The Vergecast 059 - December 28th, 2012

This is the end, my only friend, the end.

But not the end of the world — not even the end of our daily print publication, 90 Pages on The Verge on College-Ruled Notebook Paper (with a readership of approximately three mothers to staff writers). It's just the end of the year for The Vergecast, the last before we take the 2012 calendars down and put up a 2013 calendar (or, for those who like to recycle, calendars from the years 2002, 1991, 1985, 1974, 1963, 1957, 1946, 1935, 1929, 1918, 1907, 1901, and so on and so forth...). Josh and Nilay took a week off to spend time with families, which has given them plenty of time to gather thoughts about the latest in Facebook and Instagram privacy fears.

There was also time to reflect, poetically, on what CES means for 2013 and beyond — we'll be there in full force, of course, but with a new outlook on life. All this and more plus Ross Miller filling in for Paul (his Offline Terms of Service stipulates against Google+ Hangouts [okay, maybe that joke is a little mean - a little mean to Terms of Services, that is {okay, also Paul, sorry}-]).

• Category

  Entertainment

[HolographicLotus]

I prefer the The Vergecast so much more when they're video chatting. When they're in their normal podcast room it becomes a clusterfuck of everyone talking over each other and the discussions go nowhere quickly. But when they're each alone in their rooms in video chat the conversations flow smoothly.

[Ardeshir Miraftab]

Hmmmmm, I like the computer behind the Josh in the corner, it looks like an Intel 486 system!!!

[thetechguy1o5]

This is great but their After Hours show from CES is GOLD! :)

[Cale Johnson]

I just wanted to say to nilay that I feel the same way as you. I eventually want an iMac as a hub in my house for all my media.

[DrewHales]

Use an ssd they are way better than an hdd

[Patrik Kron]

Love the 90 90 idea ! :)

[kahuna3901]

I have a desktop.... for gaming

[Sean Washington]

I still don't think Nilay get's the HUGE red flag in this portions: in connection with paid or sponsored content OR PROMOTIONS. The Nilay assumes it it only applies to some certain type of thing on Facebook/Instagram or something but the "or promotions" part leaves it wide open to be basically anything.

The Nilay says in his article "These phrases have very specific meanings" but that is wrong because the "or promotion" clause torpedos that line of reasoning.

[Mountain Dew]

Samsung S Beam ads are a complete lie and S Beam is difficult to use (1:20:00->1:21:16). What is Nilay talking about? To give him the benefit of the doubt I did a YouTube search on S Beam to find out for myself. I watched 5 videos that showed the entire process from beginning to end. The only lie here is Nilay's which just adds to the confusion in the industry that he's arguing about. There's no doubt in whose corner he's in.

[blakmagik4]

its just a phone.

[RosephOfNazareth]

@reckless is a legend

[Gunner Super Saiyen]

'Reducing Frcition is a great challenge in technology' the hell are you talking about brah????