Solid State Podcast

Episode 75 - The Free Write Alpha, Return of the Cassette, Project ORCS, and more...

This week on the Solid State Podcast, there’s no getting around it… we’re all over the place in (hopefully) all the best ways possible!
We kick things off by taking a hands-on look at the Free Write Alpha, a device with an intentionally narrow vision of what it wants to be and how it might unlock the creativity laying dormant in our ever-more distracted minds…
Then things really go off the rails as we journey back to a world of cassette tapes, questionable audio quality, and… believe it or not… gadgets hitting the market right now enabling you to play those chunks of plastic and ribbon in new and interesting ways…
Hot on the heels of such a stark look backwards is a whiplash-ridden transition to what lies ahead for AI, this time when its baked into the phone that many of you already have in your pocket… Yep, Apple is “making it official” with AI focused tools coming to iOS later this year… What that actually means however is still very much up for interpretation… is this ushering in another era of once-complicated tools arriving for the masses, or the next step down an ever-darkening road…
Things only get more off-the-walls from there when the next way to scratch your Dungeons & Dragons itch digitally arrives later this year in Project ORCS, and who knows… maybe we sneak a few more tidbits in at the end… guess you’ll have to wait to find out? No… really… don’t just scrub ahead… I promise it’s worth it! 
All that and more coming up, if you thought the intro was bad, wait until you see what this much caffeine on a Friday morning did to us… let’s go check it out…

Episode 74 - What's in the box with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

We’ve talked many times on this show about how the smartphone space is reaching a state of… let’s call it “advanced maturity”… On any given day you can pick up just about any given mainstream “flagship” phone and you’re going to more-or-less have the same experience… a (normally) over-sized slab of metal, glass, and plastic that powers on to become a gateway to the internet…
But even in this period of same-phone-different-day experiences, there is just enough room for a standout… an opportunity to push the space one step further than the competition and, quite frankly, be different!
That moment very much describes the one I had when I first unboxed the subject of today’s show… on parting the cardboard and peeking what was inside, visually I was greeted by exactly what I expected… a dark metal rectangle… However it was when I picked it up I was immediately aware that this wasn’t you’re every day pocket(ish)-sized super computer…
The heft hit me first, it was weighty in the hand in a way that harkened back to the days of my first iPod, when the perceived value and quality of the object was identifiable in the sum of its parts… once powered on, the screen came to life in near-perfect blacks and popping colors that, put simply, delighted the eyes… 
Things really get interesting as you fly through setup, download apps with ease, and begin noticing the thoughtful touches in the operating system guiding you to new features, potentially game-changing AI enhancements, and suddenly the “why” behind this device is coming into focus… 
This device isn’t just a flagship… its a tour de force to showcase everything single party trick one of the world’s largest technology brands can pack into that dark metal rectangle…
So lets find out, just what is in the box with Samsung’s brand new Galaxy S24 Ultra… 

Episode 73 - Parts Bin: 40 years of Mac, iOS 17.3, Palworld, and more...

On this week’s Solid State Podcast, your three presenters get a much-needed chance to “return to form” after a seemingly endless run of events, announcements, and New Year coverage… and we figured there was not better way to do that than a good-old-fashioned "Parts Bin" episode to sprint through everything else happening in tech as 2024 gets up to speed…
Apple news kicks things off with both ends of the the spectrum… a look back at 40 years of the Mac and what that meant in 1984, how it is still shaping Apple and the industry as a whole today, and a closer look at what impact we expect to see over the coming years and, more than likely, decades to come...
But as fun as it is looking back on all the fond years with Apple’s storied lineup of desktops and laptops in seemingly every shape and size, the iPhone is really where their impact is felt on the daily by countless millions across the globe. And with great footprint comes even greater responsibility as the iPhone also remains on of the most stolen pieces of consumer tech… and the latest version of iOS is here to beef up security should it happen to you… 
Contrary to popular belief though, there is plenty more going on across tech than just Cupertino has to share with us… the lens wars are heating up for Canon’s RF series, as are the mounting pile of legal bills… the gaming world has been invaded by small, animated creatures that you catch in a ball, "definitely" aren’t Pokemon, and sometimes carry… guns… and Nvidia gives its 40-series of graphics cards a “super” upgrade that may or may not be all it’s cracked up to be… 
If that seems like a lot, you haven’t seen anything yet… let’s go...

Episode 72 - Samsung's Winter 2024 Unpacked Event

Most groups of friends have their go-to inside jokes… the things you know will get a rise out of someone because, frankly, they just know you that well… my inner circle is no different: for some its a favorite sports team not performing well, others its pointing out the oh-so-specific OCD’s that make us “tick”, and for me, well, anyone who knows me well enough can walk up on any given day, ask me how many phones I’m carry, and prepare for a good chuckle at my well-deserved-expense…
My love of gadgets is, literally, very well documented at this point… and one of my favorite sub-genres is the smartphone. These roots go so much deeper than just the “modern” era ushered in by the iPhone, Nexus One, and Galaxy Note… I still have the fondest of memories for my HTC “Star Trek”, BlackBerry Curve, and even the “giant” Nokia 1520… 
So in the here-and-now, the smartphone space has indeed “matured” to the point of, dare some say, getting “boring”? They all look… pretty much the same. They are all… pretty much just as fast. And the cameras are all… well, creating just about as many pixels as they’re actually capturing anymore. But I still love them…
Until someone actually cracks the “next big thing” in consumer electronics, the metal & glass slab in your pocket will remain one of the most valuable touch-points in our everyday computing experience. 
So, much like the clockwork it is, Samsung brought us their Winter “Unpacked” event this last week and with it three new phones that sure look familiar, talked up AI advances that might be hit-or-miss at best, and even teased an upcoming wearable that might actually shake things up a bit… Sound like business as usual? It surely does, and I still love every last second of it… let’s dive in…

Episode 71 - Hot takes from CES 2024

It’s a new year on the Solid State Podcast, and we’re kicking it off the only way we know how… 
In the middle of the Nevada desert, surrounded by a halo of lights that never sleep, are miles and miles of convention center halls, meeting rooms, and shadowy corners where once a year a critical mass of the technology industry descends with their wares, ideas, and moonshots to pitch the rest of the world that their product is the next game changer…
Whether your corner of tech is giant TVs, impossibly complex gadgets, or a toilet that reads you the news… this Mecca of technical wizardry is second to none other. 
And then, as quickly as it appeared, in a few short days it will disappear beneath the sands of the desert and time itself until another January finds us to start the process all over again. 
We, of course, are talking about CES or the “Consumer Electronics Show”… many big events have come and gone over the decades, but CES stands as the beginning of the gadget-filled year, and this was certainly no exception. It would take a week’s worth of back-to-back episodes to try (unsuccessfully) to cover it all, and frankly not even I can talk that much… So instead your three occasionally-lovable presenters have decided to gather our favorites (good, bad, and most definitely ugly) to give you just a taste of not only what CES has in store for us, but 2024 as a whole…
Much like Apple disrupting the news cycle while not even being quote-unquote in attendance, let’s peruse the store shelves of tomorrow by taking a look at what CES 2024 has for us today…

Episode 70 - What’s next... for 2024

There’s no other way to say it… 2023 was a year. Frankly, at times it literally felt like a year and a half…
It’s been a year of incredible highs and rock-bottom lows, as the technology industry has come to terms with a dramatically changing market and economic landscape while also charging forward (possibly with semi-reckless abandon) into an AI-fueled future that no one actually seems sure what it will look like but everyone somehow agrees its where we want to be? 
We are in our happiest place dreaming of the future, and today is no different. We’re going to take a look at what’s a seemingly sure-bet in the coming year and some… wilder predictions as well because, at the end of the day, it’s still us after all! 
But as forward-looking as we love to be, it’s also impossible to have a clear understanding of what could be ahead without the context of where we’ve come from. From handheld gaming to Spatial Computing and the Metaverse, 2023 not only held some fantastic releases that we’re already enjoying today but also are a pretty clear map at what’s next…
Smartphones, headsets, consoles, and… yep… even physical media, it’s all here on-tap for a new year that prepares to kick off next week with CES in Las Vegas and then rolls into new Galaxy phone announcements, Humane’s AI pin launch, and beyond…
This year has been, to put is simply… fun… so what does that mean then for 2024? I’m ready…

Episode 69 - 2023 Solid State ”How Much Tech Can You Get” Challenge

There’s no easier way to say it… we buy a lot of tech on this show! It is, after all, literally or jobs… but long before that, from childhood it has been our collective passion. We’ve talked on this very show about our earliest PCs, most treasured gadgets, and the genuine love we have for the silly plastic and metal boxes of components strewn through our lives… 
On the flip side of that, of course, is that much of this tech isn’t exactly cheap, either! So in the spirit of the holiday shopping season and hoping to help in any small way to stretch each hard earned dollar every way we can… we set ourself a challenge!
Imagining a world where our respective collections of gadgets, screens, and technical wizardry suddenly disappears in a Thanos-style snap… How would we rebuild? In a series of declining price targets, could we stretch each purchase and hit a budget? Or were we doomed to Solid State style analysis-paralysis and a never ending want for bigger/faster/more powerful? 
Our pile of would-be Monopoly money in hand, we set to every online storefront we could find over the last three days, picking through everything from “Buy it today before it’s gone forever” sales to a seemingly never-ending stream of outright scams and too-good-to-be-true hoodwinks. 
But for professional technology consultants who help others build budgets, procure tech, and make sure it's working properly for years to come… how hard could it be?
Let’s find out…

