Tech News Weekly Episode 294 Transcript

Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.

Jason Howell (00:00:00):
Coming up, it's Tech News Weekly with me, Jason Howell, mic A Sergeant is out this week. But we've got Ian Thompson from the register joining us to talk all about the latest developments in the Microsoft Activision merger case that's happening right now. We've got Amanda Silvering from TechCrunch joining us to take a a a, the layout of the land when it comes to Twitter alternatives. There are so many what are the highlights? What are the things to look at and what's just kind of confusing? Cuz there's so much to look at. Amanda has the word there. I talk about a study around game preservation and kind of the need for some sort of concerted effort or system. Something to retain this rich history and video games because it's falling through our fingers, like sands through the hourglass. And finally, I've got a review of the Nothing Phone too. It's got lots of lights on the back. Does it have anything else? Well, you're gonna have to watch the review next. I'm Tech News Weekly

TWIT Intro (00:00:56):
Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is T tweet.

Jason Howell (00:01:05):
This is Tech News Weekly episode 294, recorded Thursday, July 13th, 2023, the revolving roundabout of social media. This episode of Tech News Weekly is brought to you by drta. Security professionals often undergo manual tasks of collecting evidence. With Drta, companies can complete audits, monitor controls, and expand security assurance efforts to scale. Say goodbye to manual evidence collection and hello to automation. All done at drta speed. Visit drta.com/twi to get a demo and 10% off implementation. And by express vpn, if you don't like big tech tracking you and selling your personal data for profit, it's time to fight back. Protect your online free and privacy by visiting express vpn.com/tnw and you can get three extra months free with a one year package. And by ACI learning it Skills are outdated in about 18 months. Launch or advance your career today with quality, affordable, entertaining training individuals. Use Code TWIT 30 for 30% off a standard or premium individual IT pro membership@go.acilearning.com slash twit.

(00:02:18):
Hello and welcome to Tech News Weekly. This is the show where every week we talk to people who are making and breaking the tech news. I am one of your hosts and this week the only host, Jason Howell, Micah Sergeant normally would be saying much of that intro and sitting right next to me here. He is not here today, so I hope he enjoys his time away. But we have a couple of great interviews for you, a couple of stories of the week, including a little bit later. I've got a review of the Nothing Phone two, this weird looking device right here, but that's later. Let's get to now and talk a little bit about Microsoft and Activision. This is the merger that I feel like we've been talking about for quite a while now. This la this past year, it took one step forward to completion earlier this week. And then we realize it's not a done deal yet. So we're gonna get to all the reasons why. Let's catch up on the latest with Ian Thompson who wrote about this for the register. It's always great to get the chance to talk with you. Ian, thank you for hopping on.

Iain Thomson (00:03:14):
Always great to be around. Yes, it's it's been quite, this is a constantly changing situation. This is a fascinating case indeed. What looked like, you know, a potential end to the merger has now turned into what's looking like a cage fight,

Jason Howell (00:03:29):
<Laugh>. And this isn't the only cage fight that we've had on our horizon. So, I mean, big tech and cage fights. It's a, it's a thing right now, apparently. Let's catch everyone up to speed. Just to kinda start off with you write about this as possibly the biggest or sorry, the largest acquisition in tech history. Tell us a little bit about what that looks like. What makes it the largest?

Iain Thomson (00:03:54):
Well, I mean, Microsoft already has a very strong space in the gaming sphere. They, you know, they have various large titles. They, the Xbox console system is pretty good, although it's had its ups and downs. What concerned regulators about this was the idea that Microsoft Heaven Forend might actually, you know, restrict other games from its games, from being used from other consoles. Now that's obviously anti-competitive and the F T C has taken a slightly more muscular stance of late on, on competition issues. But Microsoft's argument is that, you know, there, they will certainly allow Call of Duty to be shared for 10 years. Now that sounds all well and good, but at the same time, will it be o will they do restrictions on smaller games within their platform ecosystem? And I think that's really what's worrying regulators.

Jason Howell (00:04:49):
Okay. So now you wrote just a couple of days ago about the news that the judge in this ca in this case had struck down a potential stall by the ftc. What exactly did the judge have to say about the merger and her decision to ultimately shoot it down? Which, this is a fast moving case, so we've got other developments coming up, but let's, let's start here. What do you think?

Iain Thomson (00:05:13):
Yeah, certainly. I mean she cast serious doubt on the Harvard professor who argued that this would actually harm competition within the ecosphere. It wasn't her, I think her ruling may also have been influenced by the fact that the EU already agreed to the deal after Microsoft made various commitments in terms of ensuring a, a fair le a fair and level game gaming play. Yes, a fair and level ga playing field. Sorry, there we go. For the platform. So America was kind of the last big holdout. Even China agreed this deal. So I think that may have influenced the decision, but she also didn't basically buy the concept that, you know, this would be anti-competitive. I mean, for many decades now, large mergers of this kind have been put through on a not, you know, on the nod. So yeah, she's it was a worrisome decision in terms of the FTCs policy. And I think quite frankly, after that verdict, everyone was expecting the FTC to roll over, but that didn't happen.

Jason Howell (00:06:20):
Hmm. Yes, indeed. It sounds like we have news of the FTC appealing it's lost in the case, which I mean is, was that even really that surprising? I'm, I wasn't surprised to hear that. What does it mean for the timetable of this this decision at this point? Are we now waiting, you know, another <laugh> another handful of months if not a, you know, a year? I feel like these cases take a lot longer to, to happen than they probably should. But is that the case here? What's, what's the reality or around this appeal?

Iain Thomson (00:06:50):
Well, I think the appeal is actually thrown a, a bit of a spanner in the works on this one. It isn't gonna get sorted out as quickly as have many people would've liked. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> the FTC will have to make that case. There'll be another hearing how long this is gonna get held up. I don't know, generally with, with cases that the FTC has dealt with in the past, if they lost the initial case, they would reach a settlement at some point in the future. Now, how soon or how late that comes is very much up to the agency itself.

Jason Howell (00:07:20):
Mm. Okay. Now just taking a step back, you know, I think what strikes me about this is, is how frequently the game Call of Duty comes up in play. And for some reason in my, in my head I'm like, wow, you know, such a major thing hinging on a video game, which I realize that's kind of the point here, right? Is the video game industry is huge. Call of Duty as a, as a property, as a video game, kind of you know entity is a major, major milestone release. How much of this reversal that we're talking about here hinged on that non-exclusive nature of Call of Duty alone, let alone other games? Cuz I know you mentioned there, there are other games that were kind of considered in this, but I feel like yes, everybody's mentioning Call of Duty cuz it's the behemoth in the room. Like I don't know, it just, it's, it's just interesting to me that such a major case hinges on the success of a single game. Is that actually the case?

Iain Thomson (00:08:18):
Well, I mean, I, I I understand totally. I mean, it's everything focused on Call of Duty and, you know, the number of potential headlines about headshots and that sort of thing to the case. Were, were very, very tempting <laugh>. It does, it's, it's a natural thing that will, people will focus on the, you know, call of Duty is a huge franchise, huge. Many people have grown up, you know, they're now teaching their kids how to play it. So at the same time it is a kind of a distraction though. So basically what they've agreed to do is share Call of Duty and, you know, within franchise with other, with other platforms. Mm. the Devil is in the details, however, going through that may not apply to smaller game franchises, which are controlled or created by Activision Blizzard. So it's very much sort of, let's go through the contract details on this. Whether or not the EU has done a good enough job, they went for the Call of Duty thing again. But, you know, there, there are some things to be delved into on that front. We'll see how that works out.

Jason Howell (00:09:28):
Yeah, yeah. And you also mentioned earlier, you know, the, the resistance that Microsoft was facing in the uk. You actually told me kind of pre-show you talked to spoke with the UK regulators about this kind of, what, what were you able to glean from those conversations as far as how this case, how it's, how it's how happening here in the US might have impacts outside of the United States?

Iain Thomson (00:09:53):
Well, once again, Brexit Island is going it alone. Basically now the ftc appeal will give them some hope. But the u the UK had been standing out about this, yes, I spoke to somebody from the Competition Authority. The word unofficially is that they are in negotiations. And I think we both know how that goes. That usually means we're going to settle this one way or another. Mm. It all depends just on what the details are. I mean, if the uk if the us sorry, approved the deal, then that would leave the UK basically having to settle straight off the bat. If the FTCs appeal works, however, that could put some spine into the uk when it comes to competition on this area. Now, as I say, from the conversation I had, it's looking like they're going to settle. But, you know, never can tell.

Jason Howell (00:10:49):
Never can tell. And I think finally I wanted to put a little bit of a, a spotlight on Lena Kahn from the f f from the FTC cases, like these are putting her strategy front and center. She, you know, I mean, it, it's no, no question that she's, you know, has the bigger technology companies kind of in on her radar. Definitely has a, has a plan to kind of temper the, the the, the, the heat I suppose that these companies are able to deliver right now in the marketplace. How would you rate her effectiveness right now? When you take a look at kind of how this case is going how some of her other efforts are going right now. What are, what are your thoughts there?

Iain Thomson (00:11:36):
Okay. Now I operate under UK libel laws as a British person. So I'll, I'll, I'll be fairly circumspect. Yes, she was hired specifically as a, as someone who was seen as bringing more free market competition and avoiding monopolization. In terms of effectiveness, two out of five so far. Mm. I recognize the wheels of, of government move very slowly, but we haven't seen anything that you could call a major win so far if she's actually looking to broaden out market competition. And I do think that's important. You know, monopolization, oligopoly, oligopolies do not help spur innovation or lower costs. So the FTC has a valid role to play there. She's certainly talked to mean games so far mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, but in terms of effectiveness, not really that good.

Jason Howell (00:12:30):
Yeah. Well, Ian, it's always a pleasure to get the chance to talk to you. I actually got to see you in person a couple of weeks ago, so that was amazing. Thank I love getting you on the show. So thank you so much for sharing your time and your thoughts with the techniques. It was

Iain Thomson (00:12:45):
A pleasure,

Jason Howell (00:12:45):
Folks. Really appreciate you. If people wanna find you, of course, the the register.com. Now, if people wanna find me online, where can they find you?

Iain Thomson (00:12:53):
Well still on Twitter and it's sort last helicopter out of Saigon phase. Sure. It's actually taking a break from social media has been rather helpful in some regards. Yeah's in the meantime, you can always find me on the register.

Jason Howell (00:13:07):
Right on. Well, thank you Ian. It's a pleasure. And we'll talk to you soon. Appreciate you.

Iain Thomson (00:13:11):
Speak to you soon, mate. Cheers. All

Jason Howell (00:13:12):
Right, take care. All right. Coming up we have, I mean, speaking of social media, we've got kind of a look at the many alternatives to Twitter. I mean there are just so many coming out. Of course, you know, we have threads that happened last week that kind of I dunno if it took people by surprise, but a lot of people are very interested in it. I've certainly been active on it. We've got Amanda Sling from TechCrunch joining us cuz she's had her hands in a lot of these different avenues. And so she's gonna kind of break 'em down a little bit for us and we can kind of see what is the state of the union when it comes to Twitter alternatives that's coming up. But first, this episode of Tech News Weekly is brought to you by drta. Is your organization finding it difficult to collect manual evidence and achieve continuous compliance as it's growing, as it's scaling?

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(00:17:12):
Last week was a pretty big moment when it comes to social media apps. The Elon Musk takeover of Twitter has really kicked into gear, this whole new era of social media apps. So we have Amanda Silver Ling from TechCrunch back on the show to help us walk through this pope of social media options that we are picking from these days. Welcome back, Amanda. It's great to have you. Hi. Thanks for having me. Your hair is fantastic. Thank you, <laugh>. Thank you Amanda and Pope. Like I was thinking about this as I was preparing for this interview. Like I remember the days of your, when social media was relatively new and a new service would come out and everybody was like super excited. Like, oh, what is that? I gotta get my, you know, I gotta get on that and see what it's all about and start to use it.

(00:18:00):
And then I feel like in the last handful of years, maybe it was my own experience, maybe I'm alone on an island, but we started to feel really comfortable with the things that we were used to. And now that rug has been pulled and we're forced to be uncomfortable again, which is never a really bad thing, right? It just forces you to kind of rethink, to change to, you know, come to the table with a new perspective. What is your perspective on this moment in social media where things just aren't nearly as stable and I don't know, predictable as it once was?

Amanda Silberling (00:18:34):
I think it's definitely a really interesting moment for the reasons that you're saying where it's like, how often do we have this opportunity as users of social media to decide collectively, like what do we want in a platform? What do we not want in a platform? And to be able to push back against bad policies from the existing dominant social networks. Like I think that we're in a time when the social media user has more power than perhaps we're used to having, and that's very exciting. But I also think it's simultaneously exhausting because it's like, I have all these accounts on all these new social networks now, and should I be posting on all of them? Totally. Should I pick one and hope that one quote unquote wins? Should I just sit out and wait? And I think these are questions that a lot of people are having, and even as a writer who covers social media, I'm just like, I don't know, we gotta wait and see. I don't know.

Jason Howell (00:19:31):
Yeah, I know. And do you post the same thing on all platforms? Different things on different platforms? I mean, at this point, y you know, I've, I've been really trying to kind of invest myself a little bit more in it because I think over time I kind of started to get complacent when it came to social media. Like, oh, I just, I need less of it in my life. And that might be true, but this current moment has forced me to kind of like reopen my eyes and be like, okay, but what are the strengths here? And as I dive into them and I've got, you know, in my social media folder on my phone, I've got like eight different services there that I'm like hopping in and out of. I feel like I need, I need to hire an assistant just to do my social media strategy. Like, it's not easy to keep up with all this stuff. I don't know how you're doing it <laugh>.

Amanda Silberling (00:20:11):
I dunno how I'm doing it either. But I think, I mean, one thing to your point about like, what are we using social media for? I think the popularity of threads shows just how social social media is. Yeah. Because the reason why people are so excited about threads is because all of your friends are already there. Sure. But then at the same time, it's like, how much do we like our friends versus how much do we not want Mark Zuckerberg to be controlling yet another aspect of our existence?

Jason Howell (00:20:42):
Yeah. Well, it's been really interesting to me and, and I, and I speak from firsthand experience in this as well as kind of reflecting on what's out there. The, and I think I mentioned this on last week's show, the I hate Zuck. I'm doing something else, and then I hate Musk, I'm doing something else. But that's something else happens to be back over where Zuck is. And like, at a, at a certain point, like, you know, the question that I keep coming around to is like, all right, we talk a big game about Karen about this stuff, but at the end of the day, do we really, because we're over on threads, we're using it and you know, I know I'm using it and I had sworn off Zuckerberg products a while back, so, you know, years back. So I don't know, I guess I'm just a hypocrite, but here I am. What are you thinking about threads right now? What's, what's your thoughts as far as, as far as like Twitter alternatives, which it seems like we have a sea of these that we're tr we're treading through at this point. Threads seems to have be the one that, at least at this moment, a week after it was released has a lot of a lot of energy around it. Do you think that's lasting energy based on what we've seen so far?

Amanda Silberling (00:21:47):
I think it'll be hard to tell. I know for me personally, I was using it a lot like the first day it came out and then now I probably haven't posted in a few days. But also, I don't know, life is busy, so that could also be a factor. <Laugh>. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I think maybe people do like their, their friends more than they hate Zuck. Yeah. Which is maybe good for society and bad for diversifying technology. <Laugh>.

Jason Howell (00:22:16):
Yeah, no question. No question. So I mean, you know, and we did dive in pretty deep on, on Threads last week, so we don't need to go super deep on, on Threads that is just one of these you actually wrote a few weeks ago about one I had not heard of before called Spill. So tell me what I'm missing. What do I need to reserve my, my username on spill? What's it all about?

Amanda Silberling (00:22:40):
Yeah, well, I mean, I think it's worth reserving a username on any platform. Yeah. Cause you never know. You never know. But also it's like, there's so many, and that's kind of what we were talking about at the top of the segment. But but Spill is a social app founded by two Black ex Twitter employees, Alfonso Terrell, Andris Brown. And they are trying to build something that really emphasizes the fact that a lot of the time it's black people and queer people that are driving culture and like creating all of the new memes. And you think about something like black Twitter, which refers to just like the community of black people on Twitter, and how much of internet culture has come out of that community that like a lot of people who aren't part of black Twitter, like don't know about. And so, as people who used to work at Twitter who understand the experience of being black people on social media, they're trying to make spill a place that caters to the culture makers from the get go, rather than like just making a platform that first all the tech bros join.

(00:23:48):
Right. And then later other people find it and kind of like reverse engineer it to make like actual culture happen on there. But I mean, I think with all of these apps, the issue is that people don't know like, which one is gonna take off. And I think all of these teams are like, like Spill doesn't have a very big team. Like I think they still have less than 20 people. I think Blue Sky still has a pretty small team, so it's like mm-hmm. <Affirmative> really challenging for these people to be working so hard to make something so quickly. And so of course these apps are gonna like, have issues. But I do think that spilling is is an example of people capitalizing on something that is missing from social media. And I think that for a lot of black people and other people that are traditionally marginalized on social media, it's really exciting to have the opportunity to be on a platform that was built with them from the get go in mind rather than as an afterthought.

Jason Howell (00:24:49):
Oh, that's fantastic. Right on. I did put my name on the wait list for that. So you can't go right in. You do have to kind of sign up for, for the wait list to be notified about more. So thank you for that. Now you mentioned Blue Sky, I realize that I, you know, of okay. There's t2, which we'll talk about in a second, which I have given zero time to Zero Attention, <laugh>, blue Sky. I've given a little bit more, but not a whole lot more. You, it seems like, like I've, I've certainly talked to people who like, they're like, that's that's it for them. They're like, oh yeah, blue Sky, that's where I'm putting my weight. That's where I'm putting my attention, my time into Blue Sky. Right now only has limited invites. And I'm kind of curious, like, especially when we compare this to Threads and what Threads was able to do, you know, threads really leveraged the Instagram network in order to give you instant follower count essentially and instant base of people to be talking to.

(00:25:46):
And to be hearing from Blue Sky, blue Sky's kind of like the opposite. It didn't leverage anything. It's actually throttling back the, your anyone's ability to jump in there. You gotta kind of wait for an invite. Thankfully, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm thankful that I have an account and I've been able to give a few invites out. But what is, what's taken Blue Sky so long to kinda like get this going and by comparison with what Threads was able to do? Like, was that a not an effective strategy when you, when you put them side by side?

Amanda Silberling (00:26:16):
Yeah. Well I guess a big difference is that Meta has a massive staff despite laying off like 20,000 people. That's another story. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And then Blue Sky is so small, so it's gonna take Blue Sky a lot more time to do things. I think another main difference is that Blue Sky is trying to be federated like Mastodon. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, meaning that people can use the underlying technology to make their own servers. And I think I like Blue Sky as of now. Like I've had a good time on it. I'm a big proponent of calling Blue Sky Posts skeets. That is my personal social movement of choice at the moment, <laugh>. But but I do think that I am personally worried on both Mastodon and Blue Sky about, I love the idea of decentralized social media in theory, but does this enable people to have an easier time making like Nazi servers or something?

