Leo Laporte brings some of the most interesting personalities in technology together to talk about the most important issues. Fun, relaxed, informative and always entertaining, count on TWiT for the best tech podcasts in the world.
A consumer is suing Hisense for false advertising and deceptive business practices when they claim their QLED TV technology "dramatically increases the color space and improves color saturation," allowing consumers to "see color like you've never seen it before." Scott Wilkinson has some thoughts about this frivolous litigation.
Tech News Weekly 378: Apple's Upcoming OS Overhaul
Verifying 1
Does OpenAI have the capability for creative writing? Would you want to be coached in gaming through AI? What is Apple planning for its possible operating system redesign? And does AI have inconsistencies when providing the correct information to search queries?
Amanda Silberling of TechCrunch joins Mikah Sargent this week. Amanda talks about OpenAI and Sam Altman's social media post about how OpenAI is good at creative writing.
Mikah talks about Microsoft's plan to launch Xbox Copilot, an AI-powered gaming assistant that can offer tips, guides, and information about the games you are playing.
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg stops by to talk about Apple's plans to dramatically overhaul the look of its operating systems with the next iterations of iOS, iPadOS, and Mac OS.
And Mikah talks about a study from the Tao Center and how AI systems are frequently providing incorrect information and citations from various sources and news articles.
Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Amanda Silberling
Guest: Mark Gurman
Download or subscribe to Tech News Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly.
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Published Thursday
iOS Today 743: Dialing in your Data
Confirmed 4
Head into the world of data management with hosts Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard as they explore essential apps to help you organize and action your data more effectively. From storing manuals to creating databases and automating with shortcuts, this episode provides practical solutions for both personal and professional data needs.
DEVONThink - A powerful app for storing and searching documents like manuals, with annotation features and the ability to create links to specific sections of documents
Tap Forms - The spiritual successor to Bento, allowing users to create custom forms and databases with various field types and options for viewing and organizing data
Airtable - A versatile database service that integrates with automation tools and offers various views (grid, Kanban, calendar) to organize and visualize data
Notion - Described as a great "dumping spot" for storing all kinds of information, offering a different approach to data management than Airtable
Apple News
New iPad Air with M3 Chip - Apple announced the new iPad Air with M3 chip supporting Apple Intelligence, available in 11-inch ($599) and 13-inch ($799) models
New Magic Keyboard - Features a 14-key function row and larger trackpad, priced at $269 for 11-inch and $319 for 13-inch models
Updated Base iPad - Now includes double the storage capacity and features the A16 chip
Feedback
CarPlay Directions - Addressed a viewer question about stopping CarPlay from automatically suggesting directions home, with tips on using alternative map apps
Procreate App - Acknowledged viewer feedback about Procreate being an excellent graphics app for iPad that deserved mention in a previous episode
Shortcuts Corner
Smart Bulb Automation - Solved a problem where smart bulbs were turning on too dim when returning home, showing how to properly set up HomeKit automations with specific brightness levels
Mikah Sargent dives deep into Archive Utility on macOS, a powerful but often overlooked tool that works behind the scenes to compress and expand files on your Mac. From creating basic zip archives to encrypted files, this episode reveals all the hidden features of this versatile utility.
How compression works - Compression algorithms look for repeating patterns in data to make files smaller, though already compressed files like JPEGs may not benefit much.
Quick compression with right-click - The fastest way to compress files is selecting them, right-clicking, and choosing "Compress," which always creates a standard zip file.
Opening Archive Utility - Access it directly by using Command+Space and typing "archive" to explore its full capabilities beyond the right-click option.
Archive Utility settings - Configure where expanded files are saved, what happens to archives after expansion, and whether to automatically expand nested archives.
Expansion options - Choose to keep, trash, or delete archives after expanding them, or move them to a specific location.
Compression options - Similar settings exist for what happens to original files after creating an archive.
Archive formats explained - Despite setting preferences in Archive Utility, the right-click "Compress" option always creates zip files regardless of settings.
Creating CPGZ archives - These compressed archives must be created by selecting a folder through the File menu, not through right-click compression.
Regular archives (CPIO) - Simple "briefcase" archives without compression, useful for bundling files without reducing size.
Apple Archive (AAR) - A Mac-specific format that uses multi-threaded compression to efficiently compact files.
Encrypted archives (AER) - Secure, password-protected archives that can be unlocked with Touch ID if saved to your keychain.
Why ZIP remains the standard - ZIP format is used for the right-click compression option because of its universal compatibility across different operating systems.
Interview with Ray Kurzweil
Liquid eggs? NYC bodegas have new strategy to keep bacon, egg and cheese prices down
Google announces Gemini Robotics for building general purpose robots
DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags
An audit found that 10 top AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini, repeated false
claims from a pro-Kremlin disinformation network 33% of the time
A study of eight AI search engines found they provided incorrect citations of news articles in 60%+ of queries; Grok 3 answered 94% of the queries incorrectly
AI Tries To Cheat At Chess When It's Losing - Slashdot
AI Thinks It Cracked Kryptos. The Artist Behind It Says No Chance
Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic
Robots That Don't Walk Are Making Strides
Amazon has more than 750,000 robots that sort, lift, and carry packages—see them in action
TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app
FCC chair asks if YouTube TV 'discriminates against faith-based programming'
OpenAI says it has trained an AI that's 'really good' at creative writing
Bluesky CEO: imagine a 'world without Caesars'
The Senate approves Gail Slater, President Trump's pick to lead the DOJ's antitrust unit, by a 78-19 vote; she has been critical of power in the tech industry
Times profile of Jessica Lessin
Gen-Zers are turning to DVDs instead of streaming their favorite movies
Wonder Acquires Media Company Tastemade for $90 Million
Denmark postal service to stop delivering letters
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau
Guest: Ray Kurzweil
Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines.
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Published Thursday
Windows Weekly 923: The Bouche is Amused
Confirmed 2
Your Patch Tuesday is showing. Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Leo Laporte go over the latest features for Windows 11 with the KB5053598 update. Also, the hosts discuss Press to Talk for Insiders, the Windows app replacing Remote Desktop, the agentic future of browsers, Copilot integration in GroupMe, Gemma 3, issues with Xbox Wireless Controller 5.23.5.0 firmware, Pocket Casts Web Player, and the "vibe coding" era. Plus, Fences 6 is now in Beta, on sale!
Woody Leonhard, RIP
Like Jerry Pournelle, a major influence on Paul's career and writing style
He had a mysterious life in latter years, not clear what happened
Windows 11
Windows 11 gets all the features we've discussed recently
Are we heading towards something bigger this year? Or just more of the same?
New Canary and Beta (23H2) builds
New Dev and Beta (24H2) builds
Copilot in Windows 11 is getting Press to Talk
Microsoft follows through on threat, kills Remote Desktop App - our latest outrage
Arc crashed and burned but we can still evolve web browsers
What about sidebar apps as a UX baby step forward?
Does Edge need to restart every three days now to install updates?
Microsoft 365
Google promotes ChromeOS/Chromebooks as the right client ... for Microsoft 365
Dev
Build 2025 registration is now open
AI
It's Microsoft's 50th anniversary, so it's going to announce AI something something
Paul has agreed to attend this, from Mexico
Also, report that Microsoft's in-house models now rival OpenAI is a hint
Microsoft improves Think Deeper in Copilot using OpenAI o3-mini
Google secretly owns 14-15 percent of Anthropic
WTF is going on with Big Tech and regulatory evasion?
On that note, CMA clears Microsoft + OpenAI specifically because of change to partnership
Also, Google launches Gemma 3
The Siripocalypse - AI is a hard computer science problem and Siri is the dumb blond in this space
Amazon will use AI to dub movies and TV series because obviously
Xbox
Rumor: Third-party portable Xbox gaming handheld this year, console resets in two years
You could have cobbled this together solely based on what Microsoft has said publicly
Xbox controller firmware, we have a problem
Tips and Picks
Tip of the week: Code with AI
App pick of the week: Fences
RunAs Radio this week: Strong Certificate Mapping in Active Directory with Richard Hicks
Brown liquor pick of the week: Ardbeg 10
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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Published Wednesday
Security Now 1016: The Bluetooth Backdoor
Confirmed 2
Utah passes age verification requirement for app stores.
The inside story on fake North Korean employees. Is that a Texas accent?
An update on the ongoing Bybit cryptoheist saga.
The industry may be making some changes in the wake of the Bybit attack.
Apple pushes back legally against the UK's secret order.
Did someone crack Passkeys?
The UK launches a legal salvo at an innocent security researcher.
The old data breach we witnessed that just keeps on giving.
