SciTech Culture Digicosm

Steve and Ben discuss Taylor Swift’s new album The Tortured Poet’s Department and the reaction by the internet, the leaking of carbon and oxygen from Venus, Apple’s plan to open up the NFC chip on the iPhone to third party payment providers and banks, and the furore generated by MKBHD’s negative review of the Humane AI Pin.

Steve and Ben discuss how the recent solar eclipse led to a spike in Google searches on why people’s eyes were hurting. They also discuss the Jewel at Singapore Changi Airport, the fallout from the Kate Middleton photo controversy, late stage Simpsons episodes still packing a cultural punch, and Microsoft and Qualcomm promising new PCs on ARM chips that can rival Apple’s offerings.

Steve and Ben discuss the escalating controversy around the Kate Middleton family photo doctoring scandal, the threats from Facebook to walk away from news content deals in countries like Australia and Canada, how shooting video or film with a square aspect ratio is quite rare and difficult to accomplish well, and how certain cinemas are selling tickets to hot movies such as Dune Part Two with escalated pricing.

Steve and Ben discuss the cancellation of the Apple Car project, battery issues with the iPhone 14 series, as well as indulging in a rare upbeat discussion about recent pop culture movies and television with the recent or upcoming releases of Shogun, House of Ninjas, Dune Part Two, and Deadpool and Wolverine.

Steve and Ben delve further in to the latest developments in AI, including Google’s deal with Reddit to lift the latter’s search information for new data, Nvidia’s incredible boost in its valuation due to its AI chip future, and the arrival of Sora which promises to generate high quality usable videos simply from a text prompt. Steve and Ben also touch on the Intuitive Machines Odysseus lander and it successful landing on the Moon.

Steve and Ben discuss Sam Altman’s recent and extraordinary call for seven trillion dollars of investment in to further development of chips to power artificial intelligence. Steve and Ben also discuss a recent Delta Airlines flight that was turned back due to maggots being discovered in carry-on luggage, as well as recent circulating social media stories of Apple Vision Pros being returned by customers.