Our Lee Family 2020 Year In Review is now available, with prior editions available here. Depending on the device you are using, you might be prompted by Dropbox to sign in, download the mobile app, or continue to the website—you can simply select the option to continue or dismiss the dialog box.
As usual, our home movies are available on Victor’s YouTube channel.
My old iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 12.5 has a camera sensor that takes pictures in a 4x3 aspect ratio (3,264 x 2,448 pixels, which is approximately 8 megapixels). My new iPhone 12 Pro Max running iOS 14.3 provides an option to take pictures in either a 4x3 or 16x9 aspect ratio, as shown in the following settings:
I recently installed Security Update 2020-001 Catalina on my MacBook Pro, and I noticed that it re-enabled the startup chime that had been a familiar startup sound of Macintosh computers for a long time. According to the Mac Startup Tones Apple Support page, “Mac models from early 2016 and earlier make a chime sound when they start up. Mac models from late 2016 and newer don't have a startup chime, with the exception of MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017).” Unexpectedly, the installation of the latest Catalina security update made my Mac sing a tune on startup for the first time ever.
Some people like the startup chime, as it indicates that the machine does not have a major issue with RAM or EFI ROM (extensible firmware interface ROM, a.k.a. “boot ROM”). Others prefer their machines to be silent and have even written or downloaded apps like Silent Start to silence the startup chime.
There are other ways to enable and disable the startup chime on your Mac. Onyx is a free app with a setting that allows you to toggle the chime on or off. If you don’t want to install an app and are comfortable with the macOS Terminal, simply enter the following commands as reported in this article:
Turn chime on: sudo nvram StartupMute=%00
Turn chime off: sudo nvram StartupMute=%01
\I actually like the nostalgia of the startup chime, so for the time being I’m going to leave it on.
I read about information laundering in the context of this article about vaccine misinformation which is obviously a salient topic nowadays given that the first COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use in the United States, with more approvals on the way. When information laundering leads to misinformation in situations like this, it can adversely impact public health.
I am not an expert on the subject of media manipulation, but I believe that we should all critically appraise the information that we receive from any source. There are many fact checking websites summarized here and here. We’re all at risk of being exposed to laundered information through an endless number of media sources, so recognizing that possibility is the first step to ensuring that we’re getting our facts straight.
I received the following email message today from my bank:
It says, “Looks like the mobile phone number we have on file for you may be incorrect. This could be the result of changing your phone number and/or mobile carrier.” As I’ve recently discussed, I changed my mobile phone carrier (and kept the same phone number). I wonder how my bank knew that I changed my phone number and/or mobile carrier? My new mobile carrier would not have notified my bank, as they have no knowledge of my banking information—I only provided a credit card as a form of payment. If you know of the technology that was used to detect the change in my mobile carrier, please leave a comment. Inquiring minds want to know!
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I was pleasantly surprised to receive the following email from Visible Wireless today, announcing the arrival of its 5G mobile network:
Visible Wireless runs on the Verizon Wireless network. Eager to see if the 5G network offered any noticeable advantages, I upgraded my iPhone 12 Pro Max to iOS 14.3 and updated my carrier settings as instructed. When turning off Wi-Fi, I could see “5G” in the upper right corner of my iPhone home screen where it would have otherwise displayed “LTE” (4G), so I was all set.
I felt that the best way to compare 4G and 5G speeds was to perform a head to head comparison of the two networks. Since my wife had not yet updated the operating system and carrier settings on her iPhone 12 Pro, she was still using the Visible 4G LTE network. Although we have slightly different phone models, I didn’t think it would account for any significant differences in speed, so effectively the only major difference was the 4G vs. 5G network.
I installed Speedtest for iOS on both phones, disabled Wi-Fi, and ensured that both phones were connected to their respective 4G and 5G networks. I then ran the speed tests 5 times on each phone, with each pass performed simultaneously on both phones. Here are the results of each speed test on the iPhone 12 Pro using 4G LTE:
Here are the results of each speed test on the iPhone 12 Pro Max using 5G:
Here is a summary of all results:
Surprisingly, download speeds were slightly higher on the 4G network (55.3 Mbps) than the 5G network (50.7 Mbps). However, upload speeds were more than twice as fast on 5G (9.59 Mbps) as compared with 4G (4.20 Mbps). Ping times showed slightly less latency on 5G (54 ms) than 4G (64 ms). Definitions of ping, jitter, and packet loss are provided on the Speedtest glossary.
In summary, 5G is supposed to offer faster speeds and lower latency than its 4G predecessor. While I found slightly lower latency and faster upload speeds with 5G, I was surprised to see slower download speeds with 5G than 4G. I’m not impressed so far, but I also recognize that 5G mobile networks are newcomers, and maybe they still need to be expanded and optimized. Another possibility could be that network deprioritization could have effectively throttled both 4G and 5G connections to approximately the same speed, thereby limiting the potential of 5G on Visible Wireless. Admittedly this was a small sampling, and results could have been influenced by various factors related to the status of the 4G and 5G cellular networks at the time of testing. A more thorough investigation could involve me repeating the above procedure at different times of day. Hopefully 5G will give me better performance in the future, as I cannot undo the update to my carrier settings.
Update 12/22/2020: This article reached similar conclusions as I did about 5G being slower than 4G LTE. It offers explanations as to why this is currently the case and provides instructions for how to turn off 5G and use 4G LTE in the meantime.
