May 29, 2025 • 46 mins
Google has expanded its Gemini AI in Drive to summarize videos, offering time-saving insights like action items and key updates from footage. With captions enabled, users can interact via a chatbot to extract information without watching the video. Additionally, a new engagement analytics feature shows video views in Drive’s Details panel. -Thinking of buying a … Continue reading Gemini AI Expands Video Summarization in Google Drive #1822
The post Gemini AI Expands Video Summarization in Google Drive #1822 appeared first on Geek News Central.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Lead story for Thursday, May 29. Google has
expanded
its Gemini
AI in Drive to summarize videos,
offering time saving insights like action items and
key updates from footage.
With captions enabled, users can interact via chat
g b t or chatbot, excuse me, to
(00:21):
extract information without watching the video.
Additionally,
engagement analysis feature shows video views and drives
details
panel.
I wanna welcome you to episode 1,822.
I'm your host,
Todd Cochran. Of course, this story
is leading a whole bunch of other Gemini
(00:41):
announcements last week that quite frankly, I was
I was not around for.
Working in London, I I really missed all
of the big announcements last week. So it's
one of those situations where I'm just kinda
catching up on on all the announcement. It
was this one's a little weird
that it's not about what's in YouTube,
(01:05):
but it's what's in your drive, the videos
that are in your drive, and how many
people view them that are in your Google
Drive.
I know, like, from the company standpoint, when
we put videos in
Google Drive,
they,
they're there really for either,
you know, they're not being,
(01:26):
it's just a backup and
it's not something that we go view videos
in in, in Google Drive. So I don't
fully understand the, you know, the significance
of this.
If someone else uses their,
their Google Drive,
they share these documents to with other companies
(01:46):
or or these videos with other companies? I
I don't know.
But it is just a little bit
a little bit
odd in my regard. So,
that's leading today, but, hey. Hey. I wanna
welcome you again to episode 1,822.
And, of course, a shout out to our
incredible sponsor at GoDaddy. Score exclusive deals and
(02:08):
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(02:49):
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(03:10):
It's good to be back in the studio
here.
And,
before we get into the to the GoDaddy
announcement, I I will just say,
a great month for GoDaddy again. We had
a very a very good month. I wanna
appreciate all of you. The support of the
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really makes a huge,
(03:32):
huge difference,
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But,
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Geek News Central. And, again, thank you for
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the show all going and going strong.
But yeah. So while I was in London,
I had,
all of a sudden and my mom wasn't
(04:58):
here,
and neither was my
sister or son-in-law. They were off, in Tennessee,
and all my security cameras went down.
And
I couldn't connect with a whole
host
of IP devices here and,
(05:19):
really didn't know what the situation was until
I got back. And
in,
I've got a I think I've told you
guys about this before. I've got a Hushbox
that has,
basically, the router,
from Unifi, and it has,
power conditioning and a and a major major,
(05:41):
UPS
device,
a commercial one.
And the first one of these I had
bought,
from,
what's the name of the company? Cyber
doesn't matter, but I'd had the other unit
ten years,
replaced the battery in it at about seven
years,
and then it gave up the ghost at
(06:02):
about ten years.
So I bought another unit five years ago.
They're quite expensive.
We're talking
a a hunk of a UPS,
and, this one lasted five years. I had
to buy a new one when I,
had the studio,
in the in the other location.
(06:23):
And,
so I came home, and I'm kinda eyeing
this thing. And it didn't need it to
restart, so I had to turn the power
off, turn the power on because it's it's
connected into a power conditioner,
turned the unit on, and lo and behold,
it it came up and everything's fine until
today.
And today, it's like, where did my Wi
Fi go?
(06:44):
Oh, that thing's out. Turn it back on.
About an hour later, click. I heard it,
and,
off goes the Wi Fi again.
So
I'm like, okay. You know? Here we are
again.
And, of course, there's no extended warranties on
these things.
(07:04):
And, it's it's I mean, the battery is
d e a d, dead, dead, dead. I
priced the replacement battery
because that's essentially what's all that's wrong.
And,
oh my god.
Better just buy a brand new unit. Pretty
sad.
So,
Saturday, I have a delivery, but right now,
(07:25):
I've got everything.
It's not hotwired per se.
But,
I I do have because I've been through
this before. I did have a plan. And
in my head, I was able to pull
the UPS out, unplug everything.
And because there's a a power conditioning unit
below,
plugged all the plugs in, flipped the switch,
and we're back on. But the challenge is
(07:47):
no UPS. So if the lights blink or
anything,
we'll be out.
So,
London was lovely. Had a great time in
London.
Got to see a whole bunch of stuff
over really two days of, I think, 15
to 20,000 steps a day.
But this has been a killer week.
(08:09):
Monday was a holiday, obviously, and then it
just I've crammed literally two weeks worth of
work
into three days or so here. And I'm
I'm just,
at this point, kind of a walking zombie,
to a certain effect. But wanna get the
show out for you, but I wanna catch
you up on what's going on. Thanks everyone
for being here. If you're watching live, you've
catching the show later, that's great. It's okay.
(08:33):
But, back in the studio here, feels natural
minus the,
we'll pray that the power doesn't surge, which
it usually doesn't. When it goes out, it
goes out.
But,
and there was enough of a variation, something
going on to to trip it.
So the first article up after the opening
story today is billions of cookies up for
(08:54):
grabs is expert warn over security.
And law enforcement crackdowns are gathering pace, but
apparently, there's 93,700,000,000
cookies
available for criminals to buy online. And of
those between seven to 9% are active
according to NordVPN's breakdown of stolen cookies by
(09:18):
country.
Cookies may seem harmless, but in the wrong
hands,
their digital keys are most private information. What
was designed against convenience is now growing vulnerability
exploited by criminals worldwide.
So I don't know how do they get
these stolen
cookies. That that's the situation I don't fully
(09:38):
get.
Is it because they've hacked computers, got in
middle man, you know, how they've really done
this? I I'm
I'm not aware of how they've how they're
getting the cookies off computers.
That is a a curiosity to me. So
if one of you may know this answer,
I'd love to hear from you.
(09:58):
Feel free to drop an email geek news
at, g mail dot com, of course.
The US is slated to block China's access
to essential semiconductor design software.
The administration is targeting electronic design
automation tools,
intensifying
tech competition.
So
I'm not exactly sure what software exactly,
(10:22):
but the government informed the electronic design automation
industry about the new export controls on EDA
software,
to China on.
So
Simon's has supported customers China China for more
than a hundred and fifty years continue to
work with globally to might mitigate the impact
of the restrictions.
(10:42):
But this is the latest chapter in a
tech war here.
So,
the financial implications substantial.
Synopsis and cadence earn annual revenue about 1612%
from their China business.
So while cadence being US based companies and
Simon's contributed more 90% share of EDA tools
globally, this move,
(11:04):
is again tighten things up.
But this reflects a broader strategic recalibration.
US has shifted strategy now seeing China's push
for tech self sufficiency,
especially in AI and semiconductors.
So, you know, because that's all, you know,
the AI piece is all a, you know,
(11:24):
secure national security threat. But since 2020,
the Chips Act's coordinated export controls with allies
in Japan and Netherlands have strengthened US resolve.
So,
now it's the actual software
itself
that is,
that is being,
being
(11:45):
slowed
down. Yep. Red Bull
just had to have one tonight.
I know they're bad for me.
Amazon and New York Times have entered into
AI related license agreement.
This deal is gonna allow AI training on
the outlets content and bring New York Times
to a l e x a.
(12:07):
I don't even use do you guys use
that device anymore?
I I mean, I rarely.
I might ask what's the temperature.
But usually, I
I've got a little, you know, weather station
outside. I just look at the display on
that.
But,
(12:28):
the New York Times shared agreement will bring
new features for customers like accessing summaries and
excerpts of Times content.
It'll also allow Amazon to train its AI
models on the New York Times content. So,
again, Amazon
is done the licensing deal. Meanwhile, I think,
I don't know if open I don't remember
if OpenAI has a licensing deal
(12:49):
or not.
But, I guess that shouldn't be surprising at
all.
Senators are probing whether RealPage
pushed state AI law ban.
Now I'm not familiar with RealPage. I guess
if you're a realtor or or a landlord,
you'll know about this. But the more I
look at this, I it kinda made me
(13:09):
look a little deeper. It appears this company
is,
is, in my opinion,
not really acting in the best interest of
people trying to rent apartments and so forth.
