- The tech news can be intimidating,
but today we're facing our fears
and challenging the tech news in single combat.
Show yourself, tech news!
Fight me, you coward!
- [Riley] Get 'em, James!
Oh, wow, yes! (screams)
- Nvidia's plan to buy Arm and become
the world's most powerful mobile chip maker
is starting to hit some mighty powerful snags.
As it turns out, governments around the world
aren't exactly eager to give that much market power
to just one company.
Can you imagine how smug Jensen would be?
- [Riley] He'd wear like three leather jackets.
- His kitchen would be so opulent.
At the heart of the issue is the fact that Nvidia
directly competes with many companies
that have bought chip designs from Arm,
raising serious concerns that Nvidia
would effectively end up controlling the market
if the deal went through,
with the US, the UK, China, and European Union
sure to take a very close look at the details.
Because of that.
(beep) that up, so I just went with it, whatever.
I think one company dominating the market
could also raise cyber security eyebrows as well.
Not concerns, eyebrows.
So I wouldn't be too shocked
if the deal ultimately doesn't work out,
even if NVIDIA's lawyers try to strong arm the issue.
- There it is! - Wa-pow!
- [Riley] Wow!
- There was a huge amount of backlash
after Microsoft announced that it was going
to jack up the price of an Xbox Live subscription
by a factor of two.
Understandable, considering many people
are in a tough financial circumstance this year
due to the pandemic
and the fact that more people are staying
at home playing video games.
I mean, okay, that kind of makes sense then.
Well, it's like demand is going up, so.
All right, the good news, though,
is that Microsoft has changed its mind.
It is not only keeping the existing pricing the same,
but is even letting players play free to play games
on multiplayer without a paid XBox Live subscription.
Just a 180. - Hey!
- Squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Seeing as some very popular titles,
like Apex Legends and Fortnite fall into this category,
console gamers seem pretty happy with the whole deal.
So I guess our parents were wrong.
Complaining does work, especially regarding video games.
(exhales) You couldn't have been more wrong
about this whole video game thing, Mom.
- [Riley] I get paid!
- (laughs) And the screen is this close
to my face by design.
Are you the proud owner of a shiny new iPhone 12?
Have you had heart surgery done in the past? Wow.
Be extra careful, seriously,
because the next time you snap a photo,
you could be in danger for your health. (laughs)
Apple has released a statement to consumers
warning them to not have their gadgets sitting too close
to their pacemakers.
According to the company, you should keep your iPhone
at least six inches away or a whole foot
if the iPhone is in wireless charging state.
The statement comes after another report
that the iPhone 12 and other MagSafe products
interfered with the defibrillator implant.
So while Apple says the risk isn't larger
than it has been with some of its earlier products,
you may not want to keep the phone in your breast pocket.
Also, if you bend over, it falls out.
- [Riley] Wait, which earlier products were dangerous?
- We'll never know.
Today's quick bits are brought to you
by the Commuter 2 portable Bluetooth speaker from Kove.
(Riley yells) Good God!
Apparently it can get pretty loud.
Riley, hit it.
- [Riley] Bam!
(upbeat music)
Oh my God, James, no!
- That was a legit trip.
It features up to seven hour battery life,
is water resistant, and has a built-in microphone
So you can hold it like that, like a Shake Weight
and talk right into it.
Plus 30 feet of range.
But what really makes us different is check this out.
(groans) - Whoa!
- You can break it in half.
You don't even have to do an Arnold impersonation to do it.
When combined, they create a 360 degree sound,
but when you separate them,
they become a perfect left and right stereo speakers.
That's 100% pretty cool.
Use code TECH68 and get over 67% off
because our codes can't have decimal places.
You get that off of the Kove Commuter 2.
What a great speaker, while the link is below.
Quick Bits is my boyfriend.
We have a few more details on Intel's upcoming chips.
Although the release of Rocket Lake
is just around the corner, its replacement, Alder Lake,
is due out in September and will require
a new LGA 1700 socket.
Although at least it will also come
with support for DDR five and PCI express 5.0.
(Riley whoops)
Okay.
Team Blue beating Team Red to the market with a new feature?
I feel like I've been transported back to 2013.
(Riley whoops)
You know, that big, hot fix for Cyberpunk 2077
that was supposed to make the game suck less?
Maybe it did that in some respects,
but it introduced a whole new problem
that actually breaks the game.
At one point, a conversation that's critical
to the plot never happens,
making it literally impossible to advance in the game.
- [Riley] No!
- It's like CD Projekt Red used dynamite to kill a spider.
Like I did that one time back in 'Nam.
I'm missing a baby toe.
And if you often watch Netflix on an Android phone,
you're in luck if you care at all about the audio experience
as Netflix has just pushed out an update,
enabling more advanced audio codex on its app.
The company has said that this
will deliver studio-quality sound
that's not only better on headphones and external speakers
but will also make things sound clearer
on built-in phone speakers.
So you might actually be able to tell
what Queen Elizabeth is saying in Da Cwown.
I cannot understand her accent.
This was written by an American, obviously.
Like, she's so easy to understand.
- [Riley] I wrote that.
- You wrote this.
- [Riley] Yeah.
- But you're not American.
- [Riley] It's a joke.
- Ah. - Ah, we do those.
- Da Cwown.
- [Riley] Da Cwown.
- That's how we say it in my house.
Although the UK government may have had good intentions
when it bought over a million low-cost laptops to distribute
to underprivileged students so that they could continue
their studies from home during the pandemic,
they may want to think twice about who they get them from
as it's been reported that many of them are infected
with a nearly decade-old piece of malware.
- [Riley] Wow.
- Does that actually say "wot?"
- [Riley] Wot?
- (laughs) I'm not doing that.
Wot, did they drag these up from the bottom
of the River Thames?
Is it Thames? (Riley laughs)
- [Riley] That was pretty good.
- Themes?
And the FTC has started to hand out fines
to operators of scalper bots.
But don't get too excited.
We're not talking about the same ones buying
up all the graphics cards lately.
These fines are targeted at people who automatically
sculpt movies, sports, and event tickets.
So boomer stuff.
(blows raspberry)
Definitely a good idea, but I'd rather the FTC just
find the bots themselves.
More forward-thinking, you know?
Then they can get actual, real jobs.
- [Riley] Yeah, move out of your mom's basement!
- Get embodied already and work at the till.
I don't wanna interact with you through a screen.
- [Riley] No sentient tease!
- (laughs) That's our show.
Come back Wednesday for more exciting tech news
without the outrageous markup.