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The iACast is a weekly podcast with engaging discussions related to technology.
[0:00]Hello everyone, and welcome back to- what's this? Yes, the IACast is back.
[0:20]Welcome Back to IACast
[0:21]All right. Yes, we are back, everybody. I am Michael Doeys. Yes, we're back again. I know it's strange. The IACast is a thing again. We are going to strive to be regular with these episodes. We're not sure in what frequency we're going to have these, but I've missed podcasting. I've missed talking to you guys, everybody through the IACast. So we're going to be back And we're going to have new faces, including one new face today. But as a familiar face and voice, I guess we're not doing video today. We have Lauren Bradford back with us. Hi, Lauren. Hello. Well, glad to be back. Yes. And we have Becky Knob. Becky is new to the podcast. Hi, Becky. Hello. All right. Like I said before, we're going to strive to have the podcast be back and be a regular show. Not sure if we're going to probably start either every two weeks or every month to see how things go. And at one point we were doing the show weekly. That may happen again. I don't know yet. We'll see.
[1:32]New iPhones and Color Changes
[1:33]But for now, let's just celebrate the fact that we're back and we have a lot of cool tech stuff to talk about today. So it's really interesting, all of the new announcements we've got, you know, through new iPhones and problems with the new iPhones.
[1:51]I'm really curious to know what y'all's thoughts are on this one, where the new iPhones in orange are turning pink. Have y'all heard about this? No, I have not.
[2:09]That's crazy. I wonder why that's happening. I wonder if it's like the way they've done the color. It's the anodization of the aluminum, apparently, with it being in light in different environments with the orange. It's turning pink. And I've seen it on TikTok. It's really interesting. I've got to check this out now. So, like, how pink is it? Is it, like, fluorescent-y pink, or is it, like, girly-girl pink? It's a little bit of both.
[2:46]Issues with Aluminum Phones
[2:46]Because you see the orange around it, and then it just, like, the light hits it, and it's like, that's not orange anymore.
[2:58]Wow. I mean, they've already been talking about these phones having scratch gate and all these other things where the aluminum is scratching easily in the glass. But yeah, and we didn't even talk about this one before the show started. And so I figured, well, just surprise everybody with this one. It's very interesting. Oh, man. I got to look at this now. This is really interesting. I just can't imagine you know if you buy a phone because you like i mean i've never really liked the concept of orange or pink uh so no but if you like that color and you bought a phone that color and then all of a sudden your phone changes to a different color like i'm sure people would be I'm very upset. Unpopular opinion. We have all these nice colors, these nice neutrals. We got the blue and then orange. Right. Yeah. Cosmic orange. And so now that it's turning pink, I'm like, hmm. I guess that's cosmic pink now.
[4:06]Cosmic pinkish orange? Yeah. Well, and they're saying, you know, to be serious for a second, they're saying that this is only on a certain batch or two of the phones but, Still, with all of the issues they're having with the aluminum on these new phones, do y'all think that they made a mistake with going with aluminum on the Pro phones? Oh, wow. I didn't realize that they had gone back to aluminum. So I have an older model. I have a 15 Pro, and it's titanium, and I love my phone.
[4:42]So maybe they did make a slight mistake. Who knows? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I mean, maybe it's just one of those things that you kind of have to live and learn. Hopefully, they'll get back to titanium. Maybe they learn from this mistake. I don't know. Well, and maybe what they'll do is they'll put a coating of titanium on the outside of the aluminum, because the reason why they went with the aluminum is for heating. Yeah. The titanium heats up way too much and causes the phone to have overheating issues. And so when they went with aluminum, it really was supposed to help with the heating of that.
[5:28]It's interesting, though, with the blue phones, how it's tripping off on the corners, the radius, and just different things like that. And I just, I wonder kind of what they're going to do next year. Right. The question I have then is, you know, perhaps could they do a blend or perhaps, I mean, what did they do before titanium became a thing for phones? For a while, they used stainless steel, but most— That's what I thought. Yeah. And the non-pro phones have always been aluminum. Yeah. But, you know, the thing is, most people do not buy the standard phones. And the reason is that they want that pro—you know, if they're going to go with a new phone, they want to get the best they can so they don't have to upgrade for a while. And I get that, but it's really interesting. Yeah.
