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Posts tagged apple
Ep. 297 – Find the Phattest Phablets on Fringe!
Jan 25th
TOPIC: Mike and Dave have a great time this week with topics ranging from the Manti Te’o catfishing scandal to phablets, Fringe and more! Listen closely to hear the TechTalk Tip of the Week too 
Jay Garmon shares some bar trivia tips and then hits us up with this great question:
What was the first MS-DOS virus released into the wild, and what non-malicious purpose was it created for?
We end with one of our more mellow and jazzy choices, “Golden Cage” by The Whitest Boy Alive.
Ep. 292 – Speaking Naturally with Nuance’s Peter Mahoney!
Dec 19th
Peter Mahoney of Nuance and Dragon Naturally Speaking [ 59:55 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (87)
TOPIC: Peter Mahoney of Nuance and Dragon Naturally Speaking fame comes on-air today to discuss the ins and outs of Voice Recognition software and technology, and gives listeners a phenomenal insight to not just the tech, but the business and history! If you’ve ever wondered where those hidden Markov models went to, or then again, even if you hadn’t, this is a great show to tune into!
Even before Peter comes on, we hit some high points with good friend Dave “Sparky” Saganaki joining us from his International digs, and of course Jay Garmon jumps in to keep us on track and tickle our brains with his Geek Trivia of the week:
What is the first of the many, many things wrong with the upcoming “Mayan Apocalypse”? (Hint: you can start with the words themselves …)
No cool sites of the week this week, but we do kick off our first giveaway in a long time, with a generous offering of Dragon Naturally Speaking, v12 that will be delivered direct to you! All you need to do is:
- Go “Like” us at http://facebook.com/techtalkwrlr
- Send an email telling me you did (plus your address and anything else necessary to get a package to you) at techtalk@wrlr.fm
- There is no number 3 – that’s it!
I couldn’t resist sealing this one with some more Alt-J awesomeness. This one’s “Breezeblocks” and also has an awesome video online if you get the chance to chase it down!
Ep. 290 – From Saganaki to Shatner, everything’s coming up cheese!
Nov 29th
TOPIC: Who’s that on the phone? Holy Cannoli it’s prodigal host Dave “Sparky” Saganaki! That’s right, Dave jumps in remote style and helps us share the news about rogue murdering anti-virus millionaires, why or why not you might want to give up that clunky iPad and look for the slightly smaller (and cheaper) iPad Mini, and more! Dave’s audio quality may be a bit choppy, but the show quality is raised immeasurably!
Jay Garmon helps bump that level even higher by giving us a tremendous amount of Thanksgiving geek to digest – plus we get this tech aperitif:
What percentage of employers have fired people for shopping at work on Cyber Monday?
We had WAY too much fun with Dave and Jay to get around to coolsites of the week this week, but there is a special TechTalk challenge: Can you make it through all 5’40″ of “Bohemian Rhapsody” as sung by …. William Shatner?! (my personal best is 3’07″)
Ep. 288 – Alexandre Montagu on Intellectual Property
Nov 14th
Alexandre Montagu Intellectual Property: Money and Power in a New Era Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (87)
TOPIC: Alexandre Montagu, founder of MontaguLaw – a leading intellectual property law firm – joins us to talk about all things IP! Did you know that the color red can be considered intellectual property, and sued over? We don’t stick with fashion, but have a very interesting and in-depth discussion about what IP is and how it affects you and the technologies you use every day. We even have time to freewheel some ideas on just exactly what is wrong with IP law today!
We also have the pleasure of Jay Garmon coming on air via the wonders of wireless to answer last week’s question and provide this nugget for next week:
What was the training technique developed specifically for use in Gemini 12 (still in use today) and what mission objective was it used for?
Once again we get so involved in our discussion there just isn’t time for any coolsites, but you should definitely follow the links here to get more info about the book Intellectual Property: Money and Power in a New Era, and if you’ve got any other legal questions go to MontaguLaw directly!
We end the show with a special podcast only song of the week, an ode to everyone who is still arguing about the election … just listen and you’ll understand
Ep. 282 – Michael Miller, Maps and Music!
Oct 5th
TOPIC: That’s right, Michael Miller joins us this week (at least for a while) to talk about music, books, publishing through Molehill group, using Pinterest and more!
Before he joins us, we also get a chance to cover a ton of news and updates like how Apple’s new maps app works (or doesn’t), alternatives you can use today like Waze, and the prediction that by 2040 you won’t need to worry about any of it – including having a drivers license because of the advent of autonomous cars!
We lose Mike a little earlier than we wanted to (though he promised to come back again soon), but that gives us a little extra time for the coolsites of the week:
- AdoMatic – Get your own presidential TV commercial! Not enough libelous slander, but otherwise a lot of fun!
- RLVision – Export office and PDF images quickly and easily! (shareware)
And “The Kids Were Wrong” by Memory House is the song of the week!
Ep. 281 – iPhone 5 Why?
Sep 28th
TOPIC: We start by talking about the iPhone 5 and who among you was sitting out there waiting for it? Was it worth it? We’d love to know … though Mike has some ideas of his own too of course! If you’re on the fence you might want to check out this Jimmy Kimmel video: Kimmel iPhone 5 Prank
Jay Garmon comes back to us this week with a nice long talk about what shows to look for this season, including a great way for Apple to turn their insane fans into a powerful quarterly charitable powerhouse, and leaves us with this brian twister:
What is the technical term “Hobbit” used for (before and distinct from Tolkien)?
