What's New is Old

Mark & Wes, in Rheem, CA at Tamamis

This show was recorded using Mark's lapel microphones. For whatever reason, you can hear us eat and chew and slurp in high detail. In the show, Mark and Wes ramble a lot about Apple's new updates to certain products, iTunes 8.0, 2.1 firmware iTouch & iPhone update, Nano's potential 508 compliance for sight-impaired users. Mark explains how 'location over Wi-Fi' works, and how people have to drive all over the place to map the Wi-Fi locations. Wes thinks he caused his Wi-Fi to be added by doing something to trigger the location on his iTouch, but Mark is skeptical. What is the deal with the Genius feature of iTunes? Wes can't tell if it actually finds matching songs, and Mark isn't very interested in the feature unless it works with banjo and pipe organ music. Wes has a good way to look for new applications for your iPhone or iTouch, and explains how to do this. Did the 2.1 firmware fix your application crashing problems?

Wes' iTouch Application of the week: Beat Creator

Mark's iPhone Application of the week Face Melter

Mark & Wes, in Berkeley, CA at Kips

This show was recorded in a noisy area of Kips in Berkeley. Wes complains about his bubble drink and how it wasn't blended. Mark talks about Walter/Wendy Carlos and Switched on Bach. He has a pic of what looks like a Moog analog system, but there is a possibility that it is just an analog computer. What is it!? Who is the guy? They talk about the first MP3 player and what it looked like in 1998. Wes talks a bit about the unit that Apple examined before the iPod was created. Also his drink is not blended like it should be. Mark suspects that Google created Chrome in order to have something for Android, as well as a way to halt the payments for revenue to the Mozilla Foundation. He also believes their goal is to get people away from being concerned about applications for specific Operating Systems. Wes agrees and talks a bit about Google Docs. Some people think the earth is only 5000 years old and that we never went to the moon. What's next from Apple? New iPhone? iTouch Nano?

Mark & Wes, in Emeryville, CA at The Emerybay Public Market.

This show was recorded outside of the food court in Emeryville. People thought Mark and I were some strange group of Radio DJ's, and the guard actually came up and started a conversation about our equipment.

In this show, Mark and Wes go back in time to discuss early Apple computers, and tell brief stories of the first Apple machines we both used. Wes talks a bit about the GEM DOS Shell. Forget GEM, Mark used DESQview to run multi-dos sessions... until he discovered that Windows could do the same job. Wes uses his Intel Mac Mini for video editing because it handles HD video fairly well. Us iTouch and iPhone users will be getting a new firmware upgrade in less than a month that should fix the app crashing problems we're experiencing. Nothing is better than a short BB-the-dog story, which Mark gives us, explaining how dogs check their peemail.

Mark & Wes, in Orinda, CA at Loards Ice Cream

This show was recorded at Loards Ice Cream due to the fact that there was a live band (with NO BANJO) playing loudly in the mall where the expensive Japanese Restaurant was located. So we waited until after dinner and forced ourselves to eat ice cream out of ice cream cups in order to bring you another wonderful and fact filled episode! In this show, Mark and Wes talk about MacroMedia, Adobe, Flash for the iPhone, Audio Editors, Steve Jobs is angry with Adobe for stating they would create their own Flash for the iPhone, does Steve approve every App Store application? Mark saw The Woz and a friend on a Segway in San Francisco. Mark talks about BART's Segway Policy. Also, did you know you can make your own Segway clone?

Mark & Wes, in Oakland, CA at LJ Quinn's Light House.

This episode contains a lot of fresh ground pepper and eating noises. Wes reveals why Quinn's is so important to him. Mark spends a large portion of the show speaking about cell phones in the US versus Europe, carriers, cell phone prices and different rates for calls. Can you really trust cloud computing? Google Docs? Mark invited some phone folks over to his party with interesting consequences.

Sites of Interest:

CDMA is popular for cellular in the US, but GSM is used almost everywhere else.

United Mobile sells multi-country GSM SIM cards. The one with the 44 country code is cheaper for people to call you.

Sample eBay search for cheap quad-band unlocked GSM cell phones.

International call-back services can save you money when traveling.

Save far more by making your own call-back service with Asterisk, among a million other things that Asterisk can do. (Email Mark for details on scripting the callback.)