(00:27:19):
Mm-Hmm. And I feel like we don't talk about the fact that even truth social Trump's social media app was built on Mastodon mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And like, I don't know. I mean, I think like these technologies try to be apolitical, but at the same time it's like, I'm sure there's a lot more Nazi discussion happening on Truth social than other apps. And I think it is tricky to figure out like, how do you give users agency to set their own content moderation rules and community guidelines within their own communities, but then also be like, Hey, maybe we shouldn't have a Nazi server.

Jason Howell (00:27:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, a big, big idea there. <Laugh>. what, okay, so let's let's dive into T2 a little bit. Cause I am super curious about this. This is one of those that keeps being thrown around. I can't help it. I'm a, I'm a child of the eighties and nineties, so every time I hear it, I think Arnold Schwarzenegger I don't think social media, like what, what is the deal with t2? Am I actually missing out on anything? What, and and, and it also, I'll just add onto that, it seems like a lot of these, these these alternatives hinge on a particular thing, like, or, or a particular community of sorts. I think Blue Sky actually has, you know, a very dedicated community. I think a lot of, like my, my professional peers swear by it for some reason. Versus like the broader public, everybody, you know, that, you know, friends and family hopping in there. What is T Two's thing? If, if you had to summarize it?

Amanda Silberling (00:28:53):
I feel like T2 is a lot of tech people. It's still pretty small. I think like Blue Sky, it's a small staff making an app and they don't wanna onboard too many people too quickly. And then just that'll get out of control. I haven't used T2 a ton, but I'm weirdly one of the most followed people on t2. <Laugh>.

Jason Howell (00:29:16):
No kidding. Really? I dunno

Amanda Silberling (00:29:17):
Why. Like, which it's not even, I don't even have that many followers. It's just that they don't have that many users. Okay. But I guess like for some reason in their algorithm, I was one of the accounts that people get recommended to follow when they log in. And then like, I just haven't been using it. But now I'm like, damn, I gotta get on my T2 game. I have to speak to my people.

Jason Howell (00:29:38):
<Laugh>, I mean, you got 2,307 followers over on t2. That's, that's yeah.

Amanda Silberling (00:29:44):
But I think, yeah, I think there's like 10,000 users though <laugh>,

Jason Howell (00:29:47):
So. Ok. That's the only, that's the opposite side. So T2 is a much more limited audience than it sounds like maybe not missing out too much

Amanda Silberling (00:29:55):
Over there. Yeah. And I also think they're still going to name themselves something different. I think T2 was a placeholder for like Twitter too.

Jason Howell (00:30:03):
Oh,

Amanda Silberling (00:30:04):
Okay. That makes sense. But I don't know, I mean, it's still so early and still so hard to tell. Like, once T2 opens to the public, will people be like, Hey, this is cool. Or will they be like, none of my friends are here.

Jason Howell (00:30:16):
I mean, the risk right now is that the pool is becoming more and more diluted that it's hard as a user to really, you know, I guess touching back at the very beginning of our conversation, it's hard to know as a user, which of these services is even worth the time. The only way you really understand that is to get in there and to use it. But I mean, when we've got 10, 20 different services that have all come out purporting to be, you know, maybe not in direct terms, but essentially saying we are the alternative to Twitter that you're looking for. I mean, it's really impossible to know where to have the time and to know where to invest that time into.

Amanda Silberling (00:30:56):
Yeah. And I think maybe, like, maybe this is making us question, do we want everyone we know to be on one platform? Yeah, good question. Like, is it maybe better to be like on Blue Sky? I'm gonna talk about Tech on Threads. I'm gonna talk about like my weaving and my personal hobbies. But I also think that part of what makes social media interesting is that if you go, like on my Twitter, you will see me tweeting about tech. You'll also see me tweeting about like whatever stupid jokes I come up with that have nothing to do with tech. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And I do think that I like the idea of social media helping us humanize ourselves outside of like our LinkedIn personas, which I mean, I don't know, people are using LinkedIn more too, but like, I still just see LinkedIn as being people that are like, this child wanted to build a company and now that child is Mark Zuckerberg and just like very dramatic, like crafty. I don't know if this makes sense, but there's like a cadence and like a craft to the LinkedIn post. That's very weird to me.

Jason Howell (00:32:01):
Yeah, yeah. Understood. I don't spend much time on LinkedIn at all. And I, and I fully recognize like it's been around forever and there's a lot of people that swear by it. So, hey, you know, you do what works for you. I, in, in kind of retrospect, looking at all these different services, you know, I think the thing that I'm always curious about is what are they doing that's different from the rest? Like, when we look at threads, I mean, I guess the thing the Threads did right is what we already said. They leveraged their <laugh>, they leveraged the Instagram followers in order to make it an instant hit, essentially. But it's, but you know, and, and we are only a week into the, the Great Threads experience experiment, whatever you wanna call it. But but it's felt sticky so far. It seems like there's still a lot of engagement and, and everything like that. Like what, like what is a Threads doing aside from that onboarding win that they had that's different from the rest? Or if there's another service that's really doing something that you're like, you know what, I wish I, this is what I want out of my replacement or my next social media network. Like, are any of them doing something that you're like, okay, game Changer?

Amanda Silberling (00:33:15):
Well, right now Threads has no ads, so I think that's great. So that's nice <laugh>. However, maybe the ads are actually the fact that there isn't actually a feed where you can see who you're following. And so no matter what, yeah. Like I'm gonna go on Threads and I'm gonna see like Wendy's posting. Yep. Which I don't follow Wendy's, I don't need to know what they're posting about, but Threads thinks I do. But as of right now, it's so early that we aren't seeing sponsored posts and it feels like such a breath of fresh air. Even if I am randomly seeing posts from Wendy's mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, but mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, I don't know, mark Zuckerberg really wants me to know about like, chicken nuggets or something.

Jason Howell (00:34:00):
Yeah.

Amanda Silberling (00:34:01):
And, but I also think threads I don't know. I mean, they seem to be emphasizing creators very strongly, like in the same way that Instagram emphasizes creators. And I think that if they can create a program where creators can get paid on threads there hasn't really been a successful way of monetizing these, like, micro-blogging platforms like on Twitter, although I did read that now I think starting very soon, creators can start like getting paid on Twitter, but I don't trust anything Elon Musk says. So Grain of Salt, but it's like Pre Musk, assuming that this thing actually works. If you have a hundred thousand followers on Twitter, that gets you $0 in real life. And if Threads can make it so that you can actually make money from posting, then great news for the posters.

