A thoughtful, unpretentious, mostly weekly conversation about the companies, ideas and products that are transforming our world. We look at what it is, why it matters and where it fits in the broader business of consumer technology. So, grab your favorite Blue Barn sandwich, put the Giants game on…
Ryan Fretwell and Carlos Gomez
Every year we think we've hit ‘peak tenuously-linked brand integration' and year after year we're shown that no, there's no lemon that a David Zaz-type won't try to squeeze into a diamond. This week: dank memes, TV for boomers, and asking Alexa+ to pour one out for Skype.
At this point, we're like eighteen months away from the Property Brothers having their own cereal. Honestly it's been a slippery slope ever since Reese's Puffs. This week: TCL's bush league OLED fear-mongering, Detroit style cookware, and the predictable end of the fast casual city challenge.
This Sonos shakeup is the biggest corporate drama to hit the Santa Barbara area since the Silvergreens in Isla Vista closed. This week: a change of Venu, entertainment centers frozen in time, and more intrigue in the fast casual running challenge world.
Why aren't business deals related to streaming services more like pro athlete deals? Fubo, you're heading to Disney. Venu? You're cut. Elmo? You're the new power forward for the Pelicans. Hope you like humid summers buddy. This week: running for a [fast casual] cause, robot on robot crime, and EV showrooming.
On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me, Three inflatable snowmen Two sets of string lights And a home improvement store finally rolling out support for contactless payments. That's right folks, it's the 2024 Holiday Spectacular. This week: Inside Bob Iger's NBA, Italian smart lights, and the lump of coal that is Apple Intelligence (so far).
“Dear Mr. Hanks, As you know, our Client owns all intellectual property rights globally in and to the concept of “your body breaking down and becoming a slow healing, creaky pile of mush after the age of 28.” Your blatant alteration and repurposing of this concept in the media constitutes unauthorized use and dilution of our Client's prior art. We immediately demand you cease and desist all future activity related to conveying a specific date as to when aging really hits you like a ton of bricks. Or give us some of that Forest Gump money.” This week: make it a Blockbuster night.
Kinda nice of Apple to spend the week before the election giving us all little bite size Mac updates as a distraction. Wait, new notification hold on. From the NYT: “Here's why the Mac mini power button is bad news for Harris amongst undecided voters.” ffs. This week: cracklin' lattes, Excel productivity, and defunct startups. ☕
How long until we have the Chipotle Burrito Assembly Line by Fisher Price® on every five year old's Christmas list i mean really now. This week: Bay Area childless dog man parenting corner, EV door handles as a troubling metaphor, and Ryan backslides into his dangerous case-free lifestyle.
The kids want media that's quicker, more concise, and timely. That's why we're introducing the podcast equivalent of baseball's pitch clock: “one quick thought”. Judging by the episode length, it's a work in progress. This week: spiced is the new spiked, freemium is the new spon-con, and brining some Barlow energy to Waterloo.
Two great tastes that taste great together, or a sign of a nation on the decline? The proof is in the faux-crème filling. This week: Steve Ballmer wants your face, Tim Cook wants your money, and Mela wants your recipes.
Half of this pod is now just stanning for future Cy Young award paw-cipiant Decoy Ohtani. The other host is uh, not a fan. This week: everyone's now all caught up on The Bear, Jim Farley personally cancels development of Ryan's future car, and your perfunctory Apple event speculation.
While the official gold medal count for Team USA sits at 40, let's make it 41 since Peacock stuck the landing. This week: Double Stuf collabs, Diners Target Drive Ups and Dives, and the triumphant return of Still or Sparkling.
Behind every world class athlete is that friend who starts an Apple Watch workout during boozy brunch. Olympians each in their own right. This week: Peacock-ing, spritzing, and legacy purchasing.
We're back from summer break. What'd we miss? This week: made-up holidays, political realities, and knowing when to walk away.
“Siri, use Apple Intelligence to make this episode sound 30% more erudite.” “Here's what I found on the web for Eurovision...” Worth a shot… This week: chocolate flavored sandwich cookies with creme filing, spendy so-so automobiles, and sure — Apple's take on AI.
Honestly at this point all the ‘will they won't they' between Adam Silver and his media partners has gone on about almost as long as Jim and Pam and we do not have the same attention span we did in 2008, b-ball guy. This week: Rent-A-Hue®, more Sonos haterade, and a preview of Tim's developer symposium.
