e434 – Breaking Virtual Bricks

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Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Welcome back! After a brief break, Andy and Michael R. fight technical difficulties to chat through the latest happenings in the worlds of tech and gaming.

The big updates to Apple’s hardware and software – and voices – are discussed, along with the potential for USB-C now that the connector is (more or less) everywhere. Will you be adding a giant SSD to your phone any time soon?

On the gaming side of things, we dig into the trend for documentaries about classic videogames. Andy remembers Yie Ar Kung Fu rather than Karateka, but it is often interesting to look back at the history of gaming.

LEGO makes an appearance, with a brief mention of LEGO Brick Tales coming to the Meta Quest 3, along with reference to recent news that LEGO’s sustainability drive to improve their plastics hit a blocker.

Finally, we cover the huge Unity license change, and talk about how Michael can re-live his love for the universe for The Expanse, in gaming form.

Have you picked up any shiny new gadgets lately, or tried some new games or software we should know about? Let us know in the comments below, or via the Fediverse @gamesatwork_biz@botsin.space.

Selected article links

Apple Stuff

Bad watchOS UX choices – https://sixcolors.com/link/2023/09/craig-hockenberry-on-the-watchos-10-timer/

A luxurious new case – https://mastodon.social/@hotdogsladies/111130441640625085

CARROT in your own voice – https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/18/carrot-weather-for-ios-17-introduces-a-voice-impersonation-feature-and-more/

The big review – https://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-and-ipados-17-the-macstories-review/

Add an SSD to your phone – https://mastodon.social/@Bas/111104149303059538

Pixel Pals 2 – https://mastodon.social/@christianselig/111104750282466025

Gaming Stuff

Making of Karateka – https://www.pcgamer.com/the-making-of-karateka-proves-the-best-way-to-tell-gaming-history-is-with-a-game-and-the-rest-of-the-industry-must-follow-its-lead

– https://store.steampowered.com/app/1163060/The_Making_of_Karateka/

LEGO on Quest 3 – https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/27/23892690/meta-quest-3-lego-bricktales-oculus

LEGO recycled bricks plans – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66910573

Unity … “oopsie” – https://venturebeat.com/games/unity-founder-says-we-fcked-up-with-price-increase-and-company-prepares-to-backpedal/

The Expanse returns, to get Michael excited – https://www.wired.com/story/telltale-games-the-expanse-studio-returns

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:37 — 33.4MB) | Embed

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e433 — Zooming While You’re Zooming

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car moving at speed, perhaps even zooming
Photo by Alessio Lin on Unsplash

Published 18 September 2023

Michael and Michael start of this show with the National Public Radio Marketplace series on games and the business of games called “Skin in the Game”. 

Then, they turn to the Apple Wonderlust event from last week, dialing in on the focus on carbon neutrality and the way of communicating that focus.  

Next up, a story from Business Insider for how generative AI is used to create software in minutes for a $1.  The image and part of the story reminds the co-hosts of Smallville, discussed in August’s episode 428.

Rounding out the episode this week are a couple of automotive stories – how hackers are exposing functionality in cars following on last week’s episode.  Also, a story about videoconferencing in cars, which may make a great deal of sense in autonomous vehicles, or perhaps when the vehicle is parked.

Would you want to have videoconferencing in your vehicle?  What software would you have a company comprised of chatbots create for you?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

Skin in the Game

Skin in the Game series by Marketplace

Gameheads

Here’s Your Change game by Gameheads

Apple Week!

Apple Newsroom post: Apple unveils its first carbon neutral products

This was a big part of Tuesday’s   — Got big praise as well as heaps of snark.

What did you think of this video? 🤔

youtube.com/watch?v=QNv9PRDIhe

— Dave Mark (@davemark) 2023-09-14T11:25:57.814Z

Daring Fireball article: Thoughts and Observations on This Week’s ‘Wonderlust’ Apple Event

The Verge article: Apple’s first ‘carbon neutral’ products are a red herring

Apple’s Polishing Cloth

AI

Business Insider article: AI chatbots were tasked to run a tech company. They built software in under 7 minutes — for less than $1.

Games at Work e428 Is you is, or is you AIn’t my AI?

ARXIV paper: Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior

Cars

The Atlantic article: Car Hackers Are Out for Blood

Boy Genius Report article: See what it’s like to take a Zoom call in the new Mercedes E-Class

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:24 — 32.0MB) | Embed

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e432 – Monitoring Pirated Cars

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Photo by Samuele Errico Piccarini on Unsplash

Published 11 September 2023

This week, Michael R and Andy hold the fort while Michael M is on secret missions! The show kicks off with regulation around tech in the UK and in the EU. Andy is still able to use of iMessage and WhatsApp for a little while longer after the UK Government backs down from breaking end-to-end encryption – but for how long?

