Space Javelin

Welcome back from Thanksgiving shore leave, cadets! Co-captains Mike and Charles have realigned the solar panels to instead gather outrage, and let’s just say the collector cells are overflowing with it. Sure, there’s plenty of good news — Microsoft gets to bask in being the world’s most valuable company for five minutes, Amazon is adding Apple Music control to its Echo devices, Target is capitulating on Apple Pay, and you can now do clincal grade urinalysis with the help of your smartphone (pro tip: spills aren’t covered under warranty)!

But there’s plenty of wrath to spread around as well, from Qualcomm shenanigans to Apple giving in to India, US DAG Rod Rosenstein talking out of both sides of his mouth, insurance companies dangling a “free” Apple Watch in exchange for your medical/health data, the iPhone XR being misreported as a flop (it isn’t), the still-half-baked Windows 1809 update, and a couple of truly moronic lawsuits against *guess which* deep-pockets company. Mike and Charles are putting together a People’s Space Court, cadets, and the guilty parties will be sent to the moon, Alice — to the moon!

White Wolf's last straw, Bethesda's sorry about Fallout 76, The US Army gets into eSports, and Space Javelin's Mike Wuerthele gets (expectedly) cranky.

Show notes: https://hammercast.fm/61/

SJ113: RIP AirPort, the iPhone XR is the new X, confusing cables, Mac mini thermals & YouTube morons

This week, Mike and Charles finally say ther last goodbyes to AirPort devices at retail, long after Apple stopped selling them online and even longer since the company really updated them. The crew also explore a fake-news mine in some alternative dimension where the iPhone XR is tanking (and Apple is grossly unpopular in China), morons believe they have just discovered that thin things bend despite being expensive, and a place where Amazon is so broke it needs your tax dollars (but just like our Amazon, it doesn’t keep its word).

Back in our universe, there are some concerning reports of isolated iPhone X issues, a recent attack on some Apple IDs (apparently unsuccessful), a sim-free iPhone XR available in the US, and a glowing environmental rating for Apple. Qualcomm continues to lose ground (and now, the engineers are starting to jump ship), but on the plus side everyone in the US who has a smartphone is going to get the gift of more accurate GPS in time for the holiday season.

Speaking of which, cadets, heads up: there’s unlikely to be a new episode of SJ over the Thanksgiving weekend, but the gang from the HammerCast plan to fill the gap so you aren’t left bored at your relatives’ house after dinner. Mike and Charles will rattle off a few good Black Friday deals, talk about the new Mac mini under load, the mess that is USB-C and Thunderbolt cables, the price of Samsung’s forthcoming “foldable” screens, a lawsuit over Premiere Pro, United Healthcare’s caveat-laden Apple Watch offer, and Microsoft’s failed test of inserting ads into your email inbox. All this and an all-new way to play Pokemon Go, cadets, so put on your multi-device array suits and join in for this last regular episode this November!

We say goodbye to Stan Lee. Microsoft makes big RPG moves. We talk Dungeons & Dragons, games of shame and more with special guest Brian Patterson.

Show notes: http://hammergaming.com/hammercast/60/

From manipulating the Billboard charts to pulling special guests out of the statis chamber, there’s nothing your loyal Space Javelin crew won’t do to keep you cadets abreast of the latest news, ahead of the pack on the newest gear, and groaning at the absolute worst gags this side of PUNsylvania. Special guest Malcolm Owen drops by to talk about his iPhone XR and urBeats 3 (and they were all yellow), Mike returns to dig deep into the 2018 Mac mini and MacBook Air, and Charles rains on the AirPods 2 rumor and lets everyone know about important new repair programs.

All this along with more info about new graphics-card options for the 2018 MacBook Pro (and when eGPUs might be a better option), Samsung’s new flexible displays, Qualcomm losing some more (but still not crying uncle just yet), and everything you need to know about NaNoWriMo. No, it’s not a dialect of the Judoon, it’s about creating a novel or other long-form creative work — so get out your space pens, cadets (they write at any angle!), and get your scribble on!

BlizzCon! Diablo Immortal disappoints. Riot sued for gender discrimination. Scum gets virtual male enhancement. Todd launches a rocket.

We finally hit the black hole of so much news in one week that the shields couldn't take it, cadets, so we had to split the news atom into two parts -- Apple's big iPad + Mac event in our special report, but even so we have a full hour of specs, details, secrets, financials, and analyst freakouts from Apple's quarterly report and some mind-melting benchmarks as Apple hits a record 100 million active users. Co-Captain Mike was overwhelmed with the repairs and thus bowed out for this week, and only he knew the combination to the stasis chamber ... so we couldn't get Malcolm out of cold storage. So this week, we welcome best-selling tech author and tips maven William Gallagher as we go over the money, the new iPad Pro, and the new Macs with a fine tooth comb.

Charles and William put the lie to the analyst hysteria over sales and forecasts, celebrate the wearables and services gains, ponder the question of Apple's rising ASPs and the future of the non-pro MacBook ... or the 13-inch function-keys MacBook Pro, for that matter. The storage pods are full and there's much more news mining to do, cadets, so we're pushing into hyperdrive till we reach the next human colony in for Thanksgiving! Oh, and don't forget to stick around for the bonus track on this week's episode -- an alternate ending!

A special Halloween episode! WalMart dives into gaming PCs. Red Dead Redemption 2 breaks records. D&D may become an eSport?

Show notes: http://hammergaming.com/hammercast/58/

Ahoy, cadets -- the mothership hosted a big event on planet Brooklyn yesterday, so co-captains Mike and Charles headed to the command deck to bring this special mini-briefing on what was announced, what wasn't, who's crystal ball is the shiniest, and where things go from here. There's much more coming this week, so they'll be back for the usual Monday episode as well. Stay tuned, and enjoy!

The sheer amount of tech news and upcoming events are a bit overwhelming, cadets, but Mike and Charles are on the command deck and the burnout shields are in place, so this week the ship boldly goes where every two-bit pundit has gone before to bring you various predictions about Tuesday’s “More in the Making” event (which should yield iPad Pros, a possibly new Apple Pencil, and maybe even some long overdue Mac news), Mike’s latest iPhone (the XR this time), a roundup of reviews and benchmarks (spoiler: Apple has crushed it) and all the rest of the notable tech news — and yet there’s still time to talk about a new Star Trek animated series, and last week’s brain-bending episode of Doctor Who.

There’s also more about iOS 12.1 (which is expected out tomorrow), the growing love affair between IBM and Macs (not to mention Ohio State and its iPad Pros), Bloomberg still wrong, Intel sticking to their 10nm guns, Facebook getting the EU treatment, Graykey thwarted, and how much US teenagers would really think you’re cool, Mom and Dad, if you’d just buy them a new iPhone.

The shocking truth about the HomePod (it’s probably king of the premium smart speakers), new tidbits about Apple’s car efforts, Yahoo gets a slap on the wrist, pundits who can contradict themselves faster than the White House press office, Windows tech solutions for orbiting mega-telescopes, and a significant Samsung fail: we’re not saying it was the Russians, but … it was the Russians. Cosmonauts and cadets alike, it’s time to fire up the engines, burn through the news, and deliver cold space justice — at warp speed!