Abrar Al-Heeti of CNET joins Mikah Sargent on the show this week! Do Americans trust driverless vehicles? Safety tools for Social Media are failing kids. Sony is ceasing the production of physical games in January 2028. And a Supreme Court ruling guts the government's use of geofence warrants.

• A new Pew Research survey finds only 5% of U.S. adults have ridden in a driverless car, and 71% say they wouldn't feel comfortable riding in one in the first place.
• An audit conducted by the Cybersafety Research Center showcases that, within Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, the research center found 51 of 86 advertised child-safety features were either broken, buried, or missing.
• Sony announced it will stop making physical discs for new PlayStation games starting in January 2028.
• And in Chatrie v. United States, which reached the Supreme Court, the Court ruled 6-3 that police need a warrant to obtain Google location-history data, further extending Fourth Amendment protections for Americans.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Abrar Al-Heeti

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Apple is suing OpenAI for allegedly stealing trade secrets, sparking a heated debate about AI, hardware ambitions, and Silicon Valley's shifting alliances. Leo, Wesley, Lou, and Patrick tackle what Apple's legal gambit could mean for OpenAI's IPO and the future of AI development.

• Apple Sues OpenAI for Trade Secret Theft in Blockbuster Case
• Apple's OpenAI lawsuit highlights broader tensions
• Microsoft says the world is changing faster than it can keep up as it guts commercial, Xbox teams
• Claude Fable 5 promotional access
• Meta says four states want $1.4 trillion in penalties at August youth-safety trial
• Meta Removes A.I. Feature on Instagram After Days of Backlash
• Meta tests 'super sensing' AI glasses that can capture every moment
• Meta Ordered by E.U. to Alter 'Addictive Design' of Instagram and Facebook
• The backlash against Sony ditching PlayStation discs is not slowing down
• Colibrì proof-of-concept gains frontier-level 1.5-TB AI model — novel approach runs on only 25GB of RAM and shows promise for local AI setups
• Waymo called the cops on teen riders, raising privacy concerns
• Waymo says some of its robotaxis ran out of power during San Francisco's July 4 gridlock and had to be towed
• Zombie 'who owns Unix?' lawsuit comes alive again
• Copy That Floppy! - Copy That Floppy!

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Wesley Faulkner, Louis Maresca, and Patrick Beja

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Windows 10's Extended Security Update program quietly gets extended for another year for consumers. Microsoft reportedly kills Surface Go products & is now selling 8 GB Surface Pro & Laptop models. And Xbox Series X & S prices are going to go up again.

Windows

• Microsoft quietly extends the Windows 10 Extended Security Update program one year to October 2027 for consumers

Windows Insider

• Windows Update is transitioning to the new Windows Insider experience by default
• Plus, five new builds across Beta, Experimental, Beta (26H1), Experimental (26H1), and Experimental (Future Platforms) — new Taskbar size setting is the much-needed new feature

Hardware

• Apple raises prices on Macs, iPads, and more, easing pressure on PC makers
• Microsoft quietly begins selling 8 GB Surface Pro/Laptop models
• Microsoft reportedly kills Surface Go products right when we need them the most
• The ASUS Zenbook A16 is nearly perfect, but it's unclear what you get with an X2 Elite Extreme chip

AI

• HP partners with OpenAI for its agentic makeover
• Anthropic seizes on the "good enough" AI movement with Sonnet 5
• Proton Lumo 2.0 is here
• Gemini personalized image creator is available for free in the US
• Notion blames agentic AI for it killing Notion Mail

Xbox and Gaming
The 2026 Doom and Gloom Watch

• Xbox Series X|S prices to go up again, by $150, on August 1 - and the 2 TB X is going away
• Undead Labs and Arkane Lyon possible victims of pending closures
• Latest rumor: Microsoft to layoff 2.5 percent of workforce next week - that's 5,500 people, less than expected, but that's because of the earlier voluntary buyouts, which apparently met internal expectations
• Minecraft Bedrock edition gets closed captions
• Sony will stop selling PS physical media in 2028

Tips and Picks

• Tip of the week: Help or get out of the way
• People who just complain aren't solving problems, they're just making noise and distracting us from the real problems.

App Pick of the Week: Snapdragon Control Panel

• If you have a Windows 11 on Arm PC on Snapdragon X or X2, you need this app to make games run as well as possible.
• Plus - Settings > System > Display > Graphics for Auto SR and other settings and whatever is in each game

RunAs Radio this week: AI-Accelerated Supply Chain Attacks with Mackenzie Duncan

Brown liquor pick of the week: Rupert's Exceptional Canadian Whisky

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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Think your AI assistant is working perfectly? This episode reveals why most AI breakdowns go completely unnoticed and how these "invisible failures" could be skewing the results we rely on.

• Fable is Back!
• Alex Stamos: Anthropic is saying "Amazon's inability to appropriately communicate severity threw our industry into chaos".
• China's Meituan says its new AI model was trained on domestic chips
• Chinese A.I. Models Gain Ground on Anthropic and OpenAI
• Claude Science is Anthropic's newest flagship product
• Previewing GPT-5.6 Sol: a next-generation model
• The New York Times Amends Lawsuit Against OpenAI and Microsoft
• OpenAI and Broadcom Unveil Custom A.I. Chip Design
• Neon Buys 'Artificial,' a Film About OpenAI, After Amazon Dropped It
• How AI helped the FBI investigate the White House Correspondents' Dinner attack
• Anthropic says Alibaba illicitly extracted Claude AI model capabilities
• Lost books by ancient philosophers recovered from 'unreadable' scrolls
• Ford had to hire back former engineers to fix mistakes made by its automated systems
• People have stopped trusting news but not newsrooms
• SpaceX Showed Investors Prototype of Elon Musk's New AI Device
• * Gemini Spark, Google's agentic assistant, is now available on Mac
• Jefferies Warns Memory Prices Will Surge 50% in Q3 2026 and Another 40% in Q4, With No Relief Until 2028
• US supreme court rules geofence warrants require constitutional privacy protections
• Four in five under-16s in Australia using social media despite ban, study shows
• * Podcasting platform Riverside enters the newsletter publishing game
• The 'Father of the Internet' is finally retiring
• Political Bias in AI
• Om Malik, 1966-2026
• Marfa Public Radio Puts You to Sleep
• My post: California's squandered opportunity
• Palantir coat

