The Press Box - Ep. 226: The Best and Worst of Tech in 2016

Episode Date: December 27, 2016

The Ringer's team of tech writers — Molly McHugh, Victor Luckerson, Alyssa Bereznak, and Kate Knibbs — discuss their best and worst of the year in tech. Listen as they reveal their best app of the year, their least favorite acquisitions and memes, and what we as consumers have to look forward to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. Today's episode of Channel 33 is brought to you by Seekek, the presenting sponsor for my podcast, as well as the only fan-friendly app for buying and selling tickets for sports and music. With just two taps on your phone, you can instantly buy Seekkeek tickets to an event, and you can enter that event just using your phone. No paper tickets. Drop your old ticket app.

Use one that's built for 2016. Download the free Seatgeek app or go to Seekgeek.com. Listening to Channel 33 and this is Molly McHugh, I'm a editor for The Ringer. And in this episode, we are going to go over some of the weird, good, bad stuff that happened on the internet and to technology in 2016. As a whole, it really feels like the entire internet subculture just surfaced and became mainstream. And there's not as much unknown territory anymore. And it feels like people kind of figured out how to control platforms to hilarious, wonderful,

and also disastrous effect. So we are going to do a bunch of best and worst in technology of 2016. And here to do that with me, I have Ringer staff, Kate Nibs, Alyssa Boresnack, and Victor Lukerson, and we're going to start reviewing some of the best stuff that happened in technology this year and some of the worst. So how this is going to work is I'm going to choose a topic and we're going to do best worst. And I'm going to start with a really easy one. So from iPhone 7 to spectacles to AirPods and a new galaxy phone, we're going to talk about the best and worst product launches. So I'm going to go ahead and say, Kate, can you give me your best and worst takes on this one first?

Yes. I mean, the worst to me is fairly obvious. The Samsung Note 7 kept blowing up. It's no longer allowed on airplanes. from a product standpoint, it's like a spectacular failure. Yeah, that's pretty bad. Yeah. For the best, I was kind of underwhelmed by most of the consumer tech products that came out this year,

but I was pretty charmed by Spectacles launch. That's Snapchat now Snaps recording sunglass gadget. And, you know, I don't have them, but I would definitely. accept them as a gift. And it's sort of a novelty device, but they rolled them out by installing these booths in various cities throughout America and hyping them up pretty effectively. And I thought it was really well done. Yeah, I finally got to try some. They are fine, but I had a good time getting them. Alyssa, what are yours? Well, I kind of agree with Kate for the best launch because spectacles were really charming just in their packaging.

Like, I am really into the weird little, like, animal eye they've used to brand it. And I also really appreciated that they put the weird, bright yellow vending machines in, like, very Americana spots. Like, they had one in the Grand Canyon and, like, at Santa Monica Pier. And it just made for like a really smart way to see the actual snap spectacle videos, even though they're basically like Google bots except like way cooler. So that just demonstrates how branding and launch can really go a long way. For me, the worst launch was the iPhone 7 just because Apple knew that like people were going to be upset about the loss of a headphone jack.

And instead of just being like, sorry, we're doing this. It's for the best. They were like, no, we did this because of courage. Yeah. And I just thought that that was like such an insane display of like the weirdo, like Silicon Valley idealism, like viewpoint that you aren't doing things for profit. You're doing them to make the world a better place. Like people use the word courage to describe war heroes, not like, I don't know,

like very high paid engineers who are. trying to maximize an iPhone for profit. And that was a true low point was the use of the word courage. Yeah, I'm still upset about it. It's like a cringe felt around the internet. Okay, Victor, what do you have? I'm also on board with these spectacles. I thought the way they were able to, I guess, manufacture scarcity by having so few of them out

there, ended up driving a lot of interest in them. And also sort of, they play, by playing up the physical aspect of them, by having those vending machines out there versus, you know, you have Google Glass, which was kind of a similar concept a few years ago. But I guess with that, it was like you had to go on a website and order them, which is a little less exciting. I think having them in the physical space really sort of like capture people's imagination in a way that Google Glass never really managed to do. I think we all agree that Spectacles was the best launch. I would go AirPods is the worst because they looked like electric toothbrush heads and also did not come out on time. So that's, I'm going to

