Talk Nerdy to Me

It’s the season closer, nerds. Cry if you must. Here’s what we’re on about for episode 25: 

Nokia returns to smartphone market with Android

Google takes on messaging apps & virtual assistance

Just the tip: Google@IU partnership

Microsoft works on new Windows Phone tech, lays off hundreds of Windows Phone employees

Realization in IT: Janae gets an iPhone, eats several servings of crow

Apple Wallet could expand to drivers licenses

It’s spring! It’s also episode 24. The big story this month is one of our co-hosts and his DJI drone nearly got in an international contretemps (listen to learn more). Here’s the rest: 

Elon Musk has a monster spring with SpaceX and Tesla Model 3

European drone play: Dutch eagles trained to attack DJI drones and Europe uses DJI drones for emergency missions

Samsung patents a smart contact lens for the AR market

WhatsApp rolls out end-to-end encryption to one billion users

What’s up with us today? Oh, just a new episode. Here’s what we cover in the best 30-minutes of your February: 

Twitter rolls out new algorithmic timeline and the Internet weeps

Google Alphabet unseats Apple as most valuable in world

Match.com’s Singles in America survey & the power of data

Just the Tip with Ross Wilkerson: Kaltura

Hi there, 

We’re back from winter break with much to share about: 

CES 2016: Chevy Bolt and Faraday Future FFZero1

CES 2016: wearables finally get a purpose with devices such as WiseWear smart jewelry, L'Oreal My UV Patch, Owlet smart baby sock, OhMiBod Lovelife krush

Drones: CES’ Unmanned Marketplace, Lily Robotics, and upcoming models

Internet of Things: Nest goes offline with software bug

Apps: Peach, the hottest iOS app since the last one

Sad trombone: Why is Fitbit’s stock collapsing? 

For many fresh IU students-turned-alumni, finding a new home lands at the top of their to-do lists, aside from perhaps finding a job. There are a host of factors to consider when planning a move, and while we at the Talk Nerdy Podcast would never recommend moving to an area based on its internet-service-provider options, we wouldn’t necessarily discount the possibility entirely, either.

What are we talking about? Well, we’re talking about fast internet, perhaps the best internet: Google Fiber, Google’s fiber-optic ISP service that starts with speeds at 1,000 megabits per second, approximately 100 times faster than your average 10 mbps Comcast connection. Fiber has been slowly expanding across the United States in recent years, and this week Google announced its arrival in one of IU students’ favorite post-grad cities: Chicago.

Full disclosure, Google also said the expansion would include Los Angeles, and while that’s all well and good, its arrival in a Midwestern city populated by hundreds of IU faithful is pretty cool. Again, we would never suggest moving to Chicago because of its online potential, but that factor certainly doesn’t hurt the city’s resume.

This blog has discussed the difficulties of ISPs like Comcast before, so having another option that’s actually a better option would be incredible. It remains to be seen exactly how and when Fiber will come to these two new cities, but Google has learned some lessons from its initial rollouts in other cities, and hopefully the price point and availability will be right in Chicago.

While the prices points aren’t dirt-cheap, they’re still relatively modest. Fast Company quotes: “There's a free broadband internet option for seven years after a $300 installation fee or $25 per month for a year; a 1-gigabit per second Internet option for $70/month; or for $120/month, 1-gigabit per second Internet/TV bundle.” That’s pretty solid for young people in need of the internet, and hopefully there will be more options for lower-income persons as well, including fresh alumni who are just beginning careers.

In any case, it’s exciting to see Google’s fiber-optic possibilities panning out in other cities and giving customers some relief from their giant, Comcast/AT&T-induced fatigue. If any IU folks get a chance to check it out, let us know.

It’s that time of year again, when your body has finally digested all of Thanksgiving’s meals and leftovers enough to allow you to locate and unpack all of your cheerful holiday decorations.

