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