Apple has a new smart home hub and a door lock among other things. Plus, Jason’s been trying out Google’s flagship Gemini 4 Argon. Has Google caught back up in frontier models?

Starring Tom Merritt, Jason Howell, Sarah Lane and Nica Montford

Show notes found here.

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- What has worked up until now

- 3 psychological back doors (plus social proof)

- What DTNS listeners think of as social engineering

"Wolfmasking | Enterprise Deceptive Role Play" https://wolfmasking.com/

"Scampocalypse — Brian Brushwood" https://scampocalypse.com/

"Thinking, Fast and Slow - Wikipedia" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkingFastand_Slow

"Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" https://dn710600.ca.archive.org/0/items/ThePsychologyOfPersuasion/The%20Psychology%20of%20Persuasion.pdf

More links and video here.

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Brandon Thomas of Artcraft has used that declaration to get attention on his Artcraft product. But does he have a point? When you can vibe code whatever you want, what role do the big software makers play? Plus, whether you need a smart lock or a simple lock.

Starring Sarah Lane, Tom Merritt, Robb Dunewood, Jason Howell, Huyen Tue Dao, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

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Amazon announced a new smart tablet lineup, plus a developer at Artcraft vibe code replacements for all of Adobe’s Creative Suite.

Starring Tom Merritt and Sarah Lane

Show notes found here.

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The Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra is also out and can do a lot of parameters locally too. And Tom vibe codes a crappy but cute game on Google’s new Playground service.

Starring Tom Merritt, Huyen Tue Dao, and Robb Dunewood.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Mistral and a New York company get competitive in open weights, and a startup wants to sell you a cheap AI PC. Cheap by AI standards.

Starring Tom Merritt and Jason Howell

Show notes found here.

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Some Android apps don’t work as well on the Intel Googlebooks. How many? Google says don’t worry about it. Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says we need to put up with a little risk for great AI rewards.

Starring Tom Merritt and Robb Dunewood

Show notes found here.

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Tom Merritt talks to Tom Persky, the proprietor of Floppydisk.com, about how he’s still able to sell new blank floppy disks, how he ended up in the business, and how much longer he thinks it can go on.

Show notes here.

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Robert Heron from Heron Fidelity joined us to talk about the lawsuit over the meaning of MiniLED, what it means to you, and what to keep in mind when shopping for a TV.

Show notes found here.

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OpenAI introduced Dots this week; proactive agents that run in the cloud and act for you without being asked. Meta’s Muse and Manus offer similar capabilities. The big question: Do you want your AI agent to be proactive? Plus Amazon unveiled a new Kindle lineup this week aimed at new readers. Amazon says 60% of buyers are first-time Kindle owners. The second question of the week: Ebook or real book?

Starring Sarah Lane, Tom Merritt, Robb Dunewood, Jason Howell, Huyen Tue Dao, Len Peralta, Roger Chang, Joe

Link to the Show Notes.

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We break down the new Kindles, talk about Gemini 4 Argon, and assess the iPhone’s China comeback.

Starring Tom Merritt and Sarah Lane

Show notes here.

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Apple’s going to release a smart home hub in a few weeks. Plus, the real US AI story you’re not hearing as much about and why you should care about a new Fire TV Stick!

Starring Tom Merritt and Huyen Tue Dao.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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It’s Dev Days for OpenAI, so they added a new $500-a-month plan. Plus, a way to use batteries to remove CO2 from the air. And we interpret Anthropic’s IPO filing so you don’t have to be a financial pro to understand it.

Starring Tom Merritt and Jenn Cutter.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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NVIDIA’s Open Agent Safety Platform is a reference design for how agents can be confined and monitored, and Bose released its USB-C powered Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds to tap into the growing wired headphone resurgence.

Starring Jason Howell and Robb Dunewood.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Can Googlebooks replace a MacBook or PC laptop? Are AI charms the future of personal AI or just a dead end? We discuss these important topics plus answer this important viewer question "Which jobs will be looked upon as buggy whip manufactures in the near future?"

Starring Sara Lane, Tom Merritt, Robb Dunewood, Huyen Tue Dao, Iyaz Akhtar, Len Peralta, Roger Chang, Joe

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Meta’s new Muse Charm makes agentic AI cute. Plus Rob DeMillo joins to talk about Google launching its Tensor Processing Units into space.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, and Rob DeMillo.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Jason Howell reports from the Snapdragon Summit on the new Snapdragon Elite Gen 6 models, plus most of the world feels good about AI, so why is the West such a downer?

Starring Tom Merritt, Huyen Tue Dao, and Jason Howell.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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A few hundred layoffs and some other studio moves continue the changes at Xbox, plus Beats 360 modular headphones and an LLM for ancient Greek.

Starring Tom Merritt, Jenn Cutter and Dr. Niki.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Ron Richards got his hands on the new Googlebooks, which are great laptops for Android users. Plus, the Mac Mini and Mac Studio reviews are out, and why AI might NOT kill us all. Yet. 

Starring Tom Merritt, Robb Dunewood, and Ron Richards.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Scott Stein, CNET Editor at Large, walks through the new Steam Frame VR headset, where it sits in the pantheon of VR devices in 2026, and whether its price is justified.

Featuring Jason Howell and Scott Stein.

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Which cables should you keep and which can you finally ditch? Roger and Patrick Norton tackle the tangled mess of cables taking over our closets and garages, and attempt some much-needed cable therapy.

Starring Patrick Norton, Roger Chang

Show Notes

https://www.cablematters.com

https://www.anker.com/collections/cables

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Molly Wood joins to talk about the upgrade cycle of devices, whether you should get permission from people before summarizing your conversations with them and does anyone need smart glasses?

Featuring Tom Merritt, Roger Chang, Amos, Joe, Jenn Cutter, Sarah Lane, Len Peralta, Molly Wood.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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We think big enterprises are the most likely to buy Snap Specs, plus the Apple Watch reviews are in, and more AI safety instances and a framework for dealing with them!

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, and Dr. Niki.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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We look over the largely growing reviews of the iPhone 18 Pro, plus what Flock Cameras actually capture and a security industry perspective on securing agents.

Starring Tom Merritt and Jenn Cutter.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Steam Frame reviews say that the VR headset is ambitious and expensive with limited games support, and newly developed perovskite solar cells can charge more efficiently underwater than traditional silicon solar cells.

Starring Tom Merritt and Jason Howell.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Code spotted inside of iOS27 shows how real AI model choice might present itself inside the OS, and Justin Robert Young talks about how AI has become the top political issue heading into the US midterms.

Starring Jason Howell, Robb Dunewood, Tom Merritt, and Justin Robert Young.

Show notes can be found here.

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Apple just unveiled its latest lineup: the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max, the much-anticipated iPhone Duo, Apple Watch Series 12, and AirPods 5. But the big question is: is Apple’s first foldable iPhone actually worth the hype? Jenn Cutter and SnobOS Podcasters Nica Montford and Terrance Gaines join us to break down Apple’s boldest iPhone yet—and whether the iPhone Duo changes the game.

Starring Sarah Lane, Nica Montford, Terrance Gaines, Jenn Cutter

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Scott Johnson joins us to talk about Apple's ever-growing list of iPhones and whether we still want or need game consoles. Plus, if AI is unsafe, what do we want done to make it safe? It's the Friday BIG TECH QUESTIONS episode. Join us!

Show notes found here.

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It’s a small chance, but still. At least autonomous vehicles are safer for us. And poor Instagram. Making it “safer” makes it less fun.

Starring: Tom Merritt and Sarah Lane

Show notes found here.

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Apple also has a new watch and more. Sarah Lane joins us to break it all down. Plus, an Anthropic engineer quits over AI safety fears.

Starring Tom Merritt, Huyen Tue Dao, and Sarah Lane.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Dr. Niki reviews and calls out the IgNobel prizes, the silliest achievements in science, and Google Search is now very different in the EU as the company complies with the Digital Markets Act.

Starring Tom Merritt, Jason Howell, and Dr. Nicole Ackermans.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Dr. Niki looked at the numbers and tells us why this year’s number of recalls is not that different than previous ones, but is notable in one important way.

Featuring Tom Merritt and Dr. Nicole Ackermans.

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Tom Merritt and Jenn Cutter look back on the biggest tech stories of July

Starring Tom Merritt and Jenn Cutter.

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Astra is coming for us all, Lenovo has new concept devices, and Microsoft knows what’s best for you. Streaming game limits and developer configurations. 

Starring Tom Merritt and Jenn Cutter

Show notes found here.

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DJI, Roborock, and Dyson unveiled new robovacs that can easily climb stairs and keep home mapping data private, and HTC's VIVE Eagle smartglasses gives bystanders the ability to stop recording simply by saying so themselves.

Starring Jason Howell and Jenn Cutter

Show notes found here.

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A judge rules that Google won’t have to drop its ad tech businesses. Plus, OPenAI says how it will safeguard Astra, and Anthropic releases Fable 5.1

Starring Tom Merritt and Sarah Lane.

Links to the stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Roku's first OLED TV is more affordable and likely still has ads, and a new study that finds that raindrops really can do the electric slide and that's one reason why metal corrodes.

Starring Jason Howell and Tom Merritt.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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The EU calls ChatGPT a Very Large Search Engine Platform; also, it’s Tim Cook’s last day, and Microsoft leans back towards physical media for Xbox.

Starring Tom Merritt and Robb Dunewood

Show notes can be found here.

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Dr. Gerry Tolbert joins us to tell us why he's so excited for a robotic system to draw blood and what hurdles it will need to overcome to get widespread acceptance. And yes, his name is pronounced Jerry, not Gary, which Tom knows, but Gerry was too nice to correct him during the show. 

https://thenextweb.com/news/vitestro-aletta-fda-robotic-blood-draw

https://academic.oup.com/clinchem/article/72/8/845/8566288?login=false

https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05878483

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Grand Theft Auto VI runs at an articulable 30 frames per second and apparently has around 80 hours of gameplay, and Samsung's new Odyssey monitor lineup pushes 1100Hz refresh whether you can tell the difference or not.

Starring Jason Howell and Huyen Tue Dao.

Show notes found here.

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And HuggingFace made a dancing robot duck.

Starring Tom Merritt and Huyen Tue Dao

Show notes found here.

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Meta will change its teen policies for ten years, Bill Gates wants to tax AI and robots, and Xbox kicks off its disc-to-digital program.

Starring Tom Merritt and Sarah Lane.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Uber is giving parents of teens the ability to livestream video of the child's ride in real time, and Android 17 includes a new Motion Assist feature to help reduce motion sickness for riders in moving vehicles.

Starring Jason Howell, Tom Merritt and Dr. Niki.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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Netflix might join Amazon and Apple in letting you add services. Plus, a humanoid robot runs faster than Usain Bolt and game preservationists plan a boycott of Sony.

Starring Tom Merritt and Robb Dunewood

Show notes can be found here.

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Brian Hoffman joins us to talk about how pilots like himself deal with jet lag after decades of experience.

Featuring Tom Merritt and Brian Hoffman.

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Dr. Niki chats with Jim Ackermans, Naval engineer, about carbon footprint reduction in commercial shipping. What methods have promise and which ones might sink.

Featuring Dr. Nicole Ackermans and Jim Ackermans.

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A new feature aims to make it easier for news publishers to show up more often in AI overviews. Plus, ChatGPT can now access Apple Messages.

Starring Tom Merritt and Huyen Tue Dao

Show notes found here.

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Stripe's acquisition of OpenRouter is official bringing it one step closer to being the money manager for AI, and YouTube is reportedly incentivizing its biggest creators to remain exclusive... or else!

Starring Jason Howell, Jenn Cutter, Tom Merritt and Bobby Frankenberger

Show notes found here.

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OpenAI published some details about its new safety precautions. Meanwhile, Amazon ups its drone delivery game, and Pew Research Center determines that everybody’s still worried that AI will take their jobs.

Starring Tom Merritt and Sarah Lane.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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YouTube changed how it tracks views to catch up with TikTok and Instagram hoping to make its metrics less confusing, and opening statements have begun in a major child safety case that looks at how Meta designed Facebook and Instagram.

Starring Jason Howell and Tom Merritt.

Links to stories discussed in this episode can be found here.

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