But
the software companies accused of colluding with landlords
to raise rents.
They lobbied for pro proposed a proposed ban
(13:29):
on states regulating AI,
for the next decade, which is curious.
In a letter to RealPage CEO, Dana Jones,
five Democratic senators
asked for more information about the company's potential
involvement and provision attack to the Republican's budget
reconciliation bill, which bar state laws impact AI
(13:51):
or automated decisions for ten years.
The senators argue the provision could scuttle attempts
to stop RealPage
from feeding sensitive information from groups, yes, groups
of landlords
into a logarithm used to recommend non competitive
rental pricing.
RealPage is have been, apparently been, responsible
(14:12):
for rising rent prices across The US.
The DOJ in eight states sued the company
last year claiming it deprives renters of the
benefits of competition and apartment leasing terms.
So collusion in renting, driving renting prices up.
So they want more information
on this.
RealPage increased its lobbying spending. Listen to this.
(14:34):
The 4,800,000.0
in 2020 and 9,000,000 in 2024.
So they're spending a huge amount of money
on,
on this ongoing
situation where they're they're paying for, for lobbyists.
This is something I'm sure everyone's gonna go
(14:55):
by.
Hermes.
Now, Chris, you guys heard about the big
the big scandal about Hermes and other expensive
bag companies.
When the when the tariffs hit, they were
kinda outed and that these Ermes bags and,
you know, the people are paying
tens of thousands of dollars for,
(15:15):
stuff that is, you know, probably cost 2
or $300
to, to put together,
was largely being done in China
and not where the bag originates. I think
it's in Italy.
So, you know, I wonder if these headsets,
these wireless headphones that they're launching,
I wonder if these premium headphones,
(15:38):
are largely constructed in China as well, and
they just slapped Hermes
logo on it once it gets to,
to United States.
So,
listen to this, ladies and gentlemen.
You can have a pair of these for
the same price as 33 pairs of Sony
(15:58):
x m six
headsets.
There's no specs to this thing.
You don't know if it's gonna sound doggy
or not,
but, yes, you can have one of these
for $15,000.
15 thousand dollars for Hermes headphones.
(16:21):
Really?
Fifteenth
you have more
you know,
if if you're gonna go any of you
that listen to the show, and I know
there's no one listening to the show who's
gonna do this, but if you do, if
you can afford a pair of these $15,000
Ermes headphones,
(16:41):
please contribute a thousand dollars to the show
to help me with my,
hardware failure.
It's about actually $760
is the price of that replacement piece of
gear.
So, yeah, if you if you can afford
the $15,
go out there and, and make a one
(17:03):
time donation to the show and and become
a super insider immediately
at 15,000.
You know, people have lost their minds.
Criminals are, of course, using AI to create
fake documents to trick businesses,
and this is just going on like crazy.
The emails, the text,
(17:23):
we're I'm you know, we've doubled down. We're
telling the team, be very, very careful
on all emails. If you don't know who
it's from,
now what they're doing is they are
they have found my calendar link.
And I'm being,
auto
because my calendar links
are and I don't publicly put them out.
(17:45):
I only share them in email. But somehow,
my calendar links have gotten out on Calendly.
And,
now all of a sudden and I gotta
do something about it next week. All of
a sudden now I'm getting
appointments made,
and,
and I'm looking at the names of the
people. I have no idea who they are.
There's no email correspondence.
(18:06):
I asked the rest of the team that
anyone, you know,
refer this person,
and we're all getting it. The support team's
getting it. The marketing team's getting. We're all
so we're gonna have to lock down our
calendars,
and have some sort of password or something
ex expiring link or something.
Just makes it a more pain. But
(18:28):
so
the new cycle has been
just full of cases of AI being used
to fake crucial documents.
And these only scratch the surface. AI has
given fraudsters the tools to fabricate fabricate invoices,
tax forms, investment contracts, risk assessments, financial audits.
One of the vendors that we work with
has kind of a weird company name. Barry,
(18:49):
every month is like, is this a real
invoice?
And I'm like, yeah. It is. And he
said, why did they name their company like
that?
And,
it sounds like a, I guess a better
way to say it, it sounds like a
magic company
is giving us a billing, and that's not
the type of service they provide us. And
they're not, you know, providing, magic items to
(19:12):
to the to the company.
What they're doing for us is quite magic.
So maybe that's why they named their company
the way it is. But, you know, also,
they're they're doing DMV text now, basically saying,
hey. I'm I'm your I'm your DMV.
And if you don't pay, we're going to
cancel your license.
This is all fake.
(19:34):
All fake.
So just be careful. Now your license is
not at risk. It's just the texting that
you're getting.
So, you know, just pay attention out there.
This stuff is just taking to a whole
new level. Now,
on the other hand, if you have an
Asus router,
there's a big Asus router hack that's out
(19:55):
there, and it's created a major botnet planting
damaging mail excuse me, damaging malware.
So hackers are brute force forcing older Asus
routers.
Now let me see if I can find
the models.
They don't list the models.
I'm looking here.
(20:17):
But if you have a older Asus
router, this is a really heavy severity severity
score.
There is a,
a link in the show notes to this,
but please
make sure you're updating your firmware. Now
if there's no more updates
(20:38):
to your
router
and your router is more than five years
old
and it's an Asus, I'm just assuming
you you could be affected here.
The vulnerability was first published in National Vulnerability
Debates a long time ago,
September
2023.
(20:58):
And Ace has released firmware to update address,
but people are not
doing
an update.
So they're being hacked.
So just be aware of this. Okay?
Get your get your firmware updated.
The Verge, you know, I'm I'm just about
done with some of these sites. Verge is
(21:18):
one. If you look here
on the Verge site, they got this
this this $4 a month. They they want
you to contribute $4 a month to their
site, but we had a second article from
the Verge today in the
in the in the show prep, and that
one did a half screen.
So, you know, I I I think at
(21:39):
some point, I'm just gonna have to give
up.
I I understand they want money.
Geek and Essential has been running for years
with, you know, with a team of of
of writers,
and we have content coming out all the
time, not at the level that The Verge
does,
but,
you know, at $4 a month,
(22:01):
and if Bloomberg wants $5 a month, and
all these sites want the next thing I
know, I'm paying a hundred or $200
a month for
for website
to access. And it's it's just a little
ridiculous.
I have it allowed so that they can
they can, run ads
on the site. I have a little pull
down here
(22:22):
that basically says,
that I have it paused. You're allowing ads
on the site. I do that for every
site
that we, talk about here in the show.
I I always allow the ads to play.
I don't block the ads.
But this is a,
story about a budget
(22:43):
buzzer,
and it's called Blink.
And,
I know a lot of you have those
doorbells,
cameras, doorbells.
I don't hear. I just have security cameras
every which way.
And, of course, if the Internet stays on
with my,
UPS doesn't go bad. But, anyway, $70
a year, two year battery life, which is
(23:05):
pretty impressive. So Amazon's budget security company, Blinks.
I guess this is an Amazon company. So
any of you got any of that gear
to let me know how it works. I'm
still a big fan of Wyze.
There's a good, article from PC World talking
about Spectrum's free streaming services aren't worth the
cost of cable.
(23:25):
And,
that reminds me let me let me talk
about this first.
They did it they did a analysis of
this, and the savings were, you know, minimal.
So if you are still paying for for
a streaming service,
you
(23:47):
know, you you're just you're just throwing money
away at this point.
And I it's to me, it surprises me
because I know that they had,
ability for you as you're using cable
and paying for a cable bill to have
access to Disney, VIX,
Max, Peacock, AMC, and,
(24:09):
one other, Warner Brothers, I guess.
And, but it's not really worth what they
they're saying it's worth.
So, anyway, link is up in the show
notes.
I have been made aware of an IPTV
service that's out there.
If any of you are interested in IPTV,
let me know. Drop me an email.
(24:32):
You know, let me know which show episode
you heard it on. And I'll,
connect. Insiders,
preferred will get access
to that information. But if you're interested in
IPTV,
let me know.
US deny visas to foreign officials. It says
this basically, anyone that's censoring,
(24:53):
via social media.
So announced by the state department, secretary Mark
Rubio said free speech is among
the most
cherished rights
enjoyed by Americans and complained that governments have
taken flagrant censorship action against some US tech
companies,
citizens, and residents when they do when they
have no authority to do so. So they're
(25:14):
announcing a new visa restriction policy that will
apply to foreign nationals who respond who are
responsible
for censorship or protected
expression in The United States.
