Tech in the News | At Home with Tech

July 5, 2015

You Won’t Believe Why this iPhone Battery Died

If your iPhone can’t hold a charge anymore, you might want to check out one more possible solution before you throw in the towel…

My wife’s iPhone 6 Plus suddenly had battery problems. Big problems. Purchased online right after I got my own 6 Plus, her iPhone is not even ten-months old. But suddenly it couldn’t get through half a day without burning through a full charge. And believe me, she’s no smartphone power user… so that wasn’t the problem.

Warning: Low Battery
So the IT Guy proceeded to take some standard steps to eliminate known battery-drain culprits on her ailing smartphone:

I closed all the unnecessary open apps.
I turned off Bluetooth.
Also switched off Wi-Fi.
I then let the phone drain down all the way and then fully powered it back up to make sure the battery wasn’t experiencing any memory issues.

No improvement.

I was resigned to the likely reality I needed to take a trip to the Apple Store for surgery and a new battery.
(Fortunately, we always buy AppleCare coverage. Plus, our lazy iPhone was still covered on its base one-year warrantee. So my projected pain was more about inconvenience than cost…)

Hiding in Plain Sight
I decided to take another look and lifted the device out of my wife’s purse. The iPhone’s screen was already glowing, and the whole unit was pretty warm… as if it had been lit up for a while.

That’s odd.
It must have just gotten knocked around inside the purse when I picked it up, and the home button had accidentally been squeezed.

That night, I walked by the phone. It was sitting idly on my wife’s night table.
Its screen was illuminated… again.

I stopped.
Wait a minute… I was sure my wife hadn’t just been using it.
She was downstairs.

Hmmm… this couldn’t be a coincidence.
Could it be possible this iPhone was stuck in some kind of ‘always-shine’ mode?

Illumination
So I walked back, sat down and picked up the iPhone to drill down into its settings:

General
Auto-Lock

And do you know what I found?
Its Auto-Lock setting that determines when the screen shuts off automatically was set to…“Never!!”

WHOAH!!!
(How did that happen?)
(Of course, any iPhone 6 Plus would quickly lose its juice if its screen had been instructed to always remain on…)

So I switched the setting back to ‘five minutes,’ which I find is to be a reasonable amount of time to let your iPhone radiate while momentarily unattended.

Problem solved!

Well, not entirely…
My wife hadn’t adjusted this configuration. And it would seem almost impossible to accidentally make the change.

It was a conundrum for both of us.

Better AppleCare+
Of course the good news is my wife’s iPhone battery is just fine. No Apple Genius appointment needed at the Apple Store.

Another piece of good news for iPhone batteries throughout the known universe is Apple has just improved its AppleCare+ warrantee coverage.

Previously, AppleCare+ would only replace your battery if it couldn’t hold a 50% charge. Now, if your battery can’t get past 80%, AppleCare’s got you covered.
(That’s a pretty sweet upgrade for iPhones, iPads and MacBooks.)

Your Skynet has Arrived
The bad news…?
How the iPhone’s Auto-Lock setting got bumped to infinity mode will remain an unsolved mystery in the Lester family.
Case closed…

Is this ‘freakish’ tech tale really as much of a shocker as my post’s headline suggest? Well, consider it a cautionary account, as we all rely more heavily on technology to live our lives.

You can laugh at sci-fi sagas like “Terminator: Genisys” for being a bit ludicrous. But you can’t deny it’s always a problem when your tech goes rogue.

Pray it’s never intentional.
That could really ruin your day…

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June 21, 2015

No More Hulu Plus

Pop Quiz: Do you know the difference between Hulu and Hulu Plus? Well, it really doesn’t matter any more…

I got an email last week from the folks at Hulu stating that they’ve killed off Hulu Plus. What? There’s no more paid Hulu service??

No, it’s still there. It’s just called Hulu.
Huh?

So what’s the difference between ‘Hulu’ and “Hulu” (formerly Hulu Plus)?

The email assured me my $7.99 monthly subscription hasn’t changed.
(Of course, Hulu still wants my money.)

Okay…
So what’s going on?

According to TechCrunch, Hulu will still maintain its free and paid tier, but it’s trimming the name ‘Plus’ to eliminate consumer confusion.

The service formally known as ‘Plus’ will continue to stream on mobile devices and provide access to more episodes from individual series.

Hello, Hulu?
A couple years back, I signed up for Hulu Plus with some trepidation. And I was immediately non-plussed when I couldn’t access the entire final season of Fringe.
(Which was the reason I joined up in the first place)

The advantages of the paid plan became even murkier for me as time went on….

So the ‘Plus’ brand change became a reminder to me that maybe I didn’t really need to be paying for Hulu month after month anymore.

Time for a little review of how often I was really using it…
But I already knew the truth… not very much.

