The Pixel 10a is a Beautiful Red Beast - DTNS 5220

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2:28Jason Howell: this is the daily tech news for friday march 6th 2026 we tell you what you need to know give you the important context and help each other understand today you jason howell have a mini review of the google pixel 10a that's right i've got this red beast in my hand right now i'm going to give it a review. I'm Jason Howell.

2:48Sarah Lane: And I'm Sarah Lane.

2:49Jason Howell: Let's start with what you need to know with a big story.

2:55Jason Howell: And yes, I realize this was mentioned on yesterday's show. So, you know, it could have been yesterday's big story, but it wasn't. So that's why we're talking about it today. Yesterday, the Google Pixel 10a officially went on sale. Plenty of reviews hit the interwebs. I've had the phone for around a week and I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily ready to give like my full like comprehensive top to bottom review. But I certainly have thoughts and they start with the color. What do you think of this color, Sarah? It's like if you're watching the video version, which we have now, by the way, you can go to the YouTube channel, Daily Tech News Show.

3:31Jason Howell: It's kind of like a tomato red. And I got to say in person, it's it's really nice. I really enjoy having this color of a phone. I don't know. Have you ever had a red phone?

3:40Sarah Lane: It's like you're the person in baggage claim that has a suitcase that isn't black. Right. Or, you know, or navy. And you're like, yeah, you know, that's mine. That's mine. That's mine. As I'm wearing a red sweatshirt today, I'm very fond of the color red and many shades of red. As you mentioned, it is sort of a tomato red, which I guess kind of almost makes it look like pasta sauce. Oh, okay. I like it. I would say that if you were a person who is into colors matching other colors, red can be a little problematic. Do you care about that if you're wearing a pink dress, for example? Some people would, some people wouldn't.

4:25Jason Howell: That's a question I had not even considered that. I am wearing a pink-ish shirt, salmon, or I don't know what you call it. So there is a little bit of a clash factor. I don't care. I see them as disparate things when it comes to the color. This is just one quality of this phone. What is the A-series for the Pixel? Generally, it is, I mean, not generally, specifically, it is Google's kind of mid-range solution for their Pixel lineup. $499 still. I think, I don't know how many years now they've been pricing at$499. I'm happy that they continue to stick there. I think there's some sort of like a mental kind of thing that's associated with that price point.

5:07Jason Howell: If it was to go up to like, you know,$580 or$600, it would kind of push it into a new realm entirely. And so I'm happy they keep it there. 5 ,100 milliamp hour battery. And so I have found the battery life on this to be excellent. It's honestly, it is 100 millimeters less than the top of the line, which I don't actually have the XL version of the Pixel 10 Pro. I just have the standard Pixel 10 Pro, But it is only 100 millimeter or sorry, milliamp hour less. And so it's a pretty large battery for a mid-ranger.

5:41Sarah Lane: And for anybody who's like, OK, you know, milliamp, you know, what what does this get me? You know, fully charged in the morning. Am I good to go all day?

5:50Jason Howell: One hundred percent. You're good to go through the evening, you know, part of the next day. I mean, the way I think of it really these days is those numbers probably matter less than do I feel battery anxiety at any time when I'm using the phone. And I definitely do not with this phone. Thankfully, that's becoming less and less of an issue. It does happen from time to time, but I definitely don't feel that with the XA. I think everybody's been on, you know, going on and on about the camera design because with the 10A is this very flush kind of camera profile. There is no camera bump. I mean, it is literally a flat kind of sheet of glass.

6:33Jason Howell: Yeah, I'm already jealous.

6:35Sarah Lane: I hate the camera bump. Yeah. I mean, I don't care about it aesthetically, but it's like every time I put it down on a table, I'm like, I just feel like I'm basically putting the whole phone down on the camera itself. And it just feels like a wobble. Yeah, it just it feels unsafe.

