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 Its been ten years since I bought a TV. It was a Samsung. Over time the entertainment world has changed. The TV used to be primarily for receiving broadcast channels or a cable. You may have had a DVD or Blu-ray player. Bill Gates, the former CEO of Microsoft, said, when Sony won the Blu-ray format war, that Blu-ray would be the last format. He was correct. In the last few years streaming services have become a major consumption medium. My new 48inch (121cm) screen with OLED dominates the room. You literally can't get a smaller OLED screen unless you mean a mobile phone. The TV is now a computer. It has a WebOS operating system and an app store. The familiar model used by mobile phones. In another nod to our mobile world everything is an app. The broadcast TV channels are not at the centre of the viewing experience. TV is an app.  I am still settling down to the 4K Ultra HD TV. However, like many changes in the tech world, TV has evolved to meet the expectations of mobile phone us

After the tech support session with Apple an a few days with a cheap Chinese Bluetooth earbud set I reached a conclusion. I needed to figure this one out. I cleaned the AirPods with some alcohol making them usable by someone else. I then passed them to my wife. She doesn’t have an Apple Watch, no Bluetooth conflict. [link] Fortunately, eBay had sent me a £5 voucher so I looked for AirPods on there. A few minutes searching an a boxed Apple set were available at £22. Deal. The new ones arrived. The serial number appeared on the device. No conflicts.  I am suspicious my old ones were dodgy Chinese copies. Maybe.  Finding bargains in the Apple ecosystem is possible.

 Like many things Apple the Airpod is a piece of Apple genius. They removed the 3.5mm headphone jack on their iPhone and came up with a preferred wireless future of earbuds. Not just any earbuds but something that works best with iPhone.  When I got an iPhone 8 Plus a while back I got some Airpods. From Ebay where I didn't pay full price. The good news was always that it paired immediately and  "knew" when I took the Airpods out of my ears. It worked well with the Apple ecosystem. Things have moved on. Upgrades and picking up an Apple Watch have out me further down the rabbit hole of all things Apple. The first time using Airpods after getting the watch had my music not playing, sound apps running slowly and things not working. I had read that Airpods had received firmware updates so I went looking to see whether my Airpods were up to date.  Looking on my iPhone it seemed the firmware version and serial number were missing. It struck me that maybe this was a counterfei

  "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in ..."  The line in the Godfather as Al Pacino, as Michael Corleone, explains why he still is in his father’s criminal empire. I feel the same about Apple . I bought an iphone only to end up back in an Apple Store for my next tech purchase.  To almost no-one\"s surprise face-id on an iPhone doesn\"t work very well when you wear a mask. Having chosen to use an iPhone you are left punching in your passcode quite frequently when you are out and about. Apple solved this little issue by authenticating your id via an Apple Watch when you wear a mask. Buying another Apple device to deal with the problem of other Apple tech is a very Apple solution. I do accept this isn\"t a devious ploy but rather the product of the way Apple thinks about it\"s own products.  Each product, on it\"s own, is an expensive piece of technology. Its also a fashion item. The design, colour etc say something about the owner. Th