- Oh, you actually did you clicked the video.
Okay, well he wants some tech news.
Fair enough (chuckles).
Google, one of the biggest tech companies in the world
has just threatened Australia.
- [James] Good day.
- So everyone's meeting behind the gym after school
and I've got three Tootsie Pops riding on it.
No, this is serious.
See, last year an Australian government commission
drafted a proposal that would, if passed into law,
require tech platforms like Google and Facebook
to pay Ozzie news sites
for the privilege of linking to their stories.
Google isn't a fan of this, obviously,
and it told the country Senate this morning
that if such a law were passed,
Google would have no real choice
but to shut down its search engine in Australia.
(vocalizing)
- [James] Goodbye.
- Interestingly, Google just reached
an agreement with the French government
that will see the tech giant pay French publishers
to post small snippets of news stories in Google News
after failing its many attempts to avoid such an agreement.
But Australia's proposal, isn't about snippets,
it's about links.
Learn the difference.
And even though I would tend to side with the people
over Google in this type of situation,
the idea of paying to simply link to a site
is kind of contrary to the whole idea of an open web.
So, Australia, I love ya, but this is not faired income.
I know I didn't use that right.
Don't, stop writing that comment.
We've heard so many rumors and leaks
about Apples in-development VR/AR headsets
I feel like I've already used them.
They smelled like elitism.
But trouble isn't that far off
as new leaks indicate Apple plans
to release a VR headset next year
that will be an expensive niche product
intended for early adopters and developers.
It'll have a fabric design,
an internal fan and it'll run on batteries.
(scoffs) Imagine that.
Sometime later Apple launched the real fancy boy.
That's the official name.
A pair of augmented reality glasses sometime after 2023.
Apple, I'd like to know what's going on with you.
You're taking the touch bar off of the next MacBooks,
putting MagSafe back in and bringing back the SD card slot
and who knows how many other ports in the MacBook.
Now you're gonna release experimental hardware
for early adopters?
What's next? A gaming MacBook?
Is team Apple actually a CSGO headshot god or something?
Let me know.
And Nvidia is acting like
your most annoying friend right now.
Multiple reports have stirred speculation
that team green was killing the Max-Q branding
it has used to denote gaming laptops
that were capable of cool and quiet operation.
But in Nvidia came out to deny those rumors
telling PC Gamer that the Max-Q branding is not going away.
In fact, it's stronger than ever.
- [James] Max Q Q.
- It's stronger than ever because third-generation Max-Q
is a holistic set of platform technologies
and design approaches to building powerful and thin laptops.
Okay.
Nvidia did confirm that it will be
up to laptop manufacturers to choose what parts
of the Max-Q spec they implement
and whether the machine will be labeled a Max-Q model,
which is where the idea that Nvidia was killing the brand
came from in the first place.
So the brand will live on, but you might not see it much
and it will be up to you to make sure that
the laptop you're buying is the good one
and not that other sucky way.
- [James] Selling the usefulness.
- (laughs) Yeah, yeah.
They're killing the spirit of the brand.
Also max-P in case you were wondering
it's not an official brand,
so Nvidia can't kill it if they never gave birth to it.
I think that's how most things work.
- [James] That's my nickname actually.
- Now, it's time for quick bits
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Don't say I didn't warn ya.
After some of Intel's earnings information leaked
the company went and officially made it public.
Turns out Intel isn't doing so bad.
Team blue reported record full year of revenue
causing company shares to rise.
I feel like we've transitioned
from cheering on AMD destroying Intel in the processor game
to kinda feeling bad for them.
- [James] They're the underdogs now.
- But yeah, now I get, well no, no they're doing fine.
AMD please hunt them down because they can take it.
'Cause they're not our hero.
They're the silent guardian.
Cut me out, you should have cut me off by now already. Cut.
Microsoft has raised the prices of Xbox Live Gold
with a six month subscription now going for 60 bucks
or 120 bucks per year, except a ton of Xbox players
buy Xbox live codes online,
which have been going for 60 bucks for 12 months.
Did you do the math, James?
- [James] That's top off.
- No, it's more. It's twice as expensive.
- [James] What?
- The price is now doubled.
Moving on.
It's a weird move, especially since Xbox had built up
so much goodwill with his frankly
awesome Xbox game pass program,
but I guess they just want you to buy that instead.
Honestly, I'm kinda confused by the story.
Are you an angry Xbox gamer? Let me know in the comments.
Alphabet has metaphorically popped
its loon moonshot program,
which use giant air balloons as mobile cell towers.
Apparently cell towers got less expensive
as demand for connectivity surge in the past decade
making the whole idea a little outlandish,
I mean, balloons Google?
- [James] The first ballon
is going way up after this pandemic.
- There're so many parties happening, you know, jeez.
A team including former Pebble CEO, Eric Migicovsky
announced an app called Beeper this week
which can combine chats from 15 different apps
including iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram
into a single inbox.
The iMessage support apparently requires
an always online iMac to function.
Like you have to have that.
And if you don't have one of those Beeper will ship you
a jailbroken iPhone to use as a bridge,
that you have to keep connected.
It's $10 a month.
- [James] Just don't talk to Apple people.
- And sure important things happen this week,
but probably the best thing was the Bernie memes.
Well in the spirit of socialism
developer Nick Sawhney capitalized on the opportunity
to create an app that used Google Street View's API
to let you put Bernie dressed in his adorable jacket
and mittens anywhere in the world,
but then Google sends Sawhney a bill
for taking up Google Maps resources,
which is exactly why we need a political revolution
in this country.
- [James] That's good.
- That was okay.
We need to end this episode,
come back on Monday for more tech news.
It'll be good.