• Meta is ending its fact-checking program in favor of a 'community notes' system similar to X
• (30+) kottke.org: "oh shit new logo just dropped"
• Masnick: The Good, The Bad, And The Stupid In Meta's New Content Moderation Policies
• Social-Media Companies Decide Content Moderation Is Trending Down
• I watched the Nvidia keynote; can summarize -jj
• The Bitter Lesson
• Hank Green's Cripslock Test for AGI
• Public Domain Day 2025
• CES 2025
• New AI powered Samsung refrigerators will allow direct grocery ordering with Instacart
• Gemini is taking over Google TV - in a good way
• Google's AI Help Me Read feature
• Deepseek seems to be a big deal: Chinese model, cheaper to train
• Altman's latest gospel
• Choose your Silicon Valley Thinkbro
• Nicvember Post Mortum
• The Habermas Machine: AI mediating disagreements
• VPN Demand Surge in Florida after Adult Sites Age Restriction Kicks In

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.

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We heard you missed us. We're back.

Windows

• Microsoft declares 2025 the "year of the Windows 11 PC refresh."
• As likely as "year of the Linux desktop"
• The theory: Windows 10 EOL, AI PCs, lingering security fears from CrowdStrike
• The issue: Windows 10 has 63 usage share right now. At this point in time, Windows 7 had only 25 percent usage share (and was in second place, not first)
• Intel joins in on this fever dream but we've stopped listening
• More interesting: AMD is kicking ass and taking names. And we thought the existing chips were good (they are). Related to this, PC makers are embracing AMD like never before. Check out HP's workstations (including laptops)
• Microsoft is blocking the 24H2 update on PCs with Auto HDR enabled
• New Canary and Beta builds ring in the New Year
• Not that it matters, but Windows 11 almost had Vista Ultimate Extras-like dynamic wallpapers
• Dell kills XPS and all its other PC brands because Dell is stupid and doesn't know what it had

Arm & PCs

• Qualcomm defeated Arm Holdings in licensing dispute court case. And, yes, it won big time, contrary to Arm's nonsense
• Qualcomm announces an even lower-end Snapdragon X chip for $600 PCs, so ASUS announces an $1100 laptop that uses it
• Snapdragon Dev Kit update
• Part 2 of Paul's history of Windows on Arm is up
• New Arm PCs announced, including desktops. Ahead of CES, Geekom jumped the gun and said it was coming out with a Snapdragon X-based NUC. Lenovo has a NUC/SFF
• NVIDIA and MediaTek confirm partnership on Arm chips for PCs

Microsoft 365

• First, GitHub Copilot, but now Microsoft 365 Copilot will allegedly stop using OpenAI exclusively
• Microsoft reveals (confirms) it will spend $80 billion on AI infrastructure in FY 2025 as it suckles up to Trump like the rest of the tech industry
• Microsoft and OpenAI allegedly tied AGI milestone to profits, not intelligence

Xbox & Gaming

• Microsoft discusses a console-like experience for Windows handheld gaming. Tied to that, a new generation of handheld gaming PCs is on the way
• Xbox Game Pass says Happy New Year with a full slate of Activision Blizzard titles. Just kidding
• NVIDIA announces new graphics cards for PCs
• No one wants this, but Xbox is coming to LG smart TVs
• Xbox Rewards shuffles the deck chairs, hopes no one notices it's worse now

Tips & Picks

• Tip of the week: Spend a little, upgrade to Windows 11
• App pick of the week: Microsoft PowerToys
• RunAs Radio this week: Least Privilege in 2025 with Bailey Bercik
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

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Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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• The consequences of Internet content restriction.
• The measured risks of 3rd-party browser extensions.
• The consequences of SonicWall's unpatched 9.8 firewall severity.
• The incredible number of still-unencrypted email servers.
• SonicWall vulnerability patching
• Shadowserver Foundation & eMail Encryption
• Salt Typhoon Evicted
• HIPAA gets a long-needed cybersecurity upgrade.
• The EU standardizes on USB-C for power charging. What?
• Believe it or not, a CATCHA you solve by playing DOOM.
• And... what I learned from three weeks of study of AI

Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1007-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

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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.

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The MacBreak Weekly crew celebrates the 25th anniversary of Mac OS X, discusses Apple's $95 million settlement over Siri privacy concerns, and shares their thoughts on new gaming capabilities coming to the Vision Pro headset. The hosts also debate the future of Google search in light of the US government's antitrust case and touch on the possibility of non-invasive glucose monitoring coming to the Apple Watch.

