In this week’s episode, I open with the sad news that Reggie Ashworth, author of the great apps AppDelete and VidConvert has passed away. We have a minor bit of news about Clarify that is slightly hopeful that it will survive into the next version of Mac App Store (but don’t get your heart set on it). Then we finally start having some fun as we play interviews from CSUN’s Assistive Technology Conference: Second Sight and Orcam MyEye 2.0. I answer a dumb question about why I care so much about accessibility. Then I’ll give you a multi-media tour of a free app from Microsoft called Seeing AI.
Tag: dumb question
NC #632 iPad Pro Saga Continues, Eyecatcher, Amp vs Receiver, Affinity Photo for iPad
Why I’m getting a FOURTH 12.9″ iPad Pro (a story of AppleCare), Maria demonstrates iCatcher as a blind podcast listener, Steve answer’s Jill’s Dumb Question asking the difference between an amp and a receiver. I give you part one of my (hopefully two-part) review of the new Affinity Photo for iPad from Serif.
Dumb Question Corner – What’s the Difference Between an Amp and a Receiver?
Listener Jill sent in a great dumb question this week, and Allison decided that I was more qualified to answer. Here’s Jill’s question:
What is a “receiver”?
The reason for my question is, Apple told us at WWDC that the 4th gen Apple TV could be used as a destination for Airplay 2 (multi-room audio). But the 4th gen Apple TV has no audio out, so how can that work? I don’t want my TV screen lighting up every time I want to play a podcast! Well, I asked around, and I got told “You need a receiver that offers HDMI connections”. Hence my question. So … what is a “receiver”? Also, supplementary question – why is it called a “receiver”? I have a good old fashioned amp, because I’m nearly as old as you are. I get amps: sound sources go in; you choose one, adjust the volume, job done. You can’t buy them any more – just these receiver things, and since I never got on that train, I haven’t a clue where to start asking about them.
Good question, Jill. You actually pose a couple questions. The first is “What is a receiver and why is it called a receiver?” and the second (implied) question is “How do you play audio from a gen 4 Apple TV?”
Let’s start with what is a receiver and why is it called a receiver. There are several types of receivers but the relevant ones for this discussion are an audio receiver and an A/V (audio/video) receiver.
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NC #628 Dumb Question Corner, B&H Photo, GoPro Karma Drone, Hunting Black Bars of Doom
Chit Chat Across the Pond Lite and Programming By Stealth are both searchable now in iTunes, the Apple Podcasts app, along with Downcast, Pocketcasts and Overcast. I put out a call for help – I need recorded reviews some time next week for the following week’s show because we’re going on yet another vacation. Videos are now a button on the podfeet.com home page so you can get to them more easily and I explain how Helma helped me make that happen. In Dumb Question Corner I’ll answer Rod Simmons’s boss’s question about how to mark up emails on an iPad Pro. We’ve got two more NAB 2017 interviews: we’ll talk to B&H about their mobile microphones, and GoPro about their new Karma Drone. I’ll walk you through all of the intricacies of tech goodness in how I think I’ve finally rid podfeet.com of the Black Bars of Doom (trademark Donald Burr).
Dumb Question Corner – Can I Mark Up Emails with Apple Pencil on iPad Pro?
Rod Simmons of the SMR Podcast wrote to me a while back with a great dumb question. His boss wanted to get an iPad Pro specifically to be able to mark up emails using the Apple Pencil and return them to the sender. This was an interesting question and I think I have an answer for him.
In iOS, we have the Share icon in the upper right on most applications. The Share icon opens up a world of options, but for some reason the Share icon doesn’t exist in Mail on iOS. On the Mac you could print to PDF, but that’s not available on iOS. But actually, it is, in possibly the most arcane, hidden method I’ve ever seen on an Apple product.
