1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,320 Oh, well hello there! 2 00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:09,800 Looking for some company on this fine Christmas day? Well, you're welcome to a mug of hot cocoa. 3 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:15,600 What's that? You're also looking for someone to round up the biggest tech stories of the year? 4 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:21,120 It's a Christmas miracle. Because this is the 2024 Tackling Christmas Special! 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,720 Let's begin! Let's start off with a classic story. 6 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:28,960 2024 had a pretty good run of major tech hardware launches. 7 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:33,240 NVIDIA launched the RTX 40 Super series at CES. 8 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:37,280 Did gamers hate them? Like them? Here's the fun part. 9 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:43,800 It doesn't matter, because NVIDIA's AI accelerator products drove the company to a two trillion, 10 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:48,080 then three trillion dollar valuation for the first time. 11 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:53,320 And now, NVIDIA regularly trades places with Apple and Microsoft as the most valuable company 12 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,480 in the world. I think they take turns. There's a system. 13 00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:04,040 Google is not allowed. After announcing its spatial computing headset last year, Apple launched the Vision Pro in 14 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:09,240 February for $3,500, and it was never heard from again. 15 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:12,480 I'm being hyperbolic, of course. But why shouldn't I be? 16 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:19,520 It's Christmas! Besides the usual things like iPads, iPhones, and Macs, Apple updated the Magic Mouse with 17 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,960 USB-C, but put the port on the bottom again. 18 00:01:23,960 --> 00:01:27,480 Which is f***ing insane. But okay. 19 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:32,200 And they made up for it anyway, by surprise launching an incredibly powerful yet teeny 20 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:36,600 tiny new M4 Mac mini that starts at only $600. 21 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:42,680 In contrast, Qualcomm continued to hype up the launch of their Snapdragon X Elite ARM-based 22 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:46,560 laptop chips, making bold claims about their performance. 23 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:50,720 Would this be Windows PC's Apple Silicon moment? 24 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:58,560 Well, Snapdragon X promised the world and delivered, perhaps, Luxembourg? 25 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:02,120 Haha. A small part of the world? 26 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:07,200 Like the laptops were fine, great battery life, some compatibility issues. 27 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:16,480 It didn't match the hype, though. An enthusiasm for the devices was also hindered by Microsoft's Co-Pilot Plus PC branding, 28 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:22,560 and their headline AI records everything you do feature Recall, which creeped everyone 29 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:27,880 out. As the verges Tom Warren puts it, it was a massive own goal. 30 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:34,520 To make things worse for Qualcomm, laptops with AMD's Ryzen AI 300 and Intel's Core 31 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:40,760 200v chips also had excellent battery life, with none of the compatibility issues. 32 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:46,460 Qualcomm did just secure an initial win in its court battle with ARM, so hopefully we'll 33 00:02:46,460 --> 00:02:51,140 get to see whether the Snapdragon X Elite Gen 2 is any better. 34 00:02:51,140 --> 00:02:56,820 Now, that's not to say Intel and AMD had a stellar year, either. 35 00:02:56,820 --> 00:03:02,000 Intel was plagued for most of the year by instability issues in its 13th and 14th gen 36 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:06,740 desktop CPUs, which it eventually figured out how to fix in October. 37 00:03:06,740 --> 00:03:12,540 Then, both the Ryzen 9000 series and Intel's new Aero Lake desktop chips were criticized 38 00:03:12,540 --> 00:03:16,300 for bringing very little gaming chops to the table. 