Each Sunday, Brad Shoemaker and Will Smith discuss a new technology topic. Come for the long-form conversations about virtual reality, space travel, electric cars, refresh rates, and a whole lot more.
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This week, Brad and Will induct the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti into their "Products That Changed Everything" series. They explore why this Pascal-based GPU achieved legendary "god-tier" status, offering unprecedented performance and VRAM for its price and time, enabling early native 4K gaming. Its release timing perfectly capitalized on the console generation and the PC gaming renaissance, giving it incredible longevity through market volatility. The hosts discuss NVIDIA's decision to end driver support for the 10 series after almost a decade and what that means for users.
Brad and Will tackle listener questions covering a wide range of tech and life topics. Discussions include food safety and mold, the surprising tech behind sports broadcasting, navigating the indie web, repairing power cables, the push for passkeys, and managing the mental load of hobbies alongside personal life.
Brad and Will take inventory of potential tech projects, discussing the pros and cons of investing time and money. Topics include setting up a travel router for easier hotel networking, building a custom outdoor camera rig to document hummingbird activity, jailbreaking a Kindle to use the alternative reading software Coreader, exploring the new Twitch 1440p streaming beta, implementing a local network time server, and finding uses for a multi-foot pedal.
Brad and Will recap Apple's WWDC 2025 announcements, noting the relative lack of AI compared to Google I/O. They discuss the significant UI redesign (Liquid Glass), updates across iOS, iPadOS (multitasking), Mac OS (versioning, Intel support, new features), watchOS, and tvOS. The episode also touches on Apple's stance on AI and speculates on the Vision Pro's current status.
Will shares his initial hands-on impressions of the Nintendo Switch 2 after attending the launch event. The hosts discuss the console's build quality, new features like enhanced HD Rumble and mouse functionality, screen differences compared to the original Switch, and the state of game compatibility and digital licensing. They also touch on launch day stock availability and the included Nintendo Switch Tour app.
This week, Will recounts his visit to the highly anticipated new Micro Center in Santa Clara, sharing insights into its layout, product selection from touchable components to DIY building services, and overall community vibe compared to old PC shops like Frys. The episode also delves into Will's testing of the new GeForce Now client for the Steam Deck, covering its performance, different subscription tiers, data usage, technical challenges like shader caching and controller support, and its potential as a PC gaming alternative.
In this Q&A episode, Brad and Will tackle a range of listener queries. Topics include the future of courtroom stenography vs recording and AI, assessing hardware risk after a PC compromise, the compatibility of Nvidia graphics cards with Linux, using game consoles for media streaming, the nostalgic appeal of webrings, the practical usefulness of AI assistants, and dissecting an ambitious plan to set up and monetize a livestream of ducks.
Brad and Will discuss a range of tech topics, including the Grok AI controversy, personal domains, microstutter analysis, and Nintendo's DRM changes. They also explore open-source thermostat projects and the challenges of smart home integration. The episode wraps up with a discussion about Fortnite's evolving landscape and its impact on the gaming industry.
Brad and Will discuss a range of tech topics including Brad's Fortnite obsession and jury duty impact on the podcast schedule. Will shares his work quantifying microstutter in games and the frustrating use of AI in Google TV. They also explore troubleshooting A/V receivers, using oscilloscopes, and Will's adventures in setting up Linux.
Brad and Will delve into file organization and storage strategies across desktops and NAS devices, prompted by a listener question. They discuss drive configurations, backup methods, and the nuances of managing personal and project data, including insights on Windows backup tools and the evolving landscape of data management.
Brad and Will discuss Zachtronics' new game studio, programming games, and the Microsoft Kin's brief existence. They answer listener questions about old tech, audience demographics, RoboCop's data spike, and Windows 11 account requirements. The episode covers topics from software-defined radios to maple syrup making, along with Star Wars and movie talk.
Brad and Will delve into a grab bag of tech topics, starting with surge protector safety and PC building nuances. They reminisce about early career artifacts and dissect Weird Al lyrics. The conversation spans thermal paste application, storage bin stacking, monitor woes, and a tribute to Zachtronics. They also share personal anecdotes about missed jury duty and the evolution of computer displays.
Brad and Will discuss their recent forays into the world of CRT televisions, sharing their experiences setting up old consoles and MiSTer systems with these vintage displays. They delve into topics such as TV repair, signal standards, and the unique challenges of working with analog technology in the modern era. They also reminisce about the joys of retro gaming and the surprising appeal of CRTs to a new generation.
With the wraps finally being taken off the Switch 2 this week, PC World's Adam Patrick Murray joins us for a handheld state of the union this week, with a closer look at some of the technical aspects of the new Nintendo handheld including the specs on the screen and TV output, the innards of the dock, the new MicroSD Express storage standard, and more. Then we get into the pervasive rumors about a forthcoming Xbox handheld made by Asus, analyze Microsoft's opportunity for a more gaming-centric W...
Brad and Will discuss tech topics including Post Hog's naming, Stadia's failure, lossless scaling, shader glass, social media for businesses, phone and iPad updates, pay-to-reject cookies, ethernet switches, voice chat in games, and more. They also answer listener questions and discuss quirky topics like green onions and cleaning headphones. The episode concludes with patron shoutouts and teases the upcoming Patreon episode.
Brad and Will discuss their experiences at GDC 2025, focusing on emerging dev tools, AI's role in animation, and the state of the indie game market. They also explore alt.ctrl.GDC, highlighting innovative and unconventional game controllers. The conversation covers the financial pressures in game development and the impact of new technologies.
