I love white noise apps, but I wanted to listen to my meditation app to fall asleep then have white noise play to mask sounds. I accidentally found out how to do this on my iPhone using the “Background Sounds” feature.

The instructions on how to use this feature are simple. Here’s the instructions straight from Apple’s website.

1. Go to Settings  > Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Background Sounds, then turn on Background Sounds. Tip: You can quickly reach Background Sounds when you tap in Control Center, if you’ve added it there.
2. Set any of the following:
   • Sound: Choose a sound; the audio file downloads to your iPhone.
   • Volume: Drag the slider.
   • Use When Media is Playing: Adjust the volume of the background sound when iPhone is playing music or other media.
   • Stop Sounds When Locked: Background sounds stop playing when iPhone is locked.

You can play balanced noise, bright noise, dark noise (my favorite), ocean, rain, or stream. They work offline, and you can play them on top of any audio through your phone.

This feature makes this the best white noise app for me. I love other standalone apps more when I just need noise, but when I need two audio sources at the same time, nothing else can compete.

My favorite noise apps are Dark Noise, Noise Gen, and White Noise (you can record your own noise on this one, which I love).

Bidet – We wanted one for a while, but finally got an inexpensive one, and love it. The one we got is very no-frills, but I highly recommend it.

CA Glue Accelerator – I use CA glue (Super Glue) for 3D prints, and this makes it set almost instantly.

Ultrasonic Cleaning Machine – I’ve cleaned retainers, jewelry, and plenty of other delicate but dirty things.

USB Charger with Extension – lots of powerful USB ports on a long-enough cord.

BBs – I use these to make 3D prints weigh more, like for my MagSafe desk charger stand so that it stays put.

Rechargable-Battery Charger – I like that I can charge a bunch of batteries and it shows me graphs.

USB Tester – We know I love graphs and charging, so this device makes it very easy to see what chargers are putting out what voltage and current. Great for troubleshooting USB-C.

Razer Naga Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse – I don’t game a ton, but this mouse does everything I need and more.

Logitech MX Vertical Wireless Mouse – Ergonomics is important. Save your wrist some pain!

RotoEraser – Cleaning our tub has never been easier. Slap one of these on a drill scrubber attachment and the bathtub is clean in 2 minutes with no scrubbing. I love these so much.

Folding Stool – I will bring this on every camping trip. It’s so sturdy and light for what it does.

Vernier Calipers – Precision measuring is key to 3D printing items that will interface with real stuff. These took a second to learn how to use, but they are accurate and don’t need batteries ever, so I love them! I have 2 sets, a 12 inch and 6 inch version.

Sunscreen Travel Packs – I wish I knew about these sooner. I love these for traveling. Each packet is just enough for a typical sunscreen application, and I love the low level of worry that my bag will be covered in sunscreen when I get off the plane. Thank you Tom Bricker for the idea!

Anker PowerConf C302 Webcam – I wanted a webcam that was somewhat high resolution, but still USB and had good color representation. I only accepted this one since Camo Studio fixes the color and lets me zoom in so you don’t see my whole room. I had used Camo Studio with an old iPhone, but we all know iPhones are not meant to be always on and constantly using the camera.

LED Light Blocking Stickers – We all have devices that are too bright at night. These stickers darken any LED, and I have used them a ton since I’ve gotten them.

Jeff Arcuri – Super funny comedian.

3D Printing YouTubers – Frankly Built and Darkwing Dad helped me figure out how to make my Daft Punk helmet.

ATP Membership – I joined this year to help support the show, and the member specials are well worth it.

