Interface

CES 2018 was a all about hyping the future, but Razer’s Project Linda concept has Andrew skeptical about the practicality of phones as computers. Meanwhile, Ian explains the iPad, but different… which is still basically an iPad, and Chase starts 2018 by listening more.

* CES Robot Strippers

* Razer Phone

* Razer Project Linda

* Samsung DEX

* Motorola Atrix 4G

* A Window into Another World - the rise of screens

* Thin Client

* Microsoft Courier

* Teenage Engineering OP-Z

Chase is unhappy with how iOS 11 has changed some previously expected behaviors. Now his wifi might be on, or might be off, or might just not be connected right now. Ian makes assumptions about how people probably don’t know how to use their iPhone. Andrew thinks it all makes sense, but he’s a power user… 🤷‍♂️

* John Gruber on the iOS 11 wifi/bluetooth toggles

* iOS 11’s “new” Control Center

Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Ethereum… it all sounds like stuff out of a 90’s Sci-Fi movie, but it’s a real thing, and it has the potential to change the way computing, finance, and identification are done in the future. Special guest Glenn Kunzler (@TheGlennja) joins Ian to discuss the ways this next wave of technology is (potentially) shaping the future.

* What is Blockchain

* The Truth about Blockchain

* Ethereum - Distributed Consensus (A Concise Ethereum History)

* Coinbase

* BitMiner - Bitcoin mining web client

* Watch Ethereum transactions in real-time

Amazon has spent the last few years slowly killing off the traditional bookstore (and many other stores along the way). Now Amazon has opened a physical bookstore to help those indecisive buyers find books that might enjoy. Nordstrom is doing the same, allowing you to shop online, and have a personally tailored shopping experience in store. The question is, do people actually want to shop like this?

* Amazon Books

* Crabby old media complain about Amazon Bookstores

* Nordstrom’s New Concept

* Amazon Echo Look

* Volvo’s Trunk Delivery

* Internet of Stuff Your Mom Used To Do

Chase can now have a Tesla anywhere he goes. The problems is, it’s invisible unless he’s looking through his iPhone’s camera. Meanwhile, Andrew has been experimenting with AR simulated board games and loves the shaky cam battle scenes. Also, Ian has a cold. Sorry.

On the face of it, $10/month seems like a great deal for unlimited movie theater tickets. That is, until you realize that there is a hidden cost to seeing every new Marvel or DC movie to hit the cinema - incessant advertisements in your email promoting every new action figure, poster, video game, kids toy, or special Spiderman themed food item at Walmart. In reality, you are subsidizing your movie habits with personal information that advertisers are buying at a premium, just to get their marketing in front of your eyes. * Prima Cinema in home movie theatre * How the rich watch movies in theatre * Distribution of users computer skills * Millennials are killing……. movies * Popcorn Time (Piracy is illegal) * RunPee * MoviePass - $10/month, all the cinema you can watch * 30 for 30: The Fighter Inside * iTunes might bring the cinema to iTunes before release

Ian pledged $50 to get a glorified selfie stick, but only half of it has been shipped. Chase spent $100 on a video game that may or may not actually be made one day. A combination of physical and psychological factors lead to successful campaigns on crowdfunding platforms, but sometimes even the most convincing sales pitches turn out to be much less impressive - so what makes people willing to hand over their money? * Tactics for Effective Crowdfunding * Psychology of Kickstarter Campaign Goals * Microventures * Crowdfunding for Equity * Zach Braff's "Successful" Kickstarter * ChargeCard on Kickstarter * The Apple Book That Never Was * Star Citizen * Star Citizen MISC "commercial" * Star Citizen 300 "commercial" * Star Citizen Anvil "commercial"

