This Week in Tech (MP3)

TWiT 740: Sex-Positive Currency

Sun, 13 Oct 2019 20:40:28 PDT

This week's stories

The Chinese propaganda app that spies on all Chinese citizens
Chinese influence in video games, social media, and other industries - where do we draw the line?
What is Tencent? How much influence do they have over the world? Here's how to keep them from watching your iPhone
Can we still trust Apple? Can we trust anyone?
At what point do we admit that we are in a multi-state information war?
Is there any way to fine Facebook fairly? Bring back the Office of Technology Assesment!
Remember: the answer to bad politics is not "no politics". It is good politics.
Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency is falling apart
There is a very good reason why politicians can lie on Facebook
How Boris Johnson games Google
There are no political ads in France. Could we do that in America?
Which weird phone stands a better chance: the Essential Gem or Microsoft Duo?
Apple Arcade is still wonderful.
How much do Americans know about tech? Not a lot. What should we do about that?
SCOTUS decides websites must be accessible to blind people
Lithium-ion battery inventors win Nobel Prize

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Patrick Beja, Brianna Wu, and Nate Lanxon

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TWiT 739: Bob Ross with Biceps

Sun, 06 Oct 2019 20:11:44 PDT

This week's stories

Microsoft surprises us all with the two-screen Surface Duo phone
Apple's Deep Fusion poised to trump Google's Pixel 4 announcement
More than 500 ransomware attacks on US schools so far in 2019
More red flags than a Chinese parade: WeWork's failed IPO
Apple loves freedom - except in China
US, UK, and Australian governments vs encryption
Lexy Savvides's Memoji secrets
Tim Cook can woo Trump all he wants, but Apple still has to pay 25% tariffs
CNET folds the Samsung Galaxy Fold until it breaks
Why did Windows Phone fail? Iain Thomson: "It was a thousand cuts of stupidity."
Microsoft's new Surface line is aimed straight at Apple
Will there be an October Apple event? All signs point to yes.
Google Seattle makes a literal product graveyard
Levis' Jacquard jean jackets
PayPal backs out of Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency
Facebook vs Elizabeth Warren
Facebook says it's ok for political ads to lie
Twitter says it's ok for Trump to advocate civil war
Should Zuckerberg step down? Would that change anything?
Elon Musk's new Starship and its competition
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is concerned about Tesla's Smart Summon feature
Hundreds of millions of "Words with Friends" accounts hacked
Japan turns off pagers after 50 years of honorable service

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Ant Pruitt, Iain Thomson, and Lexy Savvides

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TWiT 738: The Twerklight Sonata

Sun, 29 Sep 2019 20:01:41 PDT

This Week's Stories

What we expect at Wednesday's big Microsoft Surface event
Gemmy the Twerking Alexa Bear demo
Echo Loop and Echo Frames will take Alexa with you
Facebook Horizon: is this the VR future we signed up for?
Tesla's Smart Summon feature makes us a little nervous
Do we really trust all these voice assistants?
Amazon is throwing Alexa spaghetti at the wall
Google wins major Right to Be Forgotten ruling
Amazon Sidewalk is Amazon's proprietary mesh network for pet tracking and more - will they sell it to the police? Will this and Amazon's Ring Neighbors app lead to a police state?
Amazon pushes voice agent interoperability - Cortana jumps at the chance, Siri and Google Assistant play coy
Checkm8 is an unstoppable jailbreak that works on any iPhone from the iPhone 4S to the iPhone X
Apple will release AppleTV+ movies in theaters as Oscar bait
Mac Pro to be made in Texas
Google will stop showing news snippets in France
QuestLove is moving from Pandora. Is Pandora dead? What is the state of the streaming music world?
Snapchat's 'Project Voldemort' tracks all the ways Facebook steals from them
Elizabeth Warren wants to reinstate the Office of Technology Assessment so congress will know what they are talking about on tech
Listen to TWiT's new show Smart Tech Today starting Monday, October 7th!

