Unmute Presents State of the Union – NOV 2023

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00:04.570 –> 00:22.986
Hey all, marty here. And we’re back with another State of the Union talking about all things behind the scenes with Iacast Unmute and all the other things that we do around here. And today with me I’ve got Michael Doy. Say hello Michael. Hey Marty. And I also have Michael Babcock with me. Say hello, Michael.

00:23.098 –> 00:26.680
Hello. After spooky night.

00:27.850 –> 00:40.554
Yep. Anyway, so let’s see today the first thing we’re going to talk about is the Iaccessibility app and what is all new with that. So Michael, d you want to fill us in on all of that?

00:40.672 –> 03:31.886
Sure. So if you are using I Accessibility for iOS, there’s been a few updates, I believe since the last time that we’ve had one of these been a we’ve had several additions to the app, we’ve had some bug fixes and improvements as usual. But we’ve also added we’ve always wanted there to be a way for you guys to support the network and our content. So we have added where you can leave a tip on different articles and different podcast episodes that are in the app. So you may be asking articles, what do you mean by articles? Well, I Accessibility and the Iacast network as a whole has a blog called the Iaccessibility Report and we post different articles about different mobile and well, technology in general topics. So we try to put out one a week. So those are going to be articles that you’ll see in the app. We’ve also started sending out push notifications so you can be alerted when we have new podcast episodes that are going live, or when they post to the podcast feeds so you can turn on notifications and get subscribed to those. We also are working on some more bug fixes. The app doesn’t always update content on regular intervals, so we’re fixing that and we’re also adding the ability. So I Accessibility is a very big community. We want people to contribute and things like that. So on Iacast and on the I Accessibility Report we will have where we can display the author, so who wrote the content, who published it, all those kind of things. So that’s very exciting. And all of that should also work with Mastodon as well. So there’s a lot of great content that’s in the app. We’ve had articles in the app and on Iaccessibility Net talking about what are some differences between Spotify, Apple Music and what are some differences between Google Play routines, I think they’re called, and A Lady Skills. So we’re going to have much more content coming up. So it’s very even. I think we may have an article that I have an idea for on the differences between what we’ve been using for our radio station, which we’ll talk about that later, the two different ways to host a radio station. So it’s all really exciting stuff. And so not only do we have our YouTube channel, our podcast, but we also have our blog now, so all of that’s able to be captured and read in the app. So check it out. I accessibility on the app store.

03:32.068 –> 03:43.970
So Michael, a quick question. If people are using the app and they happen to run across something wonky or maybe find a bug, how would they reach out to you and let you know that they’re having an issue or that they see an issue within the app?

03:44.120 –> 03:51.560
So you can just email me at [email protected] and I will see those and get back to you as soon as I can.

03:52.010 –> 04:05.580
Awesome. Thanks, Michael. Appreciate that. And everyone check that out. So next up on the agenda would be Unmute Presents and what are we doing? Michael Babcock with unmute presents. What’s the new thing coming?

04:06.270 –> 04:08.454
I don’t know. You didn’t tell me about this, Marty.

04:08.502 –> 04:11.850
No, unmute maybe membership. Membership?

04:11.930 –> 04:59.018
Oh yeah, membership opportunities starting in January 2024. So you can actually be an early adopter if you go to Unmute Showplus and there’s also a link on the menu bar of the Unmute Show website. At that place you can go and sign up to be either single contributor. So you give money once or you contribute a tip on a monthly basis. And we’re doing an exclusive similar to the Tuesday calls, but it’s going to be more personal, one on one. We’re going to do one of those a month, but we’re also in the process of working on some more targeted training. Do you want to mention what we’re coming up with, Marty, to be able to provide people?

04:59.184 –> 05:38.860
Yes, we are going to be doing all things podcast. So what this means is we’re going to be talking about gear, we’re going to be talking about software, we’re going to be having possible guests on, talking about maybe some of the podcasting stuff they do and the equipment they use, maybe some of their background in podcasting and broadcasting. So it’s going to be a lot of fun. And we’re also going to be able to answer your questions and conversate with you about if you’re interested in doing any of that kind of podcastingbroadcasting type of work.

