Lead stories for Thursday, April 3. TSMC and Intel have reached a preliminary deal where t m TSMC will hop will help operate Intel's chip facilities and own a 20% stake in a new joint venture. The agreement influenced by US efforts to revitalize domestic chip production may involve TSMC sharing manufacturing technologies and training Intel staff while still in early stages, the move marks a surprise partnership between long term long time rivals driven by Intel's mounting losses and TSMC's industry's dominance. This is quite the headline, ladies and gentlemen, that TSMC will jump in and essence, do this deal with Intel. And, while it's a combined venture, it is pretty remarkable. And maybe sign of the times that maybe Intel is is vulnerable for acquisition, which would be an interesting move. And I don't understand completely what the advantage would be for TSMC to do that, but big way to get a stake here in The United States. As part of the deal, TSMC may share some of its chip manufacturing methods and train Intel employees. Of course, discussions are still underway and the fine details have not been established. The talks between Intel and TSMC reportedly initiated by the Trump administration effort to stymie Intel's decline and bring advanced chip making to The United States. And, of course, we know that TSMC is is the premier, I guess, for a better word, competitor with Intel. And, of course, TSMC has customers like Apple and Nvidia. So this is big news. Now some Intel executives are said to be worried that the deal could result in layoffs because Intel would need to eliminate engineers and may need to change or sell equipment that it uses. I I would think so. So we'll see. We'll see what happens with this. Now this is definitely, got a political slant to it, but time will tell on how this all, pans out, going forward. That is that is for sure. So I wanna welcome you to episode 1,800 and I think it's 11. I'm your host, Todd Cochran. Of course, welcome to the show. A credible, an incredible shout out to our sponsor, GoDaddy. Score exclusive deals and discounts at geeknewscentral.com/GoDaddy. And, of course, to all of our insiders, you're the heartbeat of the show. And if you want to support the g and support GNC, head to geeknetcentral.com/insider and become a GNC insider. We are lit and live. Don't just listen, experience the show live by grabbing a modern podcast app at podcastapps.com. Of course, you can interact there in real time. You wanna make sure to check out the full Geek News Central universe at geeknewscentral.com where you'll find all of our partner shows and tons of my content. Of course, stay in the loop. Follow or subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcast app. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter at geekcentral.com for even more insider scoops. 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Get a free thirty day trial on personal business or business plus plans. Of course, Heat New Century uses all of the GoDaddy products and services, and your support keeps this podcast alive. Use our codes. Click and save. Of course, you're backing this independent team of creators. Share my codes or the website link with friends and family, because every time a code is used, it supports Geek News Central. Thank you for keeping us online and keeping us going strong. And, again, thank you for GoDaddy for being here all these years. Of course, we've, we did have no show on Monday or I had no show on Monday. I was in Manila for Podfest Asia. Quite quite interesting to see the ongoing development of podcasting, here in The Philippines and Singapore. I had guests from a couple of different countries. But I think the main takeaway really for me was is that this country definitely has the, has the largest number of folks that are supporting podcasts worldwide. I mean, the number of VAs was was was pretty amazing. And talking to different folks and networks that are being launched and money that's being invested here is, is pretty significant. But, great time at that event. I have a short reel on x, and then need some pictures on Facebook and stuff that I posted, earlier in the week. But back at it, we'll have a regular show schedule here going forward. I don't think there will be any more breaks between now and when I depart The Philippines on on May 11. So, that's kind of the, the timeline now. Definitely need to come home for the podcast show in London. But, anyway, let's go ahead and get into the stack. Major announcement by, WordPress. They have announced major layoffs, 13% excuse me, 16% of the workforce. They say they want to become more agile and responsive and long term financial, viability and profitability is also key. So from 1,750 employees, they're gonna lay off around 280, which is really pretty remarkable. That's that's a pretty big number. I just wonder, personally, if