have to go with that for worst. What did you get, Victor, on worst? I was with Kate on the Galaxy Note 7. I mean, just exploding phone is like pretty damn bad. So it's kind of hard to top thing. Okay, that's fair. Okay, let's get into like a very businessy tech one right after we do launch. What was the best and worst acquisition? I think this could be boring, but I'm like hoping your guys's answers are really exciting. I'm going to go, Vic, we're going to reverse. So Victor, you can start. Sure. I thought the best acquisition was Uber acquiring auto, the self-driving truck company. Otto is about a year old, and some of the people at the startup actually were part of Google's

self-driving car program. So Uber snatched them up just a few months after they launched, and they actually managed to have a self-driving truck delivery of beer in Colorado a couple months ago. So Uber's sort of long-term goal is to replace all of their human drivers with a self-driving fleet and auto sort of has that technology or they're developing it really well. So I mean, for Uber, it was a smart pick to sort of get up to par with Google and a lot of the other competitors in the space. Do you have a worst one? Definitely Verizon acquiring Yahoo. Like, that was kind of suspect from the jump because Yahoo is like a pretty backwards-looking company.

But then you have to add on to the fact they had like, of they had had multiple security breaches this year. They disclosed the first one, I think, was 500 million accounts that had been compromised in some way. And then this week they had one billion accounts that were compromised back in 2013. So I think at this point, even Verizon is sort of like not actually said if they're going to go through with the deal, which is pretty awkward. Oh, God. It kind of reminds me of like when you go to like a retailer and you see a stain on the really. expensive blouse and you're like, can you give me a discount on that?

No, you totally took mine. That's exactly what I was going to say. At this point, should Yahoo just be like most of the accounts were hacked? You know, like, we don't need numbers anymore. Just we're pretty much if you've had any account here, you're in trouble. Right. Also, everybody's parents had a Yahoo account at some point. So we basically all been compromised. I didn't even know I had one and I got an email this week and it was really sad for me. Damn. Dark days. All right, Kate, what do you have? You know, I'm going to focus on the worst because I just think it's insane that anyone would pay $26 billion for the most boring social network of all time.

Maybe Microsoft will be able to justify buying LinkedIn, but I really don't see how it can. And I do agree that Yahoo acquisition was a bad deal, but just I don't understand how LinkedIn is worth 26. billion dollars. Yeah, LinkedIn is the most useless thing I've ever encountered in my life. And I wonder maybe people in like different areas of work are benefiting from this network, but I just don't understand. So you don't have a best because you hate acquisitions. Alyssa, what do you got?

Well, Microsoft buying LinkedIn was also my worst just because I find it to be like a completely joyless social network that somehow. wasn't able to develop a community of weird people, which seems just like a basic requirement of any social network. Totally. I remember writing about that this year. And it's just really a boring deal to me. Like I get that maybe their interests align in a lot of ways, but it and like workplace productivity,

et cetera. But I just hate it. For best, I would say Snapchat buying Bitmoji for completely selfish reasons, like all Miranda occur engagement bitmoji announcement aside. Like I thought that was really annoying. I do like how they integrated bit moji into the individual chat section so that now you can like be in a bitmoji illustration with your friend if they also connect their account. So like me and my friends send like bit moji illustrations to like to each other like us having

drinks when we live in different states and it's like endlessly entertaining. I think this is an appropriate time for me to announce that I don't understand Bitmoji. I've never used it and I don't get it. And I think it might be too late for me. Oh, great. I feel really bad for all of you. But it's because Bitstrips were so terrible, if you remember. It was those awful comics people had of, like, themselves doing stupid stuff.

And they were on Facebook nonstop for like a couple weeks or something a few years ago. and I just was, it was my, it was like a hard drop. Like I will never associate with this medium whatsoever. So I've missed the Bitmoji train. Is it too late for me? They're super cheesy. I totally agree. And I never like post them publicly.

It's, it's, I'm embarrassed that I like them, but they still entertain me. I know. You can send them to me any time. I just don't know how to make them. And I feel like it's too late for me to learn. But yeah, I accept all Bitmoji. It's really. Easy, Kate, I'll show you.

I need a let my friend sent me one of like a sloth and her this week and I was just like, am I the sloth? I don't know how it works. But which is a great transition to what is your favorite app of the year. We'll go with worst app of the year too. But your answer can't be bit moji. I'm sorry. Alyssa, you can start.

