Stephen Radford

Podcasting

So you want to start a podcast…

I have loved podcasting almost since its inception, before it was a part of iTunes and you had to download something like iPodder Lemon, find an RSS link and subscribe manually. Back then it was truly something new and I had a lot of fun messing around in my early

Podcasting

The Cheap £10 Elgato Cam Link Alternative

Like most people working from home during lockdown, I spend a not insignificant amount of time in Zoom calls, Google Meets, or on FaceTime but I also happen to co-host a video podcast and stream on Twitch. Over the last few months it became increasingly apparent that the potato webcams

Tutorial

Tutorial: Sync Put.io and Other Cloud Services with Plex Using Rclone

I've been a Put.io subscriber for almost 10 years now and after my app Fetch got blacklisted by the App Store I soon looked for another way to add metadata such as posters and subscriptions to media stored on Put.io. Not long after Fetch's demise, Firecore's fantastic Infuse

Baking

One-Day Panettone Recipe

This recipe will make two 500g panettone and make perfect Christmas gifts for people. It's dervived much from ChefSteps recipe and I highly recommend that you watch that video fully before starting. EquipmentWhile you probably could make this entirely by hand, I would recommend using a stand mixer with the

Review

YouTube Music: A Real Spotify Competitor?

When YouTube Red launched in the US in 2015 I was extremely jealous. The promise of ad-free YouTube was one I'd dreamed of. Unsurprising considering I probably watch 2-3+ hours of YouTube a day (don't @ me). Though YouTube obviously thought of Red as much more than just a way to

Review

Battle of the Boxes: Apple TV, Fire TV, Android TV, Chromecast

A few years ago I "cut the cord", cancelled my TV License and cable subscription. Back then I used a 3rd generation Apple TV with subscriptions to Netflix and Now TV alongside my vast number of YouTube subscriptions. I've since tried what feels like every box or stick

Tutorial

Install High Sierra Emoji on Older Versions

I'm being extremely stubborn and refusing to update to High Sierra at the moment for good reason. The only thing that's really been annoying me is the fact I can't see emoji sent from iOS 11 or macOS 10.13 on Sierra but there's an easy fix. Emoji is just

Tutorial

Installing Fetch with Cydia Impactor

Fetch has been open source since it was removed by Apple from the App Store but the overhead of installing has always been large since it required not only a Mac but also knowledge of Xcode. I recently discovered Cydia Impactor which allows for easy install of IPAs on devices

Tutorial

Downgrading iOS 9.3.5 to iOS 6

Contents Introduction Jailbreak with Phoenix OpenSSH Downgrade to iOS 6 Introduction I may be one of the only people left still rocking an iPad 2. The only purpose it has in my life is to consume video through YouTube, Netflix, and Put.io and for that it mostly works fine

iPhone

Removing the White Bars in Safari on iPhone X

The new iPhone X features a beautiful edge-to-edge display. Well, almost. There is the small issue of a notch at the top of the browser which doesn't cause an issue when viewing websites in portrait but by default does cause some issues in landscape. To accommodate the notch iOS 11

Mac

The Mac Podcast App You Can't Have

I wasn't going to write this post because I've already said most of what I wanted to on Twitter. Yesterday though, I changed my mind when I saw this Tweet from Product Hunt. The Best Podcast Apps for Mac 🎙️🖥️ Add your favorite 👉 https://t.co/S9X18oklTF pic.twitter.com/fGVNgRsYDH

HomeKit

Controlling Homebridge with Alexa

I've written a fair few posts about HomeKit and Homebridge but there was one piece of that whole puzzle that I was never really happy with—Siri. While Siri does a job to some extent I think it's hard to say that it does it well. Constantly mishearing or misunderstanding

HomeKit

HomeKit IR Blaster: Controlling My TV with HomeKit

If you've read any of my previous posts then you probably already realise I'm on a mission to automate my entire house and control it using Apple's HomeKit protocol. I'm pretty satisfied with the lights in my house now but there's plenty more I would still love to be able

project

Building An Arcade Cabinet: The Hardware

It must have been around 8 years ago that my Dad and I had the idea of building an arcade cabinet. This was before the Raspberry Pi even existed and there was nothing like Arcade World here. After a bit of research we imported everything we needed for the control

Personal

Echo: Revolutionising NHS Prescriptions

Like millions in the UK I rely on repeat prescriptions to keep me healthy. The NHS is marvellous but the repeat prescription service has always felt a little archaic. Little slips of green paper popped in a box or handed to your pharmacist and then a 24-48 hour waiting period

Cocoa

Quick Tip: Auto-include Open-Source Acknowledgements with CocoaPods

Open-source software is so prolific that it's likely nothing written today doesn't include some in one form or another. Keeping track of the licenses and acknowledgements that need to be included when working with multiple dependencies can be tricky. CocoaPods does a great job of managing the dependencies themselves but

Development

Setapp: Game Changing App Distribution

Distribution for indie developers on the Mac has been a sore point for a number of years now. The Mac App Store is just completely broken and discovery of apps outside of a centralised store is difficult and it takes a lot of effort to shine in the rough. Setapp

Review

Iconic: The Other Apple Book

So by now I'm pretty sure anyone who hasn't been living under a rock the last few weeks is aware Apple released a ridiculously priced portfolio book of their products since 1998 and Jobs' return to Apple. The book is pitched as telling a story of Apple design over the

HomeKit

Controlling HomeKit with an Amazon Dash Button

Since hooking up Homebridge and controlling lights and LED strips in my living room I've been looking for a physical switch to control it. The only HomeKit enabled switch I've found is the Elgato Eve Light Switch which is pretty reasonable at $50 but is only available in the US

HomeKit

Cheap HomeKit Light Bulbs

Following on from my previous posts about using HomeKit with LIFX and creating HomeKit LED Strips I wanted to see if I could add some more bulbs into the mix. I wanted RGB bulbs so I could colour match with the LED strip I made so I looked at the

HomeKit

Cheap HomeKit LED Strips

After my success with Homebridge and LIFX I wanted to get some more HomeKit compatible lights for my house. LED strips provide an easy way to hide versatile and flexible lights away and make the perfect mood lighting. Philips Hue already offer LED strips with LIFX's "Z" strip

Projects

HomeKit ❤️ LIFX

Every three months or so I found myself looking at Philips Hue and since iOS 10 came around with its deep HomeKit integration the desire for home automation has be higher. One thing that always put me off about the Hue system is the price. To buy into the system

Cocoa

Hacking macOS Sierra's PIP

One of the headline features in macOS Sierra is Picture in Picture. Unfortunately Apple decided to restrict this to Safari and iTunes which means the majority of users will never get to use it. Digging into the Sierra GM PrivateFrameworks directory revealed a very helpfully named framework called PIP.framework.

Projects

Restoring an Apple Extended Keyboard II

I've been looking to foray into the realm of mechanical keyboards for well over a year but never took the plunge. I'd been looking at either a modern keyboard such as a Pok3r or something vintage like an IBM Model M. Something I didn't realise was Apple also used to

Projects

What's going on with Fetch?

Last Wednesday evening we received a notification from Apple that Fetch had been removed from the App Store. They cited the following rule and sent some screenshots accompanying the notice of the transfers screen. 22.4 Your app falls into a category of apps that are often used for illegal