Hands-On Windows 215: Inside RTX Spark

Jacob Ward shows the show this week! Jensen Huang was first reported as a target in a Chinese spy plot and has since resigned from Nvidia following numerous reported extramarital affairs! Hands-on with Apple's new touchscreen MacBook Pro. And are wearable devices using your data to train AI models? Jacob talks about Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang admitting to an affair with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive whose company bought nearly $5 billion in Nvidia chips and who was reportedly flagged in a US intelligence memo as a suspected Chinese asset. Nvidia also announced that Huang is stepping down, with CFO Colette Kress taking over as interim CEO, amid a missing succession plan, a Bernstein downgrade, and reports of a second affair. Jacob and Mikah discuss the board's reported concern over Huang's alleged dishonesty and the regulatory scrutiny awaiting his successor. ZDNet's Kyle Kucharski joins the show to share his review of Apple's touchscreen MacBook Pro, calling it still very much a MacBook, with a stunning OLED display, great battery life, and excellent speakers. And Mikah looks at a year-long Science investigation of 57 consumer EEG companies that found several are training AI "brain foundation models" on customers' brainwave data, often without clear disclosure. Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Jacob Ward Guest: Kyle Kucharski 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: tanium.com/mythos-twit joindeleteme.com/twit-biz bitwarden.com/twit

NVIDIA's RTX Spark ushers in a new era for Windows PCs with massive unified memory and a game-changing GPU—if you can figure out how to tap into its raw power. This episode breaks down what makes Spark intriguing and why its target audience is anyone but casual users. 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. Sponsor: canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT

Which AI model should you use, and how much effort should it put in? Using Claude as the example, Mikah Sargent explains its four model families, Haiku, Sonnet, Opus, and Fable, and its five effort levels, and shows that ChatGPT and Gemini have the same two dials. He explains what an AI model's "thinking" actually is and what changes when you switch models or turn up the effort. He compares an easy job on a light setup and a heavy one, tests a logic puzzle with one right answer at two effort levels, and explains why the top setting isn't automatically the best one. Then he shares a way to choose that works in any chatbot. Send your AI questions to [email protected] 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. Sponsor: joindeleteme.com/twit-biz

As iOS Today wraps its remarkable 828-episode run, the hosts reveal the essential apps and smart home tweaks that have powered their digital lives and productivity. Discover the personal tech picks that shaped the show's legacy. Celebrating iOS Today's legacy and its final palindrome episode Drafts and OmniFocus: deep dive into top productivity winners Fantastical and Due: calendar and reminder essentials for daily organization CARROT and Crouton: the ultimate weather and recipe app picks Fastmail and Home Assistant: privacy-focused email, next-level smart home automation PCalc, Dice, and Dark Noise: utility favorites for calculation and focus News: iOS 27.3 beta highlights redesigned Health app and new features Feedback: Focus modes and app management tips using iOS and iMazing Shortcuts Corner: automating masked Fastmail emails and health data charting App Caps: Elgato Stream Deck XL and Pedal supercharge Mac productivity Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at [email protected]. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today 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.

You can help support what we do at TWiT by joining Club TWiT. You'll get ad-free versions of our shows, access to the Club TWiT Discord, chapter markers, in-app transcripts, and custom programming such as Stacy's Book Club, Mikah's Crafting Corner, Off By One with Jeff Atwood, and the AI Users Group.Join today!

Can one developer's breakthrough double or even quadruple local AI performance on your own hardware? Explore how TensorFold could make cloud-based models look slow and why giants like Apple and Nvidia are taking notice. Nvidia is Preparing to Oust CEO Jensen Huang The Nvidia capital atlas: really good graphics (12) Fireside Alpha on X: "Dario Amodei says cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, and mental illness will be relics of the past in less than a decade, and that "we can create an age of miracles" "You know, if today we look at things like cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, mental illness, these will be https://t.co/quRQbixDSu" / X AMD Zen 6 EPYC 'Venice' deep dive and benchmarking – 9686F outclasses Nvidia's Vera, dual EPYC 9996 with 1,024 threads delivers up to 93% performance gain gen-on-gen Anthropic to Seek $1.3 Trillion Valuation in IPO Anthropic to Proceed With IPO Roadshow Next Week 3 takeaways from the big AI report on Anthropic everyone is talking about Anthropic lets Claude read your bank accounts, but not move money OpenAI Completes $11 Billion Portion of Funding at $1.25 Trillion Value Gemini 4 Carbon is now available DeepMind reveals Gemini Robotics 2.5 and open safety benchmark "ASIMOV-jailbreak" Google touts AI breakthrough, path to "unhackable" software Google: Schools can keep search while skipping Gemini, but AI search is non-negotiable Google Won't Give Schools the One Thing They Want AI teddy for three-year-olds gave unprompted self-harm reply, BBC finds United Airlines Is Banning AI Bots From Booking Flights Alex Karp says he's a lifelong Democrat — and Palantir's products are 'essentially progressive' I Used NYT Cooking's New AI-Powered Recipe Modifier, and It's Actually Pretty Good Spelunkr - cable TV but weirder danah boyd: No one paid me to disagree with Jonathan Haidt. It was teenagers who taught me that he was wrong. remember the world bollard association Munich's Alguth Stone Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Ash Hart Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. 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: namecheap.promo use code TWIT outshift.com helixsleep.com/machines incogni.com/machines code MACHINES

Leo is back! From Patch Tuesday's 1000+ vulnerabilities to the relentless updates and evolving Windows features, the conversation lays bare how quickly the desktop is being reinvented, with hybrid AI and hardware hiccups included! Local AI does not rise to the challenge, hampering RTX Spark. Plus, Paul has finally started incorporating AI into his work. Windows Patch Tuesday: Minor improvements across 25H2/26H2 and 26H1 Five new builds on Friday, just one notable feature change Clipchamp is still the reigning king of easy-to-use but powerful video editors Microsoft Edge and Widgets in Windows 11 get a new Discover feed Opera now has over 100 million users on desktop Vivaldi completely rewrites its tracker and ad blockers on desktop and mobile Qualcomm earnings: Waiting on the datacenter to save the company HP OmniBook Ultra 16 review - RTX Spark is here AI and dev No one expected Jensen Huang to be the problem with Big AI After a powerful set of updates, now you can use Google Antigravity for productivity, too Adobe opens up to third-party AI assistants, expands partnerships with Microsoft and Google New Linux distribution promises to out-AI Windows 11 - a few thoughts about how AI will benefit Linux .NET 11 arrives at .NET Conf 2026 Discord is rewriting its app in Rust and you're not going to believe what happens next XBOX and gaming The new XBOX Nano Controller comes with an awesome surprise The new XBOX app is here on Windows 11, mobile, and cloud, and it's much faster AutoSR comes to AMD-based Copilot+ PCs, ROG XBOX Ally gaming handhelds You can preload GTA VI now EA remasters classic games in Ultima and Wing Commander series, more Nintendo: 6.49 million Switch units Sony: 2.6 million PS5 units - now over 100 million units cumulatively Tips and picks Tip of the week: Do it for free App pick of the week: AI Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott 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. 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: incogni.com/windows code WINDOWS threatlocker.com/twit

From hacked French refrigerators igniting fires to a massive OpenSSH authentication bug hiding in plain sight for a decade, this week's stories expose how lapses in basic security ripple into chaos—and why AI is now both a weapon and shield. TA surprising announcement regarding SpinRite. What is being "AI-pilled" and how does it happen. OpenAI just released GPT-6 Cyber. What does that mean. An irresponsible hacker published 30+ N-Able 0-days. 700 French refrigerators hacked. What's next. Lots of listener feedback about the Cloudflare tunneling solution, Voyager 1, true hardware drive encryption, the random number 4 and the amount of debris in orbit Then we look at a 10-year old serious SSH authentication bug (that's kinda wonderful) Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1104-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: guardsquare.com trustedtech.team/twit originhq.com/securitynow joindeleteme.com/twit-biz

Siri AI is now accessible for developers. The quality issues with the iPhone Duo may actually come down to bad parts. And the original iPod went on sale 25 years ago today. Apple begins opening Siri AI to developers. Apple CEO presses software chief to pursue more ambitious AI strategy. iPhone Duo hinge issue down to bad parts, not bad design. iPhone 18 Pro review: Camera quality and other upgrades mean I can't go back to the cheaper iPhones after this. 2026 iPad mini review: Maximizing the mini. The original iPod went on sale 25 years ago today. About the illuminated Apple logo on MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display. Fake Homebrew installer linked to record-breaking $6.3 billion Binance heist. Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is getting a LEGO set. Picks of the Week Andy's Pick: Patrick Stewart's "A Christmas Carol" Doc's Pick: RigMap Matthew's Picks: Xbox Nano Controller, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Switch 2, and the ESP32 powered Mac 128k Hosts: Leo Laporte and Andy Ihnatko Guests: Doc Rock and Matthew Cassinelli 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 Sponsors: Simplify.us/NestEgg zocdoc.com/macbreak

NVIDIA's CEO is caught in a honeypot scandal with global AI power plays hanging in the balance, just as data centers come under fire from both voters and lawmakers across the US. From the abrupt end of the Tesla Cybertruck to hackers weaponizing smart fridges, this week's episode dives into the messy, hilarious, and sometimes alarming ways future tech is colliding with real-world consequences. • Tesla Cybertruck canned after recalls, plunging sales, and controversy • Remembering Aaron Swartz and the ethics of open access • Academic journals, research paywalls, and access challenges • Voters across US reject data centers in local elections • Apple debuts pricey OLED touchscreen MacBook Pros • BYD, Chinese cars, and the end of US auto dominance • France's top literary prize rocked by AI-assisted novel controversy • NVIDIA CEO ensnared in alleged Chinese intelligence honeypot probe • Data center power demands spark silent vs noisy turbine debate • Global refrigerator hacks spoil food, expose IoT vulnerabilities • FAA finally ditches floppy disks for national air traffic control • Allyn's rig and Padre's Fanttik Cafein 11 Portable Coffee Maker! https://link.amazon/B0gOz4i8Z (affiliate link) Host: Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ Guests: Allyn Malventano, Iain Thomson, and David Hewlett 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: threatlocker.com/twit ZipRecruiter.com/twit bitwarden.com/twit joindeleteme.com/twit-biz