Space Javelin

Well, that's more like it! A nice beefy news week -- so chock-full of interesting items that we frankly didn't get to everything we wanted to, cadets, but never fear: there’ll be room for more next week! Among the topics Charles and Mike cover on this orbit of Planet Technews are the untimely death of the iPod shuffle and the iPod nano (but we haven't lost our Touch); the mysterious appearance of movies labelled (but not actually) 4K and HDR in the iTunes Store; scotching some rumors about the iPhone SE; the Walkback of the Week from iRobot (makers of the Roomba); and new restrictions on electronics larger than a smartphone from the TSA. There's also the misreporting about the Foxconn plant in the US; why you need to take any Macs still running 10.6 or 10.7 offline; Apogee's war on latency with their Thunderbolt audio gear; Apple helping out hearing aid manufacturers with high technology; and just a mention of the University of Wisconsin judgement and the Nokia patent-licensing settlement.

All this and plenty of armchair advice to Nintendo about how to stop screwing up their business, the forthcoming USB 3.2 making for faster RAID arrays, and we rhapsodize over the music of Oslo band a-ha (and their video in ARKit). Remember: the Space Javelin is your best entertainment value in nerdy tech podcasts, cadets, so spread the word!

This week, Mike and Charles welcome back newswriter Malcolm Owen, "accidentally" trapped in the airlock for quite some time. Among the discussions are shenanigans from Verizon against Netflix and YouTube; Intel and the entire rest of the tech industry vs. Qualcomm; a free deal on the updated Shadow Warrior game; a report on the Destiny 2 beta, and the feds taking a look at Amazon. Also on tap is a report about adding Mesh technology to Bluetooth LE, State Farm suing Apple because why not, and a lot of laughs before we drag Malcolm back to the airlock. Stick around for the hidden "bonus track!"

It is now the dog days of summer, cadets, and the trusty crew of the Space Javelin is having to scrape out the bottom of the barrel and look behind the couch for news stories we can really get excited about. This week, Charles and Mike look at a trio of attacks on your privacy from the new FCC chair, Australia, and US customs; cover a host of smaller stories that should get mentioned but aren't of huge importance; talk about the guerrilla editing of the film Baby Driver; analyze the plans of Oculus VR for new cheaper face masks; ridicule Amazon's "me too!" sudden interest in making Echo suck less; scoff at most of the recent iPhone rumors, and geek out about Sunday's announcement of the next actor to play the Doctor on Doctor Who, along with the latest Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer. All this and an Android phone with 11 original herbs and spices on this episode of ... SPACE JAVELIN!

Lots on our plate this week, ranging from finding Beats 1 programs we like to mourning the end of this season of Doctor Who (it's SO GOOD you guys). We cover the spate of recent lawsuits (Qualcomm vs Apple, the war of words between Imagination VR and Apple, and Kanye suing Tidal), go over new reports about Red's intention to put out a holographic Android phone next year, iFixit's new kit for replacing the battery in Retina MacBooks (uh oh), and Jawbone's fishy collapse. We also talk gaming season, with the lame Switch iOS chat app, the great free Mac port of Shadow Warrior in all its retro glory, Steve Jackson's Sorcery (now free) and the forthcoming remastered Starcraft (in 4K for $15). Finally, this week we have a special guest: Wes Platt from OtherSpace, a MUD/MUSH game now surviving the collapse of Telnet over on Slack. Platt was also involved with Fallen Earth, and has an offbeat (and wild) traditional game called Knee Deep you should check out. More news and rumors coming next week, cadets, so stay tuned!

A special episode with two main parts to it: first, Charles and special guest William Gallagher discuss their mutual experience with first-day-of -availability buying the original iPhone, 10 years ago to the day of recording (Thursday, 29-June). The second half is a collection of still-relevant items that had to be cut for time out of recent episodes, so what better time to recycle than the Canada Day/Fourth of July celebrations? Enjoy this special episode, play safe out there, and we'll be back to what we call "normal" next week.

Welcome to a very slightly extended (by four minutes) episode of Space Javelin, where (as it turns out) we not only dissect the week that was in tech, we also share interesting aspects of your humble co-pilots' lives. Charles having mentioned his incredibly low gamer cred last week, Mike tells tales of life aboard a submarine, and how he's recreated that in his house (insert joke about being underwater on the mortgage here). The two eventually remember that this is supposed to be a tech podcast, and talk about YouTube TV's expansion (which -- naturally? -- leads into a nerd-out about Star Trek: Discovery), Gmail's pledge to stop spying on your email, and a rumor about Tesla planning its own music service.

Also covered are the latest iMac Pro rumors, warnings about running the latest betas if you're not going to do the work required, Virgin Mobile USA's switch to iPhones only (and a sweet deal if you switch), that misreported claim of Italy planning to ban iPhones (spoiler: nope), Apple Pay loyalty cards on the horizon, and a modified Delorean car owner who has turned the center of the dashboard into an iPad-ified info center (including a speedometer). All that and more, cadets, so strap in for (a little) overtime on board the Space Javelin this week! And stay tuned for a special episode on Friday, June 30 -- the 10-year anniversary of the iPhone (we're not doing a regular episode next week due to the Canada and USA holidays, but we think you'll enjoy this).

Both Charles and Mike are back at their respective home bases, and that means it's time for a really meaty, in-depth argument -- er, discussion. Along with more news about eGPU support in macOS High Sierra, a lack of Target Display Mode in the latest iMacs (not a surprise), the hiring of Sony TV programming whizzes (a slight surprise), and the XBox One X (a surprisingly banal name), Charles and Mike get into it over the Whole Foods acquisition by Amazon. Mike thinks its great, while Charles worries about the financials. Don't worry, mom and dad don't fight for long: they join forces to condemn jump-the-gun reporting on Nest and HomeKit, and they agree that Apple's AirPort appears to be the most hack-resistant router on the market (so go get one while you still can).

All that plus Charles' pathetic gamer status, Mike's pyramid of Wi-Fi power, nearly nothing about that Uber CEO that stepped down (and good riddance), plus 50 percent more cantankerousness than usual. Get on board, cadets -- this Space Javelin is plowing into the Neutral Zone!

Mike and Charles, now back on the regular schedule again, go over a few loose ends from WWDC, caution users on the latest betas, get into some iMac teardowns and the forthcoming iMac Pro in great depth, say "meh" to Planet of the Apps. They also discuss Apple's rejigging of iCloud storage plans (with a comparison to Amazon's retreat from "unlimited"), and chat a bit about the return of the numeric keypad (and lack of touchbar) in the latest Apple keyboard (also discussing a few others). All this and more, cadets, so climb on board for another adventure in modern recording!

Charles and Mike, having made fearless predictions, now have to lick some wounds (but some historical reason for thinking there wouldn't be a lot of hardware announcements) and emphasize what they got right (more of the details than the pundits) from the WWDC keynote, as well as share their thoughts on the updated MacBook family, the new iMac and brand-new iMac Pro, the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro, the HomePod speaker, and of course the first betas of macOS High Sierra, iOS 11, and more.

In the first of two episodes this week, Charles and Mike will discuss what to *realistically* expect from WWDC today (hint: it's a developer conference, not an Apple Event), and what might surprise us (potentially a lot, but again probably less than most media outlets are expecting). They also lay down their predictions and hopes for what gets revealed. Join us for the second episode (out Tuesday, most likely) where they go over what was announced and discussed at the keynote, where they got it wrong, and being insufferably smug about what they got right (if anything). Stay tuned!