While farmers work hard to grow the best crop, their Iowa corn check-off investments are working to foster industry connections to help companies replace petroleum with corn. Additional research is finding even more uses for corn and discovering new ways and practices to help farmers get the most out of their crop. The Iowa corn check-off working hard for Iowa's corn farmers. Go to IowaCorn.org to learn more. The Factual Data Creation Facility Production.
Welcome to the OFNT Podcast Episode 239, which I'm calling Google Deconstruction Inbound. Yeah, okay, it's Helene, not Helena, as I referred to the previous big storm, which devastated a large portion of the South-Eastern United States. At least the latest storm Mitch didn't fully live up to its hype and spared some of the devastation it could have wrought. Hopefully Mitch will be the last major storm of the hurricane season. But you never know.
Well, last episode certainly tanked. I guess I've said things in previous episodes that upset some. Oh well, stand by for more things to get upset about in this episode. Well, should I start the episode now? Oh yes. Alright, let's go. Before I get into the news, I have some other things to discuss. Besides getting the name of a major hurricane wrong, I made another trip down to Tennessee last week. We left early Sunday morning and made good progress until we were midway through Virginia.
There, we sat for almost three hours because of some sort of maintenance, which closed down westbound lanes of Interstate 81. And it wasn't road work. And how do I know this? That's because after letting the traffic flow again westbound, the powers that be promptly shut down the eastbound lanes of I-81. What I could see was a dump truck being loaded with something. Now you're probably thinking it was storm-related. Wrong.
Well, Helene didn't have any effect on this part of Virginia. Or any other part of that state we traveled through. My area of Tennessee had no damage either, though other parts of the county did. Hence no water surface for the area, including my home for about five days. Our time in Tennessee had us witnessing military helicopters constantly flying overhead as the government finally responded to the destruction in North Carolina.
We arrived back in New York Thursday, this after being stuck in traffic after clearing the final bridge into the area. It took us over three hours to travel the 38 mile distance to our place here. There were no accidents or road works causing these delays. Only good old New York traffic. Thank goodness we have only one or maybe two trips left before not having to make the trip up here at all.
Tech News. From the Associated Press, Federal Judge orders Google to open its Android App Store to competition, unquote. From the article, quote, a Federal Judge on Monday ordered Google to tear down the digital wall shielding its Android App Store from competition as punishment for maintaining a legal monopoly that helped expand the company's Internet empire.
The injunction issued by district judge James Donato will require Google to make several changes at the Mountain View California company had been resisting those include a provision that will require its Play Store for Android apps to distribute rival third party app stores. So consumers can download them to their phones if they so desire. The judge's order will also make the millions of Android apps into Play Store accessible to rivals allowing them to offer up a competitive selection, unquote.
Wow, the big G must have gone some powerful government entity really upset with them. The article continues quote Donato is giving Google until November. What? And that's this November to make the revisions dictated in his order, unquote. Man, they must be really upset with Google. Again, from the article quote Donato also ruled that for a period of three years ending November 1st, 2027.
Google won't be able to share revenue from its Play Store with anyone who distributes Android apps or is considering launching an Android App distribution platform or store. It also won't be allowed to pay developers or share revenue so that they will launch an app in the Google Play Store first or exclusively and can't make deals with manufacturers to pre-install the Google Play Store on any specific location on an Android device.
Wow. It also won't be able to require apps to use its billing system or tell customers that they can download apps elsewhere and potentially for cheaper. What? I'm not quote. Yeah, I'm not understanding that last part. So let me get this straight. So even if Google wanted to tell you that you can save money by downloading an app elsewhere, they can't. Hmm, I guess the good judge put that in there to prevent Google from making a deal with another app store.
Now the way I understand it, if you're a hardware manufacturer and want to use Android as an operating system, well there's just no problem. You can do so free of charge. However, if you want to receive timely updates for Android, you are required to have the Play Store along with the suite of Google services apps loaded on your device and the Chrome browser of course. I guess going forward this won't be the case. Well, I can already hear the what about Apple course?
No one else manufactures devices that run iOS so Apple isn't forcing any manufacturer to install anything. Besides, the EU force Apple to allow rival app stores to be installed on iOS and how to turn out. Well, Apple put their high paid and high powered corporate lawyers to work and they cooked away to both comply with the EU and actually maintain the amount of money they make on apps. Google is asking for a stay on implementing these judgments and will appeal the case.
So in my opinion, nothing will change for a while. In the meantime, Google can find out who they upset and try to make amends. Hopefully resolving all this. But wait, it gets worse for the formerly don't be evil company. Google has also been judged monopolist by a US district court and has proposed a framework to correct Google's violation of antitrust laws. According to an article on Android Authority.com, this framework would include breaking Android, Chrome and Google Play away from Google.