I was actually going to say Signal to be kind of serious. Whoa. I know. It's very serious. Serious answer. Signal is an encrypted messaging app that doesn't make you go through, like, jump through a bunch of hoops to make things encrypted. It could be cuter. It could have, like, more stickers and, like, options to be cute in general.

But it, like, serves a really good purpose given recent developments. And, you know, minimizing your paranoia over the next four years. So, yeah, I would recommend downloading it to avoid being surveyed. Do you have a worst app or just like some one that was terrible? Yeah, actually, it's also a messenger app. Google Allo. Google made a big deal out of it when it was announced. And the whole idea was that there was like a voice assistant you could talk to

and then you and your friends could play like emoji quiz games and ask for movie times and like reserve a movie ticket together. And it just ended up feeling like really forced and frivolous and not natural at all. And me and my friends tried it out for about 20 minutes. And it just like never really vived with us. So you've done a lot of like group messaging experimentation this year. Yeah, why can I say have an extensive network of friends, Molly? Yeah, you're very popular.

I'm impressed. Okay, cool. Kate, what do you have? So I was going to talk about Signal. but I think Alyssa nailed it, although everyone should download it. But I will say that Instagram brought me the most joy this year. I know that they totally copycatted Snapchat, and I feel a little bit bad for Snapchat because, you know,

their style was bit so hard, but all of my friends started using the Instagram stories, and so now I can see what they're doing all the time, and I really enjoy it. And it's my, I think it's my most used app, and it's my favorite. I like what they're doing. All right.

It's a good, like, standby answer. It's always, it's a fave. Yeah, but my worst app is definitely title. I downloaded title this year when Lemonade came out and Prince died, and Prince's music and Lemonade were both only available on title. And I was open to switching over from Spotify, but I really did not like the user experience, and I immediately switched back.

And I've never had any regrets. Yeah, title felt like a trap the entire time, and I took no part in any of it. But I have very bad music consumption habits. So I'm just going to move along to Victor now. So I didn't really pick a best app. I was just thinking about my experiences this year. And nothing new stood out to me that much. I would imagine that aligns with a lot of regular people

because, like, research shows that people are spending more and more time and fewer and fewer apps. So that was going to me this year. So in terms of like the stuff that's new the landscape, like there's nothing new that really caught my eye, to be honest. Do you have one that launched or like a new one that you just hated or something that you realized you hated? Well, this might be a hot take, but it's definitely Twitter for me.

Damn. I actually pretty recently decided. I stopped using Twitter regularly. Did you delete it from your phone? I deleted it from my phone. I'm trying to use your left on desktop. I think the A, there's just the level of like a harassment and also just the angry tenor has been an issue the entire year.

And then after Donald Trump's election, it's really, I got to take it up to another level. So I can't really deal with an app that's in crisis mode at all times for my mental health. So I'm off the Twitter train, basically. That's like an act of self-kish. basically. No, that's probably wise. Man, I could talk about apps all day, but I started using one second every day. Do you guys know what that is or use it? Is it where you record one second every day? You nailed it, Kate. I don't use it, but I just guess. You did a great job. Yeah, I mean, I had a friend. She, like, I think it's like around this time last year, she posted, like, the

video that the app had created for her. And I was just like, oh my God, my like digitally curated nostalgia levels are being met by this video. And I started using it pretty on and off this year. And I'll tell you a couple of things I like about it. One, you do get this very fun video of these just such random moments that would make no sense to be, you know, collected in any other way whatsoever. The push notifications are hilarious. They're very deep. It's just like time is a construct and a flat circle. But, you know, remember. And I signed up to get them multiple times a day. And they're just these like tiny little hilarious reminders that I enjoy. So I'm all in on that. I think my worst app is, this makes me really sad to say, but I think it was Pokemon Go.

because the fall from grace was just so abrupt. Like, I was in. I loved it. I had so much fun. I was the kid walking around, like, trying to catch a freaking squirtle or whatever. And then just like that, I was out and nothing could bring me back. And so that was a little sad. Yeah, I loved Pokemon Go for 48 hours and then I just stopped using it.