05:39.230 –> 06:10.020
Yeah, so that is the Unmute Plus opportunity, and I’m going to mention it here to not add any sort of confusion, but I want to be fully transparent. If there’s another show on the Iacast network that you want to support, you can always go to iacast net slash plus and that’ll get you to a list of the links where you can support your favorite contributor and that money goes back to the people actually producing those podcasts. So thank you, Michael, for this opportunity.

06:10.550 –> 06:20.278
Yeah, and Michael Babcock, if they wanted to read a little bit more about all things Unmute Plus membership, where would they do that?

06:20.444 –> 06:27.240
Unmute Show. And there’s a link in the menu bar that says plus. Or you can go to unmute show. Slash plus.

06:27.950 –> 06:40.430
Sounds great. Thanks for that, Michael. And next up on the agenda would be radio. So Michael, Doyce you want to talk about all things radio for a few minutes? Sure.

06:40.500 –> 07:00.194
So we made a change of our radio station over to a new provider called Radio Co. And normally you do things because they’re cheaper and we’re actually paying more money for this one. So Iacast net plus just saying. Right?

07:00.232 –> 07:07.718
But experience maybe has a monetary value. Maybe it works better or makes something easier. Right.

07:07.884 –> 09:52.810
So we went with this because it does offer us new features in streamlining that we did not get with the other provider. And what that is, is when we edit an episode and we send it through, offhonic it goes right to the radio. It is just that simple. And so sometimes it’s even on the radio’s queue list before it’s even posted to Pinecast, which is fantastic. It’s one less step. The only thing that I wish that they would work on is adding the featured image artwork to the actual track because they apparently stripped that out and you have to go add it back in, which is annoying, but it is what it is. So we do have that new radio. And what I love is when we go live or when tracks change, it actually has a slight fade. It fades into that next thing, so it’s not jarring like it was before. I remember listening on our previous radio station and I was listening to Michael and Damasi doing Technically Working, and they ended where it seemed natural. But then there was a pause and Damasi just kept talking and talking and talking and it was from another technically working episode that just happened to be playing at the same time on the automatic feed. So I was like, man, they’re talking. For a long time I thought they had ended the show. So it now is very distinguishable from where one show ends and another begins and I’m really a big fan of that. So, new radio station and we’re also looking at a new beta feature we’re going to add to the radio, which is an updated and hopefully better working skill for the Amazon Echo devices. So you’ll be able to use a lady to start the radio. There’s already a skill to do that, but it’s finicky and hard to get to work. So we will be investigating this new possibility now that we’re fully transferred over and that should be working by early to mid November. I’m really happy about that. And so the radio station is back. Well, not back, it’s here. It’s working really well. We’re looking at doing some proper shows just for radio that will then go to podcasts, but more specifically for radio. And I’ll get into some of those in just a bit. But do you guys have anything to add on the radio? What’s your experiences?

09:53.390 –> 10:15.538
I don’t necessarily have anything to add, but I would say that it’s a great thing to put on. If you’re working, you can kind of just listen to all the shows. You let it play, and you get kind of all the things throughout the time that you’re working, just let it go, and you can hear everything that’s going on, whether it’s mute iacast and all the things. So that’s pretty cool. Michael Babcock, what were you going to say?

10:15.624 –> 10:22.580
I was just going to say I just like how stable it is and it’s working. Reliably awesome.

