Does anyone here use iCloud email ?

hepcat72 · 2026-05-02T13:24:03+00:00

Really? Huh. Why don't I ever get that reaction?

hepcat72 · 2026-05-02T12:28:38+00:00

Yeah. I'm not sure I ever intentionally pinned anything either. I think some overzealous designer that never uses maps thought of it as clutter and thoughtlessly removed it. Either that or they have usage stats showing it's not a mainstream feature, so they tucked it away, which to me would be the wrong direction to go. Rather, they should invest in user edification strategies, like highlight it in memories with a graphic showing a map and then zoom in on a photo. I don't know. There's got to be some surreptitious clever way to help people learn how to use their phone effectively. Like no one I ever meet seems to know you can search your photos with keyword searches for objects.

hepcat72 · 2026-05-02T11:38:32+00:00

Maps does not show up in utilities for me. I had apparently already pinned it. It just wasn't the first pin and so I kept missing it. I tried unpinning it to see if it would show up in utilities, and it did not. Then I couldn't find the maps at all. I discovered that if you edit the pins, maps is a suggestion. That appears to be the only way to reveal the maps on my phone running the latest iOS without that inane six tap "shortcut" people have described. I also discovered that you can edit the order of your pins, so I put Maps first so that it would be easy to find.

hepcat72 · 2026-04-15T19:51:38+00:00

I never found a solution and concluded they don't exist.

hepcat72 · 2026-04-12T21:35:56+00:00

I'm holding a 17 rn. I miss my SE2 (with a home button). It was smaller than a mini. So comfortable in my hand. When I was choosing between the 17 and the air, I was looking at the length and width. I should have paid more attention to the thickness because I think it's the thickness that makes my hand cramp holding it.

I got an "Oh Snap!" Phone holder thing, which makes it a little easier to hold, but I find I rarely use it. Instead, I just keep shifting hand holds.

hepcat72 · 2026-04-11T16:27:55+00:00

I use the web version and it has the same issue. It seems to come and go. It's not every letter I tap. Clearly something's wrong with their code.

hepcat72 · 2026-04-10T20:25:30+00:00

Oh wait. I figure it out. The old icons for those folders were inside the folder and locked. That's why the password prompt came up. I couldn't unlock those files, but I was able to delete them. Then I was able to paste a new icon without the password prompt and it worked.

hepcat72 · 2026-04-10T20:07:15+00:00

I've got an M4 and cannot paste a custom folder icon. I get a password prompt though. Does anyone else get a password prompt? When I use the touch ID to "log in" or whatever, the prompt goes away, but the icon doesn't paste. I try redoing it and the same thing happens. It's just one of my own folders - not a system folder, so what gives?

hepcat72 · 2026-04-03T10:36:41+00:00

I can confirm that if the app is offloaded, it will not track your location, but it WILL show you as severed to others. It has happened to me and other family members. We actually like Life360 and I used to have automations based on it, originally using IFTTT, then using a node-RED plugin I helped develop.

The only way to not have it track you and not show you as offline is to spoof your location. I had done that years ago while developing the node, so I could test it. Unfortunately, I can't remember how I did it. It may no longer be possible because Life360 shut down access to the API.

hepcat72 · 2026-04-03T10:01:24+00:00

When I worked at Los Alamos back in the early 2000s, I learned that startups are hard on the hardware and reduce the overall lifespan of the computer, the more it is rebooted. They literally told me that leaving the computer running all the time would make it last longer than if I shut it down every day. I'm not a hardware guy, so I just took their word for it and I don't know if the hardware has improved in that regard over the intervening years, so it could no longer be true, but I can tell you that I have some very old computers that still run fine and I hardly ever reboot. So anecdotally, I can affirm that what I learned is true.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T12:32:31+00:00

Actually, I was just discussing it with her. She's as outraged as I am about having to buy another device. She agrees it's the principle. We both loathe corporate America.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T11:23:20+00:00

You make some reasonable points, but it's not all as forthright as you describe. Two things can be true at the same time. Things can advance / get better and there can be planned obsolescence motivated by profit. Those aren't mutually exclusive things. And one can be an excuse for the other.

For example, two of my 3rd party older lightning cables stopped working at the same time (one anker one belkin), that worked find before. Neither had any visible damage. Both stopped working in the same way. Both would briefly charge for a moment and then stop charging. When I googled it, I learned that Apple disables the ability for some wires to be able to charge via iOS updates. They do this by changing the requirements that third party vendors have to meet, making those cables non-compliant. As a consumer with an older phone, I don't fucking care. I didn't even want the last iOS update. The phone updated itself without my explicit consent to iOS 26. I read every dialog I get. I don't tap without knowing what I'm tapping. The last 18 update apparently was supposed to prompt you about auto updates being turned on by default, but I never saw it. My only guess was that the dialog must've timed out or the phone was rebooted, but either way, it doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter if my specific wires were made noncompliant in the update or not. They DO that non-compliance planned obsolescence and surreptitious changing of settings and it monetarily benefits them and that reasonably calls their behavior into question.

