SPEAKER_0 [00:00:00]
Dramas, please.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:13]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:20]
This is life
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:22]
with a twist of lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:24]
Hey, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:27]
Hey, Stan. I was caught off guard because he didn't tell me I'm recording.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:32]
Oh. Well, John, I'm recording.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:34]
So am I.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:37]
We're recording life with twist of lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:40]
My name is Stan Lemon.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:42]
I'm John Colmire.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:44]
You can find us on the web at twistoflemonpod.com.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:48]
You can also find us on iTunes where you can leave us a five star review. Twitter, toasted lemon pod. I think we're on Facebook still or so the rumor holds.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:57]
We are. Alright. But you messed one thing up. What did I mess up? It's not called iTunes anymore. Oh, yep. Okay. The podcast app. Thank you very much. I I don't know. Are we in Spotify? We we are. Right? We are on Spotify. Okay. But apparently,
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:12]
one of our friend Joe Taylor's students can find us on Spotify.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:16]
Oh, really? Is this is this a recent development?
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:19]
No. You told me that a couple weeks ago?
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:22]
I don't remember telling you that. Did I tell you that? DC just it's just okay, boy. Maybe Joe told us that in the group text message. I missed that. So hopefully, you can find us. Maybe you should put a link to Spotify's listing of our site on or, you know, our podcast on our site. Maybe that that would work. I don't know.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:40]
Maybe.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:41]
Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:42]
Well, anyhow, John, we have a couple of follow-up things from last week,
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:46]
things that I promised I would cover.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:48]
But I also received
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:50]
more than a few texts texts wanting
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:53]
to know
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:54]
if you had finished Falcon
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:56]
and the Winter Soldier.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:58]
I did.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:59]
Okay. Alright. Now I don't think we've recorded anything since episode four. Like, I think we completely
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:05]
ignored episode five and six
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:08]
subsequent. If you remember, four,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:10]
that like, you were done. I in in fact, you didn't even watch five right away, did you? Yeah. Five, I think I watched, like, a week and a half later.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:18]
And then I watched six when I couldn't sleep later that night. So I watched five and six in the same twenty four hour period.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:24]
So I I thought you had given up on this. I was really surprised to hear that you had watched five.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:29]
Like, I I genuinely thought that we would be here,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:32]
you know, halfway through Loki or something and you would still not finish Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:39]
So I think the problem is that I'm a completionist,
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:42]
and I'd already
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:44]
spent a bunch of time invested into this season of the show,
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:48]
both viewing and discussing
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:51]
with you
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:52]
off podcast and on podcast.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:55]
Alright. So give us a tldr. What did you think of episode five, episode six, the completion of the show? We're not we are this is not gonna be an episode where we analyze
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:04]
Falcon and the Winter Soldier to death
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:06]
because we know John didn't like it. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:09]
Yeah. This listeners wanna know. They they they literally have texted me wanting to know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:13]
did John finish the show? What did he think?