Don't call it a comeback, we've been here for months! That's the song that introduced me to hip-hop, and I listened to my mp3 of it over and over before the bitrate degraded too much for WinAmp to play it anymore. It was my copy, but every time I put it on a new hard drive it got a little fuzzier. I don't know why I'm explaining this; you know how DRM works. Eventually I farmed out enough spare CPU cycles that I could afford another copy, but by that time (of course) I was just buying the rights to the song anyway. -Destroy before sharing (or is it just improving?) -The rarest digital video game -DRM sucks! -S H I T P I C S -Spotify has a lot of users -Hang out with your buddies in VR

There is a fine line between creepy technology and helpful technology. Amazon, Google, and even Facebook ride very close to that line. But does that line shift? Do you know when it's been crossed? And what drives these artificially intelligent machines? * Could Google Influence a Presidential Election * Search Engine Manipulation * Facebook Manipulates our Emotions

Chase graduated, and some of his family members shared the news on Facebook before he had the opportunity to do it. Now he feels petty for wishing he owned that content. * Social Media is Ruining Your Life

After a week of celebrating our 1-year Birthday, the trio is back with a look at working remotely - that is, embracing the home office and still working on things that exist within the traditional business sense. It takes skill, focus, and self-motivation, but it can be a wonderful reprieve from the traditional office, especially when replacing your coworkers isn't a viable option. * Top 10 Benefits of Working From Home (Survey Results) * Telecommuting Trend: Remote Work Becoming Commonplace * Telecommuniting is Fast on the Rise * Telecommuniting Climbs to 37% * The Death of the Office * Benefits of Working from Home for Employees and Employers * Zombie Malls

If you've been a long time listener, you might recall episode 7, where we discussed TV consumption and streaming TV. Now, in 315-day-old follow-up, Chase has cancelled SlingTV and Ian is testing out the recently released YouTube TV. The question is, outside of sports, does anybody watch anything live? And is the TV (as in the panel on your wall or entertainment center) becoming a relic of the past? * Interface Episode 7: Push Button, Receive TV * YouTube TV review: The cord-cutter's dream is still a long way away * YouTube TV needs more channels, but it gets the basics right * What DirecTV Now means for the future of TV * The Future of TV isn’t apps | TechCrunch * How Millennials Consume TV Depends on Which Stage of Life They’re In – Adweek * YouTube Is Crushing Cable TV, According To Google | The Huffington Post * CivicScience | Gen Z Is All About Streaming

Andrew and his wife just bought a house, but now they have some renovations they'd like to do. The problem is, Andrew doesn't have a large tool collection, and he's not entirely sure where to start. * The Sweethome * The Wirecutter * MN Tool Library * Tragedy Of The Commons

I've definitely seen this one before. I can't quite put my finger on where — Facemash? Soundjammers? Twibbles? Show me again, website. Yes, I'm sure I've watched this before. I remember making it. We marinated the chicken in mayo, which made it extra juicy! (Ed: this actually works.) Here's the thing. When I saw it, there was a person there, more than just hands. A face and a personality, you know? And yet here we are with a twenty-five second portrait video compressed to hell and claiming to be something else. Who would do such a thing? Do you really think someone would do that? Just go on the internet and steal content? * Everything is a Remix (See also) * Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and Rifftrax * Ship of Theseus * 🧀Cheesy Pasta🍝 * A capella maybe isn't as dumb as I thought: Skyrim Theme Straight No Chaser Star Wars/John Williams * As long as we're talking about compositions with a single instrument, how about some Zoë Keating? Andrew's Favorite Mashups * Brahms v Radiohead — A mashup of Brahms' 1st Symphony and OK Computer, then re-scored and arranged for orchestra. See also. More. I'll spare you Copland v Bon Iver because I'm sure you'd rather listen to good music. * Mouth Moods — So bad, so dumb, so brilliant. Reanimated pop music, Frankenstein's Monster-style. If Robot Chicken did music and loved Smashmouth. I can't recommend it enough/stay far away. * Girl Talk — Feed the Animals — Basically my entire pop music vocabulary comes from this. A virtuoso-level combination of rap, pop, folk, and rock together into something that becomes more than its parts. The ur-mashup. Also came on a super-cool matte black CD that basically never left my car stereo. * Daft Science — Daft Punk + Beastie Boys. Cut/pasted/mixed/resampled. I love it. * Call me a Hole — Hey, and this is crazy, but I just met you, so HEAD LIKE A HOLE * Shake it Off (The Perfect Drug) — Modern pop goes really well with Nine Inch Nails. Who would have thought? * Both albums by the Avalanches — Not technically mashups, but really excellent music derived entirely from samples. Basically Ian's kryptonite.

After roughly 6 years of flings with various Android devices, Chase has found true love and happiness with an iPhone 6S. Moving from Android to iOS can't be without pain points, though, right? Changing apps, different content providers, a keyboard that is hard to punctuate… how will he adjust? And what's the cost of switching platforms in the current state of technology? * Nexus 6 * Switch to iPhone * How to Switch to iPhone: A Guide * Would moving paid apps make switching easier? * Social and Network Effects in Mobile Service Platform Switching

When we were kids, we rode bikes and played outside. Today's kids are buried in their devices, and experiencing the world through a tiny glass window. But what happens next? How does it change the way they interact as they grow up? What dependencies does it form? * Nomophobia - Wikipedia * Another podcast called Interface * Snapchat by the numbers * Teens talk about Finstagram accounts - Business Insider * 'Why Kids Sext' Describes Nude Photos As 'Social Currency' Among Teens : All Tech Considered : NPR * Teens have changed the meaning of 'tbh' - Business Insider

Chase has been keeping his eye out for the latest Toyz2Lyfe game (inspired by the Dreamworks Pictures animated Toy Story rip-off), and he's found some great online tools to track the best deals. Unfortunately, he's been sucked into the consumerist trap of online deal sites, and now has a garage packed wall-to-wall with HDMI cables and women's pants. The internet is weird. * Slickdeals * CheapCharts for iOS * CamelCamelCamel * MacRumors Buying Guide * Woot * Meh…

Why is it that every car radio, CD player, or fancy infotainment system sucks? Maybe it's a disconnect with customers, maybe it's just a lack of care… or maybe it's because there is no incentive to make it better when the competition all sucks, too. Either way, we don't like it. When the device in our pocket can do almost anything, why can't it be the center of our automotive life? * Chevy partners with LG for in-car entertainment * Apple CarPlay * Ignition (CarPlay on iPad) * Android Auto

So we missed — PING — our projected sales for — BZZZ BZZZ — the fifth quarter in a row. I know — PING PING — that you've been — ZIP POW — leading that division — BEEP BEEP — as best you can but — RING RING, RING RING — are you going to get that? Hello? Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. I told him no. He had it yesterday! Yes, he did. No. Okay, see you tonight. Sorry, kids, you know? Sure. So, like I was saying — BZZZ BZZZ — you're a great leader — PING — and you've been in charge of — WHISTLE BUZZ — a lot of great projects over the years — BOOP BOOP — but with the division's recent — ZINGO ZANGO ZAMBO — performance I'm afraid — BZZZ BZZZ — we have — PING — to let — RING RING. No, I told you, he got it yesterday! No! Sorry. Continue. We have to — POW — let you go. BLAMMO! * Why something silly like your clothes matters * Don't do this * Interruptions and productivity * Never interrupt a programmer

You're in a meeting and you need to remember some key details of the conversation. Do you write it on a sheet of paper, or punch it out into the notes app on your iPad or iPhone? Then you are asked to attend a meeting - can you check what your calendar looks like, oe is it sitting on your desk? After work, you remember you need to stop at the store - do you have your list? * Paper (by 53) * OneNote * Google Keep * TextWrangler

I don't even remember what we talked about. Video games, I guess? Like a low-budget Idle Thumbs. It doesn't matter, I'm just going back to Mario. Gotta collect those souls, amirite? This game, it's like those auto-scrolling levels of Olde only now they're even harder (and maybe they're crappier as a result). I'm just glad someone took the time to hand-craft all of these coins. Like I took the time to hand-craft the coins I paid them with! Hah! But for real, no nickle and diming here. Just a crisp Hamilton and a Lincoln on the flipside for all the sweet, sweet MARIO action you could want… until you beat it. -People suck at computers -Super Mario Run -People suck at everything

