Time For a New Phone

Back in February I lost my phone on a roller coaster and miraculously retrieved it with the help of a bit of engineering. I wanted to replace the phone back then but then saw the price of a new phone and held off. Last week I finally got on the Apple website and purchased a new iPhone 17. Some people feel the need to have the latest phone with all the bells and whistles. I just need a smartphone that can be updated and takes good pictures. I didn't get the Pro model nor did I feel the need to wait 6 weeks for the iPhone 18 to come out. Besides the base model won't be available until around April 2027.

I ordered the phone on Thursday and it arrived at my house on Friday. Unfortunately I had to drive down to Southern Utah to see a play with my oldest daughter and so I needed to have a friend grab the phone off the front porch as I didn't trust an Apple box to make it through the weekend without a porch pirate running off with it.

I arrived home Saturday afternoon and knew transferring data from my old phone to the new one would take awhile so I put it off until Sunday. Until then I made sure it was fully charged. Then I got my old phone and new phone together to start the process of making the new one have all the software and data from my old phone.

I made sure to pair the two phones and started the transfer process. After about a minute, it stopped. I started again only to fail again. This happened two more times before I wanted to try something else. Unfortunately I initialized the phone without pulling any data from my old one. It transferred the SIM to the new phone in the form of an electronic or eSIM. The only thing my new phone had was my number but none of the data. I had to keep my old phone for all of the applications and needed my new phone to be a phone and text message receiver.

This morning I got up and had a number of meetings. I had to log into my company's VPN and fortunately I still received the multi-factor authentication token on the old phone. Once I completed my meetings, I logged onto Apple's tech support website and initiated a support chat session. They told me I needed to reset my phone to put it back in new-phone mode and try the transfer again. I told them I worried about erasing the eSIM and they said I could always contact my carrier and get it reinstalled.

I went to reset the phone only to be told I had to wait an hour. I guess that is a special feature for spouses that are tired of their partner doom scrolling and wanting to wipe the phone. It sort of upset me because I wanted to reset the phone immediately. I went and rode my indoor bike waiting for the hour to pass. Once again I am glad I had my old phone so I could listen to music while I rode.

It came time to reset the phone and so I did. When it came back up I expected it to be in new-phone mode. It wasn't. Apparently I needed to "Erase All Content and Settings." I clicked that menu option and expected to have to wait another hour. Fortunately it went into erase mode immediately. At this point I discovered something even Apple technical support didn't know: there is an option to erase everything but the eSIM. I clicked that and the phone came up as expected.

While in the chat with Apple tech support I learned another trick on how to transfer data from my old phone. The first time I tried it, I just set the two phones side-by-side and waited for Bluetooth to do the transfer. That didn't work and so this time I connected a cable from phone to the other. My old phone has a lightning port while the new phone has a USB-C. I couldn't find my cable like that and so I had to make one from an old lightning cable with a USB-A connector and a USB-A to USB-C converter. Surprise, surprise, it worked. The data transferred from my old phone to the new one in 16 minutes.

Unfortunately that is not the end of getting things working. I use a continuous glucose monitor or CGM to tell me my instantaneous blood sugar. They are good for 15 days and I am only halfway through the life of my current one. Without a prescription they are about $50 each from Amazon but I highly recommend getting one even if you are not diabetic. I didn't want to throw my current one away and start a new one. I looked at the website for my CGM and they had instructions on how to transfer the sensor from one phone to another. I followed them and the process worked perfectly.

The last thing I needed to do is connect all of my Bluetooth devices. I have some wireless earphones as well as a number of wireless speakers to connect. Oh yeah, I also needed to connect my smartwatch. That didn't take to long to get sorted and I felt successful. That amazed me because halfway through this whole process I considered ditching Apple products permanently. Unfortunately I still wasn't done though.

