Steve Litchfield

Everywhere you look online, companies are trying to sell you a VPN (Virtual Private Network), it's the in-thing these days. Getting online using a VPN will 'keep you safe' they say. And they're absolutely right. Except that you're absolutely safe without a VPN too - don't believe the scare stories. You see, every Internet-facing application, including web browsers, in 2024, accesses data over an already-secure  connection. The layers of encryption already in place as you access, for example, your iMessages or Gmail, mean that there's nothing bad guys could do even if they were to somehow intercept random batches of your over-the-air 1s and 0s. But why not pay a subscription and use a VPN anyway, I hear you say - isn't that just even more security? Well... it's over the top security. And the main effect of paying out for a VPN for regular online activity is that it will make that activity significantly slower, because of all the extra encryption being...

I’ve been covering aspects of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 in video form, I’ll leave the media embedded here (7 different videos, each less than a minute long!) - if it works. If not, then see my YouTube Shorts output at https://www.youtube.com/@stevelitchfield/shorts   But I wanted to go into more detail on its hardware and software proposition for the man or woman in the street. There’s only so much you can say in 58 seconds in a Short! For a self-confessed geek like me, phones, smartphones, PDAs, pocket computers, I expect them to be sizeable - else they won’t be useful. So I can put up with a flagship like the S24 Ultra. Or Pixel 9 Pro XL. Or even a fold of some kind. Or even my precious iPhone 14 Pro Max in the Clicks case.  But the average phone user, while liking a large display area, also secretly wants their phone to be smaller in the pocket or bag. Which is where the Flip series come in. Simply fold your large screened phone in half and tuck it into any pocket. ...

It occurs to me, thinking about ICE cars versus hybrids versus EVs yet again that, in addition to all the points I’ve covered so far in my video series , that there’s also a time and convenience factor. Time is a factor when recharging takes much of it, of course. And convenience is hit if there’s a significant time penalty, plus there’s the inconvenience of having to stop to charge more often in the first place. But I’m not bashing EVs here, as I’ll explain after a couple of data points. First of all, traditional ICE (internal combustion engine) cars, typified by my outgoing Ford C-Max family car: I managed to get 40mpg out of it across all journeys, it cost £70 (and about three minutes) to fill its sizeable tank from scratch, giving me 450 miles of range.  Then we have my current ‘self-charging’ Toyota Yaris Cross hybrid, with a much smaller petrol tank but a 1kWh hybrid battery, constantly renewed within the battery ‘sweet’ range when the engine is on. I’m getting 75mpg average ...

I know, I know, it serves me right for getting drawn in by an advert on (cough) Facebook. However, the idea behind this simple Koseo product is so genius that I couldn't resist. And the price was low enough that it wasn't the end of things if it turned out to be a dud. As it turned out, it was, yet wasn't. As you'll see below. The problem being solved here is that between a car front seats and the centre console is often a slim gap. And into this fall sweets, phones, pencils, whatever. Which are then a devil of a job getting out again, squeezing fingers and tools in from odd angles.  These 'personalised filler cushions' then fit between the seats and the console, plugging the gap and stopping things falling down. Simple idea, but how well is it implemented? I can't resist listing all the attributes from the video advert and web site, in part for fun (because regardless of what I say, I did end up using the cushions): Bright red (at least in the video versio...

It's utterly bizarre, but I wanted to document this for others. Normally my Mac outputs great Bluetooth audio, with a Creative Pebble Pro stereo set either side of my desk giving me great music while I work. However... Every now and then, the glorious high-def stereo changes to a VERY low-fi mono mix, reminiscent of Bluetooth headsets 20 years ago.  Turning Bluetooth off and on again does nothing to fix things Turning the speakers off and on again does nothing, ditto Closing the Mac, ditto Rebooting the Mac, ditto At this point despair sets in, but there's a fix. In fact, two fixes. And they only take a few seconds. First method: Click on the Bluetooth icon in the top system bar Click on 'Bluetooth Settings' Click on the 'i' besides the speakers in your setup Click on 'Forget this device' Click on ''Forget this device' again when asked if you're sure(!) Find the speakers again (listed under 'Nearby devices') and click on 'Con...

A provocative headline, sure, and if all cars were white then the world and its roads would be pretty darned boring. But at the same time, I do believe that there is sound physics behind the statement. And that my decision to go with a white car over the last decade has saved my life more than once... It's all about visibility, you see. I know this sounds obvious, but hear me out. In daytime, in great light, a white car is around 10% more visible than other colours. By which I mean that it will be spotted slightly more quickly in someone's peripheral vision and that this will reduce the risk of an accident. In low light, think dusk, with the sun having just dipped below the horizon, through to actual night time, darker car colours (blues, reds, greens, and - of course - black itself) become largely invisible. When the colour of your car resembles a dull shade of grey (or worse) when not illuminated, it's hard to be seen against a low light background. Which means that visib...

Sourced from Simply Cars , for about £25, I have to apologise if I gush a little in praising what is, at heart, a bit of moulded plastic. But it's also genius. Let me explain... We've all been there. It's time to transport, perhaps once a month, something really dirty in our otherwise well-kept car. So it's seats down and start loading. Old hardware that's been in the rain for weeks, rusty iron, tree branches and stumps covered in flaky wood and general biological muck, garden rubbish such as mown grass, you name it, we've all stuffed it in our cars at some point. And then, when returning from the recycling centre or rubbish dump, the back of the car is littered with damp sawdust, grime, water, mud, and so on. Which then needs drying and vacuuming. What a pain. So I leapt on this tailored boot liner. Yes, you could line any boot, for a few pennies, with plastic sheeting, ostensibly protecting your car and making clean-up easier. And I've done this in the pas...

Adapted from the four part YouTube series on my channel (videos embedded below), I thought a readable version might also be useful. Note that all of this is from my own, utterly subjective (but technical) viewpoint.  Introduction So... my long form videos have re-emerged - into related mobile tech. Starting with this - a 2024 CAR. With its own embedded, permanent Internet 4G connection, and with its compatibility with Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto, a new car in 2024 is just as high tech as a phone. With dozens of computers, two large main displays, lifetime OS updates, and real time baked in real time, road speed limit and speed camera warnings, a new car today both satisfies the geek in me and also…gets me and my family around. I’ll come to the tech in a later video, but this one’s more automotive, and I wanted to lay out my reasoning for choosing… the Toyota Yaris Cross 2024. Other cars are available, of course… My existing mobile office - err… I mean my Ford CMax, se...