Crossed Wires: All Our Shows The Crossed Wires Team

Happy New Year, everyone! We’re back, a little bit later than planned, with a bunch of EV and charging news that popped up since we last spoke to you in December.



Over our Christmas break, we had a bit of a behind-the-scenes chat about how we can make these episodes better, so you’ll notice we’re running a little longer and taking more time to discuss the stories. We’d love to hear what you think about this slight change, our thinking being to try to bring more analysis to the show, rather than just a quick-fire round of news.



Do you have thoughts on the stories we’ve covered this month, or maybe some EV news you’d love to highlight? We’d love to hear from you, so please send a note over to podcast@chargingstatus.net, leave a comment on the post, or join the discussion over on our Discord server



If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.



Chapters & Story Links




00:00:09: Welcome



00:01:45: New Mercedes EQT is an all-electric van crossed with an MPV



00:04:18: DHL orders 2,000 all-electric E-Transit vans from Ford



00:08:11: All-electric Jeep Avenger now on sale in Europe for €39k, not UK yet



00:11:56: Polestar 2 gets more power through a one-time paid update



00:15:05: Turns out, the new VW ID Buzz is pretty darn safe



00:19:16: DrivingElectric awards the MG4 EV with ‘Car of the Year’



00:24:03: New Hyundai Ioniq 6 will be priced from £46,745 in the UK



00:30:05: Vauxhall updates the Mokka Electric with new battery pack and more range



00:32:45: Ford killed off the Fiesta due to production capacity at Cologne factory



00:34:31: All-electric Land Rover Defender coming in 2025 with 300 mile + range



00:38:47: All-electric BMW i5 to launch in 2023



00:40:48: Mercedes reports double EV sales in 2022, compared to the year prior



00:41:38: Tesla driver in Germany fell asleep with autopilot on



00:46:24: Alex's Holiday EV Car Hire



00:48:26: Marks & Spencer to add 900 new chargers at its stores, thanks to a partnership with BP



00:51:05: Octopus Energy has partnered with Stellantis



00:55:05: Lidl opens four new charging parks in France



00:57:06: Mitie to install new EV chargers at UK employment centres



00:59:44: Average cost of EV-fast charging in the UK is now costly more than petrol



01:02:51: New EVs Launching in 2023



01:05:39: Wrapping Up




Extra Episode Links




The Late Brake Show - Jeep Avenger (YouTube)



Chasing Cars - Hyundai EV vs Petrol Race (YouTube)




Credits



Music from the YouTube Audio Library

The last week or so has seen some extraordinary rubbish behaviour from Twitter regarding their API for third-party clients, like Twitterrific and Tweetbots. Users found themselves unable to access their timelines via anything but the official app and website, and developers had no communication to tell them what on earth was going on.



On Thursday, Twitter announced that this was intentional and that many third-party apps would no longer have API access. This caused no end of frustration for developers like Iconfactory. So it’s my pleasure to be joined by Gedeon, their principal and designer, to try to unpack what exactly happened, and the impact this has had and will continue to have on their business.



What are your memories of the good old days of Twitter, did you have a favourite third-party app you used? We’d love to hear from you, so please send a note over to podcast@crossedwires.net, leave a comment on the post, or join the discussion over on our Discord server. Of course, you can also follow us on Mastodon



If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.



Episode Links




Gedeon Maheux on Mastodon



Iconfactory: Website / Apps / Blog



Twitter bans third-party apps (TechCrunch)



Ivory by Tapbots



Our chat with James Smith on Mastodon and the Fediverse




Chapter Times




00:00:04: Introductions



00:06:27: The Original Twitter App Experience



00:08:55: The Last Big API Changes



00:11:32: What Happened to the API?



00:16:54: The Importance of 3rd Party Apps



00:20:27: Moving to Mastodon?



00:25:03: The Financial Impact



00:35:19: Why Do We Think This Happened?



00:49:34: The Core Twitter Experience Rule?



00:53:12: APIs on Other Platforms?



00:58:53: The Future is Mastodon



01:03:35: A Done Deal



01:08:07: Wrapping Up




Credits



Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

For those of us who grew up with Game Boys and Game Gears, maybe even an Atari Lynx, the concept of full desktop gaming in a portable form factor has been on our wishlist for a very long time. So, the question we discuss with Noah from Steam Deck HQ can be summed up as “Has Valve’s Steam Deck made that dream come true?”.



We talk about the hardware itself, the impressive software stack built upon SteamOS, how many games perform, as well as looking at where it holds up against things like the Nintendo Switch, and the powerful emulation made possible in such a portable platform.



it’s also worth mentioning that James’ side of recoring was done entirely on the Steam Deck, and that’s in no small part due to how awesome SquadCast is.



Have you got your hands on Steam Deck, or is there something holding you. back? We’d love to hear from you, why not send a note over to podcast@crossedwires.net, leave a comment on the post, or join the discussion over on our Discord server



If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.



Disclaimer: This episode was recorded in December 2022, before the current investigation into allegations of domestic violence made against Justin Rolland. We won’t comment on this further, but we wanted to be transparent that the episode does mention his studio’s game, ‘High on Life’. For those who, for whatever reason, want to skip any mention of the game, we talk about this between 00:29:00 and 00:31:21; we’ve marked this as a chapter in the episode.



Episode Links




Steam Deck HQ: Website / Mastodon / YouTube



Steam Deck Tech Specs (Valve)



Bugsnax (Steam)



ProtonDB



Decky - A Steam Deck plugin loader




Chapter Times




00:00:04: Introductions



00:06:14: Missing OLED and Game Gear Homage?



