[SPEAKER_03]: a factual day to creation facility production.
[SPEAKER_00]: Recorded live in front of an imaginary audience.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the OF&T podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, here's your host, who's wondering when young men will hire of the broccoli hairstyle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Schaefer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the OFNT Park Airs episode 290, which I'm calling new toys.
[SPEAKER_01]: With another birthday coming up, I bought myself a present because no one else will.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, because I used becoming another year older as an excuse to buy myself something, that would ordinarily be denied by the one whom must be obeyed.
[SPEAKER_01]: This week I've just got a little bit of tech news, but don't worry.
[SPEAKER_01]: My bloviation goes unchecked in most other sections.
[SPEAKER_01]: Alright, let's start this thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tech news, various rumors about the upcoming iPhone 17E were making their way around the old intotubes over the past week.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're unaware, the eSeries of iPhone debuted with the 16E this past May, replacing the much beloved iPhone SE series.
[SPEAKER_01]: The biggest knock against the 16E was its price, which is $599.
[SPEAKER_01]: The iPhone SE it replaced went for $429, which of course is $170 less expensive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: While I dislike this increased price of entry into the glorious world garden, better known as the Addicting Apple ecosystem, you do get a much better phone for your money.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm speaking from experience here as I've bought an iPhone 16e for my son, and I'm about to purchase another one for my daughter next month.
[SPEAKER_01]: For your extra money, you get a more modern chassis based on the iPhone 14 vs. the iPhone 5, which CSE was based on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Along with that new chassis, you also get Face ID instead of the Touch ID button of the SE.
[SPEAKER_01]: That makes the iPhone SE the last iPhone to Sport Touch ID.
[SPEAKER_01]: Another end of an error.
[SPEAKER_01]: Side-shitting Touch ID, the 60E gets rid of the top and bottom bezels of the older design, and the side bezels are trimmed down thin enough to satisfy modern tastes.
[SPEAKER_01]: We get a 6.1 inch OLED screen instead of the SE's 4.7 inch LCD screen, which is considered to be puny by today's standards.
[SPEAKER_01]: All these upgrades the 16E brings are packed into a frame that's just slightly larger and wider than the SE.
[SPEAKER_01]: The front and rear cameras of the 16-E are a giant step-up from those of the SE and storage starts at 128 gigs versus the 64 gigs of the SE.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ram has been increased to double the amount of the SE-4s 4 gigs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Better for running Apple Intelligence.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: The 16E battery is larger which powers the phone for a much longer time between having the charge it than the SE ever did.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of the 16E's internals have been upgraded with the latest chips and processors.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, at least they were at the time of its release.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, in the meantime the new iPhone 17 series has hit the market, which has brought even more modern internals.
[SPEAKER_01]: The 16E was also the first phone to support Apple's own C1 modem chip whose performance is better than the old Qualcomm modem that the SE used.
[SPEAKER_01]: Despite the text knobs and general naysayers opinion of the 16E, I feel you're getting a lot for that extra money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hold on a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not just buy a base model iPhone 17?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, for a mere $200 more, you could get a base model iPhone 17, which brings a bigger 6.3 instance play, a faster display refresh rate, double storage, and a dynamic island in place of the notch, but the 16e is made for people who want to phone that performs all basic task well, while at the same time, saving themselves some money.
[SPEAKER_01]: And at the end of the day, two
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of adopting the two or more ear-update cycle of the iPhone SE, the E-series of iPhone are expected to adopt the yearly upgrade cycle of the rest of the iPhone lineup.
[SPEAKER_01]: Except instead of September, the E-series will come out in the spring around the month of May.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next year's E-series model, which will be the iPhone 17E.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, duh.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's expected to be equipped with the A19 chip and a dynamic island.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps a 120 Hertz refresh rate also?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I believe the refresh rate will remain at 60 Hertz.
[SPEAKER_01]: Apple needs to maintain some sort of separation between the E.C.E.E.E.E.E.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the base model iPhone.
[SPEAKER_01]: The audience at the E.C.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E
[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps one day, it'll be my personal choice of iPhone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Time will tell.
[SPEAKER_01]: According to Apple Insider.com, the giant fruit company, A.K.A.
[SPEAKER_01]: Apple, is planning on releasing a new monthly subscription service sometime in 2026, that calling it Apple Health Plus.
