Total Leo (Audio)

Meta quietly ditches encryption for Instagram chats while TikTok also backpedals on privacy, shaking up assumptions about how much big tech really values your secrets. Meanwhile, Steve Gibson reveals why CISA's free government security scans are an absolute must for businesses—plus what he learned when GRC took the plunge.

The Security Now "Caption That Photo" contest.

A mega social media company says "no" to strong encryption.

WhatsApp to give parents more control,

Consumer bandwidth proxying is becoming a big deal.

Meta buys the Moltbook duo.

The EU gives up and settles upon the status quo.

When a ransomware negotiation is not what it seems.

CISA compels federal agencies to submit their logs.

Is that a VPN in your pocket or something more malicious.

Be careful what you download, thinking it's AI.

A super-clever and super-simple A/V scanner bypass.

Will AI write code for me?

Another listener discovers the Joy of AI.

Steve's CISA Internet scanning experience

Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1070-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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Someone is appearing on Jeopardy this week... Apple announces the AirPods Max 2. The MacBook Neo is its most repairable MacBook in 14 years. And are new colors coming to the next-gen iMacs later this year?

I'll take 'beach reading' for $1000, Ken.

Apple introduces AirPods Max 2.

2026 Apple Studio Display review: The smallest of upgrades.

MacBook Neo is the most repairable MacBook in 14 years.

Apple paying a premium to move iPhone production outside China as it hits milestone.

Should keycaps use text or glyphs for delete, return, tab, caps lock, and shift?

macOS Tahoe 26.4 beta 4, iOS 26.4 beta 4, and iPadOS 26.4 beta 4 distributions highlight nine upcoming emoji characters.

Rumor: Apple to debut "new colors" for next-gen iMacs this year.

Apple's Liquid Glass interface isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Gone (Almost) Phishin'.

Mac on-screen camera indicator light.

How to survive the loss of Rosetta.

First footage shows X-Plane 12 on Vision Pro, including an ARKit trick in action.

F1: The Stream - how the launch leveraged Apple's entire ecosystem.

'F1: the Movie' is now an Oscar-winning hit.

Severance season 3 gets timing update, new characters teased.

Picks of the Week

Leo's Pick: Lil Finder 5K Wallpapers

Christina's Pick: 3D Print Lil' Finder Guy

Andy's Pick: Stickies for Mac\

Jason's Pick: Delcom USB HID Handheld Programmable Button Switch

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren

Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly.

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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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Apple's legendary evangelist Guy Kawasaki reveals how signal messaging and open-source AI are rewriting playbooks for privacy, immortality, and activism. Hear candid stories and sharp opinions from someone who has shaped—and challenged—today's tech giants.

OpenAI robotics hardware lead resigns

ChatGPT returns to the top of the App Store after DoD controversy

OpenAI Had Banned Military Use. The Pentagon Tested Its Models Through Microsoft Anyway

Anthropic Made Pitch in Drone Swarm Contest During Pentagon Feud

Anthropic chief back in talks with Pentagon about AI deal

OpenAI robotics leader resigns over concerns about Pentagon AI deal

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

ChatGPT update curbs 'cringe,' cuts down on answer refusals

OpenAI's GPT-5.4 sets new records on professional benchmarks

OpenAI Releases New ChatGPT Model For Working In Excel and Google Sheets - Slashdot

OpenAI delays ChatGPT's 'adult mode' again

OpenAI's IPO Hopes Face Skeptical Investor Community

Sources: Meta has signed a multiyear AI content licensing deal with News Corp worth $50M per year; the deal will run for at least three years

Zuckerberg has "finished" with Alexandr Wang, worth US$14 billion

Yann LeCun Raises $1 Billion To Build AI That Understands the Physical World

Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab signs a chip supply deal with Nvidia worth tens of billions of dollars, planning to deploy 1GW+ of next-gen Vera Rubin chips

Meta didn't buy Moltbook for bots — it bought into the agentic web

Where did you think the training data was coming from?

You could be an influencer without even realizing it

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

Amazon's Health AI is now open to all US customers

After outages, Amazon to make senior engineers sign off on AI-assisted changes

Amazon Data Centers on Fire After Iranian Missile Strikes on Dubai

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

How to Talk to Someone Experiencing 'AI Psychosis'

Tiiny AI Pocket Lab: The First Pocket-Size AI Supercomputer

A lot of journalism folks are offering editing advice as Grammarly's AI "experts"

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

Judges Find AI Doesn't Have Human Intelligence in Two New Court Cases

Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

Start Up No.2624: Canadian journal retracts 25 years of studies, the AI writing question, Netflix buys Affleck AI firm, and more

William Shatner says he turned a $42 money transfer from Elon Musk into nearly $200,000 for his charity

YouTube Lays Claim to Another Crown: The World's Largest Media Company

ET Fall Preview 1994

Payphone Go

This company wants to pay you $800 to bully AI for a day

Tweakbench - your favorite producer's favorite plugins lol

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Guest: Guy Kawasaki

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From bug-busting AI that's transforming Firefox to personal coding breakthroughs, the team breaks down how practical applications are cutting through skepticism and reshaping developer workflows. Plus, hear why lighter Patch Tuesdays are refreshing from time to time!

Windows 11

Patch Tuesday's familiar list of updates: Network speed test, Camera tilt and pan controls, sysmon, RSAT improvements, Quick Machine Recovery improvements, WEBP support for desktop wallpaper, Emoji 16.0, etc.

It's been a light year so far for Patch Tuesday features - that's a good thing

New builds for Canary, Dev, and Beta late last week. Canary is nothing, Dev/Beta get Administrator Protection, Drag Tray refinements, File Explorer improvements, and fixes

Android 16 QPR3 brings Desktop Mode to Android devices - and a hands-on with Pixel phones and tablets shows the way forward for Android-based laptops later this year

Intel has new gaming processors for creators and gamers and they look excellent and are inexpensive

AI and dev

Copilot Cowork is literally Claude Cowork in Microsoft 365 - "Wave 3" for Microsoft 365 Copilot begins with a lot of agentic features, in private preview at first

Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive get big Gemini updates for consumers and Workspace customers

Mozilla partners with Anthropic to use AI to find bugs, and it's paying off nicely

Visual Studio Code moves to a weekly update schedule

The .NET 11 Preview 2 is here

Xbox and gaming

Microsoft starts talking up next Xbox console! It's called Project Helix and, yes, it will run Windows games

New Xbox Mode is on the way

Project Helix dev kits to game makers in 2027

Satya Nadella explains why he/Microsoft are "long" on gaming

Gaming is a core identity for Microsoft alongside platforms, developers, and knowledge workers

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Nostalgia with a purpose

App pick of the week: Stardock Clairvoyance

RunAs Radio this week: SQL Server in 2026 with Bob Ward

Brown liquor pick of the week: Canadian Centennial Rye Whisky

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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