{"id":5728,"date":"2025-08-10T19:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T05:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/?p=5728"},"modified":"2025-08-10T19:40:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T05:40:00","slug":"mobileviews-574-aols-dial-up-farewell-microsoft-lens-retirement-and-essential-back-to-school-tech-survival-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/10\/mobileviews-574-aols-dial-up-farewell-microsoft-lens-retirement-and-essential-back-to-school-tech-survival-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"MobileViews 574: AOL&#8217;s Dial-Up Farewell, Microsoft Lens Retirement, and Essential Back-to-School Tech &#038; Survival Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px); height: 150px;\" title=\"MobileViews 574: AOL's Dial-Up Farewell, Microsoft Lens Retirement, and Essential Back-to-School Tech &amp; Survival Tips\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?i=sm3bk-192e096-pb&amp;from=pb6admin&amp;share=1&amp;download=1&amp;rtl=0&amp;fonts=Arial&amp;skin=1&amp;font-color=auto&amp;logo_link=episode_page&amp;btn-skin=7\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-5730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MViews574-Jon-me-1024x441.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MViews574-Jon-me-1024x441.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MViews574-Jon-me-300x129.png 300w, https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MViews574-Jon-me-768x331.png 768w, https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MViews574-Jon-me-1536x662.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MViews574-Jon-me.png 1623w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In their latest &#8220;MobileViews 574&#8221; podcast, hosts Todd Ogasawara and Dr. Jon Westfall navigated through significant tech news and offered practical advice. A notable development discussed was the <\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/news\/end-of-an-e-era-aol-to-end-dial-up-internet-access\">discontinuation of AOL&#8217;s dial-up internet access<\/a> on September 30, 2025<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, marking the end of an era for the once-pioneering service. The conversation also touched upon <a href=\"https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-us\/topic\/retirement-of-microsoft-lens-fc965de7-499d-4d38-aeae-f6e48271652d\">Microsoft&#8217;s decision to <\/a><\/span><b>retire its Microsoft Lens app<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from iOS and Android devices, effective September 15, 2025, with full support ending November 15. Todd, who uses Lens to de-skew photos of doodles and whiteboards, is now seeking alternatives, with suggestions including Microsoft 365 Copilot app, OSS Document Scanner, Genius Scan, and Google Lens. This led to a humorous digression about the differing &#8220;personalities&#8221; of AI tools like Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shifting to essential tips, Dr. Westfall provided a comprehensive &#8220;back-to-school tech roundup&#8221; for students. Key recommendations included <\/span><b>USB drives with encrypted partitions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for secure and compatible file transfer, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0B99WG93C?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&amp;th=1\"><b>small thermal printers<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> such as the Phomemo M04AS for quick, inexpensive prints like QR codes or notes. A <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0CZWQ2D5S?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&amp;th=1\"><b>Belkin 2-in-1 MagSafe Wireless Charging Dock<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was suggested for convenience, supporting iPhone&#8217;s StandBy mode. For car-owning students, a <\/span><b>portable jump starter<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B015TKUPIC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title\">NOCO Boost GB40<\/a>) and a <\/span><b>mobile tire inflator<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (such as the DENVIX Tire Inflator) were highlighted as essential safety tools that also function as power banks and lights. Practical, inexpensive items like a <\/span><b>packable rain hat<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (e.g., <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0CSFTRJZ7?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title\">Soxbang Waterproof Bucket Rain Hat<\/a>) and a towel were also recommended for unexpected weather. Finally, both hosts emphasized the critical need for a <\/span><b>backup plan for all critical technology<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, leveraging cloud storage and considering extended warranties, along with the &#8220;three-day rule&#8221; for assignments to mitigate stress. This last point was underscored by observations about some students&#8217; reluctance to even use two-factor authentication for campus email due to perceived inconvenience.<\/span><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_MK4MuU65mI?si=Ic4a6bPOJocGUc1c\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Available via <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/mobileviews.com-podcast\/id301171904?mt=2\">Apple iTunes<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\u201chttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@ToddOgasawara\/podcasts\u201d\">MobileViews YouTube Podcasts channel <\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"\u201chttps:\/\/www.audible.com\/pd\/MobileViewscom-Podcast-Podcast\/B08K565TQS?qid=1640555789&amp;sr=1-1&amp;ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&amp;pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&amp;pf_rd_r=TXEJVWB2VW471GJ9XQQ0\u201d&lt;\/a\">MobileViews Podcast on Audible.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In their latest &#8220;MobileViews 574&#8221; podcast, hosts Todd Ogasawara and Dr. Jon Westfall navigated through significant tech news and offered practical advice. A notable development discussed was the discontinuation of AOL&#8217;s dial-up internet access on September 30, 2025, marking the end of an era for the once-pioneering service. The conversation also touched upon Microsoft&#8217;s decision [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcast"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ppKRG-1uo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5728"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5732,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5728\/revisions\/5732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobileviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}