Chit Chat Across the Pond

On the Mac Geek Gab, they have a listener segment they call Cool Stuff Found. But once in a while, someone writes in with Cool Stuff Made. On episode 1143, Darrin Altman wrote in about an app he wrote originally for himself but has made available in the App Store. The app is called Talk for Me from mobiletouchtech.com/.... You see, Darrin has lost his ability to speak, so his app does what it says on the tin: it talks for him. You know I just had to ask Darrin if he’d come on the show, and to my delight, when I asked him, I found out he’s a long-time listener to the NosillaCast — since 2005!

You’ll hear Darrin participating in this conversation, and the voice you hear is coming from his app Talk For Me.w

In this week's episode of "Stay off my lawn!", we have Adam Engst here to talk through his recent article on TidBITS: [Why AI Agents Fill Me with Dread](https://tidbits.com/2026/06/24/why-ai-agents-fill-me-with-dread/)

Adam is an avid lover of technology and is very willing to try new things. He uses LLMs to help him write better, he uses AI tools to help him search the Internet, and he loves AI-assisted coding. But agentic AI lives in a whole 'nother category for him.

In the discussion, Adam mentioned Lex, an AI-based word processor at lex.page/...

Referral Links:

Setapp - 1 month free for you and me

15% off Carbon Copy Cloner

Wispr Flow - 1 month free for you

PETLIBRO - 30% off for you and me

Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me

Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me

Backblaze - One free month for me and you

Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you.

PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us

CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

When you post online, and you know I'm following you, beware that if you say something interesting, you might be in danger of being asked onto one of my shows. That's what happened to blind knitter and programmer, Jane Jordan.

In our conversation, she talks about how she keeps track of her knitting patterns using an abacus and her unique process for learning how to program.

After Jane and I were done talking, I discovered that she has been listening to the NosillaCast since she got her first Mac, in June of 2005, only one month after the show got started. I thought we'd just bumped into each other on Mastodon. How crazy is that?

If you'd like to connect with Jane, you can find her on Mastodon at @jane_jordan@dragonscave.space.

In this week's episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond, we go into the dark abyss that is Adam Engst's brain and learn how that brain influences his choice of dictation engines. He then explains how he's hacked Apple's dictation into correctly spelling unusual names of places by creating fake contacts. As always it's a fun ride, and as always he has a terrific post on the subject at tidbits.com/...

Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2026_05_28

Referral Links:

Setapp - 1 month free for you and me

15% off Carbon Copy Cloner

Wispr Flow - 1 month free for you

PETLIBRO - 30% off for you and me

Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me

Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me

Backblaze - One free month for me and you

Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you.

PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us

CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

Adam Engst of TidBITS is here to talk about one of my favorite subjects: electric vehicles and their high-tech features. In particular, he's enamored with Digital Key 2 with the IONIQ EV he just purchased. Of course you can read his full article about his experience with Digital Key 2 at tidbits.com/...

We can't stay on one topic, so we also talked about how he's handling the increased range of a full EV after spending more than a decade driving a Nissan Leaf EV with very low range. He explains how he uses the tool A Better Route Planner from abetterrouteplanner.com/... to help him plan his longer trips.

During the discussion, he spoke of the effect a headwind can have on the range of an EV. I promised to include a link in the shownotes to Steve Sheridan's terrific article explaining why EVs are more affected by wind and going uphill than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Spoiler, it's because ICE vehicles are so inefficient, losing 80% of the energy rather than using it to propel the car forward.

Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2026_04_21

Referral Links:

Setapp - 1 month free for you and me

Wispr Flow - 1 month free for you

PETLIBRO - 30% off for you and me

Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me

Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me

Backblaze - One free month for me and you

Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you.

PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us

CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude