628: You Always Have a Lot To Say

It's time for episode 628 of the clockwise podcast from relay recorded Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025 clockwise for people for tech topics, 30 minutes. Welcome back to Clockwise, the tech podcast where time creeps up on you and us. I am one of your hosts. My name is Micah Sargent, and I am joined across the spooky October internet. But my pal, my dear friend, it is. You know him. I do. Sure. Dan Van Morten. How you doing, Dan? No, you know what? Time doesn't get enough credit for being creepy.

I mean, think about it, right? It's always creeping. It's always creeping. It's always moving. It's like the Terminator. It will never, ever stop, right? So, you know, there's an inevitability to it. It is always behind you and in front of you. Don't think too hard about that. I am always creeping. I am the creeping of time. Also, Rolls Matty.

Sage. Anyways, we're done. Yeah. And while we're just sort of trying to recover from that, let's go ahead and welcome our awesome guests to my left. Senior culture writer at TechCrunch and host of WOW. if true. Also, my co-host on Tech News Weekly, it's Amanda Silberling. Welcome back to the show, Amanda. Hello. I feel like I have to be spooky. Thank you for your spookiness.

i try and to my left it's business unicorn relay fm switch on community manager and host of conduit on this here podcast network it's the one and only kathy campbell welcome back kathy Thank you, Dan. I feel like the spookiness comes with the switch on, but only for Mike and Steven. Yeah, they are constantly haunted by it.

You're welcome. Let's go ahead and get rolling. You know how this works. Four topics, 30 minutes. Mine for you is this. I just would love to know what's something that you regularly use voice commands to achieve. So like what tasks in your life? Are you actually speaking out loud to your tech to get it to do? Amanda, we'll start with you. So I want to make you imagine you are me.

You have just gotten a coffee from your favorite local coffee shop and you are walking back to your apartment. But somebody texts you something and you have a lot to say because... You have a podcast. You always have a lot to say. And sometimes I have friends that I know they don't want a voice memo. So text to speech. Sometimes if I have one hand and I'm walking and I'm carrying a coffee and I know that this friend does not like voice memos, I'm text-to-speeching it.

Every once in a while, I will ask my Apple devices. I will not say the name of the thing because it'll freak out. um about the weather if i'm like in a rush and getting dressed and i'm like it's the time of year where i'm like it could be anywhere between 50 and 80 degrees right now and i don't know it's pretty good We have a HomePod mini in the kitchen, and that is a place where it gets a lot of usage. So I'd say the three things that I use it for the most there are timers.

Everyone uses timers. Come on. Adding stuff to my grocery list. Very common. And it's playing music or the radio, like our local radio station. So I used all of those things. pretty much every single day. And they are mostly reliable. There are some upsides and downsides to it. But yeah, I would say those are things that I rely upon it for.

There are some other things, too. I do home control, like lights on and off and things like that. I have a few scenes set up. But I would say of all the things that I use my voice commands for, those are probably the ones that I use the most often. Kathy, what about you? So I do basically ditto to Dan. Much fewer light. situations and things. I also do what Amanda does, but usually when I'm walking the dog and I am just like, okay, listen, I've got

a client or something that I'm managing and I'm like, okay, here's the answer. And then I, of course, can go back and double check to make sure things are the correct. there is used or whatever, because it's not always reliable. But then the main thing that I use voice commands for is adding a reminder. for when I get home when I'm out driving. This is specifically for something that I thought about while I'm driving around.

I can't do it right now because obviously I'm not home and I'm driving, but I want to make sure I don't forget it. And so if it reminds me when I get home, then I can either put it on whatever task list I need to go do or just do the thing right now. or whatever. And it will constantly remind me when I leave and come back to until my market is completed. So if I'm like, oh, I'll do that later. And then I leave and I come back, you know.

The next day, I'm like, oh, yeah, forgot to do the thing. And then I will go and do the thing. I love it because you actually reminded me of. the second thing that I do. I was thinking really for me, it's just the one thing, which is on my watch, I, while I'm cooking, we'll set different timers, set a rice timer, set a chicken timer, set a this timer, set a that timer. And

Almost exclusively, that is what I use my voice for because I simply do not trust it to do anything else when it comes to voice interactions. I just... It's never works how I want it to. But Kathy, you reminded me that indeed I do also use it for that very specific reason, which is remind me when I get home to do blank or remind me when I get home about blank.

And recently it was, remind me when I get home to fill up my tire because the temperature change has resulted in pressure change, which resulted in me needing to fill up my tire a little bit.

So thank you all for your answers on that. I will now use my voice to insist, but not command that we move on to our next topic, which comes from Amanda. So I've spent the last month reviewing the Casio Moflin, which is a $430 AI pet that looks like a hamster, kind of. It's a fluffy robot. My mind has changed back and forth and back and forth throughout the whole month about like, do we need this?

And I think there's a lot of arguments to be made either way. So my question is, do you think robot pets are good for society? Just a little question. Yeah, let's address this in two to three minutes. I think we can really knock it out here. Are robot pets good for society? No. I'm not a pet owner. I think I would be more inclined to have a robot pet than a real pet. pet because i do not want the responsibility of taking care of a real pet um

You have a human. I have a small human who needs taking care of, so I don't need any additional maintenance issues. I think it's fine. I mean, people have had little stuffed animals and stuff for... centuries right like people have had probably even longer than that like have had like some sort of proxy for these things that is you know arguably inanimate um so i don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that

If you get something out of that interaction and it brings you joy in some way, then yeah, why not? I mean, I'm old enough to remember the Sony AIBO, you know? Yeah. Come on. I mean, there's something to that.

I don't think it's necessarily a replacement for actual pets. But again, there's plenty of people who can't have a pet because of their living situation or because they're allergic to certain types of pets. So if you can have something that brings you some fraction of that and doesn't require the maintenance or... that you can have instead of not having those things, then you know what? You do you. That's what I'm saying to that. Kathy?

I also occasionally do a show called Roboism on this podcast network. And I'm obsessed with the idea of this little hamster. I think it's good, especially for maybe younger children. Obviously, the price point makes this not very viable for a lot of options. But having an option...

For children that are maybe like desperate for a pet, maybe you live in a small apartment or you have allergies or whatever. Also, another comment that Amanda put in the article that I. I'm again obsessed with, is the idea of like older people in memory care being able to have a connection with. something that isn't actually alive, but can give hints that it is, I feel like could be really supportive and have an idea of like, yes, I need to take care of something.

Similar to, you know, the really creepy dolls that they have. And so I think the answer to the question is meh. It depends, because really isn't anything maybe possibly good for society that can then be turned evil? We've all seen the movies. You know, we'll see. We'll see. I think is the correct answer. I just watched Small Soldiers, one of my favorite. I actually really, really, really love that film. And if I was basing it solely on that, I would say an AI pet.

An AI robotic pet, probably terrifying for society, potentially deadly for society. But no, when I when I'm being serious, when I'm really thinking about it. I think that there is room for this. I agree that the price point makes it feel a little bit kind of like boutique. But I think that... The idea that this could be something that is in, like you said, memory care units that is sort of on the health care side of thing, if it's mental health or whatever.

I really like that idea, that aspect of it. Of course, there are always concerns about data collection policies. And something that I had mentioned before that sticks out for me is that, you know. This is coming from Casio and Casio does not have a long storied history of AI pets. And so you do wonder if...

it's always going to be supported, if it ends up being something that doesn't exist in the long run, you know, that is always a concern if you're going to invest this much into it. But still, really? kind of fascinating. And I absolutely want to, at the very least, pet this little thing. Why don't you round us out here, Amanda? Yeah, I've gone back and forth on this all month because when I first was like, all right, I'm going to review this AI pet, I was kind of like, why do we need this?

We're just putting AI into everything and it's not often that useful. And like, do you actually feel less lonely if you have a little robot? And like... My ultimate conclusion I came to is that it's like, well, yeah, this is not going to be as joyful or as much responsibility as having a dog or a cat or something. But like. I like him. I like it. I wouldn't spend $430 on it if I didn't get it to do a review. But it's also like, is it really the end of the world if it's like not as good as a pet?

We talk to people on FaceTime and it's not as good as hanging out in person, but it's still something. Well, I think everyone should go read. the article from everyone should go read. I think everyone should go read the article from Miranda right now. Don't stop listening to the podcast. Go read. What are you doing? What are you doing? Come back. Come back. Are you still here?

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to bring the show to you. So head to clockwise.social to check it out. And we thank you. All right, we are back from halftime. And that means it's time for Dan's topic. Of course. Well, you know, we get down on technology so much, but hey, let's turn the page here. I want to know when is the last time a technology feature surprised you in a good way, Kathy.

The only thing I can think of is really ridiculous. And it's the... I don't even know. See, this is how professional tech podcaster I am. But the new... watch os update with the slide down for the glass vibes energy i really like how it looks um i have like a pink um color on my watch in the i forget which you know, the lots of complications.

face. And when I slide it down, it has a little bit of the pink on the outside. And like when you put your code in, it just makes me smile in a cute little way. So that is my answer. Nice. For me, I'm going to go with... Something that just recently launched, the company is sponsoring a couple of the shows on the Twit network. And so they did send me a product. There's a disclosure there. But I have to say I was very surprised and delighted by this new photo frame, digital photo frame.

from a company called Aura, Aura, A-U-R-A, makes digital photo frames. And believe it or not, I was just talking a couple of episodes ago. uh oh it was uh yeah a couple episodes ago i asked if do you think color e-ink displays are compelling or do you find the tech to be a fad and we talked about that they have created a color e-ink photo frame that is way better looking than I thought that it could be. And it has to do with like a bunch of they did a bunch of custom.

dithering is what they call it um dithering algorithms to make a photo actually look good with uh color e-ink displays but it's really nice because you don't have a cable running to your your frame but the part again that like surprised me in a good way that delighted me was i was kind of guarding myself for going okay this is going to be color e-ink so the photo is going to show up and it's

going to be color e-ink, and it's just going to be what it is. And then I see the photo and I'm like, wait, no, this actually looks really good. So yeah, that caught me off guard in the best way. Amanda, what about you? The AI pet.

No, I'm not going to talk about it. So I'm going to go with Apple's Genmoji, which is the AI feature that makes... emojis based on people which if this were a cloud operated thing i would hate it and be like stop sending pictures of yourselves to these systems that are training on you However, this is all done on device, and I think it's really funny to be like, I'm going to make an emoji of...

Like my friend eating pasta when they're like, I'm going to go make some pasta. But then none of my friends like it because they're all like, why are you using AI? And I'm like, it's OK. It's on device. I'm not ruining. the world it's just on the device it's fine that's pretty good um all all good answers the one the one that prompted this for me was the other day i was in the grocery store and my watch gave me a notification

I actually think I was even wearing my AirPods at the time listening to a podcast, and I got a little Reddit to me. It's like, oh, by the way, here's a notification for your route for later today from Maps. Um, and I was like, what is going on? I was like, maybe it remembers that I have to go. Uh, I try and remember where I was going that day.

It might have been like taking my kids to gymnastics or something. And it's like, hey, maybe there's some route issue. But no, it was actually reminding me about my way home from the grocery store. And I looked at the map and I thought...

this seems ridiculous. Why is it telling me to take this, this other street? I was like, I remember there was some like work on the sidewalk down there, but like, I just need to like take this quick turn and get the street. I'm sure it'll be fine. So I ignored it and I drove home and I was like, Oh yeah.

I can't get up that street right now. It was totally right. And I was surprised because it was literally just like, there's a dump truck blocking this street. And it was gone like an hour later. And I'm like, I don't even know how it knew that. That's awesome. But I was kind of, my mind was a little... little blown because my my inclination is always to distrust anything where it suggests my routes because i'm like i know where i'm going uh and i was wrong

So the robots are winning, I guess, is my point. Maybe I should feel worse, but I feel delighted by it. So the next time that robot pet tells me.

to do i'll do it i'll do it leave me alone drive through the lake uh thank you all for your thoughts on that let's go to our final topic which comes from kathy Kobo finally came out with a page turner for their e-reader, which makes me wonder if you read with an e-reader. And if so, do you use a page turner of some kind? I use a Tina Turner. to dance. No, I'm kidding. Stupid. Don't talk yourself down like that. I don't use a page turner.

very rarely ingest books in that way. I am a big audiobook person I've mentioned. So I guess in that way, is an audiobook not an auto page turner? It sort of is, isn't it? Wow. That's so deep, Micah. I have to lie down now. Yeah. And in fact, it's always Tina Turner who is narrating my books. So there's my answer. Amanda, what about you?

Okay, so Kathy, we have never spoken before this podcast, and I feel like you are exactly picking up on my interests. This feels like a plant in a magician's audience. We've never met before. Like I have a Kindle and last year I've had, so it's been about a year now. I bought a Kindle page turner. It's not by Kindle. It's just like a random thing. And a little pillow with a stand coming out of it that sits in your bed. And then you put the page turner on it.

So I'd have just a little pillow stand in my bed with my Kindle. And then like in the winter, if it's really cold. you can just put your hands under the covers and you never have to take your hands out to turn the page. And it's like the stupidest thing that I own, but it brings me so much joy. Wait, hold on, hold on. Stupidest thing you own, but you have an AI.

I'm just dropping that. Listen, that's right. Well, stupidest thing that I spent my own money on. There we go. There we go. That's better. It brings me so much joy and I have been consistently using the Kindle remote for like a year and I love it. And I, I know that it's dumb and I don't need it, but I like it. It's good. I like it too. Do I use a page shirt? Yes. I call it my finger. I press the button like a big weirdo.

I read a lot of e-books. I have a couple different e-book readers, including a Kobo, which is the one I usually use. I was thinking about this last night because I was lying in bed reading the book and I thought to myself, would it be better if I had another little thing to press instead of using this? I was like...

Nah, man. I'm fine. I'm fine with it. So I'm glad this is a thing that exists for people who want them. And I know a lot of people use them. And that's great. It's just not for me. I'm perfectly happy pressing the button. I will say I do prefer...

having a physical button on my e-reader to the ones with the touchscreens. I still use the Kobo lets you do either, which I appreciate. Sometimes it's more convenient to use the touchscreen, but I like having the option of using the physical button. And I'm disappointed that...

Kindle mainly has gotten rid of those, but that's part of the reason I don't use a Kindle anymore. So eat it, Amazon. I know they're really feeling the pain for me. Yes. Slapping them down for their lack of physical buttons on their e-readers. Take that, Jeff Bezos. All right. He's crying. He's crying every day. Kathy, wrap this up. Take it away from me. So I have one of them, one of the page turners, and I've used it like on the plane and stuff.

So most of my reading is done on the reader. It's on the Kindle and I have like a little book style that has like a cover that I can hold with my fingers. And the reason that I don't. have the fancy setup that amanda has and i really i want but also i know i will never use is because i

90% of my reading is done in bed after I've taken out my contacts. And my prescription is negative 8.5, which is very bad. So my Kindle has to sit like... three inches from my face for me to read um and and the pillow doesn't quite work for that. But maybe someday in the future, I will read not in bed after I've taken out my contacts, and then I will allow myself to get the plush little...

Do you have the pillow with the tray for snacks in the stand? Yeah, I call it my Kindle donut because it's kind of like a donut. What if it was also an AI pet? that would be cute well what if i put the ai pet in the little snack container because i don't i don't like the snack container for snacks because it's like how you can't really clean it right but it's it's like a little tray it's just

A little bowl. I usually have like hair ties in there because I always I don't know. I always end up with hair ties in my bed and I'm like, how did this get here? I need to put it somewhere. Got to go in the snack tray. Amazing.

All right. If you can believe it, we have reached nearly the end of this episode of the show. My question for you is a bonus topic. I just want to know what is your favorite element on the periodic table? Amanda, we start with you.

I don't think about the periodic table that often, but my first thought, best thought answer is neon because... No! You chose mine! I just, I think it's kind of funny that... it is like it is just like a a gas but it has taken on its whole other meaning in culture of like disco

calisthenics i don't know i'm just imagining like people in like a roller rink with like hot pink tights like i don't know that that's just what i'm thinking of but it's just an element and that's kind of fun uh my first thought was tungsten for a few reasons one Great name, tungsten, right? Two, I love the fact that the periodic symbol for tungsten is W, a letter that does not appear in that word. Excellent, excellent work. Everybody's doing a great job here.

And that you, it is actually when people are like, well, what do you possibly use it for? It was in light bulbs. Like it had an actual thing that it did. By the way, I know it's called W because it's also called Wolfram, but that's also a great name. So honestly. Fabulous job all around, Tungsten. You're killing it. My vote goes for potassium because it's K. Yeah. It's hilarious.

Yes, I love it. But also, when learning the periodic table in school, I always really gave myself a little giggle, how to spell it, you say pot. You say ass and you say EM and that, you know, because I'm a 12 year old little. It also has one of the best properties in that that entire column is stuff that reacts explosively with water, which is always my favorite. Oh, man, that's just awesome. I definitely knew that. Absolutely. Thank you for bringing that up, Dan.

dope it's so cool what that was yes it's really cool So if I like eat a banana, what's happening there? No, there's not enough. There's not enough of it. If I eat enough bananas, what am I saying? If you eat enough bananas, you'll have a lot of other problems first. Let's put it that way. It's like how if you eat too many apples, you can get cyanide poisoning. That's right. Eat a thousand apples whole. You have to eat a thousand apples whole and then you'll get cyanide poison. You're dedicated.

because I can't go with the wonderful neon, I'm going to go with iron again, for the same reason, Dan, the iron is F E in the periodic table, which is just funny. And it. Also is one of my favorites because it's rust like when you're making iron oxide, which I think is a delight. So, yeah. Iron is my second choice. God, I hated chemistry. This is so much more fun. What was your reasoning for neon?

Just because neon is cool. Yeah. Neon is just cool that you said some electricity through it and it lights up. Like, come on, that's amazing. Bismuth is also really neat. If you've ever seen bismuth in person, it's all square somehow. and you're just like, I've only heard their records. Yeah. Check out Bismuth Element 82. No, 83, 83, 83. You're just tuning in. It's our element recommendation podcast. Check out business. 82 is lead. Do not check out lead.

Anyway, if you out there would like to get ad-free episodes of an extra unwound episode where we talk about elements, no, we don't, every week, you can become a member of Clockwise. Go to relay.fm slash clockwise and sign up. $7 a month, $70 a year to help support the show. You heard there were no ads. This episode was brought to you by the periodic table of elements and the periodic table of elements does not pay us. So please do send us your money.

Thank you all. Let us say goodbye to our wonderful guests. I would like to thank the wonderful Amanda Selenium Silberling. for joining us for this episode of Clockwise. Thank you for having me and giving me a special element nickname. And thank you to Kathy Cobalt Campbell. Thanks for putting me on the spot, Micah. Thanks for having me.

And Micah, hold on, I'm looking at them. Micah Magnesium, Sergeant, thanks so much too. We'll be back next week on our podcast, which is called Clockwise Chromium? I don't know. Wow. Wow. No, chlorine. Chlorine is CL. That's much better. Chlorine clockwise. Anyways, we'll be back next week. But until then, we remind everyone listening out there, watch what you say. And keep watching the periodic table.