Happy Holidays

[SPEAKER_02]: a factual day to creation facility production. [SPEAKER_01]: Recorded live in front of an imaginary studio audience. [SPEAKER_01]: It's the OF&T podcast. [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm not scared. [SPEAKER_00]: Honest. [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the OFNT podcast episode 300. [SPEAKER_00]: Wow, 300. [SPEAKER_00]: Which I'm calling Happy Holidays. [SPEAKER_00]: Christmas is, but days away as a year, 2025 winds down. [SPEAKER_00]: Hope you and your loved ones have a joyous holiday.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me shout out my six countem six grandsons. [SPEAKER_00]: Merry Christmas to Tamdi, J.J. Damien, James, Luigi and Christian. [SPEAKER_00]: Hope Santa is good to you this Christmas. [SPEAKER_00]: And let me head a special shout out to James. [SPEAKER_00]: We'll also celebrate a birthday on a 25th. [SPEAKER_00]: Happy birthday, James. [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_02]: Let's get this episode started.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tech News. [SPEAKER_00]: This first item is about a mobile operating system that I thought had went gently into the night some years back. [SPEAKER_00]: The operating system was created by a company from Finland named Hola, and it spelled J-O-L-L-A, and the operating system is called Stylefish.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hola was formed from the ashes of Nokia, with most of its employees [SPEAKER_00]: I took a keen interest in selfish OS when it was first being developed, and that's because I knew of many of the people who were involved in its creation via social media. [SPEAKER_01]: Wait a minute. [SPEAKER_01]: I thought you abhorred social media. [SPEAKER_00]: I do, but back then, platforms like Twitter were a much better place, where it was still possible to have respectable discord with people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of being frustrated and angered after using Twitter in those days, you'd feel informed and excited about the future after using it. [SPEAKER_00]: I followed along with the development of Sailfish, and was looking forward to its release circa 2012. [SPEAKER_00]: Upon that release, you would have to load sailfish onto another manufacturer's Android device, as you were no whole-a-made hardware, at least yet. [SPEAKER_00]: The hardware was kind of underwhelming.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, at that time, the smartphone industry was in the midst of a specifications war. [SPEAKER_00]: The better the specs, the more consumers considered buying the phone. [SPEAKER_00]: Things were still in flux. [SPEAKER_00]: The last I heard of Hola, it was laying off half of its workers and then eventually declared bankruptcy. [SPEAKER_00]: While the layoffs were real, the bankruptcy was deployed to get out from under the company's major state-sponsored Russian investor.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had at the time thought that the bankruptcy meant the end of Hola. [SPEAKER_00]: So you can imagine how surprised I was seeing an article on Android Authority dot com on Hola in selfishest past week. [SPEAKER_00]: Selfish OS is based on Linux, which is a good thing, and is capable of running applications made for Android. [SPEAKER_00]: In the past, you had to manually install the Google Play Store in order to download Android apps onto your whole device.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if this is still the case. [SPEAKER_00]: The new phone won't offer cutting-edge features and performance, but it's very capable of functioning well enough to satisfy most consumers. [SPEAKER_00]: Especially without the full bloat of Android. [SPEAKER_00]: What you do get with this phone are a 6.36 inch OLED screen, 12 gigs of RAM, 256 gigabytes of storage, and a 5500 milliamp removable battery. [SPEAKER_00]: That's something you don't see anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: The main camera is 50 megapixels, and it's complemented with a 13 megapixel ultra-wide shooter. [SPEAKER_00]: Not the best specs, but not to shabby either. [SPEAKER_00]: Besides the old timey removable battery, you get some other features that have long been and abandoned by the big brands. [SPEAKER_00]: Features like a micro SD card slot. [SPEAKER_00]: Wow! [SPEAKER_00]: The privacy switch, which kills the camera's microphones and other sensors.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow. [SPEAKER_01]: A notification LED in a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, Apple is supposedly bringing back that type of scanner with the iPhone Fold. [SPEAKER_00]: Why yes, I've heard that they are. [SPEAKER_00]: The phone is powered by a chipset from MediaTek, and will cost $639. [SPEAKER_00]: This new hole of phone appears to be the perfect privacy phone. [SPEAKER_00]: If I were to get one, I don't think I'd even bother loading Android apps on it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only problem I can see is that there's doesn't appear to be any secure messaging app available for sale-fish OS, at least none that I could find. [SPEAKER_00]: Hola has entered the third round of pre-orders for this phone, so hopefully the Linux community will cook up such an app. [SPEAKER_00]: Another problem is that the Hola phone will only be available in the UK, Norway, Switzerland, [SPEAKER_00]: Ah, well, who knows, maybe someday Holofone will be available in this country.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to have this phone around as a backup. [SPEAKER_00]: I'd pair it with Solcer's from the privacy orientated MVNO freely, which I talked about a while back, and I'd have the perfect off the grid will sort of sell phone. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, as off the grid as you can be with a cell phone, [SPEAKER_00]: A while back I reported a story about a so-called feature on the nothing-foam 3A light. [SPEAKER_00]: The feature was called Lock Climps.

[SPEAKER_00]: When the 3A light was locked, the screen would display various photos and provide a link for more information about the image. [SPEAKER_00]: If you did happen to click on the provided link, [SPEAKER_00]: You were taken to what's called a clickbait, Farms website. [SPEAKER_00]: Because of complaints from users of the 3A light, nothing decided to allow locklamps to be disabled. [SPEAKER_00]: Problem solved, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it turns out even if you did disabled locklamps, the phone would still attempt to restart the now non-existent app every three seconds, which has a not so good impact on the phone's battery. [SPEAKER_00]: causing significant battery drain. [SPEAKER_00]: Also, it has been found that your personal data is still being sent to that sketchy, clickbait website, despite the app being deactivated, for only the Lord knows what end.

[SPEAKER_00]: Until nothing addresses this feature to the consumer's satisfaction, I'd just stay away from the nothing phone 3A light. [SPEAKER_00]: After years of wrangling around, the verges reporting that social media platform Tik Tok has been finally pride from the hands of Chinese company Bite Dance, at least here in the United States.

[SPEAKER_00]: The deal takes effect on January 22nd of next year and does include the Wanted Tik Tok Recommendation Algorithm, which previously was a point of contention. [SPEAKER_00]: On that data consortium of companies which includes Oracle amongst others, will own 45% of TikTok, while by chance will retain a 20% stake in the company. [SPEAKER_00]: The other 35% will be owned by the previous investors, whoever they are. [SPEAKER_00]: This hub bubble started near the end of Trump's first term.

[SPEAKER_00]: When whistleblowers within TikTok came forward, stating that data of U.S. citizens was being sent to China, despite TikTok stating that all U.S. data was stored on computers within the United States. [SPEAKER_00]: The CEO of Tik Tok, one Mr. Chu, was summoned to testify in front of Congress, where he played the innocent Asian guy to a tea, and this guy should have won some sort of award for his performance that day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Chu apologized for the mistake and promised it wouldn't happen again because of the company's implementation of Project Texas. [SPEAKER_00]: Project Texas was supposed to ensure that absolutely no U.S. citizens' data would leave the United States. [SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Chu played his part so well that he even garnered sympathy from the tech press and TikTok users, you know, poor guy in his company being picked on by the Big Bad United States? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it almost worked.

[SPEAKER_00]: This time went by and, by now, the Biden administration was in power. [SPEAKER_00]: When even more whistleblowers came forward, providing proof that Project Texas was nothing but a force, and that U.S. citizens' data was still flowing to China, and no doubt the MSS, unabated.

[SPEAKER_00]: I guess a political lobbyist hired by TikTok wouldn't or couldn't provide the amount of campaign donations as Iered, because the Biden administration took an action very uncharacteristic [SPEAKER_00]: What followed were numerous court cases that didn't go the way TikTok would have wanted them to. [SPEAKER_00]: By now, Trump version two was back in power, who delayed a ban for a year. [SPEAKER_00]: I presume TikToks would stub lobbyist firms, which leave us where we are now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And no, I'm still not planning on joining TikTok. [SPEAKER_00]: Now here's a subject that I've talked about a lot in the past. [SPEAKER_01]: Are you going to tell us what this subject is? [SPEAKER_00]: Huh? [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's the propensity of foreign nations finding U.S. tick firms large sums of money. [SPEAKER_00]: The European Union and nations within the EU seem to find tick firms like Google, Apple and others with regularity.

[SPEAKER_00]: It makes me think that these governments do this to make up for budget shortfalls. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, according to Apple Insider.com, the U.S. government has decided to fight back. [SPEAKER_00]: According to the article, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee is conducting a hearing on U.S. bigatech discrimination by Europe and others, namely China. [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the US has just paused a $200 billion technology deal with the UK because of this perceived discrimination.

