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A factual data creation facility production. Now, Green Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee. And here's your host. Welcome to episode which I'm calling the Asawa returns Tagalog word first of the many languages of the Philippine. It's great. This week I have plenty of Apple news, a sprinkling of Android news, and a story which affects the whole tech industry. I also bring you the usual tech I'm using. A fairly important entertainment news development That's right.
AndroidPolice.com is an article which claims that the Android mobile operating system is evolving with Generation Z. That's Generation Z for those outside of the United States. Thank you. The author of the article wonders what this will mean for those that are not a member of that generation. Supposedly, Google is tailoring Android towards Generation Z as its members become the dominant force in digital culture.
Now, what does the author think? Generation Z values in a mobile operating system? I don't know. You tell me. Hey, calm down. Well to start with, something more playful. Okay. In this case, playful meaning more vibrant colors, dynamic themes, and customization. As far as hardware goes, the article says Generation Z wants things like transparent back panels, LED lighting for notifications, and quirky widgets.
I don't know what the term quirky widgets is referring to. Wouldn't you rather have widgets that, I don't know, give timely updates and information? Yes. Maybe it's the late boomer in me that doesn't understand the concepts behind smartphone widgets. All the other things listed, well, we've already had since the beginning of smartphones. Emoji art is another thing that's tied to this playfulness.
Because it is claimed that Generation Z is busy creating content, Android and its OEMs will be upgrading cameras along with native video editing and advanced selfie tools. The author goes on to say, in so many words that is, that Google's full court press for RCS text messaging was a bit misguided because messaging fundamentally is fragmented because it being more platform specific
You know, but messaging has always been that way, hasn't it? Yes. Of course, AI has claimed to be important amongst Generation Z. Well, of course it would be. The tech world has invested heavily into it, and they need these youngsters to get used to using it. All with the goal of getting them to pay a subscription in order to continue using it. The article ends with the author declaring that this Generation Z makeover will be a win for everyone, young and old.
Unlike a lot of other people, I feel Gen Z is pretty much like other generations. Eventually they'll get jobs, family, and children, you know, get a life, and age out of the things described in this article. To me, what the author is describing here is a mobile operating system for children that resembles a cartoon character smartphone. They're not giving Gen Z credit enough, insinuating that they'll be forever immature.
Google Messages is rolling out an unsubscribe button to stop SMS and RCS spam. Apple's iOS has had a similar things for a while now and I thought Android already had this. I seem to recall that when I used Android back in what's now apparently referred to as The day having this option. Then again, I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time now, would it? No, it would not.
Perhaps I'm getting unsubscribe confused with reporting spam. Yes? Either way, this is a welcome addition that will further enable users to take more control over who or what can message them. Google's Pixel weather app keeps improving over time. Too bad Apple bought and destroyed the one weather app to rule all. The deer departed dark sky.
I'm sort of a weather app aficionado and currently run multiple weather apps on my phone, all in hopes of finding one as accurate and hyper-focused as Dark Sky was. I'm running Apple, Carrot, Forca, and T.io weather apps all on my phone at the same time. Besides getting too many weather-related alerts, none have proven themselves to be as accurate as Dark Sky was. I'll keep trying, though. I might do a weather app review in the next episode.
Anyway, I think Google launched its own weather app a little over a year ago, and what started as a basic weather app is slowly evolving into a fully featured experience. I've unfortunately never used Pixel Weather, so I can't vouch for its accuracy, but from the screenshots I've viewed, I really like the looks of it. According to an article on 9to5google.com from last week, Google has added a pollen tracker to the app. So far, this is only for the United States.
While some would consider this to be a minor update, people like my lovely wife, who suffers heavily from seasonal allergies, would disagree. Competition is a good thing. I know if Android was my main mobile operating system. What? That would be heresy. Heresy, I tell you. Hey, you never know. I'd feel better about having a decent weather app on my phone right out of the box instead of having none. TSMC breaks ground on third plant in Arizona, reads the headline from appleinsider.com.
If you didn't know, TSMC is the leading computer chip manufacturer in the world. Based in Taiwan, the foundry has pioneered the 4nm chip process. You'll find companies such as Apple, Nvidia, and AMD have their chips made by the company. Originally, TSMC had planned on having six plants completed in Arizona by 2024, but construction of the second plant was delayed by two years and now won't be operational until 2028. Baby steps. Baby steps.
Perhaps the tariffs will light a fire under TSMC to get these factories finished. geez i'm old enough to remember when intel was the world's leading chip fabricator poor management and profit maximization issues which still plague intel knock them out of the top spot And speaking of manufacturing plants, 9to5mac.com reports that two more iPhone assembly plants have come online in India. One from Foxconn and one from Tata.
