This Week in Tech (Audio)

• Over $1.4 billion taken from Bybit crypto exchange
• Apple Removes Cloud Encryption Feature From UK After Backdoor Order
• iOS18.4 Beta adds priority notifications, support for robot vacs in Apple Home, but no smarter siri
• Amazon's revamped Alexa might launch over a month after its announcement event
• OpenAI now serves 400M users every week
• The New York Times adopts AI tools in the newsroom
• Amazon Appstore for Android is shutting down in August
• Spotify is making it easier to release audiobooks narrated by AI
• California privacy regulator seeks to fine Florida data broker after huge breach of Social Security numbers
• Donald Trump Is Turning CISA Into The Embodiment Of His Election Conspiracy Theories
• Asus Continues Fragrant Device Trend With an Aromatic Mouse - Slashdot
• iPhone 16E: all the news on Apple's new $599 phone
• Smart ring tracks health, fitness data with long battery life

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, Abrar Al-Heeti, and Larry Magid

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• TikTok is back on the App Store and the Play Store in the U.S.
• Elon Musk's DOGE Website Is Already Getting Hacked
• IRS Acquiring Nvidia Supercomputer
• Elon's bid for OpenAI is about making the for-profit transition as painful as possible for Altman,
• Intel has spoken with the Trump administration and TSMC over the past few months about a deal for TSMC to take control of Intel's foundry business
• Broadcom Joins TSMC In Considering Deals For Parts of Intel
• Arm to start making server CPUs in-house
• Thomson Reuters wins the first major US AI copyright ruling against fair use, in a case filed in May 2020 against legal research AI startup Ross Intelligence
• Perplexity just made AI research crazy cheap—what that means for the industry
• YouTube Surprise: CEO Says TV Overtakes Mobile as "Primary Device" for Viewing
• Google Maps now shows the 'Gulf of America'
• Scarlett Johansson Urges Government to Limit A.I. After Faked Video of Her Opposing Kanye West Goes Viral
• Google CEO Sees 'Useful' Quantum Computers 5 to 10 Years Away
• Trump says he has directed US Treasury to stop minting new pennies, citing rising cost
• Nearly 10 years after Data and Goliath, Bruce Schneier says: Privacy's still screwed
• Amazon's revamped Alexa might launch over a month after its announcement event
• Meta's Brain-to-Text AI

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Wesley Faulkner, Iain Thomson, and Brian McCullough

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• UK orders Apple to give it access to encrypted cloud data
• Google rolls back DEI efforts, including hiring goals
• Brits Want to Ban 'Smarter Than Human' AI
• Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl 'Trades' Pit State Regulators Against Feds
• Google pulls incorrect Gouda stat from its AI Super Bowl ad
• "Torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn't feel right": Meta emails unsealed
• Amazon's AI revamp of Alexa assistant nears unveiling
• Google starts testing new Search 'AI Mode' internally – Here's an early look at it
• In Upholding The TikTok Ban, SCOTUS Compromises, And With It The First Amendment
• TikTok advises Android users in the US to sideload the app
• In Other SCOTUS First Amendment News, It Also Just Heard Oral Argument Over Yet Another Texas Law Censoring The Internet
• Teen on Musk's DOGE Team Graduated from 'The Com'
• CISA staffers offered deferred resignations, extending broader cybersecurity fears
• Elon Musk Ally Tells Staff 'AI-First' Is the Future of Key Government Agency
• German civil activists win victory in election case against Musk's X
• Trump Ends Legal Challenge Over Twitter Ban After Jan. 6 Riot
• Crypto-stealing apps found in Apple App Store for the first time
• Apple's Long-Awaited Overhaul of iPhone SE Nears Release
• Former iOS engineer sued by Apple issues apology as lawsuit is dismissed
• PS5 sales more than twice Xbox Series X/S reveals Take-Two by accident

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Daniel Rubino, Cathy Gellis, and Lisa Schmeiser

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• Takeaways From a Monumental Week for AI
• Sam Altman: OpenAI has been on the 'wrong side of history' concerning open source | TechCrunch
• DeepSeek's AI success is overshadowed by a serious security breac
• AI systems with 'unacceptable risk' are now banned in the EU | TechCrunch
• OpenAI partners with U.S. National Laboratories on scientific research, nuclear weapons security
• The NTSB chooses Elon Musk's X to update the press on plane crashes
• OpenAI launches o3-mini, its latest 'reasoning' model | TechCrunch
• Rabbit R1 and Pebble
• Apple's AI and AR Struggles Show It Has Lost Some of Its Product Edge
• Elon Musk's X begins its push into financial services with Visa deal
• Elon Musk's X sues Lego, Nestlé and more brands, accusing them of advertising boycott
• Thousands of U.S. Government Web Pages Have Been Taken Down Since Friday
• Musk aides lock workers out of OPM computer systems
• Elon Musk seizes computer system, locks out senior government officials
• Google says it will change Gulf of Mexico to 'Gulf of America' in Maps app after government updates
• Comcast unveils ultra-low lag Internet connection
• 23andMe might sell itself as it runs out of money
• Streaming prices climb in 2025 after already surpassing inflation rates
• Super Bowl Sundays are really noisy everywhere in the US

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Shoshana Weissmann, Christina Warren, and Dan Patterson

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• The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a total disaster
• Satya Nadella says he's 'good for $80 billion' after Elon Musk claims Stargate Project doesn't have the cash
• How Chinese AI Startup DeepSeek Made a Model that Rivals OpenAI
• Tesla brand value drops $15B in 2024
• Wall Street Banks Prepare to Sell Billions of Dollars of X Loans
• Mark Zuckerberg post re: Llama 4
• Hundreds of Subreddits Are Considering Banning All Links to X
• Crypto czar David Sacks says NFTs and memecoins are collectibles, not securities
• Trump's Crypto Venture Divides the Industry He Aims to Support
• Paul McCartney calls on UK government to protect artists from AI | TechCrunch
• Sony Japan ends production of recordable Blu-rays with 'no successor' planned
• Startups are built on dreams. This one is just more literal about it.
• When S.F. fought 'Pac-Man'
• Interview with Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz
• Bill Gates: Trump, Musk and how my neurodiversity made me

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Ed Bott, Sam Abuelsamid, and Owen Thomas

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• Supreme Court Upholds Law That Threatens US TikTok Ban
• Trumpcoin
• Texas Sues Allstate Over Its Collection of Driver Data
• Skyrocketing car-insurance premiums are pushing inflation higher
• Behind the Curtain — Coming soon: Ph.D.-level super-agents
• 4 surprise products we could see at Samsung Unpacked 2025
• Apple suspends error-strewn AI generated news alerts
• US Finalizes Rule Banning Smart Cars With Russian, Chinese Tech
• Natrium 'advanced nuclear' power plant wins Wyoming permit - WyoFile
• Cash App parent fined $175 million for 'woefully incomplete' response to fraud
• FDA Proposes Significant Step Toward Reducing Nicotine to Minimally or Nonaddictive Level in Cigarettes and Certain Other Combusted Tobacco Products

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Jason Hiner, Paris Martineau, and Molly White

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• The panel discusses CES 2025
• How Watch Duty's wildfire tracking app became a crucial lifeline for LA
• Worst in Show awards 2025
• Aaron Swartz v Sam Altman
• We've not been trained for this: life after the Newag DRM disclosure
• All the Meta stuff (fact checking, etc.)
• Heritage Foundation plans to 'identify and target' Wikipedia editors
• The Government Wants to Protect Robux From Hackers
• Twitch Streamers Come Home After Big-Money Contracts at Rivals Dried Up
• Candy Crush, Tinder, MyFitnessPal: See the Thousands of Apps Hijacked to Spy on Your Location

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Nicholas De Leon, Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ, and Cory Doctorow

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Touching the Sun, Fake Spotify Artists, Banished Words

