MobileViews Blog

Jon Westfall is back. In this podcast, we discuss:

1. Facebook Draw.io. Free web-based diagram tool that can save to a number of cloud services as well as your local device. Ref: Facebook
2. Tunnel Bear VPN public security audit
3. Firefox Focus for iOS & Android. “Instead of every beta bell and whistle, Focus has only one screen; a min amt of btns; no stored passwords or bandwidth hogging; and won’t remember your history. Focus also blocks third-party trackers automatically, giving you a faster and more private mobile search and browsing experience by default.”
4. Google Home. Free calls in US/Canada. Now $109. Down from $129.
5. Android O. (Oreo?) event on total eclipse day, Aug. 24. Ref: Android Police. Google Android Eclipse web page

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6. Jon’s Tech Discussion: Could you go without data on your smartphone (e.g., no cellular data, just wifi)
7. Jon’s Sad Tech Tale: Starcraft Remastered ($15)

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

In this podcast, I’m joined by Ricky Li and Ryan Ozawa for a second all-Hawaii panel. They revisit the Gnarbox and Google Fi before moving on to discuss Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index, the new SEA-US undersea cable to Hawaii, Google warning well-known mainstream websites about annoying advertisements, and Apple iPhone and Watch speculation.

1. New Speedtest Global Index. Ref: Speedtest Blog. US #46 and falling in mobile ranking. #9 and holding steady in fixed broadband.
2. New undersea cable SEA-US
3. Google warning sites with annoying advertisements. Ref: Advertising Age
4. Ricky’s Google Fi experience and learned hacks after his first week with the service.
5. iOS beta woes
   iPhone Pro?
   Apple Watch 4?

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

Photo courtesy of Ricky Li. Holo Holo Lens Project.

1. Which phone and tablet (if any) are you currently using?
• Paul Lawler? New Moto Z Play and iPhone 7+.
• Todd: Lenovo moving away from custom UI to stock Android. Ref: The Verge
• Ricky Li? Pixel XL (now on Google Fi), iPhone 6 for use with DJI drone. Recently bought a 10.5” iPad Pro.
2. Ricky: Testing a GNARBOX (GNARBOX.com) hardware video editor for mobile devices
3. Tech tips for international travel
4. Ricky: Holo Holo Lens is a traveling camera project where participants do a month long photo journal using a camera I send them. At the end of the month they send the camera back and I put up a gallery of their month on the website. The project will be 2 years old this coming October (2017).

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

1. More on the Blue Yeti microphone adventure
2. Ref: Business Insider
3. Google Newspaper Archive
4. Sprint wants to merge with Charter Ref: ars technica. Charter? Not so much.
5. Death of MS Paint?
   Todd’s advice: Use Paint.net
6. Back to school shopping time means: GREAT deals on stuff to organize your tech

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

1. Some tools don’t change much. The Blue Snowball mic I’ve used for the past couple of years has the old USB type B square connector. The “new” Blue Yeti mic I’m using as of today has the mini-USB connector. Not, the micro. The old mini-connector.
2. Google Newsfeed in Google search apps for Android & iOS.
3. Also the new Google News UI is horrible IMO
4. Inexpensive $13.99 10.5-inch iPad Pro case
5. iOS 10.3.3 security update
6. Jon’s “What’s the best tool for…”
• Reading books
• News
• Texting
• Email
• Note taking
• Reading PDF documents
• Videos
7. And another Jon Rant: There are two ways people use their phones, and neither group tends to understand the other!

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

1. Moto 360 frozen this morning
2. Jon’s walking to get a stupid shiny virtual badge
   National Parks Day
3. Introducing Backup and Sync for Google Photos and Google Drive
4. Parallels Desktop for MacOS
5. Reuters: Goldman Sachs relaxes dress code for techies
6. Week 2 with iPad Pro – Todd & Jon’s reactions
7. Jon’s adventure with R-Studio Shiny Server

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.