Tech Tales

Saygus, and its CEO Chad Sayers, made headlines in 2015 when it revealed the Saygus V SQUARED smartphone. Many broken promises and shipping delays later, Chad Sayers became the center of a U.S. Justice Department investigation. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Katie Janzen. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fediverse: https://mas.to/@techtales Suppor...

Internet Explorer became the center of an antitrust lawsuit from the United States in 1998, the same year it started shipping with Windows and became the most-used web browser worldwide. While Microsoft battled in the courtroom, a new version was released for Windows, and the Mac browser had its swan song. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.c...

Watch Hackers: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/cybernet Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Zachary Wander and Joe Fedewa. Outro music is "Eyes, Lips, Body" (Mekon Vocal Mix) by Ramshackle. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fediverse: https://mas.to/@techtales Support the Show: https://techtalesshow.com/support

Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser continued to rise throughout 1997, including a new release (4.0) and a deal with Apple to make it the default browser on the Mac. However, before the year was out, the United States Justice Department was ready to intervene. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fediv...

Internet Explorer slowly gained market share throughout 1995 and 1996, with the release of two major updates and a slew of corporate partnerships. Behind closed doors, Microsoft fought against PC makers that wanted to support IE's main competitor, Netscape Navigator. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fedi...

The World Wide Web as we know it today began to take shape in the early 1990s, fueled by the popularity of the Mosaic web browser. Microsoft licensed Mosaic's code to create Internet Explorer, which would go on to change the entire computer industry. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fediverse: https://ma...

Microsoft created an online chatbot called 'Tay' in March 2016, intended to test the limits of artificial intelligence and machine learning on social media platforms. Less than 24 hours later, Tay went off the rails. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Joe Fedewa. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fediverse: https://mas.to/@techtales Support the Show: h...

This special episode is a compilation of outtakes from recording the first 30 episodes of Tech Tales. Enjoy! Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fediverse: https://mas.to/@techtales Support the Show: https://techtalesshow.com/support

Faced with growing competition from Microsoft Windows, Apple and Novell teamed up in 1992 to port the Mac operating system to PCs. The project, named 'Star Trek,' had the potential to change the landscape of the computer industry... but it didn't quite work out. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fediverse...

NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes continued their trip through the solar system throughout the 1980s and 1990s. While Voyager 2 captured the first images of Uranus and Neptune, scientist Carl Sagan pushed for NASA to power up Voyager 1's cameras for one last time. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Check out Cody on Twitter (@Cody_Toombs) and Mastodon (@CodyToombs@mstdn.io...

The Grand Theft Auto series was already pushing the limits of adult content in video games by the early 2000's, but developer Rockstar wanted to go even further for the next entry. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas was eventually released in 2004 without the planned explicit content, but when modders unlocked the scenes that Rockstar decided to hide at the last minute, all hell broke loose. Hosted by C...

The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes finally launched in late 1977, following around a decade of development and planning. Both probes captured incredible photos of Jupiter and Venus, and collected valuable scientific data, though the journey wasn't without challenges. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Discuss this episode on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TechTalesPodc...

While the Space Race in the 1960s drew to a close, NASA began planning a 'Grand Tour' of the outer Solar System using a series of space probes. By 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 were ready to launch. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fediverse: https://mas.to/@techtales Support the Show: https://techtalesshow.com/...

The original Sony PlayStation was a smash hit when it was released in 1994, and two commercially-sold emulators aimed to bring the PlayStation's game to the PC and Macintosh: Bleem! and Connectix Virtual Game Station. However, both emulators faced fierce legal battles with Sony, and their ultimate fates were very different. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Katie Janzen. Follow on Twitter...

The Asus Eee PC was introduced in June 2007, and quickly led to a surge in popularity for netbooks: small cheap laptops mostly designed for connecting to the internet. The new trend also caught Microsoft at the worst possible time, causing ripples in the PC industry that would last for years. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesSh...

Samsung officially discontinued the Galaxy Note 7 in October 2016, two months after its initial release, due to fires and a recall gone wrong. In the months that followed, Samsung harvested the leftover parts for a 'Fan Edition' model, while a small number of Note 7 fans refused to give back their phones. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Evan Hirsh. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com...

Samsung began the recall of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone in September 2016, following multiple reports of the phone catching on fire and exploding. However, the explosions were far from over, and the world soon learned that even the "fixed" Note 7 phones weren't actually fixed. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Evan Hirsh. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mas...

Samsung released the first Galaxy Note smartphone in 2011, and its instant success led to yearly upgrades. The Galaxy Note 7 in 2016 was a triumph of hardware design, but only a few days after its much-anticipated release, some Note 7 phones started catching on fire and exploding. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Evan Hirsh. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on...

Fallout 76, an open-world online multiplayer game, was released by Bethesda in November 2018 after over a decade of turbulent development and legal disputes. The initial launch of Fallout 76 proved to be a disaster in almost every way possible. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fediverse: https://mas.to/@...

Adobe Flash Player was the most popular way to create interactive content on the web, and by 2005, it was installed on "more than 98%" of all Windows and Mac computers. Apple's decision to not support Flash on the iPhone in 2007, as well as the "Thoughts on Flash" open letter written by Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2010, were arguably the main factors in its ultimate demise. Hosted by Corbin Davenport,...

Apple introduced the Lisa computer in 1983, becoming the company's first computer with a graphical operating system, simple copy-and-paste, and other innovations. Even though the Lisa was plagued by reliability issues and high prices, it was an important step towards the much more successful Macintosh. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Jacob Westall. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com...

In August 1995, software developer Rebecca Ann Heineman was tasked with bringing the super-popular DOOM first-person shooter to the fledgling 3DO game console. What followed was a disastrous combination of incompetent management, limited resources, and misleading marketing. But at least the music was good. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Evan Hirsh. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.co...

IBM ended support for its OS/2 operating system in 2006, but not everyone was ready to say goodbye. Serenity Systems promised to resurrect the platform with modern software and drivers, and a decade later, Arca Noae tried it again. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fediverse: https://mas.to/@techtales Sup...

Microsoft and IBM fought over the future of OS/2, leading up to the release of Windows 95. Even after IBM admitted defeat, the OS/2 Warp 4 update arrived for the platform's remaining fans. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TechTalesShow Follow on Mastodon/Fediverse: https://mas.to/@techtales Support the Show: https://techtalesshow.com/su...

Dong Nguyen released Flappy Bird for the iPhone in May 2013, and a few months later, it became the #1 mobile game across the world. However, Nguyen was soon faced with never-ending harassment over the game's difficulty and addictive qualities, while hundreds of Flappy Bird clones flooded Apple and Google's app stores. Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Jacob Westall. Follow on Twitter: htt...