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Mike Elgan

Guest: Chris Potts

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HTG listener Jeremy Mills built an exceptional home theater in his basement, mostly with his own two hands and help from his wife and kids. That kept the budget down without sacrificing quality. Jeremy joins Scott Wilkinson to share his process and the outstanding final result.

Host: Scott Wilkinson

Guest: Jeremy Mills

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Since 1958, the United States has been part of the spaceflight adventure, and since the mid-1960s has led in just about any category that counts. In this episode, we discuss the progression of American space efforts, review which flights launched or landed on July 4, and relive some of our very favorite US space missions of all time!

"Headlines:
• NASA's Swift Boost Mission Aims to Rescue Swift Space Telescope
• Astronomer Avi Loeb Tapped to Chair White House UAP Panel
• Celebrating 30 Years of the Film Independence Day

Main Topic: 250 Years of America in Space
• American Flags Across the Solar System
• Origins of the Space Age: Operation Paperclip and the V2 Legacy
• Explorer 1 and Early U.S. Satellite Achievements
• Mariner and Viking Missions: Mars Exploration Milestones
• Key American Firsts in Human Spaceflight
• Apollo Landings and Moonwalk Milestones
• Skylab and Its Legacy as America's First Space Station
• The Rise of Reusable Rockets: Space Shuttle, Blue Origin, and SpaceX
• Private Spaceflight and Tourism: From Dennis Tito to Jared Isaacman
• Curiosity, Pathfinder, and Other Mars Rovers as Iconic U.S. Achievements
• Reflections on Favorite Missions and the Future of U.S. Space Leadership"

Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik

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A landmark Supreme Court decision shakes up digital privacy, setting new limits on police surveillance and potentially redefining personal data rights in the age of AI and location tracking. Plus, Chinese AI models are rapidly gaining ground while American companies battle lawsuits, regulatory crackdowns, and soaring chip shortages. The global race for AI dominance is wide open!

• US Supreme Court rules geofence warrants require constitutional protections
• Musk's X poses "serious risk to Americans' privacy," advocates warn FTC
• The World Cup added $1 billion in security systems. What happens after the games end?
• U.S. Lifts Restrictions on Anthropic's Most Powerful A.I. Models
• OpenAI floats giving Trump administration 5 percent cut of AI boom
• Cloudflare to block cynical search-and-scrape bots from ad-supported web pages
• Companies Are Throttling Employees' AI Use Because It's Too Expensive
• Chinese A.I. Models Gain Ground on Anthropic and OpenAI
• Swedish court orders Google to pay $1.5 billion to Klarna in antitrust damages
• Google loses final appeal over $4.7 billion EU Android antitrust fine
• Google warns EU's plans to weaken its monopoly could expose user data
• Google's AI buildout drove 37% increase in electricity use in 2025
• America Is Having MacBook Sticker Shock
• Apple may struggle to get clearance for Chinese RAM, even for Chinese iPhones
• BYD Sells the Most Battery Electric Cars Again
• NASA mission to rescue the falling Swift observatory has launched
• NASA inspector general suggests Boeing's Starliner will now be a decade late
• South Korea to spend $1T on more memory chip production and humanoid robots
• Spotify deletes streams of chart-topping song after suspicious Kalshi bets
• Prediction Markets Let You Bet on Whether a Wildfire Will Burn Down Your Town

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Jason Hiner, Lisa Schmeiser, and Owen JJ Stone

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The aftermath of Apple's price hikes. Apple is taking its fight against Epic to the Supreme Court. More AI features coming to Apple's Creature Studio. And Apple is showing confidence in its upcoming iPhone Fold, expecting to sell 10 million units!

• America is having MacBook sticker shock.
• MacBook price hikes expected to contribute to 13.6% drop in global laptop shipments.
• Apple weighs buying RAM from two blacklisted Chinese suppliers to curb rising costs.
• Broadcom and Apple extend custom silicon pact to 2031.
• iPhone 18 Pro leaks: Qualcomm or Apple C2 model, A20 details, camera upgrades.
• Apple takes Epic fight over app store fees to the Supreme Court.
• Tim Cook's government liaison position comes into focus before stepping down as Apple CEO.
• Apple in Russia's crosshairs again, facing $52M fine for not installing state-required apps.
• If you wanted more AI in Apple's Creator Studio, Tuesday's update gives it to you.
• Safari's new MCP server lets coding agents inspect and debug websites.
• Siri AI can pull info from third-party apps in the latest developer beta.
• Apple to launch 5 new iPhone models to gain market share amid memory crunch.
• Confident Apple increases its iPhone Fold orders to 10 million.
• Apple TV teases major new sci-fi series: Neuromancer.
• iPhone 17 Pro Max buried in America's 250th anniversary time capsule: to be opened in 2276.

Picks of the Week

• Glenn's Pick: Turtles!
• Jason's Pick: Default Folder X
• Andy's Pick: Readest

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell

Guest: Glenn Fleishman

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