MacBreak Weekly 994: Tim Cook's Labubu

Can open-source AI models really be truly neutral, or are they just another conduit for hidden agendas? Hear how the founder of Nous Research is battling Silicon Valley giants to put ethical, user-controlled AI in everyone's hands. TOpinion | The A.I. Prompt That Could End the World AI videos of dead celebrities are horrifying many of their families (20) Sam Altman on X: "We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right. Now that we have" / X The AI water issue is fake California becomes first state to regulate AI companion chatbots | TechCrunch Walmart Announces It Will Sell Products Through ChatGPT's Instant Checkout Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead AI is changing how we quantify pain Kids who use social media score lower on reading and memory tests, a study shows Social media must warn users of 'profound' health risks under new California law Google will let friends help you recover an account AI content on the net AI writing hasn't overwhelmed the web yet Karpathy tweet Humanity AI Commits $500 Million to Build a People-Centered Future for AI Sal Khan is the new TED You won't believe what degrading practice the pope just condemned Nano Banana is coming to Google Search, NotebookLM and Photos. Paper: Machines in the Crowd? Measuring the Footprint of Machine-Generated Text on Reddit THOUSANDS OF AI AUTHORS ON THE FUTURE OF AI A Twitch streamer gave birth live, with Twitch's CEO in the chat DirecTV will soon bring AI ads to your screensaver Japan wants OpenAI to stop ripping off manga and anime What Is Really Going on With All This Radioactive Shrimp? Inherently funny word Boah, Bahn! A book is being marketed with mayo-scented ink. Jealous? Me? Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Jeffrey Quesnelle 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 shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: spaceship.com/twit pantheon.io Melissa.com/twit threatlocker.com/twit

Forget the doomsday headlines about Windows 10's end of life. Paul, Richard, and Leo break down why most users can relax, what Microsoft really has planned, and why the supposed landfill crisis around old PCs is mostly exaggeration. Also, Microsoft said OneDrive's new app was coming next year, but your file system says otherwise. Windows 11 October Patch Tuesday arrives, 1st for 25H2 Copilot+ PCs: Click to Do improvements, AI agent in Settings, File Explorer improvements 24H2/25H2: Desktop improvements, File Explorer improvements, Keyboard shortcuts for en and em dashes, Administrator Protection (off by default), Passkey improvements, Game Bar improvements Windows 10 (didn't) reach EOL and the world didn't end Zorin OS and ChromeOS Flex seize the moment Windows Insider: Copilot on Windows gets Connectors, Document creation and export. Copilot on Windows gets Settings support. Dev and Beta get AI agent in Settings improvements (Copilot+ PC), Setting search improvements (ditto), Drag Tray, Click to Do improvements, Dark mode improvements Dashlane partners with Yubico to make security keys primary vault access Lenovo ThinkCentre neo 50q QC is a Snapdragon X-based SFF PC HP OmniBook 5 16-inch shows why even the cheapest Snapdragon X chip is a winner Hope springs eternal: Intel Panther Lake is the efficiency of Lunar Lake plus the performance of Arrow Lake. Hopefully, it's not the reliability of either IDC: PC sales jumped 9.4 percent in Q3, just not where you live AI AI is the end of apps Microsoft reveals its first image generation model Opera Neon adds Nano Banana (image gen) and Sora (video gen) capabilities Xbox and gaming Target and Walmart will keep selling Xbox consoles unlike those losers at Costco A veteran of Halo Studios leaves, warns everyone Sorry, but there will be a sequel to the Minecraft movie Game Pass member? Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is free to play for one more day Sony and AMD trickle out some PS6 news in a bizarre way - oh, and we're just getting started Tips and picks Tip of the week: Yes, Virginia, you can still sign in to Windows 11 25H2 with a local account App pick of the week: The new OneDrive app RunAs Radio this week: The End of NTML with Steve Syfuhs Brown liquor pick of the week: Holladay Soft Red Wheat Bourbon 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. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zapier.com/windows bitwarden.com/twit

Texas is on the brink of forcing Apple and Google to overhaul app downloads with strict age verification laws—are tech giants ready, or is your privacy about to get caught in the crossfire? The EU aborted their Chat Control vote knowing it would fail. Salesforce says it's not going to pay; customer data is released. Hackers claim Discord breach netted 70,000 government IDs. Microsoft to move Github to Azure. What could possibly go wrong. New California law allows universal data sharing opt-out. OpenAI reports that it's blocking foreign abuse. Who cares. IE Mode refuses to die, so Microsoft is burying it deeper. The massive mess created by Texas legislation SB2420. The BreachForums website gets a makeover. 100,000 strong global botnet attacking U.S. RDP services. UI experts weigh in on Apple's iOS 26 user-interface. 330,000 publicly exposed REDIS servers are RCE-vulnerable Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1047-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 shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/security expressvpn.com/securitynow vanta.com/SECURITYNOW canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT bigid.com/securitynow

