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Daily Tech News Show

20 Mar 2026 · 38m · 18 chapters

Episode artwork

The Galaxy S26 Ultra Wins With the Privacy Display - DTNS 5230

In short

DTNS 5230 covers: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review (AT&T unit), Counter-Strike 2 reload-change backlash, plus tech briefs on Amazon’s rumored AI smartphone, Google’s sideloading security flow, and OpenAI’s “desktop super app.”

Guests

Jason Howell (Android Faithful co-host) shares a one-week S26 Ultra mini review; Chris Ashley (interviewed by Tom Merritt) explains why CS2 players are upset; no other named guests appear for the briefs.

Key claims

S26 Ultra’s “Privacy Display” fades off-axis to protect screens in public and is a major differentiator; design is more comfortable than last year; Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy runs cool with improved thermals; battery is strong but fastest charging needs specific Samsung battery hardware; cameras show optical zoom breakup and “digital cruft,” but Horizon Lock stabilizes by cropping 8K to 4K while keeping the horizon. CS2 claim: reload now discards remaining bullets (e.g., 2/10 left becomes 10), breaking muscle memory and worsening ammo management.

Notable examples

Horizon Lock demo by flipping the phone in a circle; CS2 reload “risk without reward” (no faster reload mentioned).

Written by AI. May contain mistakes.

Chapters

0:24

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review

Jason Howell reviews the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, highlighting its features.

“It's called Chat Concierge and it's simplifying car shopping.”
2:15

Galaxy S26 Ultra Mini Review

After the show intro and headlines, Jason Howell shares his hands-on impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, focusing on its privacy display feature.

“This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, March 20th, 2026.”
4:04

Design and Performance Insights

Discussion of the design comfort and performance of the S26 Ultra.

“This is definitely one of the key differentiating features of this device.”
5:48

Camera Features and Innovations

Exploration of the camera features, including horizon lock and zoom.

“of years ago that could do things like snap your pictures for you and stuff like that.”
7:42

Price and Market Position

Discussion on the pricing of the S26 Ultra and its market positioning.

“It's just a really magical way to do like stabilization and to get rid of kind of our normal human tendencies of shaking when we're using our camera phone.”
10:59

Listener Gratitude and Weekly Reflection

Hosts express gratitude to listeners and recap the week.

“Um, if you want to go full terabyte in, um, or, or storage, not Ram storage, uh, if you want to go full terabyte in storage, you're going to cost, uh, you're going to be spending$1 ,800.”
14:39

Amazon's New AI-Centric Smartphone

Discussion on Amazon's plans for an AI smartphone and related devices.

“Well, Amazon is reportedly building an AI-centric smartphone codenamed Transformer.”
17:21

Google's Sideloading Safety Measures

Exploration of Google's new safety protocols for sideloading apps on Android.

“And they're kind of detailing what that pathway looks like.”
18:56

Debating the New Sideloading Process

Hosts discuss the implications of Google's sideloading security flow.

“How do you as a developer feel about a user saying, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and install this, and then they have to wait 24 hours?”
22:21

OpenAI's Upcoming Desktop Super App

Insights into OpenAI's strategy to unify its applications into one super app.

“Well, OpenAI has confirmed that it plans to release a desktop super app that combines its ChatGPT app, Atlas browser, and Codex coding app into one app.”
Show all 18 chapters
26:50

Tech Headlines Roundup

A quick recap of important tech news and updates.

“And now some quick headlines that are good to know might make you look smarter in the future or this weekend, whichever comes first.”
28:00

Disrupting Mega IoT Botnets and AI Framework

Learn about the U.S. government's actions against IoT botnets and new AI regulations.

“They're testing safer, more automated delivery drop-offs inside of Amazon's mega logistics network.”
29:40

AI Detection in Meta Platforms

Discover Meta's secret addition of an AI detector feature for users.

“All right, those are the essentials for today.”
30:00

Counter-Strike 2 Reload Mechanism Controversy

Explore the significant backlash from players due to a controversial reload change in Counter-Strike 2.

“Thanks for always having the red carpet ready for your boy.”
38:00

Barbecue and Tech: Chris Ashley's Journey

Learn about Chris Ashley's food truck venture and his experiences in the tech and barbecue world.

“I know you're kicking ass with the barbecue and tech stuff out there.”
40:02

Shared Perspectives on MacBook Neo

Hear contrasting opinions on the repairability and educational management of Apple's MacBook Neo.

“Well, on the notion of repairability, John S.”
42:01

Discussion on Chromebooks and School Technology

Learn about the effectiveness and support structure of Chromebooks in schools.

“However, he said that, quote, they would have to pry the Google admin console for my cold, dead hands, end quote.”
43:06

Acknowledgments and Contributions

Hear the hosts acknowledge contributors and patrons of the show.

“And thank you for letting us hear it to both of the Johns, John S.”
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Transcript

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2:15This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, March 20th, 2026. We tell you what you need to know, give you the important context and help each other understand today chris ashley shares why counter-strike two players are upset with a seemingly small change and jason this guy right here shares his mini review of the samsung galaxy s26 ultra yeah i've got it right here i'm jason howell i'm going to endow let's start with what you need to know with the big story

2:44the samsung galaxy s26 ultra it began shipping uh to pre-order buyers i think just last week early last week which means a lot of people are finally getting samsung's biggest uh flagship this week that doesn't fold anyways i'm definitely seeing a lot of reviews hitting the web that includes our co-host on android faithful florence ion on the android faithful website so I thought I'd share my thoughts on the device. I've had it for a week. AT &T sent me this device. It is being used on their network, which has been super solid, thankfully, and normally it is. So thanks to the folks at AT &T for sending me this review device.

3:22And yeah, I thought I'd just kind of give you some of my highlights, my ups and my somewhat downs. But ultimately, I'm a pretty ongoing year-after-year fan of the Ultra Series. So I don't have a whole lot of negative to say. But some of the things that I've encountered over a couple of weeks, privacy display. Privacy display is the feature where when you have it activated, I'm going to talk while I kind of flip around and get to it. When you have it off, the display has kind of like a normal off-axis view. When you flick it on, the display fades out when you're off-axis. and kind of played around with this over time.

4:04This is definitely one of the key differentiating features of this device. Definitely a lot of attention on this. And my kind of overall on this is it's an excellent privacy feature that I really hope they continue, possibly bring to other devices. I have a strong feeling that we're going to start seeing other manufacturers kind of seeing this innovation and wanting to replicate it on their own displays. So we'll see kind of like how it translates to other technology solutions around this. But I think Samsung did a really fantastic job of making it accessible and making it really impactful and useful.

4:40And just, you know, helping you stay a little more private when you're in public places so that people won't look at your display. Design wise, it's so similar to last year in so many ways, but somehow way more comfortable. and I think it just comes you know when you look at them side by side it's kind of like how are they actually that different how could it be that different um but it just really is the more I use this the more I realized how uncomfortable it was last year's model had all these like sharp edges on it and when you have a device that's this large I mean it's a huge honking device um that extra kind of comfort level is really appreciated.

5:21Yes, the S Pen is here, useful. Didn't find any kind of things that really differentiate or stand out on that. I'm not personally a huge stylus user necessarily, but I did play around with it. Functionally, though, it is very different because you can only put it in one way. It has this like hammerhead design to it, which means that it can't fit into the phone unless you have it oriented a certain way. And so that'll slow you down a little bit. Doesn't have any of those Bluetooth hooks that it used to have a couple of years ago that could do things like snap your pictures for you and stuff like that.

5:54So unfortunately, that's not there. Performance wise, this is an ultra device. It's got the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 4 Galaxy. Important to put that thing in there because it is a little bit different from the standard. And it has an improved thermal design, which I found over time, you know this device stays pretty cool you know it's got an aluminum frame um it's got an upgraded vapor chamber inside a larger vapor chamber because this is an ultra with an excellent processor you're going to want to use it for all your processor intensive things i didn't notice any degradation in the experience as a result of that i didn't notice any heat build up that sort of stuff really notably anyway so that's good battery excellent performer um super high speed charging though it is noted um or notable that you need specific battery hardware samsung offers that of course that's noteworthy you're not going to get that out of the box so some of the charges you're not going to get the highest um speeds of battery and then i think the only other thing and then i want to you know kind of get your take on this obviously when um is cameras uh camera on the device usually with ultras i'm pretty happy i'm pretty happy here i do notice that on the optical zooms things start to break up a little bit more than i you get a little bit of that digital cruft So that's a bummer.

7:10However, on the positive side, probably one of my other favorite features is horizon lock, which is essentially 8K recording or it's 8K camera, but it crops down to 4K when you're recording video and it does auto framing and horizon lock. So imagine your 8K canvas and then the phone is on the fly kind of cropping that down to 4K and it has all that extra information with which to frame on certain parts of the image. Or if you like rotate your phone around, it keeps it the horizon, right? So the image doesn't go upside down. It stays locked into the horizon. It's just a really magical way to do like stabilization and to get rid of kind of our normal human tendencies of shaking when we're using our camera phone.

7:54So, yeah, overall, I like it. I like it a lot. Have you ever used the Ultra Series like as your like go-to? No, no. I think, you know, I was aware. I had a lot of friends that used the Note back when the Note was kind of like the big stonking phone that had like the S Pen. But I definitely followed it. It is like, you know, the flagship of Samsung's flagship. I'm kind of curious, but the privacy display, I think that is legit. Like, I also agree. It's super, super cool. and it definitely feels like something very samsung-y because of course they're you know they have their own display uh division is is there any advantage to keeping the privacy display on constantly like if i'm just like always in transit is is there a noticeable difference like that i wouldn't want to keep it on yeah like you like if you have it always active does it degrade your own view with it it does things it does change things slightly like and i don't even know that it's anything that i can really show on on the the stream but when i turn it on and off you can kind of see a little bit of a shift in the display right and that is because the pixels that are being used with its own privacy display are different they're no longer fanning out all over the place they are really locked into a certain um certain range where which is where you are sitting so there is a little bit of a difference will you notice it probably not i I suppose you could keep it active all the time.

9:15It's just like when your phone is on the table. You know what I mean? If you're spending a lot of time in your environment, like at home, a controlled environment, you probably don't want it on because you will run into the moments where it's on and you're like, why can't I not see the time? You know, it's on the table. Why can't I not see the time? Oh, that's right. That's a great point. Privacy display is active. Yeah. I have to admit now that you mentioned, so I have only been peripherally paying attention to it. um but i did see i think actually was shannon morris did a video where she used horizon lock and she just flipped her phone around in a circle for like like like two rotations straight and the video pretty much stayed still yeah and it's magical it's really cool yeah i didn't even it didn't register me i was like oh whatever phone that is that's i mean i should have looked at the back it was very obviously the samsung s2 s26 ultra but i think that's amazing and a really smart feature i keep thinking to myself all these manufacturers have 8k why do i need 8k like at this point but this is a really great use for it yes that's yeah i'd never thought about that so that is really really thinking cool yeah yeah it is and uh when you know as a creator like i would say overall right like the one of the reasons i really like the ultra series is because they usually have some features on there that are just really good for people who are who are making content and creating content obviously probably the majority of people listening to this and watching this podcast are not in that category but as one i often rely on the ultra series as my fallback device you know when i'm traveling when i'm going somewhere to an event or whatever i'm always bringing the ultra because of those creator features this is one of those that i'm like oh you know no brainer it comes in handy and in that scenario hands down it's it's going to be in my bag um wherever i go when i go to these events and that sort of stuff but it is pricey right?

10:59Like the, the, the baseline is$1 ,300. You get 256 gigs of Ram at that range. Um, if you want to go full terabyte in, um, or, or storage, not Ram storage, uh, if you want to go full terabyte in storage, you're going to cost, uh, you're going to be spending$1 ,800. So it's a pricey device, but, um, this really continues to be Samsung just kind of showing you what they can do with when resources are willing to be paid for, I suppose. But definitely don't miss Florence Ion's three-part review. It's happening on andrefaithful.com. I think she's got two of three parts up right now, and I think maybe the camera aspect is coming soon.

11:43But keep your eyes out for that. All right. Well, it's Friday. It might be a good time to express some gratitude for the week. And we like to take this time in the show to express gratitude to you guys, the listener made possible by you. And thanks especially to Kevin Morgan, Paul Thiessen, and Ali Sanjabi. Yeah, thank you.

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14:38All right, there's more we need to know today. Let's get to the briefs. Well, Amazon is reportedly building an AI-centric smartphone codenamed Transformer. More than meets AI. Yes, thank you. Well, inside, it's Zero One Devices and Services Unit led by Penos Penay. So the goal is to tie users into Amazon services with integrations like Alexa, Prime Video, Music Shopping, of course, and partnerships with Grubhub, among others. The team is exploring different avenues, including a fully-fledged smartphone as well as a minimalist dumb phone inspired by the Lite phone. There is also a goal of releasing a tablet, which Reuters reports would run Android and sell for around$400.

