1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 Well, tech news, it's just one of those things, you know? 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:08,000 What, what on what things? 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:18,000 Couldn't tell ya. YouTube has been serving some TV viewers with 90-second non-skippable ads, 4 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,000 according to multiple reports on Reddit and on Twitter, 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:26,000 where YouTube pushed back saying that they don't serve an ad format like that. 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:34,000 This tweet was quickly community noted with evidence that many people were, nonetheless, seeing these non-existent ads. 7 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:37,000 YouTube has since called it an interface bug, 8 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:43,000 where inaccurate timers are being shown for shorter ads and says that a fix is rolling out. 9 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:48,000 But, buggy ads aren't the only bad news out of YouTube this week, 10 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:54,000 because YouTube Premium is getting a US price hike of up to $4 per month at the highest tier, 11 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:58,000 the first increase since 2023. 12 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:04,000 That's not that long ago! YouTube says the hike is going to help them continue delivering a high-quality experience. 13 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:11,000 But, as Gizmodo points out, the last time YouTube raised premium prices was just kind of during an inflationary spike, 14 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:17,000 which seems to be what's happening right now, not that the service is materially changing. 15 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:24,000 CPUID, the French company behind tech enthusiast staples like CPUZ and Hardware Monitor, 16 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:30,000 had its website hacked this week and they were serving malware in place of their actual software. 17 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:35,000 Oh no. For about six hours between April 9th and 10th, 18 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:42,000 clicking the download button on CPUID.com would hand you a trojanized installer file instead of the real thing. 19 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:48,000 But how can hackers be so talented and yet so incompetent? 20 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:54,000 It wasn't even named the right thing. It was called hwinfo-monitor-setup.exe. 21 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:04,000 But that's not what I clicked on. It's the software equivalent of a Pepsi vending machine giving me a Coke can that turns out to be full of anthrax. 22 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:09,000 Victims who ignored Windows Defenders screaming at them and clicked through the suddenly Russian installer 23 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:16,000 got hit with a multi-stage, mostly in-memory attack that went straight for their saved Chrome passwords. 24 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:23,000 The same group hit FileZilla back in March and researchers at VX Underground who said they'd need a good bit of time 25 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:29,000 trying to bunk it with a stick to reverse engineer it, ultimately gave the sample an official grade of B- 26 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:33,000 proving that even in crime, you can still get graded on a curve. 27 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:40,000 France, meanwhile, is ditching Microsoft Windows in favor of Linux across its government computers 28 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,000 in an effort to reduce reliance on U.S. technology. 29 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:47,000 To which I have to say, welcome to the Linux challenge, France. 30 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000 This will be your Waterloo. 31 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,000 Well, I guess Waterloo was your Waterloo. 32 00:02:53,000 --> 00:03:01,000 But this could be kind of hard too. French Minister David Amiel said the goal is for France to regain control of its digital destiny 33 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:06,000 and that the country can no longer depend on foreign infrastructure that it doesn't control. 34 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:12,000 France's digital agency, Denum, is leading the switchover as part of a larger initiative 35 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:19,000 which saw France recently move 80,000 national health insurance employees off of Teams, Zoom, and Dropbox 36 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,000 and onto open-source French alternatives. 37 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:26,000 France even went so far as to nationalize supercomputer company Bull, 38 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:31,000 spending 404 million euros to prevent it from being bought up by a foreign company. 39 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,000 I hope that doesn't end up being an error. 40 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,000 What's not an error is the way I'm transitioning to our sponsor. 41 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:45,000 Now, the accelerated particles, that's a whole other can. 42 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:49,000 Uh, worms? No, it's like you're not even listening. 43 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:55,000 Keychron has uploaded the source files for 83 of their keyboards and mice to GitHub 44 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:58,000 handing the modding community full editable CAD designs 45 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:03,000 for cases, plates, and stabilizers across basically every major line they make. 46 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,000 It is source-available rather than truly open-source, 47 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,000 so it's not like tinkers are going to be able to sell their mods, 48 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:14,000 but at least now the mechanical keyboard community can stop reverse engineering dimensions with calipers 49 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:18,000 as though they're appraising a stolen Rolex and just maintain their own stuff. 50 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:27,000 This is a super cool move. Meanwhile, in the wake of Anthropic's too dangerous to release publicly AI model mythos grabbing headlines this week, 51 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:35,000 Axios is reporting that OpenAI is reportedly also finalizing their own AI product that's allegedly so dangerous 52 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:39,000 it can only be released to a small hand-picked group of partners. 53 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:44,000 Turns out that OpenAI's version is an expansion of a cyber-partner program that it launched back in February 54 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:49,000 and Axios had to correct its own headline to clarify that this isn't even the company's next flagship model. 55 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:54,000 Nothing says we're also scary, quite like an honestly calling a reporter about it 56 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:57,000 and talking about a thing that you were already doing. 57 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:03,000 Good job. An Ohio man has become the first person convicted under the 2025 Take It Down Act, 58 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:07,000 the federal law criminalizing non-consensual deepfakes. 59 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:15,000 James Strahler pleaded guilty to producing AI-generated sexual images of at least 10 victims, including minors. 60 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:25,000 Yuck. On his phone, authorities found over 2,400 explicit photos and videos, two dozen AI apps, and over 100 models. 61 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:30,000 According to the New York Times, it's not immediately clear how severe of a sentence he will face, 62 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:35,000 but the Take It Down Act carries up to three years in federal prison for deepfakes involving minors. 63 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:39,000 Well, many are no doubt concerned about the Take It Down Act being misused. 64 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:43,000 I think we can all agree on this human toilet brush going away for a while. 65 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:50,000 On the subject of things that have been gone away for a while, Blackberry's ghost is back and suing Brother. 66 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:57,000 Irish patent assertion firm Maliki Innovations scooped up Blackberry's old patent pile in 2023 67 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:07,000 and filed a suit in the eastern district of Texas alleging that brother printers infringe four Wi-Fi patents that were originally developed for Blackberry phones. 68 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:15,000 Maliki has also filed lawsuits against Nintendo, ASUS, and Canon, the last of which Maliki quietly withdrew three weeks ago. 69 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:25,000 But the case has sparked concerns that other printer manufacturers may also be liable for taking perhaps too large of a bite from the original fruit-based phone. 70 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:28,000 Are berries technically fruit? They are, aren't they? 71 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:40,000 And finally, Honor has announced the Mouse Buds Pro in Europe, a travel mouse with a sliding rear compartment that pops open to reveal a pair of semi-open ANC earbuds that are stashed inside. 72 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:52,000 But wait, there's more! If that wasn't enough to sell you on this mouse slash earbuds combo, it's also got a skin-like coating so you can feel like you are holding hands with your computer. 73 00:06:52,000 --> 00:07:05,000 Oh wow. The earbuds work independently over Bluetooth, which I guess is good for anyone who would otherwise have to go jogging with a computer mouse in their pocket that they're holding hands with. 74 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:10,000 It's time for me, after learning that, to go jogging away from learning about that. 75 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:18,000 I'll see you back here on Monday for more tech news, which is...it's not just a thing. It happens sometimes.