[SPEAKER_01]: This service is expected to include an AI doctor,
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just what the world needs.
[SPEAKER_00]: A hallucinating artificial intelligence-based physician.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, wait.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Food tracking and health education is this paid service for people too lazy to search the internet.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is an example of the promise of AI being fulfilled.
[SPEAKER_01]: Besides sitting around thinking of ways to separate people from their money,
[SPEAKER_01]: So why not accomplish both at the same time?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's already many apps within the app store that already do these things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, maybe not the AI Dr. Part, but food tracking apps have been around since the beginning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, a lot of these third party apps might not be as trustworthy as Apple, but some are.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's as if Apple not only wants to control third-party apps available in the App Store, but replace third-party apps with their own.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure does seem that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Apple knows that most normal consumers will just be fine with using what comes pre-loaded on their phones.
[SPEAKER_01]: If Apple has its own version of an app, they're most likely just use that one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Examples of this are the podcast and journal apps.
[SPEAKER_01]: Both are included on every new or up-to-date iPhone.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess these apps could be considered as value added.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this time around, Apple is going to charge money to use this health-plus app.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I always say, and Apple a day keeps your money away.
[SPEAKER_00]: Words of wisdom, Lloyd.
[SPEAKER_00]: Words of wisdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: The only flying the ointments that I see here is that consumers that have been using the sort of apps that Apple tends to replace with Apple help plus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have that a that's been built up over the time they've been using these apps.
[SPEAKER_01]: These users most likely won't switch.
[SPEAKER_01]: People knew to Apple or that haven't yet used these health apps, but want to start using them, are the targets of this new surface in my opinion.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Apple Vision Pro augmented reality goggles were introduced with a great fanfare back in 2023.
[SPEAKER_01]: Along with that great fanfare, a not so great price for these things came along for the ride, and that price was not great for the average consumer.
[SPEAKER_01]: The starting price for these things is $3,500.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you happen to have what's called FU money, then I'm sure the Vision Pro was an instant purchase for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Besides that high price, the Vision Pro AR goggles are a solution to a problem that just doesn't exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: Apple was attempting to create a market for a device that no one asked for.
[SPEAKER_01]: Previously, this had been tried by Sony and Meta, but has since remained a niche category.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what the sales numbers look like for the Vision Pro, but judging by an article from MacRomers.com, those numbers weren't too good.
[SPEAKER_01]: According to the article, the feature of the Vision Pro is uncertain at best, as Apple has halted, well, excuse me, has paused development of both the Vision Pro version 2 and the Vision Air.
[SPEAKER_01]: The vision air was supposed to be the Apple AR goggles for the rest of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Read that as, the not so financially well-off segment of the population.
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, Apple has shifted focus towards smart classes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those Ray-Band smart glasses from Meta must have shaken Tim and company up over in Kupertino, huh?
[SPEAKER_01]: They must have, those particular smart classes proved the Apple that theirs indeed a market for these things, which served to light a fire under their well-heeled posteriors.
[SPEAKER_01]: The original plan was to follow up the Vision Pro with the Vision Air, and then release version 2 of the Vision Pro soon after.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Vision Air was supposed to be ready for late 2024.
[SPEAKER_01]: But by then sales momentum for the Vision Pro had come to a standstill.
[SPEAKER_01]: Since then, supply chain leaks of suggested Apple was winding down production of the original Vision Pro because of a weak demand and excess inventory.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've predicted in the past that the Vision Pro would flop.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure you'd hate to tell them so.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I wouldn't hate saying that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I told you so.
[SPEAKER_01]: There, I said it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, met as Ray Bang glasses aren't full-blown, augmented reality spectacles.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're a stripped-down version, and it makes sense that Apple's version will be the same, at least the first iteration.
[SPEAKER_01]: However, you just know that Apple will come up with something to differentiate their glasses from the rest.
[SPEAKER_01]: I look forward to seeing what they come up with.
[SPEAKER_01]: The headline of an article from nine to five Google.com reads, quote, Samsung allegedly copying Apple's cosmic orange for Galaxy S26 Ultra.
[SPEAKER_01]: Unquote, imitation is the best form of flattery ghosty old saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in this case, I don't believe that's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: For me, this one, let's call it for what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fad color is horrendous.
