Mobile Tech Moment Podcast Reunion

Hi, this is Kevin Conroy, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. You're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Unleash the geek

in you. As we learn how the Mobile Tech Moment

podcast was created. This is GeekCast Radio episode

295. I'm of course, DFJ and Mike. Joining me

are the three fellow techies that started up

this show. First, we have Steve Trotto, the man

behind the creation of Mobile Tech Moment podcast.

Hello, sir. How are you? Doing well. Doing well.

Glad to be here. It's been a long time since

I've done a podcast. Yes. It's like riding a

bike. Just... Keep the training wheels on. Then,

of course, there's Jeff Farina. No relation to

the late great actor, Dennis Farina. Hello, sir.

Hey, how are you? I am well. And finally, the

guy who says that you are prey, it is Mr. Bill

Stevens. Hello, sir. Hey, Mike. Thank you for

organizing this. I have missed talking to Steve

and Jeff immensely other than on Discord. Obviously

I was never a part of mobile tech moment. I am

just the host here to help these guys through

their memories of, of their time together on

podcasts. There's actually one member we're missing

and I didn't send him the invite because it isn't

that I didn't want him to have him on, but four

people on a podcast is pushing it. And that would

be mobile Mike. Cause I remember mobile Mike

was on several times with you guys. He's probably

off lifting weights right now anyway. That's

for sure. He's a monster. He's really blown off.

It's good for him. He's really done well. Oh

yeah. So let's get into the mobile tech moment

podcasts start. What made you want to start the

show, Steve? Well, I think it had to do, and

I was trying to think about that when you proposed

doing this. It's like, when did that start? And

the first thing I went to was the mobile tech

moment minute. and which was something totally

different. And then I thought, I think, and Jeff,

correct me if I'm wrong, we were doing mobility

today. And I think it's before Dave took that

hiatus for a while. I think you and I just wanted

to do something. And so we just started it for

the hell of it. I'm pretty sure that's the way

it was. Yeah. So pretty much. So you, you, you

and Bill were primarily on mobility today. I

was a random guest every now and then. More on

the editing side. And like you said, when he

took that hiatus, you created the mobile tech

moment. So effectively, the mobile tech moment

was the first consistent podcast I was ever on.

So you gave me my chance, Steve. Oh, wow. And

look where you are today. Not podcasting anymore.

Exactly. None of us are. Yeah, I think that's

the way it happened. What happened was when we

were doing this and then Bill would come on and

then Michael Manor was doing a podcast. And so

then we kind of just merged those podcasts together

and we came up with simulcast. So, I mean, honestly,

if it wasn't for Dave Saccone's basement flooded,

I think that's what it was, his basement flooded

and everything got ruined. And it took him forever

to get it done. That's how we started this. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's, and it's funny, you said that,

you know, four is a, is a full house as far as

podcasting goes with the simulcast. God, we had,

it was me, Bill, Steve, Michael Manna, Dave Valley,

and Patrick Bergadamo. That was the full show.

And it was all video too, even back then. And

it worked though. It did. I mean, we didn't step

all over each other. No, and we had a really

good following. I still have, I had a few people

reach out to me today on Instagram saying, oh

man, I can't wait to listen. I've missed you

guys. That's cool. I mean, we, we met up in person

at cloud camp and everything in Boston a couple

of times too. Yeah. That was a ball. That was

a ball. They gave us a whole area to set up.

We had tables set up and that was a great time

there. I mean, everybody at cloud camp didn't

know who the hell we were, but we didn't care.

We had a ball. We didn't go to any of the seminars.

We were just in the lobby. Yeah, they had pizza

with shrimp on it. I don't know if you guys remember

that, but it was not the kind of food that we

like to eat typically. I'll take pineapple any

day over shrimp. Thank you. Yeah, that was a

lot of fun. And it was a cool time in tech as

well, because things were changing so much. And

it was kind of like the Wild West back then.

jailbreak your phone, you could, you know, sideload

apps into Android. It was just, I mean, I remember,

I remember we were, we were, what the hell were

we doing? We were loading Mac OS onto little,

uh, Winbooks and stuff like that. It was so much

easier. Oh yeah. Yeah. Remember I got one in

the mail. Somebody sent me one. Someone sent

you one. Yeah. To this day, I never know who

sent it to me. It was a brand new MSI and I wanted

to thank them and I, So I loaded a Mac OS on

it and it worked like a champ. Yep. Yep. What

a bunch of dorks. Oh, come on. We've always been

dorks. I mean, you know, I was trying to, I was

trying to move past, you know, dorks, but, but

it's cool. We embrace it now. We were extroverted

dorks. Cause that's the thing. Like with the

cloud camp and everything we did when we all

met for the first time in person, I mean, I think

I want to say Dave Valley and Bill, was it you

that stayed at Michael Manna's house? Yeah. I

mean, yeah, I stayed like Michael was sleeping

on his couch. He's like, here, take my room.

And I was like, really? Okay. It was like we

had known each other forever. Basically. Yeah.

Well, you know, I went to, um, I went to Vegas

with, uh, Mike, uh, Florio mobile mic and who

else went with me? Donnie Donnie. Yep. and a

couple other people. We had a grand time. It

was like old friends from back in high school.

And I think that was only the first or second

time that I had met any of them. And those people

are still my friends today. I chat with them,

at least on a weekly basis, if not a daily basis.

It's kind of weird. It's like my audio pen pals.

It's true too. I mean in the amount of people

that you know, either follow me still follow

me on Twitter Although I don't really use it

anymore. Um, sorry and Yeah, yeah People I've

never met and then there was this guy in Chicago

Jerry Taft the weatherman there was a weatherman

on like ABC or CBS and You know, we were doing,

I think it was Dave's podcast and he wrote, you

know, I love what you guys are doing. You know,

he followed me. He passed away about a year or

so ago, but it was just so cool. The different

people that reached out and you're right, Bill.

I mean, there are people that I still contact

with like Mike on this podcast. I've never met

Mike in person, but you know, I've known him

for 10 years now and it's, it's almost like we

could walk into a bar and we'd have a great time.

Just like we did a cloud camp. Exactly. Yeah.

I mean, that's the whole thing. Like for me,

I come from being a podcast listener, so I am

all about the audio portion of podcasting. You

know, it's not to say that I don't care about

video podcasting, but you want to get me on a

video podcast. It's just going to be an animated

GIF of my face. Cause I refuse. I don't even

have a webcam right now. I haven't had a webcam

since. 2015 maybe, because I record audio. I

deal in audio. So when you guys started for mobile

tech and for simulcast, why video? That was cool

because you could see we're doing that remember

all the shit I used to take for wearing a wife

beater I used to wear the tank top I'm sorry

about that Steve I forgot all about that Down

in my basement with the with the with the lights

low and a tank top and it's just like I don't

know I got took so much shit from that but I

really I didn't care Video was fun though. I

think video for us Allowed us to connect even

better because we could see what each other looked

like I mean it I mean after we met a cloud camp

it was it was great, but it was it was so much

fun and I mean for me it was I I enjoyed it and

one of the things that was kind of up and coming

back when we were doing this, you know YouTube

had been around a while but the the podcasters

the big tech podcasters like Leo Laporte and

they were they were posting their their podcasts

on YouTube and whatever their networks were.

And for us to be able to do it live with audio

and video, there's a whole catalog that I had

on my channel of the podcasts. And so we would

just pull the audio from that and share that

to our podcast feed. But you could go and watch

it. Either you could interact with us live and

people could see what we look like and interact

with us and see how we interacted with each other.

And you could, you know, it really helped to

be able to see, you know, when I'm saying something

about whatever device I'm looking at and just

got this look on his face, like, you're an idiot.

That thing's the worst piece of junk ever. You

know, at least I knew that, Hey, I need to, I

need to bring Jeff into this conversation because

he thinks completely different than I do. Yeah.

I mean, I've always been a person that likes

working with like -minded people, but that doesn't

mean that we don't have disagreements or different

opinions on something. That doesn't mean that,

you know, our friendship is going to end over

whether somebody likes the Nokia N gauge or not.

Like, come on, you know. For the record, I don't

know. I never had, I never got to experience

it. So. Whatever, I always just kept seeing the

Nokia ads and sadly, much like the mobile tech

moment, Nokia really isn't anywhere anymore now.

I bet somebody has a phone with the battery still

charged though. Oh, yeah. You know what I love?

I love the HTC Shift. I think that was it. It

had the tilt screen and the little keyboard on

it. That was a pretty cool... I mean, it was

a Windows mobile device, but... Yeah, I have

one of those somewhere still Of course you do

I have how many phones do how many phones do

each of you have still from like a decade ago?

I just have an Evo an HTC Evo. You still have

your Evo lying around. That's awesome The case

is all sticky on it, and I don't even think it

powers up anymore. I don't know where the charger

is. That's awesome. Yeah Nothing got rid of all

of them Got the only thing I have is my original

BlackBerry with the one with the it was the pager

with the screen on it I still have that but all

the other phones I got rid of because the batteries

wouldn't work and and honestly, I mean you can't

even use half of them True, and I used to work

for compact. So you remember the compact. Oh,

what the hell was the name of that phone? It

was It was it was so cool to win. I worked for

them and I worked in the mobile division So I

had that and I had every forget was a compact.

I wasn't it was the I pack No, no wasn't it?

I'm not the HP. Oh wasn't I pack? Oh could have

been an I pack Yeah, it was the I pack and then

you could slide it into the cellular sleeve and

use it as a phone and yeah, I worked for them

and I had all of that shit and then I you know,

I got rid of it because The batteries died and

nothing worked. I should have kept one for plus

30. I still have my Palm 3E over in the closet.

I think it still works. I mean, all you do is

throw some batteries in it. I had a super nostalgia

trip a couple of weekends ago. I think I put

it in the discord about the Palm Centro. That

was my favorite Palm phone. I don't know what

it was about that phone. I just, I loved that

thing. For me, outside of the smartphones I've

had in the last couple of years, I've been basically

stuck to dumb phones before 2017, but the one

smartphone that I absolutely loved was the HTC

Sense. Future Mike here. It was not the HTC Sense.

It was the HTC Sensation. I guess I was so excited

that I shortened the name, but yes, I know there

was such a thing as the HTC Sense. However, what

I meant was the HTC Sensation. Because it had

the best weather app ever. And, I mean, weather

apps are weather apps and it just, you know,

whatever, but this thing basically made the phone

come to life because... Open it up. If it's sunny,

it'll have a little sizzle sound effect. If it's

raining, you can hear the rain. If it's a thunderstorm,

you better make sure your volume's turned down.

That's cool. Yeah. I love the HTC sense. HTC

used to have some amazing phones and they really

were good at innovating. When we were at the

Consumer Electronics Show, I think it was I want

to say around 2010, we went and we had a meeting

with them. It was me and Mike and Donnie. I think

Nick was there too. And so they were asking our

opinion on a couple of the new phones we had.

And back then, I think that was around the time

that we had the Nexus S. So I may have my timeline

wrong, but they were asking us what we thought

about the phone. And, you know, back then, everybody

wanted the Blinky LED that you could customize

for different notifications. And they had taken

that out. And so I was telling them, like, hey,

hot tip, you need to put this back. I don't know

if they ever did or not, but you still love HTC.

Yeah, this is still around, not of. No, I don't

think so. I don't think so. Good question. Well,

I actually, so they made the vibe right with,

with valve. Yeah. I don't know what else they

do though. I mean, between them and freaking

LG, LG exited the phone market recently in the

last year or so. So HTC is making that you guys

have probably heard about it, that blockchain

phone, because why not? That's them doing that.

Oh, okay. Selling NFTs too. Probably. Probably.

Law papers or NFTs. I can't get behind the NFT

thing. That's because you don't launder money.

If you laundered money, you'd be all out. First

of all, you have to have money in order to launder

it. Man. Those days were a lot of fun. Yeah.

Let's go around the room, start with Steve, then

to Jeff, then to Bill. What was your favorite

memory of the old days doing the podcast and

hanging out recording for the show, Steve? Oh,

I just, we used to laugh our ass off. And the

thing was we'd record the show and we'd still

be on for an hour or two after talking. And that

was just as much fun. I think the camaraderie

was the best for me. And we'd send shit to each

other all the time. It's like, hey, you want

to try this phone? Or hey, you want to do this?

Or Bill would always be selling an Android phone

or stuff like that. It was a great group of guys.

And we really did have a lot of fun. Absolutely,

Jeff. Yeah, it was, it was kind of like one of

those user groups that you hear about that existed

before I was alive that, you know, like Steve

just said, sorry. Wait a minute, wait a minute,

wait a minute. Stop. Stop. Is Jeff still the

youngest of all of us here? He's still young.

I know Steve's, I know Steve's the grandpa. I'm

42. I don't know how old you are, Bill, but.

Oh, I'm definitely older than you. I'm 33. So,

yeah, Jeff turned 21 and he was able to drink

on the show. I remember that too. Yep. I was.

Yeah, I'm going to go right now. Yep. So that's

it. It was like Steve just said, it was a, it

was a big group of friends and we did, we shared

stuff amongst each other. I don't know if you

guys remember the Pogo plug that we sent around

to everybody. We had, we had Bill's sling box

code so we could watch sling on our phones before

that was a big thing. Uh, we shared, like Steve

said, we shared phones. It was just, we had a

Dropbox, a shared Dropbox folder that we all

shared software with each other, you know, different,

different roms and that sort of thing. It was

a true geek fest basically constantly. And it

didn't exist back then. If you being into technology

wasn't, it wasn't cool, wasn't commonplace, but

we all found each other. I don't know how the

hell we did, but we did. And we just, we made

it happen and it was a blast. And the biggest

thing I'm proud of. We all had girls. Yeah. Yep.

We were all normal people, I guess. Right. Are

you trying to stay you say you've moved away

from that Steve? What's going on? Stigma with

geeks that you know, they they live in the basement

and they can't get a girl. I mean a crisis bill

and I were married I mean, yeah to each other

Just anything wrong with that, but At least I

have a place to work on my car if I was married

to Bill there you go Can you change my oil? That's

what he said. Oh God. You know, isn't it funny

how we just slipped right back into it? I mean,

it's been years since we've done this and it's

just like, you're right Mike, it's like riding

a bike. Yep. It's like riding a bike. Just, you

know. Have the training wheels on for about the

first 10 minutes and then the rest of the show

just veer off into the sunset. Next thing you

know, Steve's in a wife beater. It was a wife

beater and cargo. Was it cargo pants or cargo

shorts? Cargo shorts. Cargo shorts. It wouldn't

be wife beaters, but I mean, I'm all tatted up

now. I've got sleeves and all of that stuff.

Nice. Totally different. He's got sleeves to

go with his wife beaters. He's got permanent

sleeves. I remember Jeff, when you were going

through that, you had a real nice one. Yeah.

I have a half on my left arm. Yep. At some point,

I'll complete that. It's awesome. I waited so

long because a corporate American, I'm finally

at the age where, you know, I'm 58 years old

and it's like, fuck it, I don't care anymore.

Take it or leave it. Right. Well, no, it does

because you're on, you're on calls and there

are sometimes you have to deal with customers

and stuff like that, but yeah, everything is

tasteful and it's just nice that it's gone mainstream.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And it's so funny because

even though my voice doesn't sound like it, I

think one of the things that drew me besides

wanting to find things, find out things about

tech back then, one of the things that drew me

to mobile tech moment was because Steve and Jeff

are both from New England. And I was born in

1980 in Stoughton, Massachusetts. And I can still

pack the car when I need to, even though I don't

have a license. Stoughton's a nice town. I never,

I was born there. We lived in Kingston and Plymouth,

so I never really knew Stoughton itself. But

yeah, no, it was, anytime I can get together

with Massachusetts people, it's always a fun

time for me because half the time nobody knows

what the hell we're talking about. That's for

sure. That's for sure. Oh boy. You're still in

New Hampshire, right Jeff? I am. Yep. Absolutely.

I've kind of moved around the state and phases.

But yes, I'm still here. So the last question

on the mobile tech part is, why in the Sam hell

didn't you save any of it, Steve? Well, I never

thought about it, to be honest with you. And

I thought that it would probably live in perpetuity

up on the internet somewhere. And you know, you

had said something about that. And I was trying

to, I don't even remember what I used to upload

it. And I tried looking in the way back machine

to see if anything was there. I couldn't find

anything. It's too bad that I didn't save it,

but at the time I just, I never thought about

it. I do have most of the simulcast audio. Let

me look and see. I have from, yeah, I have like

all of them. I've got simulcast two all the way

through. I think I've got the whole catalog of

two 51. I even, you remember my daughter and

I did Samo cast junior. Yeah. Yes. Yes. That

was, let's see, the first one it looks like was

in 2012. So she would have been 12 years old

when we did it. And now she's 20 or yeah, she's

twice. No, she was, yeah, 2001. So she was 11

and she's 20 now. She'll be 21 the end of this

year. which I guess we'll have her on and do

a drinking show with her, but here we go. Oh,

wow. Here we go. That's crazy. They grew up so

fast. So that's crazy. And, and you know, that,

that show, the, this whole show, I didn't realize

when we were doing it, how much it would shape

a lot of the stuff that I did, but also my daughter,

like, I mean, that has been a huge influence

on her as a person and how she's able to interact

with people and speak. And, uh, you know, in

college she's, she's so much more well versed

and so more, it's more confident just because

we had her on a podcast where there was, I think

we did some video ones too. And that whole show,

like, Kind of engulfed us where where you know

everybody that we were involved with Just kind

of was part of the whole network. It's crazy

Yeah, it's it's very much an interesting thing

and I always wondered Whatever happened like

why why did you go all stop? obviously, I know

life happens and dogs start barking and all of

that but Was there a specific moment where you,

you all were like, yeah, I just don't want to

do it anymore. Yes. Yes. I mean, that's what

happened to me. And I know that because I just

got to the point where it was, it was becoming,

it wasn't fun with everything I had going on

and the kids growing up and, you know, my son

was competing in karate and all of that stuff.

And it just got to the point where it's just

like, I just can't devote the time to it anymore.

And I know Bill and I think Jeff, you went on,

you guys did it for another few years after I

did it. Because I remember you guys had an episode

and you asked me to come on and I came on. It

was fun. And I think this is why this is fun

too, because I'm not locked into that schedule

of we got to get content out every week. I've

thought about doing a podcast again. But I think

if I ever did one or even we ever did one. I'd

like to do it maybe once a month or you know

something like that or you just get together

and talk about what's going on you know but nothing

that has to be I just didn't like the pressure

and maybe now I have more time at night because

you know the kids are gone and everything like

that but it just became too much of a job back

then. Well I'm gonna tell you right now if the

three of you ever want to do anything again whatever

you want to do As long as we do it through the

method, we're doing it right now. I have no problems

taking over as far as recording, editing, all

that. So all you guys have to do is show up and

talk. I could even put you, I could even have

it as part of like, you wouldn't have to worry

about hosting or any of that kind of stuff. I'm

a machine folks. People that are listening to

this podcast know I am a machine. I'd have to

have them in my contract though. Yeah. Yeah,

I'll echo Steve's comments about kind of it being

a job. I mean, we never really made any money

or anything like that. I guess a little notoriety.

We got some cool devices sent to us from different

companies and got to review some stuff. So it

was fun, but it got to the point at least kind

of in the later stages of the simulcast where

like every week I was putting in all the show

their kids and their jobs and it's completely

understandable and it just got to be the to the

point where I was so stressed out about it and

then it wasn't fun to record and I just decided

that hey you know it's I mean we did 251 episodes

and then Patrick and I did I don't know how many

Android experience podcasts and we did some other

ones on the gadget gurus network. So I've probably

been in, I don't know, three, 400 podcasts over

the years. And it's a lot of fun, but I've kind

of gotten to where I've got some other interests

that I'm pursuing with the car stuff and YouTube

again. And so, you know, It's fun every once

in a while to visit and reminisce for sure. And

you know, I still love keeping up with everybody.

Yeah. You know, the other thing that I didn't

like and it got petty too. I mean, all that bullshit

with Dave and then then we had some bullshit

with mike and you know i look back on it now

it's like we were just a bunch of fucking idiots

i mean why why were we getting mad because oh

you were doing this person's podcast you want

it's a fucking podcast i mean i'm sorry mike

i don't mean to swear it's just no no it's fine

we have no we are explicit here at the geek cast

radio network i forgot about it steve you're

right i forgot all about it you know that was

kind of just drama that was just Mean and Dave

had a great podcast. I mean Dave was like the

guy that got me on board and you know, he had

a guy with him Jack and then him and Jack had

a fallen out and Jack was pissed at all of us

and then and then the thing with Dave Dave got

pissed when you and I and Bill and Michael man,

I did not think it was just like we just want

to talk about tech, you know, we're not NBC CBS

or anything like that and Yeah, for me, that

just got to be a load of bullshit. And then when

we got together with simulcast, that was good.

And then I don't know, I forget something happened

with Michael Mann or two. And I honestly, it's

not even that important that I don't even remember

what happened. But it was stupid that we got

pissed at each other about a stupid show. Yeah,

I miss talking to Mike. I don't know if he's

still around. I haven't talked to him in forever.

I have talked to Dave some. I think he I can't

remember where he reached out to me, but I was

able to chat with him a year or two ago. We've

kind of patched that up, I think, and moved past

that. Sorry, Jeff. If anybody's out there listening,

look, it's water under the bridge as far as I'm

concerned. It was stupid and life's too short

to get pissed. Here's my public apology to Dave

and Mike or whoever I pissed off in the podcast.

I'm with Bill and Steve, though. For me, it was

a kind of a combination of a couple of things.

So at first, I had gone to work at Apple and

right can't can't podcast about tech anymore.

That was literally in my in my employment contract.

So once I was done with that, left college and

started at a new company. Uh, it, I was still

podcasting, but because we were a service company

and I was the low guy on the totem pole, my schedule,

I was pretty much on call 24 seven, my schedule

would change on a dime. So it became tough to

me, you know, occasionally to meet those shows

every week. But I will say guys, if I do have

thoughts, you know, impure thoughts that if we

had kept with it, we might be in that elite group.

I just want to say. Well, it's funny you mentioned

that because you know, I listen to all this stuff

like I listen to Joe Rogan and I listen to a

whole bunch of different podcasts and You know,

I listen to these guys say well, geez Joe what

you've done for podcasts And I'm like what you've

done from we were podcasting before you were

to know what the fuck the word meant and I mean

And hey god bless him. He made a hundred million

dollars or wherever you make, you know, I don't

put 200. Yeah. Yeah, but it's just it's funny

to hear that Oh, you know, you were a podcast

pioneer and it's stuff like that. So Dude, we

were podcasting like eight years before you and

yeah, but you know, we're not Joe Rogan so but

Yeah, it's funny Where Mr. Fear Factor and I

start and end is fear factor season one episode

one I watched that first episode of fear factor

back in the day and I was like, nope Don't care

and it's it's just the fact that I don't care.

I don't dislike the guy. I don't whatever but

all of these podcasters that have come. Look,

separate from Mr. Trotto, my buddy Steve Phillips

and I started the GeekCast radio network in June

of 2009. Steve had been podcasting since 2007.

I started in December of 2008. And then by, you

know, we spent the next six, seven months figuring

out how we wanted to create one place where we

could have multiple shows of whatever. didn't,

you know, we have review shows, we have, I have

14 years of content. So, you know, I am, like

I said earlier, and I've said on all the, all

these other episodes that I've done, I, you know,

I am a machine because I have no, I can't do

a real job. I'm disabled. So it's not like I

can go out and, you know, it's not like I'm qualified

to do a real job. So I have all the time in the

world so anytime anyone says oh, yeah sure I'd

like to get back I'm like my ears like my headphones

perk up with my ears like oh you would Come here.

I can do everything for you show up and talk.

That's all you got to do You know so it doesn't

matter what the three of you want to talk about

it doesn't have to be tech Doesn't as long as

it's geeky. I don't care doesn't have to be tech,

but if you guys want like a monthly Roundtable

thing? Sure. You just let me know. Getting back

into the tech, the phones that you guys had back

then when you were doing the podcast, do any

of you remember the phones you were rocking back

then? Oh, yeah, I had a blackjack. I don't know

if you guys remember that. That was like a window

that was a BlackBerry style phone. I think we

had, I think we passed that one around if I'm

not mistaken. We did. Yeah, I was going to say

that, yeah. Yeah, it was that. The Nexus, the

original Nexus. Was that the original, the first

Google phone? The Nexus, one. I love that phone.

I kind of wish I still had it. Yeah, it was an

awesome phone. I mean, it was one of the better

phones that were out there at the time. My first

smartphone was an HTC Mobile on Sprint. Uh, but

I will die on the Hill of windows phone to this

day, die on that. Yep. I just, I absolutely love

it. I don't know why I still miss it. I still

think about it. I will die on that Hill. Oh my

God. I used to hate when it froze up and you'd

have to pull the battery out, windows phone,

seven, windows phone, seven, six and six and

a half. The newer version with all the tiles

that came out. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. We'll go

to that very short. Windows Phone 7. Good thing

it wasn't a Galaxy S7 Plus or whatever. Whichever

of the Samsungs started exploding on airplanes.

I forget which one those were. Now there is no

more Note. We'll talk about that in a little

bit. You know the thing I love? I always wanted

one and Dave Cicconi had one. Remember that the

OGO? It was that little computer. You see it

on the movies. The keyboard slid down. He actually

worked for them for a while. I thought that was

the coolest thing since sliced bread. I saw it

on a couple of TV shows. He actually worked for

the company for a while. The thing was slick

as shit in its day. The iPhone today is 10 times

more powerful than that. At the time that was,

that was a cool device. I don't think it was

a phone though, but it ran a windows operating

system. Yeah. Yep. Correct. I'm looking, I didn't

even know this thing existed. This is news to

me. Yeah. Dave Ciccone had one. It was, it was

cool. Huh? Remind me which HTC phone it was that

opened like a clamshell that was back in the

day, like huge. I know Mike had one. Ah, what

is the phone called? Somebody in the audience

is going, ah, It's on the tip of my tongue. I'll

tell you in five minutes. Because I know I had

the tilt. Was that the tilt or the shift? So

the tilt, tilt it up. That was a slider with

a mogul. We're going to tilt it on top of it.

Yeah, this one opened like a book. Yeah. Yeah,

this is, let's see, I'm looking at an article

from February 5th of 2010. HTC engineers have

been called hinge nerds and have been brought

many iconic designs. They have a patent new hinge

design that will make opening your clamshell

smartphone a snap. Okay, does not give me a name

here. It wasn't even imported here. We'll find

it. And that's the other thing we can talk about

later is this whole US versus foreign market

of phones. And just some of the phones I see

a lot of the tech tubers that I watch now talk

about and I'm like, Oh, okay. Well, yay for them.

I don't know. HTC universal bill. There you go.

Oh, that's it. That's it. Yep. They, they, they

kept that phone alive forever. That was the phone

where they were just installing the latest version

of whatever for, for forever. You could, you

could keep that phone going forever. It was,

it was a pocket PC phone, right? Yep. Crazy.

