This Week in Tech (Audio)

Elon Musk faces a multi-billion dollar verdict after a California jury finds his tweets misled Twitter shareholders, raising the stakes for tech CEOs with unchecked social media influence. Plus, CBS kills its legendary radio news service while podcasting explodes, signaling a dramatic shift in how America consumes, trusts, and pays for news.

CBS News Shutters Radio Service After Nearly a Century

A US appeals court puts on hold an earlier ruling that had blocked Perplexity from using its agentic shopping tool to shop on Amazon's marketplace

FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

The 49MB Web Page

Microsoft unveils MAJOR improvements coming to Windows 11 this year — movable Taskbar, reduced RAM usage, less AI and ads, and much more CONFIRMED: "We are evolving how Windows is built behind the scenes to raise the quality bar"

Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access in June

Meta changes course on Horizon Worlds VR shut-down

Gamers react with overwhelming disgust to DLSS 5's generative AI glow-ups

Jury agrees that Musk's tweets during Twitter takeover misled investors

After three months, Samsung is ending sales of the $2,899 Galaxy Z TriFold

200,000 Devices Erased? Pro-Iran Hackers Hit US Firm With Data-Wiping Attack

Japan to allow 'proactive cyber-defense' from October 1st

Sears Exposed AI Chatbot Phone Calls and Text Chats to Anyone on the Web

Arizona AG files criminal charges against Kalshi over 'illegal gambling'

Major League Baseball Steps Into the Prediction Markets, Strikes Deal With Polymarket

Polymarket is opening a bar where you can drink and watch the world unravel in real time

It's been 20 years since the first tweet

Project Hail Mary is movie medicine

The futurist who helped define tech trend reports just killed them (literally)

This new cassette player has USB-C and Bluetooth, in case you want to ditch Spotify

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Janko Roettgers, Dan Patterson, and Lisa Schmeiser

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From "gainfully employed robots" to AI that accidentally ruins lives, this week's conversation unpacks the real-world fallout of futuristic promises. Leo, JPT, Iain, and Richard tackle energy sources, social media effects, tech layoffs, and the algorithms quietly taking charge.

Meta is planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount

Meta Said to Push Back Launch of Avocado Model

Social media addiction trial: the plaintiff, Meta, and YouTube make closing arguments; jurors begin deliberations Friday on liability for harm to children

Trump administration will reportedly get $10 billion for brokering the TikTok deal

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber will step aside

Digg's open beta shuts down after just two months, blaming AI bot spam

X says it suspended 800 million accounts in 2024 over spam and manipulation

Fake AI Content About the Iran War Is All Over X

Musk admits xAI 'not built right' — weeks after Tesla invested $2 billion

Nvidia Is Planning to Launch an Open-Source AI Agent Platform

Amazon Wins Court Order To Block Perplexity's AI Shopping Bots

Social Security watchdog investigating claims that DOGE engineer copied its databases

DOGE Deposition Videos Taken Down After Judge Order and Widespread Mockery

U.S. State Bans on Lab-Grown Meats Challenged in Court

Easy-to-use solar panels are coming, but utilities are trying to delay them

EcoFlow brings its plug-in solar power plant to US homes (related to the plug-in solar story)

TerraPower gets permit to build reactor

Ex-Uber CEO Kalanick Debuts Plan for 'Gainfully Employed Robots'

Tennessee grandmother jailed after AI facial recognition error links her to fraud

Justice Department and Live Nation Reach Settlement Terms in Antitrust Case

Palantir CEO Makes Shocking Confession on Disrupting Democratic Power

Palantir's lethal AI weaponry deployed to find chairs for US government staff

How Pokémon Go is giving delivery robots an inch-perfect view of the world

'Flying Cars' Will Take Off in American Skies This Summer

YouTube surpasses Disney, Paramount, WBD in 2025 ad revenue

Ig Nobel Prize flees US for Switzerland after 35 years over safety concerns

Swiss e-voting can't count 2,048 ballots after USB keys fail to decrypt them

Tony Hoare, Turing Award-Winning Computer Scientist Behind QuickSort, Dies At 92

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Iain Thomson, Richard Campbell, and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

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Between copyright-free AI art, government blacklists, and data brokers run amok, this episode spotlights the fierce new battles for privacy, agency, and control in our digital lives. Plus, hear Cory Doctorow break down why the AI gold rush may be headed for a colossal crash.

Pentagon Officially Tells Anthropic It Is a Supply Chain Risk

Trump moves to blacklist Anthropic AI from all government work

If AI is a weapon, why don't we regulate it like one?

