Tech News Weekly (Audio)

Amazon makes a bid for TikTok in the US. What Amazon's new Alexa+ can and cannot do. Nintendo officially unveils the Switch 2 console. And OpenAI & Anthropic are taking on the education market.

• Abrar Al-Heet of CNET joins Mikah Sargent this week! Abrar talks about Amazon making a bid to purchase TikTok in the US as Bytedance scrambles to divest ownership of the social media app.


• Mikah talks about Amazon's Alexa+ and some of the features that the service has yet to include following its launch.


• Kyle Orland of Ars Technica joins the show to talk about Nintendo's new Switch 2 console and some of the positives and negatives of the newly unveiled console.


• And Mikah rounds things out with OpenAI and Anthropic's push into the education market with new features to support university students.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Abrar Al-Heeti

Guest: Kyle Orland

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Some alternatives to Teslas. A law in Utah makes app stores rather than companies responsible for age verification. 23andMe files for bankruptcy. And OpenAI is following in the footsteps of its rival, Anthropic.

• Emily Forlini of PCMag joins Mikah Sargent this week! Emily talks about some alternatives to Teslas that cover various price ranges.


• Mikah talks about a new law passed in Utah that pushes the responsibility of age verification from tech companies to app stores.


• Geoffrey Fowler of The Washington Post joins Mikah to talk about 23andMe filing for bankruptcy, why you should swiftly delete your DNA information from the company, and shares how you can delete that information.


• And OpenAI is following Anthropic in adopting the company's standard for connecting AI models to data.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Emily Forlini

Guest: Geoffrey Fowler

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Will iRobot's new Roomba's bring the company back to the forefront of robotic vacuums? What to know about Amazon's change of handling voice recordings through Alexa devices. Two new PebbleOS watches are available for pre-order! And the lowdown on the new Pixel 9a smartphone that Google recently announced.

• Jennifer Pattison Tuohy of The Verge joins Mikah Sargent this week! Jennifer talks about the new Roombas that iRobot has unveiled but is unimpressed by the lack of innovation in these new robotic vacuums.


• Do you have Alexa devices in your household? Be aware of some of the new changes Amazon is making to how Echo devices handle voice recordings.


• Two new Pebble watches are available for pre-order after Google open-sourced PebbleOS in January of this year!


• And friend of the network, Jason Howell, talks with Mikah about Google's newly announced Pixel 9a phone.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Guest: Jason Howell

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Does OpenAI have the capability for creative writing? Would you want to be coached in gaming through AI? What is Apple planning for its possible operating system redesign? And does AI have inconsistencies when providing the correct information to search queries?

• Amanda Silberling of TechCrunch joins Mikah Sargent this week. Amanda talks about OpenAI and Sam Altman's social media post about how OpenAI is good at creative writing.


• Mikah talks about Microsoft's plan to launch Xbox Copilot, an AI-powered gaming assistant that can offer tips, guides, and information about the games you are playing.


• Mark Gurman of Bloomberg stops by to talk about Apple's plans to dramatically overhaul the look of its operating systems with the next iterations of iOS, iPadOS, and Mac OS.


• And Mikah talks about a study from the Tao Center and how AI systems are frequently providing incorrect information and citations from various sources and news articles.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Amanda Silberling

Guest: Mark Gurman

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There was something in the air for sure as Apple released updates to the iPad and iPad Air, alongside the M4 MacBook Air and Mac Studio with the M4 Max and M4 Ultra chips. Some of the exciting and interesting devices shown at the Mobile World Congress 2025 event. The recent iOS 18.4 beta introduced AI-powered summaries in the App Store. And Prime Video is testing AI-powered dubbing for some of its video content.

• Dan Moren of SixColors joins Mikah Sargent to talk about the new devices announced throughout the week: the updated iPad and iPad Air, MacBook Air with the M4 chip, and the Mac Studio with the M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips.


• Patrick Holland of CNET stops by to share with Mikah some of the new and exciting devices that came out of the Mobile World Congress 2025 event, alongside the more interesting concepts and gadgets from the event.


• Mikah talks about the the latest iOS 18.4 beta that is out now and how it has introduced AI-powered review summaries in the App Store.


• And continuning the trend of AI-powered features, Amazon's Prime Video is testing AI-powered dubbing for some of its select videos in English and Spanish.

Host: Mikah Sargent

Guests: Dan Moren and Patrick Holland

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