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What if the line between technology and the supernatural is thinner than we think?In this Slingshot Nation, we're sitting down with The Supernatural Sleuth to explore chilling encounters, Appalachian mysteries, and the growing concern that modern tech, like VR and AI, may be opening doors we don't fully understand. We'll dive into real-life experiences, strange creatures, and unexplained phenomena as we try to uncover what might really be out there, and how close we are to understanding it.Please pray for Tony's wife, Lindsay, as she battles breast cancer. Your prayers make a difference!If you're able, consider helping the Merkel family with medical expenses by donating to Lindsay's GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/b8f76890Become a member for ad-free listening, extra shows, and exclusive access to our social media app: theconfessionalspodcast.com/joinThe Confessionals Social Network App:Apple Store: https://apple.co/3UxhPrhGoogle Play: https://bit.ly/43mk8kZThe Big Picture Prophecy Conference: prophecyconference26.comTony's Recommended Reads: slingshotlibrary.comIf you want to learn about Jesus and what it means to be saved: Click HereMy NEW Website: tonymerkel.comThe Supernatural SleuthFacebook | Instagram | YouTube | TikTokMy New YouTube ChannelMerkel IRL: @merkelIRLMy First Sermon: Unseen BattlesBigfoot: The Journey To Belief: Stream HereThe Meadow Project: Stream HereMerkel Media Apparel: merkmerch.comSPONSORSSIMPLISAFE TODAY: simplisafe.com/confessionalsGHOSTBED: GhostBed.com/tonyQUINCE: quince.com/tonyCONNECT WITH USWebsite: www.theconfessionalspodcast.comEmail: contact@theconfessionalspodcast.comMAILING ADDRESS:Merkel Media257 N. Calderwood St., #301Alcoa, TN 37701SOCIAL MEDIASubscribe to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/2TlREaIReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/theconfessionals/Discord: https://discord.gg/KDn4D2uw7hShow Instagram: theconfessionalspodcastTony's Instagram: tonymerkelofficialFacebook: www.facebook.com/TheConfessionalsPodcasTwitter: @TConfessionalsTony's Twitter: @tony_merkelProduced by: @jack_theproducer
David and Nilay start the show by exploring the increasing disconnect between the people who make AI products, and the people who keep saying they don't want them. (Or, at least, don't want to pay for them.) The AI industry is starting to retrench to a business-first approach, because there's simply no killer app for it yet. Speaking of no killer apps! Allison Johnson then joins the show to talk about the shockingly short life of the Samsung TriFold, and her bizarre journey to try and review the now-dead foldable. Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for Brendan Carr is a Dummy, the fate of the metaverse, and some important internet debunking. Further reading: OpenAI cuts back on “side quests.” OpenAI's adult mode will reportedly be smutty, not pornographic NYMag: Should You Be Able to Have Sex With ChatGPT? I think VCs are starting to panic about the lack of *broad* consumer | TikTok For the second time this week we have VCs vocalizing their frustration | TikTok Poll: Majority of voters say risks of AI outweigh the benefits How Americans View AI and Its Impact on Human Abilities, Society | Pew Research Center Samsung discontinues its Galaxy Z TriFold after just three months Oppo's nearly creaseless foldable isn't launching in Europe after all From last year: Just look at Huawei's trifold phone This is not a fly uploaded to a computer ChatGPT did not cure a dog's cancer Meta is actually keeping its VR metaverse running, for now Nvidia just announced DLSS 5 and Digital Foundry already has a video. Jensen Huang, on the critical reaction to DLSS 5: “Well, first of all, they're completely wrong.” DLSS 5 looks like a real-time generative AI filter for video games Nvidia has lost the plot with gamers We're hiring a new podcast producer. Come work with us! Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Devil is up to his old tricks. This week, Jimmy and Larry are letting it rip on a little housekeeping as the Core 4 return return next week, a paper thin slubby tee making its maiden voyage as an emotional win, old rappers either head to Vegas and/or change their name, James missed having dinner with Zohran Mamdani by five minutes so we use this opportunity to text our contact on his team about celebrating his one year anniversary of coming on the pod (which clearly got him elected obviously), A24's television shows might just be better than their movies and we use the excellent Neighbors to air out some of our own close proximity beefs, Lawrence finally talks about The Oscars and justice for his goat Paul Thomas Anderson, did Hollywood hate on CGI when it first dropped, the spicy white boy renaissance is officially over as Timothée Chalamet headed home empty-handed and Jack Harlow's transplant syndrome got the better of him, exploring the emergence of Dinergoths and what they mean for society, say so long to the Metaverse as the gamble on VR fails, tech bros have appropriated taste in more ways than one, Buck Mason and a new theory on menswear manifest destiny we're working through in real time, Zara continues to try and convince the world it's real fashion by hiring John Galliano, who wears a fitted in the sauna and much more.
The Bobby D Experiment vs Jamie K Experiment; M Shannon led REM; Fingers make love symbol training; VR addicted parents; Lee Greenwood mini Bible w/ YMCA song; burner accounts.Unlock the BONUS SCENE(S) at improv4humans.com and gain access to every episode of i4h, all ad-free, as well as TONS of exclusive new podcasts delving deeper into improv, the history of comedy, music and sci-fi.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Today's Headlines: Russia is having a great week. It's sharing satellite imagery, intelligence, and drone technology with Iran, sending a tanker of 700,000 barrels of crude to Cuba in direct defiance of the U.S. blockade, and watching oil approach $110 a barrel. Israel assassinated Iran's intelligence minister, Iran's new Supreme Leader vowed revenge, and the IDF is still running wide-scale strikes across Iran and southern Lebanon. The Fed announced no interest rate cuts this month — or likely this year — because starting a war with no plan tends to complicate things. Gas nationally jumped nearly a dollar a gallon in under four weeks, wholesale food prices hit their biggest spike in a year, and that's before oil prices fully filter through to grocery shelves. Trump's solution is to quietly waive sanctions on Venezuelan, Russian, and Iranian oil — the sanctions he spent years bragging about. On Capitol Hill, Tulsi Gabbard testified at the Worldwide Threats Hearing and managed to both defend the war and confirm that Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan are jointly developing nuclear missile systems targeting the U.S. homeland — apparently without noticing the tension there. She declined to confirm Russia is arming Iran, even as it's actively happening. Markwayne Mullin's DHS confirmation hearing got contentious, with Rand Paul making clear he's a no. The Fed held rates steady and basically told Trump to stop asking. In a bombshell report, the New York Times published allegations from more than 60 sources — including civil rights icon and UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta — that labor hero Cesar Chavez groomed and sexually abused girls as young as 12 within the movement. Huerta, now 95, said the abuse led to the birth of two children she placed for adoption, and that she stayed silent for 60 years knowing she would be pushed out of the movement she helped build. Her statement is devastating and worth reading in full. And Meta shut down Horizon Worlds — its virtual reality social network that almost no one used and that cost the company a reported $77 billion. Resources/Articles mentioned in this episode: Bloomberg: Cuba's Worst Fuel Crisis in Decades May Get Relief From Russia WSJ: Russia Is Sharing Satellite Imagery and Drone Technology With Iran CNBC: Israel says it has killed Iran's intelligence minister in third assassination in two days NBC News: Tulsi Gabbard in spotlight after top official resigns in protest over Iran war The Hill: CIA director confirms Iran seeking intelligence support from Russia, China NBC News: Live updates: Senators clash with Trump's homeland security pick; intel officials testify on top threats CNBC: The Fed issues its latest interest rate decision Wednesday. Here's what to expect WSJ: Oil Rises After Israel Strikes Iran Gas Field and Tehran Hits Qatar Fuel Hub AP News: US wholesale prices rose by a surprisingly hot 3.4% last month, the most in a year AP News: US eases Venezuela oil sanctions as Trump seeks to boost world oil supply during Iran war NYT: Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years NYT: Dolores Huerta Issues Statement on Cesar Chavez Sexual Abuse Allegations CNBC: Meta is shutting down VR social platform Horizon Worlds in further pivot away from the metaverse Subscribe to the Betches News Room and join the Morning Announcements group chat. Go to: betchesnews.substack.com Morning Announcements is produced by Sami Sage and edited by Grace Hernandez-Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Almost 5 years ago, we made an episode on then new project of newly named company we knew as Facebook, Metaverse. In this season's finale we look back on the grim predictions we made about the possible impact of it and just how wrong we were given the multi billion dollar failure it came to be while reflecting on impact VR made in gaming industry. Enjoy and see you in season 7!
Instagram will disable the option to encrypt private messages, Apple home devices executive departs to join fitness tech maker Oura, and Meta announces end of support dates for VR in Horizon Worlds. MP3 Please SUBSCRIBE HERE for free or get DTNS Live ad-free. A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this wouldContinue reading "Instagram Ends Encrypted Messaging – DTH"
Ce mercredi 18 mars, François Sorel a reçu Clément David, président de Theodo Cloud, Jean Schmitt, président de Jolt Capital, et Jérôme Colombain, journaliste et créateur du podcast « Monde Numérique ». Ils se sont penchés sur Meta arrêtant la version VR d'Horizon Worlds de son métavers, Tim Cook démentant un départ à la retraite imminent chez Apple devant la télé américaine, ainsi que la perte d'un ingénieur clé sur fond de difficultés autour de Siri chez Apple, dans l'émission Tech & Co, la quotidienne, sur BFM Business. Retrouvez l'émission du lundi au jeudi et réécoutez-la en podcast.
It's time to Bet On It! In this video, Kelly Stewart, Marco D'Angelo and Gianni the Greek break down key 2026 NCAA Tournament First Round matchups, sharp betting steam, underdogs and upsets to watch out for and of course, best bets!Introduction 00:00VCU vs UNC – Gianni the Greek 01:38Saint Louis vs Georgia – Marco 06:00Missouri vs Miami – KIV 08:40Segment 2 – Steam Report with VR 10:48Segment 3 – Barking Dogs 15:55Marco Barko 17:00Gianni the Greek's Barking Dog 20:31Use Code BETONIT for FREE Action at Sports Memo! 25:00KIV's Barking Dog 25:32March Madness Bonanza! 28:30Marco's Round 1 Trap Game! 30:15WILD MWC Stat! 34:00VR CBB Best Bet 35:50Marco CBB Best Bet 40:08Kelly CBB Best Bet 42:40RECAP 45:16
Keith sits down with the youngest guest in show history—a 19-year-old college sophomore and student-athlete who's already deeply immersed in real estate and economics, Hunter Taddy. You'll hear a candid Gen Z perspective on money, debt, and the shifting social landscape, along with what's really being taught in today's real estate and econ classrooms. They explore how young people are navigating college costs, work, and early investing decisions, and how hands-on property management education is shaping one student's path. If you're curious about where the next generation of investors is headed—and what that might mean for your own strategy—this conversation offers a rare, on-the-ground look without the usual clichés. Episode Page: GetRichEducation.com/597 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments. For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text 1-937-795-8989 to speak with a freedom coach Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review" For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— GREletter.com Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript: Keith Weinhold 0:01 Keith, welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold talking with a 19 year old guest that I befriended last year. He's a college sophomore with a real estate investing related major. What does he think about generation Z's future is in person, social life, dead. And what do you really learn about real estate and economics in college today on get rich education. Corey Coates 0:27 Since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors and delivers a new show every week since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads of 188 world nations. He has a list show guests include top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki. Get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android. Listener phone apps build wealth on the go with the get rich education podcast, sign up now for the get rich education podcast, or visit get rich education.com Keith Weinhold 1:11 the same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequel and even chat with President chailey Ridge personally, while it's on your mind, start at Ridge lending group.com that's Ridge lending group.com Speaker 1 1:44 You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education. Keith Weinhold 2:00 Welcome to GRE from Concord, New Hampshire to Concord, California and across 188 nations worldwide, you're listening to one of America's longest running and most listened to shows on real estate investing. I'm your host, Keith Weinhold, and this is get rich education. Increasingly, you know, people ask why even go to college? Is the value of higher education even worth it to drag yourself to an 8am American Lit class while living off of dining hall Breakfast Biscuits and chicken strips for $100,000 a year, it's been estimated that one in seven men are meats, n, e, e, t, that means not in education, employed or training. Why put on a suit and tie and show up at a job when you have a reasonable facsimile of life online and you have discord and Reddit and trade stocks on Robinhood and crypto on Coinbase. Now I don't think that's going to be good for you, and I still think that there are a lot of positives about attending college. At least 15 to 20 colleges close each year in the United States. And despite this, you know, most people that I talk to, they still seem to be mostly positive about college, or they have this expectation that their kids go to college. So anecdotally, this hasn't changed. I probably wouldn't even be as aware of this shift if I didn't read media like I do, if I just talked to people informally, I really wouldn't know. One thing that has not changed also is the notion of the broke college student. I used to be one of those. Now America is just a couple years removed from that wave of elevated inflation and war in Iran has positioned to stoke a second wave of inflation. Today's guest told me that he does pay credit card finance charges, even though he makes more than the minimum payment, just kind of like I did as a college student. The default state of teenage society today is different. It used to be boredom, and now that's been replaced with anxiety. That part has certainly changed, and often it tends to be teen anxiety over such nonsense things. I mean, I have a teenage niece. One example is the burden of maintaining your Snapchat streak? Oh my gosh, if you're a Gen Z or you know what I'm talking about, basically a snap streak where you've got to send a friend a photo or video every single day to keep your streak going, two people have to send it to each other, and people with long streaks, they even like send each other a photo of the floor, just. To keep the streak going. I mean, talk about anxiety over the wrong things. Keith Weinhold 5:04 Well, today's team guest Hunter, he has a somewhat better grip on life. I haven't met his parents yet, but they've done an amazing job. In fact, Hunter's dad owns rental property, which kind of helps to fuel some of his interests and desire. But in order to cope with inflation and expenses, buy now pay later programs have really taken off. They're widely known, but less widely known. Our rent now pay later plans. They're booming. Platforms like livable, flex and affirm. They're used by lower income and lower credit score tenants that often live paycheck to paycheck. And how it works is that these tenants are extended money at the beginning of the month to pay the rent. They often pay a flat subscription fee plus 1% of the rent. And you know, hey, that could be better than the tenant paying late fees to the landlord. I learned from one tenant that had trouble paying his $1,850 in rent that flex charged him a $15 monthly subscription plus 1% of the total rent for providing the service. So his total fees for the app were around $33 a month rent. Now pay later. You're probably only going to hear more about it, but if you're a landlord, you probably do not know that your tenant is using a rent now, pay later plan, because you just received the full payment on time, and then your tenant pays back the service later. Remember, it is called rent. Now, pay later. Oh, before we bring in our guest, can I ask you for some quick help? Maybe you wanted to tell me what you think about the show. You could have been listening for years, but you don't think that you can reach me. If this show has helped you become a better investor, the best way to support the podcast is to leave a quick rating or review. It helps more investors discover the show. Just tap the five stars in your podcast app. It can take as little as 10 seconds, and I will read it myself. Thanks in advance for leaving a rating and review. Let's meet this week's guest. Keith Weinhold 7:22 This week's guest is the youngest we've ever had in show history. He's a teenager, so he's about a generation younger than me, and it's his first time on a podcast. He is a sophomore student athlete at the University of Alaska Anchorage, where he competes in the 800 meters for the track and field team. He runs about a 155 his major is management, with a specialization in real estate and property management, and he's just into so many things beyond athletics and academics, he serves as an ambassador for the Widener property management and real estate program. He's also an officer of the real estate management and investment club from Wisconsin. He's 19 years old, a straight A student. He's also an RA that's a Resident Assistant there helping out students at the dorms. Welcome to GRE Hunter, toddy. Hunter Taddy 8:18 Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Keith Weinhold 8:20 Taddy is spelled T, A, D, D, Y. I met Hunter almost six months ago. A property manager introduced us just thinking that we might have some things in common, and she sure was right. We've gotten together a few times, including going running at one time where, well, I had more than a little trouble keeping up with an active college athlete. The last time we sat down for coffee, just last week, I looked at my watch. We were done, and we sat almost two and a half hours like how many teenagers could really hold my attention for that long? But he just understands the world and politics surprisingly well. For a 19 year old. He's confident and well thought out. He's read War and Peace. He even got some of his own cooking and avoids seed oils. And you know, Hunter being born in 2006 when GRE debuted in 2014 you were eight years old. So before we talk about you, let's talk about your generation, generation Z What do you think some of the markers of your generation are? Keith Weinhold 9:28 Yeah, so it's as I've shared with you in the past. It's interesting, because especially at UA, I'm mostly surrounded by like, athletes. So athletes tend to be a lot more social, just like how they grown up, they're always around people that tend to be a lot more driven. But then when I talk to, like, non athletes, it's a little bit different. Like, my generation is definitely they're on their phone a lot. I mean, I've told you before, like, I avoid social media. Well, I wouldn't say like the flag, but I avoid it a lot, because I know, hey, how addicting it is. And B, just like, you know, the.The word of my generation is slop or brain rot, and which is most of the stuff on the internet, but Yeah, seems to be like, there's a lot of anxiety in my generation, a lot of, like, lack of accountability, which I've noticed a lot lot of, like, lack of responsibility. And it's almost like self indulgent in a way, where it's like, oh I'm so lazy, or Oh, I'm so this, or I'm so that, and it's just kind of weird. You don't really get that much with like the athletes. Back to the social aspect. I don't know if you've seen that headline recently, that's like, the alcohol industry has lost eight, $30 million over the past four years because