This week, Cherlynn and Devindra discuss some of the editorial changes happening at Engadget. We’ve lost some amazing colleagues, but we’re still here aiming to deliver the best tech coverage possible. As for this week’s news, we chat about the reported death of Apple’s “Project Titan” EV car project. It never felt quite real, but it still would have been fun to see. 

Here’s a hot take: Maybe the Apple Car felt redundant since Tesla basically built it already. Say what you will about Elon Musk today, but Tesla certainly disrupted the car industry in all of the ways we’d expect Apple to. Agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think at podcast@engadget.com.




Topics: 

What happened with Engadget last week: layoffs and our continued commitment to tech journalism – 0:31

RIP Apple Car 2014-2024 – 9:11

Nintendo’s successor to the Switch delayed to 2025 – 21:53

Microsoft opens more Xbox exclusives to PS5 and Switch – 25:24

Google renames AI suite, ends up in hot water over image generation – 33:47

Pop culture picks – 43:21




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RIP Apple Car

A weekly news show where your favorite Engadget editors tear themselves away from their crippling technology addiction, to discuss our collective crippling technology addiction.

Technology

Tech News

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Gadgets

Software How-To

The Rabbit R1 is finally here, and it's yet another useless AI gadget. Sure, at $199 with no monthly fee, it's a lot cheaper than the $699 Humane AI Pin. But the R1 is slow, hard to use, and doesn't actually do much. The much-promised "Large Action Model" mostly powers things you can easily do on your phone. In this episode, Devindra and Engadget's Sam Rutherford chat with CNET's Lisa Eadacicco about the Rabbit R1 and whether AI devices are necessary at all. Just like cameras, the best AI device is the one you always have with you: your smartphone.




Rabbit R1 review: appealing design, underwhelming performance – 0:49

Tesla lays off Supercharger development team leaving future of the network unclear – 25:28

FCC fines U.S. wireless carriers $200m for selling customer location data – 30:05 

Razer will refund all Zephyr mask purchases over false N95 filtering claims – 32:52 

Drake deletes track featuring an AI clone of Tupac Shakur’s voice – 35:16

Working on – 36:23

Pop culture picks – 40:18 

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Kill the Rabbit (R1)

After months of anticipation, President Biden finally signed the TikTok divestment into law this week. It will force ByteDance to either sell TikTok to another company within a year, or see the app banned from US app stores. Is this a wise move to rid control of the social app from the Chinese government, or is it government overreach before TikTok has done anything wrong? Engadget Senior Editor Karissa Bell joins Cherlynn and Devindra to dive into what's next for TikTok. 




The US TikTok ban is signed into law, what happens now? – 0:57

Devindra and Cherlynn’s take on whether bad product reviews hurt tech companies – 20:42

Meta opening QuestOS to third party hardware developers – 31:39

Apple ‘Let Loose’ virtual event scheduled for May 5 – 33:48

Leading AI companies pledge to keep kids safe (though harm is already evident) – 41:48

Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses add multimodal AI – 43:58

X is allegedly working on a smart TV app – 47:01

Working on – 48:02

Pop culture picks – 56:29




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Why TikTok will never be the same again

The latest batch of rumors make it pretty clear that a PlayStation 5 Pro is coming this year, but will anyone really care about slightly better 4K graphics? This week, Engadget Senior Editor Jessica Conditt joins Cherlynn and Devindra to chat about the PS5 Pro, as well as her piece on the PlayDate two years after its release. You could say the Playdate is pretty much the opposite of another expensive high-end console. In other news, we discuss the death of Boston Dynamic's hydraulic Atlas robot, and the birth of an all-new digital model. We also chat about the abrupt closure of Possibility Space, an ambitious indie game studio.




Jess Conditt on Playstation 5 Pro rumors – 0:48

Jess’ thoughts on Panic’s innovative handheld, the Playdate, 2 years later – 14:24

Indie game studio Possibility Space announces closure, CEO blames media leaks – 27:29

Other News: Boston Dynamics unveils new, all electric Atlas robot – 35:39

Menteebot is a human-sized, GPT-powered robot you can command with natural language – 39:52

NASA confirms Florida man’s house was hit by space junk – 44:06

Sony (finally) changes its confusing product names – 46:05

Working on – 50:35

Pop culture picks – 56:35

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PS5 Pro rumors, Playdate 2 years later, and the sad death of Possibility Space

Humane’s hyped up AI Pin is finally here and, unfortunately, it stinks. This week, Cherlynn and Devindra are joined by Michael Fisher (AKA MrMobile) and Wired Reviews Editor Julian Chokkattu to chat about the AI Pin and the many ways it fails. It’s often inaccurate, it takes crummy photos, and it gets way too hot. Not so great for something you’re supposed to wear all day! Is there any hope for AI-dependent gadgets? Also, Washington Post columnist Christopher Velazco joins to discuss Apple’s approval of used iPhone components for repairs.  




Too much heat, too few features: Humane’s AI pin doesn’t live up to the hype – 1:09

Other News: Apple will allow devices to be repaired with secondhand parts soon – 44:08 

Google’s Next 24 event announces AI video generation tool, ARM-based CPU for data centers, and Google Photos tools for all subscribers – 53:10 

Working on – 1:00:59 

Pop culture picks – 1:05:40

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Does Humane’s AI Pin live up to the hype?

Google has gone from being the go-to search engine to something people are paying to avoid entirely. This week, Cherlynn and Devindra chat with 404 Media co-founder Jason Koebler about his experience moving away from Google and towards Kagi, a $10 a month search engine without ads or data tracking. Funny enough, Kagi is still relying on Google’s index, so it’s a lot like using that site before the onslaught of ads, sponsored posts and AI results. Also, we discuss the company’s lies around Chrome’s incognito mode, as well as the news that it would be deleting user data collected in that mode.




Why Jason Koebler moved from Google to Kagi's paid search engine – 0:45

Google says it will destroy data collected from users using Incognito mode – 15:01

Gurman report: Apple is working on personal home robots – 24:55

Amazon just walked out on its self check-out tech – 30:43

FCC set to vote to restore Net Neutrality – 43:00

Apple adds Spatial Personas to make the Vision Pro experience less lonely – 45:09

Proposed California state law would give tech workers the “right to disconnect” – 47:17

Tekken director responds to fighting game fans’ request for a Waffle House stage – 49:57

Around Engadget – 51:22

Working on – 54:31

Pop culture picks – 59:13

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

RIP Apple Car

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