Flipping Tables

Smash Bros. is still fun after all these years. Mike and Lyons are going to track their internet usage. And the #SOTU shall be tweeted, youtubed, instagramed, and other Web 2.0 buzz words. Will policy actually improve though? That remains to be seen.

CES 2015 is over and we're not going to recap it because we're better than that, but we will talk about it. Just the interesting parts though. Promise. Also, RealPlayer thinks they're a startup now?

Marriott proves they hate you by blocking your wifi devices. Mike and Lyons still haven't found the wearables they're looking for. And fan-made games are sometimes better than the originals; particularly when they play themselves!

Get any good games for Christmas? Too bad you didn't get to play them thanks to DDoS attacks against the PSN and Xbox Live. At least you had the option to watch The Interview on Youtube. Win?

Lyons spends a week with Mike's Pebble smartwatch. And the Sony hack. 300TB of data stolen, a (likely terrible) movie canceled, thousands of employees personal information exposed. It's bad, baby. Real bad.

Lyons rights an ancient wrong by finally playing GoldenEye. Teens play Megaman and are surprisingly optimistic about how bad they are. Gangnam Style actually breaks Youtube. And Pebble finds a way to stay in the game a little longer.

Square Enix continues trolling the world by releasing the original FFVII on PS4 like it was a big deal, and the 3D version of FFIV on Steam as if that was the version we wanted. Suikoden proves some games can cast off RPG tropes. Wire is yet another revolutionary chat app. And Google fixes the CAPTCHA.

How do you deal with rape threats on the internet? Tell the perpetrator's mother! Twitter is spying on the apps you have installed because they can't stop being terrible. Apple breaks its own rules and sends unwanted push notifications. Flickr decides to sell your photos. And Google makes paying to remove ads an option.

How has Nintendo avoided shipping broken games? Maybe skipping DLC holds you to a higher standard. Uber's awfulness hopefully paves the way for competition. And Lyons geeks out of Final Fantasy VI.

Turns out metagaming is not optional for some people. The world is confused by the world of Twitter and their craziest mission statement in the world. Sometimes the best thing doesn't win. And when did shipping unplayably broken games become okay? Answer: never!

Unlike Comcast internet speeds, the firehose of their BS never slows down. Luckily they have a bought and paid for politician to make ridiculous statements about net neutrality. The Verge thinks the iPhone had a perfect security record, and Microsoft Research has some killer touchscreen tech.

If talking about meta-gaming is a kind of meta-gaming then we're all meta-gamers now! CurrentC does us all a favor and proves that it's a joke prior to release, smalltowns are NFC poor, and region locked gaming is confirmed to be dumb.

Inbox by Google isn't a reinvention of email per se, but it is pretty damn good. CurrentC on the other hand is total crap as an app and for consumers. With the ridiculous ease of use of Apple Pay and Google Wallet would anyone really prefer to scan QR codes? QR codes?!

War. War Never changes. Except when it does. Follow Mike and Lyons down the rabbit hole as they try to summarize all of modern philosophy, and discuss their experiences hate playing difficult games.

Mobile payments are trying to replace our wallets but Mike suspects the road will be a long one. The Snappening has leaked Snapchat photos while Snapchat skirts responsibility, and you too can become internet famous for the low low price of $68.

Mike finally gets credit for an under-appreciated joke, Spoiler alert: spoilers aren't that big of a deal (OR ARE THEY?), Shadows of Mordor turns you into a bad person but that's okay, and Lyons rage quits Windows.

Shellshock is another "the internet is doomed" bug, the Yahoo Directory apparently still exists but not for much longer, Ello is pretty ugly for a "designer built" product, and iPhones bend when enough pressure is applied. With all that said, have you ever dollar sign hash placid fourteen mapped your way to a national park?

A great big ethereal conversation about Getting Things Done, Bullet Journal, notetaking, and the burdensome systems we all use to be "productive." Do you really need your Twitter archive stored away for all time? John Cleese says creative problem solving and doing work are two different modes and who are we to argue?

The Apple Watch gets a brief mention because that's all it deserves. U2 and Urban Outfitters inspire a discussion about stupid decisions and the subsequent PR backlashes, as we also take a look at the Bullet Journal and Opp.io. Is there a journaling system that Mike can succeed with?

Roguelikes were always awesome, and they're making a comeback thanks to indie devs and mobile gaming. And speaking of indie devs, some of them are being harassed by assholes in the gaming community. Do you think they should stop? (Trick question; they should definitely stop.) Also, what should we call smartphones now?