Facebook has entered the field of PC gaming, and Chase is uncertain they can compete with Steam. On this holiday episode, Andrew sings and Chase speculates. * Facebook Gameroom * New York Times sends out Google Cardboard * Distribution of Users Computer Skills

With the rising trend of false news, clickbait headlines, and misleading pull-quotes, we thought we would discuss some of the ways we get our news, and how we can verify the accuracy and authenticity of the news we see. * Facebook report fake news * Clickbait Bernie Sanders Headline * Reply All and r/The_Donald subreddit

The year is 2016, and the worlds biggest musical star is putting the finishing touches on their new album. Then, from down the hall, they hear their mother call for dinner. They quickly hit command-s to save their changes, close their laptop, and head off to eat. The entire album being produced on a $900 computer, without the need for any instruments or musical theory, that MacBook Air contains a gold mine. * Roli BLOCKS * Keezy Drummer * Figure by Propellerhead * Misa Kitara * Remixlive Loops * Marvel Symphonic Universe * Millennial Whoop * Kanye pirates Serato from Deadmau5 * AI Graphic Design * Google Machine pens song * Poems by a song writer * Music Memos

With the Thanksgiving holiday just past us, we ran into a multitude of scheduling conflicts. Chase is in the middle of moving across the country, Andrew is traveling with his new wife, and Ian was finding it hard to work around a newborn schedule. Fortunately, there are tons of tools available now that allow for collaboration without needing to depend on others to be working at the same time. The results of this experiment are weird. We probably won't do it again.

Ian just bought a MacBook on eBay, and now the seller has disappeared with his money. Chase just sold his car to a guy he met on Craigslist, but not after some shady meet-ups. These tools have been around for years, and regardless of how questionable they may be at times, people love them or people hate them. If only there were a more centralized place that held us all accountable for buying and selling things - like a store, but on the internet. * Amazon Prime (30 Day Free Trial) * Sending money via Facebook Messenger * Square Cash * Dwolla

When we were kids, our parents sent us outside to go play and use our imagination, get dirty, and cause mischief. Now, thanks to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) focused "toys," kids can build robots, program them to pick up their room, and do it all while learning to program a game. This leaves the guys at an impasse - is imaginative creativity, or structured "follow-the-rules" play better? * Capselas * Code Monkey Planet * Child's Play Helps Brain Development * Lego Duplo * Hackball * 12 Best Educational Tech Toys for Christmas * Lego Mindstorm * Competitive Lego-ing * Bloxels

Alert: You slept for sixteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds less last night than your six-month average. Expert sleepers typically stay within one standard deviation (five minutes) of their average sleep time; consider going to bed eleven minutes earlier tonight to recover your average and maintain optimum cognition. This information will automatically be added to your personal report. For your safety, your car has also been notified and you have been limited to twelve minutes of driving above the speed limit for the duration of your commute. You have visitors tonight; your joint playlist has been tweaked towards low-BPM songs to encourage you to sleep at the recommended time. Good morning. * Opting out of breast cancer genetic testing * Wired on the quantified "us" * Apple ResearchKit-powered Parkinson's tracking * ResearchKit * Nicholas Felton and his Fantabulous Reports * Automatic * Flow state * Fuelly! * You know everything (about cholera), John Snow * Tufte on John Snow * Google Flu Trends had a G-oopsie * Behaviorial coding (not as dystopian as it sounds) * Quantified Self * Subtle, yet tangible

You just got off work and get on the bus to head home. Instead of checking Twitter (again), you decide to do a little gaming. You pull out your portable console and the 2 bite-sized controllers, only to notice the person across from you is watching curiously. You offer up one of the controllers and play a round of Mario Kart. Turns out™, it's hard for both of you to see such a small screen, and that little thumb drive of a controller is pretty awkward to maneuver with 2 hands. It's the future of console gaming - and it's awkward at best. * Nintendo Switch Trailer * Is the Nintendo Switch Destined for Failure * Ars Technica Size Estimations * Nintendium * Nintendo Switch Controller Concepts * More Nintendo Switch Details * Daring Fireball on the Switch

