Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 09/21 – It’s Twitch’s Day Behind The Woodshed

Episode Date: September 21, 2022

Twitch is the main character of the show today, for good and bad reasons. YouTube takes a serious swing at TikTok. Microsoft releases Windows 11's first major update. Nividia outlines its next gen GPUs. Can Helium make it as an MVNO? And Google does Google things! Sponsors: Split.io/techmeme Links: Twitch to ban Stake.com streams and other unlicensed gambling content (The Verge) Child Predators Use Twitch to Systematically Track Kids Livestreaming (Bloomberg) YouTube will share ad revenue with Shorts creators (Engadget) Windows 11’s 2022 Update has something new for everyone (The Verge) Nvidia announces next-gen RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 GPUs (The Verge) Helium Founders, T-Mobile Launch Crypto-Powered 5G Mobile Service (Decrypt) Google is finally making its to-do list and reminder tools work together (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the TechMeme right home for Wednesday, September 21st, 2022. I'm Brian McCullough today. Twitch is the main character for the show today for good and bad reasons.

YouTube takes a serious swing at TikTok. Microsoft releases Windows 11's first major update. InVIDIA outlines its next-gen GPUs. Can Helium make it as an MVNO? And Google does Google Things. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Sometimes I can go weeks. even months without mentioning a company, and then wake up and discover that company is the main

character on TechMeme that day. Twitch, take a bow, son, today is your day. First, there was this. After a streamer admitted to scamming viewers, Twitch announced plans to prohibit streaming unlicensed gambling sites with slots, roulette, or dice, beginning on October 18, quoting the verge. Critically, Twitch is not banning all gambling or even all streaming, of the gambling forms mentioned above. There will be a carve-out permitting sports betting, fantasy sports and poker, while the streaming of slots, roulette, and dice is only prohibited if the websites streamed aren't, quote, licensed in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection, end quote. The gambling sites that will be swept up in the ban

include stake.com, which is one of the most popular slot gambling sites streamed on Twitch. big streamers like XQC and Trainwrex TV frequently feature it on their streams. Gambling on Twitch has become a hot-button topic as wealthy streamers seemingly promote their services ostensibly to minors and potentially feeding gambling addictions earlier this week. It's Slicker came forward admitting he built hundreds of thousands of dollars from fellow streamers to support his sports betting habit. From that event, big-name streamers like Devin Nash, Pockeman, and Ms. Kiff, who is currently embroiled in a separate but tangentially related incident, proposed or

supported a potential boycott of Twitch if the platform didn't ban gambling from the site. Now that action may no longer be necessary. However, sports betting, the form of gambling that started this recent conversation, is one that will be spared when the ban takes effect, end quote. Then, this morning came an analysis of Twitch streams from October 2020 through August 2022 done by Bloomberg, which allegedly shows Twitch's moderation tools widely failed to prevent children streaming on the platform and adults grooming them. Quoting from the expose, the researcher assembled databases of Twitch accounts by manually identifying live streams of young people and determining which of their followers also

track other children. One dataset represents predatory users, those believed to be adults targeting children who each possess a follower list composed of at least 70% kids or young teens. The researcher created a separate data set of apparent children targeted by these accounts and reported instances of overt predation to the NCMEC and to Twitch. The person has studied internet harassment and extremism for years and requested anonymity due to concerns over potential career repercussions from being associated with such a disturbing topic. Bloomberg verified that the 1,976 accounts had numerous children, in their following lists. Bloomberg also reviewed live video recordings and other documentation and

analysis by the researcher. In the course of reporting, Bloomberg discovered additional live videos and predatory accounts not cataloged by the researcher, suggesting the problem could be even more widespread than the data portrays, end quote. And even that came amidst news that, starting June 1st, 2023, Twitch announced subscription revenue above $100,000 per account, I guess, will be split 50-50 with the company and the creator. Not 70-30. This is for streamers on premium deals. Twitch says this is because its hosting costs are going up. In other words, they're cutting the pay to their biggest streamers, quoting Mighty Keefe on Twitter. Twitch alienated a lot of its core fans with its history of favoritism and hypocrisy towards big accounts. Now they are getting hit in the wallet and sending out pay cuts

to those same streamers, L-O-L-L, end quote. Also, video hosting costs? Doesn't Amazon own Twitch? Doesn't Twitch use AWS? So is Amazon screwing over Amazon here in terms of cost inflation? Meanwhile, YouTube says it plans to expand its partner program to give 45% of shorts ad revenue to creators with more than 1,000 subscribers and 10 million views on shorts within a 90-day.

period, quoting and gadget. With the new revenue sharing program, creators with at least 1,000 subscribers who get 10 million views on shorts in a 90-day period can apply to join the partner program. Like TikTok, ads on shorts appear between videos in the feed. The company began experimenting with ads on shorts in May. Revenue from the ads will be pooled and split among creators, Mohan said. Creators will get a 45% cut of the ads regardless of whether they use music. Up until now, YouTube had a dedicated $100 million creator fund for shorts, but creators have long complained that these types of funds are insufficient and don't come close to what the most successful creators can make, producing longer form videos where they get a share of the ad revenue.

YouTube also announced a new tier for the partner program that's meant to make it easier for early stage creators to start monetizing their content. The new tier called fan funding will have lower requirements for accessing features like super thanks, super chat, stickers, and channel memberships, Mahon said. YouTube said it would share more details about the requirements in 2023. Finally, the company revealed Creator Music, a section of YouTube studio where creators can purchase quote, affordable, high-quality music licenses that offer them full monetizing potential, end quote.

Those who buy the licenses will keep the same revenue share they'd usually make on videos without any music. Creator music will also offer the option to use songs without paying up front, and instead the creator and the artist will share the revenue from the video, end quote. But back to that new Rev Share on shorts on YouTube, quoting John Green on Twitter. This is a very big deal for everyone who makes or consumes video content online. My best guess is that a view on YouTube shorts will be worth about 10x more money for creators than a view on TikTok. Also, TikTok is about to find out what happens to a social media platform when your focus is on maximizing short-term

revenue rather than fostering an ecosystem where individuals and independent companies can build livelihoods, end quote. Also, quoting friend of the show Simon Owens on Twitter, hopefully this kicks off an arms race that forces TikTok and Instagram to share more revenue with creators, and quote. Microsoft has released Windows 11's first major update, adding start menu folders, more snap layouts, dark mode improvements, live captions, voice access, and more. Quoting the verge. Microsoft has greatly improved Windows 11 over the past year to the point where updates feel like they're arriving monthly now. The Windows 11, 2020 update addresses a lot of the early complaints I had about Microsoft's initial OS release, and it has improved enough parts that

I've gone ahead and upgraded my main machine to Windows 11 after initially holding off. If you were also wary of upgrading the Windows 11, 2020 update might just be the time to hit the big install button, that's if your PC even supports it in the first place. The Windows 11, 2020 update is available today. It includes features like Start menu folders, improvements to snap layouts, live captions across the entire OS, better touch gestures, and even a new Xbox controller bar. It also includes a number of meaningful accessibility improvements and marks a shift in the way Microsoft is thinking about new features. There's something new here for almost every Windows user. Start menu folders are the first obvious improvement once you

upgrade to the Windows 11, 2022 update. You can drag apps on top of each other on the start menu to create folders and pin them freely. Microsoft has also added the ability to resize the pinned area so you can see less of the recommended feed of files that appears below apps on the start menu. One of my favorite features in Windows 11, Snap Layouts, is getting even better in this update. As soon as you start moving an app or a folder around, a new snap bar appears at the top that lets you quickly organize apps into snap layouts with plenty of grids and layout options on larger monitors. If like me, you weren't a fan of the task bar in Windows 11, it has greatly improved over the past year. The task bar time and date returned to multiple monitors earlier this year, and the Windows 11, 2022 update,