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Daniel Rubino, Mikah Sargent, and Caroline Haskins

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TWiT 737: You Could See The "Screw It" in His Eyes

Sun, 22 Sep 2019 17:36:59 PDT

This Week's Stories:

TWO AND A HALF DOZEN people invade Area 51
iPhone 11 vs iPhone 7: is it worth the upgrade?
Apple Arcade is the best 5 bucks a month you can spend on games
Apple Watch 5 is the best computer you can wear on your wrist.
Taking cat pictures in the dark with iPhone 11 - which phone takes the best picture? How about video?
How many monthly fees to Apple are too many?
Apple wins its 2nd Emmy before Apple TV+ even comes out.
Who owns Slofie.com? How about Slophie.net?
Apple changes the update cycle
RIP 3D Touch. We won't miss you.
Apple's ultrawideband U1 Chip: what does it do?
iPhone 11 teardown
What to expect from Google's big October event
What to expect from Microsoft's big October event
Has Google achieved quantum supremacy?
How many bitcoin are lost forever?
When Zuck met Trump
Facebook creates Oversight Board: here's how it will work
Facebook Portal wants to watch you watch TV
Richard Stallman out at MIT and Free Software Foundation
Edward Snowden still wants to come home

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Rene Ritchie, Dwight Silverman, and Louise Matsakis

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

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TWiT 736: Leave the Phone, Save the Donuts

Sun, 15 Sep 2019 19:29:31 PDT

This Week's Stories:

iPhone 11 vs iPhone 11 Pro
iPhone 11 Pro Max: the end of the Thinner Era
No High refresh rate for iPhone Pro
New iPhone colors: corpse purple, baby poop green
How durable is the iPhone 11 Pro?
Night mode, 3 lenses, high key: is iPhone 11 Pro the best phone camera you can buy?
iPhone 11 will be unlocked on day one
Apple seems ever so slightly more price sensitive this year
iPhone 11 camera bump: why not just make the phone thicker?
Apple Watch 5: always on
Apple Watch 5: aluminum vs titanium vs ceramic
Apple Arcade and Apple TV+
Apple can't get JJ Abrams, even for a half-billion $$$
48 States coming after Google
Tech backlash? What tech backlash?
Are we building our own surveillance state?
Google's $995 Project Jacquard backpack
Where do we go after GDPR?
Want $125 from Equifax? Please jump through these flaming hoops.
Pixel 4: is there anything that hasn't leaked yet?
Which voice assistant is the best, and how can we make it better?
Microsoft Surface Event October 2
Minecraft hits 112 million users a month
MoviePass finally folds

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Devindra Hardawar, Georgia Dow, and Wil Harris

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TWiT 735: I've Got a Chatroom in My Thigh

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 17:51:15 PDT

Apple testily responds to Google's Project Zero discovery of China's iOS hack against Uyghur Muslims.
Avoiding FUD: how secure is too secure?
Facebook leaks 420 Million users' phone numbers. In a related story, until recently, AT&T stored users' phone numbers in unencrypted paper files and delivered them directly to all US citizens.
Apple Event this Tuesday! Which new phone will win the 2019 Fall Challenge?
Phone Photography of the Phuture!
Apple Watch 5 is all about sleep.
Apple Tile, Apple Glasses, Apple TV, Apple Arcade, what else will happen on Tuesday?
Harry is excited about the 16 Inch MacBook coming soon.
Samsung Fold released in South Korea. It's not perfect, but it is a necessary step towards a cyberpunk future.
An AI beat an 8th-grade science test. My 8th grader spends most of his time in the backyard blowing up stuff. Should we be scared?
Joi Ito resigns over Epstein ties. Let's make sure we punish all the tech people who worked with Epstein and ignore all the bankers and politicians.
Bill Gates has spent the past 10 years rehabilitating his image. Will his ties to Jeffrey Epstein remind everyone what a jerk he used to be?
Verizon's 5G rollout to NFL stadiums only covers some seats.
DOJ demands Apple and Google give them data on everyone who downloaded a gun scope tuning app.
Supermicro flaw - no, not that Supermicro flaw, the other one.
Huawei says the US is cyber-attacking it. Um, Duh.
Biohacking is here. Stick a server in your thigh!

