Gadget Lab: Weekly Tech News from WIRED
Technology
The promise of streaming TV was that you could watch whatever you wanted, when you wanted. And for a while, that was mostly true. But recently, streaming services have started to dial back the nice-guy stuff and reel in the freebies. Companies across the stream-o-sphere are tweaking subscription tiers, raising prices, and canceling unprofitable shows. Netflix has introduced an ad-supported tier to its formerly ad-free service, and even started cracking down on people sharing account credentials. And corporate shake ups at HBO Max have resulted in gobs of stuff being removed from that platform entirely.
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED senior editor Angela Watercutter joins us to talk about why the streaming ecosystem has grown so complicated and hostile toward its customers.
Show Notes
Read WIRED’s series about why we hate streaming. Listen to WIRED and 1A’s series about AI, Know It All.
Recommendations
Angela recommends the cinematic masterpiece Cocaine Bear. Lauren recommends Marc Maron’s stand-up special From Bleak to Dark on HBO. Mike recommends the film EO, which is about a donkey.
Angela Watercutter can be found on Twitter @WaterSlicer. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
C’ES la Vie
Abortion Pill Orders Are Soaring
Live on Stage: Reid Hoffman and Fei-Fei Li
Oops, All Recommendations!
Taylor Swift’s Pro-Russia Doppelganger
Blue Bubbles Versus Green Bubbles
Journalists in Studio Getting Coffee
Geoffrey Hinton: ‘It’s Far Too Late’ to Stop Artificial Intelligence
How Three Teens Broke the Internet
Oh, the Humaneity
Happy 1-Year Muskiversary
23andMe and You
Misinformation Is Soaring Online. Don’t Fall for It
Business Wars: Living in an Artificial World
Searching for a Better Google
Meta’s Sound and Vision
Alexa Gets an AI Makeover
Your Life, Your iPhone
We Robloxed So You Don’t Have To
I Love You, I Hate You, Don’t Call Me
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Insight Story: Tech Trends Unpacked
Zero-Shot
Fast Forward by Tomorrow Unlocked: Tech past, tech future
The Unbelivable Truth - Series 1 - 26 including specials and pilot
Lex Fridman Podcast