In a unique play to clean up space junk, the European Space Agency is working to build a claw to grip and direct defunct satellites into Earth’s atmosphere. It’s with some anticipation that we learned Ajit Pai, FCC Chairman, is leaving his post in January which opens the doors for restatement of net neutrality regulation. Zoom reported this week that, once again, their revenue soared to record numbers as they continue to experience exponential growth during the pandemic. Apple is new circulating hardware with their latest and self manufactured M1 chip, and we hear a story of the good and bad with one such Apple setup.

We are diving into a bit of a Thanksgiving special this week. With the holidays around the corner, we share what technologies we are truly thankful and appreciative of this year. Google has teamed up with a non-profit organization to build an application to assist blind and visually-impaired runners with technology to safely traverse a course. Lime, an e-scooter company, made headlines when they announced being profitable for the first time in company history and showing perhaps a bright future. Black Friday is just around the corner and we offer up some predictions on what items may be the high sellers this season.

Google announced the launch of Google Arts & Culture, a new digital platform featuring numerous museums and artifacts from around the world. Google Photos will soon be limiting storage capacity and will transition users over into using Google One for their storage needs. Customer service continues to be particularly hard hit during the public health crisis and a few stories are shared to illustrate the issues. A former Microsoft software engineer stole millions via their online retail system which landed the individual in federal prison and may result in deportation back to his home of Ukraine.

With the holidays around the corner, a new laptop or tablet is a great gift to consider and we have some options to share. LG has introduced a high-tech designed face mask with filters, batteries, and fans to provide a virus-free breathing environment. Ransomware continues to rise in dangerous fashion with no near end in sight and it is problematic for professionals and business owners. Proposition 22 in California will ultimately decide how app-based drivers are classified and how liable companies will become.

A viral post of a 10-year old student having to walk to school to get internet access went viral and shows the growing gap of digital equity. NASA successfully landed the OSIRIS spacecraft onto an asteroid traveling at 65,000 mph and gathered some surface material for analysis. Tesla is continuing to impress as net cash flow is up and their annual manufacturing goal of 500,000 new vehicles is nearing completion.

NASA handed out another round of million dollar contracts related to battery life, cryogenic fueling systems, and power supply. With Apple making a big splash with 5G enabled phones, the question we are asking consumers is – do we actually need 5G in our life? The United States government indicted six military officers within the Russian government for their involvement and role in the world’s worst cyber attacks since 2015. Amazon is reporting another record dollar amount in sales as a result of Prime Day, netting a cool $10.4 billion in sales.

SpaceX was granted a multi-million contract to build and deliver a satellite capable of tracking missile launches from space via infrared sensors. Under Apple’s bug bounty program, five guys hacked the internal network of the Cupertino-based giant and found 55 vulnerabilities, some of which were critically severe. Amazon’s Prime Day is upon us and thousands of deals from smart home devices, school supplies, Echo products, and kitchen goods. The iPhone 12 is set to be announced this week as Apple tries to grab more of the 5G enabled phone marketplace.

Crew-1, the first official NASA commercial crew rotation mission, is set to send four astronauts to the International Space Station October 31 for science experiments and maintenance. The tech job market continues to boom under the pandemic as major growth is seen in security, retail, manufacturing, and finance. A Canadian artist has created amazing and realistic renderings of 50 plus Roman emperors through the use of machine learning, Photoshop, and historical photos. In true Amazon fashion, the company released 15 new items overnight including new Echo devices, Eero wifi systems, security systems, and much more.

We welcome Anaya Lee, Dave’s wife and Steve’s daughter-in-law, to chat about a few things. Anaya shares her in-depth story of how storage capacity on her iPhone became so problematic that even AppleCare could not diagnose the problem accurately. As a lecturer and supervising teacher at a local university in the teacher education department, Anaya has first hand experience with assisting new teachers in the classroom with distance learning and the overwhelming complications of virtual teaching. She shared her thoughts about where we are in distance learning, how teachers are succeeding, and how everyone is adapting to the difficult scenario we find ourselves in.