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  • MobileViews Podcast 350: Catching up with Arne Hess in Germany


    In this podcast Jon Westfall and I welcome our old friend Arne Hess in Germany to catch up with him — and making for a rare trans-pacific and trans-atlantic podcast. The most surprising thing we heard from Arne was that he has not seen any discussions of Chromebooks in his part of the world.

    1. Questions for Arne: What are you using now?
      Smartphone
      Tablet
      Laptop
      Watch
      Exercise tech
      Drone tech
    2. Waiting for iOS 14.5 so I can unlock my iPhone when wearing a facemask. Ref: MacRumors
    3. Tested the $60 One by Wacom tablet with a Macbook Pro and the free Autodesk Sketchbook software
    4. Jon’s been playing with Homebridge connecting all of his miscellaneous IoT devices to homekit. Amazed with how quickly it’s been to set it up (running it in a Docker container). Also cool that it can trigger unix commands – so if you can shell script it, you can hook it in! (cmdswitch2 plugin)

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

  • MobileViews Podcast 349: One by Wacom; Mudra Band; ride in a driverless taxi?

    One By Wacom

    1. One by Wacom
      $60 starter drawing tablet. Don’t confuse this with the $399 Wacom One which was, previously, Wacom’s most inexpensive tablet
      No driver needed for Chromebooks. Certified for:
      Works With Chromebooks
      Battery-less wireless stylus. Tablet connects to computer using a USB-A connector. No external power needed.
      Drivers needed for MacOS and Windows
      A very 1980s, pre-2016 iPad Pro/Apple Pencil experience
      Discounting the Microsoft Tablet/Surface which did not have a good “pen” experience
    2. Mudra Band Touch free control for Apple Watch
    3. Jon started using the Watchsmith App, allows for some nice customization for your Apple Watch complications. Would like to see data services expanded more.
    4. Jon’s also been fighting with bookmarks lately – the convoluted way to get Firefox & iCloud bookmarks in sync when you don’t use a PC.
    5. AutoX Opens Real Robotaxi Service In China To The General Public
      Would you hop in a robot-taxi that doesn’t have a human safety driver?
      AutoX – funded by Alibaba

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

  • MobileViews Podcast 348: Revisiting tech purchases; Goodbye to Tucows; Microsoft Lists for iOS

    In this podcast, Jon Westfall and I discuss:

    1. Tucows closes its once-popular software download site
    2. Microsoft Lists for iOS

      3. Revisiting Past Purchases

    3. Nulaxy A4 Cell Phone Stand, Fully Foldable, Adjustable Desktop Phone Holder Cradle Dock $12
    4. A 60 GB iPod Video for $399.99 on 12/4/2005. In 2017 or so he gave it to a friend who still needed a dedicated music player, and for all I know, it might still be alive today.
    5. https://the-gadgeteer.com/2004/01/29/roadwired_megamedia_bag_review/
    6. A Timex Digital Ironman Data Link USB Watch for $67.96 on 5/13/2005. It was a great watch until it died, IIRC.
    7. A lot of LiveScribe things in 2010 and used them for 2-3 years until he realized that it was a lot easier to use a tablet. But in 2010, the only other alternative was a Tablet PC, which wasn’t always the best experience
    8. eBags Packing Cubes in 2011 that I still use, ya know, when I travel. Not always all 3, but mixing and matching as needed.
    9. Keyspan by Tripp Lite Presentation Remote (https://amzn.to/369k4ZM) – still the best presenter remote in my opinion because it allows full mouse movement. Sadly hard to find today.
    10. A Spring Bar Tool (https://amzn.to/3sSxtPD) that is the $8.50 tool that jewelers know about but us commoners don’t. If you’ve ever struggled with a watch band tension bar (to change the band on your watch), you need this thing.
    11. An Insta-bed (https://amzn.to/3pe1BTb) which has held up very well for over 5 years. Makes traveling to friends who don’t have spare beds a breeze.
    12. Beats Solo 3’s (https://amzn.to/3a5Wj6a) which haven’t had any issue other than having replace the ear cups after a few years.
    13. Kindle Oasis – works great at the beach, but was it worth $309? Probably not. Hardly ever use it at home.
    14. A Braun Series 7 Razor for $190.95 in 2016.
    15. A Vivo rolling / sittings / standing desk / cart – $299.99 (https://amzn.to/2Mihn0P) Great to be able to flexibly work in a variety of places.

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

  • MobileViews Podcast 347: Interesting products at CES 2021



    In this Podcast, Jon Westfall and I focus on a few products announced during CES 2021 last week that may actually be available as a product you can buy in the near future.