It's unacceptable for foreign officials to issue a
threat or arrest warrants on US citizens
or US residents for social media posts on
American platforms
while physically present on US soil. Well, how
(25:34):
are you gonna block the entire Chinese government?
Because there's a rule that you if you
talk bad about China and you go to
Hong Kong, you could very well be arrested.
It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to
demand that American tech platforms adopt global content
moderation policies or engage in essential activities
that reaches beyond their authority and and into
(25:56):
The United States.
So is this pointing a finger at The
UK?
Is this pointing a finger at the EU?
The announcement did not specify any individual incident
or pointing finger at any particular nation, but
there was much controversy, of course, in UK
last year. When the social media sites were
accused of spreading misinformation in relation to the
fatal stabbing
(26:16):
in the town of Southport, it was reported
that MPs in British parliament were to summon
ex owner Elon Musk to testify about his
platform's role in the riots
as part of investigation into whether he
the business models of big tech companies encourage
the spread of content.
RX has also had run ins with the
EU. We know that.
So, again, at the heart of the issue
(26:37):
is
US social media firms say legislation
such as DSA
amounts to censorship of their platform. However, while
they're US based operations, their content is viewed
by millions of people in regions in The
U UK,
Ireland, and everywhere else.
In sponsoring criticism, DSA and the EC Commissioner
for Technical Technological Sovereignty
(26:59):
said that more content is removed by American
social media sites
themselves using their own rules. Well, they have
their own right to do that.
So,
we will see what happens with this.
This is my you know,
you so here's a question.
It's very simple. The UK,
(27:21):
the
EU, could say TikTok,
and or x or Facebook or whatever is
no longer allowed to operate in the country.
What would you think about that?
Because that's what what it could come to.
Right?
If, if US companies
US based owned companies.
(27:43):
And, of course, if you have a division
in those countries, you probably are not as,
as in the clear as others.
But,
you know, what happens next when we say
no? We're not changing,
banners.
I don't know if those platforms want that
or not. I obviously not.
But that's the the option, I guess. Right?
(28:06):
Tesla says it's been testing driverless motor wise
model
motor model wise in Austin for several days.
And it's a month ahead of schedule, said
Elon.
The Tesla robotaxi
service is begin testing,
and it in advance of its promised June
launch.
So there's gonna be 10 to 20 model
(28:26):
y's running around
Austin.
So,
nice city,
depending on where you live.
The HP
yeah. Hewlett Packard stock has plunged as tariffs
slammed the company.
They're basically saying that, they had a,
that the tariffs had just wreaked havoc, stuff
(28:47):
that they couldn't get away from.
Second quarter revenue rose 3.3 to 13,220,000,000.00,
but profit fell 17%
to a 500,000,000
compared to the same period last year.
And, basically, it's about the tariffs. They've had
to, you
know,
a little bit of duty
on stuff coming out of China, and they
(29:09):
are trying to move some of their manufacturing,
back to The US.
Meta and I don't
who's using the Meta
AI? Meta AI already has a billion active
users.
Are you one of those? Are you one
of those active users
that used it accidentally or otherwise?
(29:30):
I don't remember specifically
using an AI tool
on on Meta.
Zuckerberg
said that,
these 1,000,000,000 monthly active users across all its
apps. I also said during the shareholder meeting
that the company
will focus on deepening experience and making made
AI the leading personal AI with emphasis on
(29:51):
personalization,
voice conversations, and entertainment this year.
So I guess people are using AI in
Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
So
I don't know. I
I have not
purposely
used AI, and it's trying to force me
(30:11):
to.
And sometimes you do search, and it says
this is the AI, and the search results
aren't even better than it used to be
on Facebook.
Alexis Nexus risk solutions, a data broker that
collects and uses consumer personal data to help
its paying cost corporate customers detect possible risk
and fraud,
has disclosed a data breach affecting 364,000
(30:32):
people. The company said in a filing with
Maine's attorney general that the breach dating back
to December of twenty four allowed a hacker
to obtain consumer
sense of personal data from a third party
platform used by the company for software development.
So,
another hacker access the company's GitHub account.
The stolen data varies but includes names, dates
of birth, phone numbers, postal, and email address,
(30:54):
Social Security. Why is this stuff in these
systems not encrypted?
Why are we still having Social Security numbers
that are not encrypted?
Everyone's Social Security number has been exposed, like,
times 10 or 20.
There's just
there's no excuse for this now, that those
(31:14):
numbers are not hashed.
Apparently, iOS 19 is not coming this fall
because Apple's gonna call it something else.
Apple's gonna unveil the latest version of iPhone
at WWDC.
The tech join tech giant is going to
shake up the naming system with the next
version
to be called iOS 26
(31:37):
compare according to Bloomberg.
Why is that?
Switching to a system that identifies iOS by
year describes it as the most sweeping change
yet to its operating system names.
Change it from 19 to 26 because of
the year?
Well, you know,
Apple device expect to unveil the iPad OS
(31:57):
26, Mac OS 26, watch OS 26, TV
OS 26,
Envision OS 26 at its WWDC
twenty twenty five event.
Why isn't everything gonna call 2025 and not
2026?
Who knows?
NASA's gonna shut down the Spot Station
(32:19):
site.
So if you've been using Spot the Station
website, and I've done a few times over
the years,
they're pulling the plug on it. And no
specific
was there a reason given? Let me see.
Was it is it budget?
Yeah. There's other apps.
(32:40):
Yeah. But they're gonna pull it pull that
site down. So if you want to space,
want to track the International Space Station, Lots
of ways to do that. Links are in
the article. Of course, SpaceX continues. Of course,
the I did get to watch the,
ship nine launch.
I was in a board meeting at the
time on Tuesday, so I was kinda watching
(33:01):
out of the corner of my eye at
the same time as the
as the launch,
and it was quite exciting,
as usual.
And,
they're getting they're getting closer.
But boy, oh, boy, they just can't get
it completely right. Of course, they purposely,
brought the first stage in at a very,
(33:21):
very high angle of attack
and,
was testing it, and then it didn't it
didn't survive.
But we know the first stage made it
to engine shutoff, but then it lost attitude
control.
And that was some freaky that that was
almost psychedelic.
It was a mixture
(33:41):
of the there's some sort of it looked
like a fire going on and plasma
and this thing spinning.
I mean,
it would almost make you sick to the
stomach if you if you watched it continuously.
But, we'll see how long before they they
go with the launch
10. But, they did, put 27 Starlinks up
(34:03):
yesterday, but they're doing about two or three
of those a week now. So that's not,
not something that's totally crazy. Hey. Windows 11
is gonna get some much needed HDR
improvements,
and, the latest update is available
to users right now.
And once installed, you can now toggle the
ability to stream HDR video options even when
(34:24):
HDR is disabled with Windows Windows,
allowing you to view HDR content from apps
like Netflix or websites like YouTube
without having to enable HDR throughout Windows. So
you can do it kind of selectively,
and they do have a keyboard
shortcut,
Windows key alt b, to enable it in
games and so forth.
(34:45):
So,
anyway, definitely check that out.
Do you guys hear me? I just about
yawned.
I need,
a little more,
go go juice
here. God, it's so good, but so bad
for you.
I thought about,
the way this week is going. I was
(35:06):
singing about pouring a bourbon for the for
the show tonight, but I'm thinking it's probably
not a good idea.
We'll save it for the, the editing process.
For some of you, you're gonna be happy.
Elon has stepped away from the White House,
AKA Dodge. His time is up.
His official role within the US government is
(35:26):
coming to an end.
And,
the at Dodge mission is going to continue
by others.
And,
so we'll see how much they are able
to save. But the problem is,
here's what I've heard,
and I just saw it today.
Everyone was complaining that the current budget didn't
(35:49):
cut any of that money
that they saved.
And
it's because
they were trying to get this thing through,
that whatever they're calling that big, big, beautiful
bill.
And,
big indeed with lots of money being spent
and more deficits.
So, you know, and no one's no one's
(36:11):
excluded from this party here.
Although,
I heard today that they're gonna do a
supplemental
bill
that will strip the spending
from the bill they just passed, which is
absolutely
insane. Why didn't they take it out to
begin with? So they have a bill with
it all in. Now they're gonna another have
(36:31):
another bill to take it all out. It
just
come on
You know I I don't understand. I I
really don't
But anyway Elon's done yet a hundred thirty
day
role.