If you’re someone who enjoys illuminating your house with strings upon strings of Christmas lights, though, maybe watch where you’re hanging those. Those sparkly little bulbs can actually affect the wi-fi signal in your house, and not for the better.

According to Ofcom, the UK’s independent communication competition regulator, Christmas lights are one of many electronic devices that, thanks to their AC power currents, can negatively impact the flow of wi-fi throughout your house. If you’ve ever noticed diminished performance from your laptop when you’re microwaving a frozen dinner, it’s the same concept.

How can you fix it? Well, if you’re intent on hanging up some holiday cheer, there’s no way to eliminate the current and its effects entirely, but you can move your lights away from your router and modem. This goes for any electronic device plugged into the wall, and it works here as well.

Once IU community members venture away from campus, they must fend for themselves when it comes to the Internet, since IU Secure only covers the Bloomington campus.

Fortunately, there are actually more Internet options in Bloomington than most other areas of the US. Most regions are covered by only one provider, so people have no choice. Here, there are a trio––local provider Smithville, then the two giants, AT&T and Comcast.

If you’re an internet junkie like us, though, you know that the speeds of the former two can’t compare to the latter, which makes the choice even tougher, given Comcast’s gnarly reputation for customer service.

Sure, it works great, but if starting, keeping, or stopping the service is a nightmare, is it really worth the cost? Many people say no. For those would-be customers, Airpaper might be the savior they’ve been waiting for, even if they didn’t know it.

Airpaper is a service that will cancel your Comcast subscription, no hassle, for just $5. If you’ve ever tried to do this yourself, or heard the horror stories from others who have attempted to flee the company, you understand how worth it this service can be.

For students at universities, who are often moving into new living situations on a yearly basis, such a service could wind up saving them not only regular headaches, but money as well. While they can’t terminate existing contracts without fees, they can help save other customers some hassle. The ability to wash one’s hands of Comcast without any extra costs or concerns can be an elusive experience.

Obviously, there’s a cost, one beyond the five-dollar price tag. To make it happen, Airpaper requires your name, address, phone number and Comcast account number, although the company says it does not use your data for anything but the cancellation process. There’s always a risk in providing personal information to third parties, but in this case, it’s up to your discretion.

Here’s what we have on tap for the last Talk Nerdy of 2015: 

1:25 Call for audience feedback

2:04 Microsoft: Surface Book, Surface 4, Band 2

10:14 Just the tip: Understanding Wi-Fi at IU

14:53 Hacking: Why China targeted Anthem BC/BS

19:39 Wearable tech: MasterCard partners with fashion designer

24:02 Business: Smartphone sales stalling worldwide

30:26 Tech triumph: Airpaper, the Comcast cancelation service

If you’re reading this, it’s too late to “switch” from OneStart to One.IU. Way too late.

Because if you’re reading this and haven’t switched yet, it’s already been done for you. OneStart is gone.

That’s right: since October 22, OneStart has been, and will continue to be, offline forever.

Don’t worry, though, because the grass is truly greener on the One.IU side, which takes all the services and capabilities of OneStart, adds a few more, and packages them together in a sleeker, easier-to-use experience.

We talked to Eric Westfall, a software architect at Indiana University, on this episode of the podcast, and you should really check it out to learn all about the One.IU transition.

Because it’s such an urgent situation, though, here are a couple of the main advantages that Westfall mentioned when talking about the university’s new service:

Easier than ever to find things

Straightforward layout, without confusing navigation tabs at the top of the page

More effective search bar

Ability to pin favorite services to the front page for easy use

Lesser learning curve

Intuitive system design and layout to ease the adoption process on the new students and staff each year

App-store experience

Tile-based visuals similar to the home-screen layout on most mobile devices

Ability to rate and review actual tasks within One.IU, which helps providers with faster feedback

Continued existence

The most important part of One.IU’s benefits: it will continue to be available! OneStart is not, repeat, is literally no longer hosted by a URL.

It’s October and a little chilly. So we huddled up and talked about all the big stuff going down in tech this month.

