effectual data creation facility production Welcome to the OFNT podcast episode 240 which I'm calling iPad mini skinny. Yeah, we all know who finally updated the iPad mini. I celebrated a birthday yesterday and went out to eat and of course I overdid it. That caused me to spend the majority of the rest of the day nodding in and out of sleep. We've been busy getting quotes from moving services and such and it looks like we'll finally be pulling up
steaks in early November. Well enough about me now. Let's get this show started. Before I do get started I have a correction. Last week I mistakenly announced the title of the last episode as being Google destruction inbound. Insert the correct title. Google deconstruction inbound. Perhaps this was a Freudian slip. Anyway the big G does seem to be getting attacked on multiple fronts these days. And it makes me wonder what the company SIN or SINs were
that prompted these attacks. Also while listening to the last episode to see how it sounded in the car there were a couple of advertisements that I found not to my taste. I've stated this before and I'll state it again I guess. If it's not my voice in the ad I have nothing to do with it. And I don't endorse whatever is being sold be it goods or services or in this case votes. Tech news. I'm going to start off with some Apple news being that the giant fruit company
was the dominant party of my news feeds. First up Apple surprisingly announced the new updated iPad mini V.A. Lowly press release last week. This has led many amongst the tech press to question whether there will even be an Apple event this month as has been rumored. Oh well. And they'll probably do some sort of Halloween type event like last year where
they'll introduce the new MacBook Pros. Speaking of which one model has already been leaked big time by some Russian blogger who happened to get his hands on an actual 14 inch version. What I've seen of the video Apple could save some money by just doing another press release. Besides the new M4 chip and the smaller version being available in black the upgrades appear to me minor. Unless Apple has something else up its sleeves. Okay back to the highly
anticipated iPad mini. Six colors dot com has an article running down all the changes to the smallest iPad and there really weren't many. The mini didn't even receive the latest A series chip. Apple opted to give it last year's A17 Pro. What? Which powers the iPhone 15 Pro to add insult to injury or is it injury to insult?
This A17 Pro appears to be what's called a bin chip. Meaning these are the lower performing chips of the entire run having six versus the eight processing cores of the top performing A17 Pro chips. That just shows you how Apple feels about the iPad mini. Despite a small but vocal fandom of this model sales numbers don't justify significant investment in upgrades for it. I recall a similar loud fan base for a small pro level iPhone. Well Apple actually
made one but as we know now not many bought it. At least not enough of them to prevent it from being canceled after two generations. Other upgrades for the iPad mini are Wi-Fi 6E. Bluetooth 5.3 120 gigs of RAM which is up from the 64 gigs of the older models and an 8.3 inch liquid retina display. Most tech companies predicted the mini would be getting
an OLED display like the current iPhones. No. The new iPad mini has 12 megapixel cameras front and back but the front camera is still mounted horizontally and isn't a center stage camera. Heck even the base model iPad camera has those things. The new mini can now only use the Apple Pencil Pro. Sizing normal space gray and star light finishes. A new
blue color was added along with a paler than before purple shade. It's assumed that this iPad will come with eight gigabytes of RAM based on it running on an A17 Pro chip and of course in order to it to run Apple intelligence. A smart folio type case will be available also. The main model starts at $499 and goes up way up from there. A fully outfitted mini would cellular capability will cost around $800. Have the feeling that Apple like the
iPhone mini before it would like to be rid of the iPad mini. Again because it just doesn't sell nearly as well as the other iPads in line up so they're just going to reuse spare inventory parts for constructing it and that's all in order to keep the small but vocal minorities somewhat happy. As I've said before I previously used two iPad minis in the past but larger iPhones and the ability to use web versions of most apps kind of killed the novelty
of using a small iPad well least for me. There will be no iPad mini Pro model coming in the future and in time no iPad mini at all and that's my uneducated opinion. From 9 to 5 Mac dot com comes the headline. There's a new Apple intelligence smart home device and strategy coming in 2025. Report. On quote, citing Apple analysis to juror Mark German who wrote in his power on newsletter. Appless three pillars in this new home automation
strategy and they are. Number one, Apple intelligence with a heavy Siri focus. Number two, home OS, a new software platform built on TV OS and three broader accessory compatibility with the matter home automation standard making that possible. Concerning Siri, the old gal will be given the power to manipulate features and signs apps meaning you could perform a huge set of iPhone iPad and Mac actions without physically
using those devices. You just talk out loud from anywhere within your home. Now do you or I really need this functionality? Again, artificial intelligence seems to be an answer to a problem no one actually has. Two smart displays are on the way. One cheap enough for us unwealthy people and another for the well off amongst us. The poor person's version will allow you to play Apple TV plus content. Do FaceTime calls, serve the web
and access apps like calendar and oats. It will have an iPad like screen and consumers replace multiple units around the house. Well, I'm not paying 500 bucks for each separate Apple smart display to replace my current Amazon Echo array. So lower price has to mean between one and two hundred dollars. And we know that's not going to happen. No.