[6:23]I mean, when I'm looking into buying a phone, I want to buy it outright, so it's mine, and I want to make sure that it's going to be a sound investment for a couple of years to come. I want to make sure, for me personally, I use the LiDAR, so the Pro is definitely what I need. The other two models that cost a little less just don't meet my needs. I use that LiDAR to help me identify where lines are and things. Because sometimes my guide dog is not as up on the, you know, oh, hey, the line moved. As I would like him to be. He's still young. He'll get there. But until then, that is one of those features that I absolutely love. And if I had to do without it, I could, but it would be a very big pain in the backside. So, yeah, I feel like and I haven't said this on the podcast because we're just coming back, but I would love the air like that would be the phone I would buy. But there's too many compromises. I feel like not having a LIDAR, not having the second speaker. I would miss those things. And when you're talking about $999 for a phone with compromises.
[7:46]It's that's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot to give up, especially since the cheaper phone, the $799 phone has two cameras. It has two speakers. It has, you know, a lot of those things. And it's cheaper. It's thicker, but it's cheaper. So I don't know. I mean, yes, the Air has a better processor, and it's a better build, but there's all trade-offs in any way you go. The Pro phones are chunky and heavy and, you know. Chippy. Chippy.
[8:23]Thoughts on Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold
[8:23]And turn pink.
[8:27]So, I don't know. So I guess the next thing I'm curious to see y'all's thoughts on, we talked about this in person, or well, you know, online, but the new Google Pixel...
[8:44]10 Pro Fold. Yeah, I got that name right. There's too many words in that phone's name. It's an Android phone, so we know Becky's thoughts. No, I was just saying, oh, so many words in a phone's name. Oh, yeah. That's a lot to have to blurt out. That too. I've seen models of this phone, and it looks neat. The folding phones are a neat concept. I feel like they're not ready for prime time. Not quite. They're too thick, in my opinion. And the channel JerryRigEverything did a durability test, and he was able to try to get into the phone and hit the battery, from my understanding, and it caused the phone to basically explode. It was crazy. There is, I mean, there is so much with that video, but all you could see was just smoke going everywhere. Yeah. And yes, people do say, like, this is not usual wear and tear on these phones. It's, you know. But he also showed where he poured dust or sand and other things into the hinge, and the thing went out.
[10:07]Like, and it really hurts. It hurts my soul because they do these tests with all of these folding phones. And when they fold and unfold the phones with that dust, you could just hear it crunching in the hinge. And I'm like, oh, gosh. That's the thing. A folding phone has a very vulnerable, easily taken advantage of for a point, you know, so. Yeah. If it gets pocket lint, dust, animal hair, whatever in it, all of that stuff is going to add up. There's not really any way that you can remove said stuff. And how long is your phone going to function with all of that stuff each time you unfold it and fold it? Think about how many times a day you pull out your phone. How many times a day do you use your phone? So how many times a day would you be folding and unfolding and folding and unfolding that phone?
[11:13]That's the problem of foldable smartphones. Back in the days when they were not smart, they were dumb phones, it was a little easier. Because they didn't have touchscreens and all those important components on the outside. All the important components were on the inside. But the hinges still failed. Well, they did. Yes, for sure. And a lot of those phones, like they have an outer screen, so you don't have to unfold them. Like a lot of people use them unfolded as a tablet, but you're still unfolding it and folding it a lot. And there's a film, like a lot of them have this protective layer over the screen to keep it from shattering and other things. And that could come off. There's too many issues, I feel, that come with a folding phone like that.
[12:02]Concerns about Folding Phones
[12:02]Yes. I don't think that's the way of the future. I think they've got to figure out a different solution. I think that's kind of a concept that isn't really provable as a viable alternative. Well, you know, it's interesting because I guess the psychology and the logic is humans like things that fold. I mean, we have wallets that fold. We have laptops that fold. So the next logical thing, I guess, was a foldable smartphone. And I just don't see its use. Like, I guess people think, well, I could buy this and I don't need to buy a tablet. And I understand that. One of the things that people like about the folding phones, especially, well, people like that they can put it in their pocket. And that's great if you have pockets.
[12:55]That goes back to a whole other conversation about women's clothing. Also true. You know, it comes down to, you know, you got something that can fit more easily into a pocket, which is really cool. And that's why the folding was so popular. But now we're starting to see issues and it's just, I don't think it's worth it for me anyway. I agree. And so I find it very interesting how many people, I mean, I don't think the average person's going out and buying a folding phone. I mean, I know some are, but some aren't, you know? Mm-hmm. Have you noticed that on the folding phones, the hinge where the hinge is is less sensitive? So if you're a talkback user and you're trying to use your phone, it just doesn't seem as snappy the closer you go to the middle honestly I haven't played with one long enough to know that's interesting, that's a good thing to know about because.
[13:51]That's or a good thing to think about in general mm-hmm, It's very interesting. I will have, next time I play with one, I'll find that out. But do y'all think, because there's a lot of talk of this, do you think that the iPhone Air is an example, they brought that out because it is one half of the double puzzle of a folding iPhone. No, I think they're trying to line up their iPhone line with their Mac line and their iPad line. Yep. Because there's been talk that Apple is going to make a folding phone next year. And that, you know, the iPhone Air is kind of showing that they can do a folding phone by making it so thin. Maybe. It's possible. I know I personally wouldn't buy one, but... Nope. I think if Apple did it, they would do it better than anybody else. So I would look at it. And maybe then it would have the two speakers that we want instead of the Air. Oh, that'd be great. But you know that that phone would be $2,000. Oh, yeah. You just don't have use for a foldable phone. I just don't have a use case for it.
[15:17]I don't want to worry about—my phone is my lifeline. I use it for so many things in my daily life, both in my work life and in my outside work life. And, you know, just doing things to help maintain independence, reading, print, all of those things. You know, and I would never want to have to worry about all the vulnerabilities that a folding phone has, whether it's Apple or otherwise, because even though Apple does a great job with their phones, and I love their phones, those vulnerabilities are still there. They're still going to be there. They're not going to magically disappear. That's not going to happen. Right. And that's an important point to consider. Yeah, I agree. So, yeah, I and I think that, again, it's OK to buy one of these Pixel 10 Pro Fold phones.
[16:24]Damn. I always think about it before I say it, because I'm like, am I getting the words right? I think they're okay to buy but I just feel like it's not as durable as others I think Samsung's been doing this longer if I were to get a folding phone it would be from them, I think the biggest takeaway is if you're nice to your phone, you don't drop it. You don't, you know, you're not crazy with it, then you're fine. Go ahead. Buy it. But if you are someone that is rough, you drop it all the time. You step on it. You throw it. You, you know, you're hard on your phones. Maybe don't buy it. But also life happens. Take that into consideration. Life happens. So you may not be the person that drops your phone a lot However Until you do Until you do You slipped on that ice you didn't know was there Or you tripped over that toy or whatever Yeah, you know Well, I mean, at least it's not the Note 7 Oh.
[17:35]Samsung Galaxy Edge Line Discontinued
[17:36]Yeah I mean, spontaneous combustion of a phone is not fun you know no no so that that's that's my my thought there so this brings us to another android phone um topic that is very interesting in my opinion the samsung galaxy edge line is gone they are discontinuing it.
[18:09]And the Edge line is basically what the iPhone Air is. It's the sleek, thin phone that Samsung makes to be thin. And like, basically, they serve the same purpose. But the Samsung phones for the Edge have been around a lot longer. But I guess they just haven't seen the same popularity as their other phones. And they have a lot of phones. Like they sell a lot of different models of their phones. Yeah, I was reading an article about this. They went all in on this new Edge phone and the Gnome was buying it. They were going to their other lines. And so they actually discontinued the 2026 and 2025 versions. And so that makes me wonder how viable is the Air Air.
[19:01]Hmm. Interesting. Long term. I think the longevity of the air is a little more substantial than the edge would have been. But that's just me. I don't have an opinion one way or the other. I just like to pose interesting questions. I mean, you know, all of these companies get ideas from one another. And I wonder, you know, if nobody was buying that phone, there must have been a reason for it. So what were the reasons? And, you know, how does Apple safeguard against said reasons to make sure that the Air isn't impacted by them? Like, just interesting questions. You know, one of the things that has been said is that people are buying the Pro instead of the Air for one reason. The Pro is what they know.
[19:55]Right. Interesting. People know what they're going to get with the ProFone. Yes. They don't know what they're going to get with the Air. But think of the Air. Apple does things different from other companies.
[20:08]Apple Air and Future Technologies
[20:09]And you can see this with the Vision Pro. Apple knew that people were not going to buy that. Right. So why does it exist? It exists as a way to do crowdsource research and development. So they release the air. How are people going to like the air? Because I personally think that we are moving in the direction of the air. Pro phones and the other phones from Apple are going to be that thin one day. The air is a this is where we're going phone. Apple is really good at releasing things and gathering feedback. And so I guess we'll see how people respond to this one and maybe it'll influence future ones. It'll definitely be very interesting to see what happens. Agreed. I'm very curious where this stuff is going to go because we're seeing all of these tech devices and people having so many different opinions on them. You know, I know in the blind community, people are saying, well, you don't need all those cameras. They don't do anything for these different apps anyway.
