Techstream with Shelly Palmer and Seth Everett

After twenty-five years, Netflix is ending its DVD-by-mail business. Will anyone wax poetic about its demise? We talk about the most surprising thing of all - that the DVD rental business still existed in 2023 - and we share fond memories of being able to sell still-wrapped pieces of outdated media. We also look at the other notable piece of Netflix news: the password-sharing crackdown is nigh. We try to make sense of how this will work for college students, road warriors, and everyone else with valid (and roaming) use cases. We also talk a bit more about HBO and share our picks of our favorite listener-submitted titles for the new Warner Bros. Discovery app.

HBO Max is no longer called HBO Max. With all the options at their fingertips, the new idea Warner Bros. Discovery came up with was… Max. There are bigger problems in the TV and streaming space than what to name a new service, though. We discuss. Seth has run into more issues with technology that may or may not be artificial intelligence. Shelly talks about how to define intelligence and how tools like ChatGPT work, think, and reason. Meanwhile, companies are talking about transferring consciousness from people into machines to make synthetic grandmas… by the end of this year? We talk about the reality of this promise (and how it sounds like the plot of the show Upload). Seth rants about MLB.tv. Shelly poses a challenge to you, dear Techstream listener.

The war between Elon Musk and journalists rages on, and Seth (as a broadcaster and journalist) is taking these attacks against the media personally. This episode is (once again) about Twitter as we (once again) try to make sense of the changes and decisions being made at Twitter HQ. We discuss Twitter and the anonymity business, the different forms of verification, and the confusion surrounding blue checks on the platform. As there really are no true 1:1 replacements, we also offer tips on how to best use Twitter and ensure that the information you are seeing is as accurate and fact-checked as possible.

The time has come to celebrate our hundredth… and first… episode! Television is also celebrating its centennial, though it is turning 100 years old, not 100 weeks. Commemorating that occasion (as well as the past, present, and future of the medium) is the 2023 NAB Show (April 15-19 in Las Vegas, NV). The trade show, organized by the National Association of Broadcasters, has always been a must-visit for Shelly, as it showcases the best broadcast tech and offers clear insights into what is new and what is next. We preview some of the incredible artificial intelligence tools on display at NAB Show – stuff you can get your hands on now, stuff that leaves Seth dumbfounded. Plus, of course, we talk about Star Wars.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew spent last Thursday on Capitol Hill, getting grilled about the potential threat of TikTok to U.S. consumers. This episode of Techstream has Seth reflect on his time on The Hill, while Shelly remembers the time Mark Zuckerberg made the trip and proved how technologically clueless the politicians who grilled him proved to be. We talk about the hearing, the real issues facing TikTok, and what the politicians are missing. Also, this is Episode 100 and we completely forgot to celebrate it. Oops.

Our last episode was pretty heavy, so this week marks a return to one of our favorite (and fairly light-hearted) topics: streaming TV! YouTube TV is raising its price from $65 to $72.99, citing the rising costs of content. We talk about how the streaming business model is totally different from the broadcast model, and why much of the power resides in the hands of the viewer. Shelly shares a few tips on how to ditch your landline and cut the cord once and for all. We talk about what we have been watching, like Poker Face and Picard. Seth shares some details about his participation this week in Gamers Outreach.

Techstream is back! While we were gone, Apple announced a new yellow iPhone and Bob Iger echoed a superhero sentiment Shelly once shared. We catch up on some quick news stories. Silicon Valley Bank had a rough week last week. The government came to the rescue and the FDIC guaranteed depositors will get their money back. We talk about what happened, the “self-fulfilling prophecy” at play, and the true magic of SVB. Speaking of money, the show has tracked quiet quitting to laying flat to new layoffs, but we have not seen a lot of changes in sociological attitudes. Everything is more expensive now, yet every restaurant you visit is packed. How is this possible? We try to make sense of it. Are you looking for the next must-attend tech event? Shelly shares details on the Possible Conference and NAB Show, and why you need to be at each.

