1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,120 Google is preparing to launch a high-end laptop project called Chromebook X. 2 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:08,720 It's like Malcolm X, except for the everything about it except the X. 3 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:15,120 I'm Riley, this is TechLinked, and this branding is similar to some Microsoft products, 4 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:21,360 like the Xbox Series X and the Surface Pro X tablet, X being arguably the coolest letter 5 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:26,720 in the alphabet. Z is up there. W? No. At least they didn't go with Ultra, not a letter. 6 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:31,920 Now, however, the Chromebook X program will allow Chrome OS devices from third-party manufacturers 7 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:36,880 that meet elevated hardware requirements to receive additional features and special branding 8 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:42,320 marking them as a Chromebook X. Although I'm not sure how many laptop companies will be eager to 9 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:47,200 brand their products as a perfectly acceptable laptop for children and seniors, but better. 10 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:51,920 The X stands for extra adequate. Extra just okay. 11 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:58,320 Also somewhat confusing is Google's apparent plans to equip these Chromebook X's with AMD 12 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:05,280 Zen 2 Plus or Zen 3 chips, as well as Intel 12th Gen Bria and Nyssa N-Series CPUs, 13 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:09,760 which are on the mid to low end of the power spectrum. Not exactly chips you'd expect in 14 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:14,320 a laptop with such a cool letter in its name. But Google is more about software, 15 00:01:14,320 --> 00:01:19,120 so the Chromebook X's special features include, apparently, live caption for calls, 16 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:25,840 a portrait blur option, and voice isolation tech. Mind, these are less special features than they are 17 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:30,160 regular features that a standard Chromebook can't run without f**king straight through the bed. 18 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:40,800 Twitch is replacing its mature content toggle that allows users to enable and disable adult 19 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:45,760 material with a more informative system of content classification labels. Now, instead of 20 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:51,200 simply marking the stream as mature, streamers can specify the exact kind of depravity they 21 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:56,320 intend to broadcast, be it mature rated video games, intoxication, violence, sexual themes, 22 00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:04,960 profanity, gambling, conversation, going outside. Question, if you manage to hit every single 23 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:09,520 content warning in one stream, do you get a prize like in Bingo? Streamers that fail to correctly 24 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:14,640 label their streams will not be banned, but will receive an email warning. After multiple warnings, 25 00:02:14,640 --> 00:02:19,760 their channel may be locked for a period of days or weeks. If you get a bingo in front of an audience 26 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:25,360 of under-supervised 12-year-olds, the punishment is an extended opportunity to touch grass. Ah, 27 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:29,920 there it is. The change is an interesting quality of life measure, coming at a time when Twitch 28 00:02:29,920 --> 00:02:35,520 is losing several of its top streamers. The most viewed streamer, XQC, signed a $100 million 29 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:42,320 non-exclusive deal with Quick. With Kick last week, and now, Hot Tub Queen Amaranth, who Kick 30 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:46,640 paid an undisclosed amount to apparently begin streaming herself and her friends showering. 31 00:02:46,640 --> 00:02:51,280 Twitch actually lost another prominent streamer this week, not to Kick, but to Burnout. 32 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:56,960 Former pro Fortnite player Turner Tiefew Tenney has retired at the age of 25 after eight years 33 00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:02,000 as a Twitch partner, citing the stress of daily, hours-long live streams. Many creators have 34 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:06,880 criticized Twitch's high requirements to maintain status, contributing to a culture of burnout 35 00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:13,120 and overwork. XQC, the poster boy for just insane streaming schedules, celebrated his 36 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:18,800 two-year deal with Kick by flirting with a band, immediately violating the DMCA policy by streaming 37 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:33,920 The Dark Knight. And while most of the subreddits protesting Reddit's new API pricing have reopened, 38 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:38,400 many are still registering their disapproval by labeling themselves as not safe for work, 39 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:44,240 which adds an age gate on desktop, requires app login to view on mobile, and prevents ads from 40 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:48,560 being run on the subreddit. This follows an earlier wave of subreddits that transitioned into 41 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:54,240 non-stop thirst traps featuring comedian John Oliver. Thankfully, fully pornographic John 42 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:58,320 Oliver content has yet to emerge, but it's only a matter of time. Fortunately. 43 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:11,360 The only thing more obstinate and self-important than a moderator is an admin. On Tuesday, shortly 44 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:18,080 after the users of rslash mildly interesting voted to set it to NSFW, the entire mod team was removed 45 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:22,880 and locked out of their accounts, apparently by a Reddit-employed admin. Then, following 46 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:29,920 report of the purge from The Verge, they were just as suddenly reinstated. Reddit refused to comment 47 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:35,200 on whether it was behind either the removal or the reinstatement, which I for one think is more 48 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:42,160 than mildly interesting. Post that in rslash. Several other subreddits, including rslash 49 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:48,640 interesting as f**k, rslash thanks I hate it, and rslash f**k like pro tips, all of which have 50 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:53,520 over a million subscribers, are currently unmoderated, having been hit by similar purges, 51 00:04:53,520 --> 00:05:02,240 making their advice even worse. While Reddit hasn't confirmed that they are behind the removals, 52 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:06,240 they did threaten to remove mods that failed to comply last week. It's a bit like when your 53 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:11,280 business partner takes a long, unexpected vacation to the Bahamas. Shortly after you told the entire 54 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:16,560 Christmas party, you wanted him dead. Yet another protest strategy was employed by at least two 55 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:23,520 subreddits, rslash march against nazis and rslash political humor, which made all members moderators. 56 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:30,000 In response to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman calling moderators landed gentry, who ignore the desires 57 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:35,840 of rank and file users. Oh, I don't like aristocracy, Mr. Huffman. How about anarchy? I mean, 58 00:05:35,840 --> 00:05:42,160 you're trying it right now. Let's use speds first among equals. A little bit of tech news in your 59 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:47,440 life. A little bit of this guy by your side. That's right. Quick bits were inspired by Lou 60 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:54,560 Bega, which is why there's mambo number five of them. Please laugh. The FTC sued Amazon on 61 00:05:54,560 --> 00:06:00,400 Wednesday for making it trivial to subscribe to their prime service, but a labyrinthine process 62 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:06,720 to cancel, presumably by forcing you to fight a minotaur if you don't want to pay $140 every year. 63 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:15,040 The commission's lawsuit alleges Amazon knowingly tricked millions of Americans into signing up for 64 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:19,760 their prime subscription using dark patterns, a term that describes manipulative, coercive, 65 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:25,120 or deceptive user interface designs, and not the sequence of increasingly problematic behavior of 66 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:30,560 flash star Ezra Miller. And they still released that movie, which is the real crime. If Twitter 67 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:38,000 clips are any indication. EA has decided to split EA Games and EA Sports into two distinct units, 68 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:43,920 so now you have two corporate entities to hate instead of one. Also, EA Games is being rebranded 69 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:49,920 as EA Entertainment, suggesting they intend to expand beyond games. Interpretive dance? Another 70 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:55,360 flash movie? Meanwhile, EA Sports is expanding into the courtroom because they've been sued 71 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:59,840 over their upcoming college football game. Is that the title? College Football Game? 72 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:09,280 EA Sports, CFG. The plaintiff is the Brander Group, no E, which has deals to negotiate licensing 73 00:07:09,280 --> 00:07:14,800 contracts for several NCAA schools and therefore has an issue with EA Sports offering individual 74 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:21,920 athletes a flat $500 fee and no royalties for their name, image, and likeness. In perpetuity? 75 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:28,480 That's ridiculous. Wow. EA, you're not allowed to take advantage of college athletes. That's 76 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:34,000 the Brander Group's job. DP Review, an invaluable digital photography resource, was supposed to 77 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:39,440 close in April as part of Amazon's careless cuts and mass layoffs earlier this year, but oddly, 78 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:44,480 the site continued publishing, even after the deadline where the site was set to go read-only. 79 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:49,680 It kept going and going, well past its supposed due date, just like the yogurt in the breakroom 80 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:56,320 fridge. Apparently, this is because Amazon was instead approached by Gear Patrol, an independent 81 00:07:56,320 --> 00:08:02,080 tech review site which has officially acquired DP Review as of yesterday. DP Review's editor-in-chief 82 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:06,640 released a statement saying that the site will continue to operate as it was before, with all 83 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:12,320 editorial coverage and site features remaining the same and all historical content accessible. 84 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:20,240 Former site editor Gannon... Gannon? Gannon! Former site editor Gannon Bergett is quoted as saying, 85 00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:24,480 you figure this sort of stuff out before shutting down an entire division of your company, 86 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:32,320 not in hindsight after weeks of backlash, and also, quote, f**k Amazon, and also, quote, f**k Link, 87 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:39,040 stop stopping my plans. Let me kidnap the princess! I'm shedding real tears for this kingdom. 88 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:44,160 Marvel Studios is facing controversy for using AI to create the opening credit scene for their 89 00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:49,680 secret invasion miniseries, upsetting artists, people with taste, and possibly epileptics. 90 00:08:50,160 --> 00:08:55,600 I really need to smooth those out. Director and executive producer Ali Saleem told Polygon he 91 00:08:55,600 --> 00:09:00,080 doesn't really understand how AI works, and apparently also didn't understand that the 92 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:06,160 Writers Guild of America is currently on strike to protect writers against AI, so maybe throwing AI 93 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:10,160 into one of the most hotly anticipated projects in a massively popular cinematic universe was a bad 94 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:16,000 idea? Who can say? Fortunately, the premiere episode has a lengthy cold open, so geeky artists got 95 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:21,120 to enjoy a solid eight minutes of the show before feeling angry and betrayed. That's like a minute 96 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:27,280 more than I got to spend in heaven with Stacy Carlisle when I was in sixth grade. Jacob wrote 97 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:40,400 that. I wish that was true. And Eve Online has added a new feature in the form of a free add-on 98 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:46,880 of Microsoft Excel. Sounds weird, but it's right up their alley. After years of being called a 99 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:52,080 glorified spreadsheet simulator, both by fans and detractors, Eve Online will be officially 100 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:58,480 integrating Excel into its alleged Space Adventure game. Now players will be able to 101 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:04,800 create custom reports, graphs, and charts to better calculate their fleet DPS and manage 102 00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:09,920 their in-universe corporate expense accounts without having to tab out of the game like they 103 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:14,560 usually would. So immersion breaking. Eve Online fans were ecstatic when the partnership was 104 00:10:14,560 --> 00:10:19,360 announced, and I think the rest of us can just be happy for them. And we'll be happy too when 105 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:24,080 you come back on Friday for another episode of Techlinked. I mean not like ecstatic, you're not 106 00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:28,720 exactly like an integrated spreadsheet, but you know there's no offense, but definitely pleased.