danie10

I was looking for an app to alert me to low battery levels across various of my iOS devices. Although coconutBattery looked good, it is macOS only, and I only power my Macbook up occasionally. So I looked at a good four iOS app options, and there is no perfect one that does everything perfectly. I also discarded anything that was updated more than a year ago. I installed across my iPhone, iPad and Watch. You can view the battery levels from any device’s app, for all the devices.

PowerToYou covers iPhone, iPad (and iPencil found under Bluetooth devices), Watch, AirPods (added as a Bluetooth device). What I like is that it has a good widget layout, clearly showing the percentages and time last updated for each device. You can set notifications globally for any device falling below, or going above (to prevent full cycle charging), a percentage charged. Adding the AirPods on my iPhone, made them show up on the iPad’s app just fine. The widget expanded to show the AirPods. It also has some choices for Watch complications. The app was last updated Feb 2022, and has an active Discord support community. Download from https://apps.apple.com/us/app/powertoyou/id1558154409.

Cloud Battery covers the same devices as PowerToYou (but says AirPods can no longer be monitored this way, and did not detect them), but it also detected and showed my Apple Pencil battery level. Its widgets fall a bit short though as they are nice but fail to show any percentage level or time last updated. However, a quick press on the widget opens the app, which shows the percentages. Another quick press on an individual device, shows when the charge level was last updated, rename the device, and set a device specific alert fop passing below or above a certain percentage level. Cloud Battery also allows you to customise the colours of widget text and icons. App was last updated Jan 2022. Download from https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cloud-battery/id1480648069.

“Charged?” is a small app that allows you to check the charge level of your iOS and macOS devices via iCloud. I did briefly use it, and it shows battery percentages with last updated, for iPhone, iPad and macOS. It does lack some of the extra features the apps above have, and was last updated in March 2021.

Battery Status Overview does not work with macOS, but works on iPad, iPhone and Watch. It also has a lot fewer settings and more basic graphics, but does include a charge history log. They only mention alerts for the battery charge level reaching 100%. The app was last updated in Dec 2021, and only has one review rating, though.

Apple’s built-in battery widget is great, but it ONLY shows local devices, so no overview of all your other devices.

So I am a bit torn between PowerToYou and Cloud Battery. I’m leaning more towards PowerToYou as the widget has everything clearly shown. Cloud Battery’s plus is its ability to set a different minimum and maximum battery percentage for each device separately.

I’ll post any updates about this topic at my blog post at https://gadgeteer.co.za/powertoyou-and-cloud-battery-amongst-other-apps-both-display-battery-levels-of-your-other-apple-devices/.

Smartphone-oriented websites tend to focus only on the latest devices, but a large chunk of users choose not to upgrade their phones for one reason or another. Barring hardware failure, many of these devices may still have years of use ahead of them because, to their owners, they still work just fine. While custom ROMs can keep legacy smartphones alive for ages, it can be a nightmare for the modders to keep things like the camera and graphics drivers up to date without official manufacturer support.

Unlike the smartphone ecosystem, updating the graphics driver on your PC is something you can always think about. This is possible because of the modular architecture of PC hardware drivers, which allows power users to tinker with closed source driver packages, or even opt for open source drivers instead of OEM-provided binaries. In the case of Android, however, driver updates generally only come to your phone alongside larger OS updates.

Updatable GPU drivers can come in handy for fixing bugs, improving graphics performance, or adding new features from OpenGL or Vulkan APIs. Nowadays, smartphones are bigger and faster than ever, making them the perfect vehicle for gaming, hence porting the PC-esque driver design to them does make sense.

Thanks to XDA Senior Member bylaws, we now have a genius solution named Adreno Tools that allows on-the-fly GPU driver modifications or replacements on Android — that too without root! Fellow Skyline developer Mark “Pixelylon” pitched the idea of runtime drive replacement to bylaws, which eventually materialized into Adreno Tools. Being a rootless library, Adreno Tools can help any regular app to load custom GPU drivers, deal with BCn textures, and redirect file operations for further complex modifications. It does so by hooking into system libraries and seamlessly swapping in the new driver.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/adreno-tools-update-android-graphics-drivers/

#technology #android #gaming #adrenotools #graphics

I only see posts dating up to Sep '21 and nothing more. I've cleared my profile, reinstalled a new profile, etc, but still Sep '21.

I also noticed neither the blog, the community nor their Twitter account shows anything past Sep '21.

Now I'm starting to think maybe it's not me.... But how does a P2P network just stop working, if so?

I've been looking through so many clones (and I expect we'll see even more coming now) for a self-hosted alternative that also only has a single daily word that you can play only once. Some come very close, but all allow you to replay the same game multiple times, and that takes away the competitive part I have going with some friends (yes I suppose you could just switch browsers too).

But as Wordle is actually locally executed Javascript, and it's collection of words are also stored there, you can save the whole Javascript package to a folder, and just click to open the page file to continue playing the game as it exists right now. I tested this with Firefox and Edge browsers, and it worked fine. Brave however has some block for local files, so it did not work with that browser.

To do it:

• Go to the Wordle online page.
• Right-click and choose "Save Page" or "Save As".
• Then choose "Web page, Complete" (this ensures not just the page itself is downloaded, and includes supporting Javascript files).
• Save it to a location on your computer.
• To play it, just use your file explorer to find that download location, and double-click on the single html file to open it in your browser.
• You can bookmark that newly opened page to always find it easily.

Always use the same browser, otherwise, you will lose your stats history.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/how-to-continue-playing-wordle-offline-as-it-exists-now/

#technology #wordle #puzzles #gaming

A new South African app called DEAFinition, developed by mobile app specialists Codehesion, helps users to learn the basics of sign language to communicate with deaf friends and family.

