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Tag: gadget lab podcast

  • Learning to Live With Google’s AI Overviews

    Learning to Live With Google’s AI Overviews

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    Google has spent the past year lustily rolling out AI features across its platforms. But with each launch, it is becoming more clear that some of these so-called enhancements should have simmered a little longer. The latest update to stoke equal parts excitement and ridicule is AI Overviews, the new auto-generated summary boxes that appear at the top of some Google search results.

    In theory, AI Overviews are meant to answer questions and neatly summarize key information about people’s search queries, offering links to the sources the summaries were pulled from and making search more immediately useful. In reality, these AI Overviews have been kinda messy. The information the summary confidently displays can be simply, and sometimes comically, wrong. Even when the AI Overview is correct, it typically only offers a slim account of the topic without the added context—or attribution—contained in the web pages it’s pulling from. The resulting criticisms have forced Google to reportedly dial back the number of search queries that trigger AI Overviews, and they are now being seen less frequently than they were at launch.

    This week, we talk with WIRED writers Kate Knibbs and Reece Rogers about the rollout, how Google has been managing it, and what it’s like to watch our journalism get gobbled up by these hungry, hungry infobots.

    Show Notes

    Read Kate’s story about Google trimming the frequency of its AI Overviews. Read Reece’s story about how Google’s AI Overviews copied his original work. Read Lauren’s story about the end of Google Search as we know it.

    Recommendations

    Kate recommends Token Supremacy by Zachary Small. Reece recommends the game Balatro. Lauren recommends the poetry book Technelegy by Sasha Stiles. Mike recommends the book Neu Klang: The Definitive History of Krautrock by Christoph Dallach.

    Kate Knibbs can be found on social media @Knibbs (X) or @extremeknibbs (Threads/IG). Reece Rogers is @reece___rogers. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

    How to Listen

    You can always listen to this week’s podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here’s how:

    If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts, and search for Gadget Lab. If you use Android, you can find us in the Google Podcasts app just by tapping here. We’re on Spotify too. And in case you really need it, here’s the RSS feed.



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  • Everyone’s Pumped About Heat Pumps

    Everyone’s Pumped About Heat Pumps

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    Lauren Goode: Yeah. You recommended a podcast episode with her too.

    Michael Calore: I did, yeah.

    Lauren Goode: Was it the Fresh Air one?

    Michael Calore: Yeah. To you. Yeah. Yeah, because you were like, “Who is Kathleen Hannah?” I’m like, “Oh, you got to check her out.” So yeah, I think she was on another podcast last week. Anyway, the book is brand-new. You can get it as an ebook or an audiobook. She reads it, and if you’re a Spotify Premium subscriber, I think you can listen to it as part of your subscription, so I would recommend doing that. That’s how I’m enjoying it, in her voice.

    Matt Simon: I think I saw that at Green Apple actually.

    Michael Calore: Yeah.

    Matt Simon: San Francisco local people might be able to find it there.

    Michael Calore: Yes.

    Matt Simon: You should be there. Anyway. It’s a great bookstore.

    Lauren Goode: Oh yeah. We just walked by it the other day.

    Michael Calore: Yeah, it’s the best. One of the best in the world.

    Lauren Goode: You had a great story about the book that you let go.

    Michael Calore: Oh, yeah.

    Lauren Goode: And it came back to you.

    Michael Calore: Yeah. Between the Clock and the Bed?

    Lauren Goode: That’s right.

    Michael Calore: Edvard Munch. Yeah. That’s a boring story though.

    Lauren Goode: I enjoyed it.

    Michael Calore: Glad you did.

    Lauren Goode: Yeah.

    Michael Calore: What is your recommendation?

    Lauren Goode: My recommendation, I just came up with this, because I came into the studio today without one prepared. Staycations.

    Michael Calore: Say more.

    Matt Simon: You mean as a concept or as a piece of media?

    Lauren Goode: Oh, as a concept. Is there a piece of media called Staycations?

    Matt Simon: I don’t know.

    Lauren Goode: Is that like a magazine? We should start one.

    Matt Simon: Yeah.

    Lauren Goode: I like that idea. It’s a great time in media to be starting magazines. Staycation, so I have a good friend who has been loaning me access to her home office, and it’s great because it is not far from where I live, but sometimes on weekends I go there and it’s a different perspective. It’s a different place. I’m not thinking about laundry or cleaning or to-do’s or whatever I have to order from Amazon.com or whatever it is. I’m away, but I’m not far, and I really appreciate that. It’s been really head clearing. I’m also working on a book, so it’s helpful for that. I mean, that’s the primary thing.

    But then also in the past couple months, I’ve had the opportunity to stay just north of here, like 30 minutes, and so I’m away, but I’m not away away, and it’s great. It’s just, get away for a staycation if you can. If you have the means, if you have friends who are saying, “Hey, I need someone to pet sit,” or “Do you want to take over my house for a weekend?” Or something like that. Just do it. Stay local, but just get a totally different perspective on where you live, your neighborhood, the people around you, try new restaurants, new venues, just yeah, do a staycation if you can.

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  • Google Search Is Growing Up

    Google Search Is Growing Up

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    Google held its annual I/O developer event this week. The company gathered software developers, business partners, and folks from the technology press at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, just down the road from Google corporate headquarters for a two-hour presentation. There were Android announcements, there were chatbot announcements. Somebody even blasted rainbow-colored robes into the crowd using a T-shirt cannon. But most of the talk at I/O centered around artificial intelligence. Nearly everything Google showed off at the event was enhanced in some way by the company’s Gemini AI model. And some of the most shocking announcements came in the realm of AI-powered search, an area where Google is poised to upend everyone’s expectations about how to find things on the internet—for better or for worse.

    This week, WIRED senior writer Paresh Dave joins us to unpack everything Google announced at I/O, and to help us understand how search engines will evolve for the AI era.

    Show Notes

    Read our roundup of everything Google announced at I/O 2024. Lauren wrote about the end of search as we know it. Will Knight got a demo of Project Astra, Google’s visual chatbot. Julian Chokkattu tells us about all the new features coming to Android phones, Wear OS watches, and Google TVs.

    Recommendations

    Michael Calore is @snackfight. Lauren is @LaurenGoode. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

    How to Listen

    You can always listen to this week’s podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here’s how:

    If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts, and search for Gadget Lab. If you use Android, you can find us in the Google Podcasts app just by tapping here. We’re on Spotify too. And in case you really need it, here’s the RSS feed.



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  • A Peek Inside Hulu's New 'Black Twitter' Docuseries

    A Peek Inside Hulu's New 'Black Twitter' Docuseries

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    This week, the writer, director, and executive producers of the new documentary series Black Twitter: A People’s History tell us how they brought the community’s vibrancy to the small screen.

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  • Thinking About Buying a Hybrid Car? Listen Up

    Thinking About Buying a Hybrid Car? Listen Up

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    Michael Calore: Are plug-ins more expensive than non-plug-in hybrids?

    Aarian Marshall: So yes, in general, plug-in hybrids are going to be more expensive than your standard hybrid. We actually got figures from the folks at Edmunds, which is an automotive research publication, and as of March 2024 the average transaction price for a plug-in hybrid was around a little over $60,000. The average transaction price for a hybrid was more like $43,000, so that’s a pretty big difference. And then the average transaction price for an electric vehicle, the all-battery-powered cars, is the highest at around $63,000. So you kind of get more expensive as more battery comes into the mix.

    Lauren Goode: This is not going to matter as much to some people, but what about the actual boost, like the turbo you get from the cars? I know Tesla, they’re known for their zero-to-60 time in their, what is it, the Ludicrous mode? I have used the Ludicrous mode. It’s quite fun.

    Michael Calore: Yeah, sure.

    Lauren Goode: What kind of oomph are you getting with something like a plug-in hybrid?

    Aarian Marshall: Yeah, it’s not going to be what you see in an EV. I’d say the people who are really hardcore about their driving and really want to go fast, I’d say first check the speed limit, people. I don’t love to hear that people are going super-fast on public roads. But in general, they don’t have that kind of quick moves that EVs do. But I think there are a lot of other reasons why people are excited about plug-in hybrids.

