Benefit of the Doud

This week, we take a look at Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and basically any reality we can other than the one we're currently living in. Russell Holly comes along to give us his expertise on the subject. Where it's been, where it's going, and where we are today. From Microsoft Hololens to the Oculus Quest, we cover it all. Plus we have Tech Yeah! From Anker and the news of the week! Links to...

This week is a big show with not one, not two, but three top stories. First we ask the question, "what is a podcast?" It's a little meta, for sure. Then we take a good look at the Xiaomi Mi Band 5. Plus we have our final thoughts on the LG Velvet 5G and a look at LG of the future. It's a great show, so I hope you'll come along. Links to News of the week available at benefitofthedoud.com Subscribe...

This week, we have a Tech Yeah! segment featuring our friends from Zagg. Plus, we have an announcement about a new feature coming to our reviews. But our top story of the week is our interview with Wahid Rezali from Lenovo. Wahid has his finger in a lot of pies over at Lenovo, and isn't afraid to push boundaries beyond your typical consumer products. What drives Lenovo to play at the fringes? Find...

Star Wars and robots go together hand in hand, so it's appropriate that Ian Bernstein, Co-founder of Misty Robotics has experience with both. Ian and I discuss his history from Sphero to BB-8 to Misty II, a versatile little robot who can do basically anything you program it to do, including screen you for COVID-19 in the most adorable way possible. Plus, I share some thoughts on the Surface Duo an...

This week, I've got my old podcast partners Jonathan Feist and Joe Hindy from Android Authority together to chat about the Samsung Unpacked event that happened this week.  Samsung showed us the Note 20, the Note 20 Ultra, the Galaxy Watch 3, the Galaxy Buds Live, the Tab S7 and the Galaxy Z Fold 2. It was a packed unpacked event, and very cringe-worthy, so we're breaking it all down for you! Links...

Concept versus reality. That's the theme of this week's podcast.  First, we take a look at the technology I took on vacation as opposed to what I actually used. Then, we look at the evolution of LG's dual screen cases from the LG V50 through the LG Velvet. Is the concept of the dual screen living up to reality? Links to News of the week available at benefitofthedoud.com Subscribe to the show! Supp...

Covid-19 has affected all of our lives, so this week we sit down with Mark Beeston from Vioguard. Vioguard is using UV-C rays to de-grossify your phone and keys and everything else with the Cubby Plus. Then Cliff finally caved under the mountain of please try Stadia offers that were piling on top of him, so we’ve got his review of Google’s streaming game service. Links to News of the week availabl...

This week, we sit down with fellow journalist and digital imaging expert Steve Litchfield. Steve has been working in this space since the 1990's is a treasure trove of information about smartphones, and the cameras that adorn them. We talk about Nokia, the Lumia 1020, night mode and more! Links to News of the week available at benefitofthedoud.com Patreon bonus for this episode : ~10 minutes of bo...

Episode 20! In this episode we're talking to Phil Nickinson, who's in charge of Whattowatch.com, formerly cordcutters.com and in this episode we're talking about all things cord cutting and more. What's the difference between linear and on-demand TV? Who cares?! YouTube TV is raising its prices again, and Phil talks about why that was inevitable. Plus we have general cord-cutting tips to help you...

In this shortened vacation week of the Benefit of the Doud podcast, we have two segments and we're talking all about tablets. First up, we have a comparison of the Lenovo Duet versus the iPad (7th generation). It's a very close competition between the two with each surpassing the other in different categories. Who is the overall winner?  Next, we have out full review of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8...

Apple nailed the presentation at WWDC, giving watchers a whole new keynote experience, which we frankly hope to see again. There's so much going on with iOS, macOS, watchOS, and so much more.  Apple played catch up in a big way as compared to its competitor Android. But it brought a lot of new to the table as well. Join us as we wrap up everything at WWDC and more! Plus, we're shaking up the Patre...

Rene Ritchie has been a fan of and journalist covering Apple for longer than I've been in this industry.  When it comes to all things Apple from Macs to iPhones, Rene is the guy.  So with WWDC coming next week, I invited him onto the show to talk about the State of iOS and Apple in 2020, and we had a good long conversation. What's the difference between Jobs Apple and Cook Apple? What's the deal w...

