1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,160 Hey everyone, I wake up and wonder, is life really worth living? 2 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:08,320 Then I remember, tech news, then I go back to sleep half the time. 3 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:12,640 On Wednesday, we reported on the Department of Justice asking a federal judge to force 4 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:17,920 Google to sell off Chrome as part of the DOJ's recommended remedies in its antitrust case 5 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:22,880 against Google, whose dominance in internet search was ruled an illegal monopoly back 6 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:27,520 in August. But the Chrome thing, that's just the tip of the iceberg. 7 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:32,920 The DOJ's filing also proposes restricting Android from favoring Google search and banning 8 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:37,080 deals to make Google the default option on various platforms. 9 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:43,040 Those deals amount to $26 billion a year paid out to companies like Apple, but also Mozilla, 10 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:51,960 meaning the move could hurt Firefox more than it hurts Google. But you know what they say, a rising iceberg eventually comes down and, oh, batten down 11 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:57,680 the hatches. In addition, the DOJ wants to force Google to uninvest the $2 billion put into AI company 12 00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:02,960 Anthropic and provide its search index data to competitors for 10 years. 13 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:09,880 Now some are arguing that the DOJ is dreaming. For one, the case's judge, Amit Mehta, might not even accept this proposal. 14 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:14,240 For two, it might seriously disrupt things like the existing market for Chromium-based 15 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:19,740 browsers, which admittedly is kind of the whole idea, no, after taking a couple days 16 00:01:19,740 --> 00:01:25,020 to process their shock, Google finally published a response yesterday, calling the DOJ's proposal 17 00:01:25,020 --> 00:01:30,860 staggering, wildly overbroad, and part of a radical interventionist agenda that would 18 00:01:30,860 --> 00:01:35,740 harm Americans and break a range of Google products. I mean, Google can do that. 19 00:01:35,740 --> 00:01:40,140 In an example of how excruciating horrible this would be, Google said the proposal, quote, 20 00:01:40,140 --> 00:01:45,660 would literally require us to install not one, but two separate choice screens before 21 00:01:45,660 --> 00:01:48,660 you could access Google search on a Pixel phone you bought. 22 00:01:48,660 --> 00:01:52,860 And the design of those choice screens would have to be approved by the technical committee. 23 00:01:52,860 --> 00:01:55,860 And that's just a small part of it. We wish we were making this up. 24 00:01:55,860 --> 00:02:00,140 Honestly, us too. I think that would strangely help this make more sense. 25 00:02:00,140 --> 00:02:03,700 Not choice screens, which you already have elsewhere. 26 00:02:03,700 --> 00:02:08,900 Microsoft is pushing full-screen ads on Windows 10 that warn users that in less than a year 27 00:02:08,900 --> 00:02:13,220 official support for what was originally called the last version of Windows is ending. 28 00:02:13,220 --> 00:02:17,980 Hey, wait a second. Yeah, you could pay $30 for another year of support. 29 00:02:17,980 --> 00:02:24,300 But here's an idea. Instead, you should probably start shopping for a new Windows 11 co-pilot plus PC. 30 00:02:24,300 --> 00:02:29,380 They're really cool. We got AI. Of course, this isn't the first time that Windows has pulled this stunt on multiple 31 00:02:29,380 --> 00:02:33,780 versions of Windows. But if you're mad, just consider Microsoft's argument here. 32 00:02:33,780 --> 00:02:37,940 Don't you want to try the new and improved apparently more secure recall feature, which 33 00:02:37,940 --> 00:02:42,500 was just made available for co-pilot plus PCs and a new Windows insider build? 