We're wrapping up the show to consolidate the Byteside podcast network into our core show, Byteside!

Search 'Byteside' in your podcast app or hit the relevant link below to add it to your app of choice:

Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/itunes/1482077503

Overcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/overcast-podcast-player/id888422857

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1482077503

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzA0NzA5ZTVkLWU0ZTQtNDk0Ny1hYmNmLTYyZDM3MmIyZTFiNg

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43tUBmO4DknkGbd4Hw9dlb

RSS: https://rss.acast.com/byteside

And get loads more written content at byteside.com.

Thanks so much for tuning into the show – we've got a lot more in store, but all distilled into the one true podcast feed... Byteside.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you hear the name Blackberry, most people will think back to its dominance of the early era of smartphone tech before touchscreens arrived and changed the game. But the company transformed itself over the past decade and one of the areas it is now leading in is embedded computing systems for vehicles.

Sarah Tatsis is Senior Vice President of the Advanced Technology Development Labs at Blackberry and is constantly thinking about what's coming next in embedded systems so this week we've had the chance to catch up with Sarah to discuss what BlackBerry is up to in this area and what the promises are for the future of technology and particularly data out there on the road. We chat about how vehicle data can be put to better use, how in-car information systems will improve, and of course how to protect this data while making it more useful.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's a big difference between a product marketed 'for gamers' and a product that has genuinely been designed for gaming, so this week I'm talking to two key team members on a recent product launch to get a solid insight on which column the new Optus Gamer Plans really sit in. No surprise, if they're willing to come on the show, they're feeling confident they've designed something that is the real deal and, once you hear the story I think you'll get a good feeling about it too, especially once you factor in tools like Game Path. But let's not jump ahead!

I'm talking to Steven Manichanh, Senior Product Development Manager and Clive Dickens, VP of Product Development. Clive joins us part way through the conversation, so I kick things off asking Steven to hit that important question and help alleviate the gamer scepticism head on.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is sponsored by IBM, and I'm speaking with Wesley Allen, Business Leader for IBM Cloud Platform in ANZ.

We're specifically digging into the discussion of hybrid cloud and the role it has to play in the enterprise. Over the past year in my wider work I've spoken to a lot of IT leaders about digital transformation and it's clear that people are seeing that there is a lot more to life than either full on-premises or a full lift and shift to the cloud, so it's important to get a grip on the nuance in how use a hybrid design to solve problems in a way that suits your specific needs. We talk about scenarios, risks, misunderstandings, and key questions to ask when designing the right solution. Wesley brings a lot of insight and experience to the discussion so it was great to get his time for the show. Let's dive in. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talk to Ryan Richards, Global Product Marketing Director at Sonos, about the new Sonos Roam, the new portable speaker about to join the Sonos line up. It's aiming to compete in the most hotly contested slice of the audio scene – why do they think they can win there and how does this serve as a gateway to the wider Sonos experience?

Plus we look at their Ikea partnership and their new music services to find out how the bigger picture at Sonos is going in 2021.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Google announced it would end its unlimited free photo storage service. There’s obvious reasons for doing so, and Google argued the case in its blog post announcing the decision.

It’s annoying and will force a big shift in our relationship with photo storage and backups of all kinds. Many will maybe panic at the idea that the future of where they put their photos is uncertain. If you have to pay, should you reconsider where you store them? What is in there now will be given the ‘doesn’t count’ treatment so you don’t have to move them… but do you really want a split library of the history of your life?

So many cultural issues attached to reorganising our digital archives in this context. But the biggest question should probably look closely at what Google did to the photo storage industry when it offered free photo storage in the first place.

If Woolworths started offering free milk there would be uproar over anti-competitive behaviour, because the local corner store can’t afford to wear a loss like that. It has caused its own problems that the big supermarkets have offered very cheap milk – but free? The consumer watchdog would step in.

Yet, like in so many other contexts, the digital world always accepts the idea that offering genuinely valuable utility services for free is OK for the big guys to do. If some other company wanted to try to innovate in that space, well they’d better be able to convince people why it’s worth paying for the service – because it’s OK that other companies offer that same base function for free.

I used to use Smugmug and Flickr, and those companies had their key features and options that they tried to make their attractive proposition for 'Pro’ customers to pay a monthly fee. But with Google, we all had the account, and it was so easy to just say “Yes” and watch it all vacuumed into one place without a major fuss.

Today I pay Apple for my photo storage alongside still having a second home for backups at Google Photos. But I’m sure many Android users have made this their home.

If five years ago someone had said “free storage until we decide we’ve killed enough competition and we’ve copied enough of their features that you will find it easiest to just pay us instead of try to move it all somewhere else” would as many people have said yes? Maybe. We’ll never know.

Control the storage, control the customer in so many ways.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Seamus interviews Michela Ledwidge, a virtual production director who has just helped Harry Shearer launch an album of satirical songs with Shearer shifting from his famous roles of The Simpsons and Spinal Tap into the tweeter-in-chief, Donald Trump.

If it isn't freaky enough to watch these videos and see just how uncanny the deep fakery can be, especially when you have a voice artist like Harry behind the performance, the whole thing was produced across the great Pacific divide during coronavirus lockdowns.

We talk about where it started, how it was produced between two Australian production companies (Michela's Mod studio and another Australian team, Electric Lens Company), how you manage directing a motion captured performance like this remotely, and what it means for the technology to be capable of pulling something like this off today.

It's a fun and insightful conversation on the future of all kinds of digital production opportunities in a field where Mod has become a world leader in how to push the boundaries of what's possible.

You can find the videos at Harry Shearer's YouTube channel and the full album, The Many Moods of Donald Trump, is on Spotify or wherever you get your new music.

https://www.youtube.com/c/HarryShearerYT4U/videos

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the aggressive subscription pricing for Xbox All Access to the buyout of ZeniMax Studios, it all fits the mission of getting every fan of Xbox to commit to a monthly Game Pass. That's what Microsoft has become – deliver value and depth that makes customers keep giving you money.

In this episode Seamus walks through two recent newsletter columns that bring together his thinking on all the Xbox news and how it shows they're chasing a different strategy altogether than Sony with its PlayStation.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We speak to Brian Swift, Head of Product at SafetyCulture, an Australian unicorn startup that is using everything from the simplest print out checklists to internet of things sensors to help people run better safety procedures and risk management in their businesses. It's niche, but it's genuinely helping to enable better, yep, safety culture in the businesses they support.

We dig into how they decided on which problems to solve and how their technology is a great demonstration of what the promise of the internet of things can really do.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've talked virtual and augmented reality a few times over recent times. I guess it's on my list of things that are not all that overrated, but perhaps misunderstood. So today we're talking to a VR practitioner about how they're working in augmented reality and putting it in the real world with some help from smartphones and even 5G tech.

Simone Clow is the CEO of Virtual Immersive, a company that produces a lot of commercial VR and AR content for companies to create cool experiences on phones or in stores and at special events.

Simone came to the immersive tech industry from a long career in visual effects production for film and TV, and co-founded Virtual Immersive in 2017. She's got lots of interesting thoughts on where we're at now and where things might go next and the potential for 5G at offloading a lot of the heavy lifting to make our VR and AR gear more comfortable to use.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.