August 25, 2025 • 36 mins
Special thanks to Becca Farsace for joining us on this episode!
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:14 - Auto Faux-cus
00:09:31 - Peer-to-Peer Mythbusters
00:16:00 - Photo Background Matcher
00:20:43 - Resume Building Podcasts
00:27:34 - Alarm Dumbwatches
00:35:26 - Outro
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
I'm Scott.
I'm Russell.
I'm Leo.
This is Spitball.
Welcome to Spitball, episode 50, where three pixel peeping perfectionists and a guest empty
our heads of startup and tech product ideas that we have stuck up in there so you can
(00:25):
all have them for free.
Anything that we say is yours to keep.
And this week, oh, this week,
I am so very excited to be welcoming
Becca Farsace to our show.
Becca is, I first learned about Becca's work
from her time as a reporter at The Verge,
where she's now gone independent,
which is very exciting for us.
You can find her at youtube.com/BeccaFarsace,
where she takes tech outside.
(00:47):
She is a Apple, not Apple, she is a camera enthusiast.
She is a product tester and reviewer and excellent vlogger.
And I am so beyond excited to be welcoming her
to the show today.
Becca, welcome to Spitball.
- Thanks for having me, folks.
And what a sweet intro.
I appreciate that.
Close slip on the Apple enthusiast.
(01:08):
(laughing)
- I was gonna cut that.
- I appreciate the course correction.
- I wasn't trying to say Apple enthusiast,
but I got caught.
I'm looking at a list of what I was going to do here,
and it had the word Apple on the screen,
and I tripped myself up.
- Just to clear the air.
- Yeah.
- You know, I'm not.
- But you worked at The Verge,
you were so Apple-coded, right?
- iVerge, iVerge.
(01:29):
- iVerge, iVerge, right.
Tell us a little bit about what you do at your channel.
I'd love to hear about it.
- Oh man, well as you said, I take tech outside.
I'm really bad at this elevator pitch.
You'd think I would've gotten better by now.
I'm usually like, "Eh, just go watch
"youtube.com/BeccaFarsace"
But yeah, the whole idea is that I review technology,
but by actually using it out in the real world.
(01:52):
So that manifests in me jumping into lakes
and going on road trips and riding an e-bike from New York City to Rochester, New York.
Yeah, you did.
Yeah, it's really fun.
And it's been a wild ride.
I'm just about to hit a year of being completely independent from The Verge, which is a wild
landmark.
Wow.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
That's fantastic.
(02:13):
As we do every week, we're going to kick us off with a warm-up game that this time I'm
going to call Autofocus.
Focus, where, I don't know if you've realized this,
but over the years, the Samsungs and Apples
and Googles of the world have made
a hundred million branded gimmicky features
in their first party camera apps,
and they all have the most ridiculous names.
(02:35):
So, Google Night Sight, Samsung Scene Optimizer,
Apple Next Generation Photographic Styles.
I just wanna go down this list real quick
and have you all try to tell me,
is this a real feature that either Apple, Samsung,
or Google has come up with in the last 15 years
on a phone either during a keynote or a press release,
or is this something that I made up?
- Russell and Scott, are you guys good at this sort of thing?
(02:58):
I don't know anything about your--
- Oh no, I think I've gotten zero
in the last like four weeks of this.
- Okay. - Yeah.
- We try to do like a this or that
or a true or false, whatever,
and Scott takes pride in how bad he is at it.
- Ooh, yeah. - Although the last couple,
you've started to--
- I just gotta guess the opposite of whatever I'm thinking.
- That's true. - And it seems to work better.
- Nice, I like that, I like that.
- Well, we'll start off as we always do with our guest.
(03:20):
Becca, Apple Retina Flash.
Was that a real feature or is that something I just made up?
- I think you made that up, a Retina Flash.
Or that could have been like an early, okay, hold on.
I feel like that could have been a red eye reduction thing,
but I'm gonna say no.
I don't know anything about the Retina Flash.
- That's the real name of the feature
that flashes the screen white when you're taking a selfie.
(03:41):
(laughing)
- It's called the Retina Flash?
- The Retina Flash, I know, I didn't realize this either.
That's kind of what inspired this game.
I heard that word. I was like, that's ridiculous.
(laughs)
- It's ridiculous.
I call that the very white, bright screen.
- It was one of the headline features in iPhone 6S.
They were like, look it, we're introducing retina flash.
And no one's ever called it that ever.
- Horrible branding.
- Yeah.
(04:01):
- Scott, Samsung 100X space zoom.
(laughs)
- Is that the weird one that the,
you would see the picture of the moon
if you just look at the street lamp or something?
(laughs)
I'm gonna say that's real.
- That is what they call their 100X zoom feature.
That's right. It's very Samsung.
Space. You have to a great start, Scott.
Now, did you actually like think that was real or you're like, I think that's not
(04:23):
real. So probably is.
OK, so I actually thought that was real and I'm questioning everything in life.
So, yeah, I got to start using your method.
All right. It is ironic that they got in trouble for that moon thing a couple of
years ago where they were AIing moon and they call their feature space zoom.
I've never put those two things together, but you're so right.
Russell, Google fused video stabilization.
(04:43):
Not real. They wouldn't use the word fused.
- That's in the Pixel 2, that's what they called
using both OIS and EIS at the same time.
- Fusion.
- I would have gotten that wrong.
- Isn't it ridiculous?
I assembled this list and over the course of many articles,
it looked like there were probably a hundred terms
like this to choose from.
(05:03):
- This is a good one.
- This is a good one.
- Becca, Google Smart Leveler.
- Smart Leveler?
Smart Leveler?
- Smart Leveler.
- They definitely have a level on their cameras that I love.
And I think that they would call something smart.
I'm gonna say yeah.
- I made that one. - No!
- I love the level too, I use the level constantly.
I'm a Pixel 9 Pro fan and yeah, holy cow.
(05:26):
- Wow, Leo. - I'm gonna get
every one of these things wrong.
This is when I leave the tech journalism space right here.
- Yeah, you're gonna be on the front page
of all the controversy blogs.
- Yeah, Becca leaves the tech world.
- Leo's just really good at this game.
He just loves to make the game shows that destroy us.
I don't know how he does it.
There's a lot of gimmicks out there in the world to take from.
(05:48):
It's true.
Scott, Google real tone.
I have no idea on that one.
I'm going to say no.
That just seems too plain for Google.
That's their attempt to address racial bias and skin tone as of last year.
Yep, that's real.
They're big on it.
They use accurate color science on the skin tones.
Yep.
Scott's getting canceled.
You don't know that, Scott?
Oh man.
(06:09):
Come on, everyone knew that.
I'm really happy it wasn't me.
- I feel like Becca, you probably know a lot of these.
So I tried to pick ones that were a little harder for you.
So don't feel bad.
- I'm getting that sense.
Every time it comes to Scott, I'm like, come on.
That's like a main feature.
(laughing)
- Roast him, get him.
Russell, Samsung Bixby beauty reality.
(06:32):
- Totally, thousand percent.
I use it all the, no, it's gotta be real.
That's gotta be real, right?
- It's very Samsung sounding.
I made that one up.
- Oh my God.
- Beauty, reality, that sounds perfect.
Bixby, even put Bixby in there, that was amazing.
- The Bixby sold it, 'cause if it's a bad name,
it's gotta be associated with Bixby.
(06:52):
- 100%.
Becca, one more time through.
Let's do the Apple TrueDepth camera.
- Yes, it is real.
- Yeah, that was the front facing,
that's the dot projector, that's what they call it.
I hadn't heard that term before.
I knew that they have the face ID dot projector thing,
But yeah, all one word, capital D, true depth.
(07:13):
- It's cool because when we were at the Verge,
we filmed it with an IR camera.
- Yes, I referenced that. - It is crazy.
Yeah, the amount of dots it shoots out.
When you see it on IR, it's like, holy cow,
thank God we can't see that wavelength.
- So the way that the Face ID front-facing camera works
is that it shoots out a bunch of little laser pointer
(07:33):
type things in infrared so that it makes a depth map.
- By a bunch, he means thousands.
- Yeah, it's really cool.
And they do that so that you can use it in the dark.
So it's not just like a visual thing.
So using an infrared camera to say,
oh, there's the map of where the dots are landing.
- Whenever I see my wife on the baby monitor,
her face will flash like a bunch of lights, right?
(07:54):
I think that's probably it, right?
- It is, yep.
- It's crazy.
- I don't love tight patterns.
Like I'm one of those people, it makes me,
so when we were doing it, I was like,
am I gonna pass out?
Like, 'cause it's really, it's a lot of dots on a face.
There's a name for that.
It's the same with the Mac Pro holes on the front of it.
- Yeah, that one didn't bug me.
That one didn't, but yes, it's that sort of,
(08:17):
yeah, like a rash on skin.
You're learning a lot about me.
I'm out, don't, I'm out.
(laughing)
- I get it.
- Scott, Samsung virtual aperture.
- That sounds like it'll go the opposite.
Plain enough, yes, that is real.
- That's what they call it on the S25.
They have a bunch of fake aperture values now
and they're all emulated in software,
(08:38):
So they shoot in one, but then you can switch it up.
- Cool. - Nice job, Scott.
- Russell, I got a hard one for you, Russell.
Samsung Nona cell, N-O-N-A hyphen C-E-L-L.
- Nat, you misspelled it, Leo.
It's nano cell.
That one exists.
Nat, Nona, there's no grandma in the cell phone.
- He's trying to trick you.
(09:00):
(laughing)
- So you think it's fake?
- It's fake.
- That's actually what they call their pixel binning tech
on the S20. - No.
They have two different names for it,
and that one's the most ridiculous one.
I have one more for Samsung.
Shoot.
Well, I should have done an all Samsung round next time.
I don't even-- I wasn't keeping track of who won at this point.
I think it was maybe Russell.
(09:20):
You had two out of three, I think,
and then didn't get the last one.
So Russell, as always, our champion.
We're very well done, sir.
Congrats, Russell.
However, I think you went first last week.
Scott, hit us up.
What do you got this week?
OK.
I'm nervous because I'm trying to pitch essentially
YouTube channel or some kind of platform.
I've never done this before.
I normally do hardware and I know nothing about YouTube channels on here,
(09:43):
but I feel like this is the perfect one for Becca.
I'm so excited.
Hit me.
I've wanted to do this for a long time.
Picture a community source Mythbusters meets like Reddit, where there's like
some kind of form anyone can submit a question, product, tech, or just
literally anything that they want an answer to, don't have a means to find
out, but someone else could find out through some kind of open source.
(10:05):
So like I could ask a question on this form, like what, I always lose my
earbuds in the washing machine.
What brand of earbuds are most likely to side of the washing machine?
Or what happens if I put a glow stick in a microwave?
Like I just want to know the answer to this kind of stuff.
And then based on this form, hopefully popular questions arise at the top.
And then anyone, Russell could go out and be like, I want to know this too.
(10:25):
I'm just going to take a quick video, throw it on there and answer
someone else's question on there.
Eventually you'll get a bunch of different videos on there.
you could create compilations or other things of like,
"The most popular question on here,
"here's 20 videos of people trying to answer it."
And then group it all together.
And they're all like short little TikToks
or something equivalents.
And that's the whole idea.
I just have a dozen of these questions
(10:47):
that I've always wanted to know,
and I'm hoping someone else can help me with it.
- I'm hoping someone else can ruin their microwave.
- Exactly.
- I'm in, this is genius.
How much are you asking?
What's the investment price?
- 20%.
for 1%? That's really fun. If a bunch of people are all submitting the videos, it's probably not something that can live on like one
(11:09):
YouTube channel or one. This is almost its own independent social network. I know that's why I'm like
I don't know what platform or what this could be on here. I mean is this just a reddit thread?
Is this it might just be a reddit thread. Like a subreddit? Yeah, every once in a while.
Or you could be the host and you would just do every single one of these. You curate it. Oh god.
Oh, oh, oh you just do all of them I see. Yeah, you have to do that
(11:32):
Whatever the most popular question is on here. I will find a way to answer that question
I feel like yeah, hey internet dare me to do anything whoever whatever gets the most votes wins
This can't possibly end badly, right? No
But a close-up in a microwave is something I definitely want to know the answer to right now. Me too
Go to Goodwill. Yeah, and you have to do it at night in the dark, obviously
(11:57):
And then you put 40 glow sticks in there
'cause you just gotta know now, right?
- Gotta know.
- Until the microwave breaks,
you have a ton of content, right?
- I feel like Will It Blend has a much better vibe
than Will It Microwave.
- I disagree, actually.
And then the microwave's gotta be
(12:18):
in the middle of a field.
I mean, just 'cause naturally you should be far away from it
but the image is beautiful.
- An anonymous person in a hazmat suit
up to it and starts it and that's the whole frame you get.
Wait, this is perfect.
Scott, I can't wait to watch this.
This is why we Spitball.
You start with one idea and it ends up like 90 degrees over there.
I think Becca's right.
(12:39):
You have all the tools you need to build this as a subreddit, dude, because you'd be able
to have like moderation staff who's keeping track of only the top level posts are some
kind of video platform link and various people are like taking on the request which was uploaded
to the top.
Yeah, that would be really cool.
The liability is where it gets scary
But that's for you to figure out, you know
(13:02):
Do not do this whatsoever never test any of these hypotheses caution do not attempt there done done
Done. Yeah, do you said you have like 12 questions you get they go dude not to put you on the spot
But are there any other things that no, they're always just random ones in the moment. The vast majority is like crap
I just spilled coffee all over this laptop
I wonder which one would survive the best out of all the laptops in the world
(13:24):
Would a MacBook be to precision or something?
- Okay, product testy.
- Yeah, they all start with product tests
and then they get a little crazier.
- This is a great idea.
- Everyone in this Reddit thread,
pour coffee on your laptops and document what happens.
- I, yeah, I'm a little worried about that aspect.
It's just people destroying all their own products
for science though.
(13:44):
- Yeah, but you helped that out.
- But honestly though, that's kind of why I like this idea
just because like I might have an old,
whatever laptop that I'm like, I don't care,
or I can toss these old earbuds in a washing machine
just see what happens. Or you've already done it. I've washed many earbuds. I can tell you
which ones, you know, lasted for more than a week after. Nope, Becca, I want empirical
evidence and I want, I need you to go out and buy more earbuds and try it again. Yeah,
(14:08):
you get review samples, don't you? Welcome to Becca's washing channel. Throw them right
in my washing machine. Thank you, Samsung, for sending over these great buds. Here they
Yeah, yeah, that's not a great way to stay Jerry rig everything method. No, not a great
26-inch monitor in the washing machine just
(14:30):
Yeah, at what point like does the does the other product win? You know, what point does you're like it's like washing machine versus yeah, right
How many earbuds does it take to stop a washing machine? Yeah
Oh my god, it was filled with beer buds
(14:54):
Yeah, pyrotechnics the YouTube channel tech is like right and you just throw tech in microwaves
Tech you how much water does it take for your MacBook to explode right? Just like stuff like that. I
Work a lot with lithium batteries and this idea honestly came from like what would happen if I just stabbed this as hard as I
(15:15):
with a scalpel like I know you're I just know you're not supposed to do that but
maybe someone has a setup where they could. I think you know what would happen. Or maybe
someone's just gonna get hurt. I think we do know what would happen. Yeah that
might be a well-trodden path on YouTube. I haven't done the what happens if I
stab a lithium battery search in a while but I feel like I've seen those pop up
(15:35):
on the front page of Reddit once in a while. Okay lithium phosphorus then not
lithium polymer like I want to see it all variety and go down the line. And then
The battery stabber.
Welcome to another episode of the battery stabber.
My heart rate is like rising right now.
It's terrifying.
Absolutely terrifying.
Just an indoor clothes environment for that stuff.
Right, Scott? Like that's all.
(15:56):
I've got a bathroom fan going.
It's fine.
Uh, Leo, what have you brought us this week?
Alright. You've probably seen
those posts that go viral on the
the front page of Reddit or whatever, where you've got like two different
people saying, "Oh my gosh, we were at the same place at the same time when we were
(16:18):
kids," or "I can't believe it, my wife was right down the street for all those
years and I didn't know it when we were kids," or whatever. Some sort of like
family photo happenstance, right? I think there should be a feature in Google
Photos or a separate service that you upload your catalogs to where it does a
bit of matching, not only off of the photo itself and its contents, but the
(16:38):
metadata so that you could be like, wow, it's a little bit like a match.com or
ancestry.com type thing, but just for your family photos.
Most of the photos that you have are cataloged and have location and have time
and have that sort of thing.
And we should be doing more to like have people have those moments, right?
We could manufacture the, oh my gosh, that random stranger on Reddit is the
(17:01):
person in the background of the photo that I have, and they have the same photo
at the different angle back from Disney world 20 years ago.
Right.
And it seems like we're like that close.
Everyone's already uploading all their photos to the cloud
and they're already getting AI scanned
and we know metadata about them
and also the contents of the photo itself
are being cataloged and tagged and all that.
(17:22):
We're like 99% of the way there
to having two different users in this platform
be made aware that each other
have an interesting perspective.
It could be opt-in, I don't know, but that's the idea.
It doesn't have a name yet.
It's like old family photo catalog matching.com.
Yeah.
Rolls off the tongue.