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:16]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:17]
I still do not like it, and
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:21]
I'm having a hard time pulling apart what happened in episodes five and six.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:25]
Episode six was, like, their last ditch effort to
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:29]
bring back things that they introduced in episode one.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:33]
I both disliked that and appreciated it at the same time.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:39]
But, yeah, I mean,
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:42]
this this isn't good for my
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:44]
view of the Captain America
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:47]
storyline and character. Well, you didn't like Captain America coming into this. There's there's no surprise there. I I don't think this was going to somehow redeem Captain America based upon what you told us, you know, in the past.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:00]
Yeah. So I don't know. Like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:04]
I think Marvel tried to
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:08]
do too little with too much,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:11]
I think is how I would summarize it. Did you happen to watch any of the making of? There's that
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:18]
can't remember. Shows. Okay. I think you should watch that. I found that very interesting. I think it also explained
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:24]
some of the oddities of this show because what I didn't realize and and I didn't realize this with WandaVision either. These things happen smack dab
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:31]
in the like, they started doing their show, and then COVID dropped smack dab in the middle of what they were working on. And some of the adaptations
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:39]
that they had to do, I think, had a direct correlation
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:42]
to some of what we saw. If if for another reason, then, like, you know, time causes a lot of things to change.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:49]
And so when you start a story and then you finish it several months later and not not to mention that they, had a change of scenery as well. There's there's a whole bunch of interesting details that I think give it some context to me.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:02]
I'm trying to remind myself that, like, the the TV we're seeing now
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:07]
has not been created in
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:10]
a typical manner because everything got, you know, turned upside down. I will say for me, and and I'm this is all I'm gonna say, episode six was redemptive,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:20]
and I was pretty pleased with how the show ended. It is not the best MCU show.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:26]
Granted, there's only there's only two. But even if I, like, take a look at the wider
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:30]
Marvel TV base
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:32]
for, you know, old Netflix shows and, like, Agents of S. D, it's it's near the bottom of the list for me. I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:39]
there are some awesome characters
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:42]
that they have managed to introduce.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:44]
I think they have set up a lot of interesting
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:46]
potential storylines
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:48]
into the future.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:50]
But
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:51]
on its own,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:52]
I I don't think the show was written that well.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:57]
Yeah. So Which is
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:00]
really disappointing
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:02]
for both
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:03]
Marvel and
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:04]
Disney.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:05]
So Is it though? I mean, this is kinda like The Last Jedi of the MCU in my mind. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:10]
Guess that's true. You I
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:12]
guess I'm coming at it from the mind where, like, I watched some of the stuff behind the announcing of the Disney Wish cruise ship
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:21]
to the point where, like, the chandelier
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:24]
in the main hall
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:26]
is shaped like the magic of the fairy godmothers
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:31]
or when she's changing Cinderella.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:34]
So Yeah. There's there's an attention to detail that we expect, I think, with Disney product
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:39]
in general that this show seems to be lacking. Again, I think I think it's hard to judge it
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:46]
because of the the impact of COVID and not understanding the total total dimension there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:51]
I I make that Last Jedi
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:54]
connection because I think you have awesome characters
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:57]
who are largely squandered
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:00]
in this story.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:01]
This is kinda where I'm at.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:04]
So I think as time has passed,
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:08]
do you like the most recent Star Wars trilogy?
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:13]
I mean, yes. I'd like I can say yes. Right? Because you just asked me if I like it. It's like, I have no desire to go back and watch them. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:22]
Well, I'll I'll say this. There's a
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:25]
there's a timelessness to the original trilogy
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:28]
that has me come back
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:30]
at a regular cadence.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:32]
I don't believe that the second trilogy commands that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:35]
When I look at the MCU,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:37]
most of the movies command that of me. I honestly don't think either WandaVision
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:42]
or Falcon and the Winter Soldier compel me to go back and rewatch it. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:47]
Yep. I'm with you. The the shows that Marvel has done that commanded me to go back and rewatch would be like
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:55]
Agent Carter season one.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:58]
I'm trying even make it all the way through. Then that's just try again. That's just sad.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:02]
Daredevil season one. Daredevil was excellent. I would watch that whole series again. And then
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:08]
probably the Punisher, I would say. Those are the ones that
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:11]
I I'm gonna go back and rewatch because they're they're just good storytelling.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:16]
Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:18]
Alright. Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:19]
we've we've got some weeks off here, and then we'll get into Loki, and I'm I'm sure we'll have intense discussions about that. I will say,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:27]
I am I am certain. I you heard it here, folks, on the podcast.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:33]
I am certain that Loki will be better than both WandaVision
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:37]
and Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:41]
Hiddleston effect?
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:42]
I well, and what's his bucket?
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:46]
Shanghai noon guy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:48]
Jackie Chan. No. The other guy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:51]
Owen Wilson. Took me a Wilson. Yeah. I I think I think both of those guys are gonna do a bang up job, and I I also think the character of Loki. Loki is perhaps one of the most interesting characters in the MCU. Yeah. He's he's extremely fascinating.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:08]
He has been written very well, and I do think that some of that
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:12]
is
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:13]
because of Hiddleston himself. I think,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:16]
he is a better actor than Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie and can do more with what he's been given. So I think we're gonna see that. You know?
