Space Javelin

Sony gets called out for not playing nice with others, Star Citizen releases an update, and the guys nerd out about PC parts. WRUP Todd.

Full episode notes: http://hammergaming.com/hammercast/43/

Sunday was our second anniversary in the good ship Space Javelin, you guys, and while Mike and Charles didn't make a big deal about this in light of all the big news this week, our small but loyal crew of MacNN refugees are grateful for the ship and all our cadets. Still, duty calls -- so it's right into the thick of it with the miracle of the Apple/Samsung settlement, the latest moves against Qualcomm, the bombshell of a Maps refurbishment, the gray areas of US "unlimited" cell plans, the shadiness of AT&T's sneaky price hikes (and its new WatchTV plan), and yet another streaming service to subscribe to, this time from DC Comics.

Also discussed is the tech confab about privacy, the government's silence on that same subject, the leaky Firebase back-end for apps, a major 9-1-1 failure, and voice control of Alexa devices comes to iOS. Charles and Mike also take a look at the fuzziness of that Foxconn factory deal in Wisconsin, the return of Ming-Chi Kuo (he didn't even give us a chance to miss him) and his ultra-safe predictions, and we put the latest rumours through the sink-or-swim test in the ship's holo-pool. We also access Amazon's Fire Cube 4K, reveal the oldest of the Avengers, and much more cadets, so be glad Charles worked through his Canada Day weekend (and Mike through his beloved Red Sox playing) to bring you our 93rd episode in two years. Tune in, strap in, and light the fuse, cadets -- it's time this party got lit!

Join Duane, Todd, and Joe for discussions about PUBG dropping Its beef With Fortnite, Pokémon GO getting Social, news about Overwatch and more…

Show notes: http://hammergaming.com/hammercast/42

There was a surprising amount of turbulence on the journey through the week's tech news this time, cadets, and we're sorry it happened to come just as you were trying to eat your Space Food Sticks and Dippin' Dots. Oops. From a surprise resignation from Intel to Apple attracting lawsuits like magnets attract science geeks, two of the biggest players in tech had a pretty bad week. It's merger season as well, with the lack of net neutrality in the US acting as an accelerant, so it's getting pretty steamy in the ol' Javelin -- just in time for the solstice!

Among the items forcing us to deploy the heat shielding: T-Mobile and Sprint trying (again) to tie the knot, Disney buying 21st Century Fox, the "failure" of the latest Star Wars-related movie, and how there's now no (safety) net neutrality to cushion the consequences. Apple announced a keyboard repair program for the small percentage of late-model MBPs and MacBooks that have issues, ITC seems to be leaning towards Qualcomm in that lawsuit, and the Supremes have or are going to weigh in on a few related matters (sadly, they will not be singing their opinion).

Tim Cook tumbles like he's born under punches, an iPhone without Lightning is like a Queen song with no thunderbolts, AirPower may have to wait until the fall, GarageBand goes even more free, your phone is your car key, and there are Apple Pay fast lanes for you to zoom through. Nikkei predicts disaster but some analysts aren't buying it, Charles and Mike ponder the ongoing mystery of AirPlay 2 and the old AirPort Express as well as a pair of frivolous Apple Watch lawsuits, and this week sees the shortest Engineering Report ever! All this and more, so take your protein pills and put your helmets on, cadets -- we think our Space Javelin knows which way to go!

So hopefully everyone checked out the return of The HammerCast, a fun gaming show now part of the Space Javelin podcast family! Meanwhile, back on the good ship Space Javelin, Charles and Mike have to wade through yet another Samsung appeal, Qualcomm's slow expulsion from the iPhone while Intel waits in the wings, the continuing reign of the iPhone, a new Mac ad campaign, an iWork update, and the AT&T-Time Warner merger ... and that's just the first quarter of the show!

After an entirely fair lambasting of Intel's security issues and Verizon's curious idea of what "unlimited" means, there's still the latest round of Apple vs. Greyshift to deal with, not to mention our take on the "sad" state of the Mac (not as sad as some would have you believe, but not all unicorns and Mars Bars either). In a short "good news" break, there's time to chat about Apple's new service in the TV app (in Canada!) and the HomePod arriving (in Canada! ... and some other countries ...), Apple taking further action to protect your privacy, and Valve not giving up on making a Steam Link app work for the App Store.

All this and our usual segment of "This Can't Be Right," Oprah Winfrey, Doctor Who on Twitch, and a surprising "new" iPhone that's only $44 ... but there's a heck of a catch. Set the TARDIS controls for the heart of the sun and the year 2009, cadets, we've never been too good at predicting exactly where and when we're going to land this crazy thing ...