You know, I really do think that Google search engine should be spun off from them. Not only does search allow the company to have a monopoly on advertising revenue, but they also use it to promote particular agendas and political ideologies. As for Android and the rest, let Google keep them. The judge really came down hard on the big G leading me to believe that he was a fellow Windows phone user which Google helped kill by not putting their apps on it. And like me, you're still upset about it.
What's your opinion on all this? Android Police.com has the following headline. Google kills project that would have made it easy to run Chrome OS on Android, unquote. The article goes into Google's introduction of the ferro-cron project, which was revealed during the event for the pixelate phone. This project, which is actually just some software code, would allow, or should I say, would have allowed Android phones to run a full version of Chrome OS on their phones.
I must confess, this is the first time I've heard of this, and I did watch the event which launched the pixelate. I guess I just didn't remember it. Another piece of evidence that I'm really an old fart. Anyway, while reviewing the code for upcoming open source versions of Android, the launcher for Chrome OS app has been removed and a notation that the big G won't chip nor maintain the code for it.
What I gather from the article is that Chrome OS Android was used as a test bed for development and that a desbian distro of Linux will be used for that purpose going forward. Well, after reading this, I thought it would be cool to be able to run a full-fledged computer operating system on a smartphone. Back in what I fondly recall as being. The day being able to run a full computer operating system on a phone was a dream of Microsoft and eager tech-wise consumers.
I guess that dream is long gone. The way it was envisioned back then is that your phone would have everything you needed and you would just plug it into a larger screen via some sort of adapter when you got home or at the office in order to access your apps on a larger screen. What role or an HP head products had did this with Android and Windows phone? It never caught on. With the tight integration of mobile and computer OS to these days, I guess this functionality is no longer needed.
We have Windows and Android pretty much integrated these days and of course iOS and Mac OS which are designed that way to begin with. Maybe it's the old fart in me, but I still think it would be great to have a full computer OS running on my little smartphone.
Rudeverse.com is reporting that rival browser developers Vivaldi, WaterFox and Wavebox and the Open Web Advocacy group have sent a letter to the EU antitrust regulators saying Microsoft Edge browser is a de facto monopoly being that it's pre-installed on Windows computers. And this after the incorrectly identified by the articles author Norwegian browser company the once great opera which had taken the EU to court for exempting Edge from the digital markets act.
Now hold on a minute. First off, opera has been bought by a Chinese company and that was years ago. Though the headquarters for opera may still reside in Norway, everything is controlled from back in China. I remember reading articles which showed that opera was reporting all the data back to China after this acquisition and was warned off from trusting it. Secondly, if you want to use a different browser, well no one's stopping you from downloading it and making your choice to default.
Sure, Microsoft does everything you can to hide this from you, but if you're aware of these other browsers, it's just a small pump of the road to get them onto your device. This consortium wants to force Microsoft to have some sort of pop-up menu during setup that gives you a choice of which browser to install. Well guess what? Non-tech people, if given the choice, will choose what's familiar to them 99% of the time. The other one, Besson, will choose something else by mistake.
If they haven't heard of your browser before, what makes these companies think they will choose them over Edge? Hey, I have an idea. Make a web browser so good that it becomes immensely popular and bingo problem-solved. I'm kind of companies like these that try and sue themselves into competitiveness. And of course, that's just my opinion. From iHeart.com, yeah, iHeart was the first article on the subject to pop-up.
Covered the recent Tesla introduction of the cybercab. You know, last Thursday, while stuck for over three hours in New York traffic, I was lamenting to myself that I was probably never going to see a self-driving car in my lifetime. And how nice it would be to have one during the horrendous traffic jams like this that I was experiencing. Imagine my surprise while checking out YouTube on Friday. Seeing it had a short video on the introduction of the self-driving cybercab.
The video was kind of pessimistic about the projected 2027 release date of this steering wheel less under $30,000 vehicle, but it did get my attention. Upon further research, all Tesla models will be capable of this self-driving ability in the future. The cybercab is not for commercial use, but for individual use. This room for two passengers, an old Elon Musk brag that you can even rent it out when you're not using the car and make some extra money on the side.
And no thanks. Could you imagine your car returning to you trashed? A Robo van that seats 20 people was also showcased, but I don't know what non-commercial use it would have. If this self-driving thing becomes a reality, I'll certainly have one in my driveway as a backup to my main gas-powered vehicle. For days, I don't really feel like driving. I wouldn't use it for long-distance travel, though. And I certainly wouldn't store it in my garage.
Distance limitations and spontaneous combustions are very real problems with lithium battery-powered vehicles at the moment. Apple continues to improve its iCloud.com webpage as it adds dark mode support and more customization options. And this is according to an article on 9-5-Mac.com. iCloud.com allows you to access content from anywhere on any internet connected device. It includes photos, iCloud Drive, notes, reminders, and fine-my amongst other things.
Those other things being the company's productivity apps like pages, numbers, etc. You can customize backgrounds, have a shared view of iCloud Drive, pit notes, and other things all probably never use. Perhaps my dream of having a less expensive Chromebook instead of a MacBook as my laptop is becoming closer to reality. Android Authority.com has an article chronicling users reporting that the Watch OS 11's Vital app has forewarned them of upcoming illnesses.
It sounds like what my ORA Ring Generation 2 used to do. My current Generation 3 ORA Ring no longer does that. Maybe because at my age I feel like garbage every day. In order to get the benefits of the Vital's app, you have to wear your Apple Watch Tibet for at least five nights in a row. And that's something I'm not willing to do. My lovely wife and I are upgrading to the latest Apple Watch in December, so I might give it a try.
My ORA Ring 2 was uncanny at doing this and I missed that function. Hopefully ORA's new fourth Generation Ring has returned to this. My ORA 3 missed my belt with COVID a while ago, reporting that I was doing great when in actuality I was running a fever. The older version had warned me of oncoming illnesses, even while I felt fine. 9-5 Mac.com predicts that the most serious and powerful features of Apple Intelligence won't be coming until late 2026 or maybe even 2027. What the hell?
This is what analysts believe is causing these sales numbers for the new iPhone 16 to stagnate. These analysts go on to predict that we won't be seeing an iPhone upgrade super cycle until the iPhone 17 thin. Whatever that turns out to be, you know, I don't want a thinner iPhone. I want an iPhone with a longer lasting battery. Regardless of what AI it carries. This iPhone 17 thin better be mind blowing because if it's not, well, I'll be keeping my 15 Pro Max for yet another year.
Another week, another big hack job. 9-5 Mac.com has an article detailing the recent hack of MoneyGram, which is an alternative to Western Union for sending money. The hack are still MoneyGrams, Customers, Social Security Numbers, Email, Home Addresses, Dates of Birth, Copies of Government Issue IDs, and other documentation, including utility bills and bank account numbers. What? Yeah, everything needed for ID theft and other scams.
Since the hack, MoneyGram has hired external cybersecurity experts. Yeah! Better late than never? No. Not in this case. Some 50 million SAPs, I mean people use MoneyGram worldwide. Yep, they're cheaper to use in Western Union, but you know the old saying, you get what you pay for. Yes. At this point, I'd suggest everybody free zero credit records with the credit bureaus. I did so after I rash for attempts to obtain credit cards using my hacked info a couple of years back.
Since I did that, no attempts have been successfully made. It's a pain in the butt having to unfreeze and re-freeze your records when applying for loans, but let me tell you, it's worth it. Check I'm using. No new hardware to talk about, but I do have a piece of software that I've had for a while and that I've just started using once again.
In a previous episode, I mentioned that while viewing various tech news feeds using the Edge browser, yeah, I really do use Edge, I went through a period of researching Chromebooks. After a while, my news feeds contained a bit of articles about Google's thin client operating system and it's hardware. Not only that, I also started being bombarded with advertisements for Chromebooks. At a time, I said I would switch browsers to see if the Edge browser was scraping my data, which of course it was.
I remember downloading and briefly using an old-timey RSS newsreader for iOS and iPad OS called NetNewswire RSS Reader. The newsreader is free with no in-app purchases needed and has an easy to use interface. I never bothered to download the iPad version, but I since have. To set NetNewswire up, you just add the websites you want to receive news from. It's as simple as that. I still use Edge for newsreading, but dramatically less.
The only reason I even use Edge is because once in a while, there'll be an interesting story that wasn't picked up by NetNewswire. My routine is to peruse my feed on the app daily, then forward the link to the story I want to use to my self via email. The story said I don't wish to cover, I just conveniently ignore and then delete using the app's markle as red button. This handy little RSS reader has streamlined my workflow, making it easier to gather news than it had been previously.
If you run iOS or iPad OS on your devices and want an easy way of keeping up on tech or any other type of news, I recommend this app. Oh, and did I mention that the app is free? Yes. Hey, remember when Google had the most popular newsreader called Google Reader? No. Yes. And do you remember Google discontinuing it in 2015?
Yes. No. While farmers work hard to grow the best crop, their Iowa corn check-off investments are working to foster industry connections to help companies replace petroleum with corn. Additional research is finding even more uses for corn and discovering new ways and practices to help farmers get the most out of their crop. The Iowa corn check-off working hard for Iowa's corn farmers. Go to Iowacorn.org to learn more. Entertainment news.
Popular TV stars on notice as industry is warned of a major shake-up and that's the headline of an article from the DailyMail.com. These air quotes stars that are on notice come from the news and late-night shows whose audiences continue shrinking while their salaries keep ballooning into millions of dollars. The article primarily blames the advertisement industry, but the big problem is that nobody is actually watching these shows. The question should be, why isn't anybody watching?
I think the main reason amongst the many is that the news media doesn't deliver factual news and the entertainment media doesn't entertain. The article goes on to predict that these so-called stars will either have to take a major pay cut or be replaced altogether. Those predicted to be affected are who's who's list of television personalities. These people pull in between 20 to 30 million dollars per year. What? Just to helm their respective money-losing shows.
I find these salaries disgustingly absurd. Being that these are the same people who tow the Democratic Party line receiving their talking points directly from the DNC, as has been revealed in multiple undercover interviews with producers from these shows. Of course, the economy is doing just great for these overpaid shills, so that's what they tell you. The unwashed masses on their platforms. The once vibrant late-night shows, once the bastion of comedy, have become unfunny.
What they call human-out is making fun of Republican politicians and their followers, which amount to about half the country, instantly limiting their potential audience. I've got to believe that many audience members that are on the DNC side of things have gotten tired of this one-sided tirade from all corners of corporate media, and that reduces the audience numbers even further.
If the anointed one manages to stumble into the White House, well, expect more to the same, with some heavy censorship applied to independent media on social platforms. At least these media shills will be following their marching orders at reduced salaries, so there's that. But unfortunately, their masters still pay very well for towing the party line. According to the Tint and Foil hat wearers, it's all part of the plan.
Podcast News Previously, I've discussed my love-hate relationship with the Podcast Listening app, a CASTOMATIC. Well, I'm in a hate phase at the moment, and it's because of the customatics inability to work properly while using Apple's CarPlay. For some reason, CASTOMATIC just doesn't want to function correctly. For example, you can fire up the app in the car, select the playlist you want, start the episode you want, and start driving.
After the episode you selected finishes, CASTOMATIC just stops playing unless you manually select the next episode. And that's while you're driving, and this is dangerous because you have to pick up your phone, swipe to the app, find the show, and episode you want to play next, and then push play. Yeah, you can attempt to do this using your car's display screen, but nothing happens.
Even if you manage to do all this without getting into an accident, after the next episode is finished, well you have to repeat the whole process in order to replay the next episode. Also, if you happen to stop somewhere and turn off your car, the episode you are listening to either won't continue playing, and that's forcing you to select and start it again from the phone, or if you restart the episode, it will start at the beginning, losing its place.
And this can't be blamed on car play because the next app that I'm going to discuss has absolutely no problems, and that app is Amazon's Music and Podcast app. On that app, you load what podcasts you want to listen to in a preset list, and it just works. During my last drive down to Tennessee last week, I used Amazon Music and had absolutely no problems with it.
Lately, I've been listening to a podcast called Malevolent, whose first episode was released way back in 2020, and is still releasing new episodes to this day. I just started listening to that podcast a couple of weeks ago, so I had a lot of catching up to do. And as to say the least, the Amazon Music app played each episode in order and started back up after stops, right, where the episode left off. Now imagine that. And that was all without intervention from me.
Until Castamatic fixes its car play compatibility, I'll be using the Amazon Music and Podcast app while in my car. As an added bonus, Amazon has a deal with various podcasts to be ad-free, and Malevolent is one of them. For regular listening that is not involving car play, Castamatic is superior. Well, while attempting to open the Castamatic app on my iPhone, I found out that it just crashes. Well, I don't know if crashes the correct term. The app doesn't even open up, it just flashes.
I'm chalking this up to me running the iOS 18.1 beta. The lone dev of the app probably hasn't gotten around updating it yet. So for now, I'll be using the Trident True Pocket Cast app for my non-driving listening app. I'll keep Castamatic around if it gets fixed that is. The music is playing in the end of this episode of the OFT Podcast is nigh. Not many New York recorded episodes are left as the end of an era approaches.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. I enjoyed making it for you. If you like what you heard, you can make a donation using the link in the show notes. Any and all donations will be greatly appreciated. They always reach me into OFT Podcast at gmail.com and that's only if you're so inclined. I'd enjoy hearing from you. Yeah, I really would. Remember, don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do. Now, what are you still poking around here for?
I finished this episode in order to get some much needed rest. So, get off my lawn. Stay skeptical. I'm out. See you. You might think Iowa grows corn, but the truth is corn grows Iowa. While farmers work hard to grow the best crop, their Iowa corn check-off investments are hard at work too. Opening local and global markets for corn and corn fed products, educating drivers on unleaded 88 as the best fuel at the pump, finding new uses for corn and sharing the farmer's story.
Iowa corn farmers are backed by researchers, educators, market experts and more to keep corn growing Iowa.