—John Oliver

This week Michael and Bryan discuss tea, coffee, the Digital Cliff, sports better and worse than soccer, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and why Microsoft Kinect sucks.
Oh, and Al Pacino helps us express our loathing of Skype and shitty Internet service in the United States.
Weekly Exhaust, Episode 4
If you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, contact Michael.

“Smartwatches are stupid,” says Hartmut Esslinger, Apple’s first head of design and creator of the company’s Snow White design language. “Why would I put cheap electronics on my wrist as a symbol of (my) emotion?” Esslinger also calls Fitbit, the popular fitness tracker, a gimmick. “I know when I am tired,” he says, referring to the device’s value proposition of counting calories through the day. Esslinger’s remarks about wearable tech may seem provocative but they represent a fundamental design problem in the industry.
—Forbes
Hartmut is right. The current crop of smartphones does suck. This is what makes this fall even more exciting—when Apple is likely to announce whatever it is they’re going to announce. Historically, Apple is never first to market, but it’s always best to market.

Found in Batman #230, which has a great cover, too.

Australia’s landmark cigarette legislation banning logos and putting dire health warnings and graphic images of sick or dying smokers on packs seems to be working, data shows, even as tobacco companies argue business is better than ever.
Michelle Innis, NYTimes.com

Anyone else seen these kids “graduating” from kindergarden this month?
Can anyone tell me what the big achievement is?
Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Min Ming Lo breaks down all the different share icons in existence today.
Personally? I’m digging his “milkshake” proposition. I even like the unintentional reference to There Will Be Blood (or was it?).
At the end of the day, icons—like English, Chinese or Spanish—are a language. In case of the Share icon, there’s different ways of representing it. Some representations are more obscure than than others, but they’re dialects and dialects are neither right nor wrong, they just are (well, technically, it’s it’s called soda, not pop).

Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world’s most talented engineers. We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.
—Elon Musk, Telsa Blog

“Harrison Ford sustained an ankle injury during filming today on the set of Star Wars: Episode VII. He was taken to a local hospital and is receiving care. Shooting will continue as planned while he recuperates,” said a statement from Disney.

A source tells THR that the actor, who reprises his role as Han Solo from the original franchise, was injured by the door of the Millennium Falcon, the spacecraft that his character pilots in the original films. The spaceship looks to be making a return in the sequel.
—Rebecca Ford, Hollywood Reporter
This is the kind of shit that happens when you have to help Chewy fix the hyper drive.
In other news, actor Mark Hammill lost a hand during filming of a fight scene with his on-screen father, Vader.

“Traditional” taxi companies and drivers are not down with Über:

Europe’s taxi drivers on Wednesday picked a fight with Uber, an increasingly popular smartphone car-paging service, and dared consumers to choose sides.

From London to Lyon and Madrid to Milan, thousands of taxi drivers protested the rise of Uber, an American upstart, stopping in the middle of streets and shutting down major portions of cities.

The public display laid bare the growing tension between some of Europe’s traditional industries that have barely changed in decades and the rising influence of companies from Silicon Valley, for which disruptive technologies are badges of honor.
So what’s the reaction to this public tempter tantrum?
Oh, just a 850% increased in sign-ups for Über.
If you want to be assholes and cause road shut-downs, this is what you get. Everyone should be allowed to protest for what they believe is right, but don’t fuck up things for everyone else.
Adapt or be left behind.

Patrick Joust
via thisisnthappiness

—George Carlin
This one deserves a repost.

—[Garth Braithwaite](GarthDB: With Feedly down I don’t know what to do when I open a browser.)
Feedly and Evernote have been down all day because hackers launched a DDoS attack and are demanding a ransom. Charming shit.

Criticism of post-Jobs Apple tends to run in one of two directions (unless you’re the author of Haunted Empire and want to have it both ways): Either Apple is doomed because it’s slavishly following the out-of-date playbook of its former CEO, or it’s doomed because it’s not following the playbook of its genius former CEO.

As a close observer of Apple before, during, and after Jobs’s tenure, I can tell you that the Apple of today is not playing by the Steve Jobs playbook–except for the bit that demanded that everyone stop asking what Steve would do. Tim Cook and his lieutenants are immersed in the Apple culture created by Steve Jobs, of course, but they’re applying that culture to an ever-changing world–rather than going to the 2011 playbook.
—Jason Snell, MacWorld
via Daring Fireball