CNET tech with context and consequence.
The Daily Charge frames tech through direct, conversational interviews with Daily Charge regulars and guests. Its recent range runs from Netflix viewing data and OnePlus hardware trade-offs to James Webb imagery, Mastercard innovation, VR relationships, and social platform moderation.
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The Daily Charge is a CNET technology show built around timely, explanatory conversations. Roger Chang appears throughout the excerpts as the steady voice asking what a new product, platform shift, or online behavior actually means. The format is direct. A news peg comes first, then a guest or regular helps widen it into context. That makes the show feel close to the newsroom without becoming dense or inside-baseball. Streaming coverage looks at Netflix rankings, Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Gray Man, Army of the Dead, Army of Thieves, and the cancellation of Batgirl in the HBO Max orbit. Device coverage stays practical, especially in the OnePlus 10T episode, where price, fast charging, camera compromises, and carrier support all matter more than abstract enthusiasm. The science episode on the James Webb Space Telescope keeps the wonder but also explains why infrared data matters to understanding the early universe. Mastercard conversations shift the show into payments, 5G, NFTs, loyalty, shopping, and the security principles behind new transaction experiences. Crypto is treated as unsettled terrain rather than a solved story. The metaverse coverage adds another layer. It considers VR relationships, avatars, body image, sexism, ableism, anonymity, and whether virtual spaces reproduce the same inequities found offline. The moderation episode is sharper still, tracing how sarcasm and humor can disguise hate speech and expose limits in automated review systems. Across the excerpts, The Daily Charge favors questions that sound simple and then become more consequential. How much does the phone cost? Who verifies Netflix’s numbers? What happens when a virtual body becomes a social signal? Can a platform tell celebration from coded hostility? The show’s most useful mode is that movement from consumer tech detail to cultural consequence. It suits a listener who wants technology explained through products, companies, platforms, and the people affected by them. It also has a farewell episode that reflects on six years of production, including its earlier form as The 359, YouTube live work, Q&A, studio changes, and the behind-the-scenes effort of Brian Van Gelder. That retrospective gives the show a fuller shape: part daily tech briefing, part CNET conversation archive, and part record of how tech media itself changed formats.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants consumer tech headlines connected to business, culture, and everyday use. It fits someone who prefers informed conversation over hype.
What sets it apart: The show’s range is unusually elastic: the same feed can move from Netflix metrics and Android hardware to telescope data, Mastercard payment systems, VR relationships, and content moderation. Its questions keep returning to practical impact rather than novelty alone.
The Daily Charge gives you the inside take on the biggest stories on CNET. Every weekday, Executive News Editor Roger Cheng offers analysis, context and perspective on all things tech.
A phone maker pitches power users; Roger Chang wants to know if your carrier will cooperate.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm, candid reunion about six years of format shifts, production pressure, and the experiments behind The Daily Charge.
The Daily Charge gets a warm six-year send-off as Roger Chang, Joan Salzman, and Ben Fox Rubin revisit the show's path from The 359 to its audio-only identity.
A useful look at how streaming hits are counted, and how those numbers feed franchise bets and cancellations.
Streaming popularity gets slippery when a hit is treated like a stopwatch. The Daily Charge starts with whether Stranger Things' fourth season has passed Squid Game, then traces Netflix's preferred yardstick: total hours watched within about 28 days of release.
Big game excitement, pointed questions, familiar banter.
Global tech with real-world consequences.
CNET editor Ty Pendlebury discusses the Sonos Ray soundbar, its features, and how it compares to other soundbars.
CNET's shopping expert discusses Prime Day deals, inflation's impact on pricing, and highlights specific tech bargains like a Samsung Chromebook and SodaStream.
The Daily Charge marks a break after six years of daily episodes, with Roger Chang, Joan Salzman, Ben Fox Rubin, and Brian Van Gelder revisiting the show's path from The 359 to its current form.
Joan Salzman compares Netflix’s 1.65 billion viewing hours for Squid Game with 1.35 billion for Stranger Things season four during each show’s first 28 days.
The OnePlus 10T costs $649, compared with the OnePlus 10 Pro's $899 launch price, but makes camera and display trade-offs.
The James Webb Space Telescope sends infrared data through NASA's Deep Space Network from a million miles away.
Roger Cheng discusses a documentary about virtual reality relationships and the metaverse with digital media expert Joan Saltzman.
5G's promised “killer apps” have been slow to appear, and Eli Blumenthal points to limited network range as one reason.
CNET's executive news editor interviews a laptop expert about the new MacBook Air's design, M2 chip, and webcam improvements.
CNET reporter Queenie Wong discusses Meta's new VR headset prototypes and their potential to advance the metaverse.
CNET editor Ty Pendlebury discusses the Sonos Ray soundbar, its features, and how it compares to other soundbars.