Engadget Podcast: The AI and XR of Google I/O 2025
Would you believe Google really wants to sell you on its AI? This week, we dive into the news from Google I/O 2025 with Engadget's Karissa Bell. We discuss how Gemini is headed to even more places, as well as Karissa's brief hands-on with Google's prototype XR glasses. It seems like Google is trying a bit harder now than it did with Google Glass and its defunct Daydream VR platform. But will the company end up giving up again, or does it really have a shot against Meta and Apple? This embedded content is not available in your region. iTunes
Spotify
Pocket Casts
Stitcher
Google Podcasts Lots of AI and a little XR: Highlights from Google I/O 2025 – 1:15
OpenAI buys Jony Ive's design company for $6.6B, in an all equity deal – 29:27
Fujifilm's $850 X Half could be the perfect retro camera for the social media age – 39:42
Sesame Street is moving from HBO to Netflix – 44:09
Cuts to IMLS will lead to headaches accessing content on apps like Libby and Hoopla – 45:49
Listener Mail: Should I replace my Chromebook with a Mac or PC Laptop? – 48:33
Pop culture picks – 52:22
Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Karissa Bell
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
20 minutes ago
- USA Today
Horoscopes Today, June 6, 2025
Horoscopes Today, June 6, 2025 Here are the horoscopes for today, Friday, June 6, 2025. For full daily and monthly horoscopes as well as expert readings, see our full Horoscopes experience. What is your zodiac sign? A guide to what astrology can tell you about yourself Get to know Geminis: Personality traits and more on this Zodiac sign Gemini (May 21 - June 21) Romantic reveries? Let yourself indulge in a daydream as Venus ambles through Taurus. There's no need to rush reality! Read the full Gemini Daily Horoscope Cancer (June 22 - July 22) Leaning on a trusted friend? With Venus in Taurus, prize relationships with those who've demonstrated their reliability. Read the full Cancer Daily Horoscope Leo (July 23 - August 22) Hard-launching a relationship? The world must know of your love! You're not above PDA as Venus ambles through Taurus. Read the full Leo Daily Horoscope Virgo (August 23 - September 22) Life's a beach as Venus moves through Taurus! It's the perfect time for a getaway if you can swing it! Read the full Virgo Daily Horoscope Libra (September 23 - October 22) Joining forces? As Venus enters Taurus, you're considering a merger. Will it be financial, professional, or sexual?! Read the full Libra Daily Horoscope Scorpio (October 23 - November 21) Settling into a partnership? You'll find your rhythm as a unit with Venus in Taurus. Single? Love is imminent! Read the full Scorpio Daily Horoscope Sagittarius (November 22 - December 21) Getting on the boss's good side? Flattery gets you everywhere while Venus is in Taurus! A business favor is reciprocated. Read the full Sagittarius Daily Horoscope Capricorn (December 21 - January 19) Fantasizing about your crush? Venus's entrance to Taurus awakens your romantic side! What can you do to get another's attention? Read the full Capricorn Daily Horoscope Aquarius (January 20 - February 18) Resting and nesting? There's no place like home as Venus enters Taurus! Prioritize preserving domestic bliss. Read the full Aquarius Daily Horoscope Pisces (February 19 - March 20) Sidetracked by gossip? Word gets around as Venus moves through Taurus! Stumbling into others' business is almost unavoidable. Read the full Pisces Daily Horoscope Aries (March 21 - April 19) Quality over quantity? Venus's entrance to Taurus sees you scoping out luxury items! You expect an investment to last. Read the full Aries Daily Horoscope Taurus (April 20 - May 20) Ready for your close-up? As Venus enters Taurus, prepare for a glow-up and consider a wardrobe change. Read the full Taurus Daily Horoscope
Fast Company
36 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Why Apple's VisionPro won't make XR headsets mainstream
Major announcements around the VisionPro headset are expected next week and may even confirm tantalizing rumors that a lighter model of the high-end XR device is coming next year. Whatever Apple reveals at WWDC, we can expect another round of analyst predictions that this time, mass adoption of head-mounted displays is finally happening. As Apple, Meta, and other major players continue to struggle with taking the technology mainstream, it's worth addressing the virtual elephant in the room: There's reason to suspect that XR headsets' barrier to success isn't just about cost, headset weight, lack of content, eye strain, or other frequently cited issues. Neuroscience suggests that the sensory experience of XR can't compensate for the value of sharing a physical environment with our screens—especially when it comes to how we form knowledge and memory. Experiments with XR for Full-Time Computing About 10 years ago, I started spending long sessions in VR (4–8 hours daily over several weeks) to see how it might affect my sense of time and attention. I began with the HTC Vive, which was comfortable and fun. Later, I tested the Apple VisionPro with a full virtual workstation of monitors and displays. I was curious whether XR could improve focus and research. It felt like a very different thing to use VR all day, versus a brief demo in a museum or Apple showroom. Early on, I had to stand and move constantly throughout the day. It was exhausting, though it made for a great workout (SUPERHOT was one of my favorites). But this kind of motion-based interaction didn't translate well to daily work tasks. Tossing data around in 3D like in Minority Report might make for compelling cinema, but it's far less practical over time. When the VisionPro arrived, I was excited to use it while seated. A friend set me up with a massive virtual workspace, and I genuinely appreciated the focus it provided when I was digging into something new—say, reading a dense Wikipedia article. Still, when I set up my home office last year, I chose two large physical monitors at eye level and a sit/stand desk. As enjoyable as VR was, the process of setup and adjusting the space took more time and energy than docking a laptop. And even though I was initially thrilled to be in a virtual workspace, I found myself feeling more distant from the real world. I wanted to go outside more, and didn't feel like looking at any screen at all by day's end. I also noticed the difference in eye strain from screens so close to my face. I prefer to work near a window where I can shift my gaze into the distance. That rhythm of looking away and refocusing helps me process thoughts—especially after encountering something new. The Trouble With Losing Touch I asked my colleague Dr. David Sisson, a neurophysiologist, why XR adoption hasn't matched media hype. He reminded me that audio and visual inputs—the primary senses XR taps into—aren't the full picture. Then there's the matter of touch in XR. 