6:53Jason Howell: Yeah, totally. It feels exposed. It feels unsafe. I mean, that is what, you know, Google definitely mentioned in, you know, some of the press briefings that I attended on the head of release and everything that, you know, they've spent a lot of time really working on the design here to make sure that it's embedded, but to also include good cameras, right? Because you could embed into the design and have a poor camera as a result because you kind of need that distance in order to let in more light and that sort of stuff. And I'm definitely happy to say that, like, as I've come to expect on Google Pixel cameras, just in general, the camera quality is fantastic on this device.

7:35Jason Howell: The main 48 megapixel lens, excellent low light performance. like my main question getting this phone was, are the quality, is the quality of the images going to suffer because of the embedded quality of the design? Like do things get more shallow? And as a result, the pictures end up worse. And, you know, Google's doing a lot of, you know, processing on the backend as well to make these images look great. But we're used to seeing good pixel images. You're still getting them with the 10A. And I think that's a good thing.

8:05Sarah Lane: I think people also, and I am definitely in this camp, we get wrapped up in, well, you know, you want the best camera. We want the best camera available. And it's, it's kind of like a little bit of a come to Jesus you have to have with yourself. Like, what are you really taking photos of or video? you know because because we there's a lot of stuff that uh can be done in post-processing to make you know that whole thing pop you know way better than that original picture you shot or maybe it's just you know you're a casual picture taker and not everybody is going to make you know their next feature film with one of these phones and you kind of have to be like all right what do I want to pay for something that's pretty great?

8:52Sarah Lane: Good battery life, good camera, you know, price points, very attractive. You know, this is that sweet spot I think you were talking about.

9:00Jason Howell: Yeah, totally. And I think time and time again, that's been my feeling about the A-Series is that it really does hit the sweet spot, especially if camera quality is important to you. Because like we said, so much of this stuff is Google putting its software magic and its, you know, AI kind of tendrils into these different aspects and making them just better than they would be without, essentially. To that end, it is notable that this is using last year's Tensor chip, the G4 chip, not the G5 that you find in the modern phones, which makes sense when you're talking about a mid-range, but Google hasn't always done that.

9:39Jason Howell: Sometimes they've given you the current up-to-date and this time they're giving you a year back. And some people have complained about thermal issues related to that. I haven't experienced any of that. I've been pretty happy with the performance on it and everything. So I don't know. I'd say in general, I'm pretty satisfied, pretty happy at$500. I think you could do a heck of a lot worse. In fact, this is probably one of my picks for this year. The A-Series usually is for the mid-range as far as what you get for that price. I think you just get a lot here as well as the ecosystem and all that other stuff that I haven't talked about, but it's a solid phone.

10:15Jason Howell: And, you know, I think they delivered even though they have the flush camera in the design and I like the color.

10:21Sarah Lane: I mean, the flush camera, I want that Apple.

10:26Jason Howell: Are you listening? You want that. Now, if you got that and the camera quality diminished a little bit, would that be a worthy trade-off for you?

10:32Sarah Lane: It wouldn't be a deal breaker for me because I feel like my, you know, and again, I'm, you know, an iOS person, but you know, several cycles back on iOS, I was like, these are great photos, you know, like, I mean, I'm not blowing these up to, you know, 20 by 30 and putting them on my wall for the most part. These are just, these are, these are good photos and yeah, I can play around with filters and stuff, you know, after the fact, if it's something that really matters to me and yeah, that's, I would say, I would say I would go flush before absolute best camera. I don't know if I would have said that a few years ago, but that's how I feel now.

11:12Jason Howell: Yeah, that's interesting. This camera can do 4K video quality and video looks fine. Again, it's kind of like what you're saying. You have to ask yourself, of all the video and all the highest res photos that I'm taking and everything, how much reuse do I get out of any of those other than capturing the moment and seeing it once or twice in my photo roll that's filled with hundreds of thousands of photos and videos.

11:39Sarah Lane: I mean, for example, a friend of mine who lives down in Houston, Texas, uh, is a sports photographer. So this is very important to him. You know, you've got a bunch of, you know, action happening and, and, you know, lighting is very important. Like you, he is a person who's like, I need the best camera at all times. And maybe you would just go DSLR at that point. But, um, but I think, you know, a lot of the rest of us kind of go like, well, I want the best one too. But do you?

