Ariana Grande is performing a cosmically mindbending concert in Fortnite. No
thanks. I'll take some tech news. Good choice. Apple has caused a stir among
tech and privacy enthusiasts by announcing plans to scan the company's
devices for content that depicts the abuse of children. Apple published a
press release and a technical breakdown of how this would work, which involves
using ondevice machine learning to detect images that match a known
database of image hashes. If a certain threshold of matches is reached, Apple
will provide information to the authorities. Now, obviously, this is a
noble goal, two thumbs up. But the implementation has privacy advocates
worried that a similar system could easily be used to scan for any number of
things. The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls it a backdoor into your
private life, while others are pointing out that such a move is a bit strange
coming from Apple, who is never going to live down that CES billboard about
things staying on your iPhone. The system won't be implemented until later
this year, so there's a bit more time to argue about hypothetical situations and
reference George Orwell a lot. But there's even more Apple news
thanks to a number of documents relating to their legal fight with Epic Games
being released this week. One of the more juicy ones actually concerns
Google, who apparently called Epic's plans to sidestep the Play Store a
contagion because it threatened Google's dominant app platform. The court filings
also revealed that Google called the Android sideloading process abysmal and
contemplated buying a majority stake in Epic to stop their lawsuit because when
you're rich, they let you do it. Another document lays out Apple's anti-Epic
argument in detail, essentially saying that they're only after money since Epic
has admitted at times that current antitrust law may not be on their side.
In the midst of all of this though, developers complained to Apple this week
about scam apps that were promoted in the Australian iOS app store. One app
was charging $13 a week to remove ads, which goes against Apple's promise of
rejecting expensive apps that try to cheat users with irrationally high
prices, leading once more to the question of whether Apple can decide
what is irrational. Like, is Apple's
irrational hatred of me irrational? I
just I just want to tell Tim how much he means to me face to face. I think he
loves you. And here's a scam you should watch out for. A digital storefront
called Quest has been swindling desperate GPU buyers out of their
hard-earned money. A mega thread on the graphics card subreddit is full of
thousands of comments from wouldbe customers whose orders were never
fulfilled. At some point, Quest changed their website to a new domain. And while
it's lacking quite a bit of detail, like for example, it has an empty about
section. Who are you? It otherwise looks legit enough to trick others. So, we
would advise avoiding these guys. Uh even if you see a must buy price on a
graphics card, this is this is a side quest you definitely want to skip. Aha.
Now, it's time for some mainline bits that doesn't work anymore. Scammers are
everywhere right now. Apparently, Vice just published a report on multiple
services that will let users pay to ban
other users, which is accomplished by creating copycat accounts, impersonating
the target, then reporting the original user for impersonation. Feel like it
shouldn't work. This will cost you just $60. You know, I missed the old internet
where we just argued about whether it was called GIF or that other word that's
not real and doesn't exist. Lukewarm leaker Front Page Tech claims to have
inside information that Google will launch the 5G capable Pixel 5A on August
26th for $450. It seems a bit strange to launch
it so long after the Pixel 5 and so close to the Pixel 6 launch this fall,
but hey, it's a wild time protect products. I mean, Valve is launching a
handheld Steam machine, so far as I can tell, anything goes. I handheld the
first one. Microsoft has announced it is developing an experimental mode for the
Edge browser called super duper secure mode. Did Elon Musk name it? It will
apparently slightly increase security while having a minimal impact on
performance. Rumors say they're already working on the second revision of the
system called Mega Ultra Omni Security Bonanza Time, which I personally think
is a much catchier name. Free. And hey, remember that 3dfx Twitter account that
said the company is coming back? Yeah, it turns out all they posted was an
amateur-looking slideshow with some vague promises before the account itself
was deleted. So, it was all a sham. But,
were we wrong to hope? Really, to look on the horizon for some dim chance of a
brighter tomorrow? Yes, we were. That was stupid. And Disney has revealed the
pricing for its Star Wars Galactic Star Cruiser attraction. Two nights for two
guests in one cabin will cost almost $5,000.
But hey, you'd be pretending to sleep and hang out on a spaceship, which would
sound super cool if it didn't take place in the sequel era. It's not canon. If
you want a sequel to this episode, you'll have to come back on Monday for
Oh, I fell off my box. For more tech news, we have a plan. We're not just
making these up one at a time as we go. Or we're totally pulling a Kevin Feige
here. Yeah, they're already written. I swear it.