The Engadget Podcast

Tech news season is in full swing as Samsung launched its Galaxy S22 flagship phones this week, along with new Tab S8 tablets. This week on the podcast, Cherlynn is joined by senior writer Sam Rutherford and special guest Chris Velazco from The Washington Post to discuss Samsung’s new gear. The trio also recap some of the best games announced at Nintendo Direct, followed by a look at the week’s biggest news including Peloton’s layoffs, Steam Deck previews and the Olympics. Samsung unveiled the S22 Ultra and Tab S8 series – 1:30 Nintendo’s first Direct of 2022 – 27:02 Peloton’s layoffs and terrible severance – 39:33 Microsoft promises COD will stay multi-platform for now – 48:02 Steam Deck: the early impressions are in – 51:15 Louis Vuitton smartwatch mini-review – 55:57 Grindr geofences the Olympic Village – 1:00:31 Working on – 1:04:56 Pop Culture picks – 1:07:15

The big gaming deals keep on coming! This week, Devindra and Cherlynn chat with Senior Editor Jessica Conditt about Sony’s surprising $3.6 billion Bungie acquisition. It’s too soon for it to be a direct response to the Microsoft/Activision deal, but clearly Sony sees the need for new blood. Also, they dive into Spotify’s weak response to protests around the Joe Rogan podcast. Should Spotify be using a stronger editorial hand? And yes, they discuss the whole New York Times/Wordle acquisition too. Sony buys Bungie for $3.6 billion – 1:41 More artists leave Spotify over Joe Rogan / COVID misinformation – 21:03 New York Times buys Wordle – 38:14 Alphabet (Google) and Apple post huge earnings – 45:42 Working on – 52:58 Picks – 56:09

This week, Cherlynn and Devindra bring you the best and worst of Sundance 2022’s tech-related projects. What films coming out of the show will be worth watching when they’re released? Are VR projects easily viewable? What, if anything, did they say about the metaverse? Then, our hosts go over Samsung’s news on this year's first Unpacked launch event, Neil Young's fight against Spotify and what went down at the Antiwork subreddit. Sundance 2022 New Frontiers (VR/AR show) – 2:03 Cool tech films at Sundance (After Yang, TikTok Boom, We Met in Virtual Reality) – 12:25 Preview of Samsung’s first Unpacked of 2022 – 37:03 Neil Young vs. Spotify: Young’s music pulled over Joe Rogan’s podcast – 42:30 Reddit’s /r/AntiWork blew up in a big way – 46:45 Listener Mailbag – 55:50 Working On – 1:01:00 Interview with We Met in Virtual Reality director Joe Hunting – 1:03:54

Now that the James Webb Space Telescope is safely on the way to its orbital home, Cherlynn and Devindra chat about why it’s so important with Space.com editor-in-chief Tariq Malik, as well as science and technology journalist Swapna Krishna. They dive into why it’s such a big upgrade from Hubble, as well as the discoveries astronomers hope to make about exoplanets, black holes and our own solar system. Also, Senior Editor Jessica Conditt joins to chat about Microsoft’s mammoth $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Is more consolidating a bad thing for the video game industry? (Spoilers: Probably.) James Webb Space Telescope post-launch update – 1:07 Microsoft buys Activision/Blizzard for $68.7 billion – 31:03 Working On – 58:46 Pop Culture Picks – 1:01:06

It’s that time of the year again! Cherlynn and Devindra break down some of the best tech they’ve seen at CES 2022, as well as a bunch of weird and awful products. Get ready for notebooks with hybrid Intel chips and better NVIDIA graphics! And how about a foldable laptop or two? Our big takeaway: it’s going to be an interesting year for Windows laptops. Also, we dive into Razer’s crazy gaming table and Samsung’s wild, rotating 55-inch gaming monitor. Chipmakers at CES: Intel, AMD, and more – 1:19 Laptopapolooza: Lenovo’s Thinkbook Plus Gen 3, Dell’s XPS 13 Plus sans headphone jack – 10:40.322 Google announces Fast Pair and Android Auto improvements – 37:51 A couple of phones from CES: Samsung Galaxy S21 FE and OnePlus 10 Pro – 43:11 Standout weird stuff: Samsung’s Massive Curved Monitor and Razer’s new mask – 45:55 Other News – 1:05:04 Pop Culture Picks – 1:08:59

