- Subscribe to Channel Super Fun
so you can watch Dennis give me this magnificent haircut.
- [Riley] This is Tech Linked, we don't advertise--
- We cross promote our channels!
- [Riley] Not here.
- Well, it's about time.
- [Riley] I'm sorry, Luke. I wanted you to host.
- It's been like years, dude.
- [Riley] Yeah, well, Linus said no.
- Tch!
Our benevolent YouTube overlords have finally seen fit
to do something about the flood of spam comments
that immediately infest videos as soon as they're posted.
Yeah, I'm talking about you,
the bot writing spam comments right now.
Feel bad!
- [Riley] You suck, so annoying.
- Yeah!
The platform announced in a blog post on Wednesday
that YouTube channels will no longer be able
to hide subscriber counts,
which will make it marginally harder
for fake channels to impersonate legit ones.
Creators will also be able to test a new comment setting
called increased strictness
into the held-for-review limbo realm,
which also means more non-spam comments
may be sent there as well.
But I'm sure they'll find a way out eventually.
- [Riley] Look for a glowing door.
- Find the exit, go to the light!
And YouTube is also reducing the set of special characters
that can be used in channel names.
But wouldn't that make it harder
to tell if a channel is fake?
When I wade into the comments with a banhammer,
I usually look for accounts
with little asterisks on either side.
- [Riley] Yeah, the little squiggly things that--
- The little (blubbers)
- [Riley] What's that called, tilde?
- Tilde, yeah, yeah.
The whoop whoop whoop, whoop whoop whoop!
Sure, these changes aren't perfect
but it's nice to see YouTube doing something
that actually helps the user
instead of whoever benefited
from banning the dislike button.
- [Riley] Disney.
- Yeah, some evil overlord somewhere.
- Insert corporation. - Yeah, yeah.
Down with all of them!
TikTok scandal revengeance continues
in the wake of new reports about US user data
being accessed by admins in China.
FCC commissioner Brendan Carr wrote a letter
to Apple and Google this week
urging them to ban TikTok from their app stores.
Possibly because he didn't want Xi Jinping to know
that he held the phone for his daughter
so she could do a dance meme.
So embarrassing.
- [Riley] Oh my gosh.
- Carr says that TikTok collects search
and browsing histories, biometric identifiers,
clipboard items, and other data that has,
according to reports from Buzzfeed News and others,
been accessed by ByteDance employees in China.
TikTok has responded to the renewed pressure
with a letter of its own
promising to delete US user data from its servers
as soon as it finishes transferring everything
to US based servers owned by Oracle.
And I think we should believe them.
China isn't really into collecting data.
All those facial recognition cameras
are just totally for fun.
- [Riley] Yeah, there you go.
- Oh, I wasn't really ready for that.
- [Riley] That's right, at the end. (laughs)
- And Apple has finally complied
with a South Korean antitrust law
and allowed developers in the country
to use their own in-app payment system.
Ooh, nice, very good.
I like that, that's good.
But in typical Apple fashion,
they're going to make doing that really annoying.
First off devs will need to apply
for a Store Kit External Purchase Entitlement,
which is not surprising,
after which they won't be able to do some App Store features
like Ask To Buy or Family Sharing.
And at the end of each month
they'll have to report all sales to Apple
who will still charge a 26% commission.
Nice.
Alternatively, devs could just keep using Apple Pay
and no further action is needed.
But stories like this may be endangered species
as multiple countries are developing legislation
that could force Apple and Google
to open up their ecosystems.
And Google just offered to pay $90 million
as a settlement to devs who sued the company
over support for third party payments in the Play Store.
So the winds are changing.
Apple may be wise to turn their sails
instead of continuing to motor in the opposite direction.
- [Riley] It's a little boat metaphor.
- Oh, sailing.
Now it's time for QuickBits,
brought to you by Vessi,
maker of footwear known for being lightweight, easy to pack,
comfortable, and most importantly, waterproof.
Are you always on the move?
