Google Podcasts moving to YouTube Music

In a blog post, the YouTube team announced the availability of podcasts on its YouTube Music app globally which is a step forward towards discontinuing Google Podcasts later in 2024.

Screenshot below shows podcasts in search results on YouTube Music for Android app version 6.20.51.

Earlier in April this year, YouTube Music started carrying podcasts in the US only which received mixed reactions from users as many popular podcasts were not available or were hard to find along with the inability to add RSS feeds [source].

The screenshot below shows the New episodes feed in the YouTube Music Library.

Google Podcasts has been around since June 2018 and is presently available on the Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, and ChromeOS platforms alongside it's browser-accessible website. It is the 4th-most popular podcast platform after Spotify, Apple Podcasts and iHeartRadio.

The screenshot below shows Google Podcasts version 1.0.0.5 running on Android.

Google Graveyard has added Google Podcasts as the 289th service that Google has killed.

US Government makes available more COVID-⁠19 test kits for free

Every U.S. household may again place an order to receive four free COVID-⁠19 rapid antigen tests to be delivered at no extra cost. The order can be placed at COVIDtests.com. A similar distribution was also done in January 2022 which I had written about here.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230925153653/https://www.covid.gov/tests

Find files with path lengths exceeding CD/DVD restrictions using Windows PowerShell

If you have been burning CDs or DVDs for your personal archives or any other purposes, you already know it allows file paths only up to 255 characters. If you are burning files in bulk it an often difficult to ensure that your file path lengths confirm to the prescribed limits. Or if you are like me, then you probably want to limit the path length to 100-150 characters for manageability and protection against burn failures.

For this example, we consider a bunch of subfolders and files in a local drive path named "D:\MUSIC-Full-Backup\BACKUP0933\ARCHIVE05". We intend to burn the content inside this folder on the root of a DVD disc. For this purpose, we want to know which files here breach the 100-character limit of path length so we can take appropriate action to correct this.

Open the Windows PowerShell and change directory to "D:\MUSIC-Full-Backup\BACKUP0933\ARCHIVE05". Next run the following command at the prompt:

cmd /c dir /s /b *.* |? { $curPath="D:\MUSIC-Full-Backup\BACKUP0933\ARCHIVE05"; $_.length-$curPath.length -gt 100 }

Here we are deducting the length of the current path from the full path of each file as it will not be part of the patch when it is burned the DVD. This should list all files in the folder which exceeds the length of 100 characters. An example output is below.

D:\MUSIC-Full-Backup\BACKUP0933\ARCHIVE05\Greatest Collection of the Century\JD YNK ULEATOBS NKY ULEATOBS\ARH OKIKIS VS LSNEIA LYTFTUREB JD KYN MAHUSP IXM.mp3

D:\MUSIC-Full-Backup\BACKUP0933\ARCHIVE05\Greatest Collection of the Century\JD YNK ULEATOBS NKY ULEATOBS\REMAD NO VS UHJT EINM ARB ILIONV TEEHM IMX FT SPEENAD.mp3

D:\MUSIC-Full-Backup\BACKUP0933\ARCHIVE05\Greatest Collection of the Century\JD YNK ULEATOBS NKY ULEATOBS\UHTJE HULBA IADY RESROPIVSEG NRETAC IMX.mp3

Now you can go to the individual folder and plan your strategy for shortening the path lengths.

Apple iPhone 15 available worldwide

Apple's new iPhone lineup, which includes iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, hit the markets worldwide today, September 22, 2023. In addition to the above devices, Apple also made available Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, the new Apple Watch SE, and AirPods Pro (2nd generation). [press release]

iPhones on display at Apple Regent Street, London. Credit: apple.com

The iPhone 15, 15 Plus devices were debuted on September 12 with a press release and has been available for pre-order since September 15.

The entry-level iPhone 15 and 15 Plus are available in blue, pink, yellow, green and black with 128GB, 256 GB and 512GB variants. iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are available in natural titanium, blue titanium, white titanium and black with 128GB, 256 GB, 512GB and 1TB variants.

The listed prices at online Apple Stores in a few countries are below:

Country	iPhone 15	iPhone 15 Plus	iPhone 15 Pro	iPhone 15 Pro Max
United States - carrier locked - excl. taxes	$799	$899	$999	$1,199
United States - carrier unlocked - excl. taxes	$829	$929	$999	$1,199
Canada - excl. taxes	C$1,129	C$1,279	C$1,449	C$1,749
India - incl. taxes	₹79,900	₹89,900	₹134,900	₹159,900
UK - incl. taxes	£799	£899	£999	£1,199
Australia - incl. taxes	A$1,499	A$1,649	A$1,849	A$2,199
New Zealand - incl. taxes	NZ$1,649	NZ$1,849	NZ$2,099	NZ$2,499
Thailand - incl. taxes	฿32,900	฿37,900	฿41,900	฿48,900

Happy shopping.

Most NFTs are worthless now

An investigation by dappGambl revealed that out of a sample of 73,257 NFT collections, 69,795 (95%) have a market cap of 0 Ether (ETH). This indicates that around 95% of the investments on NFTs are currently worthless in the market. [report]

Non-fungible Tokens (NFT) had taken a ride along with the cryptocurrency boom and peaked in 2021/22 when it was regularly buzzing in the news with celebrities joining the hype.

An NFT is a data file, stored on a type of digital ledger called a blockchain, which can be sold and traded. The NFT can be associated with a particular asset – digital or physical – such as an image, art, music, or recording of a sports event. [Wikipedia]

Using the Windows PowerShell to bulk rename files by stripping a part from the filename

This post demonstrates how to rename files in bulk by stripping off the same part of the filename from each file by using the Windows PowerShell.

For the sake of an example, the below screenshot shows a list of MP3 files from which we want to remove artist names. The part of the filename that we want to remove is marked in red.

This can easily be achieved with the PowerShell by using a command like the one below. Remember to take a backup of the folder just in case you need to restore later. Before executing the command in the PowerShell, change directory to the folder in which the files reside:

get-childitem *.mp3 | foreach { rename-item $_ $_.Name.Replace("Paul Revere & The Raiders - ", "") }

The command executes silently and does a neat job in cleaning up the file names. Here is the result.

Send Your Name to Mars on NASA's next mission

NASA is taking registrations to send names to the next Mars mission. It asks for your name, country, zip code and email to register. You can sign up here.

After registering you will receive a boarding pass that you can download print or embed in your webpage like the one below.

Previously, NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover, which had landed on February 18, 2021, carried names of 10.9 million people embedded into silicon chips. (Source)