A factual data creation facility production Welcome to the OFNT podcast episode 242 which I'm calling Week of Mac and the end of a podcast era. Yep, this is the last episode of the OFNT podcast that will be recorded from here, the place where the first episode of this show was recorded. Sort of a bittersweet moment, don't you think? Yes. The heavy packing is finished and the moving truck is scheduled so, in less than a week, we'll be done. I'll also be dismantling and packing up
to Studio Gear after this episode is uploaded. I'm missed this space but I have a much better room to record and then at the new house. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is unpacking. Well, what do you say we? Get on with it then. Oh, yes! Tech news. Well, true to their word, the giant fruit company had a week of Mac announcements.
OK. But instead of a humble press release, Apple announced these quote, new Macs via mini-video events, lasting around 10 minutes each give or take a few minutes. The long as of these mini-events was the final one introducing the MacBook Pros which lasted 17 minutes. A chunk of that one was taken up by a cheesy and sort of cringy fake commercial for the new laptops,
which aired at right at the end. In a slap to the face for recent buyers, during this new MacBook Pro reveal that all M2 and M3 MacBook Airs will come standard with 16 gigs of RAM going forward. You know, I just paid a couple of hundred bucks for that privilege, not even a year ago when I purchased my own M2 MacBook Air. And that's money I could have put towards expanded storage. Apple started the week of Mac on Monday morning with the introduction
of the M4 iMac. No, there were no increases in screen size. We're still stuck with the 24-inch screen. Personally, I really liked the only one form factor for desktop computers. In fact, most of my Windows machines were just that. Even my first Mac was a 2015-27 inch iMac. I find at least for me 26 inches to be the sweet spot for a display on a desktop PC. According to 9-5 Mac.com, the new iMac's basic configuration features 16 gigabytes of RAM
up from 8 gigabytes. Configurable up to 32 gigabytes in the higher-end models. You can now get a Nano-Texture screen option. Nano-Texture being Apple's term for anti-reflective screen. Depending on the model, you can have up to 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports, which is great because that should be enough ports to prevent having to buy some sort of USB hub. The base model has but two. The built-in webcam has been upgraded to a 12-megapixel center-stage camera with desk view.
Now, let me translate that for you. The camera will keep you in focus if you move around and is of a wider angle, which allows it to be able to see the front of the desk you have your iMac sitting on. And I guess your hands also. Useful? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know either. Decessories are color match, which I believe they were before. And now they use USB-C for charging. Yay! About that. These accessories they're talking about are the keyboard, mouse, and trackpad.
The mouse, however, still has its charging port on the bottom, meaning that while charging the thing, you still won't be able to use it. Come on, Apple. This is the worst possible design choice. With my old iMac, I purchased an additional Magic Mouse, which I'd fire up when the other needed a charge. The only magic I found about that mouse was it usually dying while I was in the middle of some project. The Magic Keyboard is available in three different models. The basic one with no touch
ID, one with touch ID, and one with touch ID and a numeric keypad. The basic Magic Keyboard is $99 and the other keyboards prices go up from there. Touch ID is nice, but if you wear an Apple watch, you can use that to automatically open up your lock computer no matter what model mac you're using. The new iMac comes in new colors, which appear to be different shades of the colors the older model came in. Yay! You still get the same Paltry 256GB of storage, though.
As an aside, I'm so old I remember being offered a 10-megabyte not kick-a-bite mind you are a drive for my leading edge PC. That was way back what many believe was the day. The salesman wanted $284 for those 10-megabytes back then which I quickly turned down. The basic configurations M4 CPU features 8 cores as the Z GPU. With the higher tiers you can get 10 core GPUs and CPUs along with 32 gigs of RAM and up to 2 terabytes of storage.
Before settling on my Mac Mini last year I priced out at N Current iMac. All I added was 16 gigs of RAM and 1 terabyte of storage. Gestles 2 upgrades would have brought the price to well over 1,600 bucks and that was with the base M2 CPU configuration. Yeah, I'd put together my entire Mac Mini set up for less than that. Of course you'll get noticeably better performance with the new M4 chip, well in comparison to the old M1 chip which Apple always compares the M4 chip to.
But not much better performance than the M2 or M3 chip. So if you already have an M2 or M3 based iMac just put up with the lightning connector based accessories and save yourself some cash. Like I said I do prefer the old and one form factor but will not limit myself to a 24 inch screen. While those screens look impressive during commercials and introduction videos in person, well they don't impress much. Oh and those iMac displays are 4K not the 5K of the
old 27 inch models of your. I guess as a family computer or a work node these new iMacs are sufficient but if you do serious work well I think they'll fall short. Tuesday brought the most interesting announcement of the three and that was the redesigned Mac Mini. True to the leaks the Mini has been shrunken down some 60% to now being just a little bigger and taller than the Apple TV streaming box. Quite the difference in comparison to the older models
of which I have the M2 chip version of. Six colors.com has the rundown on this tiny but powerful machine. It's modeled somewhat after the much more costly Mac studio. The new Mini has two USB C ports around the front and that's something I wish my model had and three thunderbolt ports around back as well as Ethernet and the usual HDMI connections. The basic Mac Mini starts at the same $599 price point as the older versions which is a good thing and that's despite coming
with 16 gigs of RAM. The basic model CPU GPU have 10 cores. While the M4 Pro chip version of the new Mini has upgraded Thunderbolt 5 connectors 24 gigs of RAM, upgradable to 64 gigs and the base M4 Pro chip has 12 CPU cores and 16 GPU cores. But a 14 CPU slash 20 GPU core upgrade is available if you have the need and Piasters for it. Somehow the power supply still remains internal. And the power plug is still too pinned at least here in US. Except it's now
graded which seems to be a trend these days. This new Mac Mini has really picked my interest and I'm considering trading up for it. The one thing that's stopping me is price. I went on to the Apple Store app and configured a Mac Mini that would give me a noticeable increase in performance and also be future proof. I specced a Mac Mini with a base M4 Pro chip and one terabyte of storage. That's it. I found out it would cost me $1599 before tax.
But wait, I could trade in my one year old Mac Mini and reduce that price, right? Yes. Well, I was offered $310 for my Mini from Apple. What? Talk about low-balling. So after trading I'd be on the hook for $1,289. Now I realize I don't need all the power of a Pro M4 chip at the moment, but me. Who knows, I might in the future. But that horribly low trading value for my current Mini is just plain
ridiculous. That works out to be but a quarter of what I had paid for it a little less than a year ago. I'm not sure if I could ever convince myself to go for that, but I'm sure I'll try. When did they single the end of the week of Mac and saw the release of the new MacBook Pros? Besides the M4 Pro chip, then there were many hardware upgrades. The cameras of the MacBook Pros were upgraded to the same 12 megapixel cameras with center stage and desk view as the new iMacs were.
And the lower-end 14-inch Pro is now available in the color black. Previously, only the high-end of 14-inch models were available in that color. Speaking of those higher-end models, besides access to the M4 Macs chip, they also get the Thunderbolt 5 ports. The nano-txture non-reflective screen treatment is also available for all Pro models. I'm not going to get into specs of these machines because like these sparse upgrades,
I find them boring. So who are these new MacBook Pros for? Besides graphic design and other professionals, I guess these are for those living that laptop lifestyle which I've discussed in past episodes. That's just having a laptop as you're mean and only computer. While mobile, you can carry it around with you and then while at home you'd plug it in external monitor, use a Bluetooth
keyboard and a mouse. I can see how this would be appealing, but unless you need the power of a MacBook Pro while mobile, you could save some money by just purchasing a beefed-up MacBook Air and maybe one of those new Mac minis for home. Heck, unless you do some heavy video editing, a beefed-up Air would just find on its own. No need for any type of desktop machine. The prices of these two Pro MacBooks are of course astronomical. Well, just maybe I'm just showing
my age here. Besides new Macs, Apple released the iOS 18.2 developers beta last week. The most interesting change for me was the ability to change default apps. No longer will iOS users be locked into Apple only apps. According to 9-5 Mac.com, the category is in which you can set any app you want as default are. Email, messaging, calling, call filtering, browser app, passwords and codes, and finally keyboards. See what I mean about iOS becoming more Android-like
and Android becoming more iOS-like? Yes. Unfortunately, this app default setting feature is only available on e-phone 15 Pro and later models. I won't be changing any of my defaults anytime soon, but I'm sure many will be doing so, especially the browser. I'll be sticking to Apple's apps because the thing that keeps me within the giant fruit company's ecosystem is the integration. That's something setting different non-Apple apps as default would break I fear.
But for those who use computers running Windows or Linux, this will be welcome, but I'm sure. Again, 9-5 Mac.com has an article on their site which ponders when Apple will stop supporting Intel chip-based Macs. Well, the answer is soon. The entire Mac lineup started transitioning to Apple's Silicon back in 2020 and since then, Apple has been dropping support for various
Intel-based machines. This usually happens after reaching the five-year mark. With the release of the latest version of Mac OS, the only Intel-based machines that are supported are the 2018 Mac Mini, 2019 and 2020 iMacs, the 2017 iMac Pro, the 2020 MacBook Air, 2018 to 2020 MacBook Pro models, and the 2019 Mac Pro. Size having to recompile code for two different chip architectures. This withdrawal of support will spur stubborn users to upgrade finally.
The author thinks that 2016 will be the year that support for Intel-based Macs will cease with the release of Mac OS 17. Support with drop from my old Intel-based 2015 iMac and 2019 MacBook Air last year, but my 2019 touch bar equipped MacBook Pro is still supported. The only thing I miss about that particular MacBook is the touch bar, but I don't miss it that much. Are you still using any Intel-based Macs? What do you plan on doing when they're no longer supported?
Peloton, the company that pioneered the home indoor cycling market with a little help from COVID and has been in freefall since the restrictions that evil virus brought were lifted, has hired a new CEO. The company announced Thursday that Peter Stern will help Peloton going forward. Now what's so interesting about this you may ask? Yes. Well, Mr. Stern oversort of development and launch of Apple Fitness Plus. Wow!
I prefer Peloton over Apple Fitness for a few reasons. As my body continues to deteriorate due to age, I've shifted my cardio preference from running to indoor cycling. Fitness Plus does have a good selection of workouts, but they rely on a small pool of instructors. To be honest, I don't connect with any of them. Another thing is the type of workouts Fitness Plus has available. While Peloton has categories from beginner to pro-cyclists, Fitness Plus workouts seem to be key to the type of music
play during said workouts. Fitness Plus's metrics only include time, calories, and heart rate. Peloton's metrics are comprehensive, the downside being that to attain those metrics, you're required to purchase a Peloton cycle, which they're very expensive. I've gotten around this limitation by pairing my Apple watch and entering data manually into Peloton's app for my cycles display unit. Later this month, I will be purchasing a Peloton cycle, so those extra
steps I take will no longer be necessary. I hope that Mr. Stern, in the interest of cutting budgets, doesn't make Peloton more Apple fitness-like, and as always, multi-multile. Yet again from 9-5 Mac.com, BlueSky wants to introduce a paid subscription with exclusive features reached the headline. If you didn't know, and you probably didn't, BlueSky was created by former employees of Twitter when
Elon Musk bought the world's most popular micro-blogging site. BlueSky was launched with a great excitement back in 2022, and it was a long wait list just to establish an account on it. I spent about two months waiting for an invite after signing up. Former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey was on the board of directors, but he has since left, throwing his support behind
X, which Twitter was renamed after the Musk purchase, of course. When I first started using BlueSky, besides hardly anything happening on it, I realized that most people that were using it formed bubbles and would attack anyone with evenest lightest deviation from their gospel. You know the type of people I'm referring to? I accumulated around five followers, but now I'm down to zero, and that's right, zero followers.
I spent that wait for over a year now, just despite joining conversations and following random people. What Elon Musk refused to surrender to the cancel mob, BlueSky has had a resurgence lately. My feed is full of people, but most seem to be of the Ilkai previously described. With this proposed paid subscription, you'll get to upload videos in a higher quality, and profile customization such as avatar colors and frames.
