MacBreak Weekly 1006: Unemployable

Jason Hiner gives us a look at the AI products at CES 2026, as big tech and chip makers blurred the lines between consumer gadgets and enterprise innovation, leaving even veteran insiders wondering: will this tech boom actually benefit everyday users? NVIDIA's Christmas Eve 'Hackquisition' Miracle No, Grok can't really "apologize" for posting non-consensual sexual images Introducing ChatGPT Health 'We have to reject that with every fiber of our being': DeSantis emerges as a chief AI skeptic Waymo Updates Vehicles to Better Handle Power Outages - But Still Faces Criticism The most exciting AI wearable at CES 2026 might not be smart glasses after all 2025's AI-fueled scientific breakthroughs Google engineer says Claude Code built in one hour what her team spent a year on Microsoft CEO Begs Users to Stop Calling It "Slop" Stanford's AI class on YouTube Tamiflu Babka from Zabar's (or elsewhere) Happy birthday Nic Cage Floor796 Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Jason Hiner 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: monarch.com with code IM joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT helixsleep.com/machines

PC makers are shaking up CES with wild designs and next-gen chips, but the real story is Microsoft's bold software moves, AI's hardware hunger, and a candid debate over whether any tech company still puts users first. Come for the Windows updates, stay for the whisky warnings and robot bathroom assistants. CES 2026 is here with the 4K hummingbird feeder of your dreams New PCs and more from HP consumers/commercial, HP gamers, Lenovo, others The first official Copilot+ PC desktops Snapdragon X2 Plus joins X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme Intel Panther Lake has meaningful CPU and graphics performance gains, but predictable reliability issues AMD Ryzen AI 400 series is a minor bump Windows Paul was the first to report that Microsoft is refactoring it all with Rust A Microsoft distinguished engineer wrote about his desire to refactor all C/C++ code in the company with Rust by 2030 Some mistook this to mean "rewriting Windows with Rust,ˮ so he had to issue a clarification. But I never wrote that. Heads-up: That will happen, but this is really about Azure first and the core underlying code in Microsoftʼs most important platforms Microsoft released hardware-accelerated BitLocker in late 2025 and never told anyone. It requires the latest PC CPUs Copilot app update that adds text editing actions to Copilot Vision across channels Dev and Beta got first previews of AI agents on the Taskbar, starting with the Researcher agent, plus underlying Agent Launchers experience IDC says the global memory shortage (thanks, AI!) could screw up PC and smartphone growth this year AI ChatGPT now has an app store, but it has a ways to go Mozilla Firefox will have a "killswitchˮ for AI Our national nightmare will soon be over, LG will let users remove Copilot app from their smart TVs Xbox and gaming First Xbox Game Pass releases of 2026 include Resident Evil Village and Star Wars Outlaws Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to Hisense smart TVs and to the latest Fire TV smart TVs GOG goes independent, will continue DRM-free push "Have a blastˮ and other FPS throwbacks from the 1990s Valve quietly killed the LCD Steam Deck model Tips and picks Tip of the week: Itʼs time to give Little AI a look App pick of the week: Bonjourr RunAs Radio this week: What AI can do for SysAdmins in 2026 with Cecilia Wiren Brown liquor pick of the week: The Singleton of Dufftown 12 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 audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: threatlocker.com/twit cachefly.com/twit

Why are code signing certificates suddenly getting shorter, pricier, and more restrictive? Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte expose the "cabal" rewriting the rules for everyone who builds software—and what it means for your security and your wallet. Code-signing certificate lifetimes shortened by two years. Sadly, ChatGPT is heading toward an advertising profit model. The Python Package Index is strengthening its security. BitLocker gets hardware acceleration, but not today. New York City's mayoral inauguration banned Raspberry Pi's. An astonishingly good British time travel series. A critical link between Vitamin D and Magnesium. A look inside the very bad MongoBleed vulnerability Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1059-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: meter.com/securitynow threatlocker.com/twit material.security bitwarden.com/twit

