This Week in Tech (Audio)

AI in Hollywood, Alphabet antitrust lawsuit, Amazon earnings, Exorcist VR

• An Internet Veteran's Guide to Not Being Scared of Technology.
• 'Barbie' joins $1 billion club, breaks another record for female directors.
• Movie extras worry they'll be replaced by AI. Hollywood is already doing body scans.
• Hollywood's Pain Is YouTube's Advertising Gain.
• Meta starts blocking news in Canada over law on paying publishers.
• Amazon (AMZN) Q2 earnings report 2023.
• Alphabet's Google (GOOGL) to Face Slimmed-Down Antitrust Lawsuit Over Search.
• Brave Search Breaks Free Of Bing With Standalone Image Index.
• Kagi Search - A Premium Search Engine.
• Apple Services Salvage a Blah Quarter.
• Claimed superconductor LK-99 is an online sensation — but replication efforts fall short.
• NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence.
• Fortnite's adding a museum about the Holocaust.
• Exclusive: Inside Meta's Horizon Worlds reboot.
• The Exorcist: Legion VR on Oculus Quest 2.
• Post Malone Buys Lord Of The Rings Card Worth Over $2 Million.
• Family of Henrietta Lacks settles lawsuit over use of immortal cell line.
• U.S. ban on popular lightbulb goes into effect Aug. 1.
• Is that a TV in your pocket? Rokid is making a TV dongle for its AR glasses.

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Georgia Dow, Mike Masnick, and Janko Roettgers

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Blind app, Starlink dominance, NSA surveillance, NASA+

• Elon Musk's New Flashing X Sign Is Infuriating Neighbors: 'It's Hard to Describe How Bright It Is.'
• Is anyone still using Threads?
• With Starlink, Elon Musk's Satellite Dominance Is Raising Global Alarms.
• Lindsey Graham and Elizabeth Warren: We Must Regulate Big Tech.
• Licensing Social Media Companies Makes No Sense.
• Turn Every Page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb.
• The NSA Is Lobbying Congress to Save a Phone Surveillance 'Loophole'.
• Facebook passed 3 billion users for the first time.
• NASA+ is the space agency's very own streaming platform.
• Uber's Fatal Self-Driving Car Crash Saga Ends With the Operator Avoiding Prison.
• Tesla's secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints.
• Android will now warn about unknown Bluetooth trackers, like AirTag, traveling with you.
• YouTube Q2 Ad Sales Up 4.4%, Alphabet Handily Tops Earnings Estimates.
• Microsoft earnings: FY23 Q4.
• FTC readies lawsuit that could break up Amazon.
• How Blind Became the App Silicon Valley Bosses Love to Hate.

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Paris Martineau, Louis Maresca, and Shoshana Weissmann

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Twitter to X, FedNow, Meta's LLaMA 2, riding in a Waymo, Kevin Mitnick

• Elon Musk says Twitter to change logo, adieu to 'all the birds'. 
• Threads use is down to about 6 minutes a day. 
•  Fed launches long-awaited instant payments service, modernizing system. 
•  Microsoft-Activision $69B Deal Poised to Close Later Than Planned. 
•  Pluralistic: Why they're smearing Lina Khan (14 July 2023). 
•  Spain antitrust watchdog fines Amazon, Apple $218 million. 
•  Apple can delay App Store changes to file Supreme Court plea. 
•  Meta and Microsoft Introduce the Next Generation of Llama. 
•  Self driving in SF with Alex. 
•  G/O media will make more AI-generated stories despite critics. 
•  The Biden administration announces its new smart home cybersecurity label. 
•  Massachusetts Prepares To Ban The Collection And Abuse Of Cell Phone Location Data. 
•  Senate bill crafted with DEA targets end-to-end encryption, requires online companies to report drug activity. 
•  The Screen Savers - Kevin Mitnick Is Free. 

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Alex Kantrowitz and Ranjan Roy

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Microsoft Activision victory, Amazon Prime Day, writer's strike, Taylor Swift

• FTC loses appeals court bid to temporarily block Microsoft-Activision deal.
• Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard.
• Amazon Prime Day Drives Online Sales Up 6.1%, Lags Estimate.
• Here's what shoppers bought on Amazon Prime Day 2023.
• Amazon sues EU in first US challenge to Digital Services Act.
• Elon Musk says Twitter cash flow is still negative amid 50% drop in ad revenue.
• Congressional Report Finds Meta and Tax Prep Companies "Recklessly" Shared Taxpayers' Data.
• Can AI solve the problems with social media?
• Kathy Baxter: Here's what could go wrong if we don't take AI safety seriously.
• Sarah Silverman is suing OpenAI and Meta for copyright infringement.
• The shady world of Brave selling copyrighted data for AI training.
• Hollywood studios proposed AI contract that would give them likeness rights 'for the rest of eternity'.
• Fran Drescher Slams Bob Iger's 'Repugnant' and 'Tone Deaf' Strike Comments: If I Were Disney, 'I Would Lock Him Behind Doors'.
• Oppenheimer actors walk out of UK premiere as Hollywood stars join writer strike.
• How is TikTok doing right now?
• That dangerous TikTok trend on the Today Show? It was fake.
• First Amendment org challenges restrictions on TikTok at Texas universities.
• Taylor Swift's Re-Recorded 'Speak Now' Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 With 2023's Biggest Week.

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Dan Patterson, Daniel Rubino, and Abrar Al-Heeti

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Threads by Meta, TweetDeck returns, Causal AI, thumbs-up emoji lawsuit

•  What to know about Threads. 
•  Twitter is threatening to sue Meta over Threads. 
•  Elon Musk Is Making Mark Zuckerberg Seem Cool Again. 
•  The good version of TweetDeck is back, but for how long? 
•  Why We Don't Recommend Ring Cameras. 
•  Your School's Next Security Guard May Be an AI-Enabled Robot. 
•  Robotaxi haters in San Francisco are disabling the AVs with traffic cones. 
•  Gizmodo used AI to write a Star Wars story. It was filled with errors. 
•  The next artificial intelligence frontier: Causal AI. 
•  A 25-Year-Old Bet about Consciousness Has Finally Been Settled. 
•  Bay Area tech company Evernote lays off most staff, relocating to Europe. 
•  Farmer owes $82,000 in a contract dispute over the use of a 'thumbs-up' emoji, judge says. 
•  Here's the deal with the giant sphere causing a buzz in Las Vegas. 
•  Pokémon Sleep gameplay and pre-registration for Android revealed. 

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Ben Parr, Reed Albergotti, and Seth Weintraub

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Twitter self-DDoS, Flipper, Ethernet 50 years old, SCOTUS cyberstalking 

• Twitter bug causes self-DDOS tied to Elon Musk's emergency blocks and rate limits
• Apple is a $3 trillion company — again.
• The Reddit app-pocalyse is here: Apollo, Sync, and BaconReader go dark.
• Twitch Star xQc Signs $100 Million Deal With Kick, a Rival Platform.
• Flipper hacking device on track to make $80M worth of sales.
• Padre talks all about the Vatican.
• An update on Canada's Bill C-18 and our Search and News products.
• Google accused of ripping off advertisers with video ads no one saw. Now, the expert view.
• YouTube tests restricting ad blocker users to 3 video views.
• Twitch adds new paid chat feature to rival YouTube's Super Chat.
• David Bohrman Dead: Former CNN Executive Was 69.
• Want to feel old? Ethernet just celebrated its 50th birthday.
• UK regulator may refer Adobe's $20 billion Figma deal to deeper probe.
• Supreme Court Rebuffs Apple in Billion-Dollar Caltech Patent Case.
• The FTC wants to put a ban on fake reviews.
• Supreme Court guts protections for cyberstalking victims.
• Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit Accusing Google of Stealing Millions of Song Lyrics.
• SiriusXM to Shut Down Stitcher Podcast App.
• Pokémon Go Developer Lays Off 230 Employees, Closes LA Studio.
• Goldman Is Looking for a Way Out of Its Partnership With Apple.
• Scoop: TSA to expand facial recognition program to over 400 airports.
• Prigozhin-controlled Russian media group shuts after mutiny.
• UT Mourns Lithium-Ion Battery Inventor and Nobel Prize Recipient John Goodenough.

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ, Iain Thomson, and Brianna Wu

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Amazon vs Walmart, Prime dark patterns, Canadian link tax, Zuck Musk cage match

• A new book reveals how Amazon used 'shady' strategies at its bookstores to drive up Prime subscriptions. 
•  Trader Oooh's. 
•  FTC Sues Amazon Over 'Manipulative' Tactics Used to Enroll Millions in Prime. 
•  Deceptive Patterns: Hall of Shame. 
•  Sony's PlayStation chief privately said Microsoft's Activision deal wasn't about Xbox exclusives. 
•  Amazon will hold Prime Day 2023 on July 11-12, adding invite-only deals and 'Buy with Prime' sites. 
•  TikTok prepares 'Project S' plan to break into online shopping. 
•  The Curious Case of Chris Evans's Sweater in "Knives Out". 
•  NFL finalizes new 11-year media rights deal, Amazon gets exclusive Thursday Night rights. 
•  Gannett sues Google over its alleged ad tech monopoly. 
•  As Canada Passes Corrupt Link Tax, Meta Says No More News Links In Canada. 
•  Winner Sells All: Amazon, Walmart, and the Battle for Our Wallets by Jason Del Rey. 
•  Disney Adds Facial Recognition to Parks. 
•  Tom Morello, Zack de la Rocha Boycott Venues Using Face-scanning Tech. 
•  Hacker responsible for 2020 Twitter breach sentenced to prison. 
•  Google's YouTube Is Testing an Online-Games Offering. 
•  Meta Will Launch Twitter Competitor In Mid-July: Report. 
•  Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg's fight started before Meta's Twitter rival. 
•  "Stunning"—Midjourney update wows AI artists with camera-like feature.

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Denise Howell, Alex Lindsay, and Jason Del Rey

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Reddit CEO, Diablo 4, Esports struggle, "Hey Disney!", Twitter eviction

•  Twitter is being evicted from its Boulder office over unpaid rent. 
• Twitter stiffs Google. 
•  Will Elon Lose Control of Twitter? 
•  Reddit Aims for IPO in Second Half as Market's Gears Quietly Turn. 
•  One of Reddit's largest communities is protesting changes to the platform by posting only photos of John Oliver 'looking sexy'. 
•  Google Domains is yet another useful service to get the ax in favor of "focus". 
•  TIKTOK'S ENSHITTIFICATION. 
•  WHIPPED. 
•  'The Flash' Disappoints With $55 Million Debut, Pixar's 'Elemental' Flops With $29.5 Million in Battle of Box Office Lightweights. 
•  Google's Ads Violate Antitrust Laws, E.U. Says. 
•  The streamer who spent $1M on an esports team says esports is a terrible business: 'Everyone is losing a lot of money' 
•  Nintendo shuts down Smash World Tour 'without any warning'. 
•  Whoopi Goldberg is Still Upset About Diablo 4, Calls for Blizzard's Response. 
•  Baldur's Gate 3. 
•  Apple's Secret Weapon to Getting PC Games on Mac. 
•  FCC chair to investigate exactly how much everyone hates data caps. 
•  Meta Lowers Age Requirement for Quest VR Headsets to Allow Preteens. 
•  How many Star Wars movies are there? In order of chronology, release date and 'machete.' 
•  Amazon's 'Hey Disney!' voice assistant is now available. 
• Meta scientist Yann LeCun says AI won't destroy jobs forever. 
•  Comcast complains to FCC that listing all of its monthly fees is too hard. 
•  RowdySkeleton.com
•  FTC reportedly seeks an injunction to stop Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal. 

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Ashley Esqueda and Alex Wilhelm

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Apple Vision Pro, Reddit API fallout, Tesla Autopilot casualties, UFOs

• What are the guests driving?
• Apple's Vision Pro Isn't the Future.
• Reddit's users and moderators are revolting against its CEO.
• Lemmy.world
• 17 fatalities, 736 crashes: The shocking toll of Tesla's Autopilot.
• Nicole and Sam ride around Austin in a Cruise Robotaxi. \
• Cruise faces backlash after self-driving car appears to block crews responding to SF's Mission District shooting.
• Mercedes first to sell vehicles in California with hands-free, eyes-off automated driving.
• FORD EV CUSTOMERS TO GAIN ACCESS TO 12,000 TESLA SUPERCHARGERS; COMPANY TO ADD NORTH AMERICAN CHARGING STANDARD PORT IN FUTURE EVS.
• I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly, I feel duped.
• Does the U.S. Government Want You to Believe in U.F.O.s?
• US sues Coinbase as crypto crackdown widens.
• A decade on, Edward Snowden remains in Russia, though U.S. laws have changed.

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Nicole Wakelin, Roberto Baldwin, and Sam Abuelsamid

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WWDC preview, AI scientist statement, virtual kidnapping

•  Microsoft Build 2023 - Panos Panay Keynote. 
•  Why AI Scientists Are Freaking Us Out. 
•  AI Makes Mistakes But Could It Destroy Us? 
•  A Chatbot Was Designed to Help Prevent Eating Disorders. Then It Gave Dieting Tips. 
•  Everything Apple Plans to Show at WWDC: XR Headset, iOS 17 and More. 
•  Meta announces its Quest 3 VR headset, which will cost $499.99. 
•  Millions of PC motherboards were sold with a firmware backdoor. 
•  Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks by Scott J. Shapiro. 
•  Is cybersecurity an unsolvable problem? 
•  Deceptive.design: What are deceptive patterns? 
•  How I Nearly Fell for a Frightening 'Virtual Kidnapping' Scam. 
•  Quick Guide to Virtual Kidnapping. 
•  A developer says Reddit could charge him $20 million a year to keep his app working. 
•  Amazon to pay more than $30 million to settle FTC privacy complaints over Alexa and Ring. 
•  Intel to add AI engine to all 14th-gen Meteor Lake SoCs. 
•  Amazon is discontinuing Alexa's celebrity voices, even if you paid for them. 
•  Will There Be Any Successors to 'Succession'? 

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Christina Warren, Dan Gillmor, and Larry Magid

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