Stay ConnectedTechnology podcast that both experts and novices can enjoy.
Pop culture you love. Tech you dream about.
Shelly Palmer and Seth Everett cover topics that mean a lot to those in the tech space and those who just love tech.
Learn what’s new, what’s next, and what it means for you and your business.
Could Batman’s toys exist in the real world? Is Star Trek still science fiction, or has it become science fact?
Copyright: © 2021
Is Disney planning to sell ESPN? That's the latest rumor at the proverbial water cooler, and today we're talking about whether that makes financial sense for Disney, what would happen to ESPN if it got spun off, and whether or not consumers should care. We also explore the transitional time that televised sports exist in today. We talk about who could land the next big NFL contract, how MLB is thinking about changing its streaming offerings, and the reason behind the strange discrepancy in commercials you see when you stream games on regional sports networks.
Have you seen Tom Cruise doing insane things on the internet? Not the insane things he does in every Mission: Impossible movie, but things that seem strange… even for him. If so, you probably saw a Tom Cruise deepfake: a piece of synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness (in this case, Tom Cruise). Deepfakes are easier to execute than ever, which means they're more prevalent on the internet… and more liable to cause trouble. Deepfakes, like all technology, have good and bad uses. If you've seen The Mandalorian, Rogue One, or one of any number of other recent movies or TV shows, you've seen deepfakes used in fun and exciting ways. But if you've spent time on social media, you've likely seen deepfakes used for more nefarious reasons (like a video featuring Nancy Pelosi that made the rounds a few years ago). In this episode, we talk about the science and tech behind deepfakes before doing a round-up of new release TV… only to circle back around to the ways technology has enhanced the entertainment we've been enjoying for decades. (We're good at this podcasting thing.)
Even though we're not talking about Facebook this week… we've got to talk about Facebook this week! (At least for a little bit.) We chat about our Facebook usage this past week and why it's so tough to combat misinformation on WhatsApp. Then, we segue into today's topic: the evolution of education and employment, how each has changed during the pandemic, and how the relationship between the two continues to evolve. We talk about the differences between online learning and online teaching and how those differences relate to the way we learned to watch TV. We also talk about attention spans on Zoom, whether or not the technological alternatives to in-person meetings encourage laziness and the inherent problems of location-based bias around hybrid in-person/remote education. Also: have you noticed how many businesses are hiring right now? We talk about the reason behind that, the root causes of the issue, and the troubling effects we're seeing in just about every business across the board.
Last week we talked about Instagram and an embarrassing interview that the people from Instagram did on The Today Show. Well, multiply that by about 15, and you have today's episode of Techstream, about the whistleblower who went on 60 Minutes on Sunday night and plans to testify before Congress this week. What Frances Haugen said should not surprise anyone. Facebook works. Instagram works. This is not news. Facebook knows it's harmful. (Really, how could they NOT know?) In this episode, we talk about Haugen's interview, our reluctant dependence on all social media platforms, and whether or not Facebook is “worse” than other social media platforms. Stay tuned until the very end for a couple of exciting announcements! (Please note: this episode was recorded before Facebook's roughly six-hour outage on Monday, October 4.)
Adam Mosseri, Facebook's Head of Instagram, went on The Today Show on Monday, Sept. 27 to talk about Instagram, its effects on children, and the company's plans for an Instagram "safe for tweens." We've talked a lot on this podcast about the toxicity of social media, and Mosseri's appearance on The Today Show put that topic at the forefront of the cultural conversation once again. Today, we're talking about Facebook's plans to "solve" the problems of Instagram, the power of its algorithm, and the difficulties of raising children (made even more difficult with the rise of technology and social media platforms).
The new iPhone launches this Friday, and iOS 15 (and iPadOS 15) are available now for your existing Apple devices. If you're thinking of upgrading to Apple's latest software… you may want to wait a bit. We explain why you shouldn't rush to upgrade your iDevice, as well as all the shiny new features Apple has waiting for you when the time comes. (A reminder: if you don't upgrade to iOS 15 yet, make sure you're on iOS 14.8 for security reasons.) Plus: AMC is now airing NFL games in select movie theaters. Would you go to see the Ravens play the Chiefs on the big screen? Also: What about that Microsoft upgrade? Windows 11? Nope! Ask us about it again in a few months.
It's football season! With the TV landscape changing, and the NFL Sunday Ticket contract expiring in a few years, the million (well, to be fair, billion, or multi-billion) dollar question: what's looming on the horizon for the future of the NFL when it comes to streaming games? We talk about the state of football broadcasts, whether or not we'll be streaming all of our football games on a Big Tech platform in a few years, and whether or not NFL RedZone is too much or exactly the right presentation for how we watch things now. We also do a quick run-through of other hot topics in the tech world, including Twitch's issue with hate raids, Disney's shifted theatrical schedule, the Apple vs. Epic court case, and whether or not Ted Lasso took a strange turn in its most recent episode.
Seth made his triumphant return to the movie theater after 18 months away… and things did not go as planned. We revisit an earlier conversation from Techstream to talk about the state of the movie theaters, the future of movie theaters (and whether there is one), and more. Plus! Now that it's September, it's "Apple season," but with delays either confirmed or rumored for much of Apple's flagship hardware, will we be able to "celebrate" (by giving Apple our hard-earned money)? We talk about the "need" to upgrade and whether or not your old Apple gear is "good enough." (Spoiler alert: it probably is.)
When Techstream speaks, the tech industry listens! Last episode, we talked about OnlyFans' confounding decision to ban sexually explicit content. Mere days later, OnlyFans reversed its course and decided to once again allow such posts. But that shift doesn't make our last episode obsolete. Far from it, in fact! Instead, it puts our focus on new business models at the forefront of every conversation about the future of OnlyFans and its creators' financial endeavors. Plus! Apple changed its rules for developers, and Seth makes a plea to the video game gods.
Porn leads tech. It always has, it always will. And this week, Techstream is all about porn! OnlyFans just announced that -- for business reasons -- it will ban sexually explicit content later this year. Millions of creators and subscribers cried out in terror as they realized the site was going the way of Tumblr. At the same time, half the engineers on the planet stopped what they were doing to contemplate how they could code an uncensored app to take its place. What will take its place? Who will win the "race" to design the new platform? Will Web 3.0 get a chance to shine?
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