For this end of 2024 podcast, I'm joined once again by the Google NotebookLM podcast bots. And, once again, I used the beta-release interactive chat mode to interject during the podcast bots discussion.

Note: Jon Westfall will rejoin the podcast for the first podcast of 2025.

NotebookLM's summary of the podcast:

MobileViews Podcast 541, Part 2, focuses on listener tech complaints. Adam Lein criticizes the inconsistencies of USB-C charging, while Todd Ogasawara suggests improvements to USB-C cable standardization. Jason Dunn expresses frustration with limitations of the Google Pixel 9 Pro's Gemini AI, particularly regarding locked-screen voice access. Finally, Ogasawara lists further grievances, including Google's discontinuation of Google Podcasts and its VPN service, and the lack of a Pixel Tablet 2 and wider availability of Microsoft's Recall feature.

The MobileViews Podcast is usually co-hosted by Todd Ogasawara and Jon Westfall. However, for this special post, Google NotebookLM's Audio Overviews feature will host the podcast with "AI" synthetic podcast hosts (after a brief introduction by me). I also used the beta Interactive Chat feature to interject a few comments that the synthetic hosts responded to.

This podcast focuses on the old Seinfeld TV show’s fictional Festivus holiday tradition of the Airing of Grievances. We’re going to focus solely on technology related grievances. It can be about hardware, software, services, or even technology trends. Hence, this is the "Airing of Tech Grievances".

The first podcast section was recorded outdoors to test the iRay DW40 4-channel wireless lavalier microphone kit.

The second section was generated by Google NotebookLM's Audio Overview feature to create a synthetic podcast-like discussion using text-based source material. For this example, I wrote a text discussing three of my 2024 tech grievances (with a nod to Seinfeld's Festivus). A PDF of this text was uploaded to NotebookLM as a source document.

In the first section I mentioned testing the relatively new NotebookLM Audio Overview "chat" feature which lets you (the human) interject into the synthetic podcasters' ongoing discussion and have "them" respond to the newly introduced material. Unfortunately, it turns out that the audio file saved only included the originally created audio summary. I'll use an external recording setup to record my next attempt to use this feature to create a longer Airing of Tech Grievances for a full podcast that will include grievances from several friends.

There were a couple of spots where the synth-podcasters misinterpreted what I wrote in the source document (mild "hallucinations"). However, overall, I'm impressed by NotebookLM"s podcast output.

In this last podcast of 2024 for Jon Westfall and me, we discuss:

In this podcast, Jon Westfall and I are joined by frequent guest panelist Don Sorcinelli. We discussed:

In this podcast, Jon Westfall and I discuss:

In this podcast, Jon Westfall and I discuss:

• Waiting for our new M4 based Macs. Rationale for models/configurations chosen

For this podcast, Jon Westfall and I are joined by frequent guest panelist Sven Johannsen. We discuss:

• Testing iOS 18.1 iPhone Call Recording in MobileViews mini-podcast 47

MobileViews mini-podcast 47 is a 2 minute recording testing the new iOS 18.1 Phone Call Recording feature. It is an iPhone to iPhone call. I used the 15 Pro Max's built-in microphone to while Jon Westfall used the iPods Pro 2 mic. At the start of the recording both Jon and I heard a low volume "This call will be recorded" message.Duirng the call recording my display showed an audio volume graph, call duration, and a red button to stop recording without dropping the voice call. Despite also using an iPhone on his side, Jon did not see any recording indication after the brief start of call notification.

After the recording was stopped, an M4A audio file and an embedded text transcript was saved to the iOS Notes app. The transcript identifies the called party (Jon Westfall).

For this in-person lunch in a restaurant recorded podcast, I'm joined by Jared Kuroiwa. We discuss AR/VR glasses, ARM PCs, and some recent keyboards (Logitech in both our cases) we've been using. Note that there is a complete separate discussion and video recorded demonstration of Jared's Brilliant Labs Frames and Xreal Air 2 Ultra AR glasses. This discussion is available on YouTube and linked on the MobileViews blog.