Dariusz Więckiewicz

The announcement of RCS support on iPhone with iOS 18 was a very big disappointment for me, as I mentioned in my earlier post; however, in recent days, the situation has changed.

Cloudflare’s DNS service, known as 1.1.1.1, has transformed the internet for the better and continues to make a significant impact every day.

From setting DNS on your device to installing the dedicated app for using WARP technology, you can make your connections faster by choosing optimised routes for traffic.

If you are an advanced user, you can secure your entire network at home or in the workplace by implementing Cloudflare technology at your router.

For some users, this may feel too overwhelming.

Windows 11 introduced built-in integration for Secured DNS (Encrypted) that can be implemented at the interface level (your network card, whether wired or wireless). Thanks to this, all the DNS requests going through it will be encrypted.

When Jack Dorsey departed from Twitter, it was passed into the greasy hands of another billionaire who turned it into a cesspool.

I don’t have anything against billionaires. Let them have their money; just do good with it, not harm. This reminds me of the meme that rings true for every hard-working person:

“Most people don’t want to be rich. They just want enough money to not worry anymore.”

I have been waiting patiently for the release of a new version of iOS mainly because of one feature – RCS.

RCS stands for Rich Communication Services. It is an upgrade to traditional SMS messaging, designed to enhance the messaging experience with features like read receipts, typing indicators, high-resolution images, group chats, and sharing larger files. RCS aims to provide an experience similar to messaging apps like WhatsApp or iMessage but integrated into the default SMS app on smartphones.

The main reason I have been looking forward to RCS was the ability to send messages to Android users, other than SMS, but still from the default Messages app.

RCS brings reactions, the ability to send pictures (replacing the outdated MMS service), and shows read receipts. Everything is standard when communicating between iPhone users using the iMessage service.

With the high popularity of WhatsApp, which filled the void and struggle when communicating between Android and iPhone users, RCS was meant to regain the market for native messaging apps.

Recently, I have been required to find a method of manually rebooting user phones on the company network. From time to time, once they are up and running, we discover that some features are causing problems. Sometimes we cannot transfer calls, or we do not hear the person we are talking with. The causes may be numerous, but most of the time, a simple reboot of the phone solves the issues.

The problem with rebooting user phones is that the computers they are using are connected to the internet using LAN cables (for stability). The network cable is connected directly to the phone socket and then goes from the phone to the user’s computer. This saves the need for using two LAN cables; however, once the phone is restarted, the built-in switch is also restarted, hence the network connection is interrupted.

We have some apps that, when they lose network connections, will lock users and require additional action to unlock them. Hence, it is not ideal to restart the phones throughout the day.

As I checked the phones and settings, I struggled to find a simple scheduler to perform the task of restarting phones overnight, so I needed to find a different way.

The phone I am using daily is an iPhone 13 Pro Max, which has been with me for almost 3 years. At the same time, when I got mine, I also got an iPhone 13 for my wife.

Straight after purchase, I opted for AppleCare+ with the monthly payment option. Thanks to the recurring payments, my device is still covered under AppleCare+.

I am considering an upgrade later this year, possibly in September 2024, but I am not rushing into it. My phone is performing well for its age and is still in pristine condition, which is important for potential resale value. The only thing that is showing signs of age is the battery.

After over 33 months of daily use, I started noticing that the battery is not as good as it used to be. With the built-in Battery Health feature, I can see that it’s at 87% of design capacity. It’s not bad for its age.

However, after the same period with her iPhone 13, my wife began to notice that her phone needed to be plugged in much more often.

Recently, we even noticed that the battery surprisingly jumped from 59% to 61%, only to return to 59% shortly after.

This made me start thinking, so I quickly checked her battery health. From Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging, we can see that her health is at 80%.

It’s not a bad result after over 33 months, but also not great from the customer’s point of view, especially when you got AppleCare+ purchased.

According to AppleCare+ terms regarding the battery, you are entitled to have your battery replaced free of charge when it falls below 80%.

Exactly, it states “below” 80%, which currently you may think is not met, as the battery health in settings shows exactly 80%.

But what if that value is inaccurate?

When I developed my Minimal Google Analytics 4 snippet, I thought about preventing it from being blocked by various AdBlockers.

Along with AdBlock Plus, I am also using the DuckDuckGo Privacy Protection extension in Safari. I am using the DuckDuckGo browser on its own as well.

DuckDuckGo, along with restrictive ad blockers, tends to block requests heading to the google-analytics.com domain. This is done on purpose, and I fully understand that.

This is why I described mitigation techniques (Minimal Analytics 4 - masking (hiding) requests).

This technique allows you to utilize Redirect 200 to mask requests to external domains under your domain.

By implementing a redirect as follows:

/g/collect https://www.google-analytics.com/g/collect 200

Instead of calling the address below in a script

https://www.google-analytics.com/g/collect

I am calling this

https://www.example.com/g/collect

Behind the scenes, thanks to Redirect 200, I am sending requests to Google Analytics that are not blocked by either AdBlock Plus or DuckDuckGo.

This solution, however, has 2 major flaws.

Have you ever tried to read an article on a website that is jam-packed with ads? Most of the time the overall experience will discourage you from it and you give up or will try to find similar information in a place, where you can access it more pleasantly.

I am using AdBlockers on all my browsers and hate when some websites tell me to turn it off just to read their content. They decided to block me from reading until I complied.

I understand that this is their source of income, however, browsing these websites without an adblocker enabled is a pain as hell.

The screens encouraging “support of independent writing” by displaying ads are nothing compared to the unpleasant and distracting experience of reading their website without adblocker enabled.

This kind of website that prevents me from visiting at the start is, for example, makeuseof.com.

This is crazy but true.

Recently, I have been in contact with several people who have been thanking me for posting articles that have helped them significantly with their technological struggles or in easing their issues.

Some of them have been so happy that they would like to know how to donate a bit to support the cause. While this gesture is appreciated, most of the activities on my site are non-profit.

I used to have ads displayed on my website when it was hosted on WordPress. However, after migrating to Hugo, I soon realized that despite the speed benefits, the web performance was being compromised due to ads served through Google AdSense.

I managed to significantly reduce the costs for my website, so I decided to take the step of removing ads altogether, and I have been happy with this decision.

Buying a refurbished Apple product is a great way to save money. I purchased my MacBook Air with an M1 chip through this route back in 2021, and the device is still working well.

The good news when buying refurbished items directly from Apple is that they are treated no differently than new devices in terms of support and service. You are eligible to purchase additional protection through AppleCare, just like with new devices.

The savings on refurbished items, compared to the same item new, can be significant. Of course, you can buy them even cheaper if you don’t mind losing the ability to get extra care for them directly through AppleCare, but if you do mind (like me), then there is one more thing that you should think about before going this route.