'Without touch, there's no 'intimacy.' You're not really interacting with what's going on,' David told me. 'You can hit a ball—and hear the 'crack' in VR—but you're not feeling anything other than a little jerk in the controller that makes you feel like there's some inertia happening.' In short, headsets deprive us of the tactile and physical context that supports memory formation. Contrast that with playing a console game: you're anchored in a physical space, hands on colorful controllers, with the screen at a distance. If you're like me, you vividly remember not just the game, but the exact couch you sat on and the friends or family who played with you. The Neuroscience of Virtual Experience This sense of 'placeness' goes beyond just touch. As David explained, '[C]hemical senses are not a part of [the VR experience] . . . There's a well-considered idea, a linkage between olfaction, smell between memory—that you're living that out of the [VR] picture entirely.' Attempts at incorporating virtual smells into XR exist, but it's unclear whether they're effective—or even desirable. Recent research supports what French literature has long told us: smell powerfully evokes memory. Studies show scent not only enhances recall but may also support learning across other sensory areas. While XR devices like VisionPro do re-create home and office setups and allow for vast screen real estate, they lack a true sense of location. Evolution shaped our brains to operate differently depending on whether we're traveling or at home. Researchers call this the encoding specificity principle —our memories link closely with the environment where they were first formed. With a headset on, our minds don't fully orient to a place, and so we never quite settle in. Apple offers a vast virtual workspace you can take on the go, but that benefit comes at the cost of the sensory richness and physical grounding of a real-world setup. Neuroscience, not just practicality, suggests that working in a physical space—with monitors, windows, textures, smells, and distance—offers deeper engagement and memory retention. Putting the 'Pro' in VisionPro To be clear, XR headsets excel in specific contexts like rehabilitation or short bursts of fully embodied interaction, where body motion tracking is vital. Some content creators might find immense value in a distraction-free, multiscreen virtual studio. But that's not a mass-market audience. XR evangelists may continue promoting VisionPro as the breakout device, but we—and Apple, for that matter—should remember that 'Pro' isn't just branding. It reflects the narrow set of advanced use cases that justify immersion. For most of us, computing still works best in a physical world that engages all five senses. And that's not something XR can replicate—at least, not yet.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Amazon to invest $10B in North Carolina for AI data centers
Amazon is investing $10 billion to create data centers in North Carolina aimed at expanding its artificial intelligence and cloud computing technology capabilities. The move, announced Wednesday, is its latest attempt to compete with rivals Google and Microsoft in the artificial intelligence space. It will also significantly boost its presence in the state, creating at least 500 new high-skilled jobs that range from data center engineers and network specialists, to engineering operations managers and security specialists. "This investment supports the [Trump] Administration's vision to strengthen American infrastructure and further safeguard our nation's data," said Shannon Kellogg, Amazon's vice president of public policy. "By creating hundreds of high-skilled jobs and partnering with local communities, Amazon is helping to drive economic growth and advance U.S. leadership in AI." Amazon Introduces Beta Ai Shopping Tool, 'Interests' The investment will also support thousands of other jobs in the Amazon Web Services data center supply chain, the company said. "Generative AI is driving increased demand for advanced cloud infrastructure and compute power, and our investment will support the future of AI from AWS data centers in the Tar Heel State," Amazon said Wednesday in a blog post. "This deployment of cutting-edge cloud computing infrastructure will strengthen North Carolina's position as an innovation hub." Read On The Fox Business App Amazon has been racing to invest in its artificial intelligence infrastructure. In January, Amazon Web Services announced plans to invest an estimated $11 billion to expand its infrastructure in Georgia. Big tech companies have invested tens of billions of dollars in AI. Amazon Rolling Out Ai-drive Alexa+ Service In a 2024 annual letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said "generative AI is going to reinvent virtually every customer experience we know, and enable altogether new ones about which we've only fantasized." Leveraging this technology is one way to stay competitive, according to Jassy. "If your customer experiences aren't planning to leverage these intelligent models, their ability to query giant corpuses of data and quickly find your needle in the haystack, their ability to keep getting smarter with more feedback and data, and their future agentic capabilities, you will not be competitive," he wrote. FOX Business' Danielle Wallace contributed to this reportOriginal article source: Amazon to invest $10B in North Carolina for AI data centers Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