(17:43):
This sounds like a dating app.
Yeah.
It's a hundred percent.
You both love that laundromat.
You're taking photos there all the time.
Well, now you can, yeah.
Find people that, you know, at these locations, you're like, oh, I like that,
that photo of them on the selfies at the gym.
Right.
(18:03):
Isn't that, I don't know.
I'm looking at--
-Then someone's like the match is like in the background
like struggling through a rep or something.
Yes, absolutely.
-Just a really unflattering picture of them doing something like that.
-It would be cool to see.
I know there's like heat maps and stuff,
but all of Google Photos put onto a heat map would be very--
(18:26):
Then I want to go to the least photographed place.
-Yes, or just like see it throughout time, right?
a slider, a scrubber to say, oh, wow, you can see all of the people coming into a certain
spot for New Year's Eve and then back out or whatever.
That'd be cool.
Yeah.
Or just like over like as soon as like Instagram popped off.
Like I'm sure like the like certain locations just went like through the roof.
(18:48):
Yeah.
You want like the vacation planner where you know where not to go because everyone goes
there.
Yes.
Yes.
The heat map of that island or whatever.
Yeah.
See, does Google like do they have the power?
Is there somebody in Google who has this heat map?
Right.
Probably, right?
They're too busy eating dinner and lunch
(19:08):
at their cool kitchen.
Nobody's coding that, right?
This is all we know of Google.
Gemini is coding that up.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work.
I will say, the Google office does have incredible cookies.
Yeah?
I'm going to stop by there, right?
Yeah, I'll swing through on the way to work today.
That'd be cool.
(19:29):
- Like they're gonna cookie.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- Yeah.
- I love the face.
So like with my photo album,
you can see like it has all the faces of the people or dogs.
That's kind of cool.
If I could share my entire,
if somebody had a photo,
like they've been taking photos of me,
it'd be nice to know,
hey, can you just,
all the pictures of me that you have on your phone
(19:51):
that's identified my face,
like, can you just like link me to that?
So I know what I look like in all my photos
that you've taken of me.
that, you know, multiply that by the whole nation.
And now you can.
Here's every picture of Russell.
Have you ever gone to the Google photos or Apple photos list of faces and just
scroll to the bottom?
(20:11):
Like, who are these people?
That'd be awesome to like send that along to them.
Like, hey, this was my family pic, but you're in the background.
I don't know if that's interesting to you.
You know? Yes.
I walk the Brooklyn Bridge a lot and I am in the background
of many photos, and I actually don't want this.
I don't want to know.
Opt in.
Opt in.
(20:32):
Just like the angry New Yorker, like, you know, trudging through.
Too self-aware.
I don't want to be that self-aware.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I don't need to know.
All right, Russell, what do you got for us this week?
All right, so I have another kind of podcast, YouTube channel kind of idea.
(20:55):
because I think we've done this in real life
where there's been a few friends of mine
that have been like, "Oh, how do we update our resume?
"What is great about this?
"And how do we get a job that we like?"
And so a lot of this, this is just the podcast.
It's just like the Dave Ramsey
or these other financial podcasts
where people come on, bring their resume,
(21:17):
figure out how to negotiate their salary,
and we just talk through a little bit
of what you enjoyed in your last job,
what you didn't and how your resume is actually depicting it.
It's a little bit of therapy because I think every job creates just pain and
anguish, especially in your early twenties when you just don't know what you're
(21:37):
doing and you kind of need like a little bit of pulling you out of that abusive
relationship almost from your job.
And then writing on paper, the good stuff, that's the resume process, writing the
good stuff, what made you actually look good on paper.
It just turns out that people think,
"Oh yeah, I manage a team of five people
and did video editing for this guy
(21:59):
does live streaming stuff."
And I'm like, "That sounds incredible.
Oh, it was for gaming though, it's not cool."
I'm like, "That's cool."
And he just was poo-pooing over his career or his last job.
And I'm like, "Man, if you put that on paper
that you even led people, that's huge."
And I think people need to hear that.
Also, people need to come on the show
and listen and do it publicly.
(22:22):
And that'd be it, right?
No, none of this YouTuber,
here's the five things that make your resume awesome, right?
Here's how to gamify your--
- Real life example.
- Yeah, I hate that.
It's just, no, we're past that now,
I think with this day and age.
We just need more real life, authentic, yes.
That's it, that's the whole channel.
- Calm, collected Dave Ramsey presence guiding you through.
(22:43):
Oh, I love that, Russell.
- This is great.
I think LinkedIn would sponsor this so quick.
But also like I would listen to this especially with like how hard it is to get jobs. This is great unlimited content, too
Right, just everybody you just have people in theory just coming on and it might be rehashed again and again
but if you just Joe Rogan it right you just
(23:06):
You know, all right, we're gonna do
But I was I was with you I was like, yeah
Joe Rogan it man
Does like always he just like binges
Recordings just oh I see what you're saying back-to-back gas
(23:27):
You know or super long form and then he well he should edit them down a lot more
So I but I think you know, it's just be back-to-back. Yeah, Joe. I'm calling you out, you know, if you want to fight us
We're coming for
We're not that famous yet. Um, but no that's uh, that's good. Yeah
That's the idea.
It's just getting a bunch of people on the pod.
(23:49):
It honestly opens up such a great way to just talk about work culture too.
People could begin to talk about their past jobs, what they love, what they hated, who
they loved working with, who they hated.
I think it's awesome and so relatable.
I'm genuinely like, "This is sick."
That's pretty fun.
Right?
I'm picturing someone in a salary negotiation, talking to their soon-to-be boss, being like,
(24:10):
"Hold on a second," running out and calling Russell real quick.
"You got to help me.
Here's what's going on.
Hop on my zoom call my riverside and then you could even like interview designers like
there is a whole ecosystem around like resume building like what should it look like?
Whoa.
Canva.
Listen.
We could we could blow this up like we could have the design one.
(24:34):
We could have the business developer one.
The engineer one right?
It's a podcast network already.
If you ever looked at an engineer resume versus a designer resume they're two very different
- Russell, do you work with resumes?
How did you?
- No, I just, when I was really into trying
to get a real job instead of a startup job,
I went hard in the paint when it comes
(24:56):
to like LinkedIn, optimization,
use a bunch of AI tools and I don't know,
and then I realized that I had to do a lot
of like self-reflecting.
If you talk about your job with other people,
you realize how much better your resume gets
when you start talking to people about it.
And so I just binged that, talked to my friends,
recruiters, and that really helped me.
(25:17):
And so I was like, wow, that should be for everybody.
And then I do that for other people now.
So that's how it happened.
- Yeah, I've been very fortunate
that I've gotten all of my jobs
just through word of mouth and knowing people.
But anytime I've had to apply to a job with a resume
and go through the formal process,
it is pain, it's so hard.
(25:38):
It's just so unhumane as well.
I find it very like impersonal and yeah.
- Interview fatigue is a very real thing.
Resume fatigue.
- Yeah.
And then you like hop on these calls with these strangers
and like, I don't know,
they're in some closet in Indianapolis and you're in--
- And get judged for an hour.
- Right?
Yeah, it's inhumane is the word.
(25:58):
I feel like, yeah, you're just like,
one, a name on a list, right?
But you're a human trying to survive
on the other side of the call.
Like it's crazy.
- Yeah.
- Podcast network though, I love it.
Different niches, LinkedIn sponsored.
It's gonna, if it's not gonna be me,
it's gonna be somebody else, that's for sure.
- Yes.
- And like mental health awareness and stuff
is becoming so much more of a thing
(26:20):
in the cultural zeitgeist that there's like this,
finally an opportunity of having people
who are interested in hearing this stuff,
these stories, this, you know.
I think the real moneymaker here
is not that you're talking about a resume,
but that you're like digging into that person's story
and what was the good and bad
What can be learned from that? What lessons are you applying to the next job? All that kind of stuff. That's cool
(26:42):
And people use LinkedIn as their social media Russell does you know that the base is there? Oh
Yeah, that's the only one I use because I have to use it for work and then I'm like, oh my friend is on there
Yeah, it works it works. I mean what sometimes I get scrolling on there and I'm like, what is this world?
Hustle bros and I'd find it
(27:06):
I think it's cool. I like I'm just happy that everyone has their places.
Here's nine lessons I learned about B2B from having a kid.
Oh, I hate that.
Yeah. Cool.
It's like when I find like a weird like other niche on YouTube and then I dive
in. Like, it's so interesting to me.
It's like, how do they tell their stories and what stories are they telling and
what is their lighting like? I don't know.
(27:27):
I truly adore it.
The cultural artifact, whole subcultures.
Yeah, they're everywhere.
Okay, I have an idea.
- All right, Becca, what's your idea?
- Okay, my idea is a bit like I actually want this thing,
(27:47):
but I feel like it needs to be expanded.
So I wear a smartwatch to bed every night
only for the purpose of it vibrating on my wrist
to wake me up.
And I would love a product that does not cost $250 that does that, because I feel like it could be $20.
Yeah.
I just want a wrist alarm clock that vibrates and is obviously incredibly reliable.
(28:14):
Yeah.
And maybe does something else too, but like I don't need sleep tracking.
I got like a smart ring for that.
You know, I literally just need an alarm clock that doesn't wake up my partner.
That is, yes.
I also use my smartwatch for waking up
and it's way better than old alarm clock systems
for not disturbing the people that are in the room for sure.
- Yeah, and it's got like two buttons, snooze and off.
(28:37):
But the off button is a switch
and the snooze button is a click, like a push in,
because they need to be different
'cause you don't want to accidentally,
'cause I do that too, I accidentally swipe the wrong thing
and then I sleep till 10 a.m.
So it's like fine, but it's bad.
That's all I want.
There are a lot of people out there who are rejecting modernity
(28:57):
and wanting to not have--
you've got your light phones and stuff that you've reviewed too,
but also just distant from all technology on purpose in life.
And so that's the person who would have the little Timex,
very old-fashioned, disconnected, dumb alarm clock.
This is the version of that, but wrist worn.
Yeah, because that is a great alarm clock,
(29:18):
but it's very loud.
Ugly.
There's no nice-looking ones that I've seen.
They're cute.
I think they're cute.
Like retro.
Yeah.
I love that.
I love thrift stores.
What can I say?
Sure.
I love it.
I literally had this exact problem with my wife, like two or three days ago.
Like I was like, it was six 30 and the, I kept hitting snooze over and over again.
(29:38):
And I just put on my Apple watch again to like, you know, rock that, but also, and
then I start wearing it during the day and then it dies before I go to bed.
And so I never can trust it to be alive by the time I need it to be alive.
Yep.
And then I'm back to like square one again.
Right. I think the smart let's say you want to go full sleep tracking.
I also have like one of those smart rings and then I'm always forgetting to charge it.
(30:00):
And then it's it's like I'm trying.
I would love a better sleep tracker that is just like a snooze alarm and a sleep tracker.
So then I have my my day watch and my night watch or something.
Night watch. Oh, night watch.
It can be way cheaper because you don't need a screen or anything.
Right. It's just like you're just charging the other one.
Simple. I love that.
(30:21):
I mean, it's literally just an analog watch with a little motor in it.
20 bucks.
Honestly, I wouldn't even use it just for night.
I want this throughout the day too.
I want to set it for like every like 45 minutes or something.
So when I get super hyper fixated on something that's like your watch is beeping, drink some
water, just like stop for 10 seconds, take care of yourself, then go back to your hyper
(30:43):
fixation and it just goes off all day long.
On Pomodoro time.
And I feel like most people would be like, that's a smartwatch, but I don't want the
notifications.
I don't want text and everything on my hand.
I just want the simplest thing that I can still trust to work.
And maybe it pairs with an app because then--
because it has to, because it's 2025--
but also because then you could set up different alarms
(31:05):
and all that, monitor its battery and everything.
Or maybe it doesn't.
I don't know.
That's the thing.
At what point do you--
do we have to limit it?
Do we have to keep it un-app connected?
There's the light phone but watch for the tech people who
want to have the moment where they disconnect.
But then you've got this other segment of like,
I don't want to be technology at all.
How do you address that market?
(31:26):
I feel like that's the one that you'd be able to sell this
to first, right?
You have to set it on there like old watches,
like a Casio, whatever, where you're trying to like set
the time and all that stuff.
- Yeah.
- Having that.
- It's a rotary dial.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- I was just thinking, as you're talking,
I'm thinking about it.
That's kind of the reason why I went with the Withings one,
because it looks like analog and it's got the analog,
whatever and stuff, but then it does do sleep tracking
(31:48):
it does do smart alarms,
but there's not a big postage stamp LCD
that's shining at you with notifications and stuff.
It's a little bit more non-intrusive and all that.
- Right.
- But there's no dumb, dumb, dumb.
- But how much, can I ask how much that was?
- It's the Withings ScanWatch 2.
So I got it used, but I think brand new,
they're like 350 bucks or something crazy.
(32:09):
Yeah.
- This is a $20.
- Yeah, I like that it's $20 version.
- Totally.
- It's like simple, clean, don't think about it, lose it.
You know?
It's just like, it's water bottle.
- Lose it overnight.
- It's like one of those things where like you lose it somewhere in your house and it
vibrates at the same time every day, but you will never find it.
(32:30):
- Where is it?
We've got 30 seconds to find it.
- Well, you're just narrowing it to certain rooms throughout weeks.
- Until it dies.
- So millennial, like the Timex watch beeping every hour.
Beep, beep, right?
In the couch, you can't find it.
Exactly.
(32:50):
So that's my grand idea.
Someday I'll make it.
Watch out.
Send us one when you do, please.
But the other thing I would like to design a little bit is sometimes I do fall asleep
on my smartwatch.
Like, it's like between me and the bed and then it vibrates like the entire like, then
it's like, and so like I need to figure out a motor that no matter like if you fall asleep
on it, it's like only gonna like, you know, hit your skin.
(33:12):
That's where the innovation is going to happen.
A very light electric shock.
That's it.
- I've seen a version of what you're describing,
but it goes under your pillow.
It's like a little alarm clock, vibrate thing.
You almost want that, but just on the wrist, yeah.
- Right, but then the pillow,
there's no way your partner doesn't feel that.
- Exactly.
- Yeah. - Right.
- You just get a smelling salt, just cracks open.
(laughing)
(33:33):
Right, right away, yeah.
- That's what this is.
- Trouble sleeping in?
- Yeah.
It's like you wear it almost like a mask.
Like it goes underneath your nose.
- A CPAP machine?
- Yeah. - That's amazing.
A CPAP in line, struggle with waking up and have a CPAP?
Boy, do we have a thing, an add-on accessory for you.
(33:53):
Oh my God, can you imagine?
Whoa.
Wake up with the feeling of death every morning.
I have passed out and been woken up
with smelling salts one time in a hospital
and it is awful.
It is.
Yeah, what's that like?
It is, it burns like heck
all the way up your sinuses and stuff.
All of a sudden, just you're,
someone punched you in the face.
(34:14):
It hurts.
That's terrifying.
So, you're on Hinton's News.
You know, that would be helpful for like, you know, when you have a flight, like
I've had like, you know, the 5am, 6am flight, like sometimes I'm like, I need
it, that's like the three alarm thing.
Yeah.
Right.
You know.
The third alarm is the smelling salt.
(34:36):
This is where the, like you get the anklet, the wrist watch, you get the
Three all in different you always set them a minute apart right a little that's how I do it right so that you don't yeah
Yeah, that that's I would buy three of those Bluetooth watch or whatever those smartwatch wake up vibrator
Thanks, so I could just get up on time
If I knew like the smelling salts were gonna hit me on like the fourth
(34:58):
I was gonna say I would be up on the third like okay
I know this is coming
Cuz I kind of do that as a threat to myself where I have one watch alarm and then five minutes later
I have the phone alarm that I know will wake up my partner
And so I like oh shoot. I gotta remember like go
Dismiss that alarm and that kind of makes me get up. You know, you almost have that but oh god
I'm holding a gun to myself and the smelling salts are coming if I don't
(35:23):
Yeah, that that is enough for me to get out of bed
100% well dear listener if you are listening to us to help get to sleep. We hope that your wake-up is
Exactly when you want it to be and not aggressive. Thank you very much for listening
We hope you enjoyed yourself.
And thank you very much, Becca, for joining us.
This was awesome.
Thanks for having me.
This was so fun.
One more time, where can we find your channel?
Oh, man.
(35:43):
If you search Becca Tech, as in technology, on YouTube,
or really anywhere, I'll come right up.
But otherwise, youtube.com/BeccaFarsace.
Thank you so much.
This was so fun.
And yes, look for the wristwatch alarm wake up
machine coming to your local Walmart or Dollar Tree,
who knows, within the next few years.
(laughter)
(36:05):
Our website is spitball.show.
There you can find links to our YouTube channel,
other social media, email us, comments,
feedback, ideas, we'd love to hear from you.
We are a podcast@spitball.show,
and that's also how you can follow us
on the Fediverse, such as Mastodon.
We are a podcast@spitball.show,
or on Blue Sky at Spitball.Show.
Our subreddit is r/SpitballShow.
Our intro/outro music is Swingers by Bonkers Beat Club.
(36:26):
Please, if you wouldn't mind,
that one friend of yours who is never on time
to anything ever because they never wake up,
Send them a link to this episode.
We think we'd love to have them as a listener.
