The Engadget Podcast

In this episode, Devindra and producer Ben Ellman recover from the election by discussing our final thoughts on the PlayStation 5 Pro, as well as Apple’s M4 Mac mini (so cute, so powerful!) and new MacBook Pros. The M4 chip is a solid upgrade, but the M4 Pro is shockingly fast (so much so that it outscored every other system we reviewed this year in Geekbench).

 

PlayStation 5 Review: Your <$1000 gateway to 4K/60 gaming with ray tracing – 3:43

Mac mini M4 Pro Review: Phenomenal power with a tiny footprint – 16:51

MacBook Pro M4 and M4 Pro Review: Maintaining and extending Apple’s premium laptop dominance – 31:15

NYT tech guild on strike made their own games you can play without crossing their digital picket line – 38:28

Pop culture picks – 43:25    

It's been a Mac-heavy week! In this episode, Devindra and producer Ben Ellman dive into all of Apple's new M4 hardware: the new iMac, Mac mini and refreshed Macbook Pros. The Mac mini, in particular, looks like it'll be a huge hit for anyone who needs a simple desktop system. Also, we dive into why Apple is pushing for every Mac to get 16GB of RAM at a minimum. That will benefit all users, even if they don't care about Apple Intelligence.

Unofficial Mac Week: Apple announces M4 Pro and M4 Max chips in refreshed iMac, Mac Mini, and Macbook Pro models – 0:58

Regulators force Lyft to tell U.S. drivers accurate numbers of how much money they’ll make – 45:30

AP report: OpenAI’s Whisper transcription model invents parts of audio transcripts – 49:06

AOC and Tim Walz streamed Crazy Taxi on Twitch – 53:11

McDonalds can finally repair their own McFlurry machines in significant win for Right to repair – 55:54

Around Engadget – 59:45

Pop culture picks – 1:03:42 

We finally got an iPad Mini refresh, and it's not particularly exciting. But that's fine! It's still a useful little tablet, and now thanks to the A17 Pro chip, it's already ready for upcoming Apple Intelligence features. In this episode, Engadget Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham joins to discuss what he liked about the new iPad Mini, and what he hopes Apple will eventually fix in future models. Also, we chat about Netflix abandoning its AAA game studio, and why over 10,500 artists signed a letter against AI training.

 

The refreshed iPad Mini is playing it safe and that’s totally fine – 0:58

Netflix closes Team Blue, its attempt at a AAA game studio – 24:16

Over 10,000 of the world’s top artists sign a letter protesting AI training using their work – 28:27

X Terms of Service changes on account blocking, AI training spurs a fresh wave of Bluesky signups – 30:07

Ronald D. Moore (Outlander, Battlestar Galactica) chosen to helm Amazon’s God of War series – 38:35

Working on – 42:11

Pop culture picks – 43:17 

Amazon finally did it! This week the company announced the Kindle Colorsoft, its first color E Ink e-reader. In this episode, Devindra and Cherlynn discuss where this device sits in a world of cheap tablets, and they dive into the updated Kindle Paperwhite and the writable Kindle Scribe. Also, we've got final thoughts on the Meta Quest 3S, the updated iPad Mini and tons of news.

 

Amazon announces new Kindle Colorsoft, updated Kindle Scribe and Paperwhite – 0:51

Devindra’s Meta Quest 3S review: impressive VR for a fair price – 38:14

Apple quietly drops new iPad Minis – 45:25

Tesla’s Robotaxi event: lots of big promises that will be hard to fulfill – 51:38

Amazon and Google go nuclear (power) – 54:44

Android 15 starts to hit Pixel devices – 55:51

Analogue 3D will give you 4K N64 games, just don’t call it an emulator – 57:14

Working on – 1:00:48

Pop culture picks – 1:04:38

This week, we’re joined by tech critic Paris Marx to discuss Data Vampires, his latest Tech Won’t Save us podcast series.  We discuss how data centers suck up vast amounts of power, water and other resources, and why the AI boom is exacerbating those issues. Also, Devindra and Ben dive into a few news stories, including the DOJ inching closer towards a Google antitrust breakup; Nintendo's adorable motion sensing alarm clock, Alarmo; and why Google's Deepmind AI head won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Interview with Tech Won’t Save Us host Paris Marx on his new series, Data Vampires – 2:09 U.S. regulators continue to float the possibility of breaking Google up in antitrust ruling – 25:54 Nintendo announces new hardware…Alarmo, a motion sensing alarm clock – 39:33 Apple Intelligence likely arrives October 28 – 42:27 343 Industries rebrands as Halo Studios and shows off Unreal Engine 5 demo – 44:46 Pop culture picks – 50:36