Episode 141 - Google I/O 2026 (Oh, and go watch Star Wars)

Episode 141 - Google I/O 2026 (Oh, and go watch Star Wars)

Technology, by its very nature, is in a constant state of change. What was yesterday’s banner new product or feature sure to take the world by storm is today’s soon-forgotten commodity that we-the-user already take for granted. It’s the way of things.  That said, every so often, the change is so big, so foundational, and so… irreversible… it hits just a little bit different.  That level of change, while still very much in-progress, felt like the inescapable truth of Google I/O this year.  Search, while still very much at the forefront, continues to evolve in front of our eyes from an answer-machine to an AI-driven buddy here to help you allegedly solve all the mysteries of the Universe. Shopping need no longer be confined to the four digital walls of a single online storefront, and instead span the very web itself with one Shopping Cart to rule them all. AI itself shouldn’t just be the tool of the tech-centric nerd, rather front and center to help grandma turn her hand-written recipe book into a vibe coded cooking app her whole family can enjoy…  At least, this is what Google says (more loudly than ever), the moment is.  Peer just underneath the surface though, and it’s so, so much bigger than even any of that. This isn’t a fight for market share, platform scale, or even Silicon Valley bragging rights. No, they would have you believe this is nothing more than a fight for survival. The survival of their companies, their mission, and perhaps even the human race itself.  You know, because of shopping carts… Listen, I couldn’t agree more… something about this messaging is… out of whack The stakes seem misaligned with the message, and behind them the dollars seem misaligned with the payday.  But, in the meantime, another I/O has come-and-gone… and with it, Google paints a future not of itself, but of its vision for the future of the web…

Episode 140 - All I wanted was a Steam Controller...

This week on the Solid State Podcast, the only plan we could possibly be accused of having was… well none at all… See if you haven’t noticed, the world is in a bit of a… state of flux right now.  Need some RAM? Good luck. Does your product ship by boat through… certain parts of the world? Not right now it’s probably not. Oh and remember “Kyle”, the one helpful person you finally found at AT&T customer service? He’s been replaced by an AI “assistant” that apparently doesn’t realize the word “agent” has numerous meanings and doesn’t seem to understand that I don’t want to trade in my phone for a bottle of phosphoric acid… So with everything seeming to change on the daily, where does that leave three podcasters other than to embrace the crazy and chart our course through… whatever the heck is going on.  I try to but a Steam Controller… very unsuccessfully.  We all try to understand the naming conventions behind the latest gadgets… somehow more unsuccessfully.  Oh and Microsoft dropped the price of Game Pass and all we had to give up was Call of Duty? See, it wasn’t all bad!  Developer conferences looming right around the corner, somehow all this activity feels like the storm before the… umm… slightly bigger storm?  Buckle up everybody, turbulence ahead…

Episode 139 - What does "MSP" stand for? (Oh... and Tim Cook stepped down...)

I would be the last one to call myself a marketing genius, guru, or any other term that might suggest one knows what the heck they’re talking about… but even I know that, in many cases, it’s helpful to call a thing what it is or is supposed to be… you know… so people know what it is or what it’s for?  iPhone? It was an phone with an iPod in it… Desktop Computer? Yep, a computer that, once upon a time, sat on a desk… Google? Okay, not every example is perfect but you get what I mean…  So what is it that I’m on about that makes me sound just that little-bit-more insane that I usually am? Well, if you didn’t know already this podcast… isn’t exactly our day job. Shocker, I know.  My outstanding co-presenters are midline-podcasters by very-early-day and front line, in the weeds, technology consultants by… the rest of those days.  But the specific vertical of all-things-tech we work in? That is this incredible, wonderful, and oftentimes brain-scrambling segment called “Managed Services” which makes us… yep… a “Managed Services Provider” or M-S-P…  You might be wondering, but John, does that mean the “T” in MSP stands for Technology? Congratulations, you’re now just as confused as I’ve been about my own job for the last two decades.  All of the jargon-y-ness aside though… as the tech-of-it-call continues to effectively invade every facet of our work lives, home lives, and everything in between… suddenly it starts to make sense… The wrong computer goes down… orders don’t ship on time. A certain printer breaks… checks aren’t cut. The bad guys compromise the wrong email account and… to be quite honest… jobs are at stake.  So that missing “T” I was talking about? This crazy game has gotten so much bigger than that… So today let’s find out, what does MSP really stand for?  Oh, and have you tried turning it off and on again?

Episode 138 - The thing about Wearables in 2026

It’s honestly very funny to me how you can look at a gadget and think one particular way about it… have a stray thought… and then suddenly look at that same gadget in a VERY different light… Spoiler warning and all that jazz, but I recently had that exact experience with nothing other than my trusty, daily driver Apple Watch.  There’s no getting around it, the Apple Watch didn’t just define a category, it de facto created it. Yes I know, every Pebble owner and Moto 360 faithful (you know who you are) is clamoring for their keyboard to email me as I speak… but it simply can’t be ignored that like the iPad, the iPhone, and yes the venerable iPod before it, the Apple Watch made wearables the market it is today. Oh, and it continues to sit atop it.  So taking all of that and somehow… setting it aside… is it good for me? Apple says this device is a health and fitness forward piece of technology… designed to make your day easier, your Walled Garden journey more fruitful, and your heart beat ever-so-better… And honestly… all of that is true. The ways I’ve integrated it into my daily workflow have made it easier. The integration with the other Apple-driven services in my life are borderline flawless. And, as someone who went through a substantial health journey over the last five years… I don’t know if I would have gotten here without that watch. Oh, and possibly more important… those three colored rings…… And that's the thought I had the other day, the one that made me gaze at my wrist in an entirely different light for the first time in over a decade. My jeans are a different size today than if I hadn’t had that tool, there’s almost no doubt about that. But here, now, in 2026… am I an addict?  Well dear listener, in true Solid State fashion there’s only one way to find out… let’s dive in…

Episode 137 - Four Years (and one week) Anniversary Special

This week on the Solid State Podcast… we’re another year older, certainly no wiser, and somehow just as not-on-time as ever…  Yep, you guessed it… on March 11, 2022 we dropped the very first full episode of the show… the runtimes were a shorter, the content was honestly a bit smarter, and my gadget collection… okay it was already out of control but its definitely gotten worse over those years…  So when our Anniversary date rolled around we sat down, prepped a show around it, and then I proceeded to get whatever the heck this “cold” is that seemingly everyone I know has lately and lets face it… you didn’t want to listen to whatever that would have been for an hour.  So, in the most on-brand way possible, we come to you Four Years and One Week into this whole things to deliver not just a walk down memory lane but also to connect the dots over those years and ask ourselves… how much has really changed?  Vinyl? Still flying off the shelves. Building a PC in 2026? Somehow more expensive than in 2022. Oh and the “Singularity”? I don’t know who’s idea it was to launch this show talking about a global-scale AI platform but… uh… yeah…… There’s nothing else to say other than, everything else aside… Thank You. Thank you for four years (okay, and a week) of laughs, bad puns, and tortured credit cards… and here’s to a heck-of-a-lot more... Make it so.