34 00:02:42,500 --> 00:02:47,460 The data it collects is encrypted now and protected by Windows Hello, which they just forgot to 35 00:02:47,460 --> 00:02:54,340 do the first time. You could also be missing out on the Just Announce Click To Do, an AI feature supposedly 36 00:02:54,340 --> 00:03:02,700 similar to Google's Circle To Search. But incredibly, looks and sounds exactly like a right-click menu, which you normally click 37 00:03:02,700 --> 00:03:06,740 to write is wrong, up is down, baby, it's AI. 38 00:03:06,740 --> 00:03:11,780 Despite recent reports, it seems like the AI bubble won't be bursting quite yet. 39 00:03:11,780 --> 00:03:16,620 Amazon just announced they're supplementing their existing $4 billion investment in Anthropic 40 00:03:16,820 --> 00:03:22,140 with another $4 billion, bringing the total to what I can only assume is an impressive 41 00:03:22,140 --> 00:03:26,940 amount as I've outsourced those of my critical thinking to Claude 3.5 Sonnet. 42 00:03:26,940 --> 00:03:31,100 Then there's OpenAI, who is reportedly developing a web browser to capitalize on all the potential 43 00:03:31,100 --> 00:03:35,700 Chrome-related chaos, which repaired nicely with the chat GPT search feature they launched 44 00:03:35,700 --> 00:03:41,420 this year. I can only hope that OpenAI staff working on the browser aren't the same ones who accidentally 45 00:03:41,420 --> 00:03:47,100 erased critical evidence that the New York Times legal team had spent 150 hours gathering 46 00:03:47,100 --> 00:03:50,860 as part of discovery in their copyright case against the AI giant. 47 00:03:50,860 --> 00:03:56,300 Yep, seems like the AI hype is holding, and shifting solidly towards agents who can use 48 00:03:56,300 --> 00:04:00,100 your computer for you and learn everything about you in a two-hour interview and then 49 00:04:00,100 --> 00:04:06,860 respond 85% as accurately as you on personality-based surveys, as demonstrated in a new paper by 50 00:04:06,860 --> 00:04:09,100 Stanford and Google DeepMind researchers. 51 00:04:10,100 --> 00:04:17,060 NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wong has an even more optimistic view of the future, predicting 52 00:04:17,060 --> 00:04:22,020 in an earnings call that, just like we generate electricity, we're now going to be generating 53 00:04:22,020 --> 00:04:27,620 AI in AI factories that will be pumped through a series of tubes to provide a steady supply 54 00:04:27,620 --> 00:04:32,420 to the nearby town where the Tesla bots live. And they have leather jackets like me! 55 00:04:32,420 --> 00:04:36,180 Now the quick bits. There's a worth staying awake for. They're special. 56 00:04:36,180 --> 00:04:40,380 There's something about them. It is the season to be transparent with your customers. 57 00:04:40,380 --> 00:04:45,700 Valve have released a new policy, you're hoping I would say game, regarding the sale of season 58 00:04:45,700 --> 00:04:52,220 passes on Steam. The changes will mean that publishers must clearly communicate the contents of the DLC 59 00:04:52,220 --> 00:04:57,820 and when it will be ready for launch. For example, developers would have to say new weapons, or two new weapons, which is 60 00:04:57,820 --> 00:05:01,620 the same granularity I tell my doctor about how much I smoke. 61 00:05:01,620 --> 00:05:17,700 Pizza or two pizzas? Mistakes do happen. So developers can delay the release of a season's pass just once, by up to three months, but 62 00:05:17,700 --> 00:05:20,900 any longer and Valve will give developers the suck. 63 00:05:20,900 --> 00:05:26,620 And by that, I mean they'll suck the money from the devs back into your pockets. 64 00:05:26,620 --> 00:05:33,180 And by that, I mean enforce refunds. We love to see a pro-consumer move, but it is funny seeing this policy come from a company 65 00:05:33,300 --> 00:05:39,100 that has never hit a deadline in their life. Two, four, five, no threes. 