    Lauren Goode: Right. To clarify, the only time I used Ludicrous mode was with a Tesla representative in the car. I was writing about the P100D, and she was like, “Oh, you have to try this now.”

    Michael Calore: And you did it on a closed course with a professional.

    Lauren Goode: It wasn’t a closed course, but it was on a highway when no one was really around. It was just, like, we just got on the on-ramp, and she was like, “OK, push it.”

    Michael Calore: I trust you that you were safe.

    Lauren Goode: Yes. I’m just heeding what Aarian said, which is true. You shouldn’t just be speeding on public roads—

    Michael Calore: That’s true.

    Lauren Goode: And endangering yourself and the people around you. OK. All right. Now that the PSA is over, what were you going to ask next?

    Michael Calore: I wanted to ask about tax credits, because I know this has been a big deal for people making the switch to EVs. Are there any tax breaks involved in going hybrid?

    Aarian Marshall: So the answer is yes. There are tax breaks that you’re going to get for plug-in hybrids. They’re not as much as you’re going to get for the standard EVs. I’d also say this is highly dependent on where you live. So there are federal tax credits for both of them, but some states have more-aggressive EV and plug-in-hybrid tax breaks than we see on even the federal level. I know my state of Washington, where I live, they just set in motion a brand-new incentive program that’s going to make it even cheaper for people to buy pure battery-electric cars. They get incentives from the federal government, then they get incentives from the state of Washington. So my squirrely answer is, it depends on where you are, and I’d urge you to contact your local tax representatives, tax experts to see what you can get for the vehicle that you want.

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  • Test Your Knowledge of Internet Acronyms

    Test Your Knowledge of Internet Acronyms

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    Do you know what TCP/IP means? (Hint: you’re using it right now.) What about CDMA? Or GPT? While the concepts and the execution of these technologies are clear to most of us who have been on the internet nearly our whole lives, the acronyms we use to define them are often inscrutable. On this week’s episode, we welcome WIRED’s AI reporter Will Knight onto the show. Along with our hosts Michael Calore and Lauren Goode, the trio takes turns quizzing each other on what exactly these acronyms stand for. Michael is asked to unpack various terms from the early internet era, Lauren is tested on acronyms from the mobile era, and Will tells us what all the AI-related abbreviations mean. Everyone does a pretty good job even if nobody earns a perfect score. Play along at home; maybe you can best our hosts with your arcane knowledge of internet minutiae.

    Show Notes

    Read Steven Levy’s story about the Google research paper that kickstarted the transformer-based AI boom.

    Recommendations

    Lauren recommends the Forest app for the Pomodoro work method. Mike recommends The Jargon File.

    Will Knight can be found on social media @WillKnight. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

    How to Listen

    You can always listen to this week’s podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here’s how:

    If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts, and search for Gadget Lab. If you use Android, you can find us in the Google Podcasts app just by tapping here. We’re on Spotify too. And in case you really need it, here’s the RSS feed.



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  • What It Will Take for Airchat to Take Flight

    What It Will Take for Airchat to Take Flight

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    Silicon Valley tech types love their edgy new social media startups. The latest is Airchat, an audio-first social app that lets its users express their every thought by posting short snippets of audio. All of these snippets are served in a never-ending feed, a la Twitter. There are replies, there are DMs, but there’s no typing; it’s all spoken audio. The platform is exclusively invitation-only for now, so the current user base is made up mostly of Valley insiders, optimistic venture capitalists, and crypto evangelists, which definitely informs the types of conversations you’ll find on the app. If you’re thinking this sounds a lot like Clubhouse, the audio-based social space that flared up during the Covid-19 pandemic, well, you’re not too far off.

    This week on Gadget Lab, we talk to WIRED’s Director of Special Projects Alan Henry about making mouth sounds on Airchat and whether the buzzy new social startup will appeal to anyone outside the Silicon Valley technosphere.

