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Because when it comes to your business, it's not just about keeping the lights on. It's about keeping everything secure. Welcome to the OFNT Podcast, episode 254, which I'm calling Hearing the Dialogue. Friday afternoon saw the delivery of my LG soundbar, which of course... compliments my new LG television. I'll get to that in the tech I'm using section. Well, the polar vortex has finally departed.
taking with it the unusually cold weather we've been experiencing in the southern united states we're back to normal normal meaning nice mild weather Mild compared to other colder regions of the United States. Perhaps my new neighbors will stop blaming us for bringing the colder climate from New York down here with us. Oh, and thanks to working out using primarily my Peloton, I'm off my hypertension medicine.
I've suffered from a bit of insomnia since stopping the medication. What? The blood pressure medicine caused dizziness, which helped me to fall asleep. I'm just about over it now. Okay, let's get this episode started. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go. Tech News. Well, this didn't take long. In the last episode, I reported on the T-Mobile-SpaceX partnership bringing text messages via satellite to T-Mobile subscribers. Well, at least a beta version of it.
T-Mobile stated that voice and video calling would follow shortly. Well, according to AndroidAuthority.com, European cellular carrier Vodafone achieved the first-ever video call over satellite using a normal smartphone. Wow! Not only that, but this feature will work on any existing 4G or 5G smartphone. Commercial rollout begins later this year.
with broader coverage expansions continuing through 2026. It's a brave new world out there, kids. At this rate, those previously coveted dedicated satellite phones will be a thing of the past. A couple of weeks ago, a small and then unknown Chinese startup released an open-source AI model, which could run just fine on Apple Silicon, as well as those super expensive NVIDIA chips. Not only that...
But this upstart Chinese AI model was much lighter and cost just a fraction of the investment money that ChatGPT used for development while exceeding it in benchmark testing. This sent Wall Street into a panic, with NVIDIA and related stocks sent into a tumble. The AI model was called DeepSeek, and it quickly became the number one app on Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store.
Upon hearing this news, my first thought was about the size of the financial hit my 401k savings plan took. Ouch! My second thought was to wait and see what the gimmick was. There's always a gimmick with disruptive tech coming from China. It didn't take long for OpenAI, parent company of ChatGPT, to accuse DeepSeek of using ChatGPT to teach its model. I have no sympathy for OpenAI because how do you think they taught their ChatGPT model?
That's right, by stealing everything they could from the internet. Toward the end of last week, cybersecurity firm Wiz found a major security lapse at DeepSeek. which leaked over 1 million log entries containing chat history, secret keys, and backend details, all left exposed in a company database.
The database allowed full administrative control without authentication, which exposed API secrets, internal logs, and plain tech chat messages, all of which posed a risk to both DeepSeq and its users. DeepSeq secured the database only when it was notified by Wiz of the Leak. Get it? Wiz of the Leak? Yeah, I'll be here all month. So use DeepSeq at your own risk.
It seems to me that DeepSeek rushed out this product as soon as it could. Security be damned in order to score some fast cash before the crash. Well, if that security risk wasn't enough for you... Well, here's the headline of an article from AndroidAuthority.com. Quote, Apple in-house chips have security flaws that could expose your Gmail inbox to attackers. Unquote.
Researchers have found two security flaws in Apple A and M chips that can expose user information, including credit card details, location history, and email contents, all while a user is browsing the Internet. The headline is kind of misleading here. Not just Gmail is affected, everything is affected. All Apple products released since 2021 have this vulnerability. Hey, but don't worry.
Apple is working on a fix for this problem and should have it real soon now. Okay. Geez, no matter what precaution one takes these days, it seems bad actors can and will find a way to exploit hidden vulnerabilities. They try hard enough. Maybe the internet wasn't such a great idea after all. No. In more bad news, well, at least for me, quoting not just an analyst, but what's called a key analyst.
9to5mac.com reports that the upcoming iPhone SE4 will have a notch and not a dynamic island for its display. This contradicts last week's reports of which I enthusiastically seized upon, stating that the mid-range iPhone would be equipped with a dynamic island. Well, I guess I'll be waiting another three years for such an iPhone SE. But hey, who knows? Perhaps some other analysts will claim that the SE4 will have a dynamic island next week.
