Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin’ Xmas Song
Hard Fork19 Des 2025

Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin’ Xmas Song

This week, iRobot, the pioneering American robotics company behind the Roomba, filed for bankruptcy and announced that it would be taken over by its Chinese creditor. Colin Angle, a co-founder and a former longtime chief executive of the company, joins us to explain why the company lost its market dominance and what America should do to protect its newest crop of A.I. and robotics start-ups from the same fate. Then, we settle the score on our high, medium and low predictions from last year and lay down our new ones — including a spicy take on who will take over after Tim Cook at Apple. And finally, we wish all of our listeners a very happy holiday season with our annual tech-themed Christmas carol.

Guest:

  • Colin Angle, iRobot co-founder and former chief executive for over three decades.

Additional Reading:

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episoder(187)

Superconductor Superconfusion, KOSA’s Hidden Costs and HatGPT

Superconductor Superconfusion, KOSA’s Hidden Costs and HatGPT

Researchers in Korea claim they’ve identified a material that could unlock a technological revolution: the room temperature superconductor. Material scientists are skeptical, but enthusiasts on Twitte...

4 Aug 20231h 6min

Elon's X Machina + Crypto Orbs + A Visit to Google’s Robot Lab

Elon's X Machina + Crypto Orbs + A Visit to Google’s Robot Lab

On Sunday night, a crane arrived in downtown San Francisco to take down the Twitter sign from the company’s office building. The crane’s arrival marked the death of Twitter, the brand, and the start o...

28 Jul 202359min

Dario Amodei, C.E.O. of Anthropic, on the Paradoxes of A.I. Safety and Netflix’s ‘Deep Fake Love’

Dario Amodei, C.E.O. of Anthropic, on the Paradoxes of A.I. Safety and Netflix’s ‘Deep Fake Love’

Dario Amodei has been anxious about A.I. since before it was cool to be anxious about A.I. After a few years working at OpenAI, he decided to do something about that anxiety. The result was Claude: an...

21 Jul 20231h 12min

Help! My Boss Won’t Stop Using ChatGPT

Help! My Boss Won’t Stop Using ChatGPT

This week, we answer more of your questions, like: What is ChatGPT’s carbon footprint? Why are engineers so sure artificial intelligence will keep getting better? And, why are there so many venture ca...

14 Jul 202347min

Special Episode: Meta’s Twitter Rival Arrives, with Adam Mosseri

Special Episode: Meta’s Twitter Rival Arrives, with Adam Mosseri

Instagram is no stranger to taking product ideas from other companies and turning them into their own successes. Just ask Snapchat about Instagram Stories or TikTok about Instagram Reels. This time, t...

6 Jul 202338min

Is A.I. Poisoning Itself? + Billionaire Cage Fight + Cooking With ChatGPT

Is A.I. Poisoning Itself? + Billionaire Cage Fight + Cooking With ChatGPT

Whether it’s on TikTok or Twitter, A.I.-generated content is already flooding the web. So, what happens when the technology — prone to confidently making things up — starts ingesting itself?Then, the ...

30 Jun 20231h 8min

A.I. Beach + Vibes-Based R.T.O. + the ‘Black Mirror’ Quamputer

A.I. Beach + Vibes-Based R.T.O. + the ‘Black Mirror’ Quamputer

This week, advertisers swarmed the beaches of southern France for the Cannes Lions advertising festival. Kevin says artificial intelligence is all anyone there can talk about, but admits the conferenc...

23 Jun 20231h 1min

Reddit Revolts + MrBeast’s YouTube Empire + Peak Trust and Safety?

Reddit Revolts + MrBeast’s YouTube Empire + Peak Trust and Safety?

Moderators on Reddit have shut down their forums in protest of a new policy that charges users for access to the site’s API. The revolt has put Kevin in child care-wisdom-withdrawal (RIP r/daddit) — a...

16 Jun 20231h 19min

Populært innen Teknologi

lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
romkapsel
smart-forklart
teknisk-sett
energi-og-klima
nasjonal-sikkerhetsmyndighet-nsm
rss-ki-praten
elektropodden
rss-impressions-2
tomprat-med-gunnar-tjomlid
shifter
rss-praktisk-proptech
rss-ai-forklart
teknologi-og-mennesker
rss-for-alarmen-gar
rss-ki-til-kaffen
hans-petter-og-co
i-loopen
rss-digitaliseringspadden
rss-heis