1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,120 This tech news would sound a little better if it had been open a few hours ago, but uh... 2 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:14,880 I think it still passes the smell test. Microsoft has finally completed their 69 billion dollar acquisition of Activision Blizzard King 3 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:21,600 after a year and a half of being grilled and harassed by the government to make sure they won't 4 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:25,600 set every Xbox to self-destruct. Uh, exhausting. 5 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:30,400 The biggest buyout in gaming history went ahead right after the UK's Competition and 6 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:36,480 Markets Authority approved an altered deal that will see Ubisoft holding the cloud gaming rights 7 00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:41,920 to current and future Activision Blizzard games outside of the European Economic Area. 8 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:48,960 And if you think that sounds confusing, yeah, basically if you purchase an Activision Blizzard 9 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:55,200 game and you live in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, or Norway, you'll have a license to 10 00:00:55,280 --> 00:01:01,840 stream that game from any cloud gaming streaming service of your choice, assuming they have the 11 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:08,320 game on that service available to stream. But if you live anywhere else, it'll be up to Ubisoft 12 00:01:08,320 --> 00:01:15,280 to grant licenses for Activision Blizzard games to cloud gaming services, meaning Microsoft will 13 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:21,600 have to license the games owned by the companies it now owns if it wants those games to be streamable 14 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:27,280 on Game Pass Ultimate outside of Europe. Okay, and you might be saying, Riley, can you shut up 15 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:31,440 about cloud gaming? No one cares about that, to which I'd say everyone said the same about 16 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:36,960 mobile games, and now those make the most money in the gaming industry. But hey, it was all worth 17 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:42,960 it for Xbox to own Call of Duty and more importantly, Crash Bandicoot. Meanwhile, the FTC says they're 18 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:48,000 still focused on stopping the deal and are preparing an argument to submit to an appeals court in 19 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:52,880 December. Bit harder to stop something from happening after it's already happened, but hey, 20 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:58,480 you know, best of luck. We have to go back in time. We have to go back, Marty. Best Buy will no 21 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:05,120 longer sell movies in their physical form starting in 2024, meaning you'll have to buy your DVDs or 22 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:11,040 4K Blu-rays from the trunk of Paulie's car just like in the good old days. The news was initially 23 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:16,480 reported by The Digital Bits and later confirmed by Best Buy, who told Variety in a statement 24 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:22,000 that the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago, 25 00:02:22,640 --> 00:02:28,960 to state the obvious. Unless I'm mistaken, I'm not looping film reels over top of my 26 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:34,320 television and using the light to try and see the pictures in there, okay? We have computers now. 27 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:38,880 Of course, while the move is bad news for preservationists, it's somewhat unsurprising. 28 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:43,360 It's been five years since Best Buy stopped selling music CDs, and according to Josh 29 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:49,360 Fairhurst, CEO of Limited Run Games, there are rumblings of Walmart's dropping sales of physical 30 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:55,120 games soon. However, while retailers are retreating from the physical world, Netflix is looking to 31 00:02:55,120 --> 00:03:02,880 enter it. CEO Ted Sarandos announced plans to open something called a Netflix house in two locations, 32 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:07,120 and I don't know what that sounds like except something I wouldn't let my daughter visit. 33 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:14,080 The houses will have merch, food, and fan experiences, but unlike Disneyland, Sarando says 34 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:19,840 you might visit a couple times a month, not just once every couple of years. You know, 35 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:26,000 like getting beers with the boys, but instead of wings, you order the Demogorgon roast? I have no 36 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:31,120 context for what this place is going to be. I just, what is it? And the CEO of Risk Five 37 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:36,480 International, which oversees the open source chip architecture, has written in opposition to the 38 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:42,480 idea that the US should block China's access to technology based on Risk Five because it's an 39 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:49,840 open source standard. And that's not how they work. Last week, a group of US lawmakers petitioned 40 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:55,920 the Biden administration to cut China off from Risk Five, an idea that, I mean, doesn't seem 41 00:03:55,920 --> 00:04:01,360 particularly concerning to the Chinese members of Risk Five International, including Alibaba Cloud, 42 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:07,520 Huawei, ZTE, and Tencent, who haven't commented one way or the other, the CEO of a leading Chinese 43 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:13,520 Risk Five chip company told the South China Morning Post that since Risk Five is, again, 44 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:20,000 an open standard, the US could only block exports from US companies to China, but they wouldn't be 45 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:25,280 able to block China from building their own products with Risk Five, which they have been doing 46 00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:29,440 already for quite a while. I don't know, maybe the US government should be worried less about 47 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:34,320 China and more about the chair of Risk Five International, who recently said he wanted 48 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:41,200 every chip in the world to be Risk Five, showing a slide titled, all your cores are belong to us. 49 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:48,720 Terrifying. Arrest this man. Quick bits aren't what you think they are. Wait, 50 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:56,080 what do you think they are? No, you're way off. Oneplus will be launching its first foldable, 51 00:04:56,080 --> 00:05:01,280 the Oneplus Open, on October 19th. It's not clear yet how much the phone will cost, 52 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:07,600 but Oneplus is offering $200 off for pre-orders and up to $1,000 in trade and credit, so it's 53 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:13,520 definitely way more than that. Despite the air of mystery, the device is essentially a rebadged 54 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:20,000 version of the Find N3 from Oppo, who have already allowed YouTuber Jagat Review to post a hands-on 55 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:25,120 with the device, where he compares it to the Galaxy Z Fold 5. The Open seems to have a wider 56 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:30,240 inside and outside display, and a far more subtle hinge crease in the screen, like somebody 57 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:36,720 airbrushed a butt crack, leaving only a single, shiny, mono cheek. What a glorious image. 58 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:43,440 A judge has thrown out a 2022 decision that found Google had infringed five of Sonos' patents, 59 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:51,440 because two out of five were filed in 2019, not 2006, as Sonos claimed. Bad billion-dollar company, 60 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:58,240 BAD. The original decision granted Sonos $32.5 million in damages, but rather than pay 61 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:04,000 licensing fees for the features, Google pushed a software update that removed the group speaker 62 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:09,040 features from devices that paying customers had already bought. Consumers are basically babies, 63 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:17,120 they lack object permanence. Google, of course, celebrated the recent decision by immediately 64 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:21,760 pushing another software update, restoring the features they had previously taken away, 65 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:26,560 presumably causing users to clap their hands and drool into light like a game of peek-a-boo. 66 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:30,400 There's the features! It's the features! It's back! 67 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:38,400 In videos, Jensen Huang has topped a recent most popular CEO survey, no doubt due to that 68 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:42,160 sexy leather jacket. Can't stay mad at him. 69 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:46,800 Based on a survey conducted by the professional social network Blind, 70 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:54,000 over 96% of the 13,000 verified NVIDIA employees there said they approved of Wong's leadership, 71 00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:00,560 numbers rarely seen outside of North Korea. Tim Apple, CEO of Cook, also came in the top five 72 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:07,120 with 83%, while the average was only 32%, with at least two CEOs landing at zero. 73 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:10,880 I don't know exactly what's going on at Western Digital and Nordstrom, 74 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:18,240 but it's not good. It involves lying, I think. Speaking of CEOs, Google's current leader Sundar 75 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:23,120 Pichai had a fairly reasonable take on the issue of the search engine being set as the default in 76 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:30,000 Safari back in 2007, according to emails revealed during the ongoing USV Google trial. Pichai, 77 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,840 who was part of the search team back then, thought that Apple's idea of offering two 78 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:39,440 separate versions of Safari, one for Google and one for Yahoo, was maybe not as good as just 79 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:44,960 adding a drop-down menu allowing users to switch search engines. It's nice to see a tech executive 80 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:48,880 thinking about the end user experience while coordinating massive payments to have their 81 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:55,040 product presented as the default. And after many Counter-Strike 2 players were inexplicably banned, 82 00:07:55,040 --> 00:08:02,000 Valve has warned anyone playing on AMD GPUs to switch off Team Red's anti-leg plus feature, 83 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:07,200 which arrived earlier this week in a driver update until Valve can fix the issue. The feature 84 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:12,800 minimizes input lag, but it does so by injecting itself into the game's code, making it look 85 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:18,720 like unauthorized tampering is occurring and leading to a vac ban. You can hardly blame players 86 00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:23,120 for trying to make the game smoother, although along with the lag issues, it's also brought 87 00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:28,800 some hidden treasures. I mean, T-Bagging's got nothing on T-Twerking. And I would certainly 88 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:33,360 be reading a segue about Twerking if Jacob was here, but he's off today. So I'll simply tell 89 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:37,520 you to please return on Monday for more tech news, please. Thank you!