Welcome back to Techlink, the show that isn't afraid to say stop. Don't Google
that. Let Riley do it instead. YouTube has once again updated its adfriendly
content guidelines, tweeting that strong profanity in the first 7 seconds is now
eligible to earn full ad revenue.
I should have swore in the intro. Oh, that would have been so cool. The
new policy comes about 2 and 1/2 years after YouTube demonetized videos that
started right out with non-motherapproved language from the
get-go before responding to backlash and
allowing limited ad revenue on those videos. YouTube referenced their prior
flip-flops in the video update for this change and seemed to take credit for
providing YouTubers with content. >> You may have even made a couple popular
reaction videos based on that very policy update.
>> Yeah. Uh, you're welcome. Now, swearing in the first 7 seconds won't limit your
revenue at all. Although, the tweet said strong profanity is fine, while the
actual support article says moderate. Uh, with stronger profanity putting you
at risk of earning no revenue. Uh, hey, that's unclear. Well, now that YouTube's
becoming a wretched hive of scum and villain, the platform is rolling out age
estimation technology to a small set of users in the US after using it in other
markets and seeing nothing explode so far. Starting on August 13th, if
YouTube's machines think you're under 18, they'll activate protection measures
like showing only non-personalized ads, enabling take a break and bedtime
reminders you need your sleep, and recommending fewer videos that could be
problematic if viewed in repetition.
No Skibb. Under 18 creators will also
have their ability to earn gifts restricted on vertical live streams,
which as we all know is a much more dangerous aspect ratio. It's weird
though. You can dispute the age estimation by uploading a credit card or
a government ID. So, I guess you can preserve more privacy if you don't act
like a 12-year-old online. It's not clear how long that will be the case
though, as age checks are currently spreading across the internet faster
than that hot new brain rot slang that just dropped. You know the one. I won't
say it. I know what it is, though. Because Google is actually doing the
same thing as YouTube, announcing that age assurance will roll out to a small
set of US-based Google accounts over the next few weeks. Over in Australia, the
government is nixing the exemption they were going to make for YouTube in the
country's social media ban. So now, come December, accounts for users under 16
will be illegal with Prime Minister Anthony Albanesey's announcing, "Right,
I'm calling time on it." But should we really trust Australia with this when
they can't even get an orbital class rocket to stay in the air for more than
14 seconds? I mean, it's not even just the front that fell off. It's the whole
thing. Australia, please send me more of your memes. I'm done with the front
felloff thing for now. As Emma Roth writes at The Verge, for better or
worse, age verification is happening. And now Spotify is threatening to delete
UK users accounts if they fail the age verification test. But what if you're an
adult and you just have the mind of a child? People are getting worked into a
frenzy. Fears of the EU's upcoming official age-checking app only allowing
users to install apps that were certified by Apple or Google did turn
out to be unfounded. But still, it's kind of an uncomfortable situation to
have a bunch of different age verification services amassing hordes of
selfies and government IDs, especially in the wake of the women's dating safety
app T, having thousands of those very things leaked before suffering another
breach for good measure. Clearly just calling your app a safety app and being
a safe app is not there, you know, it's
different different like gamers these days. Ah, that's according to IGN's new
expansive 2025 gaming trends report which shares some interesting insights
into the games industry.biz.
They uh they they helped them with the report. I didn't think this one through.
So, what are the main takeaways? First off, Gen Z and Gen Alpha tend to see
themselves less as gamers and more as players of a specific game. While Gen X
or millennials might identify with Xbox, PlayStation or PC as their chosen
platform, the youngans treat Roblox, Fortnite, or Minecraft as their
platforms, which is exactly what gaming executives have wanted. So, congrats on
making EA CEO Andrew Wilson very happy.
The CEO of Roblox is also pretty happy because that game or platform thing was
already beating Fortnite in daily concurrent users. But since May, it shot
up from around 10 million to 25 million
thanks to the usermade game Grow a Garden, which has become a viral
sensation. Even the Associated Press reported on it with perhaps the busiest
game screenshot I've ever seen. It's h
it's like I can feel it. Like so many classic microtransaction traps, Grow a
Garden is an idle game. So you buy seeds, plant them, wait for them to
grow, and then collect them. And what makes this game super cool is remember
your garden literally grows while you are offline. Star.
Whoa. Literally. The report also found that 93% of Gen Alpha prefer to play
games on mobile because their dads have to use the TV as soon as they get home
to see whether the 7086ers are going to make it to championships this year. It's
important. And Gen Z and Alpha also expect every song, TV show, and video
game to be available to them instantly,
which to be fair probably also applies to everyone uh because we have the
internet now. You don't have to ship the files to my Steam account. And you don't
have to let big tech read your emails either if you use our sponsor, Proton,
the email provider that's not linked to big tech. So they have no interest in
your personal data. Oh, you have X hobbies and Y interests. They literally
don't care. See, Proton uses end-to-end zero access encryption, so only you can
read your emails. Plus, they use advanced fishing protection, tracker
blocking, and they even monitor the dark web to see if your email shows up
because the dark web people shouldn't care about your personal info either.
That's kind of weird. And if you're super serious about privacy, Proton lets
you use unlimited email aliases, and you
can connect to it through the tour network for another layer of anonymity.
Wow, I wish Proton could also replace apps like Google Docs and MyVPN and
password manager, too. That would be guess what? They can. So yeah, I guess
you got to go and create an account for free, try it for a few months, and see
how it feels to stick it to big tech now using our links in the description. I
now of course you could Google these quick bits yourself, but I don't know. I
mean, I'm pretty good at Googling like like do you know about Reddit? Reviews
for AMD's new Ryzen Threadripper 9980X
and 9970X are live. And overall, uh, it
seems like enthusiasts are pretty happy with them as they deliver a solid jump
in both performance and efficiency over their predecessors. Is that is that
really there's not like a scandal about a horribly misleading graph or
something? Just just new chips? They're they're they're good. Okay. Yeah. Um,
okay. Feels weird. Micron has finally launched the 9650 NVMe, the world's
first actual PCIe Gen 6 SSD, 3 and 1/2
years after the PCIe6 spec was finalized, which was cool, but I guess
no one knew what to do with it. Of course, this SSD is not for normal
desktops. It's got capacities up to 30.72 terabytes, and it only comes in
E1S and E3S form factors, which I'm not
going to lie, I only just heard about today, but I'm sure they're good for
servers. Some AI tools have gotten updates that are actually useful, which
is kind of exciting. Adobe's new Photoshop beta finally features AI
upscaling, so you can unblur old photos. And the new harmonize feature makes it
perhaps a bit too easy to alter lighting, shadows, and color, so you can
realistically add people and objects to photos, which will be fine, don't worry.
Meanwhile, Chat GPT's new study mode will actually walk the user through the
thinking process instead of just delivering an answer. And now, let's
maybe, hey, let's make that the default for kids and most adults. Peacock
feathers can emit laser beams.
I'm sorry. Yeah, peacock feathers can be lasers. If you slather them in dye and
energize them with a light source, they'll emit photons in the wavelength
of lasers, according to an international group of researchers. So, no, peacocks
aren't about to become pompous, strutting aven weapons platforms. But
the headlines definitely made it sound like that, and I will hold that against
them. And look, Microsoft made a hundred special editions of their newest Surface
laptop to go along with the new Smurfs movie that is apparently coming out
soon. It's the Smurface laptop. Don't
look at me. Tom Warren posted that. What was I supposed to do? Ignore it? I know
what you're supposed to do. Come back here on Friday for more tech news. Or
else I'll be googling stuff all day for nothing except to learn about stuff just
for me. And what's the point of