MashTalk

How GoPro rebooted itself, with guest CEO Nick Woodman

December 19, 2018 21:55 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MB

For GoPro, things are looking up. After a tumultuous couple of years — which saw the action-camera company enter and then leave the drone business, get squeezed harder by increasingly competitive smartphone cameras, and ride a steady wave of criticism of its product line — GoPro appears to have found its footing with the well-received Hero 7 Black camera and a return to profitability. At the center of the company’s renewal is founder Nick Woodman. Woodman joined MashTalk to talk about...

The future of crowdfunding, with guest Indiegogo CEO David Mandelbrot

November 20, 2018 20:00 - 51 minutes - 47 MB

Ten years ago, Indiegogo launched the modern era of crowdfunding by creating a place where anyone could pitch their idea, product, or creative endeavor to the entire world, asking for the funds to make it reality. Today there are no shortage of crowdfunding sites, and even though Indiegogo isn’t as large as rival Kickstarter, it’s still tremendously influential, offering entrepreneurs not just a funding platform, but also support beyond their campaigns, with tools to ease the transition from ...

Why we’ll never get rid of program guides, with guest Sling TV’s Jimshade Chaudhari

October 26, 2018 18:10 - 39 minutes - 36.1 MB

Want live TV over the internet? Today you have several options, including Hulu, YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue, and more. It’s hard to remember, though, but there was a time when there were virtually no options for consumers who wanted to cut the cord. Sure, services like Netflix and Vudu provided plenty of titles via on demand, but current content was scattered across myriad websites and services, and it didn’t do a good job of replicating the TV experience. Then Sling TV came along. Launch...

The secret to Candy Crush's success, with guest King CEO Riccardo Zacconi

October 12, 2018 18:42 - 34 minutes - 32 MB

What does ‘time well spent’ mean for games like ‘Candy Crush?’ If you own a smartphone, chances are you know Candy Crush and maybe even the game’s latest incarnation, Candy Crush Friends Saga. What you may not know is the story behind the franchise: How an Italian entrepreneur put all his cash on the line as a co-founder of King, the company behind the game, in the early 2000s, with an idea of how to re-invent gaming for the online world. That person is Riccardo Zacconi. He’s guided t...

How to do consumer robots right, with guest Anki CEO Boris Sofman

August 17, 2018 15:01 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MB

In case you missed it, the robots are here. No, not the apocalyptic hordes of artificially intelligent machines that some believe are destined to enslave or eradicate us (hello, Boston Dynamics!), but the everyday devices and companions that are rapidly becoming commonplace. After decades of lofty sci-fi-inspired promises, robots like iRobot's Roomba vacuums and the many iterations of the Sony Aibo robodog are slowly carving out their places in our domestic lives. Even Amazon's Alexa is argua...

Apple's 2018 iPhones have a serious naming problem

August 09, 2018 20:26 - 24 minutes - 22.3 MB

Everyone knows Apple will unveil new iPhones in the fall, and the consensus is there will be three models: a successor to the iPhone X, a large-screen version of that phone, and a new model that looks kind of like the iPhone X, but doesn’t have quite all the same features so Apple can sell it at a lower price. With three iPhones coming, the big question becomes... what is Apple going to call these babies? Apple really screwed itself by debuting the iPhone 8 alongside the iPhone “ten” — now a...

Why the gun emoji is no more, with guest Jeremy Burge of Emojipedia

July 20, 2018 15:01 - 44 minutes - 40.9 MB

Emoji have conquered the world, no doubt, but what happens after the conquest? The answer: Things change. Emoji are constantly evolving, not only with new symbols that arrive on our smartphone keyboards year after year, but also the symbols themselves. A couple of years ago, your standard emoji keyboard usually has a gun on it, but today that symbol has been almost universally replaced with a water pistol. The gun’s transformation may be the most dramatic of changes, but emoji are changing in...

The frightening world of online 'spiritual gurus,' with guest Jennings Brown

July 13, 2018 20:16 - 44 minutes - 40.9 MB

We all know YouTube. YouTube is the biggest video platform on the planet, with about 400 hours of video uploaded to the service every second. But YouTube, of all the current content "platforms," is arguably the most fragmented. There's no newsfeed, so there's no central place where everyone -- or seemingly everyone -- is gathering. As a result, communities form on their own, typically around channels or personalities, and they tend to be pretty insular. One of these communities formed around ...

