BMW doesn't like vacations

So we went on a trip for a week and a half, so the BMW 320d (yes I should specify) didn't drive for that time. When I tried to start it yesterday it had a dead battery. Luckily not dead enough for all the electronics to loose their settings, but not starting dead.

So went and borrowed a friend's (thanks Paul) jump starter. It's one of those small Lithium battery jump starters and it worked as a charm.

This got me thinking I'll have to get one of those. Some googling taught me that
- there are a lot of those out there
- they come in all different sizes (roughly 5000mAh to 20000mAh)
- most of them have additional extras like flashlight / usb charging ports / compass / ....

One thing that's really missing from most of these is the ability to charge from USB, which really hampers the power bank function of the thing. I have a nice solar panel to charge it, but can't use it.

I'll keep you posted if I find one that's USB rechargeable (and doesn't cost 150$ like the noco geniusboost)

RANT - iCoyote update woes

Last week I got a nice popup on my phone telling me about the new version of iCoyote.

I went ahead and installed the new version, all 37Mb of it. (why should a program with just one function be that huge ??)

Ever since I first used it, I long for the old version. Call me old or retro minded but the old version of was just plain better. OK it didn't look as fancy but at least it did the job and didn't make me feel like throwing my phone out of the window. 

Now I have to cope with

• A screen that's stuck on full blast since the night mode doesn't work. Sure it works in the settings screen but once you're in the main app it goes back to blinding. 
• A broken mute function. If I want it to shut up I really want it to be silent. So no beeps to tell me how far I'm away from the radar, nor overspeed beeps
• Sound that's always on media, even though the settings are set to notification. Since my podcast is set to mute on notifications of other programs, it now happily keeps on chatting when iCoyote makes a sound. Combine this with the previous point a d you have a very annoying bug. 
• An indication  telling me I'm doing mph instead of kph. Hello iCoyote people, we have metric here in Belgium. Luckily the speed is in kph, so at least I don't have to constantly re-calculate my speed. 
• Nag screens. Every time it tells you there is a vehicle stopped or a mobile radar it asks you to either confirm or decline its presence. This is all well and good, were it not for the nagging sound every couple of seconds followed by a obnoxious buzzer if you fail to answer. Sometimes I prefer focusing on driving rather than fishing for my phone to answer a question.

In short, I want the old version back.

And as a closing thought it would be nice if the iCoyote people actually listened to their customers. Given the number of 1 star ratings they're getting on Google play lately, one would think they'd do something about it, or at least have send some communication out into the world. Guess again.

I'll have to give Waze a test-drive.