Space Javelin

Space Javelin

By The Space Javelin crewTechnology
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Space Javelin episodes

  • SJ118: China broken, AirPlay soars, HomeKit all the things, CES, and we're flush with smart toilets!
    This week the ship was in orbit around planet CES, cadets -- the Thunderdome of Gadgety Tech Goodness! Charles and Mike give you the lowdown on the latest AirPlay 2 developments, bask in the glory of being right about the Chinese market collapse, do their best Ethel Merman to sing "Everything's Coming Up HomeKit," talk about how dominant Apple-championed tech was at CES, run through dozen of eye-catching gadgets and even find some tech news that didn't stay in Vegas!
    There's also Tim Cook's latest encounter with word-salad generator Jim Cramer, HealthKit and USB-C and Qi releases, security news, straight-up lying companies and newspapers, Amazon's Ring scandal, the secret of smart TVs, a proper Engineering Report on new pro hardware, Apple still saving lives, some of the sillier things we saw at CES, and of course our latest update on our all-time favourite device, the Numi Smart Toilet. You can't bidet that, cadets, so prepare yourselves to boldly "go" where you've never "gone" before!
    1 hr 1 min
  • SJ 117: Apple Q1 earnings, AirPlay 2 unleashed, Qualcomm, Netflix, Spectrum, lawsuits, CES, and more
    And so begins another orbit around the sun, cadets, as the good ship Space Javelin starts Earth year 2019 with big news both good and bad. Although Apple's surprise earnings warning wasn't good news, there is actually a lot of good news *within* the announcement, and co-Captains Mike and Charles take you through the numbers, upsides, and make fun of the media freak-out. On the "all good" news front, the Apple Watch and iPhone have saved yet more lives, AirPlay 2 (and iTunes) have been licensed out to ... wait, *Samsung??*, and the certification spec for USB-C is done, meaning better quality peripherals. But wait, there's much more!
    The crew warn you about fake "Apple Inc." scam phishing calls, Qualcomm puts up the money to enforce the iPhone 7 and 8 ban in Germany *but* now has the feds taking them to court, Netflix is going their own way on new subscriptions from Apple users (but it's no big deal), Spectrum Cable finally supports single sign-in (and offers Apple TV 4Ks to their customers for $7.50 a month), there's more lawsuits getting tossed or filed, and OWC buys Thunderbolt accessory maker Akitio -- and Mike gets beeped a lot! All this and other malarkey, including Charles' sordid past as a PBS pledge break host -- so secure your credit chips, cadets, and please call now to pledge for that Space Javelin tote bag!
    1 hr 2 min
  • SJ Special Report: Qualcomm, Glitterbombs, iPad bends, it never ends ...
    Surprise, cadets! We've turned off the cryogenic chambers for your long winter's nap to bring you up to speed on some breaking news that happened just as we were shutting down the ship's life support systems. There was a surprise new story about some iPad Pros shipping bent (doesn't seem to be a huge issue so far, but we're monitoring actual repair and return reports), along with more stunts from the Qualcomm legal team. You'll want to know about the "revenge against package thieves" video that featured a really great prank subsequently screwed up by the inventor and his buddies, and we even managed to squeeze in a quick Engineering Report about Mike's Ring doorbell ... all in under 20 minutes! Happy holidays, cadets, and the mission resumes in a fortnight! No, not the game ...
    20 min
  • SJ116: SuperMicro clear, Austin campus, Qualcomm sputters, 5G myths, dumb speakers, Sunny Cove, more
    It's our last episode before the Winter Solstice/Saturnalia shore leave, cadets, and it looks like we're going to initiate our annual hibernation cycle right after the big Whoville Feast of Roast Beast, barring any major news breaking of course. We leave this solar cycle behind with the rogue ship Qualcomm still badly listing to one side but possible repairs underway, a plague of pushy "smart" speakers that pop up like Talky Toaster when you don't want them, the Mothership building a second Austin-class station, SuperMicro cleared of spy-chip shenanigans, hype and nonsense about 5G, and various legal quandries amongst the tech overlords.
    There's also good news, though: eSIMs are rolling out faster than expected, the iPhone XR is probably doing much better than analysts predict, Apple's ads are some of the best of the entire year, Apple Pay has launched (at last) in Germany and is expanding in Australia, and Intel has launched a new ship -- er, chip -- for the first time in far too many orbits. There's also some new toys for Engineering under the Yule tree, including a $4,600 iPhone mod that can only be handled with the ship's robotic grabbers, it's so sharp! Enjoy your break and your various celebrations, and watch out for the Krampus as always, cadets! See you next year!
    1 hr 1 min
  • SJ115: Apple Watches save lives, Beddit saves marriages, iPhones are the best, pundits are the worst
    We warned Mike not to overstuff his quarters with relatives, but sure enough he caught the space plague and so he's back in sickbay for this week's command briefing, but Housekeeping Admiral William Gallagher stops by to fill in and go over the tech news of the week, from the amazing life-saving work of the Apple Watch ECG to the two photo-site awards given to the iPhone XS Max (best dual) and iPhone XR (best single) cameras. Apple hands out its best of 2018 and springs a revised Beddit on us, along with a bunch of handy accessories in time for the holidays.
    E-SIM support is growing in the US and Canada, iOS adoption humiliates Google, Waymo launches a self-driving taxi service (sort of), HomePod coming to China and Hong Kong, and Apple gives a gift to US veterans and active military. But fret not -- there's still plenty of dumb moves to call out. Among the offenders this week are Microsoft, Mastercard, IDC (and Gartner), Bloomberg, the WSJ, Qualcomm, and Rosenblatt Securities (again). All the news that's fit to beam directly into your cerebral cortex, cadets, but this time with a British accent (so classy!).
    1 hr

About Space Javelin

From the publisher's feed

Insight and analysis of Apple-centric topics of the week from the previous MacNN team, published weekly. Space Javelin's team has well over a century of Mac and Apple experience divided between them.