This episode of Techstream is a return to our origin story: a grab bag of top tech news! Last week, Pres. Biden gave Elon Musk a call as the United States wants to make all-electric vehicle (EV) charging stations universal in an effort to quell range anxiety and help improve the ability to quick-charge your EV. It is reminiscent of the EU forcing Apple to pivot from Lightning connectors to USB-C. We discuss the upsides (and the annoying drawbacks) of universal chargers. Meanwhile… Dapper Labs, creator of projects like NBA Top Shot and NFL All Day, has become mobile-compatible. We discuss how this move to mobile will contribute to – and benefit from – the power and promise of Web3. Then… the Academy Awards are just a few short weeks away. We offer a multiversal roundup of some of the biggest and buzziest movies we have recently found on our screens.

Diamond Sports Group is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and may not make some annual payments they normally make to sports teams. How will this change the sports TV landscape? We have covered the intersection of professional sports and streaming television many times before, but the fallout from this could dynamically impact the way fans watch sports on TV and where the rights to these games wind up. In this episode, we talk about the impact of teams losing out on real money, what it means for them, and what it means for fans, as well as how it impacts long-term fan development.

OpenAI just announced the launch of ChatGPT, a paid tier for their popular language model. In this episode, we discuss the ways to help users get the most out of using ChatGPT, whether or not you are the type of person who might want to pony up twenty bucks a month, and the requisite bits of education you must bring to ChatGPT to use the tool to its fullest potential. We go toe-to-toe with opposing viewpoints about the usefulness of and need for ChatGPT, we look ahead to the upcoming war between Microsoft and Google, and we tease upcoming products Techstream Plus, Shelly Palmer Plus, and Seth Everett Plus! If you are a fan of ChatGPT, if you are tired of hearing about it, or if you are simply curious about the latest developments in AI, make sure you do not miss this episode.

Madison Square Garden is The Worlds Most Famous Arena – and also a building utilizing facial recognition technology that is turning some would-be fans away, rather than allowing entrance. We are in a new world. Technology has augmented our ability to recognize people around us. The key point: recognizing a face does not mean the technology knows the context. In this episode, we talk about the controversy surrounding the technology in use at MSG, facial recognition technology in use in other venues, and how easy it is to find your personal information online. Hockey loyalty threatens to tear our podcast asunder.

We love new tech – so does everyone – and it seems like some of the hottest new tech available on the market is monitor and television display tech. If you have gone to buy a new monitor or a new TV recently, though, you surely have run into what Shelly calls the alphabet soup of video monitors. There is a reason some 65-inch televisions are $400, and a reason other 65-inch televisions are $4,000. We are here to offer some advice on your next display, whether you are looking for a new TV, a new work display, or a new badass gaming monitor. We explain when 2K (sometimes called full HD) is okay when you will want to spring for 4K, and if you will ever need 8K. We talk about HDR (high dynamic range), WCG (wide color gamut), and the use cases for which you will want to pay special attention to these attributes.

In this conversation, it was discussed that ChatGPT is a large language model that has been trained by OpenAI. One concern brought up was the possibility of plagiarism when using the model for writing tasks, as it has been trained on a vast amount of text from the internet. It was acknowledged that proper citations should be used when using the models generated text and that the model should not be used to pass off as ones own original work. It was also mentioned that the model can be useful for tasks such as summarization and language translation. If that summary does not properly recap this episode, we are not to blame. You can blame ChatGPT, which wrote the title of this episode and the above paragraph. (Or, you can blame us for not crafting a specific enough prompt.)

Shelly just got back from CES 2023 in Las Vegas, where he saw a ton of incredible innovations that will soon be changing our world. He shares his experience of returning to the (in-person) show and being in the same room as living, breathing human beings. Shelly and Seth talk about the best tech and the overarching themes found in Las Vegas this year: from health and wellness to automotive to production capabilities and beyond. Plus, Seth proudly shares some love for fellow Syracuse alums for how they handled the Damar Hamlin on-field situation last week.

While we were on our Christmas break, the NFL made a deal with YouTube – not Apple – to move its Sunday Ticket Package to a streaming service for the first time. (Google has announced that you will not have to be a YouTube TV subscriber for access.) There is a potential new caveat: reports say you will be able to subscribe to a specific team for a much more affordable price. With these new options, who will pony up for the full Sunday Ticket package? We talk about what the future of watching NFL games will look like. Plus: ​ChatGPT is changing the way everyone works, and it already writes better than Shelly does. People are scared of it, but if you are listening to this podcast and you have not played with it yet, you should give it a shot. (Try out Midjourney, too, while youre at it.) Shelly offers his predictions for what 2023 will hold when it comes to AI models.

This is our last episode of 2022! Thank you for listening to the show this year. If you plan to go to Las Vegas for CES 2023, make sure to visit shellypalmer.com/poap to request your POAP to make sure you get invited to all the cool stuff Techstream and The Palmer Group are doing. Twitter has started suspending journalists who were covering Elon Musk's private plane. While some of those accounts have been restored, things have not calmed down at Twitter HQ. Elon just posted a poll, asking if he should step down as the head of Twitter. The people spoke, and they said they wanted Elon to go away. Will he? Who can say? We talk about what may come next for Twitter, as well as why Seth would be disappointed if the site just disappeared. Plus, Shelly finished Andor, and he has a confession. We share what else we are watching.

The latest advancements in artificial intelligence have created a wildly exciting (or wildly scary) time to be alive. Technologies like Lensa, ChatGPT, and DeepMind are changing the way we do just about everything… and theyre just getting started. In this episode, we talk about the most exciting recent developments in the world of AI, the blowback this tech has received from different artist communities, and historical cases in which tech has changed the way art has been made. We also differentiate between “low stakes” and “high stakes” AI, talk about the (recent) day that changed Shellys life forever, and wonder when AI will be able to host this podcast. Plus, we (sort of) argue about Andor and make our obligatory mention of Elon Musk.

Were still on Twitter… but not talking about it today, as todays episode is all about new TV! Well… we get to that after Seth shares some good recent Twitter experiences (and bad recent electric vehicle experiences) hes had, and Shelly talks about “The Twitter Files” and Elon as Twitters new ringleader and cheerleader. Then, with the holiday season in full swing, Shelly and Seth share some picks for the best shows (new and old) and streaming services theyve discovered (or re-discovered) recently. There are so many good shows out there and its so easy to fall behind. Weve got some shows to help keep you glued to your TV this month… as well as things you should definitely avoid.

Were getting into the holiday season, and Seth has become Scrooge (at least when it comes to modern TV commercials aired during the holiday season). We open the show by venting about the ad behaviors that have been naughty and the ones that have been nice. Then, we get into backup software and how to protect your data the right way. Seth didnt trust the results he found when searching online, so he turned to Shelly for guidance. Shelly talks about the pros and cons of various online storage solutions – and how he uses the ones he finds most valuable – as well as proper data separation and storage and the tools that have helped him upskill and improve both his productivity and data storage. We discuss clarity on cloud pricing, the downsides to digital storage, and services that are worth deeper exploration. Remember: dont put all your eggs in one basket. Redundancy is key!

Welcome to Techstream, the official podcast of Twitter. (A joke, but only sort of.) Before we dive into the latest news surrounding Elon Musk's newest company, Shelly saw Wakanda Forever since our last episode, and he and Seth engage in some more (spoiler-free, once again) discussion about the new movie. As far as the “normal Twitter user's” experience goes, Twitter still seems to largely exist and operate the same way it did before Elon took over. That may not stay true forever, though, so today we imagine a future without Twitter. We run through the size of every social media network and look at competitors (like Mastodon) and whether or not they're Twitter replacements – or if they'll even make sense (or hold value) to the “normal” Twitter user.

Are we… really, truly not talking about Twitter today? Nope! (Well, kind of.) Seth saw Wakanda Forever over the weekend and offers a brief (largely) spoiler-free review. The respect paid to Chadwick Boseman? Great! To T'Challa? Not so much. We talk about if they should have recast the role or used generative AI to return Boseman to the big screen. Then, there's the collapse of FTX, which (if you haven't been following the tech trades) is more like Enron than WeWork: overnight… it was just gone. We talk about what happened, how it happened, and what happens next. Seth asks if we'll ever cover a crypto story that's positive. Shelly offers a silver lining.

Last week, we talked about the future of Twitter under Elon Musk. Between the time we recorded and released the episode, it was already (wildly) out of date. Twitter's rules and standards around verification have totally changed, more advertisers have paused their campaigns on the platform, and hundreds of Twitter employees have been fired. Is Twitter going away? We've asked that question about TikTok a number of times on this podcast, but now the question pivots to Elon Musk's new company. Today's episode centers around the value of being verified (and what the “new” verification status really means), the paths to profitability for Twitter, and the viability of Twitter alternatives.

Elon Musk has said a lot of things about what he wants Twitter to be. He's noted issues he has with bots, content moderation, and more. The reality is one of two options: either Elon has deeply thought through Twitter's content management issues… or he hasn't. Today, we talk about whether or not Elon's Twitter problems are solvable, how Twitter is different from other platforms, and which kinds of users still find value in Twitter. Plus, a Techstream POAP reminder!

Seth spent this past weekend traveling all over the Northeast, driving from event to event in his hybrid vehicle. It made him wonder: if he were driving a 100% electric car, how would he have gotten where he needed to go? We're kicking off a two-part Techstream mini-series about the state of electric vehicles (EVs). We talk about utility companies incentivizing EV owners to get chargers installed, EVs as a “lifestyle choice,” and what's being done to quell range anxiety. Here's where you, the listener, come in. Are electric vehicles better than gas vehicles? Do your research and hit us up on Twitter @Techstream. (Keep politics out of it; let's focus on science.) Plus! Yankees vs. Astros talk (and cheating in Major League Baseball); Seth meets a real, live listener in the flesh; and we offer the first-ever Techstream POAP! Request yours at http://www.shellypalmer.com/poap

In case you've been living under a rock, we're in the heart of election season with the midterm elections just a few weeks away. For one race in Pennsylvania, things got so heated – and lawn signs were stolen so often – that an Apple AirTag was used to locate the trash receptacle where all the stolen signs wound up. We talk about the ways technology is bleeding into elections and political races. Then, we discuss the Supreme Court case determining “fair use” and Prince's likeness. We talk about what's at stake and how technology will need to change or adapt based on the outcome. Plus: is Sinead O'Connor's documentary missing her best song? Is Netflix launching an ad-free tier?

Shelly and Seth are both under the weather, so we're using deep fake technology to record this episode for you. (Just kidding. Kind of.) Shelly just got back from the Block IM Park Conference in Germany, and he recaps the ways European sports leagues do things differently than the stateside ones we know and love, along with how they're trying to enhance the experience for sports fans across the world. Then, Shelly and Seth talk about Bruce Willis selling his likeness to Web3 firm Deepcake. (Note: since this episode was recorded, Willis and his representation have denied doing this.) They talk about what that means, whether or not it was a good idea, and how it would work. Shelly quizzes Seth on whether or not he's been keeping up with his metaverse homework. They talk about Star Wars. (Again.)

Local news has been a television staple for many viewers for years. Do they have any need to exist in 2022? That's the topic of today's episode. Every local news broadcast seemingly starts with reporting on a fire or a stabbing or other local tragedy as stations vie for relevance. The old adage of “if it bleeds, it leads” has never been more true. Will local news die out, or is it here to stay? There's also a vast difference between local news in New York City (where there are always things to report on) and the fictional town of Deer's Ears, Indiana. How do smaller local news outlets stay relevant in the internet era? We discuss whether anyone is watching local news for any reason other than loyalty, why reporting on sports scores seems antiquated, and how to sustain local news.

The iPhone 14 may have gotten most of the headlines when Apple unveiled it a few weeks ago, but it wasn't the only new gear that Apple debuted. When we did our episode on Apple's latest and greatest, Seth doubted that the new AirPods Pro would be worth the money. Shelly wanted to test that out, so he picked up Apple's new headphones and took them for a test drive. (Well, it was a test walk.) In this episode, Shelly shares his thoughts on the AirPods Pro (2nd Generation), and whether or not you should rush out to pick them up. Also: We check in on Amazon's Thursday Night Football, the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, and the “real” reason these companies are tying themselves to the NFL. Shelly explains how he listens to music and finds new pizza places (both of which use the same process!). Seth unveils the new name for Space Force enlistees.