Episode 68 - Parts Bin with the Steam Deck OLED and Meta Quest 3

Some sights are just not uncommon, and this time of year possibly the most common site is a small (or not so small) pile of cardboard boxes adorning the front step of about every house you walk by in any given neighborhood… 
Sometimes its purely pedestrian… I will publicly admit I have a recurring box of paper towels sent to said doorstep because, sadly, I can’t be bothered…
But, as I alluded to before, this time of year is just a little bit different… And no, I don’t even mean that several of the largest gift-exchanging holidays are among us… oh no… it’s the peak of gadget season! As each of those long-awaited announcements take place, we get to spend time agonizing over where we are going to place our bets… and by our bets I mean the hard-earned dollars the result in said cardboard boxes arriving! With new and interesting tech arriving on the scene near-daily this time of year, being somewhat picky becomes a matter of pure practicality! Sometimes we guess well, sometimes we guess very well, and other times… yeah, we don’t talk about those...
This go around, much like Indiana Jones in a room full of ornate cups, I feel we chose… wisely!
Two of the biggest gadgets of the season are here in the room today, each connected by the fact that they’re not a brand new category, offering, or obviously evolution in their space. No, these are second and third generation entries into a market quickly filling with competition and everyone else’s “next big thing”… 
So how do they stack up against both the market and their own predecessors? Let’s find out by charging up, powering on, updating… again… and hitting the digital road with the Steam Deck OLED and Meta’s Quest 3 VR headset…

Episode 67 - What’s next for Open AI (and the return of CEO Sam Altman)?

Some stories around tech are entirely too predictable because, well… there are humans involved and at the end of the day there’s just only so many ways for us to try and on-up each other. That said, when the story starts to involve a nonprofit, a holding company, a very much for-profit company, a multi-trillion dollar investor, and the whole thing revolve around the future of Artificial Intelligence… well… that’s a cocktail of Unpredictability that boggles the mind…
And shockingly, that’s exactly what we’ve gotten over the last 96 hours or-so as its relates to its former Board, current Board, former CEO, and current CEO that, oh by the way, happen to be the same person…
AI as a whole is obviously the story of the day, as can be seen in our last two weeks of topics alone… yet as visionary, industry changing, and quite possibly terrifying as the future of AI is, there are still humans at the core of its development. Humans and their own views on what’s right or wrong, good or evil, or heck just smart or stupid… 
The last few days have been a whirlwind, and not to cheat ahead but I genuinely believe this story is far from over, but regardless we’re going to dive in and at least start to unravel the players, the chess moves, and both the near and long-term implications of how this appears to be playing out…
Hold on tight, cause this is a bumpy one… 

Episode 66 - What’s next for the AI marketplace?

This week on the Solid State Podcast, the full band is back together and we’re here to pick back up on the ever-evolving conversation around AI and more specifically the marketplace that is beginning to take real shape around it. 
Ever since it burst onto the scene last fall, AI has continued to dominate the moment around products, services, and the companies that bring them to you. It seems that no member of Big Tech can take the stage without working in some aspect of their broader AI play… be it supercharging their existing virtual assistant, enabling users to literally create content out of thin air, or simply provide the tools to doze off in your weekly team meeting and have a convenient (albeit contextually incomplete) summary for when you wake up… 
The only inescapable fact is that these products aren’t going anywhere, but possibly even more important is the supporting cast of platforms, services, and infrastructure that are inevitably building up around “AI”… You see the average user doesn’t care (or want to care) that asking Chat GPT a question sets off a string of cloud-based events that spin up servers, transfer data, and in the end costs someone (or many someones) money… 
So while the public-facing version of this race is “who can make the most game-changing AI experience first”, the whole other side of that very same race is “who can create the best, most efficient infrastructure to enable it… and do so profitably”…
For better or worse, this moment is upon us, and in typical Solid-State-style we’re going to interrogate every angle and ask ourselves (and you) the question… if we’re finally “here” with AI, should we have come in the first place?