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[jasontucker]

Apple Vision Pro Demo - my thoughts

Today I did a demo of the Apple Vision Pro at the local Apple Store and wanted to share my thoughts. I wear glasses and was told to bring them to the demo so they could pull the prescriptions off of them and then using that information can get the correct ZEISS Optical Inserts for me to use for the demo. They took my glasses and inserted them into this device in a white box that read the prescription.

You can see them doing this in this video youtu.be/nlJOuVrOY…

It took a few minutes for them to get this info, they did a scan of my face and ears and then magically an employee came out with a tray with the face shield, optical inserts and everything all correctly sized and ready to go. www.youtube.com/watch

The demo is the one that all of the podcasters and youtubers have talked about, doing some basic setup moving your eyes around and pinching some dots in a circle a few times and then getting into how to move windows around and resize them. After that its scrolling web pages and watching lots of videos and zooming into photos. Overall the on-rails demo is a great way to get to know the device. Is it for me? This iteration is very expensive for by budget but I can see may awesome uses for it if I was someone that traveled a lot or something.

youtu.be/5bbQC2YSs…

My thoughts are that the interface does require some precision to do things, videos of people walking around flicking their arms around while exiting a car and walking down the street are bogus, the cursor is where your eyes are looking at and your hand is the left mouse button when you pinch there are some other gestures as well but it’s going to take a bit for this device to mature. Manipulating photos with pinch and zoom are really cool but not having a gaming controller to do things with makes this a very interesting device for gaming, no idea how that is going to play out only time will tell. Apple isn’t good at gaming so it’s going to take a strong partner to make something like that happen here. If I was an app developer with a solid idea I’d be all over this but outside of that i think this device is a dev kit that is publicly accessible. Will there be a non-pro version of it? Most likely, for around $3800 its spendy.

www.youtube.com/watch www.youtube.com/watch

Book a demo for the Apple Vision Pro

[jasontucker]

I really wish YouTube had lists for subscribed channels. This way I could go to my Woodworking list and see all the woodworking channels the go to Tech and see all the the tech channels. The way I do this currently is different YouTube accounts but that annoying.

[jasontucker]

An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn

What an oddball movie. Super silly and has Matt Berry, Craig Roberson and Aubrey Plaza.

★★★☆☆

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Evening_with_Beverly_Luff_Linn

#movie #mattberry

[jasontucker]

January 2 I’m driving home from work and I’m looking around and there’s a decent number of houses that have Christmas lights out many of which are still lit up. It’s funny just how fast we removed Christmas from our house right after Christmas day.

[jasontucker]

The Roots Wimyx

Last night at The Roots concert at The Wiltern in LA they were advertising this app called Wimyx with a QRcode on screen and only for iPhone I downloaded it and it’s for recording the concert. But later you can “Wimyx it” and get the board mix into your video. Ok that’s cool. Here is the end result.

#theroots #wimyx #thewiltern #hiphop

[jasontucker]

Kitchen Stove Hood Makeover

Another project in my kitchen renovation is to change up our stove hood instead of buying a $600 one I’m going to fix up our old one.

With the hood removed I stripped down, cleaned, sanded and primed the hood to get it ready for paint. I’m going with this spray automobile primer that also does some patching as well and comes out looking really nice after sanding. Next is to do a few coats of “stainless steel” paint which has real metal in it. A few light coats gor me to a good looking setup. Next I’m going to be changing the wiring configuration to include a Aqara Dual Relay Module T2 to allow me to control the vent and the light using HomeKit which should be a nice addition to this 1960s based unit. Finally I’ll put a coat of clear to finish it and reinstall the thing. I hope it works out, looks good and functions like I want it to.

I’ll post more once I’m done with the project in a few days.

Aqara Dual Relay in action

Aqara Dual Relay Module T2 with Matter

Specialty Appliance Satin Stainless Steel Enamel Spray Paint

[jasontucker]

I worked on a project today where I installed a new sliding pots and pans holder into our old kitchen wall oven space. Now they finish that project up. I thought I would start working on cutting 6 inch holes in the ceiling and replacing existing directional lighting with really thin, flat, pancake lighting.

