Apple’s New M5 Gear. Will It Make You Upgrade? - DTNS 5125

Plus, robot phone camera,  London gets Waymo, and OpenAI wants to get erotic.

Starring Tom Merritt and Sarah Lane.

TOM: This is the Daily Tech News for Wednesday, October 15th, 2025. We tell you what you need to know, follow up on the context of those stories, and help each other understand.

SARAH: Today, Apple drops new stuff with the M5. Should you upgrade?

I’m Tom Merritt,
I’m Sarah Lane.

TOM: Let’s start with what you need to know, with the big story.

BIG STORY
SOLO story of the day. Basic details, monitor commentary and sound when possible.

Apple Announces New M5-Powered iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, and Vision Pro
Apple Vision Pro: PlayStation VR2 Sense controller in November, Logitech Muse and standalone Dual Knit Band available to order — 9to5Mac
Apple to Build Home Hub and Robot in Vietnam in Pivot From China — Bloomberg
Apple exec on Apple TV rebranding: ‘let’s just do it’ — The Verge

TOM: Apple announced new MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with the M5 chip inside. So the announcement is really about the M5 chip coming to more devices.

The M5 is a 3nm chip with up to 10 CPU cores (4 performance and 6 efficiency) and a 16-core neural engine. And each GPU core on the M5 has a neural accelerator for improved AI workloads and a third-generation ray-tracing engine. And the unified memory bandwidth rises to 153 GB/s. That’s 30% better than the M4.

The new iPad Pro with the M5 looks the same, but also comes with the N1 chip, which brings Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Threads connectivity. The models with cellular data use Apple’s C1X modem, which is also in the iPhone Air for improved power efficiency. It has 12 GB unified memory, fast charging, and can power external displays with up to a 120 Hz refresh rate. The 11-inch model starts at $999 and the 13-inch at $1,299.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro also gets the M5 along with a faster SSD and up to 4 TB of storage. It starts at $1,599.

And the Apple Vision Pro now comes with an M5 chip. Apple says it should have sharper, crisper text and more detailed images, and refresh rates up to 120 Hz. Apple also now promises 2.5 hours of battery life or three hours if you’re just playing video. It’s still priced at $3,499.

You also get a dual-knit band to make it more comfortable. If you want it for the older model, it’s $99.

You can also preorder the Logitech Muse digital pen for $130 to go with your Apple Vision Pro.

All of the models are available for preorder, shipping October 22. Though the Vision Pro is still only in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UAE, the UK, and the US, and won’t come to South Korea or Taiwan until later.

And Apple said it will start selling PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers and the charging station at Apple Stores in the US starting November 11th, which means we’ll see support turned on before then.

DISCUSS

TOM TAG OUT: While we’re talking about Apple, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple will have its security cameras and display built in Vietnam, with the help of BYD. It also plans to manufacture iPads and its tabletop robot arm with BYD in Vietnam for release in 2027. And Apple senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, told The Town podcast that it dropped “plus” from the Apple TV name because everybody just called it Apple TV anyway.

SARAH: DTNS is made possible by you the listener. Thanks to
Tim Deputy
Brandon Brooks
Jony Hernandez
and Garry Paszul.

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TOM: There’s more we need to know today — let’s get to the briefs.

BRIEFS
3–9 more solo reads with sound to complete the day in tech news. These are informational with minor commentary.

YouTube’s biggest redesign in years brings sleek look and enhanced features
YouTube rolls out its redesigned video player globally

SARAH: YouTube is rolling out its redesigned interface to Web, mobile, and TV apps. Here’s what to expect:
– Icons are softer and more transparent, and placed to obscure the content less when you’re using them.
– The seek function should be more seamless.
– Likes now have custom animations that change based on the type of content.
– New visuals and a smoother process for other actions like Watch Later and playlists.
– Comments will have a threaded layout for replies.

OpenAI has five years to turn $13 billion into $1 trillion — TechCrunch
Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon allow erotica for adult users — TechCrunch
Japan asks OpenAI not to infringe on “irreplaceable” manga and anime content — Engadget
Sam Altman on X

TOM: Several OpenAI stories that we’ll group together here. On X, CEO Sam Altman said that in a few weeks, if you want it to, ChatGPT will start to respond in a more human-like way, use emojis, and act like a friend. And in December, after age-gating rolls out, some restrictions like erotic chats will be eased for verified adults.
Japan’s minister in charge of AI and IP, Minoru Kiuchi, said at a press conference: “We have requested OpenAI not to engage in any actions that could constitute copyright infringement. Anime and manga are irreplaceable treasures that we can be proud of around the world.” The Financial Times says OpenAI has a five-year plan to raise revenue to meet the one trillion in data center expenses it has contracted for. It includes government contracts, shopping tools, video services, consumer hardware and, in a bit of an Amazon-AWS move, becoming a supplier of compute.

