fixed : switch Hue light bulb to different Room in GoogleHome.app

Question :

I have installed a new Philips Hue light bulb and for some reason it ended up in the wrong Room in the GoogleHome.app

How can I move it to the right Room ?

Answer :

To move a Hue light bulb (of any other light bulb or connected device) to another Room in the GoogleHome.app, do this :

  • open the GoogleHome.app on your iPhone
  • click on Settings (the circular button with a sprocket/gear on it)
  • now the “Home Settings” page opens, click on “Rooms and groups”
  • now the “Rooms and groups” page opens, find the group that the light bulb that you want to move is still in and click on it
  • in the “Room settings” page that opens, click on the name of the light bulb you want to move
  • in the page that opens (called by the name of the specific light bulb), click on “Room”
  • in the “Choose room” page that opens, click on the name of the room you want the light bulb to move to, so it will be highlighted with a the checkmark and a blue color
  • then click “SAVE” (top right)
  • now the light bulb will have moved from the old room to the new Room
    • if it wasn’t moved, repeat the above

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

Note : if you have trouble updating the new settings from the GoogleHome.app to your Google Nest Hub (or any other Google Home controlling device), try this.

fixed : copy WhatsApp profile picture to macOS Contacts address book

Question :
I am using WhatsApp to communicate with some people that I have only seen a few times in real life. But as we are communicating in a WhatsApp Group it is really handy to see their profile pictures to remember who is who. But now I need to eMail them and it would be great to distinguish them by their profile pictures also… Is there any way to copy their WhatsApp profile pictures over to my macOS Contacts address book ? I’ve tried dark&drop, but that doesn’t work…

Answer :

Yes, but it’s slightly more time-consuming than drag&drop. Here’s how to :

  • make sure you have the official WhatsApp Desktop-app installed on your Mac
  • make sure the WhatsApp Desktop-app is open and you are logged in
    • note : you will need your mobile phone to log in (for the first time)
  • in the WhatsApp Desktop-app do this :
    • open an old conversation with the person who’s profile picture you need
      • you can use the Search-option to find this person if you don’t see them in your recent chats immediately
    • in the person’s profile picture that is visible in the middel of the top menu bar
    • when the Contact Info window opens, right-click on the (large) profile picture that is displayed
    • now, click on the “Copy Image” text that appears
    • then, exit WhatsApp Desktop-app and open Preview.app
    • make sure that “Preview” is listed in the macOS top menu bar, next to the Apple logo
    • goto “File” > “New From Clipboard” and click on it
      • if “New From Clipboard” is greyed out, there is nothing on your clipboard, so you should go back into WhatsApp Desktop-app and do the “Copy Image” procedure again
    • now the profile picture will be displayed as a Preview document
    • goto “File” > “Save” and click on it
      • when asked, you can just leave “name: Untitled” and “location: Desktop” and click OK
      • now a new file (icon) named “Untitled” will appear on your Desktop
    • then, exit Preview.app and open Contacts.app
    • in Contacts.app find the person you want to add the profile picture to
    • click on the person’s name to open their personal info
    • then, drag&drop the “Untitled” file from your Desktop to their profile picture area
    • frist, in white, the word “edit” will appear, when the Plus-sign appears, drop the file
      • you can do this even if you don’t click on the “Edit” button bottom right
    • you will get the option to size the profile picture, so you can zoom in if you like
    • then click OK and you’re done
    • That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : get rid of Virus Infection warnings in Calendar.app

Question :
For some reason, my Calendar.app is flooding with red warning messages like “Your iPhone is infected”, “Virus detected”, “Critical Warning”, “Your iPhone is in danger” etc.

Is this true ?
Where did this come from ?
How can I get rid of these ?

Answer :

It is not a virus infection. These are not real iOS Error Messages. These are Calendar Events. You have recently clicked on some unreliable internet link that has subscribed you to an external event calendar…

To get rid of these, do this :

  • on your iPhone, open the Calendar.app
  • in the window that opens you will see your current appointments, and in the bottom-bar three buttons : “Today”, “Calendars” and “Inbox”
  • click on the “Calendars” button (bottom center)
  • in the pull-up screen that appears, you will see all Calendar-feeds that you have active
  • scroll down to the “Subscribed” chapter
  • if you have just one entry there, click on the coloured circle in front of it to remove the white checkmark
  • if you have more than one entry in the “Subscribed” chapter, click on the coloured circle in front of the top/first one to remove the white checkmark
  • then, click “Done” (top-right) to see if the error messages are gone
  • if they are, proceed – if not, redo the above step until the error messages have gone from your calendar
  • when you see that the error messages have disappeared from the regular Calendar view, click on the “Calendars” button (bottom center) again
  • then, in the pull-up screen that appears, scroll down to the “Subscribed” chapter again and click on the Info-button (encircled i-letter) that is at the right side of the name of the Calendar that you have previously unchecked (to make the error messages disappear)
  • in the “Edit Calendar” page that opens, scroll down completely and click on “Delete Calendar” (in red – completely at the bottom)
  • now, the pesky calendar subscription will be gone

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : change mail flag color in Mail.app on iPhone / iPad

Question :

I really like the ‘flag message’ option in the macOS Mail.app to quickly flag messages I have read but want to keep around to act on later. The option to differentiate the flag color makes it even more useful for me.

Still… on my iPhone and iPad I can see the flag colors I have set on Mail.app in macOS, but I can’t seem to change the flag color… I can just flag a message, but it will automatically (auto-magically ?) set the color and I can’t seem to change it…

Isn’t there any way to change the mail flag color on iOS and/or iPadOS ?

 

Answer :

Yes, there is…

But… it might not be were you would expect it…

To quickly flag a message in iOS or iPadOS, do this :

  • when going through the list of mail messages in Mail.app, select the mail message you want to flag and slide it to the left
  • now, you will see 3 options : “More” (grey), “Flag”/”Unflag” (red) and “Archive” (purple)
  • click on “Flag” and the mail message will be flagged
  • …but the flag color cannot be chosen or changed this way

An alternative way to flag a message in iOS or iPadOS is this :

  • when going through the list of mail messages in Mail.app, click&hold the mail message you want to flag
  • now the mail message will open in a new window, with a menu list below it
  • click on “Mark…” from the menu list
  • in the next menu that opens, click on “Flag” and the message will be flagged
  • …but the flag color cannot be chosen or changed this way

But… the way to also be able to choose or change the flag color in iOS or iPadOS is this :

  • when going through the list of mail messages in Mail.app, select the mail message you want to flag and slide it to the left
  • now, you will see 3 options : “More” (grey), “Flag”/”Unflag” (red) and “Archive” (purple)
  • click on “More” ( do NOT click on “Flag” here ) and a pop-up menu will appear with full options
  • in the pop-up menu, click on “Flag” and you get the option to pick a flag color (or to unflag entirely)
  • note : when you choose or change a flag color, you will be returned to your inbox, but when you click “Flag” or “Unflag” here, you will stay in the pop-up menu and have to close it manually (by clicking the X-button top-right) to return to your inbox

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

 

fixed : turn of night mode lock on iPhone

Question :

I recently got a question from iOS if I wanted to setup sleep time mode or night mode or something and I did, because I thought it could be handy. But now, every evening my iPhone locks up displaying a icon/picture of a bed, and I have to do multiple clicking actions just to do something really simple like check my agenda or turn off my Philips Hue lights…

I have searched all over my iPhone looking for a Sleep Time or Night Mode setting that I can turn off, but I can’t find the proper switch to turn this really annoying feature off.

What should I do ?

Answer :

This feature, introduced in iOS 14 is called Sleep Mode and is intended to help you get a good night sleep… the flip side of this is that it will automatically lock your iPhone when you are not yet ready doing everything you want to do before you go to bed…

To disable (or enable) automatic Sleep Mode, do this :

  • open the Health app
  • in the window that opens, scroll down to “Sleep” and click on the “>” on the right of it
  • in the window that opens, scroll down completely to “Options” and click on the “>” on the right of it
  • in the window that opens, at SLEEP MODE, set the Turn On Automatically slider to OFF
  • then exit the Health app

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : firmware-update for 70mai A800 dashcam WiFi

Question :

I just bought the best dashcam I could find for an affordable price : the Xiaomi 70mai A800 4K Ultra HD video with WiFi, GPS and ADAS driver assistance built-in.

I want to make sure I have the latest available firmware on the dashcam to enable all available features…

How do I install the latest A800-firmware ?

 

Answer :

Aside from all the great features already included in the Xiaomi 70mai A800 dashcam, user-friendly do-it-yourself firmware upgrades are also available to enable even more new features.

First, make sure you are using the right iOS-app : you need the 70mai (Worldwide) app that can be downloaded here.

Now, connect your iPhone to the 70mai WiFi-network and open the 70mai.app. If you have problems connecting to the 70mai WiFi-network, see this post.

Then, open the 70mai.app and do this to upgrade the firmware :

  • make sure you are on the 70mai.app’s main page (the window labeled “70mai” with a picture of a blue car and your 70mai Dash Cam A800 listed below it)
    • if the 70mai.app opens in the “70mai Dash Cam”-window with the current video stream of the dashcam and the “Take Photo” and “Album”-buttons below it, click the “<“-button top-left and in the “Exit the dash cam homepage?”-popup, click “OK”
  • in the “70mai”-window, make sure that at “Device” it says “Connected”
    • if “Not conneted” is listed, click on it
    • the “70mai Dash Cam”-window will open and the connection will be re-established
    • then, return to the “70mai”-window by clicking on the “<“-button top-left and in the “Exit the dash cam homepage?”-popup, click “OK”
  • back in the “70mai”-window, click the person-icon top-left
  • in the slide-in window click on “My Devices”
  • in the “My Devices”-window, click on “70mai Dash Cam A800”
  • in the next window (also called “My Devices”), click “Firmware Update”
  • when the “Firmware update”-window opens, follow the on-screen instructions to upgrade the firmware to the latest version

…that’s it !

enjoy 😉

Note #1 : you can adjust various dashcam settings (like the Speaker Volume, Video Resolution, Parking Surveillance, ADAS Driver Assistance, etc.) by clicking on the 3dot-icon top-right in the “70mai Dash Cam A800”-screen (where you can see the current video stream from the dashcam with the “Take Photo” and “Album”-buttons below it).

Note #2 : this firmware update will use your iPhone’s 4G/5G-data connection to your telecom provider to do download the firmware upgrade, so make sure you have a 4G/5G-enabled data connection ! [ thanks to Majo – see replies – for pointing this out ]

 

 

 

fixed : 70mai A800 dashcam WiFi connection error

Question :

I just bought the best dashcam I could find for an affordable price : the Xiaomi 70mai A800 4K Ultra HD video with WiFi, GPS and ADAS driver assistance built-in.

I can’t get it to connect properly to my iPhone over WiFi however… I can find the 70mai WiFi network in the list of available WiFi networks in the iOS Settings-app, and I can connect to it, since it is shown as the connected WiFi-network… but the WiFi icon (the pie-shaped triangle) isn’t shown in the upper right corner of my iPhone… and when I startup the 70mai.app and click on the “70mai Dash Cam A800” in the “Please add 70mai devices”-window, I get an error : “Unable to get Wi-Fi connection Please enter [Settings – 70mai] to open location permission and then connect the device.” …and when I click on the “Go to open it”-button, the Settings-app opens …there I can set Wi-Fi, but that is already connected to the 70mai WiFi-network…

What is going on… how can I fix this ?

 

Answer :

The solution is simple, but you didn’t understand the given directions… probably because the the error message isn’t really straight forward : it’s in awkwardly translated English and the button only links halfway to where you need to adjust the settings…

First, make sure you are using the right iOS-app : you need the 70mai (Worldwide) app that can be downloaded here.

Then, do this :

  • connect the 70mai A800 dashcam to power
  • open the “System Settings” page (the icon is a hexagram with a dot in it)
    • Note that there’s no touch-screen so you should use the 4 buttons below the screen to navigate through the on-screen menu-structure
  • On the Settings page, you need to set “Wi-Fi hotspot” to “Enable” :
    • select “Disable” (at the top line, right of “Wi-Fi hotspot”)
    • in the “Wi-Fi hotspot”-page that opens you will see the name of the WiFi-network (at “Wi-Fi SSID”) and the WiFi-password (at “Password”)
    • remember these (or leave this screen open)

Then, open the 70mai.app on your iPhone and do this :

  • on the first page (simply called “70mai”) click the “Add device”-button (the only button on-screen)
  • in the “Please add 70mai devices”-page that opens, scroll down to “70mai Dash Cam A800” and click on it
  • when you get the “Unable to get Wi-Fi connection Please enter [Settings – 70mai] to open location permission and then connect the device.” error message, click on “Go to open it”
  • now the Settings.app will open, but it won’t always on the same page inside the Settings.app
  • so, make sure you go to the main Settings-page and clcik on “Wi-Fi” in the list
  • when the “Wi-Fi”-page opens, select the 70mai WiFi-network (with the name that was listed at Wi-Fi SSID”) from the list of “Other Networks” (or “My Networks”)
  • if the WiFi-password is required, use the “Password” that is (or was) displayed on the dashcam’s screen
  • now, even when the 70mai WiFi-network is connected you will still see 4G (or 3G or some other mobile data indication) instead of the WiFi-icon in the top-right corner of your iPhone screen
  • then click on “<Setttings” top-left
  • back in the main Settings-page, scroll all the way down to “70mai” (in the list of apps that starts after “Game Center”) and click on it
  • in the “70mai” page that opens, set “Location” to “While Using the App”
    • you could also set it to “Always”, but that isn’t a great idea since the 70mai WiFi-network is rather poorly protected
  • now, open the 70mai.app again
  • in the “Please add 70mai devices”-page, click on “70mai Dash Cam A800”
  • now, the “Turn on Wi-Fi hotspot”-page will open with a picture that resembles the “Wi-Fi hotspot” page that is displayed on the dashcam
  • there, you should click on “Dash cam WiFi hotspot is turned on” (eventhough it appears to be greyed-out) so a green checkmark will appear
  • then click “Next”
  • on the next page (the “Connect to WiFi hotspot”-page) click “Connect”
  • now the Settings.app will open again, check that the 70mai WiFi-network is listed at “Wi-Fi”
  • then, open the 70mai.app and you will see a countdown-circle on your iPhone and you will hear a voice from the dashcam
  • so, go to the dashcam screen and tap the button bottom-right to confirm
  • now you will see what the dashcam is ‘seeing’ / ‘recording’ in the 70mai.app on your iPhone

…that’s it !

enjoy 😉

Note that you can adjust various dashcam settings (like the Speaker Volume, Video Resolution, Parking Surveillance, ADAS Driver Assistance, etc.) by clicking on the 3dot-icon top-right in the 70mai-app screen.