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:25]
But that's that's my prediction, and we'll just leave it at that because we've already John, we have already spent too much time talking about Marvel. Yeah. Agreed. This is not a Marvel podcast.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:34]
Yes. And you promised that we would talk about three things this week, garage door openers,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:38]
monitors, and security cameras. Yep. Yep. So I, spent part of March exploring
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:45]
some technology gaps in my lifestyle.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:48]
One thing that has bothered me It's an interesting way to put it. Technology gaps.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:52]
Yeah. Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:54]
one of them has like, my garage door has been very frustrating for me. My remotes do not work terribly well. I've replaced the batteries.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:03]
I just like, there have been times that I've literally wanted to throw the remote
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:07]
out the window.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:09]
And, yeah, it's not. And and I I thought to myself, like, man, I should just buy a whole new garage door opener that's got, like, HomeKit support. Right? Because that that would that would fix it all. Yep. Except, you know, garage door opener is not necessarily the cheapest thing, especially one that's WiFi connected.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:25]
However, you, my friend,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:28]
when we were dealing with a a listener submitted topic,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:32]
mentioned that you had a desire
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:36]
for a Wi Fi garage door opener,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:39]
and you satiated it without replacing the whole thing. And I thought, well, that's a fascinating idea.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:46]
And I can't remember now what the what the brand you
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:49]
you got was. Do you do you know what it is offhand?
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:55]
You said it on the podcast, and I looked it up, and the Refoss. Refoss. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:00]
So to remember the name Refoss because this is gonna get weird.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:04]
I looked at it, and it did not have HomeKit support. And I am not in the Alexa ecosystem.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:09]
Didn't didn't wanna go down that road.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:11]
You, on the other hand, are
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:15]
knee deep in the Alexa ecosystem, and you can
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:18]
afford, if you will,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:20]
to
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:21]
not worry about security,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:23]
I guess. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:25]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:26]
that's just not my this is not my mindset. So I went looking for the same conceptual
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:30]
device, right, which is basically
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:32]
something you connect into your garage door opener that has a sensor over by the door and then gives you WiFi support to a traditional garage door opener. And I found one that did have HomeKit support for a little bit more than yours did called
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:45]
MiROS.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:48]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:50]
but it's home kit certified, and I I I ordered one, and I set it up, and I was super skeptical.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:55]
But the thing works fantastically,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:57]
and so now I can be, you know, driving up to the house, and I get pinged on my watch. I've got a an automation says, hey, do you wanna run your arriving at home automations? I hit run, and the garage door pops open. Or when I'm leaving the house, I can say, hey, dingus, close the garage door opener, and boom, it just works.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:14]
So I I found this. It it gets the Miros smart garage door opener, and I'll give you a link, John. You can put it in the show notes. Works fantastic. I think if you don't care about the HomeKit ecosystem,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:25]
get the one that John
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:26]
referenced. But this so far has been a fantastic garage door opener. And, John, I'm gonna order a second one for my other garage door.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:34]
Nice. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:36]
Alright. So that was the garage door opener. And again So I I had to do this because of you. When you're leaving the house, like, do you use your
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:46]
HomePod mini to open the garage, or do you use your watch?
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:50]
When I'm leaving the house.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:52]
I Did you still press the button? No. I don't press the button. I've I've not touched a button, for the garage door opener since I got this thing,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:00]
which has, like, dramatic like, I've actually seen positive results in my day to day blood pressure because I take it every day. Yeah. So so my systolic has gone down about three points, you know, since I've had Mirage Smart garage door opener. Your mileage may vary. Yeah. We better get, like, referral bonuses or something.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:17]
No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:18]
So I
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:19]
I will I will tell the HomePod mini or my watch usually. Basically,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:24]
if I if I remember to lift up my wrist, I'm talking to the watch. Otherwise, I'm just calling out into the ether here at the house, and some device will pick me up. It could be my laptop. It could be my iPad. It could be my watch.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:36]
Bless you, John. Could be my phone. Could be one of the now three HomePod minis, John, because I ordered a third one that I have. Well, now you need one for the garage.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:46]
No. I don't I don't think so. I've got my watch. I'm good. Anyhow,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:51]
garage door opener. I think this is a really sensible upgrade. I have two garage doors. Only one has the opener right now. I'm gonna go ahead and get the the next one and add it. It was it was really easy too. Honestly, like, this could not have been Add. More straightforward.
SPEAKER_1 [00:14:03]
Do you just do you connect the wires like you're connecting a new
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:07]
opener? Yep. That's exactly what you do. And then you run that sensor,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:12]
basically, the the top of the track. Right? Don't get it anywhere near the track. And then you pin the
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:19]
the the sensor to the door, which basically helps determine whether or it's open or closed. Right? Yep. And and you're good to go. So highly recommend.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:28]
Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:29]
Next up Oh. Was monitors. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:32]
You and I have been talking about monitors for a while. Well, you've been talking to me about monitors. Okay. I'm not really in the market for one. So here's here's what I've concluded. As an Apple user,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:41]
getting a monitor is extremely difficult,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:44]
And it is it is further complicated if you
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:49]
are a Apple user and you also game.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:52]
Right? And and by game, I wanna be specific that I'm referring to the Xbox.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:57]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:58]
my the sweet spot of what I wanted
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:01]
was
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:02]
a, like, 27 inch monitor, right, that
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:07]
supported HDR
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:09]
and looked good with both my Mac and my Xbox.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:13]
And and, dear listener, I am here to tell you that this is a unicorn. It does not exist.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:19]
K?
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:20]
I I I tried an A ROG excuse me, an ASUS ROG Strix.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:26]
Whatever the stupid expensive one was, it's like a thousand bucks.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:30]
It had
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:31]
four k. Right? HDR.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:34]
It had the the FreeSync stuff that I wanted, like, all that jazz.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:39]
And it looked okay on my Xbox, but quite honestly, I expected to be wowed because I think if, know, if you're spending that kind of money on a monitor, you you really yeah. You gotta be wowed. Like, I've gotta be really impressed.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:52]
The the thing is the blues
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:54]
kept looking off to me,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:57]
and I I don't know. They've got this, like, blue light filtering technology that they use. I even turned it off, but it just it still
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:04]
did not seem
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:08]
to to look right. And and I I I it's just so hard, you know, because you're like, how do you tell if a monitor is better or not
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:18]
just by the naked eye?
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:20]
I kept switching between my old Dell 27 inch HD monitor and this LG one. Now I'm sure there are people at home who are like, you shouldn't be looking you shouldn't be using a monitor. You should be using a TV for gaming. It's fair criticism. My Xbox is in my office.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:33]
That it is what it is.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:35]
I ended up returning this monitor.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:38]
I I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:39]
the the bottom line for me was I went with an LG ultra fine.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:44]
It's 27 inch. This the one I got happens to have HDR 400.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:49]
It's HD,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:50]
has a USB c on it as well, and so far, it's working pretty good. The the picture is noticeably improved from my Dell side by side with my Xbox,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:59]
and at least the color gamut, the color representation on this is as close to my my Mac laptop monitor as I've been able to find. And I think that's because Apple
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:10]
actually uses LG
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:12]
panels in their devices.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:14]
The nits, like, brightness isn't there, but it's it's pretty good. I'm pleased.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:19]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:21]
that's the monitor thing. Now the last piece of technology I wanted to talk about was my security cameras. You know I've been talking about security cameras. I guess maybe I've been talking at you about security I'm actually interested in. Okay. I think I'd would probably start with just a a doorbell,
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:36]
that tied into a security system. So I do have a doorbell. Right? I've got a ring, and I think I pay, like, $40 a year
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:44]
for what amounts to unlimited recording.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:47]
Sure. And I initially, I thought I would just add to my ring with some additional cameras.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:53]
The pricing on the subscription for the Ring
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:57]
goes up after two devices or three devices or something like that. Like, there's there's a small baseline, and I knew that I was gonna exceed it. And and so
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:05]
I don't like subscriptions.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:07]
I I just don't care for them.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:09]
So I thought, well, let me look elsewhere and see what else is is out there. Because,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:14]
not too long ago, Apple had talked about secure video,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:18]
secure HomeKit video, right, that would use your iCloud storage. And I pay for the big iCloud storage.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:24]
Maybe there's something, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:27]
