Tag: iPhone

Found my shared Google Calendars

Google Calendar helps my teammates at work with planning 1:1s, conferences, meetups, and reviewing AFK dates. The account is through my employer (Automattic), and I mainly use it on a desktop browser. On my iPhone, Fantastical 2 and Calendars 5.

For several months, I couldn’t view shared calendars on my Automattic account. On my personal Google account, I remembered an obscure Google page that had to be viewed on my iPhone in order to toggle visibility of the calendars.

After searching Google Help pages without success, the “Fantastical 2 for iPhone FAQ” by Flexbits had the correct page for me! 🥳

https://m.google.com/sync/settings/

Years ago, I assume I set up my Google account with Exchange and Google Sync.

This post will be handy if I decide to add another calendar, and I need to see it on my phone. 😄

P.S. I wrote this post from the new WordPress block-based editor! 🤩

Replaced my iPhone 6 battery, part two

UPS (via Next Day Air) delivered the two sets of adhesive strips from iFixit. I’m glad it arrived in the morning. ☀️🛬

Before I started my second attempt, I read the instructions and watched the videos again. 🍿

Read: Part one

iFixit included three words on their box: “You got this.”

They were right. I worked in silence for less than an hour, all went well, and the battery now feels secure. 🔋

I also swapped the Pentalobe screws with Phillips screws from the included Liberation Kit (available with their iPhone 6 Replacement Battery Fix Kit).

I’m sort of ignoring the amount spent for a few reasons. 💸

  • Privacy. I didn’t want to leave my device with a third party for several hours/days.
  • I didn’t have a working backup iPhone to hold me over.
  • I’m saving money by not upgrading to a newer iPhone, especially since my current one is fine.
  • I can be confident to do the same for Amy’s iPhone 6…when she’s ready. 💪🏾
  • Maybe I can do this — and replace the cracked screen (Amy did it) — on my previous iPhone 5s.
  • Fun. I haven’t tinkered like this since I built PCs years ago. See image of Grandpa Simpson yelling at cloud. I’m…not going to link to it. I think you know it. 😉

Questions? 🤓

Replaced my iPhone 6 battery, part one

The good

I disassembled, replaced the battery, and reassembled my iPhone. The instructions from iFixit were solid.

My phone powered up, I don’t see display issues, and Touch ID still works. Feels quicker, too. 💥

CPU benchmarks

These two benchmarks — from Geekbench 4 — correspond to the old and new batteries, respectively. Higher is better.

  • Single-core went from 816 to 1547. Increase (↑) of 89.583%.
  • Multi-core went from 1329 to 2643. Increase (↑) of 98.871%.

With my iPhone not in Low Power Mode when I ran the test, is the large discrepancy due to:

  • The old battery level being at 4%, and
  • The new battery level at around 40%?

I’m…not sure. The battery charge needed to be very low1 before I dug into my iPhone.

With the new battery level at 7%, I ran another CPU benchmark.

The result? Single- and multi-core benchmarks were 1548 and 2674, respectively, which means it wasn’t a fluke. 🙌🏽

Have you seen a comparison posted elsewhere? Let me know in the comments!

The bad

With the new battery, I applied the adhesive on the wrong side, and I initially didn’t order an extra set. 🤦🏾‍♂️

The ugly

To be safe, I ordered two sets of iPhone 6/6s/7 battery adhesive strips with the most expensive shipping. The estimated arrival date is Friday.

Until then, I need to handle my phone with extra care. I definitely won’t carry my phone in my pocket. 😱

Reason: With the bit of extra space not yet taken by adhesive, I need to prevent damage to the internal bits.

The silver lining

I work from home, and don’t need to venture out over the next couple of days. I can still use Authenticator for two-factor authentication.2

Ultimately, Friday isn’t that far off. I’ll do my best to keep that in mind. 😬

Update — Read part two!

 

 

  1. For safety, the instructions state the battery level needs to discharged below 25%. “A charged lithium-ion battery can catch fire and/or explode if accidentally punctured.” 😱 ↩
  2. Yes, I have backup codes. ↩

TaskPaper and my iPhone

I wrote a comment in a previous post (Considering TaskPaper 3) to describe how I could add information to my TaskPaper files with Siri using Reminders and Drafts. Check that out. Now, I’ll briefly explain how I’ve worked with my TaskPaper files on my iPhone so far.

My decision to get TaskMator was based on Gabe Weatherhead’s reviews on Macdrifter. I recommend reading them first. 🙂

This morning, I also listened to Episode 026 — Old Stock Ale and Task Management from Nerds on Draft (an episode from a year ago), which includes some discussion about TaskPaper and TaskMator. (See show notes.)

Anyway. I haven’t used the alarm feature yet. Filtering by project or tag works well. Same with search from the home screen, which seems fast. I’m also fiddling with saved searches:

Due
(@due or @today or @flag) and not @done

Not @done
not (type = note or @done)

Quick tasks <= 15m
@time <= 15 and not (type = note or @done)

At the moment, I omit the notes in some saved searches because I use often include notes. (In the TaskPaper app, I collapse these quickly. All from my keyboard, loving it.) With the above syntax, that means done tasks aren’t displayed even though the notes under those tasks are technically not marked as done.

Anyway, the goal is to narrow the scope of my tasks. I might create two dupes that include notes for more detail.

For adding stuff to my TaskPaper files, I have several actions in Drafts that prepends the chosen draft.

  • TP (Personal)
  • TP (Personal, done)
  • TP (Personal, added)

For the second and third, those are for instances where I only have a single-line draft.1

When ready to clear my “inbox” at the top of the file, and on my iPhone, I can tap each task, and move it to my desired “project”.2 Or, using two fingers—tap and hold the bottom menubar, then proceed tapping the other tasks you’d like to manage—I can add the relevant tags, then move it to the correct project.

I’m not certain if the purpose of Taskmator is to use a one or two huge TaskPaper files. If you enable the badge number, and the most recent file you opened had over 250 tasks, your mind would go numb. I’d like the ability to designate a project for each TaskPaper file, but I imagine using a different setting for separate files would be tough to implement.

Even though I’ve gotten comfortable with Things, I’m pleased with TaskMator!

 

  1.  See also: My Habit of Noting Timestamps ↩
  2. Remember: I use “projects”—as labeled with TaskPaper files and apps—as “Areas” to combine a broad group of related items. ↩

Track shared data usage for two with DataMan Pro

I installed DataMan Pro on my iPhone on January 2nd. While it was slightly uncomfortable ditching my unlimited (grandfathered) data plan from Verizon Wireless when I upgraded my phone, this app makes it a breeze to track my cellular data usage.

From left to right, and top to bottom:

  1. Current usage from this month
  2. Smart Forecast estimates usage for the rest of the month1, while the Balance displays how much cellular data I can use for the rest of the day.
  3. Stats: Usage by day
  4. Stats: Usage by hour
  5. Settings > Data Plan
  6. Settings > Data Plan > Add Usage
  7. Stats: Usage by month

Setup Tips and Observations

Data Plan — Review a few monthly statements. If your billing cycle starts on the same day every month, use the Monthly plan type. (e.g. 14th of the month)

For Data Cap, I just switched it from 1,000 MB to 1 GB (screenshot not shown) because 1 GB = 1,024 MB. Every bit helps!

Add Usage — To start accurately, log into the account with your service provider to verify your current data usage.2 Add the largest unit byte (whole number), then convert the decimal (probably from MB to KB) to add that last portion.

Multiple people — Amy and I share 2 GB of data, so we’re splitting that in half for each person.

Notifications — DataMan Pro includes push notifications at four configurable thresholds (called Usage Alerts). The defaults are 50%, 70%, 90%, and 100%.

Verizon Wireless can send email or text notifications when you reach certain preset thresholds (50%, 75%, 90%, 100%). I’m going to disable them because they reflect shared usage. We’re only concerned with individual usage.

In context, if I’ve used more data than Amy in a month, it’s up to me to ease up. She shouldn’t stress about it. 🙂

Turn off Percentage Badge — If you’ll primarily rely on push notifications, you probably don’t care to see the percentage badge on the app icon, so you can turn that off in Settings > Advanced.

Interesting trends — When I’m home for most of the day, which is usually the case, I don’t use much cellular data.

However, when I’m out and about, Rdio, Day One, and Tweetbot can use up quite a bit if I’m not careful.

