Episode 313 — Tech Gripes

Michael R and Andy get together to have a conversation to talk (and gripe) about tech.

Starting off on a big discussion about small print and subscriptions, Andy shares his experiences with Cricut’s decision to limit the number of crafting projects via subscription and subsequent reversal of that choice given the user community outcry.

In cool tech, the airless shape memory alloy bike tires inspired by NASA’s space rovers is taking shape in the form of a startup called SMART.  

On the gripe side, the team talks about security challenges with two factor authentication, especially with accounts that have joint users.  Related, Dropbox is planning to offer a free password manager if you are using less than 50 passwords.  Andy suggests that 1Password should expand to have an Xbox client.  Hint hint!  

In Apple-related news, Michael and Andy talk about leaks & leakers, HomePod, the new Intel ads with Justin Long, and old school iconography. 

Andy shares his experiences in watching (and participating) in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance of Dream, and has written an excellent Medium post on this as well.  The cast did a special performance at 2am in order to expose their work to a broader global audience, and it was a fantastic way to integrate the audience with the performers.  

Have some tech that you’d like to grouse about?  Share it with the Games At Work team and perhaps it will surface on next week’s episode!  

Selected Links

The Verge article: Cricut completely unravels subscription plans that would limit its crafting machines — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/18/22338801/cricut-crafting-machines-backlash-no-more-subscription-needed 

IGN article: Watch Dogs: Legion Review — https://www.ign.com/articles/watch-dogs-legion-review 

TechCrunch article: Startup founded by ‘Survivor’ champ debuts airless bike tires based on NASA rover tech — https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/16/startup-founded-by-survivor-champ-debuts-airless-bike-tires-based-on-nasa-rover-tech/ 

Cyclingtips article: SMART’s Airless Metal Tires Are Designed for Mars and Your Bike — https://cyclingtips.com/2021/03/smart-metl-airless-metal-tires-are-designed-for-mars-and-your-bike/ 

The Verge article: Dropbox will have a free password manager in April — if you’ve got 50 or fewer passwords — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/16/22332829/dropbox-passwords-manager-added-free-basic-account 

Ars Technica article: $16 attack shows how easy carriers make it to intercept text messages — https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/03/16-attack-let-hacker-intercept-a-t-mobile-users-text-messages/ 

Apple HomePod mini — https://www.apple.com/homepod-mini/ 

MacRumors article: macOS Big Sur 11.3 Beta Adds Support for HomePod Stereo Pairs — https://www.macrumors.com/2021/02/03/macos-11-3-homepod-stereo-pairs/ 

The Verge article: Google will reduce Play Store cut to 15 percent for a developer’s first $1M in annual revenue — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/16/22333777/google-play-store-fee-reduction-developers-1-million-dollars 

Apple Insider — Apple seeded disinformation about March 23 event to root out leakers, leaker says — https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/03/18/apple-likely-seeded-disinformation-about-march-23-event-to-root-out-leakers 

9 to 5 Mac article: ‘I’m a Mac’ star Justin Long pivots to Intel in new ads mocking M1 Macs — https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/17/im-a-mac-justin-long-intel-ads-mocking-m1-macs/ 

Cult of Mac article: Go old-school with iPhone icons inspired by 1984 Macintosh — https://www.cultofmac.com/737420/go-ios-old-school-with-iphone-icons-inspired-by-1984-macintosh/ 

Andy Piper blog post: Was it, a Dream? — https://andypiper.medium.com/was-it-a-dream-78a765b205f3 

Oculus Quest 2 — https://www.oculus.com/quest-2/ 

The Famous Grouse — https://www.thefamousgrouse.com/en 

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