WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.640 I was thinking about starting this video by singing the song TikTok by Kesha, 00:00:04.640 --> 00:00:09.440 but I don't think anyone waking up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy is a good vibe right now. 00:00:09.440 --> 00:00:14.440 The United States has officially passed a law banning TikTok, 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:21.220 next year, if certain conditions aren't met. The bill actually gives parent company ByteDance 270 days 00:00:21.220 --> 00:00:25.400 to sell the app. Otherwise, it'll be barred from US app stores. 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:28.720 Of course, Android users could always just side load the app, 00:00:28.720 --> 00:00:33.800 but iOS users would be forever blocked from redownloading this specific flavor 00:00:33.800 --> 00:00:40.800 of heavy duty brain rot. The not yet a ban passed as part of a larger foreign aid package 00:00:40.800 --> 00:00:46.240 in support of Ukraine and Israel. They just snuck it in there like a mouse turd 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:50.520 in a box of raisins. TikTok has promised to fight the law in court, 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:55.720 calling it an unconstitutional suppression of its American users' freedom of speech, 00:00:55.720 --> 00:01:00.960 a freedom best expressed by lip syncing along to a recording of a joke that somebody else said. 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:05.440 Even if ByteDance was willing to sell, the sale might be blocked by China, 00:01:05.440 --> 00:01:10.960 which imposes export restrictions on governing algorithms such as TikToks. 00:01:10.960 --> 00:01:16.280 Further, a sale or ban might not even protect American users from Chinese information collection, 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:21.240 given that the Chinese government can probably buy most of this information off the open market. 00:01:21.240 --> 00:01:25.080 Speaking of collecting information, the US government also renewed 00:01:25.080 --> 00:01:30.280 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, AKA FISA, including an amendment 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:34.800 which has been criticized for expanding government surveillance without a warrant. 00:01:34.800 --> 00:01:40.400 Honestly, the best possible outcome of this would be if the hot new teen trend was a dance craze, 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:44.400 criticizing lack of judicial oversight for federal intelligence agencies. 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:48.880 Let's make it happen. Let's go guys. Qualcomm has officially unveiled 00:01:48.880 --> 00:01:53.240 its full upcoming lineup of Snapdragon X series CPUs, 00:01:53.240 --> 00:01:58.120 including a list of names that look like Qualcomm's marketing head passed out on the keyboard. 00:01:58.120 --> 00:02:03.120 Their top model is the X1E-84-100, 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:07.760 the X standing for X, the one indicating the chip's generation, 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:11.440 the E standing for elite, the 84 being the SKU, 00:02:11.440 --> 00:02:14.800 and the 100 standing for nothing. 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:18.840 No, really, it doesn't mean anything. At least not yet. 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:22.160 That section of the name is reserved for future use, 00:02:22.160 --> 00:02:25.360 so all of the names currently end in 100. 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:28.760 Wouldn't you stick 100 on the end of something? 00:02:28.760 --> 00:02:31.800 If you wanted to? My child, baby 100. 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:36.240 Baby 100. It's not clear why the names would need to be so complicated 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:40.040 when there's a grand total of four chips, 00:02:40.040 --> 00:02:43.920 only one of which even falls into the lower tier plus category. 00:02:43.920 --> 00:02:48.440 While the plus sports 10 cores, the three elite chips all have 12, 00:02:48.440 --> 00:02:52.560 with the top two models, the X1E-84 and X1E-80, 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:57.920 coming with dual core boost at 4.2 and four gigahertz respectively. 00:02:57.920 --> 00:03:03.640 That's actually a 0.1 gigahertz drop from what was originally promised for the X1E-84. 00:03:03.640 --> 00:03:08.280 What's a tenth of a gigahertz between friends? What's important is that we're overthrowing 00:03:08.280 --> 00:03:11.720 the x86 Windows ecosystem, okay? That's, stay focused. 00:03:11.720 --> 00:03:14.840 It has been a terrible first quarter for Tesla, 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:19.160 in part because its profit margin shrank by 55% 00:03:19.160 --> 00:03:23.680 and sales dropped by 8.5%, despite substantial price cuts. 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:27.480 The company now has an excess of stock and a shortage of cash, 00:03:27.480 --> 00:03:32.440 which makes this an absolutely terrible time for the public to find out that the Cybertruck 00:03:32.440 --> 00:03:35.680 isn't even waterproof. How? 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:41.680 At least one owner claims to have accidentally bricked his ride by taking it through the car wash 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:49.360 and hosing sand out of the truck's bed without setting his vehicle to car wash mode first. 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:53.100 Rookie mistake. Leading the vehicle's infotainment system 00:03:53.100 --> 00:03:56.220 to die like a smartphone after being dropped in the toilet. 00:03:56.220 --> 00:03:59.300 While the rest of the truck is technically operational, 00:03:59.300 --> 00:04:02.420 the Cybertruck incorporates several key gauges, 00:04:02.420 --> 00:04:07.820 such as its battery level and speedometer, into its digital display, which was dead. 00:04:07.820 --> 00:04:12.420 Worse, it's almost impossible to see out of the Cybertruck's narrow rear window 00:04:12.420 --> 00:04:17.260 at the best of times. And when the truck bed is closed, the cover blocks the window completely. 00:04:17.260 --> 00:04:22.860 That means that the drivers are wholly dependent on the rear camera, whose feed is also part 00:04:22.860 --> 00:04:27.700 of the digital display. So if you want to back up without it, you need to keep the back of the truck open, 00:04:27.700 --> 00:04:31.780 which is going to be a problem because the bed isn't waterproof, apparently. 00:04:31.780 --> 00:04:36.680 Get a really big bag of rice. Now, just as a reminder, this is a vehicle 00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:40.460 with an actual wade mode that's supposed to let it 00:04:40.460 --> 00:04:44.380 ford rivers. We were told it was going to have an optional package, 00:04:44.380 --> 00:04:49.420 letting it transform into a boat. Now, lest you think this is an isolated incident, 00:04:49.420 --> 00:04:53.220 many Cybertruck buyers have reported that its stainless steel exterior panels 00:04:53.220 --> 00:04:57.740 have already started to rust, apparently because Tesla thought it was more important 00:04:57.740 --> 00:05:02.740 for the vehicle to be bulletproof than weatherproof. They should have made it out of cast iron instead, 00:05:02.740 --> 00:05:06.780 so you could just season it. Funnily enough, Elon Musk actually suggested 00:05:06.780 --> 00:05:11.940 during a call with investors that Tesla might be able to take advantage of the unused compute power 00:05:11.940 --> 00:05:15.340 of idle vehicles to provide cloud services. 00:05:15.340 --> 00:05:20.780 So at least disappointed customers might still be able to use their broken Cybertrucks to mine Bitcoin. 00:05:20.780 --> 00:05:24.980 Hey, why not get a quick bite before you sit down for some quick bits? Well, it's because you're probably not going to have time 00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:28.340 to finish your food. Let's go. Google has delayed its plan 00:05:28.340 --> 00:05:32.320 to phase out third-party tracking cookies in Chrome yet again. 00:05:32.320 --> 00:05:36.260 This is actually the third time since 2020, but it's not Google's fault. 00:05:36.260 --> 00:05:41.620 It's those mean regulators at the UK Competition and Markets Authority who are concerned 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:45.680 that Google's replacement for cookies, the so-called privacy sandbox, 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:48.940 will give it an anti-competitive chokehold on tracking an information collection, 00:05:48.940 --> 00:05:53.020 which yeah, yeah, yeah, I probably will. This newest delay likely means 00:05:53.020 --> 00:05:56.700 that Google will miss its proposed phase-out date of the end of this year. 00:05:56.700 --> 00:05:59.760 So in the meantime, you can feel free to continue browsing 00:05:59.760 --> 00:06:03.780 while only being constantly tracked in the manner you've become desensitized to. 00:06:03.780 --> 00:06:09.840 You're being watched exactly as much as usual. The Rabbit R1, the multimodal AI device 00:06:09.840 --> 00:06:13.480 that gathered 50,000 pre-orders following its CES debut, 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:19.800 has officially launched just over a week after the humane AI pin endured a brutal flogging 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:23.880 in the public square. In early impression pieces, there's a surprising amount of optimism 00:06:23.880 --> 00:06:28.040 from some of the same reviewers who gave the AI pin a real tongue lashing. 