39 00:03:16,300 --> 00:03:21,180 Even in Aero Lake's case, actually performing worse than its predecessor. 40 00:03:21,180 --> 00:03:26,140 Apparently, an update is coming next month that will boost performance, but even if that 41 00:03:26,140 --> 00:03:29,460 doesn't work, I can't stay mad at Intel right now. 42 00:03:29,460 --> 00:03:35,660 Because the little elves in the graphics department delivered the ARC B580, a bangin' GPU for 43 00:03:35,660 --> 00:03:41,460 250 bucks. If you somehow managed to find it at that price because it's sold out everywhere. 44 00:03:41,460 --> 00:03:45,900 And that's the best Christmas present a PC gamer could ask for. 45 00:03:45,900 --> 00:03:50,340 Next up, tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft have had a pretty great time the 46 00:03:50,340 --> 00:03:55,460 last few years, reaching record valuations, building little walled fortresses so it's 47 00:03:55,460 --> 00:04:00,060 hard for anyone to compete with them, hiring thousands of people, firing them again. 48 00:04:00,060 --> 00:04:08,580 It's like a fun game they play. But this year, governments around the world were like, ah, no, no, no, but just, oh, hold 49 00:04:08,580 --> 00:04:11,940 on. Particularly, the European Union. 50 00:04:11,940 --> 00:04:16,500 Their Digital Markets Act came into force in March, and its primary purpose seemed to 51 00:04:16,500 --> 00:04:20,900 be to fill tech companies stockings with fines. 52 00:04:20,900 --> 00:04:24,020 You were very good this year, comparatively. 53 00:04:24,020 --> 00:04:31,820 Still getting a fine, though. In January, Apple complied with the DMA, adding support for third-party payment systems, 54 00:04:31,820 --> 00:04:36,820 browser engines, and what they called app marketplaces for the first time. 55 00:04:36,820 --> 00:04:45,540 But they were not happy about it. Acquiring all apps on alternative stores to pay Apple royalties and be notarized and 56 00:04:45,540 --> 00:04:51,780 vetted by Apple anyway, with a new per-install core technology fee that for many developers 57 00:04:51,780 --> 00:04:56,380 actually made it more expensive to distribute outside the Apple app store. 58 00:04:56,380 --> 00:05:02,180 Some accused Apple of malicious compliance, and indeed, the EU charged Apple with breaching 59 00:05:02,180 --> 00:05:06,980 the DMA rules in June. How many fines is that? 60 00:05:07,060 --> 00:05:15,420 We lost count. We just love giving them out. It's taking a while, but the EU is slowly forcing Apple to open up their ecosystem. 61 00:05:15,420 --> 00:05:20,300 Apple even approved the Epic Game Store to launch on iOS after Epic complained to the 62 00:05:20,300 --> 00:05:29,340 EU because they were rejected twice. Over in the US, the Department of Justice sued Apple for monopolizing smartphone markets. 63 00:05:29,340 --> 00:05:35,940 But while Apple has weathered the regulatory attacks, Google ain't looking so high. 64 00:05:35,980 --> 00:05:40,500 After losing their court battle with Epic Games over the Play Store last December, the 65 00:05:40,500 --> 00:05:46,380 tech giant also lost to the Department of Justice in August of this year for monopolizing 66 00:05:46,380 --> 00:05:51,700 the market with Google Search, and could be forced to sell off the Chrome browser as 67 00:05:51,700 --> 00:05:57,500 a result. That giant leak of Google Search-related documents from earlier in the year, showing 68 00:05:57,500 --> 00:06:03,540 that results heavily prioritized big brands over small ones, probably didn't help. 69 00:06:03,540 --> 00:06:08,100 And then the UK and Canada sued Google too, because at this point it's like, why not? 70 00:06:08,100 --> 00:06:13,300 Everyone's doing it. And the Federal Trade Commission had a Christmas candle lit under their butts this year. 71 00:06:13,300 --> 00:06:18,780 They took all sorts of pro-consumer action, including opening an investigation into personalized 72 00:06:18,780 --> 00:06:25,260 surveillance pricing, adopting the click-to-cancel rule, and proposing a ban on the sale of sensitive 73 00:06:25,260 --> 00:06:32,020 location data. I mean, it felt like the government was actively trying to fend off a Corpo-dominated cyberpunk 74 00:06:32,020 --> 00:06:36,300 dystopia. Which wouldn't be in the Christmas spirit at all. 75 00:06:36,300 --> 00:06:40,540 Meanwhile, the AI industry was doing the opposite. 76 00:06:40,540 --> 00:06:46,340 Video generation took off this year, OpenAI unveiled the groundbreaking Sora model in 77 00:06:46,340 --> 00:06:51,660 February, and waited until December to publicly release an upgraded version. 78 00:06:51,660 --> 00:06:56,740 That was necessary, because competitors had nearly caught up with Sora's capabilities. 79 00:06:56,740 --> 00:07:02,020 Including Chinese models like Tencent's Han Yuan, which can generate a realistic dancing 80 00:07:02,020 --> 00:07:08,180 guy in a ghost costume, no problem. And that's why we need AI for that stuff. 81 00:07:08,180 --> 00:07:14,740 OpenAI also launched its faster GPT-40 model with advanced voice mode, kicking off a fun 82 00:07:14,740 --> 00:07:18,900 little debate over its auditory resemblance to Scarlett Johansson. 83 00:07:18,900 --> 00:07:25,100 2024 solidified the idea that if AI is going anywhere, it's going in search. 84 00:07:25,100 --> 00:07:30,140 Google's AI overviews launched and promptly recommended eating rocks. 85 00:07:30,140 --> 00:07:36,460 OpenAI revealed their search ambitions with SearchGBT, which is now just chat-gbt-search, 86 00:07:36,460 --> 00:07:40,020 and Reddit announced its AI-powered Answers feature. 87 00:07:40,020 --> 00:07:46,820 Because most of your Google searches end up on Reddit anyway. Hey, remember those beautifully designed AI assistant devices? 88 00:07:46,820 --> 00:07:50,420 The humane AI pin and the rabbit R1? 89 00:07:50,420 --> 00:07:54,220 They launched and crashed. 90 00:07:54,220 --> 00:07:59,580 Look can you blame them? There's a lot of money going into AI right now, and we need to sell something! 91 00:07:59,580 --> 00:08:04,620 I guess it's just phones for now, since iPhones have Apple intelligence and Google 92 00:08:04,620 --> 00:08:08,340 and Samsung are putting their own AI features in phones too. 93 00:08:08,340 --> 00:08:13,820 Yep, generative AI trained on massive data sets scraped from the entire internet is coming 94 00:08:13,820 --> 00:08:19,740 along alright. It sure would be nice to figure out where that leaves the idea of copyright. 95 00:08:19,740 --> 00:08:25,860 Because while companies like OpenAI and Perplexity are embroiled in a ton of plagiarism accusations 96 00:08:25,860 --> 00:08:30,820 and copyright lawsuits, most of them are still in progress, leaving us in this kind 97 00:08:30,820 --> 00:08:37,460 of limbo where stories come out about multiple AI companies training models on YouTube videos 98 00:08:37,460 --> 00:08:40,540 without permission and even pirated movies. 99 00:08:40,540 --> 00:08:44,460 And nothing happens. 100 00:08:44,460 --> 00:08:50,460 YouTube's like, oh, what, oh, hey, that's against TOS, don't do that. 101 00:08:50,460 --> 00:08:57,100 New studies continue to show how gen AI models can deceive people, published by the very people 102 00:08:57,100 --> 00:09:03,260 building them, and with AI generated SEO content flooding the web, there's rising concern 103 00:09:03,260 --> 00:09:10,140 that as the old internet is disappearing, it's being replaced by industrial grade slop. 104 00:09:10,140 --> 00:09:15,300 But look, AI can be used for good stuff too, like this company that works with college professors 105 00:09:15,300 --> 00:09:19,700 to generate $25 digital textbooks based on old course notes. 106 00:09:19,700 --> 00:09:24,300 So students don't have to pay through the nose for a heavy, physical version of a barely 107 00:09:24,300 --> 00:09:30,220 changed yearly edition. I guess AI can feel the holiday spirit after all. 108 00:09:30,220 --> 00:09:34,740 Alright, these quick bits might be a little jumbled up because I think someone may have 109 00:09:34,740 --> 00:09:39,380 dropped a little special eggnog in my hot cocoa. 110 00:09:39,380 --> 00:09:42,620 Which is especially concerning because I'm the only one here. 111 00:09:42,620 --> 00:09:47,060 What else happened this year? Ah, YouTube really had it out for ad block. 112 00:09:47,060 --> 00:09:52,420 Or at least, it seemed like they did, reports of slow video buffering were initially attributed 113 00:09:52,420 --> 00:09:57,140 to YouTube early in the year, but eventually found to be caused by a flawed update from 114 00:09:57,140 --> 00:10:06,740 the developers of ad block plus. No, YouTube actually began a harsh crackdown on ad blocking apps in April, despite still 115 00:10:06,740 --> 00:10:10,180 promoting them on the Chrome Web Store. 116 00:10:10,180 --> 00:10:13,180 Old habits die hard, I guess. Don't I know it! 117 00:10:13,180 --> 00:10:18,060 In June, the developer of sponsor block said YouTube was experimenting with server-side 118 00:10:18,060 --> 00:10:23,900 ad injection, which was reportedly to blame for some ad block users seeing black screens 119 00:10:23,900 --> 00:10:27,100 instead of ads on YouTube videos. 120 00:10:27,100 --> 00:10:31,980 But wait, if YouTube doesn't want to block ads, why'd they introduce the jump-ahead 121 00:10:31,980 --> 00:10:36,420 feature for YouTube Premium, which is pretty much designed to skip ads? 122 00:10:36,420 --> 00:10:39,740 Also, you see ads when you pause YouTube videos now. 123 00:10:39,740 --> 00:10:46,980 Merry Christmas. Microsoft really thinks you should be upgrading to Windows 11 before Windows 10 loses official 124 00:10:46,980 --> 00:10:52,980 support next October. So tell you what, they'll remind you with a full screen ad every time your PC boots 125 00:10:52,980 --> 00:10:55,980 up. Okay? Just trying to help. 126 00:10:55,980 --> 00:11:00,540 Yeah, despite Microsoft's efforts, Windows 11 market share is barely budging. 