[SPEAKER_00]: Though the UK's isn't as big on finding US-based tech firms as they are trying to regulate them to death. [SPEAKER_00]: In the case of China, they're trying to tilt their domestic market in favor of local competitors. [SPEAKER_00]: I'd be in support of US Tech firm just withdrawing from the Chinese market entirely. [SPEAKER_00]: The long run isn't really worth the time and effort to stay engaged in the Chinese market? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think not.

[SPEAKER_00]: Old Tim Cook might disagree with you there. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure he would. [SPEAKER_00]: The committee has representatives from Apple, Google, and Meta schedule to make their case of the discrimination they have endured. [SPEAKER_00]: Wait, Meta? [SPEAKER_00]: And they probably deserve the fines they've been forced to pay over the years. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes! [SPEAKER_00]: Strangely, there are no witnesses scheduled on behalf of the EU or China.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many either they weren't invited or they decided it wasn't worth their time showing up. [SPEAKER_00]: In any event, they should remember, trade is a two-way street, and you can't be blaming Trump's tariff program because this finding and regulation orgy has been going on for many years now. [SPEAKER_00]: Apple Insider.com is reporting on code references, which created rumors of the iMac Pro making a comeback next year. [SPEAKER_00]: What?

[SPEAKER_00]: The only iMac Pro ever launched by Apple. [SPEAKER_00]: Today, anyway, it was back in 2017. [SPEAKER_00]: It was a time when the entire Mac lineup as a whole was at its lowest point ever. [SPEAKER_00]: The Intel-chipped iMac Pro was a stop-capped measure, meant to hold the line until a new Mac Pro and Macbook Pro were ready. [SPEAKER_00]: Apple was close to bringing Apple's silicon to the market, I didn't want to invest too much in Intel-based Macs.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and Intel didn't help things by constantly delaying the release of their new chips. [SPEAKER_00]: Because it was love the iMac Pro, and I know I lusted for one back in those days. [SPEAKER_00]: Apple discontinued the iMac Pro in 2021. [SPEAKER_00]: And by that time the regular 27-inch IMAC was outselling it, the real cool thing about the IMAC Pro, was that you could purchase one in the color black. [UNKNOWN]: Whoa!

[SPEAKER_00]: The Intel base IMAX were eventually replaced by the Apple M series chip 24-inch Max in 2020. [SPEAKER_00]: When deciding to upgrade my aging at 2015-27-inch IMAX around, well, 2022-ish, I did consider the 24-inch IMAX, but I found that the screen was too small, at least for my needs. [SPEAKER_00]: And more importantly, when I configured one to the specifications I wanted, [SPEAKER_00]: Because with more than I considered it reasonable for what I was getting, skin-flint.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wound up going with the Macmini instead. [SPEAKER_00]: predicted return of the iMac Pro is based on a kernel debug file used by engineers at Apple, which lists unreleased hardware by their internal identifiers. [SPEAKER_00]: File show an iMac running on a chip designated H17C. [SPEAKER_00]: That code is believed to be for the M5 Max chip Apple is developing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, rival site MacRumors.com employees as well as leakers over on Weibo are responsible for coming through this code. [SPEAKER_00]: Be cautioned, though. [SPEAKER_00]: Just because there's apparently an iMac running on a M5 Max chip in a lab somewhere deep within the Cupertino headquarters of Apple doesn't mean an iMac Pro is coming to the market. [SPEAKER_00]: Over the years, there's been rumors of a 27-inch iMac being released real soon now.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first rumors appeared in 2022 when numerous outlets, amongst in Bloomberg, were predicting its imminent release. [SPEAKER_00]: Every now and then the same rumor pops up but so far, well no 27-inch iMac has been announced but let's put on the market. [SPEAKER_00]: If a 27-inch iMac had been available, I would have probably gone one. [SPEAKER_00]: I've always preferred the only one form factor from my computers.

[SPEAKER_00]: My first one was a Tandy video-shack TRS80 Model 4. [SPEAKER_00]: Did it use vacuum tubes? [SPEAKER_00]: Shut up! [SPEAKER_00]: After trying out a few tower-style computers, I purchased an AST Model all in one. [SPEAKER_00]: My last Windows computer was an HP all in one, which the 2015 iMac replaced. [SPEAKER_00]: I've moved on from that now, and I'll be sticking to the Mac mini format going forward. [SPEAKER_00]: Flexibility of adding the peripherals of my choice is hard to beat.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think Apple realizes this trend as evidence by the love they are currently giving to the Mac mini. [SPEAKER_00]: Staying with the iMac, Apple Insider.com, quoting supply chain analytical company The ELEC, says Apple has solicited bids on contracts for 24-inch OLED display panels from Samsung and LG. [SPEAKER_00]: Please, that company can't even get displays for a base model iPhone's right. [SPEAKER_00]: Or, make you think they could handle large OLED computer displays.

[SPEAKER_00]: Apple plans to eventually have most if not all of their company's devices rocking OLED displays. [SPEAKER_00]: Starting with the iPhone lineup, Mission Complete. [SPEAKER_00]: Yep. [SPEAKER_00]: Next up are the MacBooks with the Pro Models first and then the MacBook Airs. [SPEAKER_00]: The iPad Pro line-up already has gone OLED, with the iPad Air and many do to receive OLED display upgrades next year.

[SPEAKER_00]: If this report is true, then the 24-inch iPad will be getting an OLED display probably late next year. [SPEAKER_00]: But I'll leave just the base iPad without an OLED display, and there's been no rumors [SPEAKER_00]: Once it does, though, that model will be unbeatable if Apple can manage keeping its price down. [SPEAKER_00]: The incoming iPhone 17E is rumored to be getting a new feature. [SPEAKER_00]: OK! [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we've heard that before.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the 5 Mag.com, it's predicting that this budget phone, budget? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, for an iPhone, it's considered cheap. [SPEAKER_00]: We'll be getting MagSafe capability. [SPEAKER_00]: The author of this article was just downright giddy about this. [SPEAKER_00]: Other rumors about the 17e getting a dynamic island in a center stage selfie camera have been posited? [SPEAKER_00]: With the dynamic island rumor being all but discredited.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of all these rumored upgrades for the 17e, the magsafe one is the one I feel will most likely be seeing. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, how hard or expensive would it be to add a magnet to the chassis of the phone? [SPEAKER_00]: Why the author is so excited for Magsafe coming to this phone is beyond me. [SPEAKER_00]: You could just add an inexpensive Magsafe case to the phone and get the same result. [SPEAKER_00]: That's exactly what my son and daughter did with their iPhone 16Es.

[SPEAKER_00]: Basically the only thing you're giving up by doing this is wireless charging speed. [SPEAKER_00]: But with a long battery life of the E-series, you just be charging it overnight anyway, where charging speed wouldn't really matter. [SPEAKER_00]: If Apple surprises us and does equip the iPhone 17E with a dynamic island sensor-stage selfie camera along with magsafe, while keeping the purchase price around $600, it'll be a runaway bestseller.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got to give credit where credit is due. [SPEAKER_00]: Over the years I've had problems with relying on Apple's iCloud service when working on projects using multiple devices. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not talking about projects involving huge video files or anything like that. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about word processing files here.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I've described in the past, I've had problems when starting a project at home and then attempting to do some work on it while at my job. [SPEAKER_00]: only to find that I clouded fail to sink either way. [SPEAKER_00]: Heck, even while starting a project on my iPad, let's say in the kitchen of my home, that hours later deciding to continue set project using the Mac and my bedroom, that's some 20 feet away. [SPEAKER_00]: I'd find that again, I clouded didn't sink properly.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when it finally did, my file was corrupted. [SPEAKER_00]: This forced me to use Microsoft's OneDrive, that would sink my files between devices far and wide, seemingly instantly. [SPEAKER_00]: The only problem I had using OneDrive was staying one step ahead of the IT offices attempt to block my personal Microsoft account in my government computer, and that's a battle I eventually won. [SPEAKER_00]: Yay Me!

[SPEAKER_00]: You know battling with the IT office is what I miss most about that job. [SPEAKER_00]: I first noticed improvements to eye-clouds ability to sink files a year or so ago. [SPEAKER_00]: But it still ran into, let's just while I was using it. [SPEAKER_00]: Mainly the length of time it took to sink those files. [SPEAKER_00]: Lately, I Cloud has been working pretty well for me, though not up to one drive standards, but good enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Help to eventually test I Cloud out using a non-apple device at a location that isn't my home, and see how that works. [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, maybe this can be used as a justification for buying a cheap Chromebook. [SPEAKER_00]: Hmm, they're onto something there. [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, Bravo Apple I Cloud team, let's keep the improvements coming. [SPEAKER_00]: And to tame it news, you were for warned.