TCL is making a big strong push into the mobile space with its own brand of smartphones with the TCL 10 Pro and TCL 10L. But, TCL is also a kind of fascinating company, so I invited Brad Molen and Jason Gerdon to talk about TCL, TCL branded phones, 5G and foldables.  It was a great conversation with two awesome guys I've known for years. Links to News of the week available at benefitofthedoud.com...

This week, I sat down to talk with a really unique creator in the technology space. Devin, a.k.a. CKID has been making videos since 2016, but he only recently came to my attention by way of a Waymo video featuring self-driving taxis. Devin gets into his background growing up, his music, and the gear he uses to shoot his videos. So check out his channel and subscribe for some great tech content wit...

This week we are joined by Daniel Bader. He is the managing editor of Android Central and he’s Canadian which means he can buy a Huawei phone if he wants to. So he tested the Huawei P40 Pro and it's a gorgeous phone. But the P40 Pro does not support Google services and I wanted to find out what that was like. Can you use this phone as a daily driver, without the Google experience? Find out here! L...

Join us as we review to TCL 10 Pro and TCL 10L. Clifton M. Thomas tackles TCL's first self-branded budget phone, while Adam handles the midrange offering. What do TCL's first smartphones bring to the table? It's all about those little extras. There are a lot of them! Hear about it now on the podcast, or read about them at Benefitofthedoud.com. Links to news of the week available at benefitofthedou...

Apple's little budget powerhouse is in our hands and we're telling you what we think.  Did Apple hit the home run that we all think it did, or will there be hurdles that we can't quite get past?  Just who is this little phone for?  That's what we set to find out, and we've got it all.  Plus we have a new segment called the podcast pick and we're featuring the Brydge 10.2 keyboard.  Spoiler alert -...

This week was supposed to be the week of Google I/O and while we're sure there will be announcements surrounding the Android community, there is no official event. At all. The hell? Well that's ok, because we sat down with Jason Howell and Flo Ion from All About Android to talk about the State of Android in 2020.  Where did it come from, where is it now, and where is it going? All that and more on...

This week, DJI released the DJI Mavic Air 2 which is a great upgrade over the original DJI Mavic Air from three years ago.  Jonathan Feist, Managing Editor at DroneRush walks us through the improvements on this drone including a 48 MP camera, a whopping 34 minutes of flight time, and Occusync 2.0!  Plus, we stroll away from DJI to get some great drone recommendations for those looking to get into...

Nick Gray is the Editor in Chief at Phandroid, but for our discussion today, we're drawing upon his other expertise - being a digital nomad. The life of a digital nomad is filled with adventure and pitfalls, so we look at the life of a digital nomad and to whom it would appeal. Plus we have our usual news of the week. News links available at benefitofthedoud.com Patreon bonus for this episode : ~1...

OnePlus released two of the most anticipated smartphones of the year this week - the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro. We didn't get a device in to review for ourselves, so instead we took a tour around the internet to some of the best reviewers on the internet for our Review Roundup. Plus, we take a moment to look at the gear we use to make this podcast .  News of the week available at benefitofth...

Our LG V60 ThinQ review is in. We've been using the LG V60 for 3 weeks and it's time to share our thoughts. Not surprisingly, the review is largely about the dual screen accessory that you can get with it. Is this a foldable competitor? Is it something else? Find out in our full review of the LG V60 ThinQ 5G! Links to the news of the week found at www.benefitofthedoud.com Patreon Bonus of the show...

This week, we're taking a look at smartwatches, and we have Jimmy Westenberg from Android Authority to tell us all about them. From Apple to Google, from Garmin to Fitbit, there's a ton going on out there, and Jimmy breaks it all down for us.  Who's doing it the best? Who needs to catch up...a lot? All that and more as we break down the State of Smartwatches in 2020. Visit benefitofthedoud.com for...

Half-Life: Alyx is touted to be one of the best VR experiences on the planet. It lives in a world of Vader: Immortal, Star Trek Bridge Crew, and Beat Saber, so does it top all of them? We look at that in our top story - a Half-Life:Alyx review roundup, and we call on VR reviewer Nick Sutrich to give us the first person information. Plus, we add a new segment, the first of many How Bad Could It Be...

Reviewing is hard, and we want to learn how to do it better, so for this first edition of the Reviewer's Notebook, we have David Imel, chief reviewer and manager of YouTube at Android Authority. David goes through his philosophy of reviewing phones and breaks down his process. Plus he shares some insight on the nuts and bolts of reviewing - how to test, how to shoot, and more. Plus we have our top...