In 2019, I wrote up my Apple Watch Wishlist. Let’s check in and see how things are coming along since then:

1. Goal Completion Goal – When you start a new workout, you can either set a goal for Calories, Time, or an Open Goal. One of my favorite things to do is close my goal, so I’d like to see an option for Complete Ring or Complete Goal. I think this might motivate people to complete their goals.
   • This one is still not an option, and I still desire this feature. ❌
2. Alert and Ringtone Options – Adding options to change how alerts and ringtones sound would be great, especially if you have multiple devices that ring. Right now they ring with all different ringtones, which sounds awful and dissonant.
   • Unfortunately, this is still an issue. I use silent mode often, but when I don’t this is maddening. ❌
3. Sleep Mode and Night Brightness – I’ve been using Sleep++ to track my sleep with my Apple Watch, and I’ve used Theater Mode to keep the watch from lighting up at night. It could be better, though. During your bedtime, the overall brightness should be lower, and a native way to track sleep can only improve results and encourage others to get better sleep.
   • Sleep Focus Mode was added, and it’s wonderful. Sleep tracking and a dimmed screen make this feature complete. ✅
4. Find my Watch – I’ve forgotten where I put my watch once, and it seems like a chore to fire up Find My iPhone just to make it play a sound, especially since you can use the Apple Watch to find your iPhone really easily.
   • This still isn’t a feature, sadly. ❌
5. Forgot Phone – If I leave the house and my watch is on, but my phone is still at home, it would be great to get a notification on my watch to know that I’ve left the phone behind. This could also help if your phone gets stolen.
   • This isn’t really a feature yet, but locating your phone is coming this year, 2023, but likely only with the latest Apple Watch Series 9. 😐
6. Exercise & Stand Streak – Apple Watch already tracks your Move Streak, so why not your Exercise and Stand Streak?
   • This still isn’t a feature, sadly. ❌
7. Sleep Goals and Streak – iPhone has a Bedtime feature, and it makes sense for a report on how often you reach your goal, and your streak for nights of good sleep.
   • You get notified on the iPhone when you meet your health goal, but no streaks yet. Trends does capture a piece of this, though. 😐
8. Forgot Watch and Unlock Reminder – I have a passcode on my watch, and sometimes I forget to unlock it. I’d love to see my phone let me know, or my watch to nudge me to unlock it.
   • iPhone unlocks my Apple Watch automatically, so I’d say this is complete. ✅
9. Change Nightstand Appearance – Nightstand mode is nice, but can I choose a different color or brightness?
   • This still isn’t a feature, sadly. ❌

I wanted to share some of my favorite things from last year, seeing is how I haven’t done this in a while.

Prusa Mini+ – I got this 3D printer last year, and I love it!

Deep Rock Galactic – A great video game that I love playing.

Hair Clippers – I cut my own hair, and these cut extremely close without issue.

Eddie Bauer King Blanket – My wife and I love this blanket. It’s warm and huge.

Woosh Screen Cleaner – Our screens have never been cleaner. Great solution and cloths.

ASUS WiFi Router – The best admin interface to a WiFi router, it gives you so many tools. I specifically got this one to track down a internet usage issue that was making us go over our data quota, and I was only able to figure it out by using this router.

Double-sided Tape Measure – I never knew how much I would appreciate having the back side of a tape measure have the markings. Super helpful for my DIY work I did last year.

Philips SmartSleep Wake-up Light – Helps me wake up by gently turning on a simulated sunrise light, and has the opposite setup for going to bed.

60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Chicago – An amazing book with hikes nearby, they make other city versions as well.

Hulless Popcorn – Popcorn I make on the stove, but with way less “stuck in your teeth” moments.

Sleeping Earbuds – Sometimes I like to listen to audio while I’m laying down, and these earbuds allow me to do that without any pain.

A Problem Squared – Podcast by Bec Hill and Matt Parker, solving problems in the most hilariously serious way.

Mastodon – Feels like the early days of twitter again. Find me at https://toot.io/@jefftml.

Carrot Weather – My preferred way of getting the weather – with spice.

InMotion Hosting – I used to use Linode, but let’s face it, I’m not that serious of a web developer to need that extra work and control. I get exactly what I want with InMotion – a server that just works, for cheap, without any hassle.

Lateral – Podcast by Tom Scott, and it’s the amount of mental stimulation and trivia I desire.

Smartless – Podcast with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett. Funny celebrity interviews.

Balance – The only iOS meditation app that I like.

Woebot – The best AI talk therapy app I’ve tried. It’s great for working on my distorted thoughts.

Intent – iOS food planning. Amazing, free, and we actually use it. It helps me stay healthy.

CBT – I had a pretty rough year, mentally speaking. I spent a lot of time working on myself, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helped me a ton. So did working with a therapist, psychologist, counselors, and plenty of other mental and physical health professionals.

Jackbox Games are hilariously fun. The games are designed to be played with all of the players in the same room. We have great friends who live far away, so I set out to find a way to play with them remotely. If you have the games on a PC or through Steam, you can use Steam Remote Play. Otherwise, for this to work, you’ll need:

• 2 computers
  • Computer 1 – video game and google hangouts host
    • The Jackbox Games. I bought mine through steam.
    • Google hangouts account #1 – this account will share it’s screen (the Jackbox video game)
    • Use either VB-Cable or Loopback to get the game audio into the google hangout. You’ll probably need to adjust the game audio to be way lower.
  • Computer 2 – regular computer
    • Google hangouts account #2 – this second account will be where you, the host, interact with the other guests via your webcam and
    • headphones
      • We either share a earbud each, or use a headphone splitter

Your friends will need:

• A computer
• Headphones
  • We either share a earbud each, or use a headphone splitter
• Google hangouts account

Once you have everything setup, all you need to do is start a call between your two computers. Computer 1 will be sharing its screen. Computer 2 is just your webcam. Invite your friends to the call. You’ll have to jump between the two computers to interact with the game, but once the game is started, you’re good to go. We had a blast doing this, and the lag is very minimal with google hangouts. I tested other streaming options, and there was too much lag, even though the quality of the stream was better.

Here are some features I’d love to see on the Apple Watch.

1. Goal Completion Goal – When you start a new workout, you can either set a goal for Calories, Time, or an Open Goal. One of my favorite things to do is close my goal, so I’d like to see an option for Complete Ring or Complete Goal. I think this might motivate people to complete their goals.
2. Alert and Ringtone Options – Adding options to change how alerts and ringtones sound would be great, especially if you have multiple devices that ring. Right now they ring with all different ringtones, which sounds awful and dissonant.
3. Sleep Mode and Night Brightness – I’ve been using Sleep++ to track my sleep with my Apple Watch, and I’ve used Theater Mode to keep the watch from lighting up at night. It could be better, though. During your bedtime, the overall brightness should be lower, and a native way to track sleep can only improve results and encourage others to get better sleep.
4. Find my Watch – I’ve forgotten where I put my watch once, and it seems like a chore to fire up Find My iPhone just to make it play a sound, especially since you can use the Apple Watch to find your iPhone really easily.
5. Forgot Phone – If I leave the house and my watch is on, but my phone is still at home, it would be great to get a notification on my watch to know that I’ve left the phone behind. This could also help if your phone gets stolen.
6. Exercise & Stand Streak – Apple Watch already tracks your Move Streak, so why not your Exercise and Stand Streak?
7. Sleep Goals and Streak – iPhone has a Bedtime feature, and it makes sense for a report on how often you reach your goal, and your streak for nights of good sleep.
8. Forgot Watch and Unlock Reminder – I have a passcode on my watch, and sometimes I forget to unlock it. I’d love to see my phone let me know, or my watch to nudge me to unlock it.
9. Change Nightstand Appearance – Nightstand mode is nice, but can I choose a different color or brightness?

When I travel, I bring my DSLR. When I have a DSLR, I shoot a lot of photos, usually hundreds a day. I wanted to find a way to back up my photos while I was travelling, with minimal equipment. I think I’ve found the smallest, cheapest, best way to do this. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Kingston MobileLite G3 – $25
• An iPhone or android phone that is supported by the MobileLite G3 (you probably have this already)
• A USB drive (you probably have this already)
• A DSLR that saves images to SD cards (you probably have this already)
• SD cards that need to be backed up (you probably have this already)

Here’s what the workflow looks like:

1. Take photos on DSLR, saving RAW images (JPEG works, too) to SD card
2. After a day of shooting, turn Kingston MobileLite on, connect to its WiFi on your phone, launch their MobileLite Wireless app
3. Insert SD card and USB drive into MobileLite, refresh File Explorer in the app to show both USB and SD media
4. Tap on SD card in file explorer, go to the folder (or image) you want to copy, tap on “…” then tap the copy icon (looks like a page with a dotted page behind it), then tap USB Drive
5. I like to make a new folder by tapping the folder + icon, name it that date and card (like 20181220 Card1 for December 20, 2018), then tap on the new folder and tap OK at the bottom to choose that folder as the copy destination
6. Optional: Repeat steps 3-5 if you have more than one SD card to backup
7. Wait until everything has copied over, then eject your SD card and unplug your USB drive

Is it perfect? No, but it is the cheapest way I can backup my SD cards on the road without bringing my laptop and without spending too much money. I’ve tried backing up CF cards and the MobileLite won’t recognize more than one USB device at a time, so this method only works if you’re backing up SD cards to a USB drive. I tried using a USB hub, and it can recognize a CF card reader, but as soon as I plugged in the USB backup drive, the CF card was replaced in the app’s list by the USB backup drive. Maybe someone could fix this, though, because the source code is available! You could also backup the files to your phone, then copy to a USB drive.

For my specific gear, I’m using:

• Kingston MobileLite G3 (duh)
• iPhone X
• OWC 1TB SSD Mercury On-The-Go USB 3.0
  • formatted to exFAT
  • Master Boot Record scheme on macOS
  • You’ll need the power adapter to use this with the Kingston MobileLite (I think the MobileLite is slightly under powered in Amps). USB thumb drives work perfectly, but I wanted more capacity.
• Nikon D7100
• Lexar Professional 1000x 64GB SDXC UHS-II/U3 Card

If you have an android phone that supports USB On The Go (OTG), you could save even more money by buying this USB Hub for $10, which would replace the Kinston MobileLite.

I’ve also found really small SSDs recently like the Samsung T5 and the Teyadi SSD, but I don’t own them and haven’t tested them in this setup. They should work fine as long as they don’t draw too much power.

Lastly, if you have an iPhone or iPad and you don’t already have the Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader, you should get one. It’s super handy to be able to pull an image from any SD card in a few seconds.

There’s no way to review this watch without mentioning the red dot on the digital crown. All cellular equipped Series 3 watches, including all the stainless steel models, the ceramic Edition models, and the Hermès models, have this red dot. I don’t get it. It’s not that it looks bad in and of itself, but it draws unnecessary attention.

I’m just glad to see I’m not the only one who is confused by the red dot.

During Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California on June 5, 2017, Apple announced a few features in iOS that will make using an iPhone in the car much nicer. Here they are in random order.

1. One-handed zoom in Maps
2. New Siri voice
3. Lane guidance
4. Time away from locations in QuickType
5. Indoor maps for malls and airports
6. Speed limit
7. Do not disturb while driving
8. ARKit (more on that in a bit)

One-handed Zoom in Maps

Google Maps and other map apps have had this feature for a while. The idea is that you can double tap and hold, then swipe up or down to zoom in and out, instead of pinching to zoom. This is a well-welcomed feature for map use.

New Siri Voice

When you are using Siri in the car, a natural voice will be easier to understand. Since Siri is using machine learning to make the voice better, we can hope that street pronunciation will improve.

Lane Guidance

When driving, knowing what lane(s) are part of an exit is extremely helpful, especially on highways and interstates and other multi-lane roads. Again, Google Maps has had this for a while, and is very welcomed.

