Posts

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Widgets on the CarPlay

I just discovered I could have widgets with CarPlay. Checking online I discovered that this was a feature with the iOS 26 upgrade. Obviously when this was released I hadn’t checked the the release notes.

What I like is that I can have a clock widget and a weather widget. The Funky Cat does display that information, but it is in very small text on the car home screen. I often have to ask Ora what the temperature is, which of course, switches CarPlay back to the Ora infotainment screen.

Not all the widgets I have seem to work or have a function (even in park).

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Apple at 50 and the Mac

Apple started back in 1976, though I am old enough to remember 1976, my personal history with Apple begins half way through their fifty year history in 2001.

In my computing for personal and professional reasons I was a Windows user. I was aware of Apple computers in the 1990s and was impressed with the new G3 iMac in 1998 and liked the different colours. However, I was ensconced in a Windows ecosystem so why would I use a Mac?

In 2001 that reason came to ahead when I was working for a consortium of colleges supporting them with online learning, and one of those colleges said we use Macs, specifically G4 PowerMac computers so we had to get a Mac. Looking over the Apple range, I saw that the “cheapest” G4 Mac was a G4 PowerBook. I recall saying to myself, well if I am going to need to support users of Macs, then I better familiarise myself with the Mac. I got the second generation 550MHz G4 Titanium PowerBook.

It was a couple of weeks, and I was a convert to the Mac. I remember getting the PowerBook an Airport card so that I could have Wi-Fi.

Over the next few years, I upgraded the PowerBook to a 1.5GHz G4 Aluminium PowerBook with integrated Airport Extreme.

In 2003 when the Power Mac G5 was released I got one of those to use, a Dual 2GHz model.

The next Mac I got was something of a disappointment. Apple moved over to Intel, and I got an Intel iMac. I think the issue was the lack of RAM more than anything, it came with 1GB of RAM.

It wasn’t that long before I upgraded my computer to a 27” iMac with more RAM. The screen was amazing.

At this time, I was working for an FE college and with the funding I was successful in bidding for I was able to almost get a new MacBook every year, well every time a new model was released. The replaced models were then redeployed in the college.

When I changed jobs, I did have an 11” MacBook for a while which was perfect for working whilst travelling. I also tried out the cylindrical Mac Pro for a while which was very fast (at the time).

My next home device was the 27” Retina iMac. This was a great computer except one feature which was the fusion drive. It failed twice on my iMac, resulting in a replacement at the Apple Store.

I did use this computer for many years, but eventually it was used less and eventually was no longer supported by Apple.

Today (after a few laptops) my main Apple device is an M4 Mac mini which is certainly up to the job. I did once use a G4 Mac mini which I always thought was an amazingly small computer for what it could do. Likewise, I also liked the compact, thinner unibody aluminium version as well. The smaller footprint of the current version takes that concept of a tiny computer one step further.

Despite the fusion drive issues, if I was to say which of the Apple computers I have used was my favourite, it would be the 27” Retina iMac. Though the 11” MacBook and the Power Mac G5 are very close runners up.

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Not available in your country

So there I was listening to MacBreak Weekly and one of the picks of the week was an AI dictation tool from Google, AI Edge Eloquent. It sounded quite interesting and I was intrigued. This wasn’t an AI tool that created text, this was a dictation tool that used AI to enhance dictation. It was iPhone only, which was interesting that Google didn’t use Android, however the analysis in the podcast was that the app needed the processing power of the iPhone.

I went to download it from the App Store to find that it wasn’t available in the UK. Checking the website I found this in the FAQ.

However, availability in the UK, Switzerland, the EEA, and Brazil is currently restricted due to regulatory approval requirements. 

Looks like I will need to wait for a while.

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Charging at Darts Farm

Down in Devon in Topsham, close to Exeter is Darts Farm, a wonderful farm shop. I discovered it through the Tesla App, as they have a bank of Tesla chargers which my Funky Cat can use.

I have used them a number of times now, and each time the experience has been seamless. This is a little surprising as these are the V3 chargers and in some places I have had issues with charging with these with the connection failing and then I have to pop the bonnet of the Funky Cat to manually release the charging cable. I never have issues with the bigger V4 chargers, these are at Reading Services for example.

At Darts Farm it is a simple matter to set the charge going on the app, plugging the charge cable into the Funky Cat and all is well. I then head off to the shop, either to buy some amazing produce, or get a drink in the cafe.

The location is ideal when visiting places in Devon (even Dorset).

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Charging once more at the National Trust

Castle

More and more National Trust properties are putting in EV charging stations. These are mainly fast chargers, which means they are the slower 11kWh chargers, which are in fact ideal when visiting a property.

I recently visited Castle Drogo down in Devon, upon my arrival I was able to park and connect my car to the charger. You can use the Chargepoint app if you want, I though used contactless. Unlike many other chargers which use contactless they only take a £15 hold on your card. BP Pulse took a £50 hold on a recent charge in comparison. The cost was 50p kWh which I thought was reasonable for a public charger.

What this meant of course, was when my visit to the property was over, the Funky Cat was at a 100% charge ready for the journey home.

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170 miles again

I do realise that the predicted range is based on my previous driving, and that will vary depending on which roads I am driving, use of heating and air-conditioning, acceleration and regenerative braking.

I would normally expect in the colder months the predicted mileage to be in the 140-150 mile range, so when I recently charged to 100% I had a predicted range of 170 miles. That also happened last month.

That was a little surprising, this was before a long motorway trip, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise the next time I charged to 100% the range has dropped down to 151 miles.

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Zooming in with the iPhone

I recently upgraded my phone to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, I went with this model for two core reasons, one was the bigger screen, I like a phone with a big screen, two was the photographic capabilities of the Pro Max compared to the other phones in the 17 range.

The power of the iPhone camera system gives you a wide range of focal lengths with exceptional framing flexibility — from sharp close‑ups to sweeping wide shots that let you capture more of a scene without stepping back. And get up close like never before with 8x optical-quality zoom on iPhone 17 Pro — the longest zoom ever on an iPhone.

The 17 Pro Max has the following capabilities:

    • 48MP Pro Fusion camera system 
    • 48MP Fusion Main 
    • 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide 
    • 48MP Fusion Telephoto

Compare that to the standard 17 which has:

    • 48MP Pro Fusion camera system 
    • 48MP Fusion Main 
    • 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide

The iPhone Air and the iPhone 17e have the following:

    • 48MP Fusion camera system 
    • 48MP Fusion Main

Over the years I have made extensive use of the ultra wide capability on my old iPhone, but one thing I missed was an optical telephoto lens. I knew I could zoom in digitally, but that wasn’t the same as using a telephoto lens.

So, I did want to give it a go, so when I was down on Weston beach I took a photograph of the Grand Pier.

Then I zoomed in…

Now this isn’t even the full zoom, but I was impressed with the results.

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Watch out, that worked

Nyhavn

I recently bought an Ultra Compact Power Bank to replace my existing power bank and to use on long day trips. I wrote previously about how on my day trip to Venice I only planned to take my phone and the power bank. I also thought I should be able to charge my Apple Watch as well if that ran out of power.

Now the power bank worked a treat in charging the phone. Towards the end of that day I noted that my Apple Watch was down to 1%. So I retrieved the USB-C watch charging cable from my bag, plugged it into the USB-C port on the power bank and watched the watch literally not charge.

This time, when I went to Copenhagen, I took the USB-A charging cable that came with the watch and this (having tested it earlier) worked a treat in charging the watch.

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iCloud sync issues

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

One of the reasons I use iCloud is that I often use two different systems for writing. I have a MacBook Air and a Mac mini. I will often start writing on the MacBook Air and then do some more on the Mac mini.

Usually I don’t have sync issues, but over the last few weeks I have noticed that text I wrote on one machine disappeared when I opened the document on the other machine. This happened with both Pages and Word files.

I am not entirely sure of what the issue is, I think it may be because I have not necessarily saved the file on one Mac and then when (later I) access the file on the other Mac it takes the cloud version, saves it, and then saves back to the cloud. As it is more recent, then the other Mac uses that file rather than the older unsaved version.

I think that is the problem, but I haven’t been able to replicate the problem either.

Since then I have been taking care to save files more often. Also, been closing files rather than leaving them open.

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Charging at the National Trust

I recently visited Stourhead, my last visit was nearly ten years ago back in May 2016.

 Having arrived at the property, I was pleased to see EV chargers, so I put the Funky Cat on charge. I could use contactless to start the charge, though if you have the ChargePoint app you can use that. I did in fact try to use the ChargePoint app, which then attempted to charge my debit card, which the bank blocked. No idea why, so I avoided the app and used ApplePay instead.

As well as 22 kWh EV chargers, Stourhead also had some rapid chargers which looked like they could deliver more charge (so faster charging). I was less pleased to see that there had been a cable theft from the rapid chargers.

It all worked out using the 22kWh chargers, though the Funky Cat can only draw down 11KwH.

When a couple of weeks later, I made a trip to Kingston Lacy, another National Trust property down in Dorset I was pleased to see they also had chargers. I headed to the EV charging and I put the Funky Cat on charge.

By the time I finished my visit to the house and gardens, the Funky Cat was at 100%. I had time left, and it was only twenty miles away I headed off to Corfe Castle.

I parked in the National Trust car park, and was pleased to see they also had EV chargers. I didn’t put the car on charge, but with hindsight, it might have been a good idea, but I hadn’t used that much charge travelling there. In the end I didn’t need to charge on my way home.

With the often rural locations, travelling to National Trust properties often means finding a charge on the way there or the way home. However, as the National Trust starts to install more chargers at different properties it becomes a lot easier for EV drivers.