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Welcome back to Techlink, the show that isn't afraid to say stop. Don't Google

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that. Let Riley do it instead. YouTube has once again updated its adfriendly

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content guidelines, tweeting that strong profanity in the first 7 seconds is now

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eligible to earn full ad revenue.

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I should have swore in the intro. Oh, that would have been so cool. The

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new policy comes about 2 and 1/2 years after YouTube demonetized videos that

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started right out with non-motherapproved language from the

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get-go before responding to backlash and

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allowing limited ad revenue on those videos. YouTube referenced their prior

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flip-flops in the video update for this change and seemed to take credit for

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providing YouTubers with content. >> You may have even made a couple popular

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reaction videos based on that very policy update.

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>> Yeah. Uh, you're welcome. Now, swearing in the first 7 seconds won't limit your

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revenue at all. Although, the tweet said strong profanity is fine, while the

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actual support article says moderate. Uh, with stronger profanity putting you

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at risk of earning no revenue. Uh, hey, that's unclear. Well, now that YouTube's

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becoming a wretched hive of scum and villain, the platform is rolling out age

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estimation technology to a small set of users in the US after using it in other

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markets and seeing nothing explode so far. Starting on August 13th, if

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YouTube's machines think you're under 18, they'll activate protection measures

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like showing only non-personalized ads, enabling take a break and bedtime

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reminders you need your sleep, and recommending fewer videos that could be

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problematic if viewed in repetition.

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No Skibb. Under 18 creators will also

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have their ability to earn gifts restricted on vertical live streams,

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which as we all know is a much more dangerous aspect ratio. It's weird

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though. You can dispute the age estimation by uploading a credit card or

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a government ID. So, I guess you can preserve more privacy if you don't act

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like a 12-year-old online. It's not clear how long that will be the case

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though, as age checks are currently spreading across the internet faster

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than that hot new brain rot slang that just dropped. You know the one. I won't

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say it. I know what it is, though. Because Google is actually doing the

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same thing as YouTube, announcing that age assurance will roll out to a small

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set of US-based Google accounts over the next few weeks. Over in Australia, the

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government is nixing the exemption they were going to make for YouTube in the

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country's social media ban. So now, come December, accounts for users under 16

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will be illegal with Prime Minister Anthony Albanesey's announcing, "Right,

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I'm calling time on it." But should we really trust Australia with this when

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they can't even get an orbital class rocket to stay in the air for more than

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14 seconds? I mean, it's not even just the front that fell off. It's the whole

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thing. Australia, please send me more of your memes. I'm done with the front

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felloff thing for now. As Emma Roth writes at The Verge, for better or

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worse, age verification is happening. And now Spotify is threatening to delete

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UK users accounts if they fail the age verification test. But what if you're an

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adult and you just have the mind of a child? People are getting worked into a

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frenzy. Fears of the EU's upcoming official age-checking app only allowing

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users to install apps that were certified by Apple or Google did turn

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out to be unfounded. But still, it's kind of an uncomfortable situation to

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have a bunch of different age verification services amassing hordes of

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selfies and government IDs, especially in the wake of the women's dating safety

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app T, having thousands of those very things leaked before suffering another

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breach for good measure. Clearly just calling your app a safety app and being

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a safe app is not there, you know, it's

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different different like gamers these days. Ah, that's according to IGN's new

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expansive 2025 gaming trends report which shares some interesting insights

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into the games industry.biz.

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They uh they they helped them with the report. I didn't think this one through.

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So, what are the main takeaways? First off, Gen Z and Gen Alpha tend to see

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themselves less as gamers and more as players of a specific game. While Gen X

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or millennials might identify with Xbox, PlayStation or PC as their chosen

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platform, the youngans treat Roblox, Fortnite, or Minecraft as their

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platforms, which is exactly what gaming executives have wanted. So, congrats on

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making EA CEO Andrew Wilson very happy.

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The CEO of Roblox is also pretty happy because that game or platform thing was

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already beating Fortnite in daily concurrent users. But since May, it shot

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up from around 10 million to 25 million

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thanks to the usermade game Grow a Garden, which has become a viral

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sensation. Even the Associated Press reported on it with perhaps the busiest

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game screenshot I've ever seen. It's h

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it's like I can feel it. Like so many classic microtransaction traps, Grow a

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Garden is an idle game. So you buy seeds, plant them, wait for them to

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grow, and then collect them. And what makes this game super cool is remember

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your garden literally grows while you are offline. Star.

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Whoa. Literally. The report also found that 93% of Gen Alpha prefer to play

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games on mobile because their dads have to use the TV as soon as they get home

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to see whether the 7086ers are going to make it to championships this year. It's

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important. And Gen Z and Alpha also expect every song, TV show, and video

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game to be available to them instantly,

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which to be fair probably also applies to everyone uh because we have the

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internet now. You don't have to ship the files to my Steam account. And you don't

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have to let big tech read your emails either if you use our sponsor, Proton,

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the email provider that's not linked to big tech. So they have no interest in

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your personal data. Oh, you have X hobbies and Y interests. They literally

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don't care. See, Proton uses end-to-end zero access encryption, so only you can

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read your emails. Plus, they use advanced fishing protection, tracker

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blocking, and they even monitor the dark web to see if your email shows up

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because the dark web people shouldn't care about your personal info either.

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That's kind of weird. And if you're super serious about privacy, Proton lets

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you use unlimited email aliases, and you

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can connect to it through the tour network for another layer of anonymity.

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Wow, I wish Proton could also replace apps like Google Docs and MyVPN and

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password manager, too. That would be guess what? They can. So yeah, I guess

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you got to go and create an account for free, try it for a few months, and see

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how it feels to stick it to big tech now using our links in the description. I

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now of course you could Google these quick bits yourself, but I don't know. I

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mean, I'm pretty good at Googling like like do you know about Reddit? Reviews

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for AMD's new Ryzen Threadripper 9980X

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and 9970X are live. And overall, uh, it

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seems like enthusiasts are pretty happy with them as they deliver a solid jump

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in both performance and efficiency over their predecessors. Is that is that

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really there's not like a scandal about a horribly misleading graph or

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something? Just just new chips? They're they're they're good. Okay. Yeah. Um,

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okay. Feels weird. Micron has finally launched the 9650 NVMe, the world's

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first actual PCIe Gen 6 SSD, 3 and 1/2

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years after the PCIe6 spec was finalized, which was cool, but I guess

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no one knew what to do with it. Of course, this SSD is not for normal

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desktops. It's got capacities up to 30.72 terabytes, and it only comes in

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E1S and E3S form factors, which I'm not

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going to lie, I only just heard about today, but I'm sure they're good for

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servers. Some AI tools have gotten updates that are actually useful, which

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is kind of exciting. Adobe's new Photoshop beta finally features AI

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upscaling, so you can unblur old photos. And the new harmonize feature makes it

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perhaps a bit too easy to alter lighting, shadows, and color, so you can

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realistically add people and objects to photos, which will be fine, don't worry.

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Meanwhile, Chat GPT's new study mode will actually walk the user through the

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thinking process instead of just delivering an answer. And now, let's

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maybe, hey, let's make that the default for kids and most adults. Peacock

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feathers can emit laser beams.

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I'm sorry. Yeah, peacock feathers can be lasers. If you slather them in dye and

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energize them with a light source, they'll emit photons in the wavelength

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of lasers, according to an international group of researchers. So, no, peacocks

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aren't about to become pompous, strutting aven weapons platforms. But

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the headlines definitely made it sound like that, and I will hold that against

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them. And look, Microsoft made a hundred special editions of their newest Surface

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laptop to go along with the new Smurfs movie that is apparently coming out

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soon. It's the Smurface laptop. Don't

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look at me. Tom Warren posted that. What was I supposed to do? Ignore it? I know

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what you're supposed to do. Come back here on Friday for more tech news. Or

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else I'll be googling stuff all day for nothing except to learn about stuff just

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for me. And what's the point of