Time Away from Locations in QuickType

In iOS 11 you’ll be able to say how far you are from locations in QuickType – the gray bar of suggestions right above the keyboard. The example given in the keynote presentation was someone asking “how long until you get home?” and a suggestion showing “8 min, home” as a suggestion. I used to have a Workflow set up for this exact reason.

Indoor Maps for Malls and Airports

When driving to a mall or airport, specific drop-off or entry planning can be tricky. This will allow you to find the best spot to start walking, and will make your trip easier once you’ve left your car.

Speed Limit

Apple Maps will now show the speed limit in the top left corner, under the main navigation. Helpful for unfamiliar areas, or when that police car appears.

Do Not Disturb while Driving

If you’re looking to be safe while driving, you know a phone alerting you with notifications can be a distraction. This setting allows you to go dark while driving, and the feature is enabled once you start moving quickly or connect to a car’s bluetooth. I’ll try this feature out, and can do so safely since people can text and see you’re in driving mode, but still able to alert you by replying with  “urgent”. I’m curious to see how it pairs with Apple Watch, since that is how most of my notifications are presented to me.

ARKit

One of the features of iOS 11 is ARKit which is for augmented reality – putting rendered graphics on top of a video feed. ARKit can recognize surfaces (roads) and rectangles (signs) and can place images on top of the real world, including realistic shadows and lighting. Imagine a real video feed being overlayed with images to help you find the entrance to a complicated area. Imagine your phone being able to understand what you’re seeing and help pass that info on to you, like what a sign said. Who knows, but I think this could be a feature we see soon.

Overview & Disclaimer

ToneBands are Apple Watch Sport Bands that have a pin that matches the black Apple Watch finish. The pin is the metal part that connects the two ends of the band. Each band is available for sale for $18. They offer 38mm and 42mm sizes, both coming in small/medium and medium/large lengths. You can buy all three available colors, white, gray, and lavender, in the Spring 2017 Collection for $38, a savings of $15 if you were to buy all three bands separately.

I know and have worked with the founders, Jon Becker and Cameron Banga. This review is about the bands, and I’ll do my best to form an unbiased opinion.

Color

The colors for the Spring 2017 Collection are white, gray and lavender. The white is very white, the lavender is nice and subtle, and the gray is every so slightly red to my eye. The gray is gray, though, don’t let me confuse you.

All of the watchbands in the Spring 2017 Collection have black pins. The pins match either the Space Gray or Space Black Apple Watch.

I really like the white and gray. The white is by far my favorite band. I’m not crazy about the lavender, but that’s ok. It is still a great color.

Texture

The ToneBands feel velvety to the touch. The Apple bands feel a bit tacky (in the sense of stickiness, not quality) and smooth. I find the ToneBands to be more comfortable than the Apple bands. The ToneBands seem to have less resistance to bending compared to Apple’s. The Apple band is just a bit firmer. On the wrist, the feeling of the ToneBands disappear. I barely notice the feel of them on my arm.

Thickness

I measured the thickness of my Apple Sport Band and all three ToneBands. I took two measurements. The first measurement was by the pin, the second was near the last hole.

• Near Pin:
  • Black Apple: 3.50 mm
  • White ToneBand: 3.43 mm
  • Gray ToneBand: 3.45 mm
  • Lavender ToneBand: 3.46 mm
• On Strap:
  • Black Apple: 2.51 mm
  • White ToneBand: 2.49 mm
  • Gray ToneBand: 2.43 mm
  • Lavender ToneBand: 2.51 mm

As you can see, the bands are very close to the same thickness as the Apple band. Since the ToneBands feel different, the seem thinner.

Experience

Ordering the ToneBands was easy. They arrived quickly and were packaged nicely. The envelopes were sealed with wax, which was a nice touch. The price was reasonable, and definitely cheaper than Apple. For bands that I prefer, I’d say it’s a great deal. If you’re interested in matching your watch band to your watch, ToneBands is a company to keep your eye on.