The Tata factory will be responsible for assembling previous generations of iPhone, while the Foxconn plant will take care of assembling current generations of iPhones. This is the second Foxconn iPhone factory in India. As I reported last week, Apple intends to move the manufacturing of all United States sold iPhones out of China by the end of 2026.
Though Apple has obtained tariff exemptions for iPhones imported from China, these exemptions are considered to be temporary. Expect this relocating of manufacturing out of China to continue, and not just Apple doing it. While this will be good for India and other countries where manufacturing will eventually be moved to, this trend will further damage China's economy.
Well, let's be frank here. Why, hello, Frank. Oh, keep quiet. You know what I meant. China has been playing dirty pool for years, so it will suit them if you'll feel some middle-class pain for once. As I've said ad nauseum, it makes good business sense having a distributed manufacturing base.
Hopefully the same will happen with supply chains, which still mainly reside in China. I beat China all the time. Oh, goodness. Yeah, yeah, we've all heard this claim by now. The proof will be in the pudding, won't it now, love? Yes, it will, and that remains to be seen. Again from 9to5Mac, Apple is supposedly planning a, quote, major shakeup, unquote, for the 20th anniversary of the iPhone, which will be in 2027.
According to sources within Apple. Ah, there goes those unidentified sources again. The iPhone will undergo a major redesign for the occasion. Okay, we've all heard this one before. And I'm sure we'll be hearing it again and again and again. The article didn't go into any specific detail of this supposed major redesign. Well, of course they didn't. Because they don't really know any, do they? No, they do not.
At least at this point. Anyway, how much of a redesign can Apple actually make on the iPhone? Unless they're talking about a flip phone type of redesign. I was and rather still am hoping for the introduction of the Apple augmented reality spectacles. You know, the ones that would look and wear like regular prescription glasses.
Now a product like that, well, I can get behind. Now what would those glasses have to do with the 20th anniversary of the iPhone? Well, nothing really. But I'd still like to see it in 2027, wouldn't you? There's something being reported by multiple news sources which I find interesting. Currently, Apple announces the new lineups of the regular iPhone and the Pros during an event held in September, but sometimes they have it in October.
The now discontinued iPhone SE line had sporadic announcements mostly occurring in spring or late summer. According to these reports Apple intends to change all this Yep. The base iPhones along with the new E series will be announced in the spring while the Pros foldable form factor iPhones and Air series models will be announced in the fall.
I take this would mean the base model in E-Series would be announced six or seven months after the other more expensive models, which would be announced the previous fall. I'll remind you that here in the civilized world, we call that part of the year autumn. I'm not sure how I feel about all this. The original iPhone, as well as many after it, which, I'll remind you, didn't have a faultable Pro or Air designation, were traditionally introduced in the fall or autumn, if you will.
I kind of like tradition, so I think it would be better to reverse those announcements if Apple is actually planning to go through with this. That would see the fancy iPhones being announced in spring with traditional poor person's iPhones being announced in the fall, knee, autumn. Wouldn't autumn be a better time to announce these base phones because of the proximity to the holiday buying season? Yeah.
These base models sell better than the fancy ones, and what better way to kickstart sales for what is the first business quarter of the year? Good point, but in the grand scheme of things, does it really even matter? Well, I don't know. Cash is cash no matter what quarter of the business year it's made in. This all smells like apples cooking the bugs, as they say.
Perhaps there's a reason for this. Maybe staggering these iPhone announcements and releases will show some benefits to Apple's stockholders. or Apple will be able to consolidate the various announcements they stage during the year into, let's say, three major events, instead of one for iPhones, one for Macs, one for iPads, etc. What do you think would be the purpose of a move like this?
This final story for the tech section comes from a report on appleinsider.com. Apple gained significant smartphone market share in the first quarter of 2025 in comparison to the rest of the market. The iPhone gained 3% in the market going from 16% to 19%. Wow. For an overall growth of 13%. Don't ask me how the experts arrived at that overall figure. I'm no financial expert to say the least. No. The rest of the smartphone market was described as flatlining, only growing in anemic 0.2%.
The release and success of the iPhone 16e was credited for this unusually timed boost for Apple. While Samsung is still top dog, though its shipments remain flat, Around here, iPhones rule as they did up in New York, though Android phones are far more visible around here, mostly Samsung manufactured. I'm aware that the opposite is true throughout the world, though. Check I'm using. My main tech problem lately is my internet service provider.
If you've been listening to this sorry excuse of a podcast, then you know I get my internet service through my local electric utility provider. And I get it at a much cheaper price than I did back up in New York. Every now and then, internet speeds dip to where it's unusable, but over the four months that I've been living here full-time, that hasn't happened too often. Well, the then has become more of the now over the last few weeks.