And please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
whatever it is that you're listening on.
That is the best way for people to find out about the show.
New episodes coming out in two weeks.
We will see you then.
(36:48):
(dramatic music)
I'm Scott.
I'm Russell.
I'm Leo.
This is Spitball.
Welcome to Spitball, episode 50, where three pixel peeping perfectionists and a guest empty
our heads of startup and tech product ideas that we have stuck up in there so you can
(00:25):
all have them for free.
Anything that we say is yours to keep.
And this week, oh, this week,
I am so very excited to be welcoming
Becca Farsace to our show.
Becca is, I first learned about Becca's work
from her time as a reporter at The Verge,
where she's now gone independent,
which is very exciting for us.
You can find her at youtube.com/BeccaFarsace,
where she takes tech outside.
(00:47):
She is a Apple, not Apple, she is a camera enthusiast.
She is a product tester and reviewer and excellent vlogger.
And I am so beyond excited to be welcoming her
to the show today.
Becca, welcome to Spitball.
- Thanks for having me, folks.
And what a sweet intro.
I appreciate that.
Close slip on the Apple enthusiast.
(01:08):
(laughing)
- I was gonna cut that.
- I appreciate the course correction.
- I wasn't trying to say Apple enthusiast,
but I got caught.
I'm looking at a list of what I was going to do here,
and it had the word Apple on the screen,
and I tripped myself up.
- Just to clear the air.
- Yeah.
- You know, I'm not.
- But you worked at The Verge,
you were so Apple-coded, right?
- iVerge, iVerge.
(01:29):
- iVerge, iVerge, right.
Tell us a little bit about what you do at your channel.
I'd love to hear about it.
- Oh man, well as you said, I take tech outside.
I'm really bad at this elevator pitch.
You'd think I would've gotten better by now.
I'm usually like, "Eh, just go watch
"youtube.com/BeccaFarsace"
But yeah, the whole idea is that I review technology,
but by actually using it out in the real world.
(01:52):
So that manifests in me jumping into lakes
and going on road trips and riding an e-bike from New York City to Rochester, New York.
Yeah, you did.
Yeah, it's really fun.
And it's been a wild ride.
I'm just about to hit a year of being completely independent from The Verge, which is a wild
landmark.
Wow.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
That's fantastic.
(02:13):
As we do every week, we're going to kick us off with a warm-up game that this time I'm
going to call Autofocus.
Focus, where, I don't know if you've realized this,
but over the years, the Samsungs and Apples
and Googles of the world have made
a hundred million branded gimmicky features
in their first party camera apps,
and they all have the most ridiculous names.
(02:35):
So, Google Night Sight, Samsung Scene Optimizer,
Apple Next Generation Photographic Styles.
I just wanna go down this list real quick
and have you all try to tell me,
is this a real feature that either Apple, Samsung,
or Google has come up with in the last 15 years
on a phone either during a keynote or a press release,
or is this something that I made up?
- Russell and Scott, are you guys good at this sort of thing?
(02:58):
I don't know anything about your--
- Oh no, I think I've gotten zero
in the last like four weeks of this.
- Okay. - Yeah.
- We try to do like a this or that
or a true or false, whatever,
and Scott takes pride in how bad he is at it.
- Ooh, yeah. - Although the last couple,
you've started to--
- I just gotta guess the opposite of whatever I'm thinking.
- That's true. - And it seems to work better.
- Nice, I like that, I like that.
- Well, we'll start off as we always do with our guest.
(03:20):
Becca, Apple Retina Flash.
Was that a real feature or is that something I just made up?
- I think you made that up, a Retina Flash.
Or that could have been like an early, okay, hold on.
I feel like that could have been a red eye reduction thing,
but I'm gonna say no.
I don't know anything about the Retina Flash.
- That's the real name of the feature
that flashes the screen white when you're taking a selfie.
(03:41):
(laughing)
- It's called the Retina Flash?
- The Retina Flash, I know, I didn't realize this either.
That's kind of what inspired this game.
I heard that word. I was like, that's ridiculous.
(laughs)
- It's ridiculous.
I call that the very white, bright screen.
- It was one of the headline features in iPhone 6S.
They were like, look it, we're introducing retina flash.
And no one's ever called it that ever.
- Horrible branding.
- Yeah.
(04:01):
- Scott, Samsung 100X space zoom.
(laughs)
- Is that the weird one that the,
you would see the picture of the moon
if you just look at the street lamp or something?
(laughs)
I'm gonna say that's real.
- That is what they call their 100X zoom feature.
That's right. It's very Samsung.
Space. You have to a great start, Scott.
Now, did you actually like think that was real or you're like, I think that's not
(04:23):
real. So probably is.
OK, so I actually thought that was real and I'm questioning everything in life.
So, yeah, I got to start using your method.
All right. It is ironic that they got in trouble for that moon thing a couple of
years ago where they were AIing moon and they call their feature space zoom.
I've never put those two things together, but you're so right.
Russell, Google fused video stabilization.
(04:43):
Not real. They wouldn't use the word fused.
- That's in the Pixel 2, that's what they called
using both OIS and EIS at the same time.
- Fusion.
- I would have gotten that wrong.
- Isn't it ridiculous?
I assembled this list and over the course of many articles,
it looked like there were probably a hundred terms
like this to choose from.
(05:03):
- This is a good one.
- This is a good one.
- Becca, Google Smart Leveler.
- Smart Leveler?
Smart Leveler?
- Smart Leveler.
- They definitely have a level on their cameras that I love.
And I think that they would call something smart.
I'm gonna say yeah.
- I made that one. - No!
- I love the level too, I use the level constantly.
I'm a Pixel 9 Pro fan and yeah, holy cow.
(05:26):
- Wow, Leo. - I'm gonna get
every one of these things wrong.
This is when I leave the tech journalism space right here.
- Yeah, you're gonna be on the front page
of all the controversy blogs.
- Yeah, Becca leaves the tech world.
- Leo's just really good at this game.
He just loves to make the game shows that destroy us.
I don't know how he does it.
There's a lot of gimmicks out there in the world to take from.
(05:48):
It's true.
Scott, Google real tone.
I have no idea on that one.
I'm going to say no.
That just seems too plain for Google.
That's their attempt to address racial bias and skin tone as of last year.
Yep, that's real.
They're big on it.
They use accurate color science on the skin tones.
Yep.
Scott's getting canceled.
You don't know that, Scott?
Oh man.
(06:09):
Come on, everyone knew that.
I'm really happy it wasn't me.
- I feel like Becca, you probably know a lot of these.
So I tried to pick ones that were a little harder for you.
So don't feel bad.
- I'm getting that sense.
Every time it comes to Scott, I'm like, come on.
That's like a main feature.
(laughing)
- Roast him, get him.
Russell, Samsung Bixby beauty reality.
(06:32):
- Totally, thousand percent.
I use it all the, no, it's gotta be real.
That's gotta be real, right?
- It's very Samsung sounding.
I made that one up.
- Oh my God.
- Beauty, reality, that sounds perfect.
Bixby, even put Bixby in there, that was amazing.
- The Bixby sold it, 'cause if it's a bad name,
it's gotta be associated with Bixby.
(06:52):
- 100%.
Becca, one more time through.
Let's do the Apple TrueDepth camera.
- Yes, it is real.
- Yeah, that was the front facing,
that's the dot projector, that's what they call it.
I hadn't heard that term before.
I knew that they have the face ID dot projector thing,
But yeah, all one word, capital D, true depth.
(07:13):
- It's cool because when we were at the Verge,
we filmed it with an IR camera.
- Yes, I referenced that. - It is crazy.
Yeah, the amount of dots it shoots out.
When you see it on IR, it's like, holy cow,
thank God we can't see that wavelength.
- So the way that the Face ID front-facing camera works
is that it shoots out a bunch of little laser pointer
(07:33):
type things in infrared so that it makes a depth map.
- By a bunch, he means thousands.
- Yeah, it's really cool.
And they do that so that you can use it in the dark.
So it's not just like a visual thing.
So using an infrared camera to say,
oh, there's the map of where the dots are landing.
- Whenever I see my wife on the baby monitor,
her face will flash like a bunch of lights, right?
(07:54):
I think that's probably it, right?
- It is, yep.
- It's crazy.
- I don't love tight patterns.
Like I'm one of those people, it makes me,
so when we were doing it, I was like,
am I gonna pass out?
Like, 'cause it's really, it's a lot of dots on a face.
There's a name for that.
It's the same with the Mac Pro holes on the front of it.
- Yeah, that one didn't bug me.
That one didn't, but yes, it's that sort of,
(08:17):
yeah, like a rash on skin.
You're learning a lot about me.
I'm out, don't, I'm out.
(laughing)
- I get it.
