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“You know how we know Minecraft has made it? It was in a South Park episode.”
Welcome back to another episode of our weekly tech show. It’s Yet Another Tech Show. I’m Ant Pruitt with Mat Lee, Larry Press and Mike Rothman back for another great episode. On tonight’s show we talk about Android Kit Kat, GoGo Inflight, Microsoft, Google Helpouts, Minecraft, terrible driving, and so much more. Take a look this week’s show notes as you listen to the show and follow along.
Android version 4.4 (Kit Kat) is rolling out to for some of the Nexus mobile devices. Have you gotten your update? I haven’t gotten mine yet, but fortunately you can download the image file from the Google dev site and flash it manually. I plan on doing this myself if I don’t get the update later today over the air. Ah the advantages and disadvantages of being geeky and nerdy.
Mike and I also discuss is it worth getting the next gen Nexus 7. We aren’t really keen on upgrading when our current hardware is sufficient. Granted, Larry feels like the tablets need more horsepower to to do day-to-day computing. This was an interesting discussion to go over the pros and cons of tablet computing versus tablet media consumption. We also discuss the popularity of the iPad Mini launch and (planned) supply shortage.
Gogo Inflight is proposing VOIP cell phone calls and text messaging during air travel. I looked into this and shared my commentary from aNewDomain. Of course, the YATS crew agreed. We don’t want phone calls on airplanes. It’s no different from other public transit, right?
Mike asks if it’s too late for Microsoft to come back and gain its popularity from the 80’s and 90’s. Why do we really need Microsoft? In his opinion, Google is becoming a strong alternative for computing options whether it’s mobile devices and office software. Even better, it’s inexpensive or free. We take a look at what Microsoft is offering consumers versus the enterprise.
Image Credit: Salon.com
The Minecraft phenomenon continues to amaze us all. This game has a massive following but it’s not just about getting points or kills. Mike believes that it is allowing players, especially the youth, to sharpen different skills. There’s logic and reasoning used in building the massive empires that can contribute to other career paths such as program development. Our resident educator, Larry Press, really loves the inductive learning taking place with Minecraft players.
Google has launched a service to compete with the Amazon Mayday options. It’s called Google Helpout. Essentially, you can go online and search for providers of specific services and have a live hangout with the provider. Need help installing a virtual machine on your computer? There’s probably a hangout available for that. Providers have to register with Google to provide this service. Services aren’t always free. With paid services, 20% of charges rendered are given to Google. Not bad, right?
Lastly we rant about bad parkers. Bad drivers are an issue, but bad parkers are just as nerve-wrecking. You try to find a public parking space, but find a numb skull parking his sports car in two spots instead of one. When this happens, post an image online of this idiot letting the whole world know how horrible they are at parking. Mike Elgan shared this product that looks to be a cool KickStarter. Let’s put an end to bad parking with this or with the That Was Not Ok service.
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Check out the hangout video below. If you want to watch us live, check out YATS tv Wednesday nights.