Either way, I'm sticking with my prediction that the iPhone SE4 will be disrupted to the mid-range smartphone market. And some good news, well, for some anyway. MacRumors.com is reporting that Apple is close to selecting a supplier for a foldable display. According to the article, Apple is in the final stages of selecting the supplier for its next-generation foldable display technology, which may or may not be used for a foldable screened iPhone.
There are rumors that Apple is working on a foldable iPad instead, so don't get your hopes up. OG supply chain honcho, the legendary Ming-Chi Kuo, suggests that a foldable iPhone is still in the planning stages and won't be ready until... Late 2027. Well, I don't know if I should break this news to my lovely wife yet. She's all in on an Apple foldable iPhone and I hate seeing her disappointed.
That's because if she's disappointed, well, I'm disappointed too. If you know what I mean. Yes. Rival but non-legendary analyst Mark Gurman predicts we could see a football iPad by 2028. Well, that's not a product that many are asking for, but that sure didn't stop Apple from releasing the Vision Pro. You do remember that product, right? Oh, yes. No.
The lack of Apple intelligence in some regions is impacting iPhone sales, reads the headline from appleinsider.com. Though the giant fruit company's financials were up last quarter, iPhone sales, especially in China, were down. You can blame this decrease on a boring update, or that Apple intelligence is a flop. Or maybe the whole smartphone market is stagnant. but you can't tell that to your board members and shareholders now can you no so what do you tell them
Well, you tell them that the reason for your cash cow's underperformance is because your equally unperforming AI wasn't available in some regions. That's what you tell them. Will these board members believe you? Well, who cares? This excuse will hold them off for at least another quarter, and perhaps they'll forget this explanation when the sales of iPhones further decline next year. Man, I'm in a mood today, aren't I? Yes.
The consensus of the tech press on the new Samsung Galaxy S25 is... Boring! What we have here is yet another slab equipped with a brilliant display screen and some cameras slapped on around back. Yeah, there's even a slimmed down version of the S25 phone that no one asked for, but not to worry. Oh, yeah. This type of tech has seemed to have reached its zenith.
with the action being in the cheaper smaller profit margin not as glamorous mid-range smartphone market apple has its new se4 just about ready for that mid-range market But all Samsung presently has are stripped-down versions of its Galaxy flagships available. I'm telling you, whoever dominates the mid-range market wins. And remember...
Samsung has a lot of competition in that bracket, while Apple really doesn't. The SE4 might even manage to take a significant chunk out of the mid-range market from Samsung itself. We'll just have to sit back and see. A federal judge has told Apple that it's too late for the company to intervene in the Google Monopoly case. Oh, no. This according to appleinsider.com.
Back in August, a federal judge found that Google was a search and advertising monopoly and ruled that the Big G had to stop the practice of paying other companies to use its search engine as standard. Apple, who stands to lose billions of dollars this year from Google as a result of that decision, filed a motion to defend its property interest over its contract with Google. The judge said that Apple knew or should have known back in 2020.
when the anti-monopoly case against Google started, that it could affect Apple's bottom line. In other words, the giant fruit company was too late to the party. I guess the folks over in Cupertino didn't think that their buddies over at Google would be judged so harshly. Well, Google did this to themselves by fudging search results and ensuring the company's own advertisements had priority within those results.
Well, no sympathy here. I haven't used Google for internet searches in years. Somewhere, Steve Jobs must be smiling. Tech I'm using. As I discussed in a previous episode, I decided on buying an LG-branded soundbar to go along with my new LG television in order to complete my home entertainment system.
