Happy New Year! NVIDIA just spent $20 billion to hollow out an AI company for its brains, while Meta and Google scramble to scoop up fresh talent before AI gets "too weird to manage." Who's winning, who's left behind, and what do these backroom deals mean for the future of artificial intelligence?

• Andrej Karpathy admits programmers cannot keep pace with AI advances
• Economic uncertainty in AI despite massive stock market influence
• Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft drive AI productization for business and consumers
• OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini battle for consumer AI dominance
• Journalism struggles to keep up with AI realities and misinformation tools
• Concerns mount over AI energy, water, and environmental impact narratives
• Meta buys Manus, expands AI agent ambitions with Llama model
• OpenAI posts high-stress "Head of Preparedness" job worth $555K+
• Training breakthroughs: DeepSeek's mHC and comparisons to Action Park
• U.S. lawmakers push broad, controversial internet censorship bills
• Age verification and bans spark state laws, VPN workaround explosion
• U.S. drone ban labeled protectionist as industry faces tech shortages
• FCC security initiatives falter; Cyber Trust Mark program scrapped
• Waymo robotaxis stall in blackouts, raising AV urban planning issues
• School cellphone bans expose kids' struggle with analog clocks
• MetroCard era ends in NYC as tap-to-pay takes over subway access
• RAM, VRAM, and GPU prices soar as AI and gaming squeeze supply
• CES preview: Samsung QD-OLED TV, Sony AFEELA car, gadget show hype
• Remembering Stewart Cheifet and Computer Chronicles' legacy

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Dan Patterson and Joey de Villa

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This week, we're talking accounting... while not giving any financial advice. Then we talk QEMU and virtualization, the Linux Steam Survey, and the CachyOS server. Then, Torvalds isn't super happy with the SFC lawsuit, Linux is headed to space, and Phoenix attempts to resurrect the ashes of X Server. You can find the show notes at https://bit.ly/49qpcbN and happy new year!

Host: Jonathan Bennett

Co-Hosts: Ken McDonald and Rob Campbell

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On the first episode of Hands-On Tech for 2026, Mikah helps Andrew out with some recommendations to replace his home theater PC (HTPC) so that his family can watch old home movies easily!

Send in your questions for Mikah to answer during the show to hot@twit.tv.

Host: Mikah Sargent

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Apple shook up its device family with new models this past year, but not all the changes were obvious. If you missed these pair of episodes, find out what actually made the 2025 Apple Watch and iPhone lineup different—and why picking the wrong one could mean missing out on must-have features (or overpaying for ones you'll never use).

Host: Mikah Sargent

Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv.

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Take a look back at some of our favorite interviews from the past year on Tech News Weekly!

• Eric Migicovsky, founder of the smartwatch company Pebble, joins Mikah to talk about exciting news with Pebble.
• Bloomberg antitrust reporter Leah Nylen returns to unpack the latest in the DOJ's case against Google. She explains the three proposed remedies—including a possible Chrome browser divestiture—and what testimony from tech competitors like DuckDuckGo, Perplexity, and OpenAI revealed about Google's dominance in search and AI.
• Leila Zia, Head of Research at the Wikimedia Foundation, outlines their new AI roadmap, which focuses on supporting Wikipedia's volunteer editors rather than replacing them. She details how AI will assist with moderation, multilingual knowledge expansion, and mentorship—all while upholding values of transparency and human agency.
• Scott Stein of CNET is staying busy as he joins the show to share his hands-on impressions of Nintendo's Switch 2 console, Mario Kart World, and its new features.
• And Consumer Reports' Derek Kravitz details Instacart's AI pricing practices.

Host: Mikah Sargent

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Our interviews with:

• Ray Kurzweil
• Alex Hanna
• Emily Bender
• Mike Masnick
• Pliny the Liberator
• Kevin Kelly

Host: Leo Laporte

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This isn't your usual Windows Weekly. Pour a glass and settle in as Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell ditch the headlines for whisky-soaked tech stories, behind-the-scenes Microsoft confessions, and the unexpected joys (and disasters) of vintage hardware. These are the tales you only hear when the mics are (almost) off.

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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In this special holiday episode, Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte revisit their classic conversation about vitamin D—diving into the science, surprising updates, and practical tips for your health. Whether you've heard it before or are tuning in for the first time, this "blast from the past" is the perfect way to kick off 2026 with wisdom, laughs, and a little bit of eggnog recovery.

Read more at https://www.grc.com/health

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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Join us again as we take a look back at some of MacBreak Weekly's favorite stories and moments from 2025:

• The unveiling of the iPhone 16e.
• The UK's effort to keep Apple Encryption fight secret is block & White House blames iPhone's auto-correct contact for Signal scandal.
• Apple's fairly underwhelming, and hilarious, 'Celebrity Snapshot' page.
• Another new product announcement from Apple: the iPhone Air!
• MacBreak Weekly celebrates its 1000th episode!
• And the departure of one of the original panelists of MacBreak Weekly...

Host: Leo Laporte

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• AI video generation
• TWiT turns 20
• Harper Reed on vibe-coding
• Job loss and AI
• Apple's iPhone 16 event
• Amy Webb's crazy husband talks about his anonymous computer

Host: Leo Laporte

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Why are forks, desktop wars, and Linux hardware launches making so much noise? And did last year's bold Linux predictions actually come true? We settle old bets, spotlight big surprises like Valve's hardware moves, and debate what's next for desktop, gaming, and beyond.

Host: Jonathan Bennett

Co-Hosts: Jeff Massie, Rob Campbell, and Ken McDonald

Download or subscribe to Untitled Linux Show at https://twit.tv/shows/untitled-linux-show

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One of our favorite interviews of 2025 was with Dr. Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society and the mind behind Mars Direct, a streamlined approach to reaching the Red Planet with human beings that was later largely adopted by NASA in their mission designs. It's a fascinating story about a man who continually swam upstream against strong currents of the aerospace establishment. His seminal book, "The Case for Mars," has enjoyed multiple reprints and influenced millions. Join us for this encore of an informative and forward-looking episode!

Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik

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What if your smart TV and Firefox extensions were secretly hijacking your security and privacy? This episode reveals the jaw-dropping discovery of a massive TV botnet and the surprisingly clever malware lurking behind innocent browser icons.

• North Korea's profitable fixation on cryptocurrency.
• Amazon uncovers a cryptomining sneaking into customer clouds.
• Insecure Docker API servers are also hosting cryptominers.
• A new and truly massive SmartTV-based botnet discovery.
• DNS Benchmark's 4th release.
• Who, besides Let's Encrypt, offers free automated certs.
• Some interesting listener feedback.
• And how a PNG Icon was used to infect 50,000 Firefox users

Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1057-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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An update on the story about an Apple developer who lost access to their Apple ID. Apple receives clearance to activate the Apple Watch hypertension detection feature in Australia. Italy fines Apple $115 million over App Tracking Transparency. And we say goodbye to one of the original MacBreak Weekly panelists.

• Apple developer's account restored after compromised gift card incident.
• Apple receives clearance to activate Apple Watch hypertension detection/notification feature in Australia.
• Apple agrees to third-party App Store alternatives in Brazil.
• Apple's iOS 26.3 will introduce proximity pairing to third-party devices in the EU.
• Free two-hour delivery from Apple Stores now available for a limited time.
• 1.5 TB of VRAM on Mac Studio - RDMA over Thunderbolt 5.
• Italy fines Apple $115 million over App Tracking Transparency.
• Apple announces more ads are coming to App Store search results
• Apple quietly discontinued flyover city tours in Apple Maps.
• Why Apple's foldable iPhone may be smaller than expected.
• Apple TV releasing Pluribus season finale early.

Picks of the Week

• Alex's Pick: Homey Pro
• Andy's Pick: Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas & Patrick Stewart's 'A Christmas Carol'
• Jason's Pick: Some of his favorite books, TV shows, and podcasts from the past year.

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell

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After a year tangled in political drama, AI hype, and regulation battles, the TWiT crew explains how many of tech's "biggest stories" simply fizzled into nothing or left us with new headaches by year's end.

• Year-end tech trends: AI, politics, and security dominated 2025
• Major stories faded fast: TikTok saga, political tech drama, DOGE scandal
• TikTok's ownership battle—Oracle, Trump donors, and US-China tensions
• China tech fears: banned drones, IoT vulnerabilities, secret radios in buses
• Rising political pressure for internet privacy and media literacy reform
• Surveillance and kill switch concerns in US grid and port infrastructure
• Convenience vs. privacy: Americans trade data for discounts and ease
• Age verification, surveillance, and flawed facial recognition across countries
• Discord's ID leak highlights risks of rushed compliance with privacy laws
• Social media's impact on kids pushes age-gating and verification laws
• ISPs monetize customer data, VPNs pitched for personal privacy
• Global government crackdowns: UK bans VPN advertising, mandates age checks
• The illusion of absolute privacy: flawed age gates and persistent tracking
• AI takes over: explosive growth, but profits elusive for big players
• Arms race in LLMs: DeepSeek's breakthrough, OpenAI/Meta talent bidding war
• Ad-driven models still rule; Amazon's playbook repeated in AI
• Humanoid robots and AGI hype: skepticism vs. Silicon Valley optimism
• AI-generated art, media, and the challenge of deepfake detection
• Social platforms falter: Instagram and X swamped by fake or low-value content
• Google's legal, regulatory, and technical woes: ad tech trial, Manifest V3 backlash
• RAM price spikes and hardware shortages blamed on AI data center demand
• YouTube overtakes mobile for podcast and video viewing, Oscars move online
• The internet's growth: Cloudflare stats, X vs. Reddit, spam domain trends
• Weird tech stories: hacked crosswalks, Nintendo Switch 2 Staplegate, LEGO theft ring
• Sad farewell: Lamar Wilson's passing and mental health awareness in tech
• Reflections on the year's turbulence and hopes for a better 2026