Jason Howell (00:34:56):
Yeah. Yeah. I think I think it'll have a lot of success if we can figure that out. <Laugh>, we'll certainly see, and Amanda Sling will be covering it all for TechCrunch. Amanda, thank you so much for hopping on with me today to talk a little bit about the current landscape of social media, as confusing as it can be. You're writing a lot about this stuff these days, so obviously people can go to techcrunch.com to find your work there if they wanna find you. What is the social media network that you prefer they find you at, and how can they do so?

Amanda Silberling (00:35:25):
Oh man, that's a good

Jason Howell (00:35:26):
Question. Yeah, reach into the hat and pull one out. You know,

Amanda Silberling (00:35:30):
I'm still hopelessly addicted to Twitter where I am a s Brights on Blue Sky, I am@amanda.omg.lol, which is a URL that I do own <laugh>. It's really a problem for me that I don't have like the same screen name on multiple platforms. Yeah. Cause then on Threads slash Instagram, I am just Amanda Silvering. Yeah. But that is too long of a name to fit on Twitter, so I'm kind of stuck

Jason Howell (00:35:58):
And Oh, that is tough.

Amanda Silberling (00:35:59):
What is personal branding anymore? I'm everywhere in

Jason Howell (00:36:02):
Nowhere. I know. You know, and, and does it actually matter? I don't know. People find, if people wanna find you, they'll find you. I have the same problem. I'm like Jason Howell in some places that Jason Howell and other places. Cause I couldn't get Jason Howell first, Jason Howell zero one in other, I mean, whatever the name's in it. Right. So eventually, if people wanna find you, they will and they should. Amanda, thank you so much for hopping all with me today. Really appreciate you.

Amanda Silberling (00:36:24):
Yeah. It's always fun to come on, so thanks for having me.

Jason Howell (00:36:27):
All right. We'll talk to you soon. Have a great rest of your day. All right. Coming up after the break, I'm going to give you my first of two stories a week. I did promise you a review of the Nothing Phone two that's coming up at the very end. But up next I'm gonna talk a little bit about game preservation, which is a topic that when it comes up in the news, I can't help but pay attention. There's a really interesting report I'm gonna share with you that came out earlier this week, so that's coming up. But first, this episode of Tech News Weekly is brought to you by Express V P n profiling, surveillance, data harvesting. There are a lot of things not to like about the tech giants, the tech, but what can you actually do about it when you rely on so many of their products?

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(00:40:06):
And so I actually have at home, I had this com. It's, I think it was called the Commerce 64 Mini or no, it's called the C 64. They have a mini version, but I have the full size actually employee here at twit. Russell Tammany bought it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. It was a total surprise and I love that thing. It has, you know, basically, I mean, I've, I've put onto it many of my old Commodore 64 games, but it also ships with some, anyways, case in point, I'm a nerd when it comes to this stuff. I love the nostalgic factor of of re-experiencing some of these games, you know, that I experienced when I was a kid. And when we're talking about preservation I, I would say I fall very deeply in the nostalgia holic category, right?

(00:40:56):
I just love to revisit those things. There's a part of me that feels like if I don't do enough to preserve that history, to preserve my memories around that, then they will someday fade away into nothingness. And so when, when we're talking about things like preservation when it comes to video games and other art forms, and so preservation is a, like a core philosophy without preservation of art, right? We could not study the great artists of the world not to mention billionaires. What would they trade for fun and profit? But when you take a look at other, you know, other things that we want to collect to preserve history, there's audio history. Much of it digitized and preserved that way as a result, right? Like digitized into an audio file stored and at least exists somewhere. Well, when you take a look at like pre-World War I audio recordings silent era films, those kinds of things sorry, pre-World War, world War II recordings only about 10% of what existed back then has been preserved.

(00:42:02):
And that was like, you know, that was a century ago, right? So it's really unfortunate to know that this rich history of things has been lost to the seeds of time. And that's primarily because probably at the time they didn't think about preservation of those things. They didn't think about what it would be like a hundred years later to either have or not have access to that stuff. When you're talking about another form of art that falls significantly behind in this realm, that would be of course, video games. I consider video games to be an art form which has always totally, by the way, baffled me. Because when you think about the global video game market just in 2022 alone generated 220 billion. Compare that to the film industry, global film industry in 2022 saw 77 billion in revenue. So I mean g Game market three times what the film industry made music industry 31.2 billion in 2022.

(00:43:02):
So, you know, when you're talking about just the amount of money people are spending on this art form, they're ingesting, they're, they're enjoying, you know, all these things. These things deserve to be preserved. And there may have been a time when video games were considered a niche market at best. We are literal decades away from, from that point at this, at this stage of the game. Yet the drive to preserve the history of video games is lagging behind that of other artistic areas, which is a total shame. Because like I said, just a few, like a minute ago, the history then becomes the kind of thing that, that falls through our fingers. And if we don't act now to preserve it, it's gone forever. Well, the video game History Foundation released a new study this week, and it looked at the current availability legitimate availability, let's say <laugh> of what it deemed classic video games published in the us and it kind of focused the report on a couple of different areas.

(00:44:07):
It focused on just video games as a whole. It focused on gaming that is wholly unsupported. Like the used the Commoner 64 as its example of a, like a gaming platform that is at this point pretty much abandoned. It focused on the Game Boy, which as you can probably remember, whether you were around during that time or not, the Game Boy was huge. Oh my goodness. And it lasted for like more than decades. I can't remember, like the lifespan of the Game Boy was something like 15 years. They were making games for that thing forever, right? And then you've got the PlayStation two, which they see as like a more modern but still, you know, it's still a dated machine, but still there is more likelihood for it to be supported where we're at right now. So it, the report points out that only 13% of classic video games are currently published and preserved or offered as available in today's market.

(00:45:09):
So 13% of games for the, for the consoles. Then the systems that I've stated here. Now, obviously they had their own kind of like research approach. It's not like they, they pulled every single game that was ever created on these platforms. I think actually on the, on the Game, boy they did. But like on the Commerce 64, they, they had a sample size to represent everything, but they did it purely randomly. 13% of any of those classic video games are currently published and preserved. That leaves a huge percentage of those games just kind of lost to the Sands of Time. Playstation two, the most recent console that they evaluated sits at around 12% availability based on reissues. When you go back to, you know, the Commerce 64 and the Game Boy, they're, they're like 5% of those games. So you can see how it, it's, you know, it, it fluctuates between all of them, but 13% of the entire existence of games for, for these platforms in, in general is a very small number.

