There has been an important iOS update recently, 14.4.2, hopefully you have completed that. It was somewhat urgent due to it being a security patch for some ‘holes’ in the last release, 14.4.1, which was meant to patch ‘holes’ in the prior one to that. Read about it HERE. 

The next release is out in beta, 14.5, and that’s the one to talk about. Among other things that weren’t particularly interesting to me was one, Battery Recalibration, that caught my eye (and dragged it 15’)

My phone isn’t too old, so when it runs out at 4pm I’m a bit annoyed. Of course FaceTime is a HUGE drain, I get that. But I don’t use that till about 4:30, and my phone is way too drained by then. Battery recalibration will hopefully help me out with the battery, looking at usage and possibly altering battery drainage and making some improvements. We’ll see. Read all about it HERE.

Popular Science
BY JOHN KENNEDY MARCH 30, 2021

These built-in features can help you call for aid quickly and stealthily.

Emergencies are, by definition, unexpected, so it’s critical to know exactly how your phone can help when you need it most. Both iOS and Android have built-in capabilities that will almost instantly alert first responders, family, and friends to the fact that you need assistance.

If you fear pocket-dialing the paramedics, you can limit these settings, but you can’t shut them off entirely--federal law requires all phones sold in the US to be able to dial 911, whether or not they have an active SIM card or are linked to the available wireless networks. As long as your device can make some sort of connection, you should be able to call for aid.

Emergency call settings on iPhones. The fastest way to call emergency services on an iPhone is to use Emergency SOS. Fully enabled, you’ll be able to notify first responders without taking your device out of your pocket or bag—as long as you can grab your phone, you can fire off a cellular flare.

By default, an iPhone 8 or later model will call for help if you hold down the side button and either volume button. Do this, and the Emergency SOS slider will appear within seconds. Then, you can drag it to the right to make the call, or keep holding to activate a five-second countdown before the call goes out. You cannot turn this off. During the countdown, your phone will vibrate to let you know it’s working. Stop the countdown at any time by releasing the buttons.

On all iPhone models, you can rapidly press the side or top button five times to do the same thing. While this setting is default on any iPhone 7 or earlier model, you can turn it off on newer devices by opening the Settings app, finding Emergency SOS, and toggling off the Call with Side Button switch. If you do use it, you have to press it quickly or it won’t work. This method starts a three-second countdown before the call goes out, and will activate a loud alarm even if your phone volume is completely off. The only way to prevent the siren is to toggle off the Countdown Sound switch within the Emergency SOS settings. Cancel a call by tapping the Stop button and confirming that you want to Stop Calling.

There’s also an Auto Call toggle switch within the Emergency SOS settings. When on, your phone will automatically dial the local emergency number once its countdown ends. If you turn it off, you can still use the slider to force the call, but your phone won’t make calls on its own. This could help if you’re prone to accidentally activating the emergency call features, but it won’t help if you can’t interact with your phone. This feature also requires a SIM card and you might still need to specify an emergency service in some areas, Apple says.

You can manage your emergency contacts within the Emergency SOS settings by tapping Edit Emergency Contacts in Health, which will take you to Apple’s built-in Health app. There, hit Edit in the top right and scroll down to add emergency contact. After any emergency call ends, your phone will text these contacts about your situation unless you choose to cancel the message. Your device will also send them your location and update them when your location changes, even if location services is off.

No matter which Emergency SOS shortcut you use, your phone will disable biometrics like Touch ID until you enter your passcode, even if you cancel the call. This prevents anyone from using your fingerprint or face to open your phone.
You can also dial for aid by activating the lock screen, tapping Emergency and dialing 911 or another emergency number.

Emergency call settings on Android phonesThe emergency call settings built into Android phones may differ depending on your device’s manufacturer, but Google includes its Personal Safety app on stock Android handsets and other users can grab it for free from the Google Play store.

If you’ve set a lock screen on your device, the passcode entry screen will have an emergency call button at the bottom. You or anyone else will be able to dial 911 from this screen, whether it does so automatically or requires you to plug in the number manually.

Your phone may also send your location to first responders during an emergency call or text, if you have Android Emergency Location Service on and it’s available in the country you’re in. To manage this feature, open the Settings app, tap Location or Security & location, and then hit Location. Next, go to Advanced > Emergency Location Service or Google Emergency Location Service and turn it on or off.

