Voices of the Elite

A Factual Data Creation Facility Production. Welcome to the OFNT Podcast, Episode 248, which I'm calling Voices of the Elite. In the podcasting section, I run down the so-called predictions of Podcasting Incorporated for the coming year. Well, the weather here is warmed up a bit which is nice as we continue settling into the new place The old house up in New York is still in contract. No word on the closing date, but I'm sure it'll be real soon now

Well, I can sum up events in this country over the past week with just one word. Drones. I guess I'm ready to start now. Tech news. I was expecting another somewhat slow tech news week, but was surprised by the number of real news stories that crossed my news feeds, which lately has been dominated by what's called native ads for tech products.

I guess the industry decided to crank out all they had before falling into the annual holiday slumber. I still kept it short, though. That's because I'm still rather busy these days. First up. Lawmakers remind Apple and Google that they must remove TikTok from their app stores next month. And that's the slightly modified headline from 9 to 5 Mac. I added Google to the headline because lawmakers in question...

also reminded the big G of the removal need too. So, I guess this is the end of TikTok in the United States. Or is it? Last April, President Biden, we know Joe, go back to sleep, signed the divest or ban bill, which didn't outright ban TikTok, but gave parent company ByteDance China. until January 19th, 2025, to divest its interest in the controversial social media app or face a total ban. Now, this all started way back during the first Trump administration.

when it was discovered that data from U.S. users of the app was being sent to China, where because of local laws in that country, the ruling Communist Party of China had access to it. Then it was showtime with the CEO of TikTok, Xiao Chu, who's a gifted actor and performer, playing the innocent Asian guy in front of U.S. Congress. Mr. Chu explained that TikTok had implemented Project Texas that had put a wall around the data generated by local users.

and ensured that none of it would get back to China. Wrong. Well, as I understand it, this was all smoke and mirrors, as nothing has changed with TikTok's handling of data since Chu's well-rehearsed and choreographed gig in front of our showboating members of Congress. Since his testimony, whistleblowers have come forward, verifying the suspicion that data is still streaming over to China uninterrupted. Trump had said during his recent presidential campaign that he was against banning TikTok.

But we'll just have to sit back and see. Oh, yeah. What will most likely happen is that TikTok will appeal the divestment slash ban all the way to the Supreme Court, claiming it violates the First Amendment. That'll give TikTok a while longer to figure out another way of preventing a ban on their app. Personally, I have no horse in this race. I never have used TikTok and only use social media as a whole, sparingly.

Continuing with 9to5mac.com, according to an article from the site, Samsung has a new mixed reality headset coming. And photos of this new headset shows it to be eerily similar to the giant fruit company's Vision Pro. Hey, remember that product? No. Yeah, I barely do either. This new Samsung headset is said to be much lighter than Apple's headset and the price will be much lighter also, though no pricing information has so far been announced. And what will power this new mixed reality product?

Well, Google's newly announced Android XR operating system, which will also be able to power headphones and other things. At the core of this new operating system sits Google's Gemini AI. The better to spy on you, my dearies. Hey, I predicted that AI would become the operating system of our devices some time ago. Yes. Hang on, let me pat myself on the back. There.

But I predicted Apple would be the first to do this on iPhones. No dear, that's wrong. Now there's that random internet lady again correcting me. You know, I don't need to be reminded that I was wrong. Competition is good, and perhaps this will spur on Apple to release mixed reality spectacles, which is the product that I think most consumers really want and would buy.

Mixed reality goggles are not something I want or need in my life. No. Especially with a resident AI spy on board. But then again, what do I really know? What I do know is that I'll never put a digital version of my passport on my phone, no matter the convenience of doing so would bring me. According to AndroidPolice.com, the beta version of Google Wallet will let you do just that.

Though this digital version of your passport doesn't yet replace your physical passport, it can be used at places like TSA and other airport checkpoints. You know, your phone just about tracks everything you do already. and now with a digital passport other so-called features will become available like denying you boarding of aircraft when full-blown digital passports do appear and don't kid yourself they're coming

that much more of whatever privacy you have will be lost. Tech companies and governments really do aspire to become like Communist China's system. don't they hello there for me having a digital version of my passport birth certificate or driver's license on my phone is a big no-no remember i worked for the u.s government for a very long time And I've seen programs such as this morph into something completely different from their original purpose and go on to become something very intrusive.

