Simon Salvin

Simon Salvin

@simple-pc.com

Work in tech, love my smart home, Siamese cat & shoes 👟

21 followers10 following246 posts

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

Apple’s new HomeView has a gorgeous clock face, so rather than spend £350 on another screen, I gave the iPad on our hallway wall the same clock 🕰️ Black dial, wakes when you walk past, dims at night. Full story & how I built it:

simple-pc.comBorrowing Apple's Clock: HomeView on My Own WallSo Apple has finally done it. After years of rumours, and years of me saying "surely this year?", the HomeView was announced on the 13th of October, and it's exactly what a lot of us have been waiting for. A 7-inch screen for the home, either stood on the kitchen worktop with a speaker in the base or fixed to the wall, with Siri, FaceTime, widgets and all of your Apple Home controls in one place. It also works as a Matter controller and a Thread border router, it can recognise up to six people b
Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

Sending the Ocado receipt to my Pantry app is now three taps. Open the PDF, tap Share, tap Add to Pantry, and the review screen pops up ready to check & confirm. Took a fight with the new iOS 27 Shortcuts and one silly typo to get there 🤦🏻‍♂️ Full story, plus the techy bits, on the blog 👇

simple-pc.comFrom Inbox to Pantry in Three TapsIf you read my recent post you'll know the Pantry app has taken over our kitchen, and the Ocado import was the star of the show. No more scanning every item, just upload the order PDF, check it over, ...
Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

Homey could see my Mantra fan lights but not the fans themselves, so they lived on Homebridge. Not anymore! I wrote my own Homey app, everything in one place and fully local, no cloud needed. And the light that kept switching itself back on is finally sorted 🤦🏻‍♂️ Full story & tech details 👇

simple-pc.comKeeping the Fans at Home: Our Mantra Fan AppIf you've read any of my posts before, you'll know I hate remote controls. So when we fitted Mantra ceiling fans in the lounge and the bedroom, the little white remotes went straight in a drawer and t...
Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

Every week our Ocado shop meant scanning every single item into an app. It was turning into a chore! 🛒 So I built my own Pantry app. It reads the Ocado order, logs the whole shop in minutes and runs at home on our Synology NAS. How it works 👇

simple-pc.comWhat’s in the Cupboard? Our Pantry AppFor the last year or so we’ve been keeping track of our food with an iPhone app called Foodshiner. It’s a good app, it does what it says, and it had become a part of the kitchen routine, scan it in, p...
Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

It’s not every Friday I get to go to a Wedding, and today’s was extra special as our first nephew, Josh got married to the lovely Chloe.

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

@stephenrobles.com you haven’t seen Gremlins 😯😯😯 One of the best Christmas movies ever! Please get all your family together this Christmas and watch Gremlins. And if you didn’t know, they are making Gremlins 3 for October 2028! Teaser clip came out this week.