- Scott, Samsung virtual aperture.
- That sounds like it'll go the opposite.
Plain enough, yes, that is real.
- That's what they call it on the S25.
They have a bunch of fake aperture values now
and they're all emulated in software,
(08:38):
So they shoot in one, but then you can switch it up.
- Cool. - Nice job, Scott.
- Russell, I got a hard one for you, Russell.
Samsung Nona cell, N-O-N-A hyphen C-E-L-L.
- Nat, you misspelled it, Leo.
It's nano cell.
That one exists.
Nat, Nona, there's no grandma in the cell phone.
- He's trying to trick you.
(09:00):
(laughing)
- So you think it's fake?
- It's fake.
- That's actually what they call their pixel binning tech
on the S20. - No.
They have two different names for it,
and that one's the most ridiculous one.
I have one more for Samsung.
Shoot.
Well, I should have done an all Samsung round next time.
I don't even-- I wasn't keeping track of who won at this point.
I think it was maybe Russell.
(09:20):
You had two out of three, I think,
and then didn't get the last one.
So Russell, as always, our champion.
We're very well done, sir.
Congrats, Russell.
However, I think you went first last week.
Scott, hit us up.
What do you got this week?
OK.
I'm nervous because I'm trying to pitch essentially
YouTube channel or some kind of platform.
I've never done this before.
I normally do hardware and I know nothing about YouTube channels on here,
(09:43):
but I feel like this is the perfect one for Becca.
I'm so excited.
Hit me.
I've wanted to do this for a long time.
Picture a community source Mythbusters meets like Reddit, where there's like
some kind of form anyone can submit a question, product, tech, or just
literally anything that they want an answer to, don't have a means to find
out, but someone else could find out through some kind of open source.
(10:05):
So like I could ask a question on this form, like what, I always lose my
earbuds in the washing machine.
What brand of earbuds are most likely to side of the washing machine?
Or what happens if I put a glow stick in a microwave?
Like I just want to know the answer to this kind of stuff.
And then based on this form, hopefully popular questions arise at the top.
And then anyone, Russell could go out and be like, I want to know this too.
(10:25):
I'm just going to take a quick video, throw it on there and answer
someone else's question on there.
Eventually you'll get a bunch of different videos on there.
you could create compilations or other things of like,
"The most popular question on here,
"here's 20 videos of people trying to answer it."
And then group it all together.
And they're all like short little TikToks
or something equivalents.
And that's the whole idea.
I just have a dozen of these questions
(10:47):
that I've always wanted to know,
and I'm hoping someone else can help me with it.
- I'm hoping someone else can ruin their microwave.
- Exactly.
- I'm in, this is genius.
How much are you asking?
What's the investment price?
- 20%.
for 1%? That's really fun. If a bunch of people are all submitting the videos, it's probably not something that can live on like one
(11:09):
YouTube channel or one. This is almost its own independent social network. I know that's why I'm like
I don't know what platform or what this could be on here. I mean is this just a reddit thread?
Is this it might just be a reddit thread. Like a subreddit? Yeah, every once in a while.
Or you could be the host and you would just do every single one of these. You curate it. Oh god.
Oh, oh, oh you just do all of them I see. Yeah, you have to do that
(11:32):
Whatever the most popular question is on here. I will find a way to answer that question
I feel like yeah, hey internet dare me to do anything whoever whatever gets the most votes wins
This can't possibly end badly, right? No
But a close-up in a microwave is something I definitely want to know the answer to right now. Me too
Go to Goodwill. Yeah, and you have to do it at night in the dark, obviously
(11:57):
And then you put 40 glow sticks in there
'cause you just gotta know now, right?
- Gotta know.
- Until the microwave breaks,
you have a ton of content, right?
- I feel like Will It Blend has a much better vibe
than Will It Microwave.
- I disagree, actually.
And then the microwave's gotta be
(12:18):
in the middle of a field.
I mean, just 'cause naturally you should be far away from it
but the image is beautiful.
- An anonymous person in a hazmat suit
up to it and starts it and that's the whole frame you get.
Wait, this is perfect.
Scott, I can't wait to watch this.
This is why we Spitball.
You start with one idea and it ends up like 90 degrees over there.
I think Becca's right.
(12:39):
You have all the tools you need to build this as a subreddit, dude, because you'd be able
to have like moderation staff who's keeping track of only the top level posts are some
kind of video platform link and various people are like taking on the request which was uploaded
to the top.
Yeah, that would be really cool.
The liability is where it gets scary
But that's for you to figure out, you know
(13:02):
Do not do this whatsoever never test any of these hypotheses caution do not attempt there done done
Done. Yeah, do you said you have like 12 questions you get they go dude not to put you on the spot
But are there any other things that no, they're always just random ones in the moment. The vast majority is like crap
I just spilled coffee all over this laptop
I wonder which one would survive the best out of all the laptops in the world
(13:24):
Would a MacBook be to precision or something?
- Okay, product testy.
- Yeah, they all start with product tests
and then they get a little crazier.
- This is a great idea.
- Everyone in this Reddit thread,
pour coffee on your laptops and document what happens.
- I, yeah, I'm a little worried about that aspect.
It's just people destroying all their own products
for science though.
(13:44):
- Yeah, but you helped that out.
- But honestly though, that's kind of why I like this idea
just because like I might have an old,
whatever laptop that I'm like, I don't care,
or I can toss these old earbuds in a washing machine
just see what happens. Or you've already done it. I've washed many earbuds. I can tell you
which ones, you know, lasted for more than a week after. Nope, Becca, I want empirical
evidence and I want, I need you to go out and buy more earbuds and try it again. Yeah,
(14:08):
you get review samples, don't you? Welcome to Becca's washing channel. Throw them right
in my washing machine. Thank you, Samsung, for sending over these great buds. Here they
Yeah, yeah, that's not a great way to stay Jerry rig everything method. No, not a great
26-inch monitor in the washing machine just
(14:30):
Yeah, at what point like does the does the other product win? You know, what point does you're like it's like washing machine versus yeah, right
How many earbuds does it take to stop a washing machine? Yeah
Oh my god, it was filled with beer buds
(14:54):
Yeah, pyrotechnics the YouTube channel tech is like right and you just throw tech in microwaves
Tech you how much water does it take for your MacBook to explode right? Just like stuff like that. I
Work a lot with lithium batteries and this idea honestly came from like what would happen if I just stabbed this as hard as I
(15:15):
with a scalpel like I know you're I just know you're not supposed to do that but
maybe someone has a setup where they could. I think you know what would happen. Or maybe
someone's just gonna get hurt. I think we do know what would happen. Yeah that
might be a well-trodden path on YouTube. I haven't done the what happens if I
stab a lithium battery search in a while but I feel like I've seen those pop up
(15:35):
on the front page of Reddit once in a while. Okay lithium phosphorus then not
lithium polymer like I want to see it all variety and go down the line. And then
The battery stabber.
Welcome to another episode of the battery stabber.
My heart rate is like rising right now.
It's terrifying.
Absolutely terrifying.
Just an indoor clothes environment for that stuff.
Right, Scott? Like that's all.
(15:56):
I've got a bathroom fan going.
It's fine.
Uh, Leo, what have you brought us this week?
Alright. You've probably seen
those posts that go viral on the
the front page of Reddit or whatever, where you've got like two different
people saying, "Oh my gosh, we were at the same place at the same time when we were
(16:18):
kids," or "I can't believe it, my wife was right down the street for all those
years and I didn't know it when we were kids," or whatever. Some sort of like
family photo happenstance, right? I think there should be a feature in Google
Photos or a separate service that you upload your catalogs to where it does a
bit of matching, not only off of the photo itself and its contents, but the
(16:38):
metadata so that you could be like, wow, it's a little bit like a match.com or
ancestry.com type thing, but just for your family photos.
Most of the photos that you have are cataloged and have location and have time
and have that sort of thing.
And we should be doing more to like have people have those moments, right?
We could manufacture the, oh my gosh, that random stranger on Reddit is the
(17:01):
person in the background of the photo that I have, and they have the same photo
at the different angle back from Disney world 20 years ago.
Right.
And it seems like we're like that close.
Everyone's already uploading all their photos to the cloud
and they're already getting AI scanned
and we know metadata about them
and also the contents of the photo itself
are being cataloged and tagged and all that.
(17:22):
We're like 99% of the way there
to having two different users in this platform
be made aware that each other
have an interesting perspective.
It could be opt-in, I don't know, but that's the idea.
It doesn't have a name yet.
It's like old family photo catalog matching.com.
Yeah.
Rolls off the tongue.
(17:43):
This sounds like a dating app.
Yeah.
It's a hundred percent.
You both love that laundromat.
You're taking photos there all the time.
Well, now you can, yeah.
