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Welcome back to TechLinked, the show that isn't afraid to say,

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Stop! Don't Google that! Let Riley do it instead.

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YouTube has once again updated its ad-friendly content guidelines,

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tweeting that strong profanity in the first seven seconds is now eligible to earn full ad revenue.

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I should have sworn the intro. Oh, that would have been so cool.

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The new policy comes about two and a half years after YouTube demonetized videos that

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started right out with non-mother-approved language from the get-go before responding

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to backlash and 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 providing YouTubers

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with content. You may have even made a couple popular reaction videos based on that very policy

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update. Yeah, you're welcome. Now, swearing in the first seven seconds won't limit your

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revenue at all, although the tweet said strong profanity is fine while the actual support article

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says moderate, uh, with stronger profanity putting you at risk of earning no revenue.

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Hey, that's unclear. Well, now that YouTube's becoming a wretched hive of scum and villainy,

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the platform is rolling out age estimation technology to a small set of users in the US

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after using it in other markets and seeing nothing explode so far. Starting on August 13th,

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

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only non-personalized ads, enabling take a break and bedtime reminders you need your sleep,

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and recommending fewer videos that could be problematic if viewed in repetition.

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Under 18 creators will also 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 though, you can dispute the

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age estimation by uploading a credit card or a government ID. So I guess you can preserve more

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privacy if you don't act like a 12 year old online. It's not clear how long that will be the case,

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as age checks are currently spreading across the internet faster than that

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hot new brain rot slang that just dropped. You know the one, I won't say it. I know what it is though.

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Because Google is actually doing the same thing as YouTube, announcing that age assurance

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will roll out to a small set of US based Google accounts over the next few weeks.

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

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

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illegal with Prime Minister Anthony Albany's announcing, right, I'm calling time on it.

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But should we really trust Australia with this when they can't even get an orbital class rocket to

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stay in the air for more than 14 seconds? I mean, it's not even just the front that fell off,

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

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fell off thing for now. As Emma Roth writes at the verge, for better or worse, age verification is

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happening. And now Spotify is threatening to delete UK users accounts if they fail the age

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verification test. But what if you're an adult and you just have the mind of a child? People are

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getting worked into a 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 out to be unfounded.

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But still, it's kind of an uncomfortable situation to have a bunch of different age

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verification services amassing hordes of selfies and government IDs, especially in the wake of the

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women's dating safety app, T having thousands of those very things leaked before suffering

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

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is different. Different like gamers these days. That's according to IGN's new expansive 2025

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gaming trends report, which shares some interesting insights into the games industry.biz.

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

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and more as players of a specific game. While Gen X or millennials might identify with Xbox,

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PlayStation or PC as their chosen platform, the youngins treat Roblox, Fortnite or Minecraft

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

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EA CEO Andrew Wilson very happy. The CEO of Roblox is also pretty happy because that game

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platform thing was already beating Fortnite and daily concurrent users. But since May,

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it's shot up from around 10 million to 25 million thanks to the user made game,

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Groa Garden, which has become a viral sensation. Even the Associated Press reported on it with

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perhaps the busiest game screenshot I've ever seen. It's like I can feel it. Like so many

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classic microtransaction traps, Groa Garden is an idle game. So you buy seeds, plant them,

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wait for them to 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 games on mobile because

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their dads have to use the TV as soon as they get home to see whether the 70, 86ers are gonna

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make it to championships this year. It's important. And Gen Z and Alpha also expect every song,

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TV show and video game to be available to them instantly, which to be fair probably also applies

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to everyone because we have the internet now. You don't have to ship the files to my Steam account.

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Now, of course, you could Google these quick bits yourself, but I don't know. I'm pretty good at

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Googling. Like, do you know about Reddit? Reviews for AMD's new Ryzen Threadripper 9980X and 9970X

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are live and overall, it seems like enthusiasts are pretty happy with them as they deliver a solid

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

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there's not like a scandal about a horribly misleading graph or something? Just, just new chips.

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They're, they're, they're good? Okay, yeah. Okay, feels weird. Micron has finally launched the 9650

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NVMe, the world's first actual PCIe Gen 6 SSD, three and a half years after the PCIe 6 spec was

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finalized, which was cool, but I guess no one knew what to do with it. Of course, this SSD is not for

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normal desktops. It's got capacities up to 30.72 terabytes, and it only comes in E1S and E3S form

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factors, which I'm not 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 is kind of exciting.

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Adobe's new Photoshop beta finally features AI upscaling so you can unblur old photos,

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and the new harmonize feature makes it perhaps a bit too easy to alter lighting, shadows, and color

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so you can realistically add people and objects to photos, which will be fine. Don't worry.

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Meanwhile, ChatGBT's new study mode will actually walk the user through the thinking process instead

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of just delivering an answer. And now let's maybe, hey, let's make that the default for kids

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and most adults. Peacock feathers can emit laser beams.

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I'm sorry? Yeah, peacock feathers can be lasers. If you slather them and die and energize them with

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a light source, they'll emit photons in the wavelength of lasers, according to an international

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group of researchers. So no, peacocks aren't about to become pompous strutting avian weapons

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platforms, but the headlines definitely made it sound like that. And I will hold that against them.

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And look, Microsoft made a hundred special editions of their newest Surface laptop to go

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along with the new Smurfs movie that is apparently coming out soon. It's the Smurfs laptop. Don't

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

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supposed to do. Come back here on Friday for more tech news or else I'll be googling stuff all day

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for nothing, except to learn about stuff just for me. And what's the point of that?