Is Top 5 Dead? - Editors Desk

The short answer is no, but Tom explains. Plus more info on new programming and thoughts on a Samsung fridge dilemma!

Jesse

editors desk questions. is top 5 done? weve heard something about sarahs new dog will she be telling us more? will scott be a regular on dtns live or a rarity?

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Hi Tom,

Here's a few questions (for the editor's desk?) that I'm finally getting around to sending. Sorry for sending so many at once. Feel free to address each one if and when you see fit.

1) I've been meaning to ask this for a while and I apologize if you've covered it before:

I often notice significant differences in the audio levels between different podcasts. For example, The Editor's Desk seemed to have much lower audio levels than the main DTNS feed. It might be better the last few months so maybe you addressed it. It was a really noticeable when I was driving. The volume would need to be higher to hear The Editor's Desk then when the next DTNS episode came on it was too loud.

Anyway, are there "standards" for audio levels that you apply or are there industry standards for broadcasts, for example?

2) I know that you have different domains for different shows. Do you have a provider that can redirect email sent to different domains to a common set of emailboxes to manage? Who is it? (I'm looking to do something like that myself).

3) I've been a listener for over 10 years and really like the show, hosts, and guests. I used to listen to GDI and liked that format since, if I didn't have a lot of time, I could skip the last 30 mins or so after the news was done (I listened to the whole hour most of the time). The switch to DTNS Live seemed to be a pretty reasonable substitute for me. I really like the Live format since it feels like I get to know a little more about the people presenting the information along with their views and experiences on some of the topics.

Since the changes at the beginning of September, none of the feeds really match my listening profile. I mostly listen when I'm driving or mowing and like to just start a feed and let it run through each episode in chronological order. DTH is generally too brief, but if I don't have a lot of time and have gotten far behind, I do listen to it to catch up on the current headlines and then listen to the other feeds if I have more time.

The "DTNS" feed seems to have everything in it, but it does take forethought and quite a bit of time to curate that feed before starting an extended listening session like a road trip.

This is just feedback on my experience with the changes. It's still a great product and I'm going continue to listen and remain a patron. I don't enjoy any of the new feeds as much as I did GDI/DTNS Live, but I do like the information and format.

4) I haven't quite figured out all the new streams so here's a couple of questions:

On days when there is a DTNS Live, does the content overlap with DTNS Briefing? Is DTNS Briefing just referred to as "DTNS" now?

Is the "DTNS" feed still the "everything" feed?

Thanks to you and the team for putting in the effort and providing what I find to be a valuable and entertaining product.

Thanks,

Mike

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Hello Tom, Sarah, Roger, Robb, et al.,

Listening to the editor's desk from September 30, I am realizing that I'm not alone in making adjustments to how I listen to DTNS. Prior to September, I would consistently listen to DTNS Live and the Bonus Episodes feed (Editor's Desk, etc.) and skip DTH and the briefing. That meant as an example of an exception that I would listen to DTH on holidays when Live and Briefing were off for the well deserved break.

For the past month, I shifted to the all shows feed and am realizing that while I can keep up with Live with It, Editor's Desk, DTNS Live (Thursdays), DTH, and DTNS, the Monday, Tuesday, and Friday office hours and hangouts leave me too much to listen to. I'm tempted to change back to the individual feeds and drop DTH (except holidays and weekends) as that generally is mostly included in Briefing or the Thursday Live show. Do you have thoughts on this? While writing this email, I went to Patreon to review what is in each feed, and I think I will end up switching away from the entire feed. You mentioned something in the editor's desk that there is a lot of contnt on the entire DTNS feed, and I'm finding out how true that is.

I use Apple's Podcast app and use stations to organize how I listen to podcasts. My plan is to subscribe to everything, but what will show up in my podcast stations will be DTNS, DTNS Bonus Episodes, and Live With It. I do want to listen to each one of those episodes. For DTH and DTNS Live, I'll pick up particular individual episodes (DTH holidays/weekends and DTNS Live on Thursday) and include them in my podcast listening queue manually. I'll see how that works.

Thanks for always listening to feedback and reporting back to us on it.

Thanks, Tom (aka TomSaysGoChiefs on Twitch)

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Chris

It's a +1 for Phil's email from me as I think that sums up my perspective too. I've enjoyed the recent changes more than I expected. The only thing I'd add is that I've enjoyed having the office hours recordings in the live feed to dip in and out of when I have some extra time. I especially enjoyed the recent ones with Scott and Justin. If you do have someone else join you could you put their name in the title of the office hours episode? Would help me to prioritise it to listen! Thanks

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Arthur writes

On a recent editor’s desk there were some musings about the shifting experience of subscriptions vs the stability of a hardware review. My experience with the Samsung smart fridge hardware has been anything bus stable with each software update.

It seems that with each update features come and go. For example, a few updates ago we gained Google Photos (this was a great feature which allowed us to backup our niece’s doodles which were previously locked in), however in the most recent update we will loose Google photos.

Here is a quick synopsis of the latest update:

* New voice guide (The fridge will now speak error conditions to you - value tbd)

* Ability to register more than one Samsung account (Not useful in my household)

* “Ice ball maker” updated to “Ice sphere” (a feature I have never used)

* Added News widget (U.S. only - doesn’t apply to me)

* News from CBC has been discontinued in Canada (annoying to loose yet another source of news in Canada)

* Bixby accessibility controls (we don’t use Bixby or Alexa functions on the fridge)

* Added TV Plus app (our fridge is not positioned to be viewed from a seated position)

* Discontinued: Google Photos (We had this feature for a year at best….)

* Discontinued: Trivia (not a used feature, but could have been fun)

* Discontinued: ViewInside Food recognition (Seriously one of the main reasons we bought a smart fridge)

Learning that Samsung is planning to put ads on the screen of this very expensive fridge would be the last straw for me. I would 110% join or start a class action if they try to force ads into my home. The only thing that pulls me back from the edge is my decision to run a pihole on the home network.

I’m frustrated to the point that I don’t think I’ll bother applying this update, or any future update. I’ve long considered that a downfall of a fridge with a tablet built into the door is the potential security hole when the manufacturer stops support; but here I am ending support all by myself.

Looping back around to Live With It on subscriptions - I say go for it! We live in an ever changing world with internet connected devices.