• AI Needs So Much Power, It's Making Yours Worse
• How many billions Big Tech spent on AI data centers in 2024
• NASA Spacecraft 'Touches Sun' In Defining Moment For Humankind
• Elon Musk Calls Out NASA's Moon Ambitions: 'We're Going Straight to Mars'
• Elon Musk and the right's war on Wikipedia
• Trump Asks Supreme Court to Pause Law Threatening TikTok Ban
• US Treasury says Chinese hackers stole documents in 'major incident'
• Judge blocks parts of California bid to protect kids from social media
• Finland probes Russian shadow fleet oil tanker after cable-cutting incident
• US appeals court blocks Biden administration effort to restore net-neutrality rules
• The Ghosts in the Machine (fake spotify artists)
• Massive VW Data Leak Exposed 800,000 EV Owners' Movements, From Homes To Brothels
• Banished Words | Lake Superior State University 2025
• Public Domain Day 2025
• Happy Birthday, Bitcoin! The top cryptocurrency is old enough to drive
• End of the lines? QR-style codes could replace barcodes 'within two years'

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Richard Campbell, Anthony Ha, and Stacey Higginbotham

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TWiT wishes all listeners and viewers a Happy New Year and peaceful 2025!

• Padre's CES 2024 haul
• Cory Doctorow's infamous ensh*ttification term
• Tesla teases a robotaxi
• Last in-studio audience for TWiT
• Padre on the AI priest
• Google Search gets worse
• Christina Warren's Rabbit R1
• Snowflake and the AT&T breach
• Crowdstrike's big outag
• Last in-studio episode before moving out
• Salt Hank shows off his new cookbook
• TWiT's 1000th episode brings back old friends
• The State of X/Twitter under Elon
• Parenting with TWiT daddies
• Tech billionaires affecting Trump's transition team

Host: Leo Laporte

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• What's behind the tech industry's mass layoffs in 2024? : NPR
• Rabbit R1 AI Assistant: Price, Specs, Release Date | WIRED
• Stealing everything you've ever typed or viewed on your own Windows
• PC is now possible with two lines of code — inside the Copilot+ Recall disaster.
• Microsoft delays Recall after security concerns, and asks Windows Insiders for help
• The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Architecture Deep Dive: Getting To Know Oryon and Adreno X1
• Elon Musk: First Human Receives Neuralink Brain Chip
• Apple hit with €1.8bn fine for breaking EU law over music streaming
• Bluesky emerges
• The hidden high cost of return-to-office mandates
• Apple's Car Was Doomed by Its Lofty Ambitions to Outdo Tesla
• SpaceX pulls off unprecedented feat, grabs descending rocket with mechanical arms
• U.S. versus Apple: A first reaction
• Google Says It Won't Force Gemini on Partners in Antitrust Remedy Proposal
• U.S. Accuses Chinese Hackers of Targeting Critical Infrastructure in America
• U.S. Agency Warns Employees About Phone Use Amid Ongoing China Hack
• AT&T says criminals stole phone records of 'nearly all' customers in new data breach
• National Public Data confirms breach exposing Social Security numbers
• Schools Want to Ban Phones. Parents Say No.
• New York passes legislation that would ban 'addictive' social media algorithms for kids
• GPT-4o (omni) + new "Her"-style AI assistant (it's nuts)
• Google emissions jump nearly 50% over five years as AI use surges
• Trump proposes strategic national crypto stockpile at Bitcoin Conference
• Ten additional US states join DOJ antitrust lawsuit looking to break up Live Nation and TicketmasterThe Internet Archive just lost its appeal over ebook lending
• Hezbollah Pagers Explode in Apparent Attack Across Lebanon
• OpenAI raises $6.6 billion in largest VC round ever
• Painting by A.I.-Powered Robot Sells for $1.1 Million
• Netflix's Live Mike Tyson Vs. Jake Paul Fight Battling Sound & Streaming Glitches In Lead-Up To Main Event
• Infowars Sale to The Onion Rejected by Federal Bankruptcy Judge
• Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge to TikTok ban
• So You Want to Solve the NJ Drone Mystery? Our Expert Has Some Ideas
• Beeper's push for iMessage on Android is really over
• The Quiet Death of Ello's Big Dreams
• Japan finally ends mandatory form submission on floppy disks
• We'll Miss You: Pioneering instant messaging program ICQ is finally shutting down after nearly 30 years
• Spotify is going to break every Car Thing gadget it ever sold
• Game Informer to Shut Down After 33 Years
• In Memoriam

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

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