12:09Jason Howell: Do you need it?

12:10Sarah Lane: What do you need it for?

12:11Jason Howell: I want a lot of things. Do I need that?

12:13Sarah Lane: I want a lot of things, but do I want to pay for those things?

12:16Jason Howell: Yes. That's where you have to be selective. That's the trade-off right there. So yeah. So I like it. I think it's a great phone. I think you could, yeah, I think you could very easily buy this if you're looking for a mid-range and you want to be an Android ecosystem. I really like the Pixel kind of approach on how how it does Android and all the design and everything. So yes, thumbs up.

12:39Sarah Lane: Excellent. Well, we like to select a few patrons on every show to shout you out and let you know that we appreciate your support more than life itself. Thanks to Ali Sanjabi, AB Puppy, and Dale McKay.

12:54Jason Howell: Thank you.

13:01Sarah Lane: This episode is brought to you by Capital One. Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI. They already deployed one. It's called Chat Concierge and it's simplifying car shopping. Using self-reflection and layered reasoning with live API checks, it doesn't just help buyers find a car they love. It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing, and estimate trade-in value. Advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they stack. That's technology at Capital One. Busy work weeks can leave you feeling drained. Prolon's five-day fasting mimicking diet works at the cellular level to rejuvenate you from the inside out, providing real results that include fat-focused, sustainable weight loss with no injection needed.

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15:33Jason Howell: There is so much more we need to get today, so let's get to the briefs.

15:37Sarah Lane: Let's do it. So Microsoft's new CEO of Xbox, Asha Sharma, announced the new details on the new next-gen Xbox gaming console, codenamed Project Helix. Sharma says the new console will be able to play both Xbox and PC games. She also shared in her ex-post that the system will lead in performance, though she shared no specific details for that claim. Microsoft had already revealed that the next console would be some sort of hybrid device with a very premium, very high-end curated experience. Now, this is all ahead of the Game Developers Conference. That's going on next week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

16:18Sarah Lane: So you're going to get some stories like that.

16:21Jason Howell: Yeah, I'm sure. Maybe we hear a little bit more about what this looks like. I mean, this is the first time that a console would be able to actually play PC games. That's a super compelling idea. But we've seen these things. I'm not a huge gamer, but I've certainly watched from the sidelines as both of these aspects of gaming. You've got your PC, your hardcore PC gamers. You've got your console gamers that couldn't care less about PC. They're all converging to this high performance level. And maybe this is just a part of Microsoft saying, hey, why should they be separate? Why can't they be?

17:00Sarah Lane: Right. Yeah. It's like the Venn diagram of like PC gamers, console gamers, and then mobile gamers somewhere in there as well. It's like it usually I usually hear it as someone on a PC wants to play a console game instead of the other way around. So, yeah, I mean, the more options you have, I don't know who's going to be mad at this. It sounds, especially because Xbox has, you know, been going through some growing pains and trying to figure out, all right, so, you know, what are we? Are we streaming? Are we console? Are we some hybrid of both? And I think the answer, if you can achieve it, is both.

17:42Jason Howell: What's coming to mind for me now, too, is Steam. Like, would, because Steam you can run on your computer, right? You can install Steam games on your computer. Does that necessarily mean that you could install Steam games onto an Xbox console that can play PC games? Or is it going to be locked into like a Microsoft PC games universe, not necessarily broadened out to Steam? That could be a good one of people. Be curious to hear the details on that. Something tells me no to Steam, but hey, we could be surprised.

18:16Sarah Lane: Yeah, it's probably a, and these are the games that are compatible. Right. These are the ones. Yeah. Rather than, yeah, any game you want, you know, they're just, you know, cross platform.

18:27Jason Howell: Totally. Totally.

18:28Sarah Lane: But yeah, well, you know, as we as GDC is happening next week, Microsoft and other companies are going to be talking a lot about, you know, the next gen of what we're all doing because that's the focus. So I'm sure we'll hear more about it later.

