Space Javelin

The HammerCast is back on Soundcloud, cadets, after a weird black hole in that quadrant ate episodes 96 and 97 (but we'll see if we can't get the WAYBAC machine to time-travel back and retrieve them, and they're all safe on hammercast.fm in the meantime), yet co-Cap'ns Mike and Charles take time to chat about new Apple Arcade games, impressive butt-whoopings given out by the iPhone 11 versus its two main competitors, Adobe's stuttering progress on Photoshop for iPad, Apple Pay's newest milestone, Samsung and Google's latest stumbles (especially the strangely sub-par Pixel 4), and some reminders about privacy. There's also ironic lawyers, superfluous lawsuits, an Apple News competitor, an Apple Arcade competitor, email fail, crime and punishment, new gear, a possible Apple airport (for reals), and one of our very first trigger warnings (for an assault story that involves the Apple Watch). Proceed with caution, cadets, and keep your danger sensors on high -- Mike goes all Hulk-tastic on us about earnings season again!

Fallout 76 gets a subscription. The Switch gets a cut-rate Overwatch port. Blizzard gets a letter from Congress. Fortnite gets a whole new chapter.

Show notes: https://hammercast.fm/98/

Cap'ns (plural) on the bridge, cadets, and they've come loaded with Google and Apple news and more! Disney and Apple streaming TV stuff, biometric boondoggles, boisterous bugs, Apple Arcade adventures, Ikea's furtive Fyrtur, media misfires, ridiculous rumors, casing clones, Apple Watches helping doctors help patients, more travel tech from last week's Alan Perry guest spot, and a hilarious-slash-frightening example of outdated tech holding the balance of power. All this and various vaporware, cadets, so put on your headphones and don't forget to duck and cover!

One week of Mike and we're back to substitute co-hosts, cadets, but we got another good one who has loads of great tips for your own intergalactic wanderings! Despite some lo-fi comm issues that give us some AM radio-type quality (that gets resolved eventually), the crew still bring you various court fails, Samsung's Galaxy Fold II: folding boogaloo, the lowdown on those non-Apple set-top streaming boxen, along with surveys, repair programs, beta dangers, yet another Andy Rubin scandal. All this, plus a way for hipsters to create their own vinyl records! A very full episode this week, cadets, so grab your finest astro-headphones for another high-fidelity adventure of the good ship Space Javelin ... IN STEREO!

In honor of next week's Canadian Thanksgiving, cadets, the ship hosts its two regular turkeys (Mike and Charles) with all the news, gear, and lawsuits -- and sneaks in a couple of leftovers from the last two episodes that we gotta use up! The crew mark the anniversary of the death of Steve Jobs, go over the harvest of new Microsoft hardware, and report on their Apple Arcade explorations -- and that's just for first course!

There's also heaping helpings of rumors, dumb lawsuits, Chrome and Bloomberg having to sit at the children's table, checking out the latest iPad, and for dessert -- a Russian man who has invented CREEPtocurrency! All this and much more -- so loosen your astro-belts, cadets, and dig in to our plus-sized buffet of ballyhoo!

It's another week without Co-Cap'n Mike, cadets, but we got very special guest Peter Cohen to fill in for him, and he just might be **even more ranty**! We've got OS upgrade sign for both newer and older iPhones and iPads, teardown deets on some of the new gear, a bunch of quiet app updates, some rumors, some special offers, and a few accolades and brickbats to throw out -- the former mostly at Apple, the latter mostly at Facebook, Nintendo, and Amazon. Shake your fist at the stars, cadets, and hold on tight -- we think our spaceship knows which way to go!

The week we opted for some shore leave was a good one to skip, but now we're up to our astro-jockeys in hot new releases, cadets -- and Cap'n Mike didn't make the return shuttlecraft in time, meaning we brought back The Admiral to fill in! Charles and William check out the press on the new iPhones 11, get the lowdown on watchOS 6 and iOS 13, lampoon some silly lawsuits, mark the departures of Bob Iger and Steve Dowling from the mothership, and keep an eye on the evolving Apple Card, along with the first of its ... accessories?!

In an Apple-heavy week, there was also some non-Apple news in the form of NBC's new streaming service, but Apple pounced back into the news with a scandal about the weight of titanium, an Emmy win for the most unlikely of things, and a quietly-announced mindblower of renewable AppleCare+, the arrival of Apple Arcade on the iPhone, Mexico's first flagship Apple Store, and as the subject of a particularly dumb bit of pundit hyperbole. Tune in for the classiest cheap laffs and tech talk on the astro-waves, cadets -- we promise it hasn't been a "slowfie" news week!

GameStop shutters stores, Twitch confounds partners, Nintendo keeps winning, Bethesda keeps losing, and Kickstarter pisses creators off.

Show notes: https://hammercast.fm/95/

The September Apple event introducing the new iPhone 11 family, a single new iPad model, the Series 5 Apple Watch, and announced dates and costs for Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade confirmed some rumors and a couple of our predictions, cadets, even as it denied certain prominent speculators a decent track record. Charles and Mike take a look at all the new shiny and dig up some under-reported or quietly-released additional info, and much more. Two episodes in three days means our Cap'ns are taking next weekend off -- so no horseplay in the holodeck and no tomfoolery with the warp engine while they're away, cadets -- unless you want a shore leave of cleaning the space latrines!

It’s New Goodies Eve, cadets, when we traditionally sit around the holographic fire, drink our Tang and tell tales of great speculation and foul shenanigans ahead of Tuesday’s missive from the Mothership! It should cover mainly iPhones and new Apple Watches in one form or another; there may be some rumors made true, and some rumors laid waste to, along with the distinct possibility of a few small surprises. It’s the most wonderful time of the space year! Co-Cap’ns Mike and Charles go over a few things to expect, and mind-warp to 2020 for next year’s potential hardware, perhaps including a new Siri device!

There’s also the usual assortment of legal and security trouble for Google and Facebook (with the promise of more coming soon), the return of the Galaxy Fold (good luck getting a review unit anytime soon!), brand-new Galaxy Note 10+ benchmarks that are bound to disappoint buyers, more about the forthcoming USB4 (the artist formerly known as Thunderbolt 3), and Engineering Report features new drives, device tags, Qi chargers, and thoughts on upgrading the Mac Steam app. All this and how to recover your AirPods when you drop them into the anti-matter drives, cadets, so remember to don your does-it-matter gear (to cancel the effects) before jury-rigging a rescue prod and dive in to the 150th episode of ... SPACE JAVELIN!