Could Tim Cook retire soon? California has signed a new age verification law that requires parents to enter their kids' ages when setting up a smartphone. Could a new MacBook Pro be coming soon, say this week? And Apple has increased its bug bounty award payout for big exploits to $2 million! Apple CEO Tim Cook visits China: receives custom LABUBU doll and hosts first livestream sales event. Tim Cook took over Apple's operations and started to change the world 20 years ago. Apple renames 'Apple TV+' to 'Apple TV'. Everything new in iOS 26.1 beta 3. macOS 26.1 beta 3 changes polarizing Macintosh HD icon. Newsom signs age verification law, siding with tech giants over Hollywood. California enacts age-gate law for app stores. Apple teases new MacBook Pro: 'Something powerful is coming'. Apple to move Health, fitness divisions to services in reorganization. Here's the latest on Apple suing Jon Prosser over iOS 26 leaks. It's not too late for Apple to get AI right. Apple beats Musk, buys Prompt AI startup. Apple ups the reward for finding major exploits to $2 million. Explainer: How is XProtect's data updated? Apple sued over use of copyrighted books to train Apple Intelligence. Apple says goodbye to the Clips app. Elon Musk tries to make Apple and mobile carriers regret choosing Starlink rivals. A 15-year mystery solved: The 20 bytes of code that fixed Antennagate. The great software quality collapse: how we normalized catastrophe. Picks of the Week Andy's Pick: The Loneliness Epidemic: Big Tech's Role and Responsibility Jason's Pick: YoLink Water Sensors Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell 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 shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: Melissa.com/twit threatlocker.com/twit 1password.com/macbreak pantheon.io

From internet service providers facing billion-dollar lawsuits for their users' file sharing to Amazon's smart displays turning into ad machines, the future of your connected life is up for grabs. If you want to know who's really pulling the strings in tech and where the battle lines are being drawn, this is the episode you can't miss. October Term 2025 Supreme Court denies Google's request to pause Play Store changes while it appeals Epic case I Want A New Drug. A Vaccine Even. And A Functioning FDA, CDC, NIH, Etc... AI videos of dead celebrities are horrifying many of their families Amazon's giant ads have ruined the Echo Show Chat Control: Germany says NEIN Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses China Flexed. Trump Hit Back. So Much for the Thaw. Taiwan sees no significant impact on chip sector from China rare earths curbs FCC Chair Brendan Carr says major US online retailers have removed several million listings for prohibited Chinese electronics as part of the agency's crackdown Windows 10 support ends October 14, but here's how to get an extra year for free California bans loud commercials on Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services Synology Reverses Policy Banning Third-Party HDDs After NAS sales plummet TiVo Exiting Legacy DVR Business - Media Play News Introducing Figure 03 Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Cathy Gellis, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, and Gary Rivlin 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 shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: fieldofgreens.com Promo Code "TWIT" NetSuite.com/TWIT shopify.com/twit bitwarden.com/twit expressvpn.com/twit

This week Ubuntu has released 25.10, and they broke Flatpak support. Qualcomm has purchased Arduino, and we're not sure that's a good thing. Plasma 6.5 is looking to be a great release, and System76 is already releasing Cosmic on a laptop, Beta and all. For tips we have the workaround to install Flatpaks on Ubuntu, printenv to print out all the environment variables, and btrfs-assistant as a nifty graphical user interface for managing btrfs partitions. You can find the show notes at http://bit.ly/46Qf784 and happy Linuxing! 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 Want access to the ad-free 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.

On Hands-On Tech, Mikah Sargent answers a listener's question about disposing of their old iMac and the steps needed to do so. 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 Want access to the ad-free 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.

World Space Week is a global celebration of all things space, bringing together thousands of participants from all over the planet to celebrate our future in space. Chartered by the United Nations in 1999, this year's theme is "Living in Space." The many associated events from across the world are a reminder to all of the importance of space in our lives and our future, and a clarion call to international youth of the value of their future involvement. We spoke with the WSW Association's executive director, Alma Okpalefe, who explained their origins, activities, and plans for the future. It's one of the premier space-related events of the year, and when you're done with the episode, you'll want to know more! Headlines: SpaceX Starship Flight 11 Set for Launch 6,000 Alien Planets Discovered—Where's Earth 2.0? Mars Crew Study Reveals Diverse Teams Outperform "Alpha Males" Main Topic: World Space Week 2025 Alma Okpalefe Shares Her Path from Legal Counsel to Space Leadership Global Scope and Organization: 95+ Countries, Thousands of Events Types of World Space Week Activities: School Outreach, Museum Events, Art Competitions 2025 Theme: "Living in Space"—Why It Was Chosen, What It Means Globally Building Space Interest in Regions Without Established Programs Outcomes and Impact: Inspiring Space Agencies, Universities, and Advocacy Accessibility and Inclusion as Future Focus for Space Exploration Advice for Young Space Enthusiasts: Get Involved and Dream Big International Collaboration: Why Working Together Matters for Space Progress Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Guest: Alma Okpalefe 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 shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Amanda Silberling joins Mikah Sargent on Tech News Weekly this week! Casio has a new smart toy companion powered by AI. The UK is still seeking to develop backdoor encryption for Apple users. ChatGPT is looking to act more like an operating system. And how the 'Buy Now, Pay Later' model has built a $120 billion industry. Amanda has her hands on a new AI-powered smart companion from Casio! She and Mikah talk about the device, how it works, and the possible data security and privacy concerns. Mikah talks about the UK's continued push to create backdoor encryption for Apple users in the country. Sabrina Ortiz of ZDNet joins the show to discuss OpenAI's Dev Day and the company's ambitions to make OpenAI function like an OS with the launch of the Apps SDK. Finally, Mikah shares an article from The New York Times Magazine about the 'Buy Now, Pay Later' market, which allows buyers to obtain their items easily and traps users in a swarm of debt. Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Amanda Silberling Guest: Sabrina Ortiz 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 shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: pantheon.io threatlocker.com/twit cachefly.com/twit

Google is bringing Gemini into Windows territory, taking on Microsoft Copilot right from your desktop. Is the world's most popular browser about to change how you work with AI on Windows? Host: Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to Hands-On Windows at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-windows Want access to the ad-free 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.