Space Javelin

Welcome aboard, cadets! This week's journey is a little shorter than usual, but we still manage to pack in a whole bunch of news into 52 minutes, including the big story of the week, Yahoo's unprecedented breach and the compromising of 500 million user accounts. It's hard to know what's more shocking -- that they didn't reveal this massive hack until more than two years after the event, or that Yahoo has 500 million user accounts (we're here all week -- try the veal!).

We also again strongly caution our listeners (none of whom we want to blow up, real good or otherwise) to help us spread the word that the exchange program for the problematic Galaxy Note 7 is now in effect in the US and Canada and that owners (whether that's you or just someone you care about) can now turn them in for either a "fixed" unit, or (in our humble opinion) consider some other models and platforms, like say those brand-spanking-new iPhone 7 units. We also explore some new claims that the Beats Solo3 Wireless headphones, one of the first with the new W1 chip in Apple, has some fairly magical powers; a roundup of some of various discoveries and news items (good and bad) about the iPhone 7; and how some in the stock market are back-pedaling like mad.

We also cover the new iOS 10.1 beta and macOS Sierra 10.12.1 beta, as well as some of the usual breakage new versions invariably cause, including drivers for peripherals and drivers, what to do with devices too old to run Yosemite or iOS 8 at a minimum.

All this plus what is sadly becoming a regular feature, our Walkback of the Week where -- once again -- a longstanding rumor we had no faith in evolves, changes direction, or gets dropped entirely. Check out this episode, and get yourself into our orbit on Soundcloud or iTunes every week!

This week, we sadly have to continue covering the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 debacle. We don't call it that because of the dangerous defect in the phone itself, but Samsung's poor handling of the unfolding mess -- including illegally not contacting the US Consumer Product Safety Council, among other stumbles -- just gets worse as the weeks go by, and more people get hurt (or property gets damaged, or both). In the second segment, Mike and Charles talk about how unpopular the iPhone 7 was supposed to be because (yawn) it's mostly the same as the 6s. Funny thing happened on the way to the Jumping to Conclusions Olympics ... Apple sold out its entire pre-order stock on the iPhone 7 (particularly the new Jet Black and iPhone 7 Plus option) almost instantly, and despite efforts by Apple to meet demand, the company is again faced with overwhelming demand.

We also talk about the various teardowns and videos that have started appearing putting the various new features of the iPhone 7 to the test; the way the rumor mill has walked back the entire notion of Apple building its own car (guess who predicted that would happen?); and the "unforeseen" (except by us) fallout from the FBI's decision to pursue forcing tech companies to make backdoors in their products. There's also a visit with former One More Thing host William Gallagher about what he's been up to over the summer, and we tease a feature we'll cover in Episode 12 -- what gear are we relying on! All this and more in Episode 11, so take a listen ... and stay tuned for the outtake at the end (just like those Marvel movies)!

The two big stories are the obvious ones this week -- Apple announced the iPhone 7 line and some other goodies (including one in particular we're a little skeptical about), and Samsung continues to flounder in its handling of the growing Galaxy Note 7 battery problem. Of course we manage to rope in a number of peripheral topics related to these two, including the state of the industry itself and the two bits of gaming news announced by Apple, but the last segment is the one closest to our hearts: a "new" restored Doctor Who story from the 60s! Black and white animation -- it's a thing, and we cannot wait to see it. Tune in and turn on!

Try as we might, we couldn't take this holiday weekend off as we usually do around the ol' Space Javelin drydock -- there was just too much important news during what is normally a very dead week, so here we are laboring even though this weekend was supposed to be all about slacking off. Charles and Mike discuss the big stories of the week, including Samsung's continuing woes (and now full-blown voluntary recall) with the Galaxy Note 7, which leads to a discussion of other industry issues that contributed to that fiasco, and how it might possibly have happened to any of the other industry players. The other big story of course is this week's launch of the iPhone 7 and whatever else Apple has up its sleeve, which happens on Wednesday -- which is apparently the new Tuesday.

The other big story of the week isn't really as much about Apple as the media is making it out to be, but Apple is at the center of it: the European Commission's judgement that Apple (and not, for some reason, the country that violated the EU rules) should pay $14.5 billion in back taxes -- even though Ireland itself has said that no, it shouldn't, and along with Apple will appeal the ruling. We expect Apple (and the numerous other multinationals that are also being persecuted for the "crime" of trying to find every legal way of lowering its tax bill, not that you'll hear about any of those) will eventually beat the rap, so expect this topic to be revisited every few months for the next few years.

We also tackle what we think is a weird misinterpretation of what seems to us to be a very clear set of quotes from the late Steve Jobs about his interest in reinventing television. From there, we get on with the latest updates in the rumor mill, along the way mention a few minor tech news items, and update listeners on the latest CBS shenanigans ahead of the return of Star Trek to television. All this and Charles' brilliant prediction for the Apple Car of the future-ure-ure!

This week's episode welcomes special guests Malcolm and William from the previous "One More Thing" podcast to replace Managing Editor Mike this week. First up is a dire warning: don't ignore the iOS 9.3.5 update -- it heads off a trio of shockingly-effective attacks on iOS that can be launched simply by clicking an email link. Luckily, the chances of you seeing it are incredibly slim, but why take any chances when there's a quick patch that prevents it? We hand out some good security tips, talk about the coming of USB 3.1 Type C Gen 2 (10Gbps/sec) as a common standard across (future) Macs, (present) Windows PCs, and possibly even mobile devices and how we'll handle the transition (spoiler alert: petulantly).

Despite having all our news items this week be in some way about Apple, we manage to digress a lot (shocking!). Among the other off-topic things mentioned: Barbara Streisand, the old (and recent!) Thunderbirds TV show, Team America: World Police, and how silly the Welsh language can become. We do get back to it enough to talk about coming improvements in Siri, microphone technology in smartphones, a new graphics problem for some owners of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Sony bringing out a $25 USB dongle that enables wireless use of the PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 controller on the Mac. and a new "speed test" between the iPhone 6s and the new Galaxy Note 7 ... and one "eviscerates" another! You won't believe what happens next! There's even an outtake at the end, so stream or download and listen all the way past the closing theme!

Rarely have we seen a summer so full of actual news and salicious rumors! If only we have some sort of blog or site where we could write about such things. Alas, alack, this podcast will have to do. This week, Charles and Mike launch into the Gawker shutdown, the latest rumors (and walkbacks) about the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch 2 (electric boogaloo), the new betas for iOS 10, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 scratch controversy, Pandora's shift in strategy, the flooding in Louisiana, and offer a trio of rants on Rio Olympic officials and chemistry, Uber and driverless cars, and CVS Pay and customer pain. Scratch the surface and dig in deep -- its an algae bloom of tech talk!

Man, it has been a bad week in tech for just about everyone: Samsung discovered some serious flaws in Samsung Pay and many Android Phones, Microsoft accidentally leaked its own Golden Key for Secure Boot (leaving some devices wide open for hacking shenanigans and FBI surveillance), and Apple had a bunch more photos of what probably resemble (some are clearly fake) the next iPhone. Charles and Mike take stock of what is -- and is not -- likely to be in the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, discuss this golden example (heh) of why encryption is important, geek out over the latest Star Wars: Rogue One trailer and Star Trek: Discovery news, and take Om Malik for a walk over some hot Lego pieces for his unusually off-base and factless rant about Apple's new TV show, "Planet of the Apps," and Eddy Cue. All this and more, so come and explore!

The Javelin lands about midway up and slightly to the left side of the UK where it can be seen by William Gallagher in England and Malcolm Owen in Wales. Gathered around it, they have things to say about Amazon aircraft, Facebook headline news, a battery of Pokemon issues and an completely unintentional subliminal book advert. It happens.

This week offers a very wide range of topics, starting with Apple's latest quarterly results and the implications of that (mostly okay-to-good), the forthcoming Star Trek TV series and some of that rich history, Apple versus the cable industry and the future of TV generally, the uptick in iPad interest and Apple Maps improvements, how bad everyone but Apple and Samsung are doing in the phone business, and the shift to Bluetooth headphones. Plus our pledge to avoid mentioning politics for the remainder of the US election season. YOU ARE WELCOME.

This week, co-pilot Mike and veteran recruit Jordan take a look at the criminal case of one of the proprietors of Kick-Ass Torrents, the ridiculous stupidity of most consumer lawsuits against Apple, Intel's latest woes, some fascinating advancements in atomic memory, and a discussion about sci-fi and related conventions, both going as a fan and working on them behind the scenes (with a special cameo by Charles on this topic). All this and the usual space shenanigans, so tune in, cadets!