(00:46:10):
And the truth is, if the game isn't commercially available, or sorry, valuable, so like, you know, you, you've got your call of duties, right? And then you've got your, your, I don't even know that like so obscure that I can't even, you know, name a, a random title off the top of my head. You've got these games that, you know, probably deserve to be cataloged somewhere, or at least remembered to some degree because they make up the history of the art form of the video game, but yet they're not commercially viable. And so game companies have no interest in like revitalizing them, offering them through a digital marketplace or bringing them back on some sort of a compilation or something that makes it, or keeps it current. So speaking of d digital marketplaces, the report shows the disruption of the digital marketplace used to be that you bought a piece of media and that meant that you could play that piece of media forever, right?

(00:47:02):
Given that you had the hardware to support it. Of course, now so much of gaming is distributed online in this digital storefront approach, which is very convenient, convenient for now, maybe not for later. And then serve from a server that needs to be operated and maintained in order to keep that game running. So once that controlling entity decides they're done supporting it, that game can vanish and possibly forever never be seen again. Which is just a shame, like, like when I think of, of the, the possibility of this game, you know some game that I played hundreds and hundreds of hours and I had this really strong like nostalgic memory of playing this game, and the thought that like, at some point that is just gonna be like, gone like that the enjoyment that I experienced, you know, it's, it's a memory and I mean, some people might be okay with, with letting that go, but you know, like I said, I'm nostalgia holic.

(00:47:56):
I like to hold onto these things. I like to re-experience them. And it's just kind of a shame that that would happen. It's not just a matter of technical issues either. Licensing becomes a huge hurdle over time. And this, I mean, time and time again, I think this is really just a, a big hindrance. We've got Golden Eye, oh oh seven is one example that took almost two decades to finally get its reissue that happened earlier this year. It did come out on Xbox and Nintendo. And that is a really great example of how rights holders were able to work together to make that happen. And Golden Eye is just, you know, when you're talking about the history of video games, a pivotal release because it was such a, such an important milestone for first person shooter games. I mean, it really kicked off this trend.

(00:48:44):
And I mean, tho those games are an insane hit to this day. But that's one game, one very successful, commercially viable game. There was a reason to bring it back and yay it's back. But you know, that's not always that easy. If a game's owned by many different entities and they all can't agree on who owns the rights to the reissue, that game is dead, dead in the water. And who knows if it ever gets re-released. So, so it's a really interesting report. It calls on the industry which by the way, it notes, you know, this is not a problem isolated to one GameMaker. This is an industry-wide problem, but it calls on the industry to acknowledge that this problem and need exists to acknowledge that there are ways to solve it. And you know, though, the needs of a company to make money don't necessarily align with the needs of researchers to study and preserve the history of these games.

(00:49:36):
Like there needs to be some thought or orchestration around how we preserve these things. Cause I mean, it, it seems like the, the easiest way to do this is through piracy. You know, like, I mean, you know, the main exists as a thing. There's a lot of people online trading, you know the ROMs for these old dead systems. And to a large degree, it seems like that's the only way to kind of continue to keep that legacy going, to keep it existing in some way, shape or form. Cuz not everybody's gonna have access to the the old hardware, you know, do they go into a library? Are library suddenly the place that you go to experience these old games? And meanwhile, a lot of these old games take tens or hundreds of hours to solve. Like, that doesn't seem very tenable. I don't know what the solution is.

(00:50:26):
I just know that like, if we flash forward a hundred years from now and the way games are, are, you know, gaming as an art form is so based on current architecture, current hardware and, and often like, you know, right now, very, very often that server in the cloud that is on and dedicated to this particular thing, like that stuff's just not gonna survive the test of time. Over time, that stuff fades away. And when I think about how that could apply, you know, take that and apply it to other artistic avenues and just the sheer amount of lost stuff in the gaming realm that we run the risk of losing forever it just seems like a total shame that that an industry this successful could have that kind of like dotted history to look back on for researchers somewhere down the line to be able to look back and actually, you know, be able to kind of comb through the evidence and understand the history of it all.

(00:51:29):
So, I don't know, reports like this get my mind working and, and hope for some sort of a better, better scenario than what we have now. But it's definitely very interesting and worth your time to read through. If you go to game history.org/study-explainer, they've got a little and I think they, they called it the Game availability study explained. You can kinda read a little bit about it. It links to the report. And the report is very interesting to read through, so check it out for yourself. All right, coming up, I'm gonna review the Nothing Phone two which I've been using for the last couple of weeks here, so we're gonna get to that in a moment. But first, let's take a moment to thank the sponsor of this episode of T N W of Tech News Weekly. And that is a c i Learning.

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Our listeners of course know the name IT Pro one of our trusted sponsors for the last decade. IT Pro was with us for so very long as part of a c I learning IT Pro has elevated their highly entertaining bingeable short form content with over 7,200 hours to choose from and new episodes added daily ACI Learning provides world-class service from assisting you in choosing which learning path suits you best, all the way through helping you find the right career opportunity so you can fortify your experience, your expertise with access to self-paced IT training videos. You can get interactive practice labs, certification practice tests. It's not just watching passively, you're involved. Felipe B shares his recent success story with ACI learning's. Amazing. Edutainer said Wes is an awesome instructor, passed my 2 20 11 0 1 on July 4th on the first try. He says, I come from a PR background, so not much knowledge in it so far.

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I love it. He manages to explain concepts in a way you understand very well. Eager to start 2 20 11 0 2 now. Nice going. Felipe, don't miss a c i Learnings Practice Labs. That's where you can test and experiment before deploying new apps or updates without compromising your live system. And by the way, MSPs love it. You can retake practice IT certification tests so you're confident when you sit for the actual exam. That's super important. ACI Learning brings you IT practice exam questions from Microsoft, CompTIA, EC Council, pmi, and many more. And you can access every vendor and skill that you need to advance your IT career in one place. It's all there. ACI Learning is the only official video training for CompTIA Microsoft IT training, Cisco training, Linux training, apple Training, security Cloud and more. It's all there for you. Your personal account manager will be with you every step of the way just to make sure that you're getting exactly what you need to be successful in your field.

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And you can learn it, you can pass your certs and hopefully you can ultimately get your dream job. How's that? Learn more about ACI Learning's Premium training options across Audit IT and cybersecurity readiness@go.acilearning.com slash twit. For individuals, you can use Code TWIT 30 for 30% off a standard or premium individual IT pro membership. That's go dot aci learning.com/twit and we think c i learning for their support of Tech News Weekly. Okay, I I promised you a review of the Nothing. Phone two. So this right here, this weird, funky looking device is the nothing. Phone two. And what is the nothing? Phone two. Well, it is an Android device of course but it's an Android device in this day and age of like, every device looks the same and every device offers the same stuff. The folks that nothing are attempting to do something a little bit different.

(00:55:29):
Now, I did not have the opportunity to play around with the Nothing Phone one when it came out last year, it was not available in the us for US markets. The nothing Phone two this time around is available in the US and I'll put an asterisk on that, which I will talk about a little bit later. But mostly available in the US and it's 5 99. So when when you're talking about kind of like the, the price range or the category that this phone sits in, I would probably put it in the upper mid range tier of devices. So 5 99 out the door. The configuration that I have right here in my hand is actually 6 99. So it's got some upgrades that I'll tell you about. But right off, let's talk a little bit about the design. And you can see other than you know, the fact that it's little smudgy cuz that is glass on the back that my fingerprints have have gone to town on, you can see that the thing that sets this apart is this kind of see-through back display.

(00:56:29):
They really kinda lean into the fact that this phone looks very different from other phones because they're letting you see into the phone. The glass actually is transparent. Now what you're looking at is not the true internals of the phone. I mean, some of it is, I can explain it a little bit, but what you're really looking at is kind of like a back plate that looks a lot like you're looking into a phone, but it's covering a lot of the, you know, the stuff that, like, I would love to see this phone where you actually see the circuit board, but you don't get that here. What you do get are these what they call glyphs and I'm wondering if I can get it to light up sometimes. Yeah, there you go. I got that little blink when I set it down on the table.

(00:57:07):
I think I have a feature right now fe activated that says flip to sh which turns off the sound of my device, but if I get a notification, it will do these glyph lights in a very particular way that that little flash that you saw there, if you're watching the video version just tells you that, okay, it's activated, but if I got a notification, you know, these lights would do different things and I'll talk about that in a moment. So that's, that's definitely a, a differentiator. You've got a couple, you know, of cameras up here, little microphone holes. That's kind of neat that you see these things, right? There's a little red l e d there that shines when you've got a when you're video recording so people know, oh hey, they're recording. And then on the other side you've got an always on display.

(00:57:52):
And I think overall, overall the design is very, it feels very iPhone ish. Like it's got that kind of like flat sides look to it. It, you know, if I was just showing this, it would look a lot like an iPhone just in the way that I'm kind of showing the profile on the video version. And it feels a lot like an iPhone in your hand. The rear glass is rounded right up to the edge, which gives it a nice kind of like, comfortable spot in the palm when you're holding it. It also though means that it's really slippery if you're, if you're setting this on a table that has any sort of downward slope, you'll start to see your phone <laugh> kind of creep off to the side. Or if you put it on a stack of pages of paper that's like not perfectly level, it'll fall off.

(00:58:36):
I had that happen a couple of times. Thankfully, the phone comes with a screen protector already installed and you can kind of see very, very lightly here. That screen protector has taken some damage and a couple of weeks. I've ha I have some, you know, some scratches that I've ended up there, but thankfully that's just the screen protector. That's not the display itself. But overall it's a very unique design. Like you pull this phone out, I've had a couple of comments from people, just random places. It's like, what is that? You know, and this is not a case. This is what the phone actually looks like on its own feels pretty thin. It's a nice device. So so touching on the glyphs for a second because, and the glyphs, again, these, this is the LEDs on the back. This is kind of like the standout, got the see through on the back design, and then you've got the glyphs back there.

(00:59:24):
And I'm gonna go ahead in the OS and try not to get any reflections here. If I do a search for glyph in settings, I can go to this glyph light section here. This allows you to really dial things up, you know, you've got a little brightness for all those lights on the back. The ring tones, the like stock re ring tones tie into the lights in back. So as you can see on the back here like I said, these glyphs do different things and if you go into the settings, you have the option to set different ring tones that tie into it

(01:00:01):
And you know, it kind of has like a R two D two feel to it, which can get really annoying <laugh> over time. But you can kinda see, you know, the dyna the dynamic of all of these different lights and what they can do. I'm gonna go ahead and silence these things so they don't happen when I don't want them to. But in those settings areas, you also have the ability, like I said earlier, that flip to G cliff, you can actually kind of go in here and set up your own rhythms and stuff and, and record it down so that it does all these things on the back and everything. And when this is happening, by the way, I'm also getting a little bit of that haptic kind of kickback that kind of, you know, improves the experience I guess a little bit.

(01:00:47):
Now is any of this, oh, and you can also set apps. So I can go in here and I can say you know, if I get a notification from a chat app, I want these glyphs to do this thing or that, that way if it's set down on a table I might not even hear it. It might be silenced, but or silenced. But if a certain light comes on, I will know, oh, that's a, that's a message for my wife. I need to check that, that sort of thing. And then there are also third party integrations. So I think the only third party integration they have right now is with Uber. They're hoping that others will build it out, but if you're waiting for an Uber, the light on the back will show you the progress. All of this is to say it's interesting, not necessarily essential, like none, none of this is like, oh my goodness, how did I ever live without it?

(01:01:40):
But it's a neat little differentiator, so I'll give it that. So that's the glyph kind of rundown, which I'd say is the really strong differentiator for the nothing. Phone two, the display itself, 6.7 inch L T P O. So that basically means it can ramp between one to 120 hertz depending on what you're using and what app you're using and what it's doing. It's a 10 80 p display, so it's not a four 4k, it's not even a two K display, but, you know, to my eyes, this display looks great. Like the, the sharpness and everything. I, I don't feel like it needs to be any sharper than that. The high refresh really makes up for it and it helps in the battery department, which I'm gonna talk about shortly. But you know, all is to say the display's great. It's a flat display, it's not curved on the sides.

(01:02:25):
The fingerprint sensor is a little low on the device for my preference. I like it to be more like kind of in that region instead of like right near the chin area, but I mean, it, it works without fail for me. 90, 90% of the time. And the always on display that is activated you know, as, as a part of the O L E D display that we have on board here is really nice. You can actually put widgets on on your lock screen and everything too, if you like, but I didn't really do that much. Inside Snapdragon eight plus Gen one processor, this device that I have here is a 12 gig of, of ram. You can get eight as well. You can also get from 128 to 512 gigs of storage. This says 256.

