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So I ran into my old pal Aragorn, son of Arathornne, and he says to me, "Riders

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of Rohan, what news from the mock?" To which I reply, "Buddy, I don't know what

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you're talking about, but I can tell you the tech news." YouTube has finally

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addressed concerns over view counts raised by a good number of creators in

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recent weeks, including Redletter Media, Second Win, and even awkward teenager

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with a full beard, Linus Tech Tip, Sebastian. YouTube's response, as

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delivered in a support article published this morning, essentially boils down to

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skill issue. It's all in your head. Get

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good, pleb.

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The article first addresses the idea that the reason view counts suddenly

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dropped in mid August was due to YouTube rolling out age verification. This is a

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hypothesis that Redletter Media talked about in their video, but they referred

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to accounts that had been age restricted as having restricted mode automatically

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turned on, which I guess led YouTube to spend this whole section clarifying that

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restricted mode can only be manually turned on. It's a separate thing that

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has absolutely nothing to do with what they call age restricted content.

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Restricted mode restricts the viewing of videos based on whether they're

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appropriate for kids. But that doesn't mean that the videos blocked by

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restricted mode are classified as age restricted content.

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Doesn't make sense. Yeah. This part of

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the response was super helpful in not addressing the question of whether the

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age verification rollout, which happened on August 13th, has anything to do with

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the massive views drop reported by creators around the same time. So,

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thanks for that, YouTube. The other major hypothesis going around is that

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YouTube has stopped counting views from devices using an ad blocker or they've

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changed the way they count views in some way. But YouTube says, "You fool, we've

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done no such thing. There is no systemic

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issue that is impacting creators."

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Okay, but there's just one problem. As pointed out by Lionus and one of LMG's

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best boys, Dan Besser on the WAN Show, while views have dropped, the ratio of

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likes to dislikes has shot up and the revenue per video is about the same

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despite lower views, which would be consistent with ad blocked views not

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counting anymore as YouTube creators only get revenue if the viewer sees an

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ad. That's just how it works. Then there's this little detail spotted by

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Josh Strife Hayes. It's views from computer users specifically that have

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dropped. You know, the device on which it's easiest to install an ad blocker.

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And you know what? You may have noticed our views have also been down since mid

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August. So, let's take a look at our views from mobile. It looks mostly fine.

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TV, yeah, seems normal. Computer, whoa.

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Okay. But YouTube's probably right. We're just a victim of onplatform

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competition. You know, it's it's just hard for me to

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grasp that because we're the only tech news channel on YouTube. I checked.

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Eden, a Nintendo Switch emulator, has launched on the Google Play Store. It's

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not the first Switch emulator on the Play Store. The infamous Yuzu emulator

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was also available on the platform before being thoroughly destroyed by

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Nintendo's legal team. Eden is a fork of Yuzu, apparently built by a team of

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masochistic developers. Its brazen release onto the Play Store has fans

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excited, but also probably wincing a little bit as they wait for a legal

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orbital strike from the Mushroom Kingdom. According to Eden's Play Store

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page, the emulator focuses on high performance without compromising

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aesthetics, compatibility, or stability. And that concentration on performance is

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one of the more attractive points about Switch emulators in general because

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Nintendo hardware, first-party hardware, is rarely the best place to actually

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play Nintendo games. For example, just this weekend, Digital Foundry released a

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video about how the Switch 2's CPU holds back the performance of games that use

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Unreal Engine 5. With a nearly constant stream of new Android powered handhelds,

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the timing of Eden's release seems great, but we'll just have to see how

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long they can dodge the wrath of Nintendo. Good luck, Eden, and I'm sorry

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for bringing attention to you. NVIDIA is being accused of violating anti-

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monopoly laws by a Chinese regulatory body. These enormous corporations just

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cannot catch a break. China launched the investigation into NVIDIA's business

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practices back in December 2024 over

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NVIDIA's potential failure to comply with government provisions in its

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acquisition of USIsraeli chip designer Melanox Technologies back in 2020. The

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specifics of NVIDIA's breach of those provisions are still vague, but the

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timing of this whole scenario makes a lot of sense. The investigation into

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NVIDIA started only a week after the US announced tougher export controls on

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certain chips and chipmaking equipment going into China. And now the Chinese