We’re back from the holidays and gearing up to (virtually) cover CES 2022. Cherlynn and Devindra chat about some of the most interesting new tech we expect to see, like Quantum Dot OLED displays and new CPUs. And they discuss what the global chip shortage could mean for CES and the rest of 2022. (Prepare to wait a lot longer for all your new gear!) Our second pandemic CES is going to be a little weird – 1:41 What is Quantum Dot OLED? – 14:23 What we expect from new PC CPUs and GPUs – 24:37 What will wearables look like at CES? – 28:05 Cars and CES – 31:18 Pop Culture Picks – 39:07

This week, Devindra chats with Engadget Editor-at-large James Trew about the Analogue Pocket, an innovative portable gaming device that accurately can play cartridges from older systems like the Game Boy, Game Gear and Atari Lynx. Also, Senior Editor Dan Cooper joins to dive into this week’s news and why you should be watching HBO’s Succession. Senior Editor Jessica Conditt also joins to dive into her investigative feature on MetaWorld, an intriguing VR project that turned out to be a scam. Analogue Pocket: the perfect retro portable (for a price) – 1:15 Dell’s Concept Pari is an ingenious movable webcam – 22:41 Concept Luna - a laptop that’s easier to repair and recycle – 29:46 Apple removes all mention of CSAM scanning from its website – 35:34 SharePlay comes to MacOS Monterey – 39:21 Working on – 41:47 Pop Culture Picks – 52:23 Jess Conditt on her investigation into MetaWorld – 1:05:03

This week, Cherlynn and Devindra recap the year's greatest winners and losers in tech. From the expected companies like Apple, Facebook (sorry, Meta) and Google, to the ones we begrudgingly acknowledge, like NFTs and the Metaverse, our hosts look back on 2021's highlights. We'd love to find out what your picks for the best and worst in tech this year might be, too, so feel free to send them our way! Tech’s biggest winners of 2021 – 2:04 Tech’s biggest losers of 2021 – 28:57 Twitter’s privacy changes get weaponized immediately – 50:28 Working on – 53:14 Pop Culture Picks – 54:37

This week, Cherlynn and Devindra discuss the significance of Jack Dorsey leaving Twitter. Will the social network thrive, or stumble, after losing its co-founder for a second time? Also, Cherlynn explains what’s up with all of Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon chips for phones, computers and… portable gaming consoles? Is it enough to take on Apple’s M1 chips? Or will Windows once again hold Snapdragon PCs back? What is Twitter without founder Jack Dorsey? – 1:21 Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip – 22:38 Updates from the Theranos / Elizabeth Holmes trial – 45:44 Spotify’s Wrapped feature is available this week – 51:41 Working on – 56:18 Pop culture picks – 59:20

This week, Cherlynn and Devindra are joined by Engadget’s Jessica Conditt to dive into the latest controversy around Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, he was well aware of sexual misconduct allegations at the company, and he deliberately kept Activision’s board in the dark. Also, we chat about what Apple’s self service program means for you, as well as a new accessibility gadget that brings eye tracking to the iPad. New report says Activision/Blizzard CEO protected abusers at the studio – 1:20 Apple announces new program to repair products at home – 19:20 Google Cloud outage takes down Spotify, Snapchat, Etsy, and other sites – 24:40 TD Pilot will let people with disabilities control an iPad with their eyes – 30:02 Halo Infinite free multiplayer beta is available now – 36:13 Paramount+ Pulls Star Trek: Discovery from Netflix before new season – 37:37 StreamLabs was accused of plagiarism, drops “OBS” from its name – 41:15 Rep. Paul Gosar retweets Attack on Titan edit about killing AOC right after being censured for doing it the first time – 44:19 LA’s Staples Center is now the Crypto.com arena – 45:59 Gucci made a $10K Xbox + case – 49:02 Working on – 52:57 Picks – 55:57