I’ve since disabled cellular data for the following apps in iOS 7 (Settings > Cellular):

  • Rdio
  • Day One
  • App Store
  • Netflix
  • Newsy
  • Scanner Pro
  • TuneIn Radio

Quirks

I always forget:

  • Swipe left goes to Settings
  • Swipe up displays your data usage over time.

Conclusion

I’m blessed to be able to work from home with a fairly solid internet and Wi–Fi connection. When not traveling, I don’t need to pay another $10/month for another 2 GB of shared data.

DataMan Pro will help us stay strong or realize when it’s time to fork over some extra cash. I gladly paid $4.99 for DataMan Pro, and will buy a second copy for Amy’s iPhone.

  1. In other words, if I don’t change anything with my service provider or data usage habits (like disabling cellular data for certain apps), I’ll use too much data on my account. With Verizon Wireless, overage costs $15 per GB. ↩
  2. Note the timestamp. That doesn’t update in realtime, so you may need to check several times and make multiple adjustments with Add Usage until it matches up. After that, DataMan should match exactly with your service provider. Should. ;) ↩

Unexpected upgrade to iPhone 5s

We didn’t plan on upgrading my white iPhone 4S 64 GB because it wasn’t a priority. Then, Amy dropped her phone and most of the front screen was cracked. Wah wah.

I’ve been out of contract for awhile, so I was eligible for an upgrade.

I chose the silver iPhone 5s 64 GB, we finally merged our Verizon Wireless accounts, and switched to a less expensive plan — at the cost of my grandfathered unlimited data add–on.

Reviewing my billing statements from 2012-07-08 through 2013-12-27, I barely reach 1 GB of monthly usage.

  • Average: 428.9 MB
  • Max: 974.4 MB
  • Min: 206.635 MB

I installed DataMan Pro for real–time monitoring and alerts, and I’ll make sure I keep it under 1 GB per month.

For reference, here’s how we switched things over.

Note: I forgot my restore password and didn’t save it into my password manager, so I couldn’t just restore the data onto my new phone.

Old iPhone 4S

  1. Transfer all media in Photos onto my laptop. (I use Lightroom for my photos.)
  2. Ensure I have backup codes for all online services with two–factor authentication.
  3. Follow these steps from Apple: What to do before selling or giving away your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

New iPhone 5s

  1. Setup new phone — including Touch ID — and log into my Apple account for the various services.
  2. Reinstall apps, starting with the ones required for two–factor authentication. Sign into the App Store, then go to Updates > Purchased.
  3. Setup apps used for two–factor authentication.
  4. Setup other apps. Test.
  5. Reconfigure (read: silence) apps from Notification Center in Settings.
  6. In Settings > Control Center, turn off “Access on Lock Screen”. (Ignore if you’re cool with someone disabling your alarms.)
  7. Other configuration tweaks.

Caveat when upgrading from Google Authenticator 2.0.0 to 2.0.1 (iOS)

If you upgraded to Google Authenticator 2.0.0 (see my last post) and recreated all your account tokens, I’d like to warn you.

Your old account tokens will be restored. This means it’ll be difficult to determine which ones are current.

Solution: Rename your current accounts before upgrading from 2.0.0 to 2.0.1 with these steps:

  1. Tap the pencil icon located at the top right corner.
  2. Tap on the name of each field to edit.
  3. When you’re done, tap the check mark located at the top right corner.

Google Authenticator 2.0.1 - Edit Step 1 Google Authenticator 2.0.1 - Edit Step 2

After you upgrade, you can confirm the new tokens still work, then delete the old ones.

Photo workflow and my iPhone

I’m annoyed with the disorganized amount of photos I’ve accumulated on my iPhone, and I currently synchronize (backup) my iPhone photos to my laptop with iPhoto. My slight frustration was more obvious after my recent trip to Tybee Island, GA to meet up with my coworkers because I had to process photos taken on two different devices.

I never pondered this issue with my Android phone because I didn’t take pride in those photos.

Problem: I don’t use iPhoto for anything else, so why do I keep using it?

Solution: Plug my iPhone into my laptop with the USB cable, then import directly from Lightroom for culling and processing. Then, I believe I can delete the photos from my iPhone with Apple’s Image Capture.

Last night, I processed photos taken from my iPhone with Camera+, but since I was at home, I’ll do this from now on. (If I’m out and about, and I’d like to post a photo here, I’ll process from Camera+ and upload right away.)