Category: apple

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Apple’s Image Playground

One of the new features for the Mac is Apple Intelligence. I was curious about Image Playground and how that would work.

Produce fun, original images in seconds with the Image Playground experience right in your apps. Create an entirely new image based on a description, suggested concepts, and even a person from your Photos library.

Having tried it, I would say it is nothing special. Yes the images are nice, but you can tell they are AI generated. It also doesn’t do photorealistic images.

As a tool to create some fun images to share with friends, yes it’s fine, so use it for that.

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M4 Mac mini

Mac mini

I recently replaced my old iMac with a new M4 Mac mini. I went for the base model.

      • 10-Core CPU
      • 10-Core GPU
      • 16GB Unified Memory
      • 256GB SSD Storage

I have been meaning to replace the iMac for a while now, as it is old, and is no longer supported by Apple. I have replaced the fusion drive twice on the iMac, and I think that means it probably would go again at some point in the future.

So far, I have been really impressed. The new Mac mini is really zippy and certainly is fast enough for virtually everything I want to do with a Mac. 

The only real negative is the size of the hard drive. At 256GB it’s rather small. However the 2TB storage option would have cost an additional £800. Decided it would be easier to buy an external 4TB storage for £100 or thereabouts.

I got a 4K monitor to run it with, as well as a cheap Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

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Mapping it badly

I have noticed a glitch with Apple Maps on CarPlay on the Ora Funky Cat ever since I upgraded to iOS 18.

Starting CarPlay, opening Apple Maps I am in completely the wrong location.

I upgraded to iOS 18, the previous evening and when I tried Apple Maps and it came up as a blank map and crashed CarPlay.

Upon restarting, Apple Maps showed I was in Biggin Hill, which is 160 miles away…. it never corrected.

Should add that Waze and Google Maps showed the correct location.

On my next attempt, Maps did correct itself and the next day it was working as expected.

And this evening none of it was working properly.

I can’t seem to find the setting in the car, on CarPlay, or on the iPhone to force the car to use the phone GPS. 

The “error” appears to be the same error with the location of the car on the Ora app. That error has been with the app ever since I got the car, it places the car about a hundred miles to the East.

I am wondering if I open the Apple Maps app on the phone before going to the car, will that make a difference?

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You blocked this channel

screenshot of Apple news saying "You blocked this channel"

I am pretty sure that Apple News doesn’t understand the meaning of blocked.

I blocked a channel in Apple News, now as I understand the reason I blocked the channel was because I didn’t want to see articles from that channel in my news stream.

However despite blocking the channel, the stories still appear in the stream.

I can still see the headline, the only difference is that the story picture has been replaced with the words You blocked this channel. The story is still a live link, yes you get a warning, but I am not sure that this would count as blocking.

The way I would like it to work, is that when I block a channel I don’t ever see it again. There could be a list of blocked channels, in settings, but otherwise I wouldn’t want to see it.

If I hide photos in Photos then I don’t see the hidden photographs, but I can access them if I need to. I don’t believe I can hide channels in Apple News.

So, though I have blocked stuff, I still see it, what is that about.

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My Photo Stream is Dead

My Photo Stream stopped working on the 26th June. Yesterday I got an email from Apple which said it had been shut down.

This is a quick notice that My Photo Stream has now been officially shut down.

I really liked My Photo Stream, but time moves on. I have moved over to iCloud Photos instead.

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Unable to Upload, resolved!

screengrab of Photos

After syncing my Photos library to iCloud Photos I was left with 86 photographs which Photos was unable to upload.

It wasn’t initially clear why they were unable to be uploaded.

The solution I found on the web was to export the original files and then delete them from Photos and then import them into Photos.

When I tried that I got a 47,001 unknown error, which wasn’t really very helpful.

However after doing some more searching, the issue appeared to be that the original files were missing from the library and all that remained was the low resolution thumbnail.

As I had already made a back up of my photographs to Amazon Photos, I was able to find the originals on that service, download them, import them to Photos and then upload to iCloud Photos.

All fine now.

Makes you realise the importance of having your photographs in more than one place.

I have a minimum of two backups, one on an external drive and one in the cloud. 

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iCloud Photos Folders

Elizabeth Line train

It took a while to sync my iMac Photos library to iCloud. Initially I was concerned that the folders on my iMac weren’t syncing to iCloud, but after the iMac had finished uploading all the photographs in the library, the folders were then created on iCloud. Though my smart albums weren’t synced.

While the iMac was uploading photographs, it wasn’t initially downloading the photographs I had been taking with my iPhone, which was also using iCloud Photos. However, as with the folders, once it had finished uploading, iCloud Photos downloaded the new photographs to the iMac.

Overall I am pleased with moving to iCloud Photos, it does what I want.

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iCloud Photos issues

I switched on iCloud Photos after using My Photo Stream for years and it then turned off by Apple.

I have noticed one problem with iCloud Photos and various iOS apps including Instagram and Snapseed.

The issue arises when you access the PhotoStream, there is a noticeable delay in the images appearing in the app.

With Instagram, you have to wait a while and even tap the screen before the images appear. Then the camera feed appears.

It is a similar story with Snapseed.

It also can take a while to swipe through your images with Snapseed.

It is easier to tap Open from device and then browse for the photo you need then.

I don’t know if there is a solution, at the moment it is more annoying than anything else. Initially I thought the Instagram app was broken, rather than thinking it was an issue with iCloud Photos.

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Moving to iCloud Photos

I really liked My Photo Stream. It made my blogging and writing workflow so much easier. I would take a photo on my phone and then using My Photo Stream I would be able to use the photo on my iPad or my Mac. So I was quite disappointed that Apple have closed it down.

According to Apple the solution is to move to iCloud Photos.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that as I knew I would need to upgrade my iCloud+ subscription to the 2TB tier.

So for a week or two I tried doing stuff without My Photo Stream and without using iCloud Photos.

After a while it was apparent that this wasn’t working. So at the beginning of July I upgraded my iCloud+ subscription and on my home iMac I turned on iCloud Photos.

I knew it would take some time to sync my photo library to iCloud as I have over 70,000 photographs in the library.

I did initially have some teething issues, so had to restart the iMac and Photos a few times, but so far it appears to be working as needed. 

I also turned iCloud Photos on, on my iPhone to check it was working.

The photographs I take on my iPhone are now available in iCloud Photos on my other devices.

I do quite like the ability to access all my photographs on my iPhone, whereas with My Photo Stream it was only the last 1000 photos.

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AirPlay Hotel

hotel room

I have blogged recently about my problems and successes with using my Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter. I did write this:

I did check online for a solution, others had experienced the same problem. The solution offered though was to use AirPlay. Great if you have that set up (which I do at home with an Apple TV). However I don’t have that setup when travelling to different hotels.

So I was pleased to hear about AirPlay Hotel.

‌AirPlay‌ will also work with supported televisions in hotels, allowing users to easily enjoy their favorite content on the TV when traveling. Built with a foundation of privacy and security, this capability will be available before the end of the year in select hotels, starting with brands from IHG Hotels & Resorts.

Initially available across (some of) the IHG hotel chain, hopefully other hotel chains (and independents) will take up the technology as well.