Snapping a series of iconic skyline pictures around Manhattan became more than a photography exercise. It reminded me about my own identity.
When I was a boy growing up in New York City, I remember taking the Circle Line cruise around Manhattan with my mother. I was delighted by the incredible views of the iconic skyline, but it was a blip in my larger experience living in the Big Apple.
Like many New Yorkers, doing touristy activities was usually something left for… tourists.
A Tourist Comes Home
Today I find that ironic and even a bit sad. Even though I live in Connecticut today, I still commute into the city. So, I’ve tried to pay a little more attention to this beautiful metropolis that I permanently identify with and am always connected to.
I’ve recently had a couple opportunities to spend time on the water around Manhattan at dusk. And I was excited to see what photos I could capture from the Hudson and East Rivers as the sun set and the skyline lit up.
The Power of iPhone and Adobe Lightroom
I used my iPhone 15 Pro Max to capture these shots. Even in the dark, its software-driven computational photography was able to capture decent images and brighten up the sky and darker regions. It’s actually quite impressive.
Then, I pushed the limits of these images even further using the power of Adobe Lightroom. While the focus of all these shots is all about the Manhattan skyline and bridges, the river and sky occupy half the frame. So, I made the creative choice to make these portions pop a little more than reality offered me.
My Origin Story
So yes, I’m straddling the line a bit between photographer and digital painter. But I don’t think it’s a problem to enhance the glow of the city I love and often define myself by.
It simply represents how I feel about this complex place. And this little photography exercise warmly reminded me that I am forever part of it.
My father used to say New York City is the greatest city in the world. While I know that’s a bit arrogant and certainly invites discussion, you can’t debate the pride that most New Yorkers feel about their hometown.
It is my origin story, and I continue to circle it.
When you junk an old Nest Learning Thermostat, like I just did, your Google Home app may not get the memo. Here’s how to manually remove your obsolete device from your smartphone app.
I really had no choice but to retire my old Nest Learning Thermostat. It’s an aging 2nd generation model, and Google finally stopped supporting it. So, I recently upgraded to the current gen 4 model and successfully installed that one. Problem solved, right?
Well, not entirely.
The final step was to delete the old unit from my Google Home App on my iPhone. (Who wants to see a deactivated device lingering on your app’s interface as ‘Offline?’)
According to an email I received from Google, the gen 2 model was supposed to automatically evaporate from the app. But it defied that directive and remained in place… stubbornly so.
When I tried to remove it manually, there was no obvious way to do that. So, I had to dig deeper.
If you’ve been trying to crack the same code, here’s how to delete your decommissioned Google Nest Learning Thermostat from your Google Home app:
4 Steps to Remove a Device from the Google Home App
#1 – First, tap on the circular icon with your initial on the top right of the Google Home app.
#2 – Then, tap on “Home settings.”
#3 – Under “Device, groups & rooms,” find and tap on your old device.
#4 – At the very bottom of the next page, tap “Remove device.”
So Simple… That should do the trick! It’s super simple for any of your Nest devices, but you need to know where to look in the app.
After this tweak, you’re back to where you started… with remote and clutter-free access to a sleek Google Nest Learning Thermostat at the center of your smart home experience.
If your iPhone is running silent, you might miss an urgent text when it comes in. Turning on Emergency Bypass in your iPhone’s Settings is the fix, but it can also lead to other problems if you’re not careful. Here’s what happened to me and what I learned.
I’m embarrassed to report that my iPhone almost interrupted a video shoot at work recently. My device inexplicably projected a singular text ping during the recording. I was standing in the back of our studio, but it was loud enough for the video producer ten feet in front of me to notice.
He shot over a slightly concerned glance. (Yes, of all people, I’m supposed to know better.) I rolled my eyes in apology. Fortunately, we were between takes, and nobody else noticed. (We both smiled.)
No real damage was done (other than to my tech ego). But how could I make this 101-tech-mistake that any kid can easily avoid?
Yes, of course, my producer had previously reminded everyone in the studio to silence their phones before we started. But I took no action, because I believed my iPhone was already muted. In fact, I had already taken steps to permanently silence it. So, I proudly thought I was way ahead of this moment.
And yet, I wasn’t.
Do You Really Know How to Silence Your iPhone? So, how did I find myself in the center of this tech embarrassment? How does anyone for that matter? It’s not like it’s hard to mute your phone.
But isn’t there’s always someone in the room who can’t seemingly do that? (present company included)
Well, this kind of mistake is often less about tech failure (I mean… human failure) and more about good intentions.
As I mentioned, I had already set up my iPhone to operate in a totally muted state. I took those steps long ago… I just couldn’t handle all the disruptive sounds my phone projected (however cute or lyrical).
But more recently, I made one other iPhone setting change. I selectively activated the ‘Emergency Bypass’ mode for our teenage son’s texts to me.
What is that exactly?
Text Tone: Emergency Bypass
This setting disables audio restrictions regarding how your phone reacts to certain people in your Contacts app. If you don’t want to miss an incoming text from someone, Emergency Bypass helps to ensure you’ll hear it, even if your iPhone is muted.
Our son doesn’t text us all that much, and when he does reach out, I want him to get through. It’s usually important, requiring a timely ‘parental’ response.
Here’s how to set up Text Tone: Emergency Bypasson your iPhone:
Open the Contacts app
Select your important person
Go to Text Tone
Turn Emergency Bypass to ‘On’
This hack is amazing. I did the same for my wife’s phone number (more on this later). Now, whenever I hear a text come in from my otherwise silenced iPhone, I know it’s either from my wife or our son.
I think you can see where this is going.
Ringtone and Alerts – Change with Buttons
Yes, the Text Tone: Emergency Bypass setting is a powerful setting to help you stay connected to those who matter most. But it can still expose you to an embarrassing moment if you need to entirely lock down your phone’s sounds and forget that you really haven’t.
So, I realized after my little ‘ping-gate’ episode that I needed to adjust one more iPhone setting to quiet my phone further, even when my son or wife reach out.
Here’s the fix to the fix:
Go to Settings
Sounds and Haptics
Ringtone and Alerts
Change with Buttons- Tap to Green
Now, with this ‘Change with Buttons’ setting activated for ‘Ringtone and Alerts,’ you can easily toggle down (and then back up) the volume from your iPhone’s pings and rings with the side buttons.
The manual control enables you to temporarily shut off the sounds from your emergency bypass list.
Only then can you be sure your iPhone will really behave in the quietest of moments. (Just don’t forget to turn up the volume again after your mandatory session of silence!) One Ping Short Yes, despite my advanced solutioning for how my iPhone’s little speakers operate, I had still fallen one ping short. But I’ve learned from my mistake and made the appropriate patch in my iPhone’s Settings.
I later texted my wife about my little audio incident at work. (It was, in fact, her own text to me that had broken through.) She wrote back and asked helpfully if I knew how to silence the notifications on my phone.
I blinked a couple times as I took in the layers of irony surrounding this last chapter of my story.
And then I smiled.
Silence is Golden My cautionary tale is just another reminder that you can’t always set it and forget it when it comes to your tech. And maybe when someone tells you to mute your phone… you simply do that.
Still, with your iPhone running completely silent 24/7, that emergency-bypass sound setting can be essential. I still highly recommend trying it out.
At Home with Tech 