WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.160 Hey everyone, I wake up and wonder, is life really worth living? 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:08.320 Then I remember, tech news, then I go back to sleep half the time. 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:12.640 On Wednesday, we reported on the Department of Justice asking a federal judge to force 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 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:22.880 against Google, whose dominance in internet search was ruled an illegal monopoly back 00:00:22.880 --> 00:00:27.520 in August. But the Chrome thing, that's just the tip of the iceberg. 00:00:27.520 --> 00:00:32.920 The DOJ's filing also proposes restricting Android from favoring Google search and banning 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:37.080 deals to make Google the default option on various platforms. 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, 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 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 00:00:57.680 --> 00:01:02.960 Anthropic and provide its search index data to competitors for 10 years. 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. 00:01:09.880 --> 00:01:14.240 For two, it might seriously disrupt things like the existing market for Chromium-based 00:01:14.240 --> 00:01:19.740 browsers, which admittedly is kind of the whole idea, no, after taking a couple days 00:01:19.740 --> 00:01:25.020 to process their shock, Google finally published a response yesterday, calling the DOJ's proposal 00:01:25.020 --> 00:01:30.860 staggering, wildly overbroad, and part of a radical interventionist agenda that would 00:01:30.860 --> 00:01:35.740 harm Americans and break a range of Google products. I mean, Google can do that. 00:01:35.740 --> 00:01:40.140 In an example of how excruciating horrible this would be, Google said the proposal, quote, 00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:45.660 would literally require us to install not one, but two separate choice screens before 00:01:45.660 --> 00:01:48.660 you could access Google search on a Pixel phone you bought. 00:01:48.660 --> 00:01:52.860 And the design of those choice screens would have to be approved by the technical committee. 00:01:52.860 --> 00:01:55.860 And that's just a small part of it. We wish we were making this up. 00:01:55.860 --> 00:02:00.140 Honestly, us too. I think that would strangely help this make more sense. 00:02:00.140 --> 00:02:03.700 Not choice screens, which you already have elsewhere. 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 00:02:08.900 --> 00:02:13.220 official support for what was originally called the last version of Windows is ending. 00:02:13.220 --> 00:02:17.980 Hey, wait a second. Yeah, you could pay $30 for another year of support. 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. 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 00:02:29.380 --> 00:02:33.780 versions of Windows. But if you're mad, just consider Microsoft's argument here. 00:02:33.780 --> 00:02:37.940 Don't you want to try the new and improved apparently more secure recall feature, which 00:02:37.940 --> 00:02:42.500 was just made available for co-pilot plus PCs and a new Windows insider build? 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 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 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 00:03:02.700 --> 00:03:06.740 to write is wrong, up is down, baby, it's AI. 00:03:06.740 --> 00:03:11.780 Despite recent reports, it seems like the AI bubble won't be bursting quite yet. 00:03:11.780 --> 00:03:16.620 Amazon just announced they're supplementing their existing $4 billion investment in Anthropic 00:03:16.820 --> 00:03:22.140 with another $4 billion, bringing the total to what I can only assume is an impressive 00:03:22.140 --> 00:03:26.940 amount as I've outsourced those of my critical thinking to Claude 3.5 Sonnet. 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 00:03:31.100 --> 00:03:35.700 Chrome-related chaos, which repaired nicely with the chat GPT search feature they launched 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 00:03:41.420 --> 00:03:47.100 erased critical evidence that the New York Times legal team had spent 150 hours gathering 00:03:47.100 --> 00:03:50.860 as part of discovery in their copyright case against the AI giant. 00:03:50.860 --> 00:03:56.300 Yep, seems like the AI hype is holding, and shifting solidly towards agents who can use 00:03:56.300 --> 00:04:00.100 your computer for you and learn everything about you in a two-hour interview and then 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 00:04:06.860 --> 00:04:09.100 Stanford and Google DeepMind researchers. 00:04:10.100 --> 00:04:17.060 NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wong has an even more optimistic view of the future, predicting 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 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 00:04:27.620 --> 00:04:32.420 to the nearby town where the Tesla bots live. And they have leather jackets like me! 00:04:32.420 --> 00:04:36.180 Now the quick bits. There's a worth staying awake for. They're special. 00:04:36.180 --> 00:04:40.380 There's something about them. It is the season to be transparent with your customers. 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 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 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 00:04:57.820 --> 00:05:01.620 the same granularity I tell my doctor about how much I smoke. 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 00:05:17.700 --> 00:05:20.900 any longer and Valve will give developers the suck. 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. 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 00:05:33.300 --> 00:05:39.100 that has never hit a deadline in their life. Two, four, five, no threes. 00:05:39.100 --> 00:05:43.780 Microsoft has announced Edge Game Assist, a Windows 11 feature in preview that adds 00:05:43.780 --> 00:05:50.580 an in-game browser to the GameBar overlay. Assisting gamers with their gaming and presumably edging. 00:05:50.580 --> 00:05:54.580 Edge Game Assist helps GameBar catch up to a feature first launched for the Steam overlay 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 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. 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 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 00:06:13.100 --> 00:06:16.340 bad at it. Or automatically open up certain websites. 00:06:16.340 --> 00:06:20.860 Edging, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is now regulating big tech, not just 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 00:06:26.660 --> 00:06:30.580 and will have the same level of authority to supervise and regulate these payment systems 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 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. 00:06:42.980 --> 00:06:47.340 Just last year, they fined Apple and Goldman Sachs $89 million for failing to take action 00:06:47.340 --> 00:06:53.020 on customer disputes, a whopping 0.002% of the value of those companies. 00:06:53.020 --> 00:06:56.100 But now they can slap risk sooner. Things work. 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. 00:07:00.380 --> 00:07:04.500 Wow, that's not... All yelp, they're excited for a new Pixel Tablet. 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 00:07:14.020 --> 00:07:18.180 to a source that leaked to Android Authority, who cited profitability concerns. 00:07:18.180 --> 00:07:23.780 The news emerged after reports that the search giant canned the Pixel Tablet 3, but those 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 00:07:30.340 --> 00:07:35.180 the end of the line for their large format handheld ambitions, or just who knows. 00:07:35.180 --> 00:07:41.620 We can at least thank Google for killing this product before I started using it. 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. 00:07:48.140 --> 00:07:52.500 Because unlike other OS providers like Roku, Amazon and Google, the Trade Desk doesn't 00:07:52.500 --> 00:07:56.020 own content. They don't care about giving users anything. 00:07:56.020 --> 00:07:59.820 They just want to collect data about your watching habits. It's much simpler. 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 00:08:04.700 --> 00:08:09.440 point where manufacturers are reportedly selling TV sets at a loss in favor of collecting 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. 00:08:16.580 --> 00:08:19.580 You're so lucky. Living in the best timeline. 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 00:08:22.980 --> 00:08:25.980 tech news for free. Okay, we're not collecting your data. 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... 00:08:32.340 --> 00:08:33.340 Your dad is yours.