worth looking at here.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:28]
So I did a bunch of research. First of these things aren't cheap,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:32]
and and the
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:34]
options are are wide and varied.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:36]
Narrowing it on HomeKit
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:38]
almost all of these devices allow, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:41]
other stuff in HomeKit. Right? Right. And so, I've got this peculiar requirement that I apply to all this stuff for HomeKit. It is what it is.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:50]
I looked at the Eufy
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:52]
camera system. Eufy is owned by Anker. They make, you know, cables and batteries and all kinds of, like, pretty reliable gadgets. So I felt pretty good about them. Plus, Apple actually sells them in store. It's the only camera set for outdoor uses like this that they sell,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:07]
actually in store. And I got two cameras, and then there's a base station, which has some local storage,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:12]
and then it will, store on HomeKit. And it comes with an app, a Eufy app, that you can use, go all in on, or you can do it completely from HomeKit.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:21]
Is the route that I chose.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:23]
And so now, like, all of my home automation
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:26]
is centralized inside of HomeKit.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:28]
I will say these cameras are
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:31]
stupid easy to install.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:33]
They,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:34]
thus far have had a fantastic picture.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:37]
They work
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:38]
unbelievably
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:38]
well at night. The motion detection seems to be spot on. I have zones so that I can, like, narrow in what I want it to trigger on. The one thing that I have learned through all of this is is first and foremost that
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:52]
it is absolutely stupid to be notified
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:55]
on any device for motion.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:59]
Okay. Like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:01]
especially if you have kids, right, or a dog that you gotta take out. I think and this is this is the conclusion that I came to. I don't care that people are moving around
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:10]
outside of my house per se. I just wanna know if something goes wrong. So I go back and look at the camera, like, see who they are and what they did. Right. Right? So I I I wanted this more of an after the fact kinda thing than a proactive security alert.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:24]
You know, your mileage may vary.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:27]
The
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:28]
HomeKit stuff seems to work pretty well at identifying people versus, like, cars
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:32]
or other inanimate objects, and I think that's pretty good too,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:37]
but still too much notification activity for me. Basically, what I what I did for a while is I had it set that only when I was not at my house,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:44]
it would notify me if there was activity around the house. The problem is my kids are still here when I leave, and they're very active.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:53]
And so so I'd be somewhere my watch would be blowing up with a thousand notifications.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:57]
And that brings me to the other thing that I think HomeKit is lacking, and and this is true with the Eufy app too. There's no ability to, like, snooze notifications for a period of time. You can actually do this with the Ring doorbell. You can say, like, snooze for thirty minutes or an hour and just, like, stop bugging me because of motion detection.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:12]
I think that that's a that's a much needed feature that I hope
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:16]
iOS, Apple, all that will bring bring to it. But I would say in general, I think these Eufy cameras are are pretty down pretty darn solid.
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:25]
Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:27]
So what's How many do you have? I just have two. I'm I'm actually considering adding
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:32]
one or two more.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:35]
So you got one at the front door and one at the back door? What I did is I put one above the garage doors that angled out over the driveway and up to
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:44]
the the front door. Like, they've got a really wide field of range,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:48]
and
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:50]
and so I can see pretty much my whole front yard from this one corner. Now on the back, what I did is I put one,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:56]
near the back door facing out from my deck. And so I've got this, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:01]
kinda semicircle view of the back backyard. I don't there's there's
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:05]
coverage area on either side of the house that I think might be nice to have.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:10]
I I don't like, I'm I'm not totally sure what my end goal is, which is which is part of my problem.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:15]
But,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:16]
you know, I it's it's kinda handy just to be able to go back and look and see see what was going on.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:21]
And no subscriptions, John. All of a sudden iCloud,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:25]
it it doesn't you know, except for the iCloud upload, which I'm pretty confident I trust, like, nothing leaves
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:30]
the the house to identify or
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:34]
auto delete data after a set time?
