iOS 15.4 improvements

iPhone

Finally!

One of the more obvious enhancements in iOS 15.4 for the iPhone is the ability conferred on FaceID which allows unlocking of the phone while wearing a mask. It works well and is very fast, though sadly it’s restricted to iPhone 12 and later. I still stubbornly insist on wearing a mask in the land of SUVs and gun rights, so this is nice to have in the supermarket.

But a relatively unsung enhancement – only 15 years after the introduction of the iPhone – is the added provision of nested mailboxes in Mail, denoted by the arrow. Click the arrowed item and the underlying mailboxes are revealed. For one who adopts fairly structured mail storage methods, this is huge, as my large number of mailboxes has now become quickly accessible, just as on the desktop OS:


Nested mailboxes.

The other very significant enhancement which has gone largely unremarked is the great improvement in voice recognition. For a device with a small screen and a near useless keyboard, the error rate in recognizing spoken words has fallen by an order of magnitude. What was borderline useless is now suddenly quite competent. As an example, I dictated an email with the names of the last six despots ruling the Russkies* and voice recognition got every one right!

iOS 15.4 is a significant improvement, for these issues alone.

* I was making the point that assassination is a remote hope, and that the first five had all died in their beds, and the sixth is likely to. Their leaders may whack subordinates with impunity, but seem to survive just fine.

A cool iPhone case

iPhone

Thank you, Emily!


The coolest iPhone case on the planet. Click the image.

Not a single ‘control’ on this iPhone case does anything, but does it look cool or what? I saw it in the light-as-champagne Netflix show ‘Emily in Paris’ starring the gorgeous Lily Collins and nothing is calculated to put you in a better mood. The world’s most beautiful city with a gorgeous British/American girl. And no ordinary girl, as her dad is none other than rocker Phil Collins. The apple does not fall far from the tree when it comes to talent, though Lily’s looks are a step up from Phil’s!

Van Gogh’s self portraits

Paintings

At the Courtauld Gallery, London.

My fondest memory of attending University College, London is not of the College. Rather, it is of the Courtauld Art Gallery, across the road from the School of Engineering, where I spent many happy hours. In the Gallery, that is, not in the lecture hall.

The Courtuald happens to house the finest ‘street’ painting of the Impressionist period there is, and I wrote of it here.

The Guardian alerted me that there is a special show of many of Van Gogh’s self portraits at the Courtauld through early May and I immediately contacted my sister in West Sussex begging for a copy of the related catalog, which arrived today.


Click the image for the Guardian review.

Not since Rembrandt – also a Dutchman – has an artist lived his life so loudly on canvas. And while there have been many fine renditions of his life on the big screen, the one to see stars Kirk Douglas, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the tortured artist, in ‘Lust for Life’.

If you can make it to the Courtauld, do so. As a minimum, get the catalog.

Budweiser’s 60 seconds of genius

Movies

A magnificent art work.

I watch one American football game annually, the Super Bowl. I barely know or understand the first thing about this brutal, brain addling game, but the spectacle and hype are prime examples of modern Americana.

Most importantly, watching the tenor of the advertisements and determining the target audience tells the viewer more about socio-economic trends and ‘low hanging fruit’ spending power than any study or survey could.

There was an exceptional contribution this year featuring one of Budweiser’s magnificent Clydesdale horses. Having stood next to one (but not too close) at a horse show some years ago, it’s impossible to convey the sheer sense of largeness of these animals. The advertisement itself is an extraordinary piece of story telling. In just sixty seconds you have beauty, tragedy, pain, suffering, healing, support, hope, recovery and beauty. You can read about the director by clicking the image below at which link you can also watch the video. The ad time runs $12 million a minute, reaching 100 million global viewers. Add another $3 million or so for the filmmakers and this sort of thing is not cheap. But, goodness, is it special.


Click the image.

Update July, 2023:

From the list of great boo-boos. Hitler attacks Russia. Putin attacks Ukraine, Budweiser uses a guy tricked out to look like a little girl to grow market share.

Yup, so far the size of the hole blown in the Budweiser balance sheet totals $6 billion, as the not so genius marketers at Bud Light learn that the market does not constitute a couple of gay bars in San Francisco and Greenwich Village. There’s all that ‘fly over’ country in the middle and those decent Americans sure as heck are not buying a gay branded beer.

Oh! well. It was nice while it lasted, Budweiser. 100 years of the best marketing on the planet destroyed in 30 seconds …. by a “girl” who still has his you-know-what.

Rambo meets Mitsumoto Sakari

Cooking

A better mousetrap.

For an index of cooking articles on this blog click here.

Five years ago I pretty much gave up on my chef’s knife and transitioned to a cleaver. You can read about that here.

The upgrade demon reared his ugly head the other day and I resolved to try a Japanese edge cleaver for even better cutting. Japanese knives are sharpened to a 12-15 degree angle, much finer than the 20 degrees used in European hardware. Better cutting, the trade-off being faster wear of the finer edge.


A new sharpening tool and a Japanese cleaver – the Rambo. Click the image.

My electric knife sharpener – check the link above – is getting long in the tooth, the grinding wheels are now well worn and you cannot replace them. You have to buy the whole thing again. Boo!

So I thought I would try the Japanese Mitsumoto Sakari sharpener which comes with coarse and fine stones, as well as a scissor sharpener. But the real secret to this tool is that the sharpening angle is adjustable from 14 to 24 degrees. As for the cleaver, it’s a non-stainless forged steel one (I borrowed it from Sylvester Stallone when he was not making Rambo XLI) for a better edge and I immediately sharpened it to a 14 degree angle. First, however, I checked the angles on the Mitsumoto and can confirm they are dead accurate, the 14 degree setting yields a subtended angle of 28 degrees, the 20 degree yields 40 degrees and so on. Nice.

I gave the Rambo ten unidirectional swipes through the 14 degree coarse sharpener, then five more through the fine and can confirm that it’s scary sharp. The hole in the blade is for your forefinger and has nasty burrs when shipped. A few seconds with a Nicholson rat tail file saw those off. The forefinger is inserted there as a further precaution against your finger dipping into your workpiece. The Rambo comes with a sturdy leather belt pouch for those occasions when you feel it’s necessary to wreak havoc outdoors.

The sharpening rods in the Mitsumoto are fairly fine so only time will tell how well they wear. At $25 you can buy five for the price of one Kitchen Chef electrical tool, so it’s not a big concern. Recommended.

As for the Rambo, I have to do a lot more butchering before passing judgment. Suffice it to say that I feel empowered – and dangerous.