    Show Notes

    Read Lauren’s story about Airchat.

    Recommendations

    Alan recommends the Kurzgesagt YouTube channel. Lauren recommends Julian Chokkattu’s review of the Humane Ai Pin and Scoop, a movie about journalism that’s streaming on Netflix. Mike recommends our new sibling podcast, WIRED Politics Lab.

    Alan can be found on social media @halophoenix. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

    How to Listen

    You can always listen to this week’s podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here’s how:

    If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts, and search for Gadget Lab. If you use Android, you can find us in the Google Podcasts app just by tapping here. We’re on Spotify too. And in case you really need it, here’s the RSS feed.



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  • How Social Media Turned Into a Shopping Mall

    How Social Media Turned Into a Shopping Mall

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    Michael Calore: I’m going to go watch a bunch of shorts and see what I get served and I’ll report back.

    Lauren Goode: Hims and Hers?

    Michael Calore: Yeah, Hims and Hers.

    Lauren Goode: All right, let’s take another quick break and then we’re going to come back with our recommendations.

    [Break]

    Lauren Goode: Amanda, what’s your rec?

    Amanda Hoover: So another product I first saw on TikTok Shop, while we’re on themes, all got me thinking. It’s like this cap that you pull down over your face. You keep it in the freezer. So it’s advertised as being for hangovers. It’s also great for headaches, and it just immediately cools down your head, helps with any pressure, tension, whatever. And it’s called—HungovrAF is one of the main brands of it, but I think there are a couple of others, but that was the one that I first saw.

    Lauren Goode: What a great brand name.

    Michael Calore: So do you keep it in the freezer?

    Amanda Hoover: Yeah. You got to keep it in the freezer. If you wake up hungover, it’s not going to be ready in time. You got to do some prep.

    Lauren Goode: Does it actually cover your face?

    Amanda Hoover: Yes. Covers your eyes. It’s like a soft cap.

    Lauren Goode: Wow. I could see how that would be great for migraines.

    Michael Calore: Amanda, have you considered not drinking?

    Amanda Hoover: I actually had a friend who loved this too. Always was talking about having headaches, and I’d had this cold roller thing, like a skin roller, and I let her borrow that once and she had a really bad hangover. And then I saw this and I was like, “This is going to totally change the game.”

    Lauren Goode: Don’t be a scold, Michael. She’s 30 years old living in New York City. I mean, come on.

    Amanda Hoover: Thirty is where you start to get the hangover sooner than you expected to.

    Michael Calore: Just wait, just wait. A bottle opens across the room and immediately I start to feel terrible.

    Lauren Goode: Every time Mike goes to CES, it’s like, “Oh, good luck.” You’re going for five days, six days, and he is like, the first five: bitters and soda.

    Michael Calore: That’s right. I do not drink at CES until the last night. That’s my move.

    Lauren Goode: That’s a good method.

    Michael Calore: People ask me for Las Vegas recommendations. I’m like, “Don’t drink until you’re going home.”

    Lauren Goode: Right. You could sleep on a plane home. Thank you for that, Amanda. I look forward to linking to that in the show notes because we’re going to become our own little shopping platform. Did you also know you can buy WIRED merch?

    Michael Calore: We’re going to be recommending this thing.

    Lauren Goode: We have to hype the merch.

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  • What the Apple Antitrust Suit Means for the Future of Messaging

    What the Apple Antitrust Suit Means for the Future of Messaging

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    Apple has gotten used to being a favorite target of rivals and government agencies. The company has been repeatedly scrutinized by regulators around the world, and other tech companies have accused the company of anticompetitive practices. Apple’s most recent legal challenge is a doozy: an antitrust lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice and more than a dozen state attorneys general. The suit takes aim at the security and privacy features offered only on the iPhone, and accuses Apple of using that exclusivity to lock consumers into its ecosystem. At the center of the suit is the lack of cross-platform encryption on Apple’s messaging platform—the green bubble-blue bubble divide—which the government alleges harms consumers by leaving them more vulnerable to attacks.

    This week on Gadget Lab, we talk with WIRED senior security editor Andrew Couts about the encryption and privacy issues behind the DOJ’s suit against Apple, and how the dreaded green bubbles on iMessage factor in.

    Show Notes

    Read Andrew and Andy Greenberg’s WIRED story about how the DOJ is targeting Apple’s iMessage encryption. Read Lauren’s story about how the antitrust case is all about the green bubbles, really.

    Recommendations

    Andrew recommends profumo del chianti sea salt spice mix. Lauren recommends the book Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Mike recommends going to the Big Ears music festival next year in Knoxville, Tennessee.

    Andrew Couts can be found on social media @AndrewCouts. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

    How to Listen

    You can always listen to this week’s podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here’s how:

    If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts, and search for Gadget Lab. If you use Android, you can find us in the Google Podcasts app just by tapping here. We’re on Spotify too. And in case you really need it, here’s the RSS feed.



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  • ‘3 Body Problem’ Is a Tech-Heavy Head Trip

    ‘3 Body Problem’ Is a Tech-Heavy Head Trip

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    Michael Calore: OK Kate, as our guest, what’s your recommendation this week?

    Kate Knibbs: Actually, I’m going to recommend another sci-fi series that’s a book adaptation and I wrote about it when I came out last year, which is Silo on Apple+. It’s adapted from Hugh Howey’s Wool book series. One of them is called Silo, which the books are great too. The show is fantastic, and I feel like it got buried in Apple TV… Is it Apple TV+ or Apple TV?

    Michael Calore: Apple TV+.

    Lauren Goode: Apple TV+. Yeah. Just add a plus to everything now if they’re charging you $9 a month or more for it, it’s just plus.

    Kate Knibbs: Yeah, Apple TV+ has this little collection of prestige sci-fi, and a lot of it’s really well done, and it’s just not taking off. I think it deserves to, and Silo is so good, and I think people should watch that too.

    Michael Calore: Awesome. And so it came out last year. Are they doing another season soon or?

    Kate Knibbs: I don’t know. There’s lots of material that they could be working from. I hope they’re doing another season if they don’t, though it definitely stands alone as a miniseries, and it’s about people who live in this underground silo sometime in the future, and things are not what they appear, and it’s excellent. Yeah, heartily recommend.

    Lauren Goode: I hear that if you get an Apple Vision Pro and you put it on your face, Tim Cook appears and tells you what their next season’s lineup is going to be.

    Michael Calore: There’s Apple products in all of the Apple TV plus shows, right? They use their streaming channel as a way to show off how good their products are.

    Lauren Goode: Yeah, they’re never using Signal. They’re always like bloop and blue messages when they message people in the program.

    Michael Calore: I’m sorry. It’s very annoying. It’s very annoying to imagine a world where three quarters of the planet is not using Android. Kate, what’s the status of Apple devices in the near future on Silo?

    Kate Knibbs: I don’t think they have any, but that’s because they’ve been in the Silo for a really long time I think. I am not sure about the exact timeline, but I think they went in the Silo before Tim even took the reins. They might’ve been down there… I don’t know. They have really old school 90s desktops in silo. There’s no blue bubbles to worry about.

    Michael Calore: Are they Mac clones?

    Kate Knibbs: I don’t know.

    Michael Calore: Are they Motorola Mac clones? That’d be amazing.

    Kate Knibbs: I’ll have to rewatch and take a look at the gadgetry.

    Michael Calore: I’ll watch it. Thank you for the recommendation. Lauren, what is your recommendation?

    Lauren Goode: Despite my throwing shade at you earlier for binge-watching, mine is a binge-watch, and there’s a little story behind this that’s related to 3 Body Problem. So listeners should know that Netflix gave us all early access to 3 Body Problem, and we had to log into our Netflix accounts and enter a pin code because we had to be approved to get these digital screeners. And over the weekend, I went to go watch 3 Body Problem and realized I didn’t have the pin code. So I emailed Netflix on a Sunday and just was like, “Hey, I am really sorry, but I don’t think I have this pin code, and so I can’t watch this.” It took them all of four minutes to get back to me.

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