I don’t usually pay a lot of attention to new features when an OS updates nowadays. But the other day I discovered the “photo shuffle” Lock Screen feature on my phone. Now every time I unlock my phone I see another random image. I picked nature as the subject. I am not sure what algorithm is picking the photos but the results are delightful.
Tag: ios
New iPhone feature. This is cool. In class we used use keynote or online services to cut out images. This is even simpler. No need for green screen. Works on my 4yr old phone. Hope it comes to iPadOS.
Look Up in Photos is pretty cool. I’ve been a fan of Pl@ntNet for a while. I still think I prefer Pl@ntNet’s community feel & openness but this looks like it will be useful too.
Embarrassing word swaps, grammatical errors and other typos?
The important thing I’ve learned here has nothing to do with Wordle or WordleBot. It’s that I can use Shortcuts to make an image out any HTML/CSS. As long as I can stuff it into a data URL, I can make an image from it. Could be very useful.
I don’t use shortcuts all that much, but this looks interesting.
Apple exposing all the ways Facebook tracks you with it iOS app is really quite something pic.twitter.com/hDhB85qk1L
Watch the video!
Slow Fast Slow app
Slow Fast Slow is a nice app for changing speed of videos on iOS. I discovered it via a nice tutorial by
Andrew Brooks Rework Time – Playing with time using the Slow Fast Slow App with slow-motion video. I think my class might enjoy this especially if the sandpit is still full of water.
TikTok did not say whether the feature would be removed from Android devices, nor whether clipboard data was ever stored or moved from user devices
Given that the app is widely used by pupils and sometimes by educators this is interesting.
Podcast Listening Notes

In normal times I listen to podcasts. As I do this on a commute I’ve only listened to 2 episodes since schools shut. I miss it.
When listening I often want to remember something for later, perhaps for a blog post or like, usually this ends in frustration as my memory fails. I imagined a podcast player that had voice control and would let you make voice notes. Today this imagining came true.
Castro, the podcast app I use, had an update. This includes a pile of very welcome Siri integration which will help with hands free problems.
Even better the addition of shortcuts and one of the examples gathers info about the current playing episode and allows you speak a note. This is collated with data about the episode, podcast name, Castro url, show notes, position and saved into a New note.
I managed to edit the shortcut to get the information into Drafts instead. I’ve tested it a few times and I am now good to go when commuting starts again on 11 August.
Using Microsoft Office for iPhone a lot today to capture text. I like it much more than Office lens. Much easier & quicker to get text to edit without having to open up Word. Straight to Drafts app in my case.