507: The Drill Bits - Awards 2017

This week, we put current news aside in order to review the year was 2017, and this year, as we did last year, Instead of merely having a stack-ranked list of top news of the year, we’re gonna make tech news compete for awards, affectionately called The Drill Bits. So put on your tuxes, get in the limo, and roll out the red carpet, ‘cause the show’s about to begin!

2016 Predictions for 2017

• • DWAYNE: Twitter Goes into Acquisition Talks (Incorrect)
  • TOSIN: Silicon Valley Vs Traditional Business (Incorrect)
  • ANDY: Model 3 Will Not Ship in 2017 (Somewhat Correct)
  • TOSIN: Nintendo Switch will bring the game company back from the brink (Correct)
  • ANDY: Net Neutrality Naysayers Strike Back (Correct)
  • DWAYNE: Bitcoin will be something to watch (Correct)

• Andy w/ 1.5 points
• Tosin w/ 1
• Dwayne w/ 1

The Drill Bit Awards 

Category	Nominee 01	Nominee 02	Nominee 03	Winner
Wearables	Fitbit	Apple	Android Wear	Apple
Smart Home	Alphabet	Amazon	Hue	Hue
Best Voice Assistant	Amazon Echo Plus	Amazon Echo (NEW)	Google Home MIni	Google Home MIni
Sharing Economy	Lyft	AirBnB	Uber	Lyft
Streaming Video Service	Amazon	Netflix	Hulu	Hulu
Streaming Audio Service	Spotify	Google	Apple	Spotify

Audible Book of the Week

• Molly’s Game by Molly Bloom
• Sign up at AudibleTrial.com/TheDrillDown

Music Break: Take A Bow by Madonna

Category	Nominee 01	Nominee 02	Nominee 03	Winner
Worst Cybersecurity (Biggest Hack)	Uber	Equifax	Yahoo	Equifax
Most Significant Hacks	Paradise Papers	The Social Dialogue of the United States by Russia	WannaCry	WannaCry
Gaming Platform	Xbox One X	Sony Playstation 4 Pro	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo Switch
Most Impactful Video Game of the year	Cuphead	Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild	Super Mario Odyssey	Super Mario Odyssey
AR & VR	Oculus	HTC Vive	Playstation VR	Playstation VR
Best New Computer	Apple iMac Pro	Apple Macbook Pro 13”/15” w/ Touchbar	MS Surface Book 2	Apple iMac Pro
Best New Tech Innovation (in the Market)	Tesla Electric Semi trucks	FDA-approved CRISPR Blindness treatment	Thyssenkrupp Multi rope-free elevator	FDA-approved CRISPR Blindness treatment
Best New Science Innovation (in the Lab)	Transparent Solar windows	Gene therapy ending deafness	'Atomic Fingerprinting'	Gene therapy ending deafness
Best Use of Social Media	#RESIST / Rogue accounts	#MeToo	Facebook/“fake news”/Russia manipulation	#MeToo
Worst Fail	Uber Woes	Apple’s Batteries	Yahoo! Data breach	Uber Woes
Most Weird/ Creepy	Boston Dynamics’s Robots: Atlas & Spot MIni	Google admits it tracked user location data	Wanna Cry Ransomware Hacks	Wanna Cry Ransomware Hacks

Music Break: I.G.Y. by Donald Fagen

Predictions for 2018

• DWAYNE: Twitter Goes into Acquisition Talks
• TOSIN: AR is going to blow up
• ANDY: Net Neutrality defenders strike back
• TOSIN: Disney will announce an Original, unEdited Star Wars trilogy
• ANDY: Model 3 *will* finish shipping in 2018 (all pre-ordered reservationists only)
• DWAYNE: Clean, green tech will go mainstream in building codes.

Subscribe!

The Drill Down on iTunes (Subscribe now!)

Add us on Stitcher!

The Drill Down on Facebook

The Drill Down on Twitter

Geeks Of Doom’s The Drill Down is a roundtable-style audio podcast where we discuss the most important issues of the week, in tech and on the web and how they affect us all. Hosts are Geeks of Doom contributor Andrew Sorcini (Mr. BabyMan), marketing research analyst Dwayne De Freitas, and Box product manager Tosin Onafowokan.