Plutonic Rainbows

Face Time Woes

January 29, 2019

Juli Clover at MacRumours:

There's a major bug in FaceTime right now that lets you connect to someone and hear their audio without the person even accepting the call. You can force a FaceTime call with someone and hear what they're saying, perhaps even without their knowledge.

We tested the bug at MacRumors and were able to initiate a FaceTime call with each other where we could hear the person on the other end without ever having pressed the button to accept the call. To exploit the bug, all you have to do is add your own phone number to a FaceTime call you've already initiated, which apparently creates a major FaceTime issue.

Adding your own phone number to Group FaceTime a second time causes the call between both parties to connect. You can hear the person on the other end and they can hear you, even though the call wasn't accepted.

What's weird about this is that I had an unknown FaceTime caller a few days ago. I've disabled FaceTime until Apple issue an update.

Walking

January 28, 2019

Finally got out today as the weather is better. Still cold but clearer skies.

Smart Battery Case Charging Time

January 26, 2019

Today I let the phone and case drain down completely - to the point where the iPhone shut down. Using a 30w USB-C Lightning connection, these are the times it took to charge. What's really interesting is that with USB-C, the case and phone charge in parallel.

1hr

  • iPhone 85%
  • Smart Battery Case 79%

1hr 15 mins

  • iPhone 93%
  • Smart Battery Case 90%

1hr 24 mins

  • iPhone 96%
  • Smart Battery Case 96%

1hr 30 mins

  • iPhone 97%
  • Smart Battery case 98%

1hr 32 mins

  • iPhone 98%
  • Smart Battery Case 100%

1hr 40 mins

  • iPhone 100%
  • Smart Battery Case 100%

Update:

When I left the iPhone unattended all night, by 10:30 am, the battery had dropped by 10%. I think this because I had Dark Sky constantly using Location Services. I'm also going to make it a practice now to have the XS Max on Low Power Mode unless I'm away from the house and keep Bluetooth disabled. This is because I have my computer and iPad, should I need them.

SubEthaEdit

January 22, 2019

This great application is now free and open source. I recommend this if you don't want to pay almost a hundred dollars for Panic's Coda.

Tidying

January 21, 2019

Spent the best part of the day tidying away magazines.

Apple Smart Battery Case

January 20, 2019

Released this week, this case is optimised for iOS and features wireless charging and two internal batteries. It will work with an iPhone X but the software is not set up for this particular phone and the speaker grill will also not align correctly. The price is £129. There are cases available for the XS Max, XS and XR models in either Black or White. You can see what's available here.

Pythonista

January 19, 2019

Incredible iOS application I only recently discovered. Now you can write Python anywhere. The price is £9.99 - very reasonable for what's inside. Head over to the iOS store for more details.

Thomas Harris - Cari Mora

January 14, 2019

Announced back in October 2018, this is the author's first novel in thirteen years.

Twenty-five million dollars in cartel gold lies hidden beneath a mansion on the Miami Beach waterfront. Ruthless men have tracked it for years. Leading the pack is Hans-Peter Schneider. Driven by unspeakable appetites, he makes a living fleshing out the violent fantasies of other, richer men.

Cari Mora, caretaker of the house, has escaped from the violence in her native country. She stays in Miami on a wobbly Temporary Protected Status, subject to the iron whim of ICE. She works at many jobs to survive. Beautiful, marked by war, Cari catches the eye of Hans-Peter as he closes in on the treasure. But Cari Mora has surprising skills, and her will to survive has been tested before.

Monsters lurk in the crevices between male desire and female survival. No other writer in the last century has conjured those monsters with more terrifying brilliance than Thomas Harris. Cari Mora, his sixth novel, is the long-awaited return of an American master.

Available to pre-order on Amazon.

HMV 1985

December 29, 2018

HMV photographed during the mid-1980s. I used to shop there. That was a long, long time ago.

RAW & HEIF

December 18, 2018

Shooting RAW images and looking at them after in the photo viewer with Halide, the camera seems to be taking a JPG rather than an HEIF file (even though I've specifically set it to shoot RAW/HEIF). I'm on an iPhone XS Max with all latest updates.