Podcast - This Is Only a Test

Episode 383 – Switch! – 1/19/17

Kishore and Jeremy are joined by Steve Lin to discuss the Nintendo Switch announcements, Google’s custom security chips, newfangled technological doctors offices, and Steve’s epic trip to Japan. All this in addition to your Moment of Science, the VR Minute, and What We’ve Been Testing!

Comments (10)

10 thoughts on “Episode 383 – Switch! – 1/19/17

  1. No norm… No will… This is will be an interesting show. Love the enthusiasm Kishore. It’s sweet you guys still “dance” to the theme.

  2. Inductive charging for EVs is not that far fetched, although not that useful for private owners, but rather for public transportation.

    There you can put the charging pads at the end stops, where buses typically stand for 10 minutes or so anyway and have them charge their battery for the next round. Systems like that are being evaluated in various cities in Europe, one in Berlin http://e-bus.berlin/technik-und-betrieb/ (in German, sorry, but easy to find yt videos or other material in English when you look for ) – while pretty bumpy at the start due to the prototype nature and all sorts of run-in problems it seems to work OK now… 4-7 minutes is enough to charge enough for the next round, with enough reserves to skip one or two charging cycles.

    Similar things for trams, no need to have the powerlines for the whole track, have it in sections where maintenance is easy and have it run on battery between other stops. Or charge via the ground just as the buses do…

    Using such a system in your own garage seems like a waste though. Touch to foresee what other mechanism or technology you need in future/for your next car… Much easier in places where not one vehicle, but multiple of the same kind make use of it, and are expected to be in use for many years before technology is switched (if at all).

    For private owners I rather see a charging “mat” or similar you put on your garage floor, and have charging connectors at the bottom that the mat then wourd rise towrds those connectors (a mat because that would make alignment easier, you could have a pattern that could match multiple ways, making a “snake” system unnecessary. But as Jeremy mentioned: it is no big deal to plug it in yourself, so luxury accessory if at all.

  3. I’ve had HD radio in my car for years now the thing in norway might be something similar. I have an aftermarket JVC head unit, I haven’t seen too many options for stock stereos with HD. It might be an added feature since they usually push Satellite radio

  4. Norway’s radio situation has been a source of public debate for years now. All national and local radio channels have to switch over to DAB+.

    Some local channels will be running FM for a few more years, but all national channels will be on DAB+ by the end of 2017… and if you live in certain parts of the country they’ll already have turned off the FM broadcasts.

    Yes, this is a problem for a lot of older cars.

    The major national radio channels have about 99.5% coverage on DAB (that is, 99.5% of people have access to them where they live), which is more than FM. Quite impressive given Norway’s challenging geography. Still, there are a lot of places where you do not have a DAB signal, but this is also true of FM (we’re all mountains and fjords, not ideal for radio waves).

  5. Wonder how much will be left from the no-region-lock statement in the switch presentation. Unfortunately the wording implies that there still will be region lock for some titles.

    In general, we won’t apply region-locking to the Nintendo Switch software

    (emphasis mine) – I think the interesting titles will still apply some kind of region lock 🙁

    Also re portability: How many games can you store on the device? Or will it by: sorry, no wifi, so cannot load the next level?

    They were trying hard to stress that also third-party developers work on titles, but looks to me that it will only be ports of existing titles/respins. But Suda51’s mention that Nintendo tried to make it easy to develop for the platform (also for indie devs) might be the most promising part, OTOH his title seems to still be in planning phase might contradict this a bit (no dev-kit for you, script-kiddie). And most certainly most third-party titles won’t make use of the controller-hw features that make the switch special, but likely will just be gamepad-mode like games…

    from Nintendo’s website http://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/

    After the free-trial period, most games will require a paid online service subscription from Nintendo in order to play online.

    Nail in the coffin for casual gamers. High entry price and then having the choice of being “forever alone” or paying a (likely) monthly fee… 🙁

  6. Nail in the coffin for casual gamers. High entry price and then having the choice of being “forever alone” or paying a (likely) monthly fee… 🙁

    that was to be expected, though, wasn’t it? with both xbone and ps4 charging for online multiplayer, it doesn’t cost them anything to go with the apparently accepted standard.

  7. Kishore: try living in a place where temps are commonly -10°C during the day. I sure wish I had a heated steering wheel!

    About consoles… I had the same feeling about buying a Nintendo DS 3D and a PS4 (I decided I wanted to get back into gaming) last year… same price for any of them. I play mostly Lego games on the Nintendo, which is fine. But a bit expensive for what it brings.
    The Switch should be more interesting for regular gamers than a Nintendo DS or other, right? But yeah.

  8. same in Switzerland

    I’m more worried about phones now being totally digital. I kept my land line until now because I figured that if electricity goes I can still phone, I kept one of my old phones for this purpose. But now the VoIP systems has been imposed to all and there is no real use for the land line any more. Might as well have a second cheap mobile phone for emergencies, or use an old one….

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