This Week in Tech 1033

In this jam-packed episode celebrating Towel Day, the TWiT crew dives into Apple's terrible week with Trump's tariff threats, Google and Microsoft's latest AI advances, the death of CAPTCHAs, and some wild new tech including laser-powered smart homes and sock-picking robot vacuums.

• Trump's Phone Tariff Ultimatum - President threatens 25% tariffs on iPhones and Samsung devices unless manufacturing moves to the US, putting Apple in an impossible position between economics and politics
• The Sock-Stealing Robot Revolution - Jennifer tests a $2,600 Roborock vacuum with an arm that picks up socks and occasionally tries to grab cats
• Microsoft's AI Science Breakthrough - Microsoft Build showcases agentic AI platform that helped create new coolant liquids by analyzing scientific journals and generating novel molecular compounds
• Windows Goes Agentic - Microsoft announces MCP protocol integration into Windows, raising both excitement about AI capabilities and concerns about data security
• Gaming Industry Consolidation - FTC finally drops its challenge to Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition after three years of failed legal battles
• Meta's Monopoly Defense Strategy - Company argues that Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions were beneficial rather than anti-competitive, as antitrust trial concludes
• Google's Hyper-Realistic AI Videos - Veo 3 generates convincing fake videos that blur the line between reality and AI creation, raising concerns about misinformation
• Revenge Porn Legislation Concerns - New "Take It Down" Act passes with bipartisan support but raises censorship worries about its 48-hour removal requirements
• Smart Glasses Make a Comeback - Google announces Android XR partnerships with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, signaling the return of consumer AR eyewear
• The $6.5 Billion AI Hardware Gamble - OpenAI's record-breaking acquisition of Jony Ive's design firm sparks debate about whether AI needs dedicated hardware devices
• Amazon's Smart Speaker Surveillance - Investigation reveals how much personal data Echo devices collect and store, highlighting the privacy costs of convenient AI assistants
• The Death of CAPTCHAs - AI now solves visual puzzles better than humans, making traditional bot-detection methods obsolete and forcing a rethink of online security
• America Abandons the Penny - The US will stop minting pennies due to production costs exceeding face value, ending a century-old currency tradition
• Air Traffic Control Crisis Exposed - Newark Airport's radar failures reveal America's dangerously outdated aviation infrastructure held together by 1990s technology and hope
• Fortnite's App Store Victory - Epic Games successfully returns to iOS after Apple quickly capitulates under legal pressure, ending years of bitter disputes
• Brain-Computer Interface Competition - Valve's Gabe Newell announces Neuralink competitor, expanding the race to connect human brains directly to computers
• Infrared Contact Lenses Enable Night Vision - Researchers develop contacts that let wearers see heat signatures even with eyes closed, promising superhuman vision capabilities
• 23andMe's Genetic Data Gold Rush - Regeneron Pharmaceuticals acquires the DNA testing company for $256 million, raising questions about genetic privacy and pharmaceutical research
• Stolen Children Found Through DNA - Chinese adoptees discover through genetic testing that they weren't abandoned but stolen from families, reuniting loved ones separated by corrupt adoption systems
• Solar Power Surpasses Hydroelectric - Renewable energy milestone shows solar generation exceeding traditional hydro power in the US for the first time
• Laser-Powered Smart Home Reality - Jennifer successfully charges door locks and toothbrushes using ceiling-mounted laser power transmission, proving wireless electricity delivery works at small scales

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• Tech: Apple vs. Trump: Why a 25% Tariff Won't Bring iPhone Manufacturing to America
• Transcripts: This Week in Tech 1033 Transcript

Links

• It's Towel Day
• Trump Targets Samsung, Apple Phones With 25% Tariff Threat
• Idiocy or Jackassery, You Make the Call: Tripp Mickle on Whether Trump’s ‘Made in America’ iPhone Is a Fantasy
• Microsoft announces Microsoft Discovery, an agentic platform to accelerate scientific discovery and enterprise R&D efforts
• MCP will be built into Windows to make an 'agentic OS' but security will be a key concern • DEVCLASS
• FTC drops final challenge to Microsoft’s $69B Activision Blizzard deal
• Meta’s antitrust defense wraps with one big claim: WhatsApp and Instagram couldn’t be better
• Android XR is getting stylish partners in Warby Parker and Gentle Monster
• Google’s Veo 3 AI video generator is a slop monger’s dream
• CB Insights: OpenAI's acquisition of Jony Ive's io for $6.5B sets a new record for venture-backed acquisition by a private buyer
• Sam and Jony and skepticism – Six Colors
• MACHINE SOCIETY: Why the Jony Ive, OpenAI gadget sounds like a loser
• US Treasury to stop minting penny: How the math adds up- Fast Company
• Americans For Common Cents
• I tested a robot vacuum with an arm, and my dog may never forgive me
• I let lasers power my smart home — and I don’t want to go back
• The Newark airport crisis is about to become everyone’s problem
• Digg founder Kevin Rose offers to buy Pocket from Mozilla
• CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing) - pretix – behind the scenes - Behind the scenes of pretix, your friendly open source ticketing system from next door. Might contain traces of technology and business.
• Mike Elgan's column from October: Google, it’s time to kill CAPTCHAS
• Valve CEO Gabe Newell’s Neuralink competitor is expecting its first brain chip this year
• US solar keeps surging, generating more power than hydro in 2025
• Infrared Contact Lenses Allow People To See In the Dark, Even With Eyes Closed - Slashdot
• Apple & Epic agree no in-person court necessary after 'Fortnite' restored to App Store
• 23andMe to Be Bought by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a Biotech Company, for $256 Million
• Apple's Jony Ive Is Joining openai !!!!
• I put four robot lawnmowers through a brutal backyard battle — and only one person got injured
• Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist
• A.I. Is Poised to Revolutionize Weather Forecasting. A New Tool Shows Promise.
• How I used o3 to find CVE-2025-37899, a remote zeroday vulnerability in the Linux kernel’s SMB implementation
• Congress Passes TAKE IT DOWN Act Despite Major Flaws
• ‘Alexa, what do you know about us?’ What I discovered when I asked Amazon to tell me everything my family’s smart speaker had heard
• The Chinese Adoptees Who Were Stolen