Skip to main content

Trends with Benefits: VR does Vegas, Musk eyes Mars, Samsung is blowing up

mail-chimp-logo-175

Samsung has more exploding products, virtual reality is heading to Vegas, SpaceX has big plans for a Mars colony, fast-food drone delivery could be coming to a place near you, and the Retro Gaming Expo returns to Portland.

Our latest weekly episode of Trends with Benefits features Art Santana, Pete Jacobs, Caleb Denison and Greg Nibler. Today’s episode is sponsored by Mail Chimp: Send more emails, sell more stuff.

Our topics this week:

  • Samsung is blowing up
    What’s worse than your Samsung Galaxy Note 7 blowing up? Your Samsung washer blowing up! Don’t laugh; it’s happening. What is going on and how is Samsung handling it?
  • VR goes to Vegas
    Think you’re a VR gaming ace? Would you bet on it? A company called Gambit Gaming is setting up glass booths in Vegas where you can do exactly that. Climb in, strap on the goggles, put down your money, and see what you can win. Or lose.
  • Musk does Mars
    Elon Musk wants to get 1 million humans on Mars via a planned SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System. Would you sign up to go live on Mars?
  • Fast food drone delivery
    College students at Virginia Tech will soon be able to order burritos delivered by drone. At the same time, Dominoes has been experimenting with delivering pizza in the same fashion. Would you be willing to try out drone-delivered fast food?
  • Retro Gaming Expo
    Art Santana from Ground Kontrol was our special guest today. He filled us in on the Retro Gaming Expo, taking place at the Oregon Convention Center from October 21 to 23. Their goal is to educate, preserve and inspire gamers of all ages!

Please subscribe and share Trends with Benefits and send in your questions to podcast@digitaltrends.com. Want to watch the next episode live? We broadcast the show live on YouTube every Thursday at 2:30 pm Pacific.

Check out our other live-streamed shows, Between the Streams and Close to the Metal.

Greg Nibler
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Greg has worked as a Host, Producer, and Writer in radio and television since the early 2000s, working for such companies as…
TWB Podcast: SpaceX triumph, Spotify vs. Apple Music, Apple Watch health
trends with benefits spacex tesla spotify apple watch twb full

SpaceX has reinvigorated space exploration: There can be no doubt that putting a cherry red Tesla Roadster into space, as part of the Falcon Heavy X rocket launch on 2/ 5/18, captured the world's attention. It showcased what vision, ability, talent and a whole lot of money, can accomplish. The question now is what will Elon Musk do next? One would imagine that investors are clamoring to pour more money into future projects. This was also the world's greatest ad campaign for Tesla, for which there are some pretty bold plans in their own right. A letter was sent to shareholders stating that they are planning to send an autonomous Tesla car on a coast-to-coast trip in 2018.

Spotify vs. Apple: When it comes to overall users, there is no question that Spotify is the current leader in streaming music services. They have millions more subscribers (approximately 70 million total) than their closest rivals. However, Apple Music is now claiming to have 36 million of their own and according to the Wall Street Journal, is growing at nearly double the rate of Spotify. So, who do you use for streaming music and why?

Read more
Between the Streams: Venomless trailer, Game of Thrones Star Wars, ‘Solo’ time
between the streams

DT’s weekly entertainment show, Between the Streams, is your guide to all of the hottest, most important, and (of course) dumbest new developments in streaming and entertainment, providing a handy recap of the week that was and a preview for what's ahead. Follow us here at 2 p.m. PT every Friday, or add us via RSS, iTunes, or Stitcher at the links below to take BtS on the road!

      

Read more
How to photograph ghosts — get an iPhone (Samsung cameras won’t work)
how to photograph ghosts julie rieger crabman color circled

Forget selfies and sunsets, any ordinary iPhone can be used to take pictures of something far more intriguing: the spirit world.

Julie Rieger is the biggest of Hollywood bigwigs; she’s president, chief data strategist, and head of media at 20th Century Fox, where she’s worked on a few little films like Avatar, Deadpool, The Fault in Our Stars, and more. And in addition to being one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, she’s an avid ghost photographer -- in fact, she wrote the book on it.

Read more