the flow of traffic would not be reliant on a driver reacting in a timely manner to the traffic in front of them. All cars would react almost simultaneously and traffic jams would become a problem of the past.

This may be wishful thinking on my part but I will always and continuously use Adaptive Cruise Control during all of my freeway or distance excursions.

If you have it use it.

Today on my microcast, Technology Bytes, I discuss Apple’s Universal Control.

What is Universal Control? Universal Control is a combination software and hardware technology that Apple developed to make interoperability between their devices easier. Basically, Universal Control allows one mouse and keyboard to control multiple hardware devices simultaineously. In my situation Universal Control allows me to use my iMac’s mouse and keyboard to control my MacBook Air, my iMac and my iPad.

How does it work? If I knew the answer to that question I would probably be working for Apple. I am sure software developers could explain the function but from my point of view it is pure magic. I just know that it works and makes me a more productive user. More on this later.

What are the requirements? In order for one to use Universal Control their devices must be “fairly” modern and running one of Apple’s more modern operating systems. This link will take you to Apple’s definition of the requirements. In general you need a Mac running, at a minimum, macOS Monterey 12.4 and if you are using an iPad it must be running at least iPadOS 15.4. Hardware requirements are Macs from 2016 and on, all iPad Pros or an iPad from that same era. See the link above for more details.

My setup is a 2023(purchased in) iMac 24” middle of the road model. A 2021 MacBook Air one step up from the base model and a 2022 iPad Pro. All of my devices have the same M1 chip with 8GB of RAM and 256GB harddrives. I am running the latest Beta version of the operating systems on all of my devices and I run stage manager on all my systems as well.

Recently I decided to upgrade my monitor realestate at work. Work is all PC environment so I purchase my own hardware since I live in the Apple ecosystem. I went to the Apple Store and was looking at the Studio Display as an option. I hooked one to my iPad and was very excited to see it work. Stage manager allowed me to run 5 apps on my iPad and an additional 5 separate apps on the Studio Display. I also knew it would work with my MacBook Air. The one limitation was that I could only hook up one device at a time to the Studio Display.

Then I saw the 24” iMac on the adjacent table and wondered if I could use that and Universal Control as an option. I couldn’t try to system in-store as they would not allow me to login on the iMac with my Apple ID, a requirement for Universal Control. The only option was to purchase and return if it didn’t work to my satisfaction. Although the screen is smaller, 24” versus 27”, the cost was about $400 less so I decided to give it a try.

I have not returned the iMac. Universal Control works so well. I have significantly increased my screen realestate while adding another CPU to power my work operations. Controlling all three devices with one mouse and keyboard makes it work much like a second screen with universal copy and paste and the ability to drag and drop between devices. I also can use the iMac by itself when I don’t need a second screen. I am totally enjoying the experience.

I have had a few connection issues but I am thinking that might be tied to the use of Beta operating systems. One drawback is the lack of troubleshooting that can be done to make Universal Control operation return. If always requires a reboot of one system or the other. The iPad always works and is a good test to help me determine which system needs a reboot, iMac or MacBook Air.

Some might think that keeping multiple computers “synced” would be an issue. However, with iCloud and the requirement of the same Apple ID it works great. My systems are always synced. I also use Safari Tab Groups extensively and it is nice to have all three systems Safari synced in real time.

I am a very happy customer. Try and you may be the same. Sold.

Apple’s Universal Control is very slick and useful.

Today on my microcast, Technology Bytes, I discuss the MVNO service as it relates to wearables.

MVNOs stands for Mobile Virtual Network Operators. For the content of this post I am only discussing the MVNOs who offer cellular service in the United States as a business. These companies are able to use the backbone of the three main service providers to offer cellular service at a, most often, discount rate.

The three main providers in the US are AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. There are many MVNOs that offer service on top of these providers. I was surprised to learn that there are at least 139 companies offering this service. Some are well known (Mint, Cricket, Consumer Cellular) but I was unaware of the majority by name.

Why do MVNOs exist? I am not sure. I didn’t go that deep in my research and was only interested in the fact that they exist. The reason they continue to exist is because the offer a cellular service that is unavailable through the main providers in terms of cost mostly. These providers don’t have the massive infrastructure cost or service cost of the main providers and most often do not have physical stores to maintain either. The reduced cost model is then passed on to the consumer in reasonably priced and quite good (speed and coverage) cellular service. Mint mobile is probably the most well known and the pricing on their service is quite good.

I have often though of moving my family to this service to save money on my cellular bill. Here in lies the rub, wearables. I don’t understand the reason but MVNOs are unable to offer cellular service to wearable devices. If you want or need that type of service you must stay with the main providers.

Many, including technology podcasts, that I hear advertise for these services do not mention this issue. I count on my Apple Watch to have cellular service everyday. I wear my watch in situations where it doesn’t make sense to carry a phone. The cost of the phone compared to the cost of the watch is the basis for the previous statement. It is not that I can’t carry the phone but why take the risk.

Therefore, because I need to be able to stay in-touch with family and emergency services during these physical activities I like to have cellular service available on my wearable which precludes me from switching my service to an MVNO provider. I don’t hear this mentioned often, if ever, and wanted to take a minute to paint a more complete picture.

Wearables and the Mobile Virtual Network Operator.

A brief introduction to the Technology Bytes microcast.