- This is my impression of you clicking on this video.
"Oh, TechLinked.
Let's see what happened in the tech world today."
Apple has become the first American company
to hit a $2 trillion market value.
Wow, it feels like it's only been two years
since they hit 1 trillion,
and that's because that's correct.
Apple is reaching this milestone while embroiled
in a legal battle with Epic Games,
who is attempting to get Cupertino
to capitulate on the 30% cut it takes
from all transactions on the iOS App Store.
That so-called Apple tax has been a huge driver
for Apple's growth,
particularly because the amount of income
it generates dwarfs the amount of resources it takes
to run the App Store.
It made 260 billion from it in 2019.
- [Staff] A bit of an own goal at this point.
- Yeah.
Apple says they just want Epic
to abide by the App Store guidelines,
and will not make an exception for Fortnite,
even though they've shown that they can
and will make exceptions for the likes of Amazon,
who only pays a 15% cut on Prime Video transactions.
- [Staff] And Netflix!
- And yeah, them too!
Apple continues to weather accusations of antitrust
with a recently filed patent revealing the company
is working on a cloud gaming service,
which explains why Apple blocked Stadia
and Project xCloud from the App Store.
And the fight is only said to get more intense,
as Epic has reportedly approached other companies,
including Spotify and Sonos,
about joining a coalition to pressure Apple
to alter its cut with their combined bargaining power.
And yeah, Epic Games sucks too, okay?
They all suck.
But if Apple ends up lowering its App Store cut,
I might finally be able to self-publish my app
that rewards you with double the Bitcoin
that you put in initially.
It works.
I promise, please.
All new Oculus VR headsets going forward
will require a Facebook account to operate.
- [Staff] Son of a.
- According to an announcement made
by the social giant yesterday.
Naturally, people are kind of upset about this,
especially because Facebook doesn't really try
to hide the fact that it tracks things,
like what games you play and how long you play them,
and immediately links that to the copious amounts of data
it's already gathered about you on Facebook proper.
It also sucks because Oculus founder
and flip flop enthusiast Palmer Luckey said
this exact thing would not happen
when Facebook purchased Oculus back in 2014.
But this is announcement was inevitable
when you consider the steps
that Facebook has slowly taken towards this end.
First, absorbing Oculus into its own technology group,
and then requiring a Facebook account for social features.
But Facebook isn't all bad, okay?
Their AI group just enabled MRIs
to be taken in minutes instead of hours.
You don't wanna sit in that crazy machine
for an hour, do you?
So shut up and enter your damn email and password.
And TikTok has published a website with various arguments
about why they're not a national security threat
and shouldn't be banned.
But their pleas are apparently falling on deaf ears,
because Oracle, do you know who Oracle is?
- [Staff] Yeah, Oracle's huge.
- Yeah, they're big.
They've now put in their own bid
to acquire the company's US operations.
Microsoft was previously the front runner,
but President Trump himself has said Oracle would be,
"A great company," I can't do Trump, to take over,
which probably has nothing to do with the fact
that Oracle's chairman held a big Trump fundraiser
earlier this year.
But whether you love or hate Trump,
as Tim Wu writes in The New York Times,
the ban might be for the best,
since China blocks all major social platforms
from the West anyway.
I don't understand how they do it.
Twitter is such a good time,
very fun, healthy discussions happening.
- [Staff] Free speech!
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In all this TikTok nonsense, the US forgot about a loophole
in their sanctions against Huawei.
- [Both] No!
- That loophole has now been closed,
meaning no company worldwide is allowed
to sell semiconductors made using American software
or equipment if Huawei was involved
at any stage of the process.
Analysts say this latest move could lead
to the company's quote unquote death.
Maybe pick up one of those new Ryzen-powered MateBooks
as a historical artifact.
Don't turn it on though.
Gamers were jazzed this week
about the launch of Microsoft's latest Flight Simulator,
for some reason, but weren't so jazzed to discover
that after a small initial install size,
the game has to download the rest of its 90 to 150 gigs
of data before you can play.
And the time it takes to download it
counts as playtime on Steam.
If it takes longer than two hours,
you won't be able to get a refund,
and people are upset about this,
so they're asking Steam to extend the refund window.
But are you really playing a little bit
of Flight Simulator and be like, "Nah"?
- [Staff] I think this part is flight simulator,
it's all these airport simulator.
- It's the waiting.
That's the most important part!
Nvidia has made its GeForce Now game streaming service
available on Chromebooks,
providing an alternative to Google Stadia for budget gamers,
and taking away one of the few advantages
to actually paying for Stadia.
I can't think of what the other ones are right now,
I'll come back to it.
Some, to be perfectly honest, questionable leaks
are pointing to the RTX 3090 retailing
for around 2,000 US dollars.
But this has to be some kind of weird marketing campaign
where they bait you with this,
and then reveal that it's actually only 1,300.
Oh, what a steal!
For that price, does it double as a folding phone?
Maybe in 2022.
And Blackberry just will not die.
TCL will stop licensing the brand this month,
but it's been picked up
by Texas-based startup Onward Mobility.
- [Staff] Stop!
- Which will produce a physical keyboard-equipped 5G handset
in 2021.
Here's hoping Blackberry will continue existing
in a strange undead state well into the next century.
TechLinked, on the other hand, knows when to quit,
so this episode is over.
Come back on Friday for more tech news
because you just can't get enough, can ya?