18:46Jason Howell: 100%. Well, carrying on from Tom's short extra release yesterday afternoon, we have more news on the fight between Anthropic and the Department of Defense. So buckle up. Got a few things to note here. Anthropic said it has indeed received a letter from the Department of Defense labeling it a supply chain risk. However, there is no indication yet that the Department of Defense has gone through the other steps required to make that official. There are two laws governing the declaration of a supply chain risk. The military-specific one allows the Secretary of Defense to unilaterally make the designation.

19:24Jason Howell: So that's likely the one being used here. That law requires a specific finding that, quote, an adversary may sabotage, maliciously introduce unwanted function or otherwise subvert, end quote, a covered system to surveil, deny, disrupt or otherwise degrade the function use or operation of such system. So does that constitute what anthropic is? You know, that's a that's a question, I guess.

19:52Sarah Lane: Well, that's something the DOD, I guess, hasn't totally said yes or no.

19:56Jason Howell: Yeah, exactly. I imagine we're going to get to the bottom of that here pretty soon. Then there must be the following. A joint recommendation with the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and the Chief Information Officer finding that the system, in this case, that system is anthropic, fits that definition, like we said. A written determination that the use of this authority is necessary to protect national security by reducing supply chain risk and that less intrusive measures are not reasonably available. And then they have to notify the appropriate congressional committees.

20:35Jason Howell: And if all those steps are taken, you've got judicial review possibly being barred. That would leave Anthropik's only legal option to challenge the law's constitutionality. If those steps are not taken, Anthropic could sue over that. And Anthropic has only said that it will challenge the designation in court. And even if the designation holds, it only affects the part of the business that's directly related to the U.S. government. Companies can actually continue to use Anthropic for other purposes. So it's not a holistic sort of ban. So, for example, Microsoft says its lawyers have determined that Anthropics products may remain in Microsoft products.

21:19Jason Howell: So kind of like a tangential kind of inclusion, not necessarily fully kind of reliant, that sort of thing, if I'm understanding this correctly.

21:27Sarah Lane: Yeah, this is a tough one. So, you know, it all comes down to is Anthropic a supply chain risk, right? I mean, on the surface, that's what we're all trying to figure out. Anthropics says now. Department of Defense says yes. And there are many twists and turns for how people are feeling about this. What you just mentioned, Jason, of all the steps that the DOD would need to do to get ahead of this and to, again, deem Anthropics a supply chain risk, that's a lot of steps. Now, obviously, people work in government for a reason. if the people who are on the case for this are doing their jobs, then you get things pushed through.

22:12Sarah Lane: But then you hear something like appropriate congressional committees. And we know how those things tend to not be swift. And there's lots of arguments that go on when it comes to this sort of thing. And I think if I were working at Anthropic right now and I had a real horse in this race, I'd say, we're kind of good to go for a while because governmental stuff like this tends to drag on.

22:43Jason Howell: Yeah, it can be a little slow.

22:45Sarah Lane: And especially if, like you said, a third party who is not involved in the fight, like Microsoft, can still use the products. I mean, sure, Anthropic might be getting replaced by other options in certain sectors. But if that's not compulsory, then I don't know how much they're really sweating this.

23:11Jason Howell: Yeah, yeah. It remains to be seen. And obviously this continues to be a really big story, especially right now. So who knows, we come back after the weekend, it could be completely different. AI moves quick, Jason. Yes, it does. Yes, it does.

23:28Sarah Lane: Well, age verification laws in some U.S. states are pushing for controls to be integrated at the operating system level, the OS level. California, Colorado, and New York State are all crafting laws that would require OSs to collect and share users' ages with app stores and online services. The register is reporting that if this were to pass, it would pose a big problem for free and open source systems like Linux, which don't have a unified account system or global app stores or the resources to implement complicated state by state age detection systems. This is also leading to some open source projects like MidnightBSD and DB48X Calculator to effectively ban users in those states because they just don't want to deal with it.

24:15Sarah Lane: And spending resources working on an approved system for that age verification.

