It’s the first episode for the year, and it’s all about CES 2016 (formerly known as the Consumer Electronic Show), that was held over 4 days in Las Vegas during the week. We take a close look at some of the more interesting and innovative products that were showcased and also some that were just downright ridiculous.

There’s everything from a rollable OLED display, to a giant person-sized quadcopter, to a hoverboard/standable that doubles up as your personal robot butler! In other news, we coin the term ‘standables’! Tune in now to hear what our favourite products were at CES 2016.

Episode 45. Recorded Tuesday 12 January 2016.

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Show-notes

News of the week:

* Oculus Rift pre-orders available for $599 USD | shop.oculus.com

* Amazon poised to take on UPS, FedEx in delivery business | Seattle Times

* Apple acquires facial recognition startup – Emotient | Tech Times

* Amaysim buys fellow MVNO Vaya for $70m | itnews

* Facebook’s secret chat SDK lets developers build Messenger bots | Techcrunch

CES 2016

Our favourite announcements and tech showcased this week in Las Vegas..

Display tech:

* LG’s rollable display is crazy | The Verge

* Stunning Dell OLED 4K UHD PC monitor with USB Type-C | 4K

* LG’s ludicrous 8K 98-inch TV | Gizmodo

* MKBHD’s dope tech of CES 2016 | YouTube

Internet of Things:

* Samsung to make all its next-gen 2016 smart TVs IoT ready | What Hi-Fi

* Bowflex’s smart dumb-bells | cnet

Wearables and fitness:

* Fitbit Blaze activity watch disappoints | USA Today

* Withings Go fitness tracker with e-ink display | TNW

*

Happy new year! We’re back from our respective holidays and finally got together to chat all things Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In this spoiler-ful walkthrough of each scene and character in the film, we also contemplate and theorise what could be in store for episodes XIII and IX. Did J.J. screw it up? Or deliver one of the most-loved spectacles of all time? Find out in episode 44 of The Lazy Couch…

Episode 44. Recorded Sunday 3 January 2016.

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Show notes

* Star Wars: The Force Awakens box office numbers | Box Office Mojo

It’s the best of 2015 episode as we reflect on a massive year for technology, the internet, movies and pop culture. We go through the year’s best stories, surprises, apps and biggest disappointments.

Thanks for the support throughout the year and see you back in 2016!

Episode 43. Recorded Wednesday 16 December 2015.

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Show-notes

Highlights of the week:

* Lots of new trailers this week

* Star Trek: Beyond | YouTube

* 12 days of Deadpool | YouTube

* X-men: Apocalypse | YouTube

Follow-up from previous shows:

* New clues suggest we have not found the founder of bitcoin

* New Clues Suggest Craig Wright, Suspected Bitcoin Creator, May Be a Hoaxer | Wired

* The Mystery Of Australian Craig Wright And Bitcoin Isn’t Solved Yet | Gizmodo

News of the week:

* Apple news:

* Apple builds new secret screen lab | Bloomberg

* Apple buys chip fab in San Jose | Bizjournals

* Netflix to change encoding to save 20% of data | Variety

* FAA announces drone registration | The Verge

* Atlassian shares surge 33% after IPO | Sydney Morning Herald

* Google updates Inbox with trip bundles | ZDnet

2015 in review

We tag our show-note webpages with tags that describe the topic we covered in that week’s show. Here is a break down of the topics that we have covered in 2015:

* Apple – 19

* Google – 15

* Android, Netflix, Facebook – 12

Top stories:

* Netflix arrives in Australia

* The launch of Meerkat, Periscope and Facebook for public

* Mini computers including Interl’s compute stick and Rasberry Pi

* How close we are to autonomous vehicles

* The rise of music streaming services like Apple Music, the domination of Spotify and the fall of Rdio.

Malcolm Turnbull announces his grand ‘innovation’ plan to bring Australia into the 21st century, Dropbox kills Mailbox and Carousel apps, and we discuss our favourite films and TV shows for the year – as we start to reflect on a massive 2015 in the world of technology and pop culture.

Episode 42. Recorded Wednesday 9 December 2015.

