- (gasps) You came back.
Oh!
You come back next time.
Discord, the awesome chat app, beloved by gamers everywhere
and lots of other people too.
You don't own it, James.
Other people can like it.
Is reportedly in acquisition talks
with several potential buyers
and the word is that Microsoft is one of them.
Sources within Discord apparently told VentureBeat
that Microsoft may complete the purchase
for $10 billion or more,
although Bloomberg sources add
that while Discord actually reached out to Microsoft first,
it's more likely to go public than sell itself,
which I'm sure most of us would actually prefer.
Wait-
- [James] No, I want them to get rid of Teams.
(Riley laughs)
- They'll just switch it out.
Gamers will start using Teams and then...
Now, the last big chat app Microsoft bought was Skype
back in 2011 and now Skype sucks.
I can almost see Phil Spencer standing on an E3 stage
talking about how awesome it is,
"That all of Discord's cool features are now available
right from the Windows 10 Xbox app.
So convenient."
That's not awesome, Phil.
Also, E3?
Come on, what is this, 2019?
A time when we could go to things?
- [James] Boomer conference?
It's all about LTX now, wait.
The global chip shortage is getting worse, not better.
So much so, that some analysts are calling the situation
a straight up crisis,
in part because raw material suppliers
slowed down production last year in preparation for COVID,
not anticipating the demand would actually skyrocket.
People like staying inside and playing games?
What?!
The situation has been made worse by a fire
at a Japanese chip manufacturing facility owned by Renesas.
Is that a pun on Renaissance?
Anyways, they're one of the car industry's
biggest chip suppliers.
As you no doubt know,
street prices of PC components like GPU's have skyrocketed,
a trend that is set to only get worse
as companies like MSI announced price hikes
as a result of low supply.
Meanwhile, leakers claim NVIDIA is planning to release
a high-end Ampere powered crypto mining card
that can hit 210 MH/s,
double the performance of the RTX 3090.
This is not looking good, guys.
NVIDIA, your mining card didn't work.
Put that GPU on a gaming card.
You know what?
Give that to me, give it, give-
[John] Riley, your pills.
(Riley laughs)
- And Apple has kind of failed to read the room
by blocking updates for the ProtonVPN app.
In an email, Apple told Proton that their app's description
breaks app store guidelines
about bypassing geo restrictions.
Here's the offending portion.
"Whether it is challenging governments, educating the public
or training journalists, we have a long history
of helping to bring online freedom
to more people around the world."
Seems accurate given that the UN has recommended
Proton's apps as a way for the citizens of Myanmar
to get around the severe internet restrictions
placed by the military after they staged a coup.
- [James] Abdullah hates that.
(Riley laughs)
- Oh, that's not,
mmm, you're breaking the law.
It's extra weird because Proton says the offending excerpt
has been in its app description for months
before Apple started blocking Proton VPN's updates.
You know what this means, Apple?
You gotta let "Fortnite" back on iPhones.
Hey, I, I don't make the rules, okay?
This is what, that's the law.
- [James] One for one.
- Now it's time for Quick Bits, brought to you by Manscaped
and their Lawnmower 3.0.
It's whoa and manly.
It's waterproof, cordless, and features a ceramic blade
with skin safe technology.
It's won the MVP trophy for ball trimmers
every year since that's been a thing,
which I think it is.
- [James] Did they invent it?
- (laughs) The trophy?
Ooh, thank you.
And now they've got Crop Mop Wet Wipes,
which keep your undercarriage clean and refreshed, ooh.
Now with Manscaped you can take care of yourself and others
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Quick bits, pour them in a bowl and just add water.
If ingested, call the police.
- [James] Hey, Pepto-Bismol!
(Riley laughs)
- Intel's doubling down on manufacturing their own chips.
In a live stream yesterday, the company's new engineer's CEO
Pat Gelsinger said they're putting $20 billion
towards a new foundry facility in Arizona.
Intel's so confident they're gonna turn things around
they're even bringing back the Tick Tock
manufacturing model.
I hope they don't confuse it with the other TikTok,
although Pat does look like he's hiding
some sick dance moves under that suit.
He looks like he could get down.
Show me your moves.
OnePlus has announced the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro
with Hasselblad branded cameras and hefty price tags,
only slightly cheaper than Samsung's Galaxy S21.
(tuts) You either die the flagship killer,
or live long enough to see yourself become the flagship.
But wait, there's a OnePlus 9R without the Hasselblad-ness
and more reasonable features in price,
but it's only available in India, that doesn't help me!
I hate you again. Huh?
- [James] Bladnabbit!
(Riley laughs)
- The so-called Nintendo Switch Pro has been rumored
for ages now, with most leaks claiming that the device
would feature an OLED display and 4K output while docked.
We've heard it all before, I'm bored.
But fresh leaks support those claims and add
that the new Switch may be powered by a chip
built on NVIDIA's upcoming Lovelace architecture.
- [James] Updates? - Hmm.
With that 4K support enabled
by DLSS up-scaling technologies.
Apple makes a switch?
Apple could make a Switch!
But you know, they're not making a Switch,
d'you know who is?
Qualcomm!
Maybe Qualcomm will beat Nintendo to the punch,
with their rumored Android powered Switch knock-off device
complete with detachable joy-con controllers.
If this is real, I'll actually be quite excited
because when we installed Android
on the company Switch I loved it
and you can't do that with newer switches
because they don't have the special vulnerability
you can take advantage of,
so this will be really cool, James, wouldn't you say?
- [James] Snap!
- Oh, and X-Box Live is no more, sort of.
- [James] X-Box dead!
- (laughs) I didn't wanna make the joke, that's morbid.
Xbox Live gold paid memberships are still a thing
and are required to play most online games,
but the base level Xbox Live network
is now just being called X-Box Network,
which sounds super lame.
But hey, at least you won't need
an Xbox Live gold membership to play free to play titles,
like "Fortnite" and "Apex Legends",
because Microsoft is rolling that out
after promising it a few months ago.
So get your friends and hop on X-Box Network
and share files, start an FTP link.
What? S'dumb.
Super long episodes are also dumb,
so come back on Friday for more tech news
or you will make me cry.
I'm a human.
- [James] And when Riley cries he stays sad.