TW122: Pocket Casts Juggling, Audio Experiments & Building a Tech‑Savvy Team

TW122: Pocket Casts Juggling, Audio Experiments & Building a Tech‑Savvy Team In this episode of Technically Working, Damashe and Michael dive into practical experiments, tool comparisons and community announcements. Here’s what you’ll hear: 🧪 Audio experiments with Zoom H5 and iPhone 15 Pro Portable recording setup – Damashe connects a Zoom H5 Studio recorder to an iPhone 15 Pro running an early iOS 26 beta and discovers that multi‑track mode causes the phone to hear VoiceOver but not his microphone. Switching the recorder from multi‑track to stereo resolves the issue. Why it matters – They discuss how important it is to test gear before critical recordings and remind listeners that mobile interfaces may behave differently across iOS and Android. 🎧 Pocket Casts deep‑dive and cross‑device realities Trying out a new player – Michael compares Pocket Casts to his long‑time favourite Castro/Overcast. He likes the statistics (hours listened vs. saved) and subscribes to 56 shows after trimming his massive OPML file. Filters and queue management – He uses the “New” filter to see fresh episodes and explains how the “Up Next” tab tells you how long it will take to finish your queue. Michael also notes you can enable Play on tap in Settings to start an episode immediately from the queue. Sync quirks across devices – Pocket Casts doesn’t consistently resume playback when switching between the iPhone and Pixel. Damashe observes that about 40 % of the time it works correctly; otherwise the episode restarts. They hope future updates will improve background syncing. Accessing trials – Michael shares a tip for redeeming a two‑month Premium trial: if Apple’s store blocks the offer because of a previous subscription, open the link in Android’s Play Store instead. 👥 Hiring, training and generative AI Building a team – Damashe is hiring a new employee and realizes he needs to keep recruiting rather than stop after filling one slot. He recounts meeting drivers through Uber who might become part‑time helpers. Generative AI training – They joke about clipping an Insta360 camera to record vending‑machine maintenance and using ChatGPT or other models to generate training videos. Michael even sets a reminder in Agent‑mode to revisit the idea and tries to track his TikTok follower count using transcripts. Agent‑mode notifications – The hosts appreciate how ChatGPT’s agent mode can run deep research tasks and send notifications when the work is done. 🛠️ Tools, coding & accessibility Command‑line companions – Damashe uses Anthropic’s Claude and GitHub Copilot on the command line for documentation and merges. He notes that putting special characters in VoiceOver’s pronunciation dictionary stops the screen reader from announcing arrows and pipes. Terminal apps – He asks if there are better macOS terminal apps than the built‑in Terminal and mentions that I‑Term 2 didn’t click for him previously. Tools menu improvements – Michael describes updates to his event‑scheduling tool, including generation shortcuts, data‑quality checks and a more streamlined interface for removing Zoom links before publishing. 📢 Community announcement: BITS VS Code crash course Free crash course – Michael announces that BITS (Blind Information Technology Specialists) will hold a free four‑hour Visual Studio Code crash course on August 16. The session focuses on configuring VS Code for screen‑reader users and leveraging GitHub Copilot. How to join – Details will appear at bits‑acb.org or joinbits.org. The course is open to everyone and Michael encourages listeners to become a BITS member or life member. 🌐 Stay connected Follow the show on Mastodon: @[email protected]. Follow the hosts: @[email protected] (Michael) and @[email protected] (Damashe). Send feedback to [email protected] – they would love to hear from you.

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