Toothy Saber Podcast

It's not a goodbye, but changes are coming. We had some time to reflect on the WWDC keynote and have a few thoughts to share with you. As always, we hope you enjoy this episode, and we apologize for the subpar audio quality of this one.

Show Notes

We have a guest with us to talk about wearable technology and its applications on health and fitness. She has a Ph.D. in physical education and is a researcher on wearables and sports performance. We have some good news and some bad news, but more importantly, what we hope is an exciting and informative conversation.

If this was our last show, I think it would be a proper goodbye. There is a lot of Bromance, and that's all I'm going to say about that. We talk about the iPhone SE, its trade-offs and the possibility of an update. What was the probable reasoning behind the first one and why would Apple release a second Special Edition iPhone. The A11 Bionic is almost a gaming console SoC as shown by the game Fortnight, but I'm still playing Altos Odyssey. To end the show, we share some personal experiences with several iPhone cases.

Show Notes

I wanted to call this episode natural selection, but the biologist in me didn't like misusing the definition. Our last episode was about making choices, and now we are going to help to choose an iPhone. We can't just tell you what to buy, so you will have to collaborate with us to make a decision.

Do you have doubts? We recorded an episode dedicated to making decisions and avoiding buyers regrets. We talk about it in context with Apple products and purchasing decisions. Accidentally it's all audio related because we always have to mention the AirPods, and also chatted briefly about the HomePod. To finalize a podcast episode about sound, what could be more appropriate than dedicating a few words to two of the best podcast players available for iOS.

It's time for the Apple HomePod preview, and boy do we have speculation for you. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of the HomePod from our perspective and what evolution can we reasonably expect in the future. Because we really can't see it evolving into the past, it's a physics thing. Since we are talking of a speaker with a virtual assistant, we complain about Siri and try to tell Apple what to do, because, of course, we know better! We don't, but we do have some expectations and hopefully some reasonable opinions.

DJI launched a new drone, and we took advantage of the occasion to talk about the company. Diogo uses a drone regularly for fun and profit, and he shared is experience and personal opinion on what it's like using a quadcopter for video and photography. He also talks about the state of the industry, and we get a rundown of several DJI models. Get ready to fly.

If Apple represents the intersection between technology and liberal arts, then this episode is the intersection of technology, philosophy and recognizing personal bias. We started talking about all the extreme reactions related to Apple throttling older devices with degraded batteries, and end up reflecting on then, and even our own reactions.  How do people acknowledge and value diverging opinions, and why expert views are dismissed when they contradict values or previously held beliefs. There's a little bit of battery technology but not too much, and red wine and cheese.  It's not your typical TSP episode, and we want to know what you think. Get in touch with us by Twiter, Facebook or e-mail, we would love to have your feedback.

Diogo has updated his audio setup, but he may not get the chance to role play Batman for the kids. Apple degraded the performance of iPhones with batteries issues, and some customers are not happy. From memories to dreams and back again. The iMac Pro is available and its fast, very fast. We watched Star Wars (no spoilers), and it's terrific. Plus, its Christmas and we have some software and podcasts recommendations.

The inside story on the Toothy Saber AirPods review. How we did it, dealt with equipment restrictions and lessons learned. Diogo also has brand new AirPods and compares them to the Beats X. Chrismas is coming, and Diogo is going to be Batman to entertain the kids in the hospital, or so he says. I think he just wants an excuse to rappel a wall dressed as the dark knight. I can't judge him because I would love to go as Captain America even without the dramatic entry. Don't miss the premiere of Toothy Bites on the podcast. 

Yes its true, the iPhone X has the best display on any mobile phone available today (manufactured by Samsung). The X delights, but for some people, the transition has some difficulties, especially if you are coming from an android phone. We talk about the qualities of the display and discuss tradeoffs between sizes and form factors. It wouldn't be a TSP episode without a little photography, and Diogo explains why the dual cameras in the iPhone X may be better than the iPhone 8 in certain conditions.

Diogo's iPhone 6S has some iOS 11 woes, but my SE is performing well. On the topic of iOS 11, the new notification and control center improved my user experience on the iPhone considerably, but I'm missing the 3D touch and haptic feedback. How I started using Opera to run away from IE but converted to Firefox in 2004 and got addicted to tabs and extensions. As you can imagine this lead us to a discussion on browsers and we found out that there are things we like in all of them. To wrap up the episode, we talk about a new G series Canon, and according to Diogo, the only flaw is the price. My apologies for the audio quality in some parts of the recording, we don't know what happened there.

A short emergency podcast because Diogo couldn't wait to share this news with our listeners. Intel made a CPU with a  Radeon GPU together in one package, and we can hardly believe it. Sometimes hell really freezes. Just a few weeks before the launch of the new iMac Pro it seems likely that it will use similar technology. To make our day even better, DisplayMate published an analysis of the display of the iPhone X, and it's excellent

The iPhone X is available, and the first reviews are out. In this episode, we focus on some of the elements that make this iPhone special and reflect on what they mean for users and the future of the iPhone. The software is not quite ready for the new superstar and iOS may need a few more updates before you can thoroughly enjoy your new phone. However, the future looks bright, and a new acquisition from Apple hints at new video and photographic capabilities for future devices.

A recent Apple acquisition provides a glimpse of upcoming improvements to Apple Photos. Google is arguably ahead with its photos service for now, but Apple users may not have to wait long for similar capabilities. HDR photography is standard on the iPhone 8 and photo stitching software does excellent panoramas. We talk about space exploration, Nasa and SpaceX plan to go to Mars using a fully reusable rocket. The dilemma of teleportation and spoilers for The Prestige. Joins us to go where some men already have gone before. 

I guess the title says it all, in this episode, we talk about phone photography. We recall back in the days of terrible pictures on feature phones and the rapid evolution in last few years. The iPhone, in particular, has significant improvements year to year and is becoming a handy camera that may not replace a photographer DSLR but just might be good enough for the rest of us. Comparing a traditional DSLR to a mirrorless camera like the FUJI X-T2, highlighting the differences in video quality. We threw in a bit of GoPro and are very optimistic about the future of video and photography on the iPhone, but you will have to listen to find out why.

Another special episode because we have a guest. He was the first person that sent us to feedback, and as a reward, we invited him on the show. We talk about the new iPhones, our expectations for the next year, and yes, we are still talking about the name and the notch. Also, phone sizes, losing the home button and contemplating the end of physical buttons. Is Siri the future of the iPhone interface? We've been using the iOS11 beta for a week and address changes we like and bugs we found. Diogo has a passion for backups (we think it's weird too), but I keep losing files, so I cant criticise. Our guest tells us his history with macs, and we end up wanting Face ID on the mac, better notifications and talk about overblown Apple fails. 

The Apple Event is that time of the year when they give you an excellent presentation designed to show you their new hardware. It's a 2h marketing campaign, and it usually works, mainly because it's not just hype and the products are good. This one was one of their best and very effective, at least for us; we got lost in Apple time and are convinced. They introduced a lot of buzzwords, but the new features seem substantial. We got a new Apple Watch with cellular, an updated Apple TV and of course three new iPhones. They are new and shiny, and I mean this literally if you kept the eclipse glasses you might want to use them. The leaks revealed plenty but watching the demonstration is another thing entirely. Hardware and software working together to amaze you. If you use emoji, you are going to love animated emoji, and if you don't use it, you may just start. Furthermore, it's selfie heaven if that's your thing, and if you like photography, I don't even know what to tell you. Just when you think it can't get much better, they prove you wrong. The iPhone X (not an ex but 10) is everything we expected and more, but the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 plus are worthy contenders and hold their ground.

Now you can see how our minds work because we take a look at file management, or in my case the lack of it. Diogo and I talk about file organization preferences, directories, tags, and how acceptable it is to use your desktop for temporary or permanent storage. From Finder to Pathfinder, Spotlight and even Windows Explorer and the upcoming Timeline. We talk a little of everything related to digital organizational needs and how Google Desktop or Atlas Recall is very close to my ideal tool but not without some caveats. Plus some gripes about Flash and Java and our trademark sidetracking.

Apple is still very secretive, but we now know that the next iPhone is called D22 and can only be used by people with Ferraris. I still think it's a distraction from the real phone everyone is waiting for, the iPhone SE 2. Unread got sold again, and we finally remembered the name of a favorite app that is no more. Some popular apps like Ulysses and One Password are changing business models, and we couldn't resist talking about software monetization one more time. Technically Diogo could resist, but sometimes friendship comes with a price. We also talk about surf and boulder, but it didn't make it to the final version of the episode. It's a shame I know, but it's a technology podcast.

This episode is all about SEGA, so get ready for some deep cuts. I don't know much about consoles in general so we have a special guest that knows this stuff and, can speak proper English. We get shamed on this one while we cover most of SEGA hardware history and arguably some of its best games.

Our take on Apple peripherals. We try to argue that the Magic Mouse shouldn't support gestures and that using a mouse a trackpad and a keyboard simultaneously makes more sense. Then we get lost on the rabbit hole of other mice and accessories like Thunderbolt peripherals. We end up time traveling and looking to the future using voice and movement recognition as an interface. It could be a parallel universe, so we give no guarantee on our predictions.

I complain that I haven't paid enough for Pocket Casts in return from all I got over the years. Overcast excellent advertising solution. Some of the apps that we lost and why we wish we could do more to support others (Reeder, we love you). The perceived difference between buying digital versus physical goods. Our opinions on pay to upgrade or subscription models and why we all lose for not adequately compensating developers.

Everything you wanted to know about macOS High Sierra. It's not really everything, just the parts that were announced in the WWDC2017 keynote. If we're going to be honest, it's mostly that but we skipped some things that we didn't care for. However, that just makes the conversation better and that's the story we're sticking with.

Apple announced support for external GPUs and Diogo is excited. We compare the dev kit to the Razer Core and highlight the limitations of the current technology. Oh, and we got a Hulk!

The evolution of the iMac, a mouse without magic and as always, going off topic and poking fun at one another.

Derailed by a bad Internet connection and lost audio, we have a long pre-show talk and the most meandering conversation yet. We had fun and hope you will too. We cover topics like how we listen to podcasts, why we changed the podcast name, the history of macOS X names and our suggestions. Diogo brags about his climbing skills, we tell the awesome story of the Mac Mini Macro and getting lost with Apple Maps.

In keeping with our tradition of confusing names and saying silly things without noticing, we talk about the new MacBook Pro relative and absolute cost, Diogo's refusal to jump ship to a Windows machine and my satisfaction with the AirPods while trying to convince him to choose the PowerBeats instead.

We talk about our interest in Apple and digress to our first experiences with computers and how we ended up using Apple products.