583: In the Car, With My AirPods
29:59 Share

It's time for epson de five hundred and eighty three of the clock wise bikram really recorded wednesday, december four, two thousand and twenty four, four people, four tech topics, thirty minutes.

Welcome back clockwise, the tech pocket where we're talking in a winter wonderland. My name is danny, and I joined across international, my good friend, my problem, the one the only my and I do .

my i'm doing well. Then I someone .

vamping yeah.

you drunk. I'm slower because i'm walking through winter wonder O O, we just .

thought out for the i'm actually .

physically chilly and shaking right now, so the basement very cold here. So that's why I just sound a little different. understandable.

But this is, of course, to show where you talked about four tech topics with two fantastic guess to my left this week. It's a CEO and lucky rogan miba pok asis wagon backbone.

Thanks.

pleasure. And to my left developer and host of IOS today, IT is the wonderful rose mary orchard. Welcome back to the show, rose.

Thank you very much having me it's a pleasure to be here in the snowy wonderland and .

we really need to buy a roof right freezing.

Let's kick things off this week.

IT is, of course, the holiday season and many of us are at some point visiting family and this getting asked to be tex apart. I'm kind of curse to know what's the thing that your family mostly asks you to deal with and how do you try to make things easier on them and more importantly, on yourself when you have to do this next troubleshooting. Paul, let's go with you.

The question that I get the most that is unanswerable, at least by me, is why did they .

change and that is that .

is not one that I have an answer to about ninety five percent of the time. So I usually answer, you know, just to annoy you, uh but for for a serious answer, the thing that I did this is years and years ago at this point but the thing that I did, uh, that sort of flies in the face.

This question is I set up screen sharing on any computer that I have to manage for, you know, my mom, my dad, uh, any relative who wants me to help them with their computer? I need screen sharing because I am not onna. Try and walk somebody through, uh, where everything is on their computer and it's way easier for me to just take over for ninety seconds and go find that obscure settings, system settings and tg IT and be done.

Uh, my mom always wants to learn what i've done and everyone's a while. There's something that I I teach her because it's something will come up again. Usually IT is something, as I said, i'm scared that will never come up again and I had to research to find IT and I don't even really know how to do IT, but I can just do IT. Uh but yes, so for me, screen sharing is the biggest uh, biggest fix. And if you're in person, it's really just I get that take take the laptop p away and fix that .

in ninety seconds and be done with IT. I also, like paul, find myself being asked why there's been to change. But my problem is in years past, I have found myself in this weird defensive posture where I am like trying to explain on behalf of the company and then getting kind of defensive whenever the person gets more and more frustrated and then i'm getting more more frustrated.

And then why am I backing up? I don't need to do this. I am not them. They are separate from me. So I have started to be a little bit more like I I don't know they did IT because they did IT is why.

But maybe I do need to go the paul out and say because they were trying to make you mad ah I will channel paul for those future questions. Worse very what about you? I feel like you probably get a lot of solution here.

Um I mean, I have some so a lot of the things that I have done over time for folks um is try to avoid tech support problems. Um so for my family, for example, I am gentle. The person that they wait for me to come around to installed their IOS updates, which meant that this year was the password APP god installed a no shade to the focus apple, whose work to the poster d APP.

I am sure it's great my parents using one possible, so I delete to the password APP from all their devices as soon as I finished doing the update, because I didn't want them to have to go through the what is the password APP and so on and so for so little bit of prevention is Better than um you know trying to cure the problem later. Um and i've been rode my grandmother and device management because he kept deleting apps from her home screen and then couldn't find them and caused so issues that SHE SHE now doesn't brilliant to do that um but um yeah the one that always gets me as printers. Um printers are not a technical thing.

They are like their own demon ic life force. And um I am currently dealing with the issue for my parents where the printer randomly just can't be printed to and I can't fix IT. I've turned off like an energy saver preferences.

And so and now what it's doing is, is staying on. It's still connected to the wifi, but IT says IT doesn't have a connection. So it's like connected to this network connection disconnects like what? But I see IT in the rearch, so I don't know. Um I am currently considering sacrificing to clu or me it's ine printers are evil. Um so yeah with those my demo answer is buy a new printer.

preferable laser as to say there's literally only one solution to troubled shrink printers and is .

buying a new ah yeah i'd buy a laser .

printer that's a lot of cheap ther laser print and IT. Everything will be Better.

Oh, my god. Oh, I had I had to replace my parents printer just recently and they insisted on getting one that could make copies. And I was like, please don't do this to me so they got the brother laser printer that also makes copies and i'm still not happy about those are all really good answered that I think printer, I was like making the list in my head of the things that like are the most common trouble shooting things.

And I think they are networking passwords, printings and A V setups like for me, that's like the top four of like everything that I have to deal with anyway, yes, these are agree I I I agree with the screen sharing suggestion. Uh, I do have that set up. It's a little more annoying when people use IOS and ipad devices because you can do IT.

It's just not as straight four in a face time call and anyways, it's a little bit more of A A thing um but IT is still incredibly helpful. And yes, the fact that you can even do that at all now on I O S and ipad, awesome. So that's great stuff. Um in addition, pasture managers um you know as rose mentioned, you know a one password or the passwords apple or something like that huge.

I'm still fighting that battle with my parents um because they don't trust IT, but I like it's I get IT I understand but also I will make your life lady easier um and so you've setting them up on that when I could and especially when my I got my dad to use one password pretty early several years ago and setting that up so I was a shared vault where I also had access to all the passwords was also pretty critical because that meant just in case something happened, I had access to IT like via drop box and I could retrieve passwords and stuff like that if need be. Um it's also good in general. We we were up with my in laws this past.

We could take giving and we had one of those not particularly pleasant but needed conversations about like, okay, where are all the passwords? Where is everything? Where are all your accounts? Just in case we're in a situation where we need to get access to those things.

So if you don't mind having a somewhat modeling conversation, I would say the other tip I have is there is a feature that apple added several usually called legacy contacts, which ensures that in the case of somebody passing, you can still get access to their accounts, which could be very useful in order to unwind a lot of things in that rather fraught scenario. So that's something else that you should make sure, especially if you're dealing with older folks that they have just because I can make life a lot easier for everybody. But thanks for your all for your thoughts on that topic is good topic number two, which comes .

from paul very. Everyone you love is going to die soon. Make sure that you have their passwords. So before they die, your task is to purchase a relatively inexpensive, let's say, around fifty dollars or less tech gift for a one of these loved relatives for the holidays. What are you buying?

No mad goods. They make a cavor grated cable. And I will buy a kevlar braid cable. And then I will either buy an adapter, or I will go into my draw of adapters, and I will take a little label printer, and I will put the person's a name on the adapter, and I will get a little cable tag, and I will put the person's name on the cable. And IT goes off like fireworks, particularly in a home that like has multiple people.

When a person is going, this is mine, and I can show that it's mine and no one can take IT from me and no one could say that it's theirs and if you have IT, I will find IT. And yeah, it's been very popular and that doesn't cost IT typically anywhere near fifty box. You know you're come in twenty five thirty dollars and IT is yet it's been a hit.

So a nice cable for charging and an adapter if need be. Uh but the the the thing that takes over the edge to think that makes IT great is labelling IT for that person so that they know that it's theirs. IT was very good about you.

Well, i've done a couple of different things of the these years. You know, getting people battery packs. I spread of cables. I purchased a lab maker from my parents one year. Yes, i'm that kind of nerd, but you know what a IT means that when I have to go behind the T V to find all the things and figure out what's not working, it's labelled. So I actually know what IT is now and on sleep, that's a huge win.

But this year, all the things i'm looking at and mine is on the way today actually is the extra pad bookies, uh, which basically is little max safe holder for your phone to make reading easier and more comfortable and just make IT a bit wider so your thumb and up scary the screen where you're reading on your phone IT looks really cool and it's well under thirty box. And i'm very excited to get mine and give me a go and see what it's actually a like. But I am excited and IT is actually fifty box full Price h but it's on the types and offered launch at the moment.

I'm being stretched a little bit, but i'm going to go with IT because I think it's something i've bought for several people, tech related. And I really like IT. A few years ago, I bought one of those uh, portable battery powered air compressors.

It's like so you can get one of the box uh IT charges via USB c and it's super hindy if you need to uh say suddenly inflate a car tire that's a little bit low or even A A basketball that might be out of air in little flat. Um I love that. I had one of those like I still do a portable compressor that plugs into the cigarette lighter and it's fine.

IT works, but it's comber sum. It's heavy. These things are super light.

You can basically, you know, phytophthora g really easily for something you Carry around. You can put them in a trunk. They don't take up too much space.

Um you know having run into many problems over the years of tires that are no pescia always getting low um IT is just super handy. I ended up buying one for my dad the other year because the other problem is like used, we have to go get air to gas station. Now I sound like an old person be able to get free air.

Um but these days it's harder, harder to find those things and they're often broken or you have to get your credit or you god, for pig, I need coins to actually yeah what you going to do so save self trouble for forty three dollars or so. You can go on amazon, you can get one of these portable electronic pressure is a bunch of different versions but like they're pretty much talk the same. So that's that's my tip for a tech relate gift power winter report up uh yeah no.

I love all of these. Uh, mics is great and and very similar to something that I ve done. Uh I i've actually created uh a whole like kid for people. So a charger, multiple cables and my thinking there, and this is sort of my answers, my thinking there is, uh, I have a travel kit and IT has cables in IT that I only use away from the house. Uh and I throw that in a suitcase and I go and I know that I will have the cables that I need.

Uh, and I think it's uh, easily some of the best money i've spent because yeah, it's a little it's a little uh, wasteful ful to have these extra ables that don't get use that much. But I never have to worry that, oh, did I manage to pack the right cable? Did I manage to bring the right charger? I know that i've got everything.

So I i've assembled kids like that uh for for others that that have similarly gone over quite well. Uh but then your impressive story is faton's to me because I think based on where we live, i've done the exact same thing. And part of the issue is, is how much the weather changes yeah in the box IT gets cold and your tires get low and suddenly your cars be at and I had the exacting thing, I had the plug in, uh, plugging into the cigarette later.

And he took forever and combers some and years ago, uh, I think I got, uh, one that looks a little bit like a gun and uh it's cept, it's helpful gun and and it's faster charges via battery and and yet so much Better. So that is easily a good purchase that I would not have thought of for this. So that's uh that's a good one. And and rose as well outside didn't mean to leave you out there. But yes, I I enjoyed all these suggestions.

Alright, that's two topics down, two topics left to go, which of course means IT is a half time here at clockwise. And this week, except is brought to you by oracle, even if you think it's a bit over hype, AI is suddenly everywhere, from self driving cars to molecular medicine to business efficiency. If it's not your industry yet, it's coming fast.

But I needs a lot of speed in competing power. So how do you compete without cost violating out of control time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud, oracle cloud infrastructure, or O C I? O C I, A blazing fast and secure platform for your infrastructure database application development, plus all your AI machine learning workloads.

O C I, cost fifty percent less for computer and eighty percent less for networking. So you're saving a pile of money. Thousands of businesses have already upgrades O, C, I, including M, G, M resort, specialized bikes and fireworks.

A, I, right now, oracle is offering to cut your current cloud bill in half if you move to O, C, I for new us customers with minimum financial commitment. Offer ends twelve, thirty one, twenty four. See if your company qualifies for the special offer at oracle dock comb flash clockwise. That's oracle dock coms slash clockwise. Everything to work le for response ing this show and all of relay alright, half time is over, which means make a certain .

what is your topic IT is time to talk about day if you if you decorate for the holidays, do you plan to use smart home tech in your holiday decorations this year? And hopefully we're starting with rosemary.

Yes, I do um i've also got smart looks for my parents but the very first thing that uh I personally have done this year because i'm temporarily stay with my parents, help my mom as SHE recovers from surgery is i've installed the festivals uh APP which is made by Simon covering ing and IT gives you little lights on your dock and underneath your menu bar on your mac is adorable um and you can name your Price on IT I absolutely love IT um but in the realm of more hardwork than software um I have a smart clocks on all of the lights um including some smart USB uh because more and more like little decoration of things are coming as USB part which is amazing.

I don't need a wallwork taking up a whole end of space. I can plug ten U S B S into a USB a doc which is great, but IT only works if all of those things are gonna turn off together and I don't necessary want to turn off all ten of those together at this time of year. So I have some smart U S B S as well um and yeah smart plugs, smart U S B S. And I do have twink ly lights um and I say twinkling lights, I mean twinkling the brand so you put them on your tree and then you you hold your phone up and IT uses the camera and IT lights at the lights in a particular pattern so you can figure out where they are and then you can like paint on your Christmas tree in different colors. It's very cool, lots of fun and IT just is a very pretty tree.

We've just started doing more decorating of the house um we this innovations this year. And so we now have a power plug e outside in front, which makes life a lot easier when you want to put lives up. We have a little front, a stairway that goes up to our front door.

So um we had both orange lights up for halloween and now we swap those out for White lights for the holidays. That said on A I bought new outdoor smart plug to plug in there, which works pretty at home compatible at the box, which was nicer than than my old one, which required using homebush and IT was a pain. Um and so that sort of the base level we're starting at.

I did remember as as we were like getting stuff out last year uh or this year that I last year head bot a set of um smart Christmas lights uh and so I had totally forgot that I bought them because I think I bought them like taught the end we'd like already put up our tree in everything. And so i'd strong them like a couple places in the house just to play with them. But we hadn't use them actually on the tree.

So this year we may actually put them on the tree and see how that that goes. Yeah, no, really. I'm really, really moving up in the world. My one, complete with these things as I honestly, I find the L D lights harder on my eyes than the old blights. Like there's something about like the refresh rate in them or something that just I find very, uh, distracting and off putting.

So I will see I have to run some comparison test there and see um because I I want to be able to look at and enjoy my history and not feel like every time i'm looking at IT like my eyes, heart. So uh that's where we're certain. That's what I got, paul by you.

Uh my my answers is very simple. I I have uh, a smart outlet that just is for turning on, uh, a Christmas tree, uh, that's really IT. But the the sort of goofy thing is that IT replaced a much dummer but possibly Better uh, mechanical smart. I imagine you guys can pick you the kind i'm talking about yeah the dial is chemically moving out the day and it's clicking all the time, which is sort of of knowing but if it's in the corner, it's fine. Uh but that actually you know this I had a smart outlet like to try this but then um eventually after Christmas, when I unplugged IT for eleven months, uh syria and home kids start complaining that Christmas tree outlet is missing and yeah because it's April and of course IT is uh so then I have to deleted and read ded and and so i'm not sure that this was really an upgrade. But uh IT certainly does the trick uh in terms of turning on lights and turning them off and I want them .

to turn on and off yeah minds pretty simple. I just have some smart plugs that are powering everything. I every here think about getting some of those like twinkly lights for example um and I just haven't done IT so IT remains on my list but yeah I keep IT relatively simple with just having a couple of smart plugs that can control all of the smart lighting i've got going on an outdoor one and in a couple of indoor versions. Oh, right, thank you for your answers on that happy holidays and rosemary .