Basically, he was a special government employee,
so he had to leave,
(36:52):
before the end of the month.
Although, Musk did some criticizing of the of
the bill,
saying the land landmark tax legislation will increase
the federal deficit, undermine his cost cutting efforts
at Doge.
So, you know, they wanna try to
to slash, like, 1 to 2,000,000,000
(37:13):
A trillion. Excuse
me. And but currently,
the the website that's they're only up to,
like, 2 or 300,000,000,000
that they've been able to save, which is
still
a lot of money.
And, some of it was being spent kind
of eye opening ways, so we'll see what
progresses.
DJI's first robot vacuum is edging closer to
(37:34):
launch according to a new leak, and it
could clean up in the premium robo vac
space.
Now I didn't mention it or did I?
My kitty cat
passed away,
while I was gone, and we knew he
wasn't doing well.
He had been,
you know, stomach bloated. He'd been skinny. He
(37:55):
wasn't eating real well, and something happened.
He stay he was staying here in the
house, and, my mom checked on him, and,
he wasn't doing well. He couldn't,
couldn't hardly walk.
And,
so, you know, sadly,
we had to put him or she had
him put down.
(38:16):
And,
but I have not been running
my
my
vacuum cleaner
here because it always kinda got hung up
around where
the cat area was, you know, where the
litter box and all that stuff was. So,
this weekend, I'm gonna
get it charged up and get the propellers
(38:36):
updated and make sure it's all good to
go, and we'll give it a run. We'll
see what happens,
if it, if it can there's just so
many obstacles here. I I'm just afraid it's
especially if it gets around here in the
studio, it's gonna get back in here and
just, like, lose its mind. So I'd love
to have a vacuum that worked.
You know, instead, I run the vacuum cleaner
(38:58):
once a week, but, you know, that's okay
too. Right?
Adidas data breach linked to a third party
vendor,
sneakers and sports wear giant, disclosed a data
breach this week after hackers assessed a third
party customer service provider.
And, how many people does it say?
No. They haven't said, but, Adidas is the
latest to fall victim to,
(39:20):
to attack.
In the interesting brief, the administration is telling
SCOTUS
that ISPs shouldn't be forced to boot alleged
pirates.
So the administration's backing cable company Cox in
a battle
that could determine whether ISPs are forced to
disconnect users accused of privacy.
(39:40):
Cox said ISP shouldn't have to terminate customers
based on unproven allegations
of copyright infringement. It's been asked seeking customer
a supreme court review.
Sony's victory in that underlying lawsuit, the court
asked the US Solicitor General to file a
brief expressing views of the United States government.
The solicitor general
(40:01):
filed a brief yesterday saying the court Supreme
Court should grant
it's called oh my god.
This is some legal word. Ceter c
e certiorari?
C e r t o r a r
I? Certiorari?
Oh my god.
To address the first question presented in the
Cox,
(40:21):
petition.
So, basically,
I guess that gives them relief.
What does that word mean? I'm gonna have
to have to look this up. Let me
copy this here.
I I'm too curious to let it go
or we're all gonna learn a new word
together here.
Maybe maybe some of you okay. It's certiorari.
(40:46):
A writ. It's a writ or order by
which a higher court reviews a decision of
a lower
court.
Writ of a review.
That's essentially what sir
sir t o r e. So the lawyers
out there, you know, that's in your language
(41:06):
reporter,
but,
there's widespread termination spirit if this goes through.
So this is a big case
for any of you that are out there
that are,
still,
doing torrents and stuff like that.
Apple, you know, they lost big on this
(41:26):
situation where you now in The US, app
developers are updating the app so that you
can buy
through a link in the app on an
external website.
But the Airbn Commission this week released the
full text of its decision. It found Apple
in violations of its digital competition rules.
The ruling makes clear that Apple App Store
still falls short of DMA requirements.
(41:49):
If it doesn't comply with the next thirty
days, it risk having to make additional periodic
penalty payments. The
EC decision, which laid down last night, fined
Apple five hundred seventy million dollars
for App Store guidelines for pre developer for
steering customers' alternative payment options. Remember, they said,
okay. You don't have to pay, but then
you have every month have to send us
a report
(42:09):
of everyone that does an off-site payment, and
you have to send us 30% of that.
So,
this era may be coming to an end.
Of course, Apple's appealing it.
So we'll see. At least here in The
United States, we'll see what goes on there.
And, you know, and and total irony here,
(42:32):
do you guys know who Palmer,
Lucky
is? Well,
Palmer Lucky,
has built a an incredible
business,
but in in basically
defense.
And he was fired,
from,
Google with quite some
(42:54):
fanfare
some time ago.
So Lucky's defense company, Anduril Industries, and made
us at Thursday. They will together build a
new,
a new line of rugged helmets, glasses, and
other wearables that provide virtual reality or augmented
reality experience
for the military.
Now
(43:15):
Anduril,
a n d u r I l, is
a huge
defense contractor.
And,
but again, this collaboration brings together social media
giant who's long been the target of Washington's
scrutiny and
a
weapons maker that is a rising star inside
the Pentagon and much hated by a lot
of a lot of folks.
(43:36):
A lot of folks don't like this company,
but they've done an incredible amount of look,
amount of work at this.
He says I should have looked at I
should look at this as I have succeeded.
Lucky said in the interview, I've successfully persuaded
not just Meta, but many others that work
with the military,
that it's important.
(43:57):
So
very interesting here.
In a statement, Mark Zuckerberg said Eagle Eye
Technology will help US Soldiers protect our interests
at home and abroad.
So that's that's big too. You know?
So, Meta. Wow. This is big. This is
a big one.
Quite ironic as well.
(44:19):
Ladies,
and even gentlemen,
Victoria's Secret has taken down their website after
a security incident. Must be pretty bad.
If they've taken down their website because of
an ongoing security incident, that's that that doesn't
bode well at all.
And,
the company says the message of replacing the
(44:40):
websites of Victoria's Secret and Pinkstars remain open
while operations are being restored.
So they must have had a huge,
huge brief.
I mean,
yeah, breach.
Very, very, very, very, very interesting.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm back here. I'm glad,
to be back in the saddle here. Regular
(45:01):
schedule shows for the foreseeable future.
We'll get back in the, groove of thanking
our insiders.
If you wanna become an insider, geekonessential.com/insider.
Don't forget about our sponsor, GoDaddy. And again,
for those of you that,
recommended in April, thank you so much. A
great month.
(45:22):
You're gonna help
pay for some of the stuff that, with
hardware issues here in
in
in the in the in the loft, in
the studio.
But,
thank you so much for everything. Thank you
for being part of the family here. You
can be part of the Ohana.
I'll be back with you on Monday
for another edition of the Geek and Central
(45:43):
podcasting. And thank you to Kirk
for his,
his work. And by the way, Kirk is
looking for a job.
If any of you have any digital work,
any
anything is digital streaming, broadcast,
remote switching, anything like that at all. Kirk
is looking for, employment.
(46:04):
So he's in between jobs right now.
So, let me know,
and,
I will I will,
you can just you can reach him directly.
It's pa@geetnacentral.com.
It's Kirk's,
email address here. So don't be afraid to
email him
directly. Or if you want me to put
(46:26):
you in contact with him, via,
phone number so forth, I can do that
as well. But, yeah, Kirk is on the
hunt for a job.
So someone's got out there something,
digital, anything digital,
or I don't know. I don't know what
he's all open to, but if you've got
something, let me know. I'll share it with
him. Definitely remote work. He's in New Jersey.
(46:46):
So So that'll give you an idea of
his geographical
location.
But, anyway hey, everyone. Thanks so much for
being here. We'll see you on Monday. Everyone
take care. Bye bye.
Lead story for Thursday, May 29. Google has
expanded
its Gemini
AI in Drive to summarize videos,
offering time saving insights like action items and
key updates from footage.
With captions enabled, users can interact via chat
g b t or chatbot, excuse me, to
(00:21):
extract information without watching the video.
Additionally,
engagement analysis feature shows video views and drives
details
panel.
I wanna welcome you to episode 1,822.
I'm your host,
Todd Cochran. Of course, this story
is leading a whole bunch of other Gemini
(00:41):
announcements last week that quite frankly, I was
I was not around for.
Working in London, I I really missed all
of the big announcements last week. So it's
one of those situations where I'm just kinda
catching up on on all the announcement. It
was this one's a little weird
that it's not about what's in YouTube,
(01:05):
but it's what's in your drive, the videos
that are in your drive, and how many
people view them that are in your Google
Drive.
I know, like, from the company standpoint, when
we put videos in
Google Drive,
they,
they're there really for either,
you know, they're not being,
(01:26):
it's just a backup and
it's not something that we go view videos
in in, in Google Drive. So I don't
fully understand the, you know, the significance
of this.
If someone else uses their,
their Google Drive,
they share these documents to with other companies
(01:46):
or or these videos with other companies? I
I don't know.
But it is just a little bit
a little bit
odd in my regard. So,
that's leading today, but, hey. Hey. I wanna
welcome you again to episode 1,822.
And, of course, a shout out to our
incredible sponsor at GoDaddy. Score exclusive deals and
(02:08):
discounts at geekneycentral.comforwardslash,
GoDaddy.
Again, to all of our listeners,
you're the heartbeat of this show. If you
wanna support GNC, head to geeknewcentral.com/insider
and become a GNC insider.
We are lit and live. Don't just listen,
experience the show by grabbing a modern podcast
(02:29):
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Of course, check out the full Geek News
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tons of new content as well. And stay
in the loop and subscribe to the podcast
via your favorite podcast app. Don't forget
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And, again,
that will get you all kinds of insider
(02:49):
excuse by just coming to the website. You
can join the conversation at geeknews.chat.
Of course, that's,
a great way to connect,
and you can email me directly geeknews@gmail.com.
You can hit me up on x at
geek news.
And, of course, you can even catch me
on, on Facebook.
(03:10):
It's good to be back in the studio
here.
And,
before we get into the to the GoDaddy
announcement, I I will just say,
a great month for GoDaddy again. We had
a very a very good month. I wanna
appreciate all of you. The support of the
sponsor,
really makes a huge,
(03:32):
huge difference,
in in a big, big way. And I'll
tell you a little bit why here in
a minute.
But,
Geek News Central
excuse me. Geek News did I say yeah.
Geek News Central listeners
got lots of savings here,
at geeknewscentral.com/godaddy.
Go over there and grab those savings. Let's
(03:53):
start with a website or a podcast.
GNC codes make it easy and affordable. Grab
GoDaddy's economy hosting for just $6.99 a month.
That's a full year of hosting
with a free domain name, professional email, and
SSL certificate. Of course, if you're interested in
WordPress, which is my favorite, WordPress managed hosting
is just $12.99 a month, which includes a
free domain name, professional email, and an SSL
(04:16):
certificate. And, of course, if you need a
domain name, you can pick one up for
$11.99.
GoDaddy website builder is available. You can get
a free thirty day trial on personal business
to business plus plans.
And, of course, I use all of the
GoDaddy products and service, and your support keeps
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Use our codes. Click and save. You're backing
this independent team of creators. Share my codes
(04:38):
or website with your friends and family because
every time a code is used, it supports
Geek News Central. And, again, thank you for
keeping
the show all going and going strong.
But yeah. So while I was in London,
I had,
all of a sudden and my mom wasn't
(04:58):
here,
and neither was my
sister or son-in-law. They were off, in Tennessee,
and all my security cameras went down.
And
I couldn't connect with a whole
host
of IP devices here and,
(05:19):
really didn't know what the situation was until
I got back. And
in,
I've got a I think I've told you
guys about this before. I've got a Hushbox
that has,
basically, the router,
from Unifi, and it has,
power conditioning and a and a major major,
(05:41):
UPS
device,
a commercial one.
And the first one of these I had
bought,
from,
what's the name of the company? Cyber
doesn't matter, but I'd had the other unit
ten years,
replaced the battery in it at about seven
years,
and then it gave up the ghost at
(06:02):
about ten years.
So I bought another unit five years ago.
They're quite expensive.
We're talking
a a hunk of a UPS,
and, this one lasted five years. I had
to buy a new one when I,
had the studio,
in the in the other location.
(06:23):
And,
so I came home, and I'm kinda eyeing
this thing. And it didn't need it to
restart, so I had to turn the power
off, turn the power on because it's it's
connected into a power conditioner,
turned the unit on, and lo and behold,
it it came up and everything's fine until
today.
And today, it's like, where did my Wi
Fi go?
(06:44):
Oh, that thing's out. Turn it back on.
About an hour later, click. I heard it,
and,
off goes the Wi Fi again.
So
I'm like, okay. You know? Here we are
again.
And, of course, there's no extended warranties on
these things.
(07:04):
And, it's it's I mean, the battery is
d e a d, dead, dead, dead. I
priced the replacement battery
because that's essentially what's all that's wrong.
And,
oh my god.
Better just buy a brand new unit. Pretty
sad.
So,
Saturday, I have a delivery, but right now,
(07:25):
I've got everything.
It's not hotwired per se.
But,
I I do have because I've been through
this before. I did have a plan. And
in my head, I was able to pull
the UPS out, unplug everything.
And because there's a a power conditioning unit
below,
plugged all the plugs in, flipped the switch,
and we're back on. But the challenge is
(07:47):
no UPS. So if the lights blink or
anything,
we'll be out.
So,
London was lovely. Had a great time in
London.
Got to see a whole bunch of stuff
over really two days of, I think, 15
to 20,000 steps a day.
But this has been a killer week.
(08:09):
Monday was a holiday, obviously, and then it
just I've crammed literally two weeks worth of
work
into three days or so here. And I'm
I'm just,
at this point, kind of a walking zombie,
to a certain effect. But wanna get the
show out for you, but I wanna catch
you up on what's going on. Thanks everyone
for being here. If you're watching live, you've
catching the show later, that's great. It's okay.
(08:33):
But, back in the studio here, feels natural
minus the,
we'll pray that the power doesn't surge, which
it usually doesn't. When it goes out, it
goes out.
But,
and there was enough of a variation, something
going on to to trip it.
So the first article up after the opening
story today is billions of cookies up for
(08:54):
grabs is expert warn over security.
And law enforcement crackdowns are gathering pace, but
apparently, there's 93,700,000,000
cookies
available for criminals to buy online. And of
those between seven to 9% are active
according to NordVPN's breakdown of stolen cookies by
(09:18):
country.
Cookies may seem harmless, but in the wrong
hands,
their digital keys are most private information. What
was designed against convenience is now growing vulnerability
exploited by criminals worldwide.
So I don't know how do they get
these stolen
cookies. That that's the situation I don't fully
(09:38):
get.
Is it because they've hacked computers, got in
middle man, you know, how they've really done
this? I I'm
I'm not aware of how they've how they're
getting the cookies off computers.
That is a a curiosity to me. So
if one of you may know this answer,
I'd love to hear from you.
(09:58):
Feel free to drop an email geek news
at, g mail dot com, of course.
The US is slated to block China's access
to essential semiconductor design software.
The administration is targeting electronic design
automation tools,
intensifying
tech competition.
So
I'm not exactly sure what software exactly,
(10:22):
but the government informed the electronic design automation
industry about the new export controls on EDA
software,
to China on.
So
Simon's has supported customers China China for more
than a hundred and fifty years continue to
work with globally to might mitigate the impact
of the restrictions.
(10:42):
But this is the latest chapter in a
tech war here.
So,
the financial implications substantial.
Synopsis and cadence earn annual revenue about 1612%
from their China business.
So while cadence being US based companies and
Simon's contributed more 90% share of EDA tools
globally, this move,
(11:04):
is again tighten things up.
But this reflects a broader strategic recalibration.
US has shifted strategy now seeing China's push
for tech self sufficiency,
especially in AI and semiconductors.
So, you know, because that's all, you know,
the AI piece is all a, you know,
(11:24):
secure national security threat. But since 2020,
the Chips Act's coordinated export controls with allies
in Japan and Netherlands have strengthened US resolve.
So,
now it's the actual software
itself
that is,
that is being,
being
(11:45):
slowed
down. Yep. Red Bull
just had to have one tonight.
I know they're bad for me.
Amazon and New York Times have entered into
AI related license agreement.
This deal is gonna allow AI training on
the outlets content and bring New York Times
to a l e x a.
(12:07):
I don't even use do you guys use
that device anymore?
I I mean, I rarely.
I might ask what's the temperature.
But usually, I
I've got a little, you know, weather station
outside. I just look at the display on
that.
But,
(12:28):
the New York Times shared agreement will bring
new features for customers like accessing summaries and
excerpts of Times content.
It'll also allow Amazon to train its AI
models on the New York Times content. So,
again, Amazon
is done the licensing deal. Meanwhile, I think,
I don't know if open I don't remember
if OpenAI has a licensing deal
(12:49):
or not.
But, I guess that shouldn't be surprising at
all.
Senators are probing whether RealPage
pushed state AI law ban.
Now I'm not familiar with RealPage. I guess
if you're a realtor or or a landlord,
you'll know about this. But the more I
look at this, I it kinda made me
(13:09):
look a little deeper. It appears this company
is,
is, in my opinion,
not really acting in the best interest of
people trying to rent apartments and so forth.
But
the software companies accused of colluding with landlords
to raise rents.
They lobbied for pro proposed a proposed ban
(13:29):
on states regulating AI,
for the next decade, which is curious.
In a letter to RealPage CEO, Dana Jones,
five Democratic senators
asked for more information about the company's potential
involvement and provision attack to the Republican's budget
reconciliation bill, which bar state laws impact AI
(13:51):
or automated decisions for ten years.
The senators argue the provision could scuttle attempts
to stop RealPage
from feeding sensitive information from groups, yes, groups
of landlords
into a logarithm used to recommend non competitive
rental pricing.
RealPage is have been, apparently been, responsible
(14:12):
for rising rent prices across The US.
The DOJ in eight states sued the company
last year claiming it deprives renters of the
benefits of competition and apartment leasing terms.
So collusion in renting, driving renting prices up.
So they want more information
on this.
RealPage increased its lobbying spending. Listen to this.
(14:34):
The 4,800,000.0
in 2020 and 9,000,000 in 2024.
So they're spending a huge amount of money
on,
on this ongoing
situation where they're they're paying for, for lobbyists.
This is something I'm sure everyone's gonna go
(14:55):
by.
Hermes.
Now, Chris, you guys heard about the big
the big scandal about Hermes and other expensive
bag companies.
When the when the tariffs hit, they were
kinda outed and that these Ermes bags and,
you know, the people are paying
tens of thousands of dollars for,
(15:15):
stuff that is, you know, probably cost 2
or $300
to, to put together,
was largely being done in China
and not where the bag originates. I think
it's in Italy.
So, you know, I wonder if these headsets,
these wireless headphones that they're launching,
I wonder if these premium headphones,
(15:38):
are largely constructed in China as well, and
they just slapped Hermes
logo on it once it gets to,
to United States.
So,
listen to this, ladies and gentlemen.
You can have a pair of these for
the same price as 33 pairs of Sony
(15:58):
x m six
headsets.
There's no specs to this thing.
You don't know if it's gonna sound doggy
or not,
but, yes, you can have one of these
for $15,000.
15 thousand dollars for Hermes headphones.
(16:21):
Really?
Fifteenth
you have more
you know,
if if you're gonna go any of you
that listen to the show, and I know
there's no one listening to the show who's
gonna do this, but if you do, if
you can afford a pair of these $15,000
Ermes headphones,
(16:41):
please contribute a thousand dollars to the show
to help me with my,
hardware failure.
It's about actually $760
is the price of that replacement piece of
gear.
So, yeah, if you if you can afford
the $15,
go out there and, and make a one
(17:03):
time donation to the show and and become
a super insider immediately
at 15,000.
You know, people have lost their minds.
Criminals are, of course, using AI to create
fake documents to trick businesses,
and this is just going on like crazy.
The emails, the text,
(17:23):
we're I'm you know, we've doubled down. We're
telling the team, be very, very careful
on all emails. If you don't know who
it's from,
now what they're doing is they are
they have found my calendar link.
And I'm being,
auto
because my calendar links
are and I don't publicly put them out.
(17:45):
I only share them in email. But somehow,
my calendar links have gotten out on Calendly.
And,
now all of a sudden and I gotta
do something about it next week. All of
a sudden now I'm getting
appointments made,
and,
and I'm looking at the names of the
people. I have no idea who they are.
There's no email correspondence.
(18:06):
I asked the rest of the team that
anyone, you know,
refer this person,
and we're all getting it. The support team's
getting it. The marketing team's getting. We're all
so we're gonna have to lock down our
calendars,
and have some sort of password or something
ex expiring link or something.
Just makes it a more pain. But
(18:28):
so
the new cycle has been
just full of cases of AI being used
to fake crucial documents.
And these only scratch the surface. AI has
given fraudsters the tools to fabricate fabricate invoices,
tax forms, investment contracts, risk assessments, financial audits.
One of the vendors that we work with
has kind of a weird company name. Barry,
(18:49):
every month is like, is this a real
invoice?
And I'm like, yeah. It is. And he
said, why did they name their company like
that?
And,
it sounds like a, I guess a better
way to say it, it sounds like a
magic company
is giving us a billing, and that's not
the type of service they provide us. And
they're not, you know, providing, magic items to
(19:12):
to the to the company.
What they're doing for us is quite magic.
So maybe that's why they named their company
the way it is. But, you know, also,
they're they're doing DMV text now, basically saying,
hey. I'm I'm your I'm your DMV.
And if you don't pay, we're going to
cancel your license.
This is all fake.
(19:34):
All fake.
So just be careful. Now your license is
not at risk. It's just the texting that
you're getting.
So, you know, just pay attention out there.
This stuff is just taking to a whole
new level. Now,
on the other hand, if you have an
Asus router,
there's a big Asus router hack that's out
(19:55):
there, and it's created a major botnet planting
damaging mail excuse me, damaging malware.
So hackers are brute force forcing older Asus
routers.
Now let me see if I can find
the models.
They don't list the models.
I'm looking here.
(20:17):
But if you have a older Asus
router, this is a really heavy severity severity
score.
There is a,
a link in the show notes to this,
but please
make sure you're updating your firmware. Now
if there's no more updates
(20:38):
to your
router
and your router is more than five years
old
and it's an Asus, I'm just assuming
you you could be affected here.
The vulnerability was first published in National Vulnerability
Debates a long time ago,
September
2023.
(20:58):
And Ace has released firmware to update address,
but people are not
doing
an update.
So they're being hacked.
So just be aware of this. Okay?
Get your get your firmware updated.
The Verge, you know, I'm I'm just about
done with some of these sites. Verge is
(21:18):
one. If you look here
on the Verge site, they got this
this this $4 a month. They they want
you to contribute $4 a month to their
site, but we had a second article from
the Verge today in the
in the in the show prep, and that
one did a half screen.
So, you know, I I I think at
(21:39):
some point, I'm just gonna have to give
up.
I I understand they want money.
Geek and Essential has been running for years
with, you know, with a team of of
of writers,
and we have content coming out all the
time, not at the level that The Verge
does,
but,
you know, at $4 a month,
(22:01):
and if Bloomberg wants $5 a month, and
all these sites want the next thing I
know, I'm paying a hundred or $200
a month for
for website
to access. And it's it's just a little
ridiculous.
I have it allowed so that they can
they can, run ads
on the site. I have a little pull
down here
(22:22):
that basically says,
that I have it paused. You're allowing ads
on the site. I do that for every
site
that we, talk about here in the show.
I I always allow the ads to play.
I don't block the ads.
But this is a,
story about a budget
(22:43):
buzzer,
and it's called Blink.
And,
I know a lot of you have those
doorbells,
cameras, doorbells.
I don't hear. I just have security cameras
every which way.
And, of course, if the Internet stays on
with my,
UPS doesn't go bad. But, anyway, $70
a year, two year battery life, which is
(23:05):
pretty impressive. So Amazon's budget security company, Blinks.
I guess this is an Amazon company. So
any of you got any of that gear
to let me know how it works. I'm
still a big fan of Wyze.
There's a good, article from PC World talking
about Spectrum's free streaming services aren't worth the
cost of cable.
(23:25):
And,
that reminds me let me let me talk
about this first.
They did it they did a analysis of
this, and the savings were, you know, minimal.
So if you are still paying for for
a streaming service,
you
(23:47):
know, you you're just you're just throwing money
away at this point.
And I it's to me, it surprises me
because I know that they had,
ability for you as you're using cable
and paying for a cable bill to have
access to Disney, VIX,
Max, Peacock, AMC, and,
(24:09):
one other, Warner Brothers, I guess.
And, but it's not really worth what they
they're saying it's worth.
So, anyway, link is up in the show
notes.
