Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

OK this has to be the most undiscoverable thing ever. When will someone say that every option needs a visible menu item. Anyway, if you hate the complex “grid” view on your watch, then in Apple Watch, you hard press on the grid view and you can change. And another…

I can’t believe how hard it is to figure out how iPhone and iPad charging work. The mysterious parts are what cables and what chargers work where… Here’s a quick summary The original USB standard was 5V and 500mA. This is why when u plug a phone into old computers…

How sad is that. The 2018 is though so if you fit your phone into that little slot it will work there. Sad to say I’m not sure why they made it a spot rather than a tray. The 2016 Prius has it about right although as a tray underneath…

Ok this is actually pretty hard to decipher but here’s the scoop: Apple finally supposed USB C Power Delivery. This means that with a USB C to lightening cable it can vary the voltage and amperage. The shipped system is a USB A to lightening cable and adapter that charges…

OK, I love Veracrypt, it is a very nice tool for running encrypted volumes on your system. On the Mac though, it uses MacFuse underneath and you can run into not having enough file system slots to run it. You will get a cryptic message like: mount_osxfuse: File System is…

If you have someone at home that has allergies or other health issues, it’s nice to be able to track. There are a host of startups and home devices that track this and let you see them in the cloud or on your phone: PM2.5. These are the small particles…

Wow it is so cool the world is finally converging on Qi Charging (and USB C), we are near the grand unification. The idea that a phone never needs to be plugged in is nearly here with Air Pods (as long as you don’t lose them) and putting charging pads…

Ok this is probably pretty obvious to Tesla geeks, but it took me some time playing with ABetterRouteplanner.com to really understand how to minimize the time you spend waiting around. The big things are to minimize the power consumption TL;dr You really want to draft behind big cars and realize that…

The main thing as The Wirecutter points out is to get adapters which are solid. I’ve lost all kinds of electronics because there is arcing across the plugs. So you really want a set that is durable and really plugs right in. The big decision is whether you should get…