66 00:05:39,100 --> 00:05:43,780 Microsoft has announced Edge Game Assist, a Windows 11 feature in preview that adds 67 00:05:43,780 --> 00:05:50,580 an in-game browser to the GameBar overlay. Assisting gamers with their gaming and presumably edging. 68 00:05:50,580 --> 00:05:54,580 Edge Game Assist helps GameBar catch up to a feature first launched for the Steam overlay 69 00:05:54,580 --> 00:06:00,300 back in 2011, but I guess this makes GameBar more of an alternative for non-Steam games 70 00:06:00,300 --> 00:06:04,220 that you don't want to just add to Steam so you can use the Steam overlay. 71 00:06:04,220 --> 00:06:09,380 But also, Steam Overlays' browser doesn't have a Game Aware new tab page that will detect 72 00:06:09,380 --> 00:06:13,100 what game you're playing and automatically start a search to find out why you're so 73 00:06:13,100 --> 00:06:16,340 bad at it. Or automatically open up certain websites. 74 00:06:16,340 --> 00:06:20,860 Edging, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is now regulating big tech, not just 75 00:06:20,860 --> 00:06:26,660 big banks. The Bureau will be focusing on companies that handle over 50 million transactions per year 76 00:06:26,660 --> 00:06:30,580 and will have the same level of authority to supervise and regulate these payment systems 77 00:06:30,580 --> 00:06:36,380 as they do regular banks. The Bureau says that this rule will help to protect and super privacy, guard against 78 00:06:36,380 --> 00:06:42,980 fraud and prevent illegal account closures. This isn't to say that the CFPB could enforce these companies. 79 00:06:42,980 --> 00:06:47,340 Just last year, they fined Apple and Goldman Sachs $89 million for failing to take action 80 00:06:47,340 --> 00:06:53,020 on customer disputes, a whopping 0.002% of the value of those companies. 81 00:06:53,020 --> 00:06:56,100 But now they can slap risk sooner. Things work. 82 00:06:56,100 --> 00:07:00,380 Too bad for you, they can't regulate me into coming up with a good joke for this story. 83 00:07:00,380 --> 00:07:04,500 Wow, that's not... All yelp, they're excited for a new Pixel Tablet. 84 00:07:04,500 --> 00:07:14,020 Can I get a hell yeah? Well, that is exactly why Google has cancelled their upcoming Pixel Tablet 2, at least according 85 00:07:14,020 --> 00:07:18,180 to a source that leaked to Android Authority, who cited profitability concerns. 86 00:07:18,180 --> 00:07:23,780 The news emerged after reports that the search giant canned the Pixel Tablet 3, but those 87 00:07:23,780 --> 00:07:30,340 reports are apparently unsubstantiated. With Google's will they won't they history with tablets, it remains unclear if this is 88 00:07:30,340 --> 00:07:35,180 the end of the line for their large format handheld ambitions, or just who knows. 89 00:07:35,180 --> 00:07:41,620 We can at least thank Google for killing this product before I started using it. 90 00:07:41,620 --> 00:07:48,140 And ad tech giant, the Trade Desk, has told Axios it's building a smart TV operating system. 91 00:07:48,140 --> 00:07:52,500 Because unlike other OS providers like Roku, Amazon and Google, the Trade Desk doesn't 92 00:07:52,500 --> 00:07:56,020 own content. They don't care about giving users anything. 93 00:07:56,020 --> 00:07:59,820 They just want to collect data about your watching habits. It's much simpler. 94 00:07:59,820 --> 00:08:04,700 Be honest. The news highlights the reality that TVs are really all about data collection now, to the 95 00:08:04,700 --> 00:08:09,440 point where manufacturers are reportedly selling TV sets at a loss in favor of collecting 96 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:16,580 ad revenue. After all, if the service is free, you're the person getting a good deal. 97 00:08:16,580 --> 00:08:19,580 You're so lucky. Living in the best timeline. 98 00:08:19,580 --> 00:08:22,980 And if you want to stay on the best timeline, come back on Monday and we'll give you more 99 00:08:22,980 --> 00:08:25,980 tech news for free. Okay, we're not collecting your data. 100 00:08:25,980 --> 00:08:32,340 There's a middleman, so it's okay. Except if you're on floor plane, then we're no... 101 00:08:32,340 --> 00:08:33,340 Your dad is yours.