Europeans Fight Back Against Back Doors - DTNS 5121

Also, new Sennheiser headphones that do it all, and the Nintendo mystery is solved.

Starring Tom Merritt, and Sarah Lane.

TOM: This is the Daily Tech News for Wednesday, October 8, 2025. We tell you what you need to know, follow up on the context of those stories and help each other understand.

SARAH: Today, we fight again about encryption and back doors. This time, in Europe.

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.]]

One-man spam campaign ravages EU ‘chat control’ bill – POLITICO
Europe's future is at stake: Open letter against Chat Control | CryptPad Blog
Germany will not support 'Chat Control' message scanning in the EU | The Record from Recorded Future News

TOM: Hey, Sarah. Remember the dozens of other times we have covered governments trying to get back doors into messaging systems?

The US was trying to get Apple to do it, then trying to get a law. The UK is trying to do it. And there’s a fight over a similar proposal in the EU.

The European Union is considering a proposal to fight CSAM (child sexual abuse material) proposed by the Danish president of the EU Council. It would give police the power to force messaging companies, like Signal and WhatsApp, to scan their service for illegal content. Those services would need to deploy code that could scan messages for matches to illegal content and report if it found any messages that matched a set of rules meant to identify CSAM. Signal indicated it would stop operating in Europe if the bill becomes law. More than 40 EU tech companies have signed an open letter opposing the law.

Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard says the measure is more balanced than previous proposals, and scanning would only happen as a last resort.

Joachim (YO-ah-keem), a 30-year-old software engineer living in Aalborg, Denmark, set up a website called Fight Chat Control that lets users email a warning to lawmakers about the bill. The email can be sent to national government officials, members of the European Parliament, and others. As of early October, nearly 2.5 million people have visited the website. Emails are sent by the individual's own email services, so there is no tracking of how many have been sent.

Some MEPs have reported inboxes becoming overloaded as a result.

EU member nations need to create their own positions, then bring them to the European Parliament to negotiate an EU-wide policy. So, the proposal needs to be approved by EU ambassadors on Wednesday in order to advance to the meeting of EU ministers in Luxembourg next week.

Poland's government said last week it is against the scanning of messages. German officials said Wednesday that they will vote against the proposal.

[[DISCUSS]]

SARAH: DTNS is made possible by you the listener. Thanks to
Ken Hays
Philip Shane
Paul Boyer

[[BREAK]]
[[PAUSE]]

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.]]

Google AI Plus is now in 77 countries
Google’s latest AI model uses a web browser like you do | The Verge
Gemini Browser

SARAH: Two Google-related notes to start us off.
Google AI Plus, which gives you access to 2.5 Pro and Deep Research with a 128K token context window (among other perks), is expanding to 36 more markets, bringing it to a total of 77.
And:
Google is previewing Gemini 2.5 Computer Use, an agent that can navigate browser interfaces designed for humans that don't have an API. It supports 13 actions, like opening the browser, typing, dragging and dropping, searching, clicking, most of the things you do in a browser. Google says it can fill out forms and be used for UI testing. Google posted a video showing the agent rearranging items in a sticky note app to be in the right categories. It's another entrant alongside ChatGPT Agent and Anthropic's Computer Use tool. Developers can get Gemini 2.5 Computer Use in Vertex AI and Google AI Studio, and there’s a demo on Browserbase that can do things like play the game "2048" and browse Hacker News for trending debates.

Mastodon snags Bluesky’s starter packs feature and includes the ability to opt out | The Verge

TOM: Mastodon announced it is developing "Packs" similar to Bluesky's "Starter Packs," which contain a curated list of accounts related to a particular category of posting types. Mastodon's version will notify you when you've been included in a pack and let you opt out, without having to block or report a user. The feature will launch in Mastodon 4.6. The current version is 4.4. Mastodon hopes to make them available to all ActivityPub apps at some point.

Sennheiser's HDB 630 headphones combine wireless convenience with wired lossless audio

SARAH: Sennheiser launched the HDB 630 wireless noise-canceling headphones that support lossless listening when wired. So yes, you can use them wirelessly or not. They plug in through USB-C or a 3.5mm port. And there's a USB-C dongle that lets you use aptX Adaptive for high-quality wireless audio, if your device doesn't support it already. Your choice. The HDB 630s use the Momentum 4 chassis but have a new acoustic system, including 42mm dynamic drivers and a high-resolution digital audio engine. Battery life is up to 60 hours with active noise canceling, and a ten-minute charge adds 7 hours of listening. They also come with an airline adapter. You can order now for $499.95, shipping on October 21st.

Boox’s next smartphone-sized e-reader has a color screen and a stylus | The Verge

TOM: Boox posted more details on Weibo for the Boox P6 Pro e-reader that it teased at IFA in September. It's a smartphone-sized device with an e-ink screen that you can get in black and white or color. It also has a stylus and microSD card slot that can double as a SIM-card tray for data connections, though we don't know if that will include SMS or calls. However, it can access the Google Play Store and run apps like WhatsApp and Zoom. It's expected to launch in China on October 9th.

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

Nintendo Reveals Mysterious Animated Short is Indeed a New Pikmin Tease - IGN

SARAH: The mystery is solved. Nintendo's mysterious short film about a magic baby now shows an army of Pikmin. No word on what kind of Pikmin project to expect.

Today's Steam outage may have been part of a massive DDoS attack targeting Xbox, PlayStation, Riot, and other game companies | PC Gamer

TOM: Thanks to KAPT_Kipper for posting this on the DTNS Subreddit. A Steam outage yesterday was part of a massive DDoS attack, possibly through the Aisuru botnet, that also targeted Xbox, PlayStation, Riot Games and Epic.

UFS 5.0 announced with double the performance over the previous generation - GSMArena.com news

SARAH: The Joint Electron Device Engineering Council announced the UFS 5.0 flash storage standard has been finalized, with speeds of 10.8GB per second, up from 5.8GB per second in UFS 4.1.

Synology reverses its hard drive policy, but it might be too late

TOM: Synology says it has worked with drive makers to certify third-party drives for use in its 2025 model Synology NAS systems, starting with the DSM 7.3 software update, available now.

Ransomware Gang Qilin Claims Hack That Hit Beermaker Asahi - Bloomberg

SARAH: Russian-speaking attackers have claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack on Asahi Breweries, which temporarily halted production and caused some convenience stores in Japan to run short on Asahi beer.

TiVo Confirms It Has Stopped Making DVRs, Marking the End of an Era | Cord Cutters News

TOM: You may have thought this was already the case, but here’s a statement to CordCuttersNews from TiVo: “As of September 30, 2025, TiVo stop selling EDGE DVR products, including hardware and accessories, both online and through agents. TiVo, and its partners, no longer manufacture TiVo DVR hardware, and our remaining inventory is now depleted.”

[[PROMO]]

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

[[BREAK]]
[[PAUSE]]

[[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 reports on AirPods Pro translation

TOM:
Hi Tom , Jen & The Gang,

I was sitting in a Tim Hortons 🇨🇦 (with tea 🫖 & biscuit 🍪 , I’m 🇬🇧 born). When a bunch of French Canadian construction 🦺 workers sat near me. Oh darn I should of updated my AirPods Pro 2 to OS 26 for the translation function, so I could understand “better“ what they were saying but then realised they was lot of French Canadian 🇨🇦 swear words (they were Fing & Blinding in 🇬🇧 slang) being said. I started laughing, as I wondered what Siri would make of those *%#£ words?

Cheers
Andrew R
Montreal 🇨🇦

[[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.