Podcast

TMO Background Mode Special Edition Chat #5 with Kelly Guimont

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Kelly Guimont is a long-time pro podcaster, Contributing Editor for The Mac Observer, host of the Mac Observer’s Daily Observations podcast, a tech support guru, and a Founding Volunteer of App Camp for Girls.

Kelly first appeared here in December, 2015 to tell her career story and has returned several times for interesting technical discussions. In this encore special edition, we chat about our favorite TV shows of late. John: Star Trek: Discovery, Saving Hope, and Being Erica. Kelly: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Doc Martin, and Wynonna Earp. Join us as we explore together what makes these shows so cool.

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iOS 12.2 Beta 5 Now Available

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple released the fifth developer beta of of iOS 12.2, as well as watchOS 5.2, tvOS 12.2, and macOS 10.14.4 Monday.  9to5 Mac took a look at what we’ve seen in the beta versions released so far and what else is new. iOS 12.2 features focussed on Apple Home smart TV support, and also included Animoji, and the release of  Apple News in Canada.

iOS 12.2 and the related software updates largely focus on supporting smart TVs that work with Apple’s Home app. Other changes include new Animoji characters includuing the new shark, owl, giraffe, and warthog options — plus a few more changes. iOS 12.2 beta 2 also includes changes to the AirPlay icon in Control Center plus AT&T ‘5G E’ in certain markets on certain iPhones and iPads.

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Amazon Echo Still has no Killer Apps

Charlotte Henry ·

Amazon’s Echo range of smart speakers are hugely popular. However, the device has not triggered a huge range of apps, nor standout successes, in the way smartphones did. Both the Apple App Store and Google Play store have far more apps on them, and generate farm more revenue for developers. Bloomberg News spoke to some developers to discover what the issues were.

Echo-branded smart speakers have attracted millions of fans with their ability to play music and respond to queries spoken from across the room. But almost four years after inviting outside developers to write apps for Alexa, Amazon’s voice system has yet to offer a transformative new experience. Surveys show most people use their smart speakers to listen to tunes or make relatively simple requests—“Alexa, set a timer for 30 minutes”—while more complicated tasks prompt them to give up and reach for their smartphone.

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Apple Still Offers Interactive Tour of iPhone 3GS

Andrew Orr ·

As discovered by Reddit, Apple still offers an interactive tour of the iPhone 3GS and all of its features. A tour of the iPhone 4 is available as well.

Meet the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. iPhone 3GS features video recording, Voice Control, up to 32GB of storage, and more.

It’s so interesting to see how far the iPhone has come in terms of hardware and software. This is a cool blast from the past.