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:37]
I believe
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:38]
so. I haven't had to sweat this yet. So that's a good question. For some reason, I feel like it only the the HomeKit
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:45]
manages this. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:47]
It's I wanna say it might be fourteen days, but, yeah, something like And
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:52]
so, you know, it works out well.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:55]
Cool.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:56]
Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:57]
John, my AirTag came.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:00]
Yes.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:01]
You tweeted about it. I did. I got real active on So
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:05]
I'm holding up right now the AirTag for John to see how small it is. Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:10]
It is, like do do you know the the jumbo sweet tarts?
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:14]
Sure. Yeah. It's basically that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:16]
You should not eat an AirTag.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:18]
That would be very bad. There's a lithium ion battery in there. Although, you know, as small as this is, somebody's gonna swallow one. If I throw it into Coke,
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:26]
does it make an explosion like Mentos?
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:29]
No. No. That I'd that would be pretty cool.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:32]
Is it water resistant? I think it is. I think it's like IPX six or something. Maybe it says on here.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:40]
I you know, it it better be, man. This is this is not a cheap little toy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:45]
And then I got I got my ring, my loop or whatever, which which cost, I think, $30 in of its own right. So this is like yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:52]
It's a little $60 outfit here, and I don't actually know what I'm gonna use it for.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:57]
So there you go. It's just a loop. It's just like a luggage tag.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:01]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:03]
You know? So I I don't know. I got one to try it. I've I've tried tracking two different people so far, my wife and my daughter.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:10]
It has not done the, like, human tracking notification
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:14]
alert system thing that it's supposed to do. I got mixed results trying to track Lucy riding around the subdivision.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:23]
I part of me wonders, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:25]
would Apple have been more successful rolling this out if there wasn't a pandemic?
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:29]
You know? Because Yeah. Like, even
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:32]
though I go places now, I still don't go as many places as I used to. And and what this would have been killer, at least for me,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:38]
was, like, when I visited the office. Right? And and where do I put my bag and all the places I misplaced things. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:46]
any interest, John?
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:49]
Maybe for missus Kolmeier.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:51]
But, like, my keys are either in my pocket or on my dresser or in the ignition.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:58]
And that's, like, the only thing I think I would lose.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:03]
I'd like them on my glasses.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:05]
Yeah. I just don't know how to make that work. My glasses are either on my desk, on my dresser, or on my face. Oh, I lose my glasses all the time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:13]
So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:14]
hey, let's do a quick bonus round here. We had some questions, some listener questions that I think we can knock out
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:21]
pretty easily. These are listener submitted ideas. We love listener submitted ideas. If you have them, you should send them to us so we have things to talk about. One of them was, do either of you RV?
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:33]
I do not. Have you ever RV'd?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:36]
I have not. Okay. I have ridden in an RV, but it was probably twenty years ago.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:42]
I would like to revisit this question here
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:45]
late June after I returned from our first RV rental using Outdoorsy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:50]
So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:52]
think the short answer, no. We haven't,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:55]
but but at least the lemons will soon. We'll report back.
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:59]
So that came from Aaron Horn
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:01]
who
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:02]
did purchase an RV and I think has been out twice now. So he's experienced than we are. Yeah. Yeah. Purchase. That's a big commitment there. I am I I admit to having a bit of an itch, but I I gotta try it out first. I think you found a good deal on one. That's that's the key right there. Okay. Another listener idea was music platforms. I think this was asking, like, what we use or what we have used. Is that fair?
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:27]
I don't remember. Okay. Well, do you remember who submitted it?
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:31]
I can't remember if Sarah Seersen submitted the music platforms one or the streaming platforms one. Oh, we're gonna deal with that one next. So on on the music platforms front, you are all in on Spotify. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:43]
I am. Why?