Apple engineers think they are smart and know what you want in a phone. While that may be true for Gen-Z and Millennials,  it is not true for me. The new interface has this concept of an "Always On" display. I don't like it. When I hit the sleep button on my phone, I want the screen to go black and not waste any battery. It is what I am used to. I don't need to see the time continually. That is what my watch is for. I turned that feature off and consider my new phone ready to use.

I am serious when I wrote that I almost ditched Apple products forever halfway through the transfer process. I have used the automatic transfer to move data from old phones to new ones in the past and thought it to be a time saver. If I had had to reinstall my eSIM, I would have boxed the phone up, sent it back to Apple, and gone back to my old phone until I could find a Android phone I could be willing to live with. That may have taken awhile. 

Christmas Ideas for 2022

Every year I try to post ideas for Christmas gifts related to computers and technology. I find it gets harder ever year as I try to come up with new ideas. After all, it is not hard to go back through old postings and see my recommendations from previous years. So what are some new ideas this year?

New Video Game Console - Yes I used to work for Sony PlayStation and now I work for another part of Sony and so it is easy to expect I would recommend picking up a PlayStation 5. They are still hard to find but not impossible. I have also seen several deals on the XBox Series X and Series S consoles. Which one you get really depends upon the person you are getting it for. If it is for your son and all his friends have XBox consoles, he will want to play online games with them and so I recommend an XBox. If all your son's friends play on the PlayStation then go for that console. I do not recommend just getting a new console because you found one in stock. Make sure it is the console that is wanted.

Video Games - Here you have a lot to choose from. Be sure to ask those probing questions about if there is a game the person on your list wants to start playing. I am not a fan of sports games and so I would be disappointed with one. I am an anomaly though and so don't base a game purchase off my preferences. Find out what games are wanted and then try to find a great deal on them. If you have no idea what to get and that someone on your list is a fan of Star Wars, I highly recommend "LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga" as it has games for all 9 movies. That is on my list this year.

A Quadcopter or Drone - When I worked in Research and Development at PlayStation we had a number of quadcopters on the floor and would race them around the office. It was a lot of fun. DJI has emerged as the drone vendor of choice and they make quality stuff. There are quite a few models to choose from and which one you get is determined by your budget and list of features. If it is a first drone, I recommend a budget version. More than likely it will meet with tragedy and you will know if it is a good replacement gift for next year.

Portable Bluetooth Speaker - I have a number of Portable Bluetooth speakers scattered throughout the house and use them all the time. Both my wife and I have small ones that put out nice sound and are great when you don't want to wear headphones or ear buds. They can range in price from $40 all the way up to $100's. I wouldn't suggest any lower than $40 unless you are willing to gamble with quality.

Another Robot Vacuum - My house has multiple levels and our current robot vacuum cannot go up or down stairs. To solve that problem my wife will carry the robot to another level and let it run until the battery dies. A better solution is to have a robot vacuum for each level of the house. Don't tell my wife, but that is probably what she is getting this year.

Hopefully there are some new ideas in this year's list and I have helped you out. If not, feel free to leave a comment about what you think would make a great gift.

My Hackathon Project

A couple of times a year we get to participate in hackathon projects at work. This allows people to work on things that interest them above and beyond their daily work. Our latest hackathon finished a week ago and I had a really great time.

Most hackathon projects are related to the PlayStation but I decided to do something a bit different. Several years ago I came up with the idea of attaching a speaker to my skis so that I would be able to find them if I lost them on a powdery day. For those that don't ski, bindings are meant to release your skis in the event of a fall so that they don't cause damage to your body. Ski brakes then extend into the snow and keep the skis from running away down the hill. The system works great most of the time with fresh powder being the exception. When you lose your skis on a powdery day, it is anyone's guess as to where they are.

My idea is to being able to have the speaker start making noise when you activate it with your smartphone. I bought a $30 microcontroller board with Bluetooth capabilities, a small buzzer, and a Lithium-ion battery. It didn't take long to put everything together and modify a few sample programs to get the board talking with my mobile phone. I could turn the buzzer on and off from my phone before going to bed on the first night of the event.