I have been made aware of an IPTV
service that's out there.
If any of you are interested in IPTV,
let me know. Drop me an email.
(24:32):
You know, let me know which show episode
you heard it on. And I'll,
connect. Insiders,
preferred will get access
to that information. But if you're interested in
IPTV,
let me know.
US deny visas to foreign officials. It says
this basically, anyone that's censoring,
(24:53):
via social media.
So announced by the state department, secretary Mark
Rubio said free speech is among
the most
cherished rights
enjoyed by Americans and complained that governments have
taken flagrant censorship action against some US tech
companies,
citizens, and residents when they do when they
have no authority to do so. So they're
(25:14):
announcing a new visa restriction policy that will
apply to foreign nationals who respond who are
responsible
for censorship or protected
expression in The United States.
It's unacceptable for foreign officials to issue a
threat or arrest warrants on US citizens
or US residents for social media posts on
American platforms
while physically present on US soil. Well, how
(25:34):
are you gonna block the entire Chinese government?
Because there's a rule that you if you
talk bad about China and you go to
Hong Kong, you could very well be arrested.
It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to
demand that American tech platforms adopt global content
moderation policies or engage in essential activities
that reaches beyond their authority and and into
(25:56):
The United States.
So is this pointing a finger at The
UK?
Is this pointing a finger at the EU?
The announcement did not specify any individual incident
or pointing finger at any particular nation, but
there was much controversy, of course, in UK
last year. When the social media sites were
accused of spreading misinformation in relation to the
fatal stabbing
(26:16):
in the town of Southport, it was reported
that MPs in British parliament were to summon
ex owner Elon Musk to testify about his
platform's role in the riots
as part of investigation into whether he
the business models of big tech companies encourage
the spread of content.
RX has also had run ins with the
EU. We know that.
So, again, at the heart of the issue
(26:37):
is
US social media firms say legislation
such as DSA
amounts to censorship of their platform. However, while
they're US based operations, their content is viewed
by millions of people in regions in The
U UK,
Ireland, and everywhere else.
In sponsoring criticism, DSA and the EC Commissioner
for Technical Technological Sovereignty
(26:59):
said that more content is removed by American
social media sites
themselves using their own rules. Well, they have
their own right to do that.
So,
we will see what happens with this.
This is my you know,
you so here's a question.
It's very simple. The UK,
(27:21):
the
EU, could say TikTok,
and or x or Facebook or whatever is
no longer allowed to operate in the country.
What would you think about that?
Because that's what what it could come to.
Right?
If, if US companies
US based owned companies.
(27:43):
And, of course, if you have a division
in those countries, you probably are not as,
as in the clear as others.
But,
you know, what happens next when we say
no? We're not changing,
banners.
I don't know if those platforms want that
or not. I obviously not.
But that's the the option, I guess. Right?
(28:06):
Tesla says it's been testing driverless motor wise
model
motor model wise in Austin for several days.
And it's a month ahead of schedule, said
Elon.
The Tesla robotaxi
service is begin testing,
and it in advance of its promised June
launch.
So there's gonna be 10 to 20 model
(28:26):
y's running around
Austin.
So,
nice city,
depending on where you live.
The HP
yeah. Hewlett Packard stock has plunged as tariffs
slammed the company.
They're basically saying that, they had a,
that the tariffs had just wreaked havoc, stuff
(28:47):
that they couldn't get away from.
Second quarter revenue rose 3.3 to 13,220,000,000.00,
but profit fell 17%
to a 500,000,000
compared to the same period last year.
And, basically, it's about the tariffs. They've had
to, you
know,
a little bit of duty
on stuff coming out of China, and they
(29:09):
are trying to move some of their manufacturing,
back to The US.
Meta and I don't
who's using the Meta
AI? Meta AI already has a billion active
users.
Are you one of those? Are you one
of those active users
that used it accidentally or otherwise?
(29:30):
I don't remember specifically
using an AI tool
on on Meta.
Zuckerberg
said that,
these 1,000,000,000 monthly active users across all its
apps. I also said during the shareholder meeting
that the company
will focus on deepening experience and making made
AI the leading personal AI with emphasis on
(29:51):
personalization,
voice conversations, and entertainment this year.
So I guess people are using AI in
Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
So
I don't know. I
I have not
purposely
used AI, and it's trying to force me
(30:11):
to.
And sometimes you do search, and it says
this is the AI, and the search results
aren't even better than it used to be
on Facebook.
Alexis Nexus risk solutions, a data broker that
collects and uses consumer personal data to help
its paying cost corporate customers detect possible risk
and fraud,
has disclosed a data breach affecting 364,000
(30:32):
people. The company said in a filing with
Maine's attorney general that the breach dating back
to December of twenty four allowed a hacker
to obtain consumer
sense of personal data from a third party
platform used by the company for software development.
So,
another hacker access the company's GitHub account.
The stolen data varies but includes names, dates
of birth, phone numbers, postal, and email address,
(30:54):
Social Security. Why is this stuff in these
systems not encrypted?
Why are we still having Social Security numbers
that are not encrypted?
Everyone's Social Security number has been exposed, like,
times 10 or 20.
There's just
there's no excuse for this now, that those
(31:14):
numbers are not hashed.
Apparently, iOS 19 is not coming this fall
because Apple's gonna call it something else.
Apple's gonna unveil the latest version of iPhone
at WWDC.
The tech join tech giant is going to
shake up the naming system with the next
version
to be called iOS 26
(31:37):
compare according to Bloomberg.
Why is that?
Switching to a system that identifies iOS by
year describes it as the most sweeping change
yet to its operating system names.
Change it from 19 to 26 because of
the year?
Well, you know,
Apple device expect to unveil the iPad OS
(31:57):
26, Mac OS 26, watch OS 26, TV
OS 26,
Envision OS 26 at its WWDC
twenty twenty five event.
Why isn't everything gonna call 2025 and not
2026?
Who knows?
NASA's gonna shut down the Spot Station
(32:19):
site.
So if you've been using Spot the Station
website, and I've done a few times over
the years,
they're pulling the plug on it. And no
specific
was there a reason given? Let me see.
Was it is it budget?
Yeah. There's other apps.
(32:40):
Yeah. But they're gonna pull it pull that
site down. So if you want to space,
want to track the International Space Station, Lots
of ways to do that. Links are in
the article. Of course, SpaceX continues. Of course,
the I did get to watch the,
ship nine launch.
I was in a board meeting at the
time on Tuesday, so I was kinda watching
(33:01):
out of the corner of my eye at
the same time as the
as the launch,
and it was quite exciting,
as usual.
And,
they're getting they're getting closer.
But boy, oh, boy, they just can't get
it completely right. Of course, they purposely,
brought the first stage in at a very,
(33:21):
very high angle of attack
and,
was testing it, and then it didn't it
didn't survive.
But we know the first stage made it
to engine shutoff, but then it lost attitude
control.
And that was some freaky that that was
almost psychedelic.
It was a mixture
(33:41):
of the there's some sort of it looked
like a fire going on and plasma
and this thing spinning.
I mean,
it would almost make you sick to the
stomach if you if you watched it continuously.
But, we'll see how long before they they
go with the launch
10. But, they did, put 27 Starlinks up
(34:03):
yesterday, but they're doing about two or three
of those a week now. So that's not,
not something that's totally crazy. Hey. Windows 11
is gonna get some much needed HDR
improvements,
and, the latest update is available
to users right now.
And once installed, you can now toggle the
ability to stream HDR video options even when
(34:24):
HDR is disabled with Windows Windows,
allowing you to view HDR content from apps
like Netflix or websites like YouTube
without having to enable HDR throughout Windows. So
you can do it kind of selectively,
and they do have a keyboard
shortcut,
Windows key alt b, to enable it in
games and so forth.
(34:45):
So,
anyway, definitely check that out.
Do you guys hear me? I just about
yawned.
I need,
a little more,
go go juice
here. God, it's so good, but so bad
for you.
I thought about,
the way this week is going. I was
(35:06):
singing about pouring a bourbon for the for
the show tonight, but I'm thinking it's probably
not a good idea.
We'll save it for the, the editing process.
For some of you, you're gonna be happy.
Elon has stepped away from the White House,
AKA Dodge. His time is up.
His official role within the US government is
(35:26):
coming to an end.
And,
the at Dodge mission is going to continue
by others.
And,
so we'll see how much they are able
to save. But the problem is,
here's what I've heard,
and I just saw it today.