24:20Jason Howell: I mean, yeah, not wanting to deal with it, not having the resources, not being able to deal with it, right? It becomes another one of those things. It's like, okay, what are the kind of unintended or maybe intended? I don't know. But I'm assuming unintended consequences of something like this that just dramatically impact a whole swath of businesses and projects because they just simply aren't built to be able to support something like this. Like it just technically doesn't make a whole lot of sense other than to just say, you know what? This just doesn't work for our architecture.

24:58Sarah Lane: There's also so many questions I have about, okay, age verification at the OS level. All right. So let's say I walk into my office where I'm, where I'm sitting right now. I, you know, log into my computer. Um, I maybe, uh, it's, uh, doing a fingerprint or scanning my eyes, or there's some other passkey that gets me into the system i am over the age of 16 you know type thing and then i just kind of go like okay we're we're in come on come on honey uh you know daughter of mine who's come on darling who's who's who's a very different age from me yeah i mean what how does that work because and maybe i'm missing something but if you're not being constantly monitored in a way that, I mean, we're talking like, I am for sure the person that I say that I am during this entire session that I'm sitting on my computer, which could be all day, by the way.

25:56Sarah Lane: How is that possibly enforced?

25:58Jason Howell: That's always the challenge with these things, right? Like they're completely imperfect. And, you know, maybe it requires when you log into your, you know, your computer for the first time. I mean, we already all do this sometimes. we put our credit card in for an account because that's how we get our cloud storage to back up or whatever, you know? And, but, but how does, to your point, how does the computer know that I'm not just someone that in the family that knows the password, right? Like, yeah, we've got one computer. We password protected because we don't want someone to come into the house and have access to everything.

26:35Jason Howell: We don't care if we all have access to it, you know?

26:38Sarah Lane: Right. And even if it's a touch ID thing, or it's like, well, you know, there's only one kind of fingerprint that, you know, is my index finger. It's like, that's fine. But then once I'm in, and I'm not saying that everyone's going to go out of their way to game a system like this. I understand the intention, but it just seems very far-fetched that it would be effective.

27:02Jason Howell: Very ineffective. Right. And hardware vendor System76 actually posted about this. they are arguing, you know, publicly in the post that these laws are too vague, but also pointing out the fact that parents especially know this very well, right? That kids are, they're just smart enough to evade these systems. And which is not, you know, that's not an excuse to say, so then we don't do anything to, to, you know, try and change things or protect people or whatever. But it just kind of proves the point that like, no matter what you do. There is no perfect system.

27:36Sarah Lane: There's always a workaround.

27:38Jason Howell: I mean, back in the day when you and

27:41Sarah Lane: I were on AOL Instant Messenger, Jason, it's like we all had a secret language. Parents didn't know what we were talking about. It's like kids are smart.

27:50Jason Howell: Yeah. Kids are very smart. Let me tell you, my seventh grade year old self was very smart, too smart for my own good when it came to computers and it got me into trouble. I'll just say that. OpenAI has released the new GPT 5.4 model yesterday. It's bringing a more agentic capability to its arsenal with native computer control for the first time. So this means it can operate your desktop, your apps, your keyboard, your mouse to complete multi-step tasks across software that you have installed, that sort of stuff all on its own. The new model targets reasonings across documents, code writing that happens directly on the machine, coordinated tools and APIs, which all just basically means it's capable of handling more complex jobs from beginning to end.

28:40Jason Howell: How well does it do it? Well, that remains to be seen. OpenAI says that GPT 5.4 is even better at producing presentations. So if you like producing presentations, you're going to get more varied aesthetics. You're going to get better image generations tied into it. never have to create one long form by hand again, or so they think. GPT 5.4 will be available in pro and thinking modes. So basically free and go users won't have access, at least for now. Who knows down the line that might open up, but this kind of seems like the thing that you need to be paying a little bit more to get access to because it's, you know, it's a more advanced use of these systems and they're learning a lot.

29:19Jason Howell: I imagine as like Anthropic is with Claude Co-Work and that sort of stuff.