We are talking Apple here. The more expensive tabletop device would run you upwards of a grand and focus on home security monitoring, advanced video conferencing and media playback with high quality audio. Display would be positioned atop a swiveling robotic limb. Okay. Well, I'll be sticking with what I have now, affordable and dependable Amazon Echoes with or without AI. In a I told you so sort of story, Android authority dot com
headlines in article Google scores massive reprieve and epic case. No big place to our changes yet. Unquote. In the last episode, I ran down a judges' edict against the big G, which would have seriously curtailed their play store operations, potentially costing the tech behemoth millions of not billions of dollars. These edicts were to have gone into effect this November, which didn't give Google much time to implement
them. At the end of my report, I mentioned that things move slow in law fair and that Google would appeal. Well, that's exactly what happened. So I told you so. Yes. Google filed a motion to stay the injunction that demanded sweeping changes to the play store, but there's always a but Google still can't make any deals with prohibit third party play stores on new phones. Google managed to extend the stay and have to succeed in its appeal
if it wants to permanently resist these changes. The companies that were looking forward to this new open landscape, which includes Microsoft, I might add, they'll just have to put their plans on ice. Well, at least for now. I remember the days when companies like Nokia, Microsoft, Android and others would beg developers to put apps on their platforms. Well, times have surely changed. The original Google Meetapp is dead. Long live the original
Google Meetapp. This action was taken because though the original Google Meetapp was the most popular amongst Android and non-Android users, the Google Duo app. Remember that app? Had many more installs, 5 billion versus the 500 million for the original Meetapp. That could be attributed to Duo being pre-installed on many Android phones from many different manufacturers. So to solve this conundrum, Google waved its magic app wand and turned
Duo into the Meetapp. They kept the original Meetapp around for the enterprise market, who are apparently still using Meet in its original clean form. Google continues to update the new Meetapp, bringing features previously reserved for corporate clients to the personal version. We're a Zoom-free family, so we use the original Google Meetapp during the dark days of COVID and beyond. That is until we became unified behind iOS in its FaceTime
app. But who knows what the future may bring with my grandchildren on the cusp of coming of age. We might return to Meetapp circumstances dictate. So pour one out for an older app that many use through some hard times. 9defintGoogle.com was the source use for this story. Now this next story is a very important one. Well, only if you're a big fan of the chain restaurant Chick-fil-A. The headline of an article from 9-5 Mac.com reads, you can now
order Chick-fil-A using CarPlay. Boy, technology is great, isn't it? From the article, for months Chick-fil-A has been testing and teasing its first ever CarPlay app. Now the day has finally come and you can officially place your favorite Chick-fil-A order using nothing but CarPlay. Using the new Chick-fil-A app via CarPlay, you can view nearby locations in place order for drive-through inside pickup or curbside pickup. Oh, the joy this app will
bring. The app will automatically select the default payment method saved to your Chick-fil-A account. Heck, I wasn't even aware that you could have an account with them. Or your Chick-fil-A one balance, whatever, that is. But you can't have it all because you won't be able to peruse the full menu, you'll have to either repeat a recent order or choose from your saved favorites. Well, that's a bummer. To have access to the full menu, you'll have
to open the app on your phone. And who can be bothered doing that during these modern times I ask you? You can obtain this break-through app by downloading the latest version of the Chick-fil-A app from your friendly neighborhood app store. Tell them Jim sent you and you'll receive absolutely nothing in return. Hey, have you finally gotten a phone compatible
with 5G? Or, as your wireless provider just recently got in the board with 5G? Well, according to an article from Android Authority dot com, 5G is yesterday's news as T-Mobile has just announced 5.5G, better known as 5G Advanced. The new 5.5G standard promises faster speeds, high precision, finding, and energy efficiency. Well, that's the good news. The bad news is that you'll most likely need a new phone in order to be able to utilize this
new 5.5G network. T-Mobile will be rolling out the 5.5G network this year. And here I remember being perfectly happy with 3G. Unfortunately for me, the new area which I'm moving to has spotty coverage with T-Mobile. Well, thank goodness for my excellent internet service down there. We finally have a color Kindle as the entire e-reader lineup gets a refresh, unquote. And this is from AndroidPolice.com. This comes too late for me as I just don't read
as much as I used to. Amazon announced four new upgraded Kindle models. The new Kindle Colorsoft, which has the name suggests, has a display that uses a somewhat muted version of color e-ink. I guess if you read comics or graphic novels, this will be a must-have. As for just straight reading, well, not so much. It'll set you back $280. The huge new Kindle Scribe comes with three classes of memory, 16 gigs, 32 gigs, and 64 gigs.