A bit more Bybit postmortem forensic news.
A lesson to learn from a clever and effective ransomware attack.
And what about that Bluetooth Backdoor discovery everyone is talking about?
Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1016-Notes.pdf
Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte
Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.
You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.
For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.
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Published Wednesday
MacBreak Weekly 963: The Blue and the Gray
Confirmed 1
Is Apple's 'Sky Blue' really blue? Apple is delaying its 'more personalized Siri' Apple Intelligence features. Is anyone excited about RollerCoaster Tycoon coming to Apple Arcade? And Dropbox now supports Live Photos! ... after ten years.
Sky (blue)'s the limit: M4 MacBook Air offers lower price, improved camera, and new color.
New Mac Studio spans the generations with M4 Max, M3 Ultra chips.
Apple is delaying the 'More Personalized Siri' Apple Intelligence features.
Apple readies dramatic software overhaul for iPhone, iPad and Mac.
On Apple Exclaves.
Apple Arcade announces six new games coming, including RollerCoaster Tycoon.
Apple reportedly planning 'feature-packed' visionOS 3 update.
Dropbox now supports this innovative iPhone photos feature...10 years later.
SpaceX urges FCC to block Globalstar's cellular satellite plans.
Ben Stiller gives backstory on 'Severance' Grand Central stunt, jokes budget with Apple boss.
Picks of the Week:
Jason's Pick: Mercury Weather
Andy's Pick: Red Worm Moon Lunar Eclipse
Alex's Pick: Voyage USB Ambisonic Mic
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell
Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly.
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Published Wednesday
This Week in Tech 1022: Chatting With MrBabyMan
Confirmed 2
'Spring forward' no more: Trump and Musk want to end Daylight Saving Time changes. Here's what health experts say
The $100 Trillion Disruption: The Unforeseen Economic Earthquake
Apple Is Delaying the 'More Personalized Siri' Apple Intelligence Features
An audit found that 10 top AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini, repeated false claims from a pro-Kremlin disinformation network 33% of the time
Digg is getting another revival, this time with an injection of AI
The Weird and Wacky Gadgets We Saw at MWC 2025
AMD finally has a decent NVIDIA killer with the Radeon 9070 + 9070 XT
Sources: there haven't been negotiations between ByteDance and prospective TikTok US buyers, amid confusion over who's leading Trump administration negotiations
Crony Crypto Capitalism
Utah Passes First US App Store Age Verification Law
The modern era of low-flying satellites may begin this week
YouTube Premium and Music Surpass 125 Million Subscribers
America's Justice Department Still Wants Google to Sell Chrome
Remembering 'Space Ghost' Voice Actor George Lowe
Host: Leo Laporte
Guests: Devindra Hardawar, Mike Elgan, and Louis Maresca
Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech
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Published Monday
Untitled Linux Show 193: Unrolled My Fruit Loops
Confirmed 2
There are new GPUs that are "available"! Are either NVIDIA or AMD's new offering a good deal for the Linux user? Speaking of AMD, what's up with that AMD Microcode vulnerability? Mono is back, with a dash of Wine, Ubuntu is reverting the O3 optimizations, and we say Goodbye to Skype. For tips we have mesg for controlling console messaging, and virsh for managing and live migrating your virtual machines. You can find the show notes at https://bit.ly/3FfcqkU and we'll see you next week!
In this episode of Hands-On Tech, Mikah Sargent answers two questions from Kevin: about how to control multiple roller shades with different remotes from a smartphone via Wi-Fi, and connecting a printer that's currently on a power line network to his eero Wi-Fi system.
Don't forget to send in your questions for Mikah to answer during the show! hot@twit.tv
Home Theater Geeks 473: Hisense QLED Lawsuit
Tech News Weekly 378: Apple's Upcoming OS Overhaul
iOS Today 743: Dialing in your Data
Hands-On Windows 131: AI Credits in Windows 11
Hands-On Mac 173: Archive Utility
Intelligent Machines 810: A Liter of Computronium
Windows Weekly 923: The Bouche is Amused
Security Now 1016: The Bluetooth Backdoor
MacBreak Weekly 963: The Blue and the Gray
This Week in Tech 1022: Chatting With MrBabyMan
Untitled Linux Show 193: Unrolled My Fruit Loops
Hands-On Tech 206: Automating Roller Shades & Connecting Printers