I can only assume Apple unveiled a number of new Macs
powered by their new M3 processor today, but I can't know for sure
because they scheduled their event to start like an hour after we finished filming this video.
It's like I've been working on my Tim Cook impression for nothing.
Some fresh leaks have sprung regarding NVIDIA's RTX 40 Super series of GPUs,
specifically the RTX 4080 Super. The card's PCI-ID was found by someone,
potentially with access to a beta driver, and added to the PCI-ID repository,
a place where PCI-Ds are reposited.
Except the GPU listed in the PCI-ID is the AD-103,
the same chip that powers the non-super RTX 4080
with pretty much its full strength. NVIDIA could enable its 512 disabled shaders,
but that sounds like a drop in the bucket compared to the GPU's already enabled
9,728 shaders.
And sure, every little bit of extra performance is nice,
unless in order to get it, you have to buy a new GPU for the same MSRP
that the original RTX 4080 launched at, which is 1,200 bucks.
That's what NVIDIA did with the RTX 2080 Super,
which launched in 2019 for 800 bucks, pfft.
How many dough? Same amount of dough. But hey, if the 4080 Super isn't doing it for you,
there's also this RTX 4060 Ti from ASUS
with a built-in M.2 SSD slot. If you want to remember a time
when news about new graphics cards made you feel something other than that sour acid taste
in the back of your throat for missing something, now I just feel dread.
Qualcomm made some big claims about their Snapdragon X Elite laptop SOCs
at the Snapdragon Summit last week, but like all such events,
Qualcomm only backed up those claims with slides looking like barely modified PowerPoint templates.
Woke up the night before in a mad panic and just slapped some photos on there.
Should this line be blue? I don't know, it doesn't matter.
But some outlets, including Windows Central, were able to take a closer look at detailed test results,
and it seems like Qualcomm wasn't just blowing hot air.
Both the 23 watt and 80 watt variant of the X Elite
blew away Windows laptops with top-end chips
from Intel and AMD in PCMark 10. And while the lower end variant didn't destroy
like the higher end one did in Cinebench 2024,
its single core performance still came out ahead. Now, as we've said before,
whether these chips will actually be worth using with Windows depends on whether Microsoft can change
the fact that Windows 11 on ARM is kind of but to use
before they come out next year. But hey, you know what?
I'm a simple man. I see big bars on a performance graph
and it just makes me happy. I like big bars and I cannot lie.
Of course, Qualcomm's comparison of the Snapdragon X Elite to Apple's M2
rings pretty hollow coming the week before Apple launches
the M3, which is probably much better because that's what they did today, right?
I don't know if they did that or not. I hate this.
Meta has launched a paid ad-free subscription
for Facebook and Instagram in the European Union for 10 euros a month via desktop or 13 euros via Android or iOS.
For all must pay Google and Apple their 30% tithe.
They're passing around the basket. You can't ignore it. Church only takes 10%.
Tim sees all. Ah, ah, ah, put it in.
The subscription isn't available elsewhere, primarily because it's intended to appease
EU regulators skeptical of Meta's ad targeting
and data collection practices. The subscription is only available to users 18 and up
while teenage users will temporarily stop seeing ads
entirely until Meta comes up with some other way of profiting off damage to their underdeveloped psyches.
They're working on it. In the meantime, Meta is apparently working on an API
for its third social platform, Threads. But seeing as Threads, a business transcription service
that trademarked the name in 2012, has already served Threads with a 30 day warning
to change the name, Threads is gonna have to hurry. It was only slightly confusing.
The quick bits aren't actually that quick, okay?
Yeah, we know, we just want them to feel nice about themselves, okay?
They deserve that, yeah, you're quick. ChatGPT now has an advanced data analysis feature
that allows users to upload documents like a PDF
and chat with it, like a spell that imbues
an inanimate object with a living soul, but then wears off, bringing up horrible questions,
like was that actually alive for like three minutes? Are you a monster?
Similar functionality has already been offered by various services like ChatWithPDF,
whose developer doesn't seem worried about losing its 400,000 users,
probably because the users already paid the subscription fee.
But are the PDFs alive? It's the spirit of Tim Cook, he's smiling on me.
Shooting this video so late that the sun is setting.
I Fix It has announced a partnership with Microsoft to provide official replacement parts
for various Microsoft Surface devices, as well as step-by-step guides and disassembly videos
via their dedicated Microsoft Repair Hub. Parts provided include batteries, SSDs,
displays, keyboards, and even screws. Unprovided, however, is the answer
to the philosophical question. If you replace every piece of your laptop one by one
until no original piece is left, is it still the same laptop?
And does it still belong to Theseus? The White House has issued an executive order
on safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence,
which pushes for greater transparency of AI models and labeling of AI-created content.
The order will require developers of AI systems with the potential to seriously disrupt public safety,
civil rights, the economy, or national security to share critical testing information with the government.
This would apply primarily to future models beyond a certain power level, let's say over 9,000.
What? And would not involve restricting any AI tools
that are currently available. It's probably the best we can hope for,
at least when the average senator is a quarter century older than the internet itself.
Take what you get. Google is promising a rescue patch for an Android bug
that causes some users with multiple Android user accounts
on their device to get locked out of the device's storage
from the primary account upon upgrading to Android 14.
Despite being a relatively serious bug, Google seemed to ignore the problem for 10 days,
leaving hundreds of users in the lurch. In some ways, the bug is a lot like ransomware,
except instead of a guy named Sergei holding my nudes hostage for money, it's Google, completely by accident.
So it's okay. That makes it better. I'm less mad.
Meanwhile, Google has spent time figuring out how to turn any old pair of active noise-canceling earbuds
into heart rate monitors through a process the research team calls APG or audio plethysmography.
Catching. I just wanted you to know that. It works by sending out an ultrasound signal
with the earbuds speakers and picking it up with the microphones, which sounds like it lets humans
become more like bats or dolphins. And I'm not sure that's a place we want science to go.
Rrrrrrr. Okay. Yeah, depending on your priorities.
I mean. Speak for yourself. Rrrrrrr. That's okay.
The dolphin sound that people use on TV is actually sped up cocoa burrow. Really?
Yeah, it's not a dolphin. And the eagle sound is actually a red-tailed hawk.
Wow, I don't care at all about not knowing about the Apple stuff now. I learned, learned that.
But I know where I want you to go. Back to your screen of choice this time on Wednesday
for more tech news. When we will definitely know what has happened
at Apple's event today. Time, you know.
That's crazy.