Pocketnow Weekly 124: Octagonal Androids, luxury smartwatches and SO MUCH MAIL

An octagonal Android smartphone, a lawsuit over the term "Milk," and a phone camera that flips up like a deranged pancake. Oh, and luxury smartwatches. (Luxury smartwatch faces, anyway. Illegal ones. Or something.) Companies have waited until the end of the year to spring all the nonsense on us, it seems – and we're lapping it up like the grateful tech hounds we are. Because, according to the polls, dear listeners, that's what you want to hear.

But like all humans, you also want to hear your own voice. Don't be ashamed; we're all narcissists here. To that end, we're stacking one of the last podcasts of 2014 with listener mail dating all the way back to July: stuff that's been held in the buffer so long it's got a fine coating of Pocketnow archival dust sitting atop it. Today, it's time to blow that coating away and finally get to some of your long-held questions, complaints, and curiosities – the ones that still make sense, anyway.

That's a podcast so jazzy that even the ghost of Joe Levi couldn't resist joining, so what're you waiting for? Seal your port covers, snap on your protective case, and jump in our pocket. Now. Episode 124 of our weekly podcast lies below and you should watch it –either through the live video stream at 2:00pm Eastern on November 26 (click here for your local time), or the high-quality audio version available later on– and shoot your questions to podcast [AT] pocketnow [DOT] com for a shot at getting your question read aloud on the air. See you then!

Pocketnow Weekly 124

 

Recording Date

November 26, 2014

 

Hosts

Michael Fisher

Stephen Schenck

Adam Doud

 

Producer

Jules Wang

 

Podcast Rundown

 

Sponsor

(00:01:26)

The Pocketnow Weekly is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website, portfolio, and online store. For a free trial and 10% off, visit Squarespace.com/pocketnow and enter offer code POCKETNOW at checkout. A better web starts with your website.

 

News

(00:05:00)

(Announcement) Pocketnow's Holiday Shopping Guide and Black Friday Roundup posts are up!

Amazon's Fire Phone drops to $199 off contract

Octagonal Android boasts 80GB storage for under $400

Weirdest smartphone camera yet swings up and over

Luxury brands square off against copycat watchfaces

Samsung getting sued over the term Milk

 

 

Listener Mail

(00:30:00)

An absurdly dense smorgasbord of listener mail, some of it dating back to the pre-IFA days. Whether it's thoughts on the Nexus 9, questions on the future of the wearable, rants about keyboard lag, or questions about what phone to buy your mother for the holidays, you'll find it in our super-dense block of reader feedback! This season's extravaganza features letters from the following sweet, sweet listeners:
Lizette M.
Ed Carden
Trevor Reis
Vijay V.
Sam Ward
Chris Cox
Diego Lopez Crane
Bernard Untalan
Kwadwo Boadu
Eric Rekut
Alex Ong
A. Jacob
William Li
Alif Prakoso

 

Music It may just sound like a ringtone to you, but our transition music track ("Radiation") is a real song, from a real album, by a real artist: Ali Spagnola. You can download that album, along with many others, at Ali's website here, visit her YouTube page here, and follow her on Twitter here!

•

See you next week for Episode 125!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An octagonal Android smartphone, a lawsuit over the term "Milk," and a phone camera that flips up like a deranged pancake. Oh, and luxury smartwatches. (Luxury smartwatch faces, anyway. Illegal ones. Or something.) Companies have waited until the end of the year to spring all the nonsense on us, it seems – and we're lapping it up like the grateful tech hounds we are. Because, according to the polls, dear listeners, that's what you want to hear.

But like all humans, you also want to hear your own voice. Don't be ashamed; we're all narcissists here. To that end, we're stacking one of the last podcasts of 2014 with listener mail dating all the way back to July: stuff that's been held in the buffer so long it's got a fine coating of Pocketnow archival dust sitting atop it. Today, it's time to blow that coating away and finally get to some of your long-held questions, complaints, and curiosities – the ones that still make sense, anyway.

That's a podcast so jazzy that even the ghost of Joe Levi couldn't resist joining, so what're you waiting for? Seal your port covers, snap on your protective case, and jump in our pocket. Now. Episode 124 of our weekly podcast lies below and you should watch it –either through the live video stream at 2:00pm Eastern on November 26 (click here for your local time), or the high-quality audio version available later on– and shoot your questions to podcast [AT] pocketnow [DOT] com for a shot at getting your question read aloud on the air. See you then!

Pocketnow Weekly 124

 

Recording Date

November 26, 2014

 

Hosts

Michael Fisher

Stephen Schenck

Adam Doud

 

Producer

Jules Wang

 

Podcast Rundown

 

Sponsor

(00:01:26)

The Pocketnow Weekly is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website, portfolio, and online store. For a free trial and 10% off, visit Squarespace.com/pocketnow and enter offer code POCKETNOW at checkout. A better web starts with your website.

 

News

(00:05:00)

(Announcement) Pocketnow's Holiday Shopping Guide and Black Friday Roundup posts are up!

Amazon's Fire Phone drops to $199 off contract

Octagonal Android boasts 80GB storage for under $400

Weirdest smartphone camera yet swings up and over

Luxury brands square off against copycat watchfaces

Samsung getting sued over the term Milk

 

 

Listener Mail

(00:30:00)

An absurdly dense smorgasbord of listener mail, some of it dating back to the pre-IFA days. Whether it's thoughts on the Nexus 9, questions on the future of the wearable, rants about keyboard lag, or questions about what phone to buy your mother for the holidays, you'll find it in our super-dense block of reader feedback! This season's extravaganza features letters from the following sweet, sweet listeners:

Lizette M.Ed CardenTrevor ReisVijay V.Sam WardChris CoxDiego Lopez CraneBernard UntalanKwadwo BoaduEric RekutAlex OngA. JacobWilliam LiAlif Prakoso

 

Music It may just sound like a ringtone to you, but our transition music track ("Radiation") is a real song, from a real album, by a real artist: Ali Spagnola. You can download that album, along with many others, at Ali's website here, visit her YouTube page here, and follow her on Twitter here!

•

See you next week for Episode 125!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.