1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,200 Twitter has officially begun rebranding itself to Elon Musk's favorite letter, X. 2 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:09,280 The platform is not a Twitter anymore. It's an X Twitter. 3 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:12,320 If you're not a fan of puns, you're about to have a bad couple days on the internet. 4 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:17,440 I'm Riley Murdock, this is TechLinked, and this is the letter X in the monotype special 5 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:24,160 alphabets for font, which also looks similar to a standard character added to Unicode in 2001, 6 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:28,880 which is why Elon could tweet the new logo of his massive social media company as 7 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:33,760 literal text. To be fair, Elon has said that they will change the logo to something a bit more 8 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:39,200 permanent, but it was still kind of sad for me to read this thread by Martin Grasser, 9 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:44,160 telling the story of how he and two other designers created Twitter's iconic bird logo 10 00:00:44,160 --> 00:00:48,880 before I caught myself being sentimental about marketing for a tech giant and hit the X on the 11 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:54,720 tab after I found the right one. The rebrand comes soon after Musk handed the CEO reigns to 12 00:00:54,720 --> 00:01:01,680 Lindo Yaccarino, who apparently shares Elon's passion for building X into the Everything app, 13 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:08,880 capable of serving all four fundamental human needs, audio, video, messaging, and banking, 14 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:12,400 with a little sprinkle of AI to make things feel extra dystopian. 15 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:17,680 The new X.com is Elon's latest adventure in trying to brand literally everything he's involved in 16 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:23,040 with an X in some way, including PayPal. There's a whole story there, but this time, 17 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:29,680 it's not just the platform. Tweets will now be called X's. I X'd an X this morning, 18 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:37,120 but no one X'd back at me. Didn't even get any sub X's. Re X? If you're looking to X it, 19 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:42,480 the platform, I'm sorry, the Twitter alternative landscape isn't looking super compelling. 20 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:48,480 Threads just got an update with new features, but Meta won't say what they are. Although TikTok 21 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:55,360 just added text posts. And to be frank, the CCP having all my data has never seemed less problematic. 22 00:01:55,360 --> 00:02:00,320 When Google's new extension API for Chrome made it more difficult for ad blocking extensions 23 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:05,200 to function, Mozilla managed to implement a workaround keeping ad blockers working. 24 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:10,240 Fortunately for Google, a new proposal by four of the company's engineers promises to find a 25 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:16,880 completely new way to have the internet be full of nice, orderly, auto-playing videos that follow 26 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:21,200 you down the page as you scroll. Where are you going? There's nothing down there. What are you 27 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:27,920 looking for the FAQs? Lewis Rossman called the proposal, known as the web environment integrity 28 00:02:27,920 --> 00:02:33,440 explainer, one of the scariest things he's ever heard in his life, and he's talked to Linus off 29 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:38,880 camera. Google's engineers propose that websites ask for tokens from users' machines, which have 30 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:46,880 been verified by attesters, controlled by, yep, Google. This would most likely break most ad 31 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:51,840 blockers and with Google controlling which websites and browsers are seen as trustworthy, 32 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:56,880 could put nails in the coffin of the open web, which is why many critics on GitHub are calling 33 00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:03,760 the scheme DRM for websites. Look, it's okay. This internet just turned into network television, 34 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:08,400 but we can probably start a different web, free of government and corporate control. 35 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:14,560 You mean the dark web? A different one than that. Apple has begun sending out developer kits for the 36 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:21,920 Vision Pro Mixed Reality headset and, oh, I thought Tim Cook was going to send assassins for not 37 00:03:21,920 --> 00:03:27,680 saying spatial computing instead of mixed reality. The kits are supposed to be kept super secret 38 00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:33,280 and not reviewed by anyone in a YouTube video, so do not listen to Marquez here. Think of your 39 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:38,080 waifu and chibi figurines. What will they do when the assassins come? Some developers will 40 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:44,800 use the kits to optimize their apps for virtual, I mean, for spatial computing, but according to 41 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:50,960 Markham's Girmatron at Bloomberg, Netflix and many other high-profile developers will not be 42 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:57,600 optimizing their apps for the rather small Vision Pro user base, if when it exists. After all, 43 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:06,480 recent reports say Apple only expects to ship 150,000 units in 2024 about 500 times smaller 44 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:12,080 than the market for Apple's other devices. Sure, Netflix has an incentive to optimize a Vision 45 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:18,720 Pro app so users don't just watch Apple TV Plus instead, but I don't know, maybe Netflix knows 46 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:23,680 that Apple's star-studded, well-reviewed shows automatically look way better than 47 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:29,280 Hot Love on the Beach Island 20-day fiancee Battle Royale. They got season two somehow. 