Some people are way too obsessed with only one thing.
It's like, hello, Derek. Have you heard about stuff that isn't vintage pinball machines?
We could be talking about the only thing actually ever worth talking about, which is tech news.
Google search was ruled a monopoly in 2023 and the judge behind that ruling
just issued another one to say that's mostly okay.
Actually, monopolies, often unfairly maligned.
In his ruling on remedies for the case, US District Judge Amit Mehta said,
Google will not have to sell off Chrome or Android
like the US Department of Justice wanted. After much deliberation,
the judge concluded a Google breakup would be incredibly messy,
which is exactly why I tell all my friends in toxic relationships to stay together.
Who wants the hassle? Google will also be able to continue paying Apple
around $20 billion a year through a revenue sharing agreement
for Google searches made through Safari. And Google can also continue making those payments
to Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, who relies on those payments
for about 85% of its revenue. You ask yourself if Firefox is worth
letting Google keep passing go and collecting $200.
But Google isn't getting off scot-free. It can continue to pay companies
to preload their services and products, but those contracts cannot be exclusive.
Other companies are allowed to do the same. Google will also have to share some of its search index
and user interaction data with their competitors
and offer search and search ad syndication to their competitors at standard rates.
Google has released a statement which immediately praises the fact
that the judge recognized how the advent of AI
has changed the industry, and Google just loves that.
They don't love having to share data with rivals and they'll keep fighting on that,
but OMG AI mentioned! While one giant monopoly is being legally forced to share,
another has grown sick of your sharing and are wondering if you could please stop.
Amazon is eliminating a program that allowed Prime members to share
their free two-day shipping with one person,
even if they didn't share the same address. Now Amazon is politely telling those non-Prime members
to back off and get their own dam account with an updated customer service page
saying the Prime Invitee program will end October 1st.
This announcement comes after Reuters reports that despite a big Prime Day push,
Prime membership signups in the US did not meet last year's total or the company's target,
which is to amass enough wealth to buy the moon. Now instead of letting you share your Prime benefits
with just anyone, Amazon will let you share your Prime benefits with up to one other adult, four children,
and four teens who all live at the same residential address.
Or as Amazon puts it, the address you consider to be your home
and where you spend the majority of your time. So for me, this set, it's what they project me onto.
It's, I'm not real.
Speaking of dynamic visuals, Dolby has announced
Dolby Vision 2. HDR formats don't usually get sequels,
but I can give this a chance as long as it doesn't completely clown on the legacy of the legacy characters and then kill them.
What are we, sorry, what were we talking about? Right, HDR, Dolby Vision 2 introduces content intelligence,
an AI enhanced feature, naturally, that will allow your TV to automatically optimize
its display settings to provide you with the best image.
Trust the robot. Most of these features seem benign enough,
but then there's authentic motion, which is a motion control tool
to make scenes feel more authentically cinematic without unwanted judder on a shot-by-shot basis,
which sounds a lot like another version of motion smoothing,
a feature that makes based 24 FPS films suffer
from the soap opera effect. So named because it makes the frames look like
they're slipping and sliding on a soapy TV, I think.
Dolby also announced Dolby Vision 2 Max,
which is meant to add additional premium features, but we haven't been clued into what those features are yet.
They're probably awesome though. High Sense will ship the first Dolby Vision 2 compatible TVs
and French media company Canal Plus say they will distribute films, TV series, and live sports
that have been mastered to the new standard. It's gonna be super interesting to see
how that French media looks in this new visual standard.
I love watching French media here or in France.
What are you saying? You think I talk about the tech news too much? Okay, we can talk about something else
after a few more quick bits. A new PlayStation 5 digital edition hardware revision
is reportedly set to launch in Europe soon that makes the console worse
because the story of human progress is a deceit perpetuated by charlatans.
The new model that was discovered back in June 2025
via certification documents filed in Japan is set to launch on September 13th in Europe
for the same price as the current digital edition. However, this new model will include an SSD
with a smaller 825 Gigabyte capacity
instead of one terabyte. Now this is an especially big downgrade for a console
that doesn't even use disks. The new version of the console is supposedly being released
to optimize production costs and avoid increasing the price again.
But somehow this doesn't feel that different. At a press conference yesterday,
US President Donald Trump said that a video circulating online of someone pushing a large black bag
out of a second story window at the White House was probably AI generated.
Earlier, the White House seemed to contradict the president by informing reporters that the video featured a contractor
who was doing regular maintenance. Speaking more about AI,
Trump said if something happens really bad,
just blame AI. And it's a little bit scary to be honest with you.
Yes it is Donald. On Monday, Tesla published part four of their master plan
and it didn't go over well. The Verge called the plan AI slop.
Tech Crunch said it was LLM generated nonsense. Mars Technica wrote that the plan doesn't have any specifics
and Engadget called it a discursive mess. Those quotes are great ammunition
for today's high school English teacher with a bone to pick with AI.
Despite Tesla's master plan not going over well with the tech press, I am happy to know they plan
to deliver unconstrained sustainability without compromise.
Yes. Back in July, the Lego company announced the Lego Game Boy.
Well, Sega fanboys, it's your turn.
The French online Lego store has a listing
for a 260 piece Sega Genesis controller.
On top of that, when you turn that bad boy around, there's a Sonic the Hedgehog diorama in there.
Now for now, the only way to get the set is as a gift with a bigger purchase,
which seems crazy to me, but it probably seems fine to the people
who usually empty their wallets for nostalgia bait like this. And you have to buy all three movies on Blu-ray.
Sure, whatever, give me. And if you ever find yourself getting nostalgic
for tech news, don't worry, we'll be back on Friday.
For now, I need to go listen to my friend tell me about pinball, what the heck are banana flippers?
That doesn't, that sounds crazy.