Tech News Weekly 417

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy from The Verge joins Mikah Sargent for the final episode of Tech News Weekly for 2025! Are AI health coaches the future for wearables? A look back at smart home news and devices in 2025. And how AI image generators have changed over time.

• Mikah talks about an article written by CNET's Vanessa Hand Orellana about AI health coaches in wearables and how it showcases innovation within healthcare, but also the data concerns if data breaches or unauthorized access to the data occur.
• Jennifer reflects on the smart home news and smart home devices highlighted in the past year and shares her excitement about news such as IKEA releasing Thread-supported devices, but also laments on companies like iRobot filing for bankruptcy.
• And Allison Johnson of The Verge joins the show to talk about how AI image generators are improving as various models have learned from their mistakes & fumbles that occurred in their early beginnings.

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Links

• AI Health Coaches: The Next Frontier in Wearables or Privacy Nightmare?
• How Roomba invented the home robot — and lost the future
• 5 things I love about Amazon’s new Echo Shows — and 3 things I don’t
• I let Gemini watch my family for the weekend — it got weird
• Hey Google, meet Gemini: the new voice of your smart home
• Camera support could be the boost Matter needs
• Ikea’s new low-cost line is a huge win for Matter and your smart home
• Inside Philips Hue’s plans to make all your lights motion sensors
• The Matic robot vacuum is smarter, quieter, and gets the job done
• Kwikset’s newest smart lock gets almost everything right
• Nuki’s Smart Lock is a better retrofit door lock
• Hands-on with the Level Lock Pro: sleeker, smarter, still very expensive
• I tested a robot vacuum with an arm, and my dog may never forgive me
• AI image generators are getting better by getting worse