brings back drag and drop. Just these simple additions makes Windows 11 a lot more usable for me personally, and I'm glad Microsoft hasn't waited too long to bring them back. Windows 11 is also starting to look more consistent now. Microsoft has made some subtle design changes in the Windows 11, 2022 update, improving animations, icons, and more. Even dark mode has improved, with the task manager now supporting a new interface and a dark theme. There are still many parts of Windows 11 that aren't fully dark, and it's clear Microsoft is taking its time to get these right and not just slapping a general black theme everywhere, end quote. We knew it was coming, but Nvidia has officially announced the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 GPU. The $1,59 RTC4090 is apparently 2 to 4x faster than the 3090TI comes with 24 gigabytes of GDDR6

memory and ships on October 12th, quoting the verge. The RTX 4090 is the top end card for the Ada Lovelace generation. It will ship with a massive 24 gigabytes of GDDR6X memory. Invidia claims it's two to four times faster than the RTX30. 3090 TI and will consume the same amount of power as that previous generation card. Nvidia recommends a power supply of at least 850 watts based on a PC with a Risen 5900X processor. Inside the giant RTX 4090, there are 16,384 Kuda cores, a base clock of 2.23GHz

that boosts up to 2.52102 GIFLOPs, 191 RT T-flops, and a base clock of 2.233Ghats, and t-flops. Invidia is actually offering the RTX 4080 in two models, one with 12 gigabytes of memory and another with 16 gigabytes of memory, and Nvidia claims it's two to four times faster than the existing RTX 3080 TI. The 12-gabyte model will start at $899 and include $7,680 kudakores, a 2.31 gigahertz base clock that boosts up to 2.61 gigahertz, 639 tensor T-flops, 92 RT T-flops, and 40 shader T-flops. The 16-gibite model of the RTX4080 isn't just a bump to memory, though.

Priced starting at $1,199, it's more powerful with 9,728 kuda cores, a base clock of 2.21 gigahertz that boosts up to 2.51, 780 tensor T-flops, 113 RT-flops, and 49 Shader T-flops of power. The 12-gabyte RtX-4080 model will require a 700-watt power supply, with the 16-gabyte model needing at least 750 watts. Both RTX 4080 models will launch in November. All three of these RTX 40 series cards will include new Nvidia's shadow play support to capture gameplay at up to 8K resolution at 60 frames per second in HDR. Invita is also using its latest encoders with support for AV1 encoding and improved efficiency for live streams using AV1, end quote. By the bye, Nvidia also unveiled the RtX-6,000, its new flagship GPU for the professional visualization market, offering two to four

times the performance of the previous gen RTX A6,000, and NVIDIA unveiled RTFRMix, a free AI modding tool built on Omniverse that lets modders quickly create RTX mods for supported DirectX8 and DirectX9 games. Not sure what to make of this, but I'm cautiously optimistic. On the one hand, Helium was one of the first crypto projects that really excited. me, and yet haven't we heard folks recently say they've been disappointed with how helium has been performing thus far? Well, Nova Labs, which is behind the helium project and T-Mobile, have reportedly signed a five-year deal to launch Helium Mobile, a 5G MVNO service for smartphones that combines coverage from the two companies' networks. According to Crypt,

crypto-fueled wireless network helium will soon be able to introduce its mobile 5G vision to many more users. Today, Helium Network founder Nova Labs announced that it has partnered with T-Mobile to create a new 5G wireless service called Helium Mobile. Helium Mobile will be a mobile virtual network operator or MVNO service and will tap both the T-Mobile and helium networks for customers in the United States. Set to launch in the first quarter of 2023, the service will rely both on T-Mobile's nationwide 5G network and helium's user-operated 5G nodes. By combining networks, And switching between the two as needed, Nova Labs says the service will offer two significant economic differentiators from traditional services. Plans will start at just $5 per month, and users

