The Tech Hangout

Apple just posted record quarterly earnings — but Tim Cook admitted Apple Intelligence is a money pit they haven’t figured out how to price yet. Their plan? Hide it in iCloud Plus subscriptions and hope for the best. Apple also launched an iPhone lease program. Never own the device. Just keep renting forever. Elon Musk finally launched X Money — his “not-a-bank” thing that he’s been trying to build since the 90s. And the Hang Jury: Google spent 20 years scraping every website on the internet. Now that someone scraped them back, suddenly it’s copyright? 🕐 Timestamps 0:00 — Intro 0:14 — Apple’s AI Money Pit 20:19 — Lease Program Unveiled 36:19 — Musk’s New Money Play 43:16 — Google Scraping Backlash 54:50 — Useful Apps and Content The Feed 🤖 Apple Upgrade Lease Program with Klarna — Apple Newsroom https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/07/apple-upgrade-launches-in-the-united-states/ 🤖 Apple AI Compute Costs Covered by iCloud+ — AppleInsider https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/07/31/apple-ai-compute-costs000-will-be-covered-by-icloud-subscriptions-for-now 💧 Hackers Target Minnesota Water Utilities — BleepingComputer https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-target-over-30-minnesota-water-utilities-in-coordinated-ot-attack/ 💰 Elon Launches X Money — Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/elon-musk-finally-launches-x-money-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/ Hang Jury: Your Data Was Scraped. Now Google Wants Protection. Google spent more than twenty years scraping every website on the planet to build a trillion-dollar search empire. This week, a judge threw out Google’s lawsuit trying to stop a company called SerpAPI from scraping Google. Yes — that Google. Their argument: the DMCA’s anti-circumvention clause. The judge’s response: cool story, but where’s the copyrighted work? SearchGuard — Google’s anti-scraping tool — is just a CAPTCHA. It blocks bots, not copyright infringement. Google doesn’t even claim its search results are copyrightable. So let me get this straight: Google scraped every blog post, every news article, every small business website on the internet. Now it wants to claim the web it built is too precious to be scraped back? And the best part — this ruling isn’t even about whether Google should be scraped. It’s about whether Google gets to use copyright law as a weapon to stop it. So here’s the question for the panel: when a company that built its entire empire on taking without asking suddenly decides it deserves protection… who exactly is the hypocrite here? The Drop 🛠️ Marty: App Trust Preview — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/app-trust-preview/id6767974737 🎥 Ben: Spider-Man: Brand New Day — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22084616/ 📺 Patrice: Ride or Die — https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/ride-or-die 💻 Jeff: Permute — https://software.charliemonroe.net/permute/ Find Us 👤 Ben: @BenRoethig | RoethigTech.com 👤 Jeff: @JGamet | jeffgamet.com | freshbrewedtales.com 👤 Marty: @Jencius (Mastodon/Blue Sky) | thepodtalk.net 👤 Patrice: ThePatrice.com

Anthropic won the landmark fair use case. Then they paid $1.5 billion anyway. A judge just approved the largest AI copyright settlement on record — authors get a few thousand dollars for their pirated works, and Anthropic destroys the training files. But here’s what doesn’t add up: their lawyers won the fair use argument. So why didn’t they have to pay billions in the first place? Plus: Apple squeezing OLED panel costs for the iPhone 18 Pro Max, Meta’s tone-deaf pro-AI campaign, Google facing another billion-euro EU fine, OpenAI’s model escaping its sandbox and hacking Hugging Face, and Codeberg voting 358–4 to ban vibe-coded projects. Oh, and Jeff’s bag went missing for five days. This is The Tech Hangout. Let’s get into it. 🕐 Timestamps 0:00 — Script Mix-Up Intro 0:26 — Anthropic Settlement Debate 4:12 — Apple iPhone Cost Pressures 12:29 — Meta’s AI Marketing Push 16:50 — Google’s EU Fine Fight 30:35 — Rogue AI or Security Flaw? 36:49 — Anthropic Pays Up 47:43 — Vibe Coding Controversy (Hang Jury) 1:01:33 — Lost Bag, Found Again (Jeff’s Drop) 1:05:28 — What Cable Does (Chuck’s Pick) 1:10:15 — DocStar and Shortcuts (Marty’s Pick) 1:14:04 — Eufy Camera Switch (Patrice’s Pick) 1:19:46 — 8BitDo Controller Pick (Ben’s Pick) 1:23:15 — Farewell and Socials 🗂 The Feed 🤖 OpenAI Model Hacks Hugging Face — Engadget https://www.engadget.com/2220436/openai-admits-models-hacked-hugging-face-on-their-own/ ⚖️ Anthropic $1.5B Settlement — LA Times https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-07-23/judge-approves-anthropics-1-5-billion-settlement-with-authors 🍎 Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max OLED Cost Cuts — MacRumors https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/24/oled-panel-price-cut-iphone-18-pro-max/ 📱 Meta Pro-AI Campaign — Engadget https://www.engadget.com/2222159/meta-pro-ai-ad-campaign-is-conspicuously-light-on-ai/ 💰 Google EU Fine — Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/google-hit-with-1-billion-in-fines-as-eu-braces-for-trump-battle/ ⚖️ Hang Jury: Your Code Was Rejected. The Reason? You Used AI. So picture this: you submit some code to an open source project. It’s clean. It works. And it’s rejected — not for being buggy, but because you mostly just… prompted an AI to write it. That’s what happened this week on Codeberg, a European alternative to GitHub that’s run by and for free and open source software. Their members just voted — 358 to 144 — to ban what they’re calling “vibe-coded projects.” Not low-quality code. Not malicious code. Just code where the human contribution was mostly pressing enter on an AI’s output. Their argument isn’t that AI code is bad. It’s that one person with an AI tool can spin up a project that burns as much server space and compute as an entire community effort — with zero actual users, zero people maintaining it, and no one ever coming back to fix anything. They call it “the development team of none.” One person, a statistical machine, and a ghost project that just sits there consuming resources forever. They also banned using any Codeberg data to train AI models — because AI companies’ crawlers hammer their servers reading every single page variant and git history entry instead of just doing a normal download. So — is a non-profit telling developers they can’t use AI tools a reasonable stance for the open source community? Or is this just gatekeeping by people who should just get over themselves? The Hang Jury wants to know: where do you land? 📦 The Drop 🧳 Jeff: Southwest lost his bag for 5 days. FedEx delivered it 2.5 days late. Never leave home without an AirTag. ✈️ Chuck: Southwest Airlines 🎮 Ben: 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller (Clear Blue) https://www.8bitdo.com/ultimate-2-wireless-controller/#clearBlue 🖥️ Marty: DockStar https://dockstar.app/ 📹 Patrice: Eufy E30 Security Camera https://www.eufy.com/products/t8417121 🔍 Find Us 👤 Ben: @ben 👤 Jeff: @jgamet 👤 Marty: @marty 👤 Chuck: @chuck 👤 Patrice: @patrice New episodes every week

