Okay, so this is clearly an Amazon product name. Where else would you expect to find something named 2026 Wireless CarPlay Adapter for iPhone – No Audio Lag, 5s Auto-Connect- Convert Factory Wired to Wireless CarPlay – Bluetooth 5.3 & 5GHz Wi-Fi – Plug & Play (Includes USB A/C)? Prior to buying this unit this weekend, I have been using wired CarPlay with my Kia EV6. I love CarPlay! (I don’t care for the occasional failure of my phone and car to connect, which – thankfully – hasn’t happened for a while.) But I don’t like having to plug the phone in every time I get into the car, or disconnecting the cable when I get out. This is especially annoying in the winter when the car hasn’t warmed up and I have thick gloves on. Not a great experience.
Setup took about a minute. Simply pair the adapter like you would any new Bluetooth device and go. As for performance, I could not tell any difference between wired and wireless. No perceptible lag time.
The only drawback is now I need to use a separate USB port to charge the phone via its MagSafe adapter. Fortunately the EV6 has 4 charging ports under the media/climate controls cluster, so it’s not a problem finding a spare.
This is a worthwhile lifestyle upgrade. If you like CarPlay, you’ll LOVE wireless CarPlay!
I devoured yet another Marvel Comics audiobook adaptation from GraphicAudio – The Ultimates: Tomorrow Men. Yet another well done work with stellar voice acting. The actors portraying Tony Stark and Bruce Banner sound especially similar to Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo, so if you’re a fan of the MCU, they’ll help make you feel right at home.
No spoilers, but in this adventure, five mysterious visitors arrive, purporting to be from the future and here (now?) to save this timeline from the disastrous future that it will become. How will the Ultimates respond? Are they really good guys, or do they have an ulterior motive? And of course, will the Ultimates’ own internal conflicts tear them apart before they can even get to that? Pick up your unabridged copy today and find out.
I just finished Civil War – the audiobook adaptation of the epic Marvel Comics storyline which pit Iron Man and Captain America – and their associated allies – against each other in an epic confrontation that shook the Marvel Universe. This series also was the basis for the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Captain America: Civil War, but note that the movie takes significant turns from the comic series (which is to be expected given the big screen adaptations they have to make).
The narrator omits the need for character exposition I’ve heard in other audiobook adaptations. Several of the same Graphic Audio voice actors who portray characters in other novels reappear in Civil War, most notably James Keegan as Captain America, Richard Cutting as Iron Man. The voice actors really bring the story to life, and bring the full spectrum of emotions to the performance.
Note that there are some changes from the comics – it is not a 1:1 reading of the comics like a script, so you may be in for a pleasant surprise by this adaptation if you have read the originals. Maybe needless to say, there are also very significant differences from the movie adaptation, as it differed greatly from the comics.
If you like comics, like audiobooks, and – like me – don’t always have the time to sit down and page through them, I highly recommend this adaptation of Civil War!
Last weekend I finished The Ultimates: Against All Enemies. Produced by Graphic Audio, this is a high-quality production read by talented voice actors. They really bring the characters to life (especially Tony Stark/Iron Man)!
I won’t go to deeply into the plot, but in summary, the Chitauri suffered a defeat at the hands of the Ultimates, but they’re not gone! Reminiscent of other recent Marvel storielines adapted from comics, they have infiltrated the highest levels of government, and the AvengersUltimates have to work with Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. to root out and vanquish the threat.
The only complaint I have is that Bruce Banner appears in only a couple of scenes, and doesn’t turn into the Hulk. But Hank Pym as Giant Man fills the role of belligerent jerk hero.
If you like the AvengersUltimates, and appreciate high quality voice acting – not just a good narrator reading a book – you’ll enjoy The Ultimates: Against All Enemies.
Do you eat mushrooms? Do you eat them for their nutritional and therapeutic benefits? I’ve been taking Cordyceps for a couple of years now, mostly because they’re one of the few supplements I can actually feel an effect from. I started taking Cordyceps in 2022 when training for my first ultramarathon in the summer when 80˚F was a cool day.
My neighbor just turned me on to these guys. I’m curious but haven’t tried them yet!
I’ve tried various Lions Mane, Reishi, and Chaga supplements and never felt anything from them, so I stopped. But since this has cordyceps too, I am curious to see if they benefit me.
Now, unrelated to this, she also recommended a calcium based anti-aging serum. I totally have not tried this one yet and am not endorsing it… yet!
Last fall I relocated to Berlin for September. For the first couple of weeks I rented an AirBnB in the northern part of the city.
And I slept like absolute crap.
Why? Because the down pillows they had were worse than nothing! I tried everything I could, like stacking them, rolling them up, swapping pillows for a towel roll, and not using pillows at all. No good. I slept terribly and woke up feeling like I’d been out in a night club all night pounding vodka and Red Bull. Note: had had NOT been out in a night club all night pounding vodka and Red Bull.
I went to a home furnishing store and bought a small couch pillow, hoping it would help. It did, but it wasn’t great. I still slept poorly, despite the improvement.
Fast forward to January 2026. I’m back in Berlin! This time I’m at a hotel. And they have the same, crappy, less than good for nothing down pillows. No, seriously – not only are they not doing anything good – they’re doing harm!
I happened to have a birthday during this trip, and the first present I got was a €100 gift card to a sporting goods store. I’d planned on picking up a new pair of tights, or maybe a replacement for my YakTrax that had broken.
Then I stumbled on the Backroll Recovery Pillow. It’s a travel-sized memory foam pilow, very similar to my Tempurpedic pillow I sleep on most nights. It comes with its own carrying case that lets you roll it up to the size of a large water bottle, so it easily fits in a suitcase.
I used it and the result was night and day different. My neck had been hurting for three days, as well as my teeth, which I’d been grinding, despite wearing a night guard. As soon as I lay down on the pillow, my neck felt better. No joke! I felt an immediate improvement. I woke up the next day significantly more refreshed and in less pain.
This is now part of my travel routine, and is going with me any time I’m not sleeping at home.
As previously covered, I converted from Apple to Garmin in the middle of 2025 prior to my first 50 mile race. I liked the Forerunner 955 Solar enough that I decided to treat myself to an upgrade and bought a Forerunner 965 for the larger, fancier display. Here’s my experience now that I’ve had it for a couple of months.
The screen is a great upgrade from the 955. It’s much easier to read, and brighter.
Battery life is not as long as the 955. This was expected. By default, the 965 wants to operate without the display always on. In this mode, standby battery life is around 21 days or three weeks. Turning the display to always on dramatically shortens this to less than a week. I’ve tweaked the settings a few times and settled on having the display always on during a workout but on demand / with wrist flick at other times. This is slightly less than estimates for the 955 Solar but still plenty for me and my planned long distance runs for the next few years.
The charging experience is the same, except that the included charging cable has been upgraded from USB-A to USB-C connection on the other end.
The replacement bands I purchased for the 955 do not fit. The 965 is a different form factor. As a result, my friend – who bought a Forerunner 265 at my prompting – got my old 955 bands because they fit. The stock bands are okay but I wanted something a little more comfortable, so I purchased a stretchy, adjustable nylon strap.
The flashlight function is inferior to that of the 955. On the 955 when you enable flashlight mode, the entire screen lights up white or red. For some reason on the 965, you get less screen lit up – a choice of one, two, or three circles instead of the whole screen. While this is fine for indoors and confined spaces, I find it less useful at night when outdoors.
I was able to back up and restore my settings from the 955 to the 965. It remembered my device connections, including my Polar Verity Sense heart rate monitor as well as a number of other customizations. (A separate review for the Polar is coming soon!)
Overall I give the 965 a strong thumbs up, and would absolutely buy again. The only regret I have relating to the upgrade was not asking enough for the used 955 when I turned around and sold it becuase – now that it’s discontinued – the market price has gone up! This is just further reinforcement that Garmin smartwatches hold their value and typically have lifespans of several years.
”But Peter! Why didn’t you buy the Garmin Forerunner 970,” you ask? Simple. Black Friday sales. The 965 was discounted so much that I could not justify the additional features of the 970 at the time of purchase. This may change in the future. Maybe I’ll acquire a 970 or 975 or whatever is new this year. But so far I feel like I am being well-served by buying “n-1” versions and taking the discount.
On November 1 I ran 50 miles. According to my GPS it was actually 52.4 miles. That’s two marathons back to back. And today, I feel miserable. It’s like I have the flu without the cough or the fever. But I finally earned that (50) oval sticker I mounted on the back of my car.
Three falls, several more stumbles, and three imagined falls, too.
