Observed Tech PODCAST Episode 84
Welcome to Episode 84. Google Reader is still shutting down and I will share with you how I have already left it behind to continue putting out tech links to all of you. We wish Twitter a Happy 7th Birthday, talk about the latest airline to announce in-flight WiFi services and share some practical tips for all of you using WordPress as the engine behind your website. Some other areas of news to be discussed in this show is Surface tablet sales numbers; Enterprise tablet party over for Apple; more Google Reader and other service demise news; Google’s newest service announcement; Windows Phone adds a couple of new big name apps; updates for Windows Phone 7 Build handsets and and 7.8 update starts back up for WP 7.5 users; the update to the WindowsObserver WP App; Skype WP App update reintegrates with People Hub and gets some improvements; the support deadline we already knew about for WP8; my exclusive interview with developer of MeTweets which is about to get a major 2.0 update; Amazon in deep water with rocket engines and users; learning about the Windows OS Build number; ATT picks Lync for Enterprise Communications; Windows 7 SP1 mandatory update now; missing attachments in Outlook no more; Windows 8 and Windows Phone App preview site; the new Microsoft era of devices and services; who to blame when your PC gets hacked; using File History in Windows 8; Xbox 360 makes it 26 months as top console in the US; nearly 70% of people use two devices at once and one of the 20 people who changed tech – Samuel Morse. Enjoy the show and as always thanks for listening!
Observed Tech PODCAST Episode 83
Welcome to Episode 83. We are lucky to always have a lot of news items to discuss each week during the show but the last 24 hours have produced some humdingers to be added to the list including the pending shut down of Google Reader, that announcements impact on some of the possible alternatives and the release of the official Twitter App for Windows 8. I must admit that as much as I was pleased with the official Twitter App for Windows Phone when it came out a couple of weeks ago I am equally disappointed with the official Windows 8 App. On top of those things we have our normal collection of news across the tech world which happen to include some other companies failure to plan for big surges of traffic, service outages for cloud based services and other sundry items from my RSS feeds. RSS Feeds that I curate with Google Reader by the way! No matter what please enjoy the show and as always thanks for listening!
Observed Tech PODCAST Episode 82
Welcome to Episode 82 – if you add a 19 in front of that it was the first of my 29 years in the US Navy. We start this weeks show off with a cautionary tale of Microsoft Tech Support calls to your home (reminder – they do not make house calls) and then dive into news about Microsoft Accounts and the ability to make it an alias that keeps you connected to all of your Microsoft stuff. The rest of the show includes news about Yahoo shutting down services; Google Hangouts getting a sign language interpreter; NASA’s Curiosity Rover; SpaceX overcoming challenges on their latest mission; Microsoft’s future technology vision, Evernote being hacked; Seagate ceasing production of spinning laptop hard drives; launching your Windows 8 App at a Microsoft Store; Nokia’s #2InstaWithLove push for Instagram App on Windows Phone; Office 2013 perpetual licensing restriction lifted; T-Mobile and AT&T fighting about their ads; Xbox Music Unlimited streaming limits; first impressions of the Power Bank Jacket for Nokia Lumia 920; Twitter dumps more apps from the TweetDeck portfolio; Disqus releases an exclusive Windows Phone App for their service; Kinect continues to innovate; Picasa Web albums shifting to Google+; Google+ implements massive cover photo on profiles; Yahoo Mail users still getting hacked regularly; Photosynth arrives for Windows Phone 8 devices; Facebook launching updated news feeds; Bing updates history view to modern look; Roku releases third generation streaming device; Google plans to compete against Amazon Prime; checking out NASA big pool; Sprint heading towards shared plans; in security Android is the new Windows; Windows Phone tip videos; ASUS Transformer AIO about to hit the market and running Modern Apps in a window with Stardock’s ModernMix. Enjoy the show and as always thanks for listening!
Observed Tech PODCAST Episode 81
Welcome to Episode 81. We missed a show last week because I was attending the annual Microsoft MVP Summit in Bellevue/Redmond, WA so I kick this episode off talking a little bit about that experience and travelling with my Microsoft Surface RT for the first time. I then tell you about an awesome power pack accessory for your Nokia Lumia 920 called the Brando Powerpack and then talk about all the Microsoft stuff that is being picked for readers choice awards at Engadget and Digixav. Other items we cover include the pros and cons of using Microsoft Surface Pro’s in your small/medium size business, new wireless accessories coming out of MVC 2013, the growth of the Windows Phone Store and new features from Microsoft’s Channel 9 to show off Windows Phone features and Windows 8 Apps. I spend some time gushing over the new official Twitter app for Windows Phone and talking about how Microsoft technologies are finding a purpose trackside with some of NASCAR’s racing teams. There are also mentions of Windows and Windows Phone Blue and what that means for OS updates on the two platforms for Microsoft. This past week also saw the release of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 and the reality of the fact that it is not available for Windows Vista and XP users making for another good reason to upgrade to a more recent OS. We have several other items we discuss which you can see in the show links and we wrap up with the importance of a Microsoft Account to tie together all of the products and services you use under the Microsoft brand. Enjoy the show and as always thanks for listening!
Observed Tech PODCAST Episode 80
Welcome to Episode 80 where we bring you some more Surface Love on this Valentine’s Day edition of the show. We kick off discussing release day for Surface Pro and some of the inventory challenges that were experienced around the country for its debut. We then highlight some cool tweaks for your Surface devices that will give you extra rows of Start Screen tiles on your machines and then we dig into news from the past week. Amongst those stories we mention tips for up and coming app developers, comparing storage space between a 128GB Surface Pro and 128GB MacBook Air and the latest big name app to arrive on Windows Phone – Spotify. There is also word of some significant issues discovered this week with the new iOS 6.12 update that was released to Apple users and a couple of very popular Reddit Ask Me Anything with SpaceX and Bill Gates. We have some updated numbers on Xbox’s progress over the last several months, the retirement of Windows Live Mesh, Home Depot dropping over 10,000 Blackberry devices as they move to the iPhone, some great Windows Phone tips, fixing the jumping laptop cursor bug and updates for your Surface RT including a firmware fix. After that we hit on the remaining items of interest including Dropbox going Enterprise, Microsoft being ready for screens of all sizes according to their CFO and Amazon beating out Apple for the company with the top corporate reputation. As always enjoy the show and thanks for listening!