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. Welcome to the OFNT Podcast, episode 258, which I'm calling Under the Weather, but over it now. Yeah, I caught some bug or something last week. I had a fever for three days and was tired all the time. You might have been brought on by me hitting the weights and peloton too hard. You know, this old fart body isn't what it used to be. Who knows?
Anyway, Friday was the first day that I felt like myself all last week. Enough of this babble. Let's get the ball a-rolling, what do you say? Okay. Tech news. Well, for me, this following story was the most important one of the week. From AndroidAuthority.com, quote, Microsoft is shutting down Skype and really wants you to join Teams instead, unquote. And that's the headline. Yep. The first consumer voice over internet protocol service, better known as VoIP, is shuddering after 22 years.
You know, that makes Skype older than YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and just about all the other modern social platforms out there. According to the article, a small detail buried within the latest Skype for Windows preview... show that the service is set to shut down in May, with Microsoft transferring remaining users and their chats over to the company's Teams app. I agree with the author's take that it makes sense for Microsoft to do so.
But for me, it's like another piece of my life fading away. I haven't used Skype for about 10 years, and that was during my Windows phone days, but it was nice knowing it was still around. During the pandemic... I remember seeing that distinctive Skype logo in the upper right-hand side of the screen during various talking heads and interview shows I was watching, which gave me that warm fuzzy feeling of knowing it was still in use after all these years.
The first person that I remember using Skype was my eldest daughter, Jessica. This was pre-smartphone times and she used Skype to keep in contact with friends via her netbook. Hey, remember them? No. And that was even before Microsoft purchased Skype back in 2011 for $8 billion. Whoa. I recall reading about the horror of Microsoft's engineers upon realizing what a mess the peer-to-peer network of the company just...
spent that large sum of money to buy and how it took years of upgrading to get it up to modern standards. I use Skype mainly as a communication tool for off-duty co-workers. but ditched it when I started receiving scam calls from Guyana constantly. By then, there were plenty of alternatives to Skype, and when I got my iPhone 4S, iMessage and FaceTime replaced it.
While working, we used Teams and that has remained my non-personal video chat app of choice. Though, I was forced to use Zoom during my recent house-selling experience. Hey, but... That's over now, and I've wiped my devices of the spyware masquerading as a video conferencing app of it. Oh, I'm currently using Facebook Messenger to communicate with my globe-trotting wife. So, so long, Skype. I knew ye sort of well.
In another interesting development from Microsoft, according to, again, Android Authority, it seems Microsoft has a new, free, ad-supported version of its Office suite. What? Well, sort of. According to the article, Microsoft is only testing this ad-supported version of Microsoft 365 amongst a limited group of users, and for now, claims they have no plans on launching an ad-supported version of it for the general public.
What you'd be getting if Microsoft did release this version of MS 365 is the full suite of productivity apps interrupted by both banner and video ads. While the apps would be fully functional, you'd be only able to download and save files from the company's OneDrive cloud service. If you use this suite as your primary suite, you'd quickly fill up your basic OneDrive space allotment and have to upgrade your account.
At some point, you'd be better off just upgrading to the full paid version of MS 365. I guess that would be the intent of offering a so-called free version of it. I currently subscribe to the web-based version of MS 365 for $2 per month, mainly because of the 500GB of OneDrive space that comes with it, and just in case I have to work with a Word or Excel file for.
some reason i believe i have the same one drive restriction as the ad supporting version will have i do think we will see this ad supported version being released to the general public in the future well time will tell Amazon held its annual event last Wednesday, as I had mentioned last episode. Usually Amazon would introduce a bevy of products, but this year the whole event was dedicated to its AI supercharged Alexa digital assistant.
dubbed Alexa Plus. As predicted, this new digital assistant won't begin rolling out until next month, meaning it's not quite ready for prime time. Get it? I made a Prime joke. You know, Amazon Prime? Ah, forget it. Echo Show devices will be getting the new Alexa first. And Alexa Plus will do all the same things other versions of AI will do so.
I won't bother running down all the examples given at the event. Thank you. The feature that I'm most looking forward to is the conversational ability this will bring to Alexa. Right now when you talk to her, or it, You've got to be sort of precise or it won't understand what you're saying. If you're interested in using the new Alexa Plus, well, you'll have to pay $20 per month to do so.
