In the Weeds with Dexter Johnson

The latest offering from Instagram, dubbed IGTV, is going to shake up mobile video in one way or another. This new platform focuses on the much maligned vertical video and is meant for smartphone viewing. Many have claimed that this is a competitor to YouTube; however, I think it's the nail in the coffin for Snapchat. || Let's continue our discussion! Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @dexter_...

Google makes multiple attempts at many things, sometimes their apps and services make it, sometimes hey get rolled into another and other times they are separated out into a new app when it's confusing of how to find that feature in a current app --meet Google Podcasts, the app that should've been there all along. || Let's continue our discussion! Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @dexter_john...

As usual, law enforcement is exciting fear over what they supposedly cannot do if Apple strengthens device protection by locking down USB access so that Cellebrite and other hacking machines cannot syphon data off of iOS devices. Everyone has a right to privacy and just because you don a badge doesn't give you the right to rummage through everyone's digital assets. Cry me a river. Link to the stor...

The World Health Organization is officially recognizing gaming disorder as a thing. Addiction to video games is a real problem, with games becoming more realistic and captivating than ever -- what could this mean for us as a society? || Let's continue our discussion! Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @dexter_johnson and visit http://DexJohnsPC.com to stay on top of my latest posts. Share this...

Lovers of the other side always criticize the other company while there are succinct reasons why each company pursues different avenues which are directly related to what they are inherently good at. Apple is awful at AI -- take a look at Siri and tell someone otherwise. Google really has no clue how other OEMs will implement it's AR features into their devices. So they push what they can control...

Circle back to 2008 when BitTorrent was beginning to take the world by storm and ISPs infrastructure was laughably bad, Comcast created measures so that users would be affected by others....throttling speeds -- arguably heavy and light users would balance out. It's been announced that they are disabling this but keeping data caps -- why? Data caps have never made sense and are falsely putting a li...

Screen notches have become synonymous with 2018 every since iPhone X made this poor design decision ok. Everyone is fighting for the highest screen-to-body ratio. We'll friends, Vivo has done it...coming in at 91.24%, an in glass fingerprint reader, pop-up selfie camera and all of the highest-end specs, this phone stands out. Check out an article from The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbre...

In a world that is increasingly online, it only makes sense that one day our currencies should live in an online, secure, decentralized repository -- instead of giving banks, who are in bed with the government, all of our assets. The trouble comes when data breaches occur. This is more than hacking when crypto currency is stolen, it's outright thievery and instead of looking at this currency as a...

Google Assistant fired a gun, is what an artist reported to Engadget. Not really. There are no smart guns that are powered by Assistant. What this gentleman did is hooked up a switch to a TP-Link WiFi Enabled Plug then plugged the switch holding the gun into it. Upon saying "activate gun" -- it fired. Any digital assistant could've done this and it is no fault of the company. Remember, they don't...

Music streaming was largely pioneered when Appld began to flex it's muscles with iTunes and developed a model where companies with with labels to get music and artists on their respective platforms. Well this is changing now. Spotify wants to work directly with artists. This seems to be a win, win as Spotify won't have to deal with labels thus cutting the middle man out on both sides, it's very li...

Dolby Atmos and zero sign-in headline the features to be released this September in the tvOS 12 update. https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/apple/tvos-12-features-3668703/ || Let's continue our discussion! Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @dexter_johnson and visit http://DexJohnsPC.com to stay on top of my latest posts. Share this podcast with a friend!

New workouts, smarter Siri and Walkie Talkie will be coming to your Apple Watch this fall. Let's get excited! || Let's continue our discussion! Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @dexter_johnson and visit http://DexJohnsPC.com to stay on top of my latest posts. Share this podcast with a friend!

Apple's iOS 12, the new update for later this year that will be more performant has a lot of exciting features packed in! https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/4/17417730/apple-ios-12-iphone-update-best-features-wwdc-2018 || Let's continue our discussion! Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @dexter_johnson and visit http://DexJohnsPC.com to stay on top of my latest posts. Share this podcast with a fri...