Don’t stop there
No matter which operating system you use, make sure you take some time to learn the safety features built into various apps once you’ve got the built-in settings set up the way you like them. Then, consider downloading some other apps that may help with specific emergencies. You can never be too prepared.

While I use the new iPhone app that reads sensors I have implanted in my brain so I don’t have to physically touch my phone anymore, I realize some folks still rely on the iPhone and iPad touch screen interface to communicate with their devices. For those of you still in the dark ages, I have a great article on several handy apps HERE. 
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While I don’t know why anyone needs a URL shortener, the other apps are quite handy. The PiP, or picture in picture option is fantastic, I use it all the time, though it beams directly into my optic nerve and can be confusing sometimes. On an actual iPad screen I’m sure it would be very useful, however, on an iPhone screen, it seems like it might be a bit tiny.
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Dictate to Notes is great, though I only use Think to Notes now. When my mind wonders it gets very surreal. Apple Frames is neat, it puts a frame around your pictures, and Make PDF is something I use all the time, for obvious reasons. Music Finder, (and Shazam), are great for identifying a song nearby, that you can’t remember the name of. This happens all the time with me these days, so this has been quite useful, though I have the brain implant version which saves the song to a storage area in the back half of my cerebral cortex so I can retrieve and play it later. 

The link is real, check it out.

This week’s article isn’t going to be me nagging you to make a backup, keep your device up to date, or to not click on unsolicited links. I’ve done that enough.
This week I want to talk about some other kinds of technology, old and new.

First, the first computer. About 15 years or so ago I first read about a find in 1901, in a ship that sank off the coast of Greece. An item was found that looked like a rock, but was actually a mechanical device that was quite corroded. Amazingly, it had gears inside it. The Antikythera mechanism appears to be an astronomical calculator, as far as scientists can tell. It’s over 2000 years old. The article I just read is HERE. 

When I first read about it, it was suggested that Archimedes himself was the possible creator of this device. Apparently, the current thinking is that it was likely from the Archimedes school, or about 100 years after Archimedes, somewhere around 150 BC. Apparently, this kind of science was then lost for the next 1500 years. I wonder how that happens, yet, it’s a recurring theme in history. Read more detail HERE. 
 
Speaking of lost knowledge, I read a great article about the same sort of thing regarding muslin. Yes, the fabric.

Dhaka muslin was a fabric made in what is now Bangladesh, in a 16 part process using a now extinct type of cotton. The thread count in my sheets is maybe 300? This hand woven material had a thread count as high as 1200. This was the most expensive fabric of the time, sometimes called “woven air”. It was sold all over the world, as far back in time as the Antikythera mechanism, but all that ended in the beginning of the 20th century. In the 19th century, it was popular among those that could afford it, including Josephine Bonaparte, and Jane Austen. Read the article HERE. 

It’s a fascinating piece of history, and another lost knowledge.

The BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) is a real thing, it’s been around for a long time, and oddly, Microsoft’s information on the BSOD is as useless as ever.

Recently, you may have read about the March update giving some users the BSOD when they try to print. The requirements are pretty specific, so you probably won’t need to worry about that, however, just in case, an article about it is HERE. 

While reading about this, I read somewhere that reverting to an earlier restore point was a solution. This sounded fine, but some people don’t have restore points because their computers aren’t setup to run them. That’s a system option that needs to be turned on. It has saved computers I’ve worked on, where something catastrophic happens to them, and I revert to an earlier restore point, and the problem is gone. So, to turn on the restore point creation, or to manually create a restore point, read THIS. 

For what it’s worth, I have 4% of the drive devoted to my restore points, for me, that’s about 14gb. Probably 10gb would be fine.
 
The other thing that’s been in the news is the M1 Mac SSD drive. There were apparently some panicked users claiming the hard drive would only last about 6 months. Since it’s non replaceable, and Macs are spendy, that would indeed be pretty awful. The premise is that an SSD has a theoretically finite number of WRITES. The more you write to the drive, the quicker it will succumb. This is a somewhat accurate description, but of course, the reality is nothing like it. A great article on this can be found HERE.