Wow, and it only had a six inch screen, but I

remember it being massive It was one of these

images I'm looking at over there Wow Yeah, one

of these images that I'm looking at it. It looks

like it's dancing on itself because it the hinges

It almost looks like there is no hinge, even

though I know it is, but it's the angle that

the photo is taken at. It looks like it's break

dancing on the keyboard. Yeah, I could see that

same picture. Man, phones back then were fun.

Well, this was tip of the spear. We thought it

didn't get any better than this. When you think

about it, you're crazy. But remember the debate,

Jeff? Well, but remember the debate? We had small

phones and then it was like... the screens were

getting bigger and we're like, why the hell do

we want a big screen? Now we're at big screens

and it's starting to bring back smaller screens

again. And it's just like, you know, at one point

in time, it's like nobody wanted a big screen.

Now you can't live with it. I mean, I have the

iPhone 13 Pro Max. I won't go to a small screen

now. Right. Right. Let's be clear though. Everybody

that said they didn't want a large phone was

an iPhone user. and make a large phone. As soon

as I started making a large phone, I won't name

names, but suddenly big phones were in. They

weren't before. And it was the craziest thing

I'd ever heard. There was a phone I reviewed

for pocket. Now, actually, it was a Dell. Dell

made it. I can't remember the name of this phone.

It was like a seven inch screen back then. I

remember it. Was it, I'm thinking like the stream

or something like that. What was the name of

that phone? This is, we're just, we're trying

to Google things on the fly here. Uh, I know,

right. The Dell streak streak. That's what it

was. And that was huge for it. Like I, I remember

pulling that out in class. People were being

like, what the hell is that? Why are you holding

that up to your ear? What was the screen? Five

inch screen, five inch. And that was Big back

then. Yeah, that was huge back then. I wonder

if I can get one of them. I worked for Dell.

Yeah, it was actually a sweet phone. Wow. Steve's

like, I have an iPhone Pro Max, 13 Pro Max. I

don't want any other. I wonder if I can get one

of them old Dell phones. I'd like to go streaking

with my iPhone, please. Thank you. It says on

Wikipedia that they did introduce a seven inch

version. Wow. Very cool. Wow. I wonder which

one I had. That's what I'm gonna have to look

this up because I'm curious if I had the seven

or the five. I found the video. The phones were

exciting back then because everything was new.

Now even we get, we have these folding phones

and it's just like, eh, it's too thick. The hinge

is too big. Yup. It's funny. I found, I found

the actual review video on YouTube. And one of

the top comments, it's so funny watching this

review years later, no one considers a five inch

device, a tablet. And that's what it was back

then. Yeah. We had those netbooks that were seven

inch computers. Yeah. Yeah. That was a great

little notebook for us. No, that was a great

I still have one here. I have one of the HPs

here. Do you really? Yeah. Those are crazy. It

was so cheap that if you lost it, it was like

who cares, you know, like the MSI one. Yeah Your

battery Exactly exactly And then I remember the

iPad when the iPad first came out. I'm like,

what the hell is this and who would want it and

No, I was I was dead set against it when it first

came out now. I love it. That's all I use yeah

the the only and As long as the app works on

it, it's fine, but the only thing I would want

now is, sadly, the only way I would ever get

a tablet right now is if I had enough money to

get what Samsung just announced, the Galaxy Ultra,

the Ultrabook, the S8 Ultra that they just announced

for the tablets. Because we've talked about this

on other podcasts, folks, for those of you who

are listening to this, but Comixology... Uh,

has basically been destroyed by Amazon, except

the Comixology app still works the way it's always

supposed to have worked. And for me reading comics,

I would want to read them on a bigger screen.

Hence why I have a 32 inch monitor, but Amazon

decided to roll Comixology into Kindle, which

is the worst, stupidest thing they could have

ever done. And yeah, but. I've never needed or

wanted a tablet. My phone, whatever phone I had,

it was always fine and worked enough for what

I needed it for. I have one of the S8 Plus's

on order. I think you do too, Jeff, don't you?

I actually have mine in front of me right now.

Of course you do. I actually picked mine up at

Best Buy until I canceled my Samsung order. I

was able to get Best Buy to price match it. Oh,

yeah. See, I couldn't get the... They gave me

a ridiculous amount of money for my old iPad

Pro. Oh, right. Yeah. $550 for a four or five

year old iPad. So I'm only paying like 300 bucks

for the new tablet, but I got to wait until April.

It's killing me. It is a long wait. You'll be

okay, Bill. It's only a month away. It's only

31 days. Thanks. Well, just think about it this

way. April Fool's, we can all sit down again

and you can give us a, you know. I probably won't

have it. Well, it is April Fool's after all.

Okay, so how much of each of you kept up with

the tech? I know we've talked about you guys

getting burnt out and not wanting to do the,

the, the news content of keeping up with it,

but like as enthusiasts, how much of each of

you kept up with it? It hasn't stopped for me.

I personally still keep up with, I still have

my RSS reader and I still keep up with most of

it. I don't, I guess I don't get as passionate

about it. I get my one pixel phone every year

and then. That's kind of it on the tech side

of things, but I still enjoy it. I just am not

so immersed in it that it's not fun anymore.

Right. Yeah, we have a discord. Sorry, Steve,

keep going. No, no, I was just saying, I, you

know, I don't really get into it as much as I

used to. I'm Apple. Everything I own is Apple

now and I like the ecosystem. It's easy to use.

I worked years in tech support and stuff like

that, so I got sick of doing that crap. I love

the cool stuff, don't get me wrong, but it's

not like I got to get a new phone every time

one comes out or anything like that. Yeah, I'm

the same way. I basically watch reviews because

I'm curious to see what the people that have

started doing stuff since... You guys left and

I had only really started watching people like

the beginning the end of 2019 beginning of 2020

so people like Marquez Brownlee or mr. Who's

the boss? Aaron or even Michael Fisher? Mr. Mobile

and I watch a few other ones like unbox therapy

and it just depends on what they're talking about

and what I want to see. When the S21 Ultra came

out, if it wasn't for the Google Pixel 6 Pro,

I would probably have an S21 Ultra right now.

6 Pro is a good phone, though. Yes, it is. I

think what changed for, and I don't know about

everyone else, but I know what changed for me

was the phones, the technology was changing so

quickly when we used to do it that it was exciting.

Now, every year, every manufacturer comes out

with a phone. And it's a faster processor, and

it's got a little bit more battery life. And

for me now, it's more the camera. The camera's

a little bit better. But honestly, I can play

a game on an iPhone 11, and I can play it on

the 13. And I don't notice the difference. It's

not like the old days when you had that wow factor.

I mean, you may get a wow factor with changing

from a display where they put in like a super

OLED. Screen. Okay, that's cool. Like from 60

to 120. Yeah hurts. Yeah I mean it's just but

honestly the the bump in the processor There's

really nothing that taxes it like it used to

I mean everything You can run everything on a

an i5 processor While on a laptop, but I mean

on on these chips that are in the phones I don't

know. I've never bogged. I haven't bogged down

a phone in the past five years. I don't know

about you guys No Yeah Agreed. Yeah, no, no cranberries

around here, folks. Only New Englanders will

get that. No, but yeah, you're right. Like phones

and, you know, 10 years ago, the reason why they

were so fun is because everybody was trying to

find their lane at the time. You had Apple and

iPhone. You had Samsung doing with the Nexus

stuff. You had May they rest in peace. You had

Nextel and the only reason why I bring Nextel

up, the only reason why I miss them is for talk

to talk for the walkie talkie part of Nextel.

That's the only reason why I miss them because

that was a hell of a lot easier than Making an

actual phone call and it didn't cost you anything

that was cool. Yes. Yes, it was Alright, so Steve

has an iPhone 13 Pro max. What do you have right

now bill? You have pixel 6 Pro I assume I do

yes, I had a fold 3 which A buddy of mine, Jeff

Boothroyd had sent over to me. He was trading

it in on an S 22 and he said, Hey, I got some

time before it has to go back. You want to play

with it? So I played around with that. I know

what I love about it and what I will wait for

technology to advance before I get one. Uh, but

full nine or something. Yeah. So, yeah, when

the hinge gets smaller and the device gets thinner

and maybe the screen is a little more durable,

I'll be on board. But it's a good couch device,

but I was scared to death to take that thing

out anywhere. Wow. What about you, Jeff? What

do you got? The full three is great. I had a

full three for a bit. We were kind of all trialing

it to some extent. So I went from a full three

to an iPhone 13, actually full three to a pixel

six to an iPhone 13. And as a Friday, I have

a galaxy S 22 plus now. What were you going to

say, Steve? No, the prices of these things too.

It's incredible. Those fold phones, I think like

two grand. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Like Bill said, I,

you know, I probably won't ever. And when I said

the full nine, that's an old P PlayStation joke,

because I remember when it was, I think it was

when PS2 was coming out, there was an advertisement

from Sony PlayStation where, you know, the guy

was plugging it into his head and it's like,

this is the future. This is the PS nine. for

2078. PlayStation 9's new electronics cores tap

straight into your adrenal gland. PS9 has improved

retinal scanning, a mind control system, holographic

movie surround vision, and telepathic Yeah, I

won't do foldables until the technology is ten

years ahead of where it is now. I have the Pixel

6 Pro. I went from the Samsung S9 to this, and

you're right, it's not... Okay, the screen size

is a change. The refresh rate and the brightness

is a little bit of a change. What I love about

the Pixel 6 Pro is... Well, what I love and sort

of hate about it sometimes, and I know I can

turn this feature off, but sometimes the adaptive

brightness is too smart. Cause if I just put

my hand in front of it, it's like, Oh my God,

it's like. My hands are big, but they ain't that

big. They ain't as big as the phone itself. The

phone is bigger than my hand, but like, come

on. Like I put my hand on the edge of the phone

and oh my God, the half moon has come across

the sky. We must darken the screen. And yes,

I know I can turn this feature off, but still.

It is aggressive. I agree. And then the adaptive

battery. I, at the end of my S9's lifespan, I

was Burning through a hundred percent by noon

and I wasn't doing aggressive things. I like,

I play little, you know, I don't want to say

little crappy candy crush type games, but little

crappy kit. Like it's not like I'm sitting here.

Using a Samsung Galaxy S9 thinking it's a ROG

phone that can play Grand Theft Auto 6 that even

though it just got announced it hasn't really

been what you know what I mean? Like I'm not

doing the major gaming on my phones. I'm doing

the little piddly games that everybody does.

But yeah, I mean pixel 6 Pro like Until they

come out with the pixel 6 Pro 8 9 or 10. I probably

won't upgrade for a number of years There's just

no reason to mmm. No and give me a phone where

I can change the battery pricing Hashtag courage

Hashtag don't avoid don't avoid the warranty

Oh, man. Actually, about a year or so ago, I

went Android. I bought a note. It's at the Ultra

20. Beautiful phone. Beautiful phone. Absolutely

loved that phone, but I couldn't get my corporate

email on it. So I was just like, I can't use

this. That's crazy. That is just, just crazy.

So let's go around the room. What is everybody's

favorite feature of the phone they're currently

using? Steve, we'll start with you. I got to

say the camera. You know, I take so many pictures

now and I don't even use a DSLR anymore. The

cameras have gotten so, so good on these phones

that you can take beautiful pictures with them.

And that's really the reason why I upgrade now

for the most part. because I get a little bit

better of a camera each time. Now when they can

include a decent optical zoom in them, that'll

really make things nice. But yeah, for me that's...

That's what it is. That and the storage on the

phone. What about you, Jeff? I'm going to go

with Steve. I'm going to say camera. It's actually

funny. I just before this show, I actually returned

a mirrorless SLR I bought about three weeks ago

because I don't, I don't need the camera. The

phones take such good pictures now where it's,

it's, it's not a hundred percent of what I need,

but it's 95 and that's good enough for me. So

it's going to be camera and then screen just

overall from, from refresh rates, OLED all the

above. Agree. Yeah. Same, same here. Camera.

That's why I upgrade every year. Cause you think

the camera is going to get better with each new

model? It does. Does it really? Yeah. I mean,

the pixel five, which the camera was okay on

that, but it didn't have a wide angle front camera,

which I like to take a lot of pictures with my

kids and trying to fit all of us in one frame

is kind of difficult. So the six pro has that,

which, you know, that was important to me. I

figure if I'm going to spend money on something,

it's going to be, you know, those pictures are

really important, especially as my kids grow

and, you know, my dogs grow up and my wife and

I get older and I want to have as many pictures

as I can to look back on things. And the best

picture I can get is what I want. So once a year,

I just grab a new pixel and I'm happy most for

the most part for the year. Just wait till you

have great children too. My god, it's hot for

my pictures. Oh Yeah, I love seeing your grandkids

on on your Facebook and stuff. That's amazing

The only thing so it took me a while to notice

this and I don't know why it took me a while

to notice this I'm old. I'm fat. I love food.

I should have noticed this but the s9 Had a food

filter on it at the time I get to the Google

Pixel 6 Pro and I look at this camera and I'm

like Yeah, that's great that I can have a really

decent portrait mode or I can you know, whatever

but I go over here to modes and I'm like Panorama

photosphere and lens like come on Google get

with it like I go from from a phone that has

a has a mode for almost Every single thing to

a one that has three modes and I'm like, I don't

know. It's just it's just crazy how how well

the technology has come. And it's just crazy

how some of the, like I said, like I love the

pixel six pro and I love the shots that I've

taken with it. Cause I just, I don't, I don't

mess with filters. I don't do, I, I'll take a

shot and I'll zoom into something, but I won't

like use the white balance or color correct,

or I don't mess with any of that because it's

like, Oh, this is what i want to take a picture

of this is the way i want it to look already

i don't need to edit any of it and all of these

god bless them all these tech tubers nowadays

like i want to be able to use every single filter

i can to make the photo look as good as it can

and i'm like can't you just use the light that

you're using like i don't know maybe i'm a maybe

i'm an old caveman when it comes to that but

I've never done photo editing. Yeah. I'm the

same way as you, Mike. This, you know, Samsung

now is, and even Apple is offering all this raw

image support on their phones. You know, that's

great. I even, like I said, with this SLR I had,

I have a Lightroom subscription. I don't do anything

in post. I just don't have the time or the, or

the desire to do it. I take the picture and that's

the picture basically. And the nice thing with

Google is their algorithm and Bill, you know,

this better than anybody does a really good job

of just touching up things, changing colors on

its own. Yeah. I think the only time I ever did

any kind of like, and it wasn't color. It's not

color correction. It was, I don't know, whatever.

It was just messing with the settings when, and

not to depress everybody, but I assume everybody

has seen my posts on Facebook in the last four

months. But in case you didn't know, my lovely

wife, Karen passed away in November. We can talk

about that later off air, but everybody who's

listening to the sound of my voice already knows

what happened. The point is, is that when Karen

and I were still, you know, whatever, there was

one point where she made this just goofiest faces

possible. And I'm like, hold that pose. I want

to try something with the colors. I basically

turned the background. Her the, the, the balcony

we were on the sky, the w it was purple and green.

Only time I've ever changed anything to basically

Hulk colors and she was making a funny face,

not an angry face. So I'm like, yeah, I still

have that somewhere, but I just, I don't mess

with the stuff because as long as I get the angle

I want, as long as I can get the color, like

the weight, like. Specifically, if I'm taking

a picture of the sun and the ray is hitting a

certain way, as long as I can get it to where

I like it, I am perfectly fine once I hit that

shutter button. Yeah, I'm like that too. I mean,

I don't do a lot with colors. What I do like

to do, I mean, some pictures you take and if

you look at it in color, I mean, at least for

me, my eye doesn't get it. So sometimes I turn

them to black and white and I think it makes

a better image, sometimes more dramatic. But

other than that, I don't. What I do like about

these new phones is I'm into long exposure photography.

So whether it's taking pictures of the sky at

night with stars or, you know, doing something

where you're getting a lot of motion, like you're

taking pictures of cars going by and getting

that. light streak. These phones are incredible

at doing that now. And you can get apps for the

phones that will give you a long exposure. I've

got a long exposure app on my phone now that

it's just, it's phenomenal. And I can, I can

set a 10 minute exposure if I need to. That is

awesome. So does anybody besides me watch any

of the tech tube people nowadays? Yeah, I do

watch. So you mentioned Michael Fisher, Captain

Two Phone. Absolutely. He's a must watch. Used

to work with him in my pocket now. Uh, occasionally

the MKBHD videos, but we've talked about it in

the discord. There's a little bit of a bias there.

We feel like, at least I feel like for me, it's,

it's a lot of the, the PC gaming type stuff.

So like Linus tech tips and gamers next to like

that, but yeah. Yeah, same for me. I watch Mr.

Mobile and a couple others occasionally. I watch

MKBHD, but honestly he's gotten so I don't want

to say mainstream, but he's just gotten so big

that it seems like there's, there's whatever,

whatever he's selling is, is what ends up on

his channel. And so I kind of don't really, you

know, a lot of times he'll have complaints about

this device or that device and it doesn't even

have a SIM card in it. Like, how are you, how

are you even evaluating a phone if you're not

actually using it as your daily? So I just, I

forget what it was that I, oh, It was the, was

it? No, it wasn't. Yeah. It might've been the,

yeah, it was probably the S 21. Cause I skipped

out on the, like I said, I went from an S nine

to a pixel six pro. So I never really cared about

the S 20 at all. Like none of that lineup. Like

I wasn't even in the know on that. And then I

don't know how I found Marquez. I looked at.

something or I wanted to see something. Oh, I

know what it was. And I'll tell you why this

happened was because I have been out of the Apple

ecosystem for years. The last iPhone I had was

maybe the three GS. So I went from the first

iPhone to the three GS. And then after that,

I'm like, Nope, just don't want to deal. And

part of my reason was at the time, Was switching

or I've always I've used iTunes ever since I've

been on the computer and iTunes is is what it

is and sadly it's dying or whatever and it's

gone to Apple music and all this and all that

and whatever but I just eventually switched to

other things and I eventually switched the other

side and I Wanted to catch up with iPhone. So

I just put in an iPhone review. I think Marquez

was one of the you put in iPhone and sometimes

his channel may be the first like I know he has

a video where he reviewed every iPhone ever or

something you know and I don't know I guess I'm

not biased about it because I watch at least

four or five different people's opinions and

they all have different opinions and I like his

style he's okay you know he's not a he's not

a bad tech reviewer or anything like that So,

I don't know. Check out Snazzy Labs. That reminds

me. He's pretty good. Okay. Quinn is his name.