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Harry McCracken, Jason Hiner, and Seth Rosenblatt

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TWiT 734: Forking Windows

Sun, 01 Sep 2019 17:05:08 PDT

Apple Event September 10th: iPhone. Which phone will be better, iPhone 11 or Pixel 4?
Apple Event September 10th: Apple Watch. What health features should we expect, and how will they save Christina Warren's life this time?
Jack Hacked! Twitter CEO's Twitter account hacked by white supremacists. (Again.) Can Twitter ever be properly secured? (No.) Will someone hack Trump's account next? (Maybe they already have, we just don't know it.)
Trump proposes tracking US citizens with Fitbits to prevent mass shootings.
Reddit detectives figure out which satellite Trump uses to track Iranian space launch facilities after he tweets a picture of one.
15% tariffs on Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod start today! Apple vows to move all production back to America immediately. Just kidding - they're moving to Vietnam. So is Google Pixel. Coming soon: Iraqi-made Microsoft Surface Pro and Afghani HP laptops!
Project Zero at Google discovered a very interesting iPhone hack that went on for years. China used those hacks to target Uyghur Muslim Chinese citizens.
Black Hat attendees infected with a real-life virus: Measles!
Google doubles down on third-party trackers, arguing that eliminating them will break the web. Why this is a big fat lie.
Microsoft Surface event coming October 2nd. Greg Ferro wants to know why Windows still sucks.
Apple turns 180 degrees, allows 3rd-party repairs.
Microsoft gives ExFat to Linux. Can we please have NTFS next?

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Christina Warren and Greg Ferro

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TWiT 733: Fake Moos

Sun, 25 Aug 2019 20:45:03 PDT

This Week's Stories:

Hacking the US Military at DEF CON
Voting machine hacks at DEF CON
GDPR is a hacker's delight
Company sues DEF CON because their presentation was booed
Will the T-Mobile/Sprint merger go through?
Android Q is not a dessert
New phone season is here
Using mice to detect deepfakes
Navigating our increasingly fakeable world
Is computational photography more or less "real"?
Human connection in an online world
Apple TV+, Disney +, where does it end?
Apple Card and its various stains
Don't wash titanium with tap water
5G is as carcinogenic as coffee and pickles
WeWork IPO chicanery
Pokemon Go trespassing is still a problem
No, Instagram is not going to steal your photos

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ, Iain Thomson, and Alex Wilhelm

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

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TWiT 732: Why is My Fridge Playing ICP?

Sun, 18 Aug 2019 17:42:45 PDT

Amazon's paid tweeters program backfires
Telus email out for the past 4 days
$3 Million Fortnite winner SWATted
How Gamergate launched a culture war
Esports is officially mainstream - how to get an esports scholarship to college
Verizon sells Tumblr for about 2% of what Yahoo bought it for 6 years ago
iPhone 11 coming September 10 - how private will it be?
Apple sues Corellium for virtualization service
Google's challenging past 3 years
Google forces Nest to leave recording lights on
iPhone 11 Pro Max?
Pixel 3a's faux 20x zoom
Rival search engines drop out of Google's search engine ballot auction
Amazon's Rekognition face recognition system can't tell the difference between congressmen and criminals
"NULL" vanity plate garners man $12,000+ in parking violations
3 simple ways to defeat face recognition
Update your Windows 10 system NOW. Seriously.
New Bluetooth KNOB attack
Huawei gets a break
Georgia required to use paper ballots
FTC willing to break up big tech
IKEA gets serious about smart tech
Disney after account sharers
Don't use Kaspersky anti-virus
Tesla owner implants her key in her arm
Apple shuts down 3rd-party WebKit anti-tracking abusers

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Matt Cutts, Denise Howell, and Owen JJ Stone

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

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TWiT 731: An Electric Cannonball

Sun, 11 Aug 2019 16:40:22 PDT

This Week's Stories

Video games don't cause mass shootings, but toxic gamer culture doesn't help
White House proposes social media censorship
Apple wants as many people as possible to get the Apple Card
Are Teslas reliable?
Chase forgives Canadian customers' debt
Apple locks out DIY battery repairs
FedEx splits with Amazon
Amazon's PillPack fighting with CVS and Walgreens
Woz wants you off Facebook
Teenagers work overnight to make Amazon Echo
Samsung Note 10 kills headphone jack and Bixby button, embraces Microsoft
FBI, NSA want hackers, even if they used to smoke pot
Defcon takes on voting machine security
Elizabeth Warren's plan for rural broadband
US Navy ditching touchscreen controllers

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Brianna Wu, Ben Johnson, and Sam Abuelsamid

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

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