We don't have much time! I don't know how much longer I can hold back the tech news!
Oh no! It breaks the containment run! More details about Intel's upcoming AeroLake desktop CPUs have leaked,
and there were some surprising numbers. Not the silly 200-series numbering scheme.
We knew that already. According to Chinese news outlet Bench Life, the AeroLake S Core Ultra
series will only comprise 13 SKUs. That's not the only surprising number. Bench Life's ratio
of P-Cores to E-Cores in the K-Series Core Ultra 7 CPU disagrees with earlier leaks,
while Bench Life has claimed the processor would have 8 P-Cores and 12 E-Cores reports from January
suggested 6 plus 16 configuration. But both leaks claim all K-Series chips have as many threads as
they have cores, which would mean AeroLake won't feature hyperthreading. That's Intel's simultaneous
multi-threading tech, not your grandma's secret embroidery technique. While Intel's ditching
hyperthreading may be a significant change, it might not be a bad one. Because of the larger
number of cores on modern CPUs, it may be better to dedicate a whole core to a single task.
Many chip makers and designers like Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm don't even support
simultaneous multi-threading on their platforms. Hopefully AeroLake does well for Intel's sake,
though its AMD hit an all-time high in desktop x86 market share this year. Intel has fallen to a
measly 76.1% of the market. How can Intel possibly cope with only three-quarters of the entire market?
I'd be worried. Apple managed to anger the entire internet with a single ad, something that sounds
a lot easier than it is. The Cupertino Commune released an ad for their new iPad Pro called
Crush, in which a giant hydraulic press destroys art and creative tools like instruments and
camera lenses in an attempt to demonstrate how amazing it is that the thinnest iPad ever can do
so many things. Unfortunately, the YouTube video had comments turned off, so everyone did the
healthy thing and went on to Twitter to bully Tim Cook for tweeting the ad. Some strong hate came
from Japanese viewers, apparently some of that may be due to the belief in Tsukomogami from Japanese
folklore, tools that have acquired a spirit, which could mean that in a way, Apple basically
committed mass murder. And I mean, look at these cute little guys. What kind of sick monster would
want to crush them? Creators at large were upset by the sight of beloved objects being flattened
by faceless unstoppable machines, which is a very blunt metaphor for AI taking every artist's job.
But hey, at least Apple apologized. It won't bring that piano back, but you know, buy your mom a soul.
Spotify will apparently pay about $150 million less to US songwriters next year,
according to Billboard. This is after the company announced it would be raising the prices of its
subscription plans in several markets to cover the cost of audiobooks, a service Spotify introduced
last year. The music streaming giant now claims that since it has to pay licensing fees for books
and music, Spotify qualifies to pay a discounted bundle rate to songwriters for premium streams.
And you now have to pay for lyrics after Spotify quietly restricted being able to read the words
of a song to premium users. But Spotify isn't the only music company to alienate its customer base.
Sonos released a brand new update to its mobile apps for iOS and Android,
and everyone hates them. While the intent was to make the app better, the company actually
removed a ton of key features, even worse, the update broke accessibility for visually impaired
users. And if you don't like the new update, you can't roll it back. In a statement to The Verge,
the company said they will be reintroducing the missing features in the coming months.
In response to the criticism, Sonos chief product officer said,
It takes courage to rebuild a brand's core product from the ground up.
That's what the person sounds like for sure. And it takes a strong lack of common sense to release
that build before it's finished. Quick bits are like the five shorter stories at the end of the video.
Actually, that's literally what they are. Google launched the $500 Pixel 8a this week,
starting with 8 gigabytes of RAM, 128 gigabytes or 256 gigabytes of storage,
and a handful of fun colors, like the one Boing Boing calls abandoned house bathroom green.
It's actually called Aloe. And based on early impressions, the Pixel 8a actually seems like
a decent mid-range phone. And it's even getting support for DisplayPort over USBC, along with
the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. But as with all things Google, we'll keep our fingers crossed that Google
doesn't kill it eight months from now. It's less of a company and more like a weather system.
The FCC has eased worries that the net neutrality rules it voted back into force on April 25th
would still contain a loophole allowing telecoms to create paid fast lanes for certain types of
internet traffic. While the draft text of the rules didn't explicitly prohibit such lanes,
the final rules published this week do. And thank goodness, we knew that making some stuff go slower
means that it's not going the same speed as the rest of the stuff, but we had no idea
if that was true for going faster. Big day for science. Neuralink has publicly stated that its
first human brain implant partially malfunctioned within a few weeks of being inserted. Luckily,
however, it seems that the patient, 29-year-old quadriplegic Noland Arbao, is unharmed and
currently under no risk. In fact, he's still using the brain computer interface, which Neuralink has
adjusted to compensate for having fewer electrodes available to communicate with. The implant relies
on 1,024 electrodes spread across 64 finer than hair threads that reach through the pathways of the
brain. An unknown number of these threads retracted for unknown reasons, though I'm really hoping
that's just unknown to we the public and not unknown to Neuralink. As the possibility of
mad computer science recreating our dead loved ones as AI-powered ones and zeros looms on the
horizon. Ethicists are warning that creating a chatbot designed to mimic your dead spouse
might be psychologically unhealthy. Not only is there concern that this might circumvent the
normal grieving process, there's already a lot of potential for predatory businesses to exploit
people's grief and anxiety over death. There's also plenty of room for this to be incredibly
disrespectful to both living and the dead. Say if your premium trial ends, your husband's AI
ghost starts sneaking branded messaging into every conversation. And the United States Marine
Forces Special Operations Command say that that five times fast is currently evaluating robot
dogs armed with AI-aimed rifles, baby! Less than a year ago, the Marines were testing robot dogs
armed with rocket launchers. Personally, I want to know why everyone keeps slapping weapons on
the back of robot dogs. Last month, a company called Throw Flame started selling robot dogs with
flamethrowers on their backs. Why can't we just let robot dogs do normal robot dog things like
play fetch and leak oil on fire hydrants? And why can't you come back on Monday for more tech news?
True question, you can come back and you will. Or I'll sick my robot dog army on you,
but they only carry treats and little first aid kits on their backs because I'm sane.