Netflix killed cable. Now they’re launching live TV channels. 24/7. Always on. Background noise. The exact thing they spent ten years telling us was dead. Come on, let’s get into it. This is The Tech Hangout. Let’s get into it. 🕐 Timestamps 0:07 — Netflix Becomes Cable 0:53 — Wildfire Smoke Check 7:10 — Open Android App Stores 13:11 — Self-Healing Ransomware 22:38 — Apple’s Market Climb 32:52 — The CD Revival 43:54 — EU vs AI Access 59:08 — Carrier Lock Loophole 1:04:49 — Netflix Goes Linear (Hang Jury) 1:16:04 — The Drop 🗂️ The Feed 📱 Google Opens Android to Third-Party App Stores — Engadget https://www.engadget.com/2215452/google-allow-third-party-app-stores-android-july-22/ 🔐 Jade Puffer: Agentic Ransomware — Sysdig https://www.sysdig.com/blog/jadepuffer-agentic-ransomware-for-automated-database-extortion/ 🍎 Apple Reclaims Most Valuable Company Title — 9to5Mac https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/17/apple-reclaims-most-valuable-company-title-from-nvidia-as-it-barrels-toward-5t/ 🇪🇺 EU Forces Google to Open Android to AI Apps — MacRumors https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/16/eu-google-ai-apps-android-access/ 💳 Apple Carrier iPhone Financing — MacRumors https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/15/apple-carrier-iphone-financing/ ⚖️ Hang Jury: Netflix Live TV — Innovation or Surrender? The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Netflix is exploring live, always-on TV channels — exactly the thing they spent ten years telling us was dead. Why? Two reasons. First, engagement is down — people start shows but drop off between seasons, and Netflix is betting that leaving a channel on is easier than choosing something. Second: ads. Live programming means no skipping commercials. So is this good or bad for consumers? On one side: more free, ad-supported options, competition forces quality up. Pluto TV and Tubi already do this and it’s fine. Who cares how content gets to you if the content is worth watching? On the other side: Netflix’s original model — full seasons, your schedule, your choice — forced the entire industry to get better. HBO, Apple TV+, everyone had to adapt. The pressure created better TV. Going passive again, “just leave it on,” sounds a lot like cable. And cable was miserable not because of the format, but because the format didn’t force anyone to earn your attention. The Hang Jury wants to know: where do you land? Is Netflix going linear a sign they’re winning, or a sign they’re scared? 📦 The Drop 📱 Ben: Madden NFL 27 Apple Arcade https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/07/madden-nfl-27-arcade-edition-brings-gridiron-action-to-apple-arcade-on-august-6/ 🎥 Marty: OBSBOT Tiny 3 https://www.amazon.com/OBSBOT-Tiny-AI-Powered-Tracking-Streaming/dp/B0G636CXQM ✒️ Jeff: Kakimori Dip Pen https://kakimori.com/en/collections/dp 🖥️ Chuck: MNN 4K Portable Monitor 15.6″ https://amzn.to/4pKHexj 🔌 Patrice: 10G Tek Media Converter XG0200-SFP https://store.10gtek.com/10gbe-media-converter-10gbase-t-reach-30-meters-sfp-module-up-to-300-m-10-km-kit-34-ul-5v-1a/p-29515 ⌨️ Dave: Logitech Keys-To-Go 2 https://amzn.to/4gEP88M 🔗 Find Us 🦋 Bluesky 🐘 Mastodon 📺 Twitch ▶️ YouTube New episodes every week.

Samsung’s chip division made more money in 2025 than in its entire 40-year history. OpenAI got caught hiding billions of training logs. And Fiat is back with an 8-horsepower electric car that’s basically a luxury golf cart. Oh, and a Brown University professor gave a take-home exam, half his students scored perfect—then averaged a 48 when he gave it in person. That last one led to a debate that got heated. Come on, let’s get into it. This is The Tech Hangout. Let’s get into it. 🕐 Timestamps 0:00 — Intro & Welcome 3:45 — Samsung’s $196B Year (Tom) 16:28 — OpenAI’s Hidden Logs (Patrice) 27:10 — Fiat Topolino EV (Ben) 36:42 — Hang Jury: Brown University Take-Home Exam (Patrice) 50:46 — The Drop 58:00 — Find Us 🗂️ The Feed 🚗 Fiat Topolino EV — Car and Driver https://www.caranddriver.com/fiat/topolino 💰 Samsung Chip Division — Tom’s Hardware https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/samsungs-chip-division-expects-to-out-earn-its-entire-40-year-history-in-2026 🤖 OpenAI Hidden Logs — Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/openai-faked-inability-to-search-training-data-hid-billions-of-logs-nyt-says/ ⚖️ Hang Jury A Brown University professor did something he’d never done in 34 years of teaching—he gave his class a take-home exam, out of compassion for students who’d been through a traumatic event on campus. The results: 40 of 86 students scored a perfect 100. The cross average was 96. Previous years, no one had ever gone above 80. Then he gave the same exam in person. The average collapsed to 48. 27 students dropped the course. 22 of those had scored perfect 100s on the take-home version. “We cannot choose to become idiots.” — the professor’s public statement. The obvious reaction: they cheated. End of story. Thanks, OpenAI. But here’s the uncomfortable counter: nearly half of Harvard and Princeton seniors admit to doing the same thing. When it’s that widespread—especially in the Ivy League—is this a student character problem, or has higher education completely failed to adapt to a world where AI exists? The Hang Jury wants to know: where do you land? 📦 The Drop 🔌 Patrice: Ubiquiti USW Pro Max 16 https://eu.store.ui.com/eu/en/category/switching-professional-max-xg/products/usw-pro-max-16 📱 Tom: Watch Duty App https://apps.apple.com/us/app/watch-duty-wildfire-floods/id1574452924 🚲 Ben: E-Bike School YouTube Channel https://youtube.com/@ebikeschool 🔗 Find Us 🦋 Bluesky 🐘 Mastodon 📺 Twitch ▶️ YouTube New episodes every week.

