u/jessinwriting

I want to know if there is a combination of settings I can use to get Siri to announce notifications from all or specified apps while I’m driving. As far as I can tell, “Announce notifications” is on in CarPlay, and Siri is set to announce notifications, and Driving Focus isn’t turning on automatically.

I get notifications for Messages, but most of my communication is from Facebook Messenger. I want it to be like when I’m listening to my headphones and it will interrupt the music briefly to tell me about the notification.

Frustratingly, when I’m playing music in the car it also overrides notifications on my Apple Watch. I’d be equally happy to still have the little “ding” of a notification and be able to glance at my wrist, but there’s something about Music/Carplay being active which seems to make my watch thing I don’t need to know what’s going on 😅

Obligatory disclaimer that I’m not wanting to drive distracted and start interacting with all these things; unless I happen to glance at the screen at the right moment I’m missing things, and I don’t want to get in the habit of waking my phone screen while driving just in case.

This might have been something like a twitter thread, a blog post or a tumblr post. IIRC, a young woman worked at a pub or restaurant somewhere in the UK. She recounted a story of a time when she’d accidentally ended up high on an occasion when the pub was hosting some kind of event with government officials or MPs - like maybe she’d been called into work unexpectedly. I think there was the disconnect between her internally freaking out but managing to stay calm and professional. It was very funny.

Keen to hear about good options for booking a prepurchase inspection in Lower Hutt/Wellington for a hybrid car. I know AA is an option but have also heard that independent operators can give slightly more thorough and objective results.

I've heard a lot of positives about Incar Automotive in Auckland, but this is a bit far for a mobile inspection! 😅

Well obviously I have google and I now know that he is the host of a Discovery tv show 😅

He’s not a household name to me. I haven’t seen the latest episode yet - can anyone (without spoilers!) let me know if it’s fine to go into it without any more context than “this guest star is a dude from another show”? Or would I get more out of it if I spend a few minutes on YouTube and find some highlights from the Expedition Unknown show?

Let’s take a moment to reflect on the chaos two years ago today.

I started a complete beginning-to-now watch in 2023, and just finished the latest SNW episode. Absolutely loved the experience. I’d seen many episodes before, but some not for years, and when shows were airing pre-streaming it was only if I caught them on TV or got my hands on video tapes.

I watched in strict airing/release order, and it was so interesting seeing how tv production changed over the years. For example, seeing how syndicated tv had less character development (had to reset for casual viewers), but gave us some really inventive episodes when you had longer seasons to fill in, as well as bottle episodes when the budget ran low. (I think bottle episodes can give us some of the strongest writing…but I don’t miss clip shows!)

I definitely recommend the experience to anyone who hasn’t done it yet…and who has a bit of time on their hands! 😅

If Blue Murder Motel is what happens if Brokenwood and My Life is Murder had a baby, then Bust Up is what happens if Deadloch is the other parent of your small-town crime show.

It’s definitely a bit darker and more adult than Brokenwood (it has an R16 rating), but it’s more of the small town north of Auckland (bit further north, I think this is Northland somewhere), similar cast of characters (same cast in some cases, the NZ acting pool is small but strong!) and I heard some Tami Neilson on the soundtrack.

Streaming on Neon in NZ, not sure if it’s made its way offshore yet.

If you need something to help fill the gap after the last season finished, Blue Murder Motel might help.

It’s similar in that it’s set just north of Auckland in a fictional small town (about 20-minutes’ drive to ‘Brokenwood’, going by filming locations). I also think it has a similar approach to the structure of whodunit as Brokenwood. (Definitely closer than My Life is Murder, which I enjoy, but as soon as an actor I recognise turns up I know who the murderer is 😂) The episodes are shorter though, so mysteries do get solved in a slightly more efficient way.

It also cultivates a small-town cast of regulars in a way which reminds me of Brokenwood, and some of the faces are familiar given that NZ is tiiiiiiny. There’s also at one episode written by James Griffen, who’s down four episodes of Brokenwood, and directors who have worked on both shows.

It’s streaming on TVNZ in NZ, and I think ABC for Australian viewers. Not sure if it’s available elsewhere yet.

I had a pretty great streak going, and realised that I juuust missed getting to the last one before midnight.

I’m sure that in the past I’d managed to save it by changing the time zone on my phone to somewhere where it was still yesterday, and playing the old game, then switching back to today.

Just tried that, and no luck :-( Back to a streak of two.

I know that this is my own fault - I have lost claim to what holding a long streak signifies! 😅 - but I’m curious to know if I’m remembering correctly that it DID work once? Has the backend changed in some way that it’s smart enough to know what time zone I’m in? Was it because I happened to load the page and it ‘saved’ that I was back to 0, and if I’d done the time zone change before opening Safari on my phone I’d have been good?