Nothing tastes quite as sweet as tech news. And that's a lie. But if you think
you can find that special metal and plasticky magic dust aroma anywhere
else, let me know because it's probably less
carcinogenic. Microsoft has agreed to give a year of extended Windows 10
updates to users in the European economic area for free with even less
strings attached. Outside of the EA, it's still the same story we've already
known about. If you want to stay on Windows 10 after October 14th and still
get security updates, you can either pay 30 bucks or a,000 Microsoft reward
points or you can enable Windows backup and sync your PC settings to one drive.
And uh-oh, if you need more than 5 gigabytes, which is the default, you may
have to buy some extra cloud space from Microsoft cuz what you you think clouds
grow on trees or do they? Could you make an argument
that they do? Anyway, in the EA, all you
have to do is sign into your Microsoft account on your PC every 60 days, and
you can keep partying Windows 10 style 24/7, 365, but not 366. It's a year.
They're serious about this. Now, Microsoft agreed to this after they were
sent a sternly worded letter by sensibly named European consumer rights group
Euro Consumers, who argued that Microsoft's existing policy may break
the rules of the Digital Markets Act. The group also noted that Windows 10 is
being phased out faster than previous Windows versions. H why is that,
Microsoft? Because it's haunted. What?
Admit it. At the end of the day though, this all goes to show the power of
channeling your inner mom and riding one of the most valuable companies in the
world. A very angry email. But hey, don't worry about Microsoft. For any
Windows 10 support money they're losing out on, they'll make up with the ROG
Xbox Ally handhelds, which have had their prices officially confirmed. The
vanilla Xbox Ally starts at $600 USD,
while the Ally X with the Ryzen Z2 Extreme starts at a,000, making it one
of the most expensive mainstream handhelds. Honestly, the value
proposition for these things are kind of confusing. Cheaper handhelds with
similar specs will also have access to the special Xboxified Windows UI. So,
does Microsoft even want people to buy these at all? The company has been open
about their apathy towards Xbox console sales, which is now bearing negative
fruit. In Costco, recently confirming to games reporter Destin Legari, I'm sorry
that I don't know, that they removed Xbox consoles from sale at Costco. And
Canadian outlet WB Games is also reportedly selling off their existing
Xbox inventory and just leaving it at that. I mean, it looks like they still
have some stock, but that should clear out by Xbox Boxing Day.
I'd like to show you one of the crazier robot videos I've seen in my internet
travels depicting robots having to relearn how to walk after their
engineers dismember them with a chainsaw. What is wrong with these
people? Don't stop at the legs. Go full Gears of War on these clankers. They
won't take my job. So this company, Skilled AI, is doing these horrific
things to demonstrate how their skilled brain technology can just work no matter
what robot body it's running on and can continue forcibly retiring humans even
when it's attacked by a mob of katana wielding neolites. Skilled gives some
much more optimistic examples of robot activities that could benefit from this
tech. And so does Google DeepMind because they showed off their own robots
exhibiting similar body agnostic abilities. An AI could get smarter and
smarter as it possesses one vessel after another, which is something we want.
Deep mind also demoed a robot searching the web for info to help it complete a
physical task like sorting compost, garbage, and recycling according to San
Francisco regulations. Speaking of AI, OpenAI also launched ChatGpt Pulse. a
feature exclusive to the $200 pro tier for now, which has ChatGBT proactively
search for stuff it knows you're into and deliver updates on that stuff to you
of its own accord. And as the Verge notes, OpenAI and other AI companies
really want you to get used to AI not only doing stuff for you, but doing it
for you before you even think to ask, which will get people hooked on it,
which will eventually lead to everyone leading sedentary lives on the space
cruise liner from Wall-E, which is obviously the end goal for all of us,
right? Well, that and checking out our sponsor, MicroEnter, where September is
all about overstock and clearance. So, trust me, you'll want to take advantage
of the best items on sale all month long, like this Corsair K65 RGB mini 60%
mechanical gaming keyboard for 50 bucks off. Or again, I have to draw your
attention to this wireless mouse shaped like a capy bar. It's half off and it's
literally the cutest thing on earth. Phoenix, congratulations again. You're
getting a MicroEnter. That's right. Later this year, MicroEnter will open
their 30th store inside of you. So, sign up to get a free 128 gig flash drive
when the store opens. And I bet you didn't know, MicroEnter also has tech
news and tutorial articles and a PC builder tool and even more stuff you
don't know about yet. So, learn about it at the link in the description. Not many
people know this, but Quickbits are actually completely odorless and
flavorless, and that's why no one ever sees them
coming. Last week, in an interview with CNBC,
Tim Cook responded to a question about NVIDIA and Intel's recently announced
partnership by saying, "Competition is very good for the foundry business. We'd
love to see Intel come back." Now, this
week, Bloomberg reports that Intel has approached Apple to ask about a possible
investment 5 years after Apple dropped their CPUs for Apple Silicon. Do they
think the uh the flame has been reignited or this is this is awkward.
Uh, Intel, honestly, I'd just leave it. I think you're reading into Tim's
comment a bit too much. I mean, seconds later in that same interview, the guy
said, "There's a lot of great people in America." You know, they're just words.
They don't. Sometimes CEOs just say things. Almost all OnePlus phones are
vulnerable to a permission bypass exploit that could allow any installed
app to access SMS data and metadata
without informing the user. The issue was discovered by security researchers
at Rapid 7 and OnePlus is currently
working on a patch, but there are some OnePlus devices that are protected from
this flaw. Those still running Oxygen OS
11 from back in 2020. Now, if you were
like my dad and went, "Ain't no way I'm updating and giving the Chinese my
data," you were smarter than any of us.
And I'm sorry, Dad. Not Jeff Gearling.
normal debt. Amazon has agreed to pay $2.5 billion dollars to settle the
Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit over the tech giant intentionally making it
heinously difficult for users to cancel their Amazon Prime subscription. The
settlement consists of a $1 billion civil penalty, the largest ever in an
FTC rule violation case for being a very
naughty tech giant. while the remaining 1.5 billion will go towards refunds for
about 35 million customers harmed by Amazon's nonsense which included a
cancellation process Amazon internally named the Iliad flow in a reference to
the famously long and arduous Trojan War.
You got to admit it's a good reference. Everyone knows Amazon makes the sickest
references. And the president and COO of Nintendo of America, Doug Bowser, yep,
that's real if you weren't aware, is stepping down after 6 years in the role.
Reminiscing about his time there, Bowser recalled one of his earliest video game
experiences was playing the arcade version of Donkey Kong. And he thought,
why is the bad guy a giant monkey? That doesn't make sense. It should be a giant
spiky turtle dragon thing. Obviously,
the role of Nintendo of America president, which, as I've said before,
was previously occupied by a man named Bowser, will now go to a 20-year
Nintendo veteran named Devin Pritchard,
which, you know, can she change your name to Swanky Kong or something? Like,
and can you come back here for more tech news on Monday? It just it just always
feels a bit weird when you're not here. About the same amount of weird as me
knowing if you're watching the video or not. But hey, life's stranger than
fiction. Am I right?