[21:24]That's partly true and partly not true. It depends on the app. There's no way to really base that on anything. And, you know, we're building apps that use a lot of this stuff. So it really depends on your use case. What do you need? What do you want? And what is the bare minimum that you can afford? And all of those different factors. So I guess... That's all of the topics that I had for today. Is there anything in tech that you guys know of that y'all want to bring up? What about the devices that were released this past week? Oh, yes. Good call. Good call. I kind of forgot about that. Oh, my God. You forgot about that? I know.
[22:12]New Device Announcements
[22:13]That's unusual. Yeah, I know. Well, I guess I forgot about them because I'm not going to buy any of them. That's even more unusual.
[22:27]So we got a new MacBook Pro, M5, but we only got the M5 base model. So it's the 14-inch running the base M5 chip, I believe 10 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores.
[22:42]And I think they start at 16 gigs of RAM and 256 gigs of SSD.
[22:50]And they started at $1599. For that price, it's not bad. What you get is not a bad deal for a MacBook Pro. Okay?
[22:59]It's not going to do all of the high-end stuff, but it is better than a MacBook Air because it has a fan, so it won't throttle down, and it will do good AI workloads. I would not downgrade from my 16-inch to a 14-inch or to a non-Pro or Max model. And then there were also, I guess, maybe rumors of other devices getting updates. Did you see anything about that? Well, we got other devices that did get updates. We get a new iPad Pro M5. And this has the same case, like the same form factor as the current one. It did not get an extra front-facing camera, nor did it get the square camera that the iPhone got. So it was a spec bump. And it is getting a bit more RAM. And I think it's getting the C1X chip, the Apple modem. It's going to have the N1, the new Apple chip that does Thread and other, all the HomeKit automation things. So that's going to be in there. And there's going to be a few other changes, but, and also fast charging. It'll use the new 40-watt, 60-watt dynamic charger that you could buy with the iPhone, that works for the iPhone. It will charge the iPad even faster, which is cool. I mean, I like that feature a lot.
[24:26]But all in all, as a upgrade to the M4 iPad Pro, I don't see a reason to go to that, personally. I'm pretty content with what I have. What about the HomePod and TVs? We have not gotten a new update to the HomePod or Apple TV, although now you can watch Apple TV using Apple TV on an Apple TV. How many times in that sentence are you going to say the word Apple TV? Just those three. So we have the Apple TV box. We have the Apple TV app. And now we have the Apple TV subscription service. So they have dropped the plus out of the Apple TV subscription service. So we now have three distinct things from Apple that are just named Apple TV.
[25:22]Cool yeah not confusing at all right nope but if you think about it apple music is just called apple music it's not like apple music plus so i mean it makes sense in a way but, i mean we still have apple news plus yeah we still have apple um apple fitness plus you know they could have just kept it alone i don't know, see this is why i say i love apple i'm a fanboy of apple but some things they do i question yes yeah so no updates there we also got a new updated vision pro which i was actually interested in however it's not it got an m5 chip that's what it got, And every other component is the same Even Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is the same as the model a year older Which came out a year ago But the components were from 2023.
[26:32]So the cameras weren't updated Screens weren't updated, Don't feel I need one. Now, if they updated other parts of the hardware, like the R1 chip, the reality chip, yes, maybe. If they had the R2, D2, the R2 chip in there, I would have probably looked at it. But I don't know. I didn't see a big enough reason to update. There is faster frame rates and better AI in this model. However, it's only for rendered content. It does not help the pass-through Zoom capability from my understanding. Now, if somebody comes from Apple and says, Hey, Michael, we actually made these changes to help with Zoom pass-through. Sign me up. Take my money.
[27:23]That would be great. So the Vision Pro really has helped me be able to see better in a lot of situations because of the magnification features. And I'm eternally grateful for Apple for that. I would just like to see more work be done to make that even better. It's pretty cool. I like it.
[27:47]I would like to just play with how voiceover works on that because I think it's an interesting concept. Although I don't think I can personally, you know, not seeing wear anything heavy like that on my face. I think that would drive me absolutely bananas.