can optionally earn crypto token rewards for sharing data. Boris Rensky, co-founder and CEO of Nova Labs owned firmware and hardware maker Freedom Phi, said that using helium's decentralized 5G network, which includes more than 4,500 active user-operated nodes at present, means that Nova doesn't have to invest in capital expenditures to build out infrastructure. That allows us to build a cellular network with absolutely disruptive economics, he told decrypt. Helium is a network of decentralized wireless hotspots that incentivizes users with crypto tokens for running a node and supporting the network. The initial helium network focused on powering Internet of Things devices like sensors and trackers and has more than 950,000 node operators at present. The 5G network is newer and has far fewer

users so far as the 5G hardware is also currently much more expensive than the nodes that support the original Internet of Things network. In June, the Helium Foundation revealed plans to spin off the original HNT reward token and create a new token for each network with an eye toward supporting additional wireless protocols in the future. Initially, voice calls will take place entirely on T-Mobile's network, while data transfers will use service providers by node operators in the decentralized network were available. Otherwise, it automatically falls back to T-Mobile's network. But as Helium's network expands,

more of the load will be moved off of T-Mobile's infrastructure. Additionally, Nova Labs is working with smartphone makers to design phones that are specially designed to accommodate seamless switching. Users will be able to bring their own phone as well, but a press release suggests that the Helium-certified phones will be more efficient at validating network coverage and thus can earn more mobile token rewards.

The Helium Mobile News comes following the launch of a proposal to move the network from its own custom blockchain to Solana, a rising blockchain platform for apps, defy, and NFTs. The token-based vote is slated to conclude on September 22, with users overwhelmingly voting in favor of the proposal as of this writing, end quote. Again, this all sounds good. I'm optimistic. It always sounded good to me that I could one day point an antenna out of my window and people walking by on the street below could use my signal and I'd get paid in crypto for providing the service. Now, if they can only get the actual economics of that whole thing to work out for node operators, then the dream of a truly decentralized internet could begin to become real and a tangible use case for crypto.

Finally today, you know, look, I don't really know how much more snark we can even ring out of this at this point, but here you go. Google announced plans to integrate Google tasks reminders across G Suite apps, including assistant calendar docs and sheets in the coming months as an opt-in first. I'm going to let the verge handle the rest. Quote, going forward, Google views tasks as a hub for all your tasks across Google products. Hit the button that adds any Gmail thread to your to do list so you can get to it later. Create reminders in Google calendar, and they'll show up both in your schedule and in tasks. Say, hey, Google, remind me to take out the trash at 9 and the assistant on your phone or smart display, and you guessed it, it'll show up in

tasks. This sounds good and pretty straightforward, right? Well, it is, and it should have been a long time ago. For years, Google's reminder and task systems have been incomprehensibly divided. Google reminders was different from Google tasks, and a reminder and calendar was different from a reminder in keep, which was different from a reminder and assistant. The only place to see all your to-does in one place was the Google Calendar mobile app. It didn't make any sense, and everybody knew it. Even now, Google hasn't fully solved its problem. Its announcement today doesn't mention Keep, which likely means that app's reminder system will still be separate. And the best version of this feature would extend across much more of Google's ecosystem. It might notice when someone

assigns you to do something in docs or sheets, for instance, and then add it to your to-do list, end quote. Quoting Casey Newton on Twitter. Google reminders are now Google tasks. To create a reminder, use calendar. To create a task, use Gmail. Do not use Keep. Hope this helps, end quote. So, yes, I was in the dentist chair yesterday, literally in the chair,

when I started to get the tweets that the premium feed wasn't delivering yesterday's episode. It was solely a supercast problem since users of the glow.fm feed got their show. And both of those channels pull from the same parent feed. so I finally heard back from Supercast, and I think the episode finally got pushed out to everyone. We'll see. We'll see if you get today's episode. I know. I know.

Believe me, I know. And to the folks saying, just go to Patreon already. I might do that, just not today or this week. But also, I chose both Glow and Supercast in the first place, because I knew the founders and figured we'd get better support and service from people we knew, as opposed to dealing with a bigger company that would just treat us as another faceless account when things went wrong. But if things go wrong all the time, being small, I guess, is not to our advantage. I'm sorry again. Talk to you tomorrow.