Find people that, you know, at these locations, you're like, oh, I like that,
that photo of them on the selfies at the gym.
Right.
(18:03):
Isn't that, I don't know.
I'm looking at--
-Then someone's like the match is like in the background
like struggling through a rep or something.
Yes, absolutely.
-Just a really unflattering picture of them doing something like that.
-It would be cool to see.
I know there's like heat maps and stuff,
but all of Google Photos put onto a heat map would be very--
(18:26):
Then I want to go to the least photographed place.
-Yes, or just like see it throughout time, right?
a slider, a scrubber to say, oh, wow, you can see all of the people coming into a certain
spot for New Year's Eve and then back out or whatever.
That'd be cool.
Yeah.
Or just like over like as soon as like Instagram popped off.
Like I'm sure like the like certain locations just went like through the roof.
(18:48):
Yeah.
You want like the vacation planner where you know where not to go because everyone goes
there.
Yes.
Yes.
The heat map of that island or whatever.
Yeah.
See, does Google like do they have the power?
Is there somebody in Google who has this heat map?
Right.
Probably, right?
They're too busy eating dinner and lunch
(19:08):
at their cool kitchen.
Nobody's coding that, right?
This is all we know of Google.
Gemini is coding that up.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work.
I will say, the Google office does have incredible cookies.
Yeah?
I'm going to stop by there, right?
Yeah, I'll swing through on the way to work today.
That'd be cool.
(19:29):
- Like they're gonna cookie.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- Yeah.
- I love the face.
So like with my photo album,
you can see like it has all the faces of the people or dogs.
That's kind of cool.
If I could share my entire,
if somebody had a photo,
like they've been taking photos of me,
it'd be nice to know,
hey, can you just,
all the pictures of me that you have on your phone
(19:51):
that's identified my face,
like, can you just like link me to that?
So I know what I look like in all my photos
that you've taken of me.
that, you know, multiply that by the whole nation.
And now you can.
Here's every picture of Russell.
Have you ever gone to the Google photos or Apple photos list of faces and just
scroll to the bottom?
(20:11):
Like, who are these people?
That'd be awesome to like send that along to them.
Like, hey, this was my family pic, but you're in the background.
I don't know if that's interesting to you.
You know? Yes.
I walk the Brooklyn Bridge a lot and I am in the background
of many photos, and I actually don't want this.
I don't want to know.
Opt in.
Opt in.
(20:32):
Just like the angry New Yorker, like, you know, trudging through.
Too self-aware.
I don't want to be that self-aware.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I don't need to know.
All right, Russell, what do you got for us this week?
All right, so I have another kind of podcast, YouTube channel kind of idea.
(20:55):
because I think we've done this in real life
where there's been a few friends of mine
that have been like, "Oh, how do we update our resume?
"What is great about this?
"And how do we get a job that we like?"
And so a lot of this, this is just the podcast.
It's just like the Dave Ramsey
or these other financial podcasts
where people come on, bring their resume,
(21:17):
figure out how to negotiate their salary,
and we just talk through a little bit
of what you enjoyed in your last job,
what you didn't and how your resume is actually depicting it.
It's a little bit of therapy because I think every job creates just pain and
anguish, especially in your early twenties when you just don't know what you're
(21:37):
doing and you kind of need like a little bit of pulling you out of that abusive
relationship almost from your job.
And then writing on paper, the good stuff, that's the resume process, writing the
good stuff, what made you actually look good on paper.
It just turns out that people think,
"Oh yeah, I manage a team of five people
and did video editing for this guy
(21:59):
does live streaming stuff."
And I'm like, "That sounds incredible.
Oh, it was for gaming though, it's not cool."
I'm like, "That's cool."
And he just was poo-pooing over his career or his last job.
And I'm like, "Man, if you put that on paper
that you even led people, that's huge."
And I think people need to hear that.
Also, people need to come on the show
and listen and do it publicly.
(22:22):
And that'd be it, right?
No, none of this YouTuber,
here's the five things that make your resume awesome, right?
Here's how to gamify your--
- Real life example.
- Yeah, I hate that.
It's just, no, we're past that now,
I think with this day and age.
We just need more real life, authentic, yes.
That's it, that's the whole channel.
- Calm, collected Dave Ramsey presence guiding you through.
(22:43):
Oh, I love that, Russell.
- This is great.
I think LinkedIn would sponsor this so quick.
But also like I would listen to this especially with like how hard it is to get jobs. This is great unlimited content, too
Right, just everybody you just have people in theory just coming on and it might be rehashed again and again
but if you just Joe Rogan it right you just
(23:06):
You know, all right, we're gonna do
But I was I was with you I was like, yeah
Joe Rogan it man
Does like always he just like binges
Recordings just oh I see what you're saying back-to-back gas
(23:27):
You know or super long form and then he well he should edit them down a lot more
So I but I think you know, it's just be back-to-back. Yeah, Joe. I'm calling you out, you know, if you want to fight us
We're coming for
We're not that famous yet. Um, but no that's uh, that's good. Yeah
That's the idea.
It's just getting a bunch of people on the pod.
(23:49):
It honestly opens up such a great way to just talk about work culture too.
People could begin to talk about their past jobs, what they love, what they hated, who
they loved working with, who they hated.
I think it's awesome and so relatable.
I'm genuinely like, "This is sick."
That's pretty fun.
Right?
I'm picturing someone in a salary negotiation, talking to their soon-to-be boss, being like,
(24:10):
"Hold on a second," running out and calling Russell real quick.
"You got to help me.
Here's what's going on.
Hop on my zoom call my riverside and then you could even like interview designers like
there is a whole ecosystem around like resume building like what should it look like?
Whoa.
Canva.
Listen.
We could we could blow this up like we could have the design one.
(24:34):
We could have the business developer one.
The engineer one right?
It's a podcast network already.
If you ever looked at an engineer resume versus a designer resume they're two very different
- Russell, do you work with resumes?
How did you?
- No, I just, when I was really into trying
to get a real job instead of a startup job,
I went hard in the paint when it comes
(24:56):
to like LinkedIn, optimization,
use a bunch of AI tools and I don't know,
and then I realized that I had to do a lot
of like self-reflecting.
If you talk about your job with other people,
you realize how much better your resume gets
when you start talking to people about it.
And so I just binged that, talked to my friends,
recruiters, and that really helped me.
(25:17):
And so I was like, wow, that should be for everybody.
And then I do that for other people now.
So that's how it happened.
- Yeah, I've been very fortunate
that I've gotten all of my jobs
just through word of mouth and knowing people.
But anytime I've had to apply to a job with a resume
and go through the formal process,
it is pain, it's so hard.
(25:38):
It's just so unhumane as well.
I find it very like impersonal and yeah.
- Interview fatigue is a very real thing.
Resume fatigue.
- Yeah.
And then you like hop on these calls with these strangers
and like, I don't know,
they're in some closet in Indianapolis and you're in--
- And get judged for an hour.
- Right?
Yeah, it's inhumane is the word.
(25:58):
I feel like, yeah, you're just like,
one, a name on a list, right?
But you're a human trying to survive
on the other side of the call.
Like it's crazy.
- Yeah.
- Podcast network though, I love it.
Different niches, LinkedIn sponsored.
It's gonna, if it's not gonna be me,
it's gonna be somebody else, that's for sure.
- Yes.
- And like mental health awareness and stuff
is becoming so much more of a thing
(26:20):
in the cultural zeitgeist that there's like this,
finally an opportunity of having people
who are interested in hearing this stuff,
these stories, this, you know.
I think the real moneymaker here
is not that you're talking about a resume,
but that you're like digging into that person's story
and what was the good and bad
What can be learned from that? What lessons are you applying to the next job? All that kind of stuff. That's cool
(26:42):
And people use LinkedIn as their social media Russell does you know that the base is there? Oh
Yeah, that's the only one I use because I have to use it for work and then I'm like, oh my friend is on there
Yeah, it works it works. I mean what sometimes I get scrolling on there and I'm like, what is this world?
Hustle bros and I'd find it
(27:06):
I think it's cool. I like I'm just happy that everyone has their places.
Here's nine lessons I learned about B2B from having a kid.
Oh, I hate that.
Yeah. Cool.
It's like when I find like a weird like other niche on YouTube and then I dive
in. Like, it's so interesting to me.
It's like, how do they tell their stories and what stories are they telling and
what is their lighting like? I don't know.
(27:27):
I truly adore it.
The cultural artifact, whole subcultures.
Yeah, they're everywhere.
Okay, I have an idea.
- All right, Becca, what's your idea?
- Okay, my idea is a bit like I actually want this thing,
(27:47):
but I feel like it needs to be expanded.
So I wear a smartwatch to bed every night
only for the purpose of it vibrating on my wrist
to wake me up.
