Not a lot of people know this, but the tech news is actually mined
directly from our writer's subconsciouses using an elaborate inception style setup.
We had to go like three levels deep to get today's news.
We lost some good men down there. Microsoft's Xbox mode, the full-screen gaming interface
it originally built for Windows and held as the full-screen experience started rolling out
to all Windows 11 PCs yesterday. The timing is a little awkward.
Microsoft killed its, this is an Xbox campaign in March.
You know, the one insisting your phone and Fire TV stick were already Xboxes
because it didn't feel like Xbox. Six weeks later, here's a feature
that makes your laptop feel exactly like an Xbox.
Xbox mode replaces your traditional desktop with a console-style home screen,
aggregating your library from multiple stores into one window.
Once it shows up on your PC, you can flip it on under settings, gaming, Xbox mode,
or hit the Windows key plus F11 to drop straight in.
Rollout is gradual and limited to select markets,
expanding over the coming weeks. So if you don't see it yet, your Windows 11 PC is just being shy.
It's okay, little guy. You can be an Xbox too.
It's loud now. Meta is threatening to shut down Facebook, Instagram,
and WhatsApp in New Mexico if state prosecutors get their way
in implementing a list of child safety changes
because they hate children. The threat comes after New Mexico won
a $375 million dollar lawsuit in March
with a jury finding Meta liable for exposing children to sexual predators on its platforms.
I caramba. During the trial, taped depositions showed Facebook CEO
and man 99% of the way through a fish-to-human transformation,
Mark Zuckerberg calling harm to kids on his platforms
and inevitability. Now in a court filing, Meta is arguing that the attorney general's proposed reforms,
which includes CSAM detection, age verification, and a restriction on end-to-end encryption for minors
are technologically impractical. According to Meta, the shutdown threat only kicks in
if the judge sides with the state at the bench trial that begins May 4th, Star Wars Day.
New Mexico attorney general Raul Torres is unmoved
calling the threat a PR stunt, truly known in the universe executes PR stunts
as cringe as Zuckerberg. Speaking of young people and AI,
minors in the US might not be able to use chatbots
the same way in the future if a bipartisan bill goes through the legislation
dubbed the Guard Act, would require AI companies to verify the ages of their users
in order to bar minors from interacting with AI companions.
It would also force chatbots to disclose to all users
that they are not human. They're not, okay?
The bill follows a number of lawsuits against open AI,
Google, Microsoft, and Anthropic over LLMs being involved in several instances
of teen violence and self-harm. The bill cleared committee with a unanimous 22-nothing vote
and now heads to the Senate floor where it could face pushback from politicians
who are subject to lobbying by big tech, DeMoney, Texas Senator and retired member
of the Nazgul Ted Cruz has already introduced
his own watered down version of the bill in order to protect those innocent AI companies
against the dark specter of child safety. One thing they won't need protection from,
gross, is our sponsor. The quick bits are a byproduct of the dream mining process.
If we don't collect them and read them on air, they undergo catastrophic decompression
in the dreamer's mind. It's like the Benz, but imaginary, it's messy.
Chinese GPU maker Lijuan Tech earned Microsoft's
Windows Hardware Quality Labs driver certification for its upcoming LX7G100,
a 4060 class gaming card launching in China this month.
It's the first Chinese firm and only the fourth GPU maker
to ever clear WHQL after NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
The certification is basically a passport into the Windows ecosystem,
meaning if these cards ever leave China, Western gamers might finally have someone new to root for
at the budget end of the GPU aisle.
Ubuntu's website and login servers have been knocked offline since Thursday
by a sustained DDoS attack from Iran-aligned HackedVis Group 313 team
who paired the assault with an extortion demand. The group has previously hit Blue Sky and Truth Social,
fair enough, but Ubuntu's parent company, Canonical,
is their first major open source target. Bold strategy extorting a company
whose main product is free to download, but I see you.
Chinese researchers at the Hefe Institute of Physical Science
have tested the world's first 10 megawatt truck-mounted nuclear reactor, that's a brand new sentence,
capable of running for decades on a single fuel load.
The team is calling it a nuclear power bank and is now shopping it to potential customers
with potential users including remote islands, ships that could go to remote islands, data centers,
which could be located on remote islands, and space stations, no connection to the previous.
They've basically made a USB-C charger the size of a shipping container
that could also irradiate a small town. Disgraced ex-hardward scientist, Charles Lieber,
who is one of the world's leading brain-computer interface researchers,
is rebuilding his lab in China. In 2021, Lieber was convicted of lying to the feds
about accepting $50,000 a month from a Chinese state talent recruitment program.
His work is focused on restoring movement in paralyzed people, something the US hates.
Just joking, but this has the Pentagon concerned
as the People's Liberation Army wants to use the tech to create super soldiers with better mental agility
and situational awareness. So good luck to Dr. Lieber and his new career
and fingers crossed no one kidnaps his dog, forcing him to complete his current character arc
of becoming a Cold War era state-backed evil super scientist.
And Huawei unveiled a new version of its X-Pixel headlight tech
at the Beijing Auto Show, capable of projecting full-color movies
onto walls in front of a parked car, debuting on the 80M9 with more EVs to follow.
The system can project interactive games for kids on the pavement like hopscotch.
Finally, a car designed to let your kids play directly in front of it while it's running.
This is what we've been missing. The kids are too soft.
Bobby, go jump in front of that car. It's meant for it.
And you should jump back in front of the tech news on Monday.
That's our show. That's everything we pulled out of the writers' heads today. All the tech news, at least.
There was an ungodly amount of Stomp and Tom Conner's lyrics in there, though.
But those are for the weekend.