If you're not familiar, the Scribe allows you to annotate and write on it. I guess it's good for note-taking and like. Of course, to better translate your scribbling into something readable, the Scribe has onboard AI to accomplish this. It also comes with the pen you'll need for that aforementioned scribbling. The base model will cost you $400 of your hard-earned dollars, putting the Scribe Squally and iPad territory. The completely tricked-out model will cost you
$450. Next was the upgraded Kindle Paper White, which really hasn't received much of an upgrade besides a slight increase in size. It will cost you $160 for the standard models, and $200 for the signature model. I take it that signature means no ads. A basic Kindle model was added for the Great Unwashed masses, whose main feature was New Colors. My personal favorite, the Kindle Voyager, has been discontinued. This leaves no Kindles with Fiscal Buttons to turn pages.
It's wipe or die going forward. If I ever decide to once again become an Abbott reader, I'll just dust off my old Voyager. We have a history. We go way back. My first eReader was a Sony James Bond 007 Special Edition model. It was built like a tank. Sony eager to get into the market in those days, gave away a free book monthly. I attempted to read through Game of Thrones on that Sony reader. The big problem with Sony was that you had to hook it up to a PC in order to
download books onto it. Eventually I picked up the original Kindle, the one with a keyboard. That after Amazon cut its price in half. The thing that made the Kindle stand out, at least for me, was that it was equipped with what they called Whisper Net, which was based on AT&T's old 2G network. I can recall downloading books while it worked. Eventually Wi-Fi replaced Whisper Net,
but what if there was no Wi-Fi available? Which was the case where I worked. I replaced that original with a paper wipe before getting my current Voyager, which is probably the last Kindle I'll ever buy. The US Federal Trade Commission, following the state of California's lead, has implemented a clicked cancel rule. An article on the Android Authority.com website breaks it all down. Well, I don't know about you, but in the past, while attempting to cancel various
subscriptions, mostly streaming services, it was almost impossible to do so online. You were always forced to talk to a customer service representative. Who would either beg you not to cancel by offering you discounts which would expire within a certain time period? Try and upsell you and get even more money from you, or just be nasty to you, making the whole process horrible. With this new rule, if you are able to subscribe to a service online, you have to be able to
cancel that service online. Well, this is just common sense and should have been a thing a long, long time ago. Unfortunately, companies have six months to comply with this rule. I'll be canceling my direct-tv subscription any day now, and just know I'll have to chat with one of those customer-deservice agents. I'm not looking forward to that. No. Check out I'm using, as I mentioned in the introduction, I celebrated a birthday on Saturday.
Thank you. Thank you. Really, really, thank you. Yeah, I made yet another successful trip around the sun. These days, birthdays are just another excuse for me to buy some new tech, which is something I can get behind celebrating after all. After getting the proper approval from the one whom must be obeyed, I decided to go for the just-released aura generation 4 smart ring. Though this new generation only has modest upgrades versus my current generation 3,
the promise of better comfort over road the concerns I had. My last two aura rings were purchased directly from aura, and that's a shout-out to my daughter Jessica who gifted them to me. However, this time I decided to purchase the ring from Amazon, and there were three reasons for this. Amazon's price is a little less than ours. Amazon's delivery would be faster, and I had a $50 Amazon gift card hanging around collecting dust. Before you purchase a aura ring or any other
smart ring for that matter, you first have to order and get a sizing kit. For the aura 3, I didn't have to do this because there were no physical differences between the generation 3 and the generation 2. Well, that's not so with the generation 4. Instead of the sensors used for measurements mounted on the inside surface of the ring as it was done previously, the generation 4 has the sensors recessed into the inside surface. This makes sizing different than before.
