Entertainment Episodes

Streaming news and rumors, including the latest from companies like Netflix and Spotify.
Jan. 25, 2021

Mon. 01/25 – Clubhouse Raises A New Round At $1B Valuation

Clubhouse has become a unicorn in, what… nine months? Google is making its facilities available as vaccine centers, while its workers are union organizing globally. Apple wants you to get up and walk. And why the SPAC frenzy…
Dec. 11, 2020

Fri. 12/11 - Disney+ Is About to Get a Bit More Expensive

Disney+ is about to get a bit more expensive, but you’re also gonna get a lot more stuff to watch. Are we in a tech IPO bubble? X64 emulation comes to Windows. Apple whispers that it will likely be dropping Qualcomm like it …
Dec. 5, 2020

(Bonus) Peter Kafka on Media, Hollywood, Substack and TikTok

As promised, here’s Recode’s Peter Kafka, the dean of the media reporters, someone we should have had on the podcast a long time before this. Do checkout his podcast, Recode Media with Peter Kafka . Sponsors: ProtonMail.com/…
Guest: Peter Kafka
Dec. 4, 2020

Fri. 12/04 – CRACK! Warners Blows Up The (Traditional) Hollywood Business Model

Another monumental crack across the land as Warner Brothers has maybe signaled the death of the business model Hollywood has relied on for 100 years. Is Stripe signaling it wants to completely rewire the global monetary syst…
Nov. 23, 2020

Mon. 11/23 - Snapchat Launches Spotlight, A TikTok Clone

Cloning Snapchat isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Cloning TikTok. Even Snapchat has joined the bandwagon with Spotlight. Are people fleeing ads in feeds because the market is saturated? I break down all of last week’s big m…
Nov. 11, 2020

Wed. 11/11 – Groundhog Day! Is TikTok Going Dark Tomorrow?

So wait, is TikTok facing shutdown again, as soon as tomorrow or… what? Some analysis on how well those M1 chips might actually perform. Ring doorbells are catching fire. The Hyperloop takes its first passengers for a ride. …
Oct. 30, 2020

Fri. 10/30 – Netflix Raises Prices

Netflix raises prices. Because they can—and maybe because they should. Google wants to give you a free VPN. Samsung helps you find your galaxy of Galaxy things. A rundown of yesterday’s big day of tech earnings. And, of cour…
Oct. 22, 2020

Thu. 10/22 – Quibi QUIckly BItes The Dust

Quibi’s dead baby. Quibi’s dead. Jony Ive is going to design stuff for… Airbnb? The Mate 40 Pro is the best flagship smartphone you’ll probably never want to buy. What if Snapchat conquers India? The Bahamas launches the fir…
Oct. 19, 2020

Mon. 10/19 – Apple Launches Apple Music TV (A-MTV? iMTV?)

Apple wants to you to want your A-MTV. iMTV? I dunno. Apple has launched a music videos channel. The new Samsung Galaxies might be coming sooner than ever. The company bringing AR to car windshields. And why Japan saying it’…
Sept. 28, 2020

Mon. 09/28 – Roku’s New $130 Streambar and Updated $100 Roku Ultra

Roku launches a Streambar and an Ultra with Dolby Vision. Dell updates the XPS 13 lineup. TikTok is still ticking, as of this moment. Will we see the return of the mini moniker, with an iPhone 12 Mini that might not actually…
Sept. 22, 2020

Tue. 09/22 – Quibi Is “Exploring Options”

Quibi is exploring its options, as they say. The Google Antitrust suit could come next week. Why do you have to return the entire Apple Watch if your wristband doesn’t fit? The CIA has a new plan to compete with Silicon Vall…
Sept. 21, 2020

Mon. 09/21 – ByteDance Says It Won. Trump Says Not So Fast. TikTok Continues… For Now.

It looked like we had a TikTok deal the president liked. Then ByteDance went and pointed out they still had control. Now, I dunno where we’re at. Microsoft buys Bethesda. The founder of Nikola steps down in murky circumstanc…
Sept. 18, 2020

Fri. 09/18 – WeChat Officially Banned On Sunday. TikTok Only Kinda Banned.

The Commerce Department officially has brought the hammer down. WeChat is banned on Sunday. TikTok banned on Sunday too, but it’s complicated. PayTM is banned from the Google Play Store in India. Facebook decides that Facebo…
Sept. 14, 2020

Mon. 09/14 – Has Oracle Saved TikTok (In The US)?

Has Oracle saved TikTok, in the US at least? Let me explain why it’s not actually buying anything, probably isn’t solving the security problem Microsoft says it would have, and China is keeping its hands on the algorithm. On…
Sept. 12, 2020

(Bonus) The TikTok Sales Saga With @Kantrowitz

The TikTok saga. It’s gonna end. Or it’s gonna happen. Or it’s gonna… something in the next few days. Will it be sold? Will it not be? Will it be banned in the US. There are so many angles here. So many interesting ways to t…