The first restaurant in California to be fined over the new surcharge and fee ban? Surprisingly, it's Ryan's new Detroit Style Pizza Parlor and Play Place. What even is a “Marin County smart lighting surcharge”? This week: Barkley v. Zaz, Carlos' continuing dedication to making big mistakes, and Sonos' courageous app update.
Stop me if you've heard this one before: it's our most powerful iPad ever, and we just can't wait to see what you do with it. This week: Adam Silver pulls an Equator, cookie cocktails, and 94123 it's all about me.
Do bad reviews kill good products? For the love of God please don't test that hypothesis out on this show. This week: the capitalist haunted house that is TurboTax, conical burrs, and proof one of your hosts is out of touch with the common philatelist.
Fun fact! More people decide to build a cabin off the grid after using Google Nest products than successfully get it working with the rest of their smart home. This week: Amazon walks out on Just Walk Out, pouring one out for Logitech Harmony, and the doom loop narrative comes for EVs.
Yeah, I mean it's not too much of a stretch that automakers are selling your data and snitching on speeding to your insurer, but sending a report to Lin Manuel Miranda about how off key I sing “It's Quiet Uptown” is a bridge too far. This week: EV surprises, NAS surprises, with a dash of regulatory scrutiny surprises via one Merrick Garland.
We know it's been a while since Econ 201 but Jiminy Christmas are Hue bulbs the new Veblen good? What are these things made out of avocado toast? Come on. This week: dust covered Vision Pros, NACS snaccs, and a peppering of Spring Apple news.
We didn't get a ballot but that ain't stopping us. A fruit company year in review. This week: hi Barbie, football (the non-Messi one), and a bit more on VR.
New ways to watch sports from ESPN, Fox, and Warner Brothers. All without a cable subscription. Sports from ESPN. FOX. Warner Brothers. Are you getting it? These are not three separate services. This is one device, and we're calling it - Iger-ulu. This week: plug in hybrids, old movies, and an update on the Chicago food scene.
Chris Nolan gets roasted by Peloton instructors and Soulcycle stays mum on Wes Anderson making the same movie over and over again for three decades. Hmm. This week: cursed airports, (smart) locks of love, and area Cinnabon manager snubbed for the umpteenth time by the Emmys.
Did each engineer designing the Chevy Blazer EV's infotainment software spend at least 10,000 hours on it before it went into production? Okay, this is a very funny joke about Malcolm Gladwell, trust me. This week: Taylor's concert film, Ryan's sports dilemma, and Tim's headset.
“It's only ridiculous if it doesn't work.” - Tyler Florence, probably. This week: the enduring legacy of a flat panel icon, Amazon Prime Video with Special Offers, and a look at peak Donkey Sauce Capitalism.
iPod Socks? Again? Worry not friends, it is finally time: our first annual holiday gift guide. This week: Kiri the fire truck, unplugging for the holidays, and more tales from retail lock up.
We all thought Jack Nicholson looked silly wearing sunglasses courtside but with these retina searing courts who's laughing now… This week: New York bagels, the metric system, and the perils of computers on wheels.
[leans in over flashlight] And they weren't done yet. After murdering the Touch Bar, the perpetrators cackled manically as they introduced a Pro laptop with just eight gigabytes of RAM. In 2023! [crowd shrieks] This week: artificial coffee, ciders, and Apple's ghoulish fall Mac event.
We understand our programming schedule has been a little inconsistent, so we're going to make it up to you with the “most affordable” episode ever. Find the hidden USB-C mention and you win a prize. This week: East Bay CarPlay blues, when CPG products get the Mona Lisa treatment, and Ryan's accidental haunted house.
You remember that scene in Rataouille where Anton Ego takes a bite and his entire life flashes before his eyes? That story, but it involves french fries and elderflower liquer. This week: “croissaint inspired” and other freezer aisle abominations, the fruit company, and Zaz introduces Shaq Paq for Max.
“Hi, yes — we don't mean to be a bother, but this podcast is stale and we never got our second ad break.” “Sir, this is a Wendy's.” This week: car phones, car charging standards, and even cars that drive themselves.
With AI and Machine Learning becoming more core to the iPhone experience, we're probably one release away from App Store notifications based on your calendar, heart rate, and mood that suggest “redownload the Taco Bell app?” at your lowest life moments. This week: boring cars, kids entertainment, and ringing the bell for a master of the small screen.
