Welcome back to the show that keeps you informed of the latest tech news, even though The Simpsons
did all of it first 20 plus years ago. Microsoft has followed through on its threat to kill Skype
unless people stop slandering teams online, which has not happened, because teams is what
you would get if you put Slack in a blender with Norden Antivirus and an Atlantic oil spill.
Skype has had a heck of a run. It was launched by Swedish, Danish and Estonian developers in 2003
before being bought by eBay in 2005, and then bought again by a group of investors that included
the Canada Pension Plan. With Skype dead, many Canadian boomers might join it, which is okay
because we need their houses. That's a joke. Microsoft saved those boomers by acquiring Skype
in 2011, but 14 years later, the tech giant is really hoping Skype users will skedaddle over
to the free version of Teams instead, which already sucks in terms of branding alone. Like,
I'm gonna ask my pen pals to install Teams. It sounds like I'm recruiting them into my
multi-level marketing cult. But it also sucks that some of Skype's best features are being
paywalled or just going away. The Skype Twitter account confirmed that on Teams-free,
group calls are limited to 60 minutes without a subscription, and you can't call phone numbers.
Although later, the account said you can, but only until your Skype credits run out,
then you'll have to pay. Or, and here's the real kicker, you could use one of the many
alternatives. Literally every app has video calling now. Skype rip. Company towns are back, baby. On
Saturday, a group of mostly SpaceX employees voted 212 to 6 to incorporate a new city called Starbase
near the company's Starbase launch site in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. Reports indicate the
six people who voted against the measure do not work for SpaceX and are probably going to be
really bored at town hall meetings. Elon celebrated the city's incorporation, something he's been
in favor of since 2021. Starbase, Texas, will house about 500 official residents and hopefully
inspire country songs that include mentions of rockets and space alongside the traditional
guns, trucks, beer, and dogs. Many also hope the city won't be the kind of company town
that traps its employees in a life of servitude because the company's script is Dogecoin and
its value tanked after Elon tweeted something. Just like how those things happened in the olden
days. OpenAI has backtracked on its plan to transform into more of a for-profit operation,
instead opting to transition its for-profit company into a public benefit corporation
which will continue to be controlled by its non-profit ARM. And if you're unfamiliar with
OpenAI's wacky corporate structure, I'm sorry you'll have to google it. While it certainly
seems like OpenAI went this route to avoid legal issues, their blog post frames it as the responsible
thing to do. Like pushing kids to use AI. Google has emailed parents who use family link,
notifying them that kids under 13 will soon be able to use Gemini if you let them. This actually
makes sense. Adults have already gotten bored of asking AI to show them a t-rex, but kids?
Entertainment for days. Just first make sure you go through Google's Family Guide for AI
so you can explain to your kids how AI's inner workings are still a black box and we really
don't know what the fuck we're dealing with. It's dangerous! Be careful, okay? Have fun!
But hey, at least it looks like Google's trying to be responsible. Unlike Meta,
whose new Meta AI app launched last week and is raising privacy concerns since its appetite for
data is only matched by a kid's need to see t-rex pictures. The app's social feed is also
weird. I mean, in an age when people are getting fed up with feeds full of AI-generated filler,
now there's a social app that might as well be called Oops, Allslop. Now, see, the Simpsons never
did the quick bits, although steamed hams might count. Some GPU reviewers have actually gotten
their hands on the 8GB variant of the RTX 5060 Ti, including German outlet Computerbase. During
their testing, they found that the card performed 14-17% worse in terms of FPS when it was plugged
into a PCIe 4.0 slot instead of a PCIe 5.0 slot. It was such a small amount of VRAM,
the card has to fetch data from system memory more often, and PCIe 4.0 slots just don't have
big enough pipes to pipe all those numbers fast enough. Don't tell me there's no actual pipes
involved, this works for me. Microsoft has begun rolling out the 24H2 update for Windows 11,
whether you like it or not. Yeah, the update had a ton of bugs that only became obvious once they
rolled it out to the public, but they fixed those, I'm sure it'll be fine. If you still don't want
it though, a support page says this update will be rolled out automatically for devices
that are not managed by IT departments. So you'll either have to stay up all night to
stand watch over your PC, hire a personal IT manager, or open wide. Here comes the airplane,
ahhh you actually opened your mouth for a second, I saw that. Time for an extra quick bit. Look,
it's a hoverbike, it's called the Volonaut Airbike. That'd be a fun way to go out.
Sam Altman's OpenAI for-profit plans didn't work out, so he pivoted and brought his World
Company to the US, which will let Americans join the people from other countries who have already
scanned their eyes with World's Orb device, and received Worldcoin cryptocurrency alongside
cryptographic proof you are a real human. At least according to this orb, World also announced the
Orb Mini, a smartphone-sized scanner you can point at other humans to prove they're real.
And I guess accept payment eventually? It seems weird, but hey, Razer's on board,
you'll be able to use World to verify your Razer ID so you can game with real humans,
at least until you all get activated. Nintendo has sued Genki, the accessory maker that revealed a
3D mockup of the Switch 2 before it was even announced. They basically posted a full video
of the console on their website and brought a 3D printed mockup to CES and let people play around
with it. And yeah, that was probably unwise, but man, were people really aware of who Genki was
for a bit there? And Cerabyte has proven the durability of their glass-based storage device
by grilling it in an oven and boiling it in hot water, although they stopped short of mashing
it and sticking it in a stew. Even after all that abuse, the data on the drive remained
completely intact. To be honest, I'm probably not going to pick one up though until I see
them slice it with a katana and give it an open-handed slap. The shame that comes after that
can do the most damage. And I'll be emotionally damaged if you don't come back here on Wednesday
for more tech news. I'm not trying to emotionally manipulate you, I'm just stating the fact that
if you're not here on Wednesday, you won't be able to stop me from snapping rubber bands at
myself until the pain goes away. That was maybe a little dark, I'm sorry.