Snazzy Labs. He's definitely more toward the

Apple crowd, but he does do Windows and Android

stuff and smart home stuff. He makes really,

really good videos. Cool. They actually use this

stuff though. I mean, I think that's the thing

that turns me off on a lot of these. You know,

when we used to do it, we actually used this

stuff and we come back on the next week, he's

like, you know, I like this or no, this sucks.

Hate this about it. You see all of these things

in there. I Mean, I don't know you see some of

these guys and Apple sons of one of every phone

and it's like how can you? Review everything

and every time you look at them the the phones

are pristine. They're never dropped. They're

there Here's a dbrand skin to put on it Yeah,

yeah, you know his 30 different pages. Yeah.

Yeah and get 10 % off and all this stuff and

I don't know some of the stuff just pisses me

off. I mean I don't really give a shit about

the notch at the top of the phone. If the phone

has a little bit of a notch, as far as the goddamn

thing works. Right. And that's one thing I notice

is, again, the cameras, the front -facing, the

rear -facing. This is the first time I've ever

had a three -camera setup on the back. The the

punch hole the notch the pill If there's one

thing in tech that I want to go away the pill

version of just that terminology of calling it

a damn pill You know, that's one thing but like

the thing on the Google pixel 6 Pro the punch

hole It basically disappears when I'm not like

if I'm watching like I don't even notice it.

I don't know it does what it is Yeah. Yeah. So

where do we think tech and mobility and phones

are going? Because from 2020 to now, we've had

a lot of improvements and changes and the technology

has improved. Where are we going from here, Bill?

So I think you've seen kind of the foldables

becoming more mainstream. And at some point,

we're going to get a device that's I want to

say practical for the for the normal person.

I don't think we're there yet with the current

foldables would love. I still miss the days when

I don't remember which phone it was, but there

was one you could slot into a dock and it became

like a laptop. Oh, I remember that. Yes. Was

it a Motorola phone? Yeah. Was it the Atrix?

I think it was. Yeah. I miss stuff like that

where I don't and it's maybe it's not as big

of an issue now. Samsung is doing a really cool

thing with decks where you can plug your phone

into a big monitor and you get a desktop experience

and maybe that maybe that's kind of what's The

future is not having to lug around another screen

device thing but you just have a phone and you

plug it into whatever monitor and I'm looking

forward to that when I get the s8 plus tablet

because I want to be able to use it on a bigger

screen and My, my work computer is a virtual

machine. So currently I use my Mac to access

a windows computer, which is virtual. I can use

whatever device I want to access that. That tab

will be perfect because I can plug it into my,

my 34 inch monitor and hook up my keyboard and

mouse via Bluetooth and bam, I'm there. So I

don't want to say we're living in the future,

but I think we're getting there pretty quickly.

I guess it's just the frog in the pot kind of

thing. We're not really realizing that we're

almost there. I don't know that we'll have this

holographic stuff anytime soon. I remember, it

seems like five or six years ago, there was a

lot of talk about holographic screens and whatever,

but you know, I don't, with these bigger phones,

I don't know that we even need that. Not I'm

definitely with you on that. I you know, I would

love to have to be able to take my iPhone plug

it into a tablet and use the processor and then

plug it into a desktop or a laptop or just plug

it into a dock and be able to use it with a screen

because I mean I've got a beautiful MacBook Pro

and It just sits in my office all the time. I

never take it anywhere because I take my iPad

with me everywhere when I travel and stuff like

that. So these little phones are so powerful

now, why don't we do that? You can get a terabyte

of storage on them too. Yep. Yes. And that's

the other thing, even though the technology is

advancing, it's also kind of removing us from

the Stone Age too, because I use headphones like

these I have I'm gonna actually take these off

so I won't hear you guys for a second but I have

the JVC stereo headphones HA RX 700s I use these

things for everything and sadly my Google Pixel

6 Pro does not have a headphone jack if that

was one complaint I had any mainstream United

States phone. That's, that's, that's the one

complaint I have. Hashtag. You don't look like

a USB -C adapter for that, right? Yeah. Well,

I'll, you can show me later, but it's just one

of those things where, you know, They decide

on improving the technology, but they're removing

things from the box and making us pay extra,

which they say, oh, we're being environmentally

friendly. How is it environmentally friendly

to sell me a $2 ,000 phone and not include a

charger in the box and then charge me an extra

hundred bucks to buy another box? Like, come

on. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. Personally,

I think we're at a bit of an inflection point.

I think kind of building on what Bill and Steve

just said, I think we're at the point where foldables,

and it's going to take two, three, four years,

but foldables I think will become pretty much

every phone. They'll be so thin that that will

be our phone. It will also be our computer. Bill

Gates was all about in the 80s and 90s, a computer

on every desk. The phone will now become your

computer, especially where cloud computing is

now completely mainstream with everything. I

mean, you can sign up for G force now and play

PC games for $200 a year without having any hardware

whatsoever. So we're going that way where everything

is going to be offloaded elsewhere. It's just,

we're going to have, we already have this extremely

powerful device in our pocket. It's going to

be our everything, even for tech people like

us at some point in your future. I mean, I know

plenty of people now, heck my wife, her computer

is her phone. That's going to happen to us too.

And think about that. I mean, how do you expand

on that? Well, everybody's talking about wearables

or glasses. I remember, Jeff, you had Google

glasses. I think you tested them out. Yep. Now

if my phone can connect to my glasses and I have

a heads up display, I mean, that is so cool.

Yeah agreed that is so cool, but you shouldn't

be paying attention to your heads -up display

while you're driving. Oh I've been doing that

for 20 years. I used to text on the road So that's

Hey and like Steve always says in New England

right of way is eye contacts. That's that's right.

You don't make eye contact You're good to go.

Yep. Yeah that's Oh Just don't get caught in

the rotary folks Whatever you do, don't get caught

in the rotary. I don't know. Like I said, it's

just certain. I'm someone that I'm a homebody.

I prefer being at home. Again, not to bring the

show down, but with my wife no longer here. She

was the traveler. Before I met her, she was jet

set in the world and everything else in the finance

world and all that. The adventures that we did

take made me want to take more of them and now

that she's no longer here It's like as long as

I have my Twelve year old HP. Oh god, I'm surprised

this thing still works. Thank god. It still does

or else we wouldn't be recording the show I I'm

not so mobile anymore. And like I said, I I can

kill a phone battery in 12 hours if I want to

Not that I want to again battery life on this

pixel 6 pro is amazing at least a day and a half

if not two and a half days sometimes i don't

even think about charging this thing sometimes

until it gets to like 17 percent yeah i live

dangerously oh man this has been a blast guys

and like we said earlier i you know, we can talk

off air and figure the logistics out of it all

and whatever else, but this is fun. This is awesome.

Thanks for putting it together, Mike. Yeah, I

mean, yeah, just a lot of good memories, a lot

of fun. Kind of makes you miss it a little bit.

Yeah. And like I said, you know, and like you

guys said, maybe a monthly thing, it doesn't

even have to be that, you know, whatever it's,

you know, what the hell it could be whenever

anything super like super major, like Watch,

the next time we all get together, folks, it's

not going to be a three camera circle sensor.

Tim Cook is going to say, oh, hey, let's put

Daft Punk on the back of our phones. Google did

that 10 years ago. And you know what? Apple hasn't

even been the same since Jobs has gone. I mean,

it used to be fun. One more thing and all of

his attitude and stuff like that. They've gone

so corporate now. Yeah, it's so yeah, you're

right Steve. It is and it's it's so depressing

It really really is it is there's only two horses

in the game. It's Samsung and it's Well three

you got Google Samsung and the iPhone there's

really no innovation anymore Well, that's the

problem there is innovation except it's you know

over in other countries that don't you know Again,

I watch unbox therapy. I watch Lou later on on

his stuff and he's getting all these ROG phones

and all these phones and other tech tubers get

it too. It's not just him, but he's the one that

I'm thinking of in my head as I'm saying this,

but it's like, oh, this is a China only model

or this is like, what's the biggest news right

now? Supposedly is it oppo or one of those companies

that owns the other company? Whatever. It's like,

oh, the you That's what it is, OnePlus, the OnePlus

10 Pro, that's what it is. It's like, oh, it's

gonna get a US release date later this month.

