How to make persistent variables for iOS and iPadOS Shortcuts | Hacking Shortcuts

Store data across Shortcut runs with Memory Shortcuts has proven to be an invaluable source of automation to me. It is in many ways a very powerful app. But it has its limitations (in particular the "automations" that are not actually automatic but that's another story). One limitation that has cropped up for me multiple …

How to get a Live Wallpaper on 2ᴺᴰ Generation iPhone SE

Why I fired up my old iPhone 6S to hack my new iPhone SE and get a live wallpaper.

Apple Health Headphone Audio Exposure Notifications are Not Accurate and How to Defeat Them

Have you been caught out by the headphone audio exposure notifications that were made mandatory by Apple in iOS 14.2? I have, frequently. I’ve messed probably every conceivable setting to try and disable this setting but there is no way around it. • Settings app > Sound & Haptics > Toggle off headphone notifications ❌ • Settings …

Customise your iPhone with your own icons (Metal Gear Solid maybe?)

How to customise an iPhone home screen with your own icons.

An evaluation of the Measure app

How accurate is the Measure app on iOS and iPadOS? I set about finding out.

Apple Watch 5’s always on screen

The key feature that Apple touts as the first selling point of the Apple Watch 5 is its “always on screen”. This is a bad concept for a couple of reasons. 1. Rather than aim for a longer discharge cycle for the consumer (longer time between charges) Apple have seemingly increased battery capacity or improved …

An iOS and iPadOS Shortcut for rapidly typing formatted scientific constants (in Unicode)

As a physics teacher I frequently refer to and calculate with scientific constants (like the speed of light and Planck's constant). So when I am on my iPhone it is helpful to be able to type them easily as I refer to them in messages, notes and tweets. In a previous post I described how …

Expect to use around 75% more energy to charge your phone wirelessly

Wireless charging is all the rage these days the much touted convenience of simply placing your phone on a charging pad rather than plugging-in being a key selling point for phones and chargers. But alongside the added convenience are there any drawbacks to charging wirelessly? As part of my quest to find out I was …

How to apply a screen protector to any device with no dust bubbles

Have you ever tried to apply a screen protector to your new smartphone only to find that a fleck of dust somehow got between the protector and screen causing a bubble to form that cannot be removed?  I feel your pain.  This happened to me once or twice until I learned the key to success: …

The biggest privacy scandal in tech right now

I think that the biggest privacy scandal in tech right now is illustrated by the screenshots below… Send other people's contact details and potentially confidential information to a tech firm's servers!!! Sharing your contacts with tech services. Who honestly and rationally believes they have the right to do that? Send other people's contact details and …