MobileViews Blog

Author: todd

  • MobileViews Podcast 334: New Pixel phones, rumored in iPhone 12 models, Surface Laptop Go, Taptic Time, & device etiquette

    Jon Westfall and I are back for the third weekend in a row of after a three month hiatus.

    1. What if you could turn your voice into any instrument?

      Google Tone Transfer

    2. Google Pixel 4a(5g) and Pixel 5 – new camera features. Plus “Hold for me” features
      Cinematic Pan, Ultrawide lens. Pixel 5 does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack
    3. Microsoft Surface Laptop Go for $549.
    4. Rumored iPhone 12 specs
    5. Little remembered Apple Watch features: Taptic Time (For when you need to know the time but don’t want to be rude. Turn on in Clock area of settings). Chimes also available, for those who used to like the hourly ding on their old watches.
    6. Good quick discussion: Device Etiquette. What is acceptable today?

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

  • MobileViews Podcast 333: Initial impressions-iPadOS 14 & Apple Watch Series 6

    1. Todd’s pre-pandemic & pandemic note taking journey
    2. iPadOS 14 impressions
      • Battery widget, by default, doesn’t show percentage of charge numerically. Need to delete, re-add the widget, and select from the three available widget appearance types before re-adding
      • Non-Apple widgets are second class citizens
      • The P-Calc widget is functional. Other widgets are really more like app launchers with information in the widget icon
      • Scribble not supported by the non-Apple apps I’ve tried so far
    3. Charty for iOS
    4. Apple Watch Series 6
    5. Jon’s tip: Back Tap discovery – in Settings -> Accessibility -> Touch -> Back Tap, can be hooked to a Siri Shortcut – and Siri Shortcuts can be used to make menus of other shortcuts, so you have your own shortcut menu!
    6. ElevationHub for MacBook USB-C Power Adapters

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

  • MobileViews Podcast 332: Sept. 2020 Apple iPad & Watch announcements

    We’re back after nearly three months when we talked about the WWDC event. Jon Westfall and I actually recorded an episode in early July with Chris Spera. However, we had a lot of audio problems and I need to spend some time trying to fix the audio (echoes) for podcast 331 one of these days.

    Apple Watch Series 6
    What the tech reviewers don’t understand: Most people don’t buy a new Apple Watch every year/release. As a Series 3 owner, the 6 is a huge leap forward features-wise: I don’t have fall detection, ECG, always-on display, altimeter which appeared before the 6 but after the 3
    Doesn’t ship with a power adapter (does include charging cable)
    Brighter always-on display (my Series 3 doesn’t have always on)
    SP02
    Cool Feature alert – Siri Shortcuts can now automate some watch functions – so have it auto switch faces at different times of the day!

    Apple Watch SE
    Generation older processor
    No U2 Ultrawide Band
    No ECG
    No SP02
    Apple takes a swipe at a few niche industries with Apple Watch Family setup.

    iPad Air is like an iPad Pro spec-wise
    Touch sensor on power button for ID instead of front button or Face ID. I think they got this backwards in a time when many of us are wearing face masks. It is ok to have Face ID for the mostly solitary/indoor iPad. The iPhone, on the other hand, would benefit from getting Touch ID restored.

    The only Pro features missing from the new Air are:
    LIDAR (I’ve never found a use for it yet)
    Wide angle camera
    Face ID
    Quad-speakers

    iPad 8th-generation
    Supports only 1st gen Apple Pencil

    Apple One bundle
    Three price tiers. Not worth it unless you are already invested in Apple’s cloud services
    Individual/family plans: Music, TV+, Arcade, 50GB iCloud
    Premier: above + News & Fitness

    What wasn’t announced:
    New iPhone
    Apple Silicon based Mac or Macbook
    No “one more thing”

    iOS/iPadOS 14
    Empty widget windows in sidebar – solved by Jon
    AirPod Pro sometimes doesn’t disconnect when in charging case. Drains battery (oddly just the right side)
    Probably due to new auto-device-switching feature
    AirPod Spatial Audio
    Scribble
    Captions for photos & videos
    Mirror selfies?
    App Library on phone but not iPad
    https://www.apple.com/ipados/ipados-14/features/

    Jon backed a Workstation bag (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1149741805/moose-designs-multi-functional-workstation-bag?ref=user_menu) on Kickstarter, and bought a PiBoy DMG (https://www.experimentalpi.com/PiBoy-DMG–Assembled_p_16.html)
    And a bamboo skin from dBrand for his Macbook Pro

  • MobileViews Podcast 330: WWDC announcements; Microsoft Stores closing; Teams personal version; powerwashing a Chromebook


    Jon Westfall and I are joined by guest panelist Chris Spera for this podcast. We discuss:

    1. Microsoft shutting down most Microsoft Stores (except for 4) worldwide
    2. (Todd) Finally had to try Powerwash on my Acer Chromebook Spin 13
    3. Microsoft Teams for personal use
    4. Apple Silicon – ARM CPUs for next generation Macs
    5. iOS 14 and iPadOS 14
    6. watchOS 7
    7. Jon’s first impressions of the 2020 MacBook Pro

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

  • MobileViews Podcast 329

    In this podcast, Jon Westfall and I discuss:

    1. Raspian OS is now Raspberry PI OS.
      64-bit version takes advantage of new 8GB RaspBerry Pi 4
    2. iPad Pro boot loops
      This is the problem my 2020 iPad Pro 11 had!
    3. New/updated Google Android apps for pixel phones
      Google’s latest Pixel features include a ‘safety check’ for when you’re walking alone
      Personal Safety: Car crash detection in “more locations”. g.co/pixel/carcrashdetection
      Sound Amplifier: clarifies the sound around you, now works with Bluetooth headphones
      Recorder: Transcription, audio classifier. Works with Google Assistant. Just say Hey Google to start, stop, or search a recording. Save transcription text to Google Docs
      Digital Welbeing: Bedtime mode features
      Google Duo: video calls with up to 12 people. Video & voice messages to the group
      Live Transcribe updated: Set your phone to vibrate when someone nearby says your name. Search past conversations
    4. Jon’s free Google Nest Mini
    5. Lumen: A story of pro-active customer service
    6. Jon’s R tip of the week: More than one way to Recode data:
      Ifelse (iris$Species.new <- ifelse(iris$Species == "setosa","Setosa","Other");) Control Structures (`iris$Species.control[iris$Species != "setosa"] <- "Other"` iris$Species.control[iris$Species == "setosa"] <- "Setosa" Recode function in the ‘car’ library (recode(x, "1='A'; 2='B'; c(3,4) = 'C'; else='D'")) Or write your own custom function: LetterGrade <- function(percentage) { library("car") return(recode(percentage,"lo:59 = 'F'; 59.01:69 = 'D'; 69.01:79 = 'C'; 79.01:89 = 'B'; 89.01:hi = 'A'")) } Mixing and matching lets you get your data exactly how you want it, and recall you can always make a copy by just binding the variable again under a new name (e.g., data$newvar <- data$oldvar)
    7. MPow Bluetooth headset for recording this podcast
      Problem with Microsoft Teams on Windows 10

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

  • MobileViews Podcast 328: Fitness gadgets; Krita open source drawing app; R-tip of the week

    First, apologies for the audio quality (low volume) on my side of the discussion.

    In this podcast, Jon Westfall and I discuss:

    1. Microsoft BUILD: Linux GUI Apps Coming to Windows 10
    2. Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.: For Linux, MacOS, Windows
    3. Still no notification about moving music from Google Play Music to YouTube Music. But, I was notified about moving this podcast to the new Google Podcast Manager
    4. Jon’s been buying some Fitness gizmos and they will be arriving in the next few weeks. Let’s talk about what they are, and then over the next few weeks we’ll get reviews. Jon’s also been out walking these few days: Some thoughts on Apple Watch + Airpods (As you can see, something changed around May 12). Also means that I’m on track to pick up some Apple Activity “medals / badges” that I’ve never gotten – only took me over 5 years for a perfect week in exercise and perfect week closing all of my rings.

      Aura Strap – an apple watch band that includes a built-in sensor that measures bioimpedance analysis – fat/muscle and hydration. Syncs with Apple Health (a must for me). Mostly interested to see if it matches up with what my smart scale tells me. Ships in late June. $99
      Oura Ring – a smart ring that measures sleep quality, heart rate variability, and respiratory rate. Great for times when I’m not wearing my watch (sleeping) and could be a replacement for my wedding band (which is getting a bit loose). Pricey ($299), but if it gives me good sleep tracking and more info, might be worth it. Also helps me have another measure of things my Apple Watch tracks. Sizing kit comes this week, then I select my size and they ship out the ring the next day.
      Lumen – by far the craziest one – hack your metabolism by analyzing Co2 output. Claims that it will tell you what your body is running on that day – carbs or protein. Then gives nutritional guidelines for that day to help lose weight by eating what your body is processing. I’ve always noticed some strange things about my weight loss over the past 2 years and I’ve wondered if it’s due to differences in what I’m eating day to day. $299, ordered on Feb 17, arrives on Thursday.

    5. Jon’s R tip of the week
      Cleaning up others mistakes: In a perfect world, data would always be in the way we need it, so dollar amounts would be “12.32” to mean $12.32. However when you let others enter data, sometimes they do annoying things with the best of intentions: “$ 12.32” or “12.32 USD” or “$12.32 USD” or “12 dollars” etc… However we can use the string manipulation commands in R to help us:

      y <- c("14.95","25.62","35.50"); sum(as.numeric(y)) z <- c("14.95 USD","25.62 USD","35.50 USD","103.52 USD"); sum(as.numeric(substr(z,1,(nchar(z)-4)))) b <- c("$14.95", "$25.62","$35.50") sum(as.numeric(substr(b,2,(nchar(b)))))

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.