127 00:11:00,540 --> 00:11:05,020 No doubt that's partially because some people who would want to upgrade need to buy a new 128 00:11:05,020 --> 00:11:11,540 PC to do so thanks to Windows 11's non-negotiable TPM 2.0 requirement. 129 00:11:11,540 --> 00:11:15,580 But many others are probably just hesitant to go along with it when Microsoft's releasing 130 00:11:15,580 --> 00:11:21,740 things like Recall, which was pulled from release, fixed, and is now slowly rolling 131 00:11:21,740 --> 00:11:30,660 out again, despite still not working properly. Speaking of not working properly, the list of issues with the Windows 11 24H2 update 132 00:11:30,820 --> 00:11:36,500 is longer than Santa's at this point, and the OS comes along with lovely baked-in ads 133 00:11:36,500 --> 00:11:39,500 you have to go turn off. What's the matter, guys? 134 00:11:39,500 --> 00:11:43,220 Why don't you want to upgrade? Are you okay? 135 00:11:43,220 --> 00:11:46,260 Enter a bright hope on the horizon. 136 00:11:46,260 --> 00:11:52,860 SteamOS. No, you can't get the modern version on desktop yet, but Valve has confirmed they're adding 137 00:11:52,860 --> 00:11:56,820 support to SteamOS for third-party gaming handhelds. 138 00:11:56,820 --> 00:12:03,500 They drop new branding guidelines with powered-by-SteamOS labels and signs point to Lenovo announcing 139 00:12:03,500 --> 00:12:08,180 a SteamOS-powered handheld of their own at CES in a couple weeks. 140 00:12:08,180 --> 00:12:11,740 So why not put it on my gaming PC, too? Valve? 141 00:12:11,740 --> 00:12:15,500 Hello? They never answer, even though it's Christmas. 142 00:12:15,500 --> 00:12:22,700 2024 also saw the launch of the PlayStation 5 Pro with Sony's own PSSR upscaling tech 143 00:12:23,020 --> 00:12:28,460 and a $700 price tag. Not that it hurts sales much, apparently it's doing alright. 144 00:12:28,460 --> 00:12:33,500 We didn't get an upgraded Xbox Series X, which is fine by me because I don't even want to 145 00:12:33,500 --> 00:12:38,580 know what they'd add on to that name. Xbox Series XS. 146 00:12:38,580 --> 00:12:47,180 Actually, I'd go for that. Xbox Chief Phil Spencer said they might make an Xbox handheld, but that'd be years out. 147 00:12:47,180 --> 00:12:52,660 The same can't be said for the Nintendo Switch 2, which has sprung so many leaks in recent 148 00:12:52,660 --> 00:13:00,940 weeks, I think she's about to blow. Nintendo's bound to reveal the Switch 2 soon, they were going to do it this year, but decided 149 00:13:00,940 --> 00:13:06,860 to hurl lawyers at the developers of the Yuzu and Ryu Jinx Switch emulators instead, forcing 150 00:13:06,860 --> 00:13:10,820 them both to shut down. Don't worry about the lawyers, they're fine. 151 00:13:10,820 --> 00:13:14,140 And to top things off, here are some other things that happened. 152 00:13:14,140 --> 00:13:19,620 Australia passed a social media ban for kids under 16, it's still unclear how that'll 153 00:13:19,620 --> 00:13:23,660 be enforced, or where kids will get their skibbity riz. 154 00:13:23,660 --> 00:13:29,620 Speaking of which, a law was passed to ban TikTok from the US unless parent company ByteDance 155 00:13:29,620 --> 00:13:35,500 sells the app to someone else. But they've got a hearing with the Supreme Court on January 10th, which I'm sure will 156 00:13:35,500 --> 00:13:43,540 fix everything. In October, SpaceX caught the Starship booster in midair with the giant robot arms of its 157 00:13:43,540 --> 00:13:47,020 launch tower, remember that? That one's just cool. 158 00:13:47,020 --> 00:13:53,180 Back in June, SoftBank demoed another heartwarming use case for AI, a filter that makes angry 159 00:13:53,180 --> 00:14:00,380 customers sound calm on the phone. I'm sure it'll be very appreciated by any customer service agents that haven't been 160 00:14:00,380 --> 00:14:07,740 replaced by AI. Yeah, well guess what, scientists are building processors with literal brain cells inside. 161 00:14:07,740 --> 00:14:13,380 So I guess the old biological organisms get to take the machine's job this time. 162 00:14:13,380 --> 00:14:17,340 As a Christmas present. And there's my present to you. 163 00:14:17,340 --> 00:14:20,460 I'm not gonna lie, I think I missed a few things. 164 00:14:20,460 --> 00:14:25,060 But I have to go to sleep now, or St. Nicholas is gonna skip right over my house. 165 00:14:25,060 --> 00:14:33,420 So farewell 2024, and cheers to another year full of tech news, because it just keeps coming. 166 00:14:33,420 --> 00:14:34,340 It doesn't stop.