some of the shenanigans that's happened over the past year has hurt WordPress' bottom line. Matt's been pretty aggressive with companies like WP Engine and so forth. So I just wonder. But, yeah, a little chip in the armor here. They're like the 70 comp seventy fifth tech company to announce layoffs, which, is pretty amazing and, interesting in itself. This is interesting, you know, there's lots of apps out there and some of them are more explicit than others. Obviously, you have dating apps where you put your dating profile. There are websites where you upload various information, but there's a number of apps that are, I guess, labeled, you know, very adult in nature, kink, lg and not necessarily adult nature, but LGBT dating apps where private user images have been exposed. I think the dating apps probably, less impactful. But if you have a a kink app and you've been uploading those types of images, research researchers discovered 1,500,000 pictures from specialist dating apps, many of which are explicit being stored online without password protection, leaving the vulnerable hackers and extortionists. Now they they've been online publicly for a while and they were this company was warned some months ago. And finally they've they've cleared it up and made those pictures public. But, those are the type of images that the majority of people, and again, no judgment here whatsoever, that upload probably do not want, to be on the the interwebs for sure. So there's article over in The Verge against very slatted slate, very slanted. And I I just wanna show you a com a contra a contrast and compare. The Verge is, at this point, publishing anything it can negatively about the the current administration. I didn't see them doing this in the previous administration, but here's the title of the headline. Rural fiber Internet expansion is at risk as Trump administration holds funds. A shift towards tech neutral Internet could give Starlink an edge while fiber providers remain in limbo. Okay. So, you know, that's a catchy headline. And we know that, rural expansion of Internet, quite frankly, is way, way, way, way behind. But do you know the reason? Do you know the reason why it's behind? And I retweeted this. And matter of fact, I'm gonna re repost it again on my on my x feed. But did you see the discussion between Ezra Klein and Jon Stewart in laying out the 14, yes, 14 steps needed to apply for back back build back better funding for Internet expansion? Have have you seen this video? If you have not, this is and I'm I don't want a copyright violation or I would play this for you on the show right now. I'm telling you. I'll link to it in the show notes. You have to listen to it. And once you listen to it, you'll understand why rural broadband Internet will never will never advance. 14 steps. 14 steps. Just get to the point of getting money. 14 steps. It's unbelievable. And this five minute and forty four second video only talks, like, the first five. And if you want to understand everything you need to know about big government programs and why they don't work and why government is not the solution to every problem. If you if you think how they've given money easily to these NGOs, just throwing it away, and yet make telecoms go through 14 freaking steps, and I wanna use another word. I'm I'm telling you, you you got to watch this video. Now the reason I say compare and contrast, there is nothing, absolutely nothing in this Verge article that talks about these 14 steps. There's nothing in here. Nothing. Not a thing. So if you're not if you're not watching stuff and huge huge tech bias here. So I encourage you. Go ahead and read the Verge article. I will link the x post right below it and then you review. And then you come back to me via email, geeknews@gmail.com, and you tell me whether I'm right or not. I think, you know, really, honestly. And once you once you watch the the video from Ezra Klein, who is a very, very, very, very liberal news source or news personality. And once you see this, then you're gonna understand. The world's smallest pacemaker is injectable and powered by light. This is pretty amazing. Engineers at Northwestern University developed the world's smallest pacemaker. It's so small that in it fits inside the tip of a needle and tip of a syringe. Excuse me. That means it's injectable so patients could potentially avoid a painful surgery. And it safely dissolves into the bloodstream after a time. Now it's not designed for someone needs a permanent pacemaker. It's powered by light, which is pretty cool. And the pacemaker is paired with a wireless wearable device that mounts on the patient's chest. It's designed for children and people that have a short term issue that may be in need of a pacemaker. So it's noninvasive, very simple to install. So this is very exciting technology. We'll see as this as this continues to move