29:25Sarah Lane: Now I am a chat GPT free user. Um, I, I haven't bit the bullet. Um, I know many people who have, and they tell me up and down, Oh, it's totally different, Sarah. You're going to get so much more out of, you know, just, just ponying up the, you know, 20 bucks a month or, you know, whatever it is. And I, I just for myself, and this is probably me showing my age. I just, I'm like, nah, I can just do it myself. But I also do, and you do too. It's like, we're very, it's like personality driven work. I'm not doing a lot of presentations. What I'm doing is what we're doing right now, the show. And that requires me to feel like I have a lot of control over, you know, what I say, what I write, you know, how I'm researching.

30:11Sarah Lane: It just, it's, it's, I'm, I'm reluctant to give up a lot of that control. Now, that said, when you're talking about stuff that's happening, you know, a variety of levels on the OS that you're using, I will, let's say for daily tech headlines, you know, write the whole thing, write, link, research, record, publish, good to go. After publish, we do some formatting. we all do it a little bit differently depending on you know who it is on the team but we do some formatting for like a sub stack post stuff that goes out to patreon it's just a nice little you know like a formatting thing that i run through chat gpt but it's a little tedious to do that it's not the end of the world but if there was some sort of scenario where i could just be like okay every time i do this every time this publishes on wordpress then we do xyz afterwards that would save me some time i'd be into that i don't totally know how that works but you know i'm i'm interested because i know uh a lot of people are way ahead of me on this because they they just do different things day to day and and they say oh yeah yeah you can do all of that It sounds like hiring, you know, hiring your own intern, your own PA, your own assistant.

31:39Yeah.

31:40Jason Howell: It sounds to me like you're computer control curious, Sarah. I am. I'm CCC. And yeah, I mean, systems like this do, you know, potentially do that. It takes some time to figure out or to kind of noodle on how to effectively build systems so that they work like that almost every time the way you expect them to. But yeah, the potential is pretty great. And it also opens up doors of potential damage to your files suddenly disappearing if you don't have it set up right and everything. So there's a lot of ups and there's a lot of downs, I think, with this right now. We're starting to see these models and these companies kind of lean way further into it.

32:24Jason Howell: And so a lot more people are going to experience the downs as a result, But maybe that gets us to a quicker future where those things are kind of minimized and we get to kind of the good output on the other side. But, you know, the fact that this is coming into something like ChatGPT, it just means more people will start playing around with this stuff because so many people are using ChatGPT, you know. Right. Yeah.

32:50Sarah Lane: And when I say like, I don't know if this is for me or not. again, early days. You only need that one, um, you know, sort of proof of process and you go,

33:00Jason Howell: Oh, okay. Oh, and that's, that's exactly how it works. You do that one thing. And then you're like, Oh, now I understand. And suddenly everything, you know, everything becomes, how do I automate this?

33:10Sarah Lane: Yeah. How do I automate this without, you know, losing my sense of healing myself? Without totally destroying my life. Yeah. Right. Right. Well, something that will not destroy your life is getting some from our store. If you are looking for a fun gift or a friend or a colleague you may have that you know likes our show, or maybe just for yourself, we have lots of ideas at dailytechnewshow.com slash store. You can pick up a mug, T-shirt, mouse pad, all sorts of stuff. New DTness logo is part of that. So, you know, you're rocking the brand, which is a great way to support us and help spread the word.

33:52Sarah Lane: This episode is brought to you by Capital One. Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI. They already deployed one. It's called Chat Concierge and it's simplifying car shopping. Using self-reflection and layered reasoning with live API checks, it doesn't just help buyers find a car they love. It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing, and estimate trade-in value. Advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they sack. That's technology at Capital One. Are you noticing your car insurance rate creep up even without tickets or claims? You're not alone.

34:27Sarah Lane: That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant. Jerry handles the legwork by comparing quotes side-by-side from over 50 top insurers so you can confidently hit buy. No spam calls, no hidden fees. Jerry even tracks rates and alerts you when it's best to shop.

