Episode 009: It's all blowing up in our faces

Try as we might, we couldn't take this holiday weekend off as we usually do around the ol' Space Javelin drydock -- there was just too much important news during what is normally a very dead week, so here we are laboring even though this weekend was supposed to be all about slacking off. Charles and Mike discuss the big stories of the week, including Samsung's continuing woes (and now full-blown voluntary recall) with the Galaxy Note 7, which leads to a discussion of other industry issues that contributed to that fiasco, and how it might possibly have happened to any of the other industry players. The other big story of course is this week's launch of the iPhone 7 and whatever else Apple has up its sleeve, which happens on Wednesday -- which is apparently the new Tuesday.

The other big story of the week isn't really as much about Apple as the media is making it out to be, but Apple is at the center of it: the European Commission's judgement that Apple (and not, for some reason, the country that violated the EU rules) should pay $14.5 billion in back taxes -- even though Ireland itself has said that no, it shouldn't, and along with Apple will appeal the ruling. We expect Apple (and the numerous other multinationals that are also being persecuted for the "crime" of trying to find every legal way of lowering its tax bill, not that you'll hear about any of those) will eventually beat the rap, so expect this topic to be revisited every few months for the next few years.

We also tackle what we think is a weird misinterpretation of what seems to us to be a very clear set of quotes from the late Steve Jobs about his interest in reinventing television. From there, we get on with the latest updates in the rumor mill, along the way mention a few minor tech news items, and update listeners on the latest CBS shenanigans ahead of the return of Star Trek to television. All this and Charles' brilliant prediction for the Apple Car of the future-ure-ure!