Space Javelin

Thanks for coming back from shore leave, cadets, but this may be our last one for a while: you turn your back for *one second* and every tech company out there gets into legal hot water! Facebook, already trying to fight off a record-setting, multi-billion dollar fine from the FTC, has been caught bribing developers to give it *incredibly* sensitive data from the apps you use without telling you. An iOS app was discovered peddling hard drugs, Google "forgot" to tell you that your Nest device has a mic on it, Huawei caught stealing from Apple, Amazon runs away from New York, one of Apple's lawyers was crooked and ... oh yeah! ... Samsung had a scandal-free launch of a ton of new gear!

Of course, Apple is planning its own event that may feature both a video service and hardware and who knows what else, Ming-Chi Kuo reads the tea leaves for the rest of 2019, Apple fights back in China and gets some good news about HomePod, and Mike and Charles speculate on what might be coming both in March and by the time WWDC rolls around in June.

All this plus Intel possibly spoiling the ARM-based Mac 2020 surprise, Adobe figuring out a fix for a speaker-blowing Premiere bug, new speculation on the forthcoming Mac Pro, an Apple Music promo and a possible Apple credit card, more "5G" malarkey, Kroger being Kroger, That Can't Be Right, a quick Engineering Report, Apple Watch saves some more lives, Steve Jobs wins a Grammy, and Spectrum actually offers cord-cutters a tempting cheap deal to hook them back on TV again. Remember to look up from the view-screens and out the portals every so often, cadets -- it's the best way to avoid space-sickness!

Game industry workers flirt with unionizing. Star Citizen throws shade on ray-tracing. Jeff Kaplan didn't foresee "maining." Old-man Wuerthele has opinions.

Show notes: https://hammercast.fm/72/

Activision Blizzard makes layoffs while posting record revenues. The Steam Award winners are weird. Abuse allegations roil TTRPGs. Todd builds a new computer.

Show notes: https://hammercast.fm/71/

The Group FaceTime bug is fixed and the finders got a reward, Apple throws stones at developers who live in Glassboxes, the company loses a Dame but gains a Dierdre, France to levy special taxes at the big tech companies, Qualcomm loses in court and is about to lose big with Apple, the FCC fails to make their case, and a rundown of the forthcoming Galaxy S10 and its chances of selling better than the poor-performing Galaxy S9, and that's just scratching the surface of this week's news, cadets!

Washington wants to question Apple again (but strangely not Google or Amazon ... hmm funny that ...), but the US iPhone market just keeps growing. The HomePod is holding its own, Roku is said to be in talks to add AirPlay 2, Sonance wants to back AirPlay 2 right into your home, and the iPhone X hits the refurb page. Microsoft's Xbox Live platform is coming to some (more) iOS games, Apple hires to focus on women's health, and the Apple Watch saves yet another life, hurrah!

Charles and Mike also investigate the mystery of the Quadriga lockout, The Hill's bad headline writing about Siri, pundits being wrong about everything for a living, AT&T getting sued by Sprint for lying, and the return (?) of NewtonMail. There's also new monitors from LG to fuss over and a possible new Apple Store at Pacific Centre in Vancouver. All this and a hot tip about your 2018 Mac mini, MBP or Air, cadets, so get ready to re-rip your space vids to HEVC as we enter the Compression Zone!

Anthem's public demo sucked a little less. Apex Legends makes a splash. Machinima closes its doors. Duane gushes about WarGroove.

Show notes: https://hammercast.fm/70/

It was a real shenaniga-looza fest this week, cadets, with plenty of bad news adjacent to or directly involving Apple and most of the other big tech firms, Microsoft (somehow) excepted. Apple played hardball with both bugs and business partners, Facebook got caught, Google fessed up, and the FBI had to get real on an industrial spy. Speaking of spying, people were freaking out about a possible FaceTime bug, but ordering a copy of the Amazon Echo Show that does exactly the same thing ... and speaking of trouble, the US dropped charges on Huawei and wrapped up its case against Qualcomm, and we're just **starting to scratch the surface** of this crazy week!

On the less-bad front, Apple would have had a record-bushing quarter but for that one thing (thanks, CHINA ...), some Mac malware and Siri shortcut concerns are only remote dangers (for now), and a German court tossed half of Qualcomm's lawsuits against Apple. Mike and Charles congratulate themselves on correctly predicting former Governor Scott Walker's deal with Foxconn was going to be a trainwreck, and the admission by AT&T and Verizon that no, "5G" isn't actually happening this year (and will barely get off the ground in 2020).

There is some good news (aside from 90 percent of Apple's Q1 report, that is) -- such as American Airlines giving Apple Music subscribers completely free access to the service on their flights, and Verizon including Apple Music in their premium plans. But there's also the rather dodgy "portless" smartphones out of China, a third appearance of old iPhone SE on clearance, Ultraviolet shutting down, and making sure your loved ones have a path to your important digital photos and such. There's some new gear in the loading bay for Engineering Report -- and an insurance company that promises not to abuse your health data if you'll take their shiny gift of an Apple Watch you have to work out (but to be fair, it may very well save your life). Buckle up, cadets, we've overloaded the ship -- and it's gonna be kind of a rough landing!

Nintendo restarts Metroid Prime 4 development. Anthem has a rocky private demo weekend. Metro: Exodus defects to Epic. Todd builds an ATLAS server.

Show notes: https://hammercast.fm/69/

It’s the Mac’s 35th birthday (and the iPad’s 9th!), cadets, so we light some candles and curse the darkness of possible new iPads, AirPods, and maybe even a new iPod Touch on the way. AirPower and the long-awaited wireless AirPods case were invited, but we can't be sure they’ll show up in time. The iPhone SE returned briefly and went away again — just like twerking! — and the iPhone XR was, no surprise, the best-selling new iPhone. Foxconn is hiring, Apple is (finally) paying winners, and Office 365 is on the Mac App Store, plus a lot more news.

The world’s “most admired company” now has their payment tech taken at Taco Bell and the LA Metro, Australia finally gets on the bus, and T-Mobile backtracks on its “disruptive” video content. Co-Captain Mike is back on board and has opinions about stage lighting, docks and eGPUs, and ... you will be shocked ... he doesn't care for earnings reports. All this and more, cadets, so tune your scifi-earpieces to the latest episode for another hour of snackable tech content!

ATLAS mania continues. Farming Simulator gets an esports league. Google is training Skynet on StarCraft 2. The Division 2's Dark Zones look interesting.

Show notes: https://hammercast.fm/68/

The ship's phase-shift stabilizer is a little off-kilter this week, cadets, owing both to the absence this week of Co-Captain Mike and our encounter with the enormous improbability field that was caused when the AirPower charging pad appeared to emerge from vapor-space. Charles and special guest William Gallagher also deal with the final collapse of Windows Mobile, hockey going all iPad on us, and an exceptional number of replacement batteries (and battery cases) in the hold.

Also on the scanner was more Qualcomm malarkey, DuckDuckGo gaining privacy-respecting Apple Maps, a possible wormhole of federal data-privacy protection and a new tribunal ruling, PCIe 5.0 being ratified, Verizon bundling Apple Music, Apple Watches for seniors, the RAZR resurrection, the "S" in S10 standing for "slow," and a glimpse into an alternate universe where Johny Srouji is the CEO of Intel. Instances of audial-spacial disorentation may be overwhelming, cadets, so keep your Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses at the ready -- we're goin' in!