AwesomeCast 786: GeForce Now on Apple TV, LEGO F1 Cars & Sony’s Digital Ownership Problem
This week’s AwesomeCast brings together the exact kind of tech mix we love: practical gadgets, gaming workarounds, nostalgic collectibles, autonomous vehicle weirdness, and a serious conversation about whether we actually own the digital things we buy.
Hosts Sorg, Katie Dudas, and Dave Podnar kicked off the episode with Awesome Things of the Week. Katie brought a simple but genuinely useful upgrade: a larger weekly pill organizer with color-coded days, easy-open buttons, and enough space for bigger supplements and medications. It may not be flashy tech, but it solves a real problem for anyone trying to keep their daily routine straight.
Dave followed with a money-saving tech tip: DellRefurbished.com. Rather than buying a consumer laptop at full price, he recommends checking out refurbished corporate-return Dell machines. These business-class systems often come from enterprise environments and can be a smart option if you need a reliable workstation, laptop, or desktop without chasing the newest hardware.
Sorg’s Awesome Thing was all about game streaming. He found Aeroplay, an Apple TV app that makes it possible to play NVIDIA GeForce Now on the television. With support for libraries from services like Steam and Epic, it opens up another way to play PC games from the couch without buying a gaming PC. There are still some rough edges, especially around logging into services like Xbox, Battle.net, and Ubisoft, but the streaming experience itself sounded surprisingly smooth.
Dave’s Awesome Person of the Week for Disability Pride Month was Herman Hollerith, a pioneer of punched-card tabulating machines. His work dramatically sped up census processing and became part of the technological foundation that eventually led to IBM. It was a reminder that different ways of thinking have helped shape the history of computing.
The episode’s biggest debate came from Chachi’s Video Game Minute, which focused on Sony, physical discs, and digital ownership. The crew discussed reports that Sony could move away from physical PlayStation game discs for new releases in 2028, along with stories about purchased movies disappearing from digital libraries. That launched a bigger conversation about DRM, game preservation, streaming libraries, physical media, and how much trust companies have really earned when they ask customers to “buy” digital content.
On the more fun side of technology, the crew reacted to functional LEGO F1 cars used during Grand Prix events. The conversation quickly turned into whether this should become a new engineering challenge, especially with Sorg’s SAE event brain immediately imagining LEGO Baja or LEGO Aero Design.
They also talked about the upcoming Science of Speed exhibit at Pittsburgh’s Kamin Science Center, which ties into racing, engineering, wind tunnels, and go-kart-style experiences. Add in a Waymo driving through fireworks, a Hello Kitty Insta360 camera bundle, and Fisher-Price Little People collector sets for adults, and this episode covers a lot of geeky ground.
AwesomeCast 786 is a great mix of practical tech, gaming culture, Pittsburgh science, nostalgia, and the bigger questions about what our digital future looks like.
Links discussed:
Aeroplay: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aeroplay/id6761475394
Pill Caddy: https://amzn.to/4f2fCOT
Dell Refurbished: https://www.dellrefurbished.com/
Herman Hollerith: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hollerith/
Sony discs: https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-just-killed-discs-physical-disc-production-to-end-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles
Sony digital movies: https://www.techradar.com/streaming/entertainment/this-should-be-illegal-sony-is-deleting-over-500-movies-that-people-bought-from-their-digital-libraries-just-proving-further-why-4k-blu-rays-popularity-keeps-growing
LEGO F1 2026: https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2026/june/lego-drivers-parade-british-gp-silverstone-2026
Science of Speed: https://kaminsciencecenter.org/
Waymo fireworks: https://www.instagram.com/p/DaZkIVjpvIY/
Hello Kitty Insta360: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/insta360-announces-hello-kitty-limited-edition-go-ultra-camera-bundle-302789878.html?brid=YWdncwGnFryti6XPp3ga0enhAheJ
Fisher-Price Little People: https://shop.mattel.com/search?q=little+people+collector
