This Week in Google 794: License to Prune

Mark Zuckerberg just released his own NSFW version of 'Get Low' in a tribute to his wife Mattel Mistakenly Lists Porn Site on Packaging for 'Wicked' Dolls The Crypto Industry's Spending on the Election Pays Off Canada orders shutdown of TikTok's Canadian business, app access to continue Bluesky adds 700,000 new members as users flee X after the US election Matter 1.4 tries to set the smart home standard back on track Google's learning OpenAI Shifts Strategy as Rate of 'GPT' AI Improvements Slows Microsoft, A16Z AI manifesto: AI for startups Claude AI to process secret government data through new Palantir deal Randy Travis's beautiful baritone was lost. AI helped him sing again. Particle launches an AI news app to help publishers, instead of just stealing their work YouTube is testing music remixes made by AI I Spoke Only to Chatbots for 24 Hours. Who Needs Human Friends? Google Street View helps map how 600,000 trees grow down to the limb Chris Wallace Quits CNN to Pivot to Streaming, Podcasting Nicholas Carlson, the former top editor of Business Insider, is starting a new company that will focus on video. Lena Dunham to write Sam Bankman-Fried movie for Apple Banjo Toss, the game After years of trying, Just Eat Takeaway is selling Grubhub to Wonder for $650M Research suggests people are getting more bored Times New Dumbass font Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Download or subscribe to This Week in Google at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: uscloud.com bitwarden.com/twit

Edge's data trick, Outlook's AI Themes, .NET 9, and more! Windows 11 The 24H2 quality issues continue, like a parade with no end. Patch Tuesday arrives Windows team says no Preview update in December... but what about November? Reminder of the Canary build last week with Prism emulator improvements. WHERE ARE THE ARM ISOs??? Most recent episode of Run as Radio is worth discussing again here Dev and Beta: Nice new "run as admin" shortcut in Dev, minor changes in Beta Canary: Mostly bug fixes Microsoft Edge is using a new trick to steal Chrome data It's dead, Jim: Microsoft reminds world that Outlook will replace Mail, Calendar, People If you pay for Copilot (dummy) you can make custom Outlook themes now for some reason Quick laptop update: AMD Zen 5 vs. Intel Lunar Lake vs. Snapdragon X Still more earnings Arm: $844 million, but disappointing. Also, Qualcomm legal battle looms Qualcomm: $10.24 billion in revenues, up 19 percent AMD to lay off 4 percent of (26,000 employee) workforce globally, focus on AI Dev Microsoft releases .NET 9 That means WPF support for Windows 11 theming is live But there's a surprise: Microsoft added one of the features we need .NET Conf is happening as we speak - Thursday is third-party day, and I am curious about Avalon and Uno announcements Qualcomm has a webinar tomorrow for AI developers and Snapdragon X Xbox Surprise! Death Stranding comes to Xbox three years later to the day Phil Spencer talks PS5, mobile devices, more in a new interview MAJOR NEW ACTIVISION RELEASE ON GAME PASS Just kidding, it's some stupid purple dragon Friend requests now available (again) to all Xbox users Paying GeForce Now customers get monthly usage caps NVIDIA app replaces GeForce Experience, no need to sign in anymore Sony has sold 65 million PS5 consoles ... it needs 20+ million more to surpass PS3 Tips and Picks Tip of the week: Quick Windows 11 Field Guide update App pick of the week: Stardock DesktopGPT App pick of the week #2: Quick Share Cocktail of the week: Salmoncito Ingredients 1 oz. tonic water, plus more for topping 1½ oz. London dry gin ¼ oz. Campari ¼ oz. fresh grapefruit juice Grapefruit twist and grapefruit supreme (for serving) Preparation Fill a highball glass with ice. Add 1 oz. tonic water, then pour in 1½ oz. London dry gin, ¼ oz. Campari, and ¼ oz. fresh grapefruit juice. Top off with more tonic water and stir gently with a bar spoon. Express oil of a grapefruit twist over cocktail and discard. Garnish with a grapefruit supreme. Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: uscloud.com veeam.com

Bitwarden reaffirms it's commitment to open source. The rights of German security researchers are clarified. Australia to impose age limits on social media. Free Windows Server 2025 anyone? UAC wasn't getting in the way enough, so they're fixing that. "From Russia with fines" -- obey or else. South Korea fines Meta over serious user privacy violations. Synology's (very) critical zero-click RCE flaw. Malicious Python packages invoked by typos. Google to enforce full MFA for all cloud service users. Mozilla Foundation lays off 30%? Is Firefox safe? Some feedback from Dave's Garage (https://grc.sc/dave) GRC email CTL: AI Debugging CTL: Chat GPT vs YouTube Shorts CTL: Update on the "Train Tracks" Pic of the Week CTL: DNS Benchmark compatibility CTL: The accuracy of AI CTL: Exposing NAS to the Internet CTL: Congrats on 1000! Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1000-Notes.pdf Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit 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. Sponsors: bitwarden.com/twit threatlocker.com for Security Now flashpoint.io lookout.com

Leo got his M4 Mac mini! A new code has been introduced to iPhones that will reboot the device after not being unlocked for a period of time. The panel celebrates the 23rd anniversary of the iPod. And is Apple getting into the security camera & smart home hub spaces following reports from Ming-Chi Kuo and Mark Gurman? Review: M4 and M4 Pro Mac minis are probably Apple's best Mac minis ever. Apple quietly introduced iPhone reboot code which is locking out cops. Apple launched the iPod 23 years ago, and changed the world. Apple reportedly shipping a security camera in 2026. With AI, the future of augmented reality is in your ears. Misguided Apple Intelligence ads. Breaking news: Apple Home Hub detailed: Apple Intelligence, HomeOS, square iPad-like design. Picks of the Week: Leo's Pick: An A-Z Index of the Apple macOS Command Line Jason's Pick: Balatro Andy's Pick: Black Diamond Storm 450 Headlamp Alex's Pick: Blackmagic Resolve Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: threatlocker.com 1password.com/macbreak

Apple launched the iPod 23 years ago, and changed the world Apple Quietly Introduced iPhone Reboot Code Which is Locking Out Cops How the 2024 US presidential election will determine tech's future Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Tim Cook and other tech leaders congratulate Trump on election win AI didn't sway the election, but it deepened the partisan divide YouTube dominated Election Day as viewers guzzled 84 million hours of presidential news The other election night winner: Perplexity Dogecoin and other memecoins surge as Trump wins presidential election Detroit to Accept Crypto for Tax Payments in Bid to Spur Tech Innovation, Fuel Economic Growth Painting by A.I.-Powered Robot Sells for $1.1 Million OpenAI defeats news outlets' copyright lawsuit over AI training, for now Anthropic teams up with Palantir and AWS to sell AI to defense customers OpenAI acquired Chat.com Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now Roblox is banning kids from 'social hangout' spaces Reddit Passes Snap Canada orders shutdown of TikTok's Canadian business, app access to continue Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Abrar Al-Heeti, Dan Patterson, and Lisa Eadicicco Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: lookout.com ziprecruiter.com/twit mintmobile.com/twit e-e.com/twit expressvpn.com/twit

Tech in the new Admin TikTok Sees Trump Victory As App's Best Hope Jeff Bezos congratulates Trump for 'extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory' Elon Musk says Trump win is just the start of his political ambitions Silicon Valley is officially grieving over Trump but quietly gleeful over a possible tech deal resurgence The Crypto Industry's Spending on the Election Pays Off Mozilla Foundation lays off 30% staff, drops advocacy division NYTimes Games for the strike Florida Access Network WebCheck Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paris Martineau Guests: Emily Forlini and Mike Elgan Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: uscloud.com 1password.com/twig

On Halloween, the last day of October, Microsoft delayed Recall again. It was supposed to preview in October, this is the third delay. No clear reason why. December now, supposedly. Plus, Paul gives an earnings recap that he didn't get to dive into much last week. Windows New 24H2 bug More features coming to Prism emulator in Windows 11 on Arm (!) New generative AI features are coming to Paint, Photos, and Notepad Beta channel: Here's the new Windows Hello experience, with explicit references to passkeys Proton VPN is native on Windows 11 on Arm Windows Server 2025 is GA (and some are being mistakenly force-upgraded. This is what you get when you share a codebase with Windows 11, apparently) Google shifts Android development cycle - Major update each Q2, minor update each Q4, monthly feature/quality updates A Tale of 2 Chips Paul reviewed the AMD Zen 5-based HP OmniBook Ultra, it's awesome. Paul is also reviewing an Intel Lunar Lake laptop, and it is not awesome Early glee around Lunar Lake was misplaced Laptop reviewers all report what Paul is seeing (for once), that the performance is horrific. You need to switch to "Best performance" power management mode for reasonable performance, but this hasn't solved all the issues COD: Black Ops 6. Average FPS under Zen 5 is 90 to 120 at native resolution/medium graphics, single and multi-player. Lunar Lake? 40 FPS with all graphics settings on low/very low Intel now says Lunar Lake is a one-off too (Meteor Lake was likewise a one-off, architecturally). It will no longer package RAM with processors because of margins. Lunar Lake rushed to market and was key contributor to recent financial issues More Earnings Learnings Amazon: $159 billion in revenues, $27.5 billion for AW Apple: $95 billion in revenues, a small uptick in iPhone revenues Microsoft 365/AI Some curious/confusing moves with Microsoft 365 for consumers: subscribers in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand are getting Copilot Pro credits with base subscription (Word, Excel, etc.), Designer, ... and the long-overdue and dreaded price increase This must be a test for the U.S. and western Europe. Feels inevitable OpenAI launches ChatGPT Search. This is not the Google Search replacement you're looking for Xbox It's November, so here's the incredible list of Activision Blizzard games now coming to Game Pass! Just kidding, but we are getting Flight Sim 2024 Microsoft introduced an AI-powered support virtual agent to Xbox because something something AI Switch sales drop off a cliff, Nintendo will announce backward-compatible successor before the end of March Sony launches the PS5 Pro to meh Tips and Picks Tip of the week: Windows 11 minus the MSA App pick of the week: Docs in Proton Drive RunAs Radio this week: Software-Defined Networking using Azure Firewall with Aidan Finn Brown liquor MOVIE pick of the week: Whisky Galore Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: Melissa.com/twit 1password.com/windowsweekly lookout.com threatlocker.com

Google's record-breaking fine by Russia. (How many 0's is that?) RT's editor-in-chief admits that their TV hosts are AI-generated. Windows 10 security updates set to end next October... or are they? When a good Chrome extension goes bad. Windows .RDP launch config files. What could possibly go wrong? Firefox 132 just received some new features. Chinese security cameras being removed from the UK. I know YOU wouldn't fall for this social engineering attack. What's GRC's next semi-commercial product going to be? And what's the prospect for AI being used to analyze code to eliminate security vulnerabilities? Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-999-Notes.pdf Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit 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. Sponsors: joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT 1password.com/securitynow bigid.com/securitynow Melissa.com/twit

As expected following the end of last week's MacBreak Weekly, Apple announced the new M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max MacBook Pros. Jason recaps the results of Apple's Q424. And Apple acquires Pixelmator. Early Apple M4 Pro and M4 Max benchmarks hint at a massive performance boost. Apple's new MacBook Pro features the incredibly powerful M4 family of chips and ushers in a new era with Apple Intelligence. Apple finally finds its gaming console with the new Mac mini. First M4 Max benchmark tears apart the M2 Ultra Mac Studio. Apple's Q424 results: $95B revenue–with a twist. A new home for Pixelmator. Per Ming-Chi Kuo: "Cheaper Vision Pro" delayed beyond 2027." Apple explores push into smart glasses with 'Atlas' user study Apple is buying 20 percent of its iPhone satellite services partner. US Consumer Finance Protection Bureau orders Apple and Goldman Sachs to pay over $89 million for Apple Card failures. Rumor: Apple developing 90Hz display tech for iPad Air, Studio Display, and iMac. Picks of the Week: Jason's Pick: Everlights Alex's Pick: ESI Neva Duo Andy's Pick: Tot Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: veeam.com e-e.com/twit 1password.com/macbreak

The panel discusses the implications of the 2024 US elections to the tech industry Alexa's New AI Brain Is Stuck in the Lab Why do we keep changing our clocks? ChatGPT Search Online political ads--we're almost done! Elon Musk Wants You to Think This Election's Being Stolen Open-source AI must reveal its training data, per new OSI definition Chinese sanctions hit US drone maker supplying Ukraine Digital ad market booms for Big Tech Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Shoshana Weissmann, Nicholas De Leon, and Amy Webb Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: bitwarden.com/twit lookout.com NetSuite.com/TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/Twit canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT