What's the cost of having the latest and greatest?

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Links:

• iFixit: The Free Repair Manual

• The Problem with E-Waste

• Repair.org

• The Guardian: A right to repair: why Nebraska farmers are taking on John Deere and Apple

• The Guardian: Under pressure from tech companies, ‘Fair Repair’ bill stalls in Nebraska

• Buzzfeed: What You Should Know About Repairing Your iPhone

This episode was produced by Mark Bramhill. Editing by Rob McGinley Myers and Lacy Johnson. Scoring by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder and Mark Bramhill. Theme music by Terique Greenfield.

Technology usually progresses in a straight line — we want to upgrade to the latest and greatest. But sometimes, technology of the future can make us long for the past.

The Apple Watch sometimes gets a bad rap. Some people complain about it being useless, a dumb, frivolous toy. But one person thinks differently. Today, a story from producer James T. Green about him, his body, and his little wrist computer.

The story of a precious young Apple collector.

Where did Siri's voice come from — and where is it going?

For over two decades, every time you turned on a Mac, you were greeted by a familiar sound. It’s appeared as a punchline in The Simpsons, in movies like WALL•E. It’s a sound some of us tried to hide from our parents as we turned on the computer in the middle of the night. It’s a sound that’s transcended technology; the sound that makes a Mac feel like a Mac. But no longer; the iconic Mac startup chime is going away. 

But, while we all recognize the sound, we rarely think of who made it. On the eve of the boot beep's retirement, I talk to creator Jim Reekes about the most fun and iconic sounds he designed during his time at Apple. All the drama, the inspirations, and the hijinks that went into the creation of sounds you hear nearly every day. 

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Be sure to listen to Breakmaster Cylinder's wonderful Let it Beep:

Music in this episode is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. Theme music is by Terique Greenfield. Editing by Rob McGinley Myers, Lacy Johnson, and Tish Stringer. Special thanks to John Lagomarsino. 

If you have a music library on your computer, you probably use iTunes. It might not be by choice – there’s not much out there. But before iTunes, there was another app. An app that was beloved by many. An app that was quirky and strange and delightful. An app called Audion.

Today: a story about one of the Mac’s first big music players, and what it means to break with the mold of Silicon Valley and forge your own distinct, creative identity.

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Get an awesome sticker of the Audion Orb face! 

Audion had some very experimental, and just truly bizarre "faces" you could use. Designers really took advantage of the transparent interfaces, for better or for worse (sometimes for worse).

In the members-only extra for this episode, Cabel & Steve play with Audion in a Mac OS 9 emulator. Hidden easter-eggs, karaoke mode, and more shenanigans from their rivalry with SoundJamMP.

Two cool dudes!

Music in this episode is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. Theme music is by Terique Greenfield. Editing by Tish Stringer and Rob McGinley Myers.

Illustration by Rachel Maves.

This is the conclusion to a mini-series on emoji. If you haven't already heard parts 1️⃣, 2️⃣ and 3️⃣, go listen to those first.

Emoji put a once obscure group of nerds, known as the Unicode Consortium, into the spotlight. How have these cute little pictures challenged and changed this stodgy organization?

You can learn more about making your own emoji with Jenny's project, Emojination. And you can adopt an emoji of your very own through Unicode's Adopt-a-Character program.

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Music in this episode is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder and Mark Bramhill. Theme music is by Terique Greenfield. Editing by Rob McGinley Myers and Suzanne Smith.

Illustration by Rachel Maves.

This is part 3️⃣ in a mini-series on emoji. If you haven't already heard parts 1️⃣ and 2️⃣, go listen to that first.

How emoji are designed and the decisions behind them. And, what happens when they reach the real world?

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Members can hear exclusive deleted scenes from this episode about another person smitten by the idea of proposing an emoji, and Unicode's love of completion. If you're not already a member, sign up here.

Music in this episode is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. Theme music is by Terique Greenfield. Editing by Rob McGinley Myers. 

Google's new expression emoji. RIP blobs.

Rachel Been did an excellent writeup of Google's emoji redesign for Android O. There are some great illustrations showing exactly what they changed. Go read all about it.

WHY IS GOP PLAYING POLITICS W/👶🏽's LIVES. WHERES GOV💰4 RISK CORRIDORS?THESE👧🏻👶🏼R NOT #'s‼️WE GET U WANT💰4 RICH,R U WILLING 2 ⚰️PPL4 THE RICH

Famed musician Cher is known on Twitter for her frequent use of emojis. Tyler Schnoebelen, our emoji linguist, did an analysis to determine if she truly is the Queen of Emoji.

Illustration by Rachel Maves.

This is part 2️⃣ in a mini-series on emoji. If you haven't already heard part 1️⃣, go listen to that first.

In part one, we learned the process of creating an emoji. But why would someone want to make an emoji in the first place? (Besides making a podcast mini-series about it, of course.) For some people, the emoji they want is more than an ornament for their tweets and Instagram posts. It's their identity. 

And, for people proposing a new emoji, who are the gatekeepers that they have to face?

Instead of doing ads for this episode, I'm asking listeners to please donate to the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund. It would really mean a lot to me.

I'll also be donating all profits from purchases of Welcome to Macintosh stickers to the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund until September 15th. Get your merch and help my city recover.

Hijab Emoji design by Aphee Messer.

Illustration by Rachel Maves.

Since they arrived on our keyboards five years ago, emoji have changed how we communicate. Our texts are all dotted with 😊 and 😂 and ❤️, maybe even some 🍆. But, where do they come from? How are new emoji created? 

In this mini-series on emoji, I answer that question. I go on a quest to create an emoji of my own, and chronicle every step of the way. In part 1️⃣: the proposal.

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Members can hear exclusive deleted scenes from this episode about another person smitten by the idea of proposing an emoji, and Unicode's love of completion. If you're not already a member, sign up here.

Music in this episode is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder and Mark Bramhill. Theme music is by Terique Greenfield. Editing by Rob McGinley Myers. 

My beautiful, designer-drawn emoji. Illustration by Aphee Messer.

You can read my full proposal for "Person Meditating" on the Unicode website.