I previously wrote about Apple’s support for older iPads. This post is about support for older iPhones. Until recently, I had been using an iPhone 6 Plus which runs iOS up to version 12. It’s already been more than a year since Apple released iOS 13 (September 19, 2019) and iOS 14 (September 16, 2020). Today I was pleasantly surprised to receive notification that Apple released iOS 12.5.
According to the Apple support page, iOS 12.5 provides security updates for iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation). However, as shown in the above screenshot, the headline news for iOS 12.5 is that Exposure Notification capabilities are now available for these older iPhone models, whereas previously Exposure Notification was only natively available in iOS 13.5 and above. Apparently this feature is so new that Apple has yet to update its Exposure Notification documentation:
Previously, devices running iOS 12 could only perform exposure notification by installing apps such as SafePass, whereas users of iOS 13.5 and above could simply activate exposure notification directly within iOS, also referred to as Exposure Notifications Express, which is documented here.
Having exposure notification built into iOS circumvents the foreground/background issue that I wrote about here, so I’m excited to see Exposure Notification come to iOS 12.5 and hope that people turn it on. To read more about Apple (and Google’s) approach to preserving privacy with its exposure notification features, visit this website, and also refer to my previous posts about exposure notification and contact tracing.
Having lived in California for most of my life, I’ve felt many earthquakes. Some have been larger than others, but they are all scary to me. Of all the natural disasters in the world, earthquakes are unique in that people have the least amount of time to take action when they occur. Even with the latest technology, early warning systems may give only a few seconds of advance notice before shaking is felt. I am aware of 2 apps that have this goal in mind.
The ShakeAlertLA app is provided by the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Information Technology Agency and the Department of Emergency Management. It has been made possible by support from the Annenberg Foundation and the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles. ShakeAlertLA is an official pilot in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey. I previously wrote about it here, and more information is available at the ShakeAlert website.
The MyShake app is discussed on the Earthquake Warning California website. Earthquake Warning California is the country’s first publicly available, statewide warning system that could give California residents crucial seconds to take cover before shaking is felt. MyShake delivers ShakeAlert across California.
How does early warning work? When an earthquake happens, a rupturing fault sends out different types of waves. The first wave felt is the fast-moving P-wave. The slower-moving S-waves arrive later causing the most damage. Sensors detect the P-wave and immediately transmit data to an earthquake alert center where the location and size of the quake are determined and updated as more data become available. A message from the alert center is immediately transmitted to your computer or mobile phone with data on the expected intensity and arrival time of shaking at your location. Specifically, when your phone is stationary, MyShake is ready to collect data from its motion sensors. It then decides which motion is produced by earthquakes and which isn’t. So basically, when you install one of these apps, your phone becomes part of a seismic network for earthquake early warning, as described in this publication.
Both ShakeAlertLA and MyShake provided information about how to prepare for earthquakes and what to do during and after an earthquake. Both apps also provide maps of earthquakes, but the MyShake app shows and allows users to explore far more earthquakes, probably because it earthquakes of lower intensity. MyShake also has interactive features that allow the public (referred to as “citizen scientists”) to report their experiences. MyShake also lets users configure notifications about earthquake events—simply enter a location, radius, and intensity. Finally, MyShake has sensor that is fun to play with. It records movement along the X, Y, and Z axes and can display the information in a graph in the app (below) as well as allow users to record and export the raw data.
In summary, I find MyShake to have more robust features than ShakeAlertLA. Regardless of your choice, download one of them today. Even if it doesn’t save your life, you’ll be contributing to the advancement of earthquake early warning science.
I recently upgraded my iPhone 6 Plus to an iPhone 12 Pro Max. Although I’ve generally been happy with Verizon Wireless for many years, yesterday I activated my new phone on Visible Wireless because of their competitive rates, unlimited data, and rebate for new phone purchases. It makes sense that if you keep your phone number when you activate your phone on your new carrier, your new carrier will notify your old carrier, and it should automatically cancel your old account. Based on many sources I’ve read, it is still a good idea to contact your old phone carrier. This is what Verizon recommends as well.
Ironically, I found it very difficult to contact Verizon. First I tried to login to my Verizon account. However, I was unable to login because my account had presumably been disconnected. That was a good sign that my account was terminated, but I also wanted to verify that I had a $0 balance. So I tried the online chat feature. While it lets you ask any question, it then proceeds to ask you to login before it connects you to a chat agent. My last resort was to call Verizon to speak to a live customer service representative. On my first 2 attempts, I was on hold for 20 and 45 minutes respectively, and in both instances I had other obligations to attend to so had to hang up. On my third attempt, a representative answered my call after about 30 minutes. He was able to verify that my phone service was successfully disconnected yesterday and that there were no outstanding charges on my account.
I asked the Verizon agent if he could generate an email stating that my phone service was disconnected and that I had a $0 balance. I was told that there was no email template for this kind of communication, so he was unable to do it, but he verbally reassured me that everything was OK. I had no reason not to believe him, but I think it would have been nice if Verizon automatically generated an email to acknowledge my account transition and to confirm my account balance. It felt to me that the second I was no longer a customer, I was not worthy of their attention. I think it is not unreasonable for me to expect better, and I believe Verizon could do better. However, I do understand that this is probably par for the course.
UPDATE: After switching from Verizon Wireless to Visible Wireless on December 1, today (December 5) I received the following email entitled, “Your wireless bill is available on My Verizon”:
When I read the subject line, I thought Verizon was billing me for some kind of termination fee. However, upon reading the body of the email, it does acknowledge that all my lines are disconnected and that I have a small credit balance. Perhaps “wireless statement” would be a better phrase than “wireless bill” but at least Verizon eventually followed through with written confirmation.