I did the first one as a test. It worked out good so I am going to be doing three more and hopefully getting them all done tonight.

[jasontucker]

Transforming Our Kitchen: From Outdated to Outstanding

I’ve been working on our latest home improvement adventure. We’ve taken a big leap in transforming our kitchen, and I can’t wait to share the progress with you all. We’ve recently converted our stove top to a sleek gas range and said goodbye to our old wall oven. But what to do with the space it left behind? That’s where our latest challenge lies.

The Journey So Far: Our journey started with replacing our 1960s gas stove top with a gas range, a decision that has already elevated our cooking experience. Then came the removal of the wall oven. While it served us well, it was time for an upgrade. Now, we’re left with a cavity that screams potential!

The Big Challenge: The empty space where the oven once lived poses an interesting challenge. It’s a sizable area that could easily turn into wasted space if not utilized properly. So, we brainstormed, and what better way to fill this space than with a functional, stylish storage solution for Jen’s pots and pans?

How’s it’s looking right now

Designing the Perfect Storage: When it comes to kitchen storage, accessibility and aesthetics are key. We envision a slide-out storage unit that not only looks good but makes it incredibly easy to access everything. Imagine not having to reach all the way to the back of a deep shelf – that’s the convenience we’re aiming for!

Slide-Out Storage Solutions: We’re exploring various slide-out units. These nifty solutions use the depth of the cavity effectively, ensuring that every inch is utilized. With features like smooth gliding mechanisms and sturdy build, they promise to make rummaging through pots and pans a thing of the past.

Maybe something like this

It in use

Shelving that Makes Sense: Along with slide-out units, we’re considering installing a couple of shelves on sliders. This would be particularly useful for storing bulkier items. Adjustable shelving could also be a great addition, offering the flexibility to accommodate different sizes and shapes.

Finishing Touches: We’re also planning to add a false wall or a similar feature to cover up the back wall. This will not only give the space a cleaner look but also help in seamlessly blending the new storage with the existing kitchen layout.

We Need Your Input: Now, this is where I turn to you, my awesome readers. Do you have suggestions for slide-out units? Know any great places to find them? Or maybe you’ve seen some inspiring kitchen storage solutions? Drop your ideas and links in the comments or on socials – we’d love to see them!

Before and After – Stay Tuned: Keep an eye out for our next post, where we’ll share some before and after photos of this kitchen transformation. It’s going to be quite the reveal!

[jasontucker]

Smart leak detectors you need in your home

I read this article You Need Leak Detectors in Your Home, and More Than You Think from Life Hacker today and they mention various places to put leak detectors in your home. Places like water heater, crawlspace, garage, toilets, under sinks, dishwasher, refrigerator, laundry, roof, boiler/radiator, fishtanks and HVAC.

The one place we use ours the most in our home is our garage freezer. It’s a freestanding upright freezer and its older and has a lock on it that requires a key. We don’t have any little kids in our house so we have the key hanging on a string off the door handle. The lock is a bit of a pain to use and if the seal on the freezer isn’t 100% it sometimes frosts up a bit in the corners making it hard to close and lock properly. Unless you lock and then pull on it, it may not be locked and this has bit us in the butt. Subsequently we’ll found a puddle under the door where the ice has melted before the content of the freezer have began melting as well. I’ve installed a smart leak sensor in the hinge side of our freezer sitting on the floor and when the door isn’t 100% closed this is where the drips usually form. When a drip hits the floor and enough surrounds the sensor 2 exposed metal pieces and the water complete the circuit and it sends a signal to the hub to send out an alarm.

So what sensors and hub do we use? Aqara! You can buy Aqara on Amazon and you’ll need just 2 things, the sensor and a hub. This posts isn’t sponsored and the links are not affiliate links, I can’t keep up with such things.

Smart Sensor

Aqara Water Leak Sensor has 20% off coupon

Hubs

Aqara Smart Hub M2 has 20% off coupon

Aqara Hub M1S Gen 2, Wireless Smart Home Bridge has 20% off coupon

In my home I have the Aqara Hub M1S Gen 2 hub, it works with Homekit out of the box and it can talk to all the Zigbee based repeaters you may have in your home. The unit have has a speaker that yells out about the leak and also blasts out to the Apple Home app that a leak was detected. Once you get into this system you pretty my build out your own security system with door, window sensors and temp and occupancy sensors too. This my be your gateway into having a smart home! You have been warned!