The future of Microsoft Cortana, with guest Javier Soltero

June 22, 2018 18:34 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MB

When Google wowed the tech world with its demo of Duplex -- the tech that allows its digital Assistant make phone calls to perform mundane tasks like booking haircuts or making restaurant reservations -- Microsoft's Cortana chief was impressed, but not worried. "The technologist in me had no choice but to feel impressed," Javier Soltero, Microsoft corporate vice president of Cortana, said in this episode of Mashable's MashTalk podcast. "The idea that a computer can generate a voice with the r...

Why the gig economy was doomed from the start, with guest Sarah Kessler

June 14, 2018 20:22 - 36 minutes - 33.1 MB

For a while there, it seemed like "Uber for X" was the only pitch that mattered. To many, the rapid rise of Uber wasn't just a major tech success story -- it signaled a wholesale change that was coming to how people thought of work. Traditional jobs, the thinking went, would soon become less and less common, with predictable, inefficient employment getting replaced by the flexibility of independent contract work. The "gig economy" was underway, and it was unstoppable. Except that it stopped. ...

WWDC recap: Why Apple is slamming Facebook hard, with Philip Elmer-DeWitt

June 09, 2018 00:43 - 44 minutes - 40.5 MB

WWDC. Apple's software show. "Dub-dub." Whatever you call Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, it's the event where we find out what cool new features are coming to the company's multiple platforms: iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. It's also where we get to know what's on Apple's mind. The new software shows Apple's hand in ways its hardware doesn't: From new features to combat iPhone addiction to updates meant to prevent data companies from tracking you, Apple is playing both defense and o...

How should cryptocurrency be regulated?

May 18, 2018 18:41 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MB

Does Facebook know something about blockchain that we don't? Probably. If there's one thing we can all agree on about blockchain tech and cryptocurrency, it's that most people don't understand them. Facebook, which recently re-organized itself to make blockchain one of its major focuses, clearly has something up its sleeve with regard to crypto. But even if they revealed what it is, users would likely react with a head-scratch. The financial world is already a mystery to many. Add to that a l...

The ethics of Google Duplex, with Assist CEO Shane Mac

May 10, 2018 20:33 - 41 minutes - 38.3 MB

It was possibly the most mind-blowing tech demo in years: During the opening keynote of the Google I/O developers conference, CEO Sundar Pichai showed the company’s AI-driven Assistant making a phone call to a business and carrying out a verbal conversation with the person who answered. What made the demo of the feature, called Duplex, so amazing was the Assistant’s command of natural language – saying “um,” “mm-hmm,” and “ah” at various times – was so masterful that it was apparent the perso...

'Free' doesn't have to mean you're the product (with Viber CEO Djamel Agaoua)

May 04, 2018 14:59 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MB

If you're not paying for the service, are you the product? That's been Silicon Valley conventional wisdom for at least a decade, but the new focus on data privacy in the wake of Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal has inspired the world to re-examine the maxim. It's pretty clear now that it's an oversimplification, and there's a strong case to be made that thinking this way is downright dangerous. That doesn't mean we let services like Facebook off the hook, but we should be cognizant that...

Apple vs. the FBI never ended, and the FBI is winning, with guests Joseph Cox and Joe Hall

April 27, 2018 14:32 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MB

If you own an iPhone, you should be concerned about GrayKey. That's the name for a new kind of device that's becoming increasingly popular with law enforcement agencies across the U.S., according to recent reports. It's popular because it unlocks iPhones protected with a passcode, even ones running Apple's most recent software, iOS 11. GrayKey is the product of Grayshift, a security company based in Atlanta that was co-founded by an ex-Apple security engineer. The device itself is a nondescri...

Did Mark Zuckerberg just beat Congress? (with Matt Navarra and Michael Nuñez)

April 12, 2018 19:49 - 44 minutes - 41 MB

Mark Zuckerberg survived Congress. Now what? That's the big question now that the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have put Zuckerberg and Facebook under the microscope. After 10+ hours of testimony, plenty of clueless questions, and multiple promises that Facebook's team would "follow up" with lawmakers, the public now has a chance to re-examine its fundamental relationship with Facebook, and judge whether or not "breach of trust" that Zuckerberg has admitted will lead to fundamental...

If Apple breaks from Intel, will Macs get cheaper? (with guest Shara Tibken)

April 06, 2018 20:43 - 39 minutes - 36.6 MB

When Apple makes a move, it usually causes an earthquake. The chip industry definitely felt tremors upon the report that Apple would soon be turning away from Intel for the chips in its MacBooks. Or at least one MacBook. As early as 2020, we may see the first Mac to run on a chip designed and built by Apple -- either one of its "A" processors or something new altogether. Obviously, Intel shareholders weren't happy about the news (the stock still hasn't recovered four days later), but the big ...

Preventing a dark future, with guest Andrew Keen

February 16, 2018 21:41 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MB

Is the future broken? Maybe not, but, by many measures, the present is. Over the past couple of years, the networks and devices that we've come to rely on for our information, consumption, and social interactions have been exposed to have toxic underbellies: Social networks have been twisted by fake news and filter bubbles, the constant ping of notifications on screens has shortened attention spans and created addictions, and it seems all the big tech companies are determined to erase every t...

Why Evan Spiegel turned down a billion dollars, with guest Billy Gallagher

February 09, 2018 19:58 - 34 minutes - 31.6 MB

Snap is starting the year off strong. Its quarterly earnings blew past expectations, and while its redesign is angering some users, the change is expected to improve the app experience for everyone, with time. But life hasn't always been so great for Snapchat. CEO Evan Spiegel continues to be compared to Mark Zuckerberg and his tech giant Facebook, whose much larger products keep taking on Snapchat-esque features. Such a comparison isn't so crazy. Back in 2013, Facebook offered $1 billion to ...

The real story of Steve Jobs 'getting fired' from Apple, with guest John Sculley

February 02, 2018 17:11 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MB

It's legend in the computer industry: In the mid '80s, Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple, the company he co-founded and went on to eventually lead to worldwide dominance, after a boardroom battle with the CEO at the time, John Sculley. Over the years, the story got altered and adapted -- to the point where many assumed Jobs was fired, either by Sculley or Apple's board, which wasn't the case. Jobs did lose a boardroom showdown with Sculley (which actually played out over a week or so), one whe...

CES 2018: What it all meant

January 12, 2018 23:23 - 50 minutes - 45.9 MB

The Mashable team is back from CES 2018, and we have lots of things to say about what impressed us, disappointed us, and just plain weirded us out. This year's show was filled with driverless cars, wall-sized TVs, and enough talking gadgets to fill, well, a convention hall. On this week's MashTalk we break down the show, pick our highlights and our lowlights, and try to grok some greater meaning. Check out our top picks from the show. Follow MashTalk on Twitter.

Why Android is immune to the iPhone's battery problem, with guest John Poole of Geekbench

January 04, 2018 18:09 - 41 minutes - 38.4 MB

After it was revealed in late 2017 that Apple intentionally slows down the performance of older iPhones when their batteries deteriorate, people freaked. There were explanations, recriminations, apologies, lawsuits, and, finally, solutions. But in the wake of that specific controversy, a question arose: Does this happen to Android phones, too? For the most part, the answer seems to be no. While the nature of and Android ecosystem -- with its hundreds of manufacturers, all using different chip...

Fire TV's secret weapon, with guest Amazon's Scott Henson

December 15, 2017 16:52 - 26 minutes - 24.7 MB

If you did some online shopping this holiday season, chances are you bought something from Amazon. And if you did, you certainly saw a splash ad for the company's own devices, including one for the Fire TV Stick, whose price was slashed from the regular $39.99 to just $24.99. I know I did. And when I saw the ad for the 17th or 18th time, even though I wasn't planning to buy the Stick (I already had a first-gen device, which lacks Alexa integration), I found myself clicking "Add to Cart." I w...

How to re-invent the home phone, with guest Republic Wireless CEO Chris Chuang

December 08, 2017 19:46 - 41 minutes - 37.9 MB

Got a smartphone? Then you must also have a wireless plan, and if you live in the U.S., chances are it's with one of the big four — Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint. However, there are a bunch of other carriers you may have seen around, carriers with names like Cricket, Jolt, metroPCS, and Virgin. These are MVNOs, or mobile virtual network operators, and they exist by leasing spectrum from the major carriers. They're also often a better deal, thanks to selectively targeting demographics and...

Why you hate video conferencing, with guest Polycom CEO Mary McDowell

December 01, 2017 17:24 - 27 minutes - 24.9 MB

The video conference is one of the least-liked parts of modern office culture. Despite the plethora of video conferencing services -- Google Hangouts, BlueJeans, Highfive, Skype, FaceTime, and dozens more -- the first five minutes of every meeting tends to be a series of fruitless attempts to get everyone's audio working correctly. And even when it does, dropped connections, poorly timed muting/unmuting, and quiet talkers often ruin the flow. The truth is video conferencing is hard. Layering ...

How the OnePlus 5T was built, with guest Kyle Kiang

November 17, 2017 22:03 - 40 minutes - 36.6 MB

Is hardware really that hard? OnePlus pointed to the borderline-cliché catchphrase, "Hardware is hard" at its event on Thursday to launch the OnePlus 5T. But the company's own product release schedule appears to belie the saying, with the 5T coming a mere five months after its predecessor, the OnePlus 5. However, if you look at OnePlus' ambitious launch timeline and conclude the opposite -- that hardware is easy -- you'd be jumping to the wrong conclusion. The China-based company has simply g...

iPhone X: The 10-day review, with guest Nicole Nguyen

November 02, 2017 21:19 - 49 minutes - 44.9 MB

Apple's catchphrase, "Think different" is so well-known, that it's not often used in its original context, more often pulled out as an ironic dig when the company does something users don't like (eliminating a certain jack comes to mind). In the case of the iPhone X, though, the irony disappears. Users will definitely need to think differently as they encounter an iPhone with no home button, a front camera that can scan your face, and a "notch" — all firsts for the iPhone. The iPhone X doesn'...

All the reasons you should be creeped out by Amazon Key

October 27, 2017 15:04 - 44 minutes - 40.3 MB

As it has evolved from digital storefront to ecommerce empire, Amazon built up a lot of trust over the years. Now it's testing the limits of that trust with Amazon Key. It's a simple enough concept, which really solves a problem: The main thing Amazon does is deliver packages to your door, but there's always the question of what happens when you're not home? In many cases, that package may find a different home if it doesn't get through your door right away. Amazon Key, which includes a smart...

Google's secret hardware ingredient is AI

October 13, 2017 20:29 - 51 minutes - 47.1 MB

What does Google know about hardware that no one else does? If you said software, you're almost right. What Google likes to think is its secret sauce is artificial intelligence, which manifests in its consumer products as the Google Assistant. The Assistant was front and center during the company's big hardware event earlier this month. From the new Pixel 2 phones to the Home Mini and Home Max smart speakers to the insanely powerful Pixelbook laptop, Google pointed to its command, "OK, Google...

How to hold companies accountable for data breaches, with guest Todd Thibodeaux

October 06, 2017 15:03 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MB

Another day, another data breach. That would definitely be an apt catch phrase for 2017, with major, high-profile hacks or breaches coming with disturbing regularity. Equifax and HBO were all hit hard, and the WannaCry ransomware crippled infrastructure around the globe. Even Instagram wasn't spared. With every breach, another refrain is typically heard: That it was preventable. If only the people in charge had invested more in cybersecurity, or updated their systems, or simply weren't incomp...

Why the iPhone 8 is so boring, with guest Lisa Eadicicco

September 22, 2017 17:18 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MB

Should you get the iPhone 8? Depends: Are you easily bored? Because the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are definitely the ho-hum iPhones this year. Although Apple would never say it, the improvements over the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are mostly incremental, with wireless charging and some new camera tricks (including Portrait Lighting) being the highlights. The real star is the iPhone X, which isn't coming for another month. That's the consensus from most reviewers, too. It's not that the iPhone 8 and...

What the iPhone X means for the iPhone 11, with guest Christina Warren

September 15, 2017 03:11 - 51 minutes - 47.4 MB

This is no ordinary iPhone year. After three years of dual-release events -- where Apple would launch two phones with generally the same abilities but different sizes -- we finally got something new. On Sept. 12, 2017, Apple announced three new iPhones: the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the forward-looking iPhone X (pronounced "ten"). You might be thinking, "What happened to iPhone 9?" But the iPhone X has much more severe consequences for next year's iPhone, something we explore at length on ...

Secrets of the iPhone 8, with guests Mark Gurman and Jim Dalrymple

September 08, 2017 03:14 - 42 minutes - 38.7 MB

When Apple throws its annual iPhone bash on Tuesday, everyone will finally get their first look at the most awaited gadget of the year, the new "premium" iPhone, the so-called iPhone 8. Everyone except Mark Gurman, that is. The Bloomberg reporter has already held a prototype of the iPhone 8 (or iPhone X, or iPhone Edition, or iPhone Pro, or whatever it's called) and delivered an extensive report on how the home button -- or rather the lack of one -- would work. On this week's MashTalk, Gurman...

What Joel Osteen learned about social media from Hurricane Harvey

September 01, 2017 15:17 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MB

Thank heaven for social media. That sentiment was definitely on the minds of many people caught in the path of Hurricane Harvey, which is shaping up to be one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. It dumped 24.5 trillion gallons of water on Texas -- enough to cover the entire state of Arizona in a foot of water. More than 32,000 people were displaced and forced to go to shelters. The official death toll stands at 46 (at the time of the podcast it was 35). That last number might have been hi...

Is Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 really worth $930?