02:12: OneStart retirement at IU

14:33: Google Alphabet

21:11: Apple news (iPhones, iPad Pro, Pencil, Watch OS2, iOS 9)

32:23: Keurig Kold for sodas

36:26: Sad trombone: Sprint’s endless budget cuts

38:39: Rumors: Campus iPhone thefts

In the post-Keurig world of coffee, things have not been the same. The ability for drinkers to control their joe consumption on a cup-to-cup basis offered new possibilities, liberating them from the tyranny of drip machine’s large carafes or the tediousness of a French press.

(Although, disclaimer: if you haven’t tasted a well-done French press brew, you should.)

In the last 12 to 18 months, however, Keurig’s sales have fallen off and the company’s stock prices has fallen by more than 50 percent. Apparently, the single-serving stampede has slowed, at least when it comes to coffee singles.

Companies––including Keurig––are now turning their attention to other beverages in hopes of sustaining the single-serve success.

As we mentioned on the podcast, the most notable of these might be the Bartesian, one of several new products that crafts quick cocktails in a single-serve-style machine. The maker is still in the preliminary stage (with plans for release late this year) but can be pre-ordered for a pricey $399.

The important question, though: how good are the drinks? Buzzfeed had a chance to taste and review the machine, and they came away less than impressed. The drinks tasted, well, like they’d been made in a machine, either coming off a little synthetic, too sweet, or too watery.

There are other boozy options as well (some also mentioned on the podcast), but the takeaway from early iterations seems clear: make your own drink—at least until the 2.0 versions come around.

On the non-alcoholic drink front, Keurig is attempting to get back some ground with the release of the Keurig Kold, which gives users the ability to make their own cold beverages, from sodas to juices to teas. This means you can make a classic Coca-Cola at home. (We’re not sure how Walter White would feel about this.)

The Kold has been in development for a few years and represents a bold bet for the company in trying to recover from a couple years of disappointing finances. It comes at the same time as Keurig’s partnership with Campbell’s, which, in hopes to create a new use for the older hot-beverage machines, can make hot, on-the-go cups of soup from packets of food and broth.

Still, neither seems very exciting, as the cost of the Kold runs from $299 to $369 and its individual drink pods cost more than buying cans or bottles of soda at the grocery store––likewise for the individual packets of soup. The choice is yours.

Seeing the evolution of single-serve beverages and their makers has been interesting, but getting away from hot drinks appears to have reaped some diminished returns for such companies. 

The (we haven’t actually tried this) Verdict: At this point, the Kold seems like a straight-up unnecessary invention given the alternative choices that exist on the market. 

Windows 10 dropped at the end of July, freeing Windows 8 users who still harbored negative feelings toward the OS from their digital cages. So far, reviews have been generally positive, especially when compared to 8, but as with any new technology, your mileage may vary.

As mentioned in episode 19, our team’s experiences with 10 have been very different so far: some have used it with no issues, while our producer’s wife found that it crashed her system and left her picking up the pieces of her files and documents.

So should you make the upgrade? In general, the answer appears to be yes. Windows 10 made some significant upgrades and fixes for issues that existed in Windows 8. However, there are other variables, such as the specs of your personal computer, that should inform your decision-making regarding an upgrade.

The best part of the decision? Most people using Windows 7 or 8.1 don’t have to pay to upgrade; Microsoft is providing free switches to most of its existing customers.

In an effort to assist, we’ve rounded up some good resources for guiding you through the process.

PC Advisor put together a pretty thorough guide for deciding whether or not to make the upgrade. It takes into consideration the more technical aspects of the decision that might not be readily apparent to users, and the post is divided with useful headers that highlight the issues with specific areas.

CNet provides a nine-step Q&A for deciding whether or not Windows 10 will be the right decision for you.

Lifehacker offers a pair of key resources for those who have already made the switch:

The first highlights 10′s key additional features, including the return of the Start menu, desktop integration for Cortana, and the pros and cons of Edge, the heir to Internet Explorer.

