Welcome back to TechLinked, the show that isn't afraid to say,
Stop! Don't Google that! Let Riley do it instead.
YouTube has once again updated its ad-friendly content guidelines,
tweeting that strong profanity in the first seven seconds is now eligible to earn full ad revenue.
I should have sworn the intro. Oh, that would have been so cool.
The new policy comes about two and a half years after YouTube demonetized videos that
started right out with non-mother-approved 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, you're welcome. Now, swearing in the first seven 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.
Hey, that's unclear. Well, now that YouTube's becoming a wretched hive of scum and villainy,
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.
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,
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 Albany'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
fell off 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 different. Different like gamers these days. That's according to IGN's new expansive 2025
gaming trends report, which shares some interesting insights into the games industry.biz.
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 youngins 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
platform thing was already beating Fortnite and daily concurrent users. But since May,
it's shot up from around 10 million to 25 million thanks to the user made game,
Groa 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 like I can feel it. Like so many
classic microtransaction traps, Groa 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 70, 86ers are gonna
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 because we have the internet now. You don't have to ship the files to my Steam account.
Now, of course, you could Google these quick bits yourself, but I don't know. I'm pretty good at
Googling. Like, do you know about Reddit? Reviews for AMD's new Ryzen Threadripper 9980X and 9970X
are live and overall, 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. Okay, feels weird. Micron has finally launched the 9650
NVMe, the world's first actual PCIe Gen 6 SSD, three and a half years after the PCIe 6 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, ChatGBT'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 and die 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 avian 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 Smurfs 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 that?