
This Week in Tech 1063: The Year's End
2025-12-21 | 3 h 3 min.
After a year tangled in political drama, AI hype, and regulation battles, the TWiT crew explains how many of tech's "biggest stories" simply fizzled into nothing or left us with new headaches by year's end. Year-end tech trends: AI, politics, and security dominated 2025 Major stories faded fast: TikTok saga, political tech drama, DOGE scandal TikTok's ownership battle—Oracle, Trump donors, and US-China tensions China tech fears: banned drones, IoT vulnerabilities, secret radios in buses Rising political pressure for internet privacy and media literacy reform Surveillance and kill switch concerns in US grid and port infrastructure Convenience vs. privacy: Americans trade data for discounts and ease Age verification, surveillance, and flawed facial recognition across countries Discord's ID leak highlights risks of rushed compliance with privacy laws Social media's impact on kids pushes age-gating and verification laws ISPs monetize customer data, VPNs pitched for personal privacy Global government crackdowns: UK bans VPN advertising, mandates age checks The illusion of absolute privacy: flawed age gates and persistent tracking AI takes over: explosive growth, but profits elusive for big players Arms race in LLMs: DeepSeek's breakthrough, OpenAI/Meta talent bidding war Ad-driven models still rule; Amazon's playbook repeated in AI Humanoid robots and AGI hype: skepticism vs. Silicon Valley optimism AI-generated art, media, and the challenge of deepfake detection Social platforms falter: Instagram and X swamped by fake or low-value content Google's legal, regulatory, and technical woes: ad tech trial, Manifest V3 backlash RAM price spikes and hardware shortages blamed on AI data center demand YouTube overtakes mobile for podcast and video viewing, Oscars move online The internet's growth: Cloudflare stats, X vs. Reddit, spam domain trends Weird tech stories: hacked crosswalks, Nintendo Switch 2 Staplegate, LEGO theft ring Sad farewell: Lamar Wilson's passing and mental health awareness in tech Reflections on the year's turbulence and hopes for a better 2026 Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Mikah Sargent, Paris Martineau, and Steve Gibson Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: expressvpn.com/twit zscaler.com/security Melissa.com/twit ventionteams.com/twit auraframes.com/ink

Untitled Linux Show 234: Crescent Wrench AI
2025-12-21 | 1 h 20 min.
This week we celebrate the announcement of the new Mozilla CEO, cover the news in that GPL lawsuit that's been slowly making progress, and talk about what's new in OpenZFS. There's an AMD vs NVIDIA GPU showdown, we cover the Linux Foundation's annual report, and Plasma 6.6 is promising some late Christmas presents for us all. For tips, we cover sot for system observation, a quick primer on moving between the desktop and command line, and dog/doge for a better DNS tool. You can find the show notes at https://bit.ly/4b0mImI and Merry Christmas! Host: Jonathan Bennett Co-Hosts: Jeff Massie and Rob Campbell Download or subscribe to Untitled Linux Show at https://twit.tv/shows/untitled-linux-show Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Hands-On Tech 247: Saving Your TiVo Files on a Windows PC
2025-12-21 | 12 min.
On Hands-On Tech, Richie asks Mikah Sargent about saving their TiVo recordings to their PC after TiVo discontinued its TiVo Desktop software. Don't forget to send in your questions for Mikah to answer during the show! [email protected] Host: Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to Hands-On Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

This Week in Space 190: Holiday Special 2025
2025-12-19 | 1 h 3 min.
It's our annual holiday special for 2025, in which we look back at the past year in space—its ups, its downs, its all-arounds. What a year it's been, and after all the challenges and hullabaloo, we're grateful in a post-Thanksgiving fashion to welcome Jared Isaacman, at last, as the new NASA Administrator. What he will do and how remains largely unknown, but we do believe he has the nation's interests at heart, and the man knows people are watching. But there are a lot of other stories and we've done our best to stuff as many as we can into this virtual Christmas space stocking! Please join us for this year-end roundup! Headlines & Looking Back at 2025: New Executive Order Targets Space Superiority Starlink Satellite Breaks Up in Orbit, SpaceX Responds Interstellar Comet ATLAS: Extraterrestrial Conspiracies and Public Fascination Isaacman Confirmed as New NASA Administrator Project Athena: NASA's New Strategic Direction? Artemis 2 Mission Prep and Timeline Shifts Mars Sample Return: Uncertain Costs and New Proposals Commercial Spaceflight: SpaceX Successes, Boeing Troubles Perseverance Rover Finds Possible Mars Biosignatures Recap Space Shuttle Discovery Relocation Battle Heats Up New Moon Discovered Around Uranus Webb Telescope and Hubble Milestones International Space Station Celebrates 25 Years of Crewed Work U.S. Space Policy Shifts and NASA's New Leadership Satellite Operations: Starlink's Reliability and Space Junk Concerns Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Tech News Weekly 417: Smart Home Year in Review
2025-12-18 | 1 h 5 min.
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy from The Verge joins Mikah Sargent for the final episode of Tech News Weekly for 2025! Are AI health coaches the future for wearables? A look back at smart home news and devices in 2025. And how AI image generators have changed over time. Mikah talks about an article written by CNET's Vanessa Hand Orellana about AI health coaches in wearables and how it showcases innovation within healthcare, but also the data concerns if data breaches or unauthorized access to the data occur. Jennifer reflects on the smart home news and smart home devices highlighted in the past year and shares her excitement about news such as IKEA releasing Thread-supported devices, but also laments on companies like iRobot filing for bankruptcy. And Allison Johnson of The Verge joins the show to talk about how AI image generators are improving as various models have learned from their mistakes & fumbles that occurred in their early beginnings. Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Guest: Allison Johnson Download or subscribe to Tech News Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: auraframes.com/ink outsystems.com/twit



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