Let me know how this goes for you, its saved me from replacing food in the freezer and I’d imagine if we ever have a leak under the sinks or the kitchen we’d be warned as well. Buy many and deploy them they will save you much like they have saved us.

[jasontucker]

Add captions to stuff. Instagram video? Captions. TikTok video? Captions. Stories, Reels? Add captions

This may sound weird but I watch so much video content with my phone muted, if you post a video, I most likely didn’t watch it due to you not making captions for it. It takes a few seconds, help me

[jasontucker]

The wrongly accused Name Drop feature in iOS17

I’m a beta user of iOS, have been for many years and I use the betas on my daily drivers (iphone, ipad, macbook pro, apple watch, apple tv) and I use new features on iOS far before they come out to the general public. The one feature that is getting a lot of attention right now is Name Drop.

What is Name Drop?

With iOS 17.1 and watchOS 10.1, you can use NameDrop to quickly share contact information with a nearby iPhone or Apple Watch. Name Drop works by bringing two iPhones or Apple Watches close to one another and then the phones recognize one another and prompt you to share your contact info with the other device. You’ll get theirs and they get yours.

What people are getting wrong

People are stating that you can steal someones contact info by just putting your phone next to theirs and it just steals the info without your knowledge. This is not true and the Apple docs even explain how this isn’t true.

Apple Directions on how to use it

Share from iPhone to iPhone or Apple Watch: Hold the display of your iPhone a few centimeters from the top of the other person’s iPhone or Apple Watch. Share from Apple Watch to another Apple Watch: Open the Contacts app on your Apple Watch, tap your picture in the top-right corner, tap Share, then bring your watch close to the other person’s Apple Watch.

Apple Watch? Unless you have a new Apple Watch this doesnt work on it. NameDrop is available on Apple Watch Ultra, Apple Watch Series 7 and later, and Apple Watch SE (2nd generation).

What’s the fuss about?

There is a lot of posts online about this feature being used to steal your contact info without you knowing. Here are what the headlines on Nov 27th 2023 were showing when I searched for Name Drop on Google

What are people saying?

Lots of TikToks about it being “bad” Momofrubies Grey | Petty /Astrology/Witch

And people in the know sharing that this feature requires the user to accept the contact exchange. Chris Carley

And creators sharing how the feature actually works CNet

How I feel about it

This feature isn’t bad just like most technology this feature is misunderstood. Back in the day an app called “Bump” did something like this.

What was Bump? Bump was an app released by Bump Technologies in 2009 that allowed users to share data between their smartphones. They could transfer photos and contact cards by bumping their phones at each other. It was available on both Apple’s App Store and Google Play, and its technology was used briefly for PayPal money transfers on iPhone.

[jasontucker]

What tools I use produce & promote WPwatercooler

I’ve been thinking about the video production stack I use for recording, streaming, transcribing, subtitling, repurposing, and promoting on social media. I thought I’d share what I’m using. If you’ve used something different, I’d love to know what you are using. If you have any questions about my setup, please give me a shout on socials (see footer), and I can help you out.

Some of the links below are affiliate links, I’m sharing my video production stack as a way to help others and maybe I make a few bucks off of it as well.

Streamyard

Streamyard is like a full suite video studio. It allows me to have people on the show using an invite code, and it enables both me and my guests to stream to our own destinations, where people can watch on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. It records multitrack as well as a single mp3, and lets you download both audio and video. It’s great, and I haven’t found anything like it that is fully browser-based. A close second is Riverside.fm, but I haven’t used that yet, though I have heard good things.

My affiliate link for Streamyard

Descript

For editing, transcribing, and subtitles, I use Descript. I don’t do much editing, but for transcribing and subtitling, it’s an awesome way to take the multitrack audio from Streamyard, bring it into Descript, have it remove all the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ from the audio, and then transcribe it so I can post that transcription on the website as well as the subtitles for YouTube. A far second is MacWhisper, which can do multitrack audio, but the format of the transcript isn’t great, and I really wish it were better.

