The Engadget Podcast

We joked about "President Musk" shortly after Donald Trump took office, but it turns out that wasn't far from the truth. Over the past few weeks, Elon Musk and his DOGE team wasted no time in trying to dismantle the American administrative state. They've illegally accessed the Treasury Department's federal payment system, pushed for USAID to be dismantled, and have also infiltrated the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In this episode, we chat with 404 Media's Jason Koebler about what Musk and his young tech cronies are up to, and how it ties into Silicon Valley's approach to the new Trump administration.Move Fast and Break Things: What is Elon Musk’s DOGE doing to the United States government? – 1:04iPhone SE 4 announcement expected soon – 34:54Elon Musk makes $97.4 billion offer for OpenAI, Altman declines in a tweet – 39:03France wants to build a gigawatt of new nuclear plants to power AI ambitions – 41:27Working on – 44:05Pop culture picks – 44:48 

This week, Devindra chats with Volvo Group CTO Lars Stenqvist about the company’s progress developing zero emissions trucks, both of the electric variety and experimental hydrogen options. While it’s a completely different company from Volvo Cars, Volvo Group still impacts consumers as one of the largest producers of heavy trucks. Stenqvist dives into how Volvo is thinking about new technology, and we chat a bit about how it’s approaching completely autonomous vehicles. (Note: This interview was recorded in early January, so we didn’t have a chance to talk about this week’s partnership between Volvo and the self-driving truck startup Waabi.)

A Chinese startup has shaken the AI scene with its open-source R1 model, promising to outshine giants like OpenAI. The conversation also critiques an odd AI/blockchain project aimed at Hollywood, highlighting the confusion around such ventures. Meanwhile, Helion's ambitious fusion reactor plans spark debate about sustainability and energy innovation amid skepticism about feasibility. Plus, tech stagnation in smartphones and gaming industries raises eyebrows, and a dive into quirky anime brings forth delightful recommendations.

It feels like CES again with a slew of tech news this week! In this episode, Devindra dives into his final thoughts on NVIDIA's $2,000 GeForce RTX 5090, a super-powered video card with a healthy dose of AI. Senior Reporter Sam Rutherford also joins to explain everything Samsung launched at its Galaxy S25 Unpacked event. And of course, we'll chat about some of the technology industry and policy changes from the new Trump administration. Stay tuned to the end of this episode for our chat with YouTube Director of Product Management Jack Greenberg about some new features headed to YouTube Premium.TikTok was only banned for 14 hours, what happened? – 1:27Devindra’s NVIDIA RTX 5090 Review: more power than most people need – 13:53Samsung Unpacked announces Galaxy S25 series and teases a thinner phone – 30:25What the new administration’s Executive Orders mean for AI, EVs and the environment – 54:23Pop culture picks – 1:03:41What’s coming to Youtube Premium with project manager Jack Greenberg – 1:07:06

So it looks like the TikTok ban may actually be happening, barring a last-minute Supreme Court decision. In this episode, Senior Writer Karissa Bell joins Devindra and Ben to discuss the potential finale of TikTok in America, as well as why some users are finding refuge in RedNote, a Chinese Instagram clone. They also dive into why Meta is giving up on third-party fact checkers, and how this relates to Mark Zuckerberg's descent into the right-wing world. Finally, we explore the tidbits of information from Nintendo's Switch 2 unveiling.Stay tuned to the end of this episode for Devindra’s chat with Dan Erickson, the creator of Severance, about season two of his hit show.RIP TikTok, Part ??? – 2:24Meta abandons fact checking, loosens hate speech rules on its platforms – 22:21We finally have confirmation of the Switch 2, full unveil scheduled for April 2 – 40:57Pop culture picks – 49:29.187

We’re officially recovering from CES 2025! In this episode, Devindra and Senior Reporter Sam Rutherford dive into their favorite PCs from the show, and debate the merits of Lenovo’s extra-large Legion Go S handheld. They explain why they like ASUS’s ultra-light Zenbook A14, and Sam gives us his final thoughts on Dell’s clunky brand transition.Lenovo’s surprising CES showing: ThinkBook Plus Gen 6’s rollable screen – 0:47Legion Go S by Lenovo is the first third-party handheld to run SteamOS – 4:35NVIDIA’s RTX 5000 seems great… – 10:16…But Jensen Huang’s keynote on NVIDIA’s future lacked focus – 15:29MicroLED TVs shown at CES are gorgeous and pricy – 30:11 

We've survived two days of CES! In this bonus episode, Cherlynn and Devindra discuss the latest innovations in robot vacuums, new AI PC hardware from AMD and Intel, and Dell's decision to nuke its PC brands in favor of Apple-esque "Dell Pro" and "Dell Pro Max" branding. (Note: We recorded this episode before NVIDIA announced its new RTX 5000 GPUs, but we'll have more to say on that soon!)

We're ringing in 2025 with everything we're expecting to see at CES! That includes new video cards from AMD and NVIDIA, a holographic windshield from Hyundai and potentially more satellite enabled phones. AI will still be a major topic -- like the next generation of AI PCs -- but it also seems like we'll be hearing a lot more about classic CES stories. In addition, we explore why Meta wants to start adding AI users to Facebook and Instagram.  CES 2025 Preview: LG’s bendable 5K OLED, AI PCs, and a broadening satellite phone market – 2:17New video cards from AMD and NVIDIA at CES – 12:092024’s biggest losers in tech – 18:46Meta announces AI personas are coming to Instagram and Facebook – 32:22Pop culture picks – 41:02 

This week, we're looking back at our hellish 2024 and trying to figure out where to go from here. We began the year with enormous hype around artificial intelligence, but that's cooled off after seeing how useless many AI features have been. It's also clear that many companies, including Microsoft and Apple, are trying to push half-baked AI concepts onto users. Looking forward, we're expecting a rough few years for the tech industry (not to mention the world as a whole). 2024 in review: AI hype hasn’t led to much and the social media vibes are in flux – 1:12What we’re looking forward to in 2025 – 21:43Tiktok appeals its ban all the way to the US Supreme Court – 29:53TP-Link routers are being investigated by US authorities – 32:39Quick thoughts from last week’s Game Awards – 35:35Working on – 38:26Pop culture picks – 39:17Interview with Tim Miller and Dave Wilson of Prime’s Secret Level – 49:20

At long last, iPhone users have access to Apple's AI image generation tools, Genmoji (for customized emoji) and Image Playground. But based on our testing, these Apple Intelligence features aren't fully baked. In this episode, Devindra and Cherlynn discuss why these AI tools aren't very useful and dive into some of Apple's most egregious image generation fails. iOS 18.2 AI image generation arrives half baked. Genmoji are fun, but weird – 1:13OpenAI’s Sora video generation model was finally released – 37:17GM kills its Cruise robotaxi project – 45:43Google’s Gemini 2.0 is now available for preview – 49:51Tiktok is running out of options to avoid a ban in the U.S. – 57:36Working on – 1:00:04Pop culture picks – 1:02:20