Want to add MagSafe to your old or non-MagSafe phone? In this video, I’ll show you two easy ways to do it, using a MagSafe case and using a MagSafe ring. Let’s get started!
iPhone SE (2020) Unboxing
Speed Up Your Mac
Apparently, I’ve been using the MacBook with crippled fan for over a year. I have noticed a kernel_task using up all processing time. I found out that it was the operating system throttling performance to stop overheating. It does this by running a non-processor intensive task. This task has higher priority than user tasks including the processor-intensive tasks that are heating up the processor. The effect is that the processor temperature is lowered. But also poor system responsiveness and overall performance.
When I found out about this, I concluded that the fan was faulty and opening up the Mac confirmed it. I ordered a replacement fan and today it finallly arrived. I immediately installed it and the Mac promptly sped up. It felt like the same huge speed improvement when I upgraded to 8GB RAM and SSD. A fan is officially the third best upgrade for speeding up your Mac.
iOS 9 and Ionic Side Menus
I encountered an issue with Ionic side menus where a previous view would partially obscure the current view. I updated everything, checked all my JS and HTML templates, verified links and state transitions, all to no avail.
I was stuck for quite a while until I finally decided that it’s probably an iOS-specific issue. A search then led me to this Ionic blog entry from 2 months(!) ago: http://blog.ionic.io/ios-9-potential-breaking-change/. I downloaded and applied the patch and that was it.
The issue is caused by an iOS 9 bug that affects AngularJS and thus Ionic. It’s supposedly “isolated to intermittent UI/navigation issues on some apps”. And, of course, I was one of the lucky ones. I can’t believe it hasn’t been fixed yet!
First Impression: Apple Watch Sport
I got my hands on Edong’s Apple Watch Sport and, with his permission, I unboxed it, took some photos, and played with it a bit.
The packaging is unusually big and bulky for Apple who have been steadily reducing the size of their product packaging for years. But it seems to be part of their premium and luxury message for the Apple Watch.
The 42mm case is rectangular and made of aluminium with a space grey anodized coating. Everything is smooth and rounded with no sharp edges or corners to be seen or felt. Knowing beforehand that it is 42mm, I wasn’t expecting that it would be quite small and light. But it is.
The Ion-X screen covers the whole face and is rounded at the edges. It is black and shiny when off and the display is very sharp when on. Nice to look at in either state. It has force-touch which means touching it with varying levels of force result in different actions. It is also very responsive though force-touching needs some getting used to.
The digital crown on the right side is big and quite effortless to turn and push. So with the other button.
The back has those scifi-looking sensors for reading your heart-rate.
The strap is black silicone rubber with a clever clasp. You button it on and slip the excess strap under the clasp. Very neat. And you can change straps or bracelets without any tools.
The whole watch is well-built. It looks and feels the high-end device you expect from Apple. Even more, it looks and feels like a futuristic device from science fiction. But aside from small nods to traditional watches it doesn’t pretend to be a watch but instead steps ahead and defines itself as a new class of wrist wear, the so-called smartwatch.
It looks like Apple has another winner on its hand (or wrist).