34:58Jason Howell: All right, now some quick headlines that are good to know might make you look smarter in the future.

35:04Sarah Lane: Anthropics Claude Opus 4.6 uncovered more than 100 bugs in the Firefox browser over two weeks of analysis, 14 of which were rated high severity. That's more than a worldwide community of bug hunters normally reports in about two months. So AI agents, kind of smart.

35:23Jason Howell: AI proving itself, I suppose, again. The U.S. Senate unanimously passed COPPA 2.0. It's a bill that updates kids' online privacy rules by blocking platforms from collecting data on users under 17 without consent. It still faces, however, considerable resistance in the house.

35:42Sarah Lane: Google's new workspace command line interface turns Gmail, Drive, and Docs into direct connections for OpenClaw-style agents, replacing complex multi-API processes. I feel like we're on a theme here today, Jason.

35:58Jason Howell: Yes. See, getting easier, easier access, all that stuff. Apple's teaming up with the Sydney Opera House for a year long program that uses iPad and Procreate to drive youth focused creative events and an international children's festival that includes lighting the opera house sales with public made art. I'd love to see that. Sounds cool.

36:16Sarah Lane: I mean, I love that opera house. But yeah, that's kind of fun. Speaking of Apple, Apple dropped the 512 gigabyte RAM option for the M3 Ultra Max Studio. It's now capped at 256 gigs. Still a lot of RAM. Still a lot. But RAM gate continues.

36:37Jason Howell: Yeah. It's not twice as much, though. So I'm going to complain. Yep. Uh, one plus says it's upcoming mid range. 15 T smartphone will include a 7 ,500 milliamp hour glacier battery. That's what they're calling it. 200 more than the pricier flagship with 100 watt wire charging and 50 watt wireless charging speeds. So battery beast.

37:00Sarah Lane: Wouldn't, wouldn't the pricier flagship be the one that would have the best.

37:05Jason Howell: I mean, typically that's the case, but you know, sometimes they do weird things. OnePlus is kind of kooky. Yeah, it's true.

37:15Sarah Lane: The UK has delayed its AI copyright bill after creative artists slam plans to let tech companies train their models on copyrighted work without consents.

37:25Jason Howell: Microsoft is previewing a new focus group, it's called, feature in Edge that simplifies building keyboard accessible navigation. This is so that developers can create more navigable websites for users who can't use like a pointing device.

37:39Sarah Lane: united airlines is now requiring passengers to use headphones for any audio or video content that they may be watching in their seats and can remove or permanently ban customers who refuse to comply yep i'm clapping too now i haven't been on a i don't fly as much as i used to um but united airlines is kind of my airline and i you know we all we've all been in that situation where you're

38:06Jason Howell: like come on really man oh totally yeah here's my only thing yeah it's like you use headphones i

38:11Sarah Lane: mean what what does it matter with you but my my only thing is like all right family of four traveling kid hit kid holding tablet either doesn't use headphones generally or maybe the headphones were left behind and you think do i want the kid meltdown or do i want to hear that

38:29Jason Howell: game am i okay with it a while that's a good point that's a good point and now these devices is, you know, they don't have a headphone like port. It's, it's like a USB-C port that you got to have an adapter for. So if you're on a plane and you forgot the headphones, you can't just like, oh ma 'am, could I, you know, get the headphones that they hand out and plug them in?

38:49Sarah Lane: So it's a good point. There's crappy headphones that don't work anyway.

38:51Jason Howell: Yeah, totally. But better than nothing.

38:53Sarah Lane: Yeah. Yeah. So this is, I think we're, we're going in the right direction as far as just, okay, everybody, you know, this is, this is how we do things on a plane. People want to sleep.

39:03Jason Howell: That's a really good point though. Yeah. What would I prefer? What would I rather have? And I think I would rather have the kid watching something, to be honest. Yep. But I also have noise canceling headphones that I bring. And so I kind of don't care. Right. I block it all out anyways. We end every episode of DTNS with some shared perspectives. And today, Tim has a strong opinion on Paramount acquiring Warner Brothers Discovery.