here. I've got news on TikTok, twice today. One will talk about the end and one is here at the beginning. My apologies. This morning woke up with absolute dry mouth. TikTok is facing a 500,000,000 fine for sending private user to data. Ireland is is enforcing the EU rule because of TikTok's European headquarters are in Dublin. And, but yet they continue to send user data back to, back to China. Oh, no surprise there. I think we already knew that. Right? So you're those of you in the EU, your likes and your everything else is is going back. The re the fine results from four year investigation, TikTok's data handling process, the probe reportedly includes ByteDance, how ByteDance broke Europe's general data protection regulation by transferring private user data to China to be accessed by, quote, unquote, engineers. Anyone be can be can call an engineer. So, TikTok tells us that the EU data is transferred to US and not to China. However, we've understood there's a possibility that maintenance and AI engineers in China may be accessing data, former Irish data protection commissioner Helen Dixon said. So five they're facing a €500,000,000 fine. Again, you can look at it this way. You you, EU needs a little money and or, maybe this is really happening. NASA proves that its electric moon dust shield works on the lunar surface. There's no real pictures in this report. But the electrodynamic dust shield that flew aboard the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost, had a successful test. And, they demonstrate the ability to remove lunar dust and dirt known as regolith from this from surfaces using electromagnetic forces. So here's my question on on this. Did it just shake it off and leave a film, or did it get rid of all of it? That's the question. The time will tell, but they didn't go into any any data here. And the reason for the concern is moon dust, is what we're gonna call it, is very abrasive and is can very easily damage human lungs. So, they have to figure out a solution if they're gonna go back to Mars I mean, excuse me, back to the moon and do work. How many of you, switching topics here, how many of you are familiar with Google Keep? I'm not at all. I I just read about this. I guess it's the latest wowza thing that people are pretty gaga about. So Google Keep is gonna get a fresh redesign including some new features that'll make it much easier to use. I guess I'm gonna have to check this out. What can you guys tell me? It's a note taking app. I've just used notes for years. So I guess I'm gonna have to check this out. Let me know what you know about, about Google Keep. Dodgy Android smartphones are being preloaded with Triad of malware. Victims have already lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. So what's happening here is either one of two things. A supply chain in in the Android manufacturer has been compromised because these counterfeit Android smartphones have been preloaded with this malware. Well, they're they're Android phones, but they've got a bad load of Android on it. And it observed at least twenty six hundred victims located mostly in Russia who received the brand new smartphones carrying the Triada Trojan. Now I will say this, and just from experience of being here up to this point, Android phones are dime a dozen. Used Android phones are dime a dozen here. I mean, every 15 feet, there's a store that's selling, Android phones. And I always tell my friends, if you're gonna buy one of these burner phones, make sure you do a complete reset. Now that may not matter if it's been preloaded and a a complete reset may not fix everything and may not get rid of this base load. But what what a what a deal. And there's opportunities everywhere in the world. And if they're gonna load this and then steal crypto, oh, that's pretty smart. But they say the malware has been track targeting journalist. So Kasperky Kasperky claims that 270,000 cryptocurrency has already been siphoned out, which which is a pretty big number. So, we will we we will see here, where where this goes. Link will be up in the show notes, of course. YouTube is updating Shorts for the TikTok like editing feature. YouTube is adding new features to Shorts that aim to make it easier for creators to edit short form videos. There are five new tools coming this spring according to a YouTube announcement. So if you do a lot of, shorts that you just record on your phone, I'm sure these will be welcome changes to those of you that do that. There's an article over at makeuseof.com that talk about iPhone accessories that are total waste of money starting with anti micro micro OBO screen protectors, anti radiation stickers and cases, wallet cases that act as wallets, UVC phone sanitizers, and in a variety of other things here. So, link will be up in the show notes on this. I think I would agree. The only way you can really protect yourself from any type of radiation from your cell phone is to not turn it on. You are gonna be exposed, but you sit in front of your computer monitor and you're exposed to stuff as well. A T Mobile bug reveals names, images, and locations of random children. Well, it's not just random children. It it would it was everybody. But, there's was a GPS service called SyncUP, which allows users who are parents to monitor their creations of their children. There's a number of apps that do this as well. But apparently, it had a bug and, what was leaking data. They have since fixed that. At the same time, Verizon has a security flaw that could allow hackers to view entire call history. They found a bug in the API, and the bug allowed threat actors to view other people's call logs. It was found in February 2025 and just fixed. So, again, these bugs are gonna continue to crop up. I don't think that's going to change. First, with the tariff announcements, big hits across the the stock exchange. I think we all were kind of expecting this. Shares of Apple, Amazon, and other tech stocks are getting, getting impacted here as the measured markets the impact. Now company countries are already squealing and starting come to the table. And I think what we'll see here pretty quickly is tariff reductions by other countries. And that simple. Reduce the tariffs to The United States that are imposed upon American goods and we will reduce tariffs on products coming from your country. It's very simple. You know, I have a tendency and I know this is gonna be painful and it's probably, you know, going to a lot of you are do not agree. But you know at what point do we quit being the pawn of the rest of the world? So, we know that Apple and Amazon heavily rely on imports from other countries like China and, we know that the 54% tariff that's gonna go on effect on April 9 is, is is very impactful and, you know, 46% on Vietnam. But, you know, people don't realize that Vietnam puts like a 90% tariffs on American products. So we will see where this all leads. Definitely some pain here in, in the short term. Those of you that are running ecommerce sites, make sure you're updating Stripe your Stripe API because the Stripe API is being hijacked for credit card skimmers. So, just be careful. And if you're using an ecommerce site out there and it's using Stripe, think twice about using it. It's about a handful, four dozen comp ecommerce sites were infected with this with this skimmer, especially if you get an error. You get a credit card processing error, that's probably a good sign not to move forward to try to overcome the error. But excuse me, the error. Amazon is adding new benefits to Prime subscribers that gives members a better chance at buying an NVIDIA RTX 5,000 or AMD RX ninety seventy GPU. So, you know, these things are, are on the absolute hot list for every for every techie at this point. So it's definitely something that, you know, is very, very hard to get. You have to be watching everything like a hawk to see things, but they appear to make some changes, meaning those who are prime members can stand a better chance as you can't have failed to notice, you know, they've been heavy, you know, heavy in demand. So what did they do? If you search for RTX fifty eighty or an ASR LG Astro GeForce RTX fifty eighty, they it said it's an exclusive for Prime subscribers. In In other words, if you're not a Prime subscriber, you can't buy one. But you're still gonna fight for one of these, but at least if someone doesn't have Prime, they they can't. But someone that wants one of these bad enough will sign up for Prime. Now we talked about the Intel deal with TSMC earlier in the show, but Intel is refreshing its iconic brand. That's the power of Intel inside. So that's curious that they're gonna start this now. They they are definitely in damage control mode here in a big big way. And then I think we all recognize that years ago. And Intel AMD. But the world has changed and sadly, Intel hasn't moved as fast as they've needed to. So we'll see what ultimately is the outcome of this. Bitcoin has slid to to 81,000. So surprising Bitcoin slid here, to be honest with you. Market changes should not affect it. I think this is potentially a buy opportunity. But, again, Bitcoin slid 81,000 as the tariffs jolt stock market. And, so 5% lower. Coin metric, Ether fell 6%. Solana dropped 11%. Of course, meanwhile, stocks cratered, across the market as well. But, we'll see we'll see where this continues to go. Bill Gates has unearthed Microsoft's agent code like a prod proud nerd dad according to the folks over at the register. The founder of Microsoft shares the four k alatar basic source ahead of the fiftieth anniversary. It's available via a PDF. So if you wanna see, the code that was written in 1975, your coder, this might be a a fun fun thing for you to review. I'm definitely