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NC #592 Portable Car Jump Starter, Two Dumb Questions, Podcast Playlists, Podfeet Patreon, New IRC Chat Server
This week’s Chit Chat Across the Pond is Lynda Gousha and I talking about the new hotness, and I recommend listening to the latest Let’s Talk Apple at lets-talk.ie/… if you want to really understand the Irish tax kerfuffle with Apple. We got the chance to actually use the PowerAll Power Bank to jump start our car. We have two Dumb Questions, one about how to figure out what photos aren’t in any album in Apple Photos, and the second asking why people care about Playlists. That launches me into an explanation of how I finally was able to get Pocketcasts to do what I lost when they removed playlists. We’ve now got a Patreon set up for the NosillaCast, so please head over to podfeet.com/patreon and pledge some money to help the show, but ONLY if you can afford it! I’ve decided to take on the challenge of building my own IRC chat server (with a lot of help from Bart of course) so I walk you through what we’ve done so far.
Dumb Question Corner: Why Do People Care About Playlists vs Pocketcasts Up Next
Hello Granny, congratulations on your first Grand Geek. I’ll assume it’s okay to say “Grand Geek” because any baby brought in by Apple Watch has got to be a Grand Geek, right?
Anyway, Todd McCann from the Trucker Dump Podcast. Here’s the problem to be solved. I am apparently an idiot. I keep hearing the podcasters I listen to and any reviews I see about new podcasting apps, everything revolves around podcast playlists. For the life of me I can’t figure out why anybody would want to make a podcast playlist.
I mean, music? Sure! 3 minute song, there’s a whole bunch of them, want to listen to a whole bunch in a row, I understand. Podcasts? 45 minutes, an hour, 2 hours if you’re looking at MacBreak Weekly, something like that, why would you want to make a podcast playlist when you’re only going to be looking for a new podcast every 45 minutes or so.
What is the point? What am I missing?
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Dumb Question – How to Extract a Different Image From a Live Photo
This week’s Dumb Question comes from Dorothy, AKA maclurker in the live chat room. You haven’t heard from her in forever because she’s been traveling in Alaska and Canada on her boat for the last few months. With total disregard for how lonely I am at the gym this summer, she seems to be having a splendid time watching bears and such.
She rarely has enough Internet to check in, but this week she sent in a question:
“Yesterday we went to the Anan Bear Observatory and got to see bears catching salmon in a waterfall and bear cubs and even some bear drama. Some of the action was pretty fast. Marc was using his iPhone SE to take pictures. The iPhone is new enough to do that creepy-wiggly thing where it takes 5 or 6 snaps in a row for every picture you take.
(I think she means Live Photos)
If the image taken at the instant you click the shutter is Image 0, then the ones immediately before could be labeled Image -1, Image -2, etc. And the ones immediately after could be Image 1, Image 2, etc.
If you say save this photo to the Photos app, it just copies Image 0, without giving you any choice. But what if Image 1 or Image -2 is better and that’s the one you want to use. How do you get to it?”
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Dumb Question Corner – Can Older Hardware Stay Secure?
This week’s Dumb Question comes from Steve Ladhams and it’s a fantastic question. He wrote:
Dear Allison
Love the show. You bring tech knowledge to the masses. Well done.
I have a question about MacOS security as my first Mac, an early 2009 24″ iMac and my son’s Mac Mini from 2009 (second hand from eBay last year) will not be supported on Sierra. Both machines work ok, the iMac is very quick given its age, so I have no wish to replace either of them but am concerned that I will fall behind on security updates if I cannot get onto 10.12.
Can you let me and your other listeners know if my older macs will become vulnerable from October or if still issues security updates for older OSs and based on current update available how far back this might stretch.
Thanks for your time. Yours sincerely, Steve Ladhams
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Dumb Question Corner: How Can I Use iCloud Photo Sharing with Non-Apple Users
This week’s Dumb Question comes from David Bodgan from Japan. He wrote:
“When I send jpeg pix to my siblings, they give me all sorts of grief about not being able to open them up. I guess they only show up as thumbnails.
The funny thing is that in their replies to me, I get the full jpegs back that I sent to them. Also funnier, the same pictures came out fine on my Mom’s Android tablet.
I’ve been trying to figure out what is going on, but haven’t come up with anything.”
This is one of those problems that probably has no good answer. We could spend a lot of time figuring out what kind of computers and phones they’re on, what mail program they’re using and try to diagnose it on their end. That would take a lot of time and energy. How about if we solve the problem differently?
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