• Release of iOS and iPadOS 16.3.1 with important bug fixes and security updates
• 25th anniversary of Mac OS X and its importance in providing a modern, Unix-based foundation that became the basis for Apple's other operating systems
• Apple's $95 million settlement over Siri privacy concerns related to accidental recordings, while maintaining that user data was never sold or used for marketing
• Speculation on why Apple is unlikely to create its own search engine, particularly due to its lucrative deal with Google and the economic risks involved
• Concerns over Apple's AI-generated news summaries sometimes being wildly inaccurate, prompting calls for the company to suspend the feature until it can be improved
• Expansion of Apple Fitness+ with new workouts and integration with the Strava workout tracking platform
• The gang discusses the ethical implications of Apple potentially securing exclusive rights to non-invasive blood glucose monitoring on the Apple Watch
• Nvidia announcing upcoming support for its GeForce Now game streaming service on the Vision Pro headset, plus the ability to use the device for capturing movement to train AI for robotics
• 'Wicked' director Jon M. Chu used Apple Vision Pro during the film's post-production process

Picks of the Week:
• Leo: Ghostty - a macOS terminal with metal integration
• Jason: Govee Christmas Lights 2, programmable LED lights for festive decoration
• Alex: iPhone Cinematic mode, which allows for impressive video capture and post-production focus adjustments
• Andy: Anker's new 140W 4-port charger, offering fast charging capabilities for multiple devices simultaneously

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell

Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly.

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Touching the Sun, Fake Spotify Artists, Banished Words

• AI Needs So Much Power, It's Making Yours Worse
• How many billions Big Tech spent on AI data centers in 2024
• NASA Spacecraft 'Touches Sun' In Defining Moment For Humankind
• Elon Musk Calls Out NASA's Moon Ambitions: 'We're Going Straight to Mars'
• Elon Musk and the right's war on Wikipedia
• Trump Asks Supreme Court to Pause Law Threatening TikTok Ban
• US Treasury says Chinese hackers stole documents in 'major incident'
• Judge blocks parts of California bid to protect kids from social media
• Finland probes Russian shadow fleet oil tanker after cable-cutting incident
• US appeals court blocks Biden administration effort to restore net-neutrality rules
• The Ghosts in the Machine (fake spotify artists)
• Massive VW Data Leak Exposed 800,000 EV Owners' Movements, From Homes To Brothels
• Banished Words | Lake Superior State University 2025
• Public Domain Day 2025
• Happy Birthday, Bitcoin! The top cryptocurrency is old enough to drive
• End of the lines? QR-style codes could replace barcodes 'within two years'

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Richard Campbell, Anthony Ha, and Stacey Higginbotham

Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

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TWiT wishes all listeners and viewers a Happy New Year and peaceful 2025!

• Padre's CES 2024 haul
• Cory Doctorow's infamous ensh*ttification term
• Tesla teases a robotaxi
• Last in-studio audience for TWiT
• Padre on the AI priest
• Google Search gets worse
• Christina Warren's Rabbit R1
• Snowflake and the AT&T breach
• Crowdstrike's big outag
• Last in-studio episode before moving out
• Salt Hank shows off his new cookbook
• TWiT's 1000th episode brings back old friends
• The State of X/Twitter under Elon
• Parenting with TWiT daddies
• Tech billionaires affecting Trump's transition team

Host: Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

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• Jeff's op-ed proposing that Bell Labs be turned into a Museum and School of the Internet
• Paris reveals her passion for pruning trees in NY
• Molly White's first appearance, stupid Wikipedia edit wars
• Ed Zitron's first appearance, elon's shady non-profits
• NYC apartment with a podcast studio
• What are cow magnets?
• Paris and Cathy, tab hoarders
• Paris digs into the source of the human cells used in a robotics experiment
• Craig stops by to talk about pancakes and his philanthopy
• Leo's audition for Megalopolis
• AI Genereated podcast of Paris' stories
• Paris getting her license to prune trees in NY

Host: Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to This Week in Google at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

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Google Pixel 5, Amazon One, AppleTV+

• Google's Launch Night in was a snooze
• Amazon Sidewalk will join your neighborhood together - or invade your privacy
• Amazon wants your palm print. Will you give it to them?
• James Bond delayed to 2021: Movie theaters are dying
• Subway sandwiches are not made with bread in Ireland, and their chicken is less than 50% chicken, but Popeye's is the best
• Apple TV+ is about to lose a whole lot of subscribers - what should we watch?
• How soap operas are filming during the pandemic
• Prime day is October 13th - will you shop?
• Libraries are being squeezed by publishers over ebooks and audiobooks
• Google TV is good, but Google seems to have lost interest like they lose interest in everything
• MIxer screws Ninja over; Ninja makes bank
• Sonos sues Google for multi-room audio patents
• Facebook merges Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook logins
• US judge saves TikTok; Fleetwood Mac rejoices
• The Social Dilemma is Reefer Madness for 2020
• If you pay ransomware, the Treasury Department will come after you
• H1-B visas cut off; tech giants cry out

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Alex Wilhelm, Iain Thomson, and Simone de Rochefort

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

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