I already have an LG Blu-ray display for the rare times I actually play a DVD. I was planning on purchasing a couple of full-size Apple HomePods for this purpose, but in the end, I just couldn't justify the high price of them. I mean, the HomePods would basically be a dedicated sound system for the television as I don't use Apple's digital assistant for anything. I favor Amazon's digital assistant.
as I have since being offered a pre-release Echo back in late 2014. And that was a time which I consider as being... the day. I never do forget you first. Am I right? Instead, I decided to go with the LG S70TY soundbar, which also comes with a separate subwoofer. I would have liked to have added the two rear speakers that LG offers for a true surround sound experience.
but the way my living room is situated, there's really no place to mount them. Oh yeah, I could have found a way to make that work, but the speakers would intrude into the kitchen, and the one who must be obeyed would not allow such a thing. No. The LG soundbar arrived early Friday afternoon and after unboxing units from their very well-packed boxes, I read the instructions, yeah, I actually do that, and hauled the two pieces to my living room.
Setup was easy. I connected my Apple TV streaming box using a Monster Premium HDMI cable to the soundbar, then ran another Monster HDMI cable out to the television. I paired the outboard subwoofer to the soundbar via Bluetooth and, hoping for the best, turned on everything. Well, thanks to the television's HDMI ARC connection, the Apple television's remote can control most basic features.
You know, like on and off volume and stuff. To test the soundbar, I streamed the best war movie of all time, which is Saving Private Ryan, and cranked up the volume. As soon as the combat scene started, I noticed hearing sounds I've never had before while watching this movie. Most importantly, I can now hear the dialogue better than I ever had before.
And that was my biggest complaint in regards to watching content on my various televisions of the past. The new LG television is included. The sound coming from the soundbar and woofer was so loud... It caused my lovely wife to come downstairs and, should I say, yell something at me. Due to the volume of the speakers, I couldn't understand what she was attempting to tell me, though I had a good idea. Yes. So, I turned the volume down and replied,
What? She then repeated, You're half deaf already. Are you trying to complete the job? To which I replied, What? I then went on to inform her that I was just testing things out and assured her I wouldn't be watching television at such a high volume in the future. Well, at least when she was at home anyway.
The thing I wasn't as impressed with was the surround effect. Sure, it's a lot better than the built-in television speakers, but certainly not mind-blowing. Later that evening, I watched a couple of shows and a couple of movies and came away with the same impression. Dialogue was greatly enhanced but the surround sound effect, well, not so much. This is probably due to the acoustics of the room itself and the lack of rear speakers.
In comparison to my old setup, which consisted of two Sonos IKEA-branded speakers augmented by two Apple HomePod Minis, the overall sound is better. especially dialogue, but believe it or not, I got a slightly better surround sound effect with the older array. Another thing I found is that while the soundbar functions just fine, my television doesn't recognize it as being a...
LG soundbar and makes the advanced features unavailable to me. I haven't had time to fiddle around with things, but I'm sure I'll eventually figure it out. For half the price of what an Apple HomePod set would have cost me, I think the LG 70TY is well worth it, even without access to its advanced features. In the last episode, I wove a tale of woe.
telling you about breaking of one of the Delta cleats off in the pedals of my Peloton indoor cycle with a chunk of said cleat remaining on my cycling shoe. This rendered the cycle unrideable, and of course I immediately ordered replacement cleats from Amazon. Well, I actually ordered two pairs of cleats.
One pair was the same exact model that Peloton uses and a slightly more expensive brand that featured some enhancement. The cleats arrived last Tuesday and the big decision I faced was which brand to install. Should I stick with what I know and just install the Peloton Supply brand? It would have been easier because I would only have to install one cleat. There was nothing wrong with the other shoe's cleat. Or should I try out the so-called advanced cleat?
Well, I went with the latter. The advanced cleat promised easier clipping in and out of pedals, made possible by the rubber coating on the bottom of them, and would allow more movement of the foot. That's something the company calls float. After installing the cleats onto my shoes, I hopped on board the old Peloton to test them out. I found these new cleats make clipping in and out of the pedals of the cycle extremely easy.
So easy that at first I wasn't sure I was even clipped into those pedals. You don't get the loud clicking noise of the pellet time supplied cleats nor the feedback of being locked in. But you actually are. The float feature allows you to move your feet around on the pedals thus feeling much more comfortable, which is, I guess, far less fatiguing. One slight twist of the foot and you're free of the pedals.
the peloton supplied cleats required me to use most of the strength i could muster to free myself from one pedal and then having to throw my leg over to the side of the cycle where my other foot was still clipped in in order to free it This will make it hard to ever go back to the standard Peloton supply cleat if I ever need to. I've had a long, blemished history with the Samsung brand of electronics.
It's the main reason I stayed away from the brand for most of my tech life. The first product I bought that had a Samsung badge on it was a VHS video recorder. You know, what's commonly called a VCR. Just forget about it. Though I hear the old VHS standard is making a comeback these days. The VCR worked great in the winter, but as soon as the temperature reached over 80 degrees Fahrenheit...
it would completely overheat and shut down. This was circa 1985. In 1987, I purchased a 20-inch CRT-based color television set, which promptly developed a screen defect. Now fast forward to 2007 and I was the owner of a Samsung Blackjack Windows CE phone. I didn't own it for long because the phone would just freeze up.
One minute it would be working fine, only for me to discover hours later that nothing was being updated, and after a reboot, a bevy of missed calls and text notifications would bombard the phone, mainly causing the ire of my lovely wife. The last Samsung tech I ever bought was a Galaxy S5 back in 2014. That was the phone that had the back that looked like a Band-Aid. Well, I loved the screen of the phone, but the fingerprint scanner was useless and...
There was an overload of bloatware software installed on it. After about a month, the phone started stuttering until it became full-on slow. Painfully slow. At the time, I swore to myself that I wouldn't buy another Samsung product, and I've kept that oath for now. I just haven't had any luck with their products. I bring this up because while perusing an electronics section at a department store I recently visited...
I found myself admiring Samsung televisions and soundbars. I even considered buying a Samsung soundbar, if you can believe that. Well, it didn't happen. And speaking of luck or lack of... A month or so ago, I reported that I had switched from Spotify to Amazon Music for my main listening app for music and, more importantly, podcasts. Especially while on the road.
That's because Amazon has the best CarPlay integration of any third-party app I've ever used. Also, Amazon has a deal with many producers of the audio dramas I listen to, which brings them to Amazon Music ad-free. That's why I was dismayed with the following headline from AndroidAuthority.com last week, which reads, Hikes individual and family pricing, unquote. What? The individual plan, which I use, will increase by $1 per month to $10.99 for Prime members and $11.99 for non-Prime members.
While Family Plan subscribers will pay $3 more per month, which is $16.99. You know, these darn subscription services with their constant price increases are just out of control. The money I had saved by switching to Amazon Music has now been negated. Oh, and don't think that the other music and podcast streaming services won't follow suit with their own price increases shortly. How dare you!
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Entertainment news. Oh, England. Will you never be free of the grip of the television license fee in the BBC? Hello there. An article from audiopolice.com tells of an idea from BBC chairman Samir Shah. that would see users of Netflix be required to pay for a license fee even if they don't watch the BBC at all. What the hell? As of now, if you exclusively watch Netflix or Amazon's Prime Video,
you are not required to pay the £170 license fee. However, being that those two streaming services are featuring more and more live content these days, The Beeb wants to redefine the license as being for all live television. Oh, no, you don't. Oh, yes, they will. I have an idea. If the BBC would produce competitive programming, maybe they wouldn't have to worry about figuring out ways to burden citizens with a fee. People would gladly pay for the license.
I used to be a fan of content from the BBC, but as of now, I don't consume anything produced by that organization. For me, the rot started in the news department and has spread to all other aspects of its programming. My last attempt at consuming BBC content, in this case headline news, lasted less than 10 days because of the bias of the announcers and even reporters bleeding through. Something has to give, wouldn't you say?
As far as entertainment goes in the Old Ford household, Paramount+, which I received gratis with my Walmart Plus membership, has become our most watched streaming service. I find that their originals lineup can't be beat. We watch Dexter Original Sin, The Agency, well, I kind of watched that one by myself, Landman, Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown, and Ghost on the Service.
Rival surface Peacock, which is much more expensive than Paramount+, has or had some great originals, but most have stopped at just one season. It's been almost two years since Seasho's had their inaugural season, so who knows if we'll ever see any other further seasons. So for now, Paramount Plus rules. Podcast news.
While I'm certainly pleased with my Lewitt Connect 6 audio interface, it appears Lewitt is ignoring the company's first interface, instead concentrating on its simpler and cheaper Connect 2 interface. I haven't received a firmware update for the Kinect 6 in almost a year now, which is sort of a blessing in disguise because the last time I updated the firmware, let's just say bad things happened. Yes. However, for the $300 price tag...
you will not be able to find a more advanced audio interface on the market than the Kinect 6. Anyway, I've been thinking about purchasing a Rode-Rodecaster Duo in the future. the duo has its own well-documented problems but road pays more attention to that model however the roadcaster duo costs twice as much as the lewitt connect 6 and is a lot larger than the diminutive lewitt interface
But I guess all the buttons and lights of the road come at a cost. But now I'm going to wait and see if Lewitt will come out with an updated Kinect 6 before making a decision. Or will I? As I always say, time will tell. Lately, there's a huge push going on in the world of podcasting to either include or switch completely to a video component for your podcast.
This push is led by YouTube and Spotify with the promise of unbridled riches being used as a lure. After some consideration, I've decided to stay put with an audio-only podcast. The main reasons for this is... Well, camera equipment is expensive. Editing video is both time consuming and it takes at least two hours to render on my M2 chipped Mac mini. That two hours is just for...
Audio with a generic graphic overlay provided by my hosting service. Besides, who really wants to see me yakking into a microphone? Both Spotify and YouTube have their own file format for video and... Both are attempting to bypass or even kill off the humble RSS feed, which is the main means of distribution for audio-only podcasts. The RSS standard does have a provision for carrying video, but it is seldom used.
That's because of quality issues and the dearth of podcast listening apps which support it. Spotify and YouTube want to control the podcast space, and this is their way of attempting to do so. Thanks to the podcasting 2.0 standard and index, a podcast will never be deplatformed like in the past, no matter what the content is. As long as the podcast is on the podcast index and the listener has a podcasting 2.0 listening app, there's no way to ban a particular show, at least not yet.
Unfortunately, I'm sure someone somewhere is working on that. That's why you hear me constantly harping about having a podcasting 2.0 compliant app on hand, even if it's used only as a backup. You know, it's good to have options, even if it results in redundancy, which is a trait I picked up from my time in the military. So no, there will be no video version of the OFNT podcast.
The new Trump administration stunned mostly the legacy media apparatus in the United States by announcing that it's opening up the White House briefing room to podcasters and influencers. or should I say, vetted podcasters and influencers. The new White House spokesperson also announced a dedicated seat in the first row for so-called new media. Well, podcasting has come a long way from being looked down upon.
by established big-money mainstream media, who have no one to blame but themselves for this development. Instead of news, these outlets have turned into the propaganda vehicle for the Democratic National Committee and their candidates and operatives. They are also beholden to their advertisers, the largest being Big Pharma. If Trump truly wishes to change this, he could outlaw pharmaceutical advertising on public airwaves, like tobacco products were.
We'll have to wait and see if this happens. I don't know. A lot of money is at stake. So far, around 7,000 podcasters have applied for a seat at the briefing room. To qualify, you have to be a daily news broadcast, which certainly thins out the hurt a bit. And the music is playing as the episode as well as the night start coming to an end. 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. You can always reach me at OFNTpodcast at gmail.com and that's if you're so inclined. I'd enjoy hearing from you. Remember, don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do. Hey, springtime is not that far off now. In the meantime, get off my lawn. Stay skeptical. See ya.
Let's talk about something that might be keeping you up at night. Cybersecurity. According to Vanta's latest State of Trust report, it's the number one concern for UK businesses. That's where Vanta comes in. Whether you're a startup, growing fast or already established, Vanta can help you get ISO 27001 certified and more without the headaches.
Invanta allows your company to centralize security workflows, complete questionnaires up to five times faster, and proactively manage vendor risk to help your team not only get compliant, but stay compliant. Stop stressing over cybersecurity and start focusing on growing your business. For a limited time, our audience gets $1,000 off Vanta at vanta.com slash go.
That's V-A-N-T-A dot com slash go for $1,000 off. Because when it comes to your business, it's not just about keeping the lights on. It's about keeping everything secure.