For some unexplained reason, Nintendo decides to stop selling the super popular Classic NES. It defies all business logic. We also talk about pure software cameras that don’t actually use the picture you took for the final picture found on your phone. It’s an interesting discussion. These articles and many more below.
When the movie titanic first came out, it wasn’t very popular: it took a few weeks to become the sensation we know it as today. The Nintendo Wii was the same way: people needed to play Wii Sports before realizing how fun the system was. In effect, the Wii was Nintendo’s Titanic.
The Switch, on the other hand seems much more straight forward, and therefore the initial sales are much higher. Personally, I still want to buy a Switch. :)
The rest of the stories are below.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, published a 5,800 word article (12 pages if typed out) on the future of Facebook. Basically, he wants to go beyond simply connecting everyone and build communities that are supportive, safe, informed, civically engaged, and inclusive. It’s a lofty goal that’s still a little fuzzy. Functionally, it means you’ll see less sensationalized (ie. fake) news on the site. The rest of the stories are below, including a really cool one about future telescopes.
Oh Snap! That ephemeral photo sharing company is going to IPO in March! That’s right, Snapchat (or Snap, or those really cool) shared more of their details this week. To be honest, not all the numbers look great. For example, after Facebook copied their Stories product, Snapchat’s growth stalled almost immediately. For a company that’s still losing money, that’s not great. That story and more below.
This week Tesla and Samsung deal with disasters that happened last year. A report showed that Tesla’s vehicle did everything it could to avoid a fatal accident. Samsung’s report showed that their batteries were the cause of the explosion and they have a new 8-point safety check to avoid it in the future.
We also talk about the improvements of the Raspberry Pie computer, how micro-software companies are the future, Airbus getting into flying cars, and how Google discovers malware. See below for all the stories.
To kick off 2017 we spend over 3 hours talking about our predictions for the year. We cover the big guys: Apple (big expectations for the 10th anniversary of iPhone) Alphabet (AI. AI. AI.), Facebook (VR & M), Microsoft (keep kicking butt and taking names) and Amazon (Echo refresh, something crazy and new). Then we move into the smaller companies like Uber, Twitter, HPI, Tesla, Space X, and Snapchat. We then talk about broader topics like gaming, AI, IoT, AR/VR, and autonomous vehicles. It’s a jam packed show!
There aren’t any show notes to go with this show. So sit back, get comfortable and enjoy.
This in special year-end episode we look back at what happened during the year. Specifically, we look back at our predictions for the year and grade ourselves. Honestly, it’s shocking how well we do. Below is a reference for all the events we covered from 2016. It was a busy year!
Uber started testing their driverless cars in San Francisco last week. It turns out that they didn’t get proper permission from the DMV, who sent Uber a nice message asking them to stop. Uber didn’t listen and the justice department got involved. This is Uber’s MO: seek forgiveness instead of permission. The rest of the stories, and their links are below.
Last week we experienced the biggest failures of Big Data with the polls. We dive into why they couldn’t accurately predict the outcome and what that might mean for future elections. We also talk about drones and VR (of course). See below for all the show notes.
“To Error is Human. To Really Foul Things Up Requires a Computer.” This was quote on our grandpa’s computer, and it strikes us as just as true today, especially with automation and virtual reality. We dive deep into both those subjects – including with Matthew’s new Sony Playstation VR. All the rest of the show notes are below.