AwesomeCast 788: Pew Pew - Retro Gaming on Apple TV, Minimalist Flip Phones & the AI Backlash
Technology is constantly moving forward, but some of the most interesting developments covered on AwesomeCast 788 involved looking backward.
Sorg, Katie Dudas, and Dave Podnar discussed retro games, physical media, flip phones, screenless fitness trackers, and even a development board that gives the Nintendo Wii Remote an entirely new purpose. These stories all point to a similar idea: people still want useful technology, but they increasingly want more control over how it fits into their lives.
Retro Gaming Comes to Apple TV
Sorg’s Awesome Thing of the Week was RetroArch, a multi-system emulator available for Apple TV and other platforms.
RetroArch supports games from a wide range of classic consoles, handhelds, computers, and arcade systems. Its Apple TV version makes it possible to build a retro-gaming setup around a device that many people already have connected to their television.
The application is not entirely plug-and-play. Users must organize their game files, select the appropriate emulation cores, watch their available storage, and troubleshoot files that may cause crashes. For people comfortable working with folders, file extensions, and controller settings, however, it offers a remarkably flexible way to revisit older games.
RetroArch also offers legal open-source games and shareware, including classic titles such as Doom and Wolfenstein. That gives new users a way to experiment with the software before building a larger personal library.
RetroArch is available through the Apple App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/retroarch/id6499539433
Supported platforms are listed at:
https://www.retroarch.com/?page=platforms
A Fitness Tracker Without Another Screen
Dave’s Awesome Thing was Garmin’s screenless fitness tracker.
Unlike an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch, the device focuses on collecting activity and health information without constantly placing notifications and statistics on the wearer’s wrist. Results are viewed through Garmin’s mobile software rather than on the tracker itself.
The lack of a screen contributes to longer battery life and may appeal to users who want fitness data but do not want another interactive device demanding their attention. Garmin also offers many of its core features without requiring a subscription, although Garmin Connect+ is available for additional guidance and analysis.
The tracker reflects a broader move toward technology that works quietly in the background rather than becoming the center of the user’s day.
Read more:
https://www.engadget.com/2219713/garmin-finally-made-a-screenless-fitness-tracker/
Product information:
https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/1989182/#specs
Flip Phones and the Appeal of Doing Less
That same philosophy appears in the Light Flip, a minimalist phone with physical buttons, T9-style typing, and a small screen.
The Light Flip is designed for users who still want communication, navigation, and selected applications but do not necessarily want a powerful smartphone filled with social-media feeds, games, and attention-grabbing notifications.
This category is no longer aimed only at older users who remember traditional flip phones. Younger users are also experimenting with simpler devices as a way to reduce screen time and step away from social platforms.
The hosts questioned when these phones will become a common sight in public rather than an interesting niche product. They have already encountered examples such as the Barbie flip phone, suggesting that minimalist devices may be developing both practical and cultural appeal.
Read more:
https://9to5google.com/2026/07/21/light-flip-minimalist-phone-announcement/
Physical Games, Emulation and Consumer Trust
The Chachi Says Video Game Minute continued the episode’s retro theme.
One new mod allows players to launch Grand Theft Auto III or Vice City from a television located inside Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It is an elaborate example of how modders continue finding new ways to preserve and reinterpret older games.
At the same time, developers are making early progress on PlayStation 5 emulation. Two-dimensional titles are advancing faster than complex three-dimensional games, but the fact that emulation work is occurring while the console is still commercially active shows how quickly preservation efforts are developing.
This work has become increasingly relevant as Sony and other companies move away from physical media. GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has argued that the decline of physical discs will not significantly affect the company because new games make up a relatively small portion of its overall business.
The hosts connected these stories to a larger discussion about ownership. A disc, cartridge, CD, cassette, or record can remain accessible as long as the owner has working hardware. A digital purchase may depend on licensing agreements, online authentication, storefront policies, and servers that can change or disappear.
Consumers are rediscovering physical media partly because they no longer fully trust technology companies to preserve permanent access to digital purchases.
AI Is Becoming Part of Every Creative Tool
The episode’s longest conversation examined artificial intelligence and its growing role in creative work.
Sorg described using AI-assisted tools to reformat promotional graphics for different platforms, brainstorm layouts, create mockups, interpret business terminology, and accelerate first drafts. These uses do not necessarily replace a designer, editor, or producer. They can instead remove repetitive work or help a creator move past a point where a project has stalled.
The hosts also noted that AI is already embedded in software used every day. Adobe Photoshop uses machine learning for functions such as generative expansion. Canva and Adobe Express use automated tools when regenerating layouts. Google integrates Gemini into email, documents, search, and photo management.