[28:05]And the new one is heavier. Yeah, no. Almost 100 grams heavier. Yep, absolutely not. They did add a new head strap for it that has a, where it goes around the back and the top that looks super comfortable. And I'm going to buy one. But that's the biggest thing that's come from this release Is that new strap that will take the weight off of your head Interesting, So what are y'all's thoughts on these new devices? Are there anything that has come out that interests y'all? Not yet Not yet I think I'm good with what I have Just gonna wait it out See what they bring out next You know? In spring or summer, you know, they'll have something new, I'm sure.
[28:57]Closing Thoughts and Recommendations
[28:57]Yeah. Okay. So I think that's going to do it for the tech topics today. But as we always do on this podcast, and I know I have not warned Becky about this, but Lauren remembers. No!
[29:18]What have I gotten myself into? Yes. What is it? So one of the things that we do at the end of each episode is what's something technology-wise you're playing with or a favorite app or something that you want to tell the audience about that you're working with?
[29:44]Or even favorite media. What are you consuming? What are you watching? Anything to do with tech that you want to share with the audience? Probably the BitRig code editor. It's an AI code editor for Swift. It writes little Swift apps. That's a really cool little thing. It's free. They do have a plan. I have not done the plan. I just use a free version so far. I was introduced to this a couple of days ago, and it is pretty cool. So you can give it a prompt and it will write you an app and then you can you know try it out and then you know if you have a the the ability and the know-how you can further you know design that app on your own is my understanding how that works yes it's a neat app yeah, And just remember, it's BitRig, all one word. Yep, B-I-T-R-I-G.
[30:44]And it's totally optional, but Becky, would you like to share, if people want to talk to you about technology, would you like to share any information? If not, that's fine, too. I can't right now, but perhaps at a later time. Okay. Lauren, you're up. Well, there are a couple things that I've been kind of messing around with this week. One thing has been just kind of getting more into Swift and getting more familiar with Xcode and all the different things. I've also been playing around with Apple Fitness after getting the watch. What did I get? 11? Anyway. Oh, no, 10. Anyway, whatever watch I got. I can never remember my devices.
[31:35]Um playing around with apple fitness and what it can do and how i can use that to work with the health app to kind of keep me on track so yeah that's what i've been doing and, if you would like to chat about tech um you can find me all over the place um just look for lauren bradford anywhere and i should pop up, So, yeah. Okay. So I'm going to close this out by talking about a TV show that I've been watching. And that is the show Invasion. Season three is out. I just kind of randomly picked one of the things that I've been watching. And there's others that I'll pick on other episodes. And I will probably use those on those episodes. But Invasion's great, aliens come to Earth, invade, but all indications are they're bad, but also there's moments it's like, well, are they? And, you know, it's an action show, and it's really good, good music. Funny thing is, it's on Apple TV. I would say Apple TV Plus, but that's incorrect now. So it's a great show. Check it out. I love Invasion. It's really good.
[33:01]And as for where you could find me online, I am Michael Doeys pretty much anywhere. If you're looking for me on Mastodon, that's Mike Doeys at Techopolis.social. It's been a while since I've gone through that. It's at MikeDowies at Techopolis.social. And you can email me at MikeDowies at iCloud.com if you're interested.
[33:26]I've really enjoyed doing this again. We have not done a IACast podcast. And I'm kind of curious, Becky and Lauren, since Lauren, you've been on a lot, and Becky, you are new to this. What are y'all thoughts? What are your thoughts of us being back? What are your thoughts of the show? I am so thrilled. I love it every single time. It's great to be here. I'm glad we're starting back up again. I love it. And it's cool to hear from you guys. You know, I love hearing of people that like the podcast and listen to it and interact with it. So, yeah, good to be back. I, you know, it was great to be a part of it. So thank you very, very much. That was a great, cool thing. It's always awesome to talk with you both about tech. I'm always happy to do that. Tech and code are like my two, you know, things I live and breathe.
[34:27]So happy to be here. Well, hopefully you'll come back. Um we are still working on getting some structure back up for folks to leave feedback um so that will happen very soon we'll leave more information about that on the next episode but this has been fantastic and i want to thank uh everybody for being here everybody for listening and i hope you come back and know that the feed will be active again uh thanks lauren thanks Becky, and this has been another episode, and we'll see you all next time. See you next time. Bye, everybody. Thank you for tuning in to the IACast. We hope you enjoyed the show and found the conversation to be insightful and informative. If you have any feedback or comments, we'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email at feedback at IACast.net. You can also follow us on Twitter at IACastNetwork to stay informed about new episodes and other updates. Don't forget to check out more great podcasts on the IACast network, iacast.net. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you again soon.