Black Friday, a $249 Surface and Ethan Zuckerman on the metaverse

It’s that time of the year again: Figuring out all of the best gifts to buy from our Holiday Gift Guide. This week, Commerce Editor Valentina Palladino joins Cherlynn and Devindra to chat about our latest batch of product suggestions, as well as some tips on snagging deals ahead of Black Friday. Also, they chat about Microsoft’s intriguing new $249 Surface Laptop SE, a low-spec, kid-focused notebook for schools. And Devindra chats with Ethan Zuckerman, a UMASS Amherst professor and technology researcher, about Facebook/Meta’s vision of the metaverse and ways we can combat corporate control of the internet. (Check out Ethan’s article at The Atlantic: Hey Facebook, I Built a Metaverse 27 Years Ago.) Microsoft goes after Chromebooks with the $249 Surface Laptop SE – 1:50 Holiday Gift Guide with Commerce Editor Valentina Palladino – 17:06 Google Project Relate brings voice recognition to people with speech impairments – 36:12 Peloton is making a $495 smart camera to detect your workout form – 42:11 Twitter Blue expands Twitter functionality for $3 a month – 46:16 Apple will make it easier to replace an iPhone 13 screen without breaking FaceID – 52:45 Roombas are about to get much smarter Alexa voice commands – 54:47 Peter Jackson sells most of WETA to Unity – 55:55 Pop Culture Picks – 58:36 Metaverse interview with Ethan Zuckerman – 1:07:26