Simon Salvin reposted

MacRumors.com
@macrumors.bsky.social

Apple's Smart Home Hub: Everything We Know So Far

macrumors.comApple's Smart Home Hub: Everything We Know So FarApple is working on a new smart home accessory that will serve as a hub for interacting with Siri AI, controlling HomeKit devices, watching videos, checking the calendar and the weather, and generally offering up useful information to everyone in the household. This guide aggregates everything that we know about Apple's smart home hub. Design Apple's smart home device will somewhat resemble an iPad, and it will have a display-focused design. It is expected to be square rather than rectangular, and it will measure in at 6 inches with quarter-inch black bezels around the edges. In terms of size, it will look similar to two iPhones that are side-by-side, and it will be about as thick as an iPhone. Apple imagines people having multiples of the hub in different rooms of the house. The device will support touch input for opening apps and controlling connected devices. Apple is making two versions of the home hub. One will have a 6-inch display and is meant to be mounted on the wall, and the second version has the same 6-inch display and a hemispherical speaker base that looks similar to the iMac G4. The display attaches to the base with a polished metal arm that holds the small screen and allows it to be tilted forward or backward. The base features speaker hole perforations and a rubber bottom for stability. The original ‌iMac‌ G4 The wall-mounted version will have a thin square base for the speakers and the mics, and it will sit flush against the wall. Both models will have a 1080p camera on the front for FaceTime calls, authenticating users, and recognizing different people in the home. Apple is planning to release the hub in a gray aluminum finish. The device has no internal battery and is instead meant to be used while connected to power via USB-C. Sensors The smart home hub will be able to determine how close a person is standing to it, adjusting features from there. When no one is nearby, for example, it might show the temperature, but as someone approaches, it could shift to an interface for adjusting the thermostat. Person detection will likely allow it to be used in smart home automations for doing things like turning on the lights when someone enters a room. The sensor will be able to tell one person from another, and it could recognize hand gestures for longer-range control. Facial recognition The home hub will use a Face ID-like feature along with voice for authentication and to identify who is in a room. With the recognition features, the home hub will be able to switch to the profile for the person in the home who is interacting with the device. Each user will have a customizable profile and interface with options to change profiles through the Control Center. The camera won't be as accurate as Face ID, so voice is an alternative. Apple's HomePod also uses voice recognition for some personalized features. Users will be able to set up secondary authentication with an iPhone for more security, and a visitor mode will hide personal information. Rumors suggest there is a Mac-style edge light around the screen to offer lighting so the device can identify people in the dark. Chip Apple's smart home accessory is expected to use an A18 chip or better for Apple Intelligence support. Given that ‌Apple Intelligence‌ requires 8GB RAM minimum, it will have at least 8GB RAM. Operating System Apple's home hub will run an operating system that Apple refers to as "Charismatic" internally, though it could be called homeOS when it launches. It's going to use elements from tvOS, watchOS, and iOS, and it will sync with the iPhone for setup purposes. Interface Apple does not plan to create a dedicated App Store for the home hub, but it will come with several apps pre-installed. The main view will be a customizable home screen with widgets that can show the weather, important home controls, photo slideshows, upcoming events, and more. A built-in camera will scan the face of each user, bringing up different apps and a Home Screen for each person. The interface is something like a cross between watchOS and the iPhone's StandBy mode, with a heavy focus on clock faces and photo slideshows when the device is idle. The ‌Home Screen‌ will feature Apple Watch-like icons, but the apps will have an iPad-like design with a two-panel layout. There will be familiar customization options like pressing and holding to rearrange icons and swiping up to get to the app launcher. There will be a Widget Gallery that suggests widgets from a linked iPhone. Widgets shown on the device from an iPhone that's connected will only display widget content when the primary user is in the home. A Smart Stack will be available to intelligently rotate through different widget options throughout the day, and the clock will be customizable with a Face Gallery. The hub will adopt the visual aesthetic of ‌Siri‌ AI, with darker design elements. A software-based dock will be available for launching apps, and the hub will be built around ‌Siri‌ AI. Apps Several Apple apps will be installed even though there won't be a dedicated ‌App Store‌. Apps that are rumored: * Safari * Apple News * Apple Music * Apple Podcasts * Notes * Calendar * Photos * Home * Messages * Reminders * ‌FaceTime‌ The hub will support integration into ‌HomeKit‌ scenes alongside other smart home products, and it will play videos, so it can be used for things like following along with a recipe when in the kitchen. Intercom More than one of the devices can be used throughout the home, and two or more can serve as room-to-room intercoms. AirPlay With its built-in speakers, the device will support music playback and it will be able to work as an AirPlay receiver. homeOS Trademark Apple appears to be using a shell company to trademark "homeOS" in several countries around the world, with the trademarking kicking off in October 2024. Apple has secured the homeOS trademark in Liechtenstein, and trademarks are pending in the U.S., Argentina, Peru, and more. Future Smart Home Accessories Apple is creating an indoor security camera that will connect to the home hub, and it's rumored for 2027. Privacy would be a focus, providing an alternative to cameras from companies like Ring and Nest. Pricing Apple's home hub could be priced somewhere around $350, which would make it more expensive than competing products like the Amazon Echo Show. Launch Date Apple's smart home hub is rumored to be debuting on October 13 alongside a new Apple TV 4K and a new HomePod mini. This article, "Apple's Smart Home Hub: Everything We Know So Far" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

We’re working across Nottingham to help you fix your bad WiFi 🛜 Contact us today and see a solution created just for you.

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

@stephenrobles.com I know you’ve done this before, but it’s probably the first time in 15 years for me. I went caseless for a week waiting for my new case. It was more scary than I thought, but then the real scares arrived and it was totally worth it!

Simon Salvin reposted

MacRumors.com
@macrumors.bsky.social

'ClickLock' Malware Coerces Mac Users Into Giving Up Passwords

macrumors.com'ClickLock' Malware Coerces Mac Users Into Giving Up PasswordsSecurity firm Group-IB has identified a new piece of macOS malware in the wild that pressures users into surrendering their passwords via a barrage of fake system prompts. Dubbed "ClickLock Stealer," the malware needs no exploits and no elevated privileges to work. Instead, the attack depends on the victim pasting a command into Terminal and running it. The command then executes a script, and everything else follows. Group-IB did not directly observe how victims are lured into pasting the command, but based on the script's behavior, the firm believes it's served through a fake "ClickFix" page posing as a Cloudflare check or browser verification step. Such pages instruct visitors to copy a command and run it in Terminal as a supposed "verification requirement." Once it's up and running, the script discreetly downloads several modules and shows a terminal-based loading animation mimicking a Cloudflare progress bar with browser verification. If a user declines the initial password dialog that appears, the malware starts locking system usage. Specifically, the malware kills every visible app every 210 milliseconds while the password prompt remains on screen, and the rest of the desktop stays unusable until the victim gives in. Meanwhile, another loop suppresses macOS security notifications for roughly six hours. If the user gives up and enters their password, a second, genuine macOS prompt is subsequently forced to the front, asking them to allow access to a Keychain item. Granting it hands over Chrome's "Safe Storage" AES key, which is what the browser uses to encrypt saved passwords and cookies. With the login password and Chrome's encryption obtained, ClickLock then harvests browser credentials, Keychain data, password manager vaults, and any cryptocurrency wallets, and then sends it all to a Telegram bot. It also installs a hidden backdoor disguised as an iCloud process to give it continual access. Group-IB says the campaign has been active since May 2026 and has targeted at least 100 victims across 33 countries. More than half of the victims were in Europe. Apple has already updated macOS to try to defend against this class of attack before it can get underway. In macOS Tahoe 26.4, it added a warning that appears when the user attempts to paste a command into Terminal from a website, chat, or message, and blocks the paste until the user reviews it. (Opera browser also recently added a similar feature.) In cases where macOS detects known malware, the paste is blocked outright with no override. Still, it should go without saying that no legitimate website will ever ask a user to paste a command into Terminal.Tag: macOS Security This article, "'ClickLock' Malware Coerces Mac Users Into Giving Up Passwords" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

All body deodorants advertised on the TV, yeah good idea, just spray chemicals all over you! Have a shower you bunch of dirty tramps!!!!

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

This week I’ve helped 3 customers change broadband providers from BT to Vodafone and save a combined total of over £3000 over a 2!year contract!!!!!!! If you’re still with BT/EE, they’re ripping you off. Contact me for help switching.

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

The pop of colour is a great addition to the MacBook range, however the green-ish keyboard is playing tricks on my mind, as if it’s a dirty white keyboard 🤔

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

Why is it, whenever I open a Windows 11 PC I’m presented with “Finish Setting up your PC”, I select all the options that say “No thanks”, and then it just keeps appearing. Does @microsoft.com think that butchering me will make me buckle and select all their services?

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

I decided the steep learning curve of Home Assistant wasn’t for me and chose Homey instead. Although it has a learning curve itself, both the community forum and Gemini have assisted in making some amazing automations.

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

It’s been 9 years since we last visited Disney World. It’s off peak and the queues are two hours long, no fast pass system anymore. You have to purchase those tickets, it’s turned into a money making pit for shareholders. Bob Iger is a c**t, that has ripped the enjoyment out of everything.

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

@stephenrobles.com Hi Stephen, looks like you’rehaving fun at CES. We’re awaiting the huge snow storm here in 🇬🇧 🥶. You may recall I asked you about a shortcut to play a fireplace movie on my bedroom TV but with limited actions it wasn’t possible? Well today using Homey I cracked it 😁

View full thread
Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

by a short delay and then the select command to start playing, all in time for me arriving in the bedroom. Then once I’m in bed ready to sleep I press a button which starts an automation which turns off the bedroom TV then turns off all the lights, sets the alarm and plays sleep sounds for 30 mins.

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

@stephenrobles.com Hi Stephen, looks like you’rehaving fun at CES. We’re awaiting the huge snow storm here in 🇬🇧 🥶. You may recall I asked you about a shortcut to play a fireplace movie on my bedroom TV but with limited actions it wasn’t possible? Well today using Homey I cracked it 😁

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

When I turn off my Apple TV at night it uses CEC to turn off the TV which is HomeKit so that triggers an automation to dim the lounge lights low, set the air purifier to night mode and flicks a virtual switch where Homey picks this up, turns on the Apple TV and uses the movies URL to load, followed

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

When my clients buy a new build house, they like to tell me, whether it’s exciting or they want to prepare me for helping with their internet connection. I always offer to help and stress that planning an Ethernet network is essential. I am always happy to assist in the planning. It’s just as

View full thread
Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

furnishings or the new Tesla parked on the driveway! I’m getting tired of this s**t, you want to pay for my knowledge & advise, then ignore me, then pay me again to hate everything I’m going to say! And the developers don’t help, with their own ISP companies, locking down estates, over charging,

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

But because they deliver fibre it’s OK? The contentions are dreadful, the service is dreadful, and delivering it to the corner of the front room is dreadful. But don’t worry, you can buy a Powerline kit or some Chinese £10 extenders on Amazon! What is the point????

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

When my clients buy a new build house, they like to tell me, whether it’s exciting or they want to prepare me for helping with their internet connection. I always offer to help and stress that planning an Ethernet network is essential. I am always happy to assist in the planning. It’s just as

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

important as planning where your lights and electrical sockets are going. So why do they all agree and then ignore me, then come back when the house is finished and tell me the WiFi is rubbish!!! And guess what, they want it fixing for the least amount of money! Because the spent it all on new

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

Today I reached 0 Inbox. There’s always been a couple of mails hanging around and finally I made some calls, fixed some issues and got rid of the corresponding emails! 💥

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

The more I think about it, the more I want to rant. I think this ranking talk is such a pointless divisive load of nonsense and just filler because they have nothing better to talk about. I have an iPhone to talk, a Mac to work, an iPad to sofa surf, AirPods to listen, AirTags to find, Apple TV

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

to watch, they all do different things, I like them, job done. Why do I need to rate them and why do I need to listen to someone telling me why I should or shouldn’t buy these things. Sorry, rant over.

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

@news.sky.com my ears are bleeding listening to the Treasury Committee with both Reeves and her team stuttering with more ums, ers & ahs that I have ever heard! It’s embarrassing, they should return to school and learn how to speak!

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

So I recently bought the Homey Pro Mini, with really no idea how it worked, but with a plan for a single task. It took an afternoon of questioning Gemini to complete exactly what I wanted. Now the flood gates have opened and everything that was great is now even better. I may not have mastered the

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

art of the complex flow, although I’ve given it a good go, but I’ve managed to accomplish & execute everything I’ve wanted. Now I need to fineness the art and think of more crazy automations, I’m falling in love with my smart home all over again!

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

I’m sure you wouldn’t particularly notice for colour scenes but white is way off. I was adding scenes to any automation featuring lights as selecting the light and colour temperature individually has been so temperamental.

Simon Salvin
@simple-pc.com

I keep thinking about a wall mounted iPad for home control, but every time I think about it I just can’t justify it and pull the trigger. Do I really need it? Will I use it, will it give me any benefits? Interested to hear thoughts and experiences