Category: Mobile Devices

In this podcast, Jon Westfall and I discuss:

1. Google Photos storage policy change coming in June 1, 2021
   Photos taken using a Pixel phone model will continue to have free storage
2. Jon got an iPhone 12 Pro Max, his thoughts:
   Size not a huge difference, reminds me of when I was on the 6 Plus / 7 Plus.
   Camera is nice, but haven’t had a chance to really test it out yet.
   “Virgin” setup – took about 4 hours to get it ready. Elected to have apps go directly to App Library, not make icons. Trying to streamline my UI to be more task driven and make full use of widgets.
   iCloud Sync syncs strange things – the password on my personal hotspot for example!
3. Why doesn’t Apple News+ support audio stories on the iPad?
4. Apple iOS Notes app for document scanning
5. M1 powered (Apple Silicon) products announced
   Mac Mini
   MacBook Air
   MacBook Pro 13″ (16″ is still Intel based)
6. MacOS 11 Big Sur
   After-show note: Garageband 10.4.1 update will not install unless the Mac is running Big Sur
7. Plague Inc.’s new ‘The Cure’ mode is free until the pandemic ends
8. Apple Arcade: Tint

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

Jon Westfall and I discuss:

1. Todd’s Apple One impressions
2. Jon ordered an iPhone 12 Pro Max, 256. Cheap Spigen case on the way to hold me over until the BookBook ships. A friend of mine is switching from Android, what do we think his experience will be? He’s used a Macbook and an iPad for years, but this is his first time on iOS as his phone.
3. Raspberry Pi 400
   Built into a keyboard
   Overclocked

Jon is still waiting for his PiBoy – Ordered on 8/15, it entered “in processing” on Oct 25

4. Akai wireless Bluetooth MIDI controller. Interesting approach to pairing. Different from any other BT pairing I’ve seen for iOS/iPadOS
5. Todd finally updated his iPad mini 4 from iOS 10.3.3 to iPadOS 14.2.
   71 apps that couldn’t be updated under 10.3.3 were
   No more Sid Meier’s Civilization!
   Noticeable battery drain for the first two or three days after the update. Seems “normal” now
6. Nov. 10 Apple event
   Apple always has feature differentiation between Pro and non-Pro models
   Guessing MacOS Big Sur will be available that day or soon after
   So, what will be the difference between Apple Silicon Macbook Air and Macbook Pro?
   Touchbar? Or, actual touch-screen?
7. Jon’s funny Hawaiian connection this week: Pu Pu Platter – at a Mexican restaurant

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

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

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.

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.