IT is your return. Well, will IT being the time of year that certain trucks seem to be back is good? Think that coming back is IT about?

Think that's entirely up to you to decide. I was wondering how do you usually listen to music? Is there in particular hardware apps? Ea, and can you please recommend a seona track?

Um so I would say probably if I if we are in at home at the home pod mini in the kitchen, IT gets the biggest workout for playing music. Um my wife last year has spent a lot of time last year assembling a six hour Christmas playing the holiday song playlist um include grip of songs and honker songs and others um and so that has been in heavy rotation on shuffle for the last as SHE starts early I don't believe until in holy music to after thanksgiving but he started after after hello ween um so that gets in heavy ritual on the home pod and then in the car as well via car play.

Um and then you know I mean, I listen to stuff on my airports if i'm out walking or in a coffee shop or something like that, but those tend to be the biggest ways they listen. The things I do have some speakers and sometimes you know if a particular event from people over something like that, then I can my pipe stuff throughout the house, but that has to happen less when it's just us at home. Uh in terms of a holiday track to recommend, I may I go with what my favorite um I have an old album from the boston pops which does a holiday pops album many years.

This one I think is from circa two thousand one or so. Um but they have a track called uh good swing Venus loss, which is good king Venus loss in a swing time and this is great this good background, easy background was think but that whole album is well worth at the two thousand one holiday pops album so check that out paw about you. Well.

i'm looking around my office and uh, I don't know if you're aware, but I I work for an audio software company and I have a i've already counted about nine different ways that I can listen to music in here. I've weight too much hardware to listen to music, but I find that I don't listen to a ton of music most of the time because I am testing things, and listening to thirty seconds of a song is not that enjoyable. So really, I don't actually listen to a whole lot of music most of the time, despite having all these devices. The one thing that I heard recently was, uh, I thought this he was A W B R article about, uh, something called the year warm defeat uh and IT is what we can hopefully put a link in the show as but is a uh, a musical track that is designed to race any year warm that has gotten stuck in your head. Uh, and I think this sounds really useful because I think most of the holiday music is not great and get stuck in your head in an annoying ing way, at least in my head uh so this this would be my my recommendation for for holiday listening is the ear warm defeat uh but if I had to pick uh holiday song would probably be something off of a charlie Brown Christmas um which at least doesn't lyrics and it's pretty Jessie and sounds prety good. So those .

probably be my favorite. I mostly listen via my airpower ds, usually apple music. Although the other day I and then in my car, the other day was in my car and I was trying to play an album from literally any Christmas album or holiday album or via apple music.

And before someone says you could have just ask theory, I know but I don't trusted IT um and I ever does what I wanted to do so I like to go in and tap on things with my finger. And there was no holiday track being suggested to me anywhere in all of apple music and I made no sense. So I hoped over to spotify.

And IT was very easy right there at at at the start IT was like, oh yeah, because it's december, you might want to listen to some holiday songs. Anyway, i'm not sault about IT. Um so I listen to yeah bali music across whatever platform we will let me, I guess, in the car with my airports and then occasionally in the car already with my airpower ds and then occasionally in the house home pods. As far as the track i'll recommend is my favorite ite song, my favorite Christmas song, which is the Christmas song by naked call um always in forever rose very round is out here are right well.

I mean I predominate n to music on my home podds, and I do tend to just tap through apple music rather than attempting to series something. Uh because you know if it's difficult to say the names of things in a way that syria understands, its also the way that you understand IT. So one is so forth um so yeah predicate do that um but I have also been experimenting with of those open ear headphones recently um and I also recently, thanks to black friday, picked up a both neck band speaker because I realized that I have a problem that seems with things sitting on top of my head um or sitting in my years for too long they get uncomfortable, they start to work their way out and so on.

It's it's not amazing and I am trying a neckband speaker because that way instead having to play music around the house um on the off chance that I get up and walk away from my desk um to go to another room to grab something so so it's not super quiet in their the music just follows me. It's also a great one. I'm hanging up laundry and stuff so i'm experimenting with that. But yeah uh lots of great suggestions on the tracks. My tracks suggestion is going to be, uh is in more the grant films uh is the patongo s got S D mary gentleman just because it's a lot of fun?

Well, I think that brings us to the end of our four topics, but there are just have time for a bon. However, before we get there, we have another sponsor to tell about this week.

And mike is gna do yeah because it's e cam who bringing of clockwise E M. live. It's the leading video production and live streaming studio is built for the mac.

And by the way, despite the name, it's not just live streaming. E cam is great at simplifying your workforce, super simple. You can get started quickly, but it's got everything you need to create just about anything with video. The egm APP lets you do IT all.

And I use that every single week, throughout the week, for so many different things that I do, my video work that I do, where I am streaming live, but also when I just need to record something that has, and I want to show my phone on screen or I want to show my ipad on screen, or what i'm doing, a my crafting corner show, being able to have me a next to a view of whatever is that i'm making. It's so powerful and at the same time, so easy to use, whether you're streaming, recording, podcasting, presenting, everything is right there. Ranny cam, including support from multiple cameras and screen sharing in a live cameras, which is a lot to direct the show in real time.

You can stand out from the crowd with high quality video at logos and titles and lower thirds and graphics, share your screen, drop in video clips, bring on interview gas, use a Green screen. So much more he came, life does IT all. Uh, its members are entrepreneur.

R are marketing professionals and pod casters content creators of all kinds. And e came for zone is now available for everyone on the pro level planet. You can add up to eight zoom participants camera sources in your broadcaster recording, and create individual participant audio and video recordings to get one month free today, you just go to e cam dot com slash clockwise and use the code clockwise.

That's a whole month free of em. Live at e cam dot. Come slash clockwise with the code clockwise.

Go there. Now check IT out. Just try IT. I think you're going to be surprised that what you're able to do with that our things to e cam for their support of the show and .

relying so bonis topic really quick years as we're already talking about holidays ah do you have any traditions this time of year?

Yes, tuxedo Christmas. My body, Larry is jewish and I am, uh, not that into Christmas so on Christmas day we dress up in tuxedos because we realized we had tuxedos that never got used and .

we go to the .

movies that's awesome. That's great. Um no I don't have many special traditions is just the standard ones of um you know putting up a tree and decorating for the holidays and.

Could you do IT in a tuxedo?

I should do IT in a tuxedo. That's such a good idea. Rose, very.

What about you? Well, when I was a kid, everybody used to come to our place, and my mom would do all of the hard work making food and feed everybody in doing all cleaning up afterwards and so nowadays we go out for lunch, uh, either on Chris day or on boxing day, depending on whether or not the menus are gonna any good. So going after lunch, not having to do the washing um or cleaning or cooking or any of the work um and then going visiting all of my grandparents and of course eating as much chocolate as possible. That is a tradition for me personally .

um for me I pick new year's day h traditionally my wife and I uh sit down and play many, many, many, many, many hours of mario cart is got to slightly we're chAllenging now that we have a child, but such a child, I know, I know sooner later he will have to enter the fray himself. He will be in into a but for now we would. You do IT during APP time.

So sorry, kid, hey, if you like to get every episode an extra overtime topic every week, you can become a member of clockwise. Just got a real dut F, M, slash clockwise, and sign up for just seven dollars per month or seventy in the help support the show in this week over time. Topic, we talk about our favorite first party mac apps, right? And with that, we've reached the end of this weeks episode. All that remains to thank our fantastic guests. Pokus is thank you so much for being here.

Thank you as a pleasure.

I with and rose marie orchard, thank you so much for joining us.

No problem. Thank you very much for having me. As always, it's been fun .

and Michael be back next week. But until then, we remind everyone out there, watch.

which you say, and keep watching the clock by everybody.