WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.040 You're back again? You've been consuming 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:10.480 a lot of tech news lately. I think it's time to talk to someone. No, not me. I 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:12.520 don't count. I'm not real. 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:17.160 Qualcomm has announced a new series of laptop processors representing a quantum 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:21.560 leap forward in performance and power efficiency. So, the company has modified 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:27.120 their Snapdragon branding the only way any executives know how. Adding an X. 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:31.000 Cuz they're all teenagers in the 90s. But this isn't just a naming change. 00:00:28.680 --> 00:00:35.960 Snapdragon X chips will be the first publicly available processors developed 00:00:33.080 --> 00:00:41.280 by Nuvia, a company founded by a few key members of the Apple Silicon team and 00:00:38.120 --> 00:00:43.920 acquired by Qualcomm in 2021. Like 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:48.040 Apple's M1 and M2, Qualcomm's upcoming laptop CPUs, which will be revealed at 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:52.080 the Snapdragon Summit later this month, won't simply feature modified 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:56.600 off-the-shelf ARM Cortex chips, but a fully custom architecture called Orion. 00:00:55.240 --> 00:01:00.360 Building their own custom architecture is partly why Apple was able to achieve 00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:05.199 the mind-blowing performance and efficiency boost they did with the M1, 00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:09.120 which made the PC master race question everything they had ever known. Gabe 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:14.400 Newell is just a man? He can bleed just like us? All 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:18.880 that said, there's more than a handful of reasons to be skeptical that these 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:22.840 chips will be good. ARM is still suing Qualcomm over not paying the proper 00:01:20.800 --> 00:01:27.280 royalties for Nuvia produced products, and Qualcomm's existing laptop 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:32.760 processors have a reputation for sucking almost as bad as the ARM version of 00:01:29.600 --> 00:01:34.720 Windows. So, Snapdragon X chips already 00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:37.400 have their work cut out for them. I mean, 00:01:35.800 --> 00:01:43.520 do we even want Apple Silicon chips for PCs? Sounds dumb. Microsoft has gone deep on 00:01:41.520 --> 00:01:47.400 AI, but they haven't quite figured out how to make any money off of it yet. 00:01:45.880 --> 00:01:51.960 Probably because they've been scrolling past a lot of excellent advice from 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:57.120 former crypto bros on social media. Diamond hands. Create pictures of 00:01:54.480 --> 00:02:02.320 diamond hands. GitHub Copilot, Microsoft's coding assistant, costs 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:05.640 users $10 a month, but reportedly lost 00:02:02.320 --> 00:02:07.360 Microsoft over $20 per month per user, 00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:11.960 with power users apparently costing Microsoft up to $80 a month in 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:16.360 electricity costs and other service fees. 1 and 1/2 million people have 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:20.600 already tried GitHub Copilot, and Microsoft's service is incredibly 00:02:18.160 --> 00:02:25.040 popular among coders, which is terrible news for Microsoft. Even worse, this 00:02:23.320 --> 00:02:29.600 isn't necessarily a problem that will disappear as users scale, because the 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:33.880 LLM that powers Copilot sucks up resources like a black hole doing a 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:38.360 kegstand. That's what we used to call Jimmy in college. 00:02:35.920 --> 00:02:43.880 As of this past April, ChatGPT cost OpenAI an estimated $700,000 a day just 00:02:42.040 --> 00:02:48.720 to run. That's probably why both Microsoft and Google will be charging an 00:02:45.880 --> 00:02:51.920 additional $30 per month per user for the recently announced AI-powered 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:57.360 upgrades to their business software suites. AI made up 10 to 15% of Google's 00:02:55.080 --> 00:03:01.520 energy consumption back in 2021, and researchers estimate that if generative 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:06.000 AI was added to every Google search, it would consume as much energy as the 00:03:03.600 --> 00:03:11.160 entire country of Ireland. That's either a lot or not very much at all. I I don't 00:03:09.240 --> 00:03:16.360 typically think of energy in units of Irelands. And crucially, neither do the 00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:20.480 Irish. A California court has ruled that Facebook's ad targeting system is 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:24.720 discriminatory because it requires advertisers to choose demographic 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:29.960 characteristics like age and gender to determine which users will see their 00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:31.960 ads. This is an amplified by Facebook's 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:35.800 lookalike audience tool, which attempts to match businesses with potential 00:03:33.640 --> 00:03:40.000 customers that share similar traits to their current audience. To be clear, 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:44.440 this wasn't a dispute over ads featuring truck nuts and whiskey-flavored 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:48.920 toothpaste. Real product. Really? Yes. Why aren't I getting those 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:53.240 ads? Rather, an older woman found that she was being excluded from ads offering 00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:57.840 favorable deals on life insurance targeted at younger men. If upheld, the 00:03:55.760 --> 00:04:02.080 decision might require every ad-based platform on the internet to restructure 00:03:59.760 --> 00:04:06.560 their ad targeting systems. So, Meta is likely to appeal the decision. Can't 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:11.520 have that. Also in California, the Delete Act passed into law, which means 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:15.120 that California data brokers must offer free, simple channels for users to 00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:19.079 request that their information be deleted. And an expansive right to 00:04:17.359 --> 00:04:23.440 repair bill was also recently signed into law, though it passed with Apple's 00:04:21.079 --> 00:04:28.240 blessing, so take that with a grain of salt. You know what they say, an apple a 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:32.080 day keeps the regulators away, which must be why there's no apples in Europe. 