Happy Valentine's Day! Now that's out of the way, we've got Apple's HomePod review (great sound, not so smart), adorable robot skiers and problems with Star Trek Discovery. The company's first smart speaker sounds great, but is that enough? The company's ethos -- as explained by CEO Tim Cook time and again -- is that Apple cares more about being the best than being first. The $349 HomePod is proof that's not always true. Apple put considerable time and effort into making its first smart speaker sound better than its rivals, and Chris Velazco argues they succeeded.

This article contains mild spoilers for the first season of'Star Trek Discovery'. At its best, science fiction does more than just entertain, or ensure its cliffhanger is strong enough that you come back next week. The cool spaceships and robots are just the framework through which we explore the anxieties and morals of our society at large. And we're at such a febrile point in history that we need sci-fi to ground us in what's coming in the not-too-distant future. I've been preaching patience for a while now, but I don't think that I can defend Star Trek Discovery any further.