Robots roll out, smartphones get weird, Apple Pay expands, Netflix gets Oscar nominations and joins the MPAA, NBC Universal gets into streaming, and Tesla puts the squeeze on its customers.
Apple's battery replacement saga and the parable of the infinite home appliance; Facebook and WordPress try to help journalism; Netflix raises prices; and the biggest trends from CES.
Everything's better when it's a draft--even CES. This week we're picking the top stories from the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show, as well as the products that are least likely to ever ship and our least favorite stories of the week.
In this special New Years Day episode, we look back at the biggest trends of 2018, review some stories you might have missed along the way, and make a few bold predictions for 2019.
2018 ends with a lot of grim dystopia type stuff involving social media services and the synergy power of media companies and internet providers. Meanwhile, Apple takes the lowers its ecosystem walls and adding Apple Music to Amazon Echo devices.
Google's CEO gets grilled by Congress; Instagram gets a new product leader; Apple does a bunch of stuff; and Supermicro defends itself against Bloomberg.
Qualcomm rolls out 5G cellular networking at a Hawaiian resort; Tumblr bans sexual imagery and nudity; Apple fails emoji biology; and streaming services consider inserting ads into paused video.
The App Store goes before the Supreme Court, Amazon embraces ARM servers, and we discuss the amazing life and business lessons of IDG founder Pat McGovern.
Amazon finishes its 'Bachelor'-style courting of US cities; Samsung makes us ponder whether foldable phones will ever be a thing; and YouTube decries the EU's new copyright declaration.
Samsung shows off a foldable phone, Apple grows its revenue and ships new products, Amazon gets into catalogs and embraces the east coast, Comcast builds a cable box for cord cutters, and we mourn a couple of casualties of the streaming-service wars.