Wes was thinking about Magic Jack for cheap phone service based on a USB device, but Mark misunderstood and thought he was talking about something completely different.

Voip Cheap is really cheap for overseas calls, and can be part of a call-back service you build with Asterisk.

Mark likes the Zivio headset from Joby, but it's expensive.

PSP now supports Skype.

Wes' iPhone App for Today - Study Cards

Six-CD Memory Training course that Mark likes. But wait, why couldn't he remember the name of it?

Yet another of Mark's inventions was stolen (not really) by this web site.

Good article on the term "cloud computing".

Should you trust cloud computing like gmail and google docs?

Mark & Wes, in Lafayette, CA at Bo's Barbecue

This episode is also dedicated to Al Bernay, who passed away on July 10th. Al had friends his family knew little about, and Mark and friends were amazed at how wrong the Rabbi was. Franky looks too young to be his age. Al created his own MIDI files and worked with the Petunia sound plug for the Commodore Pet. Honey bees or wasps, and how to get rid of them. Al's electronic address book was paper, sort of. Why do these people applaud this musical group, when there is no Banjo!? Netshare for the iPhone and possible reasons why it was allowed and then pulled -- twice! Mark likes the way the public perceives the value of apps in the iPhone store and how they complain that a $2 application is only worth $1. What do you mean you don't remember WebVan!?

Mark & Wes, in Emeryville, CA at the Asqew Grill

This episode is dedicated to Al Bernay, who passed away on July 10th. Mark talks about the history of the Mark Bernay Society, the fact that Al was truly the original PodCaster, and his involvement in the beginning of something that affected the future of technology and the generation of kids who took pleasure in experimenting with phones and equipment. This is the first of two shows where we will talk about Al and how important he was to young people, as well as us older ones.

Sites of Interest:

The following websites used to have a lot of tape recordings that the webmaster and other people made back then by dialing Al's and other lines and recording the calls. All these sites are off the air at the time this was posted, and we don't know why. We are including these links in case the sites come back.

http://www.mapstostarshomes.com/

http://www.dialajoke.us/

http://www.funfone.org/

http://www.telephone-entertainment.com/

http://www.paulmackpresents.com/

These should be working:

http://www.phonetrips.com - search for recordings that say "Al Bernay".

http://www.milesofmemory.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=8&Itemid=11 - Play the video "Maps 06" and the chapters of "Maps 07".

Al's web pages. These work best in Firefox with pop-up blockers turned off, and the first one especially may not work in Internet Explorer.

http://www.touristguider.com

http://www.your-teacher.net

http://home.earthlink.net/~aldiamond/jbrtc-ns.htm

http://home.earthlink.net/~aldiamond/job4kids.htm

Mark & Wes, in Lafayette, CA. Doing the Pizza Antica.

Mark has an issue with a battery refill web site, as they most recently gave him what appear to be defective refills twice. Listeners have convinced me to record the waiter taking our orders, so don't judge us on the food we order. Mark doesn't care as long as the soup makes a solid slurping sound . Mark runs through the kinds of Pizza you can get in Italy, causing me to think of a Tetris cut pie. iTouch v2.0 firmware crashing problems may be due to the apps and not the OS. Wes thinks he knows where Steve lives. Why is the Flashlight application so popular!? OMG! Mark has a 3G iPhone! So Mark goes into a water closet and gets confused. Eventually he learns the correct way to Pee in Berlin. Speaking of Pee-ing, what does Cat Piss stand for? Actually Mark said "CAPTCHA", not "cat piss". San Francisco will now help you find an empty parking spot by cell phone. Esquire Magazine will feature Electronic Ink soon.

Axe & Wes, in SF, CA having lunch at Tart to Tart.

New iTunes, iPhone and firmware all around, 20% of all apps on AppStore are free, Twitter is available in free and premium edition on AppStore, iTouch firmware update was delayed, problems with the iTouch firmware update, software quality assurance, 80% of all iPhone apps are free, Yelp, Evernote iPhone app, Shazam to find your favorite song on the radio, Jott, iPhone screenshot capability, 24k Gold iPhone, Nokia and Navteq, Squirt your sphincter, Electronic Toilets.

Mark & Wes, in Orinda, CA looking for WordTech Systems.

Because Mark is on vacation in Europe, this weeks show is a quick smearing of audio clips from previous shows that go back to 2005. In this set, Mark and Wes reminisce.