Monthly Archives: October 2020

fixed : CarPlay option not available on iPhone

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Question :

My car doesn’t have buit-in navigation, but the onboard system supports Apple CarPlay. I have connected my iPhone to my car both through USB and Bluetooth, but my car only connects to my iPhone for Contacts and telephone… I can’t get access to my iPhone apps like navigation…

I have looked up info on CarPlay online, and it is said everywhere that there should be a CarPlay option in the General.app listed in the same chapter containing AirDrop, AirPlay&Handoff and Picture-in-Picture… immediately below those Picture-in-Picture… but there is none…

My iPhone is just over a year old and I am running the latest version of iOS, so that shouldn’t be a problem, especially since my friend’s iPhone 6S immediately connects to my car’s CarPlay when he plugs in the lightning-to-USB-cable…

What is wrong ?

 

Answer :

If you have Siri turned off, the CarPlay option won’t show.

So, to fix your problem, do this :

  • on your iPhone, goto the Settings.app > Siri & Search (in the same chapter as General, Control Center and Display&Brightness, just below Wallpaper) > switch ON “Allow Siri When Locked” and preferably also “Listen for Hey Siri” and/or “Press Side Button for Siri”
  • then turn Bluetooth OFF and back ON on your iPhone
  • then turn WiFi OFF and back ON on your iPhone
  • then goto the Settings.app > General > CarPlay
  • if CarPlay isn’t listed, just wait a few minutes or restart your iPhone
    • press&hold the ON/OFF-button and the VolumeUP-button simultaneously until the “Slide to power off” slider appears
    • then slide the PowerOFF-slider so the screen goes black
    • then press&hold the ON/OFF-button until the Apple logo appears and your iPhone restarts and says you SIM must be unlocked
    • then touch the screen and typ your screen unlock code (6 digits) in the first (black) screen
    • then typ your SIM unlock code (4 digits) in the second (white) screen
  • then, again, goto the Settings.app > General and check if CarPlay is now listed
    • if CarPlay still isn’t listed, repeat the entire process
  • now reconnect your iPhone to your car using the Lighting-to-USB-cable and your car’s display will now be able to show your iPhone’s apps also
    • if the app you want to use isn’t listed, goto Settings.app > General > CarPlay and make sure that you add all apps that you would like to use
    • if no apps are available on your car’s display, use another Lightning-to-USB-cable

That’s it !

enjoy šŸ˜‰

Ā 

 

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fixed : use cheap referee watch for field hockey

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Question :

Since my Dutch field hockey club strongly advises against using my iPhone or AppleWatch to do time registration when I’m referee (even though there are various referee apps available), I have bought myself a low budget referee watch : the StopTec RW-100.

This ā‚¬20 referee watch is primarily a soccer (football) referee watch, but it is advertised as being a general referee watch for all kinds of sports, like field hockey.

The watch looks and feels good, but both the manual and the buttons on the watch aren’t very intuitive when you prefer ‘Japanese style use’ (i.e. figure out how it works without reading the manual).

How do I use the StopTec RW-100 as a field hockey referee watch ?

 

Answer :

Check out the one-page manual included here.

Ā 

First (before the match), set the Game Time on the watch to match the true game time. A soccer (football) match is 2 x 45 minutes, so it is already set to countdown 45 minutes. An international field hockey match is 4 x 15 minutes, so you need to set it to 15 minutes. And a Dutch field hockey match is 4 x 17,5 minutes, so to match that, you need to set it to 18 minutes and rely on the alarm beeper that goes of 30 seconds before the countdown reaches zero.

