AirPods Pro is almost certainly the thing I use the most. A lot of the time just for reducing noise etc and to listen to music, podcasts audiobooks etc. From everywhere to walking the dog, to in the office or the gym.

I have two pairs that is in active use. The first generation is usually in my sling or my gym bag as a backup in case I forget my main ones. And the new model is the ones I use most of the time.

The sound quality in the new ones is a bit better, and the new noise cancellation and adaptive stuff feels a lot better. But I’d bet that it is mostly due to being able to be smarter and not that the cancellation hardware being much better.

I like them better than the previous model, and I love the new case. Especially that they have put in holes to attach it to things and that it was USB-C.

For me the nose cancellation and being able to hear better in a bunch of situations plus having a backup makes it worth it for me. But if you have a new ish pair of version 1 it is probably not worth it until their battery capacity degrades unless you also want the adaptive mode.

I have a weird Apple Watch history. Skipped the first one, then I got the cheap 1.5 generation one, before getting the Series 3 and using that one until my then 2.5 year old daughter dropped it on the bathroom tiles and smashed the screen, and got the cheapest Series 7 that was in stock last summer.

All except the Series 7 was the larger size.

In general I enjoyed the smaller size, but the battery life wasn’t great.

This time I was having a hard time picking what to get. Eventually I ended up going with the Ultra 2. First and foremost because of battery life, the Action button and the Modular Ultra watch face.

The battery life is great, I have never been close to running out, even on the days when I charge it in the morning and go until the next morning. While the action button is something I’m still working on how to use for something useful. But the Modular Ultra face is great, it has six of the small round complications something that I love to have a lot of functionality available.

It is huge, but it bothers me less than I thought I would. I’d love to have more colorful bands though. I got it with then Indigo Alpine band, I just picked a random Alpine band to be honest. Waiting for an Orange one to ship. Will most likely get an Ocean and Trail too, at least the orange Ocean, and probably trail when they make one with a non boring color.

Very happy with it this far.

So much of the recent cool stuff Apple have been doing with their devices like the customizable home screens last year, StandBy or the Smart Stack on WatchOS is that in the first version there are no other way to configure them than to go into the mode.

I’d much rather have an area in settings to set it up. This is especially annoying for the smart stacks on iOS and StandBy.

For the WatchOS widget stacks it would be much easier and faster to just set it up through the Watch app on my iPhone instead of sitting really still and hoping it doesn’t jump out of the view after each change you make.

And for the StandBy it is just for my setups both at home and in the office just a really weird position (and rather uncomfortable) to sit/stand and configure it.

I’ve mostly used ad blockers all the time since Content Blockers became a thing on iOS. But I decided to give it a shot without them a while back.

For fucks sake.

The internet is unusable without them. So much ads and crap. I have no words.

When I’m trying to use focus modes on my iPhone I’m often left with the feeling that I’d love for them to two different things. Where Focus modes are about notifications and all of that, and a different setting for different Home Screen setups.

It all would make a lot more sense to me, and be a lot more useful if I could change the available home screens etc also on a second setting that was more current task related than a focus mode.

Where I’d get the notification settings of work, but hide screens because I’m in a meeting etc that I would find useful when I’m at my desk.

• Only syncing user data; but not other settings or state. Like if they have suffered through your terrible onboarding thingy or settings.
• Having export but not import
• The export only cover parts of the state
• Shortcut action only cover adding data, but not delete or edit

It drives me nuts when apps sync your data but don’t sync your settings or state. Like when you have to apply your settings on every single device or even

I saw this Sling while looking for something else, and just had to get it.

It is just a simple strap with a carabiner like hook at the end. Plus a small loop attachment you put inside more or less any iPhone case out through the hole for the charging port.

Really great when you’re in a situation where you either don’t have a pocket and or having a bag isn’t practical. I use it a lot in the gym. The loop for it might not be the most durable, but probably not too hard to hack together a replacement.

I really like the concept of this product though.

They have two kinds of car mounts available. Or they also have a bunch of other mounting stuff that could work. But these are the two that seems like the ones specifically made for being used in a car.

One vent mount and one that you can stick to any surface and adjust the angle etc.

I have tried both; the short version is that I ordered the non vent mount and the one I had in my car broke and I bought the vent mounted one because it was available locally.

The vent mount is fine. Better than other vent mounts I’ve used. But still limited by what you can do with that. But the other one is the best car mount I’ve had. It sticks and stays there. Been through multiple seasons of often a lot of condensation on the inside before I start the car, a windshield replacement where I removed it, waited a few hours and re-attached it. It is really good. Plus that it has much more ability to adjust the angle etc than the previous ones I’ve had could. Both of them have the design of you need to use a Popsocket to use them, and just have this U shaped thingy you slide it into. This is so much easier than all of the grabbing and mounting mechanisms I’ve used in the past.

If this ever breaks I’m getting another one.

I’ve been using Pop sockets for years upon years.

I think it started with the iPhone 8 Plus, because it was way more slippery than the 6 Plus I replaced. Over the years I’ve used multiple versions of it, not the original that you just glued on, but I started with the ones where you could twist off the pop socket itself only leaving a mount, making them more charging pad compatible. For a while I used the thing you attached on the sides that slide up and down, and these days I mostly use the first version of the MagSafe ones.

I think the MagSafe versions is the perfect version of the product, because of how easy it is to take them on and off depending on if you need it or not.

For those who are not aware. Pop sockets is this plastic and rubber knob you attach on the back of your phone that you can pull out or push in. You pull it out to use it and push it back in when you put your phone it your pocket etc. When pulled out you can use it to mount it to a bunch of pop socket compatible accessories (like their car mount, I’ll get to that in a separate post), to to use it as a kickstand (not a great one though) or to give your phone something to grip on to.

The latter is my primary use for them. It makes it a lot easier to hold a large phone, because you can kind of just let it sit between your fingers and you don’t have to strain your hand by gripping as much. When I use them I barely grip my phone at all, I just let it sit there.

I also fight a lot with mine. I think they even made a fidget toy version of it at some point.