Yeah. I'm really embarrassed that I'm still playing it, but it's just an addiction thing. I'm proud of you. I was going to ask Alyssa if you were still playing it, and I'm thrilled. I feel like you should talk about being like the last Pokemon Go player in the entire world. It's so lonely. I know one other person who plays it and we kind of talk about our collection sometimes, but it's just like, you know, joylessly like slinging a ball at a random pitchy or whatever. Right.

I mean, it's literally just Candy Crush, like, ask to me now. Damn. It was so much fun. Okay, so moving on to our next one, I'm really excited for your guys' answers, but also a little bit scared about this one. What was, and there's no worse to this one because I just enjoy all of it. What was the best or just craziest tech feud and which this can be like beef between companies or people in tech or even just like the media taking on tech in some way? Yeah, yeah. So let's start with Alyssa.

Oh my God. So I think the like juiciest bit of tech feud that I read about this year was when Nick Bolton did a play by play of like how Theranos fell

for Vanity Fair. And he described the scene where a crowd of Theranos employees chanted fuck you, carry you, in defiance of the Wall Street Journal, journalist John Carreou, who originally broke the story. Because they thought that he had sort of made up that the company was technically bullshit, but it turns out he was right.

So anyway, there's this scene where they're screaming like, fuck, you care you. And I just think that that's like every journalist's goal in life to like have an entire company chanting their name like that. And I mean, that was a really sad story about like the actual people negatively affected by Theranos. but that was a very juicy detail of media V-tech. Yeah, no, I just described Pokemon Go as like our biggest fall from Grace this year. Now I feel like an idiot because it was for sure Theranos a little bit of a bigger deal. Yeah, watching that completely blow up was incredible. I think that story is going to continue into 2017 and it will haunt us for years.

But yeah, that's a great one. All right, Victor, what do you have? Like Alyssa, I also agree that Theranos versus the Wall Street Journal was pretty epic. I didn't know that anecdote she told, but that's pretty fascinating and exciting for a journalist. But I think it's really interesting that they've been able to stay on top of this story for so long. You know, it started in October of 2015, but, I mean, they're still pursuing it to this day. And Elizabeth Holmes has been banned from performing those blood tests for two years. I think the company itself has said that they have.

are switching their entire business strategy now. So, and the fact that Theronas's lawyers were so intimidating to the journal and they, you know, continue to pursue the story is pretty inspiring, I think, for any reporter. So. And we're going to get a movie out of it starring Jennifer Lawrence. All right. Yeah, which is thrilling. I'm so excited.

I want to see who plays Carrie you. I'm just, I'm so excited. I also want to see who plays the whistleblower because he was a very, he's very attractive. I feel like Andrew Garfield would be a good whistleblower. and Mark Ruffalo would be a good carry-you. Oh, totally. I can see that. Great.

So next podcast, we're going to cast the movie of Theranos, and it's going to be really shallow. Kate, what are your, what's yours? Okay, so I agree that Theranos was an amazing drama, but one of the Silicon Valley battles that captured my attention this year was Hyperloop 1, which is a company that's trying to build a Hyperloop, but it's not owned by Elon Musk. It's like the other sort of off-brand hyperloop company.

They had a really crazy court battle that was settled in November, but the founders basically had this insane infight where one of them left a noose on another's desk. And the man who ended up quitting the company is named Brogan Bam Brogan, which is like the greatest Silicon Valley entrepreneur of all time. So I followed that court case pretty closely, and I highly recommend looking it up. I also wrote a story about it, not to plug myself. But it's just a silly, sort of disturbing, but always entertaining example of what happens when egos clash. I might be inventing this

in my head, but doesn't Brogan Bam Brogan's wife have a really? weird name? Yeah, it's Bambi. Her name is Bambi. Bambi Bambrogan. It's just so perfect. Also, I think his actual name is Kevin. So. But that makes it even better. That's a great one. What a good story. I really liked how Mark Zuckerberg passive aggressively got mad at Elon Musk for ruining his satellite with the SpaceX explosion. He wrote this Facebook post that was just like, I'm truly disappointed, which is like the most dad take on this. And then all of the conspiracy theories that like SpaceX did it on purpose, just a slight Facebook. And it was just, it was so, it's so much money and so dumb that I love it so much. I like to imagine that they're so mad at each other.