DEAFinition is a non-profit company providing a range of services and funding opportunities to promote equal access for the deaf community.

The SASL DEAFinition App, available to Android and iPhone users, offers reference videos and material for the official sign language used by deaf people in South Africa.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/industrynews/430840-new-deafinition-app-helps-you-communicate-with-deaf-friends-and-family.html

#technology #mobile #deaf #hearing #disability

That is according to recent security tests carried out by IoT Inspector in collaboration with German tech magazine Chip. The models analysed in these tests were primarily used by small businesses and homes and included Asus, D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, and Synology units.

“The firmware versions were automatically analysed by IoT Inspector and checked for more than 5,000 CVEs [Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures] and other security issues,” Lukavsky said.

Yes, you do certainly want to be sure at least that you do regularly update your router firmware, and have changed the default password for something unique and difficult to guess. Older routers, not receiving OEM updates, can possibly be flashed with OpenWRT or similar, which may provide security patches and enhanced functionality.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/426238-wi-fi-routers-used-by-millions-had-226-security-flaws.html

#technology #security #routers #vulnerabilities

Following heavy criticism regarding anti-repair practices on the iPhone 13 lineup, Apple has just announced its Self Service Repair program. The company shared earlier that it wouldn’t be disabling Face ID after third-party screen repairs, after online outrage. The Cupertino giant is now taking an unexpected step further and making repairs easily accessible to individuals.

In a newsroom post, Apple has stated that iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 users will be able to order genuine spare parts and tools to repair their own iPhones. The move is unprecedented by Apple, but it’s most definitely a welcome one that will help dodge anti-trust lawsuits.

Clearly, without lawsuits and pressure groups, this would never have changed. Whilst I really love some of what Apple does (very long software update cycles, the best health smartwatch, etc) there is also a lot I really dislike (a crippled Shortcuts app, iCloud web apps that lack features, Photos is dismal compared to Google Photos, etc). So this is yet another incremental improvement (like widgets, 3rd party keyboards and browsers, copy-and-paste, etc that eventually arrived).

See https://www.xda-developers.com/apple-now-lets-you-repair-your-own-iphone/

#technology #righttorepair #iphone #DIY

Optillusion is a new indie developer that just released its first game today, and it's a doozy. This game is called Moncage, and it's a drop-dead gorgeous puzzler that offers a uniquely interesting mechanic.

You see, the whole game takes place in a cube that you can rotate, and each side offers unique imagery. In order to solve the game's puzzles, you'll rotate this cube to line up the perspective of the cube's imagery. The goal? To collect photos of your perfectly aligned imagery, which reveals the story of the game. Moncage is an interactive optical illusion puzzle game, and not only is the presentation superb, but the gameplay is also a hoot that's perfect for play on a touchscreen.

It's also available on Steam Games for desktops.

See https://www.androidpolice.com/clever-perspective-puzzler-moncage-is-now-available-on-android/

#technology #gaming #puzzles #Moncage

Spyware maker NSO Group cannot use its government clients to shield itself from litigation, a US appeals court ruled on Monday, a decision that allows WhatsApp's lawsuit against the Israel-based firm to resume.

In 2019, Facebook and its WhatsApp subsidiary sued NSO claiming the firm's intrusion software, known as Pegasus, was used to unlawfully compromise the accounts of WhatsApp customers.

NSO denies any wrongdoing. While WhatsApp claimed members of civil society had their phones infiltrated by Pegasus, NSO insisted it only sold its software to "licensed government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime," and that using its software to surveil political opponents, advocacy groups, and journalists is contractually prohibited.

"Whatever NSO’s government customers do with its technology and services does not render NSO an 'agency or instrumentality of a foreign state,' as Congress has defined that term," the appeals panel said. "Thus, NSO is not entitled to the protection of foreign sovereign immunity."

Darling is a translation layer that allows us to run macOS applications on Linux. It emulates a complete Darwin environment, including Mach, dyld, launchd and everything you'd expect. It lets you to instantly switch to a Bash shell and start running the applications built for macOS in your Linux system.

Like Wine, it can be a lot quicker to run a single application this way, instead of booting a VM up. But it is early days for Darling still, and it is not as mature as Wine, so is mostly still running non-GUI apps. The developers of Darling are planning to build a nice and user-friendly GUI for interacting with Darling. But for now, we can interact with Darling via command line only.

See https://ostechnix.com/run-macos-software-on-linux-using-darling/

#technology #opensource #Linux #macOS #Darling

It uses LaMa, an open-source model from Samsung's AI lab to automatically and accurately redraw the areas that you delete. It is open-source under the Apache License 2.0.

It worked really well for two photos I tested with it, but they also have some demo photos you can test it with. If it's not perfect on the first erase, just try a second time.

See https://cleanup.pictures/

#technology #opensource #photography #alternativeto #photos

Friendica is a decentralized open-source social network which federates with many other social networks including diaspora*, Hubzilla, and the Fediverse of social networks. It can mirror too with Twitter and IFTTT, or export posts to Discourse, libertree, Tumblr, Wordpress and e-mail.

It is a good candidate for being an alternative to Facebook, and you can either join a public server, or self-host your own instance.

In this video I give an overview of Friendica's functionality and features, a comparison with Hubzilla, a look at it's interface, and a tour through the settings menu. I also make the case for it being a cleaner way to use Twitter.

Watch https://youtu.be/nS6oAy7ibqc

#technology #opensource #friendica #decentralized #selfhosted