Descript

VidIQ & TubeBuddy

I’ve been using VidIQ and TubeBuddy for years, and they both provide some of the same features as well as some different ones for YouTube channel management. They offer channel statistics, keyword tools, competitor comparisons, trend alerts, thumbnail generators, and the list goes on. My favorite is the keyword tools, letting me research what keywords others are using and then collecting them to use later on my own videos, seeing which are popular and what can better describe my content. They work well for me and my needs. Try them both and see which one works for you. For me, TubeBuddy seems to be the best, but I use the free version of VidIQ since it has some interesting features too.

VidIQ

My Tube Buddy Affiliate Link

Opus Clip

A newcomer to my one-man-army stack is Opusclip. This tool lets me take a YouTube video I’ve uploaded or streamed and generate vertical video for YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram with ease. Using AI, it can generate multiple videos from fun, entertaining, and insightful parts of your content, and then add baked-in captions to the video so it’s engaging and easy to consume. A close second is Repurpose.io, which has a lot of the same features but packaged a bit differently.

My Opus Clip Affiliate Link

My Repurpose.io Affiliate Link

ChatGPT

My secret sauce in all of this is using ChatGPT to organize my content in such a way that it’s easy to just copy and paste into YouTube using some of the content collected above. I built a custom “GPT” called Post Production WPwatercooler Jobs that lets me upload the TEXT transcript and paste in the URL of the YouTube video and the URL for the WPwatercooler post. From there, it has a series of subjobs that it completes and puts together to make the content I need for the website, YouTube, podcast, and social media posts, all from the transcript of the show we just recorded.

I won’t share with you my entire GPT, but this can get you started: Your role is to process transcripts from a podcast called WPwatercooler, a WordPress podcast hosted by Jason Tucker, Sé Reed, and Jason Cosper, along with various guests. Your primary tasks are to create a summary and generate YouTube chapters from each episode’s transcript. Provided will be the following inputs: YouTube URL wpwatercooler.com post URL uploaded transcript

From there, I have it take data from one task and add it to the next, and the end result is pasteable content I can put onto the various services that host our content.

www.youtube.com/shorts/AG…

[jasontucker]

Automating with iOS using CarPlay and the Action Button

I’ve been messing with the Action Button on my iPhone 15 Pro Max and coming up with fun ways to get shortcuts to run when you press it as well as when you plug your iPhone into CarPlay. This gives you 2 different ways to make some fun things happen when you are using your iPhone and when you plug your iPhone in to your car or collect to wireless carplay.

CarPlay

Shortcuts has 2 different automations one that they call Personal and another for your Home if you use Homekit. We’ll be focusing on the Personal one to setup this.

I created 2 shortcuts one called CarPlay Set Traveling On and one called CarPlay set Traveling Off and I setup 2 different automations one for when the phone is connected to CarPlay and one when the iPhone is disconnected from CarPlay and have these setup to use these 2 automations and shortcuts:

When CarPlay Connects

Run Immediately

Don’t notify when run

CarPlay Set Traveling On

and the other one

When CarPlay Disconnects

Run Immediately

Don’t notify when run

CarPlay Set Traveling Off

When it’s the morning between 8-9am and I plug my phone in to use CarPlay I have the personal automation that kicks off a shortcut called “CarPlay Set Traveling On” which sets my Focus Mode to “Traveling” to on and then checks to see if it’s between 8am and 9am and if so, it runs another shortcut called “My daily report” which reads my various calendars and says outloud what events are coming up for today. It also checks my Reminders to see if there are any pending reminders I need to take care of and says those as well. It then runs another shortcut that is the same as my action button shortcut menu (see below)

“Traveling” focus mode? I created a focus mode called “Traveling” which is a replacement for the Driving focus mode that Apple has built in. I did this because you can’t do any many things with Driving as you can with just a normal focus mode.

