1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,520 Bit right to the end, I always say, and unfortunately for everyone involved, that includes today's 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:10,520 tech news. That was barely Shrek. That was good. 3 00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:15,720 Honestly, I heard Shrek, but I also heard a crazy guy would have. 4 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:21,120 China has quietly made progress on one of the hardest problems in modern chipmaking, extreme 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:27,720 ultraviolet lithography. According to a Reuters investigation, researchers at a high-security lab in Shenzhen have built 6 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:34,080 a prototype EUV lithography machine, a device essential for producing advanced semiconductors 7 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:38,800 and long monopolized by the Dutch company ASML. 8 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:45,240 They love monopolies. These are massive, delicate, wildly expensive systems, and no company outside of the Netherlands 9 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:51,040 has successfully built one until now, kind of. 10 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:57,200 And maybe not really. China's prototype already generates EUV light, and reportedly fills nearly an entire 11 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:01,760 factory floor, although it has not yet produced working chips. 12 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:07,400 To make this happen, China recruited former ASML engineers, many of them Chinese-born 13 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:13,080 and recently retired, offering them massive signing bonuses and housing incentives. 14 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:17,880 One engineer reportedly arrived on his first day of work and was handed a fake ID with 15 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:22,160 a new false name on it, and when he went in the doors, he discovered a bunch of his old 16 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:25,560 co-workers, all with snazzy new names too. 17 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:29,800 It's Jeremy now. Me too. We're all Jeremy. 18 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:34,160 Apparently, everyone was instructed to go buy their new aliases and to never acknowledge 19 00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:40,920 the project outside of the compound. To make things even more interesting, it kind of sounds like this is a skunkworks project 20 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:46,920 with China buying up parts from older ASML machines in used markets to get around all 21 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:52,740 those pesky export controls. Now, if this scheme works out, it would be kind of wild, because it's basically the 22 00:01:52,740 --> 00:01:59,680 plot of the red movies. The retired Black Ops agents replaced by semiconductor equipment engineers. 23 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:05,760 The only thing these operatives are assassinating is the US hegemony. 24 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:13,200 Okay, now that works. The global RAM shortage, being driven largely by AI companies buying up massive amounts 25 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:18,080 of memory, is about to push PC and smartphone prices higher, and it doesn't look like it's 26 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:25,120 going to stop anytime soon. An IDC market analysis warns that the crunch could last well into 2027, and that major 27 00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:30,440 PC and phone makers are already preparing further price increases as the memory supply 28 00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:36,680 tightens. Apparently, Apple and Samsung are a bit insulated from all this because they secure their RAM 29 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:41,160 12 to 24 months in advance, so they probably won't increase their prices because they 30 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:44,640 would have no reason to do that just because every other company in the market is doing 31 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:51,760 that, right? All this pressure to get RAM is causing some wacky behavior in enthusiast spaces, as older 32 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:59,840 CPUs like AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X3D are now selling on eBay for way more than newer chips, simply 33 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:04,640 because they let people use the only slightly cheaper DDR4 memory. 34 00:03:04,640 --> 00:03:09,600 Yet this memory shortage hasn't stopped NVIDIA from releasing its RTX Pro 5000 Blackwell 35 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:17,120 GPU, with a massive 72GB of GDDR7 targeting AI developers, data scientists, and creative 36 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:23,320 professionals. On Monday, we covered rumors that NVIDIA was slowing production of its lower to mid-tier 37 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:28,440 5000 series gaming GPUs, and we kind of joked that it was because they were moving the 38 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:32,120 GDDR7 RAM from those cards into more expensive products. 39 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:35,840 Well, I guess we now know where all the RAM went. 40 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,600 I'm over here. Can't catch me. 41 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:46,520 Apple has announced sweeping changes to iOS that are, legitimately, big in Japan. 42 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:51,720 As of this week, iPhone users in Japan can officially side load apps, meaning developers 43 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:57,600 can distribute apps outside the app store using alternative marketplaces like Alt Store. 44 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:02,480 This comes as part of Apple's effort to comply with Japan's new competition rules, and is 45 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:08,840 only the latest example of regulators forcing a crack into Apple's famously lockdown ecosystem. 46 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:13,160 That said, this is still Apple, so the freedom comes with fine print. 47 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:18,400 Apple will continue collecting fees on third-party in-app payments, and even on web purchases 48 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:24,320 tied to iOS apps. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has, of course, already criticized the changes, arguing that 49 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:28,760 Apple is still taxing developers even when it is no longer providing distribution or 50 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:32,480 payment processing. An accusation Apple is happy to lean into. 51 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:37,160 The tech giant's updated developer agreement gives the company new powers to recover unpaid 52 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:43,720 fees owed by devs who had the gall to conduct their business outside of Apple's holy dominion. 53 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:49,280 I see what you have hidden. Your every atom cries out for penitence. 54 00:04:49,280 --> 00:04:54,320 So while this is, ultimately, progress, it's a little bit more of a sour Apple than a sweet 55 00:04:54,320 --> 00:05:02,760 one. Oh, girls are like onions. 56 00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:06,600 Unsort the quick bits. They have layers. 57 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:14,120 And sometimes they make you want to cry. Riot Games has discovered a critical motherboard flaw that lets hardware-level cheats slip 58 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:18,000 in and activate before anti-cheat software even wakes up. 59 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:25,360 The bump in the night was real. The issue affects boards from ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, and Asrock, where a security feature 60 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:30,760 called IOMMU isn't fully initializing at boot, despite looking like it is. 61 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:35,640 Riot worked with manufacturers to push BIOS updates, and now Valorant players who don't 62 00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:40,400 update their systems will be blocked with a VAN restriction, meaning that your account 63 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:47,920 will be flagged for using cheater-adjacent hardware. Oh yeah, what about Innocent Intel Proving Guilty, huh, some legal system? 64 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:56,120 Sir, this is a hero shooter. LG has backed down after TV owners freaked out when a Microsoft co-pilot app suddenly 65 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:59,120 appeared on their home screens and could not be uninstalled. 66 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:04,840 Well, LG has heard their cries and says it will allow users to delete co-pilot if they 67 00:06:04,840 --> 00:06:09,920 want, although they also clarified that it was only a browser shortcut, not a built-in 68 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:14,360 app. All this fuss over a little shortcut, don't you feel silly? 69 00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:18,840 No, actually, turns out quietly injecting an AI chatbot into a device people use to 70 00:06:18,840 --> 00:06:25,200 watch movies was not the vibe. Several popular browser extensions, with more than 8 million installs, have been quietly 71 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:30,800 harvesting users' full AI conversations and selling them for marketing purposes. 72 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:35,600 Security researchers found the extensions inject scripts directly into sites like ChatGPT, 73 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:41,040 Claude from Anthropic, Gemini, co-pilot, and those other ones, and record everything that 74 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:47,200 gets said. Even worse, many of these extensions were labeled featured in Chrome and Edge stores. 75 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:52,600 So yeah, that random free VPN you were using for therapy time with your AI girlfriend might 76 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:57,480 have actually been recording the whole time. Maybe you can ask them to send it to you and you can remember the good times. 77 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:03,320 Amazon caught a North Korean infiltrator working in its IT systems thanks to something almost 78 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:11,480 invisible, typing lag. Security teams noticed keystrokes from a supposedly US-based worker were taking over 110 milliseconds 79 00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:15,840 to reach Seattle way longer than expected and definitely something that would show up 80 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:21,920 in their performance review. But really, that tiny delay suggested the laptop was being controlled from halfway across the 81 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:27,160 world. Amazon traced the activity, confirmed it was part of a North Korean remote work scheme, 82 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:35,280 and kicked the contractor out within days. I knew some companies were tracking their employees, but this is ridiculous. 83 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:42,240 And a Chinese tech company called Limex Dynamics just showed off Tron2, a robot that appears 84 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:47,840 to consist of a waste torso module thing with two limbs that can be swapped between having 85 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:51,920 legs or arms depending on the job. But not both. 86 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:59,240 Full robot bodies are so 2025. The launch video shows the robot lifting stuff and doing a variety of tasks, but despite 87 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:05,600 its cool and original Tron name, there's no Daft Punk or 9-inch nails score, unfortunately. 88 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:09,960 It doesn't even leave a neon solid light trail behind it wherever it goes, even when 89 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:14,840 the disembodied robot hips are clearly in its weird doing the splits on Rollerblade's 90 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:21,120 light cycle mode. But if none of that has you sold, wait till you see this half-humanoid perform some very 91 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:26,600 inhumanoid, uh, Rollerblade summer salts? 92 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:29,680 Is this like its mating ritual or something? 93 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:35,000 What even? Whatever it is, it's working. Hey! What are you doing in my swamp? 94 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:39,240 You can't Rollerblade here! That's it for today's tech news. 95 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:43,160 Now get out of here, we'll see, oh I think I was still supposed to be doing the accent 96 00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:44,600 there, but it's okay.