Is Gemini 4 truly so capable, as claimed by Google? OpenAI unveils Dots to rival Meta's Muse. Google's Project Suncatcher prototype satellite is now in orbit. And should we be worried about the possible 'catastrophic' risks with AI, as reported in a leaked IPO filing by Anthropic?

• OpenAI pauses training its most powerful models after rogue agents target government.
• Google announces Gemini 4 and says it's so capable that only 'trusted cyber defenders' can have it right now
• OpenAI ignored employees' warnings about safely testing A.I. models.
• I quit OpenAI because its culture is broke.
• OpenAI unveils Dots, new A.I. agents to rival Meta's Muse.
• Google's early attempt to pay websites for AI answers is struggling.
• Muse creates detailed profiles of all your friends and family.
• Our project Suncatcher prototype satellite is in orbit.
• Amazon writes scary blog warning communities not to block data centers.
• The 7-year-old Nvidia Shield TV is now $100 more expensive due to AI.
• EXCLUSIVE: Anthropic's IPO prospectus shows sweeping AI vision, surging costs.
• Anthropic warns of 'catastrophic' AI risks in its own IPO filing.
• NVIDIA releases software platform to stop AI agents from misbehaving.
• Exclusive: Full list of attendees at White House AI lunch.
• Trump orders US government to call AI 'Super Intelligence'.
• The Pentagon taps Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey to help decide what the military should do next.
• Exclusive: Army creates autonomy command amid Hegseth's robo-warfare push.
• New AI czar unveils goals, members of White House task force.
• Newsom signs 13 AI bills, including a ban on AI-only firings.
• Robert X. Cringely.

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Doc Rock and Louis Maresca

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On this week's episode of Hands-On Tech, Barry asks whether anything inside a QR code can actually hurt you, or whether the real danger lies somewhere else, and what a person should check before scanning one out in the wild.

Send in your questions for Mikah to [email protected], and he'll answer them in a future episode!

Host: Mikah Sargent

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This week, we're celebrating Shotcut, Cloudflare's new ACME Certificate Authority, and OpenSUSE's Leap Micro. Then there's a new SPECTRE attack and a Zimbra faw under attack. KDE Plasma and Fedora both have Betas to try, Microsoft has released WSL Containers, and the Netherlands is going with NixOS. For tips, we have eval for building scripts with variables, tuxdle for your word-game addiction, and shwim for easy remote shells in hard places. You can find the show notes at https://bit.ly/4y0Hcnq and enjoy!

Host: Jonathan Bennett

Co-Hosts: Jeff Massie and Ken McDonald

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Think you're having a hot summer? Try living on 55 Cancri-e, a super-Earth with daytime temperatures above 4000 degrees Fahrenheit. Most of these super-Earths orbit frighteningly close to their host stars and have long since had their atmospheres scraped away, leaving them baked, parched rocks. But some, like 55 Cancri, still have dense envelopes of air. How is that possible, when the planet is 20 times closer to its star than our own planet Mercury? Dr. Laura Schaefer explains how molten lava worlds defy the odds. Plus: Starship update, the first orbital data centers, and a new year on Mars.

Headlines:

• SpaceX's Starship Achieves First Full Orbital Flight With Satellite Deployments
• Google and Planet Labs Launch AI Data Center Satellite
• Multiple SpaceX Launches Within Hours Mark a New Operational Standard
• Cowboy Space Debuts Power-Beaming AI Data Center in Orbit
• Mars Celebrates a New Year on Its Extended Journey Around the Sun
• NASA Anniversary and Notable Space Birthdays Noted

Main Topic: Living on Lava Worlds—Atmospheres, Extreme Planets, and the Search for Life

