Solid State Podcast

Hosted by John Joyce

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100

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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About the show

A weekly show from three hosts deep ”in the trenches of tech”, discussing the latest news, events, and cultural moments around the technology industry and the products, people, and services touching our daily lives.

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60 recent

June 8, 2026Episode 1421 hr 24 min

Episode 142 - Microsoft Build vs Apple WWDC 2026 (Oh, and go play Guild Wars)

Event Season in tech is one of my favorite times of year for oh so many reasons… not the least of which is that, you know, we have no shortage of things to talk about… (as if that’s ever been a problem around here) And then, even buried in the middle of said “Season”, there’s an even better overlap… a single week where one big conference has just happened and another one is just mere hours away. The sweet, sweet collision of what we “got” agains what we’re still hopeful to “get”. This, deal listener, is one of those weeks. You see Microsoft just wrapped up its annual Build conference, and for the first time in what feels like too many years it was… about building things. You know, Developers. The people around the globe that spend countless hours and risk their whole livelihood on the hope that their idea is the next one to take the market by storm. Microsoft (or any tech player) is nothing without them, and similarly we wouldn’t have, for example, Windows Developers if we didn’t have… Windows. You can argue eternally about which is of greater impact to the eventual end user or customer, but in the end… we need them both. And Microsoft took the stage this year and laid out its vision for what collaboration with said Developers is going to look like. Agents? Come and get ‘em. Linux tools in Windows? More and more by the year. Copilot anyone? That one was seemingly, umm, “absent” from the docket and that… might not be a bad thing. Oh, and Microsoft also announced the two most powerful (and most certainly expensive) Surface devices ever… no bid deal. Whew… when people say “that’s a tough act to follow”, it feels like they’re talking about this very event. But here we are, on none other than Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote day to say exactly that. The, uhh, RE-return of AI-empowered Siri, fresh coats of paint on every single one of Apple’s Operating Systems, and likewise a room full of very itchy developers who all have the same burning question… where do we go from here? With hours still to go, we stay planted firmly in “what if” territory for WWDC… but who knows… maybe we got a couple right? Let’s find out…

May 26, 2026Episode 1411 hr 22 min

Episode 141 - Google I/O 2026 (Oh, and go watch Star Wars)

Technology, by its very nature, is in a constant state of change. What was yesterday’s banner new product or feature sure to take the world by storm is today’s soon-forgotten commodity that we-the-user already take for granted. It’s the way of things. That said, every so often, the change is so big, so foundational, and so… irreversible… it hits just a little bit different. That level of change, while still very much in-progress, felt like the inescapable truth of Google I/O this year. Search, while still very much at the forefront, continues to evolve in front of our eyes from an answer-machine to an AI-driven buddy here to help you allegedly solve all the mysteries of the Universe. Shopping need no longer be confined to the four digital walls of a single online storefront, and instead span the very web itself with one Shopping Cart to rule them all. AI itself shouldn’t just be the tool of the tech-centric nerd, rather front and center to help grandma turn her hand-written recipe book into a vibe coded cooking app her whole family can enjoy… At least, this is what Google says (more loudly than ever), the moment is. Peer just underneath the surface though, and it’s so, so much bigger than even any of that. This isn’t a fight for market share, platform scale, or even Silicon Valley bragging rights. No, they would have you believe this is nothing more than a fight for survival. The survival of their companies, their mission, and perhaps even the human race itself. You know, because of shopping carts… Listen, I couldn’t agree more… something about this messaging is… out of whack The stakes seem misaligned with the message, and behind them the dollars seem misaligned with the payday. But, in the meantime, another I/O has come-and-gone… and with it, Google paints a future not of itself, but of its vision for the future of the web…

May 11, 2026Episode 1401 hr 18 min

Episode 140 - All I wanted was a Steam Controller...

This week on the Solid State Podcast, the only plan we could possibly be accused of having was… well none at all… See if you haven’t noticed, the world is in a bit of a… state of flux right now. Need some RAM? Good luck. Does your product ship by boat through… certain parts of the world? Not right now it’s probably not. Oh and remember “Kyle”, the one helpful person you finally found at AT&T customer service? He’s been replaced by an AI “assistant” that apparently doesn’t realize the word “agent” has numerous meanings and doesn’t seem to understand that I don’t want to trade in my phone for a bottle of phosphoric acid… So with everything seeming to change on the daily, where does that leave three podcasters other than to embrace the crazy and chart our course through… whatever the heck is going on. I try to but a Steam Controller… very unsuccessfully. We all try to understand the naming conventions behind the latest gadgets… somehow more unsuccessfully. Oh and Microsoft dropped the price of Game Pass and all we had to give up was Call of Duty? See, it wasn’t all bad! Developer conferences looming right around the corner, somehow all this activity feels like the storm before the… umm… slightly bigger storm? Buckle up everybody, turbulence ahead…

April 25, 2026Episode 1391 hr 23 min

Episode 139 - What does "MSP" stand for? (Oh... and Tim Cook stepped down...)

I would be the last one to call myself a marketing genius, guru, or any other term that might suggest one knows what the heck they’re talking about… but even I know that, in many cases, it’s helpful to call a thing what it is or is supposed to be… you know… so people know what it is or what it’s for? iPhone? It was an phone with an iPod in it… Desktop Computer? Yep, a computer that, once upon a time, sat on a desk… Google? Okay, not every example is perfect but you get what I mean… So what is it that I’m on about that makes me sound just that little-bit-more insane that I usually am? Well, if you didn’t know already this podcast… isn’t exactly our day job. Shocker, I know. My outstanding co-presenters are midline-podcasters by very-early-day and front line, in the weeds, technology consultants by… the rest of those days. But the specific vertical of all-things-tech we work in? That is this incredible, wonderful, and oftentimes brain-scrambling segment called “Managed Services” which makes us… yep… a “Managed Services Provider” or M-S-P… You might be wondering, but John, does that mean the “T” in MSP stands for Technology? Congratulations, you’re now just as confused as I’ve been about my own job for the last two decades. All of the jargon-y-ness aside though… as the tech-of-it-call continues to effectively invade every facet of our work lives, home lives, and everything in between… suddenly it starts to make sense… The wrong computer goes down… orders don’t ship on time. A certain printer breaks… checks aren’t cut. The bad guys compromise the wrong email account and… to be quite honest… jobs are at stake. So that missing “T” I was talking about? This crazy game has gotten so much bigger than that… So today let’s find out, what does MSP really stand for? Oh, and have you tried turning it off and on again?

April 7, 2026Episode 13856 min

Episode 138 - The thing about Wearables in 2026

It’s honestly very funny to me how you can look at a gadget and think one particular way about it… have a stray thought… and then suddenly look at that same gadget in a VERY different light… Spoiler warning and all that jazz, but I recently had that exact experience with nothing other than my trusty, daily driver Apple Watch. There’s no getting around it, the Apple Watch didn’t just define a category, it de facto created it. Yes I know, every Pebble owner and Moto 360 faithful (you know who you are) is clamoring for their keyboard to email me as I speak… but it simply can’t be ignored that like the iPad, the iPhone, and yes the venerable iPod before it, the Apple Watch made wearables the market it is today. Oh, and it continues to sit atop it. So taking all of that and somehow… setting it aside… is it good for me? Apple says this device is a health and fitness forward piece of technology… designed to make your day easier, your Walled Garden journey more fruitful, and your heart beat ever-so-better… And honestly… all of that is true. The ways I’ve integrated it into my daily workflow have made it easier. The integration with the other Apple-driven services in my life are borderline flawless. And, as someone who went through a substantial health journey over the last five years… I don’t know if I would have gotten here without that watch. Oh, and possibly more important… those three colored rings…… And that's the thought I had the other day, the one that made me gaze at my wrist in an entirely different light for the first time in over a decade. My jeans are a different size today than if I hadn’t had that tool, there’s almost no doubt about that. But here, now, in 2026… am I an addict? Well dear listener, in true Solid State fashion there’s only one way to find out… let’s dive in…

March 17, 2026Episode 1371 hr 38 min

Episode 137 - Four Years (and one week) Anniversary Special

This week on the Solid State Podcast… we’re another year older, certainly no wiser, and somehow just as not-on-time as ever… Yep, you guessed it… on March 11, 2022 we dropped the very first full episode of the show… the runtimes were a shorter, the content was honestly a bit smarter, and my gadget collection… okay it was already out of control but its definitely gotten worse over those years… So when our Anniversary date rolled around we sat down, prepped a show around it, and then I proceeded to get whatever the heck this “cold” is that seemingly everyone I know has lately and lets face it… you didn’t want to listen to whatever that would have been for an hour. So, in the most on-brand way possible, we come to you Four Years and One Week into this whole things to deliver not just a walk down memory lane but also to connect the dots over those years and ask ourselves… how much has really changed? Vinyl? Still flying off the shelves. Building a PC in 2026? Somehow more expensive than in 2022. Oh and the “Singularity”? I don’t know who’s idea it was to launch this show talking about a global-scale AI platform but… uh… yeah…… There’s nothing else to say other than, everything else aside… Thank You. Thank you for four years (okay, and a week) of laughs, bad puns, and tortured credit cards… and here’s to a heck-of-a-lot more... Make it so.