gonna take a look. Does it cost anything to get it? The source code provided as a hundred 50¢ 57 page PDF scanned full fan folded paper rather than as source in a convenient repository, and annotated disassembly of the LTAR Basic 3.2 we can found on GitHub. So, definitely definitely if you wanna take a peek at this, any coder worth of salt would wanna look at this, I would think, just to see what, what was created so many years ago. Chrome for Android is getting extensions. So they've been they're making some updates here. The new version is designed for larger Android devices like Chromebooks, and it's a big step. It's not for all Android phones. It's still a bit rough. No easy way to manage extensions, no toolbar button, and installing them isn't as smooth as on the desktop. So they are working on some fixes for Android as well. So be aware of that. I don't really worry too much about extensions when I'm using my, Android device. The very, very sci techy article over at Science Focus, a seven thousand year mummy DNA has revealed a ghost yes, a ghost branch of humanity. Agent remains hidden in a Libyan cave that opened up the door to a long lost human lineage. And basically, this these groups of humans, that lived at least seven thousand years ago in the Sahara, going back as far as fifty thousand years were isolated from other populations. So far to extent that the DNA did not migrate in or new DNA migrate, you know, basically, there was no intermixing. So that's a very, very interesting, very, very interesting story in itself. So if you're into, this type of history, definitely check the article out. Netflix on Samsung TV just got a whole lot better. Thanks to HDR 10. They're gonna be updating their, their, smart devices. Samsung confirmed the HDR 10, a content plus content on Netflix will now be accessible on 2025 Samsung Neo QLDs, OLED, and lifestyle TV models and support for PC monitors from 2024 and '25 as well as should include some smart monitors as well. Not all TVs support the new streaming standard, but many do. So, your older TVs will still work, of course. Amateur photographers are hoping to fix Wikipedia's terrible pictures, and I I didn't know that was an issue. But, they they I guess they're going through and trying to update images. It says it's so full of notable people with very old or unflattering photographs that there are even Instagram accounts, that are dedicated, to the I'm glad I have a snooze button. On the last episode, I had to edit the show. I don't normally edit, but this week, I was able to hit the the mute button quick enough so y'all were not subjected to my, my raspy voice as you can hear it. Being, being talked about that a week of gravity is making huge just a huge difference in the returned NASA astronauts. They look noticeably healthier just after days of returning. Now I'm looking at the images and these the the the image of Sunny is not direct on, but she does look a lot better. And Butch Wilmore says he looks better. But I guess, gravity just has such a negative impact on you. I I mean, the lack of gravity, you know, definitely less wrinkles, more fuller. I I would really like to see some full on headshots, to really see the difference but being reported at least they they look a lot better. Miso is man, it's a it's a Japanese staple and, you know, I I used to to make miso or I have at least assist in making miso and smashing soybeans. Scientists sent, beans into orbit made space miso. And, you know, some restaurants are so I mean, they they their miso recipes are like super top secret. The space miso had a similar umami or savoriness to miso made on Earth, but according to researchers who sampled it, there was a key difference, a stronger roasted and nutty flavor. Now they did all kinds of, monitoring. They looked at radiation. They looked at temperature, and they had, control samples here on Earth. So I'm sure if we get to the point where we ever are gonna have miso being fermented fermented in space, that they'll figure out their own variations of it. This next, Eric, I'm not completely sure if it if it really means that Android devices are gonna be able to do this, but Android's Find My Device looks to set get its biggest upgrade soon, and it uses Apple's AirTag tech. It doesn't mean that the that you're gonna be able to use AirTags, though. But more signs of ultra wide band in Find My devices are being spotted, and the upgrade could be rolling out imminently. And devices can be tracked more precisely with the tech. And this could open the door for additional AirTags from different companies, but I don't know if this will be supported. AirTags will be supported on Android devices. That is yet to be said. I would be shocked if they were, to be honest with you. Be cool, though. A weird iOS 18.4 bug is downloading random apps to some people's iPhones. So this is odd. Many apps are