10:23.030 –> 11:32.540
All right, Michael D. Thanks for that update. That’s pretty awesome. So something I will throw in here. I want to let everyone know that typically we put out a show through unmute every Thursday. Now, the exception to this rule is every once in a while, we get five Thursdays in a month. And this upcoming November is that. So the calendar falls weird. We actually have a whole entire week after the Thursday of this Thanksgiving. So we’re going to do something special this time. And since the holiday season and since we have an extra Thursday, we figured, why not do something special? So I’m not going to give any details away, but what I will say is something special will be coming. Stay tuned, and the details will be coming out soon enough. And so this is going to be the last Thursday of November. Stay tuned. It’s going to be awesome. And there’s going to be some exciting things that are going to be happening. So definitely stay tuned for that. Michael Doyce so what about shows? What’s new and what’s happening in shows?

11:33.390 –> 15:20.866
So this month in October, we’ve added two new shows, and they are very exciting shows. I’m really excited about to be on both of them, and one is called Biz Ability. So bi z like the domain bi z ability. Ibility. And what it is is a show that talks about how to start a business. So we’ve talked about what is, you know, how to start an LLC, some techniques that myself and Taylor aren’t have used to start a business. We’ve talked about the right tool for the right job. So basically that includes what software to use, what kind of phone systems. We talked about zoom, Phone, VoIP, Ms, all kinds of things. We talked about building a website for your business, all of that kind of information. And so we do that every week. We did not record this week because it was a very scary Monday, a scary fast Monday with the Apple announcement. So that will come back again next week. And we also have a new show called Eyes Off the Norm. It is a show hosted by Alicia Geary, and it is a show to talk about blindness, be a safe space to talk about anything blindness related. And it’s on the network. The first episode was talking about how to obtain skills without formal training. And so it was a very interesting kind of a talk show and that’s kind of very useful for the radio station. So I’m really happy about that. The other thing that is back starting tomorrow, so probably this will already be live after this is put on Thursday. Well, it most certainly will be live is season two of Vo Starter Weekly. So that podcast is back. I have the audio recorded for that, created for that. So that’s going back up. And we have another new show starting in November. There was a ACB Community call that was being done on clubhouse in different places where a friend of mine, Carla Martinez, was teaching Spanish to ACB Community. That’s going to turn into a cast network podcast. So I’m very excited about that. And so she will be doing a weekly show with the radio and on the podcast network for all of that content to teach people to learn Spanish. I’m quite excited about that. The last thing I want to mention is this weekend will be episode 200 of the IA cast. Can’t believe that it’s already well, not already. We’ve been going since 2015, but it’s episode 200 of the podcast so we’re going to try to pull out all the stops. We’re going to have a bunch of different surprises. Hopefully one very big surprise that I’m not going to tell anybody about because I don’t know if it’ll happen or not, but that will be this weekend. And so we’re going to talk about all the past 200 episodes. We’re going to have some folks that have been on before to kind of reminisce and talk. So it’s very exciting. So we have a very packed month of November coming up, so I’m very excited and I hope you all will join us for all of that.

15:21.048 –> 15:32.038
Awesome. Thanks Michael. And in closing here, Michael Doyce, why don’t you let everyone know how to reach out to Iacast if they wish or if they have questions or comments or any of that.

15:32.204 –> 16:05.810
Okay? So if you want to reach out to the Iacast, you can go to iacast. Net and get all of our content. You can send an email to [email protected] and you can find me pretty much anywhere on social media. Michael Doeies you can find me mastodon Mike DOE’s at Techopolis Social and on X or Facebook or all the places and Michael DOE’s or Mike DOE’s just search there. You’ll be able to find me. And yeah, I hope to see you guys on a podcast very soon.

16:05.960 –> 16:26.114
Awesome. Thanks Michael, we appreciate all that. And if you want to reach out to Unmute, you have any questions, comments or anything like that, you can either check out our website, which is Unmute Show, or you can email us at feedback at Unmute show. Michael Babcock anything else in closing?

16:26.242 –> 16:26.626
Nope.

16:26.658 –> 16:32.018
Just find me payome. Payown at Unmute Community on Mastodon.

16:32.194 –> 16:40.940
And I would be Marty at Unmute Community on Mastodon. If you want to track me down there and thanks, everyone. We appreciate it and will see you next time.