48 00:04:29,840 --> 00:04:32,960 Bits taste good every time, with or without milk. 49 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:41,840 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's other startup trying to fundamentally change human life on the planet as 50 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:47,600 we know it, Worldcoin, has launched its global rollout after already scanning the eyeballs of 51 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:54,000 two million users with its creepy orb thing, which is actually not that scary according to this 52 00:04:54,080 --> 00:05:00,160 crypto reporter. But don't worry, in return, the human receives some Worldcoin cryptocurrency, 53 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:06,000 which actually shot up in value following today's news, and more importantly, a world ID, 54 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:11,440 which can theoretically be used to prove said humans aren't robots. Which I guess will be more 55 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:16,240 necessary than ever thanks to OpenAI unleashing their chatbot into the world. He may have let 56 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:21,040 the bull into the China shop, but he came prepared with lots. He's got lots of tape. 57 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:26,240 A leaked hands-on video of Sony's upcoming Project Q PlayStation streaming handheld 58 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:32,080 has revealed that the device runs some version of Android, or at least this one does, 59 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:37,520 igniting the hopes of many tinkers who no doubt dream of circumventing Sony's restrictions. 60 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:42,640 I mean, it's supposed to only be able to stream PlayStation 5 games on a local network, which 61 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:46,640 seems kind of ridiculous until you see the picture with the screen taken off and realize, 62 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:50,800 I mean, you can't do anything else because there's nothing in there. That's all they 63 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:55,760 could manage. It looks like one half of the weirdest waffle iron ever. I want to cook a waffle 64 00:05:55,760 --> 00:06:01,760 in there. ASUS has announced plans to begin mass production of its RTX 4070 graphics card 65 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:07,680 without an extra power connector that it revealed back in Computex as soon as this fall is when 66 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:12,240 they'll begin mass production. But the card requires a specific ASUS motherboard with an 67 00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:18,400 additional connector slot next to the standard PCIe x16 slot, which is powered by a 16 pin 68 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:24,400 connector on the back of the motherboard. So, calling it connector less as many are doing 69 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:29,040 online isn't quite accurate. It rubs me the wrong way and frankly puts me in a bad mood, 70 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:34,400 even though it does come in a very nice minimalist white color. I might buy one to hang on my wall, 71 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:40,640 but not for gaming. In other GPU news, gaming handheld maker GPD has released a video 72 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:45,600 showing that the company's external GPU dock works with one of the company's main competing 73 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:54,240 products, the Steam Deck. What a quirky situation. What's even quirkier is that you have to open up 74 00:06:54,240 --> 00:07:02,080 the deck and remove its M.2 SSD in order to use GPD's Oculink adapter and then leave the back off 75 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:10,320 and run Windows instead of SteamOS off of a micro SD card. Oh man, but you're gonna get a few more 76 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:15,280 frames on that thing. It's gonna be pretty good. And isn't that all worth it? And in case you missed 77 00:07:15,280 --> 00:07:20,080 it, Neopets is entering a whole new era this week and they've got a new brand ambassador along for 78 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:26,640 the ride, music legend John Legend, who excitedly posted to his Instagram followers the big news 79 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:33,280 on the weekend. Like, wow, congrats to Neopets for landing a big celebrity for the job, but there's 80 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:39,200 also evidence of John's claim that the game has long been a favorite in his family's house. 81 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:46,400 Chrissy Teigen was tweeting about the game back in 2018. Back when tweets could just be tweets. 82 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:54,720 Exes? Come on! And you come on back on Wednesday for more tech news, delivered by me, a human verified 83 00:07:54,720 --> 00:08:01,040 by the world coin world government. As long as they're still happy with me, we'll have to see.