The second offers a number of basic tweaks to help improve your experience using the new OS, including ways to “fix” the rejuvenated Start menu, change the title bar colors, and adjust your settings for automatic updates in Windows 10.

More nuts-and-bolts stuff: Field Guide offers five hard-to-find settings that you might want to adjust, including Cortana, notifications, and contact-based wi-fi sharing.

Last but not least, everyone loves a good hack, so the people at Make Use Of have put together a list of useful hacks for the new Windows 10. They include keyboard shortcuts, battery lifesaving measures, and ways to speed up applications launched during start-up.

In case you haven’t noticed––who are we kidding, of course you have––the era of the smartwatch is upon us.

From the Apple Watch to the Moto 360 to Samsung’s entire lineup of smartwatches, there are already a bunch of options available, although none that are necessarily ready to revolutionize wearable tech single-wristedly. (Please excuse the bad play on words.)

Samsung has taken its shot, though. In fact, it’s taken several shots already, having already released six different smartwatches since it debuted its first in October 2013. Each of them has pretty much flopped.

Obviously they’re hoping that will change, and with the release of its new Samsung Gear S2, it might! By most accounts, the watch works better, has a more usable interface, and looks and feels like an actual watch, stylish and manageable.

The kicker with the S2 is its operating system. Some might be disappointed that Samsung elected to stick with Tizen, the Linux-based operating system that has powered all of the company’s smartwatches to this point. However, with the launch of the S2, Samsung is also making big changes to Tizen.

The biggest change will be the sheer number of apps. More than 1,000 Tizen-native apps are expected to be available at the launch of the S2, which is a number that still pales in comparison to Apple or Android options, but far exceeds the past offerings from Tizen. Several of the most popular apps, such Twitter or ESPN, will also have native integration with Tizen for maximum usability.

The number of available apps could also be greatly affected by Samsung’s decision to release a Tizen SDK (software development kit) to the developer community at large. This is something the company hadn’t done before now, which could help explain its decision to stick with the operating system, since it effectively offers developers the blueprints to create native Web or native apps for the Tizen operating system. Since apps largely drive the usability of phones, this could be a significant boost for the S2.

There’s also a chance the watch could eventually work with both iOS and Android devices, as Samsung is reportedly considering the possibility. This is another capability that, should it live up to its potential, could be a serious asset for users looking to embrace the use of a smartwatch as soon as possible.

But since the watch won’t hit stores until October, we’ll have to wait and see how these digital promises pan out.

Any plans out there to buy? 

We’re back (from summer space)! Here’s what we’re nerding about in our first episode of season 3:

Quick refresher course on tech at IU (students, faculty, staff)

Wearables: Our experiences with the Apple Watch and Moto360; Samsung Gear S2 is coming for the Apple Watch with a round face, metal body, and Tizen OS

Just the Tip with the UITS Support Center: Windows 10 at IU

Ashley Madison and the media’s joyful response

Sad trombone in IT: Galaxy Note 5 stylus blunder; LG makes a penny per phone in Q2

Tech triumph: There’s a Keurig for cocktails!

Did you know IU's libraries and archives hold more than 100 years of unique and rare time-based media? We're talking one-of-a-kind stuff like: 

Wax cylinder recordings of Native American oral and musical traditions

Lacquer disc recordings of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre

Open-reel tape recordings of some of the greatest musicians to grace the halls of the Jacobs School of Music (you know, Joshua Bell, Janos Starker, Booker T. Jones, Sylvia McNair)

U-matic videotape documenting 1970s discussions on gender equality in the media

The list goes on and on.

IU’s Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative is working to preserve historical and cultural time-based media for the research, education, and enrichment of future generations. MDPI’s Mike Casey and Julie Bobay share insights into the initiative and help us understand how it’s making sure IU’s historical and cultural recordings are saved and made accessible for future study. Also featured is a Just the Tip on data storage with Box and Umail.