Looking Back on 2015's Biggest Tech News and Ahead to CES 2016

Are Apple’s best days behind it? Is Silicon Valley in a bubble? And can someone please suggest a good reason to buy a smartwatch?

These were just a few of the questions that drove the tech news cycle in 2015, and we answered all of them in a special episode of “Re/code Decode,” hosted by Kara Swisher. The Verge’s Lauren Goode and Casey Newton and Re/code’s Noah Kulwin joined Kara to celebrate the new year and think about what’s next.

The full list of topics discussed: When are wearables going to take off? Was 2015 Facebook’s biggest year? What is the state of Silicon Valley’s relationship with Washington, D.C.? Can the mobile-desktop hybrid really replace your laptop or tablet? What does Google’s restructuring into Alphabet mean? Are tech companies responding to the growing wave of online abuse? Did Apple do anything really creative this year? What are the new challenges facing Uber? And seriously, are we in a bubble?

“My favorite thing anybody ever said on Twitter is, ‘Journalists have successfully called 10,000 of the last one bubbles,'” Newton said.

Peter Prato for Re/code

Later in the show, on “Too Embarrassed to Ask,” Kara, Lauren, Casey and Noah previewed CES 2016, which starts this week in Las Vegas. You can tweet your tech-related questions with the hashtag #TETA at @KaraSwisher, @LaurenGoode or @Recode.

Listen to or download the episode in the player above, or click here to subscribe to “Re/code Decode” on iTunes. Peter Kafka will be back in this space on Thursday to talk to Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger, and Kara will be back on Monday to talk about gender bias in tech with Trae Vassallo and Michele Madansky.

And if you like this show, you should also check out “Re/code Replay,” an archive of audio content from our events and interviews by Kara Swisher, Walt Mossberg, Peter Kafka, Ina Fried and more. To subscribe to that, click right here.

You can follow @Recode on Twitter for the latest on upcoming guests.

If you like what we’re doing, please write a review on iTunes — and if you don’t, just tweet-strafe Kara and Peter. You can also suggest guests for the show on Twitter and we’ll do our best to nab them for a Red Chair interview.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

We have a request

Vox's journalism is free because we believe that everyone deserves to understand the world that they live in. That kind of knowledge helps create better citizens, neighbors, friends, parents, consumers and stewards of this planet. In short, understanding benefits everyone. You can join in on this mission by making a financial gift to Vox today. Reader support helps keep our work free, for everyone. Will you join us?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$95/year

$120/year

$250/year

$350/year

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $120/year

Yes, I'll give $120/year

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via