First thing this morning, I bought $12,000 worth of "premium" stickers for email. The problem is, they've all degraded and now I can't tell what any of them are. Due to a glitch in the sticker implementation, only I see the degradation — everyone else can tell what they are. That's why Oma got a sticker of a drone holding an offensive sign and my wife got a picture of Chase. Even that would be okay, but the worst part is that I can't even make myself breakfast because I don't have any money left to renew my smarthome lightbulb subscription. * Thinkpiece on digital goods * Teach me how to iMessage/teach me teach me how to iMessage * What happened to Facebook gif(t)s? * The Hedonic Treadmill * Why people get obsessed with achievements * The guy who made millions of dollars on Steam hats and gun skins * Welcome to the world of tomorrow * Sh*t-pics * What's the wifi password? * ChoreWars * The future of football

Chase was a smartphone skeptic, until he owned a smartphone. Then he was an Android lover, until he tried the iPhone. Now he's weighing his options and trying to choose the right device for his needs. What can the Android do that the iPhone can't? Where does the iPhone excel? Can his workflows be adjusted to work with a new platform, or is the cost of switching too high? * Moto X (2014) * iPhone 5 * Nexus 6 * Republic Wireless * Android Version History * Android's failing update cycle * Making the iPhone square again * Overcast for iOS * Pocket Cast * Chase's Android Homescreen * Blank icons for iOS * Fixing iCloud-to-Gmail calendar invites

Son, meet Pac-Man. Daughter, meet Pac-Man. Wife, let's Pac-Man. Pac-Man, prepare for doom. Dark Souls, hardcore, normcore, co-op. Play on your couch, don't play with your internet friends! Unless you play Minecraft, but then only play it next to each other. Don't look at their face, just focus on the controller. She's a Killer Queen / quiplashing, drawful / dynamite with Rocket League / guaranteed to kick your butt / UpDown. * Killer Queen indie arcade 5v5 game * Quiplash! But don't buy this one… * …buy this one instead * UpDown is a modern barcade * Four-player Pac-Man Battle Royale * Fix-it Felix Jr is a real game! * M-M-M U L T I B O W L * Andy (not Scott) Baio raised his son with vintage video games and now his son is good at video games * Minecraft playdates * Minecraft: education in disguise * Lego Universe shut down due to phallic constructions

One misty morning, you enter your garage. It's dark, light streaming between the cracks of the door (don't forget to call the door guy). You don't remember driving home last night but you must have; there's a car in here. Wiping the sleep from your eyes, you walk around to the driver's side door. Weird, your car is bigger than that. Something slithers by, leaving a trail behind it. You whirl around at the faint sound of clattering hooves. The motion detector triggers the light, and all is revealed. A Chevy Bolt, a sniffling snake, an ill ibex, a podcast. * 107 miles of range * The Model Hamburger Menu * Melt your Chromebook with USB-C! * ChargePoint, the EV middleman * Drive into your neighbor's garage and steal their electricity with the help of PlugShare * Chevy Bolt is best Bolt * The Ford Fusion dashboard allows you to be a tree murdered every morning on your communte * Faraday Vaporware * Electric Car Charging Levels

Andrew is convinced that giving every student in a class a computer is a bad idea. Ian thinks it's the way of the future, and almost a necessity for the kids of 2016. Who is right? Who is wrong? Will these 2 ever agree on anything? Find out as we discuss the use of technology in the classroom, and ways technology and the internet can be used to truly improve the classroom experience. * Building an app for low-income Americans * The Flipped Classroom - Wikipedia * The Next Wave of Classroom Technology * Changing the Face of Education * Terminus - Learning the Terminal * Coursera * Lynda