    1. ~12GB macOS Big Sur update waiting for my MacBook Pro. Still holding off on this update
    2. AI set to replace humans in cybersecurity by 2030, says Trend Micro
    3. Withings Thermo – smart Temporal Thermometer
      $99 from Amazon. However, for it for $89 at Sams Club yesterday
    4. ZenBook Duo 14 UX482
      UX482EA product page
      Starts at $999
      Last year the Duo’s predecessor was an interesting expensive oddity
      This year I have an actual use-case for it and the starting config price is a much more affordable $999 (not yet available)
    5. Mudra Band
      Touch Free Control for Apple Watch
      Control music, manage calls and dismiss notifications using effortless finger movements
      $180. Available, allegedly,in March
    6. Jon’s Take on CES 2021: If you aren’t into niche tech (Robotics, Drones, Automation / self-driving Cars) the mainstream stuff was kinda boring. Two interesting products:
      TCL Wearable Display but unfortunately can’t be used as a regular pair of glasses.
      For those who wear makeup: A lipstick pod gadget that can provide an exact shade (within a color family): Kinda cool idea, but I don’t know a lot of women who want to have very subtly different shades of lipstick (For that matter, most women I know these days don’t really wear lipstick that often). Do you really need something “slightly” more red? But along with other lifestyle stuff like Ice cream pods, kinda interesting innovation.
    7. Jon bought a VIVO Desk riser this week (https://amzn.to/2XPIeE4) to convert his last “sitting only” desk to the ability to be stand/sit. Oh, and Zendure support replaced a dead Supertank battery I had (less than a year old). But the location of the serial number was… unreal

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

  • MobileViews Podcast 346: Looking 5 years backward & forward

    In this first podcast for 2021 Jon Westfall and I discuss:

    1. Waiting for new 2021 detachable Chromebooks
      Whatever follows the hard to find 2020 Lenovo Chromebook Duet
      Saw the Duet in person for the first time last week.
    2. Doodling using a Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook, Lenovo USI Pen, & Infinite Painter
    3. First M1 Macbook Air rant.
      60w Anker USB-C PD port can charge a 2019 MacBook Pro that ships with a 61W charger.
      However, it only slow charges a 2020 M1 MacBook Air that ships with a 30W charger
    4. 5 Years ago on MobileViews we were discussing the rumors about AirPods (https://9to5mac.com/2016/01/08/iphone-7-wireless-headphones-beats/) and the rumors that the IPhone 7 wouldn’t have a headphone jack (http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/01/report-next-generation-iphone-design-will-ditch-the-3-5mm-headphone-jack/”) Interesting to think about how the jury is still out about 3.5 mm jacks within the geek community (I still find some people very sad about the lack of them), but no one seems to think Apple made a huge mistake with two separate earbuds with no connecting wire, although Todd said we were guaranteed to lose one or both of them
    5. In 5 years, what do we think will be “settled” that’s currently a big tech debate:
      Privacy: I see more and more people either outright taking back their data, or choosing providers that prioritize privacy over lower price points (e.g., bad news for Google).
      Related: AirGap for All – people will become more interested in holding all of the keys for their data, rather than rely on the big players to secure them.
      The desktop looks more like mobile but not in the ways we thought it would (e.g., low powered chips with severe performance drops (e.g., ARM)) – we’ll have the low powered chips, but with better performance. Bad news for Intel unless they figure out how to copy Apple Sillica. The death of the x86 or amd64 architecture?
      USB-C for everything? Maybe? Still surprised at the number of Micro USB connectors my devices use.
      Cloud computing finally goes mainstream – schools being the last holdout, but after the pandemic, will teachers want to go back to pencil/paper/storing everything on a USB stick? Will Students want to take a step backwards? Business got the cloud computing memo in 2010, perhaps 2020 will finally get some of the holdouts on board.

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

  • MobileViews Podcast 345: Looking back on 2020 work tech w/Paul Lawler & Don Sorcinelli


    Paul Lawler & Don Sorcinelli join Jon Westfall and me to (mostly) discuss what we noticed about and the tech we used for working in organization during the ongoing pandemic

    1. Laptops, desktop sales see ‘renaissance;’ shortages won’t ease until 2022

      But some analysts now expect 2020 will close at about 300 million shipments, up roughly 15% from a year ago. Tablets are experiencing even faster growth. (same as 2008 peak number)

    2. I hate how much I love Apple’s Airpods Max – Really interesting how many bloggers / reviewers hate the fact that they really like a $549 headset.
    3. People pay attention to background image quality but not audio quality. Ironically, it turns out I had audio issues when recording this podcast
    4. USB microphones
    5. Lav mics (wired and wireless)
    6. Bluetooth headphones
    7. Bluetooth keyboards
    8. The iPad mini 5 and Anker Bluetooth mini-keyboard as a mobile mini workstation
    9. Trimming down to one laptop (Jon)
    10. The challenge of teaching university level classes (Jon and Paul)
    11. Pandemic tech etiquette and best practices

    Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.