The future of aviation is trying to be disrupted by supersonic flight, but the reality is that traditional commercial flight is safe, profitable, economic, and popular. Amazon Live premiered this week showcasing a number online products during their live broadcast with the anticipation of taking more eyes from television and providing more options to their customers. There are some really great apps out there (Truebill, SubscriptMe, Overflow) that can help you track all those pesky subscriptions you have to manage into your finances. A professor in New York came across his childhood Apple IIe that was still working and was able to play some vintage games in front of his children.

It has been one year since SpaceX launched Starman in a Tesla Roadster, so we check in to see how the travels are going. Microsoft’s Clippy emerged from the recycle bin for an inclusive interview; his comments are hilarious. Amazon just bought Eero, a mesh router technology company with plans to simplify the smart home WiFi and integration problems plaguing many homes. And finally, Microsoft is essentially encouraging users and businesses to stop using Internet Explorer.

In 1999, Bill Gates made 15 incredible predictions that sounded outrageous but came true in under 20 years. Several tech companies and advocacy groups took the FCC to court last week in a major attempt to reinstate net neutrality regulations and the Open Internet Order of 2015. After racking up $150 billion in debt over four years, AT&T is now losing consumers at a significant rate and passing incremental costs off to their customers. Google Plus is shutting down in April of this year leaving some groups curious of where to go. Lastly, $190 million of cryptocurrency is gone forever after the CEO unexpectedly passed away and did not leave a record of passwords.

Thanks to a great Twitter thread, we help explain why and how this layoffs are happening. NASA announced the death of Mars Opportunity, as scientists have been unable to communicate with the rover since a major dust event. In Microsoft news, the software hub took to the blog to announce reserving several gigs of hard drive space for future use during automatic upgrades. And finally we share the story of Captain Rosemary Mariner, a very important figure in the United States Navy and aviation history.

A growing concern is sprouting in the technology industry as many hiring managers are finding a talent gap between what’s needed and what applicants can provide. National Geographic has produced an excellent DocuSeries – Valley of the Boom – revisiting the history of Netscape and web browsing. Many federal government websites are set to have their security status expires as the shutdown lingers on in the United States. Trusting cloud storage is a risk and when Google Drive folders cannot be located, the anxiety can quickly set in.

We consider the dark side of high paying tech jobs in the booming and competitive real estate market of San Francisco. IMDb has announced the launching of Freedive, an ad-supported movie service feature older offerings that is lacking in the market. Microsoft’s support of Windows 7 is phasing out in one year, but there is work to be done with 600 million units running the legacy operating system. And finally, several FCC and FTC sites are non-operational due to the domestic government shutdown. The lack of services are leaving consumers vulnerable and unable to report identity theft and robocalling scams.

We quickly dive into a few stories we missed on the year in review episode and also share our holiday tech recap. A report showed that 164 companies made their first $1 million via in-app purchases and recurring membership fees, proving that app development is changing the economy and business landscape. Apple has agreed to provide iTunes movies and their original content on specific smart televisions, which demonstrates a shift in Apple’s hardware only model. We recap some interesting Consumer Electronics Show gadgets and share some recent shipping issues that are causing headaches for online shoppers.

The tech industry brought about a number of changes in 2018, specifically in the entertainment, mobile, cloud computing, and smart home corners of the technology sector. The year brought about a new level of hacking and data breaching, along with plenty of space travel and augmented reality to go around. And of course, what is a recap of last year if we didn’t throw out some predictions for 2019. Next year may serve as a launching pad for a few specific industries, but technology will fall short in some areas as well.

Google is in the news as the shutdown of Google+ speeds up after another breach exposes users’ data. Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, is heading to Capitol Hill to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee where user privacy, anti-conservative bias, and more is on the agenda. In a shocking, or maybe not too shocking, report the New York Times reported an incredible piece on how enabled location services tracked an individual throughout the city to freakish detail. Locally, over 200 e-scooters hit the streets of Bakersfield overnight without the approval or consultation of city officials.