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:31.200 It probably helps that the R1 costs $200 00:06:31.200 --> 00:06:36.400 instead of 700 plus a monthly subscription. I mean, sure, it could literally just be an app 00:06:36.400 --> 00:06:41.000 instead of a cute little Pokedex looking thing, but then you wouldn't have a cute little Pokedex thing 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:43.360 you'll forget about faster than the Vision Pro. 00:06:45.220 --> 00:06:50.220 I thought that was a burn. ASUS released a BIOS update for its Z790 motherboards 00:06:50.220 --> 00:06:53.540 in response to massive claims of CPU instability 00:06:53.540 --> 00:06:57.700 reported by users of flagship 13th and 14th gen processors. 00:06:57.700 --> 00:07:02.280 Unfortunately, the update also appears to reduce performance of these high-end Intel CPUs 00:07:02.280 --> 00:07:06.440 by up to 9%. At least for the Core i9-14900K, 00:07:06.440 --> 00:07:12.440 the new update sets the CPU power limit to Intel's recommended 253 watts 00:07:12.440 --> 00:07:16.480 instead of the previous, practically unlimited limit 00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:22.680 of 4,095 watts. So it's not that your CPU has gotten worse per se. 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:27.320 ASUS has essentially just stopped injecting it with steroids, meaning your processor 00:07:27.320 --> 00:07:31.000 will get to enjoy a longer life and it won't need to worry about its testicle shrinking. 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:34.460 Nissan has unveiled a solution to the age-old problem 00:07:34.460 --> 00:07:39.800 of how to deal with babies in the backseat of your car. And that solution is an animatronic, 00:07:39.800 --> 00:07:45.080 fluffy blob creature mounted in front of your child that will play peek-a-boo and wave its arms around 00:07:45.080 --> 00:07:48.220 as if pleading for someone to please get it down from there. 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:54.840 Release it from this mortal plane. It's called Iruyo, apparently meaning I'm here in Japanese 00:07:54.840 --> 00:07:58.640 and not only will it sing songs in response to parents' voice commands, 00:07:58.640 --> 00:08:01.680 it will signal to a smaller robot in the front seat 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:05.200 which will close its eyes when the child falls asleep. 00:08:05.200 --> 00:08:09.880 Because why use a standard car seat mirror when you can monitor your child through a robot 00:08:09.880 --> 00:08:13.560 that looks like the Pokemon that evolves into Elmo? And you asked for it, 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:18.080 you can finally buy a robot dog with a flamethrower strapped to its back. 00:08:18.080 --> 00:08:21.840 The Thermonator, created by the aptly named company 00:08:21.840 --> 00:08:26.880 Throw Flame, is now available for purchase for less than $10,000. 00:08:26.880 --> 00:08:30.840 That's right, for the low price of 9,420, 00:08:30.840 --> 00:08:34.120 you can blaze it. And the it, in blaze it, in this case, 00:08:34.160 --> 00:08:40.200 means anything within the Thermonator's 30-foot flamethrowing range, blaze it up. 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:45.440 According to Throw Flame's website, flamethrowers are legal and unregulated in most countries. 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:51.360 Fun fact, and we all know big robot dog has been lobbying against sensible robot dog control laws 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:54.520 for decades. Cybernetic canines don't even need to be leashed. 00:08:54.520 --> 00:08:57.960 And we'll unleash more tech news on you. 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:03.160 If you come back on Friday for the next episode of TechLinked, if not, flamethrower dog.