Inside View

Time for Factory Reset

by Bernie Goldbach in Clonmel

MY ANDROID PHONE needs a factory reset. It's more than five years old, has a cracked screen and a worn charging port, and its battery is well-worn.

I watch it go from being fully charged to less than 10 per cent power in three hours. It feels very warm to touch. I think I have rogue app that's causing a problem so I'm looking at either a factory reset followed by restoring the phone's services from its saved settings in the cloud. I wouldn't mind losing all the images and videos stored in the phone's memory.

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses First Impressions

by Bernie Goldbach in Clonmel

WE GOT TWO Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and I believe they are the best piece of tech I've purchased this year. Their design, audio performance, camera quality, and charging case deliver value for the €495 I spent to get the two sets of glasses. And I believe I will open new opportunities to spam friends with live streams before the end of the spring semester 2024.

I discovered a few things during the first two days of ownership.

TL;DR This is the time for you to consider wearing connected eyeglasses as you walk, run, and drive.

Using Two Wireless Rigs

by Bernie Goldbach in Clonmel

If you follow my Instagram or my Flickr photos, you'll know that I have a lot of old equipment along with some new stuff. I talked about both of those types of equipment and also about how we are setting up behind the scenes recording "Heritage and Stories" with the Tipperary libraries. This is important because I'm hoping that some of the people who join us--young kids on the youth media team and the librarians that are part of the staff--might listen to this Topgold Audio Clip and learn what's happening behind the scenes.

[Using Rode Wireless II as Laptop Mic]

I Have Achieved Parity #milestone

by Bernie Goldbach in Clonmel

FOR THE FIRST TIME in 15 years, my blog has recorded parity because an equal number of people have visited using iOS and Android. My experience mirrors a global trend.

However, when university students return to my classrooms, I suspect their higher usage of Android handsets will push iOS back down into the 40% range with my webstats. Meanwhile, the Micro.blog community is heavily slanted towards Apple products.

[Bernie Goldbach has used Statcounter to track more than 100,000 page views of InsideView.ie]

Instapaper Helps Me Read Deeper

I GET MORE from the books I read or the subscriptions I fund when I can explore segments of them in different formats. So when I glance back at highlighted passages through the use of apps, I often recall important points I forgot on my first pass through the material. Nothing helps me through this revision process better than my Instapaper and Readwise.

Continue to be impressed by @otter_ai

I KNOW IT'S important to offer more than one way of consuming educational material and that's why I'm trying to perfect a workflow that ensures I've a quick-hitting text version of my course materials.

Set Piece from a Locked Down Semester #clonmeldigital

SPRING SEMESTER 2020 enjoys historic standing as the time traditional academics pivoted dramatically into an emergency remote mode. Fortunately for me, I had 20 students near the finish line of the "Emerging Trends and Technologies" module who could produce a set piece that will enjoy critical appraisal whenever anybody looks back at what might be possible through a distance education collaboration of students.

Best Apps of 2019

WHILE LOOKING THROUGH listings of best apps and games of 2019, I discovered I'm running a few of the top-rated items worthy of editors' choices and winners of peoples' choice awards as well.

Best iPhone Game

Sky: The Children of the Light from thatgamecompany (screenshot above). Pro Tips: Sound is more than half of the experience. Kids using this app need to know how to read.

Slowly Becoming a Pet Sanctuary

WE HAVE TWO CATS, one dog, and a never-say-die goldfish. And now I'm polluting my social media newsfeed with stories about the animals.

And I've a related story worth noting. The animals have started consuming more than 25% of my cameraphone snaps. And that means they're also responsible for me learning how to use several high quality video production apps on my Samsung Note 9.

Brydge Keyboard works with Note 9

I'M A PASSENGER in a car headed to a Christmas dinner in Ireland and I just discovered I can use my two year old Brydge keyboard with my Samsung Galaxy Note 9. That is  big win for open stadards of Bluetooth connectivity. 

I plan to talk about all the things I've discovered in my gadget box that works with my week-old Note 9 You cannot imagine my joy is seeing how my keyboard skillls translate directly to the Note 9. I will also verify the keystrokes I used to make the Brydge keybooard bind to the Note 9's Bluetooth stack. 

If you are curious about the process, ask your podcatcher for "Topgold's Audio Clips" and listen to my 10 minute episodes.