You know, like if they pass each other going up to Trump Tower, it's going to be a little uncomfortable. It'll be uncomfortable for a lot of reasons. What was Zuckerberg mad about? Like his internet satellite was ruined or something? Yeah, yeah. This, you know, multi-million dollar satellite was ruined because of the explosion. And then there was like this stupid rumor that maybe it was sabotage, which I am here for 100%, but seems really excessive since the satellite sounds like it doesn't work anyway. We could probably do an entire episode about these feuds.

But the next one, our next category here in this game is very fun. What are the best and the worst memes? Kate, I'm going to start with you. Okay, so my favorite meme possibly ever is a tweet, unfortunately, Victor. And it's the tweet with it's the Jared Leto jacket. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? Okay, this brought more joy to my heart than basically anything else this year. And if you don't know what it is, just Google Jared Lido jacket, but it's this photo of Jared Lotto.

I don't know how you say his name, Lido Lotto. Anyways. We'll go back and forth. It's fine. Yeah. He's looking at a person walking down a runway wearing a bright green jacket with this like look of fascination on his face. And then the next panel is him wearing the jacket. and I can't like describe the meme, but it's incredible and I loved it so much. No.

We should also note that the jacket itself is whack. Like it's so ugly. It's like bright green and sort of like an elf jacket. I think it was from Gucci or something. Probably it costs like thousands of dollars. But that's part of the reason it's so funny. No, it's so great because you just see him looking at the jacket. Like I must own that jacket.

And then like a year later, he shows up wearing it and just totally feeling himself. It was incredible. No, very joyful. What was, what's your worst meme if you have one? Yeah, I do. I really did not like Ken Bone. The whole, I kind of, I was sick during the debate that Ken Bone became a thing at. And so I missed the part of the meme where everyone was just excited about this adorable looking man.

And I, I don't know. I just didn't like anything about it. I didn't like when people found out he had a weird, Reddit comments about pregnancy porn. I really didn't like when he, I didn't like anything about this meme. I'll just put it that way. What did he call them beautiful human submarines?

Yeah. Yeah, he did. I just hated every second of the Ken Bone phenomenon. I wish it never happened. I had been on a hiking trip days before that, so I was offline until like the morning, it all started getting really out of control. And I've never been so confused.

Like he's lovable, but he called women. beautiful human sub like I don't who is this person it was very confusing that was terrible nothing about that was good um a hundred percent agree uh victor what do you have for best and worst meme even though it might be hard for you because you're off twitter now so you don't see them as often right but i was i was in pretty deep until recently um i really enjoyed uh evil kermit which is a picture of kermit facing himself in like a uh darts bader looking cloak basically um And you have one half, it's like you're a few thoughts of one person where the first thought is a positive thought. And the second thought is like the devil on your shoulder telling you not to do it.

It was really adaptable, which I liked, so a lot of different scenarios. And it was also kind of weird because no one really knew, or I didn't know at least where this picture of Kermit facing Kermit to come from. So I think a lot of really good memes sort of combined a universality with a little bit of weirdness. I thought evil Kermit did that pretty well. Did you ever find out where the image came from of Kermit? Oh, yeah, it's from like the last Muffet movie. Okay.

I don't know the exact context. I don't know whether it's Kermit actually facing a clone of himself or is him having the actual existential crisis that the meme portrays. But it's from the last Muffet film. Got it. What's your worst? I guess this might be another hot take, but I really don't like crying Jordan.

I feel like that meme, A, is really old. Like, I saw that on message boards, like, several years ago. And also this year, it sort of got explained to death. Like, I think there's a New Yorker explainer about Crying Jordan and a lot of other sort of, like, content around it. So for me, it had already exhausted its usefulness before this year. And there's also a much better gift of Michael Jordan laughing on Oprah that I think should have gotten all the credit, all the attention.

So I encourage people to look up laughing Jordan over crying Jordan. Victor, you need to make this happen. It can be your goal for 2017. Yeah, the new year is coming. There's so much time. Okay, Alyssa, what are yours? Okay, so I actually had a runner up for best because we should all acknowledge woke Glenn Beck,

which was just like him in a scarf and like some spectacles, like post him coming out is like not as conservative as he originally was. And it lived for a very brief moment, probably only on a few people's Twitter but I really like woke Glenn Beck that's my runner-up. My favorite one was Ted Cruz's Zodiac Killer just because it took

a trope of the right which is just making maybe untrue accusations like I don't know that Obama started ISIS and took it to extreme heights in the other level in like a mathematically impossible level that Ted Cruz is a

Zodiac killer. I mean he's obviously not but that the fact that like all of these teens just like really banded together to insist that he was drove people who love logic insane on the internet yeah that was incredible and like i just remember that like teens were literally using like like um so like ted cruz as zodiac killer themed signs to ask each other to prom or like to say happy birthday like it was getting on that level teens are so great yeah we should really just give it up for teens in 2016 yeah Oh, for sure.

Like, thank you for the mannequin challenge. Thank you for this. And my worst was actually Harambe. I don't know if that's controversial or not, but I just, like, think the premise of it was, like, always fucked up. Like, it was just, like, not cool. And then everyone, like, someone asked Donald Trump about it,

and that wasn't cool. And lots of other things happened that, like, I definitely laughed at relating to the Harambe theme. Mostly people just, like, having Harambe. signs at political rallies. Right. But I thought that it went on for too long. And then there was that horrible New York Times article about how like people at the zoo are

having a hard time moving on because it became a meme. And I was like, oh, man. Yeah, that was messed up. Not a lot of good things came out of that. I really enjoyed dat boy, which I still don't understand. And I can only describe it as a frog ride in a unicycle. and that's, I mean, I didn't really try and understand it. I just really enjoyed it every time I saw it.

And I don't know if this is a meme, but I just really hated everything about Chewbacama. From the beginning. And she's getting a TV show on Discovery or something like that. It's like a digital only thing. But like, it is bleak out there. But in a more positive note, we're going to do a quick. outro here and talk about like the most hopeful thing that happened this year. You know, like a lot of really bad stuff happened. We just like Uber's tracking us. All the galaxy phones are exploding.

I don't really want to talk about fake news, but it's a problem. But so what's something that happened this year or was announced or is coming that you're excited and hopeful about? Victor, start with you really quick. I'm pretty into the Nintendo Switch. Yeah, totally. And I've been, I think I've had every Nintendo system since the N64. And the Switch is going to be the first one where they combine their console and handheld games. So theoretically, I should have more good Nintendo games than any system in the past.

So I'm excited about it. And I think it will provide some much needed breaks from reality into 2017. Yeah, great one. Alyssa, what do you got? I'm actually excited about this startup called Appeal, which uses like anti-microbial film to put on produce so that it doesn't get like bad as quickly. Just because like that's a really huge problem I have with avocados. It's like the saddest part of my wife.

This is so specific. I love it. This is great. Well, I mean, I just, I guess I wanted to pick something where, like, people had come up with a technology to really address a problem with my life. Like, I love my Google Home. I just, I don't think that it really, like, I just get to come home and be like, tell me the news, Google Home, which I could have definitely just done by looking at my phone. But, I mean, with appeal, like, no one else can give that to me. And that's a huge problem I have. Like, I'm from California. I really demand good produce. And it's hard to get it in New York. And that's my liberal. privileged coastal rant for the day. I got you.

An overripened avocado is a travesty of unknown proportions. I agree. Kate, what do you got? So I spent a lot of this year thinking about like the limits of technology and being bummed out. But I will say that I'm really excited about breakthroughs in like biomedical fields. I'm really excited they're starting gene editing tests on humans really soon. I'm using the CRISPR technique. And I don't really even know what that is because I'm not a biologist. But I think that technology can be harnessed to make our lives better if it can be used to save our lives and cure us of our illnesses. And I have hoped that it will extend human life. And so I'm excited about that. That's a really big hope. And I commend you for having that as we are like, we're excited about produce.

but small and big victories Not at all, not at all I'm excited about it too It's just really funny back to back Mine is really dumb I'm just happy we can download Netflix stuff Now you guys I'm living for the now

I'm living for the now I'm not even thinking about five years in the future Okay well cool I just want this is a great wrap up of the year And all these terrible and awesome things that happened So thanks for chatting about them you guys Thanks for having it.

All right. I'll talk to you later. So that has been our podcast reviewing how 2016 went in technology. Thank you so much to Alyssa, Kate, and Victor for joining me. Please read everything we're writing about all of this on the ringer.com. And thank you for listening.