News Roundup, Netflix and Future Updates!

Hi, this is David Kay, and you're listening to

Altered Geek. Geek. Geek. Geek. Geek. Hello and

welcome to Altered Geek. I'm your host, Steve

Megatron. In this adventure into geekdom, well,

it's gonna be some news and, well, some just

light discussion. I, first of all, want to thank

you for tuning in. And I'm not sure what platform

you guys are listening to or listening from,

but if you can let me know in the comments section

on the episode post at geekcastradio .com, that'd

be awesome. Just so I know where to kind of put

my efforts and where things are kind of going

as far as like the podcast downloads, I can see

general data, but honestly, I prefer to hear

it from the listener's mouth. So some of you

may have noticed if you were an old Google podcast

subscriber that we did not have any of our programs

on YouTube podcasts. Well, that has changed this

past week. I have gotten us set up with a number

of shows on the YouTube area. And what I mean

by that is we have at least the twenty twenty

four episodes. I didn't see value in posting

older stuff just to boost the YouTube channel

or to have ads or things flagged by copyright

So I I opted to just upload things from 2024

and so I did all things transformers podcaster

meets world geek cast radio studio 2009 the beast

unleashed tune cast the cyber Dragon Ball altered

track and altered geek so It will automatically

update its synchronizing. Hopefully we don't

have the issue. We had Google podcast or Google

play music where They would randomly change the

RSS feed on me. So it was super annoying and

honestly, I'm kind of glad that That platform

went the way of the dodo So with that that being

said I'm gonna bring back a couple of the segments

like question of the week. So When was the last

episode you really felt engaged with? Like what

was the topic? What was something that really

intrigued you and brought you in and made you

feel a part of the conversation? I'm I'm kind

of revisiting the show and kind of reiterating

things and redesigning and trying to basically

make it more of a conversation and less of just

hey let's report the news uh type situation so

that being said i do have some news uh or top

stories and geekdom and i i've been pulling these

from all over the place some of them are outdated

and old and so i'm not going to bring those up

anymore according to my script because i've quite

honestly been trying to sit down and record this

episode for two weeks and I recently got Dragon

Ball Z or Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, the Budokai

Tenkaichi 4, technically. And I've been playing

that when I'm not recording with Mike and kind

of using my free time to just, I don't know,

unwind. It's been a it's been a crazy year, a

lot of busyness, a lot of stuff going on at work,

a lot of schedule issues, a lot of just a lot

going on. So I'm trying to. get some gaming back

in to just kind of unwind at the end of the night.

But I do have some initiatives that I'm working

on for Geekcast Radio. When I get closer to that

or I get something cemented, I will tease it

here on the podcast as far as what I'm planning.

But I think this this might go over pretty well

and it might be something fun to try. It's not

a podcast, though. So there's a couple of things

I'm working on, to be honest. And I don't want

to like come right out and say them because there's

been times I've been on the podcast and I've

been like, hey, I really want to do this and

I'm going to do this. And then time happens and

it never comes to fruition. So I am working on

some new ideas. I don't know if they're going

to pay off and if they don't, I'll just tell

it anyway at some point. But. At at this juncture,

I do have some things planned for Q1 2025 So

without further ado, let's get into the top stories

and geeked them. So Netflix funny enough I saw

this this article on LinkedIn about streaming

customers hitting pause on streaming subscriptions

because and then resubscribing later because

of you know rising costs and saying that, you

know, they. It's not that they don't want to

be subscribed, it's the fact that budgets are

tight and, you know, some are using flexible

plans and promos to retain customers as many

kind of bounce between streaming platforms like

Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and all the like.

Netflix, however, is again innovating. where

a lot of the others are not. Netflix is expanding

into live programming. So for instance, like

an upcoming boxing match between Jake Paul and

Mike Tyson, which I honestly don't give a rip

about, but it's it's kind of interesting. But

I do find it funny that it's saying basically

that people are pausing their subscriptions,

not totally outright canceling. You know, some

like I don't. Technically need services all year

round. I don't watch stuff enough for that But

then again like I I do enjoy kind of vegging

and having that content available I do have digital

stuff on a drive here of just old movies. I've

ripped over the years and things that I've physically

owned at one point and then I've I've also got

like a a select amount of DVDs and Blu -rays

remaining. And there's some that I'm eyeing to

purchase in the near future. Just kind of depends

on budget again. But there's there's some series

that I'd like to get my hands on because they're

not that terribly expensive, especially with

animation. But, yeah, I'm. I'm. Thinking it's

funny that. There's there's a lot more pressure

on these streaming platforms as more have come

into the space And as they all continue to raise

prices and have to make it worthwhile to stay

open The the fact that people are looking for

more bundles basically cable more full -year

discounts more deals with with like mobile companies

and I mean looking at Comcast for instance, they

you know had budgetary Promos for like a year.

I have to call them up every year to renegotiate

my contract because it's ridiculous how much

it goes up at the end of the promo like I I get

the 300 megabyte download speeds presently and

I think it's like 10 or 15 megabyte up and I

think it's regular like $74 a month and Well,

it's not horrible. It's not in my budget and

I would just as soon take a speed cut to make

it stay within my budget. My budget is low because

I choose to make it that way. I was paying $50

a month for the same thing, and then I got a

promo again for $40 a month. And so they kind

of tiptoe back and forth. And at one point I

was paying $20 a month and then I went to. you

know 30 35 40 45 50 and now i'm back down to

40 so it's just it's this weird road where things

kind of go back and forth but uh the the other

thing i wanted to highlight with netflix specifically

is that they're debuting a clip sharing feature

which is honestly kind of welcoming to their

service because they they want you to share their

content, just not with accounts. They have this

new feature and I haven't seen it and this was

like two weeks ago and I'm not sure if it's still

available or like where it's available or if

there's certain programs that it's available.

I haven't really looked into it all that much,

but. It allows you to save clips from shows and

movies for rewatching or sharing on social media

The moments option is available immediately on

iPhones. Okay, this is why I haven't seen it

and will roll out on Android within a few weeks

It's meant to the boost discussion about Netflix

programs something the streaming giant Might

want after seeing new subscriptions plateaus

Subscription fatigue is a thing. It's just unavoidable.

There's so many subscriptions now that people

are just looking for alternatives and just getting

free, whether that's with software or streaming

platforms like switching to Tubi. There's plenty

on Tubi I'll watch. So it's not I don't care

about watching ads. But. Yeah, they. They're

they're concerned because of a plateau, however,

they've had their most. profitable quarter ever,

but they they basically want to gamify and memeify

their their content to create moments with people

to build these Build these these interest points

for the different programs and get people interested

in watching it kind of like I I feel like they're

almost playing and dabbling with like a YouTube

format in a sense with some of this but I don't

know. We'll see. It's basically like a YouTube

short, but with legit movie content or TV content.

So, yeah, I'm interested to see where they go

from here. So I also I also saw a few other articles

on LinkedIn. One of them is like a particular

podcast. It's a favorite. Isn't even real. It's

it's done by notebook L .M. Google. And it's.

Basically something that will help. Turn text

it it uses Gemini 1 .5, but it turns. Things

from. Sources and you can have it. personalize.

It's basically a research assistant. So you can

upload PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio

files, Google Docs, slides, and it will summarize

them and make interesting connections between

topics all powered by their Gemini 1 .5. I'm

interested in this for a couple of reasons, just

show note research for podcasts. Not that I want

to take away the human element at all, like I

don't. But I was also thinking for like instance

altered track there's Tons of lore to go through

and I don't want to misquote. I don't want to

take things from like Wikipedia. I do like the

Memory Alpha wiki that's available because it

is curated and they do keep up -to -date on that.

However I don't know if anybody remembers when

I did future imperfect. I Did the L cars segment

and it was the memory, you know library computer

system for the enterprise D and they later use

it on everything, but I I used that as a method

to Tell like kind of cliff notes of the season

that we were covering or the episodes or things

like that So that we could kind of get into the

meat and potatoes of it in the episode and so

I'm looking at this again to Take advantage of

it so that it will physically read the content

For me at least so that I can use it on The episodes

in that segment specifically like it would still

be a discussion with Mike and I and I finally

gotten Progress as far as a theme song for that

show And so I know you guys have heard the new

theme for Altered Geek. You've heard the new

one for All Things Transformers. And then Altered

Trek has its own. Finally, the Cyber Dragon Ball

has one that I'll be debuting when I do the next

episode. And so I'm trying to. Yes, they're AI

songs. Yes, I've been hyper picky about them.

But at the same time, I don't want to. get flagged

with copyright because that's a big thing in

the industry right now and yeah, so I Don't know

I'm I'm looking at reviving a bunch of shows

I don't know if I have the time to like I'd like

to bring back the internet Pathfinder the cyber

Dragon Ball this show I do all things transformers

with Mike and So, yeah, I'm looking at reviving

a bunch of old programs and bringing them into

the fold. But we've also got a GeekCast radio

store, which one of my ideas would be in that

for the future. And we also have merch there.

And I'll be adding more with a lot of the quotes

from the hosts over the coming month or so. But

I'm super excited for that and the prospects

of being able to sell the merch. I'm excited

for If we so choose in the future, we could do

a membership subscription. However, like the

podcast would no matter what would remain free,

it would simply be for like bonus content or

early access to stuff. It would not be it would

not be to get the podcast themselves. Additionally,

if I were to do that, the the place that I have

this store set up would. Also have an app and

I could use the app and allow people to like

kind of communicate with us and Stream that content

to this app and they could also buy product and

and all that so I I'm super happy with the partnership

with fourth wall calm and I'm happy with how

the things turned out there But yeah, I mean

this is Kind of just a quick update. I had more

topics, but sadly they've kind of all been too

long to really talk about it. I mean, we've got

kind of a lot of things I could just do like

Cliff note additions of, like the Velma series

was finally canceled, which I felt was kind of

crap. The Tomb Raider Netflix series was halfway

decent. It wasn't bad, but it could have been

better. The Warner Brothers Joker sequel flopped,

which I saw that coming because the first one

I felt like was crap. And then and then, of course,

like the Internet Archive way back machine was

hacked and then they were down and now they're

finally back up, but at a different capacity.

So. Then and then of course Disney is going or

not Disney Netflix is going for less is more

like film plans like they're they're looking

to make less films and kind of make them more

budget -friendly for them and additionally Disney

is to replace Bob Iger in 2026 which again like

all of these things are just a multitude of Interesting

prospects and entertainment so Anyhow, I have

more planned for the future. I do. I'm just waiting

for my work schedule to kind of die down some.

Would you guys want to hear about like Sparking

Zero or some of the other things that are kind

of interesting me that I've been delving into

either like technically with a website or with

podcasting or some of my articles or Just things

like that. Just let me know feedback at GeekCastRadio

.com. You can, of course, comment on this post

on Facebook or on the website GeekCastRadio .com.

So until next time. Get altered get geeky with

the alter geeks Continues sci -fi dreams With

every episode we'll unravel the themes Let's

geek out and laugh, keep the spirits high Together

we'll journey reaching for the sky Join the discussion,

let's dive into lore From Star Trek to Transformers,

we're ready to soar Superheroes clash as we spark

up the flame podcast remember the name