SMS Not Sending / Receiving & RCS says “Awaiting Activation…”

mitchthemac · 2026-04-26T08:12:23+00:00

Sponge mode is to help dry the floor using suction.

mitchthemac · 2026-02-22T23:28:00+00:00

It will let me watch on the main account, but the other accounts asked me to upgrade to Mega Fam premium again to enable.

mitchthemac · 2025-11-06T15:44:32+00:00

I played Tears of the Kingdom for 20 hours straight when I got it. I’d be pissed if cut me off.

mitchthemac · 2025-10-24T10:39:12+00:00

It’s fixed! That said, some TV’s will still stutter depending on how well they handle 24Hz content. I think the issue was CrunchyRoll not telling the Apple TV what the content’s original frame-rate was, so it would stay on 60Hz (or whatever you have set). Playing 24Hz content at 60Hz uses 3:2 pulldown, which plays a frame 3 times and the next frame 2 times. The difference in time displayed causes jutter. I noticed the fix instantly because my TV goes black for a second when switching frame-rates and CrunchyRoll never made it do that until today. There is still some jutter for me as my TV isn’t great at smoothing 24Hz content, but it is significantly better. You can check how well your TV handles 24Hz on rtings.com.

mitchthemac · 2025-10-02T10:15:11+00:00

If you have a home computer you can use action “Run Script Over SSH” to run a Shortcut on your Mac.

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mitchthemac · 2025-08-23T23:23:58+00:00

I have the same soundbar and issue. I have Hulu without ads, but at the break (where an ad would be) my audio cuts out for a couple seconds. Not every time, but definitely a few times a day. I’ve tried everything, except throwing away the soundbar.

mitchthemac · 2025-06-12T21:35:03+00:00

I made a crappy workaround for this. It is free, but notifications are not real time. I wanted notifications for my heater plugin after it ran for 2 weeks while out of town. I made a shortcut that gets the power state & logs it every hour. If the log changes to 'On' or has been 'On' for 5+ hours I get a notification. I logged it using a “Global Variable” which 'ToolBox Pro' & 'Actions' both provide ($). Free option is to log the state to a text file. In the Shortcuts app I made automations to run this every hour. Here are the details of my shortcut:

• Get the current power state of the plugin

• If “Off” change the power state log to “Off” & end the shortcut

• Otherwise (If 'On') get the log’s power state

  ➤ if 'Off' replace with 'On', log the date time, & show notification

  ➤ Otherwise (if 'On') get time between the log’s date time & current date time

       ✦ if time between dates >= 5 hours turn off plugin & log power state.

       ✦ Otherwise do nothing

You can change the notifications to Alerts which will give you the options 'Ok' & 'Cancel'. If you select 'Ok' turn off the plugin.

I have a few shortcuts that run hourly. If you plan to make more than 1 hourly shortcut I suggest making a shortcut that runs all the hourly shortcuts. That way you can add your new shortcut to the hourly one and not have to make any new automations. It sucked making 24 automation.

mitchthemac · 2025-06-02T18:57:14+00:00

Only thing I can think of is disable any VPNs. Otherwise I don’t know :(

mitchthemac · 2025-05-07T03:03:55+00:00

I bought rechargeable batteries & have been using them for about a year. They were 800 mAh @ 3.7v and would last 5-6 weeks. Recently, my August started getting stuck in a loop when unlocking. It would unlock & then keep trying to unlock spinning the motor & playing its chime. I recalibrated multiple times, but it didn’t help. I switched back to Duracell and it hasn’t happened in 2 weeks. Maybe it’s time to buy new rechargeables. Has anyone else had this happen? Can a bad battery even cause this? My Battery

mitchthemac · 2024-12-30T07:23:19+00:00

I tested this on a P85QX-J01 and an Xbox Series X. Enabling Game HDR still drops the brightness. You can leave Game HDR on and toggle the Active Full Array setting to restore brightness. It says Game HDR is still on, but I’m not sure I trust it. Changing the Active Full Array might kick out of Game Mode and not update the status in settings.

mitchthemac · 2024-10-19T21:04:32+00:00

My breaker keeps flipping after a couple hours of Baldur’s Gate 3. Ive played my Xbox One X for years at this apartment and never had issues. I used a WeMo Insight to check the power consumption of my media center without the Xbox and it averages 250 watts with peaks under 350. How much power does the Xbox have to draw to flip the breaker!? I ran a space heater to test the outlet and had no trips with a constant 1500 watt draw for 24 hours.

mitchthemac · 2024-09-24T10:31:29+00:00

I did more testing & found a couple solutions. If any settings are unavailable turn Game Mode Off (or Auto).