39:25Sarah Lane: Yeah, indeed. So Tim writes, I've been rooting against Paramount winning this Warner Brothers sale war purely because I hate the Paramount Plus app so much. It is by far the worst UI and UX of any streaming app on my Apple TV. There have been multiple times where I've gone into a specific show on the app and just gotten stuck. No menus available to back out. The menu key on the result just took me out of the app completely, back to the Apple TV home screen, and then back in the Paramount Plus app, I'm still stuck in that show. Rinse and repeat until I reboot the Apple TV or I just go watch something on another app until it forgets where I was and then I can start over.

40:05Sarah Lane: But Tim says, dang, I hope they don't force me into that terrible Paramount Plus app. I will be among the first to cancel my subscription if they do. My library list of shows I need to watch is long enough to sustain me for a few years without it.

40:19Jason Howell: Apologies to any of the developers of the app who might listening. It's not a problem with you. It's just a problem with the app. And, you know, this is going to happen, right?

40:29Sarah Lane: You know, I don't use the Paramount Plus app. So I don't have a, you know, hands on the ground idea of how good or bad it is. But I do have other apps that I feel like I know what you're talking about, Tim. For example, one of my friends, well, I have a few Plex servers that I have access to that my friends curate. And there's one server that, and this is totally different because this is not just one company running a streaming app. But one server that is just riddled with errors all the time, you know, so I think I'm going into the evening wanting to watch a movie or a show and it's like, I can't get it to work.

41:07Sarah Lane: And I just, I just give up. I'm like, all right, I'll just go do something else. And I think that's what Tim is talking about here. It's like, if the UI sucks that much, I'm just going to watch other things and I'm not going to come back.

41:20Jason Howell: Absolutely. That makes, that's very sensible to me too. I've certainly experienced that. So believe me, we are in no shortage of stuff to watch across any number of different places. And so there are a lot of options out there.

41:35Sarah Lane: There are more than ever, more than ever. If you are thinking about something that we mentioned on the show, maybe you have an app that you think is worse than Paramount+. If you have insight to a story that we may talk about on a future show, we would love to hear from you. Share it with us at feedback at dailytechnewsshow.com.

41:54Jason Howell: That's right. Thank you, Tim, for contributing to today's show. And thank you out there for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You can keep us in business by becoming a patron. Go to patreon.com slash DTNS.

42:11Jason Howell: This week's episodes of Daily Tech News Show were created by the following people. Host, producer, writer, Tom Merritt. Host, writer, Jason Howell. Co-host, Sarah Lane. Co-host, Rob Dunwood. Co-host, Jen Cutter. producer Anthony Lemos, producer Roger Chang, editor Hammond Chamberlain, editor Victor Bognat, contributing producers Kevin Tech, Noel Cow, and Brandon Richards, science correspondent Dr. Nikki Ackermans, social media producer and moderator Zoe Detterding, our mods Beatmaster, WSkottis1, BioCow, Captain Kipper, Steve Guadarama, Paul Reese, Matthew J. Stevens, aka Gadget Virtuoso, and J.D.

42:49Jason Howell: Galloway. Mod and video hosting by Dan Christensen, music provided by Martin Bell and Dan Luters, art by Len Peralta, Acast ad support from Tatiana Matias, Patreon support from Bobby Wagner, and our guest this week, Andy Beach. And thanks to all our patrons who make this show possible.

43:21Sarah Lane: The DTNS family of podcasts. Helping each other understand.

43:27Jason Howell: Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.

43:35Sarah Lane: This episode is brought to you by Capital One. Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI. They already deployed one. It's called Chat Concierge and it's simplifying car shopping. Using self-reflection and layered reasoning with live API checks, It doesn't just help buyers find a car they love. It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing, and estimate trade-in value. Advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they stack. That's technology at Capital One.

44:04Jason Howell: Over 90 of the top 100 U.S. accounting firms trust Bill to simplify and secure BillPay. That's proven financial infrastructure built on over a trillion dollars of secure payments. Visit bill.com slash proven for a special offer.