I am currently living in a podcast glory moment of tremendously enjoying and taking advantage of the golden age of podcasts that we are currently living. And the best part is that this is due to adopting two technological changes I was totally against and had resisted until a series of circumstances helped force the change.
Details
The two technological changes I was resisting and their reasons are:
- having a mobile phone without a mini audio jack
Removing the mini audio jack on phones has just pissed me off from the beginning. I have no idea what the real reasons are, but the public reasons put forth by Apple are bull shit as there have been multiple phones with high IPX ratings that had the jack. I have multiple use cases where having the mini jack just makes ones life so much easier:- switching my Plantronics headphones from my laptop to my mobile so I can continue in an ongoing call.
- connecting to a radio system via RCA jacks with my mobile. The one I am thinking of is in my wife’s summer home that is a Sony from the 80’s that is still going strong.
- not needing yet another adapter that you never have when you need it.
- small wireless headphones
I have seen these of the embodiment of eco terrorism: a device that has no way to change the battery and has at most a useful life of a couple years and has to be thrown away as there is no way to change the battery.
What forced the change
There were two factors that pushed me to adopt both a mobile without a mini jack and small wireless headphones:
1.Mobile without mini jack: In in May of 2022 I bought a Pixel 5a, the last of the Pixel series that still had a mini jack. I had to have it sent to a hotel in San Francisco that I knew I would be visiting in May for the graduation of my daughter from USF. I went with the Pixel “A” line for one reason: the best camera in a mobile phone for around 500€. I went to SF with my Nikon xxx SLR and when I checked in I received my new phone and took it to the room and did some quick tests of the Nikon vs the Pixel 5a and the Nikon has not left its camera bag since. I spent a week in SF and LOVE all the pictures and I am amazed with the quality of the Pixel 5A. The problem arose due to me being a bit reckless and not using proper protection (something that fortunately was limited to my mobile phone use and not other areas of my life): I did not want to use a phone case as it made it too thick. Well, I learned my lesson quickly as before the phone was even a month old it began vibrating due to a call or notification and fell off a window ledge at the pool onto pavement and cracked the screen. As the Pixel 5a was only ever released in the US and Canada getting a replacement screen in Europe was basically more expensive that buying a new device. As a punishment to myself for my carelessness of not having used any protection I decided to continue using the device even though it had a cracked screen. Then in May a year later the phone began to have problems with the screen going blank and right at that time Google released the Pixel 7a and it was available in Spain. Needing a new mobile and now quite addicted to the Pixel camera I decided to sacrifice the mini jack.
2. Small wireless headphones:
And Google launched the Pixel 7a with an offer including Pixel Buds for free. My daughter had receive wireless headphones at Christmas and she told me she was not a believer but they had set her free. No more cable getting caught up in everything.
So I made the plunge for a new phone WITHOUT a mini jack and with eco terrorist headphones.
And it has changed my life.
Once COVID-19 allowed for home work I lost the time I previously was captive commuting to work that I used to listen to Today Explained in the morning and Morning Edition in the evening. So for about 3 years I have been pretty disconnected from everything as we watch 0 news at home. Now with my wireless headphone I am constantly listening to something, and have discovered the NPR One App that just starts playing a news summary when started, and then begins serving up content as it sees fit. I have discovered SO MANY cool things! Just take a look at the Podcasts That I liked at the top!
Thanks for reading and feel free to give feedback or comments via email (andrew@jupiterstation.net).