First page of the iPhone archive.

New additions – an iPhone 6+ and …

Posted by bedhead on April 27, 2015 with No Commentsas , , , , , , , , ,

First off I wanted to apologize for more time between posts, than I would like. I’m hoping things are about settled back down, so I get back to a more consistent stream of information for you folks.

Now for the new stuff. I’ve had an Apple iPhone 5 since they first came out, and often that’s what I have available, when taking photos while working on a project. The photos it takes are much better than most of my earlier cameras, and certainly better than any previous phone, but it still leaves a little to be desired. Enter the new iPhone 6 plus (I know it’s not just breaking into the market, but I just got mine), whose photos look much better to my eyes.  I took a quick photo of my mountain bike, after I took a ride last week, in a sense documenting both the ride and the iPhone.

A photo of my mountain bike, that I took with my new iPhone6+.

A photo of my mountain bike, that I took with my new iPhone6+.

For those that don’t know, I continue to spend time with my exercise programs, which now includes putting in some miles on my mountain bike, and I’m getting closer and closer to feeling as if the last three years (primarily the two back surgeries) never happened. I personally find it is much easier to complete the exercise routines, if you can either find one mode you really love, or if you alternate between a number of modalities. I have almost always been one of those people that just loves to do anything exercise related, and even more so if it connects to a sport. I also found a really cool app for my iPhone that keeps track of my rides, giving me a breakdown of details after I’m done, including a nice little map showing where I rode. The app is called MapMyRide (my best friend told me he uses a sibling app called MapMyRun, which also sounds very useful) and all I need to do is click the orange “Start my ride” button in the lower portion of the screen. That’s it! I just click my iPhone’s power button to shut off my screen and put it into my pocket, and then start riding. It is super simple and FREE! They do of course offer an upgrade, which does have fees attached, but the basic version is absolutely free. Below is a screen capture of one ride.

 

MapMyRide screen showing path ridden in red, along with distance, speeds broken down per mile and other details.

MapMyRide screen showing path ridden in red, along with distance, speeds broken down per mile and other details.

I have another addition to tell you about, other than the iPhone, and its back in the woodworking arena. I got a Festool Kapex KS-120 for the shop. I’ve owned an old Craftsman chop-saw for almost 30 years, and it is one the old 10″ guys that hinges, but does not move along any rails, severely limiting the size board it can cut. For smaller pieces of wood, this can still perform the basic function, but if any have much width to them, you’d better have an alternate solution.

Festool Kapex KS 120 with it's sliding rails and superior accuracy, is such an amazing tool.

Festool Kapex KS 120 with it’s sliding rails and superior accuracy, is such an amazing tool.

This new Kapex (also a 10″ saw) can cut up to a 12″ wide board, is amazingly accurate, produces a glass-smooth cut, and has just gobs of functionality. Festool just seems to understand what is needed in a tool, and then translate their team’s findings into a tool that is easy to use, yet has world-class abilities. Oh, and when it is connected to a Festool dust collector, it is in the 94% captured range. Very similar in fact to their Domino and my Rotex 150 (6″ rotary sanding tool) has even less escaping dust. I realize I regularly lean towards hand tools, but I like to have an integrated shop. Power tools and hand tools work together very nicely, and I use each for what they do best.

Thanks for stopping by and please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

 

Lee Laird

Regain iPhone storage space – (non-woodworking)

Posted by bedhead on April 11, 2015 with No Commentsas , , , , , , , , ,

First, let me apologize that this article isn’t woodworking nor music related; exactly. I’m straying a bit, but there is a nexus, because it does have a direct impact on one of the tools with which I use to share what I’m working on, with you. So I believe it is important!

To preface this, I take a load of photos with my iPhone 5, so I can hopefully have a choice of what I can post in my articles. After I move the mass of photos to my computer, and decide which I’ll use, I go back and remove the photos from my phone.

Ok, with that in mind, I took a couple of photos the other day, to help me on a project. I determined I needed some subsequent photos, but when I brought up the camera app, I was met by the “Sorry, you don’t have enough space!” pop-up message. The project was super time sensitive, so I went through trying to figure out what I could do to quickly resolve the problem. After looking through my iPhone’s system menus, I saw I had almost zero space available. I couldn’t believe it, but shifted to the “what can I delete” mindset.

I went through and deleted emails, messages, some not-regularly-used programs, and on and on. I was regaining some space, but it was miniscule. I went back into my photos and started deleting other non-writing related images, but the space available didn’t change. I thought I was going to lose it! So, I thought through it and it came to me; I probably need to reboot my phone, for the trashed photos to get emptied. A reboot later, nothing!

With my deadline racing towards me, I found some images inside of iMessage conversations, that upon deletion, at least gave me enough space to take a few photos.

I decided to dive into the problem this morning, as I couldn’t believe what had happened. This is what I found. With the new iOS8, they added a new folder inside of Photos, and it seems it is only accessible in folder view. The folder is called “Recently Deleted”.

Evidently, someone at Apple decided the end-user needed something of a safety net, when working with their photos. All of the photos that I’ve been deleting, since shifting to iOS8 (*actually, the last 30 days, as I explain further down), were right there in that dang little folder. You have to open the “Recently Deleted” folder, choose select in the upper right corner, and then in the lower left corner, click the now visible “Delete All”. (**Make certain this is what YOU wish to do, as I know of no way to get these photos back!)

I went back into the system settings and my available space increased by 1 GB! As far as I can tell, there is no method for turning off the “Recently Deleted” folder, without going into a Jailbreak situation (which I’m just not going to do). One thing I did find later, is the photos in this new folder do actually get deleted from the system, on their own, but only after 30 days (I can’t find a way to modify this timeframe). So, if you are hurriedly working to make room in your iPhone, for some impending project (or family gathering), know that it takes two steps to actually remove any photos from the Photos storage space. Just think of it much like when you work in your email program. If you delete any messages, they normally go into the Trash folder, which you must open, choose all and expunge (unless you have set it to auto-remove from the program).

Knowledge is power, and I hope I’ve shared something with you that will give you the power to keep your iPhone working for you, rather than the other way around.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the article and please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Lee Laird