Data center opposition became a powerful campaign issue in this week’s midterms, with several winning candidates promising restrictions. The days following the election results, tech stocks suffered their worst beating since April 2025, raising the question: Will data center restrictions slow tech adoption, or is the tech bubble finally about to pop? Plus Robert Heron is here with advice on what should shoppers look for in a deal for a new TV as the gift buying season starts to warm up. And finally our third question of the week is could and or should Google offer schools a version of google search without Gemini?

Starring Sarah Lane, Tom Merritt, Jason Howell, Huyen Tue Dao, Robert Heron, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

OpenAI shares the many ways that it plans to build out its data centers in ways that respect residents nearby, and Kamyl Bazbaz from DuckDuckGo shares that schools have options in the shadow of Google removing search with AI from students.

Starring Jason Howell, Sarah Lane, and Kamyl Bazbaz.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More than 40 data center measures were on the ballot across 10 states and restrictions won almost every time Plus, Apple thinks you want to record yourself doing karaoke. Two hosts who have done public karaoke weigh in.

Starring Tom Merritt, and Huyen Tue Dao.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Google came very close to giving schools true control over how they use AI. Also, Apple faces a supply crunch, and it looks like Open Weight models are the best nove for big business.

Starring Tom Merritt and Jason Howell

Show notes found here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another round of food getting spoiled by hacks on freezers. And a cool DIY kit to make a cheap e-paper display.

Starring Tom Merritt, Robb Dunewood, and Dr. Niki.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Merritt and authors Mallory O'Meara, Philip Fracassi and J-F Dubeau talk about the tech they use in their writing, from the low to the high. From composing to submission to publishing, how does tech help or hinder the writing process?

The Dark Word Philip Fracassi

J-F Dubeau website

Mallory O’Meara - Daughter of Daring

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott Johnson has been trying out the Artcraft apps that are meant to take place of Adobe apps. Find out what he likes, doesn’t like and where he thinks the whole vibe coded apps is going for artists.

Artcraft:

https://getartcraft.com/

Stephen Robles:

https://beardfm.app/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Apple released the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display, a touchscreen laptop. Something Steve Jobs called an “ergonomically terrible” idea. Will this move to other MacBook models? Will it cannibalize iPad sales?

Starring Sarah Lane, Tom Merritt, Robb Dunewood, Jason Howell, Nate Lanxon, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Look, Google has plans, OK? They’ll be fine. Just ask them. And NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang may have been targeted by a spy. We’re sure that will be fine too.

Starring Tom Merritt and Sarah Lane

Show notes found here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apple added a touchscreen laptop to its lineup, a design once called “ergonomically terrible” by Steve Jobs. Meanwhile, Amazon tried to steal Apple’s hardware thunder with the release of new Echo smart alarm clocks, photo frames, and the usual speakers and displays.

Starring Tom Merritt, Jenn Cutter, and Sarah Lane.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

OpenAI won’t stop releasing science and why LLMs are more expensive if you don’t speak English.

Starring Tom Merritt and Jason Howell

Show notes found here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What the average person will find interesting about the Anthropic IPOs. Plus iFixit figures out what’s causing iPhone Duo screens to crack.

Starring Tom Merritt and Robb Dunewood.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

- Deception is a virus

- Passive protection doesn't work.

- Build up your deception immune system

(And why you need a DM for your corporate wolf masking strategy)

"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

"Have I Been Pwned: Madison Square Garden Sports Data Breach" https://haveibeenpwned.com/Breach/MadisonSquareGardenSports

"The Discoverie of Witchcraft - Wikipedia" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Discoverie_of_Witchcraft

"DEF CON® Hacking Conference Home" https://defcon.org/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The top stories of the week are about AI discovering a critical bug in the Web, Responsible Disclosure and patching systems breaking down, and how nation-states may be getting a jump on bugs before they even become public. And it's all the same story. Plus, the iPhone Duo's horrible launch bug!

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

Link to the Show Notes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hugging Face releases an on-device open model for studying DNA. And Amazon security researchers say PHP2Shell may have been exploited as early as Saturday.

Starring Tom Merritt and Sarah Lane

Show notes found here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eight insecure TLS certificates seemed to be bad enough, but then folks leaked out a PHP vulnerability that could compromise more than 70% of the Web. Thank goodness there’s a fix for both. But one will take longer than the other to completely resolve.

Starring Tom Merritt and Huyen Tue Dao.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People are removing the smart from their TVs using agents. Plus, the discovery that could help us actually understand what goes on within LLMs.

Starring Tom Merritt and Jason Howell.

Show notes found here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A New Mexico company delivers LTE from a zeppelin in Japan, Samsung may shift its S-series announcement back to January, and iPhone Duo preorders start shifting earlier.

Starring Tom Merritt and Robb Dunewood.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

- What's changing now

- Bad habits in the past are now dangerous.

- Cognitive security

- Patient Zero: Madison Square Garden hack

Featuring Tom Merritt and Brian Brushwood.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of DTNS Weekend, Roger and Patrick go head-to-head over the possible death of DIY PC building. Who or what is killing the hobby, and is this the end of an era, or will PC building return to its niche roots?

Starring Roger Chang, Patrick Norton

https://www.microcenter.com

https://wccftech.com

https://www.tweaktown.com

https://en.overclocking.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Apple announced its Home View smart home hub along with several smart home devices in cooperation with LG and Schneider. So our BIG QUESTION this week is: Do you want Apple to run your smart home?

Starring Sarah Lane, Tom Merritt, Robb Dunewood, Jason Howell, Len Peralta, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Iyaz Akhtar from PC Mag joins us to talk about his experience using a Googlebook as his daily driver. Plus Amazon’s Bee has new note-taking gadgets.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, and Iyaz Akhtar.

Show notes found here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Plus, Fortnite on Linux gets closer and what really makes you a developer.

Starring Tom Merritt and Huyen Tue Dao.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

- 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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.