This Week in Tech (Audio) Podcast

• Bill Atkinson, Macintosh Pioneer and Inventor of Hypercard, Dies at 74
• Folklore.org: Round Rects Are Everywhere!
• OpenAI slams court order to save all ChatGPT logs, including deleted chats
• A ban on state AI laws could smash Big Tech's legal guardrails
• Federal judge blocks Florida from enforcing social media ban for kids while lawsuit continues
• TikTok dodges U.S. ban again as Trump administration pushes deadline back
• Supreme Court Gives Doge Access to Social Security Data
• The IRS Tax Filing Software TurboTax Is Trying to Kill Just Got Open Sourced
• The hidden time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech layoffs
• AI Startup Revealed To Be 700 Indian Employees Pretending To Be Chatbots - Slashdot
• Google's NotebookLM now lets you share your notebook and AI podcasts publicly
• Holding your cellphone while driving for navigation is illegal, California court rules
• Volvo Debuts New IoT Seatbelt Design - Slashdot
• Ending USB-C Port Confusion
• Walmart to Expand Wing Drone Deliveries to 100 Stores
• Nintendo Switch 2 Has Record-Breaking Launch, Selling Over 3 Million Units - Slashdot
• Calling All Cars Named Eleanor! The Ninth Circuit Has Decided You're Not Copyrightable After All
• California county accused of using drones to spy on residents

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Sam Abuelsamid, Cathy Gellis, and Larry Magid

Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

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• YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom
• Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans
• Trump makes a last-minute backtrack on his pick to lead NASA
• Xbox co-founder J Allard is working on 'breakthrough' devices at Amazon
• GitHub Users Angry at the Prospect of AI-Written Issues From Copilot
• Using technology may sharpen aging brains, not harm them
• We Bought a 'Peeing' Robot Attack Dog From Temu. It Was Even Weirder Than Expected
• Humanoid Robots for $3000, Hugging Face

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Louis Maresca, Doc Rock, and Iain Thomson

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In this jam-packed episode celebrating Towel Day, the TWiT crew dives into Apple's terrible week with Trump's tariff threats, Google and Microsoft's latest AI advances, the death of CAPTCHAs, and some wild new tech including laser-powered smart homes and sock-picking robot vacuums.

• Trump's Phone Tariff Ultimatum - President threatens 25% tariffs on iPhones and Samsung devices unless manufacturing moves to the US, putting Apple in an impossible position between economics and politics
• The Sock-Stealing Robot Revolution - Jennifer tests a $2,600 Roborock vacuum with an arm that picks up socks and occasionally tries to grab cats
• Microsoft's AI Science Breakthrough - Microsoft Build showcases agentic AI platform that helped create new coolant liquids by analyzing scientific journals and generating novel molecular compounds
• Windows Goes Agentic - Microsoft announces MCP protocol integration into Windows, raising both excitement about AI capabilities and concerns about data security
• Gaming Industry Consolidation - FTC finally drops its challenge to Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition after three years of failed legal battles
• Meta's Monopoly Defense Strategy - Company argues that Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions were beneficial rather than anti-competitive, as antitrust trial concludes
• Google's Hyper-Realistic AI Videos - Veo 3 generates convincing fake videos that blur the line between reality and AI creation, raising concerns about misinformation
• Revenge Porn Legislation Concerns - New "Take It Down" Act passes with bipartisan support but raises censorship worries about its 48-hour removal requirements
• Smart Glasses Make a Comeback - Google announces Android XR partnerships with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, signaling the return of consumer AR eyewear
• The $6.5 Billion AI Hardware Gamble - OpenAI's record-breaking acquisition of Jony Ive's design firm sparks debate about whether AI needs dedicated hardware devices
• Amazon's Smart Speaker Surveillance - Investigation reveals how much personal data Echo devices collect and store, highlighting the privacy costs of convenient AI assistants
• The Death of CAPTCHAs - AI now solves visual puzzles better than humans, making traditional bot-detection methods obsolete and forcing a rethink of online security
• America Abandons the Penny - The US will stop minting pennies due to production costs exceeding face value, ending a century-old currency tradition
• Air Traffic Control Crisis Exposed - Newark Airport's radar failures reveal America's dangerously outdated aviation infrastructure held together by 1990s technology and hope
• Fortnite's App Store Victory - Epic Games successfully returns to iOS after Apple quickly capitulates under legal pressure, ending years of bitter disputes
• Brain-Computer Interface Competition - Valve's Gabe Newell announces Neuralink competitor, expanding the race to connect human brains directly to computers
• Infrared Contact Lenses Enable Night Vision - Researchers develop contacts that let wearers see heat signatures even with eyes closed, promising superhuman vision capabilities
• 23andMe's Genetic Data Gold Rush - Regeneron Pharmaceuticals acquires the DNA testing company for $256 million, raising questions about genetic privacy and
• Stolen

These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/1033

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, Brian McCullough, and Mike Elgan

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• GTA 6 trailer 2 and anticipation
• Grok Pivots From 'White Genocide' to Being 'Skeptical' About the Holocaust
• Elon Musk's apparent power play at the Copyright Office completely backfired
• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Explains How He's Making Himself Obsolete With AI
• How Finland's district heating systems are harvesting heat from data centers; Microsoft's project in Kirkkonummi will be the largest in the world when completed
• OpenAI launches Codex, an AI coding agent, in ChatGPT
• China begins assembling its supercomputer in space
• NASA engineers revive Voyager 1's dead thrusters from 15 billion miles away
• 25% of steam playeres play Blue Prince
• Jamie Lee Curtis publicly shamed Mark Zuckerberg to remove a deepfaked ad
• Fortnite players can speak with Darth Vader through a James Earl Jones-voiced AI
• Epic Games says Apple is blocking Fortnite from the US and EU App Stores
• Epic wants the court to compel Apple to approve Fortnite's return to the US App Store
• Nextcloud accuses Google of "Big Tech gatekeeping" over Android app permissions
• Samsung's Galaxy S25 Edge starts off the super thin phone era
• Square's $399 Handheld accepts tap-to-pay at your table
• Montana Becomes First State To Close the Law Enforcement Data Broker Loophole - Slashdot
• Republicans Try to Cram Ban on AI Regulation Into Budget Reconciliation Bill
• The first US hub for experimental medical treatments is coming
• The US Army is getting in on right-to-repair
• They're just giving up and calling it HBO Max again

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Wil Harris, Devindra Hardawar, and Harper Reed

Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

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• Apple asks court to halt App Store rule changes while it appeals
• Proposed Amicus Brief – #1300, Att. #1 in UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. GOOGLE LLC (D.D.C., 1:20-cv-03010) – CourtListener.com
• Eddy Cue Causes a Stir for Google
• DOJ pushes for Google to sell its advertising platforms
• Google Will Pay $1.4 Billion to Texas to Settle Claims It Collected User Data Without Permission
• What Stacey has been doing
• Attorney General Bailey Files Groundbreaking Rule to End Big Tech's Censorship Monopoly and Protect Online Free Speech
• DOGE bro Kyle Schutt's computer infected by malware, credentials found in stealer logs
• The Signal Clone the Trump Admin Uses Was Hacked
• Samsung is paying $350 million for audio brands Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz and Polk
• Zuckerberg's Grand Vision: Most of Your Friends Will Be AI - Slashdot
• How AI Demand Is Draining Local Water Supplies
• Tom Brady, Stephen Curry and other big names are mostly off the hook from the FTX fallout
• FTC Bans Hidden Fees For Live Events and Short-Term Rentals - Slashdot
• The FTC puts off enforcing its 'click-to-cancel' rule
• 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth | Bill Gates
• Mexico is suing Google over 'Gulf of America' name change for US users
• Switzerland To Hold Referendum on Introducing Electronic ID

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Shoshana Weissmann, Wesley Faulkner, and Stacey Higginbotham

Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts!
Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Sponsors:

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