(01:03:09):
Now, this is last year's system on a chip. The Snapdragon eight plus Gen one is from last year. It's the same processor that you're gonna find on the Z fold the the latest Z fold from Samsung. But I found it to be incredibly performant. No problems whatsoever. I, I don't see this as a downside at all, other than, you know, potentially you're losing a year of of kind of longevity out of it. But right now, like out of the gate in 2023, this thing performs as good as you know, pretty much any phone that I'm using right now. So I did, however, find a slowdown in the camera app and I don't know if it'll, if it'll do it, but when I really wanted to, like, you know, when I had someone in place and I wanted to tap like two or three, you can see how it, it, I don't know, it kind of gets confused or it doesn't, it's not able to always keep up with all those taps right now it is, it's almost like it worked through whatever problem it had and now it's, now it's having a okay time, time keeping up.

(01:04:04):
But I experienced that on more than a few occasions, a little bit of a slowdown, almost like it had to ramp up in the camera. But speaking of the camera you have two 50 megapixel cameras on the back. You have the, the main and you have the wide. I did include some photo samples for if you're watching the video version of, of this review. And I would say in general, especially like with ample light, things look pretty sharp. You know, kind of zooming in on, on some of the detail and everything, I was pretty happy with the cam, the pictures that came out of this low light. I had mixed, mixed results. Some of these pictures might look familiar cuz they're here in the studio, but that's, you know, that looks maybe a little washed out, but it, but it looks pretty nice.

(01:04:47):
Get some closeups, see some clarity. I'd say overall that I was pretty happy with the camera in most good light situations. If it's a darker lighting situation it was very hit or miss. But there you go. And then as far as the software is concerned, what you're seeing here looks more like a standard Android os they're, they're doing something they call nothing OS 2.0. It's based on Android 13. So everything, I mean more or less pretty similar. I mean, you can obviously see like little touches like the wifi or the, the connectivity button and the Bluetooth button are large versus being, you know, kind of these small kind of quick setting areas. Like they are on a standard Android os nothing os really, you know, leans into the widgets. I only really have a couple up here if I had, when you're setting up the nothing phone, it gives you the option between your standard layout, which is kind of what I have.

(01:05:49):
And then the nothing OS version which monochromes everything. So all of your icons get simpler, they get more monochrome. And I tried that, but I couldn't, I couldn't last with it because not all of the icons monochrome and I, my eyes just can't deal with the half monochrome, half normal color. It just looks so sloppy to me. So I was like, if they're all, if this is the default for all app icons, I'm just gonna go with it. Otherwise everything would've looked a lot more like these two buttons that you see up at the top if you're watching the, the video version. But yeah, kind of I'd say overall a pretty bug free experience. You get updates for three years on the, on the OS level. Security updates four years doesn't quite match what you get from the Pixel or the Galaxy lineups.

(01:06:38):
You also get a different cadence. I think you get a bimonthly update on on this phone versus like an every month if you get a pixel. So it's not horrible but it's not top of the line. But again, this is an upper mid-range device. Now finally we've got the battery, 4,700 milliamp hour battery. You get 45 watts charging at, if you're plugged in 15 watts charging if you're wireless and you got your wireless charging coil back here. And then you also have a five watts reverse charging. So if you wanted to charge another device, you could do that. It's pretty slow. It's five watts to do that. I had zero battery anxiety with this device as you can see right now, like it's 1213. I woke up at five this morning and I'm at 84%. This thing's been off the charger since then.

(01:07:26):
I've definitely been using it this morning for a number of things, including navigation. And I'm only at 84%. I, I feel like the battery is one of the strong, strong features here and I do think that that 10 80 p display helps with that. It's not driving, you know, this 4K display and wasting a lot of battery along the way. So overall I'd say, you know, like I said, this is a an upper mid range device competes very competently I'd say with the kind of entry level pixel seven in many ways. But again, it's hard for a new newcomer to, to match all of the benefits of getting something that's more established like a Pixel seven. You might be spending about the same or actually saving some money to go with the nothing. But you know, the, with the pixel, you're guaranteed get great pictures every time you're guaranteed to get that longer updates.

(01:08:20):
Update cycle and cadence. There's just some things that a, something like a Pixel or a Galaxy can offer that a newcomer out of the gate isn't gonna be able to quite offer unless you really love the fact that the design is very, very different and very unique. Not to mention, like I alluded to at the very beginning of this review, it's available in the US but with an asterisk. And what I mean by that is T-Mobile and at and t. Yes, you can buy this on nothing's store online and use it on those networks. I'm using it on on Mint Mobile, which is an MV n o of t of T-Mobile and the sponsor of this network. But you can't use this some Verizon, it doesn't have all the antennas to work with the Verizon network. So that's gonna limit it a little bit as well.

(01:09:03):
But at the end of the day, it's a solid upper mid-range candy bar phone with a unique l e d spin on the back. That's the nothing Phone two. And that is my review. So we've reached the end of this episode of Tech News Weekly. Thank you so much for watching and listening as you do each and every week. We could not do it without you. Go to twit tv slash tnw, subscribe to this show. That is the most important thing that you can do if you're outside of the club. That's the most important thing you can do. TWIT TV slash tnw to subscribe. And then if, if you want to be part of the club, you could do that as well. Twit TV slash club twit, that's only $7 a month. You get every show that we have with no ads, you get extra shows, like you get shows that you can't get outside of the club.

(01:09:54):
So every show that we have is like, like totally true here. You get literally everything that we have in that Twit plus feed, lots of bonus content, hands on Mac, hands on Windows Home Theater geeks. I'm working on an AI show, actually gonna have a Discord hangout here in a couple of hours. Well actually in 45 minutes to kind of dive deeper into the artificial intelligence show that I'm working on with Jeff Jarvis. All this offered through Club Twit. And then finally you get access to that Discord that we have as well. Twit TV slash Club twit, $7 a month and yeah, check it out. I mean, you help us directly when you sign up for Club Twit and you know, in this day and age, we can't thank you enough for that. If you wanna find me you can find me, you know, all over, like I was talking about earlier, all over the <laugh>, the web and social media at Jason Howell on Twitter, Twitter social slash at Jason Howell that Jason Howell on Threads.

(01:10:50):
I wish I had one unifying name to give you. I'm not Micah Sergeant unfortunately, so I can't do that. But you can find me there. Big thanks to John and John and Burke ran in here a little bit earlier an was helping out everybody here at the studio who helps us do the show each and every week. Thank you and thanks to you for watching and listening. We'll have Micah hopefully sitting right next to me right here next week when we have another episode of Tech News Weekly. Have a great weekend, everybody. Bye