In addition, we have time for a great lineup of coolsites of the week, including:
- VDI Works - Remote control your desktop with your iPad or iPhone!
- BuyBackTextbooks – Android and iOS app to figure out quickly and easily the best place to sell your books back!
- CFY PowerMyLearning - Great educational fun site for all grades up to college!
We pull from the archives the hopping “Super Bon Bon” by Soul Coughing. Enjoy!
Ep. 269 – Monkey swipe, monkey do!
May 16th
TOPIC: That’s right, tablets so easy even an orangutan can use them! Teaching an old orang tech may be just as difficult as getting your parents to stop inappropriately tweeting however … We also cover all the class action and other tech suits that seem to be all the rage this week. Between google and oracle, and all you ipod owners and Apple (you mean you didn’t realize you were suing Apple? Now you know!). After some more Ebook pricing discussion and a comparison of reading Ebooks on kindle vs ipad, Jay Garmon give us this stumper:
What special version of chess was the first version ever played by a computer?
Coolsites of the week are !
- SF Signal – In the ‘Podcasts better than this one’ category … don’t stop listening to us, but by all means you should be listening to SF Signal too!
- Draw Something (iOS, Android) – Tablet only game that lets you play virtual pictionary against strangers. More fun than it sounds!
- OnLive Desktop (iOS, Android) – Windows 7 desktop for your iPad! Upload docs to the OnLive cloud for editing and management.
- CloudOn (iOS) – Lets you edit and use Office2010 docs and apps, but doesn’t force you to use their cloud to do it! You can connect with dropbox, box, or google docs!
- Pocket (iOS) – Save websites, pictures and articles for later, offline reading. Similar to the more popular Instapaper, but more seamlessly integrated and usable IMHO.
The podcast only song of the week is “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye.
Ep. 268 – iPad, uPad, we all Pad!
May 10th
TOPIC: Except Dave, that is … that’s right Dave has declared a moratorium on tablet discussion! Unfortunately, he chose the week that Mike got an iPad from work, so good luck with that
Other than waaaay too much talk about tablets for Dave’s liking, we have a lot of fun discussion Amazon book price fixing, the Beastie Boys loss of Adam Yauch (MCA) and then Jay Garmon comes in to talk Avengers, JJ Abrams and this awesome question:
What is the legal definition (from 1893) of whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable, and why?
Coolsites of the week are actually Mike and Dave’s first Coo Apps of the week, with some of the best apps we’ve found so far!
- Vevo (iOS) – MTV (or VH1 for you oldsters out there) comes into the 21st century on your iPad! Watch music videos all day, every day with this sweet (and free) app.
- Flipboard (iOS) – Just about the best and prettiest news app you’re likely to find, it also integrates your twitter and facebook feeds into the stream!
- AppyGeek (Android) – Get geek news in a nicely formatted interface!
- KhanAcademy (iOS) – As cool as the online version, a great way to get access to educational materials and videos, for free!
- PBS (iOS) – PBS has a ton of great apps, but NOVA Elements is my favorite!
- FedePlayer (Android) – Downloads pictures and album covers of the music you are listening to.
Send us your favorite apps too, both Dave and I would love to hear them (and will share on-air next week!).
The podcast only song of the week is “Pass the Mic” by The Beastie Boys.
Ep. 267 – Tonsil Hockey and Tongue Bowling!
May 4th
TOPIC: Quality Warning – the first 15 minutes have some crackle and pops, so don’t adjust your audio. They do go away after that!
Dave and Mike have a great time discussing Spotify apps, and then get back into that whole android vs. iPad discussion, which is particularly relevant to Mike as he anxiously awaits the arrival of his new iPad next week. The Hugo-adjacent Jay Garmon joins us for some intelligent repartee and asks the following question of the week:
What star is the reference for the apparent magnitude scale of celestial brightness?
Coolsites of the week include:
- YourLogicalFallacyIs – Wondering why that argument you’re having online seems to be going in circles? Need a quick way to tell someone exactly why they’re wrong? This is the site for you!
- SpotFlux – Protect your data by using spotflux whenever you’re in a non-protected wifi environment! Free VPN.
The podcast only song of the week is the pleasingly retro “On Board” by Friendly Fires.
Ep. 265 – Trade up that iPad 2 with NextWorth!
Apr 8th
TOPIC: Dave and Mike get to talk to Jeff Trachsel of NextWorth this week, and discuss how NextWorth can help you trade up (or at least get rid of) all that tech junk you’ve been collecting!
We also talk about Macintosh’s malicious malware that has descended on fully 600,000 of you supercilious, overconfident apple fanboys! (And yes, Mike does take a load of special joy out of this occurrence). Between that and Google glasses discussions we wind up missing out on Jay Garmon but he does send along a trivia question to keep us thinking for a week or two:
What is the first recognized software Easter egg — one that’s 45 years old?
We also get some great coolsites of the week in:
- DailyDislike – Exactly what it sounds like … tell people what you hate today!
- White Pages Neighborhoods – See who lives next to you! Phone numbers, addresses, and kids names … a little creepy perhaps but ultrauseful!
- Search EBooks – Great place to find downloadable copyright free e-Books and documents!
- HypeMachine – Great place (and app) to find new music!
The podcast only song of the week is “Mister LittleJeans” by Runaway.
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