MacBreak Weekly 1043: The Irrational Phone

After Microsoft's historic Mega Patch Tuesday, enterprise IT teams worldwide are scrambling as a wave of updates triggers system meltdowns, broken domains, and silent Excel failures. Find out how AI-driven speed collided with real-world chaos. Andrew Ng weighs-in on AI Doomsaying. The wisdom of outsourcing AI security testing. The true risk of an AI-created bioweapon. The EU KIDS Act -- this one is even messier. "Nightmare Eclipse" finally unmasks himself. A whitehat firm used Claude to attack OpenAI. Cisco's own massive 77 CVE update. What was the fallout from Sept's Patch Tuesday Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1097-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. 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: trustedtech.team/twit hoxhunt.com/securitynow rayneo.com guardsquare.com threatlocker.com/twit outsystems.com/twit

The iPhone 18 Pro & Pro Max are hitting consumers' hands. Reviews of the Apple Watch Series 12 & Ultra 4 are out now for Apple's latest smartwatches. And are the newest Mac Minis and Mac Studios worth it for their prices? Apple explains how the iPhone 18 Pro's new Reference Image camera mode works. The iPhone 18 Pro's big camera update is all about the small gains. Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 review: More personal than ever before. Apple is developing new fitness tracker aimed at rivaling Whoop. M5 Ultra Mac Studio review: The dream Mac for local AI agents. M6 Mac mini review: Tiny, pricey, and powerful. John Ternus just gave the best defense yet for Vision Pro. Apple reportedly building server packed with M-series Ultra chips for AI. Jessica Chastain thriller 'The Savant' getting 2027 release on Apple TV after year on hold. Apple opens Apple Music Hall, a brand‑new state‑of‑the‑art live music venue in London Picks of the Week Jason's Pick: Relay for St. Jude Andy's Pick: MOONDROP Old Fashioned 40mm On-Ear Headphones Christina's Picks: Taylor Swift: Patient Zero & Mona Breaker Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-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 Sponsor: trustedtech.team/twit

The iPhone 18 Pro & Pro Max are hitting consumers' hands. Reviews of the Apple Watch Series 12 & Ultra 4 are out now for Apple's latest smartwatches. And are the newest Mac Minis and Mac Studios worth it for their prices? Apple explains how the iPhone 18 Pro's new Reference Image camera mode works. The iPhone 18 Pro's big camera update is all about the small gains. Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 review: More personal than ever before. Apple is developing new fitness tracker aimed at rivaling Whoop. M5 Ultra Mac Studio review: The dream Mac for local AI agents. M6 Mac mini review: Tiny, pricey, and powerful. John Ternus just gave the best defense yet for Vision Pro. Apple reportedly building server packed with M-series Ultra chips for AI. Jessica Chastain thriller 'The Savant' getting 2027 release on Apple TV after year on hold. Apple opens Apple Music Hall, a brand‑new state‑of‑the‑art live music venue in London Picks of the Week Jason's Pick: Relay for St. Jude Andy's Pick: MOONDROP Old Fashioned 40mm On-Ear Headphones Christina's Picks: Taylor Swift: Patient Zero & Mona Breaker Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-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 Sponsor: trustedtech.team/twit

AI hallucinations nearly sparked an international crisis, Google dodged a breakup but faces new rules, and Meta's personal AI agent might be about to run your life. This week's episode ponders what's pragmatic, what's dangerous, and what's coming for everything from privacy to geopolitics. Judge Orders Data Sharing and Other Fixes to Solve Google's Ad Tech Monopoly US judge signals rejection of part of TikTok privacy settlement AI hallucination of Chinese nuclear components almost led to US military attack For the first time, the US military confirms it has deployed weapons in orbit OpenAI Discloses Six New Incidents of 'Concerning' A.I. Behavior Why AI pacing has become a false choice Iran and China Create First-of-Their-Kind Autonomous A.I. Influence Campaigns Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera. Its Data Shows How the System Really Works Senate Votes to Block Crypto Bill in Major Blow to the Industry The EU Bans Social Media For Under-13s 'Maybe a year': Geoffrey Hinton gives the Senate a deadline on AI ZuckOff Is a Free App That Sees Meta Glasses Before They See You Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Owen Thomas, Jason Hiner, and Dan Patterson 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: trustedtech.team/twit rayneo.com NetSuite.com/TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/twit claude.ai/technology

This week Jonathan starts out talking about his new Framework 13 pro, and Rob tries to convince him to buy a Steam Frame to go with it. The 7.4 kernel is really shaping up to be special, with huge wins in build time, AMD HDMI support, Google finally dropping its legacy binder code, and files opening significantly faster. Ubuntu is continuing to push into Rust coreutils, KaOS is trying to manage a SystemD-free existence, and Intel is done paying out bug bounties. For tips, we have excise for a TUI disk usage visualizer, snoopy for watching what your system is really up to, and a quick primer on .pc files. You can find the show notes at https://bit.ly/3V6eLGM and enjoy! Host: Jonathan Bennett Co-Hosts: Rob Campbell and Jeff Massie 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. Sponsor: trustedtech.team/twit

In this week's episode of Hands-On Tech, Wendell asks Mikah whether his wife is right that typing into an AI chatbot is no different from a Google search, and wants to know where those conversations go, who can see them, whether they're used for training, and if any settings can turn that off in both ChatGPT and Gemini. Send in your questions for Mikah to [email protected], and he'll answer them in a future episode! 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. Sponsor: trustedtech.team/twit

In the 1980s, as the US space shuttle was just starting operations, the UK embarked on an ambitious project called HOTOL—short for Horizontal Take Off and Landing, a radical, air-breathing spaceplane design. Political and funding shifts in the UK ultimately derailed the project, despite the promising technologies it pioneered. The idea was later restarted as Skylon, with key individuals and refined technologies at its core. This project, too, struggled, ultimately shuttering in 2024. Despite this, the promise of rapid, reusable spaceplanes that can launch and land at airports is still coveted by many countries, and efforts continue. Join Rob Coppinger, author of the definitive book on the topic and editor of the UK's "Spaceflight" magazine, as he tells this fascinating story. Headlines: New Crater Discovered on the Moon Boeing Starliner Gains New Life with NASA Support Starship Flight 14 Gears Up for Launch Main Topic: British Spaceplanes – HOTOL and Skylon Rob Coppinger Shares Inspiration and Career Path Origins and Vision Behind HOTOL HOTOL vs. the Space Shuttle: Concepts and Challenges Funding Issues and UK Government Decisions Evolution from HOTOL to Skylon and Reaction Engines Technological Innovations: SABRE Engine and Reusability International Context: Other Spaceplane Projects Current Status and Future Prospects for UK Spaceplanes Lessons in Vision, Imagination, and Persisting with Big Ideas Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Guest: Rob Coppinger 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 Sponsor: trustedtech.team/twit

Qwen, Muse Glimmer, Ollama, llama.cpp, quantization, mixture-of-experts, RAG, tokens per second. On Hands-On AI, those aren't buzzwords — Mikah Sargent will explain exactly what they mean, then put them to work on hardware you already own. No cloud, no account, no data, leaving your desk. Host: Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to Hands-On AI at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-ai Want access to the ad-free audio and video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins the show this week! AI-generated "news" sites. Are 'health age' scores helpful, or harmful? Google Home now supports the Model Context Protocol. And Apple unveils a new photo verification technology for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Mikah shares a story about Futurism's investigation into Brown Brothers Media reveals a network of AI-generated "news" sites - complete with fabricated writer personas and stolen bylines. Victoria Song of The Verge joins the show to explain why "health age" scores from wearables like Whoop, Oura, and now Apple Watch are wildly inconsistent proprietary metrics that can fuel unnecessary shame or false confidence about your health. Jennifer discusses Google Home's new MCP support and makes the case that what smart homes really need is a dedicated, on-device "smart home computer" rather than more cloud-dependent AI. And Mikah talks about Apple's Reference Image feature for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, which aims to verify photo authenticity straight from the camera sensor, an approach the company says avoids the privacy and security pitfalls of industry standards like C2PA. Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Guest: Victoria Song 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: trustedtech.team/twit outsystems.com/twit rayneo.com threatlocker.com/twit

Discover the overlooked advanced settings in Windows 11 that can transform how you manage apps, files, and even the command line. These features aren't just for developers—every power user should know about them. Host: Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to Hands-On Windows at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-windows 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. Sponsors: trustedtech.team/twit bitwarden.com/twit