Ryan has returned from vacation with a head cold but a renewed appreciation for the iPad. Carlos didn't go anywhere but did get Aloha-by-osmosis. This week: Bill Simmons' ads reads, Bobby Flay's questionable judgment, and we all learn what a Pack-n-Play is.
It turns out all it took to make Mark Zuckerberg look like the protagonist was alt-right Tony Stark buying Twitter. Who knew? And by that we mean: Happy Threads Day. This week: chicken restaurants that aren't Los Pollos Hermanos, pizza restaurants that only sometimes serve pizza, and EV makers collectively throw CCS under the battery powered bus.
It's like David vs. Goliath, except this time it's Carlos picking a fight with a Marin County coffee roaster trying to pull a fast one on home baristas. This week: the definitive take on Apple's Vision Pro headset that will definitely be accurate six months and six years from now. Yes.
We promise this episode isn't sponcon for the Chrysler Pacifica, but also, we've got unsold ad slots and its a tough media environment rn so hit us up auto industry we are for sale. This week: air traffic patterns, EV charging in the real world, and the only thing french fries can't make better.
Star Wars fans love a quality brunch, but what happens when there are too many cooks in the kitchen at Disney? In this analogy, Baby Yoda is an egg scramble? This week: elephants in the desert, more on EV deliveries, and Taylor didn't pull a Tom Brady.
As it enters retirement, history will remember that the Satechi 108W USB-C travel charger walked so the Anker 747 GaN brick could run. This week: cars, cars, cars. After a week behind the wheel, Carlos has many thoughts on the Model 3.
Everything is bigger in Texas, which apparently applies to the number of food trucks, polo shirts, and those dang scooters. This week: Fixer Upper cupcakes, DPReview closing up shop, and recapping our last session for a while with Han Solo LMFT.
The Star Wars cinematic universe is in disarray under Iger, so says Ryan. How many more actors will have to hang up their taun-tauns and change careers to quippy, jaded therapists just to get a payday from Tim Apple? This week: Animal Planet x Home Depot collabs, Michael Trout's crib, and the continued messy world of midwestern cable sports rights.
Well, I suppose “Charge your non-Tesla” was the third least ****-ish way to title the option so kudos, Elmo & Co.? This week: our bi-monthly pizza chat, Amazon scales back the “Go” concept in SF and NY, and Stevie B. in a hard hat.
Look, until Overcast adds a tip screen for when you finish each podcast episode, just use Venmo or Cash App: $ShedDaddy415 and $LightroomBarista. This week: Martha Stewart's sour grapes, magic beans, and Eddy Cue introduces Han Solo to Sigmund Freud.
If Apple were a teenager, which SVP would be the one running to the mailbox to try to get the report card before their dad Tim saw it? This week: right and wrong opinions on fast casual, dollar menu thoughts on streaming, and putting on our Judge's Table hats for Apple in 2022. Which one of us is Gail in this analogy?
If a Live Activity falls in the forest and there's no one around to see it, does it make an appearance on a Dynamic Island? Okay not the best but also you get what we were going for… This week: absurdist energy drinks, Apple sold a lot of things but not as many as people hoped, and more on squishy sports media economics. ⚾.
While we personally don't know a single person who has ever watched whatever this NCIS show is, the data shows a Cocomelon NCIS crossover would literally break the internet. Free idea, Bobs. This week: E3, EVs, RSS, OTT, and Ryan reveals his age-ism against the greatest generation (of news aggregator websites).
When sports were the only thing keeping people from cutting the cord and now that's not enough, what do you do? No, really — what do you do? There's a lot of money in it if you know the answer. This week: crushing on Peter K., mulling over Apple's upcoming foray into VR, and a visit to the LA Coliseum.
Hey Siri, who first said “sooner or later, everything old is new again?” Asking for a frie-, uh, HomePod. This week: new Macs, somebody finally told Elmo third-party Twitter clients were a thing, and Tesla cuts prices across the board.
When you have so much money you have to make your Sonoma estate look like Apple Park, the Wall Street Journal is there. Or rather, Carlos teaches Ryan the art of the hate read. This is a good one. This week: cycling directions, EV sell through, and a hypothetical touch screen MacBook Pro. Boop.
I mean, if we're talking about a secondary character taking over the entire show with extremely mixed results — is there even a difference between Elon and Elmo? @ ryan, not me. This week: a trip to the Social Security office, a Matter explainer, and more choice is good thing.