1. Podcasts
  2. Daily Tech News Show
  3. Why Anthropic is Fighting with the US Military - DTNS 5216
Daily Tech News Show

2 Mar 2026 · 28m · 12 chapters

Episode artwork

Why Anthropic is Fighting with the US Military - DTNS 5216

In short

Hosts: Tom Merritt and Robb Dunewood

In this episode, the hosts delve into the recent conflict between Anthropic and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which has sparked significant discussion regarding AI ethics and military contracts. Additionally, they cover new mobile technology announcements from Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes.

Chapters

2:53

Anthropic vs. U.S. Military

Discussion on the Department of Defense's contract issues with Anthropic.

“Department of Defense canceled its contract with Anthropic, or at least said it will cancel its contract with Anthropic, after a dispute over usage.”
6:50

Implications of the Dispute

Exploring the implications of the Anthropic and DoD dispute.

“China also using it quite effectively in cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns according to, again, publicly available information.”
8:05

Negotiation Insights

Insights into the negotiation dynamics between Anthropic and the U.S. government.

“That that seems like, again, some public negotiation.”
15:26

Apple's New iPhone and iPad Announcements

Get insights into Apple's latest product updates and pricing strategies.

“Apple began its week of announcements with a new iPhone 17e and M4-powered iPad Air.”
17:05

Motorola's Innovative Smartphone Releases

Explore Motorola's new phone features and their competitive edge in the market.

“So to get twice as much RAM and you don't pay any more for it, that is something that perked my ears up.”
20:31

Qualcomm's New Snapdragon Wear Elite Chip

Learn about Qualcomm's latest chip and its impact on wearables.

“They are always kind of the Avis to Samsung's Hertz, the Pepsi to Samsung's Coke.”
22:39

Lenovo's Modular PC Concepts

Discover Lenovo's innovative laptop designs and potential future products.

“Let's start with the more grounded things.”
28:33

Tech Headlines Overview

Stay updated with the latest tech news and product announcements.

“All right, now some quick headlines that are just good to know.”
29:37

AI Developments and Outages

Discover recent advancements in AI and the impact of outages on services.

“Honor is also launching its foldable Magic V6 with 6 ,600 milliamp battery, coming in the second half of the year.”
30:26

Video Game Archive Shutdown

Learn about the challenges faced by video game archives and the implications of their closure.

“Microsoft's co-pilot Discord server no longer lets you send messages that contain the word microslop, leading users to spelling it with a zero.”
Show all 12 chapters
31:37

Touchscreen MacBook Discussion

Engage in a discussion about the potential need for a touchscreen MacBook.

“That could be a way to make OpenClaw a little safer.”
32:25

Listener Feedback and Insights

Hear insights from listeners and the importance of community feedback in tech.

“Tom, my gut tells me that there's going to be a MacBook that's going to come out with a touch screen.”
A man walking through an airport, asking his phone a question

Ask about this episode

Get the gist, explore an idea or ask about something said.

Claude

On Daily Tech News Show, what are the key points of this episode?

Searching your listening

Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Robb Dunewood: 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. When people talk about energy, recovery, and performance, they usually jump straight to training, protein, or supplements.

0:36Robb Dunewood: But one of the most overlooked pieces is gut health. If your gut is not dialed, everything else struggles to work the way it should. That is where Momentous Fiber Plus comes in. When gut health is not dialed in, other supplements and training habits don't work as well. You can be doing everything else right, but without a strong foundation, results fall short. Fiber is often the missing link. That's why Momentus believes in a relentless commitment to fundamentals and doing them differently than they have ever been done. Fiber Plus is built to support the entire gut health process, not just one piece of it.

1:09Robb Dunewood: And if a product doesn't meet their standard, it never hits the shelves. Right now, Momentus is offering our listeners up to 35 % off your first order with promo code ACAST. Head to LiveMomentus.com and use promo code ACAST for up to 35 % off your first order. That's livemomentous.com, promo code ACAST.

2:24Tom Merritt: This is the Daily Tech News. for Monday, March 2nd, 2026. We tell you what you need to know. We try to give you some important context and help each other understand.

2:33Robb Dunewood: MWC Barcelona is underway, which means loads of new mobile gear to talk about. And we also catch you up on the U.S. Department of Defense's switch from Anthropic to OpenAI. Yeah, that's a whole thing. I'm Tom Merritt.

2:45Tom Merritt: And I'm Rob Dunwood. Let's start with what you need to know with that big story.

2:52Tom Merritt: Ah, yes. The U.S. Department of Defense canceled its contract with Anthropic, or at least said it will cancel its contract with Anthropic, after a dispute over usage. DOD wanted to use Anthropic tools for any legal reason, while Anthropic's contract forbade using them for particularly mass surveillance or autonomous lethal systems. DOD was not prepared to immediately do either one of those, but it wanted the option. It didn't want the option ruled out. We don't know exactly how this turned into a big public fight, but it did. Bloomberg reported that Anthropic wanted to develop autonomous weapons, wasn't against that idea entirely, but it did not feel that its models were ready.

3:35Tom Merritt: So a six-month phase-out has allegedly begun, and Anthropic said it would work to enable a smooth transition to new providers. Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he would declare Anthropic a supply chain risk, which would mean no company that does business with the U.S. military could also do business with Anthropic. That's usually reserved for foreign entities. And then OpenAI announced Friday it reached an agreement to deploy its models on the DoD's classified cloud networks. How did they deal with this? Were they agreeing to let the DoD do whatever it wants? Not exactly. Altman wrote that open AI systems could not be used for mass surveillance, autonomous weapons systems, and high stakes automated decisions because, and I quote, we retain full discretion over our safety stack.

4:28Tom Merritt: We deploy via cloud, cleared open AI personnel are in the loop, and we have strong contractual protections. So the idea is they wouldn't be able to do that stuff even if they wanted to because we would be able to stop them. This is a source of a lot of confusion if you don't follow military contracts for a living. Thankfully, Jessica Tillipman does and analyzed OpenAI's agreement, noting that OpenAI could have standing to sue the military if it violates its safety guidelines. The contract requires the DOD to abide by current laws, even if Congress changes them in the future. I thought that was an important point.

5:08Tom Merritt: If Congress makes it easier to do mass surveillance, for example, that would not apply to this particular contract with OpenAI. But possibly more importantly, the DOD can use it for all lawful uses subject to operational requirements and, quote, well-established safety and oversight protocols. That means OpenAI can block any use for its own operational reasons, which gives it leverage, kind of gives the DoD the space to say, OK, great, we can do whatever we want. But OpenAI can feel like if we ever feel like it went over the line, we have a contractual way to do that. Sarah Shoke notes that policies at foundational AI companies, however, are somewhat incoherent.

5:49Tom Merritt: And so this is a bit at the whim of the person making the decision at the top. And it is only because of the unique nature of this public spat that we even got to see its outlines. Both Shoker and Tillman agree that the public is probably the loser in this fight, no matter what the outcome. As of Monday, Bloomberg's Dave Lee reported that, quote, no official legal order has yet been made to sever ties. And Anthropic, according to his sources, is still hopeful of a resolution. So there has been no declaration of a supply chain risk. There's been a statement saying that that would happen. There has been no cancellation of the contract yet, even though there have been statements on social media saying it would be canceled.

6:30Tom Merritt: Meanwhile, kind of as a background to all this, Wall Street Journal reports that Anthropics tools were used in connection with the U.S. bombing of Iran. And another side note, Foreign Affairs noting that China not having any trouble implementing AI and drone piloting and decision making according to publicly available military procurement documents that Foreign Affairs looked at. China also using it quite effectively in cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns according to, again, publicly available information. uh so rob a lot going on here and i think a lot of misunderstanding easy uh to fall into given that there are people saying things quite loudly that aren't exactly the things that are

7:09Robb Dunewood: happening there's a lot um that was a long read there's there's a lot of stuff going on here and to be completely honest it is not uncommon for companies to go back and forth with the u.s government in various even the dod in various places on and we don't know if this is for us we need you to add this we need you to add that that is not an uncommon thing what is uncommon is that the government is saying you know what these break that you know we we've broken down we're going to go another way and we're going to mark you a supply chain risk so nobody else can use you if they work with us that is is you know we don't want to get into the politics of it but that is a very very political thing that just happened here to where the u.s federal government The Department of Defense is saying that this thing that was good enough for us to use is no longer good enough to use because you're not we're not using it.

7:58Tom Merritt: The thing that we're actually continuing to use in our ongoing military operations. So and is it going to be declared a supply chain risk? It has not yet. That that seems like, again, some public negotiation. I think the most unusual thing about this and Justin Robert Young and I talked about it on the Friday Hangout is that this is all happening in the open. This kind of thing does happen, but it usually happens behind closed doors and we rarely hear anything but maybe a leak or two about it.

8:28Robb Dunewood: Yeah, it's like I've worked at organizations that had a very, very large public sector portion of the organization. In some cases, the public sector pieces were the biggest part of the organization. So this type of negotiation is not uncommon to let it play out in public, as you said, is very uncommon. And then the strong arm tactic by the government is like, if you don't if you don't get in line, you're not going to allow you to do business with anybody who does business with us. I don't know that I've ever heard of that happening before. Maybe it has. And it's just always stay behind closed doors.

9:02Robb Dunewood: But that that is something that is very, very different. And it's actually causing people to, you know, to to actually feel some kind of way about open AI for working with this. When you really look at it, my gut tells me that what OpenAI is agreeing to is probably what Anthropic would have agreed to. It's just I don't know how we got here. Yeah, because they have an out and Anthropic probably would have had an out if they would have continued to negotiation. So I'm not I'm not sure why this is. It really feels like Anthropic, you're trash to us now. And we're going to let the world know. But we're going to go with this other company that it has a deal that probably would be structured very similar to the one you said you need to structure for you.

9:41Tom Merritt: In fact, OpenAI's Sam Altman said, I'm not sure why Anthropic couldn't have made this exact same deal that we made. And I think that we should remember what Bloomberg reported. Like, nothing has actually changed. They don't seem to have actually canceled the contract. They certainly haven't declared it a supply chain risk. They said they're going to. so it will be worth paying attention over the next week or so what trickles out maybe not as loudly maybe drowned out by some of the the bigger world events happening as to whether Anthropic really has a change in contract and if so what are the terms do they do they maintain some relationship but there's a lot of face saving that's going to have to happen because a lot of people have have made some very loud and angry statements on both sides about all of this.

10:27Robb Dunewood: Yeah, Anthropic this morning has already come out and said that even though this hasn't happened yet, we've got lawyers on the ready that it would actually be somewhat foolish for the government for reasons we've already talked about. It's good enough for you to continue to use it, but you're going to block it from everybody else from using it. That doesn't make any sense legally. I'm not a lawyer. I don't play one on the Internet, but that just doesn't pass the smell test to me. So there's a lot of posturing here. And I think we'll need some additional days and weeks probably to ultimately figure out what's really happening here.

10:58Tom Merritt: Yeah, I don't think. My gut tells me they will not be declared a supply chain risk, that that was bluster, that they probably won't continue to have the contract they have. But there's a possibility that maybe they get a reduced usage, maybe non-classified usage, something like that. as Bone and OpenAI ends up becoming the winner of this contract, which could also be bad for the military if Anthropic actually does have the superior product. You should be using the best product, right? So there's that aspect of it too.

11:33Robb Dunewood: Yeah, and we should also be clear that Anthropic is not washing their hands of this. They really, really want this deal. When you're talking about the Department of Defense and you're talking about just the federal government as a whole, it is the biggest single entity that any American company can sell stuff to. So you do not want to not do business. You don't want to lose the federal government. You do not want to be in that situation. So this is not anthropic thumbing their nose at the federal government. I absolutely believe they've, they've, they've got to try to get this figured out. If this deal doesn't go through, that's fine, but there are other deals that can be done and they want to make sure that they're at the table for that.

12:06Tom Merritt: Yep. And we will keep you updated.

12:09Robb Dunewood: DTNS is made possible by you, the listener. Thanks to Jeffrey Zilks, Alo, a.k.a. Adam L., Philip Luss. And we've got new patrons, Amato, Chris, Jeffrey, Liz, Khaled, Joe, Sylvia, and Fallen NC is returning as a patron. Welcome back, Fallen NC, and welcome new patrons.

12:33Tom Merritt: That new thing? Yeah, we've got it. The Drop by GNC, bringing you all the newness that matters. handpicked by the pros who actually know what's up and what's proven to work. We keep you on top of the trends and dialed into what's next. Whether you're crushing it at the gym, leveling up your game, or thriving every day, The Drop by GNC is where the latest solutions in health and wellness land first. Non-stop innovation and fresh finds daily. Explore what's new and what's next on The Drop by GNC. When it comes to managing money, forget the hype and look at the results. Bill has a trillion dollars of secure payments powering our BillPay tools.

13:11Tom Merritt: Instead of just moving money, Bill is powering the financial operations of nearly half a million customers. So stop the guesswork and start scaling with the proven choice. Ready to talk with an expert? Visit Bill.com slash proven to get started. And grab a$250 gift card as a thank you. Terms and conditions apply. See offer page for details.

13:32Robb Dunewood: Thank you for calling the Bombas Comfort Line. Bombas make socks, slippers, tees, and underwear made with the highest quality materials. Press 1 for comfort, 2 for style, 3 for donation. You chose style. Bombas is styles for whatever you enjoy. You can run in Bombas, lounge in Bombas, dress them up, dress them down, but always give back in Bombas. Because with every item purchased, another is donated. Bombas, comfort worth calling for. Go to bombas.com slash audio and use code audio for 20 % off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com and use code audio.

14:02Tom Merritt: Hey, moms and dads, if you're tired of getting the deer in the headlights response every time you bring up family plans with your kids, let me introduce you to your new best friend, the Skylight Calendar. Skylight Calendar was designed to help you manage the chaos of family life. Ditch the mental load of juggling everyone's schedules by pulling it all into one clear space. This all-in-one smart touchscreen calendar brings visual structure and color coding across your schedules, tasks, lists, and other family needs. Right now, Skylight is offering our listeners$30 off their 15-inch calendars by going to myskylight.com slash get30.

14:41Tom Merritt: Go to myskylight.com slash get30 for$30 off your 15-inch calendar. That is myskylicht.com slash get30.

14:53Robb Dunewood: 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.

15:25Tom Merritt: All right, there's more we need to know today.

15:28Robb Dunewood: Let's get to the briefs. Apple began its week of announcements with a new iPhone 17e and M4-powered iPad Air. The iPhone 17e has doubled the base storage of its 16e at 256 gigabytes and adds MagSafe Qi 2 wireless charging at 15 watts. It also upgraded the display to Ceramic Shield 2 and put in a faster C1X cellular modem. Everything else is similar to the previous model, including the$599 price tag. You can order March 4th, shipping on March 11th. The new iPad Air gets Apple's M4 desktop chip, which is one year older than the M5 and the iPad Pro. It also gets support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 and the faster C1X cellular modem.

16:08Robb Dunewood: RAM goes up to 12 gigabytes from 8 in the previous model. And yet the prices stay the same at$599 for the 11-inch and$799 for the 13-inch. You can order it on Wednesday, March 4th, and it ships starting March 11th.

16:23Tom Merritt: Yeah, man. I think the big news here is no price increase. Not only no price increase, but RAM increase and no price increase is going to surprise people. That's going to be a theme as we get to the rest of the MWC announcements. These, I understand now why Apple is not doing a big hour-long video announcement. These are spec upgrades. They're nice spec upgrades. It's good that they're holding the line on the price. And if you're in the market for a new iPad Air or a new iPhone mid-range model, the 17e is a compelling choice. But there's no fireworks here.

16:57Robb Dunewood: No fireworks. This is a very standard update, which you would expect at models that have been coming out for as long as these have. But I would say that the$599 price hold almost feels like it's a price decrease because we know what is happening with RAM and memory in the world. So to get twice as much RAM and you don't pay any more for it, that is something that perked my ears up.

17:19Tom Merritt: Yeah. And yet you're still only$200 away from the base model iPhone with the 17e. So for$200 more, you're going to get a lot more if you go for the iPhone. But$599, not a bad price. It's a high price for a mid-range, which you expect from Apple, but it's not a bad price. Finally, to MWC announcements, Motorola had a few. The mid-range Motorola Edge 70 Fusion is the new mid-range phone with a curved 144 hertz display, 50 megapixel Sony sensor. That has optic image stabilization starting at 430 euros. That'll be coming to Europe later this month. Motorola also announced a partnership with Graphene OS.

17:58Tom Merritt: Graphene OS is a privacy-focused version of Android that doesn't include Google services. Motorola will be selling phones with Graphene OS pre-installed. No word on when or what devices. Interestingly, the only Graphene OS devices you can get currently with it installed, unless you do it yourself, are on Google Pixel devices. So Motorola will be the next line available. Lenovo, or I'm sorry, Motorola also has a book style foldable, the Motorola Razr Fold with a 6200 nit bright screen inside. It's got an 8.1 inch unfolded display and a 6000 nit bright display on the outside. So 6 ,000 plus inside and out.

18:39Tom Merritt: By comparison, the Pixel 10 Fold has 3 ,000 nit screens. These things are bright, which is why they need a 6 ,000 milliamp hour battery. They also have fast charging at 80 watts when wired. You have to use Lenovo's turbo power to do that. That's not a standard. You can get 50 watt wireless charging. 4.6 millimeters thick when open, which isn't too bad, but it's still about a half centimeter thicker than the Samsung Z Fold. And the camera is great. It is now the highest rated of any foldable camera on France's DXOMark. No price or availability, but it is headed to North America in the coming months.

19:14Robb Dunewood: So I'll just say this. That's about 0.2 inches or about a fifth of an inch for us Americans who have no idea how thick a centimeter is.

19:24Tom Merritt: You know how big a centimeter is.

19:26Robb Dunewood: So here's the thing. We always talk about Apple, clearly, but when it's all about the iPhone, we talk about Samsung and their phones. We even talk about the Pixel, which is a really, really nice phone. Tell you what, Motorola is making some nice hardware. They are really making some nice hardware. And I can only imagine we're going to start hearing their name more. It's not like they are infinitesimal here in the U.S., but these are some really nice phones. The screens are, I mean, this is like the sun brightness. I mean, these things are really bright as far as these screens are concerned. And the hardware is good.

19:59Robb Dunewood: The, you know, the, their folding phones have been, have been basically giving Samsung a run for its money for years now. And some people even prefer them because they're just, they're really fun for a demographic that Motorola seems to have found. Like that, you know, those young millennials, you know, on down, they really like these phones. So it is interesting to see they just keep coming with it. And, you know, it's, you know, I would say Samsung, especially, you got to step the game up. You just came out with a bunch of new stuff that seems old and slow compared to the stuff that Motorola just came out with.

20:29Tom Merritt: Yeah, don't sleep on Motorola. They are always kind of the Avis to Samsung's Hertz, the Pepsi to Samsung's Coke. I don't know where Pixel fits into that analogy. But yeah, they're good phones, and these are great phones. Would like to know price and availability. That's going to make a difference in how I feel about it, but good stuff. Let's get to the chips. We've got a really important chip announcement from Qualcomm.

20:54Robb Dunewood: Yeah, Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon Wear Elite chip meant for watches, but also smart glasses and smart pens. It was built on a three nanometer process and features lower power consumption, faster processing and low power connectivity. In fact, it can do 5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 6, ultra wide band GNSS for location and narrow band non-terrestrial for satellite messaging. It ingrates with the Hexagon NPU to support a billion parameter model on the device. The next Samsung Galaxy Watch will be among the devices to use this new chip. Qualcomm also announced faster 5G modems, a Wi-Fi 7 chip built on a 6 nanometer process, and it has begun work on its 6G chips for launch in 2029.

21:37Tom Merritt: Yeah, when I look at a new chip announcement, there's a few chip reporters out there that I watch to see how excited they are, ZDNet being one of them. They're excited by this. They're like, this is a huge advance over the previous Wear chip. And it's the kind of thing that can make your wearable device do things that are as good as at least a mid-range phone, if not better. So all of these wearable pins and smart glasses where you've been like, well, they're kind of good. This could be one of the things that makes them very good and makes you say, you know what, I can use this instead of my phone sometimes.

