Whoa! Sorry, I was just up in the sky getting tech news.
From God? Didn't even put it on tablets or anything, I just had to memorize it.
Xbox has revealed some details about its next-gen console in a surprise update from President
Sarah Bond, who promised an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one
device. That's why they're working closely with the Windows team, to ensure that Windows is
the number one platform for gaming. Okay, just hold up.
Back up for a second. What are we talking about here? New Xbox consoles with Steam and the Epic Game Store?
But then she mentions Windows. Are the next Xbox consoles just PCs?
Well, Bond also announced a multi-year partnership with AMD to co-engineer a portfolio of devices,
including our next-generation Xbox consoles in your living room and in your hands.
Okay, that sounds like they are indeed making next-gen,
Xboxes. But what does that even mean when they're telling us that anything with an internet
connection is an Xbox? I wish they'd just come out and say what an Xbox is.
Do we need to go over how you can't use the word you're defining in the word's definition?
What is an Xbox? This is an Xbox. Okay, but what is that?
An Xbox? YAH! This lack of clarity leads to some outlets like Xbox Era calling this official confirmation
that native handhelds are indeed planned after all.
But I don't see how you can think that when Microsoft called the ROG-Xbox Ally X an Xbox.
I mean, they even reused the same graphic of the Ryzen processor from the ROG-Xbox Ally reveal
in the new video supposedly talking about native Xbox handhelds.
I can't make head or tail of this yappin'. If you wanna try your hand at figuring out
what Microsoft has been smoking lately, this Chad Redditor aggregated
all the next gen Xbox developments that have happened since the 2023 leak.
So activate your Sherlock brain and give it a go. Multiple reports of Switch 2 owners
being banned from Nintendo's online services have popped up this week,
as gamers tried to use the popular MiG Flash microSD adapter cartridges
that allow you to play Switch games without modding the console.
Whether those be pirated copies or backups of games you've legitimately purchased.
MiG Flash was just updated to support playing Switch 1 games on Switch 2
but seems like Nintendo was ready and waiting to ban a bunch of people,
all of whom insist they were only playing their own backed up games.
But can we trust random Redditors? After all, this one called BS on the whole thing.
They've been playing on the MiG Flash and they're not banned. Oops, scratch that, they got banned.
They were so mad they went and stole nearly 3,000 Switch 2 consoles
from the back of a truck in Texas. You can't ban all of them, Nintendo.
That was a joke about that Redditor. We don't know.
The mysterious new owner of the most popular game mod hosting platform, Nexus Mods,
has been revealed by who else? Redditors. You guys are getting extra representation
and tech link today and honestly, it's about time. Anyway, turns out Nexus Mods
is now owned by a company called Chosen, a gaming startup accelerator
whose website says we partner, we amplify, we conquer.
Uh, I don't like that. But if you actually read the rest of the site,
they try to differentiate themselves from normal Corpo investor people
and it does sound like there's some humanity and gaming passion involved,
but what do I know? Just in case, keep your pitchfork in attack position.
After the cat was out of the bag, the Chosen team addressed community concerns
in a pinned comment underneath founder Dark Ones Post
explicitly saying they won't sell mods, charge a download fee,
or claim ownership of the mods, they won't revoke lifetime premium licenses,
and generally, things will apparently largely stay the same,
although they did admit to never having made a Skyrim mod
and that's all I needed to hear. Pitchfork, volley, fire!
Sorry, sorry, I had to get the quick bits from the other guy.
Valve's updated Steam Performance overlay and the latest Steam Client beta
can now differentiate between traditional frames and frames generated by DLSS,
FSR, or XCSS, colloquially known as fake frames.
The overlay also now has metrics for CPU, GPU, and memory, which is cool,
but I'm gonna be turning this on and only looking at the top left
because I wanna enjoy those extra frames and be mad about it the whole time.
Donald Trump is once again extending the already extended deadline
for TikTok's owner BiteDance to agree to a sale
or have the social media app banned from the US,
although it seems like there is perpetually also a third option to extend the deadline.
June 19th was going to be midnight on the TikTok doomsday clock,
but every time that minute hands gets close, wouldn't you know it, midnight keeps moving.
Is this a daylight savings thing? Are the farmers pranking us?
Google has added another test in Search Labs.
Users who opt in can now try using live voice interaction in AI mode.
So you can talk to Gemini while it Google stuff for you?
That could be useful if you get more results than they show in this demo.
There's just like little cards. But something that's way more useful
is the new ability to directly upload video files for Gemini to analyze.
Maybe if you put in the recent Xbox videos and you can ask Gemini if it knows
what the hell an Xbox is. Honda of all companies just successfully launched
and landed its own reusable rocket shocking the space industry.
The 20.6 foot rocket reached an altitude of 889 feet
in the Japanese town of Taiki before gracefully returning to Earth,
extendable legs, and all. Honda, you dog!
You had this in the bag the whole time? Why didn't you tell anyone? I mean, it turns out they did, kind of.
In 2021, they said they were looking into doing space stuff, but no one cared.
No one ever asks how Honda's doing. And Generalist, a company founded
by an ex-Google DeepMind researcher, has shown off their robot hands being really good
at general purpose tasks, like flicking small items into bins
and putting boxes together all while dealing with that same damn hockey stick again.
Please, sir! The robot switches hands while zipping a backpack
without missing a beat and deals with even more abuse.
Oh my God, stop! I'm trying to work! But what's more impressive?
That or Australia approving lab-grown meat,
specifically Quail, that a company called Forged
has turned into luxury food items, like a Quail candle that melts
so you can dip stuff in it? Robots?
Meatwax. I don't know, but you better meatwax me back here
on Friday for more tech news.
Honestly, that's just hitting me now how weird that sounds.
You don't have to meatwax anything if you don't want to.