According to Liger DeJure, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is on track for a 2025 release of a new Apple TV streaming box and HomePod minis. The refreshed hardware of these products will feature Apple's own Wi-Fi chips in place of the Broadcom chips used now. The same chip will equip phones starting in 2025, with the iPhone SE4 being first with it this coming spring.

and make it into iPads and Macs the following year. These chips will come with the Wi-Fi 6E standard. That's a little behind, but hey, good enough. Let's hope that this new chip, dubbed Proxima, Won't be as bad as Apple's first attempt at a modem chip, whose performance was substandard, making Apple have to go back, hat in hand, to Qualcomm.

Kerman is also reporting that Apple's homegrown modem chips are set to equip future MacBooks, which I gather is a much-requested feature. What's next? MacBooks with touchscreens? But beware, Tim Apple. The ghost of Steve Jobs will come back and haunt you. Where were all these innovations when I had a need for them? Apple released iOS 18.2, iPad OS 18.2, TV OS 18.2, HomePod OS 18.2, Watch OS 11.2, and Mac OS 15.2 to the general public.

last week. I've been running the public betas of all except HomePod OS for a while now and was left underwhelmed with the much-anticipated Apple intelligence upgrades. The good news is now the rest of the public can join me in my disappointment. I don't have my HomePods mini hooked up to my television yet, and the best thing about the tvOS upgrade that I can see is the new screensavers.

which now includes characters from the Charlie Brown Peanuts cartoons. I do like the summaries for emails and alerts the AI provides, but beyond that, I just ignore it. For those that have Apple devices that cannot upgrade to iOS 18 and beyond, Apple released some security updates, which is a good thing.

I've seen a couple of articles around the old intertubes which note the, in their words, surprising increase of iPhone users using RCS for text messages and claim that they are finally embracing RCS. Well, duh, RCS is turned on by default once you upgrade to iOS 18, so iPhone users are mostly blissfully unaware that they even have RCS messaging capability.

Sure, they might notice when they see the reply typing dots, but probably not. They're just texting their Android using friends like they normally would. Well, speaking of text messaging, here's a new scam going around that I almost fell for. It starts with a text message claiming to be from the US Postal Service. The message claims to need address information in order to deliver a package.

Well, it just happens I've been awaiting a package that's been shipped since mid-November that keeps being bounced between North Carolina and Tennessee, but never makes it to my house. The message originated from the Philippines and features a dead web link. In order to get a live link, you must reply yes to the message. If you click the Now Live link, you'll be taken to a very realistic looking USPS page, complete with realistic animations.

The page asks for your name, address, and phone number. Once completed, it takes you to a page asking for credit card info. Well, of course, I realized and you should realize that this is all a scam. So be on the lookout for it. Tech I'm using. Everything is going fine with my new Peloton indoor cycle. But of course, I've overdone it, resulting in having to skip a couple of days of exercise. I had a 10-day streak going until crashing out Monday.

Even the mysterious symptom radar feature of my aura ring was triggered and popped up with a notification. Wow. It warned me that something was causing an elevated heart rate, so I should give my body a rest for three days. And of course I ignored that warning until Friday when it all caught back up to me. You know, getting old doesn't mean you can't do something. It means you just can't do that something as often as you used to.

For now, I'll be using the just ride feature of the Peloton and take it slow. I blame the leaderboard feature for this. I can't help myself in competing with those who are apparently younger and in better physical condition than I am. When taking regular Peloton classes, I'll be dismissing the leaderboard until I return to some semblance of fitness. Eh, what are you going to do?

Besides the desk in my dedicated office where I'm currently sitting while recording this, I also have an old style desk set up in my bedroom. I inherited the desk from my dear departed grandmother. Who obtained it from the Lexington Hotel located in Manhattan, New York, where she was employed at the time? The place was undergoing a remodeling and was throwing these desks out.

This was sometime in the 1970s, so I'd put the age of the deaths from around that era, most likely the 1960s. Though fairly light, it's still made better than similar furniture is today. Anyway, since getting it... I've never had a proper place to set it up until now. I have the desk facing a window which gives me a view of a nearby mountain range. The view used to include a hill which led to a tree line but both have been claimed by new home construction.

Yeah, you can see it's booming in this area. I have my MacBook Air set there upon a rubber desk mat I purchased from Walmart, which helps prevent the computer from sliding around and also works as a mouse pad. I have a pen and pencil holder and for illumination I'm using a cheap LED type lamp that makes an audible whining noise at its highest brightness settings. Though annoying.

I have it on good authority that Santa is bringing me a banker's lamp for Christmas. You know, the lamp style that has a green lampshade? Come to think of it, in all my years, I've never actually seen this type of lamp being used in a bank, except in movies. And no matter. Finishing off this audio tour of the desk, I have the combination router modem supplied by my internet provider sitting in one of the corners. Which reminds me, I'm still waiting for a good deal on a mesh system.

While I have gig speed internet at the moment, I would like to purchase a mesh system capable of multi-gig speeds in order to future-proof myself. I'm quite happy with this setup, happier than I am with my office desk setup. The computer-style desk I purchased is a bit too small and because the display sits upon a shelf, it's kind of uncomfortable to type for long sessions. I'll be getting around to finding a remedy for this situation soon enough.

That's after I finish sorting out the other things that need attention because of my recent move. My new television should finally arrive by December 26th. In the meantime, I'm trying to decide which audio system to augment it with. I was sold on getting two full-size Apple HomePods for the task, but now I'm leaning towards the Sonos Arc soundbar. They've recently come down in price, which makes them more attractive to me.

I've used Sonos gear before, the IKEA-branded Sonos speakers I've talked about, which are the cheapest of the Sonos brand. They've worked quite well for me. I'll make that decision when the time comes. Entertainment news. Major TV streaming service hikes price by $10, causing major backlash, reads the headline from thedailymail.com. Who was this major TV streaming service that the headline refers to?

Is it Netflix? No. Probably Hulu. No. Then it's got to be Disney Plus again. No. Then which one is it? I don't know. Well, it's none other than Google's YouTube TV. What? And to think I was considering to dump Sling TV in favor of YouTube TV last week. YouTube announced the increase on December 12th that we'll see prices for the very popular streaming service increase from $72.99 to $82.99 per month coming this January 13th.

This puts YouTube TV on par with DirecTV, which is the most expensive surface out there. The backlash was quick, with many saying that they would either go back to cable television or Sling TV. Though you'd be losing some sports channels if you move over to Sling, if you already have Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, and Paramount+, you'll be able to watch most, if not all, of the sports you like to wager on. Oh, I mean watch.

Though I have all those services, I'm not a gambler, and since I've quit drinking, I really don't watch football and basketball much any longer. I'll watch the occasional hockey game, but my main sport of choice is baseball. And that's well covered by the MLB app, especially now that I'm out of market for the New York Yankees.

Now, I don't place the blame for this price increase fully on YouTube. Those content providers keep jacking up their prices and sell their product bundled with channels that no one watches, which sort of holds the streaming services hostage. I do blame YouTube TV for the timing of this price increase. It could have been announced after the holiday season. In the past, I had been a happy YouTube TV subscriber until they lost the Yes Network, as did Hulu TV.

This forced me to go back to DirecTV Stream, which was the only streaming service that carried the Yes Network, albeit at a higher price. Since then, Fubo has picked up the Yes Network, but their prices have also increased lately. Not too long ago, most people thought streaming services would be a much cheaper alternative to cable television, and for a while it was. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case.

As I've just said, I was seriously thinking of subscribing to YouTube TV and getting rid of my newly acquired Sling TV. The reasoning behind that was a lot of the channels found on Sling are either channels I won't even watch or... are available on ad-supported streaming services like Pluto, for example. Well, I took a hard look at Sling and discovered that for its lower price, it does cover all my needs. We watch our network shows on Hulu.

And the few sports networks Sling does have will cover our sports viewing needs, augmented by the aforementioned MLB app and Paramount+, both of which we get free. Of course, Amazon Prime is amongst other services we subscribe to that would help too. I did wind up canceling Sling TV though. Now let me explain. While on the homepage of Sling TV, I saw an ad for Sling Blue plus Orange along with HBO Max for $66 per month. When you combine that with the MGM Plus channel,

That would put my monthly bill at $72 per month. Still $50 cheaper than I was paying for DirecTV. So I pulled the trigger. Well, actually, I clicked the button. Here's where the problems arose. Instead of just updating my current subscription, somehow Sling used an old account I had with him, most likely a trial account, as I've never subscribed to Sling before. So now I had two Sling accounts to pay for. What?

Yeah, I don't know how this happened, being that I was signed into my current Sling account. And I checked. Luckily, the old account subscription payment was due the following day, so I quickly canceled it. So now I just have one single Sling TV account. With the HBO Max service, I gained a couple of channels that will come in handy for watching the baseball playoffs next year.

Besides access to HBO Max's, actually now called Max, show and movie catalog. Speaking of which, I finished watching the Penguin series last week. Though like most shows these days, it attempted to virtual signal. but in a discreet and dare I say believable and fair way. What? Though the show hinted at more not-so-discreet signaling may be in store for the future.

The show had some girl bosses, but they used their intelligence to achieve their goals instead of beating men physically, as most movies and television shows like to portray them in these modern times. The show also highlights their vulnerabilities, which the Penguin takes advantage of. Speaking of the Penguin, Colin Farrell's Penguin comes off like a combination of Tony Soprano and Silvio Dante from The Sopranos.

that was another hbo blockbuster series and that probably impressed the management over there at hbo the penguin was gritty and captivating with even my lovely wife becoming drawn in by the female characters The ending of the final episode was great and signals, literally, what's to come? The Penguin is, I think, one of the best things HBO has done since The Sopranos. Hopefully they can stay the course.

Podcast news. Against my bitter judgment, I recently subscribed, or should I say re-subscribed, to the BBC News World Service podcast. No, not the one that features the opinion-driven drivel that seems to have infected most publicly funded and mainstream media news organizations these days. No, the one I subscribe to was the one that gives five minutes of headlines multiple times per day.

After the announcer reads said headline, a field reporter gives a short summary of the facts of the story. And in my opinion, you know, that's just the way to do it. I don't want to hear the opinion of the announcer or reporter. My relationship with the BBC goes way back, it being my main source of news for years via shortwave, and that was long before the service became available via local entities. That relationship stopped at the beginning of the Iraq War.

with BBC field reporters erroneously reporting things like, the U.S. Marines are in full retreat, and other things that gave me, and I'm sure others, the feeling that the reporters were rooting for the Iraqi army. Well, perhaps they were, but that's not the reporter's job. Their job is to report the facts as accurately as possible.

I've told this story in the past, so I'll spare you a retelling as old farts such as myself are prone to do. Anyway, the five minutes of headlines and facts are just fine for me. I decided to subscribe because the BBC covers international headlines, something US-based outlets only touch on if they report on it at all. Listening to the BBC news service got me to thinking about how great their audio is.

especially in comparison to our own national public radio, whose lack of a de-esser results in a constant hissing sound those expensive Neumann microphones they use are known for. I believe the Beeb uses Neumann mics, but they have tamed the hiss either by processing or as a result of great mic technique by the announcer. The BBC sound is what I would like to attain for this podcast.

One thing that the BBC does now, as does NPR, is the announcer will start off with, I'm Andrea Stone with the BBC News headlines. Hello. In the past, it would just be, I'm Scott Harden with the latest BBC headlines. NPR takes it to the next level, mostly when talking to other reporters or guests. They'll be like, here's Joe Cooper with the latest.

Hi Joe, how are you? Well, hi Karen, I'm just fine. How are things with you? You know, listeners don't need to hear this banter. It only serves to delude the seriousness of the topic, and for me it sounds unprofessional. You know, just get to the darn story. Okay, I'll just say it myself. Okay, boomer. Rainnews.com, which is a publication mainly dedicated to radio.

Broadcasting Professionals, but does cover Podcasting Incorporated, has their annual prediction article from Neiman Labs, where a roundtable of, quote, experts give their, what else, predictions for 2025. Here are some of the highlights. Alex Sujong Laughlin, co-owner of Defector Media, predicts that podcast's middle class will continue to shrink.

I guess like this country's middle class as a whole has been over the last few years. The Rogans and the Coopers of the world will float in their opulent pools while the rest of us fight for greedy sips of what's left. A middle class, she means podcasts produced by studios like hers that seek capital from outside sources in order to fund their productions.

I feel Ms. Laughlin is correct, but don't have much sympathy for her because it was the mass immigration of professional broadcasters like her that pushed out the established independent podcasters from the space. If she and her like are the middle class, well, I guess independence can be considered the working poor. Magnificent Noise co-founder Eric Nusrum likens the so-called middle-class production studios to the still-thriving indie bookstores. Well, he's correct.

There will still be an audience, but it will be smaller than what it was in the past. With advertising rates still decreasing, only the true believers of this middle class of podcasting will manage to hang on. Kerry Hoffman, current PRX president and public broadcasting alumni, is worried about maintaining a sustainable business model. Again, and especially for outfits like PRX,

which are spun off from public radio. This is all tied to advertising revenue and, in their case, subscriptions, neither of which has been able to generate enough money to sustain what she considers a sustainable business model. The problem is that entities like PRX are used to receiving public funding and grants from the elites. They live off this monetization, which is passed on to them by public radio.

If public radio's income is down, which it is, less money is passed off to PRX and its fellow organizations. Podcasts produced by them can have nearly 50 or 60 people employed per show. And that's what's really unsustainable here. They either rent public radio studios for their productions, which of course is expensive, or maintain their own studios stocked with thousands of dollars worth of top-of-the-line gear.

Instead of considering a streamlining of personnel and equipment, she instead begs for more investment to relieve the situation, which betrays her public radio roots. And why should PRX and others like it get more investment? Well... Because what they do is important, at least compared to the peasant class of podcasters and the public at large. Elitist much? Yes. Finally, we have one Joni Deutsch.

Yet another elitist with nothing but a public radio career in her privileged employment background. She calls the last presidential election the podcast election, and as evidenced by her complaining or prediction, same thing. It's that she and her peers within the public radio-based podcasting space are too, again, important to be ignored. Translation. Give us money.

Ms. Deutsch even posits that public radio-produced podcasts could even help mainstream media in its fight against posers like Joe Rogan to ensure the right candidate gets elected next time. God forbid another Republican gets elected. Am I right? Now I'm paraphrasing here, but that's what I got out of her prediction. When you think about it, it wasn't much of a prediction. It was more of a disbelieving introspection of how her political party lost this last election and an appeal for more.

Maybe if these elitist journalists actually left their bubbles and ventured outside of their coastal progressive sanctuaries they inhabit, they would have a better understanding of what's really going on in the country. If they did this, let's get real here, they won't. Perhaps they would start producing podcasts that people outside of this elitist bubble would actually listen to.

My predictions for the next year in regards to Podcasting Incorporated are more shows like Call Her Daddy will appear and The Left will continue their search for its answer to Joe Rogan. There will be an early flood of money into public radio and its entities, but that will dry up as these podcasts will continue flopping. What I am hoping for in this coming year...

Is independent podcasters getting enough breathing room to be able to claw back into the space their predecessors created? And for those independents that wish to make a living doing so, We'll be able to do that without having to go to Spotify or YouTube in order to do so. Well, the music is playing as it always does, which signals that this episode of the OFNT podcast is coming to its conclusion. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I enjoyed making it for you.

If you like what you heard, well, you can always 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 only if you're so inclined. I'd enjoy hearing from you. I really would. Remember, don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do. Still here? Don't you have some Christmas shopping to do? So get off my lawn. Stay skeptical. I'm out. See ya. Don't!