he doesn't drink. The real story isn't about Gen Z not wanting to drink alcohol. It's about Gen Z, not like really being social, right? I mean, I don't see that many like, Hangouts as much as, like, when I hear from, like my parents, you know, every night you're going somewhere with your friends or your you know, you're going to the bar, you're going to a bonfire, or things like that. And it's just, you don't see it as much. A lot of people are just in their rooms or online and, you know, the online gaming, online gaming, I don't game a lot, but gaming with friends is actually really fun to do sometimes. But everything's a lot more digital, you know, from the communication to like the spaces, you know, where you hang out, whether it's video games or whether it's VR chat, and some people do that, or discord, or just like internet forums and things like that. Yeah, just lot more digital. Keith Weinhold 11:24 Yeah, you use little or no social media. Personally, I know you manage the Instagram page for your real estate organization, but yeah, there is more of this perception of in person, social life, maybe not dead, but dying. I've learned that 51% of 18 to 24 year old men have never asked out a woman in person you were sharing with me at how you know people have anxiety just about ordering food in person at a restaurant in Gen Z. Hunter Taddy 11:54 That's actually funny. So because of how that conversation escalated, I technically did ask her out in Snapchat, but then she was like, you have to ask me out in person. And then I did eventually ask her out in person. Keith Weinhold 12:06 Now, when it comes to in person meetings, after a few meetings with you, I noticed something rare when it's about seeing people in person, you have virtues that I think are somewhat rare for Generation Z. I mean, you actually show up on time. This this chat we're having right now. It's the fourth time we've gotten together, and you actually showed up early each of the four times, which is something that I really notice and appreciate, which, even for people my age, it seems like it's a virtue that they've lost. I mean, showing up on time is just common decency. That's just doing what you said that you were going to do. I find that pretty interesting. But when it comes to your generation being in college now, I mean, college is tough. You know, when I went to college, I took on student loans. My parents and I each paid for half of the tuition, and also worked a part time job while I was there. So I mean, you hang out with a lot of athletes, but how is it with balancing, you know, the income and student loans? Because, you know, college kids are still pretty poor Hunter Taddy 13:10 I wanted to run for a division two program, because you can get athletic scholarship. I came in as a walk on. I'm not on any athletic scholarship. I get free housing and free meals for being an RA. Yeah, with my RA position, I actually got the RA position my second semester. So I got it as a freshman, which was like, really, really clutch. So my dad was in the Air Force for 20 years, and I got the GI bill for like, I think, six months. So I got my two first semesters of tuition paid for, and then I got some, like, some money for, like, housing and stuff. I mean, I pocketed most of that just because, I mean, I got it for free already. I don't get any more help from the GI Bill, because I'm not in Wisconsin. But if I went to Wisconsin, I could go to any school for free, like, tuition free. So, I mean, sometimes I do think about that, but with my real estate program. I mean, oh my gosh, the scholarship deadline. Every year they give out like, $50,000 in scholarships. A lot of them are from Widener and then just other like local real estate companies in the area. Last year, I got a $2,500 scholarship to travel to the National Apartment Association's apartmentalized It's like, their yearly conference in Las Vegas, and that was pretty cool. So that stuff kind of went over my head, but a lot of the stuff about AI was, like, just really interesting to hear, especially just about property management. And it's crazy to me, because, like, AI is almost like, my generation's thing, since we're, like, growing up with it, yeah. And then hearing, like, a lot of like, the older people in the property management profession talk about, I mean, they're still talking about when they had to keep their records on pen and paper, or, like, files and stuff. And I'm like, This is crazy. So I have scholarships with the real estate program, if I'm lucky, I can get up to almost $10,000 after the spring. It's.That means I pay in state tuition because I live on campus. It was a deal they were running after covid. So that's only like $5,700 I mean, my scholarships will be able to cover that. This semester, I paid like 2000 of it or something, and then my parents were kind enough to cover the rest, and then I'm going to pay them back right away after the year ends once I get those scholarships. And then, yeah, I get $11 an hour for working desk at my RA job. It's tax free, so, I mean, it's not totally bad, but I don't working desk hours that much because we only have them at night. And then, you know, being an athlete, I don't like staying up until, you know, one o'clock sometimes. I mean, the other night, I had to work a nine to three desk shift, and that screwed my whole for an entire week. Yeah. Okay, Keith Weinhold 15:48 so when you graduate college in a few years, you could very well come out with a lower student loan balance than a lot of others did, although you might still have an informal loan with dad in there as well. How do you and a lot of people of your generation see your financial future? They sure can be hard to predict, but a lot of people see this crushing debt with student loans, and I wonder, even though it could be far into the future if really Gen Z thinks that they're ever going to be able to afford a home. Now, when it comes to the student loans, I know I shared with you when we sat down for coffee that I had a balance. I think it was like a $20,000 balance when I graduated, because again, my parents paid half of it and I worked part time when I went to school, I shared with you that I just took that balance and paid very little interest on my student loan balance because I kept transferring it repeatedly onto these 0% APR credit cards, and when my introductory rate expired on one card, I would just transfer it onto another card. So I've long been comfortable with debt. Hunter Taddy 16:52 So me, personally, I do not want to take out a loan from any entity. I'm very fortunate and privileged that my parents are able to, you know, front that money for me when I need it. When I need it, I try to pay them back right away. I do not want student loans like my goal is to get out of college, you know, without owing anybody any money. It's weird, because I'm from such a small town in Wisconsin, and I view trades a lot differently than, like a lot of my peers who grew up in the big cities, I know blue collar millionaires, right? People who just, you know, put their nose to the grindstone, pouring concrete. You know, working driving a semi. Only do that for maybe five or 10 years, like my cousins. My cousin pours concrete, and then the other one, I think, works for construction company, the Midwestern work ethic, they're sitting on 10s of 1000s of dollars in their savings account right now. You can make the argument. Well, their back is going to give out in a couple years. And some of that's true. But also, you know, you don't have to be the guy pouring concrete for how long. You could be the business owner, or you could be the guy who's the plumber for 510, years, and then, you know, start your own plumbing business. That's why I don't look at student loans as, like, I need this college degree to, like, make money or be successful. Like, I've met a lot of people who legitimately have that mindset. That's like, I understand that if you've grown up in that sort of, like sphere, you've grown up with those ideas. But to me, it's like, I know if I can't pay for college, or if I don't graduate college, I know I'm going to be fine. I could go, you know, work construction, or I could go, you know, mow lawns or something. I know, I guess I just view it differently. But a lot of people think they need those student loans. So, I mean, they sign up for them. And I looked it up the other day, the average time to pay off student loans is, like, 20 years or something like that. Yeah, I believe it. That is kind of sad. That's insane to me. I want my lawyers going to college. I want my doctors going to college. I want to college. I want all these people to have a good education. But I mean, like 100,000 to $200,000 I just see that, and it's like, oh, I don't know, man, I sign up for the fast flow every year, but I never get anything Free Application for Federal Student Aid, yeah, but I know some people get, like, Pell Grants. If I'm not wrong, I think the Pell Grants are just, I don't know they have to pay those back. It seemed like I was applying for the Stafford Loan. I was lower middle class. I don't think we quite qualified for the Pell grant. The grant being like, free money and a loan of stuff that you need to pay back. Yeah, of course. And of course, in addition to student loans, we regularly have students using credit cards and probably not being able to pay the full balance, is they make their way and try to pay their way through college. That's certainly one thing that I did. Hunter Taddy 19:28 Here's something for you, DoorDash, my generation and DoorDash is so crazy. I mean, I look at some of these people we have like a desk, at some of the halls, and the amount of people who just DoorDash some of these people are doordashing every night. And that's not cheap, like, that's sometimes it's like 30 bucks just to get Taco Bell or, you know, Wingstop or something like that, and then Klarna, it's like, finance a pizza. Like, what are we doing here? Keith Weinhold 19:54 Sure, yeah, you're making a down payment on a blooming onion and financing it and making the last payment on it. Years later or something. Yeah, crazy like that, 100% and yeah, I would imagine home ownership is just seen as something that's so far into the future, it's almost unfathomable. Hunter Taddy 20:12 Yeah, it's funny to me, because, you know, I come from, again, very small town, the cost of living is, like, extremely low compared to the country. I'm pretty sure Green Bay was voted number one place to live by us, News and World Report couple years ago, number one place to live in the United States. But more of the people back home who work these jobs in the trades, like the thought of owning a home seems a lot more real to them than my friends who are in college. And a lot of that has to do with, you know, like we're in bigger cities. Again, people have more debt, but yeah, I mean, you look at those prices of homes, I think the median home price in Anchorage is like $426,000 and just, you know, looking at that numbers like, how am I ever going to afford that? One of my friends, he's in the real estate program. He's got $40,000 saved up. He's got his Roth IRA maxed out. It's weird, because this is one of the points I want to make. So in my generation, you have people who have all these resources, you know, especially with the internet, and they're doing very well with it. They're taking it and they're running with it. And then you have the other part of my generation who's doing the buy now, pay later option. It's almost like a upside down bell curve or something like that. The people who are good are getting so much better, and the people who are making the bad decisions are getting so much more worse. Keith Weinhold 21:25 Ah, the K shaped economy starts young. Hunter Taddy 21:27 It's just interesting to see sometimes, because you have some people like, I can't afford this, I can't afford that, and it's like, yeah, being college student is hard. But then it's like, you buy your $6 coffee every day, and it's, you know, I'm guilty of that too. My spending habits aren't the best. And then you look at like home ownership inflation is real. Cost of living is getting higher. But also my dad talks about this a lot like our standards are getting so much higher, too great. Our houses are getting bigger. Kids don't share bedrooms anymore. All our kids have to have our phone. All our kids have to have the newest thing or the newest coat. And you know, you want nice things for your family. I get that, you know, I don't have a family, so I can only talk about this so much. But I mean, our standards are getting a lot, a lot higher as well. I mean, you look at our grandparents houses, and they're like, these, just small, one story houses, one bathroom. You know, I look at the house that my dad grew up and he shared a room with his brother until he graduated, right? And then you look at all these families kids live in their bedroom, it's so weird to me that like siblings, they know each other, but they don't know each other because they're sitting in their rooms all day and they're looking at their phones. Keith Weinhold 22:31 You surface a good and salient point hunter that a lot of people don't bring up because the K shaped economy that means a widening disparity between the haves and the have nots, but the entire K also keeps moving up, so standards of living continue to get better for both the haves and the have nots, even though the disparity between them continues to widen, and yes, a poor person today has Wi Fi and has Air Conditioning and a lot of minor conveniences that poor people didn't have 75 years ago. You're listening to get rich education. We're doing something different this week, talking to the youngest guest in GRE history. His name's Hunter toddy. We're going to talk more when we come back about what he's learning in classes, economics and real estate classes, because that is one thing that college students do. Remember, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold. Keith Weinhold 23:24 Flock homes helps you retire from real estate and landlording, whether it's one problem property or your whole portfolio through a 721, exchange, deferring your capital gains tax and depreciation recapture. It's a strategy long used by the ultra wealthy. Now Mom and Pop landlords can 721, the residential real estate request your initial valuation, see if your properties qualify@flockhomes.com slash GRE. That's f, l, O, C, K, homes.com/g.R, E, Keith Weinhold 24:00 you know, most people think they're playing it safe with their liquid money, but they're actually losing savings accounts and bonds don't keep up when true inflation eats six or 7% of your wealth. Every single year, I invest my liquidity with FFI freedom family investments in their flagship program, why fixed 10 to 12% returns have been predictable and paid quarterly. There's real world security backed by needs based real estate like affordable housing, Senior Living and health care. Ask about the freedom flagship program when you speak to a freedom coach there, and that's just one part of their family of products, they've got workshops, webinars and seminars designed to educate you before you invest. Start with as little as 25k and finally, get your money working as hard as you do. Get started at Freedom, family investments.com/gre,or send a text. Now it's 1-937-795-8989, yep, text their freedom coach directly. Again, 1-937-795-8989, Robert Kiyosaki 25:12 this is our rich dad. Poor Dad. Author Robert Kiyosaki, listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold don't quit your daydream Keith Weinhold 25:26 Welcome back to get rich Education. I'm your host. Keith winehill, we're talking with Gen Z and student athlete Hunter toddy. He's a sophomore college student, and he's got a management degree with a concentration in real estate investing. So yeah, Hunter, tell us some of the things that you've learned about in an economics class or two that you've taken there at UAA. Hunter Taddy 25:51 So I had an economics class last semester, but the teacher is basically tenured, and he only posted YouTube videos and like three quizzes was like the entire grade. He made us great at 2000 wasn't gonna say and didn't even grade it. So I didn't learn anything about economics, but that was macro, and now I'm in micro. And this professor, he's fantastic. He talks to Anchorage and Alaska legislators all the time. He was on Meet the Press Like he's very, very, very, very smart and well spoken, one of my and professors, and he's also Yale educated, as I understand. Yeah, I always get crap from my cross country teammates because most of them are STEM majors. There's a lot of engineers, and then there's, you know, you have people who are in, like, kinesiology, and then a lot of aviation, but they always give me crap because, like, oh, business, it's supply and demand, blah, blah, blah. But then, like, legitimately, economics has been so fascinating for me, just like, you know, consumer behavior, opportunity cost, trade off. One of the things is rent control, right? Definitely a big conversation, especially in, like, my generation, you know, because of all these rising prices. And then, you know, the landlord always gets the negative connotation, right? Landlords are greedy. I wouldn't even as a college student. Well, you think about rent control is like as soon as you put that binding price ceiling on the rent prices in an area, that's why there's not enough housing on the West Coast. That's why landlords are painting over the light switches, or they're not fixing your toilet, or they're not fixing the leaky sink. There's just a lack of understanding general society about, like, just how markets work and why. You know, businesses make certain decisions that they do. That's one thing with, like, a lot of my generation, is a lot of them are almost anti business, in a sense, right? In a sense, but they love being consumers. What my dad talks about a lot is as the business owner, like when you work for a company, a lot of the times you can clock in, clock out, you go home and you lay your head on the pillow, and you don't have to worry about anything, right? But when you're the business owner, like my dad, and if you have a lot of anxiety, like he does, about certain things, and you stress a lot, you're up at 2am wondering if the LVP you put in someone's kitchen is going to buckle, well, then you're gonna have to go back and fix it all and all these things, and so I definitely have a lot more to say understanding for like business owners and like landlords. Yeah, the economics classes just broaden my understanding of how the world works. I think that's a class everyone should take, and it is a general ed but I think it's a class everyone should pay attention to as well. Keith Weinhold 28:18 Sure, rent control gives landlords no incentive to make improvements to a property. So yeah, it's good that you're learning about this in econ class. Tell us about some of the other things that you've learned in economics or in your more real estate investor centric college courses. Hunter Taddy 28:36 So I'll focus more on the real estate stuff. So Dean Widener, Widener apartment homes, one of the top five, I think, largest owners of apartment homes in terms of units like in the United States, right? He basically came to Anchorage, and he wanted to build the Widener program, basically like a farm for property managers, like, you know, give this education. And then they, you know, they come work for widener. They come work for, you know, whoever a lot of the education has to do with property management. So there's leasing, asset maintenance. Talk a lot about operating budgets, risk management. All students in the program memorize the cash flow performer by heart. So, you know, you have gross potential income loss to lease, vacancy, net revenue, other income, expense reimbursements. Maddie poo, which is maintenance, admin, taxes, insurance, payroll and utilities. Have you heard that acronym before? What is it? Yeah. Maddie poo, I pretty sure my professor, like, that's kind of like his thing. I didn't finish it all, but we have it all memorized, and then we do, like, a lot of fair housing and landlord tenant law. Yesterday, in my Real Estate Investment Finance course, we were analyzing loans, and we were making like amortization tables, yeah. And then so we were looking at like interest rates, how a balloon loan works, variable interest rates. I took real estate Maintenance and risk last semester, and that was really awesome. We got to visit buildings all across Anchorage and talk with the property managers, talk about maintenance systems, general maintenance of the property, property management, the day to day, things like that. And then leasing, we actually had us basically go undercover. We have to have three properties, and we go do a showing at all of them, and then we had to review them, and we did a presentation about them, and, like, we basically reviewed them and graded, like the leasing agent, and how they did that one was really cool. Keith Weinhold 30:33 Okay, so the mock tenant, grading a leasing agent, yeah, then showing you amenities, explaining lease length, things like that, Hunter Taddy 30:41 and then seeing if, you know, they violated any like Fair Housing things. He said, Don't necessarily try and bait them, but one of the questions that one of my classmates asked, so what kind of people live here? And then the good property manager, you know, it says we rent to anyone that fits our criteria. And then you have some people that's like, oh, you should have said that. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty touchy, age, race, family status, right? Yeah. So we definitely have that drilled in our heads as well, like landlord tenant law and then, like, fair housing, you Keith Weinhold 31:11 told me something interesting when we got together, when you run the numbers for property, that the numbers always work better in one condition than they do in another. Hunter Taddy 31:20 So we do cap rate. And so cap rate is noi over value, I believe, yep. So we analyze the cap rates for all the properties, and then we see what is our return if we pay cash or whatever is our return when we pay leverage. And sometimes it's better if you pay cash, or sometimes it's better if it's leveraged. But I always think even if you could pay cash, you pay, say, $3 million for the whole complex, well, you could put a $500,000 down payment on six other properties. So I always thought that was weird, because that's just, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, after my dad recommended it to me, and then it just talking to my dad about leveraged investments. Yeah, why don't you do that instead? Oh, he said, Keith Weinhold 32:00 right, as long as you control your cash flow and pay the mortgage and the operating expenses. Yeah, we typically talk about getting the leverage here, because the appreciation grade has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of equity that's in the property. Is there anything else interesting that you learned from going out in the field and actually seeing some properties or talking to some managers? And I think this is really interesting, because a lot of times when people graduate college, they tend to broad brushstroke students or new graduates, and say, Yeah, but they haven't gotten out in the real world yet, but you actually are as a student. Hunter Taddy 32:33 Yeah. So that's one thing I really love about our program, and I really love our professor. He owns properties himself. It's not like a pyramid scheme thing where, like, almost like, you're going to college to learn how to be a professor, and sometimes that we need those people for, like, research and stuff. But like, he's actually done the work. He knows what it's like. He can relate to things that we're talking about. Yeah, we get a lot of that real world experience, which is really awesome going about that, like the leasing experience. One of the things with, like, a lot of the managers, especially in Anchorage, because there's such a housing shortage, a lot of them didn't really like try, because they like, almost don't have to, because, I think a lot of them assume you're gonna lease someone anyways, no matter, because it's not necessarily really competitive. So because the vacancy rate is so small, yeah. So it's just like, here's the kitchen. You know, we're actually taught in leasing class, leasing strategies. And also, what's really good about our classes, we read, like, a lot of personal growth books in our classes. So like in our leasing class, our professor had us read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey and yeah. And then I think for our real estate investment class, we're going to read the compounding effect. I don't know what it's about, but I mean, I really appreciate how our professor gives us, like, those books and that knowledge that's not just, you know, specific to real estate. It's like how to become like a better person, or how to become better at personal finance in general. Keith Weinhold 33:58 All right, so some conceptual and some mindset stuff, along with more of the hands on and more of the numbers. Well, before I ask you, what's next for you, do you have any last thoughts with what you've learned in class, or just anything overall about your generation and lifestyle and getting along financially? For a college student, Hunter Taddy 34:18 in April, I'm going down to Austin for the property con, which is Institute of real estate management, big conference. I think they have this one every year too. I think John Quinones, the guy from what would you do, is going to be like one of the keynote speakers. So looking forward to that, definitely looking forward to some of, like, learning more about, like AI, and how it's used in, like, the property management, like real estate sphere, and then I'm kind of interested in green building, because it almost seems to be like, Win win, right? Because better for the environment and then better for the investor most of the time, you know, like, through these retrofits, like you're just switching to LED light bulbs, we actually, we ran those numbers a lot in my.In its class. Like, you know, what would it be like if you switch from iridescent to LED light bulbs? And it's like, that's like, what are the things that all property managers should do? Because you're saving, sometimes 1000s of dollars and seven or 10 year period, or whatever it is, improve the cap rate, right there? Yeah, I want to definitely learn more about, like, the green building. And also, just because, you know, I'm a healthy person, when I build my house one day, I don't want to have, like, a lot of toxic materials and stuff as well. I have one friend. He's really, really dialed in his health. They're talked about him with you before, but he, like, he's not even have drywall in his house because there's some, like, toxic thing in drywall, or something, like, he's gonna build it out of brick and mud or something, I don't know. Keith Weinhold 35:39 Oh, he can't just go live in any rental. Yeah, well, Hunter, this has been really good. Your dad owns rentals in Wisconsin, and like you mentioned, he's red, Rich Dad, Poor Dad himself. So that's kind of an influence on you. And you do have a management internship back in Wisconsin this summer. But before we go on, you mentioned to me that your dad owns a certain type of apartments in Wisconsin, and I've never heard of that type before. What are they called? And then, what does that mean? Keith Weinhold 36:06 I think the name is local to the city itself in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. So they're called custerdales. I think there were homes built after World War Two, I believe, for like GIS and things like that so well. Just before he got in the Air Force, he was in Saudi Arabia for a year, and he was thinking about, you know, what am I going to do when I retire? Because he knew after the year was done, he was going to retire and come back to Wisconsin. And one of his friends got him into real estate, and he talked to my mom a little bit, and they just started buying properties. So that was in 2018 and now they own about 70 units, mostly duplexes, with their biggest being a five Plex. They also have a 18 bed assisted living facility. Most of the the 70 units are called custerdales. They're all like, cookie cutter, like, the same they're basically the same layout, you know, sometimes it's just flipped or whatever. And he basically did the same thing each time, a lot of them were, like, really run down ones that they purchased had someone with a chicken living on top of the refrigerator. And then when they locked the place up after they bought it, he broke back in and took stuff. And so they've really, actually, like, helped the community in a way, by remodeling a lot of these homes. And then my dad would refinance them, and then he would take that money and then invest it into another property. And he just kept doing that again and again and again. Yeah, so buy and hold we self manage, because there's not really a reputable property management service in the area. This is near Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Maybe you've heard that name before. Manitowoc, they make heavy construction equipment, and you are going back to Wisconsin this summer for a management related internship, yeah, well, Hunter, well, this has been great talking about what your generation's like, what you do in your classes, and the practical experience that you're already getting as a 19 year old. I mean, you're just substantially further ahead than I was as a geography degree student and major way back in the day, if anyone wants to reach out to you, see what you're doing, or contact you. What's the best way for them to do that? Hunter. Hunter Taddy 38:09 So I don't have Instagram or Facebook, but I do have LinkedIn. So if you just search Hunter toddy again, T, A, D, D, y, on LinkedIn, you can find me there. Also just give my email. It's H hottie 007 at Gmail. Keith Weinhold 38:26 All right, look that up if you want to reach out to Hunter. Yeah, it's been great having you here. Thanks so much for coming on to the show. Hunter Taddy 38:32 Thanks forhaving me. Keith Weinhold 38:40 Yeah, a fresh perspective from college student, Hunter toddy today. He has got his act together amazingly well for a teenager, and you know, talking to him made me think about something like I said when I graduated college, and it was just with a bachelor's degree. By the way, pretty humble bachelor's double major, geography and regional planning, I had that 20k in student loan debt, which I transferred onto 0% APR credit cards, over and over again and inflation adjusted terms, that might be 40k in today's dollars. I had no incentive to pay it down, let alone pay it off, since my finance charges were essentially zero, so that's why I probably carried that balance for close to 20 years. But this is the first time that I thought about the fact that that very habit was probably a benefit to me, not because it saved me from paying interest on student loans, but because it got me comfortable withholding debt for the long term and rationalizing that there would be an opportunity cost of paying off that debt, because a payoff would have meant that I would forego the opportunity of investing those dollars to get gains, that habit got me comfortable with prudently using debt and leverage as a real estate investor, and that helped me own and control more property sooner. So it was a somewhat autodidactic approach to good debt. Today, we talk with a young, likely soon to be investor, oppositely next week here on the show. We're talking about the book end, on the other side of the shelf, and that is when you're ready to retire from real estate, you can exchange your properties into a fund, pay zero capital gains tax or depreciation recapture. And unlike a 1031 exchange, what you've done is you have totally exited the direct real estate business with a 721, exchange, and you still get financial upside with zero management duties retired. Finally, if you've ever wanted to tell me what you think about the GRE podcast, if this show has given you some fresh perspective or helped you become a better investor. The best way to support the show is to leave a quick rating or review. It helps more investors discover the show. Here's how to do it inside the get rich education Show page on Apple podcasts, scroll about halfway down to ratings and reviews. Tap the purple stars to rate, and then tap the purple words write a review on Spotify from the get rich education podcast, tap the three dots near the top of the show page, tap rate podcast and leave your star rating. That's all it takes. It's crazy that this show has almost 6 million total listener downloads, but yet, across all platforms, we have perhaps only 1000 reviews, and that's probably because I rarely ask for them. I would greatly appreciate it. Until next week, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream. Unknown Speaker 41:59 Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively Keith Weinhold 42:27 The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth, building, get richeducation.com
Dr. Brenden Borrowman was given 6 months to live. Now he's using VR to treat veteran PTSD in as little as 4 days.With 49 soldiers a day lost to suicide and at-risk behavior, Neurova Labs is on a mission to change that — one headset at a time.We get into his near-death experience, the investment that saved his life, and why the Marine Corps is leading the entire DoD in adopting this technology.
ILP# 438 3/15/2026https://lordsofgaming.net/LORDS AFTER DARK on Insider Game App! ANDROID: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.insidergaming.appIOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/insider-gaming/id67539846481) ADVANCEDGG Use Code "IRONLORD" for 10% off https://advanced.gg/pages/partner-ironlords?_pos=12) VALARI PILLOW Use Code "ILP15" valari.gg/?ref=ironlordspodcastroundtable3) ILP MERCH: https://ironlordspodcast-shop.fourthwall.com/collections/allsofgaming.net/4) NZXT & IRON LORDS PC Use Affiliate LINK: https://nzxt.co/Lords5) HAWORTH Gaming Chairs & ILP Use Affiliate LINK: https://haworth.pxf.io/4PKj7M*********************************************************00:00 - ILP#438 Pre-Show (TECH ISSUES!)30:30 - ILP#438 Intro. (FINALLY) LOL1:24:05 - TieGuyTravis Joins The Realm!1:26:26 - Marathon Impressions2:34:16 - Road To Germany (Cog Final Selections)3:21:33 - GDC Xbox Project Helix Announcements4:47:46 - ILP#438 Outro*********************************************************Welcome to The Iron Lords Podcast!Be sure to visit www.LordsOfGaming.net for all your gaming news!ILP Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/6XRMnu8Tf1fgIdGlTIpzsKILP Google Play:play.google.com/music/m/Iz2esvyqe…ron_Lords_PodcastILP SoundCloud: @user-780168349ILP Itunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/iron-…uiR-IgF6cE9EQicIILP on Twitter: twitter.cm/IronLordPodcastILP on Instagram: www.instagram.com/ironlordspodcast/ILP DESTINY CLAN:www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Detail/178626The Iron Lords and the Lords of Gaming have an official group on Facebook! Join the Lords at:www.facebook.com/groups/194793427842267www.facebook.com/groups/lordsofgamingnetwork/Lord COGNITO--- twitter.com/LordCognitoLord KING--- twitter.com/kingdavidotwLord ADDICT--- twitter.com/LordAddictILPLord SOVEREIGN--- twitter.com/LordSovILPLord GAMING FORTE---twitter.com/Gaming_ForteILP YouTube Channel for ILP, Addict Show & all ILP related content: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYiUhEbYWiuwRuWXzKZMBxQXbox Frontline with King David: www.youtube.com/@xboxfrontlineFollow us on Twitter @IronLordPodcast to get plugged in so you don't miss any of our content.
Chapter 5 In the near future, reality is boring, and the "OmniNet" is everything. The Aether Dynamics corporation runs the world. But rendering photorealistic VR for billions of users requires processing power that silicon chips can't handle. Scott Foster is about to discover a secret that changes everything. Where that change takes place? Well, that's up for interpretation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
You'll have to forgive me for getting completely sidetracked as we turn to someone who bought a pre-built PC. But not just ANY pre-built. Dude went ALL out with 64 gigs of RAM and a massive 5090 GPU. So, yeah, that kinda grabbed my attention a bit there. Given the times we currently live in when we talk about RAM prices going way up and causing the prices of graphics cards to also increase. All of this was after we started talking about what the next Xbox would likely cost. And what Valve's Steam Machine might also cost. New tech is always exciting but no matter the thrills, the specs, the bells AND the whistles…it'll all get kind of buried under the weight of whatever the price tag is. And that's currently unknown for us. And may be for some time. At any other point in time previous, we'd already know the price. We'd already have the details. But they're taking their time on getting there and it's because of the price of RAM. Full stop. The Switch 2 got in under the gun and, for now, was able to avoid the spike in prices. But that won't last much longer before they have to replenish stock and the price will likely affect that. But Valve’s new PC will be our first look at just how bad it has become. And give us a better idea of what to expect from the next Xbox and the PS6. Start saving. Ubisoft, it's been 4,591 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released. Also, there's been 1,626 job losses in the gaming industry since January 1, 2026.
Chapter 4 In the near future, reality is boring, and the "OmniNet" is everything. The Aether Dynamics corporation runs the world. But rendering photorealistic VR for billions of users requires processing power that silicon chips can't handle. Scott Foster is about to discover a secret that changes everything. Where that change takes place? Well, that's up for interpretation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
It's Friday the 13th, which means superstition is in the air and chaos is basically guaranteed. On today's daily comedy show, the Rizzuto Show crew dives headfirst into weird news, questionable relationship advice, and a story so bizarre it sounds like it came from a comedy movie.First up: dating red flags.A listener asks whether being 42 years old with no serious relationships or kids is automatically suspicious when dating. That simple question turns into a full breakdown of modern dating culture, the rise of the “incel” label, and why people today seem to struggle more than ever when it comes to relationships. The conversation includes honest advice, uncomfortable truths, and the realization that sometimes the best way to learn dating is just by getting rejected a few times and surviving it.Then the show stumbles into one of the strangest crime stories imaginable.Somewhere between Los Angeles and Dallas, a freight train shipment went missing… but this wasn't electronics or luxury goods. Thieves stole over $250,000 worth of high-tech male sex toys. The crew investigates the product itself, debates how advanced this technology has become, and wonders what kind of criminal mastermind plans a heist around self-pleasure devices.Naturally, that leads to an even bigger discussion about VR technology, internet culture, and whether modern convenience might actually be ruining people's chances of forming real relationships.But the show takes a heartfelt turn when a listener calls in to talk about dating while dealing with prostate cancer and caring for a parent. The crew shares advice, encouragement, and a reminder that even in the middle of a ridiculous daily comedy show, real moments and real connections still happen.And then comes the biggest moment of the episode.After teasing it all morning, the show finally reveals that one member of the crew has life-altering news — and the announcement sends everyone into celebration mode. Suddenly the conversation turns to baby showers, dad jokes, and the realization that the Rizz Show family is officially getting bigger.From stolen trains to serious conversations to one huge surprise announcement, this episode is everything you'd expect from a chaotic daily comedy show that somehow manages to balance ridiculous humor with real moments.Welcome to another completely normal day with The Rizzuto Show.Follow The Rizzuto Show → https://linktr.ee/rizzshow for more from your favorite daily comedy show.Connect with The Rizzuto Show Comedy Podcast online → https://1057thepoint.com/RizzShow.Hear The Rizz Show daily on the radio at 105.7 The Point | Hubbard Radio in St. Louis, MO.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
It finally happened. After years of aerial photographs, land speculation, and breathless anticipation, Mike and EB walk through the gates of Universal Epic Universe — and it does not disappoint. Well, mostly. Stardust Racers is still closed, Yoshi's Adventure is aggressively just a Yoshi that meanders, and someone on Twitter says the whole thing might need to be torn down. But other than that? Top five park day. Tom from Louisville said so himself, and Tom from Louisville has been to a lot of parks. Mike and EB go portal by portal through the whole thing — 1920s Paris at Ministry of Magic (280-minute wait; they waited 20. We said what we said.), Le Cirque Arcanus with the magic tent that's bigger on the inside, Bowser's Challenge being better than advertised, Donkey Kong Country being exactly as fun as a cartoon mine cart should be, Hiccup's Wing Gliders being a surprise contender for ride of the trip, and Monsters Unchained delivering actual honest-to-God jump scares in a theme park. They also discovered that the Burning Blade Tavern serves drinks in a beaker with what may or may not be microplastics in it. It was delicious. Plus: Seven Six Flags parks are sold for $342 million — less than the cost of a highway overpass. Disney's parks get a new worldwide president, and they hope he lives long enough to be a hero. Muppet Vision 3D is going to VR, a decision that exactly zero people are satisfied with. And Barracuda Strike opens at SeaWorld San Antonio — the family invert where the artwork shows the track going underwater, but the track does not go underwater.
Key Takeaways: Virtual Field has rebranded to Carrot to create new opportunities for their future in delivering an expanded virtual reality pretesting platform. Carrot's platform now includes more than visual field - pupillometry, color vision, ocular motility. In the near future, the platform will include contrast sensitivity, D-15, and cover test available to be done within the platform. In addition to the roadmap, the platform will build in machine learning and AI to accelerate how practices deliver a better patient experience. The more tests that can be done effectively in VR, the faster pre-testing can go in your practice. It can free up space for an additional lane or more optical displays. Instead of one tech per one patient, some practices are able to connect one technician with up to three patients. Change is always difficult, no matter the technology. Working directly with your team on the how, what, and why is critical to success to implement. What Jeremy is reading: Conquistador by Buddy Levy Practice Advantage Reading List **Don't miss out on an extra $15 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams throughout all of 2026! Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**
De nombreuses femmes regardent du porno, mais cet univers continue de véhiculer des stéréotypes principalement masculins. Leur consommation de porno est encore entourée de honte et de tabous : plaisir caché, double vie sur internet, peur d'être jugée. Que recherchent vraiment les femmes sur les sites porno ? Qu'est-ce que cela révèle sur la place qui leur est accordée, ou non et sur leur droit de prendre du plaisir et de fantasmer librement ? Comment le porno influence leurs fantasmes personnels ? Le porno peut-il devenir un espace d'exploration pour les femmes, et pas seulement un produit pensé par et pour les hommes ? Avec : • Jane Roussel, journaliste, autrice de Pornografilles (Dalva, 2025) • Cathline Smoos, psychologue et sexologue clinicienne, spécialiste des technologies de l'intime (VR,AR, cyberpsycho-sexologie) • Nikita Bellucci, réalisatrice de films pornographiques et actrice. En fin d'émission, la chronique Écoutez le monde, de Monica Fantini. Programmation musicale : ► 2006 - Asfar Shamsi ► Girl, get up. - Doechii, SZA.
With less then stellar draws in Brisbane and the top four women players on sabbatical, officiating once again becomes a hot topic of discussion on the PSA tour, with calls for more communication transparency between the center referee and the VR. PJ & Bill also take a look at the much more controversial and vital issue of artificial trophy ceremony metrics and the measures that need to be taken to stop fraudulent behavior and bring honor and sportsmanship back to the prize presentation game. Subscribe and share every episode from Squash Radio, Squash University and The Rally Report on the Squash Podcast Network: https://www.squashpodcastnetwork.com/ Squash Radio is sponsored by Sunrise Courts: www.sunrise-courts.com
GET TICKETS FOR THERAPY GECKO LIVE: therapygeckotour.com A caller off 40 shots of fireball whisky explains why he may be done for, and we read viewer mail about the abominable snowman, VR chat legends, how much to reveal about yourself to your family, and more. Put the cap back on the thing please. I am a gecko. Send an email to therapygeckomail@gmail.com to maybe have it possibly read on the show potentially. GET BONUS EPISODES: therapygecko.supercast.com FOLLOW ME ON GECKOGRAM: instagram.com/lyle4ever GET WEIRD EMAILS FROM ME SOMETIMES BY CLICKING HERE.Follow me on Twitch to get a notification for when I’m live taking calls. Usually Mondays and Wednesdays but a lot of other times too. twitch.tv/lyleforeverSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Back in the 90's, Felix had a huge tune called "Don't You Want Me" which became an anthem of the acid house era and even brought electronic music to everyone's living rooms via a special performance on Top Of The Pops. Years later and Felix is still at it, making bodies sweat and bringing smiles to raver faces all over the world. He recently collaborated with Sacha Robotti for the single "Whistle Man" featuring Eric D. Clark and we now have the honor of welcoming him to Dirtybird Radio for an exclusive guest set. Buckle up! VR warm-up set:Good Neighbor, Tom Kench - "Feels (Mitch Dodge Remix)" [Slothacid]Mathias Kaden feat. Zoë Xenia - "Fyutr (Dennis Ferrer Remix)" [Rekids]Lous Millne, Ribguga - "Lo Siento" [Repopulate Mars]Kevin Knapp & Shaded - "Gorilla" [Dirtybird Records]Felix guest set:Lightening In Me feat. Oliver Night (Original Mix) - Jimpster, Oliver Night [Nu Groove]Whistle Man (Extended Mix) - Felix, Sacha Robotti (feat Eric D Clark) [Dirtybird]I Don't Want A Lot (Original Mix) - Gene Farris, Sage Armstrong, Basura Boyz [Dirtybird]Job Satisfaction (Phil Weeks Mix) - Blakkat [Tango Recordings]Fuego Hot - Felix [Dance FX]Lemme Show U Sumtn'n (Original Mix) - Demuir [Elrow Music]Like The Way You Do - Partycrashers [Acacia Records]Shake (Original Mix) - Tekla [Dirtybird]Betta House (Original Mix) - DJ Sneak [Purveyor Underground]Nothin More I Need feat Brendan Reilly (After Party Remix) - Felix [Dance FX]Lesson #1 (Original Mix) - Josh Caffe [Lovechild Records]The Poem (Original Mix) - Maetrik [Ellum]Go See Ya (Felix 2016 Edit) - Partycrashers [Dance FX]Is It? - Partycrashers [Acacia Records]
USE CODE 'STREAM7' FOR A FREE WEEK OF ADULT TIME!This week, host Bree Mills is joined by Coco Lovelock! The two waste no time during their first meeting, diving head first into the influences of Coco's unique upbringing. Coco dishes on hooking up with her boyfriend's dad, her passion for pushing the envelope, and creating *THAT* piece of art. Tune in to hear all things breaking the typecast, giving head for Happy Meals & Labubus, being a p*ss sommelier, and SO MUCH MORE! Coco Lovelock: https://www.instagram.com/cocolovelockx/Bree Mills: https://www.instagram.com/thebreemills/ The Adult Time Podcast: https://bemyfan.com/TheAdultTimePodcastABOUT ADULT TIME:Adult Time is a digital subscription platform for a new era of adult entertainment. We are a brand built by people who believe in a future where mature audiences can safely, securely, and proudly have a place in their lineup for premium adult content. In addition to our addictive programming, Adult Time is dedicated to creating a personalized content experience for all our viewers with 400+ channels, 60,000 episodes, and VR and interactive toy integration.
ILP# 437 3/8/2026https://lordsofgaming.net/LORDS AFTER DARK on Insider Game App! ANDROID: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.insidergaming.appIOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/insider-gaming/id67539846481) ADVANCEDGG Use Code "IRONLORD" for 10% off https://advanced.gg/pages/partner-ironlords?_pos=12) VALARI PILLOW Use Code "ILP15" valari.gg/?ref=ironlordspodcastroundtable3) ILP MERCH: https://ironlordspodcast-shop.fourthwall.com/collections/allsofgaming.net/4) NZXT & IRON LORDS PC Use Affiliate LINK: https://nzxt.co/Lords5) HAWORTH Gaming Chairs & ILP Use Affiliate LINK: https://haworth.pxf.io/4PKj7M*********************************************************[00:00] Intro, Banter, and Life Updates (Dieting, TV shows, and Movies)[06:46] What the Lords Have Been Playing (Enchanted Arms, Minishoot)[11:00] Deep Dive into Resident Evil 9[43:00] Super Chats & General Industry Talk (Capcom's hot streak, GTA 6 expectations)[01:05:22] Major Topic 1: Project Helix (Xbox's Next-Gen Hybrid Console & Asha Sharma's Announcement)[01:13:00] Live from GDC: Cog drops in to give on-the-ground updates[01:38:48] Hilarious Detour: Picking a costume for Cog (Road to Cologne)[01:41:46] Continuing the Project Helix discussion (PC integration, exclusives, and the console war)[02:40:16] Major Topic 2: PlayStation Leaving PC? (Discussing Jason Schreier's report about Sony pulling major single-player titles like Ghost of Yōtei from PC)[03:11:00] Major Topic 3: Steam Machine Delayed (Valve pushing back the timeline and ceasing production on older Steam Decks)[03:19:30] Major Topic 4: Slay The Spire 2 (Early Access impressions and comparing its massive player counts to Marathon)[03:30:10] Outro & Wrap-up*********************************************************Welcome to The Iron Lords Podcast!Be sure to visit www.LordsOfGaming.net for all your gaming news!ILP Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/6XRMnu8Tf1fgIdGlTIpzsKILP Google Play:play.google.com/music/m/Iz2esvyqe…ron_Lords_PodcastILP SoundCloud: @user-780168349ILP Itunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/iron-…uiR-IgF6cE9EQicIILP on Twitter: twitter.cm/IronLordPodcastILP on Instagram: www.instagram.com/ironlordspodcast/ILP DESTINY CLAN:www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Detail/178626The Iron Lords and the Lords of Gaming have an official group on Facebook! Join the Lords at:www.facebook.com/groups/194793427842267www.facebook.com/groups/lordsofgamingnetwork/Lord COGNITO--- twitter.com/LordCognitoLord KING--- twitter.com/kingdavidotwLord ADDICT--- twitter.com/LordAddictILPLord SOVEREIGN--- twitter.com/LordSovILPLord GAMING FORTE---twitter.com/Gaming_ForteILP YouTube Channel for ILP, Addict Show & all ILP related content: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYiUhEbYWiuwRuWXzKZMBxQXbox Frontline with King David: www.youtube.com/@xboxfrontlineFollow us on Twitter @IronLordPodcast to get plugged in so you don't miss any of our content.
Third-party risk is no longer a background concern for healthcare organizations -- it is a frontline challenge. Jason Kor, Principal at HITRUST, works on the company's third-party risk management team, helping enterprises understand the security risk embedded in their supply chains. The numbers tell a stark story: according to Security Scorecard, 99% of the world's 2,000 largest companies are actively connected to a vendor that has experienced a breach in the past 18 months. And Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report shows that the share of breaches tied to a third party has doubled year over year. HITRUST exists precisely to help organizations move from awareness to action. HITRUST will be at HIMSS 2026 in Las Vegas, March 9-12, at Booth 11307. Stop playing whack-a-mole with vendor risk -- step into the VR challenge and win prizes. For organizations already holding a HITRUST certification, the team has something else waiting: a trophy recognizing the commitment to independent, external audits and rigorous security standards. For those exploring certification for the first time, the booth is a chance to understand how HITRUST compares to alternatives like SOC 2 questionnaires -- and why scalability and risk reduction make it the stronger choice for supply chain assurance. Kor puts it plainly: the audits are time-consuming and expensive because they are effective. And at the end of the process, someone reads that report and makes real business decisions based on what it contains. Two major themes converge at this year's event: supply chain risk and AI. HITRUST has already launched an AI security assessment offering, and new CSF releases are on the horizon, including a report center feature enabling online review of assessments for anti-fraud and continuous monitoring purposes. On Tuesday, March 10, 2026, from 11:10 AM to 11:30 AM, Kor will deliver a 20-minute session titled "Understanding AI Security Risk -- The New Blind Spot in TPRM and Supply Chain Resilience." The session addresses a rapidly evolving challenge: as organizations build their own generative AI tooling -- or work with third parties that have integrated AI into their products -- questions around data sovereignty, input handling, and model provenance become critical, especially in healthcare where electronic health information is at stake. Also on the HIMSS 2026 agenda from HITRUST: Ryan Patrick, Executive Vice President of TPRM Customer Solutions, joins John P. Houston of UPMC and Chuck Christian of Franciscan Health for a Brunch Briefing titled "Building Secure, Compliant, and Resilient Healthcare Systems Together" on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, from 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM at Level 1, Casanova 505. The session offers practical strategies, frameworks, and real-world lessons for organizations looking to reduce risk, enhance protection, and advance trust in an evolving threat and regulatory landscape. This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight GUEST Jason Kor, Principal, HITRUSThttps://www.linkedin.com/in/securityconsultantcissp/ RESOURCES HITRUST: https://hitrustalliance.net Jason Kor Session -- Understanding AI Security Risk -- The New Blind Spot in TPRM and Supply Chain Resilience (Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 11:10 AM - 11:30 AM): https://app.himssconference.com/event/himss-2026/planning/UGxhbm5pbmdfNDMyMTMxOA== Building Secure, Compliant, and Resilient Healthcare Systems Together -- Brunch Briefing (Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM): https://app.himssconference.com/event/himss-2026/planning/UGxhbm5pbmdfNDMzNzQwMQ== HIMSS 2026 Global Health Conference and Exhibition: https://www.itspmagazine.com/cybersecurity-technology-society-events/himss-global-health-conference-amp-exhibition-2026 Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight KEYWORDS Jason Kor, HITRUST, Sean Martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, third-party risk management, TPRM, supply chain risk, healthcare cybersecurity, HIMSS 2026, AI security, generative AI risk, HITRUST CSF, cybersecurity certification, data sovereignty, electronic health information, vendor risk management Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
On this episode of the Ruff Talk VR podcast we have another stacked edition of VR news! Including news on Walkabout Mini Golf's next DLC course - Passport Hollywood! We also talk news on Pico's next headset, Project Swan, which is also coming to North America! As well as new game launches such as RAGER on PS VR2 and Peak Rhythm! Upcoming games such as The Amusement and Affected: The Asylum. Game updates to games such as Prison Boss Prohibition, and much more!Use code RUFFTALKVR at checkout to save on any game or hardware on the Meta Quest store and help support the show!Showcase application form: https://forms.gle/tnPhzKezn3WuJpCU9Big thank you to all of our Patreon supporters! Become a supporter of the show today at https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrDiscord: https://discord.gg/9JTdCccucSPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvr0:00 - Episode Start1:45 - Walkabout Mini Golf Passport Hollywood Announcement4:50 - Le Dino Labo Out Now8:10 - RAGER PS VR2 Out Now11:40 - Peak Rhythm Out Now13:40 - Affected: The Asylum 19:55 - Pico's Next Headset Project Swan23:00 - RUMBLE27:45 - Prison Boss Prohibition Custom Game Modes30:25 - nDreams Announces Restructure 32:40 - Darts VR2: Bullseye 38:20 - Puzzling Places PCVR40:25 - Interlocked: Puzzle Islands 43:45 - The Amusement48:00 - March Horizon+ GamesIf you enjoy the podcast be sure to rate us 5 stars and subscribe! Join our official subreddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/RuffTalkVR/Support the show
The Muppet*Vision 3D experience from the Disney parks is coming to the Apple Vision Pro - and other VR devices. A game archival site is going to go offline because it cannot afford to stay online due to various factors including the increasing cost of RAM and storage due to the global AI infrastructure roll-out. The State of New York is suing Valve over their use of loot boxes, possibly hoping to set a legal precedent to go after larger corporations with deeper pockets and better lawyers. Then we talk to Jamie from OLR about loot boxes and the "gaming" industry.
Wir haben uns das neue Virtual Boy-"Remake" für die Nintendo Switch geschnappt und testen, ob das 80-Dollar-Gadget wirklich das Retro-Feeling von damals zurückbringt oder einfach nur absurd ist. Wir blicken zurück auf die Geschichte des kuriosen 3D-Kastens, reden über unsere eigenen, frühen VR-Erfahrungen und diskutieren, warum Virtual Reality sich bis heute schwertut. Außerdem werfen wir einen kritischen Blick auf den ganzen Markt der Retro-Konsolen: SNES Mini, Amiga 500 Mini, C64 und Co. – Kauft man das eigentlich nur für die Vitrine? Unsere Community-Umfrage zeigt ein klares Bild: Für die meisten sind es am Ende doch nur teure Staubfänger. Alle Links zum GameStar Podcast und unseren Werbepartnern: https://linktr.ee/gamestarpodcast
In this episode, we welcome Amy Landecker, actor, writer and director of the new feature, For Worse. Amy is known for critically-acclaimed roles in projects such as A Serious Man, Dan in Real Life, Doctor Strange, I Love My Dad, “Transparent,” “Sneaky Pete,” “The Handmaid's Tale,” and “Your Honor”. In our conversation, she shares on the inspiration and the making of her directorial debut, For Worse. Amy also speaks about the financing, casting, and production of this independent romantic comedy.“The Making Of” is presented by AJA:Butcher Bird Studios solves common video routing and I/O challenges with AJAStep inside Butcher Bird Studios' hybrid production environment with Technical Director Brian Druckman and Executive Producer MeeRa Kim. They explain how KUMO SDI routers and Io 4K Plus help their team deliver flexible routing, low-latency monitoring, and streamlined I/O inside and outside the studio. Read the full interview.Michael Bauman Wins American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Award for “One Battle After Another”The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) presented Michael Bauman its 2026 theatrical feature film award for “One Battle After Another.” The 40th ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards, held at the Beverly Hilton, also recognized Mátyás Erdély, ASC, HSC for “Orphan” in the Spotlight Award category, and Mstyslav Chernov and Alex Babenko for the documentary “2000 Meters from Andriivka.” Winners in the television categories included Adam Newport-Berra for “The Studio,” Pete Konczal, ASC for “Black Rabbit, Alex Disenhof, ASC for “Task” and Christophe Nuyens, SBC for “Andor.” In the music video category, Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC won for Taylor Swift's “The Fate of Ophelia.”Read more here Cinema Audio Society Announces Winners of the 62nd Annual CAS AwardsF1, The Pitt, The Studio and KPop Demon Hunters Among Top HonoreesThe Cinema Audio Society (CAS) revealed the winners of the 62nd Annual CAS Awards tonight at the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom. The evening honored excellence in sound mixing across motion pictures, television, and non-fiction programming, with industry leaders and acclaimed filmmakers gathering to celebrate the art and craft of sound.Read more hereNow with Massive 8TB Capacity—Thunderbolt 5 SpeedThe OWC Envoy Pro Ultra now comes in a new 8TB capacity, pairing enormous space with next‑generation Thunderbolt 5 performance. With real‑world speeds over 6000 MB/s and a rugged, bus‑powered design, it's perfect for 4K/8K workflows, on‑location shoots, and fast media offloads. High‑speed, high‑capacity, and ready for serious creative work. Browse hereCine Gear ConnectMarch 28, 2026 | Brooklyn, NYRegistration is now open for Cine Gear Connect New York 2026, presented by Universal Production Services. Designed for professional filmmakers and photographers who prize depth over breadth, this intimate one-day gathering will bring together industry creative professionals in Industry City, Brooklyn, NY for a focused, immersive experience unlike any other. Visit hereA New Solution from Videoguys: Power your most demanding creative workflows with the G-RAID PROJECT 2, a high-performance 2-bay storage system built to handle massive 4K, 8K, and VR video projects with ease. Featuring 7200RPM Ultrastar enterprise-class hard drives, Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, and RAID 0 pre-configured for maximum speed and efficiency, it delivers fast data transfers up to 520MB/s to keep your editing and archiving workflows moving without interruption. If you're ready to expand your storage and streamline your production workflow, learn more about the G-RAID PROJECT 2 and other professional media solutions at Videoguys today.Visit here Podcast Rewind:March 2026 - Ep. 123.Advertise in The Making Of:Feature your products or solutions in The Making Of and reach 255,000 film and TV industry each week. To explore a partnership, email mvalinsky@me.com today. Get full access to The Making Of at themakingof.substack.com/subscribe
Chapter 3 In the near future, reality is boring, and the "OmniNet" is everything. The Aether Dynamics corporation runs the world. But rendering photorealistic VR for billions of users requires processing power that silicon chips can't handle. Scott Foster is about to discover a secret that changes everything. Where that change takes place? Well, that's up for interpretation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Use code RUFFTALKVR at checkout to save on any game or hardware on the Meta Quest store and help support the show!Showcase application form: https://forms.gle/tnPhzKezn3WuJpCU9This is a bonus episode on the podcast feed of our YouTube Live community hangout from Saturday! Come hangout with us during the live which is usually Sunday at 3pm ET (Exact details weekly are on our Discord). Listen as we hangout and talk VR with some of our community!Big thank you to all of our Patreon supporters! Become a supporter of the show today at https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrDiscord: https://discord.gg/9JTdCccucSPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrIf you enjoy the podcast be sure to rate us 5 stars and subscribe! Join our official subreddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/RuffTalkSupport the show
Listen, there is still bad news. More AI stuff and more studio closings and people losing their jobs. It's still pretty bleak. And it isn't likely to change for quite some time. But, in an effort to not yet again sound like a broken record of just horrible news every week, I'd like to pose a question to you. If you could wipe the memory of any game you've played, so that you could experience it again for the very first time, what would you pick? What game made such an impression on you that going through it again, with a fresh mind and fresh eyes, would be your choice? Half-Life 1/2 were amazing games with mechanics we'd never seen before at the time, but if only your memory of it was wiped, would it be what it was then by playing it today? I had a few picks for myself. Mark Of The Ninja was one. It's a game I've not played in a long time and would likely feel like playing it for the first time. Another was Bioshock Infinite (probably Bioshock 1, as well). Those two games, while playing them wouldn't seem at all much different than anything else out there…it's their stories that I want to experience again for the first time. And it's a bit hard for me to find something else like that – although I'm sure they exist. I just can't think of them at the moment. Maybe Braid. Maybe. So let us know what your picks are. And maybe for a little bit we aren't thinking about job losses and AI running up the tab on all our fun stuff and everything else going on at the moment. At least for a little bit. At this point playing ANY Splinter Cell game would feel like I'm playing it for the first time again. Ubisoft, it's been 4,584 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released. Also, there's been 1,626 job losses in the gaming industry since January 1, 2026.
Join us as we explore the latest in VR and XR technology, including Apple Vision Pro, Steam Frame, Pico Project Swan, and industry trends. Discover insights from experts on hardware innovations, software updates, and the future of immersive experiences.VR, XR, Apple Vision Pro, Steam Frame, Pico Project Swan, VR hardware, VR software, industry trends, immersive technologyKey topics:Apple Vision Pro immersive fidelitySteam Frame wireless PC VR and foveated streamingPico Project Swan and Pico OS 6VR industry trends and hardware developmentsSoftware updates and platform improvementsFoveated streamingSplit computing in VROS and hardware integrationChapters:00:00 The Evolution of VR Experiences00:10 Exploring the Apple Vision Pro02:50 Steam Frame: Anticipation and Expectations05:26 Foveated Streaming and Its Impact08:02 The Future of VR Headsets10:49 Pico Project Swan: A New Contender13:18 Meta's Next Steps in VR23:14 Pico's New OS and Hardware Innovations25:16 Dual Chip Design and Performance Enhancements27:27 Pico's Global Strategy and Market Positioning29:59 The State of VR Gaming and Industry Challenges34:19 Comparing Apple Vision Pro and Quest 3 Experiences37:33 Meta's Future in VR and Gaming46:42 nDreams downsizes and the Impact of the Metaverse Boom
Chapter 2 In the near future, reality is boring, and the "OmniNet" is everything. The Aether Dynamics corporation runs the world. But rendering photorealistic VR for billions of users requires processing power that silicon chips can't handle. Scott Foster is about to discover a secret that changes everything. Where that change takes place? Well, that's up for interpretation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Chris starts off with a show-and-tell, and then Jack explains why he's the "Fruit King". There's a discussion about VR tech in sports, and eventually TV-Talk: Paradise(no spoilers), Shrinking(No Spoilers), and Matt makes a case for "The Paper" and the Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins. Before a new Meme Game, Jack has a Rant on "backing in" and proper parking lot etiquette. Become a Patron at JayandJack.comWrite us an email at RCADCast@gmail.comFollow us on Instagram at RCADCastAnd leave us an iTunes review
Chris starts off with a show-and-tell, and then Jack explains why he’s the “Fruit King”. There’s a discussion about VR tech in sports, and eventually TV-Talk: Paradise(no spoilers), Shrinking(No Spoilers), and Matt makes a case for “The Paper” and the Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins. Before a new Meme Game, Jack has a Rant […]
Chris starts off with a show-and-tell, and then Jack explains why he's the "Fruit King". There's a discussion about VR tech in sports, and eventually TV-Talk: Paradise(no spoilers), Shrinking(No Spoilers), and Matt makes a case for "The Paper" and the Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins. Before a new Meme Game, Jack has a Rant on "backing in" and proper parking lot etiquette. Become a Patron at JayandJack.comWrite us an email at RCADCast@gmail.comFollow us on Instagram at RCADCastAnd leave us an iTunes review
Dit is de gehele uitzending van dr Kelder en Co waar Jort Kelder belt met Kamerlid Pepijn van Houwelingen (FvD) over het terughalen van de Nederlandse goudvoorraad die in de VS ligt. Te gast is prof. dr. Haroon Sheikh (VU) over de oorlog in het Midden-Oosten en raketten die nu ook op de Golfstaten terecht komen. Wat betekent dat voor de toekomst van bijv. Dubai? De jonge dr. Evy van Weelden heeft onderzoek gedaan naar de hersenactiviteit tijdens de trainingen van piloten met een VR bril. En prof. dr. Janka Stoker (RuG) doet al jaren onderzoek naar leiderschap, maar hoe moet Nederland bestuurd worden met de door Jetten zo gewenste 'egoloze ministers'?
ENTERTAINING SHORT FILMS is a new category on the RPA Network, which features indie short films for your enjoyment! We applaud these creators! Set in a suffocating, over-commercialized future, a young boy's desire for success and status leads him into a terrifying and deadly new reality through the lens of a mysterious VR game. His desperate father must now race against both time and technology to save his dying son. But the boy is the only one who can save himself — before becoming another faceless pawn of the Forest King.
USE CODE 'STREAM7' FOR A FREE WEEK OF ADULT TIME!On this week's episode, host Bree Mills is joined by Kenna James and Millie Morgan! The three kick things off with a game of Would You Rather, where they discuss clown porn, before diving into their collaboration on the bondage scene "Bound to Please Her" for the LEZ BE BAD series and what it's like prepping and shooting bondage and kink scenes, then getting into the acting side of prn and their individual journeys acting, Kenna doing stunt work with her partner, Millie taking a fan's virginity and working with fans, learning her sexuality on camera, looking at fans' d*ck pics, before sliding into a game of SXLINE from sex d*t com where they answer fan questions about sex and boundaries, prn bucket lists, sex tapes, and MUCH MORE!Kenna James: https://www.instagram.com/realkennajames/Millie Morgan: https://www.instagram.com/milliemorganofficial/Bree Mills: https://www.instagram.com/thebreemills/ The Adult Time Podcast: https://bemyfan.com/TheAdultTimePodcastABOUT ADULT TIME:Adult Time is a digital subscription platform for a new era of adult entertainment. We are a brand built by people who believe in a future where mature audiences can safely, securely, and proudly have a place in their lineup for premium adult content. In addition to our addictive programming, Adult Time is dedicated to creating a personalized content experience for all our viewers with 400+ channels, 60,000 episodes, and VR and interactive toy integration.
