- Whoa, oh, what are you guys up to?
Tech news?
Ha, far out!
How's the tech news, dude.
Eh, what timeline are we in?
Answer, the confusing one.
Because Apple and Google have apparently joined forces.
The two web giants are developing technology
that can alert people if they have come in contact
with others who later get diagnosed with COVID-19.
It's a process called contact.
Close, it's a process called contract tracing
and it usually involves simply asking someone
about their past activities.
- [James] Well, I'm calling it PLOOPLE.
- Okay, the new method uses Bluetooth,
because you can't just straight up talk to people anymore,
you're in quarantine.
Okay, you gotta use technology.
See, our phones are constantly sending out little pings,
storing anonymized data about what other devices
are in close proximity.
Once those other devices' Bluetooth signatures
are cataloged, this method could tell
whether we had been close to someone
that was infected with COVID.
Researchers at MIT are working on a similar system as well,
so they might join Apple and Google's unholy union.
I mean if you needed any more evidence
that we're in the apocalypse,
Google and Apple and MIT all working together?
They all hate each other.
- [James] And my PLOOPLE team.
- Stop, it's not a thing, stop trying to make it a thing.
Google's busy doing other things
in addition to cooperating with their sworn rival.
In their latest messaging strategy twist,
the text-based Hangouts Chat
and video-focused Hangouts Meet are being rebranded
to Google Chat and Google Meet.
Now, this isn't the same consumer version of Hangouts
that has existed since 2013,
which was itself a rebranding of Gchat.
If you're not a G suite business user,
Hangouts will still exist, for some reason.
I mean it kind of makes sense.
Google has said they'll discontinue Hangouts
for a long time now, so it just made the confusion worse
to have the brand name hanging around.
- [James] If this is called Google Meet,
then what are they gonna call it
when they acquire Beyond Meat?
- (laughs) Have you tried our new Google Meat?
(slurps) The move follows an increased emphasis
on video calling by a bunch of companies
during the pandemic.
Microsoft just added custom backgrounds
to Teams to compete with Zoom,
although it looks like they won't have to try so hard,
since Zoom is being banned in some places
due to its security problems.
Pretty sad that we can't hangout anymore, James,
but I guess we'll find a way.
- [James] You left our carpool.
- I did.
And talk about shooting the messenger.
Animal Crossing New Horizons has been abruptly pulled
from retailers in China after the game
was used by pro-Hong Kong protesters as a way
to demonstrate while remaining inside.
- [James] Why didn't they ban Blizzard?
- We'll talk about that later.
Protesters have posted messages reading Free Hong Kong,
and various images of Hong Kong governor
Carrie Lam and Chinese president Winnie the Xi Jing Pooh.
(laughs)
Pinduoduo and Taobao have both pulled the game from sale,
and although it's not clear if the reason for this
was a government directive, it's, I mean,
that's what, it's, guys, it's.
- [James] It's all one and the same.
- Now it's time for Quick Bits,
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- You don't say.
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It also has reduced tension in the lightweight headband
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Grab it today and new users who sign up on Drop.com
can get $20 off this headset, did you know that?
Bet you didn't.
- [James] You can't afford not to.
- (screams) So, check it out at the link below.
Quick, Bits!
I don't know what I was thinking
when I wrote that.
Google is reportedly going to have to start paying
French publishers for linking to their content,
after a ruling by France's competition watchdog,
The Autorite de la Concurrence.
- [James] Ah.
- Okay.
If this model is adopted by other EU countries,
and eventually North America,
it could mean a massive restructuring of the way
the internet economy works,
and this channel might be screwed.
- [James] Whoa.
- To be frank.
- [James] Mercy.
- References to a high-performance GPU have been spotted
in documents published by Intel,
and it's started a round of rumor-mongering
about whether this could be Intel's high end gaming GPU.
We saw a Xe GPU at CES, but it was positively weak.
It appears that low-power model
could have just been paving the way
for a high-power model
and that's the one we actually want,
so hurry it up, Intel, I wanna see Jensen
tremble in his leather.
The Ethernet Technology Consortium has published
specifications for the new 800 Gigabit Ethernet standard.
If you have no context for what that means,
800 gigabits a second translates to 100 gigabytes a second.
That's too much, actually, I'd like to take a step back.
Could we slow down here?
It's just the spec so far
and this tech probably won't be in consumer products
for like a decade, so put your pants back on for now.
And then take them off again,
because this smart toilet has sensors
that will be able to detect health issues
and identify you from your unique,
this is not, I did not make up
this word, okay, analprint.
- [James] They didn't make that up.
- (laughs) I know, well they didn't make it up.
- [James] I've been doing that for years.
- (laughs) So we can thank Salvador Dali for the idea,
he's the one who came up with that word apparently.
- [James] He did your butt print.
- He's a freak.
Okay, get that out of your mind.
We'll cleanse it with the news of an engineered enzyme
that can break plastic down into its component materials,
which can then be used to create new plastic items.
You like that, don't you, James?
- [James] I love plastic.
- You love the environment.
- [James] I wanna throw it away.
- You freak, all right, that's quite enough of this.
Come back on Monday for more tech news,
and what else can I say?
Hope you have a good Friday.
- [James] S'il vous plait.
- Did you?
- [James] It's Good Friday - Hope you have a Good Friday!
- [James] Oui oui.