[SPEAKER_01]: The article states in an image showed up on social media last week, reporting to be dummy units of the upcoming S26 Ultra.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the colors was a dreadful orange, similar to the color that's available for the iPhone 17 Pro.
[SPEAKER_01]: And no, I don't think that orange is a new black.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other colors leak were light silver and gold, i.e.
[SPEAKER_01]: normal color choices.
[SPEAKER_01]: According to the leaker when max jambore, also like apple, the s26 will not be available in black.
[SPEAKER_01]: Indeed, what incarnation is going on here?
[SPEAKER_01]: The color black matches with all of the colors.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are these companies thinking?
[SPEAKER_01]: Unlike me, they do get paid to think.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who's decided that no one wants a black colored smartphone any longer?
[SPEAKER_00]: and shame on Samsung for once again copying Apple, then again this could be an example of one of those intentional leaks, all in order to gauge public reaction, though I could be wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well I hope that you're correct on this, you mean you hope that not me, but you are correct.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stop trying to knock down the fourth wall, will ya?
[SPEAKER_01]: Android Authority.com is an article saying that the latest Google Play Store update also brings an update to the Google Messages app that will identify explicit content contained within text messages and won't use as of their existence.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the same time, the image will be blurred.
[SPEAKER_01]: I bet the software engineers working on this feature had a fun time doing so while testing its effectiveness.
[SPEAKER_01]: The messages app will now automatically scan both sent and received text messages for this explicit content which is defined as nudity.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll bet you that violence will still be okay though.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'm sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sadly, this is the world we live in.
[SPEAKER_01]: This new feature couldn't have been too hard to implement.
[SPEAKER_01]: Being that the big G already scans just about everything on your phone in order to target you with advertisements.
[SPEAKER_01]: If this was automatically enabled, there would have been a lot of perturbed Google messages app users who would have to add in an extra step in order to have a smooth 16 experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we can't have that now, can we?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
[SPEAKER_01]: tech I'm using.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well Tuesday rolled around as it tends to do on a weekly basis, and while my wife and I were out and about, I received a notification that UPS had delivered my wife's orange iPhone 17 Pro Max.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd like to tell you that we hurried right home, but as far as getting overly excited when receiving a new iPhone, well that thrill is long gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Upon arriving home we opened the box and in it, as promised, set an orange iPhone 17 Pro Max.
[SPEAKER_01]: While inspecting the phone, I felt even more confident in the choice of color I had made for my 17 Pro Max, which is dark blue if you didn't already know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Setting up the new phone was a breeze, it took all of 10 minutes, and that included automatically pairing her Apple Watch.
[SPEAKER_01]: My 17 Pro Max took much longer to set up, and I had to first unpaired my Apple Watch from my old iPhone in order to pair it with the new phone.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's happy with her new phone, which means that I'm happy too.
[SPEAKER_03]: For the time being, that is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I just don't know about that orange color.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess that's a sign that I no longer have my old fart finger on the public pulse.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because as I've stated previously, in my opinion, the shade of orange that Apple chose for the iPhone is hideous.
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess you can no longer consider yourself now hip or happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: And proudly so, the case might better have selected for her new iPhone is a model from a company called Six Box.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as you might expect, it's also orange.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's built like a tank and features a middle kick stand which also serves as protection for the camera lenses.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it also has an integral wallet located right below the camera plateau, which has enough room for a few bank cards and things.
[SPEAKER_01]: The problem with this case is that the wallet covers what would be the magnet for the MagSafe charging module of the iPhone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Meaning you have to use a cable for charging.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like myself, my wife charges her phone overnight, and next to her side of the bed, using a mag-safe compatible charging stand, but the phones always on display showing the time in the weather.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is impossible with this case, so in order to mitigate this problem, I purchased the same model Tockel branded case that I had bought for my iPhone 17 Pro Max.
[SPEAKER_01]: This time in the
[SPEAKER_01]: She'll be using these six-box case while I'm her international travels.
[SPEAKER_01]: In past episodes, I've complained about Pilotons' Earth of Life indoor cycling rides of late.
[SPEAKER_03]: Complaining?
[SPEAKER_03]: More like whining.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's just your opinion, and you know what they say about opinions.
