S02E031: OnePlus spyware, GeForce Now, FireWire history, RIP Win 10 Mobile, and more Amazing Stories

We're traversing both space AND time this week, cadets, starting in the present with the latest news on the Qualcomm saga (it's not going well), and the discovery of OnePlus phones spying on their users. We revisit the recent past to annotate our praise for the Pixel 2 with caveats about its value versus cost (based on some scathing reviews, but we stand by it overall), and segue nicely into a great deal from Sprint on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus (basically the same deal they had a year ago), and we also repeat a recent rant about how installment loans work, for those in the back. Back to the future to talk about the long-overdue Movies Anywhere digital service, the forthcoming GeForce Now streaming service (currently with a free Mac Beta) and what that will eventually cost you, and we take a peek at the future world of mainstream VR with the help of the $199 Oculus Go. Speaking of theoretical things, Gartner claims that Mac sales are way down (alongside the rest of the industry). They're just guessing and so are we, but Apple has traditionally done far better than the industry as a whole, even if it does trend the same way, and Gartner has a VERY mixed record on their predictions. Also in this episode: an Apple TV show project we're actually excited about, the bizarre "Google Buys Apple" fake news from Dow Jones, and the real news that Apple has almost totally conquered America. We also go off the news path to recall the history of Apple connectors, and point out a great pair of articles about the history of FireWire (http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/06/22/apple-was-both-best-friend-worst-enemy-of-firewire-in-tumultuous-deployment-history), plus we end up attending the funeral for Windows 10 Mobile and where the Redmond Giant goes from here, not to mention much more. A total of 14 stories in under 60 minutes, by gum! Man the space oars, cadets, we need to row double-time to hit warp speed for this one!