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Show notes

Intro:

* We love the Surface Pro 4 but not the NFL | Geekwire

* ‘Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice’ official 3 minute trailer #3 | youtube

* An open letter to my parents – by Maxima Chan Zuckerberg | Medium

* Michele Hanson’s critique of the Zuckerberg’s supposed $45bn donation | The Guardian

Feature #1: Australia’s innovation problem

* Turnbull unveils $1bn package to drive ‘ideas boom’ | SBS

* Innovation statement: Turnbull’s $1bn vision for Australia’s future | ABC News

* Australia’s innovation problem explained in 10 charts | The Conversation

News:

* Dropbox is shutting down its Mailbox and Carousel apps | The Verge

* Gmail ending? Google starts migrating users to Inbox | Forbes

* What it was like to let Google answer my emails for a week | Fast Company

* Facebook shuts down Creative Labs | cnet

* Sony has bought Toshiba’s image sensor division for $155m | Gizmodo

* Apple may remove the headphone jack from the next iPhone | Pueblo Chieftain

Feature #2: Our favourite films & shows of 2015

* Geoff’s favourite films – Mad Max: Fury Road | Ex Machina | Inside Out | Straight Outta Compton

That’s right. In this news bulletin, we quickly go through what we know so far. One of the creators of Bitcoin is allegedly Australian businessman, Craig Wright. Gizmodo and Wired were the first to break the story.

Read more here:

Gizmodo | This Aussie Says He And His Friend Invented Bitcoin

Wired | Bitcoin’s Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Is Probably This Unknown Australian Genius

Guardian | Who is Craig Wright and how likely is it that he’s behind bitcoin?

Sydney Morning Herald | Police raid home of suspected Bitcoin mastermind

The Australian | Alleged bitcoin founder cops a raid

We tackle the big issues this week with the trends emerging in online sales during Thanksgiving/Black Friday and take a deep dive into the politics of transhumanism. What does it mean to be human? What happens when we no longer need our biological bodies? How will we be ready? On the news front, Alibaba dominates the headlines, while Zuckerberg announces that he’s giving his wealth away. Amazon refuses to let up on their drone delivery proposal and Yahoo refuses to die. Bless.

Episode 41. Recorded Wednesday 2 December 2015.

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Show notes

Intro:

* The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 | IMDb

* Archie Rose Distillery in Rosebery | archierose.com.au

* Captain America: Civil War – full trailer | youtube

* Batman vs Superman – sneak peak | youtube

Feature #1: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Singles Day in China

* Thanksgiving/Black Friday online sales hit $4.5bn | TechCrunch

* The top 10 tech purchases in the Black Friday sales | TechGuide

* Cyber Monday beat forecasts with a record $3bn in sales | TechCrunch

* China’s Alibaba breaks Singles Day record as sales surge | BBC

News:

* Amazon has a new drone delivery video – 8 details worth noting | Washington Post

* Zuckerberg’s love letter to his new daughter, announces Chan Zuckerberg Initiative | FB Note

* Bill Gates and a group of elite investors to fund clean energy tech with Breakthrough Energy Coalition | VentureBeat

* Raspberry Pi Zero – the $5 computer | raspberrypi.org

* Yahoo board to consider sale of core internet business | WSJ

* Fast food giant Jollibee is coming to Australia | Mashable

Feature #2: Transhumanism (H+)

Trying to work out which tablet slash laptop to get in time for Christmas? We’ve got you covered as we examine the good, the bad and ugly of all the new Apple and Microsoft devices and their accessories. We also tear down the differences between the Xbox One and PS4 for all your gaming needs this summer. There’s also news on Yahoo, Uber, Samsung.. and is Netflix working on a Lost In Space reboot? Find out on episode 40 of The Lazy Couch!

Episode 40. Recorded Monday 23 November 2015.

