Nvidia throws a life jacket to Steam Deck users - DTNSB 5029
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Did you know that foreign investors are quietly funding lawsuits in American courts through a practice called third-party litigation funding? Shadowy overseas funders are paying to sue American companies in our courts, and they don't pay a dime in U.S. taxes if there is an award or settlement. They profit tax-free from our legal system, while U.S. companies are tied up in court and American families pay the price, to the tune of $5,000 a year. But

But there is a solution. A new proposal before Congress would close this loophole and ensure these foreign investors pay taxes, just like the actual plaintiffs have to.

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Today, NVIDIA throws a life jacket to Steam Deck users. That's right, they do. It's a big day for Steam Deck. I'm Jason Howell. I'm Wynne Twettdow. Let's start with what you need to know with the big stories.

So let's get the boring part of the story out of the way first. NVIDIA shared incredibly positive earnings for the quarter. They beat expectations with a 69% jump in revenue, a 73% surge in data center sales. This is, of course, all amidst global demand for AI infrastructure. It's everywhere. All of this despite a multi-billion dollar hit from U.S. export restrictions to China, which actually CEO Jensen Wong warned

that Chinese competitors like Huawei, they're quickly catching up because U.S. policy has closed off that enormous Chinese AI chip market. So there's that.

You know, what can you say? NVIDIA doing well. And we kind of knew that would be the case. So there you go. But I think the bigger news and the thing that we can really, you know, bite into and chew our teeth on is the NVIDIA news for gamers, which is that NVIDIA's native GeForce Now app

is now officially launching for the Steam Deck handheld console. And basically what it does, it transforms the Steam Deck's capabilities. It brings a bunch of new kind of capabilities through this, allowing users to stream more than 2200 PC games at up to 4K resolution, also up to 60 frames per second.

You also get HDR 10 DLSS for support. And it's all supported through NVIDIA's RTX cloud infrastructure, which essentially means that all of those gains they're handled in the cloud on NVIDIA's servers. And that's important. We'll talk about that. Previously users had to rely on a much less integrated browser-based workaround in order to do this on the Steam Deck. And now Steam Deck owners can access their libraries from, you know,

their normal places that they're used to, but also Epic, Xbox, Ubisoft, and more on the handheld with settings and performance levels that were previously unattainable through the browser-based workaround. And so this new app, you know, I read some reviews saying that they're getting incredible battery life as well when using the app. Some players noticing a 50% increase in battery life on a charge when they're playing some of these games.

So I don't know. It kind of seems like a day of celebration. If you happen to have a Steam Deck, this seems to breathe new life into it. I don't have a Steam Deck. Sounds like you do, Wyn. I do. It sounds like you have two in your household. I do. I have actually, we used to have four because we, my husband and I got the OG Steam Deck and then we both got OLED versions, but then we gifted the old ones away.

Yeah, no, this is amazing. I think that the Steam Deck has definitely transformed handheld gaming, but as you said, it's been a bit. The Steam Deck has been around for a while, so it's definitely feeling the competition from other handhelds like the ROGs and the other ones out there. So I think this is amazing. Actually, I do have a very recent...

anecdote about it because my husband started playing a relatively new game called Expedition 33. It's a Japanese RPG style, amazing graphics, wonderful. And he loves it. And he loves the Steam Deck. He pretty much doesn't travel without it, but the graphics were not great.

on the Steam Deck. And so there's that disconnect now, whereas, you know, we definitely love the device as a platform, but it's definitely feeling it's Asian, especially with these kind of like higher, you know, higher end games. So this is kind of amazing because we are definitely mobile gamers. So I do think this breathes a lot of life into it. And of course people love, you know, like cloud gaming, the cloud gaming is a thing these days.

And so to have, it's a thing. So to have the Steam Deck be capable of that, especially like with Nvidia, with GeForce Now, that could be a game changer for sure. I'm kind of curious how certain games that require a lot of performance, you know, like FPF games, anything that's competitive, which might take a hit from like any kind of lag or...

You know, connectivity issues. I kind of wonder like long-term what the performance of those will be. It seems like for those kinds of games, you would definitely need a very stable connect, like a very, like a, like a very decent stable connection possibly. So maybe that might be a ding against our kind of very mobile, like,

Mobile not as in a phone, but mobile as in we take our stuff everywhere use case. But I think this is really cool. And I think, you know, like I'm really super interested. I'm kind of curious if my husband will go ahead and try it. I don't know if Expedition 33 is available on it, but it but but that is. But I think this does open up a lot of possibilities and extends the life of the Steam Deck for sure and gives it an edge, a little bit of an edge back.

I mean, the Steam Deck only, you know, first released back in, I think, 2022, right? So, God, I feel like it's been around longer than that. But I mean, that's really only three years ago and yet things have progressed so much. Right now, the Steam Deck, you know, if you're looking at the 256 gig version, right, that launched...

At $529, my understanding, three years ago. Now it's priced more in the $399, $400 range. Competitors, higher performance competitors like the ASUS ROG Ally, Legion Go, those are around $699. So no question, the Steam Deck is kind of the more affordable option nowadays. And then when you take...

something like the GeForce Now and, you know, understanding that a lot of this stuff is happening in the cloud on NVIDIA's servers. You know, you're basically getting the performance of an RTX 4080 GPU if you have the ultimate subscription. You know, it really does, as I've read a lot of headlines and a lot of these reviews today, breathe new life into this aging hardware. And if you're looking to save a buck,

on a handheld, something like this might be a really great way. I mean, you're basically paying like half

essentially, in order to get this hardware to do that. And by the way, I should also mention 60 frames per second right now, NVIDIA is working on 90 frames per second. That's in the pipeline for the future as well. I wonder if my old eyes can even see 90 frames per second at this point, but that's amazing. I love this. So it's so fascinating and, you know, Steam Deck kind of, I think, definitely revolution. I mean, let's be fair, the Nintendo Switch started it.

And again, a little bit more of a lower, not, I mean, this, now we have the switch too, but like, you know, again, a little bit of a lower spec focus on portability and kind of like the branding. Steam Deck kind of took it a little bit more, kind of, I don't want to say leapfrog, but kind of like, kind of like up the ante a little bit. And of course now Asus, ROG and Lenovo are upping the,

upping the ante a little more, but it seems now Steam Deck has a good like counter bet to this where, okay, we're not quite as high powered as some of your other options, but we're still pretty affordable. And now with cloud gaming, you know, there's just a lot more to it, especially like with the better battery life.

I really think it was a super smart move. I'm kind of surprised because I've always had this impression, maybe rightly or wrongly, I'm not the biggest gamer these days, that Steam is great, but they tend to be very particular about their platform. And so I think this is pretty awesome. I mean, I just unabashedly think that if people can get more use and be able to play more games on their Steam decks, that high tide lifts all boats, in my opinion. Yeah.

And we'll see what it does for their other consoles. Yeah. Very curious to see. So, yeah. Good news for you all. You just got an early birthday present. Well, maybe today's your birthday. And if so, happy birthday. It's actually my husband's birthday. So I'll go tell him. Oh, there we go. Yeah. So he just got this for his birthday. Excellent. I'll tell him that. Yeah. I'll tell him that steamed. I'll tell him that Valve and NVIDIA gave him a birthday present. NVIDIA. You shouldn't have. You shouldn't have. Thank you so much.

All right. Well, DTNest is made possible by you, the listener. We want to take time to thank Matt Zaglin, Jeff Wilks, Pele Glendale, and welcome new patron, Vicente. Yeah. Welcome. Good to have you here. Picture this. You're in the garage, hands covered in grease, just finished up tuning your engine with a part you found on eBay. And you realize, you know what?

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Did you know that foreign investors are quietly funding lawsuits in American courts through a practice called third-party litigation funding? Shadowy overseas funders are paying to sue American companies in our courts, and they don't pay a dime in U.S. taxes if there is an award or settlement. They profit tax-free from our legal system, while U.S. companies are tied up in court and American families pay the price to the tune of $5,000 a year. But

But there is a solution. A new proposal before Congress would close this loophole and ensure these foreign investors pay taxes, just like the actual plaintiffs have to.

It's a common sense move that discourages frivolous and abusive lawsuits and redirects resources back into American jobs, innovation, and growth. Only President Trump and congressional Republicans can deliver this win for America and hold these foreign investors accountable. Contact your lawmakers today and demand they take a stand to end foreign-funded litigation abuse. Hey, it's Paige from Giggly Squad. Let's talk about an elite green flag being a cat dad.

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All right, there is more we need to know today. Let's get to the briefs. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that Apple is set to overhaul its operating system branding by shifting version numbers to a year-based naming convention. Upcoming releases targeting a launch in late 2025 would be named iOS 26 and macOS 26, for example. The changes are expected to be announced at the Worldwide Developer Conference on June 9th, along with Apple's big unification redesign that will bring all of its

operating systems into a more cohesive user interface dubbed Solarium. So yeah, this WWDC shaping up to be a major kind of like marketing slash design slash unification effort. What this reminded me of the version number, which I know that you can relate because we do a show on Android is when Samsung launched

kind of changed their numbering convention for the Galaxy series. If you remember, I think they went 10 and then they jumped, you know, they were going one, two, three, you know, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S9, S10. Didn't they jump from 10 to 20 or something? Yeah, something like that. Or was it? And then you just get used to it. It seems weird at the time, but you just get used to it.

It kind of just makes sense. It's easier to keep track and easier to kind of relate to like generations of things when it's like a number that you can relate to actual chronological measurements as opposed to just

You have to remember that this used to be a thing for Android developers too. Can you remember what year like Android 10 or Android yada yada was released? So anyway, makes a lot of sense. I'm actually really curious to see too about the redesign and the reunification as well. It's just so interesting just because, you know, for a while you always, for a long time, you know, iOS and the desktop seemed like two different streams. And now,

I guess it makes sense in 2025 where kind of all your computing is starting to kind of fuse together into just like one digital experience. So I'm really kind of curious what Solarium will be like. So now we have Samsung doing the yearly thing. You know, the next one will come out next year and it'll be the S26. Now we've got Apple doing the yearly thing.

I do wonder if this is going to, you know, because all these things move in such a trendy sort of way. So I wouldn't be surprised if suddenly Google's like, well, you know what? We'll just go ahead and do the Pixel 27, whatever. There haven't been 27 of them, but. But, you know, got to get on the gravy train. Exactly.

A federal trade court has ruled the U.S. presidential administration lacks the authority to impose sweeping global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. And what does this have to do with technology? It immediately halts most of the U.S.'s recently enacted tariffs, which has immediate implications for tech supply chains, importers and global markets. The administration has, of course, appealed. But for now, the tech industry is probably breathing a bit of a sigh of relief.

Well, X has temporarily disabled the ability for users to send encrypted DMs on its platform, stating that the feature is on pause while unspecified improvements are made. Users can still view old encrypted messages, but new ones can't be sent for the time being. The company has not specified when or if encrypted DMs will return.

A rumored XChat platform is expected to offer enhanced security features like pin protected chats, but X has not acknowledged if this change has any direct connection to that unannounced service. So if you're sending any DMs on X, please be very aware. Please be very careful and aware of this.

Yeah. Unencrypted for now, I think we, you know, we probably kind of take these things for granted. And I think a lot of people won't know. And I think where things get a little like I haven't, I didn't do this in advance to see if, you know, kind of under X and with Grok and everything, if Twitter slash X has made any comments as far as.

You know, the data, we know the data on the platform is used for training. What about direct messages? I honestly don't know the answer to that. But if things are encrypted, unencrypted, does that make that more of a possibility? I mean, these are just all things to think about. If it's an encrypted direct message, you know, ask yourself, do you need to send it there or should you offer something else that's a little bit more protected? Absolutely. That's where it's at right now. Mm-hmm.

Thousands of ASUS home and small office routers have been compromised by a cyber attack that stealthily, stealthily, stealthfully, I don't know what the word is, installs a backdoor that grants attackers full administrative control. The backdoor also persists after reboots and after firmware updates. So it's a nasty one. It's a mixture of brute force logins, authentication bypasses, and a patched

command injection vulnerability that enable the access, which then enables SSH access on a non-standard port and inserts the hacker's own public encryption key. I hope all that made sense to you.

key is stored on the device's non-volatile memory, which is what makes it immune to updates and reboots. So researchers are estimating more than 9,000 routers have been affected globally. Users, you're advised to search for and remove that key. And there's an Ars Technica article on this that gives you that information and the port setting before you perform a full factory reset to kind of get back on track.

Oh man, that does sound like a nasty one. I'm not a security person, but that just sounds frightening. I mean, you've got to jump through some fiery hoops for that.

Tesla announced has begun testing fully self-driverless Model Y vehicles on public streets in Austin, Texas. This was originally expected to take place sometime next month, but Tesla says it's already underway on, quote, Austin public streets with no incidents. The test involves no one at the driver's seat, but relies on remote human assistance, according to CEO Elon Musk, and are part of a wider launch of 10 to 20 vehicles in a limited area of Austin.

The commercial rollout had previously been reportedly to target June 12th, though Tesla hasn't disclosed many operational details to local authorities or regulators at this time, so that timetable could be delayed.

Yes, this is all about Robotaxi in Austin using these Model Ys. And I suppose ahead of schedule for testing, but still not, I'm guessing, not likely to hit that June 12th kind of go date if there's a lot of unanswered questions still at this time. So, but anyways, moving forward, I suppose. Mm-hmm.

Victoria's Secret has taken its website and some in-store services offline after a security incident began earlier in the week. The company announced the shutdown as a precaution while it actively investigates the breach, along with cybersecurity experts reporting.

working in their court as well to look into this. Physical stores will remain open while the online shopping component of their business, along with other services, are temporarily disabled. Further details have not been shared, but the outage, along with immediate involvement of third parties, does suggest a pretty serious event, possibly similar to some recent ransomware attacks against other major retailers. That's just a guess.

Customers are also advised to monitor their accounts for suspicious activity. So be on the lookout.

Google Photos is rolling out a major update that redesigns its editor, bringing features once exclusive to Pixel owners to more users. The new interface highlights Magic Editor AI tools with AutoFrame for cropping suggestions and AI gap filling, and Reimagine for adding almost anything to images with the text prompt. The editor redesign also offers a simplified menu and smarter suggestions for potential edits, along with a new QR code album sharing option. Ooh,

The features will be available to more Android devices globally next month with iOS support coming later this year.

You can't keep the QR code down. No. And I love that so much. How many times have I found myself fumbling around for a share link in all sorts of situations? I love it. I mean, it's simple. It's, it's kind of bulky though. I mean, the QR code thing, you know, put the QR code on things, takes up space. It's a little ugly and everything, but at this point it works. Like I like it. I think it's a, I think it's a good approach.

And finally, the New York Times has officially entered into its first generative AI licensing deal with Amazon. Kind of a big deal, allowing for access to The Times, The Athletic and New York Times cooking in Amazon's AI products and services. The multi-year deal gives Amazon the ability to provide real-time summaries as well as excerpts from Times articles.

along with the use of the publication's content for AI model training. No financial terms were disclosed. I mean, this is a big deal just because the New York Times has, in the last couple of years, been a big time kind of pursuer of some of these AI companies for copyright infringements sued Microsoft and OpenAI in 2023 over what it said was the unauthorized use of its content.

content. So this is just kind of an indication, you know, kind of a big shift that the media companies, they're finding their partners in all of this and finding ways to monetize around this. Absolutely.

Well, if you have feedback about anything that gets brought up on the show, get in touch with us on the socials at DTNESHOW on X, Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, and Mastodon at mastodon.social. For TikTok and YouTube, you can find us at Daily Tech News Show.

We end every episode of DTNS with some shared wisdom. And today, Anon Jr. is helping us understand. The printed skin being made of the patient's cells and negating fears of rejection is the biggest part for me. Who knows what we'll print next? As for Pocket, I'm really good at remembering to use it to save for later reading. It's the remembering to read later that I struggle with.

Yeah, I feel that one. That is very relatable. I opened up my pocket the other day, you know, when I read this story, I was like, okay, so I got to see like when's the last time I shared. And actually it wasn't too, too long ago. It was probably like a year and a half ago that when I first started going independent that I was sharing some, you know, links to certain how to's and whatever around it.

But I just realized I've got so much there. I'm going to do the same thing that I do all the time when things like this happen. I'm going to export the data. I'm going to put that file on a hard drive somewhere and I'm probably never going to look at it again. Yeah. I've done that before too, exactly. I'm like, I think I did that. Not with other services like Evernote. Well, Evernote's still around, but yeah. And I actually opened up Pocket as well and I found some things that I pocketed like

10, I want to say 10 years ago or something, maybe. Is that? Yeah. And I'm just like, why did I save this? This seems like it was really important at the time. I even had tags and everything. It made sense at the time. I have no idea why I have this. So, I mean, I'm going to be really sad when it goes because it was very useful, but

To be perfectly honest, I haven't been using it recently. Yeah, no, neither have I. I haven't even really replaced it with anything either. What are you thinking about? If you have some insight into a story, share it with us. Feedback at DailyTechNewsShow.com. Thank you, Wynn. Always fun to hang out with you. Thanks to Anand Jr. for contributing to today's show. And thank you for being along for Daily Tech News Show. The show is made possible by our patrons at Patreon.com slash DTNS.

The DTNS family of podcasts. Helping each other understand. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.

Did you know that foreign investors are quietly funding lawsuits in American courts through a practice called third-party litigation funding? Shadowy overseas funders are paying to sue American companies in our courts, and they don't pay a dime in U.S. taxes if there is an award or settlement. They profit tax-free from our legal system, while U.S. companies are tied up in court and American families pay the price to the tune of $5,000 a year. But

But there is a solution. A new proposal before Congress would close this loophole and ensure these foreign investors pay taxes, just like the actual plaintiffs have to.

It's a common sense move that discourages frivolous and abusive lawsuits and redirects resources back into American jobs, innovation and growth. Only President Trump and congressional Republicans can deliver this win for America and hold these foreign investors accountable. Contact your lawmakers today and demand they take a stand to end foreign funded litigation abuse. If you're a lineman in charge of keeping the lights on,

Grainger understands that you go to great lengths and sometimes heights to ensure the power is always flowing, which is why you can count on Grainger for professional grade products and next day delivery. So you have everything you need to get the job done. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.