The Engadget Podcast

Google is officially a monopoly, according to a US court. But what does that really mean? This week, Devindra and Senior Editor Karissa Bell dive into the landmark Google antitrust case to explore how it could affect the future of search. Google claims it's simply delivering the best product, but clearly the court thinks otherwise. Also, we chat about X/Twitter's desperate lawsuit against advertisers who boycotted the social network.Stay tuned to the end of this episode for an interview with the creators of HBO Max's Industry, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay. We discuss season three of the series, which recently premiered, and how they plan to deconstruct the excesses of overhyped tech startups.A U.S. court declared Google a monopoly, now what? – 1:22X (formerly Twitter) sues advertisers for “illegal boycott” of their platform – 19:15Meet Chromecast’s successor, the Google TV Streamer – 33:49Less than a year after SAG strike, Meta is offering actors millions to use their voice in AI – 41:01Where does all the Facebook AI slop come from? 404Media found out – 44:30People are returning Humane’s AI Pin faster than they can sell them – 50:23Working on – 53:43Pop culture picks – 53:58Industry interview with Mickey Down and Konrad Kay - 1:02:00

Samsung's Galaxy Ring is here, and honestly it's just a bit basic. This week, Cherlynn and Devindra dive into what does and doesn't work with Samsung's latest wearable. Also, we discuss Friend's new AI gadget, which listens to your conversations and sends text messages to help you feel less lonely. To get a better sense of the device, Devindra also talks to Friend's CEO, Avi Schiffmann, about why he's leaning away from the productivity side of AI helpers and more towards the vibes of friendly AI. (And yes, we also ask why he spent $1.8 million of Friend's $2.5 million funding just to buy the Friend.com domain.)In other news, we discuss the potential impact of KOSA (the Kids Online Safety Act) with India McKinney, the EFF’s Director of Federal Affairs. While lawmakers are uniformly positioning KOSA as a way to protect kids on the internet, it could also lead to draconian censorship and destroy free speech on the web as we know it. Cherlynn reviews the Samsung Galaxy Ring: Great sleep tracking, but needs more features – 2:13 Interview with Avi Schiffmann, founder of AI wearable company Friend – 27:27KOSA passes the senate – we chat with EFF’s India McKinney about why it matters – 48:22 What we’ve learned since the massive 7/19 Crowdstrike outage – 1:12:07 Elon Musk shared an AI altered video of Kamala Harris without labeling, breaking the rules of his own site – 1:18:57 Apple Intelligence arrives in the iOS 18.1 developer beta – 1:21:57Google makes peace with third-party cookies after years of mixed signals – 1:26:38Around Engadget: Mat Smith’s Galaxy Flip 6 review – 1:29:36 Working on – 1:31:44 Pop culture picks – 1:32:22

It’s time for the summer Olympics and also the gadget Olympics? Who can outdo Samsung when it comes to launching new products every year? At its second Unpacked event of 2024, Samsung showed off seven different devices: the Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Buds 3, Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6. Many of these look familiar, sure, but Samsung copying Apple copying Samsung copying other smaller companies is a tired, old tale. Our hosts Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford dig into all the highlights from Samsung’s event in Paris this week, as well as some other news in streaming services.Samsung’s Unpacked in Paris unveiled a ton of new tech – 1:12The Galaxy Ring: finally, a proper launch – 6:07 Galaxy Watch Ultra: Eerily similar to Apple’s – 16:16 Galaxy Buds 3, now with an AirPod-like stick – 22:22Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6: very welcome refresh – 27:47 Xbox to offer cloud gaming on certain Amazon Fire TV sticks – 48:29Paramount+ will stay intact…for now – 51:18Apple Blog TUAW comes back as an AI content farm – 56:00 Working on – 1:00:18 Pop culture picks – 1:01:20

Motorola is still trying to reclaim the glory of its original Razr phone with its latest foldables. The new Razr and Razr+ are more stylish than the previous models, and at $700 and $1,000 respectively, they're surprisingly affordable for devices with massive folding OLED screens. In other news, we chat about Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange being freed from prison, Rabbit's massive security hole in the R1 AI gadget, and a horrific Sora AI commercial from Toys "R" Us.Moto Razr and Razr+ first look: stylish and (somewhat) affordable – 0:51 Samsung announces its second Unpacked of the year will be in Paris – 13:14 Expect a bunch of new hardware at August’s Made by Google event – 19:56 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is free – 24:38 U.S. Supreme Court rules the government can ask social platforms to take down posts – 31:22 Rabbit R1 modder group discovers massive security holes – 36:11 Uber blames NYC law for locking drivers out of its app, more cities could come soon – 39:22 Toys “R” Us released a creepy ad using OpenAI’s Sora video tool – 44:43 Working on – 49:15 Pop culture picks – 51:24

It's been a quiet week of news, but we've been feverishly testing Microsoft's new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop Copilot+ AI PCs. In this episode, Devindra and Sam will answer your questions about Microsoft’s new hardware, and we'll deliver some of our first impressions. It turns out Microsoft may have finally gotten Windows on Arm support right! And some of the Copilot+ AI features are actually useful, surprisingly enough. But we'll have to wait a few months to test out the controversial Recall feature, which was pulled from the Copilot+ launch. Dev and Sam’s first thoughts and an AMA on the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop Copilot+ AI PCs – 1:05News from Nintendo direct: New Zelda, Mario, and finally, Metroid Prime 4 – 25:46Former OpenAI chief scientist launches Safe Superintelligence, inc – 35:02 Wired report: AI search engine Perplexity is ignoring robots.txt guidelines – 37:36 Listener question: What do you do with 8 gig fiber home internet? – 41:08 Working on – 46:51 Pop culture picks – 48:09

This week has felt like a month worth of news, now that we've wrapped up Apple's WWDC 2024 and Summer Game Fest in LA. In this episode, Cherlynn and Devindra discuss their final thoughts on Apple Intelligence and the company's upcoming software, and they chat about some of our coverage highlights from the pseudo-E3 Game Fest. Also, we dive into X making likes private (what is Elon hiding?!) and the news around Sony buying the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain.Our final thoughts on WWDC 2024 – 1:31Bloomberg Report: Apple isn't paying OpenAI a fee for ChatGPT, but will share profits – 12:18Summer Games Fest highlights: Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, LEGO Horizon Adventures, and an Assassin’s Creed finally set in Japan – 25:06X makes users’ likes private – 40:27 ChromeOS will soon run on Android frameworks, enabling more AI on upcoming Chromebooks – 44:40Pop culture picks – 49:44

There was no new Apple hardware at WWDC 2024, but Apple still had tons of news around AI and its upcoming operating systems. In this bonus episode, Cherlynn and Devindra brave the California heat to discuss Apple Intelligence and how it's different than other AI solutions. And they dive into other new features they're looking forward to, like the iPhone mirroring in macOS Sequoia and iPadOS 18's surprisingly cool Calculator app.

We're gearing up to cover Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next week! In this episode, Cherlynn and Devindra dive into everything they expect at WWDC: Tons of AI announcements; more on iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15; and hopefully some improvements for Vision Pro and visionOS. In addition, we chat about what we expect to see at Summer Game Fest and demonstrate how we used an AI editing tool to clear up some awful podcast audio. Devindra also talks with Justin Samuels, the founder of RenderATL, about why he started a massive tech conference in Atlanta.WWDC 2024 Preview: Apple gets serious about generative AI – 1:16NVIDIA overtakes Apple to be the 2nd most valuable company in the US – 31:08Humane AI warns users its battery case “may pose a fire risk” – 34:36AI workers demand stronger whistleblower protections – 34:36Boeing’s Starliner has successfully launched astronauts to the ISS – 46:11AI audio cleanup has gotten really good and we have podcast clips to prove it – 48:25Working on – 58:09Pop culture picks – 58:45Interview with Render ATL founder Justin Samuels – 1:05:50

This week, Devindra and Engadget's Nathan Ingraham discuss the new Max documentary "MoviePass, MovieCrash" and reminisce about the early days of that wild startup. It was a huge mess in the end, but we wouldn't have subscription plans in theaters without it. We also chat with MoviePass co-founder Stacy Spikes, as well as the documentary's director, Muta'Ali, about the film.In other news, Nate explains why Google is adding a slew of AI features to Chromebook Plus notebooks, and we dive into the Fitbit Ace with LTE, which has the potential to be a very useful smartwatch tracker for kids.Moviepass, MovieCrash interview with CEO Stacy Spikes and director Muta'Ali – 1:33Chromebook Plus laptops are getting AI features soon – 41:43WWDC is scheduled for June 10 – 56:26Cherlynn’s Fitbit Ace LTE hands-on : a fitness tracker for kids! – 59:55Sony pulls “fabricated” interview with Last of Us creator Neil Druckman – 1:03:44Vox Media and The Atlantic magazine made content deals with OpenAI – 1:08:06OpenAI’s new safety team includes members of the company’s board and Sam Altman himself – 1:13:30Listener Mailbag: Windows screen readers on ARM and the iPad as a full-fledged work machine – 1:14:41Working on – 1:23:24Pop culture picks – 1:25:10

Microsoft is leaning even more into AI after launching a new Copilot+ AI PC initiative earlier this year. It's a new set of standards for PCs with powerful neural processing units (NPUs), and it could be just as significant for Windows as Apple's move towards its M-series chips. In this episode, Cherlynn and Devindra discuss Copilot+ and the potential rise of Arm-based Windows systems, and we dive into the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. Microsoft announces a new chapter with Copilot+ and NPU-powered Surface Pro and Surface Laptop – 0:51 Scarlett Johansson vs. OpenAI is just getting started – 37:17 Sonos Ace headphones take aim at Apple’s AirPods Max – 42:15 US Department of Justice makes its first arrest for AI-generated CSAM – 45:50Bloomberg Report: Humane AI seeks a buyer for $700m–$1B, but will they get it? – 47:21 Listener Mail: Could you port the new ARM-based Windows to your Android handheld? – 51:42 Working on – 53:11 Pop culture picks – 54:19