Our annual holiday gift guide series kicks off with picks from Mike Schmitz, Bart Busschots, Marty Jencius, and host Chuck Joiner, covering categories from audio to coffee and beyond. (Part 1)
The tech industry is a dynamic business segment. Dave Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, and Eric Bolden discuss Apple’s acquisition of Pixelmator and how it might affect both Apple-branded offerings as well as the legacy application. Then, layoffs at both Tidal and Dropbox are in the cross hairs. Tidal has been all but left out of the streaming music conversation, and Dropbox seems to have fumbled as they tried to diversify. The panel members have thoughts on both.
Jeff Carlson, the author of Take Control of Apple Watch, 5th edition, continues the discussion of some of the new capabilities of the latest Apple Watch and watchOS 11. The innovative check-in tool in Messages for notifying loved ones of safe arrivals, the benefits of the ultra-wideband chip for finding misplaced phones and the new offline Translate app for seamless communication while traveling highlight a discussion of those features.
Jeff Carlson has updated Take Control of Apple Watch to the 5th edition to cover Apple Watch 10, Apple Watch Ultra, and watchOS 11. The first part of our conversation covers his approach to the update and the contstant evolution of Apple’s products. Jeff shares insights on major updates, such as the enhanced Smart Stack widget and live activities integration, as well as advancements in health tracking, workout management, and notifications that streamline the user experience.
The idea of an Apple Vision Pro has been talked about as a way to make the device more affordable. Dave Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, and Eric Bolden consider the implications of inking the Vision Pro to the iPhone for power and processing and how that would impact the user experience. Whether that would actually result in a significant cost savings is called into question, and the use cases it would and wouldn’t impact are discussed.
The discussion with Jeff Gamet on a recent edition of The Mac Show on The British Tech Network finishes off thoughts on the smart assistants we use before turning to why one of us uses Clipboard Managers extensively and one hasn’t found a reason to do so, in spite of the fact that he has one installed.
In a one-on-one conversation from a recent edition of The Mac Show on The British Tech Network, Jeff Gamet and Chuck Joiner talked about smart assistants. The differences in purposes, capabilities, and responsiveness are discussed, along with notification abuse and which devices they each use. (Part 1)
A bonus-sized MacVoices discussion resulted from a virtual visit to the Long Island Macintosh User Group. As with most user group discussions, we start out in one direction and then let the questions and conversation dictate what we cover. The starting point this time was the iPhone 16 and things went from there.
The Internet Archive, its importance, and a recent DDoS attack on it start off a MacVoices Live! discussion with Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Marty Jencius, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, Jeff Gamet, and Eric Bolden. The panel also gets a chuckle over the UK adopting a USB-C charging standard, and cover some of the little-knowing LLMs that are more specialized than the ones you might be familiar with.
MacVoices Live! covers several recent shifts in major tech platforms, starting with the mass migration of users from X to Blue Sky and its implications for social media competition. The panel of Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Martty Jencius, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, Jeff Gamet, and Eric Bolden discuss the challenges Sonos faces regarding device connectivity and user experience as well as Squarespace’s $7.2 billion acquisition, the internal turmoil within WordPress under Automatic, and the possible effect on the web site building industry.
MacVoices Live! panel members Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Martty Jencius, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, Jeff Gamet, and Eric Bolden have differing use cases for Apple’s new set list feature in Music, at least a couple of which will surprise you. We also debate the importance of celebrity endorsements through the new Beats Pill, cover the reported increase in iPhone sales in Russia, and an Irish seizure of counterfeit Apple products.
Apple Pay turned 10 recently and the MacVoices Live! panel discussed its transformation and influence in mobile payments since its launch. Then, Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Martty Jencius, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, Jeff Gamet, and Eric Bolden detour into political territory, examining a political narrative surrounding a rumored phone call between Tim Cook and Donald Trump related to EU regulations. The conversation focused on the need for both skeptical and mixed media coverage.
The 2024-10 MacVoices Update arrives a day late with a good reason. Chuck explains why before discussing the month’s progress on the new web site and blog, goes over the changes that have come to Patreon, and delivers the Support Report.
The MacVoices panel discusses the changes Adobe made to Fresco, apparently to go after the tablet drawing app market that Procreate dominates. How do the two compare, and how with their respective business models fare? Chuck Joiner, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, David Ginsburg, Ben Roethig, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Jim Rea, Jeff Gamet, and Web Bixby have thoughts before they report on Sonos’ improvements, and laugh their way through the cell carriers’ assertion that locking phones is good for you.
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