August 25, 2017 15:47 - 42 minutes - 38.7 MB

After months of leaks and a year of explosion jokes, Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 is finally here and it's packing some serious hardware with dual cameras and new S Pen features. It might even be Samsung's best phone yet, but it's got a lot of competition this time around. The iPhone 8 is around the corner, Google's Pixel 2 is expected after that, and the Essential Phone just launched with a screen that's to die for. Can Samsung fend off attacks from three sides? That's the question that'll be on...

How Apple spilled the beans on iPhone 8

August 11, 2017 12:43 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MB

For those who obsess about the iPhone, it was the mother lode. After a long period without any substantive informations (although plenty of whispers, speculation, and questionable photos), if finally happened: the biggest iPhone 8 leak so far. In what looks like an understandable but massive mistake, pre-release firmware for the Apple HomePod somehow got uploaded to a public server. There's a lot of interest in HomePod — the Apple "smart speaker" that's meant for music and has Siri built-in. ...

The thing about AI that should have us all worried (hint: It's not Skynet)

July 28, 2017 14:30 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MB

Guys, did you hear the news? The robots are going to kill us. At least that appears to be the primary fear of tech mogul Elon Musk regarding artificial intelligence. This week, when fellow tech titan Mark Zuckerberg was hailing the promise of AI in a Facebook Live Q&A, he ended up subtweeting Musk, calling AI naysayers "irresponsible" for playing up "doomsday scenarios." Musk fired back on his favorite medium, Twitter, saying Zuck has a "limited understanding" of AI. The resulting headlines m...

How emoji is changing the 🌎, with guest Jeremy Burge of Emojipedia 😃

July 21, 2017 02:05 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MB

It's been a big week for emoji 😎 After Monday kicked things off with the fourth annual World Emoji Day 🙌 Apple announced a new set of emojis coming to the iPhone later this year, including Woman With Headscarf and Zombie. 😮 Also, Google announced its traditional "blob" emoji, which are getting overhauled later this year, will still be available to Allo users as a sticker pack 🙄 Later this month will see the debut of the Emoji Movie. 🎬 It hits theaters on July 28, and Sony Pictures hosted a ce...

What happens after Net Neutrality falls?

July 14, 2017 19:25 - 39 minutes - 36 MB

The internet five years from now could look a lot different than what it is today. Building an online business might be harder than ever thanks to the FCC throwing out the rules surrounding Net Neutrality -- the premise that all data on the net should be treated equally regardless of origin or destination. Without Net Neutrality, providers would be free to create so-called "fast lanes" on the internet, prioritizing services that they're friendly to, and relegating those that don't pay up to t...

The real point of Amazon Prime Day

July 07, 2017 14:30 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MB

It's right there in the title. Amazon Prime Day, which is Tuesday, July 11 (though it technically starts on July 10), boasts some of the best deals you'll be able to get on tech, appliances, beauty products, and all the other junk we buy online. But the point of Amazon's fake holiday (which first arrived in 2015) is clear: Get as many people to sign up for Prime, the company's loyalty program that costs $99 a year. Does that make it a better deal for Amazon or its customers? This week the Mas...

iPhone 2020 roundtable: Imagining the future of Apple's 'one device'

June 29, 2017 21:15 - 42 minutes - 39.2 MB

For the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, Mashable's Tech Team embarked on an ambitious project: to imagine what the iPhone of 2020 would look like. The idea wasn't to just throw out a bunch of futuristic ideas, but to look at recent rumors surrounding the iPhone 8, Apple's history with the iPhone, and current mobile trends to create a realistic portrayal of what the iPhone will look like three years from now. What we ended up with something that — while clearly a step beyond the smartphones of...

Is Uber the MySpace of ride-hailing companies?

June 23, 2017 21:21 - 40 minutes - 37.3 MB

Uber has been been having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. Co-founder Travis Kalanick was forced to resign as CEO after pressure from investors over recent scandals. But does the exit of Kalanick -- who had been on leave from the company and will remain on the board -- signal a new direction for Uber? This week Pete is joined by a panel of Uber experts, including Farhad Manjoo from The New York Times,JP Mangalindan from Yahoo Finance, and Kerry Flynn from Mashable's business team...

All your Microsoft Surface questions answered, with guest Panos Panay

June 15, 2017 20:40 - 34 minutes - 31.6 MB

The Microsoft Surface line has grown a lot in the five years since its debut. It now encompasses the Surface Pro tablet, Surface Book convertible, Surface Studio all-in-one, Surface Hub digital "whiteboard," and the brand-new Surface Laptop. With Microsoft device lead Panos Panay in the studio, Pete and Lance find out the inside story on how Microsoft built its own high-end hardware empire, and finally get him to explain why they don't just bundle the Surface Pro with a frickin' keyboard alre...

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