Moving on to the car industry. BMW has been in the news again, choosing not to require consumers to subscribe in order to use hardware capabilities (like, heated seats). More worryingly, the Mozilla Foundation has published an extensive review into the privacy policies of a huge number of car manufacturers, and the results are… not good…

There’s a brief chat about American sports players and wearables, Rockstar Games selling pirated / cracked copies of their own games via Steam, and a look at 3D tech from Magic Leap and Lenovo.

We round out the show with a couple of fun links about using a Gameboy Camera over USB-C with iPadOS 17, and what our digital assistants get up to in the break room at the office when we’re not asking them questions.

Let us know what you think in the comments, or via Mastodon @gamesatwork_biz@botsin.space – and join us for more, next time!

Selected Article Links

Bad regulations

Andy’s safe – For now – https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/6/23861030/imessage-bing-european-union-commission-digital-markets-act-dma and https://www.wired.co.uk/article/britain-admits-defeat-in-online-safety-bill-encryption

Auto roundup

BMW – https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/7/23863258/bmw-cancel-heated-seat-subscription-microtransaction

BWW and Amazon –  https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/5/23859450/bmw-aws-cloud-autonomous-driving-data 

BMW EV Concept – https://mashable.com/article/bmw-neue-klasse-electric-concept-car

Cars suck at privacy – https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

Gadgets in sport

FSU Apple Watch –https://9to5mac.com/2023/09/06/apple-watch-lsu-fsu-game/

Piracy and video game preservation

Rockstar and DRM – https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rockstar-just-proved-how-important-piracy-is-for-game-preservation/

3D stuff

Magic Leap end of life – https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/01/magic-leaps-original-headset-will-stop-working-at-the-end-of-2024/ 

Lenovo 27 inch 3D monitor – https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/lenovo-adds-glasses-free-3d-to-a-27-inch-monitor-for-2999/ 

Fun

Gameboy Cameras and FaceTime! https://9to5mac.com/2023/09/07/ipados-17-game-boy-camera-for-facetime-calls/

Behind the scenes – AI Assistant server break room (watch to the end!) – https://sfba.social/@jonathankoren/110991484729591248 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:16 — 30.7MB) | Embed

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e431 — Cooking With Gas

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gas stovetop with blue flames
Photo by Ilse Driessen on Unsplash

Published 4 September 2023

Michael, Michael and Andy start of this show with a story of a smart interconnected kitchen that feels both old and new at the same time.  After exploring smart stoves, dishwashers and fridges, the team turns to several stories of discovery.  

Adrian Schönig’s Longplay 2.0 takes center stage with it’s whole album focus.  Rediscovering music in context of an album, instead of individual songs, spurs a quick sidebar to Audio Technica’s Sound Burger (see notes below).  Then resurfacing important content, such as buried gift cards in your email bubbles up via Yahoo Mail.

In metaverse news, a job posting from Second Life is taken to mean that there is a second life for Second Life.  And then, breaking news from Meta: legs!  

Next up: several stories about messaging, including threats to iMessage in the UK and several alternatives.

How do you see your smart kitchen evolving in your smart home?  Interested in having a Sound Burger in your smart kitchen?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

First Person Cooker

The Verge article: Can Samsung Food usher in a new era for the smart kitchen?

AdWeek article: This New Samsung Smart Fridge Comes With Apps… Including Twitter

F*** Yeah Internet Fridge by @rooreynolds

Discovery

Six Colors article: Longplay 2.0

Adrian’s Corner blog post: Introducing Longplay 2.0

Audio Technica AT-SB727 Sound Burger

The Verge article: Yahoo Mail isn’t dead and adds AI capabilities

metaverse

New World Notes article: Linden Lab Hiring Senior Product Manager Of Second Life To Shape The Original Metaverse’s Future For “Millions Of Customers”

Upload VR article: Meta Avatars Finally Get Legs In Quest v57 PTC

Blue vs Green Bubbles

Macworld article: Why Apple’s threat to kill iMessage and FaceTime isn’t a bluff

AirMessage

Tact Chat

Beeper

Adium

Extra

The Verge article: LG’s suitcase TV is as sturdy as it is bizarre

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:16 — 46.7MB) | Embed

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