Top Five Tech

Welcome to Top 5 Tech, my weekly show about what to watch, listen to, download, read,

and something deep every week.

First up, you've probably seen a lot about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

It's the new passport-style phone, and it might be the actual form factor that the iPhone

Ultra or iPhone Foldable comes in this fall.

Well, my friend Andrew Clare, great friend of mine, we've gone to WWDC together this

year.

He has a great video, and he's primarily an iPhone user, so if you're curious what it's

like to use a foldable like this from an iPhone user perspective, Andrew's video is the one

to watch.

That'll be linked down in the show notes.

On what to listen to, I want to reiterate again, this WWII podcast with Tom Hanks from

the History Channel is excellent.

I'm on the last two episodes.

It has been incredibly engrossing, engaging.

Fun fact, I learned Ian Fleming actually fought in WWII, and some of those stories inspired

the James Bond novels, which then became the movies.

And if you're also into history, I've mentioned other episodes of the Omnibus podcast, and

I'm going to link an older one.

This is actually from almost five years ago, but John Roderick and Ken Jennings, who host

Jeopardy, they talked about the Halifax explosion.

It was actually the largest non-nuclear explosion ever that has happened.

It was about two ships colliding in the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

It is a wild story.

They tell it incredibly detailed, and Ken and John have great chemistry on episodes

like this.

So recommend this as well.

On what to read, Lexi Savvides was actually on Primary Tech last week.

I'll link that episode in the show notes, and she really focuses on health and fitness

bands.

She's tried the Fitbit Air, the Oura Rings, all the Whoop bands, and obviously Apple Watch.

And she mentioned this article from the Wall Street Journal.

I'll put the Apple News link down in the show notes.

And it should also be a timed link, so you should see it slide up

if you're looking at the Now Playing page in Apple Podcasts.

But this is by Nicole Nguyen, who tested all the fitness things.

They did incredible deep testing, including sleep testing at a sleep center,

comparing what the Apple Watch, the Oura Ring and the bands provide

as far as data compared to the actual scientific medical grade stuff.

It's really interesting seeing the graphs of how these devices differ

when measuring active heart rate and calories burned and sleep.

At the end, she says basically an Apple Watch and an Oura Ring

is a really great combo, but the article is really worth a read.

It's not super long, especially seeing those graphs

and how these different devices compare.

On what to download, two picks actually this week.

Two of my favorite apps got upgraded.

One is Payspot. It is my favorite clipboard manager app.

I actually use this alongside the built in clipboard for Mac OS Tahoe.

But Payspot 3 just came out.

It is in the Mac App Store and is a subscription model there.

But if you prefer a one time purchase for an app like this,

You can actually go to the tap.

and just buy it one time.

For that one time purchase, you'll get upgrades for the next year,

but then it's your app just to keep.

Or if you want to do the subscription model monthly or annually, you can do that.

But Payspot 3 is beautifully designed.

Best clipboard manager, in my opinion.

And it lives in my menu bar forever.

And another app that I have in the dock of my iPhone is Food Knobs.

It is my favorite food tracking app.

I've been using it for the past year.

Have lost 70 pounds just tracking food using an app like this.

And they just had a huge update earlier this week.

It includes weight tracking now.

And it syncs with Apple Health and will even calculate your calories if you're trying to be in a deficit.

And it will dynamically change that amount with your weight, with your activity.

And there's now a Mac app for the Food Noms as well and everything syncs.

You can either sync via iCloud or the Food Noms actual syncing process.

But it's an incredible app if you want to get into food tracking.

This is the first one I've been able to stick with and I've been doing it for over a year.

And on something deep, unfortunately the FCC here in the U.S. keeps banning things.

They've banned DJI drones.

That's why you can't get an Osmo pocket.

And the FCC has now banned robots.

Originally, it was just thought that maybe it would be humanoid robots.

But this, in fact, applies to robots of all kinds, including things

like robot vacuums.

Now, this ban does not apply to robots currently in the U.S.

or that are currently shipping.

So the current Roborock, Yuffie, Dreamy, all the ones that are currently

being sold here in the U.S. can continue being sold.

But as new models come out, those will be banned by default

and will not be able to be.

purchased here in the United States.

This is unfortunate because you might not be able to get new

models for a long time.

Supposedly there'll be an approval process with the FCC,

but that process is always vague.

Who knows what models will actually get through, but this is also

unfortunate for a lot of creators who depend on robot vacuum sponsorships.

This might sound trite, but robot vacuum brands are some of the best

paying and most regular sponsorships that creators can get, especially

smart home creators, that's why I see a lot of dedicated videos

about robot vacuum brands.

I haven't done any dedicated videos since I went completely independent

just because I didn't want to, but I've done inserted ads.

I've done reels with robot vacuums and those companies are usually really

great to work for and really help support the creator economy here in the U.S.

It's mainly about the new models that are going to be shipping and it

doesn't look like those new models are going to make it over here

anytime soon because of this ban.

So this is unfortunate for both those reasons that if you wanted to get a

latest model, there might not be new models coming for a while and for the

depend on these kinds of sponsorships that might.

at least temporarily. So we'll keep an eye on this. Stay tuned to primary tech. We'll talk

about this more in depth when that episode comes out Thursday. But those are some things to watch,

read, listen to and more this week. If you could take a moment, I would really appreciate a five

star rating and review in Apple podcasts. And if you want to get this via newsletter, so you get

all the links in your inbox every Friday, you can sign up for the newsletter at that link down in

the show notes as well. Thanks so much for watching and listening. I'll catch you next time.