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Hosted by Angharad Yeo, Tegan Jones, Rae Johnston and Amanda Yeo, Queens of the Drone Age is a peek at the insider conversations happening amongst some of Australia’s top technology experts.
Copyright: © 2023 Rae Johnston, Angharad Yeo, Tegan Jones and Amanda Yeo
The year has once again come to an end quite quickly. Rude! This also means the holiday season is here, so the Queens are making some cheeky gift suggestions for you to get your loved ones - especially if its for yourself.
First up, Rae has fallen in love with the HidrateSpark Pro, partially because it makes drinking water a competition. And let the record show that a mere five years ago she instructed Tegan to rip on smart water bottles over on Gizmodo. Oh how times have changed.
Speaking of Tegan, she offers up Yum Cha as her affordable gift and/or stocking stuffer idea, which is even cheaper if you use the code QUOKKAQUEENS to get free shipping. No this isn't an ad, the game just rules and the creator is a lovely listener of the show!
For something a little pricer, she continues to be obsessed with the Sonos Roam and the vibe it brings to general summer activities.
Rad also has two pressies - the Spigen Flex Strap that we're pretty sure she manifested into existence, as well as an Aeropress for all you coffee lovers.
Meanwhile, Amanda has been in the kitchen again, preaching the gospel according to KitchenAid, especially if you're making pavlova for Christmas Day. And according to this TikTok guy, you can even repair them!
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In this episode, the Queens travel back to 16th-century Bavaria to help solve a murder mystery that spans almost 25 years. Well, not literally.
Tegan has been playing the hell out of Pentiment, the latest game by Obsidian that takes the player into a world where it very much feels like art and manuscripts have come to life to tell stories of intrigue, betrayal (and yes, murder) in the Alps, against the backdrop of religious reformation.
Every decision matters and anything you do or say could alter the course of history in this little town. Also, yes you can pet the dogs and cats.
Amanda goes back even further to explore the realms of Norse mythology in God of War Ragnarök. She takes a look at how it’s improved on the last title, particularly when it comes to graphics and gameplay, as well as what it’s like to become your own man when your dad is a god. Of war.
Meanwhile, Rad takes us on her precision research journey to getting a standing desk. This, and one methodical spreadsheet later, brought her to the UpDown Desk Pro. And apparently, it’s changed her life.
And in case you thought we weren’t very serious, full show notes - including the spreadsheet - can be found on the Queens of the Drone Age website.
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In this very special gadget chat, Rad and Rae are left to their own devices to test, well, some devices.
On the tech menu is the brand new Apple TV 4K, the AnkerWork B600 Video Bar and the very fancy July luggage. As a sidebar, Tegan has also been testing a July backpack, so stay tuned for a future episode for that!
Full show notes are available on the Queens of the Drone Age website.
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If you've been online at all over the past few weeks, you've probably caught a whiff of rapid decline of Twitter. Since Elon Musk was forced to spend a cool court-ordered US$44 billion on the platform, each day has brought a fresh crop of twists, turns, backflips, and of course, memes.
If it feels like things are changing every few hours: yes. There will probably be something new by the end of this sentence. It's been tricky to keep up as the plot increasingly thickens so we're here to catch you up on all the juicy Twitter goss.
Full show notes on the Queens of the Drone Age website.
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In this deep dive episode from the archives, the Queens are looking at accessibility in tech.
Amanda shares her experiences with epilepsy, Tegan looks at some of Apple’s accessibility features and Rad explores AI-assisted prosthetics. The queens also discover what the typewriter was originally invented for.
Full show notes are available on the Queens of the Drone Age website.
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In this episode from the archives, the Queens debate whether gadgets getting increasingly bigger is getting out of hand – literally.
We've seen the trend of big phones, televisions, and computer monitors ebb and flow over the past few years. We lived through the era of phablets, and now we’re seeing behemoth 85” TV’s become a common size being offered.
So from plus-sized phones to giant IMAX screens, is bigger actually better? Scientifically (and personally)?
Full show notes are available on the Queens of the Drone Age website.
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The Queens are digging into tech-based solutions for some of the things that are contributing to, or being caused by, climate change.
Rad explains urban heat islands and how city infrastructure is significantly heating up specific pockets of land across the country. She also looks at some of the potential solutions and how class and wealth factors in.
Tegan heads to Canberra for budget lock-up, where she broke the story about this being the first federal budget to introduce a country-wide EV tax exemption. She also gets into Australia's backwards approach to EVs, including the expensive price tags, confusing state-based incentives and in some cases, taxes applied to low-emissions vehicles.
And Amanda takes on a mini-history of climate change reporting, dating back to the 1800s, and our general choice to ignore it as a species. She also looks at some of the direct ways that climate change is impacting us, including crops becoming less nutritious due to high levels of carbon dioxide.
Full show notes are available on the Queens of the Drone Age website.
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Later this week we've got a climate change deep dive, and we thought we'd lead up to it with a look at some environmentally focused products! Rae spills the tea on the Philips Eco Conscious kettle and toaster, which is made from sustainable bio plastics. Rad gets saucy with a lamp in the shape of a soy sauce fish packet, and Tegan opens up the Queens Garage for a first look at the cheapest EV currently available in Austrlaia: the MG ZS EV.
Visit the Queens of the Drone Age website for full show notes.
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Oh baby, it's camera Christmas! Rad gets hands on with the new flagship Fujifilm X-H2 and the just announced Fujifilm X-T5. She runs through some of the specs, differences, and shooting experience. Then Rad and Amanda chat about one of technology's most unsung heroes: glass! From bulletproof (or bullet resistant) glass, to Pyrex, to whether or not glass windows slowly melt over the years - the Queens peer through and make it shiny.
You can find show notes at the Queens of the Drone Age website.
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Sure, new tech is cool... but what about very, very old tech? In this Deep Dive the Queens discuss the lost art of Damascus steel, ancient mechanical computers, steel wire recordings, and the iconic boomerang.
This Deep Dive was originally released as part of episode 14: Roger Federer Is A Boomerang. You can find show notes at the Queens of the Drone Age website.
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