MobileViews Blog

Dr. Jon Westfall (a university professor), Don Sorcinelli (father of a incoming college freshman), and I (former college student and father of a graduated college student) discuss back to school technology.While focusing on the present, we also reminisce tech in college over the past decades.

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

MobileViews Podcast from Audible.com

In this podcast, Jon Westfall and I discuss:

1. In all fairness: Another look/listen to the STADOR K23 Bluetooth wireless earbuds
2. Fedora Linux to Support Raspberry Pi 4 in Next Release
3. Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5
4. When Tech YouTubers Launch Custom Merch: Linus Tech Tips Backpack went on sale this week (Wednesday afternoon). Sold 10k backpacks in less than 24 hours. As of today, they’ve sold 18,112 backpacks at $250 each = 4.5 million. Funds their upcoming testing labs to run independent hardware tests, which is a cool idea. Also developing a screwdriver. Their merch store is also unique in that they develop their own products, versus silkscreening onto cheap t-shirts / branding promotional products.
5. Living for a week with limited cell coverage: Orange Beach Alabama has spotty Verizon coverage on the beach. And ya know what, while it was jarring to just have Wifi at the house, it really wasn’t too bad to be disconnected.

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

MobileViews Podcast from Audible.com

K23 Bluetooth earbuds could play but not record audio on a Macbook Air 2020 M1

In a recent mini-podcast, MobileViews Blog :: MobileViews Mini-Podcast 32: Microphones comparisons, I tested audio recording quality of several microphones and declared the STADOR K23 as a no-show because while I could hear audio on it from my Macbook, I could not record audio using it with Audacity.

This was not a show stopper since its main purpose was to listen to audio and not to record with it. However, I gave it another try by pairing it with a Windows 10 laptop PC. Specifically, I used it with Microsoft Teams for conference calls. The microphone worked with this combination of hardware and software. The audio quality was good with a reasonable volume level.

The earbuds with over the ear soft hooks are comfortable when wearing for relatively long periods of time (multiple conference calls). The charging case is huge! I estimate it is four times larger than an Apple AirPods Pro charging case. That said, the K23’s case can work with either a USB-C or USB-A cable. And, its front panel LCD shows charge level in percent (vs. just yellow or green light indicators). I have a suspicion that its soft silicone over the ear hooks will deteriorate after a year or two. However, depending on your price tolerance, its relatively low cost may make up for that possible future state.

Its list price is $60US but is available from Amazon for $39US

STADOR K23 (Amazon link)

K23 Bluetooth earbuds could play but not record audio on a Macbook Air 2020 M1

I tested five (5) microphones for this mini-podcast. However, you will only hear 4 tests because the K23 Bluetooth earbuds was able to play sounds but was not able to record audio although it showed up as a microphone option. The four microphones tested are:

1. Blue Yeti Nano (the microphone used for recent podcast recordings. It replaced a full-sized Blue Yeti)
2. Macbook Air 202 M1 built-in microphone
3. Logitech Webcam C925e
4. AirPods Pro

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

MobileViews Podcast from Audible.com

In this podcast, I’m joined by long time friend Sterling Yee who, as a national board member of the American Lung Association, had the opportunity to meet at and get a tour of the Tesla factory in Fremont, CA.

Official Telsa: 90 second tour around the Tesla factory

We also discuss some recent and possible future Apple products as well as Sterling’s experience with a much less expensive and better fitting (compared to the Air Pods Pro) Skull Candy earbuds.

An extra-special thank you to Sterling who put up with a series of podcast session issues resulting from issues with Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Skype, Google Meet, and Apple Facetime. We finally were able to record this session using Zoom. Unfortunately, this limited our talk-time since I am too miserly to pay for a service I rarely use.

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

MobileViews Podcast from Audible.com

In this podcast Jon Westfall and I discuss:

1. Get ready to flex this summer: ChromeOS Flex is now ready to scale broadly to PCs and Macs

   295 certified devices

2. Nobody wants to be in the office on Fridays …or any other day
3. Amazon Recycling Program
   Recycle small consumer electronics for free
4. The subscription-izaton of iPhone/iPad apps
   Thanks to subscriptions, iPhone apps finally made more money than games
   Discussion question: What are we willing to pay subscription for versus what aren’t we. In other words, what features make it worth it versus which do not?
   Do we buy the argument that our subscription isn’t for specific features, but for “maintenance”?

   Note: I noted that I’m grandfathered into Notability’s pre-subscription plan and that I installed a new universal MacOS version of the app during the podcast. The screenshot above shows that the universal version of the app is nearly 4 times larger than the Intel-only version (746MB vs. 195.4MB)

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

MobileViews Podcast from Audible.com