I'm very happy about last week's introduction of the SwiftUI replacement for AppKit/UIKit. Now we need a Swift-native replacement for CoreData.

Most large corporate buildings have a DAS system, which is a distributed cell system in the building. This makes cell phone reception excellent inside the building. This allows the cellphone to set its cellular transmit power to a very low setting, saving power and extending battery life. I'll bet cell phone testing occurred in this type of environment. If you are in a brick building, or a basement, and the building does not have a DAS system, then the cellphone needs to set a high cellular transmit power, reducing battery life. Being associated to a weak WiFi signal also causes the WiFi antenna power to be increased, reducing battery life. It can be amazing watching the battery percentage drop quickly in some of these environments. Having no connection can be superior to a weak connection from a battery perspective. In that case the phone will periodically probe for connectivity but use less battery than a weak cell or WiFi connection. Airplane mode can be helpful in these situations. You won't be able to use your cell connectivity, but your cellphone battery will not drain quickly. You just need to remember to turn off airplane mode when leaving the environment. Which situation is "correct" when calculating battery life? There is no _correct_ answer. Your personal battery life will vary dramatically based on the cell and WiFi strength in your location. This is outside the control of Apple. Apple does it's best to optimize battery life by modifying transmitter power for the situation.

My "long" bike loop is 42 miles. I'm a bit older and plod along around 12mph. It takes me about 4 hours to complete the loop. My old Apple Watch model 0, while monitoring the ride with the exercise app, would run out of battery about 35 miles into the ride. My newer Apple watch model 3, without cellular (presumably saving some battery) lasts the whole ride and has over 60% battery left. I haven't had to worry about my watch battery since upgrading, but I do make it a habit to charge every night while sleeping.

I take my phone with me on the ride, and listen to audiobooks and podcasts with AirPods from the phone while on the ride. I can't speak to the impact of listening to podcasts from the watch (which is now possible with the latest OS).

I've found that using the watch to track my exercise helps keep me motivated. My AirPods never fall out while riding, although I only ride on pavement.

But did they know it would blend?

I like the Nest in my house and installed one in my Mom's house.

That was a mistake.

Two weeks ago my Mom woke up without heat and some sort of battery message on the Nest. She lives 700 miles away so I wasn't able to go over and fix it (this battery problem had not hit the news at that time). The Nest was disconnected from the WiFi so it was "offline" and I couldn't adjust the temperature remotely. She ended up calling a furnace guy to do a house call and replace the Nest with a simpler thermostat.

I still like my Nest (particularly the "automatically turn down heat if it detects you are not home" feature), but I'm an IT guy and can handle problems. The Nest was not the right product for my Mom.

There are two versions of Cisco's 5500 LAN controller software: 1) the normal version 2) the special version which is only recommended for Russia where "Data DTLS Payload encryption" is regulated by the Government. Ironic that Snowden fled the US and went to Russia. Which version of software do you want on the wireless infrastructure you use?