Category Archives: Gadgets & Apps

All posts that don’t obviously fit in one of the sub-categories go here.

TextGrabber

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I’ve been using this app for years and thought I had posted on it previously but didn’t find anything. Pretty sure there’s an old screencast on YouTube but they’ve made numerous improvements. And I wanted to try out the screen recording feature in the new iPhone. More on that in a moment.

When I come across a long-ish passage in a book or magazine that I’d like to save, rather than just snap a photo, TextGrabber does some kind of OCR (optical character recognition) magic and gives you editable (and searchable) text.

As an aside, the screen recording above was done on the iPhone XS. Making screen recordings has gotten easier over the years but it was still a minor hassle to capture the screen on your phone. No longer. This feature is built right into the iPhone and it works great.

Face ID

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From day-one I was happy with the iPhone’s Touch ID. So I was skeptical when Apple eliminated the home button (and Touch ID) and replaced it with Face ID. But works as advertised. It works so well I forget it’s working. And I guess I don’t care that much how it works. From iMore.com:

Face ID uses multiple neural networks that are built into the dual-core A11 bionic neural engine to process the facial recognition data. It takes a mathematical model of your face and checks it against the original scan of your face that you first registered.

The information is stored on the A11 chip on your iPhone X and not sent to Apple’s servers, so your facial identity is kept private.

It uses a Require Attention feature in order to work. That means you have to be looking at your iPhone for it to scan, You can’t be asleep or looking away for it to unlock your iPhone. […] It doesn’t work with photographs. It doesn’t work while you’re asleep. It doesn’t even work with detailed silicon masks that look just like you.

I tried to think of a way to make some sort of screencast to show how well this feature works but… there’s almost nothing to show. When my phone ‘sees’ my face — and only my face — it unlocks.

Screen Time

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I’m fascinated by this new iPhone feature. Here are some of my stats for last 7 days:

  • 1 hr 14 min per day ‘on’ phone
  • Messages – 48 min/day
  • Gmail – 39 min/day
  • Google – 20 min/day
  • Phone – 20 min/day
  • YouTube – 19 min/day
  • Picked up my phone 268 times (avg 38 per day)

I think I’m probably a very light user. I’ll bet a lot of people would be shocked to see how much time they spend.

Google+ going away

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It’s that scene where all the seniors are gathered at the high school hangout, just before everyone heads off to college or the Army or a full-time job at Wal Mart. Everyone promises to keep in touch but knows they won’t. I’ll miss the friends I’ve made on Google+. I got in the car or on a plane to go meet some of you f2f.

But like everyone else, I could see this coming. I’m guessing a lot of folks will swing over to FB and reassemble there. Not an option for me. In fact, this was my last little toe-in-the-social media-water. I’ve been spending time one a Land Rover forum and feel comfortable with the focused/moderated environment. No politics, no ranting… just guys talking about their trucks.

I guess I’m still a little surprised nobody has figured out a way to do a paid social media platform. Sure seems like there would be a lot (okay, enough) people willing to pay, say, twenty bucks a year for an ad-free site. But no such thing exists as far as I know.

New iPhone camera flatters

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When I look back at photos of my father, they tend to fall into two categories: solemn and goofy. His smiles often looked more like a grimace. The best photos of him are the the serious poses. Like pop, I’ve tended to mug for the camera for most of my adult life. I’m not one of those people who hate having their photo taken and readily concede that every one of them was “me” at that moment.

At 70, the camera shows me an old man that cannot possibly be me. The imaginary me that looks out of these eyes is a young guy. Who is that geezer in the mirror?! But maybe that will pass and the inner me will get comfortable with the guy walking around in this skin. Barb took this photo (with her iPhone X).

iPhone XS

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Broke down and bought a new iPhone yesterday. My 6SE was two years old and the battery was fading noticebly. I loved the smaller form-factor of the SE and was hoping Apple would keep it around but, alas, the smaller phone is no more. The clincher was the camera on the new models (Barb’s photos from her Yellowstone trip were breathtaking).

Took a couple of photos this morning of Terry Bledsoe, a coffee shop regular. The portrait modes is impressive.

Apple TV Screensavers

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I’ve got some issues with Apple TV but it works so well with my iPhone and MacBook so I put up with them. And the gizmo is worth the money just for the screensavers. They’re gorgeous. Last night I fired up the Apple Music app while I was ironing shirts. In a few seconds the first screensaver came up on the big screen. If you’ve never seen these it’s hard to understand what I’m gushing about.