2024-10-09 google_is_not_ok.txt

Listen, I don't want to babble too much before the tech news
but this video is sponsored by Babbel, spelled differently.
Keep watching and we'll tell you
how you can get 60% off a Babbel subscription,
okay?
After a court ruled that
Google has abused its market dominance in internet search
the US Department of Justice says
that it's considering structural remedies
which is a boring antitrust term
that means forcing the company to sell off part of its business.
Breaking up Google is only one of a suite
of potential remedies that the DOJ will be recommending as options
to the judge in the case, Ahmed Mehta
who is almost definitely not just Mark Zuckerberg
in a black robe and rubber mask.
It's hard to believe that Google might actually get chopped up and sold for spare parts
mostly because it's been over 40 years
since the last time U.S. antitrust regulators actually broke up a company,
the 1982 breakup of the Bell system.
Microsoft nearly got the Solomon baby treatment 24 years ago
but that case was appealed and then eventually settled out of court
with serious restrictions for how Microsoft was allowed to do business going forward.
Google is clearly taking the possibility seriously, however
and has argued that the DOJ's proposals are radical
and sweeping and a potential risk
to consumers, businesses, and developers.
That's what I say whenever I got a brew in my hands.
I'm radical and sweeping.
Google plans to appeal the decision
but it won't have the opportunity until Meta,
the judge, not the company,
decides on an appropriate remedy, most likely by August 2025
meaning that this case will most likely
drag on for at least a few more years.
In far lower stakes Google antitrust news
a judge has ordered Google to allow third-party app stores
to access the Play Store's app collection.
Google likewise plans to appeal this decision
though it might be cheaper
if Sundar Pichai just challenged Epic CEO Tim Sweeney
to a fistfight in the nearest Waffle House parking lot.
Just an idea.
Hackers connected to the Chinese government
have infiltrated several U.S. internet service providers,
including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen.
They were scared off by the customer service.
The hackers reportedly had access to these networks for several months
and they gained that access through a system of security backdoors
that are legally required by the U.S. government
for use in wiretapping.
Okay.
The extent of the attack and what information the hackers had access to is still being investigated
but if you're wondering how bad this is
the answer is very.
The Chinese government has denied being behind these attacks
and even pretended to be hurt by the accusation,
despite the fact that their government,
and basically every other government
is pulling stuff like this all the time.
But not us!
However, this kind of attack highlights a deeper problem
with the U.S. government's approach to system security.
where it has long pressured tech companies to embed hardware
and software back doors in their products
for the sake of its own convenience,
despite the very real risk
that a malicious actor could exploit
the exact same route to cause serious harm
like what we're seeing right now.
This was Apple's argument when they were pressured by the FBI
to access devices belonging to alleged mass shooters
and the company has largely been vindicated.
Buy your mom an iPhone because she's probably not a terrorist.
When would she launch the attack?
She spends all her time with me.
Barbara, are you doing something I don't like?
Barbara, you're in big trouble.
EV startup Fisker has run into a potentially serious snag in its bankruptcy plan.
It has no way of migrating its EV's cloud operations onto its new owner's servers.
For context, in June
Fisker reached an agreement with New York-based rental company American Lease
to buy its remaining fleet of 3,300 vehicles for $46.3 million.
However, Fisker only informed American Lease
that they couldn't transfer the EV's server links last Friday
when they had already paid $42.5 million
and accepted 1,100 Ocean SUVs.
It is currently unclear how long
Fisker has known about this extremely relevant technical issue
American Lease has therefore filed
an emergency objection to Fisker's liquidation plan.
They wanted their liquidation plan to be more solid.
The Department of Justice has filed its own objection
in response to claims
that Fisker has been trying to make ocean owners
pay for their own recall repairs
which is very much illegal.
Fisker is likewise attracting ominous attention from the SEC
who are investigating the company, but haven't said exactly why.