00:09:17: Hardware and Verified Games



00:14:57: Proton



00:18:44: Price Points & Storage Options



00:25:16: Controllers



00:29:00: High On Life



00:31:21: Software & Performance Tweaks



00:37:38: Challenges with Certain Games and Launchers



00:43:32: Sony Games on Steam Deck



00:44:41: Nintendo, the Switch, and Emulation



00:50:11: What Could Valve Have Done Better?



00:55:52: Wrapping Up




Credits



Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

The idea of a non-taxed, non-regulated, digital currency can sound incredibly appealing for many uses, but are cryptocurrencies all they’re cracked up to be and should we be advocating their use? That’s what we discuss with the published researcher, Dr Catherine Flick, known on BBC local radio as being able to explain Bitcoin in 15 seconds.



Catherine brought so much insight to help us understand what exactly cryptocurrencies and the blockchain are, and why they’re not as great as those involved in them think. We also dig into how NFTs got into the video game industry and of course the environmental impact of the blockchain.



We know this topic can stir up a lot of discussions, and we’d love to hear from you (as long as we can all keep things civil). So, send a note over to podcast@crossedwires.net, leave a comment on the post, or join the discussion over on our Discord server



Episode Links




Dr Catherine Flick: Mastodon / Website



WWF UK faces backlash over 'destructive' plans to sell 'eco-friendly' NFTs (Sky News)



ACM Code of Ethics



A critical professional ethical analysis of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)



The Missing Cryptoqueen: Apple Podcasts / BBC Sounds



Cross-cultural patterns in mobile playtime: an analysis of 118 billion hours of human data




Chapter Times




00:00:04: Introductions



00:16:05: Privacy & The Ick Factor



00:24:17: What Is Blockchain?



00:34:26: Lack of Financial Protection



00:39:42: Regulation?



00:43:15: Virtual Currences vs Proof of Work / Stake



00:49:57: The Environmental Impact



00:54:32: Decentralised



01:00:20: NFTs & Video Games



01:18:17: Solving Actual Problems



01:22:40: Wrapping Up




Credits



Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

As many of you know, we use SquadCast to record every episode of Crossed Wires, and indeed Charging Status. It’s been such a genuine pleasure to build a relationship, mostly thanks to Jae’s existing connection, with the team at SquadCast.



In this episode, Zachariah Moreno joins me again, this time to talk about how things have been going for them since we last spoke, including their hugely ambitious V5 launch, and what 2023 holds for the platform. We even do a bit of brain-storming on how streaming could work within SquadCast.



Up front, Zachariah and I talk about the way in which SquadCast are directly helping us here at Crossed Wires. For full transparency, in exchange for our continued feedback and testing of features, we are being kindly provided with their ‘Studio’ plan at no cost. I can’t express how grateful we are to the team, in particular Zachariah and Arielle, for their continued support and encouragement.



If you do want to check out SquadCast, please do use our affiliate link either in the links or at the bottom of our site. Our affiliate links really do help to pay the other bills around here, and one day will make it possible for Jae and I to make this our full time jobs.



Do you have any experience of remote recordings, or maybe you want to ask about some of our workflow? We’d love to hear from you, so send a note over to podcast@crossedwires.net, leave a comment on the post, or start a discussion in Goodpods.



If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.



Episode Links




Zachariah Moreno: Twitter / Website



SquadCast (Affiliate Link)



Dynamo by Castos- Podcast image generation tools



Descript



Edit Eddy by Headliner



SquadCasting - Zach’s previous appearance on the show



Zach’s video on echo cancellation (YouTube)




Chapter Times




00:00:05: Introductions



00:01:20: Some Transparency



00:05:01: SquadShots



00:06:24: Pricing Simplifcation



00:11:30: Backstage



00:13:54: Equipment Management



00:18:39: State of Play on iOS



00:22:49: The V5 Launch



00:30:36: Mastering with Dolby



00:32:58: Beyond Podcasting



00:45:23: The Importance of Quality



00:49:39: Streaming?



01:02:00: Fix It In Pre



01:05:31: Wrapping Up




Credits



Intro and closing theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

With the Macintosh having such a long history, and Apple doing so much over the platform’s life I wanted to get a panel together to discuss all things Mac collecting and our thoughts on past and present.



I’m really pleased to be joined by returning guests Dan Vincent and Sean from Action Retro, as well as new guest Steve from Mac84TV. We had a truly enjoyable and insightful chat about Apple’s world-changing computer.



As well as plenty of comedic moments, our improvised ‘Desert Island Mac’ spot, and plenty of tangents, we talk about our ‘Report Cards’ for Apple in 2022 (at least at the point we recorded back in October), and what got the panel into collecting Macs.



This is a bit of a longer episode, but I really hope you enjoy this panel style episode We’ll absolutely be doing more episodes like this going forward.



-- James



Do you have memories of classic Macs, maybe you’ve been there the whole journey, or have a favourite Mac you’d love to tell us about. We’d love to hear from you, so send a note over to podcast@crossedwires.net, leave a comment on the post, or start a discussion in Goodpods.



If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.



Episode Links



Due to the current state of Twitter, we’re not actively promoting Twitter links where possible. Thankfully, all of our guests are on Mastodon, so please do find them there




Dan Vincent: Userlandia/ Mastodon



Sean (Action Retro:) YouTube/ Mastodon



Steve (Mac84): YouTube / Mastodon / Website



‘Digital Identity’ - Our chat with Helen from Fastmail




Chapter Times




00:00:04: Introductions



00:07:17: What Got You Into Macintosh?



00:17:13: A Mobile GPS Diversion



00:25:13: Mac Collections



00:48:27: From Beleaguered to PowerPC and Intel



01:02:59: Apple's Report Card



01:22:09: Desert Island Mac



01:32:24: Windows Competition?



01:34:52: Wrapping Up




Credits



Intro and closing theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW