- Look, Tech Daddy is giving us a timeout so I'm in my room.
But that won't stop me from (laughing) doing
the Tech News even though I'm grounded.
(laughing)
I'm not supposed to.
Nintendo, beloved for their cutesy characters
and family friendly games,
put on its bad guy mask again this week
as the company ordered The Big House,
an annual Smash Bros tournament,
to cancel this year's event.
The year is The Big House's use of Slippi,
not the frog (laughing) from "Star Fox."
It's a mod for "Super Smash Bros. Melee"
that improves online play,
which would have been especially useful in this case
as the tournament was an online only event.
- [Man] No.
- It's organizers were apparently asked
not to use Slippi and they refused,
at which point Nintendo sent a cease and desist letter,
meaning no consent,
leading all of The Big House events to be canceled
including the "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate"
portion of the tournament,
which would have used an unmodded copy
of the latest Smash game.
This morning Nintendo also banned a number
of Twitch streamers from Australia,
New Zealand, and Japan for playing
"Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity" as the game launched
in their respective countries,
seemingly because the game hadn't launched worldwide yet.
- [Man] Wait for it.
- Honestly, if it was EA pulling this crap,
they'd be skewered online.
But for some reason, it's hard to stay mad at Nintendo.
You know, they're like dogs, they're like "Nintendogs."
They don't know what they're doing.
They just poop on your floor,
but it's so cute when they do it.
- [Man] Oh, he's a Chungus.
- We might mock Apple a fair bit around here,
but they do at least seem to care about privacy
a bit more than their big tech counterparts.
That's evidenced by an iOS 14 feature
called App Tracking Transparency or ATT
that allows you to just to be notified
and opt out of being tracked using
their I-phone's unique IDFA code
which stands for Identifier For Advertisers.
Apple delayed the feature to next year
after Facebook and advertising firms,
whose business relies on that type of tracking,
complained about it.
But now the fight is intensifying again
with Apple accusing Facebook of invasive tracking
and Facebook accusing Apple of abusing
their market power to boost their own data collection.
Everyone sucks.
On the other side of the issue,
Apple is under investigation in the EU
for allowing IDFA tracking at all.
So they really can't please everyone here.
I sort of feel bad, you know?
You know, you know what Apple?
Those M1 Macs are pretty cool.
- [Man] They're all right.
- I'll give you that one, you need a little boost, you know?
And if you've played "Half-Life 2,"
you're probably a millennial
and you might be familiar with Gnome Chompski, with a G,
a gnome that awards you an achievement
if you carry it through the entire game
and place it inside a rocket.
Well, Valve President Gabe Newell has
brought the meme to life by sending
a real-life replica of the gnome
on Rocket Lab's Electron Rocket as it delivered a payload
of satellites into real-life orbit.
The launch marks the first time Rocket Lab has
successfully returned a rocket second stage
to Earth using a parachute, not as cool,
it's like landing itself,
but Chompski won't be around to celebrate.
He's still in space on the kick stage
which will burn up on re-entry.
- [Man] But how will they know
what to think about economics?
- Don't worry. (laughing)
He'll be remembered with two new achievements
in "Half-Life 2," a game that launched 13 years ago.
You know, I respect Valve's priorities.
Why make "Half-Life 3"
when you can do this kind of stuff instead?
- [Man] I much prefer this way better.
- It's a better ending because he's just carbon now.
(laughing)
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YouTube is facing some backlash after announcing
that ads will be enabled on videos by creators
not currently in the YouTube Partner Program,
who also won't get a share of the ad revenue
until they do become partners.
If creators really don't want ads on their videos, though,
they can remove monetization from their channel
by violating the terms of service.
(fingers snapping) So there's that.
YouTube is also adding audio only ads for music playback.
You can get mad, but apparently,
YouTube still barely makes any profit at all.
So maybe they should start thinking about getting a Patreon.
(laughing)
It's official, game streaming on iOS is a Safari affair.
Google has announced they'll be bringing Stadia to iPhones
and iPads through a web app access through a browser.
And Nvidia will be doing the same thing
with their streaming service GeForce NOW.
This makes so much more sense than having
a normal streaming app on the App Store
like every other platform, Apple.
Great call. - Thanks.
They're truly a leader.
- Intel has announced the NUC M15 laptop Kit,
a so-called White Book, ooh,
meant to be used as a baseline device
that manufacturers can modify, rebrand, and sell.
I guess NUCs are now something more than just tiny PCs
that are missing some storage and RAM.
I know it's weird, it's 2020, we're all trying to adapt.
The damage inflicted to the Arecibo radio telescope
is too severe to repair safely.
So the observatory will be shut down and dismantled
according to the National Science Foundation.
Without the telescope, our ability to listen
for alien signals will be considerably reduced.
So here's hoping the invasion doesn't happen
until after we build a replacement.
We're sitting ducks here, thanks entropy.
And smash hit kids' game "Roblox" has gone public
after experiencing a 68% revenue increase in 2020 so far.
The game's creators are looking to turn it into a more
of a social space that can serve as a sort of metaverse,
which is exactly what "Fortnite"
and Facebook's "Horizon" are trying to do.
I would say it kind of sucks that these are
the companies that are creating the virtual universe
of the future, but who am I kidding, we deserve this.
- [Man] We've done horrible things.
- We must atone, and you deserve a nice restful weekend.
So recharge and then come back on Monday for more Tech News.
We may have paninis by then. - No.
- But no promises.
- [Man] Oh, that's why I come here.
- I'm here for the panini.