  • press theĀ MODE-buttonĀ to get into Game Time Countdown view
  • press theĀ ENTER-buttonĀ for at leastĀ 3 seconds
  • after hearing the signal sound, press theĀ START-button to adjust the game time countdown
  • when the game time is set, press theĀ ENTER-buttonĀ to return to the Game Time Countdown view

Then (during the match), keeping track of the time is rather simple :

to start the game time countdown : press the LAP-button (top-left)

to stop the game time countdown (in case of a time-out) : press the LAP-button again (the stopwatch will automatically start running to track the time-out duration)

to resume the game time countdown : press the LAP-button again

to reset the game time countdown : make sure the countdown has stopped, then press the LAP-button for 3 seconds

And (during the match), you can also keep track of a penalty time (only one penalty time at the same time though…) :

to start the penalty time stopwatch : press the START-button (top-right)

to stop the penalty time stopwatch : press the START-button again

to reset the penalty time stopwatch : make sure the stopwatch has stopped, then press the START-button for 3 seconds

Note : you can get the StopTec RW-100 referee watch on Amazon DE, Amazon UK or Amazon US and it is good to know that any lookalike watch, sold under various brand and product names (e.g. Leap Referee watch or Firelong Referee watch or SWatch Sports Coach or VGEBY Sports watch), is supposed to work the same.

Ā 

fixed : Medisana PM100 BT not connecting to VitaDock+.app

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Question :

I just bought the Medisana PM100 Connect (PM100 with Bluetooth) oximeter to measure my blood oxygen saturation level (like the new AppleWatch), which can help to find if I am having a pneumonia (good to know in these COVID-19 Corona times).

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER : even if an oximeter like this measures a 98% blood oxygen saturation level, you can still have Covid-19 Corona virus… it’s just that not having pneumonia makes you somewhat less contagious for others and makes having Covid-19 less problematic on yourself.

I especially bought the Bluetooth version to sync all measurements to my iPhone using the VitaDock+.app (and ultimately to the Apple Health.app). But when I open the VitaDock+.app and click on Devices (top-right), then on the next page scroll down to Health-PulseOximeter, then on the next page click Setup Device and switch the PM100 on, the Bluetooth scanner keeps scanning and finally reports not having found any new devices…

Multiple tries didn’t help… restarting the VitaDock+.app didn’t help… restarting my iPhone didn’t help… switching Bluetooth off and back on didn’t help…

Nothing seems to solve this, what can I do to fix this ?

 

Answer :

You will run into this problem if you have version 2.7.8 (or earlier) of VitaDock+.app and this is fixed in version 2.7.9 and newer.

Check which version of the VitaDock+.app you have by opening the app on your iPhone and clicking on the ‘circle with 3 lines’ icon top-right, at the bottom of the popup window the version number is listed.

So, the solution is very simple : just upgrade to the latest version of the app.

If you run into any problems trying to upgrade the VitaDock+.app just delete the app from your iPhone and reinstall it.

NOTE : If you already have the new version of the software installed and you are still running into connection or syncing problems, try the simple solution in this post “fixed : Medisana Oximeter sync hangs at 8%”

That’s it – enjoy šŸ˜‰

 

fixed : quick slideshow of a folder of pictures

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Question :
Someone sent me a bunch of photos that I need to review. I have them in a folder, but I don’t want to import them into Photos.app, Keynote or PowerPoint or even Preview.app to have a look at them and select the most important ones.

Is there any option or simple app to do this ?

 

Answer :

Yes there is, there is an option for this in macOS (and OSX) called Quick Look. In previous versions of OSX and Mac OSX the Quick Look option was visible in any Finder window as a ‘button with an eye icon on it’, in macOS it is slightly hidden in the pulldown menu that opens when you click the ‘button with a sprocket (gear) icon on it’.

There’s even a shortcut for this :

  • open a Finder window
  • open the folder with the photos in it
  • select the photos you want to review (hold the CMD-key while picking photos one-by-one, hold the SHIFT-key to select multiple photos in a row, or press the CMD + A key combo to select all photos)
  • then press the SPACEBAR to view all selected photos as a slideshow
  • or press the ALT + SPACE key combo to view all selected photos as a full screen slideshow
  • note : the file names are shown with each photo, so if you need to review and select photos you will know which photos you have chosen

That’s it.

enjoy šŸ˜‰

Ā