Oh, great, yay. Cool. Didn't they just come out

with a kick -ass charger, too? It charges the

phone in nine minutes. 150 watt charger. It also

brings your battery health down to 50 % after

three days. Oh no! I just can't imagine that's

good for your battery. I just can't, I don't

know. It's cool as hell, but I just, how is that

sustainable? You know? That's true. It's like

I said a few minutes ago with this Google Pixel

6 Pro, like right now I'm sitting at 69 % and

I'm probably going to spend the next... four

and a half to five hours editing a completely

different podcast from the one we're recording

but I Probably will have this sitting here and

by the time it hits midnight Pacific time or

whatever it is I'll probably maybe be down to

50 % and whatever and that's what I love about

this pixel 6 Pro is that because I am not out

and about and using Matt like if there's nothing

that As someone who travels places like you guys,

unlike me, what I've noticed with phones, there's

nothing more draining on the battery than maps

and navigation and all that. And I just don't

have that problem. And yeah, I mean, it's just

one of those crazy, crazy things that I don't

know. It's going to be interesting to see. And

I thought LG had a good thing going because I

literally, I was so close. Again, I was on the

Samsung S nine. They hadn't announced the 21

lineup at the time. They hadn't Google wasn't

even anywhere near mentioning tensor or anything.

And I went back and I looked at a Michael Fisher,

Mr. Mobile, the Mr. Mobile video. Oh, the LG

Wing. That's cool. I kind of like that. Like

the next week, we here at LG are exiting the

mobile phone. God, thank God I never got it.

I would love to have one just to see, you know,

how, cause I, you know, I'm sure we all come

from this, but like, I remember, like I said,

at the beginning of this episode, Nokia. 51,

20, 51, 60, whatever. And the stupid snake game

on those phones. Like that's, that's where I

come from when it comes to mobile phones originally.

So, you know, it's all changing. It's all crazy

in about 20 years when Steve is really ready,

ready to retire. You know, we're all going to

have chips in our heads for mobile phones. They'll

be embedded. Exactly. Yeah. I hope we see that.

My first phone was a bag phone. So. A bag phone?

Bag phones, those are awesome. Do you know what

I'm talking about, Mike? No. I mean, unless you're

talking about the big antenna phones from the

80s. That's part of it. Oh, no. That's part of

it, but it came in a bag, and it was a handset

with a battery in the bag, and you could hook

it up to an antenna in your car. And it had another...

It was a bag phone. It wasn't all that mobile.

Essentially a car... Yeah, essentially a car

phone. Yes. Okay. So instead of you being from

the CIA with the nuclear codes handcuffed to

your hand on a briefcase, instead of a handcuff,

it's a handset, basically. Wow. Yeah, I remember

several people having these as car phones, but

wow. And how much was it per minute, Steve? $1

,000 a minute back then? Oh, yeah. I remember

when I first got it, I screwed up big time. And

it was like one bill was $700. And my wife's

like, what? It's like, I didn't know. Who remembers

nights and weekends after nine? Oh, yeah. Oh,

yeah. Station wide and all that stuff. Yep. Yep.

Not that I room anywhere, but. God, has roaming

changed at all? I don't know. I don't even make

phone calls. That's the future right there. Literally,

no matter what service you want to say, Twitter,

Facebook, Instagram, I don't know if TikTok has

a messaging system, whatever, WhatsApp, hell,

Discord, whatever. Do any of us actually, like,

I think the only places I've been calling is

apartment complexes because I have to find a

new place to live at the end of the month. But

anyway, that's neither here nor there, but yeah,

no, like seriously, that's why they call it a

smartphone. You use it for everything else other

than, you know, making phone calls. That's true.

All right. I think we are going to take a quick

break. You're going to hear a couple of podcast

ads because I like promoting my own shows and

other people's shows. So it isn't necessarily

that. Sadly, any of these phone companies are

paying me, but neither are any of these podcasts.

So, and that's okay because cross promotion is

key. So we're going to take a quick break. You're

going to hear some podcast ads. We're going to

come back to close the show after this. So let's

say you're looking for a podcast, your favorite

eighties comic books, GI Joe, Transformers, Ninja

Turtles, He -Man, et cetera. Where are you going

to go to find us? Welcome to star Joe's podcast.

I'm your host Ryan and I'm Chuck. That's right

everybody We're the star Joe's we host a podcast

called star Joe's podcast Where we talk about

your favorite comic books your favorite toys

of all the 80s properties Star Wars GI Joe Transformers

mask Thundercats Voltron you name it we covered

if it's in the 80s We will cover it at some point

Yes, so what you want to do to find us, you can

go to iTunes, you can go to www .starjoes .com,

and remember, the force will be with you, because

knowing us is half the battle. is an award -winning

sci -fi radio show that's been around for over

10 years. We cover everything from Doctor Who

to the MCU to pop culture and everything in between.

A new show drops on Tuesday mornings on the GCRN

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So listen to the Markhu42's universe podcast

from the universe and beyond. Hello everyone,

this is JD from the in session film podcast each

week. We review the latest from Hollywood, California

Well, yes, Brendan. We also give top three lists.

Okay. Yeah. Thanks again Brendan Additionally,

you can hear us talk other movie news trailers

varying movie series or other interesting film

related topics and even rants and raves of the

week On top of our main show, every Friday, you

can also hear our extra film podcasts. You can

listen to the In Session Film podcast on iTunes,

Stitcher, SoundCloud, or at InSessionFilm .com.

Listen to the In Session Film podcast every Monday

and Friday. Subscribe today and hear me verbally

beat JD like a Cherokee drum. No, no, no, no,

no. That's not how this works, sir. What was

that universal greeting again? Never mind. I

remember. Hey guys it's Rodimus Primal and be

sure to check out my YouTube channel. Join me

as I have Transformers discussions, retrospectives,

toy reviews and more. You can also follow me

on Twitter at Rodimus Primal as well as Facebook

and Instagram at Rodimus Primal Show. Transform

and roll out and be sure to check out my content

till all are one. Because the world needs another

movie podcast the geek cast radio network presents

for your listening pleasure this scenario Each

week we dive head first in the landscape of movies

as we discuss movie news, play movie games, go

in depth on reviews, and even have a top 10 countdown

or two. Also don't miss our director retrospective

series where we review noted directors movies

film by film. Bottom line is if you love movies

and love podcasts you need to experience the

Cinema Geeks. You can find us on iTunes, Blog

.Radio, or GeekCastRadio .com. Discover a world

of vintage and modern toys that's more than meets

the eye. with the Triple Takeover Toycast. Hosted

by toy writers and photographers Toy Box Soapbox,

Sixo and TF Square One, this informal and chilled

out series of discussions cover everything from

vintage transformers to mask, diaclone, microman

and more, be it nostalgic or current. Whether

you're a seasoned collector or a casual robot

enthusiast, all are welcome. Triple Takeover

Toycast. On the Simplistic Reviews podcast, we

talk movies. Hello, Julie, what the heck are

you doing? Yeah, I'm pretty sure you could've

got the point across with sound effects, not

the real thing. I'm sure your insurance company

will cover that! No, they won't. No, they probably

won't. We are back here on geek cast radio the

mobile tech moment podcast reunion I'm of course

to you and Mike from geek cast radio Steve Trotto

Bill Stebbins and Jeffrey Farina joining me and

this has been a blast from the past It's certainly

yes. Yes. I've really enjoyed this. Yes. This

has been fun This has been awesome. If anyone

who is listening to the sound of our voices enjoyed

this and wants us to do more Maybe, maybe on

a monthly basis, maybe, who knows. Let us know.

You can tweet at me at TFG and Mike on Twitter

and other things. And the last thing I want to

bring up is how do we all have our home screens

and how many home screens do we have Steve? On

my phone? I only have three. Only have three.

Okay. Oh man. When I had an iPhone years ago,

I was, you know, three, four, five, six ever

since. And I forget who I, I'm pretty sure it

was Android because Apple didn't adopt the Apple's

never an early adopter with things that just

makes sense. But whoever started doing folders,

that's how I had, that's how I don't have 17

homes screens on my phone because I have. 123

I have like four folders and then I have the

other apps that I use, the camera, the maps,

the photos, the mail, the whatever. What about

you, Jeff? How is your phone display going with

that S 22? I'm boring. I need to spend time looking

at how other people set it up. I like have this

weird, I like revert back to my original self.

I have a You were mentioning HTC Sense earlier.

I have a weather and clock widget at the very

top. And then I just have folders and icons and

it continues on screen to screen. I do have widgets

on my second screen. I have a widget for podcasts

and a widget for YouTube music. So PocketCast

and YouTube music. But I need to give more variety

into it. I'm kind of boring. Bill, what about

you? I have two screens. One has my just regular

stuff like mine. Most used things. And then the

other one has my calendar. I'm really boring.

I usually just look at my watch, you know? Which

watch do you have? I have the Galaxy Watch 4

Classic and I love it. Wow. I don't even use

it. That's too small a screen for me. I'm running

the Casio G -Shock. Yeah, I like it. There you

go. Faithful right there. No, faithful, tactical

as shit. Well, and that's another thing we could

talk about. I mean, now that Bill's in the fold

with firearms, I mean, Jeff and I have been into

guns for a long time, and I've been seeing some

of the stuff you've been posting. Yep. Oh, boy.

Yeah. Like I said, from the S9 to the Pixel 6

Pro, I like keeping my screen, for the most part,

as clean as I possibly can. Half of the time,

it's... I like doing the YouTube mini player.

