Category: podcast

Jon Westfall and I discuss the following in this podcast.

1. Google Play now includes audio books
2. Google Files Go three new features which are mostly useless.
   SD cards support – new phones generally don’t have a slot. Including Google’s Pixel
   Tablet support – Android tablets is a failed platform
   Opening files with other apps – well, this only took 10 years to figure out
3. Amazon/Google smart speaker market share. Amazon 69%. Google 31%. How much of this will Apple’s HomePod taken with its $349 price tag?
4. Strava Blog: Heat Map
5. Strava Oahu activity heat map
6. Lee Big & Tall Carpenter Jeans have a side pocket big enough for a iPhone X and BookBook Case (Couldn’t fit the iPhone 7+ & BookBook previously). Small wins for technology. Jon’s Public Service announcement to bigger guys stuck in early 2000s fashion.
7. Think Geek Con Survival Bag back in stock. For $34.99 not a bad little bag, with velcro on the front for patches and geeky stuff. Fits 2 tablets and assorted gear nicely.

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

Jon Westfall and I discuss a non-point upgrade for Android 8.1.0 for the Pixel 2, Project Fi quasi unlimited data, GRC InSpectre, NUKEMAP, user interface design assumptions, JS Paint – MS Paint web-based clone, and laptop life spans.

1. Surprise Android 8.1.0 update (48MB) – even though I already run 8.1.0
2. Project Fi quasi-unlimited data
   Steve Gibson GRC InSpectre Meltdown/Spectre checker – Windows only
3. NUKEMAP
4. IT may be that people wrongfully believe that if something is very important, it must be well designed. Human Factors Engineering discussion. Other examples: NY Blackout in 1977, Laser radiation accident.
5. JS Paint. Web MS Paint clone.
6. Discussion: How long should a laptop last? Jon’s work laptop is nearly 2 years old but is “State-of-the-art” (Surface Pro 4). His MacBook Pro is nearly 3 years old, but shows no signs of stopping. And Austin Evans on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmP8QZZ6QjE) has breathed surprising life into a 2009 white Macbook (1 TB of SSD, 8 GB of RAM, runs High Sierra).

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

Todd Ogasawara and Jon Westfall are joined by Ricky Li and Don Sorcinelli. They discuss the tech and communications associated with the false Hawaii missle warning on Jan. 13, 2017, the impact of Meltdown and Spectre, and was there anything interesting announced at CES?

1. Starfish Prime July 9, 1962 Nuclear test 900 miles west-southwest of Hawaii.

Meltdown/Spectre remediation:

2. Ref: Wired.
   In a Tuesday update, for example, Microsoft said that consumer devices with processors from 2015 or earlier running Windows 7, 8, and 10 would be more likely to exhibit slowdowns. The company added that, “Windows Server on any silicon, especially in any IO-intensive application, shows a more significant performance impact when you enable the mitigations.”

   This means that millions of Windows PCs and servers around the world, even those that are just a few of years old, could get noticeably more sluggish—as much as 20 percent slower in some cases. Intel also published benchmark and user data on Wednesday, which similarly shows deeper losses for older generations of silicon.

3. WHY RASPBERRY PI ISN’T VULNERABLE TO SPECTRE OR MELTDOWN
4. Google Project Zero: Reading privileged memory with a side-channel
5. Chrome OS devices and kernel versions. This table lists the status of mitigations for CVE-2017-5754 (Meltdown) for each Chrome OS device.
6. Google Cloud: Answering your questions about “Meltdown” and “Spectre”
7. Microsoft: Understanding the performance impact of Spectre and Meltdown mitigations on Windows Systems
8. But, no patches for AMD based PCs. CSO Online
   Apple: About speculative execution vulnerabilities in ARM-based and Intel CPUs

CES???

9. Ricky’s pick for the weirdest thing of CES: The sous vide dish washer (YouTube link)

Jon Westfall and Todd Ogasawara (that’s me) are back for the 10th year of the MobileViews podcast.

1. Meltdown/Spectre: Whythe Raspberry Pi is immune. RaspberryPi.org
2. HP melting batteries in laptops released in the past two years
   ars technica
3. Adware, again, in Google Play store Android apps
   Android Headlines
4. Vuzix Alexa powered glasses? $1000? Talk to your glasses in public? CNBC
5. Jon’s setup now: QNAP backup unit “off-site” to sync with in-house QNAP.
6. What is Todd’s 2018 “Thing-a-day” challenge?

Happy New Year!

Here’s what’s in this mini-podcast:

1. Thank you to my ComicsViews co-host, Jay Stone, and MobileViews co-host, Jon Westfall.
2. Thank you to our MobileViews 2017 guest panelists: Paul Lawler, Ricky Li, Frank McPherson, Sven Johannsen, Don Sorcinelli and Ryan Ozawa.
3. Comments on my 2017 doodle-a-day project using an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and the Procreat and Tayasui Sketches Pro apps
4. Some thoughts on what we might discuss in 2018 – the 10th year of this podcast!

1. Google AR Stickers (Star Wars and Stranger Things) in Camera app for Android 8.1 (Oreo) update. Also, Google Lens.
2. Ref: Trusted Reviews. New Oreo features.

   Battery: If a user has a Bluetooth device connected to their smartphone, they’ll be able to see how much power it has from the Quick Settings shade.

   Browsing: Safer Browsing allows applications from third-party developers to detect WebView attempts, which could point to malicious URLs.

   Fingerprint: Users can instruct their unit to disable the fingerprint reader once an unregistered fingerprint is attempted multiple times.

   Google Maps Transit now wakes you up at your stop

3. Plan your winter getaway now with new features in Google Flights, Trips, and hotel search Provides info on when it is best to book a flight based on historical data. Shows info on shifting room rates. Google Trips shows discounts.
4. ZDNet. No iTunes for Microsoft Windows App Store. Only affects Windows 10 S users.
5. Facebook Research. Facebook, citing academic research, says people “passively consuming” social media feel worse afterwards while active interaction improves well-being. Facebook propaganda?
6. A vulnerable hidden password manager in Windows 10? Pushed by Microsoft without users’ knowledge! Good reminder to always vet programs that you aren’t familiar with.

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.