Download Spotify (ALL OF IT)

This holiday season, you're getting the greatest gift of all, a James hosted tech news. So, be grateful. And yes,

tech news. So, be grateful. And yes,

James does refer to himself in the third person. Good boy. Spotify has had its

person. Good boy. Spotify has had its entire music library scraped by a pirate activist group and dumped on Anna's archive, an open- source search engine

for shadow libraries, books with black pages. The scraped data is about 300

pages. The scraped data is about 300 terabytes, including metadata, and of course, tens of millions of tracks, apparently making up 99.6% 6% of Spotify listens. Take a second to appreciate

listens. Take a second to appreciate just how much music that no one cares about is in these files.

>> Now it's all AI.

>> Just delete the file. You got it.

Apparently, this hack is a preservation project, but Spotify says it was done by abusing public access and bypassing protection. Spotify insists no customer

protection. Spotify insists no customer personal info was compromised. Now, this

is more about scraped audio and metadata than some full internal leak. But still,

it's a lot of data. It's not a lot in size, but it's a lot in file count. It's

a lot in emotion >> for its part. Spotify isn't going to take this lying down, promising to defend the rights of the artists on their platform. Sure. Yeah. When

their platform. Sure. Yeah. When

activists scrape someone's data, they call the lawyers, but nobody bats an eye when data from YouTube, Twitter, or Reddit gets scraped by AI. The AI

doesn't know any better. It's still

learning. Maybe if those platforms own the license to my content, they would fight for me. Valve has officially discontinued the original Steam Deck LCD, quietly sunsetting one of the best bang for your buck handheld gaming

devices ever made. Launched in 2022 for $400 US, the LCD model was the most affordable way to play your Steam library on the go and even helped kick off the entire handheld PC boom that

we're still basking in today. Once

existing stock is gone, she gone for good, leaving the Steam Deck OLED as the new entry point at $550. Valve hasn't

exactly said why they pulled the plug, but the writing has been on the wall since the OLED model first launched. The

newer version has a better screen, improved internals, and likely cannibalized sales of its little brother, the Murderer. the cane of handhelds.

>> Still, it stings. With handheld prices climbing across the board, the Steam Deck LCD was one of the cheapest grade options. In related Valve news, Steam

options. In related Valve news, Steam itself is going fully 64-bit on Windows.

Support for 32-bit installs is entering its final countdown. Will stop receiving updates in 2026. So, if you are still somehow running 32-bit Windows, don't worry. Steam isn't mad. It's just moving

worry. Steam isn't mad. It's just moving on. China's tech giants have found a

on. China's tech giants have found a hilarious workaround to get Nvidia's banned AI chips. While Nvidia Blackwell B200 accelerators are barred from being sold in China, companies like Tencent are still getting access by renting them

from overseas. According to the

from overseas. According to the Financial Times, Tencent is leasing large amounts of Blackwell compute through a Japanese Neocloud operator called Data Section, which owns the hardware and runs data centers in Japan

and Australia. They're kind of like the

and Australia. They're kind of like the Blockbuster video for AI. The chips

never physically enter China, so the arrangement stays technically legal under current rules.

>> Block what?

>> I guess more like Netflix.

Tensson reportedly has access to thousands of B200 GPUs and even newer B300 chips under contracts worth billions of dollars, allowing them to continue training advanced AI models.

Analysts say this rental approach may actually be more attractive than buying approved chips inside China since overseas Blackwell hardware massively outperforms what's allowed domestically.

That's the whole reason to do it, right?

Meanwhile, Nvidia is still strengthening its position elsewhere. Recently

receiving US antitrust clearance for a major investment in Intel, quietly expanding its influence across the industry, vertically integrating, consolidation, owning the world.

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Trying to hide Christmas presents from the quick bits is a nightmare. They just

they just zip around until they find them. Pain in the ass little ingrades.

them. Pain in the ass little ingrades.

Mozzilla says Firefox will add a dedicated AI kill switch after community push back. The company's new CEO has

push back. The company's new CEO has been pitching Firefox as a modern browser with optional AI features to keep up with competition. And so far, everything that's been added is optional to use. The new change simply adds a

to use. The new change simply adds a single explicit toggle to disable all AI features at once instead of making you hunt through settings. One big button to make the annoying thing go away. I wish

I could do this with Christmas and just at the mall >> enough.

>> I WISH I COULD DO IT WITH ALL AI.

>> OH, people YouTube accounts appear to be showing strangely high CPU usage even when videos are paused or just when you're on the homepage before you've watched anything. In a chunky post on

watched anything. In a chunky post on the LT subreddit, user Razazzle caught the issue, surmising that YouTube Premium seems to have a web worker, a way for a website to run JavaScript in

the background called echowworker.js that sits in a busy weight loop using the CPU for no real reason.

>> Sounds like my my old job, huh?

>> Luckily, our boy Ray Zazelle does offer a fix for Firefox users. So, if you're a member of the dog pack, go check out that post. If you're a I don't know

that post. If you're a I don't know wrestling >> pack is Firefox users.

>> Yeah, I guess >> it's not a dog. It's a fox.

>> It's a K9. Who is this guy?

>> It's not cat.

>> If you're a Chrome user, I guess pick up some more CPU cores while you're downloading more RAM, homeboy, just you're on your own. Chinese chip

designer More Threads has just rolled out a new set of GPUs, including its next generation Washon AI chip that it says can compete with Nvidia's high-end products, helping fuel a stock price

jump, you love to see it, and investor excitement that's still going higher as China pushes for tech independence.

squash on >> 2026. Riley,

>> 2026. Riley, >> what I wasn't >> despite all this, the company hasn't given detailed benchmarks yet, and there's no third party benchmarks, leaving some questions about how it

really stacks up against Nvidia. More

power to you, more threads. I'm just

looking for affordable GPU that can run Crisis. You know, what is today's

Crisis. You know, what is today's crisis? Let me know in the comments.

crisis? Let me know in the comments.

A big old power outage knocked out traffic lights in San Francisco, causing Whimo's driverless taxis to get stuck.

>> This is fine and normal.

>> With the cars immobilized and adding to the blackout mess, Whimo paused its robo taxi services for safety, but has since resumed operations as power came back on. If this story didn't turn you off

on. If this story didn't turn you off robo taxis and you live in London, good news. Uber and Lyft are teaming up with

news. Uber and Lyft are teaming up with China's BYU to bring Apollo Go robo taxis to London streets for testing in 2026, putting them on the starting grid against Whimo, who's already testing cars in the old smoke. Just hope there's

no power outages, Londers, or you'll be back to ching the tube.

>> Wow. And Google has finally pulled the plug on the Sega Dreamcast Planet Web 3.0 browser.

>> NO.

>> Officially breaking web access on a console released all the way back in 1999, the last good year on this planet.

The shutdown happened because Google services simply stopped responding to the ancient browser, quietly ending a 25-year run, which is honestly impressive because this might be one of the longest running services Google didn't intentionally kill. How the heck

am I supposed to get my optimal seaman growth strategies now? Jeff, I need you to stay strong. I will get you out of that tank eventually. It's a Dreamcast game Riley.

>> Okay.

>> And you'll need to stay strong to make it through these next few days without any tech news. But don't worry, we'll be back soon enough. Me and my seaman are going to stay safe and cozy in my house over the break, though. If I hear anyone banging the roof, I'm not going to be

checking out. You're not going to catch

checking out. You're not going to catch me in any of that Tim Allen Santa Claus Got sheep.