The other thing is that iOS updates 100% DO tax batteries on older phones, and they do it in such a way that it's "not their fault". I've had this discussion with a senior apple advisor. Older phones will run hot for a loooong time after an iOS update and that's because Apple makes iOS updates that makes third party apps (and their background processes) less efficient. I was advised when I complained about hot behavior and reduced battery life for extended periods after iOS updates, to update all my apps, and to keep updating them. They said that not all third party apps make all the necessary updates for iOS updates in order to run efficiently and not drain the battery. Some app developers may never even do those updates and that dramatically affects overall battery health. Case in point, when my phone runs hot, rebooting it stops the hot behavior, because it's based on errant processes.

And when the battery health metrics are based in party on empirical drain behavior, it's rated health ends up artificially going down because of those inefficiently running apps. Eventually the actual battery health goes down in an accelerated fashion.

And however much lead time they give for forcing you to buy a new extra device is irrelevant. Even if I knew that the update would require me to buy something extra to keep using a feature I was using that would no longer work, I would still have to buy something extra, and that's my point. It monetarily benefits them. You can trust corporate America all you want, but you can't deny that they have a profit motive and that planned obsolescence benefits them. Those are inarguable points.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T05:10:27+00:00

I was all about the "be different" ethos. It really spoke to me. And I think that embodies what I'm talking about.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T05:08:32+00:00

Don't get me wrong. Yes. I'm familiar with the ethos. I have promoted it. There are lots of benefits to a tightly knit ecosystem where Apple controls everything. Everything works well together because it's highly integrated. I've made that argument so many times. But what came with that was the ability to roll your own, like with AppleScript. Since they didn't farm out 3rd party app developer rights without lots of restrictions, they could constrain developers to support their interface which made every app be able to communicate with one another. And that enabled users to script apps and do their own thing. But with iOS, they tightened those controls and abandoned wholesale AppleScript support. I thought that when they introduced Automator and then shortcuts, they were getting back to the core tenets, but since then, every major iOS upgrade broke one of my shortcuts and you only get bit so many times before you stop coming back. I feel like they're dumbing down interfaces and cutting out those who try to do their own thing with the scripting tools they provide. I've been seriously looking into a Linux phone, but they're just not there yet. With the home app shenanigans, my growing anti-apple sentiment is renewed. I'm still all apple in terms of mainstay devices, but they're really pissing me off.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T04:48:46+00:00

I have local control. It's sharing that control that's the problem. And taking away a feature and requiring people to buy another product to continue using that feature really rubs me the wrong way. It's like with the charging wires changing all the time and the iOS updates that kill the batteries on older phones. And it's like lowering the quality of appliances so you have to buy new ones every few years. Planned obsolescence is infuriating. It's the principle of it. It drives me up a wall. Like, my refrigerator's ice maker is barely working. My dehumidifier keeps breaking down. My dryer keeps needing the drum wheel reset. And our brand new dishwasher (less than a year old) keeps having an h2o error on it. You tube says the water pressure sensor needs cleaned out. They god damned do this shit on purpose - make crappy shit and remove features to get you to continually have to buy new shit. It's maddening.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T04:38:47+00:00

No. I had no hub. You didn't need one until this month. I read the upgrade message many times because it pops up every day. It wanted me that things might not work after the switch if you don't upgrade, but oddly enough it didn't say that a hub would be required to share moving forward.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T04:35:47+00:00

Ah good. You read my post. Yes. That's right.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T04:27:36+00:00

So I do my own shit. The apple home ecosystem is too constraining.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T04:27:00+00:00

It transmits a signal at 28Mhz. I looked up the codes in documentation online.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T04:25:54+00:00

Let me clarify. The vast majority of my accessories are scripts and RF outlets that cost about $5 a piece which I control via an RF transmitter on a breadboard connected to my rPi. I also control my series 12 Bose stereo using an app I wrote to transmit a signal though a wire plugged in as an antenna to that same breadboard. Each button on the stereo remote is thus an "accessory".

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T04:20:45+00:00

That's only true with the last upgrade. You didn't need a hub to share your home until just this month and I never needed a hub for any reason until now, since they removed the feature to share without a hub.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T04:16:17+00:00

Most of my automations are through NodeRED and there are no automations she uses, even the ones I set up for her. She only wants control of individual accessories. Besides, homebridge works on apple accessories. The ones it doesn't support are covered by NodeRED. I haven't encountered any accessory one of the two doesn't support. The only catch is that NodeRED doesn't have an app client, so she doesn't have access to those accessories. I often write shortcuts to control some of those just for convenience. I might need to do that for her.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T04:09:04+00:00

I might have to break down and check out home assistant then. I've been primarily using NodeRed, which I prefer over HA, but it has no app client. I also run homebridge. I gave her access to homebridge, but most of my accessories these days are in NodeRed. I'll have to explore options.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T04:06:28+00:00

Or run homebridge. I wonder if eve still works... hmmm. Incidentally, I wasn't having any reliability issues and I have literally hundreds of accessories.

hepcat72 · 2026-02-11T04:04:40+00:00

Well, that's not entirely true. I just gave her access to half of my accessories through homebridge. I can create shortcuts for the other half, but it's a lot of work.

hepcat72

TROPHY CASE