And I would love a product that does not cost $250 that does that, because I feel like it could be $20.
Yeah.
I just want a wrist alarm clock that vibrates and is obviously incredibly reliable.
(28:14):
Yeah.
And maybe does something else too, but like I don't need sleep tracking.
I got like a smart ring for that.
You know, I literally just need an alarm clock that doesn't wake up my partner.
That is, yes.
I also use my smartwatch for waking up
and it's way better than old alarm clock systems
for not disturbing the people that are in the room for sure.
- Yeah, and it's got like two buttons, snooze and off.
(28:37):
But the off button is a switch
and the snooze button is a click, like a push in,
because they need to be different
'cause you don't want to accidentally,
'cause I do that too, I accidentally swipe the wrong thing
and then I sleep till 10 a.m.
So it's like fine, but it's bad.
That's all I want.
There are a lot of people out there who are rejecting modernity
(28:57):
and wanting to not have--
you've got your light phones and stuff that you've reviewed too,
but also just distant from all technology on purpose in life.
And so that's the person who would have the little Timex,
very old-fashioned, disconnected, dumb alarm clock.
This is the version of that, but wrist worn.
Yeah, because that is a great alarm clock,
(29:18):
but it's very loud.
Ugly.
There's no nice-looking ones that I've seen.
They're cute.
I think they're cute.
Like retro.
Yeah.
I love that.
I love thrift stores.
What can I say?
Sure.
I love it.
I literally had this exact problem with my wife, like two or three days ago.
Like I was like, it was six 30 and the, I kept hitting snooze over and over again.
(29:38):
And I just put on my Apple watch again to like, you know, rock that, but also, and
then I start wearing it during the day and then it dies before I go to bed.
And so I never can trust it to be alive by the time I need it to be alive.
Yep.
And then I'm back to like square one again.
Right. I think the smart let's say you want to go full sleep tracking.
I also have like one of those smart rings and then I'm always forgetting to charge it.
(30:00):
And then it's it's like I'm trying.
I would love a better sleep tracker that is just like a snooze alarm and a sleep tracker.
So then I have my my day watch and my night watch or something.
Night watch. Oh, night watch.
It can be way cheaper because you don't need a screen or anything.
Right. It's just like you're just charging the other one.
Simple. I love that.
(30:21):
I mean, it's literally just an analog watch with a little motor in it.
20 bucks.
Honestly, I wouldn't even use it just for night.
I want this throughout the day too.
I want to set it for like every like 45 minutes or something.
So when I get super hyper fixated on something that's like your watch is beeping, drink some
water, just like stop for 10 seconds, take care of yourself, then go back to your hyper
(30:43):
fixation and it just goes off all day long.
On Pomodoro time.
And I feel like most people would be like, that's a smartwatch, but I don't want the
notifications.
I don't want text and everything on my hand.
I just want the simplest thing that I can still trust to work.
And maybe it pairs with an app because then--
because it has to, because it's 2025--
but also because then you could set up different alarms
(31:05):
and all that, monitor its battery and everything.
Or maybe it doesn't.
I don't know.
That's the thing.
At what point do you--
do we have to limit it?
Do we have to keep it un-app connected?
There's the light phone but watch for the tech people who
want to have the moment where they disconnect.
But then you've got this other segment of like,
I don't want to be technology at all.
How do you address that market?
(31:26):
I feel like that's the one that you'd be able to sell this
to first, right?
You have to set it on there like old watches,
like a Casio, whatever, where you're trying to like set
the time and all that stuff.
- Yeah.
- Having that.
- It's a rotary dial.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- I was just thinking, as you're talking,
I'm thinking about it.
That's kind of the reason why I went with the Withings one,
because it looks like analog and it's got the analog,
whatever and stuff, but then it does do sleep tracking
(31:48):
it does do smart alarms,
but there's not a big postage stamp LCD
that's shining at you with notifications and stuff.
It's a little bit more non-intrusive and all that.
- Right.
- But there's no dumb, dumb, dumb.
- But how much, can I ask how much that was?
- It's the Withings ScanWatch 2.
So I got it used, but I think brand new,
they're like 350 bucks or something crazy.
(32:09):
Yeah.
- This is a $20.
- Yeah, I like that it's $20 version.
- Totally.
- It's like simple, clean, don't think about it, lose it.
You know?
It's just like, it's water bottle.
- Lose it overnight.
- It's like one of those things where like you lose it somewhere in your house and it
vibrates at the same time every day, but you will never find it.
(32:30):
- Where is it?
We've got 30 seconds to find it.
- Well, you're just narrowing it to certain rooms throughout weeks.
- Until it dies.
- So millennial, like the Timex watch beeping every hour.
Beep, beep, right?
In the couch, you can't find it.
Exactly.
(32:50):
So that's my grand idea.
Someday I'll make it.
Watch out.
Send us one when you do, please.
But the other thing I would like to design a little bit is sometimes I do fall asleep
on my smartwatch.
Like, it's like between me and the bed and then it vibrates like the entire like, then
it's like, and so like I need to figure out a motor that no matter like if you fall asleep
on it, it's like only gonna like, you know, hit your skin.
(33:12):
That's where the innovation is going to happen.
A very light electric shock.
That's it.
- I've seen a version of what you're describing,
but it goes under your pillow.
It's like a little alarm clock, vibrate thing.
You almost want that, but just on the wrist, yeah.
- Right, but then the pillow,
there's no way your partner doesn't feel that.
- Exactly.
- Yeah. - Right.
- You just get a smelling salt, just cracks open.
(laughing)
(33:33):
Right, right away, yeah.
- That's what this is.
- Trouble sleeping in?
- Yeah.
It's like you wear it almost like a mask.
Like it goes underneath your nose.
- A CPAP machine?
- Yeah. - That's amazing.
A CPAP in line, struggle with waking up and have a CPAP?
Boy, do we have a thing, an add-on accessory for you.
(33:53):
Oh my God, can you imagine?
Whoa.
Wake up with the feeling of death every morning.
I have passed out and been woken up
with smelling salts one time in a hospital
and it is awful.
It is.
Yeah, what's that like?
It is, it burns like heck
all the way up your sinuses and stuff.
All of a sudden, just you're,
someone punched you in the face.
(34:14):
It hurts.
That's terrifying.
So, you're on Hinton's News.
You know, that would be helpful for like, you know, when you have a flight, like
I've had like, you know, the 5am, 6am flight, like sometimes I'm like, I need
it, that's like the three alarm thing.
Yeah.
Right.
You know.
The third alarm is the smelling salt.
(34:36):
This is where the, like you get the anklet, the wrist watch, you get the
Three all in different you always set them a minute apart right a little that's how I do it right so that you don't yeah
Yeah, that that's I would buy three of those Bluetooth watch or whatever those smartwatch wake up vibrator
Thanks, so I could just get up on time
If I knew like the smelling salts were gonna hit me on like the fourth
(34:58):
I was gonna say I would be up on the third like okay
I know this is coming
Cuz I kind of do that as a threat to myself where I have one watch alarm and then five minutes later
I have the phone alarm that I know will wake up my partner
And so I like oh shoot. I gotta remember like go
Dismiss that alarm and that kind of makes me get up. You know, you almost have that but oh god
I'm holding a gun to myself and the smelling salts are coming if I don't
(35:23):
Yeah, that that is enough for me to get out of bed
100% well dear listener if you are listening to us to help get to sleep. We hope that your wake-up is
Exactly when you want it to be and not aggressive. Thank you very much for listening
We hope you enjoyed yourself.
And thank you very much, Becca, for joining us.
This was awesome.
Thanks for having me.
This was so fun.
One more time, where can we find your channel?
Oh, man.
(35:43):
If you search Becca Tech, as in technology, on YouTube,
or really anywhere, I'll come right up.
But otherwise, youtube.com/BeccaFarsace.
Thank you so much.
This was so fun.
And yes, look for the wristwatch alarm wake up
machine coming to your local Walmart or Dollar Tree,
who knows, within the next few years.
(laughter)
(36:05):
Our website is spitball.show.
There you can find links to our YouTube channel,
other social media, email us, comments,
feedback, ideas, we'd love to hear from you.
We are a podcast@spitball.show,
and that's also how you can follow us
on the Fediverse, such as Mastodon.
We are a podcast@spitball.show,
or on Blue Sky at Spitball.Show.
Our subreddit is r/SpitballShow.
Our intro/outro music is Swingers by Bonkers Beat Club.
(36:26):
Please, if you wouldn't mind,
that one friend of yours who is never on time
to anything ever because they never wake up,
Send them a link to this episode.
We think we'd love to have them as a listener.
And please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
whatever it is that you're listening on.
That is the best way for people to find out about the show.
New episodes coming out in two weeks.
We will see you then.
(36:48):
(dramatic music)
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