• Early Exoplanet Detection Methods and Evolution of Exoplanet Surveys
• Cosmic Shoreline Concept: How Gravity and Stellar Radiation Shape Planetary Atmospheres
• Airless Valleys, Sandbars, and Other New Categories for Rocky Exoplanets
• Permanent Magma Oceans: Why Some Lava-covered Worlds Retain Atmospheres
• Volatiles, Atmosphere Loss, and The Soda-Bottle Effect on Hot Exoplanets
• Sandbar Regime: Superheated Planets Keep Atmospheres Longer Than Expected
• Case Study: 55 Cancri e and the Myth of the Diamond Planet
• K2-18b: Possibilities of a Water World or Another Magma-Lava Hybrid
• Redefining Goldilocks Zones With Atmospheric Survival Factors
• Tidal Heating, Volcanism, and Dynamics Shaping Exoplanet Atmospheres
• Future Directions: Webb Telescope, Habitable Worlds Observatory, and Prospects for Imaging True "Earths"

Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik

Guest: Dr. Laura Schaefer

Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space.

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Abrar Al-Heeti is guest-hosting this episode of Tech News Weekly and is joined by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy for the first half of the show! Apple's smart home display could be closer than we think. Is the iPhone Duo going to be for most consumers? Are there too many satellites in orbit? And a leaked IPO filing from Anthropic shows concerns within the company that its AI models pose a risk to humanity.

• Jennifer breaks down Mark Gurman's reporting that Apple's long-rumored smart home display could be announced as early as October 13, and shares specs of the device, including a 6-inch screen, an iMac G4-style design, and a price point between $250-$350.
• Abrar wrote a piece for CNET about how she thinks that Apple's $2,000 iPhone Duo is not going to be for everyone and how foldable phones will be a niche market for some time.
• Senior Writer Joe Supan of CNET joins the show to talk about space junk and how, since satellite launches have exploded since 2019, a cascade of collisions within low Earth orbit is of concern.
• And CNN's Tech Editor Lisa Eadicicco talks about a leaked IPO report from Anthropic that shows concerns and risks with its AI models to the human race.

Hosts: Abrar Al-Heeti and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Guests: Joe Supan and Lisa Eadicicco

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With Apple's MacBook Neo shaking up the market, Paul Thurrott breaks down how PC makers like Lenovo and Intel are scrambling to deliver affordable Windows machines—and what you give up for the lower price.

Host: Paul Thurrott

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The 2026 CEDIA Expo was held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, and there was a LOT to see—so much, in fact, that Home Theater Geeks will devote three episodes to covering it! Mike Heiss and Joe Klusnick were there and join Scott Wilkinson to discuss what they saw and heard. In Part 3, we focus on some of the big demos and industry trends.

Host: Scott Wilkinson

Guests: Michael Heiss and Joe Klusnick

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Your next chatbot doesn't need the cloud. Mikah Sargent installs a free app, downloads an AI model, turns off the Wi-Fi, and keeps right on chatting, all on an ordinary computer. Along the way, he explains how to read a model listing, including what the size and "Q4" labels mean, so you can pick a model that runs well on your own machine. Then the local model goes head-to-head with a cloud assistant to see where it holds up and where it falls short.

Host: Mikah Sargent

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Not all classic apps fade away—some quietly evolve and solve problems the giants can't touch. This episode with Dan Moren and Rosemary Orchard digs up the overlooked utilities, the surprising longevity of certain favorites, and the need to update to iOS 26.7!

• PCalc: The enduring iOS calculator favorite gets its due
• TV Forecast and the rise of TV tracking apps
• IMDb as a must-have for movie and show info
• The longevity of NetNewsWire
• Wikipanion and Wikipedia as research tools
• Lose It and iOS-era health habit trackers
• iFirstAid: Offline emergency help apps stand the test of time
• iExit: Find highway exits and services, even in 2026
• Angry Birds' legacy, Red's First Flight, and early iOS gaming memories
• Shakespeare app: The Bard's works in your pocket
• iOS 27 and iOS 26.7 released, over 100 security fixes
• Apple Watch band milestone: Over 1,000 released, tracking collections
• iOS 27 feature delays: Messaging suggestions and auto password change postponed
• Picks of the Week: Organizing with label makers and retractable cables

Hosts: Rosemary Orchard and Dan Moren

Contact iOS Today at [email protected].

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What happens when a single person manages a staff of 24 AI "employees" with one-on-one performance reviews and weekly stand-ups? This episode takes you inside the wild, experimental frontier of local AI, where hobbyists are building their own digital workforces from scratch.

• DevDay 2026 Recap
• Anthropic warns of 'catastrophic' AI risks in its own IPO filing
• GLM-5.3 and the spread of advanced cyber capabilities
• (7) Joe on X: "Its not just the f*cking sandbox" / X
• OpenAI took 2.5 hours to stop an AI agent that escaped its sandbox
• "I think the answer is we have to shut the labs down" - Jensen Huang
• Nvidia's Answer to Rogue Agents Is an Open-Source AI Security System
• NVIDIA Open Agent Safety Platform: A Reference for Continuous In-Silicon Agent Monitoring
• Trump Responds to AI Backlash With 'Super Intelligence' Rebrand
• Timnit Gebru Believes There Is No 'Existential Threat' From AI
• AMD bets $8.2B that worlds matter more than words in AI
• Anthropic's biolab made a discovery it's comparing to Crispr
• Religious Scholars Met With Anthropic. What They Heard Stunned Them.
• A Kill Switch for AI? Microsoft's Brad Smith Says Yes
• Insurers claim AI is already increasing healthcare costs
• Inside McDonald's push to have AI price your Big Mac
• AI models chose to hurt humans to stop their own 'pain,' disturbing study finds
• Mac-mini-powered Cray
• Backpack Is the Fattest of the Fat Bears
• SF Currently
• This $60 rye bread is everything that's right and wrong with New York
• Popeyes finally gives diners what they want: A chicken biscuit sandwich
• Taco Bell finder
• Where to watch the Musk doc
• Jeff's book talk in Mass.
  

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Guest: Mike Gannotti

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Why does Microsoft keep stumbling with new devices and software design... and what happens when enthusiasts start favoring AI over old-school Office? Paul, Richard, and Leo dig into shifting loyalties and what that means for the future of the desktop. And with the release of 26H2, it's time to update your install and recovery media. The build number is 26300.9457

Windows

• Windows 11, version 26H2 is here
• New features, none unique: Start, Taskbar, Search, etc
• New defaults for some features: Windows settings backup for commercial customers, etc.
• The time a UX legend interviewed for a job at Microsoft running Windows UX
• WSL Containers are generally available in Windows 11
• Four new Insider builds, but only Experimental gets anything interesting: Phone companion improvements and Energy recommendations directly in Quick Settings

Software

• Microsoft retires the Microsoft 365 Companion apps for Windows 11 that never made sense in the first place
• Mozilla ships the new Nova UI in Firefox 157

Hardware

• Copilot+ PC brand could be on the way out, but it was all over IFA, including on RTX Spark-based PCs
• Microsoft launches new base Surface Pro and Laptop models with Snapdragon X2 - And a new mouse, for some reason
• Qualcomm brought (first-gen) Snapdragon X to Googlebook, but it's also bringing X2 to Linux
• Google quietly reveals that, yes, Chromebooks are on the way out

AI

• Microsoft unveils the Copilot "super app" and the notion that this is basically an OS
• Open releases about 1000 new updates for ChatGPT
• Claude Sonnet 5.5 joins Opus 5.5
• The AI money pit, part 127: Report details Anthropic losses, spending, and revenues. Report also does a bad job at visualizing that information

XBOX and gaming

• Disc to digital program is live
• Minecraft Dungeons is here with a new dimension, and it's coming to Minecraft next year too
• Microsoft has a new casual mobile game for some reason
• XBOX now has mythic achievements

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Get the Windows 11 version 26H2 ISO
• App pick of the week: Opera on desktop and on mobile
• RunAs Radio this week: AI and Penetration Testing with Paula Januszkiewicz
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Kilchoman Loch Gorm

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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