Everyone was complaining that the current budget didn't
(35:49):
cut any of that money
that they saved.
And
it's because
they were trying to get this thing through,
that whatever they're calling that big, big, beautiful
bill.
And,
big indeed with lots of money being spent
and more deficits.
So, you know, and no one's no one's
(36:11):
excluded from this party here.
Although,
I heard today that they're gonna do a
supplemental
bill
that will strip the spending
from the bill they just passed, which is
absolutely
insane. Why didn't they take it out to
begin with? So they have a bill with
it all in. Now they're gonna another have
(36:31):
another bill to take it all out. It
just
come on
You know I I don't understand. I I
really don't
But anyway Elon's done yet a hundred thirty
day
role.
Basically, he was a special government employee,
so he had to leave,
(36:52):
before the end of the month.
Although, Musk did some criticizing of the of
the bill,
saying the land landmark tax legislation will increase
the federal deficit, undermine his cost cutting efforts
at Doge.
So, you know, they wanna try to
to slash, like, 1 to 2,000,000,000
(37:13):
A trillion. Excuse
me. And but currently,
the the website that's they're only up to,
like, 2 or 300,000,000,000
that they've been able to save, which is
still
a lot of money.
And, some of it was being spent kind
of eye opening ways, so we'll see what
progresses.
DJI's first robot vacuum is edging closer to
(37:34):
launch according to a new leak, and it
could clean up in the premium robo vac
space.
Now I didn't mention it or did I?
My kitty cat
passed away,
while I was gone, and we knew he
wasn't doing well.
He had been,
you know, stomach bloated. He'd been skinny. He
(37:55):
wasn't eating real well, and something happened.
He stay he was staying here in the
house, and, my mom checked on him, and,
he wasn't doing well. He couldn't,
couldn't hardly walk.
And,
so, you know, sadly,
we had to put him or she had
him put down.
(38:16):
And,
but I have not been running
my
my
vacuum cleaner
here because it always kinda got hung up
around where
the cat area was, you know, where the
litter box and all that stuff was. So,
this weekend, I'm gonna
get it charged up and get the propellers
(38:36):
updated and make sure it's all good to
go, and we'll give it a run. We'll
see what happens,
if it, if it can there's just so
many obstacles here. I I'm just afraid it's
especially if it gets around here in the
studio, it's gonna get back in here and
just, like, lose its mind. So I'd love
to have a vacuum that worked.
You know, instead, I run the vacuum cleaner
(38:58):
once a week, but, you know, that's okay
too. Right?
Adidas data breach linked to a third party
vendor,
sneakers and sports wear giant, disclosed a data
breach this week after hackers assessed a third
party customer service provider.
And, how many people does it say?
No. They haven't said, but, Adidas is the
latest to fall victim to,
(39:20):
to attack.
In the interesting brief, the administration is telling
SCOTUS
that ISPs shouldn't be forced to boot alleged
pirates.
So the administration's backing cable company Cox in
a battle
that could determine whether ISPs are forced to
disconnect users accused of privacy.
(39:40):
Cox said ISP shouldn't have to terminate customers
based on unproven allegations
of copyright infringement. It's been asked seeking customer
a supreme court review.
Sony's victory in that underlying lawsuit, the court
asked the US Solicitor General to file a
brief expressing views of the United States government.
The solicitor general
(40:01):
filed a brief yesterday saying the court Supreme
Court should grant
it's called oh my god.
This is some legal word. Ceter c
e certiorari?
C e r t o r a r
I? Certiorari?
Oh my god.
To address the first question presented in the
Cox,
(40:21):
petition.
So, basically,
I guess that gives them relief.
What does that word mean? I'm gonna have
to have to look this up. Let me
copy this here.
I I'm too curious to let it go
or we're all gonna learn a new word
together here.
Maybe maybe some of you okay. It's certiorari.
(40:46):
A writ. It's a writ or order by
which a higher court reviews a decision of
a lower
court.
Writ of a review.
That's essentially what sir
sir t o r e. So the lawyers
out there, you know, that's in your language
(41:06):
reporter,
but,
there's widespread termination spirit if this goes through.
So this is a big case
for any of you that are out there
that are,
still,
doing torrents and stuff like that.
Apple, you know, they lost big on this
(41:26):
situation where you now in The US, app
developers are updating the app so that you
can buy
through a link in the app on an
external website.
But the Airbn Commission this week released the
full text of its decision. It found Apple
in violations of its digital competition rules.
The ruling makes clear that Apple App Store
still falls short of DMA requirements.
(41:49):
If it doesn't comply with the next thirty
days, it risk having to make additional periodic
penalty payments. The
EC decision, which laid down last night, fined
Apple five hundred seventy million dollars
for App Store guidelines for pre developer for
steering customers' alternative payment options. Remember, they said,
okay. You don't have to pay, but then
you have every month have to send us
a report
(42:09):
of everyone that does an off-site payment, and
you have to send us 30% of that.
So,
this era may be coming to an end.
Of course, Apple's appealing it.
So we'll see. At least here in The
United States, we'll see what goes on there.
And, you know, and and total irony here,
(42:32):
do you guys know who Palmer,
Lucky
is? Well,
Palmer Lucky,
has built a an incredible
business,
but in in basically
defense.
And he was fired,
from,
Google with quite some
(42:54):
fanfare
some time ago.
So Lucky's defense company, Anduril Industries, and made
us at Thursday. They will together build a
new,
a new line of rugged helmets, glasses, and
other wearables that provide virtual reality or augmented
reality experience
for the military.
Now
(43:15):
Anduril,
a n d u r I l, is
a huge
defense contractor.
And,
but again, this collaboration brings together social media
giant who's long been the target of Washington's
scrutiny and
a
weapons maker that is a rising star inside
the Pentagon and much hated by a lot
of a lot of folks.
(43:36):
A lot of folks don't like this company,
but they've done an incredible amount of look,
amount of work at this.
He says I should have looked at I
should look at this as I have succeeded.
Lucky said in the interview, I've successfully persuaded
not just Meta, but many others that work
with the military,
that it's important.
(43:57):
So
very interesting here.
In a statement, Mark Zuckerberg said Eagle Eye
Technology will help US Soldiers protect our interests
at home and abroad.
So that's that's big too. You know?
So, Meta. Wow. This is big. This is
a big one.
Quite ironic as well.
(44:19):
Ladies,
and even gentlemen,
Victoria's Secret has taken down their website after
a security incident. Must be pretty bad.
If they've taken down their website because of
an ongoing security incident, that's that that doesn't
bode well at all.
And,
the company says the message of replacing the
(44:40):
websites of Victoria's Secret and Pinkstars remain open
while operations are being restored.
So they must have had a huge,
huge brief.
I mean,
yeah, breach.
Very, very, very, very, very interesting.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm back here. I'm glad,
to be back in the saddle here. Regular
(45:01):
schedule shows for the foreseeable future.
We'll get back in the, groove of thanking
our insiders.
If you wanna become an insider, geekonessential.com/insider.
Don't forget about our sponsor, GoDaddy. And again,
for those of you that,
recommended in April, thank you so much. A
great month.
(45:22):
You're gonna help
pay for some of the stuff that, with
hardware issues here in
in
in the in the in the loft, in
the studio.
But,
thank you so much for everything. Thank you
for being part of the family here. You
can be part of the Ohana.
I'll be back with you on Monday
for another edition of the Geek and Central
(45:43):
podcasting. And thank you to Kirk
for his,
his work. And by the way, Kirk is
looking for a job.
If any of you have any digital work,
any
anything is digital streaming, broadcast,
remote switching, anything like that at all. Kirk
is looking for, employment.
(46:04):
So he's in between jobs right now.
So, let me know,
and,
I will I will,
you can just you can reach him directly.
It's pa@geetnacentral.com.
It's Kirk's,
email address here. So don't be afraid to
email him
directly. Or if you want me to put
(46:26):
you in contact with him, via,
phone number so forth, I can do that
as well. But, yeah, Kirk is on the
hunt for a job.
So someone's got out there something,
digital, anything digital,
or I don't know. I don't know what
he's all open to, but if you've got
something, let me know. I'll share it with
him. Definitely remote work. He's in New Jersey.
(46:46):
So So that'll give you an idea of
his geographical
location.
But, anyway hey, everyone. Thanks so much for
being here. We'll see you on Monday. Everyone
take care. Bye bye.
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