It's a weird year to joke about elections, but the current inconsistencies and design of many voting systems is a bit of a joke. Some votes are cast on paper, others on an electronic machine, and the layouts of the ballots can vary widely from precinct to precinct. This week, we discuss some critical flaws in various ballot designs, and how the entire process could be simplified to offer a more frictionless and transparent experience. * Brexit's simple ballot * Australia's straight party ballot * Are you religious? Check yes or no * Testing ballots for usability * Election Design Field Guide * The poorly designed "Hanging Chad" ballots * The current state of electronic voting machines * Arguments in favor of electronic voting * Arguments against electronic voting * 99% Invisible, The Butterfly Effect"

Chase is a dad of 2, and Ian is about to be a dad, and Andrew was away on business, so this week, we take a quick dive into smart devices for kids (babies). We also discuss how fitness wearables for adults offer motivation, and the desire for social elements in a fitness tracker. * Owlet Baby Monitor * Snuza Baby Monitor * Kinsa Thermometer * Flo Thermometer * ResearchKit's Impact on Medical Studies * Empatica Embrace * Microsoft Band * Pebble * Misfit Shine * Fitbit * Apple Watch * watchOS 3 Activity Sharing * Pebble Core

When we were young, we would do and say what we wanted. For many of us, what seemed acceptable in the moment, later seemed like an embarrassing, stupid, or hurtful thing, but rarely had lasting evidence. Now, in an era of "everything online, all the time," what can be done about the trail of dumb we leave behind? * Right to be forgotten * Facebook Activity Log * Google account history * Facebook News Feed Privacy * Export all Facebook data * Snapchat Memories * Google Photos * ISHU reflective scarf

I'm not writing anything snarky or goofy about online toxicity. It's bad, and whether or not you agree with the viewpoints of people who are expressing their opinions, no one deserves to receive constant abuse, death threats, and rape threats. Today, we talk about what can be done and what's being done to combat online toxicity. -John Gabriel's Greater Internet _______ Theory (we're a clean show I guess?) -YikYak is garbage -@nero banned from Twitter forever -xkcd on free speech as a defense (read the alt text) -Periscope's solution to online harrassment -Racism in Hearthstone -The Elo rating system -Brawlhalla -Dota2 player realizes he's being a dick (report at eleven!) -Overwatch more popular than League of Legends in Korea -League of Legends is enormous -Jeff Lin of Riot discusses how they tested eliminating toxicity -Another Jeff Lin talk -Yet another Jeff Lin talk -More on Jeff's experiments at Riot -A good overview on Riot's attempts to curb harrassment -Ruining it for the rest of us -Dark patterns as a good thing -Riot using online metrics to deal with toxic, in-house employees -Overwatch is becoming famous for its low levels of toxicity -Online altruism -Overwatch gets one method of avoiding online abusers removed because it was being abused -Overwatch play-by-sound -Radiolab's Trust Engineers -Everything is a Remix -Remakes that are better than the original

Ian is being crushed by a deluge of newsletter spam. They want conversions, he wants inbox zero! Later, he turns the tables and makes a million dollars tricking people into paying him three dollars every month for a service they don't even know they are paying for. Your writer was up late last night, so sorry about the show notes. * In Defense of The Floppy * The difference between Spam and Bacn * Unroll Me * Dark Patterns * Deception in Design * Idle Words: Haunted by Words * Terms of Services, Didn't Read * Twitter Dark Pattern

"Off-camera, a hand. On-camera, a wife. A husband. A baby shower. Thumbs bubble up from the corner, punctuated by the occasional heart. Messages trickle in from family members distributed around the country. Then a presence, one you haven't felt since high school disturbs your bliss. Your Facebook Live privacy settings were wrong — if only we still used Google Plus!" Some real-life feedback on the use of live video streaming for personal events, as well as in educational and office situations. * Glide * Revolve Robotics * Double Robotics * My Life as a Robot * Snowbot * Long distance VR relationships * First webcam * World of Warcraft Weddings)