CordCutters

CES — the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — is a mess. More TVs and gadgets than should be allowed by law. But the real surprise came from someone who usually sits out CES: Apple. Rene Ritchie from iMore and Vector hopped on the line to hash it all out, and frame what's to come.

You can't end a year (and start a new one) without making a list of all the best things from the prior year. And so we've done that. But we also were reminded that it's not quite that simple in the world of cord-cutting, where we have so many great options that it really comes down to more than just what we deem "the best." Thanks to Nirave Gondhia (@nirave) for joining! Other important things: CordCutters.com — the website! Phil Nickinson — the Twitter Modern Dad — the YouTube

Chromecast is finally (FINALLY!) once again available for purchase from Amazon. (You can buy one here: http://phon.es/szcq) That's a big deal for a number of reasons, and we figured it'd be a great time for a deep-ish dive into Chromecast the dongle, and Chromecast the protocol. So Phil and Jerry tear it all apart. What is a Chromecast, why you would want one, and what its limitations are. (Note: we're cross-posting this in the Android Central feed. Thanks to them for that.)

We've survived the Thanksgiving holiday and are back to answer these ever-important questions: Which Amazon Fire TV is worth you money? What's up with those Roku speakers? And did AT&T really just do that?

It's the season for smart displays, apparently. The new Amazon Echo Show is here, and it's better. Sort of. The new Google Home Hub is here. So how do they stack up? Which should you buy? Phil and Russell weigh in.

You'd think that when Amazon dropped a dozen new products a couple weeks ago, that would have been the end of it. But, no. We now have a new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K — the first with Dolby Vision support! And maybe more important, we now have a proper remote with volume controls! Plus, Roku has blessed us with a couple new boxes as well. Music by Poddington Bear

Amazon just announced 12 (TWELVE!!!) products at one time. That's insane. And while a new Echo Show is cool, it's the new Amazon Fire TV Recast that's really piqued our interest. So we caught up Android Central's Andrew Martonik, who was at the event in Seattle. Music: Poddington Bear

One of the best ways to round out your cord-cutting setup is with an over-the-air antenna. The question is how to get started. Which antenna is best? Where should you put it? So we grabbed our favorite electrical engineering nerd to hash things out. == IMPORTANT LINKS OF IMPORTANCE == 1. The best over-the-air antennas: https://www.cordcutters.com/best-over-air-antennas 2. How to figure out which way to point your antenna: https://antennaweb.org/ or http://www.tvfool.com/ Music by http://www.podingtonbear.com/

Fun fact: Interviewing one's wife may be fraught with danger — especially when you forgot that your wife is, in fact, a trained interviewer herself and won't be stepped on or steered in a certain direction. ... Whoops. This week we talk up some news, and I sit down with the one and only Shannon Nickinson to discuss how we cut the cord two years ago. Music: Poddington Bear

Patrick Stewart is bringing sexy back. We got three of the biggest Trek nerds we know to talk it over. Music: "Robot Park" by Poddington Bear. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Haplessly_Happy/Robot_Park