MobileViews 602: Adobe Podcast video recording; Grandparents glued to phones? MacBook Neo USB ports & more
Jon Westfall and I started the podcast with a technical experiment. We recorded the first portion of the show using Adobe Podcast’s new video recording feature. While the service is included in my $100-a-year Adobe Express Premium subscription, Jon found the interface a bit “sparse and sad” compared to our usual Google Meet setup, noting a significant amount of wasted screen space and a lack of customization for guests. However, from a producer’s standpoint, the ability to record each participant on an individual video and audio track is a huge win for post-production editing, especially when one of us has unexpected background noise. Adobe Podcast also has the ability to generate transcripts in various formats.
I am still finding the MacBook Neo to be an incredibly fun device to use, even though I already own a more powerful M4 MacBook Air. This week, I dug into some of its hardware limitations, specifically regarding the two USB ports. While Apple officially states the Neo only supports one external display through its single USB 3.0 port, I learned that hubs supporting DisplayLink technology might actually allow for a dual-display workaround. I also discovered a power quirk: the Neo’s USB 2.0 port only delivers 2.5 watts of power, which wasn’t enough to spin up an external DVD/CD drive I tested, whereas the 3.0 port handled it perfectly. I’ve really started thinking of the Neo as the ultimate iPhone companion—much like the handheld PC companions of thirty years ago.
On the app side, I’ve been testing the “Playlist Playground” feature in the Apple Music beta. It uses Apple Intelligence to create playlists based on text prompts, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a great discovery tool that intelligently filters for songs actually licensed on the platform. Jon is also navigating the Apple ecosystem with his new app, Tempo Pilot, which is currently in the App Store review process. We discussed Apple’s recent decision to restrict apps like Replit that facilitate “vibe coding” on-device, as they violate long-standing rules against apps changing their own behavior unexpectedly.
We closed out the podcast with a discussion about a BBC report about grandparents being “glued to their phones”. It sparked a conversation about isolation and the unique Generation Jones cohort (born 1954–1965) that I fall into—a group that missed the social upheavals of the early 60s but became the first senior citizens to be truly digitally connected. We even shared some childhood stories about our names; Jon revealed he shortened “Jonathan” to “Jon” in third grade specifically to avoid learning how to write the full name in cursive.
Check out the full episode to hear more about my USB power tests and Jon’s experience using AI to prep his app for the App Store review.
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