Space Javelin

Blizzard pours water on the Diablo 4 fire. Oculus loses another founding executive. Steam's fall and winter sale dates leaked. Joe plays more Beat Saber.

Show notes: http://hammergaming.com/hammercast/57/

"In with the new and cool, out with the new and dumb" seems to be the motto of the week, cadets, with the iPhone XR debuting, the iPhone XS line adding countries, Adobe playing nice, and of course the big "More in the Making" Apple event coming next week. Even Sony wants in on this action via the Apple TV, and there are Mac app bundles coming (finally) soon. So much for the new and cool.

On the new and dumb side, Bloomberg gets called out by yet another major security agency, the CBC indie repair guy gets his batteries seized, Uniloc sues Apple *yet again*, Alphabet get sued over its shady handling of Google+'s security breach, and Google has to start charging for its Android apps, so it decides to screw the low-end users (again). Intel's mess gets reorganized, 1100 Macs in Austria are orphaned, cops can't look at iPhones now (like Dracula can't look at a mirror!), and it turns out Facebook just plain lied about not using its Portal device to scoop up data about you.

Speaking of, Mike and Charles celebrate the debut of Apple's US privacy portal, belittle analysts, make juvenile fun of CounterPoint's new silly study, and lament the loss of luxury iPhone defacer Vertue and the latest Frankenstein's Monster from Vertue's replacement, Caviar. All this and more, cadets, so stock up on your Tang and space food sticks, you're gonna need sustenance to get through this voyage!

Tabletop gaming loses a giant. We learn a bunch of new details about Fallout 76. D&D is getting updated rulebooks this fall. Todd is punchy when he's hungry.

Show notes: http://hammergaming.com/hammercast/56

Even as long as Mike and Charles been exploring the techspace frontier, cadets, they still get surprised at how weird things can get. Apple let the moths out of its checkbook for a big acqui-hire, Google finally pulled the plug on its Plus (and tried to hide the cause of death), Australia's government gets Applesplained to, Facebook doubles down on bad security, the A12 Bionic smokes the Note 9 (in states where that's legal), and Kanye continues his Apple fantasies ... and this is all before they get to That Can't Be Right!

Thankfully, some things still stay the same. Apple is releasing a ludicrously overpriced accessory, another company takes an Apple idea and runs with it, there's yet still more confirmation (yes, more) of new iPads, there's some cool new things in Apple's healthcare space, and some sweet deals on the latest iPhones (and the Note 9, if you prefer). Oh, and Bloomberg is still wrong. See? Comforting, reliable nuggets in a turbulent world.

All this and a new Intel chip (yes, really!), CVS crying uncle and making Apple Pay official, dumb rumors to squash, CBC's Apple hit job to poke holes in, and Facebook makes a spy terminal for your grandma. Mike and Charles also take a look at the Luna Display device, fresh out of Kickstarter, and preview Apple's newest secret project: the iPlane 1 (though we hear they're just winging it). Get up on the tables, cadets, it's Improv Keynote Night on the Holodeck!

Another rich vein of news ore has been discovered on the mining colony Technopolis, cadets, but there's at least one strike that turned out to be fool's gold. Bloomberg had a two-year story blow up in their faces for numerous factual errors and jumping to conclusions, Microsoft brought out some sweet gear with the pricetag decimal in the wrong place, Samsung's main profits turn out to be from Apple, and speaking of Apple ... is their attempt to further lock down repairs to authorized service centers a good or bad thing?

Mike and Charles also pass on a couple of PSAs about fixing a charging problem and a caution about the latest Windows 10 update (particularly for you Boot Camp users); marvel at the desktop-class benchmarks of the A12 Bionic; express some skepticism about Verizon's "5G," Uniloc's latest troll suit, Consumer Reports' ever-changing opinion on iPhone XS battery life, and Australia's blinkered attempt to mandate backdoors in smartphones. Raspberries are also handed out to the cable and ISP groups (and the Justice Department) for opposing California's net neutrality law, LTE speed "tests," and Kanye West's unhinged tweets.

Also on the show this week: some iPhone XS teething issues, forced FaceID unlocking, Amazon's Fire Stick, HomePods launching in Spain and Mexico, "Beautygate" explained, Woz woes, Engineering Report, an electrical plug with a light in it and so much more. When you're working the tech salt mines, cadets, remember to take precautions against Space Gray Lung Disease!

Blizzard's president moves on, Chinese game experiments with face recognition, Toys R Us may come back, and Fallout 76 skipping cross-play.

Show notes: http://hammergaming.com/hammercast/55/

This week was so full of news, we almost didn't have time for our promised Android 9 and iOS 12 analysis (via Ars Technica), but never fear, cadets -- we managed to compress just enough time and space to fit it in. Before all that, though, Mike and Charles report on Qualcomm's latest failed bid, the release of Office 2019 for Mac, Sirius XM buying (and either saving or killing) Pandora, the big Facebook breach, serious shenanigans from the FCC, Apple's theft ring busted, the big lie of BOM analysis, and more.

Also on Rocket Cam #9 is YouTube's VP9 nonsense, UW's WARF fail, the new SalesForce alliance, the new XS camera making people look *too* pretty, a working Apple I at auction, and a very fishy life insurance offer. In addition, a teenage hacker escapes jail time, Facebook gets caught lying (again), Apple endorses a privacy bill in Congress, Ireland *doesn't* get $15 billion (yet), the latest iPhone gets real gold (and diamonds!), "Apple stole my movies" thoroughly debunked, and one Russian lady has the world's biggest iPhone (in a manner of speaking). All this and a lot more, cadets, so glue your earholes to the audiotronic, quad-eriffic. psychoacoustic latest episode of ... SPACE JAVELIN!

Telltale & PS Vita shutting down, Pathfinder playtest moving on, Sony's resistance to cross-platform caving in, and Roll20 blowing up.

Show notes: http://hammergaming.com/hammercast/54/

Last week we promised a summary of Ars Technica’s extensive reviews of Android 9 (“Pie”) and iOS 12, cadets, but we ran out of time for it this week due to the flood of reviews and benchmarks on the latest new iPhones — including some hands-on comments from Mike, who snagged an Xs Max immediately and has had some time to try it out. We also examine the Apple Watch Series 4 and the forthcoming iPad Pro models, some neat features of iOS 12, and more.

Among other things noted: sweet carrier deals on new iPhones, watchOS 5 upgraders get a new heart-health feature, Apple is dominating both the premium smartphone market as well as the premium smart speaker market, some discoveries in the iOS 12.1 beta code that reveal iPad plans and features, a quick review of the quick new Safari for Mac, and the Music Modernization Act.

There’s also some bad news, of course, such as the Newegg breach, Evernote’s layoffs, Qualcomm’s loss, Chinese tariffs, and a fresh new batch of “the iPhone Xs is dooooomed” from pundits (who said the same thing about the iPhone X — some people never learn). We also have our usual Engineering Report featuring Optane SSDs, Master & Dynamic, and Tesla, and finish off with yet another creepy aspect of your Alexa devices. We’ve set aside time next week for that Android 9 and iOS 12 summary, cadets, so the pop quiz has been postponed -- but you'd better take a double ration of your study pills for next time!

Fortnite's ruining marriages, Nvidia is disappointing reviewers, and Nintendo is eating everyone's lunch.

Show notes: http://hammergaming.com/hammercast/53/