Netflix and Spotify Partner Up to Bring 16 Video Podcasts to Your Subscription — PCMag
Spotify partners with Netflix for video podcast distribution deal — TechCrunch

SARAH: Starting early next year in the US, Netflix will make 16 Spotify video podcasts available in its service. Most are from Spotify’s partnership with The Ringer. The New York Times says the deal will prevent the shows from being shown in their entirety on YouTube. Sports shows included in the deal are The Bill Simmons Podcast, The Zach Lowe Show, The McShay Show, Fairway Rollin’, The Mismatch, and The Ringer’s F1 Show, Fantasy Football Show, NFL Show, and NBA Show. The culture and lifestyle shows are The Rewatchables, The Big Picture, The Dave Chang Show, Recipe Club, and Dissect. And two true crime shows: Conspiracy Theories and Serial Killers.

Honor reveals a new smartphone with a fold-out robotic camera arm — CNBC
Honor’s Magic 8 phones have huge batteries and oodles of AI — The Verge

TOM: China’s Honor launched its Magic 8 and Magic 8 Pro flagship phones in China, with an international launch coming later this year. They come with 7,200 and 7,000 mAh batteries. International versions will top out at 7,100, and in Europe, the max will be 6,270. A button launches its assistant called Yoyo. Both phones run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and run MagicOS 10, built on top of Android 16. The Magic 8 and Magic 8 Pro launch in China this month for ¥4,499 (≈ $630) and ¥5,699 (≈ $800).
Honor also showed off a concept phone that has a robotic arm to fold the camera out of the back of the phone. It will show more details at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next year.

Waymo plans launch in London, first European market for robotaxi — CNBC

SARAH: Waymo said it will start testing its autonomous taxis in London in the coming months with human safety drivers, and intends to make the service available to all next year.

TOM: And finally, some quick headlines that are just good to know if you want to understand the news in the future.

Samsung will introduce its Android XR headset at a Galaxy event on October 21 — Engadget

TOM: Samsung will stream an announcement on its YouTube channel Tuesday, October 21st, at 10 PM Eastern time, where it is expected to announce the Android XR headset, previously known as Project Moohan.

Kobo made a remote control for its ereaders — Engadget

SARAH: Kobo announced a remote control for its ereaders, named Kobo Remote, selling for $30 starting November 4.

This “gaming PC” is actually a Bluetooth speaker — Tom’s Hardware

TOM: Edifier announced a Bluetooth speaker called the Huazai New Cyber, which looks like a high-end dual-GPU gaming system, for ¥1,499 (≈ $210).

Motorola launches ultra-thin Edge 70 in China, international release coming soon — 9to5Google

SARAH: Motorola announced the Moto Edge 70, also called the X70 Air in China, which at 5.3 mm is thinner than either the iPhone Air or Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, coming to China on October 31st and later internationally.

Views of AI Around the World — Pew Research Center
Threads is getting group chats as messaging rolls out to the EU — TechCrunch

TOM: Pew Research Center surveyed more than 28,000 adults in 25 countries on AI and found that 81% have heard a lot or a little about it, 34% are more concerned than excited, and 42% are equally concerned and excited.

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Sells Stock, Now Owns Less Than 10 Percent — Hollywood Reporter

SARAH: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sold more Amazon stock, bringing his ownership down to 9 percent. He owned 47% when it went public in 1997.

Facebook removes ICE-tracking page after US government “outreach” — The Verge

TOM: Facebook is the latest US platform to remove a service for tracking where US Customs Enforcement personnel are located.

Mozilla’s Firefox adds Perplexity’s AI answer engine as a new search option — TechCrunch

SARAH: And Mozilla has added Perplexity as an option to be your default search engine in the browser.

PROMO

TOM: We do live streams! Catch them by becoming a subscriber at youtube.com/dailytechnewsshow.

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HELPING EACH OTHER UNDERSTAND
Short missives from people with experience. Could be written email or pre-recorded from the person.

SARAH: We end every episode of DTNS with some shared wisdom. Today Andrew has an update on using his AirPods Pro 3 to live translate.

TOM:
Andrew writes:

You read my AirPod translation letter on air.

Update:
Installed iOS 26.0.1 & Firmware for AirPods.
Seems you can’t have your Siri as U.K. English and have French Canadian as your other language for Live Translate. It actually freezes the setup window — force quit and reopen; it asks to download languages already downloaded, then freezes again.
If I switch everything to US 🇺🇸 (a pain in the 🍑) & choose Français 🇫🇷, it didn’t freeze but doesn’t translate. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Cheers,
Andrew R

DISCUSS

SARAH: What are you thinking about? Got some insight into a story? Share it with us — feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com

TOM: Thanks to Andrew for contributing to today’s show. And thank YOU for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You can keep us in business by becoming a patron atPatreon.com/dtns.