MacVoices #25075: Live! - New Beats Headphones, Consolidating Apple Accounts, Your Apple Watch On Your Ankle? Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Jeff Butts, Marty Jencius, Ben Roethig, Web Bixby, and Eric Bolden look at the new model of Beats earphones and what they have that AirPods don’t (yet) and a surprise announcement that you can now combine your Apple accounts albeit with a number of requirements. Just for fun, the panel also considers a report that it is increasingly popular for some users to wear their Apple Watch on their ankle, and why one would want to.

MacVoices #25074: CES - Elephant Robotics Robotics are becoming both more accepted and advanced in a variety of areas, especially companionship for all ages. At CES in Las Vegas, Lisha Qiu, Head of International Marketing for Elephant Robotics, showed off some of their robotic pets. metaCat, metaDog, and metaPanda were all on display and the crowed was interacting with the just like real pets. Lisha explains how their deep learning AI training creates realistic head and tail movements, its use of USB charging vs. batteries, and their choice of pet models. 

MacVoices #25073: Live! - Super Bowl Streaming Winners, Ad Losers, and Apple’s Halftime Show The Super Bowl as the topic of discussion for the MacVoices Live! panel of Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Jeff Butts, Marty Jencius, Ben Roethig, Web Bixby, and Eric Bolden…but not for the football. How successful the streaming distribution part was will affect the streaming landscape, which ads worked and which didn’t, and thoughts on the Apple-supported halftime show were on the panel’s minds. 

MacVoices #25072: CES - j5create In a very orange booth at CES in Las Vegas, Brandon Thweatt, Systems Analyst for j5create, shows us off their video switcher devices that let you create sophisticated video streams for your show, game, or whatever you want to show off on the internet. Brandon talks about the two models, one with a screen, one without. 

MacVoices #25070: Joe Kissell Takes Control of Mac Basics (1)Joe Kissell is back with a new Take Control title that is just a little different. Mac Basics. Joe starts out by discussing why this book is needed, and some of the challenges of creating a basic book on such a mature and complex topic. Starting out with the physical characteristics, then going through what the user sees first, Joe discusses how he tries to touch on everything without the details becoming burdensome. (Part 1) 

MacVoices #25069: Live! - Tapestry, An Office 365 Price Increase, DeepSeek Comes and DeepSeek Goes A new social media app has been launched by the Twitterific team. Tapestry combines Blue Sky, Mastodon, RSS, and YouTube feeds on your iOS device. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Guy Serle, Jim Rea, and Web Bixby discuss the implications of this app given its pedigree. We also look at an Office 365 price increase at the same time it drops a free VPN service, and its subscription model. Microsoft is also bringing DeepSeek to its Copilot service while, at the same time, DeepSeek was dropped from the Italian App Store. 

MacVoices #25068: CES - FlowBeams In Eureka Park at CES in Las Vegas we talked to Lea Milovich, CEO and Co-Founder of FlowBeams, a Dutch start-up that has developed a needle-free injection technology. Lea talked about the incredible number of needles in use each day and how their option could reduce or eliminate that waste, not to mention improving the experience for everything from vaccines to tattoos. If you hate needles, you need to see this interview. 

MacVoices #25067: Live! - Bootable Backups Again, AppleCare, Godzilla Wins Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Guy Serle, Jim Rea, and Web Bixby re-look at bootable backups because one cloning software developer says the new version of the macOS has fixed a bug and that they work…sort of. The panel looks at a change in purchasing AppleCare that you need to be aware of, and how Apple TV+ and Godzilla got some respect at a recent awards event. 

MacVoices #25265: CES - Shokz At CES in Las Vegas, Piyou (Ray) Cheng, Product Line Manager for Shokz, introduced their OpenMeet headphones that were inspired by the work-from-home trend. Much easier to wear for extended periods of time because of both the bone conduction aspect as well as the extremely light weight, they are perfect for being able to hear what is going on around you while participating in online meetings on an extended basis. 

MacVoices #25064: CES - STM Goods At CES in Las Vegas, the STM Goods booth had a line wrapped around it, as usual, for their legendary skateboard give-away. Jim Williams, UK and European Sales, talked a bit about this year’s design before updating us on the new MagSafe version of their ChargeTree charger for your Apple Devices, and introducing us to the Duxling, an all-in-one case that provides protection, a handle, and a stand. Designed for kids, it is useful for those who abuse their iPads and use them in challenging environments. Jim also showed us the Dux Keyboard USB-C that features rugged protection, pencil storage, and a full-function keyboard with trackpad. We got the pricing on everything with a little help from Haley Walker and Cara O’Connell. 

MacVoices #25063: Live! - 18 Years of Respect, Apple Music, An Unwelcome App The MacVoices Live! panel discusses Apple having 18 years at the top spot in a satisfaction survey and a new Apple Music promotion tiled to the Super Bowl. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Guy Serle, Jim Rea, and Web Bixby also look at how and why an unwanted app showed up in the EU app store and who gets the credit or blame, and yet another innovative promotion for the Apple TV+ show, Severance. 

MacVoices #26062: CES - Buddie At CES in Las Vegas, Dr. Robert Dick was in the Buddie booth to discuss their project that will bring contact access to ChatGPT via their earbuds. You can imagine how that could change things. Dr. Dick talks about how it will work, privacy issues, and their Kickstarter campaign. 

MacVoices #25061 - MacPaw At CES in Las Vegas we stopped at the booth of first-time exhibitor MacPaw to talk to Garrett Krivicich, Head of Global PR about their new move into the enterprise market with CleanMyMac Business. Delivering remote Mac maintenance such as device cleaning, malware protection, and more, it simplifies keeping your company’s Macs delivering optimum performance while being protected from the bad guys. Garrett also gives us an introduction to Eney, their new smart assistant LLM that will operate on-device and integrate with a variety of third-party apps. 

MacVoices #25060: CES - MyRadarOne thing that affects everyone is the weather. MyRadar has emerged as one of the best options for current weather information.. On the show floor at CES in Las Vegas, we talked to Michael Linden, Director of Video & Social Media Content/Meteorologist about their increased focus on getting that information, especially local information, on an immediate basis, as well as how they are helping travelers route around weather challenges. 

MacVoices #25059: Live! - A Scam Story, Invites, and An Earnings Call Host Chuck Joiner shares the lessons from a scam story, then the panel of David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Guy Serle, Jim Rea, and Web Bixby join in a discussion of the just-released Invites app by Apple. What are the benefits of operating inside the Apple ecosystem? How does it play with Android users? Wrapping up the conversation is a look at the recent quarterly Apple earnings call and what the results say about the past and the future. 

MacVoices #25058: CES - what3words At CES in Las Vegas we got our annual update from Jane Stephenson, Marketing Director for what3words about how their location system continues to evolve and how the usage continues to spread. 

If your local emergency services aren’t supporting what3words yet, show them this interview and suggest that they do. Both implementation and understanding how it works are simple, and could save critical minutes or even seconds when responding to a call. Jane demoed a new app that they have partnered with and reviewed recent success stories that illustrate the power of what3words’ ability to identify a location to within a few feet in an easy-to-understand way. 

MacVoices #25057: CES - Nextbase Every year Nextbase introduces something new and value-added to the dashcam market, which is why they are a permanent stop for MacVoices at CES in Las Vegas. This time, Jeff Chuh Senior Vice President of Marketing introduced their new Piqo model that brings many of their advanced features to a consumer-friendly price point. Nextbase isn’t just focusing on safety and security, but also introducing a more fun and functional aspect by allowing optional overlays to the recordings to display telemetry, speedometers, and more. Jeff gives us a demo. 

MacVoices #25056: ShowStoppers - OWC Our last stop at the ShowStoppers event at CES in Las Vegas was one we look forward to every year. Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO of Other World Computing (OWC) talked about all things Thunderbolt 5. OWC just introduced their new Thunderbolt 5 cable capable of 40 GB data transfer and has complete backward compatibility with earlier versions of Thunderbolt. Larry gave us an education about why the order and types of devices could actually slow them down in pre-Thunderbolt 5 configurations, and how to avoid the problem with their recently-released Thunderbolt 5 hub. 

MacVoices #25055: CES ShowStoppers - Clicks At ShowStoppers at CES in Las Vegas we caught up with Jeff Gadway, Senior Vice President of Product Marketing for Clicks Technology. Last year their Clicks keyboard for the iPhone had just been released and created a lot of discussion. This year, the concept has proven itself with various audiences and use cases. Jeff talks about how and why it has been adopted by their users, how it improves accessibility, and the range of iPhone models they now support. We also cover the improvements to Clicks that include built-in MagSafe, a data pass-through mode that makes it CarPlay compatible, a redesigned keyboard, and some great support for Shortcuts. 

MacVoices #25054: Live! - Watch Band Lawsuit, Subaru Tracking, Goodbye MiniDisc Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, and Jeff Gamet discuss the “forever chemicals” (PFAS) lawsuit against Apple for their watch bands, and look at how, if you drive a Subaru, someone may know where you are going and where you have been. Some speculation on why some organizations may not be on Bluesky (yet) and the end of the MiniDisc and what industries it matters to finish off the conversation. 

MacVoices #25053: CES ShowStoppers - PLAUD The PLAUD table at ShowStoppers at CES in Las Vegas was tough to get to because of the interested crowds…and it shows in our interview with Elina Tsao, Head of Brand Center. People keep sticking their heads into our shot as Elina explained how their PLAUD NOTE and NotePin capture the audio of your conversations, then transcribes it and even summarizes it via AI. Both feature a generous free package of time, encrypted communication with AI in the cloud, and a very specific activation to help make others around you comfortable with when they are and are not being recorded. 

MacVoices #25052: CES ShowStoppers - TopJob At ShowStoppers at CES in Las Vegas, Violet Chen, Founder and CEO of TopJob, introduced us to their new line of work-from-home furniture. Driven by pandemic-era dissatisfaction with how office furniture didn’t really fit into many home environments, TopJob has chairs and desks that not only look good in the home, but that address ergonomic concerns with comfort and style.