That's just what happens
when you're a struggling company
failing to meet its contractual obligations.
you start seeing the silhouette of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler
every time you close your eyes.
Like the Grim Reaper.
Does that happen to people?
But when I close my eyes
I just see our sponsor.
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Believe it or not, in 1964
this show won the Nobel Prize for quickest bit.
Now that's something to tell your grandkids.
YouTube has started hiding the skip button timer on its mobile app
just a week after some Reddit users 
reported seeing a grayed-out skip button timer on desktop.
Now it might not be the worst thing.
As seen in a screen recording from Android Police
the length of the unskippable portion is still shown in the seek bar
and the skip button appears after that portion is done.
And a YouTube spokesperson said
the change is meant to allow users to focus on the ads.
Yeah, that's why I don't watch YouTube ads.
The distracting skip button.
Just can't take my eyes off.
It's gorgeous.
Asus' new NitroPath RAM slot design
can apparently boost speeds by up to 400 megatransfers per second in a peculiar way.
The tech has no direct improvements
for populated RAM slots, but for the unpopulated ones.
Turns out that the metal contacts in empty slots act like antennas
generating electrical noise that interferes with RAM at high speeds.
It's like how everyone's wisdom teeth
accidentally pick up secret CIA transmission.
That's everyone, right?
That happens to you, right?
NitroPath slots solve this by shortening the contacts.
Though the tech was announced back in August
it's finally arriving on select high-end ASUS motherboards
and should come to other OEMs sometime next year
according to YouTuber Der Bauer and my teeth.
Leaked slides allegedly from Intel's imminent unveiling
of its Core Ultra 200 series desktop CPUs,
aka Arrow Lake, show the upcoming flagship Core Ultra 9 285K
providing lower FPS on average than its predecessor, the Core i9-14900K.
Unless we're gonna get a Ultra 9 290K at some point
we don't know.
Although the Arrow Lake chip is using
80 watts less than the older model
and it has eight fewer threads
thanks to Intel removing hyper-threading
it's a bit weird that Intel is advertising their new product
with a promise of more modest performance.
I don't know
maybe that's their marketing angle.
This CPU isn't big and flashy
it's very demure
very mindful of how much power it's using.
This guy uses TikTok.
Meta has now confirmed that they will be training its AI
on pictures and videos taken using Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses
after previously refusing to publicly discuss
whether or not they do so.
Oh, I guess, why would that be?
It's not, guys, this isn't
why are we even worrying about this?
You can technically opt out of the training
by not using the multimodal AI capabilities of your multimodal AI-powered smart glasses
Meta will also use your voice convos with the AI for training
though you can actually opt out of that
the first time you log in to the Ray-Ban Meta app.
But please don't if you're in Australia or the UK
both countries that just got access to the AI.
Zuck needs that voice data
so he can learn how to tell what the hell you're saying.
You have no idea that New Zealand even exists.
Don't tell him that.
Why do you say words like that?
And speaking of, AI won big at this year's Nobel Prizes.
The prize for chemistry was awarded
to American biochemist David Baker,
as well as Demi Hassabi
and John Jumper of Google DeepMind
for their involvement in the development
of protein structure prediction AI AlphaFold.
They're doing chemistry, I guess.
The prize for physics went to
professors John Hopfield and Jeffrey Hinton
whose work laid the foundation for modern neural networks.
This is confusing.
All science is just AI now.
You know, AI, physics.
And the Nobel Prize for Biology is going to go to Boston Dynamics.
Hinton, often called one of the godfathers of AI
has expressed regrets about his life's work,
and was reportedly flabbergasted to receive the prize.
You and me both.
Many in the scientific community were equally flabbergasted
with German physicist Sabine Hassenfelder, and also a youtuber now, noting
that the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics
wasn't even being awarded to an achievement in physics.
But she seems just kind of grumpy all the time.
So I can see that.
But your award for sitting through an entire episode
is an invitation to come back on Friday for more tech news.
We're going to do the same thing.
But different.