Apple iPhone X, Apple TV 4K, Star Trek’s CBS Platform Confusion, and Metroid: Samus Returns

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. I am Steve Phillips in this episode 207,

joined once again by Mike Booth Ninja Powers.

Welcome back. Hello, everybody. Glad to be back.

Thanks for waiting for me. Yes. It's been nice

to have another voice on. Of course, yeah, it's

probably been six weeks since you were on the

last one. Yeah, and when you put it that way,

I realize it's been six weeks since the last

time I was on vacation. When we did episode 200.

Yep. Man, obviously this is the podcast, the

longest running podcast I've been on. I don't

know if it's just... Sheer willpower that's keeping

it going or the fact that I just can't stop talking

about certain things And so it just keeps kind

of revitalizing itself, right? It almost reminds

me in a sense of my I finally did a count of

my Transformers podcast of how many Now mind

you that's my oldest show Okay, I started that

in August of 2008 and this one I started in August

of 2013 And that show, I've rebooted it three

times and it's just now hit episode 62 of the

rebooted version three, but it's actually episode

129. Okay. All together. I had to go back through

my source files and figure out where I'm at on

the show. So it was kind of funny on that. And

then I spun off all my Star Trek content. And

the orville over to future and perfect Okay,

and all my transformer stuff to transformers

so that I keep it off this show because I was

dominating 90 % of the show was Star Trek at

one point so Well, it's not unlike the way this

we started the show which was all DC DC you conversations

and Which thankfully I don't have to talk to

you about too much anymore. Yeah, at least until

there's an actual film that comes out because

I don't really want to cover any of the news.

There's so much back and forth of either directors,

writers or actors. So I just I'd rather not touch

on it. I will say real quick, do not want to

touch on it, but I will say just I'll tap it

with my pinky. I'm I'm I was very much looking

forward to Justice League and now like it's like

almost every week there's some bizarre. New headline

Involved with it that makes me less and less

excited for that movie and that makes you really

sad But I keep saying on Twitter I I still would

not be surprised to see that movie get delayed

Well, I wouldn't either and they're they're making

like now they've they've released like I mean,

you know certain characters are gonna be there

but it's I Feel like they're kind of Doing the

the Marvel thing and giving away what's gonna

happen because they keep releasing information

about future films That's that and that's one

of the things that really irks me about like

the Marvel movies it's like when you when you

start talking about casting or Anything like

that for like Avengers 4 you're spoiling what's

happening in Avengers 3. So there's really no

point Because there's no stakes. Yeah. Well,

yeah, there's no stakes. There's no tension.

It's like Everyone knows I'm not the biggest

fan of the movie Avengers But the climax of that

film when Tony quote unquote sacrifices themselves

didn't land for me at all because they had already

announced Iron Man 3 the week before that movie

came out. Like there was no way anything was

going to happen to him because they had already

announced that movie. That's one thing I've got

to say that Star Wars has done correct in that

they released the information about the next

movie. and then they don't because like like

in episode seven we didn't we knew who was going

to be in it we knew of the original cast who

was going to be in it but you know you made it

through the whole movie and you're like where's

Luke because he's on the billing and then all

of a sudden he's on like the last you know 10

seconds and so like there there's really in that

regard you don't know Really what's going on

with any of it because they're really wanting

to give any information away. I think that's

one of the most exciting things about the new

trilogy is There's no anything. Yeah, there's

no precedent. They don't have to link up with

anything. All they have to do is tell a fresh

story That just so happens to have so many old

cast yep So But yeah, so I mean I've been keeping

up with that. I've been keeping up with a lot

of the the CW stuff What's the deal with the

Star Trek TV series is that coming to Netflix

as well as CBS? This is the confusing thing and

I think CBS has done a really poor job of of

describing this for everyone and The show has

me almost worked up listening that was just a

very brutal transition. Yeah Sorry about that,

everybody. But the thing about it is it's going

to be on the CBS All Access app after episode

one. Okay. In the United States. That'll be the

only place you can get it in the United States.

It'll be a digital only series after episode

one airs. And I think episode two as well because

they're going to have it right after on CBS on

that on Sunday night. Okay. After that, it will

be exclusively on the CBS All Access app. And

in Canada, it will be on Space Channel and in

the rest of the world, they get it on Netflix,

which I think is kind of a crack. And the other

thing, too, is that Netflix ponied up the $130

million to fund the first season because CBS

did not want to put the money into it. That seems

really It seems really shady doesn't it? How

did Netflix let that one go like because Netflix

gets the The rights for the rest of the world

to broadcast it Except for the United States

where CBS gets it on their all -access app The

other thing too is that they had the premiere

for it a couple nights ago And they had various

members of you know the the past five series

that have come out to usher in this new one.

And all of the reviews that came out from it,

or the only ones that were allowed to be out

from it, were either people that were previously

employed by CBS in Star Trek, they're paid journalists

by CBS, or they're directly involved with something

with this new show. And of course, they're all

positive reviews. and they embargoed all the

rest of the media until Sunday night. You know,

I remember when this series was something that

I looked forward to and that was when there was

a gentleman by the name of Brian Fuller in the

showrunner's chair. It shows you how frustrated

he got to have to leave. to go to another project,

and there's too many cooks in the kitchen on

this, in my opinion, and I've already let it

out in the open how disinterested I am in this

timeline, because it takes place 10 years before

the original series, but looks like an Abrams

-verse film. And I feel like it should fit, I

feel like it would fit with this aesthetic that

they're going for. If it went between Star Trek

6 and the Next Generation timeline, I feel like

it would work better in that time span, whereas

what they're doing right now, I'm not entirely

thrilled. Is that kind of like a, you know, okay,

Star Wars episode four versus Star Wars episode

one? Well, episode one, I expect it to be more

shiny because it's when everything was still

the Republic. It was nice. It was clean. That's

George Lucas B .S. Speak right there. So that's

that's that's how I kind of look at it for that

and then I look at kind of war -torn later on

but no My thing is is it's way too shiny and

it kind of Like you have enterprise and then

you have this one that fits right before the

original series and then you get the original

series None of the ships none of the aesthetics

are even remotely close And that's more so what

bothers me Okay, like if they would have if they

would have toned down the special effects Where

it was closer to like Star Trek Enterprise type

level effects like it still was more grungy I

get it like Netflix is footing the bill. So of

course they're gonna make it look as shiny as

possible But I feel like it it could have fit

better in that war time period between the last

of the original series films and before the next

generation series because there's a lot of There's

60 years of history in that timeline that's missing

that they could have filled in practically anything

they wanted. Whereas right here, they're kind

of limited where they can go. So that's more

so part of what my problem is. That and CBS has

kind of shot themselves in the foot over the

last year and a half with their various lawsuits

against fan projects. Well, okay, with this show

though, it seems like they latched on to what

Brian Fuller was originally setting out to be.

He originally wanted to do an anthology series,

almost like American Horror Story with Star Trek.

That's what I was going to get at, which is,

okay, let's do season one and we'll place it

10 years before the first, like, Star Trek, the

original series. And then, like, in his mind,

it was probably, okay, after that, we'll jump

to this period. Yeah, and that I would have been

perfectly fine with, having had prior knowledge

that each series, each season would be its own

place in the timeline. But since CBS nixed the

whole anthology thing, they just latched on to,

OK, we'll just set this 10 years before the original

series. And that's what puts them in the hole.

But then again, I don't really expect a Star

Trek series to last for 10 seasons. No. Well,

and the longest they've ever lasted is seven.

And that was the next generation Deep Space Nine

and Voyager, the rest of them all. TOS, the original

series made it to three and Enterprise made it

to four. So I'm not really worried about them

like running into the original series stuff.

It's just I understand where you're coming from.

I'm looking at it canonically. I wish they would

have kept with the anthology stuff, because that

would have been really cool. Yeah, because then

I could have seen, you know, OK, we're going

to touch this little pocket part of the universe

here and that we're going to jump to maybe the

timeline that I was talking about or jump between,

you know, after the next generation or, you know,

there's there's a lot of time that's not covered

and I feel like going 10 years before the original

series is kind of a waste in a sense. But yeah,

I mean, if they would have gone the anthology

route, I would have been more on board with it.

But I think that, like you said, they kind of

just latched on and this is where they're going

with it. But I don't know if you've heard of

Seth MacFarlane's Orville. I have. I have no

way of, quote unquote, legally watching it right

now. Yeah. So I haven't been able to watch it.

I've seen the first two episodes. I actually

enjoy it. I've heard that it's not what it was

advertised as. Well, they advertise it as almost

like a comedy drama. And it's turned out that

it's got some comedic elements in it. Is it more

like a Galaxy Quest, but like an actual thing?

It's very Galaxy Quest, but it's actual, you

know, they're in space and it's not a TV show.

It's not. And it feels very Galaxy Quest, but

it feels like a proper tribute to Star Trek.

And in that, yeah, you have a little bit of MacFarlane's

jokes in there here or there, but he's not like

pushing it overboard. It fits within the storyline

of the character personas and. So they're like

not these polished kind of you know Hard rear

characters that you would have in in Star Trek

that are like strictly professional 99 % of the

time So they have they have their their flaws

outlet outward a lot of the time but no I mean

I found it to be very entertaining I was kind

of questioning it but even from the the the trailer

that came out between that and discovery Discovery

had about 60 % likes on YouTube and 40 % thumbs

down and the Orville had like 87 % thumbs up

and the rest thumbs down. Like it was insane

like the difference between the two. Which I

thought was kind of a... And the thing too is

the Orville, it takes place I think... 30 years

after what the originals or the the next generation

timeline would have been and It feels like it

it fits within that 90s to 2000s aesthetic Like

early 2000s aesthetic of how Star Trek would

have looked had it been on the air right so I

feel like it's Not trying to make it shiny for

the purpose of making it shiny that it looks

like they're they're doing what? Like, they do

the force field stuff, they do the laser, you

know, the phaser stuff, the torpedoes, you know,

the warp drive. They have all that kind of stuff

in the show, so I mean, they're not going against

what Star Trek would be. And I'm not saying Discovery

is either, I'm still going to check it out just

to kind of get an idea what I'm dealing with,

but... I just, I find myself more entertained

by the Orville, plus the fact that Star Trek

alumni are more, a few of them are more enticed

to want to guest star on the Orville over the

new Discovery series. And you have one of the

Star Trek Voyagers executive producers as the

executive producer on the Orville. Huh and a

couple of the old Old actors of Star Trek are

directing some of the episodes too, so I thought

that was kind of cool so it's it's still very

very much in that that time span of or that a

Tribute of Star Trek to where they they still

want something to do with it Well good on him.

Yep, that's what I thought So I guess we can

take a quick break right here and then come back

with some of your Apple thoughts. For you the

listeners of Altered Geek, Loot Crate is offering

an opportunity to save 10 % off on any new subscription

at lootcrate .com. Try lootcrate .com slash Altered

Geek to save 10 % on any new subscription and

enter promo code BRIDGETEN for 10 % savings.

Okay, and we're back so With all that's transpired.

Did they did Apple just come out with two brand

new phones at the same exact time? Like cuz that's

what it seems like to me as somebody that's not

a follower of Apple all that much it seems like

they just had the The iPhone 8 and then they

just announced the the iPhone X at the same time

They were both announced at the same time That

seems kind of counterproductive It is and it's

very like so Everyone knew that two phones were

coming this year. I mean I almost say everyone

knew I Follow Apple News. I read three different

Apple blogs or Apple websites every day To try

to follow the latest rumors and all this other

stuff and try to keep up on all the products

that they offer. I get really excited. I get

excited in June for the Worldwide Developers

Conference that Apple puts on. Usually at that

conference, they get up on stage and they talk

about new MacBooks, mostly new computers, and

then they talk about the new version of iOS and

the new version of Mac OS, which is they're all

available for developers to beta test now, will

be available sometime in the fall. And then later

on, like early September, you get another they

put on another conference that is just here we

are we're going to announce new ipad or iphones

um and sometimes an apple tv and then in the

spring they'll announce new ipads that's kind

of how apple works and i like like many other

apple fans last uh on september 12th sat down,

we watched the keynote that they put out, and

they announced the iPhone 8 and the 8 Plus. And

I think those two phones, from what I've read,

from what I've seen of them, I think they look

great. I've been using iOS 11 since June because

they do public betas now. So and I really like

iOS 11, but there's stuff that it does on the

new phone that my iPhone 7 Doesn't do now or

doesn't do very well So the iPhone 8 that was

more than enough that upgrade is always more

than enough for me especially since I'm part

of the iPhone upgrade program I can just Hand

them my old phone and walk out with a new one

every year. Oh nice and so Was excited for that

and they announced the new Apple TV 4k, which

I'm really excited about that for like two two

big reasons Actually, I'll say I'll say three

one. It's a 4k Apple TV That's something I've

wanted since I've had a 4k TV for the last two

years The other thing that I didn't think that

I heard about again that Apple was fighting for

with their 4k content was they wanted to sell

digital copies of 4k movies for the same price

they sell HD movies for which is 20 bucks That's

$10 less than other digital content providers,

okay and And they said that okay, so the wording

is this because I haven't confirmed this yet,

but I'm going to as soon as I can The wording

is, movies purchased through iTunes will automatically

be upgraded to the 4K version. That would be

cool. So, you know, you've already spent, you

know, God knows how much money buying digital

copies of movies on iTunes, you automatically

get a 4K copy of it, if it's available. Now,

I've never bought movies through iTunes. I do

the, any digital copy I can, I redeem through

iTunes. And I'm not quite sure if that counts

as the same thing. But I do know that if I go

in my iTunes library to look at the movies that

I have right now and I say I want to play one

of them, it does say play in 4K. So that gives

me high hopes, but I haven't been able to test

it out yet. And then the other thing that they

added to it was not only does it support the

HDR standard, which is HDR10, it also supports

Dolby Vision HDR, which for my money is superior

to HDR10, but isn't readily available in anything

other than streaming content. So I was very excited

for those three things. The price of the digital

movies, The Apple the 4k Apple TV by itself and

adding Dolby vision to it The list of what it

can actually do those those three things made

me really excited for that I do have one pre

-ordered, but it's not coming until next week,

but after my phone's arrived tomorrow For my

wife and I we're gonna go out and see if we can't

find one at Best Buy or an Apple store or something

And then Apple got back up on stage because again

like every year the rumors The rumor mill the

rumor mill for Apple spoils everything It has

ever since that real fun iPhone 4 leak with what

was that gizmodo? Yeah, I think so like ever

since that stuff happened the rumor mill has

been Like a 90 % correct about every new iPhone

coming out So Everyone knew another iPhone was

coming, but they didn't quite know what it was

going to be what it was going to have So Apple

was up on stage and they announced the iPhone

X and before I get into The phone itself there

are a couple things that I was really looking

forward to this year. I was hoping that Not a

couple things the one thing I was really hoping

that they would do across the entire lineup Was

I was really hoping they would put an OLED panel?

in all of their phones. And that is not the case.

They are holding that OLED panel hostage for

the iPhone X. So they can give the phone an edge

-to -edge display. And there are some parts about

the phone that I think look really nice with

the edge -to -edge display. But the one thing

that draws a lot of ire from myself and others

is the camera notch That they cut out at the

top, uh -huh That just bugs the crap out of me

The other thing that kept me has kept me away

from the phone besides the camera notch is at

least the first generation What's kept me away

is they went with a a polished stainless steel

band around the outside. So it's a a super high

gloss finish. So it's very shiny. That's almost

like something an Android phone would do, though.

Well, their watches do that. They have that on

their watch. The stainless steel Apple watches,

they're polished stainless steel, so I already

know what that looks like. And. I like expensive

things. I don't like shiny things. And obviously

a case would remedy that. You wouldn't see the

stainless steel band around it. But one of the

things I like about Apple phones is that they

look good, whether you put them in a case or

not. And I like a phone that I can use without

a case if I want to, or that I like. the look

of without a case on. And I don't care for the

way that the shininess, but that's all aesthetics.

But that notch is the most un -Apple like thing

I've seen in a long time from a design standard.

I said on Twitter that the iPhone X looks like

a device made of compromises. And that really

bums me out. because Okay, I'm an Apple fanboy,

but from what I've seen from being a fanboy from

them from them in the last 13 years is that If

there's something that Apple wants done It'll

get done the way they want it or they won't do

it and The iPhone see the iPhone 10 seems like

it's somewhere between this is how we want it

But we don't want to not do it So we're stuck

with a phone that looks like this And a lot of

people knew that the notch was coming, but they

suspected that Apple might you know extend the

Hide the notch inside the OLED panel with a black

bar on either side of the notch Because when

you have an OLED panel and you're displaying

black the screen is essentially off anyways,

so it would blend in perfectly But they didn't

do that and they're not letting developers hide

it either So the user interface is Designed around

highlighting This thing that intrudes into the

display now. I haven't held one in my hand. I

haven't seen one personally I've only seen photos

and the more I look at it the the worst that

the thing looks to me I thought by the end of

the keynote Usually there's some kind of hemming

and hawing going on in my head about like which

one am I gonna pre -order? Not this time by the

time it was over I pretty much made up my mind

that I was just gonna pre -order an iPhone 8

plus I think One of the big things with the 10

that they announced was the face the face ID

Which Lot of people are skeptical of but also

a lot of people haven't tried it At this point

I'm willing to give Apple the benefit of the

doubt but to not have To not have included touch

ID in the phone along with face ID Again that

goes back to it's a device made of compromises

yeah, cuz most the the recent Android phones

are capable of the touch lock type stuff, aren't

they? Yeah, they have. My 6s has some type of

thumb print scanner, but I can never get it to

work. For instance, the new Motorola Android

phone. That just came out. I'm not sure when

my dad just showed it to me earlier and He he

was like here I just got this new phone try it

out and it's got the thumbprint scanner and He

locked it and he's like here you try and unlock

it and then I tried and it says invalid Thumbprint

or right, you know and he did it and it came,

you know and unlocked the phone Well, the touch

ID thing has been around since the 5s It's been

around on the on the the galaxy phones to the

Android phones. It's just that they yeah, it's

been real shoddy Yeah, well, that's what I'm

saying like on my 6s. I can't get it to work,

but I've never had it not work on an iPhone so

I I Really wish that they had included that on

the 10 I know that they were supposedly trying

to figure out how to put that underneath the

display. And then there was rumors about them

putting it on the back of the phone, which is

where Android has put it. And anyone that's ever

held an iPhone knows that Apple puts an Apple

logo on the back of their phones. And that Apple

logo is actually made out of glass. Like, you

could have embedded your freaking touch ID sensor

in the Apple logo. That would be awesome, actually.

Like that, like. Hello, why wouldn't but they

didn't want to do it. So it didn't it didn't

happen like that's. I don't. I don't get it.

So they leave the phone with only one way to

unlock it, which is with the face ID or or a

passcode, which I don't use a passcode on my

personal phone. If I had if I didn't have touch

ID, I would not use a passcode. But because there's

touch ID, I use a six digit passcode. Because

I don't I don't ever have to put it in So Yeah,

there's and yes the I've seen all the jokes out

there about the 10 Being you know, it has all

the features that like androids had for forever

You know face ID the wireless charging And a

couple of other things but I feel like This is

probably just the Apple fanboy me talking like

they You can compare a phone's feature set like

one -to -one But when it comes down to where

it really matters, which is the numbers game

like once you get there there's There are no

comparisons for an iPhone versus an Android phone

The eights are almost are almost or as powerful

as a one of the new like single core MacBooks

that just came out like in your hand So I Never

really look at it like yes I know androids had

a lot more features for a long time But the Android

phones to me have always been we're going to

throw everything in this pot Whether or not Android

actually supports it because let's not forget

because Android can just because Android phones

have something doesn't mean the Android OS supports

it. That is very true, actually. The Android

OS allows for carriers to implement garbage applications

or cell phone makers to implement garbage applications

of things that are half baked and bolted onto

Android in ways that it doesn't fully work. And

that's fine, but that's why, but that's why Android's

had stuff for so long because everyone makes

an Android phone and everyone's trying to make

the Android phone that stands out. So they throw

in all this stuff, whereas Apple will introduce

a feature when it's fully baked into the OS.

It won't be like a half, it won't be like a half

measure that somebody else added in on top. Like

you, like before the, there are no other. Touch

ID apps or fingerprint applications on the iPhone

that you can get out of the app store There's

only one way to unlock it and that's the way

that Apple made it To do it with your fingerprint

So The iPhone 10 has this new thing it's face

ID Which again? Yes, Android has been able to

unlock your phone using your face for a while

But I've also heard that that is easily spoofed

with a photograph And that is not the case from

my understanding that is not the case with the

iPhone Because it is taking a 3d infrared scan

of your face So it knows if there's a 2d image

there or not And it knows if you're paying attention

to or not to you know to be able to unlock it

And again face ID is neat and they have this

really cool feature for like an emojis I don't

know if you saw that demo or not. No, I didn't

I didn't check that part out so they use like

the 3d mapping functions of the of the of the

front -facing camera to allow you to send text

audio text messages While speaking through an

emoji Okay, so Like okay, so you're it it maps

your face your facial animations one -to -one

with like the poop emoji saying hello to somebody

That's just weird Or like the the unicorn or

a random smiley face like if you tip your head

the the emoji tips its head and when you speak

it does the it syncs to your lips in your face

To like the little emojis facial expressions.

So there's like a decent enough avatar in there

you can Yes. The use is limitless. Right. So

you can do like short little like, I mean you

can have entire conversations with somebody using

audio and an emoji that's speaking for you as

your avatar. Which that's neat, but that is a

gimmick But it's another way of them showing

this is what we're able to do with this technology

Which is what they always do they introduce the

security thing with something that's fun to do

with it So the people don't go. Oh, I don't need

that. That's you know Yeah, they turn it into

something where people are more interested Yeah,

like my my okay, so my buddy who's also an Apple

fan He asked me which one he should get And I

was, I told him that there is no, okay. I've

done the research. There are two differences

between an iPhone 8 plus and an iPhone 10. And

they are the iPhone 10 has a different front

facing camera with the face ID. And the iPhone

10 also has an OLED display. That's it. They

are otherwise, they are exactly the same phones.

They have the exact same chipsets, the exact

same insides, everything. And so he showed his

wife the Animoji thing, which is only available

on the 10 because of the face ID. And he was

like, oh, my wife said that we have to get the

iPhone 10s. Because she really likes the animated

emojis. So. That's what they're going with. Now,

for me, personally, the one use case scenario

I saw for Face ID that I thought would be really

cool is that because the phone knows when you're

looking at it, it won't turn off when you're

reading an article. Yeah, that would be helpful.

Now, that is something my Android phone can do.

I've seen it in the... But again, that's just...

you know that that that doesn't know that you're

there like you could just put a picture in front

of the camera like it um you know this this thing

is supposed to know that you're there but i really

wish they would have put touch id in there as

a backup two -face id um and i've seen the i've

seen the android jokes i see them every year

every time apple announces a new iphone somebody

jumps in there and put some snarky thing about

welcome to what Android users had so many years

ago. Well, I'm one of the fortunate people. I

have a 6s, which is what a lot of people are

comparing the iPhone X to. I have a 6s for work.

And that phone is a piece of garbage compared

to my iPhone 7. So everything I've heard is that

the 8 and the 10 are as far as Speed and hardware

improvements. They are a nice step up from the

seven so Yeah, my I'm getting way off track here,

but this is just kind of boiling down to I'm

really disappointed with the design of the iPhone

10 Some of it can be fixed with a software like

I think they can hide the notch if they really

wanted to if enough people revolt against it

I think next year Will be the last time that

you see a traditional iPhone that has a home

button on it But I think next year all the iPhones

will have an OLED display and they will all have

face ID That's nuts Because there's no reason

the iPhone 8 couldn't have had face ID. There's

none They just held it they put it in the new

phone because that was the only security measure

they could put in the new phone Because they

couldn't make touch ID work so I Don't know and

then what really So Everyone's I've heard a number

of articles over the last few years about how

Apple's product line has become really confusing

and really convoluted and it's hard to tell what's

what and what you're buying and when you're buying

it and I used to be in a position where I could

keep up with that stuff and I would know what

was what and what I was buying and when I was

buying it and I've This is the first time in

the last two weeks. I don't know what is going

on. So You know, you've got the iPhone 8 and

8 plus that's fine. You've got the iPhone 10

Okay, and then they're keeping around the 6s

and the se I guess the I guess the phone lines

not that hard to really wrap your head around

except I don't feel like they should have announced

An iPhone 10 like I don't feel like that phone

should exist Really don't Especially when they

especially when they come out with an iPhone

8 at the same time Yeah, it it it feels I agree

with all the Android people saying that it feels

more like a me to device or an us to device because

like I said it's a device made of compromises

and That just really bums me out, but So one

of the other things is that the Apple watch got

an update this last in the last two weeks to

Apple watch OS 4 and one of the things I like

about my Apple watch is that I can track I can

keep track of my heart rate and my stress levels

and They added the ability for the watch to tell

you what your resting heart rate is and To it

breaks out all of whole bunch more information

regarding your resting heart rate and or just

your yeah just your heart rate in general it

shows you a lot more information and I the wording

was watch os 4 coming all features coming to

all all apple watches and i'm like cool well

guess what they're not coming to all apple watches

because my my watch is a first generation apple

watch which I guess last fall, Apple designated

as Apple Watch Series 0, and then they came out

with the Series 1 and the Series 2 Apple Watch

last fall, okay? And then this year, they came

out with the Apple Watch Series 3, and then they

discontinued the Series 2, but kept around the

Series 1. Well... My Apple watch series zero,

which I didn't know was a series zero Until yesterday

doesn't have all the fancy rest heart rate features

And that makes me really mad like It the product

lines have just become way more confusing than

what I can keep track of and it started for me

I feel like I started noticing it when they announced

like the iPad minis And then there was the iPad

mini 2 and then the 3 and then they discontinued

the 3 and kept the 4 and the 2 And then like

but I don't know what's in any of these things

anymore. Like I can't keep track of it Yeah,

I I just see like this this total overload whenever

they they announce something because there's

just constant stuff coming out for it and it's

just it it blows my mind and Yeah, I don't know

I I'm very disappointed in Just this this whole

thing in particular the the only Good thing I

can say is one. I'm really excited for the iPhone

8 And The The one thing I can say that was much

improved this year over every year past was pre

-ordering the phone Because I was in the iPhone

upgrade program they invite in quote -unquote

invited me on Wednesday to log into my iTunes

store or my Apple Store account and pre -register

for the phone that I wanted So that I you know

you put in all your shipping information all

your credit and for all your all your payment

information all that stuff and all I have to

do is come back at 301 a .m. on September 15th

and click buy and That'll be it And I'm like,

that's really cool And I'm thinking well what

they're doing is they already know how many iPhone

upgrade members they have What they're doing

is is asking those people to come in and say

what tell them what phone they want So they can

already put that stock aside for you Which is

great Well, I woke up at three o 'clock in the

morning set an alarm woke up at three o 'clock

rolled over Refresh the Apple Store a couple

times. It pops up with my up with my order and

It didn't save my shipping info. It didn't save

my cart my payment info like and I'm like spazzing

out because I know how these iPhone pre -order

things go in the past like they're They'll be

gone like in the blink of an eye and I'm just

thinking This was so like it had all this stuff.

I was ready to go. Why did it dump out all this

information? but Within like 10 minutes, it was

all sorted out and I didn't lose my preorder

or anything. It just didn't save it all my wife

She signed on and was able to do it the way it

was supposed to have been done She just had finished

order and it was good to go Myself was all changed

around but it went way smoother than I had in

the past. So I'll give them that But again, that's

probably all from People anticipating the iPhone

10 or the iPhone 8 So My fun speculation is What

is next year's iPhone gonna be Because if it's

the 8s or is it gonna be like the 10s like do

they just do they skip 9 like Or do they have

like a 9 and a 10s like how where do they go?

You know I'm saying like I think six months from

now. You'll see an iPhone 9 No, they'll just

they'll just call it a 9 9 And then and then

they'll come out with the 10s at the same time

well so One of the reasons I think so okay everyone

knows they go They go in like a tick -tock configuration,

right? So there's like the six the success and

then there was the seven Everyone thought there

was going to be a 7s But it ended up being an

iPhone 8 Which they haven't done they the only

other time they've done that is when they went

from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3g So

What's interesting about that is I think the

reason they skipped the 7s is because Samsung

had the Galaxy 8 Makes sense Because people are

dumb and They associate a number with how good

something is or how new? Yeah, so if you have

if you have a Samsung Galaxy Was it the s8 is

that what it is? Yeah, the current ones the s8.

I have an s5 Yeah, so if you have a Samsung Galaxy

S8 next to an iPhone 7S, the average consumer

is going to think the S8 is better because the

number is higher. It's the same thing that happened

when the PS3 and the Xbox 360 were announced,

because it was going to be the third PlayStation,

but it was only going to be the Xbox 2. What

looks like it's more advanced the ps3 or the

Xbox 2. Oh, I don't know Let's call it 360 because

then at least three will be in the number And

then we all saw what happened when Microsoft

called it the Xbox one Yeah, the X bone. It just

went right off a cliff and died so Yeah, I think

that's the only reason they went they jumped

right to an eight and skipped the 7s was a was

a marketing thing to just catch up. And I'm wondering

if they went with the 10. Obviously, it's the

10th anniversary, so that's why they went with

10. But also to kind of one up Samsung. Right.

But I also think that they might skip nine altogether

so they could be back in front of Samsung for

when Samsung comes up with their nine. Yeah,

like and it's dumb that that's the way it is.

But. I don't know, there's just too many design.

Too many concessions on the design of the iPhone

X for me to go I want that phone and I was I

really wanted I really want an iPhone with an

OLED panel I like the way that OLED phones look

But I was not willing it's it's not even that

I wasn't willing to pay the price I Was fine

with how much the phone costs because I don't

I'm I'm in the upgrade program. I don't pay a

thousand dollars up front I pay a monthly fee

to have the phone Which is fine But I couldn't

get over how this the stupid thing looked And

that kind of makes me just sad, you know, it

doesn't now I'm I Said this on Twitter to my

favorite iPhone designs Were have been the iPhone

4 and the 4s I like the glass sandwiched between

stainless steel. I like the way that looks. So

I'm really hoping the 8 carries that over because

it is glass wrapped with an aluminum band around

it this time. I am really excited about the wireless

charging. And the augmented reality stuff. Have

you messed around with that augmented reality

stuff? No, I've been kind of curious about what

What that that entails but I I haven't I did

watch a couple of videos of kind of seeing how

some of it works But it I was still didn't get

enough of a grasp of what I was Delving into

so again, I've been messing around with it on

an iPhone 7 and the iPhone 8 was kind of tailor

-made for AR But I've been trying to find a couple

interesting like scenarios to use so One I haven't

been able to try out yet is they have like a

planetarium app where You can you know, it doesn't

just show you like a map of the sky you can actually

kind of point your phone up in the sky and it

knows where you are, so it will overlay where

the constellations are supposed to be. So you

can see them. And if the space station flies

across wherever your camera is, it'll track it

on the display. That seems kind of neat. Never

really been one to stare at the sky, but that

might be able to make it a little fun. Another

one that I tried is a measuring app. Where you

kind of you scan the room and Then you can place

anchor points and measure the different the distance

between the two anchor points And that works

Fairly well, I was able to measure the my TVs

like pretty much perfectly You know on the horizontal

And I used it today when my wife and I were hanging

we were putting in new I Don't know what you

want to call them the the racks that you put

in your closet so you can hang your clothes on

them Yeah, yeah, we were putting one of those

in and I had to measure how wide the closet was

and So I was like, oh let me try this so I I

did a it took me a little while to get it to

work the right worked the right way. Because

remember, I'm working on a phone that's not 100

% made for AR, and I'm working with an app that

is the first version of itself. So it took me

a little while to get it to recognize where the

closet was in the virtual space. But once I did

it, I was able to be like, OK, here's this wall.

and I moved it across and I could see this little

blue line and it was showing me how far I'd gone

so far and I went over to the other wall and

I tapped it and then I was able to back away

from the closet and I could see the blue line

that I had made across the closet and it showed

me how far that distance was. And I could move

the camera around the room and I could come back

and that blue line would still be in my closet.

You can you can walk around taking measurements

all over the room and they will be there in this

virtual space that exists inside of your phone.

That's kind of cool. It is. And I so I did that.

And because I was having such a hard time recognizing

it, I also measured it with an actual tape measure.

And it was accurate within like three inches.

Which, you know, I honestly I don't know that

I would use an augmented reality tool. For my

final measurements for something that needed

to be cut but if you're trying to do like a Rough

estimate of something, you know, if you wanted

to get like the dimensions of a TV or a door

It probably pretty good and like this was just

a free one I don't know how good this app is

that I was actually using or anything like that,

but that was pretty cool and then I found a block

stacking game, okay where it You point it at

any level surface and then it makes that the

playing board and so this block slides back and

forth and you tap the screen when you want the

block to stop and Then it brings up another block

and you tap it when you want that one to stop

on top and you're stacking the block up and up

and up But if you miss a line the block Whatever

part of the block is hanging off for the side

gets chopped off and Then the next block to come

in is the same size as the block before it became

So you're constantly trying to stack up tinier

and tinier blocks and you end up making like

a skyscraper hmm, and when it's all done and

you eventually lose you can Step back from your

creation and like walk around it and see it from

all sorts of different angles. And it's pretty

neat. There's one that I found. It's an anatomy

app, where it puts a mannequin out in front of

you. And you can pull it apart and do an exploded

view. That could be pretty neat. But yeah, I've

had limited exposures so far. But it all seems

really cool. I don't know how some of the games

they've shown off have been. Seems like they'd

be pretty cool, but I don't know. I mean, I'm

not the biggest guy, biggest fan of motion controls.

So I don't know how much I would actually be

into something like that. But for now, it's a

fun thing to try on the phone. I'll give it that.

Yeah, I mean, I would be interested in trying

it out. I'm not sure to what degree and it would

kind of depend on what it is, but I don't know.

It's interesting technology anyway. It's weird.

It kind of comes across like a faux, like there's

a weather app I can get where it will set up.

They just added it in really quickly, but it

will set up. the if you point it at a counter

space and you activate the AR in front of on

your on your display on your phone or your iPad

or whatever it will pop up with this little weather

orb on the countertop that displays all the weather

for you so it's there's just weird things like

that that are kind of interesting i think some

of it would work better like on an ipad that

has a larger display so you don't feel so much

like you're looking through a small portal um

but i haven't really been able to try a lot of

it out yet and there's one more that came to

my mind oh i tried the ikea app ikea did an ar

app where you can go through their entire you

can scan a room and you can go through their

almost their entire catalog And put their products

in a room and see how it looks That's really

neat actually So that was that was kind of trippy

like I put a chair In the hallway of my upstairs

house and I walked around it I just threw a computer

chair like in the hallway just to see how it

actually worked and you can like drag it and

drop it and then you can walk around and see

it from different angles and I put a desk out

there and I pushed the chair up to the desk and

you can walk around and see It's it's interesting

right now. I've seen other use cases for AR which

is like street directions So like or or translation

like it will see words and translate it into

like like if you were I don't know in France

and There was like a street sign or a menu that

was in French You could point your phone at it

and it will convert it to English for you I Know

that that's a type of AR I would really like

to see that imagine AR is like a heads -up display

for the your for your world if you will But if

you're not wearing glasses all the time Yeah,

I knew they were doing the one with the translator

so Or like walking directions that that would

be kind of neat too, you know As everyone knows

it's really it's a good idea to walk with a phone

in front of your face So But that's kind of all

I got I know it all sounds like first world problems,

but I'm just really I'm just kind of disappointed

with how Just How shoddy everything's been or

how shoddy everything seems right now III that's

not why I I I fell in love with Apple. I fell

in love with Apple because everything was so

sleek and easy to use and it was very easy to

figure out what you're buying and to know why

you're buying it. And it seems like it's getting

harder to do that because they keep so many devices

around now for so long so they can accommodate

to so many people. And I don't think that that's

a bad thing because obviously they They become

like a major player. And I like when they use

that power. I don't wanna say power, but that's

what it is. I like when they use that power to

influence like the shape of things. And the fact

that they were able to get movie studios to agree

to $20 4K titles when other companies are selling

them. Other distributors are selling for $30

a piece and $20 is less than a physical copy

And I say I say that and I'm excited about it

and I'm not even a fan of digital media But the

fact that they were able to pull that off and

not only that they were able to Bend them over

the knee and say you can't double dip on these

purchases Like that's huge That's like a game

studio that's like We see that all the time in

gaming right now like you own a copy of a game

and you want the brand new like Remastered edition

for like So you had this game on the PlayStation

and we just remastered it when we put it on the

PlayStation 4 You still have your copy on PlayStation.

Oh, well too bad. You have to rebuy it Like that's

what that is. That's that's what that's the equivalent

of And, you know, Apple was like, no, they already

own it. They should be able to watch it this

way. Like, can you think of any other media where

you've heard of that happening? I can't. No.

Like, I mean, and that's money that they got

these companies to leave on the table. So and

I am seriously considering I've had. Many conversations

with my wife for the last two weeks. I When I

buy movies now, I only buy the 4k versions of

them and I'm seriously considering transitioning

to Buying my 4k movies digitally only now One

because the $20 price tag is Five to ten dollars

less than what I can get a physical 4k movie

for Not only that The 4K digital copies have

a better HDR standard than the 4K Blu -ray. Probably

because they cannot have to compress it to fit

on the disc. Well, it's because the digital stuff

uses Dolby Vision versus HDR10. Ah. And I don't

know if you know the difference between the two?

I actually do not. Okay. So... On the surface

level look at this one is free and the other

is proprietary, okay? HDR 10 is a fork of Dolby

vision so Dolby developed this high dynamic range

processing for Ultra HD content that enhances

that gives you greater color deeper blacks and

brighter whites and At a certain point they decided

okay from this point back. It's free from this

point forward. It's all proprietary to us So

you ended up with two standards one is HDR 10?

And the other one is Dolby vision So that's where

they came from now the way that they work is

the best way I've heard it described is you take

Like think of it as a set of stairs, okay, so

you've got like step One is like your your bottom

step and so it's like that's black step one is

black and Step ten is white like pure white so

you have ten different levels of Like color depth

if you will like brightness contrast I don't

really know how to explain it other than that

but like that is all you get to play with for

the entire movie so if you have a scene that

Like you have to compromise. It's like you you

have to figure out how to get an entire movie

all of its You know all about all the dark content

and all of the bright content to fit within this

rigid ten step platform of Brightness and darkness

so you can either end up with really bright whites

and really dark grays or Really deep blacks and

up and and maybe your whites aren't quite as

bright Okay, mm -hmm Because it's locked that

way Dolby vision is dynamic So when they're color

coding it or they're creating it for HDR they

can say okay in this scene It's going to be a

very dark scene so our our black is going to

be the bottom and that That's it for this particular

scene. And in the next one, it's going to be

full of color. So we don't need to have the floor

be black. We just need to push the high end of

all the colors and blow out the scene. And so

it's way more dynamic. And I've been able to

see the difference between the two. I've watched

Batman v Superman in 4K Blu -ray, and I've watched

it in 4K streaming. The 4K Blu -ray has HDR 10.

And the 4K streaming is in Dolby Vision. And

the color difference, and especially like the

dark scenes and with lights in general and the

lightning in that movie, it's night and day between

the two. And it's so baffling in my head to go,

the streaming version of this movie looks better

than the physical version of this movie. In my

head, that does not make any sense. And the only

thing I can attribute it to is the HDR, the difference

in the HDR standard. And the fact that there

is not a player on the market that supports Dolby

Vision right now, and there aren't any 4K Blu

-rays that have Dolby Vision content on them,

the only way to get that is with streaming content

or digital purchases. That's what's got me thinking

I might want to go digital only from now on I've

been wanting to go digital only for a while and

it's more so out of a purely I Don't have the

room to have all of these DVDs like over the

past year and a half. I've sold I don't know

like 90 % of my DVD collection And then I've

gotten digital for about 20 % of what I got rid

of. Just so that I didn't have to actually have

a physical copy of the stuff anymore. See, I'm

just not... I'm just fighting with that in my

brain. I'm not part of that good enough generation.

I know that physical media is going to be way

better than anything I can get streaming. And

I feel like that's going to be a nagging part

in the back of my head. But I still want to see

what does iTunes 4K look like? So I'm hoping,

like I said earlier, that my digital copies that

I've been able to redeem in iTunes, I'm hoping

I can watch those in 4K. If not, they have sucker

punch on there? in 4k which i cannot find a physical

version of sucker punch in 4k and unpopular opinion

but i love that movie but they have it on the

itunes store in 4k with dolby vision and it's

15 bucks like i can't beat that so i think that'll

be the first thing that i actually try to watch

and just see how it see if it can trick my mind

into Believing it's as good you know as the physical

media mm -hmm, but You know I'm I'm almost there

the only other letdown I can think of about the

Apple TV And this isn't even that big of a deal

is that the Apple TV doesn't support 4k Netflix

or not Netflix YouTube 4k YouTube And the reason

for that is because Google and YouTube use VP

9 And the Apple TV doesn't support VP9 So this

is gonna end up being one of those Flash versus

HTML5 battles The same yeah the same battle that

Apple waged when the iPhone came out So this

is gonna be that this is gonna be the battle

for the codec. It's gonna be the codec battle

so it'll be interesting to see if It's almost

going to be kind of like the format war of the

early 2000s and late 90s, early 2000s when everything

was either, it was either like real audio, quick

time or Windows player formats like ABI. Yeah,

but eventually all those players ended up supporting

a wide variety of codecs. Or they faded away.

Or yeah, or their code or the codex fell off

and so for a long time you've had You know Google's

had their own thing, but this is the first set

-top box. I've seen or that anyone can point

out that doesn't support VP9 and that's That's

solely because Apple and Google don't get along

And I it's gonna it's going to be interesting

to see if Because remember YouTube used to be

flash only and When they when the iPhone came

out and they couldn't it didn't play flash they

had to convert everything to mp4 So now everything

on iTunes is mp4 or not iTunes YouTube is mp4

Or or higher because now they have that VP 9

codec But it's going to be interesting to see

if Apple either incorporates the VP9 codec into

a future release of the tvOS, or if YouTube does

what they did before and starts encoding content

in both HEVC and VP9. I think it's going to get

really interesting really fast. Once we can see

you know what the number like once once we can

see if YouTube starts taking a hit you know from

Missing out on I don't I don't think that the

Apple TV is as widely popular as widely popular

as an iPhone. Don't get me wrong And I don't

think for I don't think the market is the same

as it was when the iPhone first came out I don't

know that Apple can necessarily muscle out a

codec Like they did with flash But it'll be interesting

to see them try So so yeah, we'll have to Stay

tuned to that to see what they do. Yeah the exciting

format codec wars No one cares about but me It's

it's still interesting because you never know

what's going to become irrelevant and That's

kind of the big thing You know what format I'm

really bummed never took off was AAC, the MP4

codec for audio. Yeah, I remember when that was

kind of a debate of whether podcasts wanted to

use the AAC or use MP3 to encode. And I know

for a little bit there, you did the AAC, didn't

you? I did it on an episode. To kind of try out

the chapter. Mark we are because there's there's

so many features in AAC that you can do you can

do chapter markers So when you do your show notes

and you embed them in the app you can just jump

right to that section in the audio And then you

could also I would imagine this is more of a

holdover to like the video iPod or like people

that Really look at a device when there's when

they're listening to a podcast or whatever But

with along with the chapter markers, you could

also change the album art cover Yeah, I knew

you could do that and I for a while there I kind

of wanted to play around with that and do that

as well But I found it to be kind of time -consuming.

I Guess it depends on the editing platform you're

using. Yeah. Well at the time I think when you

were doing that I was using like either Audacity

or Adobe Soundbooth. And for the amount of content

that we were pumping out at that time, I just,

I did not want to do that. And I was kind of

glad that I didn't because it never really took

off. I mean, it's still around and you can still

save as it, but no one really supports it. Well,

the other bummer about it too is it's way more

efficient than MP3. It keeps more of a lossless

Yeah, so you could have had how you could do

a higher quality audio podcast and you could

with mp3 at the same bit rate But the I used

and if I was doing a podcast still today, I would

still use it I use garage band And garage band

when you did an enhanced audio podcast You got

a there was a separate track That got laid across

the top And you would just say chapter marker

chapter marker chapter marker, and it would be

like right right over top of your entire timeline

So it was just chapter marker chapter marker

chapter marker And then you could be like you

could just drag a photo or whatever artwork you

wanted to incorporate You just drag that to the

chapter marker and you're done Nice, so that's

that's one of the reasons why I was never like

I only did on one one episode But it was it was

so easy to do because they just made it All that

extra work was just a separate track and when

you're already the way I did it when I was juggling

Three or four separate audio tracks Into into

one podcast a fifth track That was just you know,

that just consisted of like four chapter markers

was like nothing so But no, I that was that was

one of the you know, that's just another one

of those format things but Yeah, it's yeah, so

it'll be interesting to see what comes of all

this But yeah, I think I think that's about it

for the Apple stuff. I know a lot of people aren't

the biggest fans I the only thing I can I can

say that In my mind, I never expect Apple to

be first to the party for anything But I expect

them to have the best implement the best implementation

of something when they do show up to the party

And I guess the thing I can say about the iPhone

10 is that that is not it So Yeah, we'll have

to Have to see how well this thing goes over

as the weeks progress Well, it's not the iPhone

10 also isn't available to order until the end

of October and isn't going to be available until

the first week of November. So it'll be a little

while before anyone has one in their hands. Yeah,

I kind of reported a little bit on the news of

the iPhone last episode and I came to the conclusion

that I was the wrong person to be talking about

the iPhone. So I was like, you know what? I was

like, hey, you got to be available? Yeah. I knew

you would know more about it being a follower

of the Apple product line. I'm just really disappointed

by it. The iPhone 8, I love. The iPhone X, I

am disappointed by. That's really all I can say.

We'll take a quick break right here and then

come back on the other side with a final topic

before we close it off. And we're back so I Don't

know if you had noticed this a couple weeks ago.

I was a guest on another podcast Okay, I don't

think so I I Don't usually get a lot of time

to look at Twitter. Yeah, I know I live on Twitter

compared to Facebook III lurk on Facebook No,

have you ever heard of the podcasters' roundtable?

No, I'll say no. Okay. Well, anyways, there's

a couple of podcasters that have been at it probably

as long as or a little bit less time. It kind

of varies on their depth into the podcasting.

territory. But they have podcasts that focus

on the art of podcasting and they kind of do

it as a professional thing. So they host this

podcasters roundtable on Google Hangouts, however

that transpires now. We figured it out eventually.

Yeah, they figured out how to do it the other

way somehow. still to have more of the access,

which was different. I'm not entirely sure how

that worked. So I'll have to play around with

that a little bit. Some of the features I take

it are kind of buried, but they invited me to

join and guest host along with another guy on

the record. And we talked about the because it

was their hundredth episode of the show, they

wanted to talk to people that had gotten over

that hump of 100 episodes. All of us there had

at least gotten over 200 for the most part. I

did see this. I did see something about this.

Go on. It was kind of interesting to jump into

this conversation because... For somebody who's

been doing this as long as I have since 2007

I still learned something new and that was I

was trying for a while to kind of try and hit

these certain time restraints on certain shows

or Trying to talk about topics that Didn't really

make sense for me to even be mentioning if I

was going to a sit there and bash them without

anything to follow it. Something constructive.

In the vein of what we started in this podcast

when we talked about DC and their whole, the

Batman aspect of going through the different

stages of grief. They've kind of brought a little

bit of that up and then the fact that a podcast

should be as long as it needs to be. There's

some 10 minute podcasts that are too long and

then there's some two hour podcasts that aren't

long enough. In that regard, it can go any which

way. It's kind of like the Kogel slogan. Was

it made up to a quality, not down to a price?

Yeah. So it kind of stuck with me a little bit.

I was, for a while they were trying to hit most

of my shows around the 45 minute to an hour mark

on, and it wasn't just the show, it was just

any of them. And I kind of took that to heart

to say, if the conversation's going good, if

the topics are flowing, keep going. You know,

if not, then, you know, cut the pain. Let it

go. Yep. Let it go. and Kind of speaking in that

same vein there's gonna be a little bit of revamping

coming to some of the GCR and in By the end of

the year beginning of next year As far as some

of the the podcasts are concerned because I don't

know about how the others feel about it, but

I'm going to be Condensing some of my shows because

I have a lot of show concepts But I'm going to

kind of like I'm still the funny thing is is

I kind of started retracking the metrics of a

lot of the shows Okay, and I'm kind of going

with that cost analysis of whether it's pertinent

to keep doing certain shows Based on the metrics,

okay So I'm kind of going through some of our

content and I'm like, okay Even out of the retired

stuff, the show that is getting the most downloads

was not the one I expected to be getting the

most downloads. And it's my original first podcast.

And it gets 7 ,000 downloads a month or something

like that. Which is insane for its transformers.

Which I did not expect that. And then our retired

Tooncast classic, which ended in 2011, still

gets well over 6 ,000 some downloads. As opposed

to a lot of the other shows that don't really

play into that same realm. But most of our shows

that are animated based get the most downloads.

This is actually, I think, the highest rated

non -animated series show. Okay, which makes

me feel good that should yeah I'm well over 200

episodes, so I feel proud of it so But yeah,

so I mean I had a lot of fun in that conversation

and that that Google hangout was really cool

to actually be guesting on another show that

I literally just showed up for and And talked

about a topic and it wasn't anything Pop culture

wasn't anything Film or or anything in that regard

it was just strictly on being a podcaster Which

I don't really talk about all that much anymore

So it was kind of refreshing Okay, I don't know

I just bringing it up no, it's good So why don't

you tell me about the the game you've been playing

Oh, so yeah, I've been I've been very fortunate

the last Month and a half I've I don't know if

I said this last time I was on the podcast or

not. I've stopped giving a damn So much about

work So more often than not I'm kind of able

to relax and maybe enjoy myself a little bit

more It gets a little easier. I'm waiting for

this to come back around and kick me in the ass

or kick me in the butt or For things just to

get rough again and make me want to quit all

over again but I'm not there yet and One of the

games I've been looking forward to since June

when Nintendo got up Or not got up on stage,

but when they had their little E3 Nintendo Direct

They got up there and they blew everyone's minds

by announcing two particular games one being

Metroid for and the other one being Metroid Samus

returns Which is a remake of Metroid to the return

of Samus for the Game Boy They announced Samus

returns for the Nintendo 3ds and I promptly pre

-ordered that game Because I am a big Metroid

fan Now I do not care for Granted I haven't played

it, but I didn't hear anything good about other

M that made me want to play it But I've enjoyed

every other Metroid title And it's the it's the

Nintendo franchise that I enjoy the most and

it's the Nintendo franchise that Seems to have

the least amount of games for it That being said

I've never played Metroid 2 because it was on

the Gameboy. I was never I was never really into

game Gameboy games. I don't do portable games

very well Do you play games on your phone? I

you know funny enough I used to play Transformers

Earth Wars, okay And I played it for quite some

time. I think I started playing it around June

of 2016 is when I first downloaded it and I think

I stopped playing it about February when I started

playing Star Trek online Yeah, I don't I don't

I have a the only game I play okay, so The only

games I've played for any length of time on my

phone was a game called Flight Control which

came out with the iPhone 3G and all you did was

planes would come in from around the screen and

you'd trace a line for them to land on an airport

on a runway. And only certain planes could land

on certain runways and you had to do like air

traffic control. I played a ton of that and I've

been playing a ton of another game recently called

Alto's Adventure which is just an endless runner

where you tap the screen to jump. But you're

a snow you're a snowboarder, so it's kind of

like that ski free game on Windows Okay, I'm

very familiar with that that's old but it's but

it's a side scrolling game So it's a side scroller

instead of going you know top down down the mountain

anyways I played a ton of that other than that

I Don't get into mobile gaming. I just don't

do it, but I own a 3ds and I own a PlayStation

Vita But I've only ever played like two games

on either system and the one on the Vita was

the Batman Arkham game. Was it Blackgate? Yes.

I think. Yeah, I played that and that's a Metroidvania

style game. And then I on my 3DS, I own a fair

number of games, but really my wife just primarily

uses it to play Pokemon. But I jumped at the

chance to buy a Metroid title. Not only that,

a remake of a game I never played. And it is.

I was excited about the game, but I was worried

about the game because there's a difference between

like you can get excited about a game and then

when you start hearing about like all the stuff

that they added and you start thinking about

like the control layout of like the controller

you go I don't know if my brain can handle all

this stuff or is it going to be fun to manage

all this stuff like given like just the way that

you know controllers are and So I pre -ordered

it. I got it. I was super excited And I was kind

of worried about the controls going into it,

but at the end of the day it is It is so good

So good it would if I was still doing off the

cuff or I was doing like a top five game of the

like game of the year list like we did on off

the cuff or XRG or geek stuff garage cast like

it would be on that list and It is if you're

a fan and you have a 3ds you need to buy this

game The the mechanics it feels really good to

play the the controls aren't convoluted They're

very simple despite the all the extra stuff that

they added in the game and all the extra powers

They gave you there's a lot of quality of life

improvements that they made to the game. That

just makes it more It's still a Metroid game

at heart, but it makes it a lot easier to play

today, like with today's game mechanics. One

of the cases, one of the uses, one of the examples

in there is Metroid games have always been about

exploring, and they always have hidden things

in the rooms and stuff, so you'd have to go in

and you'd have to bomb all the walls or... You

know in Super Metroid you could get like an x

-ray x -ray vision and kind of scan a room really

quick to see if there's anything that you could

blow up or anything but in this game there's

a special ability you can get where it sends

out a pulse and it covers a very wide area of

the map and Not only does it uncover a portion

of the map for you. It also highlights what rooms

have something in it it And if you're just looking

at the map, it doesn't tell you where in the

room it is. It just says that this room has something.

So if you go in there and you fire it off again,

it will show you what blocks can be destroyed

in order to uncover whatever it is you're trying

to uncover. Which is really cool. And there's

other abilities where they make you immune to

damage until a power bar runs out. If you're

having trouble with a boss, you can fill up your

health tanks and you can fill up your special

meter and you can go in and you kind of get like

a second chance to get hit a couple times before

you actually start taking damage. It's just a

lot of fun. I've been playing it with headphones.

The music is so good. It's very atmospheric for

what it is. And. I I tried it originally with

the 3D turned on. on the 3DS, and it looks beautiful.

Especially on the 3DS, I feel like the 3DS looks

amazing in 3D, but the original 3DS has such

a narrow window for where 3D actually works,

that it's better to play with the 3D turned off,

and when you turn the 3D off, the games look

okay. but if you can even turn them on like on

the on like the lowest setting they really do

pop and this game especially pops in 3d um because

it's like a two and a half d metro game so the

backgrounds will go on forever because you're

in like an underground cavern and it just it's

it's just really good and for someone that doesn't

really care for 3d for me saying that i feel

like that adds something to it um but i'm so

excited to be playing it i i'm I have to make

myself stop playing it. I will sit down. For

a DS game, I've probably played it for about...

I had to check the timer, but maybe five or six

hours now. Maybe more, and I'm not even halfway

through the game. I've only found half of the

power -ups that you can get through your adventure.

I haven't unlocked everything. Like I just said,

there are doors that I haven't been able to get

through yet because I don't have the right power

up. And in playing it, you know, with gaming,

there are certain things that you just you never

want to say or you never want to see done. They're

called like the sacred cows. And I feel like

one of those is Super Metroid. That's just one

of those games that people talk about it. Being

awesome and it is Super Metroid is an amazing

game, but you never hear anyone go. I wish they

would remake this And I never said that until

I played this game Like I want Super Metroid

remade in this same art style like don't you

don't need to This is a Samus returns is a remake

of a gameboy game And you can't there's really

no way to do an HD or an HD remaster of a Gameboy

game. You have to remake the whole thing from

the ground up. And they added a lot to it, like

I said, but if they were to remake Super Metroid,

all I'd want them to do is redo the visuals in

this same style. Because I feel like Super Metroid

already has a lot of the quality of life improvements

that this game has. But yeah, I've never said

that I've never heard anyone say that and now

it's all I can think about is I Want I want to

play Super Metroid and I want it to look like

this I doubt it will ever happen, but it would

be awesome if it did and it's just I feel dirty

saying that But but this game is that good and

it could also be that the fact that it's been

Almost a decade since the last good Metroid game

came out so I Don't know it's it's just really

good or it could be the fact that it's the first

Like game that I've really played in over a year

The last one being uncharted 4 which is last

I played over a weekend last September and I

didn't really care for Other than that, I've

played a lot of Overwatch over the last year,

but I don't count over Overwatch isn't like a

Doesn't count as playing a game to me because

there's no end to it But this This is just I

don't know. This is something else. This is it

feels really good to play this I have a lot of

fun playing it The only reason I'm trying to

make myself stop playing it is that I have to

fly out to California next week For training

and I want to take it with me when I go out there,

but I don't want to finish it Until I'm out there

like I want I want to be able to play it while

I'm out there I don't want to finish it before

I go So that's why I'm like I have to make myself

stop playing it because I want it to last longer

See that's about all all I've really got To talk

about this week. But yeah, if you have a if you

have a 3ds And you're a fan of Metroid or you've

never played a Metroid game You should play this

game So I I've been playing Continuing to play

Star Trek online and they came out with episode

13 .5 Which essentially was a 10 minute episode?

That's that's exactly how long it takes to play

it in game and They have Levar Burton coming

back to play Geordi and he's the captain of his

own ship and then they they revisited the the

Nexus the Star Trek Generations McGuffin for

bringing Kirk into the future and they have some

criminal who is locked away in this thing and

You you essentially fight him in the ship and

that he's taken over and You fight the ship another

ship that he takes over and then That's the end

of that episode. It takes exactly 10 minutes

to play and then they're coming out with episode

14 in about a week which will further continue

the storyline. Don't know too much about it other

than the fact that LeVar Burton is coming back

for most of it and it's pretty cool to see some

of the actors come into the game and be characters

you interact with. The fun part though is I was

playing the digital exchange on there for so

long that I had made a certain amount of electronic

credits in the game. And it didn't take me really

that long, but I bought the Kelvin Timeline Enterprise.

Yeah, you told me about this. And I've got it

all souped up now, and now I'm starting to regain

my... money value in the game, which I'm not

sure what I'm gonna get when I get to that point,

but I'm gonna use that somehow. So I've been

playing that, and then two days, or no, today,

I think, yeah, it was today, I got access to

the closed alpha of Battlefield one incursions

So I wasn't sure if I was gonna get access to

this Because I I was one of the fortunate ones

to get access to battlefield one when it was

on closed alpha and Then I got her and then I

got the beta of the game and then I got it on

EA access During the free trial or for five bucks

for that week before the game actually came out

and then I got the game And then earlier this

year I bought the The premium pass For the game

and I've just kind of sat on it. I've played

it occasionally here or there, but I haven't

really played it all that much and then I saw

that this Incursions was getting ready to come

out and It's supposed to be more of a tightly

focused map first -person shooter type thing

with more tactical Things that test your skills

and in teamwork because it kind of forces you

to work in a team Whereas in the regular game

you can kind of just every man for himself So

I figured you know, I'll try and then I got the

email today saying that I was accepted into the

the alpha To try it out. So I'm looking forward

to playing that and figuring out how well that

that plays Hmm yeah, I just like I said, I don't

have a lot of time for games There's a lot of

games. I want to play this is probably one of

them. I I don't have that Yeah, I don't play

a lot of games. I don't have a lot of time for

it Between everything that that that happens

and then all the things I want to accomplish

when I get my free time, so it's it's not I Maybe

play I for a minute there. I was getting to play

Every evening for a while when I when I had battlefield

one originally set up and then it kind of I started

getting this burned out phase where I was more

so catching up on TV and then doing a lot more

podcasting and I got to this burnout stage where

I was just like, I just want to sit and veg.

I don't even want to have to load up a game or

do anything. So this is one of the two that I'm

going to be playing for a while. Yeah, I know

how that goes So anything else you want to bring

up before we call it a call it a night? No, I

think I am I'm good to go awesome so yeah People

can interact with the show on Twitter by using

the hashtag What's geeky to you so that we have

a nice little conversation piece every episode?

You can get a hold of me on Twitter at scp21

or at alteredgeek and they can get a hold of

you on the Twitter's at what? At boothninja81

So until next time, get altered, get geeky with

the Altered Geeks! Bye! Today's show is brought

to you by Gamefly .com. Sign up for a premium

free 30 day trial, specifically for viewers of

Altered Geek. So go to Gameflyoffer .com slash

Altered Geek. That's Gameflyoffer .com slash

Altered Geek for your free 30 day trial.