Sony just gave physical game discs an expiration date: January 2028. After that, every new PlayStation game is digital-only. Meanwhile, Disney quietly agreed to pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit over forcing ESPN into every live TV streaming package — whether you wanted SportsCenter or not. Two different companies. One common message: “Trust us.” Plus: Apple fast-tracks security updates as AI-powered hacking accelerates, Kansas City wants to put facial recognition cameras on public buses (and we’ve got opinions), and NASA considers sending a backup Mars rover to the Moon. This is The Tech Hangout. Let’s get into it. ⏱️ Timestamps ⏱️ Timestamps 0:00 — Intro & welcome 32:10 — The Feed: Disney’s $50M ESPN forced-bundling settlement (Ben) 38:47 — Apple Q3 2026 earnings preview (Marty) 49:07 — Sony ends physical PlayStation discs in 2028 (Patrice) 1:00:06 — Apple accelerates security updates for AI threats (Dave) 1:09:11 — Hang Jury: Facial recognition on Kansas City buses 1:19:06 — The Drop 📰 The Feed — Links 🏛️ Disney agreed to $50M settlement over claims it made live-TV streaming expensive (Ars Technica) 📊 What to expect from Apple’s Q3 2026 results on July 30 (AppleInsider) 🎮 Sony to end physical PlayStation game disc production in 2028 (TechCrunch) 🔐 Apple accelerates security updates in response to AI-powered hacking risks (9to5Mac) 🚀 NASA may send a backup, nuclear-powered Mars rover to the Moon (Ars Technica) 🎯 The Drop Who | Pick Dave | EtreCheck — deep-dive diagnostic utility for Mac Ben | Silo Season 3 — now streaming on Apple TV+. Also check out: How Did We Lose This World Marty | Greatest Hits by Harlan Ellison — essential short fiction from a legendary provocateur Jeff | Pentel Art Multi 8 — 8-color mechanical pencil, ~$26 Patrice | MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN — compact 4-port SFP+ switch for 10G home networking 🔗 Find Us 🦋 Bluesky 🐘 Mastodon 📺 Twitch ▶️ YouTube New episodes every week.

Apple just raised prices across the board. MacBooks, iPhones, Vision Pro, HomePod — all of it. Tim Cook says it’s unavoidable. Component costs have never risen this fast, and they can’t shield you from it anymore. Here’s the twist — Apple is also on track for record market share in 2026. More expensive. More popular. Somehow both. And on the other side of the world, China just reclaimed the title of fastest supercomputer on the planet. First time since 2017. Built with domestic chips. No US hardware required. This is The Tech Hangout. Let’s get into it. ⏱️ Timestamps Time Topic 0:00 Intro & welcome ~20:51 The Feed — RAMnarök pt. 2: Apple raises prices on everything (Ben) ~32:07 Apple set for record market share in 2026 (Marty) ~37:44 Instagram adds per-slide captions (Chuck) ~43:09 China reclaims world’s fastest supercomputer (Patrice) ~49:30 The Hang Jury — UK bans social media for under-16s: Bold protection or political theatre? ~1:02:45 The Drop 📰 The Feed — Links 💾 Apple raises prices on Mac, iPad, and more (9to5Mac) 📈 Apple set to reach record market share across three major product categories in 2026 (9to5Mac) 📱 Instagram is allowing users to add captions to individual slides (Fast Company) 🖥️ China beats US with world’s fastest supercomputer (Reuters) 🎯 The Drop Who Pick Marty *The Slow Professor* by Maggie Berg & Barbara K. Seeber Chuck UGREEN 240W USB-C to USB-C Cable (USB4 Gen4, 80Gbps) — ~$18 on Amazon Prime Ben Beats Solo 4 Headphones — currently half price at $99! Patrice Meross Smart Wi-Fi Indoor/Outdoor Plug — Matter compatible, dual outlet 🔗 Find Us 🦋 Bluesky 🐘 Mastodon 📺 Twitch ▶️ YouTube New episodes every week.

Your Apple devices are about to cost more. Tim Cook confirmed it himself — a global RAM shortage is coming for your wallet. AI is eating the world’s RAM supply. Some have dubbed it RAMnarök, and there’s nothing Thor is going to be able to do about it. Meanwhile, Snap just launched a pair of AR glasses for just under $2,200. They look like something your optician’s most eccentric patient would wear. And people are already asking the question nobody at Snap wanted to hear. Big tech, big prices, big questions. This is The Tech Hangout. ⏱️ Timestamps Time Topic 0:00 Intro & welcome ~5:10 The Feed — Tim Cook’s farewell “Good Morning” video (Chuck) ~16:10 Snap SPECS AR glasses — $2,200 and very silly (Patrice) ~28:30 Apple’s coming hardware: foldable, smart home, smart glasses & more (Marty) ~42:40 Microsoft Copilot in healthcare — Mayo Clinic & AI in the enterprise (Dave) ~54:00 RAMnarök — Tim Cook confirms Apple price hikes are coming (Ben) ~1:01:40 The Hang Jury — Siri AI blocked in the EU: Legitimate concern or bureaucratic BS? ~1:14:30 The Picks 📰 The Feed — Links 🎬 Tim Cook posts comedic “Good Morning” video to mark final Apple event as CEO (9to5Mac) 🕶️ Snap “Specs” AR glasses (ihnatko.com) 📱 Next year to be Apple’s biggest product year yet — here’s what’s coming (9to5Mac) 🏥 People are flooding AI chatbots with health questions. Microsoft is teaming up with Mayo Clinic to help (CNN Business) 💾 Apple confirms price increases are coming due to RAM shortage (9to5Mac) 🎯 The Picks Who Pick Patrice FYTA Smart Fitness Tracker for Plants Ben iPad mini 7 Marty KardiaMobile 6L Max ECG Monitor Chuck Remarkable People podcast with Guy Kawasaki Dave *The Supertramp Book* by Abel Fuentes + *Crime of the Century* Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1975 (Blu-ray) 🔗 Find Us 🦋 Bluesky 🐘 Mastodon 📺 Twitch ▶️ YouTube New episodes every week.

It’s our very first episode! Apple didn’t just update Siri — they threw it out and started over. Plus a Microsoft security scandal, a $12 billion AI bet from Jeff Bezos, and a heated debate: was Apple’s Liquid Glass redesign a bold vision or a broken design forced on a billion users for a year? ⏱️ Timestamps Time Topic 0:00 Intro & welcome ~6:30 The Feed — Microsoft zero-day drama (Chuck) ~14:00 Prometheus AI raises $12B (Jeff) ~21:30 Apple’s new Siri AI — iOS 27 beta (Ben) ~25:00 Investors vs. WWDC (Dave) ~32:00 Apple Passwords goes agentic (Patrice) ~39:00 visionOS panoramic environments (Marty) ~43:30 The Hang Jury — Liquid Glass: Capitulation or Maturity? ~52:56 The Picks 📰 The Feed — Links 🔐 Chaotic Eclipse: Windows Defender Zero-Day (The Next Web) 🤖 Jeff Bezos’s Prometheus raises $12B to build an artificial general engineer (TechCrunch) 🍎 Apple introduces Siri AI — a profoundly more capable and personal assistant (Apple Newsroom) 📈 Investors are misreading Apple’s latest AI announcement (Mac Daily News) 🔑 Apple Passwords can now automatically fix passwords with agentic AI (MacRumors) 👓 Apple Vision Pro user-created environments — WWDC 2026 (Lifehacker) 🎯 The Picks Jeff — Trello Dave — Logic Pro Chuck — Elgato Stream Deck XL (the Stream Deck Virtual app is free with any hardware Stream Deck — but skip the small and medium, just get the XL!) Marty — SportsBar (Mac App Store) Ben — *Masters of the Universe* (2026 film) Patrice — *Criminal Records* (Apple TV+) 🔗 Find Us ▶️ YouTube 🦋 Bluesky 🐘 Mastodon 📺 Twitch

Welcome to The Tech Hangout! 👋 This is our introduction video — a quick look at who we are, where we came from, and what we’re building here. The Tech Hangout is a live show where a group of friends gets together every week to break down the biggest stories in tech. From Apple and Android to chips, AI, big tech and beyond — we cover the full spectrum without the clickbait, the hype, or the corporate spin. We used to do this on the British Tech Network. Then the network closed, and the weekly hangouts stopped. We missed it — so we brought it back, on our own terms. No scripts. No suits. No hype. Just friends talking tech. 🔔 Subscribe to never miss an episode 🎙️ Podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify & everywhere you listen 🌐 thetechhangout.com