I noticed on Amazon that the ring sizing kit had standard prime two-day delivery, while the ring itself had overnight delivery. So I ordered the ring a sizing kit on Tuesday, October 15, which would have had me taking delivery of the kit on Thursday to 17. I figured I could determine the proper size and place the order for the ring that evening, and have my new piece of tech by Friday that the latest Saturday. Then I could tell you all about
how great or not so great the aura ring 4 was or wasn't. Yeah, things didn't go as planned. First, the delivery date of the sizing kit slipped to Friday by 10 pm. Well, that time came and went with Amazon now saying it would be delivered by the 20th of October. What? Ruining everything I had planned. On Friday, I checked the status again in the expected delivery date slipped until October 21. Now the number one reason I pay what is now a hefty
yearly fee for Amazon Prime is for the two-day delivery. For it to tracking the shipment I see that my item arrived in New York on Wednesday afternoon. Then it left the Amazon Distribution Center that evening, and then it arrived in New Jersey Friday morning. I currently reside in New York, so why has it been shipped to New Jersey? Well, I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when the sizing kit showed up two days before the new
expected date. I quickly sighed to my finger and probably ordered the ring. It showed up early this morning, so I haven't had time to really check it out yet. First impressions are, the ring is lighter than the older generations. The black color I ordered is actually black, not the dark bronze looking black I ordered last time. The charger is much nicer than the last, and though it's made in Estonia, it's a product of Finland. I hadn't realized that before.
I wonder if there is a Nokia connection somewhere in there. I'll update you in more detail in the next episode. Now back to the story. This isn't the first time that I've had items ordered through Amazon misrouted, but lately this has been happening more often. Just last June I ordered an item from Amazon which promised one day shipping. Well, two days later it had actually managed to make it to my local Amazon Distribution Center. I wanted to be shipped off again to New Jersey.
I wound up cancelling that order because it would have arrived too late for its intended use. And that was the fluid connect to audio interface that I chronicled in previous episodes. Because of this current delay, I was rethinking the purchase of the new aura ring, and if the sizing kit didn't show up as early as it did, I might have just talked myself out of doing so. The aura ring isn't a cheap item. I could have probably just gotten along with my current aura ring
just fine. Or is still supporting the generation 3 unlike the generation 2 which support for was promptly dropped once the 3 was introduced. With the luster of a new shiny bobble now restored, I have something to play with for a bit. Oh, my son did give me a Mow-No, mining is Mow-No, my own-no, Microsoft Boom Arm, which was a pleasant surprise, and of which I'm using to record this episode. So my birthday wasn't a total bust.
Entertainment news. Another week and other streaming service raising its subscription prices. It seems like once one service raises their prices, all the others follow suit quickly. According to Android Authority.com, this week's price gouger is again Disney+. He didn't Disney Plus just raise the rates earlier in the year? Well, the basic ad supported tiers monthly price will rise from $7.99 per month to $9.99 per month. While the premium plan goes from $13.99 per month to $15.99 per month.
Yeah, that's a $2 increase for both tiers. These streaming services attempt to justify these all to frequent price increases by promising new and improved content, which usually never arrives. After purging a lot of streaming services just before I retired a couple of years ago, yeah, I'm looking at having a new round of purges. The first one on my list is Direct TV Now, which is happening real soon now, which will be replaced with a basic local channel streaming service.
Peacock is also a goner. I may watch one movie a month on that service. I only kept it around because it only cost me $24 annually, but now they want to charge me $80 annually. And that's for the ad supported tier. Well, Spotify is again on the chopping block because I just hardly use it. With all the problems I have with Amazon's prime delivery lately, and the company adding even more advertising to their previous ad free video service, I'm considering getting rid of them too.
I will be keeping Hulu and Netflix though. Hulu has a lot of content my lovely wife and I consume. While Netflix has become our go-to last resort option, if we can't find anything worth watching on any other service, we go to Netflix and usually find something. I get paramount plus free because I'm a Walmart plus subscriber, and because I'm a customer of T-Mobile, I get the MLB TV service gratis.
I'm cutting the cord once promised freedom and money saving, but now it's getting more expensive than even cable. Podcast news. I'm always trying to simplify the production workflow of this podcast. I'm a plug-in company, IsoTope, released a product called VIA, or spelled VEA, earlier in the year. I downloaded the trial version to give it a spin and I'm using it exclusively in the production
of this episode. Normally I use five separate plug-ins from three, sometimes four different companies in production. Now my ears aren't what they used to be. Having been subjected to jet engine noise and especially loud heavy metal concerts for most of my adult life, both of which have, of course, taken their toll. So what sounds good to these tired old ears may not sound the same, but those with a normal hearing.
Realizing this, I'm relying on the AI of VEA or VIA to shape the sound of this episode with only slight tweaking from me. If you can let me know if the audio on this episode sounds as good or better, or perhaps worse than the previous ones, well you'd be doing me a solid. Drop me a line at ofntpodcast.gmail.com if you can. I'd really appreciate it. One of the first public radio launch podcasts, this American life has run into a bit of financial trouble.
Eventually the podcast spun off from NPR at the dawn of podcasting incorporated, eventually winding up with the former newspaper of record, The New York Times. Recently the Times put most of their podcasts behind a paywall and jettisoned the this American live podcast. All too late to go home to mother NPR, wherever in their own problems with podcasting, NPR decided to represent the orphan show in regards
to ad sales. Unfortunately for this American life, the podcast ad market is currently in the dumpster, so producer Ira Glass is launching a premium subscription for the show. Good luck with that bro. Unless a listener really believes in what you're doing, well they're not going to chip in no matter what quote premium content,
unquote you promise. The market for the subscription model to podcast has fallen off and Apple subscription podcasts have the receipts or rather lack of receipts to prove it. You have a notice, things are tough outside of the NPR bubble Mr. Glass most likely resides in. Listers just don't have the extra cash to spend, especially when there are so many podcasts out there that are actually better than this American life.
To his credit Mr. Glass operated on what can be considered a shoe string budget, well at least for live shows, he does have access to NPR studios though and I'm sure they're expensive to rent time from. Also having 36 production staff members on board isn't cheap either. My advice for what it's worth is to ditch the expense of NPR studios and personnel and hire some young on to do all your audio production while using those savings for a decent audio interface and
microphones. You know I'm not getting any joy from seeing an old established podcast faltering. This American life was a trailblazer but all the years when independent figuring there was big money to be made which at first well there was. Things changed in NPR and their ilk are the ones who changed it and in my opinion not for the better. Self-described radio futureologist and podcast industry maven James
Cridlin posted an interesting article on his blog recently. Mr. Cridlin attends numerous broadcasts and podcasts conferences and is the guest on many of the various panels they have. While at a recent public broadcaster conference in Canada he tackled the current trend of public broadcasters worldwide moving towards exclusivity. I'll move probably due to the decline in ad revenue. These public in most cases I use that word lightly. Broadcasters and podcasters are
moving their podcast content to their own apps and sometimes behind a paywall. Just despite getting much of their funding from taxpayers money. Mr. Cridlin tells the tale of a representative of Swedish public radio bragging about pulling their most popular shows off third party apps forcing you to download their app in order to listen to them. I'm sure a monthly stipend is involved also. The rep bragged that none of the Daniel Eck, the CEO of Spotify, turned up at his office within
two hours of taking that action. The panel's audience was impressed by this flex. Cridlin points out that Mr. Eck is on recorders saying exclusives don't work for creators and he should know because Spotify tried its hand at signing the biggest podcast to Spotify and losing a bunch of money doing so when it was all said done. I agree with Mr. Cridlin on this subject. taxpayer funded public radio podcasts and broadcasts should be disseminated on as many platforms as
it can. These new age public radio execs and I'm looking at you National Public Radio BBC and others seem to be attempting to take the public out of public radio. For them, it's all about. In regular podcasting incorporated news, rainnews.com says that OG podcast hosting service, Lipson has hired ex-spotify exec Brendan Monahan. Monahan was the co-founder of MikaPhone which was acquired by Spotify for a heap of cash back in 2020. Over the years, Lipson appeared to be suffering
a slow death. The company's software was archaic and their pricing was far above their competitors who offered a better value. In order to stay afloat, a prior management partnered with a Chinese company, Site Unseen and that company turned out to be nothing more than a content pirating outfit. New management came in and had to sue in order to get back shares of the company from the now
jailed members of that Chinese based company. Even newer management has recently come in and made some significant changes to Lisbon and that's slowly turning the ship around. With this hire of a very successful industry executive, Lipson has a better outlook going forward. However, the damage has been done. Lipson lost most of its top shows a couple of years ago in mass and I was at the beginning of the rise of the podcast industrial complex.
The music is playing on this crisp autumn evening, signaling the imminent finish of episode 240 of the Off-NT podcast. Perhaps there'll be two more episodes produced here in Old New York. Anyway, 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 and in all donations will be greatly appreciated. You can always reach me at on FNT podcast at gmail.com if you're so inclined.
I'd enjoy hearing from you. Remember, don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do. You know, it's not quite Halloween yet, so why are you still milling around here? I've got a busy week ahead, so get off my lawn. Stay skeptical. Ah, milk. See you. Election Day is Tuesday, November 5th. Now is the time to make a plan. What do you plan to
vote absentee by mail? In person at your county auditor's office before Election Day, or at your polling place on November 5th, it's important you take steps now to make your plan at voterready.ioa.gov. Remember, Election Day is Tuesday, November 5th. Find more info at voterready.ioa.gov. This message is presented by the Iowa Secretary of State.