Transcript
A (0:01)
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B (0:28)
Podcast terms apply as Like a tech guy, current events mostly have me imagining what if scenarios where I got into other hobbies. Like I could have done crochet news videos and been spared this pain. The high of Nintendo Switch 2 Direct yesterday, filled with juicy details that gamers have been waiting on for years, was immediately followed by the inevitable emotional crash as fans grappled with with the $450 price of the console and games costing 80 to $90. But just as some were starting to come to terms with it, Nintendo announced it was delaying pre orders for the Switch 2 in the US to assess the impact of the fresh tariffs President Trump imposed shortly after the Switch 2 stream on dozens of countries, including China and Vietnam, where the Switch is at least partially produced. More on that later. Nintendo also explained why the Switch 2's backwards compatibility is a bit complicated. Its Nvidia SOC is different enough from the Switch 1s that to make existing games playable, Nintendo had to go for something in between a software emulator and hardware compatibility. Something alive. Cut to the little guy cranking the gears inside. Hi, I'm a prisoner. The good news is that new Nvidia Soc means the Switch two benefits from from Team Green's dlss and ray tracing tech, as well as G Sync in handheld mode. That was the only way Nintendo could save enough power to include dollar store discord. Speaking of dollars, hold yours tight. Because Trump's aforementioned tariffs are so wide ranging, they're expected to raise the price of tech products and almost everything else too, gifting the stock market with its worst day since 2020. The tariffs, ranging from 10 to 49%, with China's total tariff now at 54%, were supposedly meant to reciprocate tariffs placed on the US by the affected countries. But economist James Surowiecki noticed Trump's numbers are actually based on America's trade deficit, with those countries divided by their exports to the US which the White House essentially confirmed. The whole approach is very strange, and there's some evidence that the administration based the plan off Chatbot responses. Ironically, this might mean that AI was used to hamper American AI companies who aren't sure whether these tariffs will apply to the heinous amounts of GPUs they're stealing from the real victims, little gamer boys and girls. It seems like semiconductors are exempt, although Trump told reporters that tariffs on chips will be starting very soon. But products with chips inside them are not exempt, and system integrators like Maingear are warning of price hikes of at least 20%. Then there's the executive order Trump signed right after announcing the tariffs. That closes the de minimis loophole, which made cheaper single packages exempt from tariffs, meaning that Temu and Shein may lose their status as the go to platform for fans of filling your home with cheap garbage. Now, Trump did reiterate that he's open to reducing these tariffs for companies that offer something, quote, phenomenal like, according to Trump, if China approved the sale of TikTok before the April 5 deadline, which is tomorrow. Instead, China announced retaliatory tariffs of 34% on all US imports, alongside additional export restrictions on rare earth elements used in electronics manufacturing. Trump responded by saying China played it wrong, they panicked. And then he extended the TikTok deadline by another 75 days. And then that's it, this time in a blessed return to non tariff news. Now intel and TSMC have reportedly reached a preliminary agreement to form a joint chip making venture, according to the information. Who got this information from sources of information. Presumably the deal would see TSMC take a 20% stake in Intel's Foundry business, a move that, if true, could help prevent Team Blue from the toilet flush spiral it currently finds itself in. There have been a number of rumors about intel mergers, acquisitions and agreements in recent months, so hopefully we finally get some real answers at the company's Foundry direct connect on April 29th. I mean, when there's smoke, there's probably fire. Or a guy who blows the sickest clouds you've ever seen and he's got some good ideas. You should listen to him. And listen to our sponsor, Ground News. They're trying to do something about the fact that algorithms have divvied up the Internet into these information bubbles that stop you from getting a more complete picture of what the heck's going on. Also, it's kind of stuffy and crowded in there. You end up yelling at people you actually agree with. Ground News can help you break free. They aggregate news stories, breaking down the political leanings and ownership of each news source. So if one of them tells you birds aren't real, you can kind of get an idea where that's coming from. And with their Blind Spot feature, you can also catch important details you might have missed. For example, take this recent story about the Trump administration's plans to allow tech companies to build data centers on federal land. 46% of the outlets reporting this story lean left, while only 8% lean right, which could be because the plan was initially set in motion by the Biden administration. It's hard to acknowledge that something is kind of cool if it was done by someone we may not personally like, but it's important. Take the first step, get the transparency you deserve from your news and save 40% on a ground News Vantage plan by using our link in the description. I don't think there would be enough new developments in the crocheting world for a three times a week news show. I don't want to assume, I just haven't looked. Anyway, here's quick bits for Microsoft's 50th birthday, the tech giant gifted a ton of new features to its AI assistant Copilot, which is not normally how birthdays work, but okay. Copilot can now do basically anything ChatGPT and Gemini can do, including web search and deep research. It can remember stuff you tell it to, see your computer screen, use your computer for you with actions, and even generate yuppie podcasts hosted by imaginary Manhattanites. Just like Google's Notebook LM. Speaking of NotebookLM can now search for more sources than the ones you feed into it. And Midjourney released V7, their first image model, in almost a year. And you can kinda see why, when it's prompted to do this Studio Ghibli thing. Ah, no, that needs a few more minutes to cook. Put it back. The PC gamer debate over whether Nvidia's laptop GPUs should share the same names as their desktop counterparts was given new fodder by NotebookCheck.net, whose review of the Shanker Neo 16 laptop showed the RTX 5090 version performing only 10 to 15% better than than the RTX 5080 version? The gap between the desktop versions of those cards is more like 55%. So what are we supposed to do when someone says I got an RTX 5090? And then we're like, really? And then they're like yeah, I can't believe Nvidia fitted into my new laptop. Do we say yeah, that's sick and then go find a couch to punch? What do I do? And a new social media platform has a bold new idea to keep the toxicity at bay. Only have the site open for three hours a day. As the Verge explains, it's called 7:39 due to its opening hours being 7:39pm to 10:39pm Eastern Time and users get an email one minute before opening time to let them know okay, time to socialize. Post your memey nonsense or hot takes and know that others are also definitely online to interact with it or not interact with it, making it way more easy to tell if your post was not even bad. In an ironic way, the site's landing page advertises no endless scrolling and no fomo. I mean, it's a great idea. It's a great idea. Oh, an also great idea I just had was, hey, what if you came back on Monday for more tech news? Yeah, I know, it just popped into my brain. I actually have a lot of great ideas in my journal. Maybe I'll show.