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:38.920 Fun fact. Now, it's time for quick bits brought to you by lttstore.com. 00:04:35.480 --> 00:04:41.000 Feels weird, but okay. They, we just 00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:45.600 announced the stubby screwdriver last month, and it has the same great ratchet 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:49.840 as the full-sized LTT screwdriver. Its light back force makes it easy to drive 00:04:47.840 --> 00:04:55.120 any screw, whether or not they signed the waiver. Old stubby here is 4 in in 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:59.520 length, so it's super pocketable and legal to carry on planes for 00:04:56.680 --> 00:05:04.680 self-defense if things come to that. The strong magnet in the shaft ensures 00:05:01.960 --> 00:05:08.720 the six included bits and your screws don't go anywhere except into the 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:12.000 handle's built-in bit storage and the proper screw holes, respectively. Did 00:05:10.840 --> 00:05:16.520 you just call me a screw hole? What? Uh 00:05:14.200 --> 00:05:20.840 Anyway, Mr. Stubby screwdriver son is durable and made with chemical-resistant 00:05:18.640 --> 00:05:26.760 plastics, and you can get yours at the link below. Aw, quick bits, man. 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:31.200 I could listen to them forever up until we hit five. Adobe has announced major 00:05:29.160 --> 00:05:36.360 updates to AI features across its creative suite, including three new 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:39.720 generative AI models: Firefly 2, Firefly 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:41.640 Design, and Firefly Vector. With 9 g of 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:47.280 protein. Adobe is also launching its first text-to-vector image generator, 00:05:44.320 --> 00:05:51.520 and they teased a new AI upscaling tool, which can be used for both clips of old 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:56.400 movies and GIFs so compressed they're about to collapse into a supernova. Deep 00:05:53.720 --> 00:06:01.040 fried. Another upcoming feature is fast fill, essentially generative fill for 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:05.240 video. And unlike many companies, we can trust that Adobe has the bravery to make 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:10.960 us pay through the nose for it all. T-Mobile has decided its price lock 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:13.200 guarantee is only for their newest, most 00:06:10.960 --> 00:06:17.000 expensive plans, and is therefore forcibly switching subscribers with 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:20.920 cheaper grandfathered plans onto higher-cost ones. Hey, it's just 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:25.040 business. For the affected plans, customers will allegedly be alerted on 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:29.200 the 17th before being charged an extra $10 a month per line. Something T-Mobile 00:06:27.280 --> 00:06:33.080 won't go out of their way to tell you is you can opt out of the change by calling 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:37.360 customer service and complaining a lot. It's the one simple trick that cell 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:42.000 phone providers hate. Intel has released two new driver updates for their Arc 00:06:39.280 --> 00:06:47.040 GPUs this past week. The first increases performance by up to 119% 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:52.480 as long as you're playing one of the 20 listed games, with the big winner being 00:06:49.080 --> 00:06:56.520 this year's hottest game, Deus Ex: Human 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:57.880 Revolution. It gets better every year. 00:06:56.520 --> 00:07:03.000 And the main character's voice sounds even more I didn't ask for this. Even 00:07:00.640 --> 00:07:07.080 more gaspy. I'm part robot, you know. 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:11.480 Fortunately, Intel's newest driver update increases Starfield performance 00:07:09.320 --> 00:07:15.840 by 117% or 149% 00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:21.080 depending on resolution. To celebrate, Intel quietly released an even more 00:07:17.880 --> 00:07:22.960 budget graphics card, the A580. This 00:07:21.080 --> 00:07:27.480 would be great news if it wasn't like $10 less than some models of the much 00:07:25.240 --> 00:07:30.360 superior A750. I know you're trying to compete with NVIDIA, Intel, but that 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:35.800 doesn't mean you should emulate their pricing strategy. Okay, so let's take a 00:07:33.880 --> 00:07:39.520 step back. Google has changed the default option for logging into personal 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:44.080 accounts. Instead of putting in your password, users will start seeing 00:07:41.440 --> 00:07:47.760 prompts to create and use passkeys, which are digital credentials unlocked 00:07:45.880 --> 00:07:51.680 by things like a fingerprint, a face scan, a PIN, basically anything that 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:55.080 doesn't give you the option of using strong password1! for 00:07:55.640 --> 00:08:02.320 Passkeys are rolling out in more places across the tech universe, but you can 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:06.360 still use your password and opt out of seeing the new prompts every time you 00:08:03.840 --> 00:08:11.720 log in if the risk of being hacked for you is part of the whole thrill. Oh, no, 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:18.040 don't hack me. Oh. That would be naughty. And a 22-year-old 00:08:14.640 --> 00:08:21.560 Firefox bug has finally been fixed by a 00:08:18.040 --> 00:08:23.800 23-year-old first-time Firefox coder, 00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:27.520 who was horrified to find out that the annoying bug that caused tooltips to 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:32.039 hang around in the foreground even after command-tabbing away from the browser 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:36.080 was almost as old as they are. In fact, it's so old it actually predates the 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:40.760 name Firefox, going back to when the browser was just called Mozilla. The bug 00:08:38.479 --> 00:08:45.920 likely lasted two decades because it was both tricky to reproduce and more 00:08:42.599 --> 00:08:47.840 annoying than dangerous, just like me. 00:08:45.920 --> 00:08:51.760 Got them. And the trick to getting more tech news is to come back on Friday for 00:08:49.960 --> 00:08:55.520 another episode of TechLinked. That's the kind of little tips you won't learn 00:08:53.680 --> 00:08:58.400 that stuff elsewhere, so come on back.