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Apple is reportedly scaling back production of the Vision Pro

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due to several unforeseen issues, but I don't get how they didn't see this coming.

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The headset has a transparency mode. I'm Riley Murdock, this is TechLinked,

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and you might assume this production reduction is in response to low demand,

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given the Vision Pro's $3,500 price tag.

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But that would presuppose a Darth of People willing to buy overpriced things they don't need.

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And that describes almost everyone, except me. No, the cause here, according to Inside Sources

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who spoke to Financial Times, is the complexity of the headset design,

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leading to difficulties in manufacturing, enough of the Vision Pro's cutting-edge micro OLED displays.

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Cutting-edge components are a lot like farms during the 1930s dust bowl.

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They have disastrously poor yields. We don't often get the chance to compare tech

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to farms a hundred years ago, so that was exciting. We gotta sell it all, pa!

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I always wanted to be a four. Apple's original target was the production

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of a million units by 2024, but now they're likely looking at less than 400,000,

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which is actually 100,000 fewer than analysts projected that Apple would sell

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in its first year, showing once and for all that analysts do not have prescience like Paul Atreides

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from Dune Part II coming to theaters November 3rd, 2023,

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made their knives chip and shatter. I'm very excited. These production issues have apparently pushed back plans

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for a budget version of the Vision Pro, and by budget, we obviously mean like

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Elon Musk's Dorito budget. I assume that he eats a lot.

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He's healthy now. He'd rather die earlier and eat well, so.

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The Dorito joke stands. Intel plans to expand path tracing support

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to integrated graphics, and in short, path tracing is an upgraded and more hardware intensive

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form of ray tracing, using additional data to more accurately simulate the physics of light,

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which sounds great if you want the fan on your high powered gaming PC

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to more accurately simulate a buzz saw. Your neighbors can hear it,

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but they know you're having a good time. If you'd like to experience the difference, path tracing is already available as a mod

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for some older, less GPU intensive games like Quake II.

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It's exactly as brown as you remember, but shinier now.

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But hold on, Intel isn't talking about putting this hefty new feature into big, beefy graphics cards.

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They're talking about putting ray tracing's buff big brother into comparatively lightweight

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integrated GPUs. Intel is presenting new research

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on hyper-efficient new methods for computing light simulation,

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massively reducing GPU load. Perhaps soon, the world's grandmas will be able

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to take full advantage of photorealistic real-time graphics

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while playing bridge online on their Chromebooks. They got a discord server and everything.

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Game or grandmas, rise up. In your face,

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oh, come at me, and TikTok's parent company, Bite Dance,

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is threatening to start publishing books. Please, no, believe it or not,

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but many people on the internet can and do read.

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This strange phenomenon means that book talk, a subset of TikTok that acknowledges

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the existence of the written word, has become a powerhouse when it comes

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to popularizing otherwise obscure novels. Earlier this year, Bite Dance's nascent publishing ARM,

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8th Note Press, started approaching self-published writers

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in the romance novel genre. They're like thirst traps, but with letters.

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This might be an interesting opportunity for aspiring authors, but it's also raised

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its share of concern among the openly literate.

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Specifically, that Bite Dance might use TikTok to squeeze out user-driven viral book recommendations

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through promoting its own publications. Traditional publishers have struggled with viral marketing,

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but maybe the people who brought you an unending feed of bubblegum pop dance trends

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and five-second strip teases are going to be the ones to make the case for spending multiple consecutive hours

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staring at words on an unmoving screen. No cap.

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On God, for real, for real. Hello, doctor. I got five quick bits.

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Should I get five rabies shots? Really small ones.

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Meta's new Twitter competitor, Threads, launches tomorrow

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for tuitous timing, given that Twitter is currently even more broken and unusable than usual.

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Either it's a complete coincidence or Zuckerberg flicked out his tongue and smelt blood.

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The new site was visible for a few hours earlier today, and it does essentially look like Twitter

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as imagined by Facebook. Beyond the logo, which looks like a hair

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you found in your food. The decade-old GIF hosting service, Giffycat,

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see, I'm trying to please both of you, will be shutting down September 1st,

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after which all content will be deleted. Giffycat's parent company, Snapchat,

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doesn't seem to have a plan to archive any of the site's material,

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beyond telling users to download their memes while they still can.

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And please, share your memes with those who need it. Giffycat has been running poorly for the past few months

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with users experiencing failed uploads, extensive downtime, and complete silence

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from the site's service team. Giffycat's integration into Snapchat

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might also break a huge number of GIFs linked elsewhere on the web,

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rendering users conversations like bite dances upcoming novels.

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Essentially unreadable. China has restricted exports of two metals crucial

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in chip production, gallium and germanium, which is a big deal,

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since it's not like you can pop down to the Walmart and pick some germanium up.

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They're always out of stock. They might have geraniums though.

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China produces most of the world's supply of galamimus and geronimo,

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so the US is considering retaliation in the form of restricting Chinese companies' access

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to US-based cloud infrastructure, which could severely limit China's ability

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to keep up in the AI arms race. Trade war!

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Da-na, da-na, what is it good for?

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Well, it's probably an okay stand-in for a real war. Probably so.

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If it's not from the war region of France, it's just sparkling trade dispute.

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Google obviously wants everyone to talk about their upcoming phones,

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so we could show you fresh leaked photos.

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Oh, they just leaked of the Pixel 8 Pro, showing it slightly tweaked rear camera design

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and a sticker with a code named Zuma.

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Seemingly confirming the phone will feature Google's next-gen Tensor G3 chip.

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But we could also tell you about more interesting news, like the fact that the ultra-repairable design

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for longevity Fairphone 4 is finally available to buy in the US

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thanks to a partnership with Marina Morena,

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a company that makes a de-googled, privacy-focused fork of Android.

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Yeah, we ain't scared of the big man. Hack the planet!

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And a new bot service called Jolly Roger allows users to get back at telemarketers

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by wasting their time with meandering, rambling conversations like an elderly relative.

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This sounds amazing. In fact, one of the bots, Personas, is an old man who just woke up from a nap,

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who uses ploys like telling the telemarketer they sound like a former high school classmate,

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rambling on about needing coffee, frequently asking them to repeat their name

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and asking them to start over again.

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Yes, the bot otherwise just allows the telemarketer to talk,

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occasionally interjecting and uh-huh, okay, or yeah.

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This all seems like good fun, but just wait until the telemarketers are all AI

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and they're just talking to each other forever in an unending loop.

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Finally, we will have removed all human involvement

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from the very worst form of human interaction.

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We'll be free! Those guys will just keep the economy going on their own.

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And the best form of human interaction happens when you come back on Friday for more tech news, arguably.