I woke up the next morning and took the device to Snowbird ski resort to do some testing. The first thing I wanted to check is how loud the buzzer was. Unfortunately, it wasn't that loud. Not wanting to waste the day, I next checked how far the Bluetooth worked. At around 150 feet or 50 meters, I could still communicate with the microcontroller from my smartphone which is more than enough distance. I found that to be encouraging and came home to work on the low-sound issue.

I replaced the buzzer with a speaker but that didn't help at all. The microcontroller just didn't have enough power to drive the speaker very loudly. As I felt stuck with the buzzer, I actually soldered the buzzer to the microcontroller board. That increased the sound output by 3 times. I could now hear the device from 60 feet away instead of just 20.

The next day I headed up to Alta ski resort and waited for the lifts to start carrying skiers to the top of the mountain. We had several inches of new snow and that made for great test conditions. While waiting in line, I ran over to an area of fresh snow and buried the microcontroller about 6 inches deep. I activated the buzzer and didn't hear a blasted thing. It turns out snow is a great sound insulator. While I felt disappointed, I still had one more test to perform: battery life in the cold conditions. That means I spent 2 hours powder skiing with the device turned on and communicating with my smartphone. I had my daughter with me who is an excellent powder skier and we had a lot of fun.

Now someone reviewing my hackathon project  might think I wasted the company's time by working on a device that has no relevance to video games. The reality is that I have never worked with a microcontroller before and this served as an entrance for me to other hardware projects. I actually have a very good idea for my next hackathon. I will use the same microcontroller board with a few of its analog-to-digital inputs to help create a new type of controller. I won't say more than that but it will definitely be related to video games and how to make them better.

Getting AirDrop to Work

My iPhone is getting full of pictures and I need to pull some off to store somewhere else. I could store them in iCloud but am not a fan of filling up my online space only to have to eventually figure out where to put the photos. It is much easier to transfer them to one of my computers instead.

A few days ago I tried to set up AirDrop from my phone to my Mac laptop. It should be really simple and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. A quick Internet search says there are only 2 or 3 steps. It took a bit of digging on my part but I eventually figured it out.

Problem 1: Make sure you are logged into your Apple ID account
I recently updated the operating system on my laptop and it automatically logged me out of my Apple ID account. This account is what allows you to access iCloud and iTunes. It is required to tie all of your devices together. Once I logged in, things started working.

Unfortunately all of the instructions you will pull up on an Internet search assume you are already logged in with your Apple ID. I think I stumbled around for quite awhile until I came upon the solution. If you are having any problems, check this first.

Problem 2: Make sure your devices are on the same network
Every morning I go into my home office and log into my office's virtual private network or VPN so I can get at the company network. Remember that I am writing this during COVID-19 and have started my 6th week of working from home. I keep forgetting that when I am on the VPN, I lose access to some of my home devices. I can't log into my Linux server nor can I print to my color laser printer. The moment I disconnect from the VPN, my laptop can see all of those devices again. The same holds true for my iPhone.

I had a picture I wanted to put on my laptop this morning and couldn't figure out what was wrong. I had Bluetooth enabled for both devices and they could see each other but wouldn't connect. Then I remembered all of the problems I have trying to connect to my other home devices and I disconnected the VPN. Then everything started working correctly.

Typical Solutions
My 2 problems are very unique to me and so these may not be an issue for you. If you find yourself having trouble using AirDrop, you will want to try the usual solutions that can be found in any Internet search:

1. Make sure Bluetooth is turned on for both devices.
2. Click on the AirDrop link found on the left side of your finder window and set the "Allow me to be discovered by" to "Everyone". 
3. Make sure AirDrop is set up on your other device as well.

Hopefully one of the typical solutions will work for you and you don't have the same problems I do. However if you do, this list could be very helpful.