previously deleted, but others are totally new to the user. And, again, this may be something to do with with 18.4. So if you see that, keep an eye on it. ProtonVPN is unveiling a major revamp to its Windows, iOS, and Android apps. So, I'm a I'm a I'm a import ProtonVPN user. I I use ProtonVPN almost exclusively whenever I'm logging to anything financial, anything critical from here, largely because they just block they block all of the, the traffic coming from The Philippines and it makes sense. So I have to use a VPN to get into the content. So we'll keep an eye on this this forthcoming update. Oracle's also admitting a second major security breach with user log on log in data, stolen. Some reports claim a second Oracle data breach has occurred. Oracle, as you told some customers, the data is almost a decade old. Still not good look on on Oracle. In a world of increasing costs, Verizon introducing a three year price lock. So is this some sort of special deal you get when you sign a contract? Well, here's the deals. And everywhere you turn, we know the prices are increasing. Verizon announced a new plan to help combat that at least in part, a three year price lock for new and existing customers that seals the amount of money you pay. So what are we gonna do? What's what's the what's the catch? Existing customers and newcomers receive an automate three year price lock to their my plan in my home network plans. This is among the first of its kind in the mobile industry. Doesn't say if you have to commit. Subscribers also get initial perk like 40% off certain streaming plans. It doesn't say directly if you have to commit to another plan or not. I think time will will tell in that regard. GitHub. Oh my gosh. 39,000,000 secrets were leaked on GitHub in 2024. I think they got a problem over there. I think I think it's too hard to keep stuff secure. We had talked about moving our repositories to GitHub, But, you know, I'm really at this point, after reading this, I'm just wondering. With GitHub discovering roughly 39,000,000 leaked secrets across the platform, They're gonna help organizations and developers better protect tokens, credentials, and other secrets and prevent prevent exposure. GitHub is now offering secret protection and code security as stand alone products for enterprise customers. This should be for everybody. Come on. This, you know, you you put your code over there and you do revisions and updates and commits. It's gotta stay secure. This should be a default a default deal. It really should. Sadly, Elon Musk is Tesla sales have plunged, after people went to war on Elon and Tesla. And, it's plummeted to the lowest level in three years. Not surprising, but when you're when you're digging and you're finding, all kinds of naughtiness that's been going on and the grift that has been happening for years and, removing people's cash cows, they they get upset. They they really, really do. Amazon is joining Alyssa TikTok suitors as deadline for US buyer nears. So, of course, we know that the president gave ByteDance until Saturday to sell or divest its US TikTok business. The ecommerce giant has made a last minute pitch. So is this mean TikTok is going away again? The bid, first reported by New York Times, arrived this week via letter to vice president JD Vance and commerce secretary Howard Letnick. Given the last minute timing days before a satellite deadline to save off a ban, The bid is not being treated as a sir as serious said the sources who was granted anonymity. So present expected away TikTok offers Wednesday. This is Thursday. Did he do that already? So this is an older article. Next Wednesday or this Wednesday? This article is dated the third, which is today. Very weird. Well, anyway, we will see what happens with TikTok. And if you wanna know what's happening on Prime Video in April, we've got the list for you available. So definitely, definitely check that out. Hey. As a reminder here, if if you're not an insider already, consider becoming a Geek News Central insider. And and I wanna thank, Roger Nash for his $2 donation and Richard Woodworth for his, $10.41 warrior donation. I definitely appreciate, the ongoing support. You can become an insider at geeknetcentral.com/insider. Don't forget about our sponsor GoDaddy at geek net central dot com forward slash godaddy. And and we and send your comments to the show, at geek news on Twitter, geeknews@gmail. Geek news at g mail is the email address. Definitely do that. It's been my pleasure to bring you show today. I'll be back with you on Monday for another edition of the Geekness Central podcast. Thank you for being with me. Those of you who've been watching live, thanks for hanging out. Not too many comments came in per se, but, thanks to all of you that, have been hanging out with me. We'll see you next time here on the Geekness Central podcast. Take care. Bye bye.