At least once per day, those speeds seemed to drop, and last Sunday evening, we had a complete internet outage. Oh, no. I couldn't tell you how long it lasted, because luckily, the outage occurred late enough in the evening that I just went to bed. By morning it was all resolved. Remember, you do live in a fairly new housing development. Perhaps that fact has something to do with these outages you've been experiencing. That's exactly what I was thinking.
Well, of course it is. If it weren't, then Skynet has become self-aware. Get it? The Terminator? No. No! No! Ah, well. Anyway, Wednesday morning I experienced another internet slowdown which resolved itself in about 30 minutes. I'll be keeping my eye on this and might have to consider a different provider. Unfortunately, my only choices in this area are super expensive Xfinity and an independent company that I know nothing about.
My entertainment content is entirely streamed, and it was a good thing I decided on recording last week's episode earlier than usual. Some are probably rooting for the utility company. Ha ha ha. Well, you're probably right about that. My iRobot vacuum cleaner works well, and my lovely wife has given it a thumbs up.
I hadn't told her when I bought it back in March so she only discovered it when she arrived home last Wednesday. Like I've said previously, this robot vacuum is not a replacement for a good old manual vacuuming. Rather an augmentation for it. We vacuum once per week and run the iRobot in between those two vacuums. For the discounted price I purchased it for, it's well worth it. Well, that's my opinion anyway.
The only problems I have with it is that it's slow and the battery only lasts about an hour and at the vacuum slow pace. I can't finish my entire first floor in one session. Well, if you weren't such a tightwad, perhaps you could have gotten a model with better battery life, don't you think? Sure, I could have spent some more money, but I wasn't even considering getting a robot vacuum before being alerted to the price reduction on it.
Oh, in case you didn't know, no one pays me to think. You're lucky anybody has paid you to do anything. Point taken. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. But for millions of businesses, Shopify is the ultimate partner. Shopify is proud to power many sources of UK e-commerce, from brands like Mattel and Gymshark to new entrepreneurs.
Build a stunning online store with Shopify's ready to use templates. Boost content with AI-powered product descriptions, page headlines, and enhanced photography. Marketing is easy with built-in tools for email and social media campaigns. Plus Shopify simplifies everything from inventory to shipping and returns. If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. Turn your big business idea into with Shopify on your side.
Sign up for your £1 per month trial today at shopify.co.uk slash try. Go to shopify.co.uk slash try. Shopify.co.uk slash try. Entertainment news. Not only did YouTube celebrate its 20th year last week, but the world's largest video streaming service also has finally come to the Peloton exercise platform. YouTube joins Hulu and Netflix along with a couple of others that have been on the Peloton screens for quite a while now.
This is a great addition to Peloton and I've already ridden my indoor cycle while watching YouTube. But Jim, doesn't this sort of defeat the purpose of the Peloton platform? I mean, shouldn't a user be exercising under the guidance of one of the well-paid instructors Peloton has
You pay a hefty subscription price for this monthly. Excellent point there, but sometimes one doesn't feel up to being tortured by a Peloton instructor. You just feel like taking it easy while watching a movie or some YouTube content. I was already sore and tired from previous exercising the day I utilized YouTube during a ride. A little bit of moderate exercise is better than none at all. Yes. I consider modern mainstream news media more as entertainment rather than information.
The media these days takes its marching orders directly from the Democratic Political Party's National Committee, along with Big Farmer, as it's called. That's because of the amount of money provided to these news outlets in the form of advertising. In the case of Big Farmer, the line has been blurred between factual health reports and what's called native ads. In regards to other news, we seldom get facts.
What we get is opinion and agenda-driven reporting. I don't have to tell you about the sorry state of journalism these days. No. For me, the most odious of all these news networks are the publicly funded ones. In the United Kingdom, it's the British Broadcasting Corporation, mostly known as the BBC. In the United States, it's the public broadcasting system, PBS and National Public Radio.
NPR. While the amendment of the Smith-Mund Act by the Obama administration, which permitted the dissemination of propaganda to the U.S. public, affected all media in this country. None have taken it to the limit like PBS and NPR. I've cited many examples of this in the past on this podcast.
For a better dissection of news media, listen to the No Agenda podcast. Well, President Trump signed an executive order last Thursday, which aims to cut all public funding PBS and NPR received from the United States taxpayer. These entities get an estimated half a billion dollars directly from taxpayers. but receive much more than that from non-governmental organizations, which get most of their funding from... Wait, wait, don't tell me, from U.S. taxpayers! Right you are!
The executive order also attempts to root out all of these different ways NPR and PBS has access to taxpayer-supplied money. Good news, right? Wrong. Yeah, well, PBS and NPR fall under the cooperation for public broadcasting, which was established by a bill from Congress signed into law in 1967. The current president doesn't really have the authority to defund it. Lawsuits will be filed if they haven't been already to stop President Trump from enforcing this executive order.
Congress would have to write another bill to do so. On the bright side, the tearing down and defunding of NGOs like USAID has already put a significant dent into misdirected funds, which always seem to wind up supporting public broadcasting. That and a rapidly declining audience for public broadcasting will hopefully end them. Time will tell. Oh, the BBC lost a nice chunk of funding when USAID was taken down. For some reason, US taxpayer funds were being given to that organization.
Podcast news. I received an email Wednesday morning from the owners of the drama podcast listening app Apollo. The message advised me that Apollo will be shutting down in two weeks. The reason given for the shuttering is a common one. The app couldn't attract enough monthly subscribers I looked into subscribing to Apollo once, but the $8 per month they wanted for a subscription was just too steep to justify.
Most of the podcasts on Apollo were old, with many having already ended their run. In the past, I used Apollo for discovery, but let's just say that well had run dry. I would usually just open the app about once per month anyway. I haven't found anything I might want to listen to in about a year now. The podcasts that were left on Apollo were mostly podcasts for the LGBT community that leaned heavily into identity politics.
I did attempt listening to a few of them but either they were leaning too steep or the stories weren't entertaining enough for me to see them through. These shows weren't made for me anyway. Still, I'm sad to see Apollo go. I discovered haunted the audio drama the strata and a couple of more dramas that I still listen to today Shelves that were already dead when I discovered them using Apollo that I really enjoyed were City of Ghosts.
Midnight Burger, Derek Kong, Private Detective, and one about a female over-the-road truck driver who hauled a weird cargo that I can't remember the name of. Not the cargo, but the show. All these shows have concluded except for Midnight Burger, which in my opinion has lost the plot. If Apollo had charged $5 per month versus $8, I think they would have done a lot better.
Lately, I've had my mind on upgrading my audio interface. Yeah, I know, so exciting. I can't explain why, because my current Aluit Connect 6 interface does everything I need it to and more. There's a lot of capability built into that thing that I don't currently take advantage of. Some of those capabilities of the Lewatel probably never take advantage of. When the Kinect 6 was first introduced two years ago now, it's a $299 price tag, but many would-be buyers off.
Well, I didn't pay that much for it though. Searching through possible audio interfaces to upgrade to has made me realize that the price of the Kinect 6 is well worth it. The only interface I considered during my hunt was the Neumann MT-48, which goes for $2,000. The Neumann is constructed of metal while the fluid is made of plastic. the neumann has a smallish menu screen the lewitt has none but has a companion after on it
It's true that the Neumann unit has higher quality analog to digital converters in it, bringing with it lower noise, but I'm not recording studio quality audiophile type music here. Just my voice with the occasional sound effects. Other than a few features I have no need of. The Lewitt Connect 6 does everything I throw at it and has plenty of room for expansion.
Now if Fluid were to release a version 2 of the Kinect 6, it wouldn't be an instant buy for me. Well, depending on the features added or upgraded. I can say that the current Kinect 6 is way overkill for me. That's how advanced it really is. The improvements I'd like to see from Luid are better control software, a built-in de-esser, and an anti-reverb capability. Oh, and of course, the better digital converters.
It would be nice to be able to justify the expense of a 2000 Neumann MT-48, though. And while I was at it, I'd throw in a Neumann TLM-103 microphone. Well, that's not happening unless you won the lottery or the like. So what you're saying is that that would mean I'd actually have to start playing the lottery in order for that to all happen. The music is playing as I start to put episode 267 to bed. That was a short episode. like to think it was a good one.
all who have listened to it and will listen Hope you enjoyed this episode, Angel. it for you. using the link in these show notes. Any and all donations will be here. You can always reach me at at gmail.com. if you're so inclined, I'd enjoy hearing from you. Now that my from her travels. back to work in the ER. Get off my lawn! Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life.
But for millions of businesses, Shopify is the ultimate partner. Shopify is proud to power many sources of UK e-commerce, from brands like Mattel and Gymshark to new entrepreneurs. Build a stunning online store with Shopify's ready to use template. Boost content with AI-powered product descriptions, page headlines, and enhanced photography. Marketing is easy with built-in tools for email and social media campaigns.
Plus, Shopify simplifies everything from inventory to shipping and returns. If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. Turn your big business idea into with Shopify on your side. Sign up for your one pound per month trial today at Shopify.co.uk slash try. Go to Shopify.co.uk slash try. Shopify.co.uk slash try.