Orion Flew and Almost Nobody Noticed
Orion's first test flight went up Friday after a scrubbed Thursday attempt, and it barely made a dent in tech headlines buried under Sony hack coverage. Notes from watching it live at 7 AM.
Orion Almost Flew Today
NASA tried to launch the Orion capsule on its first test flight this morning and scrubbed it three times before giving up for the day. A play-by-play from someone who set an alarm for nothing.
Cyber Monday Set a Record and I Still Got Screwed by a Loading Spinner
Cyber Monday broke another record this year, $2.04 billion spent online, but my own Monday was mostly declined cards, hung checkout pages, and a $39 Fire TV Stick I paid full price for anyway.
Apple Pay, Cyber Monday, and the Terminal That Said No
A first real-world test of Apple Pay on Cyber Monday, including the one store where it flat-out refused to work, and why.
The Store That Closed on Black Friday
REI closed all 143 stores for Black Friday and paid employees to stay home instead — a look at #OptOutside, Apple Pay's first big shopping weekend, and why "doorbuster" pricing barely means anything anymore.
My Black Friday Apple Pay Fail at CVS
Apple Pay worked everywhere on Black Friday except CVS, where the chain quietly killed its NFC terminals to protect the still-unreleased, already-breached CurrentC app.
The Sony Hack and the Boring Reason Nobody's Shocked
The Sony Pictures hack has everyone talking about who did it, but what's stuck with me all week is how unsurprised I am it worked in the first place.
Alexa, Meet God View
Still waiting on my Amazon Echo invite, and this week's Uber privacy mess has me thinking harder than I'd like about what it means to put an always-listening microphone on my kitchen counter.
The Fire TV Stick's Whole Pitch Is a Plastic Remote
A few days living with Amazon's new $39 Fire TV Stick next to my old Chromecast, and why the thing I didn't expect to matter (a physical remote) is the whole selling point.
GTA V on PC: The Download Took Longer Than the Weekend
GTA V finally landed on PC last week, and between the 65GB download and a Social Club login meltdown on launch day, actually playing it took longer than expected.
Fire TV Stick Showed Up and Now My TV Has Too Many Remotes
My Fire TV Stick showed up this week and mostly won me over, while Halo: The Master Chief Collection's multiplayer is still a mess for everyone I know.
Firefox Swapped Google for Yahoo and I'm Weirdly Conflicted
Mozilla just swapped Google out for Yahoo as Firefox's default search engine. I tried Yahoo results for an actual bug I was debugging and have thoughts.