The iPhone is my default smartphone of choice. We also share history, it was unvailed in the same year I launched Nozbe. These posts explain how I use the iPhone as a pocket computer alongside my iPad… and as a phone.
Before we launched the brand new Nozbe I got myself an old 2016 iPhone SE to be able to test if our app is fast enough for this phone and designed well enough to fit this smallest screen on the iPhone. After a few years as I upgraded my iPhones, I put this old vintage one on the wall of my home office and kept it there. Now that my eldest daughter needed her first phone, I decided to give her this one for starters. However, this iPhone’s battery was really bad. So I did some research and decided to buy a new battery on Amazon for around $20 and change the battery myself. What could possibly go wrong?
My brother, who recently converted back to iPhone from Android, just sent me over this tip and it’s fantastic - if you’re a parent, who has lots of family photos - follow the steps in this article and you’ll thank me later. Thanks to this tip, every hour I see a different photo of one of my three daughters and wife. I love my Lock Screen now! Here’s how to enable it:
Last week I was on short holidays with my family and I rented a car. They upgraded me to a BMW 3 series combi (wagon) which was perfect for my family’s needs. This was a new car and I haven’t driven the newest BMWs lately so I was kind of concerned if I’ll get around to understand their infotainment system. Luckily all I had to figure out was how to connect my iPhone Mini with Bluetooth to the system and I was set, as the car was equipped with wireless CarPlay. Here’s why it was brilliant:
In the end, against my earlier advice I decided to upgrade my trusty three-year-old AirPods Pro to the new model - AirPods Pro 2. For once, some people I trust confirmed this was a worthy upgrade. Secondly, my current AirPods Pro hold only 2 hours of charge after three years of almost daily service. Thirdly, if I use something as much as these every single day, I can completely justify an upgrade after three years, hopefully having them in service for the next three years! Now, apart from the headphones being better, the biggest upgrade is the case. Not only that it has a speaker now which makes it easier to find, but mostly because I can now use virtually any charger to charge it - thanks to the magnets, I can use the MagSafe puck to charge it:
When the AirPods Pro launched two years ago, I immediately got them and never looked back. I carry them with me everywhere. I love the noise canceling (NC), the transparency mode (where you can hear everything around you) and the fact that they’re so small and so compact that you can just have them on yourself and start listening through them anytime. Apple now launched the second generation - below is my short review and a few tips if you’re planning to get them:
When the original iPhone 12 Mini was announced, I got to it and loved it! I called it the “ultimate cuteness” and with it I embraced the MagSafe lifestyle. When iPhone 13 Pro was announced, I wanted a better camera and pro-motion and went with the Pro instead. I spent a year with it and it was a great phone… but it was too heavy and bulky for me. Long story short, two months ago I got a discounted iPhone 13 Mini for iOS16 testing and it was so much joy to use, that this week I made it my main iPhone. Here’s why this year I’m forgoing the “Pro” phone and going with the last Mini:
When I published my best posts from 2012 I realized that there are things I started doing a decade ago and I keep doing to this day. Like working standing or using iPad as my main computer. It turns out, that 9 years ago I started having a minimalist wallet attached to my iPhone and never looked back. Today, my iPhone 13 Pro wallet looks like this:
I watched last week’s Apple Event with much enthusiasm and as I tend to upgrade my iPhone every year, I was very happy to see the cameras got slightly better as well as battery life. This year though, the difference between the pro and non-pro models is substantial so I decided I’m going back with a bigger iPhone. I’m replacing my good old iPhone 12 Mini with the iPhone 13 Pro, here’s why:
Despite the pandemic and lack of long-haul travel, I’m still using my backpack almost daily when I need to leave home. As recently I embraced the MagSafe lifestyle I decided to review everything I carry in my backpack and write it up over here so that it might be also helpful to you. Here goes:
Apart from reducing the size of the iPhone 12 last year, Apple introduced a new type of accessories for the iPhone, which have to do with charging and magnets - MagSafe. While I was a little skeptical about this, I ordered the MagSafe Wallet and gave it a try. After a while I decided to go all in on MagSafe and embrace this new magnetic lifestyle.