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:46]
I don't know. I just liked the
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:49]
experience more
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:52]
when I started out.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:54]
And this annoys me at least once a week because I'm not able to share music directly with you. Everybody else in my life, sans maybe Joe Taylor, I'm able to share music with, but not you, John. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:07]
Can you let him buy me an Apple one subscription, Stan? Because we need to know how much you like subscriptions.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:12]
No. No. I mean, you're you're paying us subscription. Can you add me to your family?
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:18]
I might be able to, but I wouldn't be able to add Anna. So you'd to figure that because I'm pretty sure that you can only add six people to
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:24]
an Apple family. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:26]
There you go. You should hey. I what don't you have a father-in-law that that has an Apple One subscription? He probably could add you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:33]
You should you should get him to add both you and Anna. What's he done for you recently besides eat your food?
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:39]
He bought beer when I smoked him some ribs. Oh, there you three growl growlers worth of beer. Oh. I I was drinking beer for a week. So Impressive.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:48]
Alright. But but you use Spotify. Have you ever used Pandora?
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:51]
I have not.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:53]
Missus Kollmeyer, I think, still uses Pandora for, like, these playlists that she curated that she really likes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:00]
Interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:02]
So I I remember liking Pandora back in the day because it was a way of of, like, finding similar music.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:09]
The thing is I'm I'm all in on Apple Music,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:11]
and there are similar features. And so
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:15]
I I make heavy use of curated
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:17]
playlists. I make heavy use of the radio station features.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:20]
I make heavy use of,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:23]
like, create a station from a song kinda thing. Yeah. And so, like, I've, you know, spent a lot of time with the Barenaked Ladies radio station or
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:31]
the Zach Brown radio station kinda thing and and just listen to music that way. I think you listen to music a lot more than I do. That could be. That very well could be.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:40]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:41]
tend to listen to music without lyrics during the day while I'm working,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:45]
and I tend to listen to music with lyrics
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:48]
in the evening. I Or do when you're trying to annoy your children. Well, yeah, that. I don't really discriminate against genre.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:55]
I listen to all kinds of genres,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:56]
but I do kinda make that lyric distinction that way. What about Amazon Music? Because I'm assuming you have this.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:04]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:05]
I don't pay for like the actual Amazon Music subscription.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:09]
I have whatever's included with Prime Music. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:13]
Which is And like pretty considerable. I mean, there's there's a lot of music on there. Yeah. So, basically,
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:19]
I, like, use it whenever I tell something to play through the Echo.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:24]
Okay. Alright. That's interesting. So you don't have any alignment between?
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:28]
No. So Spotify
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:30]
does also connect to the Echo. It's just if I wanna play a song, it will
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:35]
choose whichever one it wants to, I guess. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:38]
one of the things I do like about the HomePod minis, and like I said, I I bought that third one for the master bedroom like we talked about,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:46]
is that I am able to,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:49]
like, continue to build up what I'm listening to across my devices. It's really easy transfer from from my,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:56]
phone when I come into the house to a HomePod and back and forth. And then it continues to, like, develop that that taste, you know, in what I like, as well as anybody else that uses the HomePod. It's it's smart enough to be able to figure that out. So I dig that part of it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:11]
But
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:11]
One day, Stan, I will buy a HomePod, and I will start moving completely into the Apple ecosystem like you. Yeah. I still can't believe that you haven't done the Apple one bundle. I I I don't know, John. I can't wrap my All pay is iCloud.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:25]
Like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:26]
it's a pretty significant step from
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:29]
two terabytes of iCloud. But you pay you pay for Spotify though. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:33]
I do. But that's what? $10?
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:36]
And then iCloud, I pay $5,
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:38]
so that's 15.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:40]
So jumping to an actual bundle is another $10 Well, you don't need to go total premium though. That's the whole thing. So, you know, I think I think you should there's a good blog article on stanlemon.com
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:51]
all about this.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:54]
Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:55]
Last but not least to kinda wrap this out for the day here, streaming platforms. What do you have right this moment?
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:02]
Right this moment, I have Netflix,
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:06]
Amazon Prime Video,
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:09]
and Disney Plus. And which do you actually use?
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:12]
All of them.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:14]
Really? Like, every week?
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:16]
Yeah. Oh, fascinating. Disney Plus, probably not now until Loki comes out. But Okay. Alright. So at this given moment,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:24]
I have Apple TV plus.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:26]
I have Amazon Prime.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:28]
I have Paramount plus.
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:30]
I have Disney plus. I will subscribe to Paramount plus if and when Picard season two ever comes up. There you go. And I also have HBO Max.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:39]
I do not currently have Hulu, although it is on my radar. I do not currently have Netflix.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:44]
It is also on my radar. About how you don't like subscriptions, Stan. I don't. I really don't. And I hate having a myriad of different
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:51]
streaming channels. But I I don't
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:54]
you know, in the case of Paramount Plus, I prepaid this year because it was basically the same as what I'm gonna pay for my football season. Disney Plus, you and I both got at the same time. I prepaid for Three years. Three years. Right? That stupid cheap prices.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:08]
Yeah. Apple
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:09]
TV plus
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:11]
just comes with my other bundle which like it's not
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:15]
I was paying the same amount before Apple TV plus. The Apple TV plus is just sugar on the top for me. Amazon some of the TV shows they've they've had. Oh, I've I've to
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:25]
my surprise, I've loved a lot of their TV shows.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:29]
So much so that I honestly probably would pay for it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:32]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:33]
You know, if it wasn't, like, part of my bundle. Good movies too that you liked initially. Yeah. They did. Now I again, like, I don't know how much COVID has kinda messed up stuff. So so things slowed down for a little bit, but, For All Mankind, season two just came out. I really enjoyed that show. I just started the Mosquito Coast. That's been really good.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:53]
HBO Max, I get free with my Internet.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:57]
Although that that is of all the ones I listed, like, you took them all the way, HBO Max is probably the one that I would pay for.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:03]
In my in my opinion, that's the best
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:06]
in terms of catalog
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:08]
streaming service available right now.
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:11]
I mean, an HBO
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:13]
has been in this game really forever.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:16]
So Well yeah. And and the thing is, like, this, it's the Warner catalog is really what you're getting through HBO Max. Yeah. So there's a whole bunch of stuff that's been on other channels in terms of TV shows, not just like HBO
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:29]
that you get access to. There's there's a lot of nice original content.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:33]
I I'm enjoying it. So I would say that's the one that we watch every day. We watch Amazon almost never. The kids watch Disney Plus when they watch TV.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:43]
Apple TV Plus, there's one episode a week usually on a Friday because that's when stuff tends to come out.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:49]
Paramount plus right now,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:51]
I'm not watching become football. That's, you know, all day, every day, Sunday.
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:57]
Alright then. Yeah. So I've been watching Amazon
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:00]
just about every day because we're working our way through Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:04]
Netflix
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:05]
is more a weekend thing for me, either a movie or
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:10]
I got one episode left of Sherlock,
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:12]
and I know I'm late to that game. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:16]
I I haven't even gotten to that game. That's actually one of the things that, intrigues me about Netflix
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:21]
Well and finishing out the crown. Apparently, it's leaving on May 14. So Oh, no kidding. Where do know where it's going? I have no idea. Well, that right there Who gets BBC stuff?
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:31]
It's a BBC show, isn't it? I you're asking the wrong guy. I know nothing about it. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:38]
alright. Well, alpha
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:39]
I there's definitely no way I can watch all of it in ten days. No. They're hour and a half long episodes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:44]
Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. That's a legit commitment right there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:50]
Alright, John. I think, you need to hit the Twitterverse in the
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:55]
Facebooks and find us some more
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:58]
listener
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:59]
submitted questions to get us through summertime here.
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:02]
Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:03]
Sounds good. On that note, this is Stan Lemmon reminding you to help control the spread of COVID nineteen.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:09]
Wash your hands, wear a mask, and get a vaccine.