This Week in Tech (MP3)

This Week's Stories

• Apple's November Surprise: 16-Inch Macbook Pro brings back the scissor-switch keyboard and physical ESC key
• Surface Book 3 Rumors, Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro X Reviews
• Microsoft's Project xCloud launches in early 2020 as the odds-on favorite to dominate game streaming
• Google Stadia launches tomorrow as a failure
• Goldman Sachs re-evaluating Apple Card credit limits after sexism accusations
• Google will offer checking accounts to anyone who wants Google to know absolutely everything they pay money for.
• Google's secret "Nightingale" health-care project and Fitbit purchase: Google wants to own your health data
• Apple's Research App: do we trust Apple with our health data more than Google?
• Disney+, Apple+, Peacock TV, etc - when will the streaming bubble burst?
• YouTube creators: are you a kids' channel or an adult channel?
• Is YouTube fracturing the world? Should we go back to all reading the same newspaper?
• Apple kicks vaping apps out of the App Store, Canadian pot stocks crash - legal marijuana's bad week
• Minecraft Earth launches in the US - the perfect demo for Azure Anchors
• Hololens is still the future
• So is the Oculus Quest
• Are Apple Glasses?
• British Labor Party offers free broadband - could this work in the US?
• AI can tell if you are going to die - doctors baffled

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Daniel Rubino, Brian McCullough, and Brianna Wu

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

Sponsors:

• Bombas.com/twit
• expressvpn.com/twit
• calm.com/twit
• WWT.COM/TWIT

This Week's Stories

• Big Tech is trying to fix California's housing crisis by throwing $billions at it. Here's what they should do instead.
• How can we fix the mess that is video conferencing?
• Delivering drugs via drone: what could possibly go wrong?
• Google open sources Cardboard, instead of just killing it as we expected.
• The FBI is secretly using face recognition to track us. The ACLU thinks this is bad for some reason.
• Apple is slowly tightening its privacy system.
• Saudi spies infiltrate Twitter. Is Big Tech security-conscious enough?
• FACEBOOK changes its logo. WHY?
• Facebook and political ads
• Photoshop for iPad is finally here.
• Here are the best tools for vertical video.
• Is Adobe's subscription model fair to consumers?
• Adobe Aero tries to standardize AR.
• Microsoft Ignite focuses on the hybrid cloud.
• Why 5G will never work, and why it will be amazing when it does.
• 8K will make you vomit.
• Microsoft puts Superman on glass.
• AppleTV+ launches big. If you could only have 5 streaming services, which would you choose?
• Amazon knocks $40 off the price of Prime for veterans. Thank you for your service!

Host: Alex Lindsay

Guests: Greg Ferro and Justine Ezarik

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

Sponsors:

• ZipRecruiter.com/Twit
• Wasabi.com offer code TWiT
• capterra.com/twit
• mintmobile.com/twit

• Google Buys Fitbit. Will this be like Google buying HTC, or like Fitbit buying Pebble?
• Apple hires a new smart home team. Can they catch up with Amazon and Google? Can they fix what is wrong with HomeKit?
• AirPods Pro review - the best earbuds we've ever worn. However, they are pricy, and they're still earbuds, with all the issues that come with that.
• AppleTV+ launches. Can an Aaron Sorkin wanna-be, wacky Emily Dickinson, and sexy blind people win the streaming wars?
• NBC's Peacock TV may be free with ads when it launches in April.
• HBO Max launches in May for $15. Will it finally kill cable?
• Twitter bans political ads. Facebook thinks they are just fine, even if they lie. How will Twitter figure out what is a political issue? Does Mark Zuckerberg really think "Lying is bad?"
• PG&E cuts power to millions but still manages to start a 77,000-acre fire. Cell service also fails. So does Comcast. Is this the harbinger of all of America's aging infrastructure finally collapsing?
• National Weather Service tweets out some useful tools to track wildfires and smoke.
• It's the emoji season! The controversy this year: non-gendered emoji.

Host: Jason Snell

Guests: Rene Ritchie, Devindra Hardawar, and Dan Moren

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

Sponsors:

• LastPass.com/twit
• FreshBooks.com/twit
• casper.com/twit1 - promo code: TWIT1
• www.stamps.com - promo code: TWIT

It's This Week in Tech with Jason Howell, Mikah Sargent, and Ant Pruitt hosting in the absence of Chief TWiT, Leo Laporte. PG&E may force a power outage at TWiT Eastside Studio to help reduce the risk of wildfire in surrounding areas.

• Facebook Launches News Section to Compensate Publishers
• Zuckerberg faces heat in Congress: "It's almost like you think this is a joke."
• Fake Facebook ad claiming Lindsey Graham backs the Green New Deal is actually a test for Zuckerberg
• Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL review: more than the sum of its sensors
• Night Sight fight: The iPhone 11 kinda destroys the Pixel 4 with low light camera shots
• AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile have finally agreed to replace SMS with a new RCS standard
• Google is delivering some Pixel 4 phones in fun cereal boxes
• Google Cereal review: Feature-packed but lacking in basic nutrition [Gallery]
• Google will replace Home devices bricked due to latest firmware update
• LOFT Portable Battery Base for Google Home
• Amazon is spending billions on shipping as it makes Prime one-day delivery a reality
• After Briefly Falling To Number Two, Jeff Bezos Is Back As The Richest Man In The World
• Apple Pay overtakes Starbucks as the most popular mobile payment platform in the US
• Gov't bill could see Emergency Alerts broadcast over streaming services like Apple Music
• Microsoft's Over-the-Top VR Rig Lets You Explore a Virtual World While Walking IRL
• TikTok could threaten national security, senators say
• Motorola teases its foldable RAZR phone reveal for November 13th
• The Huawei Mate X is set to ship next month for $2,400, but only in China
• Elvis hands-on
• Ant talks about his new show

Hosts: Jason Howell, Ant Pruitt, and Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

Sponsors:

• privacy.com/twit
• WWT.COM/TWIT
• twit.cachefly.com
• calm.com/twit

• California passes law to kill the gig economy
• Facebook refuses to ban lying in political ads
• Why does internet access in America suck so much?
• Pixel 4 event: kinda dull
• Pixel 4 review: camera zoom not that great, face unlock works even if you are asleep or dead
• Law enforcement face recognition banned in California for 3 years
• Google focuses on "ambient computing"
• Technopanic and social media
• Zuckerberg is amoral, Facebook should just ban political ads
• Google is great at everything but selling hardware
• Pixelbook Go: perfect for college kids, but not for us
• Google Nest Wifi sounds good
• Air Force stops using 8-inch floppies to control missile launches
• Malware makes ATMs spit out all their cash
• Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber coming to a TV near you
• RIP Yahoo Groups
• Huawei is doing great!
• Virgin Galactic shows of its spacesuits
• Cobol turns 60
• Fortnite is down! Technical error or marketing genius?
• Is TikTok China's entry into our children's minds? Or is Mike Elgan just paranoid?

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Florence Ion, Mike Elgan, and Seth Rosenblatt

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

Sponsors:

• eero.com code TWIT
• capterra.com/twit
• Wasabi.com offer code TWiT
• legalzoom.com offer code TWIT