That makes a complete rejection of AI increasingly difficult. Even users who avoid obvious image generators may still encounter machine learning through captions, transcription, search, rotoscoping, background removal, or recommendation systems.
Responsible use remains essential. The group discussed disclosure, consistency, originality, training data, environmental costs, and whether a particular use genuinely helps the work.
Data Centers and Responsible Growth
The AI conversation also moved beyond software to the physical infrastructure required to support it.
Large data centers consume significant amounts of electricity, water, land, and other public resources. The problem is not simply that data centers exist; nearly every major online service depends on them. The concern is the speed and scale at which new facilities are being built without adequate planning or accountability.
The hosts argued that local officials and lawmakers must consider grid capacity, environmental protections, public benefits, corporate incentives, and the neighborhoods where new industrial projects are placed.
Historically, disruptive infrastructure has often been placed near communities with less political and economic power. Responsible development requires those communities to have genuine representation and a meaningful role in decisions that affect their health, property, utility costs, and quality of life.
The problem is not technology alone. It is growth without responsibility.
Google Photos Gives Users a Choice
Google Photos provided a smaller example of the same tension.
Google introduced Ask Photos, which uses Gemini to interpret natural-language questions about a user’s photo library. Some users, however, simply want the original search experience where they can enter a person, date, object, or location.
Google is now adding a toggle that lets users choose between classic search and the AI-powered experience.
The hosts welcomed the change because it restores user control. AI features can be useful, but frustration grows when a familiar tool is removed and replaced without an alternative.
Read more:
https://9to5google.com/2026/07/20/google-photos-classic-search-toggle/
Turning a Wii Remote Into Something New
OpenMote takes another piece of familiar technology and gives it a second life.
The project is a drop-in development board for Nintendo Wii Remotes. Makers can use it to create custom controllers for games, smart homes, lighting, media systems, and other electronics.
One demonstration showed a Wii Remote being pointed at individual lamps to turn them on. The hosts immediately began considering possible uses in live video production, wrestling-event lighting, recording systems, 3D-printed controller housings, and interactive attractions.
OpenMote is still a highly do-it-yourself project, but it demonstrates how older consumer hardware can become the foundation for new experiments.
Learn more:
https://openmote.io/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio
Watch a demonstration:
https://www.instagram.com/reels/Da8p5B7PNKP/
Pittsburgh Movie History in the Pastfinders App
Pastfinders is expanding its Pittsburgh coverage through a collaboration with the Pittsburgh Film Office.
The new experience highlights bridges and locations used in movies and television programs, including Mayor of Kingstown, Sweet Girl, Jack Reacher, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Dark Knight Rises, Dogma, The Silence of the Lambs, and Mindhunter.
Instead of requiring users to search manually for every landmark, Pastfinders can send location-based notifications when a user approaches a historic site, movie location, or interesting local story.
The hosts have previously used the app at Kennywood and while traveling. It even identified the real airplane displayed at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville at Universal Orlando.
Explore Pastfinders:
https://www.pastfinders.app/
NASA Captures Mars During a Flyby
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft provided the episode with a reminder that not every technological project must have an immediate commercial purpose.
The spacecraft used Mars for a gravitational assist on its way deeper into the solar system. During the flyby, it captured images and a time-lapse view of the planet.
Dave emphasized that scientific exploration is valuable because curiosity is part of being human. Learning more about Mars, space, and the universe can be worthwhile even before a direct financial application exists.
NASA’s update:
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/psyche/2026/07/17/nasas-psyche-mission-delivers-mars-flyby-data-time-lapse-video/
Remembering Ralph Teetor
The Awesome Person of the Week was Ralph Teetor, the engineer credited with developing cruise control.
Teetor became blind after an accident during childhood but went on to earn engineering degrees and work in his family’s manufacturing company. He reportedly developed the concept after becoming frustrated with drivers repeatedly speeding up and slowing down while talking.
His invention evolved from a basic speed-control mechanism into the adaptive cruise-control and driver-assistance systems used today.
Teetor later served as president of the Society of Automotive Engineers, and SAE established an educator award in his name.
Learn more:
https://automotivehalloffame.org/honoree/ralph-r-teetor/
Technology Should Serve the User
The stories in AwesomeCast 788 may appear disconnected at first. A flip phone, a retro-game emulator, a fitness band, an AI search toggle, and a modified Wii Remote are very different products.
They are connected by a desire for technology that serves a clear purpose.
Users want the ability to choose between AI and traditional search. They want health tracking without another screen. They want digital convenience without losing ownership. They want old devices to remain useful. They want powerful creative tools without surrendering control of the creative process.
Technology does not always need to do more. Sometimes it needs to do exactly what the user asks—and then get out of the way.
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https://sorgatronmedia.com