After a huge amount of backlash, Google's Project Maven will not Renew at the end of the year. This comes after employees signed petitions and walked away from their jobs and all of the madness that is come out over the recent week. https://www.engadget.com/2018/06/01/google-will-not-renew-military-ai-contract-project-maven/ || Let's continue our discussion! Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @...

The General Data Protection Regulation is legislation put in place in the EU that puts the privacy of consumers first in this technological world. In a nutshell, if a company wants to use your data in any way -- they must explicitly state how and why. Additionally, if anything about that changes it must also be noted. Although, this is pushed by EU, it'll have global affects because companies will...

Project Maven, the project involving Google and the United States government, prompted fear and outrage from it's employees rightfully so. Google has now come forward to let us know that it is working on a set of guidelines to ensure that AI will not be used in weaponry. If this is the case, the public needs to see the guidelines. || Let's continue our discussion! Follow me on Twitter and Instagra...

The long coming AirPlay 2 and iCloud Message Sync features are now here. We've wanted to (and should've been able to) pair HomePods together into a stereo pair and create logical groupings, now you'll be able to take your listening experience to the next level. Additionally, Messages gets the overall we've always wanted with sync in iCloud! https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/05/ios-11-4-debuts-t...

It's apparent. It's so apparent. The automobile industry is deathly afraid of electric vehicles and is on it's heels to maintain this deathgrip that it has over many of us, including me. Open your minds to the benefits to the environment and your pocketbook that a hybrid or all electric vehicle can have -- change is good and for the sake of the planet it's necessary. The auto industry needs a shak...

Project Maven. A project headed up by the US government is one in which AI is needed to help drones discern what objects they see. Google seemingly has been helping out on this project, leading to several employee resignations. The larger issue here is why would you help a government that thinks it should scrape all of your (meaning Google) data for the "good" of society? Read more here: https://w...

Death by micro-payment is a real thing!! With apps and services wanting $1.99 a month, some prices are outrageous and it's almost sad that we can't pay one time and "own it" anymore. However, let's flip this around, without revenue how will these apps and services get better? How will they maintain operating costs? Some services are valuable to warrant being paid for; however, we can't let the fac...

This August expect some changes to third party Twitter clients that prevent real time notifications and background refreshes from happening. This won't break Twitter, but will make it a little more inconvenient to use. It seems that Twitter really wants you to use their front end client. Is this any different from any other ecosystem lock-in such as Apple? || Let's continue our discussion! Follow...

Google News might just replace all of your news feeds if you let it. Google's answer to the "fake news" debate is here in a revised version of Google Play Newsstand, meet Google News. Not only is this app curated to your likings based off of search history securely stored within Google, it also offers a "Headlines" section that takes you outside of your bubble to show you news from many topics and...

WWDC, Apple's famed developers conference starts on June 4, 2018! I'm not expecting a lot of hardware to be involved with these keynotes, but certainly more integrations for iOS and new features to help bring subsequent releases into 2018. Also, no Apple is not in trouble, despite analysts predictions. || Let's continue our discussion! Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @dexter_johnson and visi...

Apparently keyboard-gate is a thing folks. You've heard the complaints if you read tech blogs, the latest iteration of the MacBook keyboard is regarded as one of the most un-ergonomic, flawed keyboard designs that has ever been put in a laptop. A petition created by Matthew Taylor outlines many cases of keyboard issues, https://www.change.org/p/apple-apple-recall-macbook-pro-w-defective-keyboard-r...

Senate has had it's voice heard and in a 52-47 vote, they've voted to overturn the FCC's Restoring Internet Freedom Order, this was all made possible by the Congressional Review Act. Read more here: Senate votes to reinstate net neutrality — but it has a long way to go - The Vergehttps://apple.news/AL92lybMWT3qBjDZbvGiYwQ || Let's continue our discussion! Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @dex...