Join Mike (very briefly), Duane, Todd, and Joe for coverage of of the E3 2018 press conferences, new announcements, ship dates, and who we think "won" E3 2018.

Show notes: http://hammergaming.com/hammercast/41

This week's episode is a little bit all over the place, cadets, but we have an explanation: co-Captain Charles is also all over the place, due to a particularly ambitious bout of shore leave. While he wanders across no less than four southern US states, rock-steady Submariner Mike also weighs in on leftover news and bubbling-under discoveries from the new OS releases and WWDC, new features in the forthcoming macOS Mojave, baubles like Siri shortcuts and Memoji, and a slate of useless lawsuits, among many other topics.

Also on the slate is a discussion about the future ARMification of some Macs, the obsolescence of the gold Apple Watch, an overdue update on Charles' iPhone 6s battery, the 10th anniversary of the iPhone 3G, the FireTV Cube, free trials and live listens, how to fight for your favorite 32-bit app's future (don't panic, Mojave still supports them), podcasts being a thing once again, an original (and working) Apple I up for auction and much, much more. A lot of news on the audio and music front as well, cadets, and number one with a space-bullet is "When I'm 64-bit" by the ... wait for it ... Bitles.

Your trusty co-captains are bathed in glory once again, cadets, as our predictions on the content of the WWDC keynote (for which we held this episode until Tuesday) proved spot-on. We weren't the only ones to call it, either, but unlike anyone else (coughBloombergcough), we explained our *reasons* for the calls we made. As we said last week, software was the theme -- with coming updates to the various OSes and a few new programs, with nary a word about hardware (though some may well show up before the end of the summer). Never fear, however: it's not all about WWDC this week.

Also on tap are discussions on AirPlay 2, ARKit 2, Apple getting into the music publishing game, Russia and the Telegram, a new FBI warning about your router, the final death of Groove Music, Apple's efforts on behalf of the blind, the unfolding Apple iMac Pro VESA mount fiasco, some last-minute rumor/hoax fails, and our latest bit of sage wisdom: not everything needs to be digital or "smart," as it turns out. Lots more inbetween those topics, cadets, so set your relaxation helmet to "passive learning" mode and prepare to have your brain tickled with this special post-keynote episode. Regular service (or what passes for that concept around here) resumes next week.

Normally we don't record episodes on holiday weekends, cadets, but this time there was just too much news, but we waited till Tuesday to release it. Next week we'll evaluate whether to proceed as normal with a Monday episode or hold until after the WWDC keynote and get our next episode out Wednesday ... keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter feeds to stay in the know.

In the meantime, we celebrate Apple's big win over Samsung (... for now ...), update you on the latest Intel chip flaws and patches, note the new play Apple's making to move free-tier iCloud users to a paid tier, report on the latest creepy taboo Alexa has broken (and welcome our new AI overlords), and debate the motivations of the FBI's "oopie" on exaggerating the number of iPhones they need to crack (and prove why they should never be given those keys). The command crew take Consumer Reports to task for dodgy answers, discuss the Ossic funding fail, offer our expectations (rather than predictions) on what WWDC will bring, and take a look at a bunch of new gear the Engineering Department has been hoarding. All this and much more, cadets, and don't forget to honour those in the Space Corps who came before you! Stay tuned!

It's been a bit of Mr. Space Javelin's Wild Ride through this asteroid belt of tech news, cadets, with a crazy mix of good news, bad news, weird news, and a few orbits around the planet Mondo Bizarro for extra hijinx! In the US, the Senate voted quite unexpectedly to override the FCC, but the fight for right just moves to the House, so keep using your comm ports to beam your position on this crucial issue back to the homeworld. Intel sorta-kinda releases Cannon Lake, and it's Samsung vs Apple season again, not to mention other lawsuits to deal with. On the music front, Apple Music doing great, Spotify not so much, Tidal is officially beleaguered, and the HomePod is -- you'll be shocked to hear -- not the next iPhone.

The ship further careens like a smuggler in hyperspace between news of improvements in the iOS apps of Hulu and DirecTV (the latter of which still has that crazy Apple TV deal going on!) to Microsoft Surface fails and rumors; from Apple winning Best Displays Ever to LG's G7 camera gets its bokeh kicked by the iPhone X; and from the recovery of a long-lost Steve Jobs speech at MIT to an utterly astonishing report about Apple versus Amazon in terms of profits (hint: there's a clear winner).

There's also our usual assortment of myths to bust, rumors to debunk (or shrug, or hope is true), insanely overpriced "special" iPhones (with bonus gratuitous mention of the recent royal wedding), and utterly delightful news on the Nintendo front. All this and the endless supply of cheap laughs that fuel the ship, cadets, so strap in for a freewheeling, rudderless ride on the Space Javelin!