So I actually have, like, you know, you guys

talking about widgets, I don't do widgets, but

if I need the YouTube mini player to just exist

in the background while I'm listening to something

on YouTube... I like to have enough room on it

and I don't do crazy. I would love to be able

to do some of the wallpapers I see in some of

the tech videos. Like there are a couple of wallpapers

and several of Michael Fisher's videos that he's

done where I'm like, where can I find that? And

I swear I'm not trying to de -brand this at all,

but MKBHD and his matte black everything kind

of hit me cause I've always, my two favorite

colors in the world are black and purple. Yeah,

sadly the Bruins are gold and that's great because

I love the Bruins but like I Found I went somewhere

somehow I found a matte black just generic matte

black wallpaper and that's what I've had on my

phone ever since I think the only customization

I did on my s9 was I went out and got the border

light app where basically it envelopes your borders

and you can make it any color you want. You can

make it purple, you can make it yellow, you can

make it blue, you can make it red, whatever.

And it's just a light and you can intensify the

thickness and the thinness of it or whatever.

And it's just an extra. It's almost like a black

light for your phone essentially kind of thing.

Part of my display because, and I wish Google,

I could, I could change this, the format of them.

I still rock the three buttons because I can

not do gestures. I just can't. It, it, it's just

not something I can do. Well, and Dan Sagner

is the same way and Dan's a bonafide it guy.

So you're, you're not wrong. I'll put it that

way. It's something for everyone. Yeah. I am

an only child. The only complaint I have with

the buttons is that they're in the wrong place.

Like the home button is fine, but the back button

and the window select button need to be reversed

because I'm so used to the back button being

on the far right and the window select be...

button on the far left, but I've gotten used

to it again. Hashtag first world problems. Oh

my God. There's so many other bigger things going

on in the world than my phone having the buttons

in the wrong place. That's something we always

forget about going back, not to not to run it

back, but to go back to the beginning of the

show where back when the phones had hard buttons,

even though they were, you know, built into the

screen, but they didn't move. Every manufacturer

was different from HTC to Samsung to LG. Everyone

had a different, a different orientation. And

it was It was annoying back in the day. Yeah.

And for all of Google and Android and Material,

you and everything else. And you know what? I

have no complaints so far for material. Hey,

as long as it matches, you know, my purple color

for the buttons and the whatever, the whatever

else, that's fine. I don't care because the black

is the black, but for all of their customization,

you think that they would be able to. Move the

virtual buttons around. Whereas obviously in

the, in the olden days, you couldn't, I mean,

unless you're going to full on jailbreak it and

try to remove them yourself. And, and that's

the only thing I've seen several videos where

I forget which company it is, but some, but some

company out there. I don't want to say it's a

Chinese company, but some company I've seen somebody

where they're like, this is a fully tactile phone.

If you just need to replace the battery, fine.

If you just need to replace the camera, fine.

Where you don't have to send the whole phone

in. I saw that. It's all component based. You

can use the Lego set. Yep, pretty much. It's

a Lego phone. I can just imagine Hasbro now coming

out with a Lego phone. Yeah, I component -based

phones that that would be interesting sadly.

I don't think that's gonna work on a foldable

though Well, it's a pain in the ass I mean I

broke two screens last year and it's you know

You're gonna make an appointment and there with

all the kovats stuff. It's Jesus. Yeah How did

you break two screens last year Steve? I actually

dropped the phone twice and I, you know, I never,

and I have cases on them and it's the first time

it's ever happened. I just had a bad run and

I dropped the first time I went to Apple and

so it was the same phone. So I ended up spending

like $700 on screens and Oh my God. Well, yeah,

because they're not cheap. Then the second one,

I didn't go to Apple and then I kept getting

an error message that, oh, this isn't a genuine

Apple component. It's like, you know what, screw

this. It's just, I wouldn't just got a new iPhone

13. DRM on your phone components. Yeah, it was,

yeah, it was cheese. And there was no way you

could hack around it either. You know, they said

there's a thing that it would only show up for

four days. Yeah. Four months later, I'm still

getting the message. It's not who cares. Oh my

God. All right. Let's go around the room. If

anyone has any final thoughts that they would

like to. In part on the listeners before I run

through the outro Steve got anything to say No,

it's just a thanks for putting this together.

This was a blast. You know, I missed talking

to these guys to all you guys and You know something

I'd be up to doing every once in a while if we're

all into it It's just good to reconnect and talk

about stuff. I know I'm not as Tech savvy as

I used to be but it's still fun talking about

the what's out there and, and how I learned something

new today. I got on discord. So, um, yeah. Yeah.

You guys hooked me up with discord and everybody's

giving me shit on there now. Well, yeah. Yeah.

It was a Johnny, Johnny Benfield says, I said,

Oh, I said, yeah, we're doing a podcast. He goes,

Oh yeah. You don't get any of the new simulcast

guys. Oh, just you wait. Evan's going to be in

your office tomorrow. Jeff. Okay, I will say

this right now. I have a blanket open invitation

to anyone that wants to come on to GeekCast Radio

to talk about whatever they want to talk about.

As long as we don't start ticking with polls.

So, you know, other than that, you know, we can

talk about anything as long as we keep it geeky.

It is what it is. And To be honest, new simulcast

guys? Who? Like, really? I thought it was just

Jeff and Bill and Mike at the time. Like, come

on. The newer generation is like Star Trek. Yeah,

right. So what you're saying is they are the

lower decks of the simulcast. They're the red

shirts. Kill them all. No, those guys are a lot

of fun. You know, was it when, was it Mike Florio

did that kind of like that network thing or was

it Mike or who was it? Was it Mike? Yeah. Yeah.

It was Mike and Nick ball and Vic. Yeah. And

then there was somebody else. Oh, I forget his

name is the water. What a burger guy. Um, Clay,

just Clay, Clay, Clay. Yes. He's going to do.

Yeah. Oh, okay. Cool. Cool. I'm sorry. The tech

tech side network. Yeah. Yeah. It was tech side.

Um, I remember that too. And it's, I'm sorry.

I forgot your name. I follow you on Facebook

on Instagram on Instagram. Not Twitter. Not Twitter.

I don't follow anybody on Twitter. Steve is the

grandpa of the group, folks. He can't remember

what he's following and what social media he's

on. There's just so much today. There really

is. There is. Yeah. It is very much information

overload. Like I said before, like if you, if

you follow me on Instagram at all, like I post

maybe once or twice every three weeks or so,

like Instagram is my least amount of things because

I joined it like two years ago or something.

Facebook I have, you know, 12, 13, 14 years,

Twitter, same thing, but you know, it is what

it is. Jeff, anything you want to say? No, thanks

for putting it together. Thank you for listening.

Just the same, everyone who's still with us.

This was a blast from the past. I have a lot

of memories flooding back and good memories.

And it was great to do this. I appreciate it

to everybody. Awesome. Awesome. Bill, what about

you? Yeah, I definitely echo the putting it together.

I'd like to give a shout out to somebody that

did reach out to me on Instagram and was excited.

I want to say hi to Kurt Lyon. He's been following

me forever. Kurt's the man. Yeah. Yeah. He's

cool guy. And he was super excited to hear that

we were doing a reunion show. So I definitely

know you'll get at least one download of this

show. Oh, that's the other thing we can talk

about as much as I want as many downloads as

I can get. It's not about downloads anymore.

Now it's all about the streams. You got to get

the streams. You got to get those live listens

of whenever they listen to it, you know, Whatever

they're gonna listen to it on alright folks as

as most listeners of geek cast radio know I have

a closing spiel that I go through. In almost

every one of my shows, it is catered to each

of the podcasts that I do. Thank you for listening

to us here on Gecast Radio. If you'd like to

get in contact with us, we'll leave feedback

for the show. There are several ways to do so.

Visit the website, gecastradio .com, where you

can listen to and comment on all of our content.

Here, all the ways you can listen to us nowadays,

Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, and any other

podcasting client you choose to use. Follow some

of us on Twitter. at Geekcast Radio is for the

network. I am at TFU and Mike. Steve, what is

your Twitter? It's Steve Trotto. But I mean,

I don't use it. And, you know, I unfollowed a

couple of people and I follow them back. I'm

sorry. I'm on Instagram and Facebook and, you

know, stuff like that. So you follow me. It's

Steve Trotto on Instagram and Steve Trotto on

Facebook. And now I'm on Discord. There you go.

Look out, folks. Grandpa's got his cane and he's

ready to run. What about you, Jeff? What is your

Twitter? So I am on Twitter. Still, I guess,

to some extent. It's at Jeff F. It's G -E -O

-F -F -E -F -F. If you want to join our Discord,

send me a DM there and I'll bring you on in.

That's become our new Twitter, is our Discord.

Yeah, absolutely. And Bill is over there on Instagram.

What's your Instagram, Bill? U -R -P -R -3 -Y.

Got to get that lead speak in there, folks. Yeah,

absolutely. Become a fan on Facebook, go to Facebook

.com slash GeekCast Radio Network. We hope you

enjoyed this episode of GeekCast Radio and wish

you'll join us next time. We will be talking

about something. I don't know because I have

no roadmap for this podcast. This is our flagship

show where we put all of the quote unquote big

discussions and just overall topics and things

like that where it's not just a review show.

It's just like. We could have a discussion on

Batman in his 80 years or we can have a discussion

on movies or whatever. For now, I am TF2 and

Mike with Steve, Jeff, Bill. Thank you for listening.

Until next time.