Crossed Wires

Apple held their 'Let Loose' event on May 7th, 2024 and not long after the 'dream team' of Crossed Wires Apple coverage gathered to discuss the new iPads, the rather confusing line up of Apple Pencils.

We also take a detour to look into why WiFI 7 not being included in the new iPads is not as big of a factor as some may think.

Finally, we discuss the powerful new features in Apple's pro apps for iPad, Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro and how these new features make iPad a powerful creative tool more than ever before.

Are you planning to buy a new iPad, are you excited by the new features of Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro on iPad? We'd love to hear from you, so please send us a note to [email protected], or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

"Don't you people backup? I backup, and I don't even know what backing up means!" - Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that's important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you'll want to make sure it's kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn't really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn't in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

As centralised social media platforms become more and more hostile, with not only toxicity from undesirable elements but also massive privacy concerns, the Fediverse has become somewhat of a refuge for those who want to share freely and openly, without the worry of appeasing the almighty algorithms.

There are some fantastic Mastodon issues for you to join, but what if you want a bit more control, or want to build your own community, or represent your brand? You could setup your own server, assuming you have the skills and patience to do so, or you could take advantage of a service like Masto.host.

Our guest, Hugo, provides what he describes as 'Shared Hosting for Mastodon' at incredibly affordable prices and with some much appreciated transparency on infrastructure and update policies.

We talk about how things got started, his encounter with TERFs and the freedom to refuse service to anyone because of the decentralised nature of the fediverse. We also do a bit of a deep dive into the infrastructure setup for Masto.host and the measures Hugo has put in place in the aim to give everyone a great experience.

Do you have your own instance, or maybe have some stories to share of instances gone wrong? We'd love to hear from you, so please send us a note to [email protected], or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

"Don't you people backup? I backup, and I don't even know what backing up means!" - Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that's important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you'll want to make sure it's kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn't really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn't in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

The hype around AI continues to grow, often muddling genuinely useful elements like machine learning, pattern recognition, and properly and ethnically trained large language models with tools like ChatGPT and generative AI tools that have questionable data sources.

With returning guests, Prof. Catherine Flick and our very own Zack, we talk about the challenges of AI in the academic space. Zack also shares his own experience of being caught using ChatGPT to complete a final essay he, by his own admission, had left until the last minute.

Are you academia, have you been tempted to use AI shortcuts or maybe are a teacher or professor who has had experience with students taking those shortcuts? We'd love to hear from you, so please send us a note to [email protected], or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

"Don't you people backup? I backup, and I don't even know what backing up means!" - Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that's important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you'll want to make sure it's kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn't really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn't in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

If you’ve ever purchased a new laptop, you’ll know only too well the pain of configuring your new system to get your dream setup. With some manufacturers, looking at you here Apple, your choice of storage and memory are there for the lifetime of the laptop.

Worst still, if you have a failed component on your laptop you’re often faced with expensive and proprietary repair options that can often cost nearly as much as the laptop itself.

Nirav Patel founded Framework to tackle these issues by creating laptops that push the boundaries of what we’d expect to be upgradable in our modern thin and light world.

What do you think about the Framework laptop, is it something that may be on your tech wish list? Do you think laptops, and tech in general, should last longer than a podcast episode? We’d love to hear from you, so please send us a note to [email protected], or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

“Don’t you people backup? I backup, and I don’t even know what backing up means!” – Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that’s important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you’ll want to make sure it’s kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn’t really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn’t in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

It’s our pleasure to be joined again by The Iconfactory’s Gedeon Maheux, this time we’re talking less Star Trek and more Tapestry, no not that episode with Q and Picard!

Project Tapestry is their latest KickStarter project, and the goal is to create a one-stop-shop for reading the influx of things that matter to you on the web. As long as the site has an open and accessible endpoint for you to get the data, you should be able to bring that into Tapestry.

We also talk about some of the challenges of designing apps for changing design styles, different platforms, and of course take some minor course corrections into sci-fi and Apple in general.

Will you be backing Project Tapestry? At the time of posting this episode, there’s just 7 days left to go and the team have some really cool rewards still up for grabs. 

What are your thoughts on how apps are designed? What’s your favourite Q appearance in The Next Generation? We’d love to hear from you, so please send us a note to [email protected], or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

“Don’t you people backup? I backup, and I don’t even know what backing up means!” – Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that’s important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you’ll want to make sure it’s kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn’t really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn’t in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

With so many choices in browsers on desktop, mobile, and even our vehicles, it’s important to look under-the-hood to understand the differences between the engines that power your favourite browser. 

Be that Chromium, WebKit, or Gecko, not all browsers are created equal and have varying features and views on the rights of their users. We’re honoured to be joined by Jon von Tetzchner, the CEO of Vivaldi, an open-source and privacy first Chromium powered browser that could replace Google Chrome.

Jon also explains why we need regulation on the increasingly scary amount of user-profiling that’s happening across the web itself, not to mention many browsers and services. 

Do you remember using the early versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Opera, or something equally vintage? Or, maybe you had to develop sites that required myriads of tweaks to make them work across platforms and interpretations of web standards. 

We’d love to hear from you, so please send us a note to [email protected], or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

“Don’t you people backup? I backup, and I don’t even know what backing up means!” – Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that’s important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you’ll want to make sure it’s kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn’t really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn’t in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

Whether you work in tech, produce tech content, or just happen to use a smartphone, a single question can spark debate and an explosion of extreme views from both sides. That question is simple, iPhone or Android?

We’re joined by our Zack, one of Jae’s nephews and a longtime Android user and advocate to have an honest discussion about why we like the platforms we’ve settled on and where we see potential issues. 

Our chat touches on some core issues like security updates, the challenge of a multitude of Android OEMs, cross-platform messaging, ecosystem lock-in, and the important of right to repair and the longevity of hardware.

What’s your daily driver, do you have strong feelings about the Fruit Company or the one with all the Droids? If you can keep it respectful, we’d love to hear from you, so please send us a note to [email protected], or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

“Don’t you people backup? I backup, and I don’t even know what backing up means!” – Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that’s important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you’ll want to make sure it’s kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn’t really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn’t in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

You’ll have heard James and Jae wax lyrical about their love for the UniFi line of networking gear on our live streams and in past episodes with Alex, as well as with Cody from MacTelecom Networks, but this episode is a fairly deep look into why we love UniFi.

We’re joined by Alex Lowe and Evan McCann, the hosts of UI Chat, a monthly Ubiquiti focussed podcast that is definitely our go-to resource for the latest news from the UniFi maker. 

We talk about some of the new products, though it’s worth mentioning that this episode was recorded in mid-December 2023 and so pre-dates the new U7 Pro and Swiss Army Knife Ultra access points, as well as the new Pro Max switches.

Have you used UniFi at home or at work, or maybe you disagree with our views and prefer [insert other brand name here] for your network. We’d love to hear from you, so please send us a note to [email protected], or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

“Don’t you people backup? I backup, and I don’t even know what backing up means!” – Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that’s important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you’ll want to make sure it’s kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn’t really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn’t in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

Imagine a time when internet access meant using an analogue modem to dial a phone number in order to connect to the internet at speeds of up 7 kilobytes a second! Now imagine trying to play online games such as Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Euro 96, and even Bridge, over that connection.

Our guests this week, Phil and Stu Ashby, helped to create and run Wireplay, a dial-up based online gaming service from BT (yes, the telephone company) in the mid-nineties. We go on some really deep tangents on the workings of modems, why just enabling anonymous dial-up internet access may spark some questions, and the challenges of keeping latency in online gaming at a (for the time) remarkable 100ms over dial-up. There’s also a discussion of how having Windows Servers in your backend can be somewhat painful.

Do you remember using Wireplay, or a similar service? We’d love to hear from you, so please send us a note to [email protected], or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

“Don’t you people backup? I backup, and I don’t even know what backing up means!” – Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that’s important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you’ll want to make sure it’s kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn’t really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too. 

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn’t in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW