Ron Guest

Our 10 year old is really enjoying his first Apple Arcade game: LEGO Brawls. It has a bit of lag but not so bad he isn’t enjoying it. 🕹

Has anyone tried a PS4 controller with the Apple TV + Apple Arcade? Thinking of buying one b/c Apple Arcade is awesome. 🕹

We have a lot of Apple devices including a couple of AppleTVs and I’ve been anxiously awaiting today’s updates. I started the updates on several of the devices which all went well until I turned on the AppleTV in our den to trigger the tvOS update. Everything turned on correctly and I grabbed the remote to tell it to open Settings and nothing. The ATV didn’t react to the remote at all. Fortunately I had a universal remote which I could use to restart the ATV. That didn’t help, the remote was still n/c.

I noticed in the Settings app it was telling me I needed to use an iDevice to reauthorize my account. This is normally instant as you just have to hold the iDevice near the ATV box. But it turned into a fussy affair. It didn’t stick the first two times I used my iPhone. So I grabbed my iPad and used that - twice - and after restarting the ATV I finally got that to work. But still no joy on the remote. I have no idea if these were related (and this was the only one of our ATV’s that asked me to re-auth).

I next unpaired the ATV remote and then tried to re-pair it. The ATV noticed and told me to move closer but I had the remote on top of the ATV and there was no way to get it closer. Next idea was to charge the remote even though it had been charged recently. This didn’t help either. After scrounging up an pre-ATV4K remote I decided to try to pair the failed remote as if it were a plain Bluetooth device. Voila. The remote showed up as a regular device and I could pair it that way. And it is fully functional now even though paired as a generic device (this mainly means voice control works). Hopefully this is a one-off thing.

I’m really glad this problem crept up before I updated the ATV else I likely would have gone down a rathole thinking the update was at fault.

Here in the US it is National Register to Vote day. This web site makes it easy to do and provides optional tools for learn about candidates and be reminded about upcoming elections (optional). If you’re eligible please make your voice heard. 🇺🇸

My morning convo
Son: Did you know honey bees are an invasive species killing off our bumble bees? reference
Daughter: Why do people take shots, they look painful? I’m thinking alcohol or needles? It was 🥃, she saw people taking shots when they died in-game.

Today’s schedule:
Morning - repeatedly checking for iOS 13.1 updates even though it is too early
Afternoon - iOS 13.1 et al update frenzy
Evening - who moved my cheese moments !?!

My family has been in the minority as we stopped buying & playing iOS games with the advent of in-app purchasing. I think we’ll love Apple Arcade based on the initial set of games. 🕹

Apple Arcade launch will disrupt mobile gaming and the App Store

Fascinating bit of US history.

It’s extraordinary that this violent socialist rebellion against the U.S. government—the only one of its kind—has been largely erased from collective memory

When the Socialist Revolution Came to Oklahoma—and Was Crushed - Smithsonian Magazine

So far it has been a great day for college football. Among other happy results: Harbaugh caught it on the chin again and my undergrad Alma mater won beating SMU beat TCU 41-38 in a thriller. No one expected that plus they start the season 4-0. 🏈

It is hard to (i.e. can’t) discern the impact of the iPhone 11 wide angle lens when people post via the MB app which by default crops to square… 📷

I generally love Ars Technica & their software reviews were superior. But the iOS 13 review seems “mailed in” to me. Little meat not found elsewhere, too many “this is long overdue”, and features of interest to their tech readership like Shortcuts isn’t covered at all.

If you like iOS Shortcuts or want to learn about them, Matthew Cassinelli has a great video on the changes in iOS 13 as well as a library of around 150 shortcuts.

N.B. It may not be obvious but the tables of shortcuts are scrollable.

New releases of iOS et al always feel like I’ve been given a box full of small new toys. It is fun to go through them one-by-one to find the new favorite playthings.

I updated my iPhone and S4 Watch today as well as Safari on two Macs. Everything went perfectly. Have to admit the new watch faces have me craving the always-on S5 but the cost would be too much to me. S4’s aren’t worth much in trade. Arcade is looking great so far.

I really wish there was a way to tell Apple Arcade to download it’s games into a folder. 🕹

True confession: even though I knew better, one of the first things I did this morning was check to see if iOS 13 was out yet for my iPhone.

For your enjoyment, a polka-dot zebra

I can’t wait to see reports from this expedition. What a worthwhile challenge.

Hundreds of people have undergone intense preparation for an expedition designed to figure out what a warming Arctic means for us all. apple.news

For you lucky folks in the know, does Apple Arcade require iOS 13?

Last night was homecoming for our sophomore daughter and like last year she had a date. These events are good parental training for the months and years to follow.

Time for some Iowa vs Iowa State 🏈. Go Hawkeyes!

Side project: Using an Adafruit PyPortal to create a custom alarm clock. Alarm time is set via my server rather than locally and can play music files as an alarm sound. Automatically turns alarm off on weekends. Coding this in Python makes it a breeze and can easily enhance it.

Our son was super excited about the early access Founders Edition of Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville so we agreed to get it for him last week if he would read an extra book. He readily accepted so every day after school he grabs me to go play co-op mode with him. 🎮

I took our sophomore daughter to her high school’s college night. There were over 200 represented and since the HS enrollment approaches 5,000 kids it was pretty much a zoo. Had to skip most of interest due to lines but got info on a couple of colleges we have in mind. 🏫

I found the Apple Arcade pretty pitch underwhelming. Price is great but the games they showed were “meh” for my family. Then I realized our teenage daughter frequently downloads free apps just because she is bored. Arcade will be a real boon for her so we’ll sign up.