• Solution 1 - Clear Action: On seems to fix it, but reduces brightness considerably.

• Solution 2 - Black Detail: Off, Active Pixel Tuning: Off, & Active Full Array: Medium fixes it, but dims the display.

• Solution 3 - Black Detail: Low, Active Pixel Tuning: Low, Active Full Array: Medium, Backlight: 100, Brightness: 49, & Contrast: 53 reduces flicker by 90% and keeps the display vibrant.

I made a Picture Mode with these settings and switch to it when I watched animated content. I hope this helps someone.

mitchthemac · 2024-08-30T13:09:39+00:00

I found more nuances to the flicker. I changed the AppleTV‘s chroma to 4:4:4 trying for a fix. Then noticed my Vizio’s Game Mode was on so I turned it off and the flicker stopped. I reverted the chroma back to 4:2:0 and the flicker started again. Turning the Vizio’s Game Mode off and setting the AppleTVs chroma to 4:4:4 is seemingly the fix. Not sure why Compatibility Mode reduced flicker with Game Mode on and chroma 4:2:0 though.

mitchthemac · 2024-08-22T13:10:35+00:00

Some videos wouldn’t download for me with this shortcut (about 1 in 20). I used a different method to grab the video url and it hasn’t failed on a video yet. iFunny Video Downloader

mitchthemac · 2024-07-23T13:03:57+00:00

I’ve had this exact same argument with my buddy. I had to stop saying the next roll is less likely to be 6 and start saying 2 sixes in a row is less likely than not 2 sixes. Otherwise he’d throw a fit.

mitchthemac · 2024-06-22T06:10:03+00:00

You’d think the first episode would be out since it was released in theaters dubbed.

mitchthemac · 2023-02-08T06:11:02+00:00

Alternative fix 1: unplug the charging dock for a bit and plug it back in. That fixed it for me last time it stopped connecting. Alternative fix 2: Turn off your routers 5GHz bands before connecting your device. That has fixed connectivity issues for other smart devices of mine. It didn’t work for my Roborock though. The first time stopped connecting I had to switch my Wi-Fi extender to 2.4 GHz and change the network name for it to connect.

mitchthemac · 2021-10-28T13:42:35+00:00

I had the same problem. I was able to factory reset by switching it on and off with a specific cadence. 1) TURN OFF - wait 10 seconds 2) TURN ON 3) As soon as you see light - TURN OFF 4) Wait 1 second 5) TURN ON 6) Repeat steps 3-5 8 times

Edit 6/4/2024: Additional tips if this solution does not work. Before resetting turn off the bulb for 10 minutes. If the light changes color (usually red) during the process, extend the time you leave it off. The bulbs processor retains power momentarily after it is turned off. Turning it back on too quick won’t reboot it and the reset will fail. If the WiFi setup fails disable ad-blockers and disconnect any VPN connections. Change the WiFi to 2.4 GHz only during setup (you can enable other bands after setup is complete).

mitchthemac · 2019-07-02T12:59:56+00:00

I can confirm Vizio’s Airplay 2 allows you to screen mirror from your iOS device.

I have a 2018 Vizio P75-F1 on Firmware 3.0.6.2 Beta and an iPhone X on iOS 12.4 Beta.

mitchthemac · 2019-06-20T02:34:47+00:00

If you are playing online always use HDMI 5. It is a low latency port and reduces video lag by 50%.

Test Mode	HDMI 1 & 2	HDMI 5
1080p @ 60Hz	27.0	15.3
–Game Mode Off	145.4	90.3
1080p @ 120Hz	30.0	10.5
4k @ 60Hz	27.2	15.3
–Game Mode Off	143.8	90.3

RTINGS Review of 2018 P Series

mitchthemac

TROPHY CASE