[SPEAKER_01]: Back to what I was talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I first started using Peloton some years ago now, I could always find a live class when I wanted one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because of my evening work schedule at the time, I usually exercise in the evening, and thanks to the Peloton London studio, and of course time zones, I was able to participate in the least one live class per week.
[SPEAKER_01]: After retiring, I've sort of kept up the same evening schedule.
[SPEAKER_01]: What can I say?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a night owl.
[SPEAKER_01]: Due to cost cutting, Peloton has rolled back the number of live classes and seems to have cut the London Studios' class output to boot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I prefer the London-based instructors over their U.S.
[SPEAKER_01]: counterparts for a number of reasons.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Music tastes in selection being a couple of reasons and personality and other.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's a discussion for the future.
[SPEAKER_01]: Last Tuesday, I received an email from Peloton announcing that more live classes will be scheduled for later in the evening, and figured I'd be seeing more classes from the London Studio available.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wrong!
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's usual.
[SPEAKER_01]: The reason for these added late classes was for West Coast Peloton users, so the company just added later classes featuring US-based instructors.
[SPEAKER_01]: The London-based instructors continued to be on a reduced schedule it seems.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, reduce in comparison to the schedule they were once on when I first started using the Peloton app.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are a lot less classes being produced by Peloton's London Studio these days, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: My Shagrin.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just hope that Peloton doesn't decide to shut down their London Studio as a further cost-cutting measure.
[SPEAKER_01]: That would be a shame.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to tame it news, according to Apple Insider.com, the stand-alone Hulu apps days are numbered.
[SPEAKER_04]: What?
[SPEAKER_01]: Hulu is an app that carries content from all the major networks and some minor networks also here in the United States.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some content appears on Hulu a day after it appears on those networks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hulu is my lovely wife's favorite television streaming app.
[SPEAKER_01]: She watches all of her reality-based programming on Hulu.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Disney Corporation recently took a majority stake in Hulu and intends to combine the service with their Disney Plus app.
[SPEAKER_02]: An app which I have no use for will you stop your complaining, you'll still have access to Hulu via the Disney Plus app.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's true, but at what price?
[SPEAKER_01]: This move of force consumers do also have to subscribe to Disney Plus.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of this is for, well, it's a way to increase the number of subscriptions to the failing Disney Plus app.
[SPEAKER_01]: This app's really no content at my wife and I would want to watch on Disney Plus, and by how much is my subscription price going to go up because of this move?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, you tell me!
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know either.
[SPEAKER_01]: According to the article, this forced integration will be completed by next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll say it again.
[SPEAKER_01]: podcast news.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good old Amazon had a sale last Tuesday and Wednesday, and I'm not sure if they were calling it primedays or not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, I doly check my wish list, expecting to be disappointed as usual, but low and behold, the Roadcaster duo audio interface I've had on that list for a while.
[SPEAKER_01]: A year or more now was marked down by a significant $100.
[SPEAKER_04]: Which I'm sure was enough to convince you to buy it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, it was.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all the time to do it was on my wish list, the price hadn't gone down more than $10.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was so excited, how excited were you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well excited enough to pull the trigger immediately upon seeing this deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Normally I'd first consult with the one whom must be obeyed, you know, as a courtesy.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, sure you would.
[SPEAKER_01]: If she had said no, well then I'd find some other way to obtain the item.
[SPEAKER_01]: This always work around.
[SPEAKER_01]: My birthday is next Sunday, so I figured my request would have most likely been approved anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if I had taken the time to consult with her first, Amazon has finally gotten its stuff together in my area, so I took delivery of the roadcaster on Wednesday.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I first moved to this area last year, I was lucky if my Amazon order was delivered within five days, and yes, I'm a paid prime member.
[SPEAKER_01]: Set up of the duo was more difficult than the previous audio interfaces I've used.
[SPEAKER_01]: The biggest problem I ran into during setup was updating the firmware, while attempting to do so over Wi-Fi, I received the download software notice, but it remained at zero.
[SPEAKER_01]: After giving it 15 minutes, I resolved this unfortunate situation by downloading rows to control software, which updated my firmware quickly, and with no hiccups.
[SPEAKER_01]: Luckily, there's a preset for the Electrovoys R20 microphone.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the Micah I tend to favor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Until I can set aside some time to play with the Duo, I'll be relying on that preset.
[SPEAKER_01]: So far, I can't get the built-in sound effects working.
[SPEAKER_01]: Voice altering effects work fine while recording, but when played back, the audio cuts in and out.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think this may be a problem with my digital audio workstation, which is Hindenburg.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking of swapping over to Apple's logic pro, but I'm fearful of the learning curve of that software, which has been described as steep.
[SPEAKER_04]: I wonder if that old saying you can't teach an old dog new tricks applies here?
[SPEAKER_01]: Guess I'll be finding that out real soon now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll just keep using that preset for the R-20 along with the hidden burg digital audio workstation.
[SPEAKER_01]: The noise gate on the duo was very powerful, but with one caveat,
[SPEAKER_01]: You really have to get on top of the mic unless your voice be cut off.
[SPEAKER_01]: This helps to further lower background noise, though, which is a positive thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: The duo gives you three microphone settings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Neutral, podcast, and broadcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: I chose broadcast mode, but podcast mode sounds good too.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't care for the neutral setting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be sticking with the broadcast setting as it's better for pretending to be a talk radio-joc.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, you've got everything but the talent.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now that's just hurtful.
[SPEAKER_01]: While I was gainfully employed, many people especially women often commented on my radio voice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some even suggested I do voiceovers.
[SPEAKER_04]: Ah, too late, my friends and I already have that locked up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes you do.
[SPEAKER_01]: To sum up, there's still a lot of features to learn and experiment with using the duo.
[SPEAKER_01]: This coming week I'll try pairing my phone to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that goes well, while I might be adding a new section to the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: While the duo will give my computer CPU a break, I'm already missing the simplicity of my other audio interfaces.
[SPEAKER_01]: That being said, it's always good to have a lot of capabilities because you never know when you'll need one or two of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're wanting to start a podcast though, I'd go with the Louisit Connect 2 or the Focus Wright Vocaster.
[SPEAKER_01]: The latter if you're on a budget.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll attempt to use the Roadcaster duo for the podcast next week.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nine to five Mac.com is reporting that Apple has hired a former Spotify and NPR podcasting executive to head up the company's podcasting division and what could go wrong with that?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that those in the know have arrived at the consensus of a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: The newly hired is Ben Mullen, who appears to have gotten to start with in podcasting incorporated with Gimlet Media, which was part of the Brooklyn, New York,
[SPEAKER_01]: before being bought by Spotify in 2019.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mr. Mullin seems to have been brought in after this purchase and remained until Spotify absorbed Gimlet into Spotify Studios in 2023.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the Gimlet alumni, Mullin is most likely a product of the now-defunded National Public Radio, and that's where he ran back to after the disbanding of Gimlet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now that the government in most non-governmental organizations funding has dried up for the slot that NPR considers content, Mr. Mullin was again in search of a paycheck.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now this is all conjecture in my part, as it was difficult finding much information about Mr. Mullin on the internet, being that his home base is in California, Apple would be considered local for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Apple has started producing its own podcast, even building a new studio to do so.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hiring in and PR veteran is not a smart move in my semi-uneducated opinion.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never been interested or even been tempted to listen to a podcast produced by Gimlet.
[SPEAKER_01]: An NPR's podcasting strategy that Mr. Mullin was the head of has mostly failed, especially after having government funds yanked from them earlier this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: If Apple wants to actually have its podcast studio succeed, the company should have hired someone from outside of the NPR universe.
[SPEAKER_01]: These types really aren't in podcasting to make money by putting out quality content with broader appeal.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're into podcasting and media in general, spread a certain message.
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, ideology.
[SPEAKER_01]: Executive like this are used to being buoyed by government funds in order to do so.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not to make a profit.
[SPEAKER_01]: The music is playing as episode 290 starts to wind down.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next week I'll be celebrating yet another trip around the sun.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well I'll be here and hopefully you will be too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen to this now even older man's rambling.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope you enjoyed this episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: I enjoyed making it for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you like what you heard?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well you can make a donation using the link in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all donations will be greatly appreciated.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can always reach me at ofntpodgastofgmail.com and that's only if you're inclined to do so.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd enjoy hearing from you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, don't listen to what they say.
[SPEAKER_01]: Watch what they do.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you notice, my fence family has its gates installed.
[SPEAKER_01]: So unlock the latches and get off my lawn.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stay skeptical.
[SPEAKER_01]: See ya.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that folks is the end of the show.