This week, The Drill Down crew looks back at the year in tech and the web for the year 2013. We’ll discuss our favorite tech events of the past year, and what we can expect in 2014.

Before that, however, we discuss a recent discovery that the NSA sought to spy on gamers, eight top tech companies ban together to reform surveillance laws, and is Apple‘s iBeacon just a marketing gimmick or are there bigger plans in store?

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Headlines

• Revealed: spy agencies’ covert push to infiltrate virtual world of online games
• Reform Government Surveillance
• Apple’s iBeacon Is Much Bigger Than You Think

Audible Book of the Week

• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber, Narrated by Ben Stiller
• Sign up at AudibleTrial.com/TheDrillDown

Music Break: Top of the Pops 2013 (Hey Brother) by Mashup-Germany

Hot Topic: Top Tech Stories of 2013

Dwayne:

1. <Sigh> Edward Snowden: The government of the free’est land in the world, has conspired to undermine its citizen’s rights to privacy on multiple levels.
2. The Quantified Self/Wearable Tech Revolution (Rumoured Apple Watch, the M7, Samsung Watch, Pebble, & FitBit)
3. Old Media resurrected by New Media: Veronica Mars/Kickstarter; Arrested Dev/Netflix; Microsoft Xbox/Heroes
4. Amazon ascends: Mature Tablets(G3), Mayday, Kindle(G6) crushing Nook, US Post Office connection, Prime Instant Video (Original productions like Alpha House and Betas), Prime Air
5. Netflix wins Emmys
6. iOS 7 – More than a redesign, an exclamation of a new era of leadership at the largest tech company in the world.

Tosin:

1. Disney purchases Lucasfilm
2. Bitcoin hits 1 Billion
3. Balmer steps down Microsoft
4. FCC allows use of cell phone
5. New Tech Bubble: Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat

Andrew:

1. Edward Snowden NSA Leaks
2. Netflix/”binge viewing”
3. Console Wars 2013 (XBox/PS)
4. Google Glass

Music Break: United State of Pop 2013 (Living the Fantasy) by DJ Earworm

Biggest Fails of 2013

• NOKIA mobile BOUGHT BY MS
• NSA allowing Snowden to steal data
• Nintendo and the Wii U
• Maybe RIM makeover? Rebranded
• Microsoft DRM Xbox One

Predictions for 2014

• Amazon about to be a tech leader on par w/ Google/Apple/Microsoft
• Re-emergence of PC Gaming
• Year of the Cloud

The Drill Down Video of the Week

Pop Danthology by Daniel Kim

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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 tech consultant Tosin Onafowokan. Occasionally joining them is Startup Digest CTO Christopher Burnor.