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regulators accusation of monopolistic behavior from NVIDIA comes just as US

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and Chinese officials meet in Madrid for trade talks. So maybe NVIDIA is as bad

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as China is making them out to be. Or maybe this is all just part of a

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political game between two global superpowers. or you know, two things can

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be true at the same time. And no one knows that better than our sponsor,

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Ground News. They want to help you break free from toxic algorithms and actually

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understand just what the heck is going on out there. Which is why the Nobel

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Peace Center recognized ground news as an excellent way to stay informed and

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avoid echo chambers. But how? Well, they

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collect and compare tons of articles covering the same story and analyze how

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it's being covered across the political spectrum. Take this recent story about

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how the education system is being forced to adapt to AI. Right-leaning outlets

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represent only 7% of the coverage here while left-leaning outlets count for

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26%. Why is that the case when it seems

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like the left hates AI and the right loves it? That's a great question you

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can dive into with Ground News bias comparison tool. Bias. It's like a

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brain. Everyone's got one, even if it doesn't seem like it sometimes. Hey, get

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the transparency and understanding you deserve from the news and save 40% on

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ground news vantage plan by using our link in the description. So, my other

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buddy Gandalf, who is a white wizard at this point, good for him, told his

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steed, "Shhatter facts show them the

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meaning of haste." But I said, "Hold your horses, Fred. These quick bits will

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do just just fine." Tik Tok might be sticking around in the

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US after all. While in Madrid for the

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US's trade talks with China, US trade secretary Scott Bessant told reporters

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that the two countries have reached a framework on a deal to switch Tik Tok

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from the hands of bite dance into US controlled ownership. Now, one key to

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the deal succeeding was the fact that China is interested in Chinese

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characteristics of the app, but the US doesn't care about Chinese

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characteristics. Tik Tok has been given until September 17th to make a deal or

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they risk being banned from the US, but this date has already been pushed back

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before and probably will be again. The perpetual doom scroll continues.

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Speaking of which, Qualcomm has announced its next flagship processor,

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the Snapdragon Elite 8 Gen 5. A doozy of

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a name that kicked off a conversation about whether Qualcomm had maybe had one

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too many drinks and skipped a few generations of chips. That's because

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Qualcomm's preceding uh chip was called the Snapdragon 8 Elite. No genens two to

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four. I guess the name caused enough confusion that Qualcomm felt the need to

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explain themselves in a blog post, writing, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 marks

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the fifth generation of our premium 8 series platform since we introduced our

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new singledigit naming and adding Gen 5

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isn't just a number, it's a signal that this platform leads the family forward.

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And uh why is it called Elite again? Because it is Elite. Awesome. Just

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checking. Thank you. Google has had a lawsuit brought against it by Penske

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Media Corporation or PMC to its friends, the publisher of Rolling Stone, Variety,

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Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and they're also an investor in Vox Media.

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All my aunts, uncles, and parents' favorites. PMC's complaint claims that

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Google's AI overviews give someone no reason to actually click on the source

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of the information that the AI just summarized and that results in a loss of

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traffic for PMC's sites. We've talked about this before in the channel. In a

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statement, PMC's CEO Jay Pensky said

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that PMC will proactively fight for the future of digital media and preserve its

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integrity, all of which is threatened by Google's current actions. And while I

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don't watch a lot of combat sports, I am here for intercorporate juggernaut

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brawls. And TSMC is buzzing about their

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newest announcement. Uh, is that a pun? Maybe. The company, the world's largest

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semiconductor manufacturer, is getting into the honey business. Not the

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extension. Nope. As Tom's Hardware

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states, TSMC has worked with local beekeepers in Taiwan to produce Gme TSMC

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branded honey. Okay. Uh the Taiwanese

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business isn't just getting into this venture for the honey money, though.

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These beekeeping efforts are to show off that TSMC is environmentally responsible

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and their operations don't affect the natural ecosystems around their

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facilities like at all. An uplifting

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story, but one that makes me hungry. So, I'm going to go. If you enjoyed this

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video, please like and subscribe, and don't forget to come back on Wednesday for more tech news. In the meantime, I'm

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going back to having one-sided conversations with my TV while I rewatch

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Lord of the Rings. Bye-bye now.