So it turns out that we were already on the edge of pop culture. I went looking for the tears of joy emoji to use as your picture, when I remembered it look very familiar… and it was! We used it back for episode 203 and talking about LOLs. See below for all the links and details of what we talked about.
How much is something worth? Exactly as much as someone is willing to pay. The next question: how many people do you want to be willing to pay? Sometimes products are overpriced, and thankfully customers make that clear by not buying that item. Case in point: even though TAG’s new Connected Watch is cool, $1,500 might be a bit much to entice many people to purchase it.
We cover a ton of news this week because so much of it is interrelated. If you take away one concept from this week, let it be this: Artificial intelligence continues to expand it’s capabilities and is aiding on the road, in the classroom, and on your face. AI will struggle to make surprise moves that turn out to be genus, and we need to often ask ourselves if it’s worth it.
The internet browser is under attack! Google is killing Chrome! Countries can shut down TLDs! It’s chaos! Thankfully, the solution already exists: Apps that are basically highly specific browsers.
Everything on the internet was once expected to be free (thanks Google). Then we started paying for songs (thanks Apple) and books (thanks Amazon). Soon it became normal to pay for things online. Then Netflix showed us that monthly subscriptions can be massively convenient for customers and super profitable for companies. It seems that all the major players are getting in on the monthly subscription goodness. But is it setting them up for a backlash when the economy turns and people start looking for ways to cut their monthly expenses?
We come to an inescapable conclusion in this episode: Elon Musk is a Super Villain. Think about it. He’s publicly stated that humanity will die in 20 years. He’s working on his own escape to another planet. And he’s creating autonomous robots (cars) that look sleek and people inherently trust. This is how it happens people!
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Great artists steal. It’s like deja vu all over again. That seems to be the same after a 3rd set of hardware announcements that basically seems to only change the company name. Don’t get us wrong. Microsoft’s interpretation is very compelling, but it all seems too familiar. See below for all the links to each article.
In this special episode we chat with Rod Miner of Winnowing Fire on his journey of taking an idea of a christian music album and turning it into a reality using Kickstarter. His story sheds light on the ups and downs you feel while pursuing your dream.
We also chat about his social media evolution and the details of actually getting your song listed with all the online music directories. It’s a fun story we think you’ll enjoy.
This week we spend time diving into Google’s hardware announcements. Their phones look interesting and the Pixel tablet is particularly interesting (if you can handle the price). Overall Google continues to make solid improvements to their hardware offerings. Check below for all the stories we cover in this episode.
What an action packed week for tech! Matthew gets his new iPhone, VW gets in trouble with the EPA, Smule sues some former employees, Oculus held their developer conference, Pebble came out with a new watch, Microsoft released Office 2016, and Apple’s App store got hacked. Check below for all the details and links.