This week, we are joined by independent tech columnist Rob Pegoraro, who writes for USA Today, Yahoo Finance, Wirecutter and other publications. The discussion begins with the curious tale of a BusinessWeek report claiming that the Chinese engaged in a hacking operation that impacted servers installed by Apple, Amazon and other tech companies, along with strong denials that any such thing occurred. The discussion moves on to iOS 12, and how it appears to work well even on older hardware, such as Rob’s iMac mini 4. And what bout the state of browser competition between Chrome, Firefox and Safari, and does Microsoft’s Edge for Windows alternative even have a chance? There’s also a discussion about Washington’s interest in tech privacy, autonomous vehicles and, of course, Tesla’s recent troubles with the SEC after CEO Elon Musk made some unfortunate comments on Twitter about the company allegedly planning to go private.

In a very special encore segment, you’ll also hear from tech editor Bryan Chaffin, co-founder and co-publisher of The Mac Observer. During this segment, Bryan will talk at length about Apple’s September 12th media event, in which three new iPhone X variants were demonstrated. Bryan covers his experiences in ordering one of the new smartphones, plus an Apple Watch Series 4. As a long-time user of luxury watches, Bryan relates his experience with an Apple Watch Series 2 and his expectations for the Series 4, which includes more health-related features, such as an ECG to measure the health of your heart. There is also some talk about the forthcoming iOS 12.