Guess what? Portsmouth has a new Chik-fil-a, but it’s super busy, so I opted for Dave’s Hot Chicken instead. Can you believe how many people were there? Maybe they were craving chicken just like me!

Circulating Pump Replacement

I noticed dripping water near the furnace in basement and looked up to see a rusting component with water dripping. We called plumbers for help but nobody responded, but after a call with my father in-law it sounded like we could replace it ourselves. So yesterday we found one at our local Lowe’s and Kaleb and I installed it. The hardest part was getting the old one out of there because the bolts were so rusted.

Just finished up two new seasons on Apple TV+, Slow Horses and Bad Monkey. Slow Horses is still great although I felt it was missing something from previous seasons. Bad Monkey was a fun ride and I loved all of the characters, well except for Eve of course.

Second softball game of the season for me and the team’s first win. HR, 2B, 1B, 2BB, 4 runs scored. Final score 22-10 in 6 innings.

I took a solo trip up north today and climbed East Osceola. I was at the lot by 7:30 and back at the car by 11. It was steep with boulders for the last third but I made it. The rain started just as I got back to the car.

I downloaded the first VisionOS 2 beta and even though there aren’t dramatic changes, the little quality of life improvements like re-arranging home screen icons and new hand gestures for the home screen are great. The ability to change any photo into a Spatial photo is magical.

New Apple Watch Setup Tips (watchOS 10)

If you are setting up an Apple Watch for the first time, here are some tips for getting the most out of your watch

Navigation

The Apple Watch has two buttons, the Digital Crown and the Side Button. It also supports other swiping and long press gestures.

  • Digital Crown
    • Pressing the Digital Crown will show the App View.
    • Turning the Digital Crown while you are looking at the time will show you some action tiles and eventually show the list of apps.
  • Side Button
    • Pressing the Side Button will show Control Center.
    • Double clicking on the Side Button will show Apple Pay.
  • Swiping down from the top of the screen will show Notification Center
  • Watch Face Edit View is launched by long pressing on the watch face
    • Scroll the digital crown to switch to a different watch face
    • Click Edit to make changes to a watch face

Recommended Changes

Out of the box a lot of the settings Apple has chosen are great, but there are a few adjustments I make for a better experience.

  1. Turn on Silent Mode so it won’t make sounds via Control Center
  2. Try out the Find my Phone functionality also in control center, the icon is a phone with sound waves coming out of it
  3. The Watch app on the iPhone makes it really easy to configure the settings on your watch and also to manage your watch faces
  4. Set up Apple Pay on your watch because it is way easier than having to take your phone out
  5. Enable Bold Text in Settings > Display & Brightness for better readability of text
  6. Turn on Prominent Haptics in Settings > Sounds & Haptics, this will give you a bigger vibration when prior to the normal vibration
  7. Update the Siri settings, I like to have “Hey Siri” and Raise to Speak disabled, but leave it on for pressing the Digital Crown
  8. Change the App view to List View, by pressing the digital crown and scrolling to the bottom of the view and pressing List View OR via Settings > App View
  9. Disable reminders for the Mindfulness app so it won’t ask how you are doing twice a day
  10. Disable reminders for the Handwashing app so you won’t get notified every time you wash your hands for less than 20 seconds
  11. Disable “Start Workout Reminder” in Workout app settings, this means you won’t be prompted if you are just walking around and I think it might also save a little battery life too.

The Apple Music Top 100 Albums is super cool and makes me want to discover new music, unfortunately you can’t view the entire list inside Apple Music and have to use the website to view the complete list. After you sign in the music plays in the web browser instead of the Apple Music app. 👎👎

Meta Quest 3 and Drone Panaromas

I got a Meta Quest 3 for Christmas and have really enjoyed testing out different features, but one of my favorite things has been viewing 360 degree panoramic photos from my DJI Mavic Air 2S drone. Here is an example of a panoramic photo over San Francisco

It is really cool to put on the Quest and be able to look all around from a fixed spot in the air. I went out yesterday to took some near different bridges on the Merrimack river. Here are some regular photos I took while there.

Whittier Bridge in Amesbury MA from a droneGillis bridge in Newburyport from a drone

After updating my MacBook Pro to macOS Sonoma, I noticed the control center and clock would go missing from the right side of the menu bar after using it with a Studio Display. I was able to get them back by opening Activity Monitor and quitting ControlCenter.

Busy sports day yesterday with a rainy soccer game and a crowded climbing competition. The kids did great.