Crossed Wires

In what feels like a full-circle moment, James is joined by Alex Lowe and Jim Starling from the Charging Status EV Podcast, which as many of you will know started life here as a co-production between Crossed Wires and The Interface before James has to give up the show to take a job at a CPO. Now he's free of the shackles of that CPO, we chat the latest EVs, discuss the confusion around charging, l...

We're always delighted to have returning guests on the show, and so we're pleased to have Gedeon Maheux from The Iconfactory join us again. This time we're talking about the Kickstarter for their wonderful retro gaming app, Ollie's Arcade. We also delve into retro-gaming memories, have a very open discussion about Apple, Nazis, ICE, and why little acts of kindness can really make a difference in o...

It's been a lot longer than we planned between episodes, but we're happy to be back in 2026 with a great chat with Mike Saunders from The Document Foundation who maintain the wonderful LibreOffice suite. We chat about why it's important to have alternatives to Microsoft Office, the history of LibreOffice, why a truly open document format is so important as well as random detours into the concept o...

What makes a beautiful app interface, a stunning icon, or that little bit of UI magic that shows the care poured into the design process? Our returning guest is Gedeon Maheux, co-founder of Icon Factory, who joins Jae and James to talk about how human design will always beat out generative AI and how the latter is having a substantial impact on their business. Do you have a favourite app design, o...

Did you grow up wishing you could make real 3D objects from your computer, maybe if you're British you remember the cartoon 'Penny Crayon'? Well, in this modern world we live in, you can do all of that with a 3D printer. Our guest is friend of the show and all-round self-hosting nerd, James Smith, who has been working on Manyfold which is a self-hosted project you can use to manage all of your 3D...

Yes, we're back again, and you'll get to hear exactly what's kept Jae and James so busy over the last several months. We're joined again by Alex Lowe from The Interface to dissect an Apple keynote, this time the one from WWDC 2025. What do you think to Liquid Glass (or Liquid Gas, though that's a whole different discussion), and are you as excited as we are about the new multi-tasking features com...

It's been a hectic few months here for the team, but on November 4th 2024 we sat down with Alex Lowe for coverage of Apple's end of October announcements for their new m4 powered Macs. Apologies this episode is so late in coming to you, but we hope you enjoy the Christmas Present! We discuss how these style of announcements works better for content creators, the power of the new m4 chips, and the...

Without fail, Apple released their next iPhone, a new Apple Watch and some new software for their range of devices. What we didn't expect was for Apple to take a step into the hearing aid market with new firmware coming ot the AirPods Pro 2 later this year. As with any other Apple event, Jae and James are joined by Alex Lowe from The Interface and this time returning guest Gedeon Maheux from The I...

Do you remember when smartphones weren't just running Apple or Google's OS, when you really did need a stylus to do anything, and when the very idea of connectivity to the Internet was a expensive affair involving PCMCIA, CompactFlash, or SD based adaptors? Our panel does! Joining us once again are the wonderful Dan Vincent, Sean (aka. Action Retro), and Steve (aka Mac84) to dive into the world of...

It's Apple Event time again; recorded a few weeks after Apple's WWDC 2024 Keynote, James, Jae, and Alex sit down for a chat about everything Apple announced at the June 10th event. Apologies this has taken longer than usual to get out to you, work and other commitments have definitely gotten in the way. We will have more amazing episodes coming at a more regular pace for you going forward. What do...

Apple held their 'Let Loose' event on May 7th, 2024 and not long after the 'dream team' of Crossed Wires Apple coverage gathered to discuss the new iPads, the rather confusing line up of Apple Pencils. We also take a detour to look into why WiFI 7 not being included in the new iPads is not as big of a factor as some may think. Finally, we discuss the powerful new features in Apple's pro apps for i...

As centralised social media platforms become more and more hostile, with not only toxicity from undesirable elements but also massive privacy concerns, the Fediverse has become somewhat of a refuge for those who want to share freely and openly, without the worry of appeasing the almighty algorithms. There are some fantastic Mastodon issues for you to join, but what if you want a bit more control,...