Email hasn't gotten any less complicated since the last time we covered it, but we have tried a few new options for wrangling our ever-increasing number of inboxes. This week we dig into some of our current strategies, with a focus on Will's time using Fastmail, a paid-only service that purports to let you throw out your Gmails and Outlooks and more fully control your email addresses on domains that you own. We also touch on some of the other popular services like Hey and Proton Mail, grouse abo...
The PC hardware market has finally settled down with the release of AMD's new Radeon 9000 series and no more major CPU or GPU product launches later this year. So we assess the state of the PC union a bit this week, with a focus on the new AMD cards and their dramatically improved upscaling, ray-tracing, video encoding, and perhaps most of all, price. Plus, some updates on Intel's low-end Battlemage, Nvidia's mounting 50-series woes, the possible delay of Intel's next-gen Panther Lake CPU to 202...
We've done it: we've brought on Rob Zacny -- host of (among many other things) A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast -- to dissect and attempt to make sense of the rules of technology in the Star Wars universe. Join us as we consider questions such as: What exactly is it that comes out of a lightsaber? Is there a bathroom in the X-wing? How many Imperial officers does it take to fire a giant laser? Does hyperspace make any sense at all? And is there room in this podcast to discuss droid libe...
We had quite a PC-heavy Q&A this month, with multiple questions about Windows 10 and 11 with the former's end-of-support date looming in October, as well as Qs about pronouncing country-code domains, the latest Nvidia 50-series electrical-connector drama, why we haven't seen much Gallium Nitride in PC power supplies yet, ways to get e-books besides Amazon, combatting the dreaded bit rot, and what it would actually mean to print a podcast. Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon a...
Will is trying on a new hat soon, with a newsletter about the ongoing enshittification of our collective computing experience, and some tips and tricks for... unshittifying it a bit. So this week we're digging into both the subject matter itself, and also the ins and outs of launching a newsletter, the features and policies of some of the bigger publishing platforms, hosting costs, email outreach, the decision-making that goes into monetizing your writing, and more. Plus: tangents on why you sho...
It's been a couple of weeks since the Chinese firm DeepSeek released its new R1 large-language model and sheared an enormous amount of value off of American AI companies. Now that the dust has settled, we don our AI-skeptic hats again and try to unpack what makes this model different, including how it was made so much more efficiently, what opening it up for free means for paid competitors, and whether we might not have to burn down quite so many forests going forward. (Hint: Don't get your hope...
Questions! The time to answer them is here again, and this month we do our best with such topics as the relative scarcity of nuclear energy, nested comment systems, USB thumb drives versus portable SSDs, browser RAM usage, why CPUs get faster from one model to the next, the difficulty of naming operating systems, phones without camera bumps, learning to read an analog clock (and a lot of other things), and when we'll finally get around to reviewing that high-tech toilet. Submit ideas about secre...
Will's gotten his hands on Nvidia's fancy new RTX 5090 in advance of its release at the end of the month, and he's spent the last several days feverishly benchmarking it and testing its new features, so this week we dive into the raw performance numbers he's seeing, consider the card's mammoth power requirements, talk about some of the most prominent new out-of-the-box features like multi-frame generation, better DLSS upscaling, and Reflex 2, and then attempt to demystify some of the more forwar...
The work of ages continues as we return (for the last time this month) to our tier list of every-ish cable and connector ever made. Such heavy hitters as DisplayPort, SATA, and USBs both mini- and micro- enter the fray this week, with digressions about obscure entries like the DFP (digital flat panel?) cable, powering bare hard drives straight out of the wall, the all-too-often overly stiff jacket on RJ45 ethernet cables, and more. The Cable Bible: https://amiaopensource.github.io/cable-bible/ R...
It's the Consumer Electronics Show once again, and there's a lot to talk about this year, so we chat this week about all the most interesting topics out of the show, including the Nvidia 50 series and its reliance on DLSS 4, new mobile chips from Intel and AMD, SteamOS-powered third-party handhelds, some eyebrow-raising Switch 2 leaks, new HDMI and DisplayPort standards, plus the usual assortment of off-the-wall and not-ready-for-market tech like IP birdfeeders, perfume-scented laptops, and plen...
We note the tragic passing this week of our good friend and tech reporting legend Gordon Mah Ung, with a short tribute and a bit of reminiscing about Gordon's illustrious career and the impact he made on everyone he came into contact with. Then we return to the very serious work of ranking every cable and connector in existence, with a pivot this week from numbered rankings to one of those newfangled tier lists, plus considerations of quarter-inch stereo, TOSLINK, DisplayPort, the legendary SCAR...
It's our last pod of 2024, and thus, another batch of year-ending questions meets our entirely professional and learned answers. This month we talk about improving your Bluetooth quality in Windows, our personal mouse grip, tech-related anime we've seen, when to throw in the towel on learning new skills, weird freebies with your tech purchases, questionable Black Friday purchases, how many browser tabs is too many, and the oppression of the Elf-on-the-Shelf surveillance state. Support the Pod! C...
As the end of the year is here again, we're finally doing it: we're ranking every plug and connector in existence, or at least all the ones we can think of. Join us as we evaluate the relative merits in multiple categories -- like ease of use, reliability, versatility, and that satisfying tactile X factor -- of everything from BNC to XLR, Apple's Lightning and old 30-pin dock connector, DB-15 (you know, VGA), the enormous pile of USB types, and more. Will we get through the whole list in one wee...
Will and family just got back from the final show of Taylor Swift's Eras tour, so this week we dig into some of the technical aspects of a modern arena mega-concert, from turning the audience into a human light show to innovations in ticket-sharing QR code technology and metrics on the mobile data being used in the vicinity. Meanwhile, Brad's been harvesting some extra cheap hard drives in the wake of Black Friday, so we also lay out a primer on what exactly hard drive shucking is, including pri...