March 10, 2026Episode 1361 hr 16 min

Episode 136 - Samsung Unpacked, MWC, and Apple Announcement Week

This week on the Solid State Podcast I… get to speak to you from the past. No, not in a Back to the Future kind of way… though that’d be pretty cool… instead its for the far more mundane reason that, when recording an episode “on the road” its important to remember two things… your recording equipment AND the source files for, you know, actually cutting together the show… So, with that, here we are on a beautiful Florida morning on March 10th, where I come to you quote-unquote “live” to intro an episode… recorded in the mountains of north Georgia… on March 3rd… Anyway… This week on the Solid State Podcast, for real this time, we’re talking all-things-mobile! Samsung had their flagship Unpacked event, Mobile World Congress was in full swing, and Apple decided to carpet bomb the industry with day-after-day of announcements on everything from iPads to a “new” MacBook… Again due to the, umm, Timey-Whimey-ness of this episode, some of those items… weren’t exactly announced yet… but rest assured we have PLENTY more to say in upcoming episodes as these devices go from being announcements on a projector screen to actual, physical objects in our hands to study, review, and hopefully find a place for in our daily tech lives… With no further ado, Allons-y…

February 13, 2026Episode 1351 hr 15 min

Episode 135 - The News... Parts Bin Style

Many times we come to this show, whether it sounds like it or not… relatively prepared. The topic is clear, the message has been more-or-less thought through, and the banter, well, nothing can stop that from meandering… Other weeks though, it’s just not that easy. Tech is funny because it honestly orbits around the gravity of several “big” moments throughout the year. CES, Unpacked, WWDC, etc. The in between parts… well that’s akin to good old fashioned exploring. Every so often you come across a major moment in the industry that seemingly came out of nowhere… but a lot of the time the big players are doing their thing, the smaller players are looking to disrupt them, and “we the user” are still just looking for our “smart” assistant to consistently turn the lights on and off while maintaining more than one cooking timer… Well, if you can’t tell by the rambling the even found its way into the intro… welcome to an in-between-week! There’s no central story or focus because, honestly, the entire industry (and close behind it the rest of the world) is still grappling with our last topic… See remember that RAM shortage we talked about? Well just a week later it made its way into the non-tech headlines and the next thing you know stock markets are adjusting, news rooms are spinning up, and everyones now talking about… what we already talked about. All I’ll say is buckle up, this one really goes places…

January 27, 2026Episode 1341 hr 20 min

Episode 134 - The thing about the RAM-pocalypse

When something get’s sufficiently commoditized… it almost reaches a point where you start thinking about that one “thing” as a single, cohesive object rather than the sum of its parts. For many, a car is a thing you sit inside of, press a button or two, and you’re suddenly being propelled down the highway to your eventual destination. For the petrolhead, though, that same car is a symphony of engineering… disparate parts sourced all over the globe coming together to turn fuel, electricity, or both into the sweet sensation of speed. Much the same can be said for the gadgets, electronics, and (frankly) modern marvels that permeate our daily lives. Most don’t think about their dishwasher as a small computer managing cycles of water, soap, and heat to make one of the more mundane daily chores… disappear. Heck, the average person things about their iPhone as, well, an iPhone.. that is until they send it clattering along the driveway only to find the screen shattered and the literally thousands of internal components… well… exposed. Those components, then, often become the unsung heroes. An iPod without a hard drive is just a paperweight. A TV without a backlight is a very hard to use eReader. And… well… pretty much anything in our modern world without RAM is, honestly, useless. RAM, or Random Access Memory, is one of the most ubiquitous pieces of the tech puzzle… microwaves to spacecraft rely on it. So, when the world’s ready supply of this technological lifeblood is suddenly… “spoken for”… what does that do to your next laptop? I hate to say that’s when good old fashioned Economics kicks in and… you may not like the inevitable answer. This story goes much deeper than the price tag of your next Nintendo Switch, mind you. So grab another cup of tea, this one gets interesting…

January 14, 2026Episode 1331 hr 24 min

Episode 133 - This year at CES 2026

Well… there’s no other way to say it… welcome to 2026 everyone! Yes I know, the more things change the more they stay the same and all that. Resolutions made and near-instantly broken. Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace flooded with all the… umm… “stuff” from last year that you need to get rid of to make room for all the… yeah… “stuff” that magically appeared over the holiday shopping season… and, as if that weren’t enough… it’s CES time once again! That’s right, back to the desert, back to the endless rows of startups, established legends, and global phenomenons allequally trying to convince us that their widget is, in fact, the next big thing… We’ve actually said for a couple CES’ in a row now that true “gadgets” continue to be on the rise… As the (entirely, at least) App-driven economy becomes even more commoditized, room continues to present itself for new, interesting ways to productize, package, and ship the latest, greatest way to do everything from scrambling eggs to exploring the outer reaches of space… CES is all that and a bag of micro-chips this year, as much as any other. But, just underneath the surface, there’s also a different vibe just waiting to take the headline… With RAM-pocalypse in full swing, every brand you’ve ever heard of is pivoting prices, adjusting shipping timelines, and honestly re-assessing if certain offerings even make sense considering the environment… With AI squarely to blame… it’s no less ironic that, at the core of far too many of the gadgets themselves is, well… AI! Used to be, something was effectively vaporware until it shipped… now I have to wonder if it’s vaporware until it’s been shipped, delivered, and, well… proven to actually do anything? Let’s see what we can find…