(dramatic music) - When dealing with live tech news,
remember always wear protective equipment.
We don't, but we're professionals.
- [Man Off Camera] We're raw dogging life, baby.
- It's dangerous.
Microsoft has announced that Xbox series X/S
and Xbox One consoles now support voice chat integration
with Discord after the tech giant failed to acquire
the popular chat platform back in 2021.
It was a swing and a miss.
They had a big net.
It doesn't always work.
There are some caveats though.
Discord voice chat is only available to Xbox insiders.
So you'll have to be okay
with installing early versions of software, which, so far,
require you to go through a complicated first time setup
involving multiple discord session handoffs
between your phone and console.
Things probably would've been smoother
if Microsoft's acquisition went through,
but what, should we just let them buy anything
if it'll run better?
- [Man Off Camera] It just keeps all the lame people off.
- The announcement makes Xboxes the first consoles
to support direct voice chat integration with Discord,
even though they announced a partnership
with Sony last year,
right after turning down Microsoft's offer
and said there would be some kind of PlayStation integration
in early 2022.
I'd be mad, but Sony keeps making awesome exclusive games
and bringing them to PC.
So if that's what they wanna focus on, I'm fine with that.
I also don't have a PS five, so I-
Speaking of consoles,
you might wanna check that yours isn't melting
as summer heat waves batter parts of the globe.
Nintendo and Valve have both issued warnings to owners
of these Switch and Steam Deck, respectively,
to avoid gaming in temperatures over 35 degrees Celsius.
Otherwise, you might experience a different kind of steam.
- [Man Off Camera] Head steam.
- I was thinking of the plastic, but it's very poisonous.
The warnings are appropriate
given that it's been over 35 degrees in Tokyo
for five days straight in the country's worst heat wave
ever documented.
While record breaking temperatures also afflict the EU
and UK causing Google and Oracle servers to overheat
and two British airports to shut down because their runways
are fricking melting.
While there isn't anything you can do immediately
to stop the heat, other than recycling your soda cans,
of course.
It'll help.
You could also pull a Linus Tech Tips and slap a heat sink
on the back of your Switch or Steam Deck.
- [Man Off Camera] Or grandma.
- Or anyone.
And Elon Musk has experienced another setback completely
unrelated to Twitter.
Thank God, 'cause I'm tired of talking about that.
Synchron has become the first company to implant
a brain computer interface into a US patient
beating Musk's competing company Neurolink to the punch.
Synchron's Stentrode system involves implanting a wire lace
in the patient's brain
by pushing it up through a blood vessel,
meaning no invasive surgery is required
unlike existing prototypes, where research participants
have a big doohickey sticking outta their head.
Have you ever seen those, James.
- [Man Off Camera] Neurolink's is actually called
the stent chode.
- Synchron has already implanted Stentrodes
in four Australian patients, but received FDA approval
to do the same in the us back in July 2021.
Meanwhile Neurolink hasn't even begun human trials,
which is, which is probably good.
- [Man Off Camera] Were they monkeying around?
- (fake laughs) Honestly, this is probably good.
I think it's okay to take it slow
with the whole cyborgification thing.
We have a lot of problems to deal with already
before we add in that, you know.
Let's figure things out.
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Have you ever seen quick bits that are going by
this quickly?
Ludicrously high refresh rates are making their way
from desktop monitors to gaming laptops.
Alienware just announced new notebooks with 1080p panels
that can reach a blistering 480 Hertz.
- [Man Off Camera] You don't need that.
- You, you do not.
Thank you James.
It's an optional $300 upgrade
for the AMD-powered m17 R5 or the Intel powered X17 R2
which might be as hard to justify as those model names.
What do they mean?
Did they just pick letters and numbers out of a hat?
M
15
R
8.
- [Man Off Camera] That one's next year's
- After killing Google Wallet
and replacing it with Google Pay,
Google is releasing a new Google Wallet
to replace Google Pay.
- [Man Off Camera] Yay.
- In addition to credit, debit and membership cards,
Wallet adds support for transit and event tickets,
boarding passes, vaccination records, virtual car keys
and student IDs.
Look for the update now and look for another update
in a couple years, reversing everything again.
What do you wanna use the same app forever?
Time for you to switch it up?
DALL-E 2, the text to image generator
developed by open AI
and the source of manifold internet memes,
will be made available to a million people currently
on the wait list in the coming weeks.
Those lucky few will be able to generate 50 free images
in the first month and 15 every following month.
This is great, but also entirely unfair.
So only a select few will have ultimate meme power.
This is meme elitism.
Sign my petition to add a right to meme in the constitution
and put open AI in jail.
Microsoft has announced Viva Engage,
a new social platform inside its Team chat app
that looks almost exactly like Facebook.
There's a newsfeed with text, image and video posts
and personal profiles that are like, look, look at that.
That's Facebook.
I don't think Microsoft understands
that Facebook's growth is declining
because people don't like Facebook.
They're like the people who pick up litter
and bring it back to you.
You dropped this.
You didn't mean to, I'm sure.
And listen up Canadians who may have bought
an optical disc drive between 2004 and 2010,
you could get 20 bucks without a proof of purchase.
Thanks to a $29.7 million settlement
in a class action lawsuit brought
against large electronic manufacturers
like Sony, Phillips, Panasonic, BenQ and more.
The companies were accused of price fixing
on optical drives, so the least they could do
is give you some money for some double doubles
and dim bits.
- [Man Off Camera] See you there.
- I never understand why these are a thing.
And the least we could do
is tell you to come back on Friday for more tech news.
Because again,
we are the only people qualified to handle it.
We go through rigorous training here that-
- [Man's Voice] Heads up.
- See, I wouldn't have been able to (screams).