Who dares to make predictions in the current landscape? We do! Our Predictions are back. Will our track-record continue on a high or will we be fundamentally wrong? Listen in to our Predictions for 2026 Navigation: Intro What will 2026 be all about? AI, AI and … more AI The big Hardware movements Of Start-ups and VCs Regulatory & Geopolitical Headwinds… and the Wars Fintech, Crypto and Frontier Tech Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show: Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Bertrand Schmitt Introduction Welcome to Tech Deciphered Episode 74. That would be an episode about some predictions about 2026. What will be 2026 all about? I guess this year is probably starting with a bang. We saw the acquisition of xAI by SpaceX. We saw an acquisition from Grok by NVIDIA. What’s your take about what would be the big themes in 2026? I guess it would be for sure about AI and space. Nuno Goncalves Pedro What will 2026 be all about? Yeah. I predict a year that will be a little bit more of a year of reckoning in some way. There will be a lot of things that I think we’ll start seeing through. The fact that we are in the midst of an amazing transformational era for technology, the use of AI, but at the same time, obviously, a ridiculous bubble that is going alongside it as we’ve discussed in previous episodes. I think that we’ll start seeing some early reckonings of that, companies that might start failing, floundering, maybe a couple of frauds along the way, etc. I’ll tell you what I will not make many predictions about today, which is geopolitics. Geopolitics, I will not make predictions at all. Who the hell knows what’s going to happen to the world this year in 2026? I don’t dare making any predictions on that. Back to things where I would make predictions. I think on AI, we’ll have a little bit of reckoning. We’ll talk about it a little bit more in detail during this episode. Interesting elements around the hardware and physical space. Physical space, we just dedicated a full episode to it. We won’t go into a lot of details on that, but definitely on the hardware side, we’ll talk a little bit more about it. The VC landscape is going through an incredible transformation. We’ll talk about it today as well and some of our predictions for this year. What will happen to the asset class? It seems to be transforming itself dramatically. Obviously, that has a very direct impact on startups, so we’ll talk about that as well. And then to close a little bit the chapter on this, we will address some regulatory and geopolitical, let’s call it, headwinds without making maybe too many complex predictions. We shall see. Maybe by that time of the episode, we will be making some predictions. You guys should stay and listen to us, and maybe we will actually make some predictions about the geopolitical transformations that we will see this year in the world. Then last but not the least, we’ll talk about fintech, crypto, frontier tech, and a couple of other areas before concluding the episode. A classic predictions’ episode. We normally have a pretty good track record on some of these, but right now, the world is going a bit interesting, not to say insane. Bertrand Schmitt Yes, and going back to some news, Groq technically was not acquired, but, practically, it’s as if it got acquired. I’m talking about Groq, G-R-O-Q. The AI semiconductor company focused on inference AI, and it was late December. It was a way to end the year. This year, we started again with an acquisition of xAI by its sister company, SpaceX. I guess that’s where we are starting. AI, AI and … more AI We are going to start on AI. That’s definitely the big stuff. Everything these days, I guess, is about AI or has to have some connection with AI, or it doesn’t matter. I think every company in the world has seen that. You have to have the absolute minimum on AI strategy. You better execute on this strategy and show results, I would say. For the companies that were not AI native, you truly have to have a way to transform yourself. I guess at some point, the stretch might be too much, and it’s not really reasonable. Then you maybe better stay on what you are doing, especially if you’re in tech, you better be moving faster to AI. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Just to highlight, and I think throughout the episode, you’ll see that there’re obviously a lot of implications that would manifest themselves into capital markets. I mean, we’ll specifically talk about VCs and startups later on. But the fact that everything needs to be AI, the fact that there’s so much innovation happening right now, in my opinion, and this is maybe the first pre-topic to AI, is we’ll see a tremendous increase in M&A activity this year across the board. I mean, we’ve seen already some big acquihires we mentioned in some of our previous episodes, but we’ll see a lot more activity on M&A this year. Normally, that’s a precursor to the opening of capital markets. I predict also that there will be a reopening of the IPO market that never really reopened last year, to be honest. M&A, a lot more, reopening of the IPO market. Normally, it happens in the second or third quarter of the year. That’s what my M&A friends tell me. First quarter of year, everyone’s figuring out stuff. Then last quarter of the year, things should be more or less closed. Maybe the third quarter is the big quarter. We shall see. But definitely, as a precursor to our conversation today, I think we’ll see a lot of M&A, and we’ll see reopening of the IPO mark. Bertrand Schmitt I guess last year was not as big as you could expect on M&A given the tariff situation announced in April and May. I mean, it became quite tough to do IPO in such market conditions. Definitely, we can hope for something dramatically different in 2026. I guess talking about public markets and IPO, I guess the big one everyone is waiting for is SpaceX. SpaceX getting even more interesting with its xAI acquisition. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Do you think that because of the acquisition, it’s more likely that it will happen this year, or because of the acquisition, it’s less likely that it will happen this year? Bertrand Schmitt That’s a good question. My guess is the acquisition of xAI is all about xAI needing more financing and cheaper financing. This acquisition is a pathway to that. SpaceX being a much bigger company, a company that is also making much more revenues. I could bet that there is higher probability that, actually, SpaceX will go public in order to finance itself. At the same time, will it have enough time to prepare itself for the IPO given this acquisition just happened? Can they do that in 6 months? I mean, if anyone can do it, I guess it’s Elon Musk. It’s a strategy to present an even more attractive company with an even more interesting story, a story of vertical integration from AI to space. I guess the story as it’s presented itself right now, it’s one about having your AI data centers in space. Because in space, you have much better solar energy production with solar panels. You have a perfect cooling situation because you are in space. Thanks to Starlink, you have the mean to communicate between the satellites and with Earth itself. I think if someone can pull up a story like AI data center in space, I guess Elon Musk can. There is, of course, a lot of questions about is it practical? Is it economical? Yes. I certainly agree. I’m not clear on the mass, and can you make it work? Again, I mean, Elon Musk single-handedly, with SpaceX, managed to transform the space market on its head. I mean, they are the biggest satellite launching company in the world. They have the most satellites in the world. I mean, I’m not sure I would bet against him, and I guess I would probably believe that he could pull up something. Time frames, different story. The 2-3 years data center in space for AI as cheap as on Earth, I have more trouble with that one. I mean, it’s a usual suspect with Elon Musk. You promise something unachievable in a few years, but, ultimately, you still manage to reach it in 5 or 10. Again, I would not bet against the strategy. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Yeah. I’ve talked to a couple of space experts, people that have launched rockets, and have worked JPL, NASA, and a couple of other places, etc. For what it’s worth, their feedback is, “No way in hell, and we’re decades away.” We’ll see. I mean, to your point, Elon has pulled very dramatic stuff. Not as fast as he normally says he’s going to pull it, but within a time span that we all see it. Difficult to bet against him. In terms of actually the prediction, maybe to respond to the prediction as well, will SpaceX IPO? I’m going to make a prediction that has a very high likelihood of missing the mark, but I think Tesla’s going to buy and merge them both into it. It’s going to become a public company through Tesla. That’s my hypothesis. Bertrand Schmitt No. That’s supposed to be it. That’s how you solve that. Nuno Goncalves Pedro And Elon controls the whole universe. X, xAI, Tesla, SpaceX, all under one umbrella beautifully run. And SolarCity is well in there, of course, so wonderful. Bertrand Schmitt That’s possible. Certainly, you are not the only one thinking Tesla will acquire or merge with SpaceX. To remind everyone, Tesla is around 1.3, 1.5 trillion market cap. Depending on the day, SpaceX seems to be valued at similar range, 1.2, 1.3 trillion. It looks like it’s the most valued private company at this stage. These are companies of similar size, so that’s one piece of the puzzle. When you think about the combined company, we could be talking about a 3 trillion entity. Playing right here with the biggest companies in the marketplace today. Nuno Goncalves Pedro With a couple of tweets from Elon, it will rapidly get to 4 to 5 trillion. Bertrand Schmitt That’s so tricky. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Yes. On AI and back to AI, one thing I think that we’re about to see is this will probably be the year of agentic AI. Obviously, we predict a lot of growth on that side of the fence, in particular on the enterprise B2B side. We see a lot of opportunities coming through. From our perspective, at least at Chamaeleon, we generally believe that there’s going to be a lot of movements on agentic AI. It’s also going to be probably the year of the first big fails of agentic AI that will be newsworthy. There will be some elements about that loop and how it gets closed that will happen. I think we might see some scandals already. We’re already seeing the social network of bots talking to bots. We will see other scandals going on this year even in the consumer space and in the bot to bot space, which we now can talk about or in the AI agent to AI agent space. My prediction is we will see some move forwards. There’ll be some dramatic funding rounds along the way. We’ll see a couple of really cool things out of the gates coming out that are really impressive, but we’ll also see the first big misses of the technology stack. I don’t think we’ll go fully mainstream yet this year, so it’s probably maybe something more for 2027 along the way. That would be my prediction again. I think enterprise will lead the way. We’ll definitely see a lot of stuff on consumer as well that is cool. Then we’ll all have our own personal assistance in our hands, basically, literally in our phones. Bertrand Schmitt Going back to agentic AI, we also started the year with some pretty dramatic move. I mean, the launch of Clawdbot, renamed OpenClaw. I mean, this stuff took fire in like a week or 2. It was coded by just one person who actually didn’t even code the product but used AI to build the product, 100% used AI, proposing some new ways also to leverage AI to do coding. He has a pretty unique approach. It’s not vibe coding. I would say it’s a better way to do that. Then the surprising evolution with the launch of a social network for AI agents, Moltbook. I mean, this stuff, probably there is some fake in it. But at the same time, I think it’s quite impressive because it’s the first time we see truly 100,000 plus agents communicating directly to each other. Yeah. I mean, that’s the first time we see surfacing the possibility of some sort of hive mind on the Internet. It’s pretty surprising. Right now, all of this is a hack done in a few days. By end of year, by 2 years, 3 years, we might discover that, actually, the best approach to AI might not be the AI assistant like we are doing today, but a combination of hundreds of thousands of AI working closely together. We might be witnessing the first sign of new intelligence in a way. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Things like this social network might either be Skynet, the beginning of Skynet. They might be the beginning of Her, or they might just be a fad and nothing really happens. It’s just interesting to see what these agents are doing. Bertrand Schmitt Totally. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Obviously, there are real and clear and present dangers of some of the integrations of AI we’re seeing in the market. Interesting enough, and I’ll ask you for your prediction a bit, Bertrand. I think we’ll probably see the first big mishap of AI being used in some infrastructural decision in the age of AI. I mean, we’ve seen AI issues in the past and software issues in the past. We talked in previous episodes about that as well. Mishaps of software that have led to people dying. But I think probably the first big mishap will happen this year as well. Very public mishap of the use of AI and serve its interactions with infrastructure or something that’s very platform related, etc, that will have big impact that everyone will notice. That’s my prediction for the year as well. We’ll have the first big oops moment, as I would call it, for AI in this new age of full on AI. Bertrand Schmitt I would say first some perspective. I think today, people are not using AI directly for life and death decision, at least not that I’m aware. We’re not going to let AI fly a plane, for instance, tomorrow so you can be, reassured. At the same time, given there is such a race to AI, there definitely might be some mistakes. We were talking about the social network for AI agents, Moltbook. Apparently, all the keys used to secure the AI were shared by mistake because it was not properly locked down. We can see that indirectly, mistakes will be made for sure. Two, it’s highly probable that some people will trust AI too much to do some stuff, and this stuff might not work and might have some grave consequence. Hopefully, there is not so much of this. Hopefully, it’s mostly AI used for the good. But you’re right. I mean, at some point, the more we use the technology, the more there would be issue. I mean, it’s highly probable. Nuno Goncalves Pedro That will lead me to another prediction, which is, and we’ll talk about more of it later, but it probably will lead to the first significant movement in terms of regulatory environment certainly in the US at some point if it happens in the US in particular, where there will be some movement that will be like, “Hey, you guys can’t do this anymore.” Because this will probably emerge from mismanaged interfaces. From systems having access to stuff that they shouldn’t have access to in the first place. Talking a little bit more about what’s happening in AI. You’ve already mentioned some of the issues that relate actually to security and cybersecurity. We keep talking about AI. We keep talking about all these infrastructure pieces and platforms that are being built. I think we’ll have a lot more incidents like the one you just mentioned where things will be shared that shouldn’t have been shared, where people will break systems and get into it, etc. Let’s see where that takes us, which is a little bit ironic because, obviously, with AI, the promise is that cybersecurity becomes more robust as well because there’re agents working on our behalf on the cybersecurity side. There’s also agents working on the other side. Bertrand Schmitt It’s a constant race. It’s the attackers, defenders. Each time you have new technology, you have a new race to who is going to attack or defend the best. Each new wave of technology, it’s an opportunity to challenge the status quo. Nuno Goncalves Pedro The attackers have been winning, and I feel they’ll continue winning in 2026. I think it’s going to still be a year of attack. We’ll see more and more breaches, more and more stuff that will happen. Bertrand Schmitt I don’t know if they will win. I mean, it’s normal that they win once in a while. For sure, some infrastructure is not updated as it should. Some stuff are not managed as it should, so there will always be breaches. I don’t know if things are dramatically going to change because, again, everyone who cares who is going to update his infrastructure with AI for defense. There is no question that you have no choice. We will see. That I don’t know. For sure, AI will be used to attack directly with AI. Maybe you’re able to do bigger, larger scale attack. Or thanks to AI, you are simply able to create new type of attacks more easily. AI can be used behind the scene as a way to prepare and organise new type of attacks, even if it’s not used directly live in the battle. Nuno Goncalves Pedro One topic that we’ll come back to later is the geopolitics of everything, but maybe more broadly. On the geopolitics of AI, it’s very clear that we have an arms race going on. Obviously, the US on the one hand, China on the other hand is the two extremes, putting tremendous amount of capital into data centers just at the base of that infrastructure. Chipset development, chipset access, a huge theme in terms of the export restrictions, etc, that are being forced by the US. I think it will continue. From a European standpoint, obviously, they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, to be very honest. Let’s see what happens on that side of the fence. My view of the world is that certainly from a US and China perspective, we’re going to see a lot more movements in 2026, like big movements. The Chinese movements we always see in delay. It takes us a couple of months, sometimes even more than that to understand exactly what’s going on. I think we’re going to see some huge moves this year in terms of the States, the United States of America, and China really pouring capital into the creation of the next big winners around AI. I think the US is obviously more visible. We see a lot of these companies. We’ve just discussed xAI and its acquisition by SpaceX or merger. I don’t know what they’re calling it exactly. Effectively, on the China side, the movements I think are already very big. As I said, it will take a while to figure out exactly what those moves are. One thing that I propose is that at some point, China will have very little dependency on chipsets from the US. I’m not sure it’s going to happen this year, but I think the writing is on the wall. Irrespective of any other geopolitical issues that is coming to the fore at this moment in time. That’s one of the key areas or in arenas of fight. Bertrand Schmitt It makes sense. If you are China, you will look at what happened. You would think that you cannot just depend on the largest of one country. It makes rational sense, the same way it makes rational sense for the US to limit exports to China because there is value to delay some peer pressure that could use these technologies for good but also for bad. If you were an ally of the US, that would be one thing. But when you are not an ally of the US, that certainly should be a different perspective. Maybe one last point concerning agents, I think there will be a lot that will revolve around coding. We can see OpenAI with Codex. We can see Cloud with code. There was, of course, [inaudible 00:18:28] that was trying to be big on agentic coding. I think agentic coding was one of the big transformation in 2025 and is going to get bigger in 2026. I think for a lot of people who do coding, there was a radical transformation in terms of what you can achieve, what you can do, how much you can trust AI to help you code. I start to think we might see this year, the replacement of not just one AI replace one coder, but one AI replace a full team because of the new ability to manage that at scale. Coding might be a common activity where you are going to think about outcomes, think about objective, think about how you organise, but not really coding by itself anymore. A big change, like you used to code, directly your hand on the stuff, but step by step, everyone is going to become a manager of agent. I think in one year, we saw enough transformation to think that in the coming year, the transformation can be even more dramatic. Nuno Goncalves Pedro The big Hardware movements Now switching gears to hardware. Obviously, a lot of movements in 2025 and over the last few years. One piece of thesis that we’ve had long-standing at Chamaeleon is that we will see the emergence of AI devices. Some of them have been tremendous failures as we discussed in the past. I predict that we’ll have a couple of really interesting full stack AI devices in the market this year. Why does that matter? Because, as many of you know, obviously, there’s compute that can happen in data centers and cloud infrastructure all over the world, but also there’s compute that can happen at the edges. The more you can move to the edges and the more you can create devices that actually allow you to have user experiences that are very distinctive at the edge, the more powerful some of these devices might become. I predict Apple will not be the first to launch anything on this. I predict probably OpenAI, after the acquisition of IO, will maybe not launch something this year, but will announce something this year. I’ll step back on that prediction. They’ll announce something this year, but maybe not launch. But we’ll start seeing some devices that have some interesting value in the market, probably devices that are AI devices, but they are very focused on very specific user flows, and so very much adequate to specific activities. I won’t make a prediction on that, but I think areas that would make sense for that to happen would be obviously around fitness, health, et cetera, et cetera, where we already have the ascendancy of products like Oura Ring and others out there. Definitely, that’s one area that might have quite a lot of developments. I think AI-first devices, devices that are very focused on compute at the edges, providing user flows that are AI-enabled to end users, we’ll see a lot more of that and a lot more activity this year. Again, I don’t think Apple will be necessarily ahead of the game. Again, maybe OpenAI will give us something to at least think about and look forward to. Bertrand Schmitt First, I’m not sure it will be that transformational because if it’s not in your phone, in your pocket, there is only so much you can do with it, and there is only so much computing power you will have. I’m doubtful it would be really impactful this year. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I feel we’ve been discussing this shift of paradigm in input and output. For me, some of these devices could lead to that shift. Because, again, a mobile phone is not a great long-term paradigm for the usage that we have because it’s really constrained by the screen. The screen is really what takes most of the battery life away. If we didn’t have that screen, what could we do? If we have the block that is as big as a mobile phone, and it didn’t have a screen, it was just compute, that’s a mini computer, a microcomputer. Bertrand Schmitt That’s a fair point, but I don’t see that transformation this year. That’s really more my point. I can see that you can have AI-enabled smart glasses, and it’s clear there is a race to AI-enabled smart glasses. My point is more to go beyond the gadget, it would take quite a while. It would need to have cameras. It would need to analyse what you see. It would need to hear what you hear. Again, it might come, but then at some point, it would be okay, what do you do with it? We have the example of the movie Her. That’s showing Her what it could be. There are definitely possibilities. It’s clear that if you take the big VR headset like the Apple Vision Pro, there is a failure from that perspective in the sense that I think it’s a great, amazing device. The big problem is that it’s doing way more that makes sense. I think there will be a clearer separation between your smart AR glasses that has to be light, that has to be always unconnected, and that’s primarily there to help you make sense of the world around you. The true VR headset that doesn’t really require much in terms of AI, and it’s just there to immerse you in a different world. For this, we know, unfortunately, in some ways, that there is not a lot of demand for it. Maybe there is little demand because you are too hidden in your own world. The technology is not working well enough yet. There are a lot of reasons. But I think Apple trying to do both at the same time, AR and VR, with the Vision Pro, was a pretty grave structural mistake. I think we would see a clearer line of separation between the two. There is bigger market opportunity for AR glasses. That, I certainly agree. There is opportunity to connect that to a computing device. As you talk about, your glasses are your screen, your phone becomes something in your pocket connected to your glasses. Nuno Goncalves Pedro For me, Apple has their way of doing things. From the perspective of what you said, they normally really plan their devices. Even if it’s a big shift in terms of a new area, like they tried with the Vision Pro, and we criticised them for launching it as a device that should have been more of a dev device that they really launched as a full-on device, but that’s their playbook, classically. I think Apple needs to change how they put products out and how they experiment with those products, et cetera. I think they have enough money to be doing everything all the time and figuring it out. If they don’t want to put it out, then they need to do a lot more hell of testing internally with their silos, but they should be playing across all these arenas, VR, AR, everything. They just should put devices out that are either ready for prime time, or they should call it something else. They should call it like this is a dev device or whatever it is. Bertrand Schmitt I agree with you. My complaint is more that it was marketed as a consumer device when it was not. It was a true developer device. Two, they tried to mix the two at once, and it made no sense. No one is going to walk in their home or in the street with their Vision Pro on their head. You have to be deranged, quite frankly, to have use cases like this. I think that for me is a crazy mistake from a company like Apple that prides itself in pure UI, pure user interface, very well-designed device for one specific use case, not mixing the two use cases. We still don’t have Macs with a touchscreen, you know? We still don’t have an iPad with a good OS that makes use of this great hardware. For some strange reason, they decided to mix everything in the Vision Pro with a device that weighs a ton on your head and is so uncomfortable. That’s why, for me, I’m like, “Guys, what is wrong? Why did you let this team run crazy?” I hope at some point, Apple will go back to the drawing board. My understanding is that that’s what they are doing. They are going to have two devices, one smart glasses, an evolution of the Vision Pro, just focus on VR. They might actually abandon the concept of the pure VR-oriented headset. Because, from a market size perspective, it might not be big enough for Apple, quite frankly. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I read on all of the above, and people at this point was like, “Why are then players like Samsung and others not doing it. LG, et cetera?” Because those players historically have not invented new categories. They’re amazing at catching up once the category is invented, and then they scale the hell out of it, and that’s what these companies have been exceptional at. I wouldn’t see a dramatic innovation, I think, in terms of devices coming from any of the big ones on that side of the fence. Not to disrespect them in any way, but I think that’s not been their playbook ever. Again, if the origination doesn’t come from a start-up or from an Apple, I don’t see those guys going after it. My bet is that we’ll see some start-up activity and, again, hopefully, some announcement from IO now within the OpenAI world. Bertrand Schmitt I would slightly disagree with you. I see where you are coming from. But take the Samsung Galaxy Note, that sudden much bigger headphone that no one was doing that was launched by Samsung, at some point, it forced Apple to launch an iPhone Max. Let’s look at the Z Fold that Samsung launched 7 years ago, copied by everyone. Now Samsung launching a trifold. Apple has still not launched their foldable phone. I think there is a mix, actually, of sometimes- Nuno Goncalves Pedro For me, that’s not a proper new category. It’s still a mobile phone. It just happens to have a screen that folds in half. Bertrand Schmitt The iPhone was still a mobile phone, you could argue. Nuno Goncalves Pedro No. I think the iPhone was… I could actually agree with you on that point. Maybe Apple is not as innovative in that case. I think what Steve Jobs was exceptionally good at in terms of his ability as this master product manager was to be an exceptional curator of user flows and user experiences, and creating incredible experiences from devices based on that. That was his secret sauce. Could you say, “Wasn’t all of this stuff already around?” It was. You just put it all together very neatly and very nicely. But if you’re talking about significant shifts in how a category is done, the iPhone was a significant shift in how the category was done. The Fold is still an interesting device. I actually have a Fold right now in front of me. The 7 that you highly recommended to me that we both got, the Z Fold 7. I think they do amazing devices. I don’t think they normally are the most innovative players. Then, when they come to innovation, it comes from technology edges. Obviously, they have Samsung Display, there’s a bunch of other things. They had the ability to do foldable screens in-house themselves. Bertrand Schmitt I don’t disagree with you. I think there is an interesting situation where some companies have some strengths, another one has some strengths. My worry with Apple is that this was not demonstrated with the Vision Pro. The Vision Pro was a hot pot of technologies barely integrated together, with use cases absolutely not well-defined and certainly not something that makes sense for most of us. There is a question of has Apple lost it? While Samsung actually keeps doing their own stuff, that, yes, might be more minor improvements, but at least they are doing it. Because it looks like Apple is missing the train on even the minor improvements. By the way, you might not be aware, but Samsung launched its Vision Pro competitor. Interestingly enough, it might be a better product in some ways, being much lighter and much more comfortable. Nuno Goncalves Pedro We should play around with that and report back to our listeners. Of Start-ups and VCs Moving to venture capital and the startup ecosystem and what’s happening there, I think it is very much a bifurcated environment, and it’s bifurcated for both VCs and for startups. If you’re a startup in the AI space, and you have the hottest team since sliced bread, and you can create FOMO at the speed of light, you can raise ridiculous rounds. Five hundred million at the $3 billion, or $4 billion, or $5 billion valuation, and you still haven’t really even started. First round, you can raise 500 million. That’s back to the whole discussion on Bubble and where are we, et cetera. Some of these companies might actually become huge, some of them might not. But definitely, we are seeing really the haves and have-nots on the startup ecosystem with incredible teams raising a lot of money very, very early on or mid-stage if they’ve already existed for a while, and then the rest not being able to raise. We see a lot of non-necessarily AI sectors, some of the areas of SaaS that don’t necessarily have AI in it, or fintech, or the consumer space that are really, really struggling. If you don’t have an AI story for your startup right now, it’s extremely difficult to raise money unless your numbers are just the best numbers ever. That’s, I think, the first part of the element of bifurcation that we’re seeing today. The second element of bifurcation that we’re seeing today in terms of fundraising is for VCs themselves, and really propelled by the large VC firms raising more and more capital in recent orbits, announcing 15 billion across funds raised. Lightspeed, I think, had made an announcement a couple of weeks ago as well. They’ve raised a bunch of money as well. The big guys are all raising a lot of money. At some point in time, the question some of you might ask is, “These VCs are redeploying more and more money if they have a couple of billion for a VC fund. How does that look like? Is that still VC?” My perspective, I’ve shared before in some of our previous episodes, is that that’s no longer venture capital. At that point in time, we’re talking about something else. Private equity hedge funds, if you want to call them, maybe funds that are really driven by growth investment or late-stage investment. If you have a couple of billion under management, you’re not going to make your returns by writing a $3 million check in a series seed and leading that round. That has implications for everyone in the ecosystem. It has implications for smaller funds that obviously have a lot more difficulty in raising capital. It’s difficult to differentiate. Last but not least, also for startups that really continue searching for that capital that is out there. Andreessen Horowitz, for example, runs Speedrun, which is a great program for companies around consumer in particular. Initially, it was a lot for gaming. But at some point in time, Andreessen Horowitz could decide that they don’t want to invest more in you. They just put money from Speedrun, which is obviously a very small check compared to the very large checks they could write mid to late stage and that will have an effect on you as a startup. What happens at that point in time if Andreessen Horowitz is not backing you up in later stages? More than that, what happens if I can’t get these big funds interested in me? Are the small funds still valuable to me? Punchline, my view is yes. Obviously, we’re a smaller fund, so there’s parochial interest in what I’m saying. Small funds can still create a ton of value for you, also in terms of credibility, ability to accompany you in those first stages of investment, and the ability to bring other larger investors later down the road as well. There’s definitely a big movement happening in terms of the fundraising for VC funds, which we shouldn’t neglect, which is the big guys are raising a lot more capital and are therefore emptying the market to smaller funds that are having more and more difficult raising at this point in time. We had discussed that there would be a need for concentration in the industry, that micro funds would need to concentrate, and we didn’t have the space for so many micro funds as we had around. But the way it’s happening is extremely dramatic at this moment in time. I think it will continue through 2026. Bertrand Schmitt Remember a few years ago, with the rise of AI, there was more and more of the question about, “What’s the point of SaaS at this stage?” Because SaaS was around for 15 years. Basically, how do you come up with something new that was not already tested, validated by the market? How do you bring something new? We say this was reinforced to the power of 10. If your product is not clearly built from the ground up for a new use case enabled by AI, anyone could then might have built your product 5, 10 years ago, and therefore, why now has no clear answer, and it’s a big problem. I’m still surprised myself to still see some entrepreneurs where you talk to them about AI because you don’t see them in the deck, and they explain to you, “It’s not yet there,” and you’re like, “What’s wrong with you guys?” Fine. Do whatever you want. Do a small business and whatever, but don’t think you can come up pitch and raise without an AI story. The second category is people who come with an AI story, but you can feel very quickly, I guess you saw that many times, Nuno, where just a story layered on top with little credibility. It’s not better. It’s not enough to just have a story. Your business needs to be radically built differently or radically proposing some brand-new use cases that were impossible to solve 5 years ago. Nuno Goncalves Pedro To stack up on that, absolutely in agreement. If you’re just adding to the story, and it’s an afterthought, and you’re just trying to make the story somehow gel, once you go into one or two layers of due diligence, your investors will very quickly realise that you’re not really AI-first or dramatically AI-enabled or whatever. It’s just you’re sort of stacking something on top of another thesis. It needs to make sense from the product onwards. It’s not just, let’s just put it together with chewing gum, and magically, people will give you money. It was true also if we remember the good old crypto blockchain days, where everyone’s investing in crypto. A lot of stories that didn’t make much sense. In that sense, it’s not very different. I would go one step further. I think in the world of the VC winter that we’re a little bit in, where it’s more and more difficult if you’re a smaller fund to raise your fund at this moment in time, there’s a lot of sources of distinctiveness still talked about, like proprietary networks, access to deal flow, fast track record, all that stuff that really, really matters. But our bet continues at Chamaeleon continues being that you need to be AI-first as a VC fund yourself. You need to have core advantages in using not only readily-available AI tools or third-party available AI tools, data sources, technology stacks, but actually building your own stack over time, which is what we did with Mantis at Chamaeleon. Again, just to reinforce that, I think we’re at the beginning of that stage. We, Chamaeleon, are ahead of the game, but we think that the rest of the market will have to move towards that as well. Still, to be honest, very surprising to me to see that many significant large players are doing very little still around some of these spaces. They have data scientists. They’re running some tools. They’re running some analysis and all that stuff, but it’s still, again, back to the point I was making for startups, all glued up with chewing gum. It doesn’t all come together nicely, which it does need to from a platform standpoint. Bertrand Schmitt It’s quite surprising. I agree with you that some VC funds might think that they can do business as usual in that brand-new world. It’s difficult to believe. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Maybe moving a little bit toward the capital formation piece. We already discussed the M&A space really accelerating. We’ve also discussed the IPO market and some predictions on that. Secondaries, there’s obviously a lot of liquidity coming from secondaries from mid to late stage. I think it will continue throughout the rest of 2026. A lot of activity in buying, selling in secondaries as some asset managers are becoming more distressed, as some very high net worth individuals and family offices are becoming more distressed as well, at the same time, where there’s a lot of opportunities to potentially arbitrage around some investments. I believe a lot of money will be made and lost this year by decisions made this year, just to be very, very clear in terms of equity, purchases, et cetera. Exciting year ahead of us. Definitely a very, very interesting market ahead of us. Secondaries, M&A, growth, and late-stage investing, also, early-stage investing will continue just for those that were wondering. Last but not least, the public markets, the IPO market as well. Bertrand Schmitt One of the big questions for the IPO market would be, will SpaceX go public? Would it be good for the startup ecosystem? Because suddenly that they go public, it would be to raise money. If they raise money, will there be any money left for anybody else? That would be an interesting test of the market. For sure, it would be proof that market are risk on financing a new IPO like this one. Or as you said, maybe there is no IPO, and it’s a merger with Tesla. Time will tell. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Regulatory & Geopolitical Headwinds… and the Wars Moving maybe to our topic of regulation and geopolitical headwinds, as we’re seeing … definitely not tailwinds. The Google antitrust verdict and, obviously, the remedies are expected to come forward now, and a lot of people are saying, “There are some risks of structural separation.” What do you think? Is it cool, but nothing will happen in the end dramatically? Alphabet or Google? I’m not sure, actually. It’s Google LLC. I think that’s the case. It’s The United States versus Google LLC. Bertrand Schmitt I’m not sure. Personally, I’m not a big fan. I think there needs to be a better way to manage some anticompetitive behavior. I’m not a big fan. There was this temptation to do that for Microsoft 25 years ago. Look at what happened. No one needed to buy Microsoft to leave space for others. I see the same with Google, and I guess they are happy to not be the number 1 in AI today, but to have an open AI in front of them. Even if they are doing a great job, by the way, to move forward and go faster and faster. Personally, quite impressed now with some of what they have released. Gemini 3 is doing great from my perspective. I’m not a big fan of this. I think to be clear, it’s important that bigger companies don’t behave anticompetitively, but at the same time, we need to find the right approach where it’s not about breaking these companies, and it’s also not about forbidding them to do acquisitions. Because then you end up with what NVIDIA just did with a $20 billion acquihire IP licensing type of acquisition, because they didn’t want to have the uncertainties. They didn’t want to wait 1–2 years in order to acquire the people and the technology, so they organised it in a different way. But I don’t like that. I think they should be able to acquire companies without facing so much uncertainty. To be clear, it’s not new. Uncertainty when you are Google, NVIDIA, or others, it happens. It has happened for a decade plus, 2 decades. I think there needs to be, for sure, some safety valves. At the same time, we want an efficient capital market. An efficient capital market need companies that can acquire other companies. If you don’t do that efficiently, it will be worse for the entrepreneurs, it will be worse for the investors, it will be worse for everybody. I think we have not reached a good equilibrium from my perspective. We need more efficient acquisition process. And at the same time, we need to also enforce faster anticompetitive behavior. Because what you talk about concerning Google, this is a case that was what? That is 10 years old. You see what I mean? This is way too long. If you’re a startup, you are dead by then. It’s like the story of Netscape facing Microsoft. They were dead long after the fact. I think we need a different approach. I’m not sure the best answer. I’m not sure we’ll get a better approach. There are probably too many vested interest. My hope is that it will get better with this current administration because, certainly, the past administration was very anti acquisition and efficient markets. Nuno Goncalves Pedro We’ve talked about the European Union AI Act a bunch of times, so I don’t want to spend too many cycles on that. The only effect that I would say is we are seeing in very slow motion the splitting of the Internet. I once had Tim Berners-Lee, by the way, shouting at me that we were going to break the Internet when we were applying for the .mobi top-level domain. I was part of that consortium that eventually did get the .mobi top-level domain, and I had him shouting at us. But, apparently, this is going to split the Internet, Tim. So in case you’re listening. Because it will create all these different rules. If your data is relating to consumers there, then it’s treated in a different way, and The US is… Well, obviously, we have the case of California with its own rules and laws. I don’t know. I feel we’re having a moment of siloing that goes beyond economic and geopolitical siloing. It will also apply to the digital world, and we’ll start having different landscapes around it. We’ll see how this affects global expansion of services, for example, around AI, particularly for consumer, but I don’t foresee anything dramatically positive. Recently, we had the whole deal around TikTok finally having a solution for their US problem where there’s now a US conglomerate magically that owns it. The conglomerate doesn’t magically own it, they just straight up own it for the US. But it was driven by many of these concerns around data ownership. Where’s the data? Where is it based? I think a lot of other concerns that have to do with the geopolitics of China, obviously, being the basis of ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, that still is a significant owner, by the way, in TikTok in US. Then also the interest in the economics of making money out of something as powerful as TikTok, to be honest, in The US. Just to be clear, I don’t think this was all about the best interests of consumers. It was also about money. Just follow the money. Bertrand Schmitt There are for sure, some powerful interest at play. But let’s be clear. I think one is data, as you rightfully said, but the other one is algorithm. It’s not as if China is authorising any competitor on its territory. They have blocked access to most of the Internet platforms from the US, either finding new rules or just trade blocking them. So I don’t think it’s fair competition. You don’t want some of that data in China about the US or European consumer. Three, it’s about the algorithm. If suddenly, you are a foreign power, and you can as we know in China, you better follow what’s required of you from the Chinese Communist Party. You cannot take a chance with influencing other stuff like elections in other countries. It’s fair from the US perspective. One could even argue it’s fair from a Chinese perspective to want that. I think the only one in the middle who doesn’t really know what they want is Europe because on one side, they want to benefit from American platforms, on the other end, they want to have some controls. On the other end, they don’t create the environment for startups to flourish. So in that weird situation where they have to accept some control by the big US providers and either provider of underlying infrastructure or provider of consumer business facing services. Then they try to regulate them. But I think they are misunderstanding the power relationship, and I think some of this regulation would get some blowback, at least by the current administration. Just, I believe, this morning, there was some news around X being under a criminal investigation in France. This is not going to end well for the French startup and VC ecosystem. This is not going to end well for France and Europe when you depend so much from your American friends. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Regulation will be weaponised. Regulation constraints around exports, all of this will be weaponised geopolitically, and the bigger guys will normally win. I think that’s normally what we’ve seen. Just on TikTok just to… And you guys, if you’re listening to us, just see if you see a pattern here, but obviously, 19.9% still owned by ByteDance of the TikTok entity in the US. It was initially said that 80% of the TikTok entity is owned by non-Chinese investors. Initially, people were saying US investors, and then they changed it to non-Chinese because MGX, I think, has 15% of it. MGX is based in the UAE, connected obviously to Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund. Silver Lake is in there, I think, with 15% as well. Oracle as well with 15%. Those three are the big bucket owners together, 45%. Silver Lake having collaborated with MGX before, and I’m sure a lot of connectivity there. Then you still see a pattern in this in terms of shareholders. If you don’t, then just Google it. Dell Family Office, Vastmir Strategic Investments, which is owned by billionaire Jeff Yass, Alpha Wave Partners, obviously involved with a bunch of things like SpaceX and Klarna, Virgoli, Revolution, which is Steve Case’s, a former founder of AOL, is also in there. Meritway, which is managed by partners, I think, of Dragonair. Vinova from General Atlantic, an affiliate of General Atlantic. Also, NJJ Capital, which I believe is Xavier Nil, the French billionaire that founded Iliad. Mostly American, I think, if the math is correct. 80% non-Chinese, which was what mattered, I think, in many cases. But do see if you saw a pattern in most of those investors. I won’t say anything more than that. Maybe moving to other topics, maybe just to finalise on regulation and geopolitics. In geopolitics, we should talk about wars if we predict anything. Not that we are nasty and one want to be negative, but what the hell is going on? Will we have ending to the wars we already have ongoing or not? But before that, the struggles on the App Stores, I think, will continue both for Apple and for Google Play Store. The writing’s on the wall, the EU keeps pushing it dramatically and Apple keeps just doing stuff. I’m on the board of an App Store company. Apple just creates all these things that basically make you not really… It doesn’t work. You can’t provision then an App Store on Apple devices. On iPhones, et cetera. We’ll see how that will continue going, but I feel the writing’s on the wall. Both Apple and Google will have to open up a bit more of their platforms. I’m not sure it will have a huge impact in the medium to long term, but definitely we need to see more openness in access to apps as given by the two big platform owners, Apple and Google, out there. Bertrand Schmitt Let’s be clear. Google is way more open than Apple. We both have Android devices. You can install alternative app stores. It’s a different ballgame by very far. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Google does other nasty stuff. It’s public. You can check which board I’m a part of. You can see what that company has done towards Google over time. But to your point, yes. It is true that Google has been more open than Apple, but Google has done their own things. Just to be very clear, so I’ll just leave that caveat bracketed there for people to think about it and maybe read a little bit about it as well. Bertrand Schmitt I can say that, me, from my perspective, that path of total control that Apple has been going through on all their devices, that includes macOS, pushed me to, over the past 2, 3 years, to completely live and abandon the Apple ecosystem. I just couldn’t accept that level of control, that golden handcuff approach of the Apple ecosystem, each their own obviously, they are golden, their handcuffs, but they are still handcuffs. Personally, that pushed me way more to Linux, Android, Windows, back to Windows after all these years. I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I want to pick my devices. I want to pick what I install on them, and I don’t want to be controlled like this by just one entity for all my tech devices. For me, at some point, it was just not acceptable anymore. It’s still very warm, very golden handcuffs, but for me, they were just handcuffs at this stage. Yes, what they are doing with the App Store is very typical of that mindset. I think it’s quite sad because I think it started with good intention in some ways. “We need a new computing paradigm, we need to make things smoother and safer,” but it has really become a way to control your clients. For me, it has reached a point where it’s just way too much. Nuno Goncalves Pedro There’s obviously the great power comes great responsibility that uncle Ben told Spider-Man or Peter Parker. But there’s also with great power comes shitload of money, and control. So it’s like, “Yeah. Should we open the server? Do we want to delay opening it up?” “Yeah.” Anyway, it is what it is. Maybe let’s end on the more difficult note of the episode, which is going to be around wars. What’s our prediction? Will we have an end to the Gaza situation with Israel? Will we have an end to Ukraine and, obviously, Russia? What will happen in Iran? Those are the three big, big conflicts right now. Then, obviously, if we want to add just bonus points, what’s going to happen to Greenland, and what’s going to happen to Taiwan, and what’s going to happen to Venezuela? Let’s throw the whole basket in there. We’ve never had like… Let’s talk about all these territories and all these countries. At some point in time, I’m saying this in a light manner, but it’s obviously more tragic than it should be light, and people are dying, and there’s a lot of implications of all of that that is happening right now. Do you have any predictions, Bertrand, for this year? Bertrand Schmitt No. It’s tough to predict on an individual basis. I think on a more bigger picture basis is on one side, obviously, the rise of China on one side. You have also the rise of other countries like India, while very indirectly connected to some of these conflicts are still part of the game, buying oil from Russia, for instance. At the same time, I think overall, the US is more clear about with the sheriff in town. I think it’s good because in some ways, you cannot pay for the goods, you cannot have such a massive advantage versus nearly every other country on earth and just not be clear about who is the boss in some ways. As a result, what are the rules of the game and how it should be played? The US is not alone, obviously, you have China, you have Russia, you have India, you have Europe. You have different other countries. But at some point, it’s not good when countries are not rational and are not clear. I think I prefer the current situation where things are more clear and where you have to assume responsibilities about what you are doing. It’s time to be rational again about how the world behave. Yes, the concept of power and balance of power. I think there has been that dream, maybe mostly coming from Europe, about the end of history. I think that’s simply not the case. It’s not the end of history. It’s still about the balance of power. It has always been about the balance of power. If you are dumb enough to think it was not about that anymore, I just have a bridge to nowhere to sell you. I don’t have specific prediction, but I think it’s clear there is a new sheriff in town. There is a new doctrine about the Western Hemisphere that has been in some ways resurrected on the [inaudible 00:51:35] train, and I think we’ll see more of it. I think at this point, the biggest question is for the Europeans. What do they want to do? Because right now, their position of being a dwarf militarily while being a pretty big giant economically, I don’t think it works. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I agreed on everything that you said. I do have predictions. I’ll stick a flag on the ground just with my predictions. Bertrand Schmitt Good luck. Nuno Goncalves Pedro They are mostly positive. I do think we’ll see an end or, for the most, end to the two big conflicts, the one in Gaza and the one in Ukraine. I think Ukraine will end up in readjustment of territory and splitting between Russia and the Ukraine, but the end of hostilities, I think that we will see an end to the conflict in Gaza also with a readjustment on what that will mean for the Palestinian territories and the Palestinians in general. That I’m not sure, but I feel that there will be an end to those two big conflicts. Iran, I have no clue. I will not put a stick on the ground that I have no clue. There are so many things that could go wrong there. I’ve been reading some really interesting thoughts about even some aggressive thoughts that this might be the time to really change regimes in Iran and for the US to have a bit more of an aggressive stance. I really don’t have a perspective. Obviously, there’s a lot at stake there. Then, if we talk about the other parts, Greenland, I will not opine too much on. Maybe we’re done for now. Maybe there’ll be some other concessions to the US that weren’t already there in the ’50s. Taiwan, I won’t bet either. I’m sad to say I think it might happen at some point in time, but I’m not sure when and what would drive it. Last but not the least, Venezuela is my only really negative prediction. I feel it will continue to be a significant dictatorship as it was before managed enough by other people with the difference now that it has a tax to be paid to the US in the form of oil of some sort, etcetera, and maybe gas, maybe other things as well that it didn’t have before. That’s probably my most negative prediction for the coming year on the geopolitical side. Bertrand Schmitt Without going into detail, I would mostly agree with what you shared. At least that makes sense. But as we know, it’s not always what makes sense, but what might happen. I can tell you 100% I would not have guessed this operation against Maduro. This was so well done, well executed, and shocking at the same time that it’s… I think it shows that it’s hard to guess some of this stuff because there are certainly some new ways to wage limited war, for instance. So it’s certainly interesting, and we certainly need to get used to pretty bombastic statements. But for Venezuela, I don’t think it can be worse than what it was before. I’m probably more optimistic that gradually it can get better. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Just to put perspective on why we’re not making predictions on some of these elements, I think this is a funny story, but I was in Madeira. Actually, first time I was in Madeira, although I’m originally from Portugal. I’ve never been to the islands. Obviously, as you guys know, or some of you might know, there’s a lot of connection between Madeira and Venezuela. There’s a lot of immigration from Madeira Islands to Venezuela. One of my Uber or Bolt drivers there in Madeira was Venezuelan. Was born in Venezuela, but Portuguese descent, et cetera. He was telling me this was still last year. Late last year. Because I told him I lived in US, et cetera, and he was like, “Oh, hopefully, Trump will get Maduro out of there.” In my mind, I was like, “Dude.” No disrespect to the gentleman, but it’s like, “Okay. Mike, your perspective on geopolitics is maybe a little bit exaggerated.” And a couple of days later, we know what happened. When geopolitical decisions are better predicted by some probably very astute Uber drivers, you’re like, “Maybe I shouldn’t make a bet. I have no clue what’s going to happen, no clue what’s going to happen in Greenland, et cetera.” Anyway, a couple of predictions on that element. Bertrand Schmitt That’s why it’s so right. You have to be careful with the prediction, but it doesn’t remove the fact that I think nations and companies that have to play a global game have to understand in some ways what is the game, what are the powers in place, what could happen potentially, but also be realistic. Not be about wish and dreams, but more about, what’s the power relationship? Who has the money? Who has the means? Who has the capacity to do this or that? Because if you start that way, at least the scope of what’s possible, what’s reasonable is more and more clear more quickly. Some stuff like happened with Maduro, I would never have predicted, but for sure, if there’s one country that can do this sort of stuff, it’s the US. I’m not sure anyone has a technology and the means in terms of support infrastructure to do something like this. It’s tough to predict what will happen a year from now for any specific country, but I think that even trying to get a better understanding about the forces in play and their capacity and understanding and accepting that at some point, it’s all about real politic and relationship of power, the more your eyes would be wide open about what’s possible versus simple, wishful thinking. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Fintech, Crypto and Frontier Tech Moving maybe to our last section around fintech, crypto, and frontier tech. For me, just two very quick predictions, views of the world. I think on the frontier tech side, I won’t make a prediction. I will just tell you all to go and listen to our episodes, the one on infrastructure, which is immediately prior to this one, and the episodes that we’ve had around a couple of other topics including AI, what’s the future of your children, because I think they illustrate a lot of the points that we’re seeing and manifesting themselves over the next year and over the next 2 or 3 years as well beyond that. I feel those tomes are complete in and out of themselves, so you can just go and listen to them. Then my second comment is on crypto. I feel crypto has become of the essence, particularly under the current administration in the US, very favored. Obviously, we are now in a world where crypto is just part of the economic system, and I think we’ll see more and more of that emerging, and in some ways, crypto is becoming mainstream. Question is what blockchains will be the blockchains of the future? Obviously, there’s a bunch of bets put out there. We, ourselves, as Chamaeleon, have one investment in one of the significant bets in the space. But besides that, who’s going to win or not, we feel that we’re past the crypto winter. It’s now mainstream days, and we’ll see a lot more activity in there. Bertrand Schmitt I must say with crypto, I’m a bit confused. As you say, we are past the crypto winter. There is much less uncertainty in regul
When interiors meet intention: a dynamic panel on how color theory, holistic living, sustainable materials, and design thinking come together to redefine residential spaces for 2025 and beyond. Sherwin Williams set out to cover Earth with beautiful colors over 150 years ago. 1866, Henry Sherwin and Edward Williams founded the company in Cleveland, Ohio, on a mission really. And the result is a company dedicated to delivery of the best in paints, coatings and related products to discerning clients all over the world. That dedication was evident from the start with the hiring of Percy Neyman, the very first chemist employed by an American paint manufacturer. Sherwin Williams continues to set the bar high and provide the design community with the essential tools to create superior projects. Sherwin Williams is commitment to supporting the design community, which is why they sponsor programs, like this one. They are also dedicated to a betterment philosophical approach which is why they selected ‘wellness” as the topic for this talk.Thank you Sherwin Williams for your tireless support. In this timely conversation, experts from across interior design and sustainable living explore what it means to design for wellness in 2025. Moderated by Sue Wadden and Ashlynn Bourque of Sherwin-Williams, the panel features voices from: Jeanne Chung (Cozy, Stylish, Chic) — known for crafting spaces that blend comfort, style, and emotional balance. Julee Ireland (Julee Ireland Design Studio) — bringing a refined, intentional aesthetic rooted in longevity and livable elegance. Greg Roth (CarbonShack) — spotlighting eco-conscious material sourcing, sustainable practices, and climate-aligned living environments. Together they examine how interior design can be a catalyst for holistic living — from color palettes that promote calm and emotional balance, to spatial planning that supports aging in place, to circadian lighting and neurodiversity-friendly layouts. The discussion underscores a rising trend: residential interiors inspired by hospitality, wellness, and sustainability principles. Listeners will come away with fresh ideas on turning their homes into future-proof sanctuaries — design-forward, earth-conscious, and emotionally attuned. Health span-focused design: Designing spaces that help residents live longer, healthier lives at home. Aging in place: Home layouts that accommodate long-term functionality and wellness. Home gyms, saunas, cold plunges: Integrating spa-level wellness amenities in private residences. Dual kitchens: Inspired by Italian family homes for multigenerational living. Collaboration with architects: Designers as integral contributors to maximize natural light and spatial flow. VR visualization: Helping clients experience proportion, scale, and sightlines before construction. Problem-solving as designers: Addressing unforeseen construction issues creatively while maintaining aesthetics. Circadian lighting: Lighting systems (e.g., Lutron Ketra) that mimic natural light patterns to support sleep and productivity. Plant-based fabrics (hemp, bamboo, kelp): Sustainable, high-performance materials. Evidence-based color design: Physiological effects of color on multigenerational inhabitants. Neurodiverse design considerations: Minimizing overstimulation in homes for ADHD, dementia, or sensory sensitivity. Hospitality influence on residential design: Bringing experiences from wellness hotels into private homes. Storytelling & provenance: Educating clients about material sourcing and sustainable practices. Sustainability education: Visiting factories, quarries, and trade shows to understand materials and processes. Relevant Web Links Lutron Ketra Lighting: https://www.lutron.com/en-US/Products/Pages/WholeHome/ketra/overview.aspx Round Top Market (antiques & sustainability): https://roundtoptexasantiques.com Hemp & sustainable fabrics: https://www.hemp-trade.com
Most mainstream phone options are kind of the same, year in and year out — but that doesn't mean there's no innovation to be found. The Verge's Allison Johnson is at Mobile World Congress, and joins the show to report on all the modular phones, robot phones, small phones, big phones, and (alas) 6G phones set to hit the market this year. After that, The Verge's Jess Weatherbed explains the phenomenon of the gadget strap, and makes the case that they're an increasingly useful accessory as our phones become even more important to our daily lives. (Yes, even if you have pockets.) Finally, The Verge's Jay Peters helps David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about whether the metaverse, however you want to define it, is ever going to be realized. Further reading: Oh great, here comes 6G Honor claims its Robot Phone will launch later this year Lenovo made a Franken-laptop with modular ports and a second screen Vivo's next phone will launch with a professional camera rig Tecno's latest concept phone is lit by neon Honor's Magic V6 is the first foldable with an IP69 rating The Motorola Razr Fold is shaping up to be pure flagship Xiaomi's super-slim power bank costs extra in orange. Honor's thinnest tablet doesn't come cheap. Peak Design has wearable gadget straps for people who hate bags Apple's misunderstood crossbody iPhone strap might be the best I've seen Meta confirms Reality Labs layoffs and shifts to invest more in wearables Meta's VR metaverse is ditching VR Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What if we could safely practice real-world situations before our students ever experience them?In this episode, I'm joined by Marsha and Rita from Floreo to talk about how virtual reality is supporting autistic learners in building social, communication, safety, and life skills. Floreo is a VR platform that allows learners to step into immersive environments like airport security lines, grocery stores, and even digital conversations, all while being coached in real time by a therapist, teacher, or parent.What I love most is how functional these lessons are. From responding to TSA questions to recognizing red flags in online interactions, these scenarios reflect the real challenges our students face. We also discuss the growing research behind VR-assisted therapy, including published studies showing improvements in social skills and skill maintenance.We talk through how VR can fit naturally into speech therapy and ABA sessions, with pre-teaching, guided practice, and generalization built in. Plus, we cover funding options, including school-based access and the temporary VR-assisted therapy billing modifier 0770T.Technology is powerful when it's clinically driven, and this conversation highlights how innovation can truly empower our learners.#autism #speechtherapyWhat's Inside:How VR supports social, communication, and life skillsResearch behind VR-assisted therapyWays to integrate VR into speech and ABA sessionsMentioned In This Episode:FloreoVREarn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech ConnectionABA Speech: Home
Karrie Shao chats with writer and narrative designer Cara Ellison. Together they discuss her path from television to games; the global development scene and the difficulties facing developers today; her desire to bring local culture to the global stage; and her work with Fireproof Games on the D.I.C.E. Award winning VR title, Ghost Town. Episode Host: Karrie Shao Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review. Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt Follow us: linktr.ee/AIAS Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation
This is an original story that I have been working on for a while. A little out of the norm. I hope you guys enjoy it. In the near future, reality is boring, and the "OmniNet" is everything. The Aether Dynamics corporation runs the world. But rendering photorealistic VR for billions of users requires processing power that silicon chips can't handle. Scott Foster is about to discover a secret that changes everything. Where that change takes place? Well, that's up for interpretation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.