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Mikah Sargent, Paris Martineau, and Steve Gibson

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

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This week we celebrate the announcement of the new Mozilla CEO, cover the news in that GPL lawsuit that's been slowly making progress, and talk about what's new in OpenZFS. There's an AMD vs NVIDIA GPU showdown, we cover the Linux Foundation's annual report, and Plasma 6.6 is promising some late Christmas presents for us all. For tips, we cover sot for system observation, a quick primer on moving between the desktop and command line, and dog/doge for a better DNS tool. You can find the show notes at https://bit.ly/4b0mImI and Merry Christmas!

Host: Jonathan Bennett

Co-Hosts: Jeff Massie and Rob Campbell

Download or subscribe to Untitled Linux Show at https://twit.tv/shows/untitled-linux-show

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On Hands-On Tech, Richie asks Mikah Sargent about saving their TiVo recordings to their PC after TiVo discontinued its TiVo Desktop software.

Don't forget to send in your questions for Mikah to answer during the show! hot@twit.tv

Host: Mikah Sargent

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It's our annual holiday special for 2025, in which we look back at the past year in space—its ups, its downs, its all-arounds. What a year it's been, and after all the challenges and hullabaloo, we're grateful in a post-Thanksgiving fashion to welcome Jared Isaacman, at last, as the new NASA Administrator. What he will do and how remains largely unknown, but we do believe he has the nation's interests at heart, and the man knows people are watching. But there are a lot of other stories and we've done our best to stuff as many as we can into this virtual Christmas space stocking! Please join us for this year-end roundup!

Headlines & Looking Back at 2025:

• New Executive Order Targets Space Superiority
• Starlink Satellite Breaks Up in Orbit, SpaceX Responds
• Interstellar Comet ATLAS: Extraterrestrial Conspiracies and Public Fascination
• Isaacman Confirmed as New NASA Administrator
• Project Athena: NASA's New Strategic Direction?
• Artemis 2 Mission Prep and Timeline Shifts
• Mars Sample Return: Uncertain Costs and New Proposals
• Commercial Spaceflight: SpaceX Successes, Boeing Troubles
• Perseverance Rover Finds Possible Mars Biosignatures Recap
• Space Shuttle Discovery Relocation Battle Heats Up
• New Moon Discovered Around Uranus
• Webb Telescope and Hubble Milestones
• International Space Station Celebrates 25 Years of Crewed Work
• U.S. Space Policy Shifts and NASA's New Leadership
• Satellite Operations: Starlink's Reliability and Space Junk Concerns

Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik

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Jennifer Pattison Tuohy from The Verge joins Mikah Sargent for the final episode of Tech News Weekly for 2025! Are AI health coaches the future for wearables? A look back at smart home news and devices in 2025. And how AI image generators have changed over time.

• Mikah talks about an article written by CNET's Vanessa Hand Orellana about AI health coaches in wearables and how it showcases innovation within healthcare, but also the data concerns if data breaches or unauthorized access to the data occur.
• Jennifer reflects on the smart home news and smart home devices highlighted in the past year and shares her excitement about news such as IKEA releasing Thread-supported devices, but also laments on companies like iRobot filing for bankruptcy.
• And Allison Johnson of The Verge joins the show to talk about how AI image generators are improving as various models have learned from their mistakes & fumbles that occurred in their early beginnings.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Guest: Allison Johnson

Download or subscribe to Tech News Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly.

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This year's App Store Awards are shaking things up, spotlighting indie apps and clever tools for neurodivergent users, rather than corporate giants. Mikah and Rosemary break down which surprising winners deserve a spot on your home screen.

• Timo: Neurodivergent-friendly AI planner wins iPhone App of the Year
• Detail: Auto-editing video app takes iPad App of the Year
• Essayist: Citation-powered writing app honored for Mac
• Explore POV: Immersive video app wins Apple Vision Pro App of the Year
• Strava: Fitness tracking app crowned Apple Watch App of the Year
• HBO Max: Redesigned streaming app lands Apple TV App of the Year
• Cultural Impact Awards: Be My Eyes, Focus Friend, Storygraph recognized
• News: Apple leadership shakeups as key execs retire and Apple Fitness+ expands to 28 new markets
• Shortcuts Corner: Automating HomeKit switch notifications and safety cutoffs

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard

Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv.

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