In my opinion, BlueSky is attempting to duplicate pre-Elon Musk Twitter, where the only opinions there were tolerated were those of one particular side of the political divide. While other beliefs and opinions were suppressed by a multitude of censorship tools with supervision from the US government. Eh, no thank you. AndroidPolice.com is an article about the incoming Google Pixel 9A, which is the poor person's Pixel phone, akin to the iPhone SE.
What I can see from the leaked renders of the phone, the distinct camera island of the regular Pixel Models is gone. Replace by a flush-mounted two lens island. The RIC looks a bit iPhone 11-ish. Okay. Well, how about a cross between a modern iPhone with old-style iPhone camera mountings? Except in the Pixel's case, the lenses are mounted horizontally. Okay. Now don't get me wrong, it looks good to me, but I prefer the more expensive Pixel's camera island.
According to the article, the Pixel 9A will have a 6.3-inch display with a refresh rate of 120 Hz. Oh, yes. And a giant 5,000 milliampere battery. Though charging speed will remain the same as previous models. A 10-sort G4 chip will power the phone and has the same chip used in the 9A's more expensive siblings. But an older Xnose modem and only 8GB of RAM will come along with it. With Google's prior aggressive pricing, this could be the mid-range phone to get.
You know, my son used to have a A-series Pixel. I can't remember which model it was. And he was very happy with it. And that was the last phone he had before joining the dark side of iOS with an iPhone SE. I am your father. Unfortunately, many in the world of tech feel that the Pixel 9A will be the last A-series phone from Google, which is kind of sad. This leaves budget phone buyers with just one less option for the future.
And speaking of pixels, 9-5 Google.com reports that the new and improved Google Weather app is rolling out to Pixel 6-8A phones. The Weather app already comes standard with the 9-series. The app follows the material U-Design Language, which looks mostly nice, but not on this app. And that's just my opinion. Google Weather has a lot of features, but I hope the app does its main function well, which is, of course, to forecast a weather.
I wasn't aware that Google had its own weather forecasting API like Apple does. For me, the standard was the old Dark Sky app, which Apple bought and discontinued. Those supposedly incorporating most of that app's features into its own weather app. Despite doing this, Apple's Weather app isn't nearly as good as Dark Sky's was at the pinpoint predicting of precipitation at your location.
I really miss Dark Sky's, and in an effort to replicate Dark Sky's, I use Apple Weather in conjunction with the Carrot Weather in Forca, all using different sources of data. Hopefully, Google Weather can hold its own. Do you use Google Weather? Does it predict precipitation well? Let me know. AndroidPolice.com has a nice tribute on its website to my favorite Nexus phone of them all. The Google Nexus 6, affectionately called Shamoo. It's been 10 years since the release of that phone.
Man, time really does fly by. You know, that phone's looks still holds up today. Before the Nexus 6, I followed my son's lead and hopped aboard the Android Dream with the Nexus 1, which I didn't care for. After that phone, I rocked a couple of Samsung Galaxy phones, ending with the one that had a back that resembled a Band-Aid. I think that was the Galaxy 5. I loved the screen on that phone, but had problems with stuttering apps and overheating so I did what every concerned parent would do.
I offloaded the phone to one of my children and bought the Nexus 6 for myself. For its day, the Nexus 6 was a giant. It featured a 5.96-inch OLED screen. That's when the Samsung Galaxy Note only had a 5.7-inch display. Back then, phones were becoming narrower. I guess in order to make one-handed scrolling and texting easier. Well, I find that I'm able to text faster and more accurate with using two hands, and the Nexus 6 was wide enough to accommodate this because of its 16.9 aspect ratio.
The phone software was stock Android, with the blow of the Galaxy phone. Heck, even compared to today's stock Android from the Pixel phones, the Android on the Nexus 6 was lean in mean. Thanks to a generous portion of RAM and the latest Snapdragon chipset, that phone flew through tasks. I believe the Nexus 6 was one of the last phones Motorola produced before Google bought the company, stole all the IP they needed, and then sold Motorola off to Lenovo.
Google used the tech they gained from Motorola to eventually launch its Pixel lineup. The one weak spot of the phone was the camera. Well, it was good enough for casual snappers like myself, but didn't hold a candle to phones made by Nokia, Samsung, and even Apple at the time. Like the Samsung Galaxy before it, my Nexus 6 was handed down to one of my children, who at the time were constantly having mishaps with their own phones. I don't recall what Android phone I replaced the Nexus 6 with.
I remember having and hating the last Nexus I ever purchased, and that was the Huawei Nexus 6P. The 6P's shot a construction, terrible performance, anemic back to real life, and overheating issue soured me on the Nexus and then Pixel phones. The 6P had a fitting ending though. One evening I plugged the phone into, charge it, and after a few minutes it exploded, with pieces of it landing all over my kitchen. I did have a Pixel 2 and 3, using the latter until my retirement back in 2022.
I'm always tempted to check out Android again, even pondering going back to work as a justification of doing so. No! But for now, that's just not going to happen. If I did jump back into Android, I'd probably go with a Pixel or a nothing phone. Tech I'm using! My MacBook Air has been getting all the love over the past six months because of my constant traveling to and from Tennessee.
Even while I'm up here in New York, I find the convenience of just whipping out the air wherever I am to be irresistible. The only time I use the Mac Mini setup is for recording this podcast. That should all change in a couple of weeks though, as we complete this long and drawn out change of living location. I have an actual computer desk down there, and I'll be bringing the Mac Mini along with me on that final drive down.
Though the MacBook Air has one of the best keyboards I've ever used on the laptop, I'm looking forward to again using the Logitech Mechanical keyboard, which I equipped the Mini with. Thanks John! The 26 inch display I have will be nice for multitasking also. Don't get me wrong, the 15 inch screen of my MacBook Air is great, but at my age, my eyes prefer screens with bigger real estate. I'll be purchasing a 75 inch LG television soon, so that will be my next tech purchase.
Shortly after I'll be ordering my Peloton Indoor cycle, and that's something I've been wanting to do for years. The Indoor cycle I'm using here won't be making the trip down to Tennessee. I beat that poor bike to death over the couple of years I've had it and used it. That leaves the Apple Watch 10, the only other piece of tech on the buying schedule. That's because my lovely wife and I have decided to gift each other one for Christmas.
Other tech items I'm thinking of obtaining are a set of full-size Apple Home Paws that will act as a sound system for the new television, and a new mesh Wi-Fi system for the new house. My current TP-Link mesh system is only capable of 500 megabits of data and I have a one gig of data plan these days. Besides the Wi-Fi protocol is old on that system. I'm hoping for a Black Friday sale in order to snag a new mesh system.
The router my provider provides works great on the first floor of a new place, but not so much on the second level. Other than that, it's been quiet on the tech I'm using front. Entertainment News I've got nothing. Oh wait, I do have a couple of things. AndroidPolice.com gives their opinion on five things YouTube Premium needs to change. The first suggestion and the one I agree the most with is that YouTube Premium should offer a more affordable plan without YouTube Music.
Now I understand that YouTube itself carries videos with copyrighted music, so why can't they restrict playing downloads of them to those who opt out to pay more for the privilege of doing so? As far as the YouTube Music app, while a Carries podcast, many that I listen to aren't on it. As for Music, there are many other and better options out there. If Google would separate YouTube Music from YouTube and charge a lower rate, well I'd be a happy camper.
The second suggestion is for video quality to default to the highest possible option. Huh, I thought that was already the case. I assume the big G saves expensive bandwidth on their servers by defaulting to mid-quality streams. But YouTube Premium subscribers are paying customers and should be able to have the videos they're consuming stream at the highest quality available. Don't you agree with that? Yes.
This next suggestion doesn't matter much to me. That's the ability to download videos on more than three devices. I don't download any videos if I can't finish a stream. I'll search for it later if I want to. Next, Incognito Mode on YouTube Premium. Again, I wouldn't use this if it were available. I can see the utility of it though. The example given by the articles author is you might be shopping for a gift for someone and you wouldn't want them to stumble onto your search or watch history.
Okay, but how many people actually shop for gifts using YouTube? I mean, I don't really know. I sure don't. The final suggestion is that YouTube Premium needs to add more benefits. Well, I can get behind this one, but I'm unsure what these benefits would be. The author's example is letterbox formatting for some videos. Again, something I doubt I would use.
For me, the first suggestion is the strongest one. Beyond that, I would like to see Google pick up some real television content like the old YouTube Red did. Then now to funk Cracklehead, a nice staple of exclusive series when it first launched. And I think Google has enough cash laying around where they can do this too. Donald Trump's Truth Social Network is perhaps the worst site for living within a bubble. Besides a few trolls here and there, it's all Trump all the time.
Well, recently the Truth Plus app was launched and it has an Apple TV app as well as all other streaming box platforms. Truth Plus is all about video content, so I downloaded and checked it out. In the TV section, you'll get a selection of news networks that aren't on broadcast TV and offer a different narrative than the typical corporate media cabal. Who've basically become an extension of the Democratic political party? You'll find Newsmax, the outlawed OAN, Euro news and more.
There's also a variety of channels for movies and mothers that I haven't gotten around to checking out yet. There's an on-demand section that is surprisingly well stocked with great documentaries and older movies and the app even has a record section, a sort of digital DVR. I'm just guessing there. I haven't really checked it out yet. Not a bad selection of content for a service just starting out. The best part is that the price is right. It's free.
Podcast News, though I claimed recently that as far as recording equipment goes, well, I was just all set. Well, that was true until a couple of Fridays ago. While watching television on that evening, I received a notification from Amazon about a deal that might appeal to me. Within that notification was a picture of a microphone. I received plenty of notifications like this and I usually just dismissed them.
For some reason, I clicked on this particular Amazon notification. That was probably because a commercial break was ongoing. It was presented with a Noem in TLM 102 condenser microphone. Noem in mics are considered by some at least the cream of the crop as far as condenser mics go. The TLM 102 is Noem in's entry model, though many consider it to be superior to the much more expensive TLM 103.
The TLM 102 usually will set you back $700 or more. This deal had the Noem in price at less than half that price. Skepticalite checked the seller, expecting to see something like Joe's mic and Porym or a foreign equivalent as the seller. No. I was surprised that the seller was actually Sennheiser, the well-known German company that owns Noem in. While the price wasn't within range of impulse buy, I quickly debated the purchase within my old fart brain and came to the following conclusions.
Hey, I really don't need this mic. B, that's a really low price for this mic. C, I am interested in becoming a part-time voice-over actor and this mic would help. D, I could always sell the mic for more than I paid for it and E, that's a really low price that I won't see in a long time if ever. Yeah, I pulled the trigger. I haven't even opened the box to mic was delivered in yet. As I've told you ad nozzium, I'm in the middle, actually nearing the end of moving to a new house.
There'll be plenty of time to check it out once my move is complete and I contain the echo chamber that is my recording space there. Stay tuned for updates. As of yesterday, Joe Rogan's Trump interview is up to 43 million views on YouTube, 43 million on Elon Musk's X count and 20 million on Rogan's X count. That's 106 million views and that's not counting the audio-only version of the Joe Rogan experience.
These are staggering numbers that have got to be the envy of mainstream corporate media CEOs and the lackeys they employ. I believe we've crossed the precipice now. From now on, I expect to see political candidates issuing corporate media in favor of a podcast to get their message out during elections. The current corporate media is in decline and a rapidly declining audience means rapidly declining ad revenue. Media brought this on themselves, trading journalism for activism.
Now I don't know about you, but I've got my popcorn ready to watch where this all goes. And with that, I'll wrap up this last episode recorded from New York, the place it all started from five years ago. Now the equipment used has changed, I've also changed, so now the location will change. I enjoyed bringing the OFNT podcast to you from here and will continue to enjoy doing that from Tennessee. I thank you for your listenership and hope you continue doing so.
The music is playing and the end of my and he shows New York era is upon us. Again, thanks for listening to this old fool's babbling. Here's to new babbling from a new place. 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. If you're so inclined, I'd enjoy hearing from you.
Remember, don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do. I've downsized my property, so you won't enjoy milling around there as much as you do here. So, for the final time from New York, get off my lawn. Stay skeptical. I'm out. See ya.