[SPEAKER_00]: While back I reported that Amazon was going to start cracking down on what could be loaded and side loaded onto the company's popular Fire TV content platform. [SPEAKER_00]: Fire TV is a solid choice for those who've decided to cut the cord from cable TV. [SPEAKER_00]: In the past, I've used both the Fire Stick and the first Fire TV streaming box. [SPEAKER_00]: I eventually moved on to Apple's streaming box, being that I was getting deeper into the giant fruit company's ecosystem.

[SPEAKER_00]: During that time, most of my co-workers used and loved their Fire TV sticks. [SPEAKER_00]: At the time, I couldn't understand their devotion to it. [SPEAKER_00]: That is, until I found out about them being able to sideload content pirating apps onto it. [SPEAKER_00]: Yo, ho, ho, and a bottle of rum. [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly. [SPEAKER_00]: That's when their loyalty to Fire TV became apparent to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whilst a bit me was paying for streaming services and renting movies, they were getting all their content for free. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, 9-5-Google.com is reporting that the thing that made the Fire TV platform so popular, as well as way too extinction. [SPEAKER_00]: Amazon Fire TV devices previously ran on a forked version of Android, but the just released new Fire TV devices run on Amazon's own Linux-based Vega OS.

[SPEAKER_00]: Big O.S. [SPEAKER_00]: does not allow side loading, and even if it did, the pirating apps are based on Android, so they wouldn't work, so then you can just keep using your old Fire TV devices and keep your pirating apps.

[SPEAKER_00]: No. [SPEAKER_00]: According to the article, users of these older devices, now receive a full-screen pop-up notifying them that the Pirating app they've selected has been disabled, and gives a choice of either [SPEAKER_00]: No matter what the choice one makes, the app will not function. [SPEAKER_00]: However, if the APK package of the app is modified, then it will load and function. [SPEAKER_00]: See, this restriction is easy to get around.

[SPEAKER_00]: For now, Amazon's crackdown is still in its early stages. [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, they'll figure out a more complete solution. [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever method they come up with will eventually be defeated, but [SPEAKER_00]: and the normal consumer won't want to play this game. [SPEAKER_00]: So I guess for them, the free ride will be over. [SPEAKER_00]: As was widely reported recently, including on this podcast, Netflix wrapped support for Googlecast.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was preceded by dropping support for Apple's Airplay. [SPEAKER_00]: According to Android Authority.com, the boy's over at the giant fruit company's Apple TV unit. [SPEAKER_00]: decided to enable Googlecast for their Apple TV app. [SPEAKER_01]: I guess this is great news for the five people who use Apple TV on Android.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know that was my original thought when I first read the article, but it seems that many Android users or at least more Android users than you would have thought do use the service. [SPEAKER_00]: That's because Apple has the rights to stream MLS matches. [SPEAKER_00]: What is this MLS that you speak of? [SPEAKER_00]: MLS stands for Major League Soccer, or football as the more civilized parts of their world refer to the sport.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. [SPEAKER_00]: Not only do you get the cast content to televisions and other types of displays, but you get a full featured mini-player with a full UI while streaming. [SPEAKER_00]: That's something Google's own YouTube doesn't provide on their iOS version of the app. [SPEAKER_00]: After hearing this news, two things became apparent to me. [SPEAKER_00]: This is why Apple laid out the big bugs in order to acquire streaming rights for MLS.

[SPEAKER_00]: And secondly, Netflix doesn't want one subscriber casting Netflix content for a bunch of non-suscribers. [SPEAKER_00]: It's all about the money. [SPEAKER_00]: As it always is. [SPEAKER_00]: Times are a changing. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm using little phrase and reference to the West Coast bubble known as Hollywood. [SPEAKER_00]: Every year, the industry hacks that inhibit tinsel town, get together and congratulate themselves by giving awards to each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: This ceremony is known as The Oscars, and its broadcast around the globe. [SPEAKER_00]: For the last 40 years, the American Broadcasting Corporation, A.K.A.A.A.B.C. [SPEAKER_00]: has been the network of choice for disseminating this slopp to the unwashed masses. [SPEAKER_00]: In the long bygone days of the past, the Oscars were considered glamorous, but at shifted starting in the 1970s, when the readers of words are written by others started mouthing off about politics.