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Show notes

Discussion #1: iPad Pro vs Surface Pro 4 vs Surface Book vs MacBook Air

* Australian comparisons | Gizmodo

* Surface Pro 4 pricing | Microsoft Store Australia

* Surface Pro 4 accessories | Microsoft Store Australia

* Surface Book pricing | Microsoft Store Australia

* Apple Pencil teardown proves you shouldn’t use it for your next pencil war | TNW

* Apple investigating unresponsive iPad Pros after charging | Mac Rumors

News:

* Yahoo won’t let users with ad blockers use their email | Business Insider

* Uber Health – “The Uber will see you now” | Buzzfeed

* Samsung Gear VR now available to order in the US | Ubergizmo

* Netflix reportedly rebooting Lost In Space | The Verge

Discussion #2: Xbox One vs Playstation 4

* PS4’s outselling the Xbox one by almost 2-to-1 | Techradar

* Bundles and pricing | JB Hi-Fi

* PS4 vs Xbox One – which is better? | Techradar

* PS4 has more online Star Wars Battlefront players than Xbox ...

..and we’re back. This week, we cover Google’s Nexus program and Geoff tells us about his experience with going Android. Apple Pay has arrived in Australia and we chat about the potential future of paying for goods and services with your smartphone. There’s also news on Tinder, Google search results showing you apps that you don’t have installed, and we say goodbye to Rdio. This and much more on episode 39.5 of The Lazy Couch podcast.

Episode 39.5. Recorded Thursday 19 November 2015.

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Show notes

* Nexus 6P review | Trusted Reviews

* History of Google’s Nexus program | Wikipedia

* Tinder and Match goes IPO | Yahoo Finance

* Tinder CEO Sean Rad’s awkward interview | Evening Standard

* Why Rdio died | The Verge

* New Huawei battery can charge to 48% in 5 minutes | The Guardian

* Google can now stream apps to your phone | The Verge

* Square prices IPO at just $9 per share, valued at $2.9bn | Fortune

* Apple Pay switched on in Australia, but only for Amex | SMH

In this week’s episode, we say hello to Optus, Candy Crush and Google and GM getting into bed together. However, we say goodbye to Grantland and Sunrise, that amazing calendar app. We also feature JJ Abrams answering questions from the godfather himself George Lucas and much much more.

Episode 38. Recorded Tuesday 3 November 2015.

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Show notes

* Why teens love PewDiePie so much, the biggest YouTube star in the world | Business Insider

* PewDiePie defends YouTube Red | Tumblr

* New Apple TV review | Gizmodo

* Optus snatches English Premier League rights from Fox Sports in Australia | SMH

* ‘Candy Crush’ maker King sold to Activision Blizzard for $5.9bn | ft.com

* Nintendo’s first smartphone game is ‘Miitomo’, out in 2016 | Vooks

* Microsoft to shutdown Sunrise mobile calendar app | TechCrunch

* Goodnight and thank you, Grantland | The Atlantic

* Chrome OS is here to stay | Google Chrome Blog

* General Motors and Google to team up on autonomous cars? | The Motor Report

* Facebook tests ‘Local Market’, a dedicated martketplace community powered by Facebook Groups | TechCrunch

* Instagram builds its own version of Snapchat live stories | re/code

* George Lucas asks JJ Abrams about Darth Vader’s grandchildren | YouTube

* Star Trek beaming back to small screen for new series | The Guardian

* Marvel’s Moon Knight being prepped for a Netflix series

This week, we break down YouTube’s new ad-free subscription model with YouTube Red and tear down the final Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer. There’s also news on IBM, Google and Facebook, as well as a preview of Marvel’s ‘Jessica Jones’ series soon to drop on Netflix. Episode 37 starts now.

Episode 37. Recorded Wednesday 28 October 2015.

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Show notes

* Yahoo! stream offers new horizons for NFL | SB Nation

* Microsoft Surface Pro 4 teardown | ifixit

* Google’s second OnHub router is built by ASUS | engadget

* IBM nearing acquisition of weather.com’s digital and data assets | WSJ

* Nexus 5X and 6P phones now available for pre-order in Australia | Google Australia Blog

* Google brings podcasting to Play Music | re/code

* ‘The Message’ podcast | Official

* Facebook’s ‘2G Tuesdays’ slow down internet for employees | Time

* Meet YouTube Red, a subscription service for ad-free YouTube | YouTube Blog

* The world’s highest-paid YouTube stars of 2015 | Forbes

* ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ official trailer | YouTube

* Marvel’s ‘Jessica Jones’ trailer: it’s dark, it’s haunting, it’s perfect | Vox

* ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and ‘Alien’ sequel to shoot in Australia | Variety