A look back at what Apple did, and did not deliver in 2025. What will Apple do in 2026? Could Apple benefit from Alan Dye, former design lead for Apple, leaving the company? And you can watch an upcoming NBA game, live, in the Vision Pro! 2025 will be remembered for what Apple didn't deliver. And Stay Out! It's hard to justify Tahoe icons. Wish List: A more flexible Apple display strategy. AppleVis announces winners of the 2025 Golden Apple Awards. Los Angeles Lakers games on Spectrum Front Row in Apple Immersive tip off January 9. Apple scores at the Critics Choice Awards with top wins for global hit feature "F1" and Best Comedy Series "The Studio". Pluribus season 2 isn't happening for a while, says Vince Gilligan: 'We're working on it'. Steve Jobs' Desk, Bow Ties, 8-Track tapes, and other personal ephemera featured in Apple 50th Anniversary auction Picks of the Week Shelly's Pick: PiccyBot Andy's Pick: Bounce Jason's Pick: LosslessCut Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Guest: Shelly Brisbin 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: material.security

Happy New Year! NVIDIA just spent $20 billion to hollow out an AI company for its brains, while Meta and Google scramble to scoop up fresh talent before AI gets "too weird to manage." Who's winning, who's left behind, and what do these backroom deals mean for the future of artificial intelligence? Andrej Karpathy admits programmers cannot keep pace with AI advances Economic uncertainty in AI despite massive stock market influence Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft drive AI productization for business and consumers OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini battle for consumer AI dominance Journalism struggles to keep up with AI realities and misinformation tools Concerns mount over AI energy, water, and environmental impact narratives Meta buys Manus, expands AI agent ambitions with Llama model OpenAI posts high-stress "Head of Preparedness" job worth $555K+ Training breakthroughs: DeepSeek's mHC and comparisons to Action Park U.S. lawmakers push broad, controversial internet censorship bills Age verification and bans spark state laws, VPN workaround explosion U.S. drone ban labeled protectionist as industry faces tech shortages FCC security initiatives falter; Cyber Trust Mark program scrapped Waymo robotaxis stall in blackouts, raising AV urban planning issues School cellphone bans expose kids' struggle with analog clocks MetroCard era ends in NYC as tap-to-pay takes over subway access RAM, VRAM, and GPU prices soar as AI and gaming squeeze supply CES preview: Samsung QD-OLED TV, Sony AFEELA car, gadget show hype Remembering Stewart Cheifet and Computer Chronicles' legacy Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Dan Patterson and Joey de Villa 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: zscaler.com/security canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT monarch.com with code TWIT Melissa.com/twit redis.io

This week, we're talking accounting... while not giving any financial advice. Then we talk QEMU and virtualization, the Linux Steam Survey, and the CachyOS server. Then, Torvalds isn't super happy with the SFC lawsuit, Linux is headed to space, and Phoenix attempts to resurrect the ashes of X Server. You can find the show notes at https://bit.ly/49qpcbN and happy new year! Host: Jonathan Bennett Co-Hosts: Ken McDonald 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. Sponsor: bitwarden.com/twit

On the first episode of Hands-On Tech for 2026, Mikah helps Andrew out with some recommendations to replace his home theater PC (HTPC) so that his family can watch old home movies easily! Send in your questions for Mikah to answer during the show to [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. Sponsor: NetSuite.com/HOT

Apple shook up its device family with new models this past year, but not all the changes were obvious. If you missed these pair of episodes, find out what actually made the 2025 Apple Watch and iPhone lineup different—and why picking the wrong one could mean missing out on must-have features (or overpaying for ones you'll never use). Host: Mikah Sargent 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.

Take a look back at some of our favorite interviews from the past year on Tech News Weekly! Eric Migicovsky, founder of the smartwatch company Pebble, joins Mikah to talk about exciting news with Pebble. Bloomberg antitrust reporter Leah Nylen returns to unpack the latest in the DOJ's case against Google. She explains the three proposed remedies—including a possible Chrome browser divestiture—and what testimony from tech competitors like DuckDuckGo, Perplexity, and OpenAI revealed about Google's dominance in search and AI. Leila Zia, Head of Research at the Wikimedia Foundation, outlines their new AI roadmap, which focuses on supporting Wikipedia's volunteer editors rather than replacing them. She details how AI will assist with moderation, multilingual knowledge expansion, and mentorship—all while upholding values of transparency and human agency. Scott Stein of CNET is staying busy as he joins the show to share his hands-on impressions of Nintendo's Switch 2 console, Mario Kart World, and its new features. And Consumer Reports' Derek Kravitz details Instacart's AI pricing practices. Host: Mikah Sargent 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

Our interviews with: Ray Kurzweil Alex Hanna Emily Bender Mike Masnick Pliny the Liberator Kevin Kelly Host: Leo Laporte 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