The Engadget Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Valve’s Steam Machine is finally here! But while it lives up to much of the hype, its high price makes us wonder who it’s really for. In this episode, Senior Writer Jessica Conditt joins to talk about her experience with the Steam Machine and how it compares to consoles (which have also gotten very expensive). Also, we discuss Sony’s bombshell announcement about killing physical PlayStation discs in 2028 and Xbox’s confusing array of layoffs.

Topics

• The base price for the Steam Machine is $1,049, who’s interested at that amount? – 1:09
• Sony is giving up on physical discs come 2028 – 23:08 
• Xbox layoffs could cut Arkane, Double Fine, and other marquee studios – 32:02
• A slow drip of news on Apple’s touchscreen laptop, the MacBook Ultra, is leaking – 45:24
• Cherlynn Low’s hands-on with the new Meta Glasses – 47:07 
• Pop culture picks – 52:09

With SpaceX planning to go public on June 12th, we brought on Slate’s Nitish Pahwa to dive into what it all means. How can an unprofitable company justify an IPO, and what does it plan to do with all that money? And how can we square the tech and finance world’s excitement over this IPO when Elon Musk spent this week inciting the Belfast race riots?

SpaceX may have the largest IPO ever, how will it change the tech investment landscape? – 1:13

A few stray thoughts on WWDC 2026 – 38:33 

Meta silently adds, then deletes facial recognition code from its smart glasses – 44:08

Anthropic’s Fable AI brings Mythos’ coding power to consumers – 45:47 

Around Engadget: Rivian R2 first drive and a review of the Logitech Mobi Fold – 51:50

Pop culture picks – 52:20

We're still waiting for Valve's Steam Machine to arrive, but until then, the company has finally given us a full look at its new Steam Controller. At $100, it sure is steep, but it looks like a solid way to enjoy games on Steam. In this episode, Engadget's Jessica Conditt joins to chat about her experience with the Steam Controller, and where Valve could be going next with the Steam Machine. And we'll also take some time to chat about the games we're currently playing.

Google is officially a monopoly, according to a US court. But what does that really mean? This week, Devindra and Senior Editor Karissa Bell dive into the landmark Google antitrust case to explore how it could affect the future of search. Google claims it's simply delivering the best product, but clearly the court thinks otherwise. Also, we chat about X/Twitter's desperate lawsuit against advertisers who boycotted the social network.

Stay tuned to the end of this episode for an interview with the creators of HBO Max's Industry, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay. We discuss season three of the series, which recently premiered, and how they plan to deconstruct the excesses of overhyped tech startups.

A U.S. court declared Google a monopoly, now what? – 1:22

X (formerly Twitter) sues advertisers for “illegal boycott” of their platform – 19:15

Meet Chromecast’s successor, the Google TV Streamer – 33:49

Less than a year after SAG strike, Meta is offering actors millions to use their voice in AI – 41:01

Where does all the Facebook AI slop come from? 404Media found out – 44:30

People are returning Humane’s AI Pin faster than they can sell them – 50:23

Working on – 53:43

Pop culture picks – 53:58

Industry interview with Mickey Down and Konrad Kay - 1:02:00

Samsung's Galaxy Ring is here, and honestly it's just a bit basic. This week, Cherlynn and Devindra dive into what does and doesn't work with Samsung's latest wearable. Also, we discuss Friend's new AI gadget, which listens to your conversations and sends text messages to help you feel less lonely. To get a better sense of the device, Devindra also talks to Friend's CEO, Avi Schiffmann, about why he's leaning away from the productivity side of AI helpers and more towards the vibes of friendly AI. (And yes, we also ask why he spent $1.8 million of Friend's $2.5 million funding just to buy the Friend.com domain.)

In other news, we discuss the potential impact of KOSA (the Kids Online Safety Act) with India McKinney, the EFF’s Director of Federal Affairs. While lawmakers are uniformly positioning KOSA as a way to protect kids on the internet, it could also lead to draconian censorship and destroy free speech on the web as we know it.

Cherlynn reviews the Samsung Galaxy Ring: Great sleep tracking, but needs more features – 2:13

Interview with Avi Schiffmann, founder of AI wearable company Friend – 27:27

KOSA passes the senate – we chat with EFF’s India McKinney about why it matters – 48:22

What we’ve learned since the massive 7/19 Crowdstrike outage – 1:12:07

Elon Musk shared an AI altered video of Kamala Harris without labeling, breaking the rules of his own site – 1:18:57

Apple Intelligence arrives in the iOS 18.1 developer beta – 1:21:57

Google makes peace with third-party cookies after years of mixed signals – 1:26:38

Around Engadget: Mat Smith’s Galaxy Flip 6 review – 1:29:36

Working on – 1:31:44

Pop culture picks – 1:32:22

It’s time for the summer Olympics and also the gadget Olympics? Who can outdo Samsung when it comes to launching new products every year? At its second Unpacked event of 2024, Samsung showed off seven different devices: the Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Buds 3, Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6. Many of these look familiar, sure, but Samsung copying Apple copying Samsung copying other smaller companies is a tired, old tale. Our hosts Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford dig into all the highlights from Samsung’s event in Paris this week, as well as some other news in streaming services.

Samsung’s Unpacked in Paris unveiled a ton of new tech – 1:12

The Galaxy Ring: finally, a proper launch – 6:07

Galaxy Watch Ultra: Eerily similar to Apple’s – 16:16

Galaxy Buds 3, now with an AirPod-like stick – 22:22

Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6: very welcome refresh – 27:47

Xbox to offer cloud gaming on certain Amazon Fire TV sticks – 48:29

Paramount+ will stay intact…for now – 51:18

Apple Blog TUAW comes back as an AI content farm – 56:00

Working on – 1:00:18

Pop culture picks – 1:01:20

Motorola is still trying to reclaim the glory of its original Razr phone with its latest foldables. The new Razr and Razr+ are more stylish than the previous models, and at $700 and $1,000 respectively, they're surprisingly affordable for devices with massive folding OLED screens. In other news, we chat about Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange being freed from prison, Rabbit's massive security hole in the R1 AI gadget, and a horrific Sora AI commercial from Toys "R" Us.

Moto Razr and Razr+ first look: stylish and (somewhat) affordable – 0:51

Samsung announces its second Unpacked of the year will be in Paris – 13:14

Expect a bunch of new hardware at August’s Made by Google event – 19:56

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is free – 24:38

U.S. Supreme Court rules the government can ask social platforms to take down posts – 31:22

Rabbit R1 modder group discovers massive security holes – 36:11

Uber blames NYC law for locking drivers out of its app, more cities could come soon – 39:22

Toys “R” Us released a creepy ad using OpenAI’s Sora video tool – 44:43

Working on – 49:15

Pop culture picks – 51:24

It's been a quiet week of news, but we've been feverishly testing Microsoft's new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop Copilot+ AI PCs. In this episode, Devindra and Sam will answer your questions about Microsoft’s new hardware, and we'll deliver some of our first impressions. It turns out Microsoft may have finally gotten Windows on Arm support right! And some of the Copilot+ AI features are actually useful, surprisingly enough. But we'll have to wait a few months to test out the controversial Recall feature, which was pulled from the Copilot+ launch.

Dev and Sam’s first thoughts and an AMA on the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop Copilot+ AI PCs – 1:05

News from Nintendo direct: New Zelda, Mario, and finally, Metroid Prime 4 – 25:46

Former OpenAI chief scientist launches Safe Superintelligence, inc – 35:02

Wired report: AI search engine Perplexity is ignoring robots.txt guidelines – 37:36

Listener question: What do you do with 8 gig fiber home internet? – 41:08

Working on – 46:51

Pop culture picks – 48:09

This week has felt like a month worth of news, now that we've wrapped up Apple's WWDC 2024 and Summer Game Fest in LA. In this episode, Cherlynn and Devindra discuss their final thoughts on Apple Intelligence and the company's upcoming software, and they chat about some of our coverage highlights from the pseudo-E3 Game Fest. Also, we dive into X making likes private (what is Elon hiding?!) and the news around Sony buying the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain.

Our final thoughts on WWDC 2024 – 1:31

Bloomberg Report: Apple isn't paying OpenAI a fee for ChatGPT, but will share profits – 12:18

Summer Games Fest highlights: Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, LEGO Horizon Adventures, and an Assassin’s Creed finally set in Japan – 25:06

X makes users’ likes private – 40:27

ChromeOS will soon run on Android frameworks, enabling more AI on upcoming Chromebooks – 44:40

Pop culture picks – 49:44

There was no new Apple hardware at WWDC 2024, but Apple still had tons of news around AI and its upcoming operating systems. In this bonus episode, Cherlynn and Devindra brave the California heat to discuss Apple Intelligence and how it's different than other AI solutions. And they dive into other new features they're looking forward to, like the iPhone mirroring in macOS Sequoia and iPadOS 18's surprisingly cool Calculator app.