But if you're an Amazon Prime member, you'll be getting Alexa Plus for free. Yay! Well, I happen to be a Prime member, so I'll be looking forward to its rollout. That is, if any of my Echo devices are able to. It's been a couple or maybe a few years since I've purchased a new Echo device. Surprisingly, no new Echo models were announced during the event. I figure it would have been a good time to do so.
If and when I get this upgraded digital assistant, you can be sure that I'll be telling you about it. As you probably already know, cellular service provider T-Mobile has launched a beta program for its satellite service. partnering with Elon Musk's Starlink. For now, this satellite service only allows users to send text messages with voice and video calls to be added later. I've covered this previously, and no, I didn't sign up for the beta.
If I had, this story would have been in the Tech I'm Using section of the episode. Last week, a number of participants in T-Mobile's beta have reported on their experiences while using, or at least attempting to use it. Some users couldn't find an area without cellular coverage in order to test this service out, which serves as a testament to T-Mobile's signal coverage. When I permanently relocated to my present home in late November of last year,
My phone barely had a signal, if at all. If it weren't for Wi-Fi, my phone would have been nothing more than a paperweight. As of February of this year, I now have 5G service so I can attest to T-Mobile's coverage. The company must have added a micro tower in order to cover my new and expanding housing development. Those that could actually test out this satellite service complained that there was a delay in recipients receiving text messages. You know, that would be expected.
Your message first has to bounce off a low-orbiting satellite up in space. How audio and especially video calls will perform with this latency remains to be seen. I'm sure there are... more than a few engineers from both companies working on this problem as i speak most users reports came to the conclusion that it would be a waste of money subscribing to satellite service because cellular coverage in this country has reached a point where
such a service isn't really needed if you use a pixel phone or an iphone you already have emergency satellite messaging capability built in so what would be the point of subscribing to another one For now, Google and Apple gives you this service gratis, and I feel these beta testers are missing the point here. I believe the goal is to build up satellite service to a point where it's the main part of your phone service.
with towers eventually becoming the backups for emergencies once the kinks are worked out in regards to latency problems instead of having those large and ugly looking cell towers all over the place Each area of coverage would only need a receiving station and small repeating antennas within the communities they wish to cover. That's how cable television is provided.
Also, satellite coverage has to have a cost-benefit to these companies versus cellular towers or else they wouldn't be moving forward with it. The consumer would also benefit. Take my current situation for example. My wife is over 7,000 miles away from home presently. And thanks to T-Mobile, she's able to have low data coverage gratis for the first 30 days of her trip.
After that time period, I'll have to pay probably 50 bucks or more for each additional 30 days. The data supplied is good enough for messaging and video chatting. Well, depending on what app you're using. Some work better than others. Now imagine if satellite service was the standard. One wouldn't need to buy local sims and service or carry around international hotspot gear in order to keep in contact no matter where they found themselves.
This is the future, and, well, I'm embracing it. The rest of the tech news will be about the giant fruit company, so skip ahead if you must. If you listened to last week's episode... Oh, yes. No. No. and judging by my download stats that's probably a no then you'd remember me pondering if being that there is an iphone 16e now will we be seeing a new e-series phone every year being announced in february or thereabouts
Well, according to an article from 9to5mac.com, the answer just might be yes. Quoting a leaker, an iPhone 17e is already showing up within the supply chain. According to Fix Focus Digital, who predicted the iPhone 16 name, which the U.S. press kind of discounted at the time, a new project code for a 17e has been seen. Fixed Focus Digital is based in China and appears to actually have insider information. Of course, this time around, the US-based tech press is all in.
It makes sense for Apple to do this. I mean, why call the SE replacement the iPhone 16 if they weren't? The phone would have just been called the SE version 4 if this wasn't the plan. If Apple sticks to the February release period, this would provide the company with a nice revenue bump at a time when the regular new iPhone sales would start declining. And this sales bump would... make shareholders very, very happy. Yes. Continuing with rumored iPhones.
Android Authority has an article which quotes yet another Apple-centric leaker named, well, I'm not even going to bother pronouncing this, is spelled J-U-K-A-N-L-O-S-R-E-V-E. I would have butchered that. as saying that Apple's upcoming foldable phone will solve a problem that haunts all Android foldable phones at this time.
That problem being a display crease. Wow! If this is the case, that would explain the length of time it's taking Apple to release a phone in this form factor. The current rumor is Apple will be releasing a foldable phone in 2026. If this rumor turns out to be accurate, I can see this thing costing at least $2,000. What? Whoa! And I think I'm being modest with my estimate here. Myself, I foresee an iPhone 18e in my future.
Unfortunately, I'll still probably wind up purchasing one of these super expensive iPhones for my lovely wife. You know the old saying, happy wife, happy life. Yes. Besides the release of the iPhone 16e a couple of weeks ago, we also saw the release of the Beats, which is an Apple-owned company, PowerBeats Pro 2. These earbuds are the best-selling earbuds in the world, at least according to Apple.
The one feature that tech journalists lauded the most was heart rate tracking, albeit with third-party apps, the new Powerbeats Models Incorporated. Well, MacRumors.com has the following headline. Powerbeats Pro 2 can't play music while tracking heart rate on gym equipment, unquote. This means that users will have to determine what's more important to them while working out, either music or heart rate.
Also, iOS third-party apps are reportedly not able to display heart rates. Android apps appear to have no problems doing this, but the heart rate accuracy itself is under-questioned by users who report dropouts and inaccurate readings. All that aside, what I think is going on here is that Apple sees the Beats lineup as being mainly for Android and didn't bother with much or any iOS capability.
If you want Apple ecosystem functionality, well, you'll just have to wait for the upcoming AirPods 3. AirPods Pro 3. Let me correct myself. in regards to the heart rate monitoring problems the power bees have i think apple will address this with firmware updates i have the heart rate dropout problem while using my apple watch and my peloton indoor cycle so there's that
If you're located within the United Kingdom, you can now use your AirPods Pro version 2s as hearing aids. Line to 5 Mac reports that these AirPods have finally gotten the required regulatory approvals for... over-the-counter hearing aids i've had and have used this feature for months now to set this up you have to use your iphone to take a hearing test i was surprised that my hearing was as good as the test said it was
While using my AirPods in this mode, high and mid frequencies appear to have been boosted, which makes sense as I've previously been diagnosed with high frequency hearing loss, which I blame on my military service. It couldn't have been me blasting music from my stereo or all those heavy metal concerts I attended over the years now, could it? No!
AppleInsider.com has an article which quotes an analyst, not a leaker this time, who claims the pro lineup of next year's iPhones are to get a RAM upgrade. Currently, the poor person's iPhone models have 6 gigs of RAM. well the most expensive pro version have eight gigs analyst jeff pooh but hey what's in a name it's probably pronounced foo but Anyway, he expects the peasant models of the upcoming iPhone 17s will have 8 gigs of RAM, while the Pro lineup will get 12 gigs of memory.
Back in August, supply chain analyst Supreme, Mr. Ming-Chi Kuo, had the same prediction but with added vapor cooling, and this seems to back up Mr. Poo's prediction. So I guess this is happening, but why is it happening, you mayor? May not ask. I don't know. It's happening to better run Apple intelligence, my dearies.
Last week, I covered the story that the UK's government was forcing Apple to basically create a backdoor into the end-to-end encryption used with the company's devices and how this wasn't a good idea for anybody. Since then, the Washington Post has reported that the Biden administration had purposely turned a blind eye to this, even though it might violate the Cloud Act agreement between the U.S. and the U.K. Come on, man.
Now, why would the previous administration do this? And what am I doing here? Two reasons. The first reason is so US intelligence organizations can now ask for data on US citizens from the UK without breaking any local laws. The second reason is to make a future court case against Apple, which would force them to provide a backdoor to iOS and the data it has on individuals much more easier to win. The government could cite the case and say,
Well, Apple did this for the UK. Why can't they do it for this country? See where this is going? Yes. Pure evil. It seems governments will pull out all the stops in order to be able to spy on its own citizens now, doesn't it? Tech I'm using. Well, not much happening around the old farts residence this week, although I did purchase a new mouth irrigator last week. Shall I tell you about it? No! Ah, okay.
You know, being that my lovely wife is away, and I've had more time on my hands to do some thinking. Oh no! With the release of the iPhone 16e, I thought of another feature that's missing from it, and that would be the standby mode feature. Standby mode allows you to horizontally mount your phone onto a MagSafe charger and have it display various information. I use my iPhone to display a clock and the weather while charging my phone overnight on my nightstand.
I've gotten attached to this feature and it would be hard for me to give it up. This replaced an Echo Show I used for the same purpose. I don't know, I just feel more comfortable having an Apple device near me while I sleep than an Amazon device. Lord knows what data the Echo gathered on my wife and I while we're sleeping in bed. I'm hoping the 17E, if one is actually released next year, will gain this feature.
Last week I did face some difficulties with changing the battery on the AirTag I have in my car. After about a year of me placing it there, I received a notification on my iPhone telling me my battery was low. I changed the battery but after a couple of weeks I again received a low battery notification. I just assumed that the replacement battery was from old stock and I again changed it out.
But less than 24 hours later, I again received the dreaded low battery notification. A reason that either the AirTag had gone bad or I was doing something wrong. I was leaning towards the former because I know me and... I know what I'm doing so it couldn't possibly be any fault of mine. Wrong! The problem turned out to be that I wasn't pressing hard enough while screwing the top portion of the AirTag down on the battery.
which caused a battery to not have proper contact with one of the conductors. The contact it did have just provided enough juice to trigger the dreaded low battery notification. Eh, live and learn as they say. This week brought more leaked images of the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup. I guess Apple is going to feature a camera island on the new models after all.
If these leaks are proven true, then the rear of the new iPhones will resemble modern Google Pixel phones. I admire the Pixel design, but don't care for Apple's interpretation of it, from what I've seen anyway. This again got me to thinking. Yeah, I know. Thinking is a dangerous thing for me to be doing. Well, anyway, I was thinking about how smartphones are becoming increasingly homogenized, both hardware and software-wise.
These days, if this continues, and I feel that it will, the whole smartphone marketplace will become even more boring than it is now. I remember having a Windows phone manufactured by HTC that was so beautiful that a... female co-worker upon seeing it came up to me and asked if she could hold it well i replied uh sure oh you mean the phone and then let her do so
Unfortunately, the days of high design for phones are over. We're stuck with basic large screen slabs with camera lenses mounted on its rear for now. It's as if tech manufacturers are just holding back waiting for a product that disrupts the... smartphone market in order to let loose their design departments what product will be able to disrupt the smartphone market i don't pretend to know augmented reality spectacles would be my best guess i just hope to
Get to see such a product. 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. Entertainment news. Well, there was a lot happening in the world of streaming this past week. DirecTV Stream announced small channel packages that can save consumers some money. Yay! That's always a good thing, isn't it? You have the My Sports package that will run you $69 per month.
that includes abc and fox local networks fox news and other channels the sports channels include espn espn 2 espn plus espn news yeah i never knew i had a separate channel for that NBA TV, MLB TV, NFL Network, the Golf Network, FS1, FS2, and some other sports channels. Then you have the My Entertainment package, which comes with ad-supported subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu, AMC+, and FXM. I hadn't realized you needed a subscription to FXM.
Beyond that, you get a bunch of what I call throwaway channels that not many people watch. Kind of like Sling TV. This package will cost just $34 per month. Up next is the My News package, which is $40 per month, but has the least amount of channels of all the packages. It features CNBC, CNN, CNN International, Local Fox, Fox Business, and Fox News.
amongst a few other news-centric channels. And finally, coming in at $10 per month is the My Cinema Package, which features no channels that I'd even consider watching, like the Grit Channel and Great American Family Channel, for example. There are only about 10 channels in this package. The My Sports package is the only one I'd be fairly interested in, but I get most of these channels and more with my Sling TV subscription.
In fact, I get most of the channels of all these DirecTV packages combined with my Sling TV subscription for the price of what my sports package alone would cost. That includes subscriptions to MGM Plus and Macs. It's a start, I guess, towards the a la carte selection process cord cutters have been dreaming of since the beginning of streaming. Anyway, I won't be going back to DirecTV anytime soon, no matter what these packages cost.
The Mac streaming service, formerly known as HBO Max, has decided not to charge extra for the paltry sports content they have on their platform. And this is according to Engadget.com. Previously, the company had planned on charging an extra $10 per month for the pleasure of consuming its sports programming. But let's be honest, not many consumers would be willing to pay extra for that. No, I wouldn't.
If there is a sporting event I just had to watch, my millennial son would figure out a way for us to watch it. If you know what I mean. Yar, har, har, har, har. If you are on the ad-supported tier of the Max platform, and I don't know why you would be, well, you're out of luck. That's because Max is removing sports content from it in March.
Now, that doesn't mean Macs won't decide to charge you for this luxury in the future, though. You know, no wonder piracy of content is on the rise these days. Just about all the major U.S. networks have their own streaming services these days. All except one, which is the Fox network. Well, that's about to change as the company announced a so far unnamed streaming service.
naming former Apple TV Plus executive Pete Destad as CEO. The service will be sports content heavy, which seems to be a trend lately, and also include other facets of the Fox News and entertainment empire. No price point has been announced. Mr. DeStad was the former CEO of the Dead in the Water sports-themed venue streaming service, which imploded after a lawsuit from rival Fubo Sports Content Streaming Service.
You know, I believe there's such a thing as too much choice. Ah, well, good luck with that, bro. Podcast news. Commercial broadcast radio is dying. You hear this all the time, don't you? Yes. That industry has competition from all sides, including digital, internet, and satellite radio, though satellite radio has dramatically fallen off in recent years.
Another competitor is, of course, podcasts. There are some advantages that over-the-airways commercial broadcast radio has of its competition, though. Everyone has access to a radio, be it in your car or at home. As long as you are in range of the station's signal, well, you can tune in its programming. The biggest advantage commercial broadcast radio has, in my opinion, well, especially local stations, is a real live person sitting behind the microphone.
I'm aware of the central programming situation where the local station rebroadcast a feed controlled by a central entity. This has been going on since the early 1970s. I recall listening to my local AM, and that's medium wave for Europeans, local music radio station overnight when I was a young whippersnapper. The DJ was replaced by a block of music interrupted only by periodic advertisements.
But by morning a real live DJ took over. These days you have the entire 24-hour programming block of many stations controlled by someone or something located miles away from your area. And don't get me started on AI DJs. When I was young, I was the sort of person who left my bedside radio on all night. I would even be able to get some sleep doing this. I don't know how I did it.
I'd do this for the sports stations as a kid, then the music stations as a teenager, and then talk radio stations as an adult. Old Larry King was the first overnight talk radio show I recall listening to. Later on, Art Bell filled this programming void with tales about UFOs and ghosts. Both of those great hosts have since passed on and no one has been able to fill their shoes.
Which brings me to the podcasting 2.0 standard, which does include a feature for live broadcasting capability. The problem is that not all listening apps support it. If you do happen to have a compatible listening app, you'll receive a notification that a podcast you subscribe to is getting ready to go live. You then open your app, select the podcast, and now you can listen as the hosts do their shows.
With this capability, I'm surprised no podcast has ever attempted to fill this overnight radio void. You may ask if this is such a great idea, but why don't you do it yourself? There's one reason. And that reason is the one who must be obeyed would never agree to allow me to do this. No. iOS apps that allow this live broadcast feature are Podverse, Podcast Guru, and Fountain.
Cast-O-Matic has plans to add this feature in the future. Perhaps one day some podcaster will broadcast overnight. If the show was like the old Art Bell Coast to Coast, well, I'd be all in. What do you think about this? The music is playing on this chilly Appalachian evening.
And these old bones are starting to ache. 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. And I'd still enjoy hearing from you.
Remember, don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do. Now, winter isn't done with us yet, so you might as well get off my lawn. Godspeed, David Johansson, wherever you're heading. Stay skeptical. I'm out. See ya. Hello blue skies. Hello moving onwards and upwards. Hello taking control of your money. Say hello to tax-free investing. Open a Stocks and Shares ISA and act by the 5th of April to get £100 to £3,000 cash back. Hargreaves Lansdowne. Hello Life.
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 vanta.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.