22:13Robb Dunewood: Absolutely. And I think when you start to think, well, there's a lot of numbers, there's a lot of things that were said, but how do these things rank? Like, how do they rank to what Apple puts in their devices? These rank very well. These actually, in some cases, outrank what Apple is doing, you know, with their M chips and their A chips. So these are really, really good processors meant for very, very small wearable things that we will just have on our person in the foreseeable future.

22:37Tom Merritt: All right, let's get to Lenovo, which had a handful of announcements as well. Let's start with the more grounded things. There were some new laptops, some new tablets. I'm going to highlight a couple of them that caught my eye. the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, that's A-U-R-A, 14-inch Copilot Plus laptop with a 2.8K OLED touchscreen. Comes with two Thunderbolt 4 slash USB 4 ports shipping in March starting at€1 ,799. The Yoga Pro 7A has a force pad that doubles as a drawing surface, so artists might want to take a look at this. That one's shipping in June starting at€2 ,499. But the thing that's turning everybody's heads are the concepts.

23:19Tom Merritt: These might never arrive, but they're still cool to look at. The Yoga Book Pro 3D would let a user view 3D without glasses and then convert 3D images or 2D images to 3D. That's just like a tablet that you can look at in 3D. The Legion Go Fold is a version of the gaming headset with a screen that unfolds from 7.7 to 11.6 inches if you want to. So you can use it in that standard 7.7 mode, or you can unfold it, do a vertical split screen, a horizontal full screen, or even an expanded desktop mode. There's also a wireless webcam that records in 4K Ultra HD, and its trick is that it can stream in real time to a yoga PC so that you can do instant video edits.

24:04Tom Merritt: The ThinkPad modular AI PC turned a lot of heads. It has a second screen on the back of the lid that you can pull off and then you could put it where the keyboard is or use it as a separate display. You can also pull the keyboard off. If you put the second screen where the keyboard was, you can pull the keyboard off and use the keyboard wirelessly. It gives you a lot of flexibility with one screen that always stays in place, but you can move the second screen and the keyboard around. And then there's the AI Workmate concept. That's a robot with an LCD face and a Pico projector. You can interact with it by voice gesture or writing.

24:46Tom Merritt: Yeah, writing is the new one. It can scan digital and physical documents and summarize them, but also use that Pico projector to project them onto the table in front of you. You could then write on the projection and it can scan what you wrote and print it. So you could do things like sign a document from the Pico projection. You have to project it on paper and use a pen. And then it would be able to like say, oh yeah, you signed that document. I'll now send it on its way just like DocuSign.

25:17Robb Dunewood: That is pretty cool. But the one that is standing out to me is this modular PC, because I imagine there's a lot of folks who use their laptop like I do. I've got a 15 inch Dell XPS here. This thing has been a workhorse. It comes off of the docking station maybe six times a year. I usually use this as a desktop replacement, but there are times when I go out and I need to use it. And most of those times I'm going to be where I'm at for, for multiple days. So I can actually set it up and kind of leave it sit. Like I'm going to, you know, visit my parents or I'm going to, you know, you know, one of our other homes or something like that.

25:53Robb Dunewood: And I want to be there for a while. So if I can actually just have a device where I can pull off screen to pull off keyboards and make it feel almost like a, like a desktop solution that I'm using right here with a laptop. That is very, very interesting to me.

26:06Tom Merritt: Yeah. It gives you flexibility, which sometimes too much choice is a bad thing, but I think this is limited enough where you can be like, most of the time I'll just have a second screen because it comes with a stand. So you can put that second screen on a stand, but then if you want to pop out the keyboard, put that screen on, and then suddenly you've got a tablet, but you have a wireless keyboard. Just all kinds of different ways you could use it. That one, according to some of the reports I read, seemed like it was the closest to actually shipping. So I hope they're right.

26:35Robb Dunewood: Yeah, like I said, it's something I would take a look at if it was an actual thing. This is a concept. We'll have to see if it comes out, but it looks cool. It sounds cool. And I actually have a use case for it. So it could work for me.

26:47Tom Merritt: It's modular, but not too modular.

26:49Robb Dunewood: Not too modular. Well, folks, we want to know what you want to hear us talk about on the show. And one of the best ways to do that is on our subreddit. So submit stories and vote on them over at www.reddit.com for slash R for slash daily tech news show.

27:09Tom Merritt: Hey, moms and dads, if you're tired of getting the deer in the headlights response every time you bring up family plans with your kids, let me introduce you to your new best friend. The Skylight Calendar. Skylight Calendar was designed to help you manage the chaos of family life. Ditch the mental load of juggling everyone's schedules by pulling it all into one clear space. This all-in-one smart touchscreen calendar brings visual structure and color coding across your schedules, tasks, lists, and other family needs. Right now, Skylight is offering our listeners $30 off their 15-inch calendars by going to myskylight.com slash get30.

27:48Tom Merritt: Go to myskylight.com slash get30 for$30 off your 15-inch calendar. That is myskylicht.com slash get30.

28:00Robb Dunewood: Tired of your car insurance rate going up even with a clean driving record? You're not alone. That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant. Jerry compares rates side by side from over 50 top insurers and helps you switch with ease. Jerry even tracks market rates and alerts you when it's best to shop. No spam calls, no hidden fees. Drivers who save with Jerry could save over$1 ,300 a year. Switch with confidence. Download the Jerry app or visit jerry.ai slash ACAST today.

28:33Tom Merritt: All right, now some quick headlines that are just good to know. These are the sorts of things that make you look smart if you know them.

28:39Robb Dunewood: Xiaomi announced a partnership with Germany's Leica for the Leica Let's phone along with its new Xiaomi 17 and 17 Ultra flagship phones with no price increase over the previous model.

28:49Tom Merritt: uh xiaomi also in the news for showing off a vision gran turismo concept car distracting from reports that its car deliveries dropped by 19 000 between january and february which still wasn't as bad as byd's 41 drop in february year over year amid declining domestic demand in china

29:09Robb Dunewood: ouch byd ouch amd announced its first three ryzen ai chips for desktops the ryzen ai 400 series meant for business PCs.

29:18Tom Merritt: TCL showed off the next phase of its next paper displays, this time incorporating AMOLED to combine high visual performance with the e-ink-like paper quality that is easy on the eyes.

29:31Robb Dunewood: Honor showed off the robot phone it had on display as CES, now demonstrating the ability to dance to music and respond with personality as it shakes its head. Honor is also launching its foldable Magic V6 with 6 ,600 milliamp battery, coming in the second half of the year.

29:48Tom Merritt: Samsung showed off digital home key that uses that AILERO protocol. We've been telling you about that in the quick hits here, where the things that make you feel smart, now you know what it's good for. Samsung's digital home key will let you unlock any compatible home door lock with a Samsung device.

30:05Robb Dunewood: China's MinMax, which also has a model that matches Claude Opus at a Genic task, announced it's doubled its revenue over the year and at its first earnings report since listing its stock.

30:16Tom Merritt: Ah, so they are making money off AI over there. AWS Middle East announcing an outage after its data center was, quote, impacted by objects. This is believed to be related to Iranian missile launches against the UAE.

30:31Robb Dunewood: Microsoft's co-pilot Discord server no longer lets you send messages that contain the word microslop, leading users to spelling it with a zero.

30:39Tom Merritt: Yep, and if they block that, they'll find another way. In a potential advance toward AI data portability, Anthropic just launched a memory import tool. This can bring in memories from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot, and then integrate them into Cloud. It takes about 24 hours for it to work through it, but then now Cloud knows everything that you chatted to the other chatbot about.

31:01Robb Dunewood: Motang tipped us off to a story on Tom's hardware about Miriant, one of the largest video game archives, shutting down on March 31st because it can't afford hosting expenses caused by increasing usage of the archive and rising cost of hosting.

31:15Tom Merritt: Madrid-based IMDEA Networks Institute and demonstrated a way to use the broadcast ID from your tire sensor to track your car.

31:25Robb Dunewood: Software engineer Gabrielle Cohen has developed a version of OpenClaw that can be run in a container called the NanoClaw to improve sandboxing and data security.

31:35Tom Merritt: That's it. That is interesting. That could be a way to make OpenClaw a little safer.

31:40Robb Dunewood: Well, folks, we end every episode of DT Nestles from Share Perspectives. Today, Mike Austin has another use case for a touchscreen MacBook.

31:48Tom Merritt: Yes, Mike writes, I'm a software engineer and I use my MacBook to write apps for iOS and Android. I often debug my code using the iPhone slash Android emulator that runs on the MacBook. It would be awfully handy to be able to tap, drag, pinch, and manipulate my app on the laptop screen in the same way I do on a physical phone. I remember years ago in the early days of the iPhone when MacBooks weren't all that common and the vast majority of Apple's revenue was for the iPhone. The common response to who needs such an expensive laptop was people who write iPhone apps. Maybe that's who needs the touchscreen MacBook.

32:22Tom Merritt: My two cents, Mike in Austin, Texas.

32:25Robb Dunewood: Tom, my gut tells me that there's going to be a MacBook that's going to come out with a touch screen. And within, I don't know, three or four hours of it coming out, everybody who was anti a MacBook ever having a touch screen will talk about how useful the touch screen is. And they can't imagine how they've gone literally for decades without having them.

32:43Tom Merritt: Yeah, it may or may not be exactly the same people in those cases, but there will be an overlap for sure.

32:49Robb Dunewood: Absolutely. I have a touch screen. I touch my laptop darn near, I would say every hour. There's something I just go and I'll just flip with my thumb. I regularly do it. I have a Chromebook with a touchscreen

33:01Tom Merritt: and I almost never use the touchscreen part of it. I do use it from time to time, but it's rare.

33:07Robb Dunewood: But your daily driver is your MacBook though, right?

33:11Tom Merritt: My daily driver is this, yeah, is my desk setup where even if that was a touchscreen, it's like too far out of the way because I'm on a regular old monitor.

33:19Robb Dunewood: Because even my monitor is, you know, my, my plugin monitor, it can act as a touchscreen. I don't think I have it configured for that because I've got to do some other stuff. But the fact that I can just go and like scroll, like for my vertical monitor, that's actually, I'll look at like code and comments. I'll just put my thumb and just, you know, literally I've got my thumb and I'll just swipe up and down. It's just easier to do. I mean, I could absolutely do it with my, with my mouse scroll wheel. It's just, I don't even think about it. It's just something that I do. The downside is that I got to put Windex on my monitors and clean them off every couple of weeks.

33:50Robb Dunewood: But I use the touchscreen. I've been using touchscreens, I don't know, for 10, 12 years now. It's been a minute.

33:58Tom Merritt: Yeah, maybe that's it. It's not. I just need to get that critical mass of usage and then I'll start using it more.

34:06Robb Dunewood: What are you thinking about? Got some insights into a story. Please, please, please share it with us at feedback at dailytechnewsshow.com.

34:13Tom Merritt: Yeah, big thanks to Mike in Austin for contributing to today's show. Thank you for being along for Daily Tech News Show. If you're not a patron and you see one, thank them for keeping us in business. You can become a patron. It's easy. Patreon.com slash DTNS.

34:37Robb Dunewood: The DTNS family of podcasts. Helping each other understand.

34:43Tom Merritt: Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.

34:49Tom Merritt: Over 90 of the top 100 U.S. accounting firms trust Bill to simplify and secure bill pay. That's proven financial infrastructure built on over a trillion dollars of secure payments. Visit Bill.com slash proven for a special offer.

35:07Robb Dunewood: Youth mental health is a complex challenge that requires comprehensive solutions. We must strengthen after-school programs. We must make digital literacy tools available in our schools. We must work with mental health professionals to support children. And we must empower mentors, educators, and parents to keep kids happy. Learn more about our commitment to finding lasting solutions at empowerourfuturecoalition.com slash solutions. Paid for by the Coalition to Empower Our Future.

From the publisher

And OpenAI is benefiting. Plus, new mobile concepts and chips from MWC Barcelona.


Starring Tom Merritt and Robb Dunewood


Shownotes can be found here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More from Daily Tech News Show

All episodes