[SPEAKER_00]: It has only gotten worse over the intervening years, as these showbiz people's politics have gotten so radical that the Oscar award ceremony has become, for most, anyway, impossible to sit through. [SPEAKER_00]: This has been proven by the dwindling audience numbers over the years. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I had in the horrendous movies Hollywood has been pumping out over the last few years or more, and we've arrived to a tipping point.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nine to five Google.com reports that starting in 2029, the Oscars will be broadcast and he's streamed on YouTube. [SPEAKER_00]: What? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the good news here is that ABC can then run some other programming that people might actually watch. [SPEAKER_00]: The Oscars award shows officially known as the Academy Awards. [SPEAKER_00]: By moving the YouTube, hope to get more viewers, especially younger ones, to watch this garbage. [SPEAKER_02]: What?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, good luck with that bro. [SPEAKER_00]: The actors of Hollywood have made it known over the years that they loathe the majority of the population of the United States, as do the studios, producers, writers, and most likely everyone else involved in that industry. [SPEAKER_00]: If you are located outside of the United States, you'll have to be a YouTube TV subscriber to watch the million and even billionaires, lucky you on how you should live in vote.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm surprised he Academy Awards have been moved to Twitch at this point. [SPEAKER_01]: When AI actors eventually take over Hollywood, I'm sure Twitch will be the streaming platform of choice. [SPEAKER_01]: You've got that right. [SPEAKER_01]: Hotcast News, oh great. [SPEAKER_01]: Yet another lecture on audio interfaces inbound. [SPEAKER_00]: Not this time. [SPEAKER_00]: I promise there'll be no more audio interface talk until next year.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know that's in around 10 days, don't you? [SPEAKER_00]: Yes I do, that's why I made that promise. [SPEAKER_00]: Along with the tech press, podcasting incorporated is in holiday mode, so there's little news this week. [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, it's been quite for some time in the world of podcasting incorporated. [SPEAKER_00]: What is going on is the ever-increasing volume of what to be called AI Slop.

[SPEAKER_00]: AI Slop is defined as a podcast that are made by text to speech computer programs. [SPEAKER_00]: If done well, informational based Slop like news or how to type content, really isn't that bad. [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I was thinking of resurrecting my long dormant fringe dispatches podcast using this method. [SPEAKER_00]: However, while listening to the podcasting 2.0 show last week, the pod father, Adam Curry said he's not going to allow these types of shows onto the podcast index.

[SPEAKER_00]: Besides the fact that many podcasts of these types aren't very good, they take up a lot of precious bandwidth. [SPEAKER_00]: So if fringe dispatches ever does return, it'll still be me behind a mic. [SPEAKER_00]: Add some AI-generated facts, similarly, of my voice. [SPEAKER_00]: The only other thing to report on this week is that Netflix is doing what I call a Spotify concerning podcasts.

[SPEAKER_00]: But unlike Spotify, Netflix is concentrating on video podcasts and is just buying the rights to add these podcasts instead of buying them outright. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a good strategy, and with Netflix buying Warner Bros. studio assets, the company is on the road to becoming the one-stop destination for all entertainment needs. [SPEAKER_00]: Let me guess how to get some live sports going to complete this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the music is playing in this re-Christmas episode is winding down. [SPEAKER_00]: If you celebrate it, have a wonderful holiday. [SPEAKER_00]: BAH! [SPEAKER_00]: I'm back! [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't celebrate it, have a wonderful day anyway. [SPEAKER_00]: Pressure is on you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also remember those in the military at this time who'd be away from their loved ones somewhere Be it stateside or in a foreign country You know I've been there and done that Though I know how it feels Hope you enjoyed this episode I enjoyed making it for you To like what you heard you could make a donation using the link in the show notes Any at all donations will be greatly appreciated

[SPEAKER_00]: You always reach me at ofntpodcast at gmail.com, if you're so inclined, I enjoy hearing from you. [SPEAKER_00]: Remember, don't listen to what they say, watch what they do. [SPEAKER_00]: I think instead of hanging around here, you should be out buying those last minute Christmas gifts, so get off my lawn. [SPEAKER_00]: Stay skeptical. [SPEAKER_00]: Ahhhh, out.

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