Link to Netflix News

This jumped out at me because LEGO Party just came out and is on my Switch Wish List. What isn’t mentioned is how any of this works. Will it all be on phones like Jackbox games? Controller support on AppleTV? It says coming soon, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Funny enough, I just decided to take a Netflix break as the price has gotten out of control and today it expires. So this might be a reason to sign back up in a few months.

In what I think is the most intense extended acting he’s done on Late Night, Seth introduced the interns that have been working on the show.

On Kimmel, his brother did his Gavin Newsom impression and Seth got to play big brother (well, he is, but was also acting).

(The Newsom part starts at 8:45, Kimmel posts long clips instead of breaking them up.)

Finally, on Corrections, Seth goes all in on the whispering bit in one of the shortest Corrections ever.

Like the game Moving Out but wish you were driving a forklift in a warehouse? Then take a look at this.

Looks like it’s only coming to Steam for now, but this screams Switch game.

They also have a game called PEAK that came out this summer. You and your team climb a mountain. Doesn’t look quite as chaotic but likely stressful. Also only on Steam but should be on Switch.

Logitech announced the MX Master 4. I’m currently using the MX Master 3S and pretty sure I’ve used every iteration before.

This one adds haptic feedback (do I need that?), a USB-C receiver (I’ve been using Bluetooth, but I think the receiver is better), and a new button.

I’ve always liked this series for the number of buttons and ability to customize them. On the Mac I can pull up all my windows, bring up the app switcher, and I have the thumb wheel set to adjust the volume. Imagine what can be done with another button.

I’ve never been a fan of Apple’s Magic Mouse and I prefer a mouse to a trackpad. I do have an Apple Magic Trackpad on my desk for rare use cases. I turned it on the other day for Final Cut Pro since it makes zooming on the timeline so much easier.

The 3S was a really nice upgrade, the softer clicking is nice and I think this one is even quieter. Not sure these changes are enough to upgrade but if you have an earlier version or don’t have one and think you’d like a mouse with all the buttons, check it out.

Link to Google’s announcement

It was strange a few months ago when Google announced that Nest Aware was getting another price increase with no new features. I saw a lot of people in the Reddit groups saying they were bailing on Google/Nest. I looked at some other options but nothing looked good enough to be worth the up front investment to buy all new cameras. If another company had the right types of cameras and 24/7 recording, only then would consideration begin.

In the Google Home/Nest ecosystem I have a bunch of cameras – including a doorbell camera, outdoor camera, and a few in the house. I have a few Nest Home Hubs that are exclusively used as digital picture frames and the one in the kitchen is the only one with the microphone enabled. I only talk to it for one reason, to set timers. I use Apple as my main home setup, I don’t often talk to Siri but it works for turning lights on and off when I ask.

The migration from the Nest app to Google Home has not been good. I avoided moving any cameras over to Google Home until earlier this year when my old Nest Doorbell was finally giving out (when someone would ring the doorbell, it would turn off, apparently that means an internal battery has died, after watching some videos on how “easy” it is to fix, it was time for a new doorbell). Even now having some cameras required to be in the Google Home app, I have two in the Nest app because it is still better. My two biggest complaints: when opening the Google Home app, it takes over the audio on my phone, so whatever I’m listening to stops playing, and while they’ve added the ability to tap to skip forward or back 15 seconds, it doesn’t work on the live video.

Speaking of devices dying. Besides the doorbell this year, I’ve had a Nest Home Hub screen die and a Nest IQ Indoor camera stop working.

The new doorbell is tempting, if only because the one I have really reduced the field of view from my original Nest doorbell. I’m glad to have a newer outdoor option. I currently have a Nest IQ Outdoor on the back of the house, not something I’m wanting to swap out often as it was just screwed into the new siding. I wish they would have made one that reused the IQ’s mounting plate.

Third Party cameras are maybe the biggest part of the announcement. Walmart has a $23 camera that is supposed to hook into Google Home just like the Nest cameras. I will be keeping an eye out to see how well that works and what other companies jump on board.

Google Gemini is the other part of the announcement and I’m not sure how much I care. I don’t think it is going to make setting timers any better. I am curious about the camera features such as describing what it sees in a notification. Maybe it can even be smart enough to say that in the backyard the movement is that shadows appeared because the sun came out. Then it can figure out that it shouldn’t bother me with that notification.

In typical Google fashion, I don’t have this year. Will I have it later today? This month? This year? There is no way to know.

I am going to want that doorbell.

Microsoft announced their changes to Xbox Game Pass today and I might be out. Their image with the new tiers and prices lays it all out.

I’m currently on Ultimate. I think I have been paying around $10/month by buying a year’s worth of discounted codes around Black Friday. Even if there are discounts, a great discount might bring the new Ultimate down to $20/month, which is too much for my liking. The new perks they are offering aren’t too exciting to me.

It will probably be around the same price to buy the games I want when they go on sale. What I’ve liked about Game Pass has been getting all the Microsoft published games Day 1 and the EA games after about a year. More generally, having access to a bunch of games to try out that I otherwise wouldn’t buy is a great feature.

What about Premium? This might be the way, and maybe only buying it on occasion instead of having it year round. The Microsoft Day 1 releases I usually didn’t get to until months after. Usually because I have other things I want to play first but recently it’s a good idea to wait for a few months of patches before jumping in.

What about PS Plus? I think this is another option to look at for the idea of having a collection of games to try. I’m curious about the Game Trial feature in the Premium offering.

Seems that subscriptions across the board are increasing beyond my comfort zone.

The Poscast’s 32nd Annual Holiday Draft

The podcast episode I look forward to the most every year that somehow always meets or exceeds those high expectations. This year they are drafting “Holiday Cheer”. I think you can listen if you aren’t a regular listener and definitely don’t have to be a baseball fan.

StarTalk – The Reason We Have 7 Days in a Week

Seems like this information should be pretty widely known and I’m sure I’ve heard most of it before but this is so excellent. The amount of interesting information packed into this video is incredible.

Howard Stern – Can Oz “The Mentalist” Pearlman Guess Howard’s Secret Word?

Stern clips can be difficult because they take things that take up to an hour on the show and edit them down to a few minutes. In this case I think they captured almost all of it. I still don’t know how I feel about mentalists as entertainment. It makes me just uncomfortable enough that I can enjoy for a bit but don’t think I’d make it through a live show.

10 wildest Jomboy lip readings of 2024, a breakdown

Jomboy has done a few end of year recaps but his lip readings are his specialty. This one not only has a great Phillies clip but the Flyers make a rare non-baseball appearance on the list. The embed didn’t work due to “language”, so click on through.

Pennies and Checks

Two stories that I found on Numlock News that have enough in common to stick together.

America Must Free Itself from the Tyranny of the Penny (September 3 Numlock News)
The idea of getting rid of the penny pops up in these types stories every once in a while. Thankfully this one has fun facts!

• Most minted pennies are made to eventually be change, then we get the pennies as change and never use them.
• There are 240 billion pennies somewhere, who knows where. Each person on average has $7.23 in pennies.
• If people actually used these pennies it would be a nightmare, that’s too many pennies for banks or the government to manage.
• $100 in pennies weights 55lbs.
• Pennies are minted in Philadelphia and Denver.
• In the 1970s, pennies were mostly copper. GE started putting holes in them and using them as washers in appliances since they were cheaper than buying washers. The Secret Service had to shut that down.

It’s never been more confusing to pay for something (September 12 Numlock News)
Not sure about the title here as I haven’t had an issue figuring out how to pay for something, but it certainly is an issue for places going cashless or no longer accepting checks. There is a lot in the story about how people tend to pay for things. You guessed it, they have some facts!

• In 2000, Americans averaged writing 60 checks per year, now it’s 9. -I guess that seems like a lot but do the checks my bank prints and mails for me count as checks I wrote?
• In October 2023 the average was 1.23 checks and 7.3 cash transactions for the month. -The math doesn’t quite add up for the year in the last fact, but close enough.
• 40% of people carry cash.

Watchin’ Guts

Jomboy isn’t just baseball videos. This is my new favorite series (it started last year but I started this summer). They just watch GUTS, drafting their player for the episode and rooting for them. There are all sorts of scoring rules to make it a competition throughout the season. Below is probably the first episode, I started with season 5 and season 7 just started. I always watched GUTS as a kid but the added commentary from the guys along with their bad luck and getting upset with these kids takes it to another level.

Link to the playlist with all the episodes.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? TV Show

Everyone watched this show, right? It was on PBS so even the didn’t have cable kids should have been onboard. I was also obsessed with the computer game and all its variations. This video covers the story of the game show but starts from the original games.

I had this one saved for a bit and then this week a new game was announced. This time you play as Carmen Sandiego. It looks like it is based on the newer Netflix show. The trailer shows that you are following clues and puzzles to catch thieves but Carmen is the world’s greatest thief. Is she capturing other thieves to stay on top. I’m a little confused by the plot here.

I couldn’t pick my tile between the two classic TV theme songs I was working from.

iOS 18 is out on Monday. To my surprise, I don’t think everyone pays attention to every Apple news story like I do. Even less likely, do they install the beta software as soon as it’s relatively safe. That makes me wonder if when everyone installs the updates if they have any idea what is in them. I’ve been using iOS 18 for 2+ months and here are some of the things that you’ll notice or might want to consider looking into. This way you’ll be ready when you update.

I’ll grab images from Apple’s iOS 18 page, which you should also check out to see all the features. I also don’t have an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence but so far on the devices I do have with it, I don’t see much use for it.

Home Screen Changes

This is the biggest change to me, probably because it is the most seen. I enabled the large icons (Edit Home Screen -> Customize) which also removes the app labels under the icons. I like it a lot but when I use my work phone that isn’t updated yet, it’s pretty shocking how tiny the icons look. You will need to know what all the app icons are since the labels will be gone.