Falling is probably still the thing I appreciate least and fear most when running. I fell three times during the race during the first and second laps. The first two times I caught myself and got right back up. The third time was the worst, and I landed with my right arm under me. It was a doozy. I managed to jam my elbow into my side. I was able to get back up and “walk it off” (actually jog it off) each time. As of today, just a skinned knee remains. Thankfully, I had decided to wear gloves during the entire run, and I’m glad because I would definitely would have had bruised and bloodied palms if I hadn’t. The worst part is probably the mental effect. Twice Saturday night I woke up to a start – dreaming/thinking I was falling again, and again later as I was just dozing off to sleep. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, but it’s unsettling to say the least.
It hurts – but not the things I expected!
One of my knees has been problematic for 40 years now. The other one had a torn meniscus surgically repaired last year. So it’s safe to say I have “bad knees.” Quite pleasantly surprisingly, my knees feel – and felt – perfectly fine today and during the race. No pain at all. This, despite my not using or needing my poles at all during the race. My quads, hamstrings, and abs all feel like they got a workout. Because… they got a workout.
While I was able to drive myself to a bar (for my first beer, burger, and fries in far too long) and then home with relative ease, mobility went downhill from there. The next day was the dreaded “oh God why do I have a condo with stairs” moment of truth. Hell, even getting out of bed hurt. My abs were on fire. My legs were pretty good – as long as I wasn’t moving. Three days later, I was walking and taking stairs normally.
So where does it hurt? You may want to skip ahead to the “Gear” section.
Lower GI distress. Nutrition to blame?
My lower gut only started to recover on day three. Since race day morning, it’s hurt to touch. At first I thought it was all abs and where I jammed my elbow on my last fall of the race. Only when I started to fall asleep did I realize I was in pain when breathing naturally. I had been taking shallow breaths because expanding my belly fully hurt! I later realized that my guts were in twisted in a knot for somewhere between 70-80% of the run, and that probably impacted my overall performance!
Over the last several months while training for this race, I realized I have become less tolerant of things my so called “iron stomach” used to be able to handle without issue. For a while I was eating Quest Protein Chips but it seemed that caused lower GI distress. Same thing happened when I was chowing down on Peanut M&Ms during my long runs – the same thing that fueled my long runs in 2022 and 2023 with no nasty side effects. Recently I realized a peanut butter ice cream sundae with peanut butter and
So I switched to primarily UCAN gels and Cheez-Its for my fueling, as they contain carbs but no sugar. It didn’t really work. I still had the same sensation and had to make an emergency pit stop around midday. Waking up at 3AM and trying to eat early enough to… get things out of the way… before starting the race was also a challenge – one that I obviously failed. I also tried taking Imodium, which I think may have only made things worse. Nearly all of the 37 minutes of “rest” time logged was in the “rest room.”
Apparently this is not an uncommon phenomenon in runners, but I’m hoping I can control it by tuning my nutrition. More work to do here, for sure.
Gear
My Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar was my constant companion. Even though I somehow managed to program it for a 100k run instead of a 50 miler, having it show me the metrics I was most interested in (pace, distance, distance remaining, time, and number of days of battery life remaining (are you listening, Apple?)) was awesome. My Apple Watch would have failed me, without question.
I had my iPhone with me the whole time, but left it in my pocket for most of the race. I did not use music for the first half. Some time during the third lap I started an audiobook I had downloaded. Finally, during the final hour, I kicked in my Energy Running playlist for a little extra “oomph.” It seems to have worked, because my last mile was my best mile (with an 11:50 compared to an overall 15:53 minute per mile pace.
What’s next?
Two weeks of rest. No running. Then my coach will put me on a 12 week maintenance plan so I can preserve the base that I have built. Then I’ll decide what’s next. Currently I’m considering the Authentic Athens Marathon (which I think would have made my dad proud), or maybe a 100k like the Race to the Stones. Both sound cool and are within reach.
Well technically I’ll be running, walking, and eating 50 miles, but as any seasoned ultramarathon runner will tell you, “ultramarathons are one part running, one part walking, and one part eating.” I think Brendan Leonard had a graphic that illustrates this but I can’t find it. If I could, it may have looked something like this.
Why is that? Because at some point, even Kilian Jornet walks and stops for a food break when running 100 miles. Me? I plan to follow the advice of a veteran 100 miler (whose name escapes me). The advice he received when running his first ultramarathon was simply “walk the uphills, jog the flats and downhills.” Given that I am running a loop course, I will be walking less than I will be running because there can’t be more uphill than there is downhill, but there will be flats. Also, there will be roughly seven aid station stops along the way where I will refuel.
Will I use poles? I got clearance from the race director to break out my Leiki poles for the last 12.5 mile lap but I’m really hoping to not need them! I’ve run the entire course twice, both times with poles. Both times it felt like they were slowing me down. That said, having a set of crutches available to me during the last lap will be comforting, even if I don’t need them.
What am I packing for food? A variety of UCAN gels and bars, and assorted LMNT electrolyte powders, and Cheez-It crackers. I used to pack M&Ms, Clif bars, and Gu gels, but my stomach seems to have gotten less tolerant of sugars recently, so the above combo of salty crackers, gels, and electrolytes seems to work better for me.
What am I wearing for shoes? My Altra Lone Peak 5s with over 400 miles on them. The treads are still strong. I have a pair of 7s that I’ll bring along just in case I need a switch. I’ll be wearing Injinji socks, and my Salomon Adv Skin 12. Of course, I’ll be counting on my Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar to track all my stats and help me navigate when needed. Finally, I have a sticker like this for my car. You know, to make it official.
At some point in the past I connected my Sonos system to HomeKit. I have no recollection of doing this, but obviously I did it because my Sonos speakers show up in my iOS Home app.
I have a range of Sonos equipment – some of it dating back to 2012. I started with a few Play:3s and a Play:5. Today I have Era 100s, Roams, a Beam, a couple of Amps, Play:3s, Play:1s, and Ones.
At the risk of jinxing myself, the system has been quite stable for the last year or so. I moved most of my older hardware to my place in Vermont, where there’s less wifi interference from neighbors, leaving most of my newer equipment in Massachussetts. Maybe the newer stuff handles wifi interference better? Not sure, but in the past, I regularly had to move the channels that my Sonos was on, and had frequent drops and other issues with AirPlay.
However, one issue had persisted. My Bedroom Era 100 would frequently fail to let me AirPlay to it. I would have to try again after a looooong pause where whatever I was trying to play from my iPhone would continue on in the background, silently, then it would fail. I would have to stop the podcast or music, rewind it, try again to AirPlay to the Era 100, possibly fail again, and then finally it would work. Alternately, I could just reboot the Era 100 and it would start to work immediately.
I opened a support ticket with Sonos on this. They directed me to move the unit and suggested it was wifi interference. I swapped the Bedroom Era 100 with the Bathroom 1 One. Remarkably everything worked fine. So if it was wifi interference, it would seem the older One was more tolerant of it, and the newer Era 100 was happier in the Bathroom. I swapped the room names in Sonos. Life was good.
For a day.
Then I told my phone to AirPlay to the Bathroom 1 speaker. I heard nothing. Then I listened closely and heard music… from upstairs… in the Bedroom. Hmm. I looked in my Sonos settings and, sure enough, the Era 100 thought it was in the Bathroom 1, and the One thought itself in the Bedroom. “Huh. I was sure I fixed that. Oh well.” I swapped the room names again.
And a day later, they had swapped back.
Because I can be stubborn, this pattern persisted for weeks. I would change the speaker room names, and they would change back. Finally, I logged a ticket with Sonos. The agent in chat helpfully suggested that my integrations (Alexa or HomeKit) could be to blame.
I went into my HomeKit settings and – sure enough, they had the wrong names. By this point – for some reason – only the Bedroom (Era 100) was an issue. As a result, I had two Bathroom 1 speakers (which is GREAT when you’re trying to rename or move things… “Wait… WHICH Bathroom 1 is this again?”
After much struggling – and failing – to rename the Bathroom 1 speaker, I ended up just deleting my Bathroom 1 room speaker altogether. Problem solved. Now when I tell my iPhone to AirPlay to Bathroom 1 or the Bedroom, I am (reasonably) confident that it will go to the right place. Phew. I have no speaker showing up in Bathroom 1 anymore, or the Bedroom, for that matter. And I don’t really care since I’ve never really used HomeKit to control my speakers.
This raises the question “if I DID want to use HomeKit to control my Sonos speakers (which I removed from HomeKit), how would I add them back?”