We may be a nation divided, but we come together for one thing: the NFL. This season has been great so far and is offering a brand new way to watch: exclusively on a streaming service. While we've watched Premier League on Peacock and Friday night MLB games on Apple TV+, this is another beast altogether: it's the NFL on a streaming service. We discuss the innovative ways Amazon streamed the game, the biggest viewer complaints, and why it's disingenuous to complain about football games being on Prime Video. We also talk about what to give Amazon (and the NFL) credit for doing, plus the new ways Amazon can cater to its customers with its brand new source of data.

We're back! We were busy in our time off, and so was Apple, which just unveiled a new line of iPhones, new Apple Watches, new AirPods, and more. For the first time in years (if not ever!), Shelly won't have the new iPhone the day it comes out. He explains why, talks about his pre-order experience (and frustrations), and the lessons learned from past upgrade cycles. If you want an iPhone, only an iPhone will do. That said, if you have an iPhone 13, do you need the iPhone 14? The answer: it depends. In this episode, we talk about the new features included in Apple's latest and greatest, when we may enter a post-handset world, and whether or not Tim Cook needs Shelly's extra $8.

We're back! We were busy in our time off, and so was Apple, which just unveiled a new line of iPhones, new Apple Watches, new AirPods, and more. For the first time in years (if not ever!), Shelly won't have the new iPhone the day it comes out. He explains why, talks about his pre-order experience (and frustrations), and the lessons learned from past upgrade cycles. If you want an iPhone, only an iPhone will do. That said, if you have an iPhone 13, do you need the iPhone 14? The answer: it depends. In this episode, we talk about the new features included in Apple's latest and greatest, when we may enter a post-handset world, and whether or not Tim Cook needs Shelly's extra $8.

Do you love Earth-murdering genre movies, like Armageddon? Shelly does, and this week he was overjoyed to receive this press release: “NASA Invites Media to Witness World's First Planetary Defense Test.” We talk about NASA's latest endeavor and try to talk about whether or not the public funding they're using includes X-wing or TIE starfighters. If we all survive the asteroid crash, we'll all need healthcare… but will it come from Amazon? Amazon recently announced it's shutting down Amazon Health – though it also spent $3.9 billion on a boutique primary healthcare provider, so it's not going anywhere. We talk about why Amazon leaving a business should worry you, Amazon's ability to learn from its mistakes, and what's next for its healthcare endeavors. Seth shares a startling revelation about Game of Thrones. P.S. No episode next week (Labor Day), but we'll be back the week after to talk about Apple!

If you have a podcast on Spotify, you might have received an email last week flagging some of your episodes for copyright infringement. This is the result of a new Spotify algorithm that aims to make sure podcast hosts are using only the content they own. Seven of Seth's 300+ episodes of Hall of Justice were flagged for potential infringement. Shelly and Seth spend time discussing “fair use” (and its misconceptions) and why the rules seem to be arbitrarily applied both within Spotify's ecosystem and from one service to the next. Then, in other auditory news… you can now buy hearing aids OTC! That's cool enough as it is, but imagine a world augmented with personal assistants who can clue you in on the things around you that you might not otherwise have heard. We talk about the possibilities of this new future – and the hopeful destigmatization of hearing tests.

Google is one of the most useful tools in the world - and TikTok is even more prevalent. We've talked about the rapid rise in TikTok's popularity in past episodes. Still, a new study from the Pew Research Center found that social media usage among teens has doubled, and nearly half of all teens are “almost constantly” online. We break down the results of the new study and compare how today's teens are marketed as compared to past generations. We also look at the type of direct messaging and marketing that today's teens encounter online, what “expertise” means in today's online sphere, and how the information will be propagated around our media universe in the future.

Film Twitter spent last week in a tizzy, trying to parse rumors and separate fact from fiction about HBO Max, Discovery+, and Batgirl. When the dust settled, it was clear that HBO Max isn't dying, a new (combined) app is coming next summer… and Batgirl is still not coming out. Today, we peer into the Techstream crystal ball to get a sense of what the new app could look like, what it could cost, and how its combined user base will interact with its content. We also talk about why Batgirl was canceled, the optics of the cancellation, and the emotionally unsatisfying reality of the situation.

TikTok is one of Shelly's great online loves, but recent experiences have soured Seth on the platform, as recent videos have led to copyright flags. Coming from the world of music composition, the topic of publishing and licensing rights is firmly in Shelly's wheelhouse. Today's episode takes a look at copyright flags and rights ownership, as well as how AI models can be trained to listen, recognize, and flag violations. Seth rants about other frustrations on the platform. Shelly proposes ways to further compensate composers. Seth takes advantage of the medium to play some of his favorite drops.

Linear TV is dead! That's what Netflix CEO Reed Hastings thinks, at least. There's more to the story, though, like Netflix's shrinking subscriber base and a murky future without any major franchises to entice new users. So… what happens now? On today's episode, we take a trip down TV's memory lane and look back at how shows like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Game of Thrones changed the game for all networks, how streaming devices could look to evolve and adapt and earn new revenue, and what the next 5-10 years look like for both linear TV and streaming services. It's time to sound off! Have you thought about canceling Netflix? Have you already pulled the plug and left the service? Tweet at us @Techstream and let us know!

When Elon Musk said he was buying Twitter, we recorded a super-fun episode about the future of free speech and what it all meant. Fast forward to today, and now Elon Musk and Twitter are probably going to court over whether he should be forced to buy the social media company for $44 billion. Elon's trying to back out of the deal because he thinks Twitter is lying about the number of bots and fake accounts on the platform. At least, that's what he is saying. So… what happens now? Shelly and Seth talk about their frustrating and confusing history as users on Twitter, how (and why) Twitter is broken, and when Twitter will not be a “go-to” for “legitimate” media.

Seth and Shelly both started their careers in radio. Even if you don't pay close attention to the numbers, it's easy to see that stations are downsizing. That leaves a big question: with the advent of Instagram and Facebook, where does radio fit in the lexicon? On today's episode, we talk about radio's place in our “attention economy,” the media landscape's shift to podcasts, and its role in our collective future. We also explore the future of infotainment in cars: what we want, what we need, and what we don't think we'll ever get.

Shelly's been a TikTok superstar for a while, and Seth has been using it to push his other podcasts forward. Just about everyone else has been using the app, too, as earlier this year TikTok became the most-visited website in the world, more popular than even Google. Last week, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr gave the CEOs of Apple and Google until July 8 to respond to his open letter asking them to remove TikTok from their app stores. Everyone is weaponizing data. In this episode, we wonder: Why is the FCC singling out TikTok? We talk about the companies weaponizing data that we SHOULD be worried about, where you draw the line, and a conflict that's beginning to bubble up. Plus, we offer advice on practical actions about what to do next.

Amazon just had a conference where it announced that Alexa will soon be able to speak to you with any voice of any person, living or dead. All it takes for Alexa to do this is a minute of audio. Shelly used this kind of deepfake technology during The Palmer Group's Innovation Series Summit this year, but the technology has advanced exponentially from January, and we're on the verge of something truly horrifying. We talk about why this could break bad and the potential ramifications, as well as whether the possible benefits could outweigh the dangers and risks. Then, for a lighter conversation, we talk about (spoiler warning!) Obi-Wan Kenobi, as well as the broader Star Wars universe and the technology being used to create these new series.

We have “a potpourri of chaos” on this week's episode of Techstream. With everything going on… why do U.S. politicians care about USB-C? If you (rightly) hate that your iPhone and iPad and MacBook may all use different connectors… it's important to keep in mind that this legislation is the road to hell, paved with good intentions. We talk about the drawbacks of USB-C and Shelly proposes a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Then, we talk about the crypto market, with some cryptocurrencies everyone knows and loves down as much as 70%. Is Bitcoin going to $0 or $100,000? The reality is somewhere in-between. Lastly, are the robots coming to take us away? Is Judgment Day around the corner? We chat about an update to our episode about A.I. from a few weeks ago.