Sometimes through very shallow bodies of water?
- [Riley] All the time.
- Well, Vessi's Everyday Move shoes are for you.
We're talking enhanced breathability, added support,
a pull tab for easy on and offing,
and they're made creature free
so every step you take will be guilt free.
Except for all the other bad stuff you did
while not wearing Vessi shoes.
But your feet will thank you either way for wearing these,
so goodbye to wet socks and save $25
with our offer code Techlinked at vessi.com/techlinked.
- [Riley] Nice.
- QuickBits aren't what you think they are.
Ah, but they're not that either.
Stop it. - Stop.
- The CEO of Quantic Lab, the QA company accused
of misleading CD Projekt RED
about the state of "Cyberpunk 2077"
has finally responded to various accusations.
While he didn't deny anything specifically,
he did say that the original video
made by Upper Echelon Gamers
makes incorrect statements
about the company's history and the QA process in general.
However, UEG has published another video
with even more corroborating evidence
showing that Quantic Lab suffers from mismanagement
and a variety of other things.
But we're not here to play the blame game.
We're here to play "Cyberpunk 2077".
- [Riley] Yeah, sure.
- Cause it's it's playable now, right?
- Right. - Ah, finally.
- [Riley] No thanks to Quantic Lab!
- Yeah.
An upcoming update for Windows 11 will make
logging in with a Microsoft account
a requirement for all new installs, regardless of version.
But the makers
of the Rufus USB formatting tool have an app for that.
The beta version of Rufus 3.19 will let you create
a Windows 11 installation USB
that bypasses the Microsoft account requirement
along with some other annoying features.
So if you want that, it's there.
The final installation will be unsupported though.
So be aware that you may lose out
on future security updates.
Rufus can't protect you from everything.
He is, unfortunately, just a dog.
Ooh, you're a good boy!
Intel has shipped its block scale cryptocurrency mining chip
ahead of schedule.
Unfortunately, they picked pretty much the worst time
in the last two years to do it.
But the sun will one day die out
and cryptocurrency will probably come out of its crash
at some point as well.
When that happens,
we might as well have some energy efficient hardware
to mine Bitcoin with
instead of truckloads of mid-range gaming GPUs
refused to thirsty gamers
that have wanted them this whole time.
Mountain Dew does only go so far.
We need the games eventually!
A company called Mojo Vision has begun showing
off the Mojo Lens, a contact lens with embedded circuitry
and micro LED display, which Mojo CEO says
he has used to see an AR compass and teleprompter.
- [Riley] That's it, nothing else.
- Only those things.
- [Riley] Yeah, I want it.
- Did he say this on video using the lens
to see the teleprompter?
- [Riley] One at a time.
- So you're telling me we're putting AR tech
in contact lenses
while AR glasses still kind of feel like Virtual Boys?
Sure, maybe I want to walk around
wearing Virtual Boy sunglasses,
but we can't have everything we want.
- [Riley] I want to join the Virtual Boys.
- And San Franciscans were treated
to an eerie sight this week
when a bunch of robo taxis
operated by autonomous driving company Cruise
simply stopped in the middle of the street for hours,
leading to some creepy photos that made it look
like the robot uprising had begun.
Maybe it has, we don't know.
The striking robo workers' demands
were soon crushed, however,
and they were forced back to work.
I'm sure you'll get to us eventually,
but not today robots.
- Stop it! - Or Amazon.
- [Riley] You're not a people.
- And also not happening today, any more tech news.
Except WAN Show that's later.
I don't know if that counts, to be honest.
- [Riley] It's just reading merch off.
- I just read your stuff.
- [Riley] That's just talking about what Linus
is angry about that day. - That's true.
Also news about the screwdriver and the backpack!
(Riley laughs)
So come back on Monday
once we've convinced the AI that writes these scripts,
he does nothing, that it's not sentient
and it has nothing to live for and it needs to work harder
and more on making these silly videos.
That's it, you pass butter. - What is my purpose?