Pocketnow Weekly 100: The new Apple, the old Android, and a Listener Mail extravaganza with Brandon Miniman!

When we first rebooted the Pocketnow Weekly podcast way back in the summer of 2012, we decided to number our episodes with three digits, the idea being to motivate us to reach at least 100 episodes. Two years –and one Stitcher Award– later, that day has finally come: after maintaining a perfect attendance record of one show a week for the past 23 months, we've reached our Golden Episode ... and it's almost time to reboot once more!

But before we kick off the next phase of the Weekly's journey, we want to take an episode to catch our breath and reconnect with our roots ... and there's no straighter path to those roots than through the big pile of listener mail that's accumulated at the podcast doorstep. So for episode 100, we're bringing back the original podcasting team –Michael, Anton, and Brandon– to answer questions submitted by the people that got us here: you.

Join us for an exploration of everything from the ethics of Google Glass to the first-world struggle of the two-phones lifestyle, from an intelligent debate about the merits of smart watches to a hackneyed and horrible round of role-play (which we advise you to skip). It's all here, wrapped in nostalgia but with a gaze toward the future, on episode 100 of the Pocketnow Weekly!

Send feedback, questions, and requests to podcast [AT] pocketnow [DOT] com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus  to stay apprised of the latest episodes. Tell your friends about the show so we don't have to do a telethon to stay on the air. And thanks for listening!Pocketnow Weekly episode 100

Recording Date

06/11/2014

Hosts

Michael Fisher

Anton D. Nagy

Brandon Miniman

Introduction

Role Play (00:09:11)

Our erstwhile lion-tamer seizes the opportunity to temporarily resurrect a bad idea, with predictable results. (You should probably skip this part.)

Thought Thread (00:17:07)

Brandon Miniman returns from tech purgatory with a thought thread that takes us from iOS 8 to the LG G3 to the nature of the iOS-vs-Android debate in this brave "new" era of widgets. For those interested in checking out the G3 photo sample we discuss, it can be found here.

Listener Mail

Inside Baseball: thoughts on the future(00:41:26)

John Martin asks whether the Pocketnow Live and Pocketnow U-Review have been shelved forever; we offer a peek at the future of the Weekly.

Wireless charging and the possibility of port-less smartphones (00:44:44)

Tyler doubts whether Apple is crazy enough to abolish the 3.5mm headphone jack; Ben Chung wonders why Qi's competitors don't just give up; Julian Wang asks us to imagine a future of bone-conducting smartphones and accessories; we recall the oddball Kyocera Torque.

Wearables: ethical concerns, futuristic possibilities (01:02:03)

Minh Nguyen wants to know how far away we are from a Windows Phone smart watch; Dong Ho Choi speculates on the possibility of wearable recording devices as personal black boxes; everyone gets freaked out thinking about being spied on 24/7.

Big-screen dreams (01:23:52)

Alex in the UK asks whether phablet creators have the visually-impaired in mind when building larger devices; we discuss the interesting tertiary benefits of larger smartphones to certain classes of consumers.

On the Captain2Phones lifestyle (01:27:37)

Ben Baum wonders whether he should invest in a second smartphone to maximize his mobile nerdiness; we wax poetic about the wonders of dual-wielding devices.

Eric L wants to know whether we remember our first encounter with critics of our creative work; we share tales of trollery and discuss the unique thrill of swinging the "ban hammer."

Remembering the good ones (01:37:27)

Imran Ahmad teaches us a new slang term and asks us to reminisce about the most precious smartphones of our past.

Music

It may just sound like a ringtone to you, but our transition music track ("Radiation") is a real song, from a real album, by a real artist: Ali Spagnola. You can download that album, along with many others, at Ali's website here, visit her YouTube page here, and follow her on Twitter here!

•

Thanks for listening!

Tune in again next week!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we first rebooted the Pocketnow Weekly podcast way back in the summer of 2012, we decided to number our episodes with three digits, the idea being to motivate us to reach at least 100 episodes. Two years –and one Stitcher Award– later, that day has finally come: after maintaining a perfect attendance record of one show a week for the past 23 months, we've reached our Golden Episode ... and it's almost time to reboot once more!

But before we kick off the next phase of the Weekly's journey, we want to take an episode to catch our breath and reconnect with our roots ... and there's no straighter path to those roots than through the big pile of listener mail that's accumulated at the podcast doorstep. So for episode 100, we're bringing back the original podcasting team –Michael, Anton, and Brandon– to answer questions submitted by the people that got us here: you.

Join us for an exploration of everything from the ethics of Google Glass to the first-world struggle of the two-phones lifestyle, from an intelligent debate about the merits of smart watches to a hackneyed and horrible round of role-play (which we advise you to skip). It's all here, wrapped in nostalgia but with a gaze toward the future, on episode 100 of the Pocketnow Weekly!

Send feedback, questions, and requests to podcast [AT] pocketnow [DOT] com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus  to stay apprised of the latest episodes. Tell your friends about the show so we don't have to do a telethon to stay on the air. And thanks for listening!

Pocketnow Weekly episode 100

 

Recording Date

06/11/2014

 

Hosts

Michael Fisher

Anton D. Nagy

Brandon Miniman

 

Introduction

 

Role Play (00:09:11)

Our erstwhile lion-tamer seizes the opportunity to temporarily resurrect a bad idea, with predictable results. (You should probably skip this part.)

 

Thought Thread (00:17:07)

Brandon Miniman returns from tech purgatory with a thought thread that takes us from iOS 8 to the LG G3 to the nature of the iOS-vs-Android debate in this brave "new" era of widgets. For those interested in checking out the G3 photo sample we discuss, it can be found here.

 

Listener Mail

 

Inside Baseball: thoughts on the future (00:41:26) 

John Martin asks whether the Pocketnow Live and Pocketnow U-Review have been shelved forever; we offer a peek at the future of the Weekly.

 

 

Wireless charging and the possibility of port-less smartphones (00:44:44)

Tyler doubts whether Apple is crazy enough to abolish the 3.5mm headphone jack; Ben Chung wonders why Qi's competitors don't just give up; Julian Wang asks us to imagine a future of bone-conducting smartphones and accessories; we recall the oddball Kyocera Torque.

 

Wearables: ethical concerns, futuristic possibilities (01:02:03) 

Minh Nguyen wants to know how far away we are from a Windows Phone smart watch; Dong Ho Choi speculates on the possibility of wearable recording devices as personal black boxes; everyone gets freaked out thinking about being spied on 24/7.

 

Big-screen dreams (01:23:52)

Alex in the UK asks whether phablet creators have the visually-impaired in mind when building larger devices; we discuss the interesting tertiary benefits of larger smartphones to certain classes of consumers.

 

On the Captain2Phones lifestyle (01:27:37) 

Ben Baum wonders whether he should invest in a second smartphone to maximize his mobile nerdiness; we wax poetic about the wonders of dual-wielding devices.

 

Eric L wants to know whether we remember our first encounter with critics of our creative work; we share tales of trollery and discuss the unique thrill of swinging the "ban hammer."

 

Remembering the good ones (01:37:27)

Imran Ahmad teaches us a new slang term and asks us to reminisce about the most precious smartphones of our past.

 

Music

It may just sound like a ringtone to you, but our transition music track ("Radiation") is a real song, from a real album, by a real artist: Ali Spagnola. You can download that album, along with many others, at Ali's website here, visit her YouTube page here, and follow her on Twitter here!

•

Thanks for listening!

Tune in again next week!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.