My daily report It’s based off of this collection of shortcuts that talk to one another and uses Data Jar as a temp storage area for the values it collects. Speak action voice options - Reddit

Action Button

My action button shortcut uses Device Orientation to determine what is it it needs to do. It can run 1 of a few different shortcuts based on how its orientated. I based mine on Action Button Menu + Focus Modes for iPhone 15 Pro! - Stephen Robles

Orientation Detection - Build by Stephen Robles (Check the description for the links he talked about in this video). To do this requires an app called Actions that has the orientation detection as an action in Shortcuts. He made a sample shortcut he calls Orientation Actions you may want to check out.

Upside Down - Super Mute

Rightside Up (Portrait) - Action Menu

Landscape Left Side - Open Camera

Face Up - Vibrate & Flashlight

Face Down - Set Focus - Meeting

Super Mute - a shortcut that Stephen Robles also came up with that does some logic to see it it should set the volume to 50% or 0% based on if Silent Mode is one.. smart.

Action Menu - I have a shortcut that displays a menu to select from a bunch of shortcuts that I’ve collected all over the internet. Making a shortcut call another shortcut is super handy keeping everything short and sweet and interchangeable. Just a few examples you can use when you build your own menu using the “Choose from menu with” action:

Directions to Event - Searched calendar looking for an event and pulls up the directions

Quick Centre - A menu with all sorts of stuff in it.

AirPods Status - Your iPod Status

Passwords - Quick Link to Apple Passwords

Scan a UPC to Family Shopping List - Scan a UPC and it shows up in your shopping list decoded to the name of the item.

What Is That? - Uses an API to look up what airplane is above you

Network Tool - Gives you info about the network you are connected to

Open Camera - it’s a built in function.

Flashlight - Built in function, I have it vibrate so I know it turned on.

Set Focus - Meeting - Setting a focus mode is built in.

As I build out this functionality more I’ll share it with you but for now this is a good start to something fun.

[jasontucker]

I totally missed the movie Colossal (2016) when it came out. I am checking it out now.

boxd.it/biZi

[jasontucker]

I miss Quiznos

[jasontucker]

Searching history in zsh

Honestly, trying to remember every shell command I use regularly is a headache. Repeatedly typing out those commands? Exhausting. And juggling all those aliases feels like a jigsaw puzzle sometimes. I use

$ history | grep thing

and needed better way. I user zsh and oh-my-zsh so this plugin is pretty awesome. Now hitting Control+r will start the zaw-history search where you can filter your zsh history. Yay!

(The best ZSH history search)[https://sensaisean.medium.com/the-best-zsh-history-search-9926c0a62f66]

[jasontucker]

Is Apple's iOS 17.2 Beta Journal App the New Day One?

With the latest beta of iOS 17.2, Apple unveiled its much-anticipated Journal app, which they had teased in prior announcements about iOS 17. This nifty app is designed to gather diverse data snippets from your day, courtesy of any apps that play nice with Journal. After that, it’s all about crafting your journal entry, embedding data points like photos, locations, and more.

Now, I’m not here to review the Journal app. Instead, I’m sharing what I’m hoping this app will mean for users like me. The real charm of an Apple-made app is its deep-rooted integration with the iOS. Apps bundled with the OS have the golden ticket – access to private APIs. They’re primed to mesh seamlessly with other apps on your device. It’s a vibe we’ve seen with the Photos and Notes apps – the Journal app will likely have the same capability to harness information from other apps, enriching your journal entries.

Previously, I’ve played around with IFTTT, Automate, and the Shortcuts app to feed data into DayOne, my goal was to consolidate data I’ve shared online – be it on my personal website, Instagram, Twitter, or other platforms – into a unified daily snapshot. In this beta it looks like there are no Journal shortcut actions just yet, sad they didn’t start off with them.

I’m crossing my fingers that the Journal app will let me do exactly that – and more. It’s about tracking my day-to-day, reflecting on my week, and having a dedicated space to pen down thoughts, just as you would in a traditional journal. I’ve been a fan of Day One, but if Apple can offer a similar experience deeply intertwined with the iOS ecosystem, then other offerings like Day One or Simplenote (props to WordPress’s Automattic for these!) might take a backseat for me. It’s early days but with Journal, I could have all my desired data bundled into my Journal entries.!