MobileViews Blog

Jon Westfall and I discuss the good, disappointing, and missing product features from the October 13 product announcements.

1. iPhone 12 and 12 mini
2. iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max
3. MagSafe wireless charging
4. What makes a case a MagSafe case?
5. What’s the deal with the Leather Wallet with MagSafe?
6. The $50 Beats Flex. Bluetooth headset with wires between the buds & mic
7. HomePod mini
8. TwelveSouth Bookbook wallet cases for the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

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.

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.

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.

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.