The hype around AI continues to grow, often muddling genuinely useful elements like machine learning, pattern recognition, and properly and ethnically trained large language models with tools like ChatGPT and generative AI tools that have questionable data sources. With returning guests, Prof. Catherine Flick and our very own Zack, we talk about the challenges of AI in the academic space. Zack als...

If you’ve ever purchased a new laptop, you’ll know only too well the pain of configuring your new system to get your dream setup. With some manufacturers, looking at you here Apple, your choice of storage and memory are there for the lifetime of the laptop. Worst still, if you have a failed component on your laptop you’re often faced with expensive and proprietary repair options that can often cos...

It’s our pleasure to be joined again by The Iconfactory’s Gedeon Maheux, this time we’re talking less Star Trek and more Tapestry, no not that episode with Q and Picard! Project Tapestry is their latest KickStarter project, and the goal is to create a one-stop-shop for reading the influx of things that matter to you on the web. As long as the site has an open and accessible endpoint for you to get...

With so many choices in browsers on desktop, mobile, and even our vehicles, it’s important to look under-the-hood to understand the differences between the engines that power your favourite browser.  Be that Chromium, WebKit, or Gecko, not all browsers are created equal and have varying features and views on the rights of their users. We’re honoured to be joined by Jon von Tetzchner, the CEO of Vi...

Whether you work in tech, produce tech content, or just happen to use a smartphone, a single question can spark debate and an explosion of extreme views from both sides. That question is simple, iPhone or Android? We’re joined by our Zack, one of Jae’s nephews and a longtime Android user and advocate to have an honest discussion about why we like the platforms we’ve settled on and where we see pot...

You’ll have heard James and Jae wax lyrical about their love for the UniFi line of networking gear on our live streams and in past episodes with Alex, as well as with Cody from MacTelecom Networks, but this episode is a fairly deep look into why we love UniFi. We’re joined by Alex Lowe and Evan McCann, the hosts of UI Chat, a monthly Ubiquiti focussed podcast that is definitely our go-to resource...

Imagine a time when internet access meant using an analogue modem to dial a phone number in order to connect to the internet at speeds of up 7 kilobytes a second! Now imagine trying to play online games such as Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Euro 96, and even Bridge, over that connection. Our guests this week, Phil and Stu Ashby, helped to create and run Wireplay, a dial-up based online gaming servic...

In what’s starting to become a Crossed Wires tradition, James, Jae and Alex gather to discuss Apple’s latest event, which was scarily short at just over 30 mins long, making this possibly our shortest event coverage episode to date! We unpack what the new m3 powered Macs mean in terms of performance, with Apple specifically targeting those who have yet to convert from Intel based Macs and early m1...

When we think of programming, we may tend to think of Matrix-esque nerds sat in front of green-on-black screens absorbed in code that makes less sense than a chocolate teapot, or we may think of super-star game developers bashing out the latest GTA or similar. The reality is that programming is very much a problem solving exercise, and languages like Ruby provide a set of tools for how to map out...

Accessibility is essential to allow everyone to enjoy experiences that they may have, in the past, missed out on due to a lack of vision, a lack of hearing, or so many other factors. As many of you will know, both Jae and James are visually impaired, and so making one of our favourite pastimes more accessible for those with a wide range of sight conditions is a truly exciting topic for us.  So, Ja...

Before we go into this week’s new episode, we’d like to thank everyone for their patience whilst both Jae and James have had what can only be described as an insanely busy (and great!) summer. We’re planning to keep new episodes coming out weekly going forward, and we really do have some great episodes already recorded. We sat down to record with good friend of the show, Alex Lowe of The Interface...

Cloud Gaming is something you might have heard about; you may have even used a service like GeForce NOW, Xbox Cloud Gaming or even the recently departed Google Stadia. Jae and James sat down with Jay Hamilton and Omega of Thoughtable Network to talk about OnLive and also the modern cloud gaming services. OnLive is the technology that PlayStation Now is built on and understanding the past is import...

It’s been over 6 years since Nintendo released their hybrid-console, the massively popular Switch to the world and it would be fair to say that this combination home console and portable gaming device has had a huge impact on the gaming world.  For the longest time, the Switch was my only games system (not including my iPhone and iPad of course), and the wide range of games certainly makes it an a...