I posted this on LinkedIn last week, after having a little trouble changing the battery in my Apple AirTag. If you’re an AirTag user too, you’ll want to take note of this, because I only found this out after a lot of research!
“After using an AirTag on my keys for the last year or so, the time came to replace the little coin battery that was inside, (the lithium CR2032 type).
First port of call - Duracell - in my mind usually the most reliable & known brand. Package arrived, replaced battery, and....
Nothing. Nada. The 'FindMy' app didn't recognise that the battery had been replaced.
Odd, usually stuff like that will just ping to life again.
After lots of research on this, it turns out that AirTags, amongst many other electronic devices, don't like Duracell coin batteries, because Duracell apply a coat of 'bitterant' on the one side, to prevent kids from swallowing them, giving them a vile taste.
This problem also resides with several Garmin devices, and a multitude of potential car key fobs etc, according to various forums with people posing the same issue.
So, tried a pack of Panasonic batteries today and thankfully, all working fine again. There's a link in the first comment to an article with more info; but basically if you use AirTags, best to avoid Duracell completely, as they're seemingly the only company that applies a bitterant to the batteries.
Here endeth today's parable.”
So yes, if you use AirTags, or any bit of modern technology, check before you buy your battery replacements in case your tech doesn’t like batteries with bitterant coatings. It’ll make you think you’re going mad.
When Clients Don’t Pay
After spotting an instance where a colleague of mine was struggling to get payment out of a client, I was reminded of the now-famous talk given by Mike Monteiro, the director of a design studio in the US.
He gave a presentation in San Francisco 10 years ago, which thankfully was put on YouTube - entitled, appropriately, ‘Fuck You. Pay Me’.
Filled with lots of useful advice for any freelancer or small business owner, it’s 40mins well spent.
Google’s ChatGPT Competitor, Bard, Makes A Mistake In Presentation
In its debut presentation, the Google AI chatbot got a fact wrong, in a highly embarrassing display. The result? It wiped $100bn off its share price. Oops. See the article below.
Know Your History?
I spotted this the other day, Chronophoto, which is a fun little game which tests your history based on the look of various historical photographs; namely, how old you think they are.
The premise is simple, see how many points you can gain by guessing what year a series of 5 different photographs were taken. I only got around 2000 points, so could do better. You get more points the closer you are to the actual date of the photo.
It changes the photographs every time so you can hit refresh after your first try and do it again and again. It’s oddly addictive. Don’t be fooled though, some that are in black and white are more recent than you think! (I was about 60 years off on one of them, FFS.)
Pay attention to all the elements in the photo; signs, signposts, technology, equipment, transport, clothing. The lot….
Don’t do a ‘me’, and think it perfectly acceptable that Abraham Lincoln could plausibly have been using an iPhone…
Until next time…