Engadget News + Next

Latest Episodes:

NASA finally has a leader, but its future is no more certain Dec 30, 2025

Show notes

-Considering the caliber of President Trump's other appointees, Jared Isaacman is probably the best candidate for the job. Outside of being a successful entrepreneur, he has flown fighter jets and been to space twice as part of the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn private missions.

-Michał Kiciński, co-founder of CD Projekt, has acquired total ownership of the DRM-free video game storefront GOG. The digital video game platform was started by CD Projekt in 2008 with a stated mission to preserve "Good Old Games" (hence the GOG acronym).

-Ubisoft had to shut down Rainbow Six Siege's servers and roll back transactions, a situation that came from a widespread breach that left various players with billions of in-game credits, ultra-rare skins of weapons, and banned accounts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI is hiring a new Head of Preparedness Dec 29, 2025

Show notes

CEO Sam Altman posted about the role on X, saying the models 'are starting to present some real challenges.'

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple escalates its appeal of a $2 billion fine, Ubisoft is rolling back Rainbow Six Siege servers, and Samsung plans to integrate Google Photos into its TVs Dec 29, 2025

Show notes

-Apple has requested to appeal to the UK's Court of Appeal, which would escalate the case beyond the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The latest appeal attempt follows an October decision from the CAT, where the court found that Apple engaged in anticompetitive practices by exploiting its dominant market position with the App Store to charge higher fees.

-Ubisoft has shut down Rainbow Six Siege's servers and is in the process of rolling back the fallout of a widespread breach that left various players with billions of in-game credits, ultra-rare skins of weapons, and banned accounts. As of Sunday afternoon, the status page on Rainbow Six Siege's website still shows "unplanned outage" on all servers across PC, PlayStation and Xbox.

-The aim is for Google Photos to work seamlessly with Vision AI Companion, Samsung's souped-up version of Bixby. This would help to make user photos part of the day-to-day TV experience, with photos appearing while navigating the TV's OS during "contextual and convenient moments."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 4 best budget laptops for 2026 Dec 26, 2025

Show notes

Get a great machine for cheap with our top-rated picks for budget laptops all costing $1,000 or less.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US bans new foreign-made drones and components Dec 24, 2025

Show notes

Previously sold drones will not be affected.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Foldable phone makers have solved every issue except one Dec 23, 2025

Show notes

The only thing holding people back now is price.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US bans new foreign-made drones and components, the pirate group Anna's Archive scraped Spotify in its entirety, and an NYT investigation found that Uber allows violent felons to drive Dec 23, 2025

Show notes

-The Federal Communications Commission has added foreign-made drones and their critical components to the agency’s “Covered List,” making them prohibited to import into the US. In a public notice published by the FCC, it said several national security agencies have determined that unmanned aircraft systems and their critical components produced in foreign countries pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.

-Anna's Archive, the open-source search engine for shadow libraries, says it scraped Spotify's entire library of music. The group acquired metadata for around 256 million tracks, with 86 million actual songs, and is just under 300TB in total size.

-An investigation by the New York Times into Uber's background checks and safety procedures for its drivers found a patchwork approach that opens the door for violent felons to drive for the ride-hailing platform. Uber outright rejects applicants convicted of murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and terrorism.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A San Francisco power outage left Waymo's self-driving cars stranded at intersections. Dec 22, 2025

Show notes

Waymo halted its autonomous ride-hailing services in the city in response.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Governor signed AI safety act, tweak how warm and enthusiastic ChatGPT's responses are, and Mark Zuckerberg's nonprofit cut ties with the immigration advocacy group he co-founded Dec 22, 2025

Show notes

-New York governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation on Friday aimed at holding large AI developers accountable for the safety of their models. The RAISE Act establishes rules for greater transparency, requiring these companies to publish information about their safety protocols and report any incidents within 72 hours of their occurrence.

-OpenAI revealed that users can adjust characteristics under new Warm, Enthusiastic, Header & Lists and Emoji options found in the Personalization settings. Between the four options, you can choose between more, less or default to fine-tune exactly how you want ChatGPT to sound in its responses.

-On Friday, Bloomberg reported on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) severing its ties with FWD.us. Zuckerberg's group provided no funding to the advocacy group for the first time this year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alexa+ can now answer your Ring doorbell and talk to people Dec 19, 2025

Show notes

But will it ask them to buy stuff?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected