Ah, you've arrived. And just in time, the tech news is about to start.
And they're super chill about the dress code, so that's perfect. Apple is
reportedly gearing up for a big wave of AI hardware, including smart glasses,
camera equipped AirPods for some reason, and even an AI pendant thing, which will
finally signal to the normies that they can buy AI wearables. Now, according to
German notorious Marculon, aka Bloomberg's Mark German, the glasses
have evolved from early tethered prototypes with external battery packs
to sleeker frames with everything embedded directly inside, including
highresolution cameras, but not a display. The Pendant, meanwhile, will
have a low res camera for environmental awareness and lean on your iPhone to
power its AI features, which I need like yesterday. My pendants haven't been
hallucinating nearly enough. Get these guys some LSD.
And Apple has pivoted to exploring camera equipped AirPods instead of a
camera equipped Apple Watch after realizing that viewing that video would
suck. Missed opportunity to redefine the term watching video. These new AirPods
could incorporate gesture controls and contextual awareness, but most
importantly, these new devices will likely be able to let you record
fingerboard tricks from five different angles. 67.
>> All right. Yeah. >> Yeah. Valve has confirmed that Steam Deck OLED shortages are tied directly
to, shocker, the ongoing memory and
storage supply crisis, according to a little notice now sitting at the bottom of the handheld store page. The news
comes shortly after the Steam Machine was delayed. And the worst part of me
worries that Valve is doing this on purpose to create yet another Halfife 3
situation. Valve could easily survive another 20 years on the hopes of fans
and commissions on CSGO trading. It's legal kind of. But the fact that even
the mighty valve is being affected by this data centerdriven crisis lines up
with what memory controller company Fisizen CEO recently said in an
interview. He predicts that many consumer electronics manufacturers will
go bankrupt or exit product lines by the end of 2026, describing a structural
shift in DRM and nan supply that favors data centers over everyday devices,
which is fine by me. We don't wait in lines to use the pay phone in public
places anymore. And I think we really lost something there. >> Furtus is subscribed to things.
>> Sit in a box full of graffiti and spit. Meanwhile, Western Digital revealed
during an investor call that they are pretty much sold out for 2026. They
apparently have data centers buying drives years in advance. So, if you
thought going back to the old hard disk drive was going to save you, then you
were sorely mistaken, bucko. As memory and storage continues to get prioritized
for AI infrastructure, we're rapidly heading into a situation where hardware
will be so expensive that people just won't be able to own their own computers
anymore. and renting your bleeps and bloops will really be the only option.
In 10 years, we're going to be driving across the silicon wasteland pumping
buzzeline into our EV swap 1973 Ford Falcons as we try to escape the war
boys. And we'll still be making payments to a Morton Joe for at least on a Game
Boy Color. >> At least we'll have Payones >> with a Chrome Edition. Discord's global
age verification rollout somehow got even messier this week after users in
the UK discovered they were part of what Discord calls an experiment with
Persona, an alternate age assurance vendor. Persona is also used by Reddit,
Roblox, and OpenAI for age assurance. But users found this concerning for a
couple reasons. For one, Discord promised that age verification data
would become local, not stored. But Persona stores the info users submit for
7 days and then deletes it. That's not
[music] zero days. For two, one of Persona's biggest investors is Founders
Fund, the venture capital firm directed by co-founder of Palunteer and winner of
the world's sweatiest billionaire award, which is a high bar, Peter Teal. And
while Teal's company isn't personally handling the face scans, the association
with the guy whose surveillance company builds tracking tools that helps the US
military shorten the kill chain and who appeared over 2,200 times in the
recently released Epstein files isn't going to help with user outrage.
>> What? What's wrong with it? He likes a massage. >> Discord told Kotaku that the Persona
experiment has concluded and they have edited their support blog to remove
mention of it. But that hasn't stopped the ongoing fallout. Discord competitor
Teamspeak says it hit hosting capacity from the wave of users fleeing Discord.
And even though the September data breach that exposed roughly 70,000
Discord users government IDs was actually not connected to age
verification rollouts in the past year or so, collecting even more IDs was
always bound to be met with significant push back. I for one will never push
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them help you. Check out Jaw at the link below. The Quickbits and I were just
talking and we think it's so brave that you showed up to today's tech news
without a prom date. I feel like I would be absolutely mortified if that were me,
but you're like the Jon of Arc of Tech News. You're like owning it.
>> Wow. Ep so epic. I have a date every time she's just off screen.
>> Bite Dance is scrambling to add safeguards to its AI video generator C
dance 2.0 after Hollywood came at it with the law play Law and Order sound
effect. Disney sent a cease and desist accusing Bike Dance of a virtual smash
and grab of its IP, saying the tool treats its characters like free public
domain clip art. That's right, The Lion King is not public domain clip art. It's
just incredibly traumatizing. That said, Cance 2.0 know is actually a genuine
leap in AI video. It can cut between shots with consistency, generate decent
fight choreography, and users have been cranking out everything from a cat and
Godzilla doing a Dragon Ball Z fusion dance to some actually funny Star Wars
skits, which really tickles Riley's heart
>> and other parts. >> To be fair, it's because a human wrote them. A very clever human was involved.
But a very believable performance from AI Anakin doesn't hurt. OpenAI has hired
Peter Steinberger, the creator of viral AI assistant OpenClaw to build its next
generation of personal agents. [music] In his announcement, Steinberger stated
that OpenClaw will stay open source, unlike the vast majority of Open AI's
products. >> What does that stand for? >> Open. He also pointed to Europe's
regulatory environment as a factor for the move to open AI, tweeting that in
the US people are enthusiastic about his work. While in Europe, they shout for
regulation and responsibility. Cringe.
To be fair, Europe itself has acknowledged this. Mario Draggy, former
Italian prime minister, published a 2024 report calling the EU's innovation gap
with the US an existential challenge. But damn it, they just love regulating
things so much. It's hard to stop. Nokia, the company that made our dad's
cell phones, has won a patent dispute over the H.265 codec, also known as
HEVC, forcing Acer and ASUS to halt
certain PC and laptop sales in Germany.
Europe's at it again. Nokia felt that the use of the codec by these brands was
not up to the fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory obligations tied to
its designation as a standard essential patent, allowing Nokia to file for an
injunction in Munich courts. So many fun words in there. Afterwards, both
manufacturers filed for an appeal and will be pursuing further legal action to
reach a fair solution as quickly as possible. End quote. So, if you're a
German and you want to buy an Acer or ASUS PC with your marks or whatever, it
looks like you have to actually go into DSA shop to get one while supplies last.
T-Mobile is rolling out a live call translation that works without an app
dubbed live translation. It runs at the network level and can be activated after
enrolling in the beta program by simply dialing an asterisk 87 asterisk on your
phone. >> 87. >> Only one person on the call needs to be
on T-Mobile for it to function, translating conversations in real time
across supported languages. And I mean, hey, that sounds great and all, but this
is also the carrier that's currently being accused of accidentally switching some customers to the wrong phone plans
during iPhone promos. At least now you can yell at their support agents in any
language you want.
Oh no, not the last one.
And China's Spring Festival Gala, an annual Chinese New Year celebration,
featured humanoid robots doing back flips, nunchuk routines, and kung fu
alongside martial arts actors. Not Steven Seagal, though. That guy. Four
robotics firms showcased their bots to an audience where nearly 80% of active
TVs in the country were tuned in >> because they had to be. But of course,
the bots couldn't pull it all off without at least one stumbling and
falling. I guess there's still some kinks to work out. Oh sh What? It's part
of the show. I wasn't expecting them to use drunken fist style.
[laughter] It's self-referential. The whole thing was perfectly
choreographed. And as an added bonus, no little kids got accidentally wailed on
by a nunchuck wielding robot. You know what, China? Nice job on this one. I'd
like to see more shows like this performed over there far away from me
>> and my children. They are nunchuck free so far. But I want you to stay close,
especially on Friday when we come back with more tech news. Right now, we're
all heading to Brad's house to go swimming in his parents' pool. You can come if you want, but his dad said you
weren't allowed in the pool because of what you did last time. But you can
come. >> What? >> Not in the pool. >> Sit on the side. to the side.