Sam Altman's greed and dishonesty are finally catching up to him

ChatGPT user base surges 350% in 18 months as it nears 1 billion weekly active users

AI-generated art can't be copyrighted after the Supreme Court declines to review the rule

Chardet dispute shows how AI will kill software licensing, argues Bruce Perens

Grammarly is using our identities without permission

Alphabet Grants Sundar Pichai Stock Awards Worth Up to $686 Million

Google vs Epic Games ends with Android app stores, lower fees

Google Ends Its 30% App Store Fee, Welcomes Third-Party App Stores - Slashdot

Xbox CEO confirms next-gen 'Project Helix' console will play PC games

Motorola Partners With GrapheneOS - Slashdot

Data Broker Breaches Fueled Nearly $21 Billion in Identity-Theft Losses

CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples' Movements

Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous 'Stop Cop City' Protester

COPPA 2.0 passes the Senate again, unanimously this time

South Korean Police Lose Seized Crypto By Posting Password Online

Iranian drone strikes at Amazon sites raise alarms over protecting data centers

Charter Gets FCC Permission To Buy Cox, Become Largest ISP In the US

How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

Anne Wojcicki's Plan to Revive 23andMe: Rich Donors, Improved Tests—and Maybe Even MAHA

Bundle of human neurons hooked to silicon learns to stumble through Doom

10% of Firefox crashes are caused by bitflips

Seagate Just Unleashed 44TB Hard Drives

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Joey de Villa and Cory Doctorow

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Anthropic's clash with the Pentagon pits tech ethics against government demands, raising explosive questions about AI's role in surveillance and weaponry. If you care about who controls the future of artificial intelligence, this episode is a must-listen.

Sam Altman says OpenAI shares Anthropic's red lines in Pentagon fight

The whole thing was a scam

OpenAI allows NSA to use GPT for surveilling Americans

Anthropic's Claude hits No. 1 on Apple's top free apps list after Pentagon rejection

Layoffs at Block

Crypto exchange Gemini plans to lay off up to 200 staff, exit Europe, and Australia

Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for Paramount Takeover

An update on our model deprecation commitments for Claude Opus 3 \ Anthropic

Keep Android Open

Colorado moves age checks from websites to operating systems | Biometric Update

Open source calculator firmware DB48X forbids CA/CO use due to age verification

New Apple product launch starts Monday, Tim Cook confirms

Everything announced at Samsung Unpacked: The Galaxy S26 Ultra, Galaxy Buds 4 and more

Here's how the new Samsung Galaxy S26 compares with last year's S25

Hacked Prayer App Sends 'Surrender' Messages to Iranians Amid Israeli and US Strikes

The Big One: The cyberattack scenarios that keep officials up at night

CISA replaces acting director after a bumbling year on the job

New AirSnitch attack bypasses Wi-Fi encryption in homes, offices, and enterprises

Victory! Tenth Circuit Finds Fourth Amendment Doesn't Support Broad Search of Protesters' Devices and Digital Data

Enthusiasts used their home computers to search for ET—scientists are homing in on 100 signals they found

Americans now listen to podcasts more often than talk radio, study shows | TechCrunch

Burger King Will Use AI To Check If Employees Say 'Please' and 'Thank You'

Uber Previews Its Dubai Air Taxi Service - Slashdot

Rob Grant, creator of Red Dwarf, has died

Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, Song of Kali, dead at 77

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Molly White, Owen Thomas, and Harry McCracken

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What do jailbreaking fighter jets, lost Amazon vans, and swapping your phone's smart features for a handful of mud have in common? TWiT dives into the wild, occasionally absurd future of tech, where yesterday's sci-fi is tomorrow's supply-chain headache.

Mark Zuckerberg and his Ray-Ban entourage have their day in court

Instagram Boss Says 16 Hours of Daily Use Is Not Addiction

Meta Begins $65 Million Election Push To Advance AI Agenda - Slashdot

Australia's Social Media Ban Is Isolating Kids With Disabilities—Just Like Critics Warned

Google I/O 2026 set for May 19-20

Pixel 10A hands-on: More like a slightly better Pixel 9A than a slightly worse Pixel 10

Google announces Gemini 3.1 Pro, says it's better at complex problem-solving

Tucson Daily Brief

Leaked Email Suggests Ring Plans to Expand 'Search Party' Surveillance Beyond Dogs

A $10K+ bounty is waiting for anyone who can unplug Ring doorbells from Amazon’s cloud

Amazon delivery van accidentally gets stuck in the sea in Britain

Tesla 'Robotaxi' adds 5 more crashes in Austin in a month – 4x worse than humans

Government Docs Reveal New Details About Tesla and Waymo Robotaxis' Human Babysitters

The Supreme Court's Tariff Ruling Won't Bring Car Prices Back to Earth

A flood of cheap used EVs is coming

Signal guide for everyday folks

PayPal discloses data breach that exposed user info for 6 months

Federal ban on TP-Link routers shelved, but Texas fights on

You probably can't trust your password manager if it's compromised

Mississippi health system shuts down clinics statewide after ransomware attack

Fake Job Recruiters Hid Malware In Developer Coding Challenges

F-35 Software Could Be Jailbreaked Like an IPhone: Dutch Defense Minister - Slashdot

In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud — 'The mud should sound perfectly awful, but it doesn't,' notes the experiment creator | Tom's Hardware

Lab-Grown Meat Exists (But Nobody Wants To Eat It)

CERN rebuilt the original browser from 1989

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Sam Abuelsamid, Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ, and Nicholas De Leon

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