Sipping Hulu is Not Encouraged
In theory, Hulu is great.
If you ever miss last week’s episode of your favorite show, Hulu is always there as your safety net.

Once upon a time, maybe that’s all I needed.

Today, let’s just say my busy life as a parent has mostly kept me out of the TV watching game when it comes to committing to any ongoing series.

That said, what Hulu Plus could have done for me is let me start at the beginning of any series and go through it at my own pace.

But the big-time shows apparently don’t often have the patience for media ‘sippers’ like me.

If you’re not generally keeping up with the hungry crowd of weekly watchers, you’re going to get left behind…

The Facade of All-Access
Just to be sure, I did a quick review of what shows I would begin watching on Hulu if I discovered two to three available hours a day…
And here my episode-access report:

Gotham
5 shows from the middle of season 1
The Blacklist
Last 5 episodes from last season
(FYI- Netflix does better!)
Castle
All of season 7
(That’s fine if I hadn’t stopped watching after season 2.)
Shark Tank
Last 5 episodes of season 6
Marvel’s Agents of Shield
Last 5 shows of season 2
Marvel’s Agent Carter
Episodes 4-8

As you can see, it’s kind of difficult just to jump into any of these…
Clearly, there are plenty of series that you don’t get full access to… even with a ‘Plus’ subscription!

Less Hulu
If the goal is to simplify Hulu’s main identity as a paid service through and through… I get it. That’s fine.

I know there are probably still more hours of TV programming available on Hulu (Plus) today than days left in anyone’s lifetime who’s reading this.

But I’m simply not taking advantage of Hulu right now…
(That’s partly my fault… and definitely Hulu’s.)

This name change simply made me face the fact that there’s really no plus for me either.

Time to downgrade.
(for now)

Click.

1 Comment

April 19, 2015

The New Star Wars Teaser Will Blow Your Mind

If you’ve been preoccupied, you may have missed a significant disturbance in the Force last week. The good news is your opportunity to catch up is only a click away…

I’ve always enjoyed watching movie trailers. They used to be the favorite part of my film-going experience. But no more… That’s because every blockbuster trailer I’ve seen at the multiplex I’ve already caught at home when I’m online.

Download Vs. Streaming
Typically, I go to the iTunes Movie Trailers page to find the newest previews.

I usually prefer downloading the ones I really like to my iPhone and then watching them whenever the moment moves me.
(Usually when my commuter train isn’t moving too fast)

You may recall, I’ve had some ups and downs with this….

A couple years ago, Apple inexplicably began taking away its trailer downloading functionality, leaving streaming as the only viewing option. This is hardly ideal when your smartphone doesn’t have a strong connection.

…and Barrett was frustrated.

Then, a year later, Apple seemingly gave it all back.

…and Barrett was happy again.

Prepare Yourself
So this past week, I was looking for the newest summer movie teasers, as the blockbuster season is nearly upon us.

Imagine my glee when I spotted the second teaser trailer for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

When the first teaser came out in November, millions of geeks in galaxies near and far could barely contain themselves. The fact that J.J. Abrams had successfully recreated the look and feel of the original “Star Wars” was almost too much to handle.

Come on… This is J.J. Abrams we’re talking about.
“Lost,” “Star Trek,” “Fringe.”
You didn’t think he was going to get the basics right?

I thought the first teaser trailer was just fine.
It was nice to have a quick peek.
That’s what any first teaser usually does…

Traveling Back in Time
But then I clicked on this second teaser trailer.
My finger was running on autonomic instinct; my brain, barely keeping up.

I felt like I was fourteen years old again watching “Star Wars” for the very first time with my mother at the east 86th street multiplex in New York City. I was transported back to those two mesmerizing hours…

And then I heard-
“You have that power too.”

And then I saw-
“Chewie, we’re home.”

OMG.

Now, this is more like it!

An A+ Trailer
I’m not entirely surprised J.J. Abrams blew my mind with this new teaser trailer. He did something similar with the early trailers for his first “Star Trek” movie. But those suggested something different from the “Star Trek” we grew up with.
(And in fact, it was an alternate reality.)

This “Star Wars” trailer by comparison feels exceptionally familiar. Of course, because the Star Wars universe is being continued, not re-imagined.
(It would seem.)

We’re given the perfect balance between what we already know about and teased with what we don’t.

And then that last shot: We get to see Han Solo!
Glorious…

I Have a Good Feeling about This
We’re still eight months away from seeing how strong the Force really is with Episode VII.
That said, this trailer completely reenergized all my geeky energies.

After I watched it, I just stared at the screen.
“Whoaaaaah….”

And then I downloaded the two minutes of movie (and marketing) magic.

I felt like a kid again.
It was the perfect moment…

Thank you, Disney for spending $4 billion in 2012 to keep it all going.
Only now, at the end (of the wait) do I understand…

Category: Tech in the News

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