Steve's Rants 'n' Raves, Reviews and Ramblings

This is a really odd Mac OS bug - I'm so reliant on pressing the space bar in Finder to look at or play files (e.g. PDFs or MP3s or MP4s) that, when it stopped working altogether, I was thrown. A dialog comes up with information on the file but there's no preview. At all. And restarting Mac OS doesn't help. Clearly something is well and truly stuck at the system level. Happily, a pointer online led to a quick fix and I thought I'd share it here.  Start Activity Monitor (you'll find it in Applications/Utilities) On the View menu, choose ' All processes ' Use the find tool (magnifying glass at the top right of the window) and type in 'Find' The process ' QuickLookUIService ' will show up. This is the system process which is corrupted/stuck/foobar(!) etc.  Double click this and choose ' Force Quit ' Done! Next time this happens (it gets stuck for me about once a month), at least you can fix it in seconds without having to worry about re

You have to wonder at the cost of labour back in the 1500s, along with priorities in the stonework business. And I apologise in advance if I'm about to be something of an architecture heathen. You see, I was visiting York and gazing up at the Minster, destroyed and rebuilt a number of times over the last 1000 years. And, while I was hugely impressed by the size of the thing (and yes, we went inside for the tour), as my eyes focussed in on some of the details, I started to notice something. Details on the details. And those details had details added to them. Almost fractal. As an example, take one of the very smallest spires on the Minster, only a few feet high and positioned a hundred feet off the ground. One of them is helpfully displayed on its own inside: I can't really imagine the discussions between the foreman of the time and the stone masons, perched possibly precariously on 1500-era scaffolding, 100ft off the ground.  "Yes, can you put in 50 little spires, each 5ft

Listening to all the issues and problems besetting popular 'password managers' on various podcasts, not least their creators selling up and handing the software over to 'big tech', not least the task of juggling compatibility with the various desktop and mobile browsers, not least the navigating of new methods of ID and 'web 3.0'... I was struck that my chosen system is still the best way forward.  For me, anyway, if not perhaps 'normobs'. I'm a firm believer in keeping things simple. And also in using 'open source' software where possible as it avoid commercial outfits trying to shoehorn in extra features that 'make them money'. So. Here's what I've done since 2010 - and have set up for my family and friends. No need to have a piece of software from the exact same company that runs on every platform, no need to juggle syncing between devices. You just have one 'encrypted blob of data' in the cloud. I keep it in Google

It works. It really does work. How did I not know about this technique (and app?) Anyway, here's my iPhone 12 Pro Max sitting on a Qi charging pad. I put the iPhone on and - bang - up comes a true Always On Display, with date and battery status: Is there a trick? Well, not as such (you may remember convoluted Accessibility techniques for getting AOD on an iPhone), but there are two components to get in place: The app OLEDX from the iOS App Store. It's free unless you want outrageous stuff like fancy colours and weather etc. The latest (iOS 15) Shortcuts application - this is something I've never really dived into in great detail before, but this is a great example of what can be done. So OLEDX is installed on your iPhone? Run it and check it all works. Good. Now run the Shortcuts utility on your phone and then tap on the 'Automation' tab at the bottom: Tap on 'Create Personal Automation'. Tap on 'Charger'. Tap on 'Next'. Tap on 'Open Ap

The iPhone 13 mini is a stunning smartphone, unusual because of its diminutive size yet without compromising any of the internals. But it's still the best part of £700 and needs protecting. As usual for my case roundups, I'll cover a variety of styles, with most samples supplied by MobileFun, kind people that they are. See their  complete range of iPhone 13 mini cases and covers . But on with the individual cases, each link goes to the relevant product page, of course. Spigen Rugged Armor, £20 Spigen cases are rarely the cheapest, but they do offer utterly premium TPU and perfect fit. On the tiny iPhone 13 mini, this feels soooo snug. So many textures too. The main body/back matt finish is just lovely, but it gets better with the ultra-ribbed, grippy sides. The two texture panels on the back look cool, but their function is mainly cosmetic. There's ample face drop protection around the front edges of the case, plus a typical 'air gap' corner design to handle corner

The new Pixels are a real step up from previous years in terms of specs, making them a good upgrade. But you'll definitely need a case on these slippery premium devices. As usual for my case roundups, I'll cover a variety of styles, with most samples supplied by MobileFun, kind people that they are. See their  complete range of Pixel 6 cases and covers , and then Pixel 6 Pro cases and covers . But on with the individual cases, each link goes to the relevant product page, of course. Plus, since the two phones are almost identical apart from size, I've included links to each variant in each heading - you'll see what I mean. UPDATED 25/11/2021. More cases, especially for the Pixel 6, even though I don't have a host device to show them off in-situ. But I still have plenty of opinions! And in such cases, I've also linked to the Pixel 6 pro variant, to help you out. Olixar ExoShield, £10 ( Pixel 6 version ) Olixar's ExoShield cases have been a favourite of mine f