15:23Oh, boy. Here we go again. Here we go again. Amazon and hardware. Can you believe it's been, what, 12 years since the Fire Phone? Holy monkey, seriously. Yeah, it was 2014 when that failure happened. Oh, dear. Yeah. I mean, you know, it was a$650 device. It didn't have any real app support, you know, in the way that Android and iOS did. Yeah. And it was a long time ago. I mean, maybe Amazon's in a different place now. Clearly, you know, everybody has AI on the mind. We talk about it all the time. And, you know, there is this constant kind of drumbeat around what is AI hardware. and so you know if i suppose if you're an android uh an amazon super fan maybe this is checking some boxes potentially once it comes out i don't know i'm curious to see how it all rolls out yeah i mean i guess if i was spiteful i'd say oh amazon's still jealous of like i was in google both both of them having you know wide integrations across all of the different products into their devices so obviously you know iphone with the apple watch and other integrations and android i mean the pixel especially but i guess android android in general is a google platform for a lot of googly things so i always feel like amazon wants the same thing i do i do think it's interesting that now that they've seen what everyone else is doing and maybe what certain trends are they're going for both a phone a dumb phone by the way i still haven't gotten my light phone which i pre-ordered i don't know when last year um i should probably check in on that um and a tablet so it really does seem like they're kind of trying to see what is being like they always seem like they're just kind of sitting observing and then trying to like you know do it do it this do the same thing but also amazon-y so i think i think it's kind of interesting that they did have that range that they're going for yeah yeah we'll see what it looks like once they uh once they come out but um yeah looking forward to it thanks to rw nash in the subreddit for uh linking this story this is very interesting and i know you're gonna have thoughts on this win uh google's detailing how it plans to control the safety of android devices when users choose to sideload apps onto them this is not a new store a new story this we've been hearing about this for a while now well google has announced it is rolling out an advanced flow that will keep sideloading uh from verified developers unchanged as expected as they have announced um while yes adding a let's say a heavier pathway for installing apps from unregistered developers.

17:55And they're kind of detailing what that pathway looks like. And it involves four steps that Android users are going to have to go through to sideload those kinds of apps. They're going to have to turn on developer mode and settings. And yes, confirming that they are not being coached to do so. They're going to have to reboot and trigger a 24-hour security delay. So you don't get to install and use this right away. That's an interesting one. Third step is that they'll have to then reconfirm after the delay with biometric and PIN, which, I mean, yeah, that makes sense. And then choose whether unregistered installs actually stay temporarily or permanently.

18:35Is this a temporary install or is it a permanent install? And Google believes that this flow is going to disrupt high-pressure scams. It's going to prevent malware from hitting a device more often or hopefully less often. That will happen. The flow is expected to go live in August, one month before the new verification rules start hitting its first markets. How do you as a developer feel about a user saying, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and install this, and then they have to wait 24 hours? I think that's interesting. Okay, so clarification. You have to go through these – wait. So if it's an unregistered – so hold on.

19:14So you have to have gone through these steps if you're trying to sideload an app from an unregistered developer? that's correct yes okay registered developers not not these steps unregistered developers this would be the process that's my understanding yes so i guess i'm i usually say i'm like a lot i can say i'm two minds about something i think i'm like a quarter mind and three quarters mind about this three quarters mind is is i think generally fine with this since okay it does seem like they've had to it does seem like they've tried to address the concerns about people like from people like myself who that would be really annoying if we had to do this for test devices like that would be that would be stank that would be that would be unacceptable um and of course that malware and understanding that malware and also like the high pressure scams where i assume someone's on a like on the phone call with someone kind of socially pressuring them to do like a certain amount of steps yeah that's solid that's that's a good yeah yeah and i think that's why that weird 24-hour security delay just just because that wouldn't be very time effective for scammers i assume no that basically shuts that that shuts that down so i that that i'm into it it is pretty onerous this whole process but i and that's that's like my problem is that i still hold on to this idea of android as being you know what we always have loved it for being an open platform that people can experiment on and of course it's all there's there's some notion of like you know personal responsibility you really should i i would hope maybe that's i would like that i would hope that most people at this point would understand that you always kind of have to like make sure you know what you're downloading but that's not really not everybody does not everybody does um so it i guess it's still kind of shutting off or making things more complicated for people that do know what they're doing and just want to experiment but it seemed like this is just like a one-time I assume this is like a one-time is this a one-time thing like well it depends on if the user states they want it temporarily or oh right sorry I miss that right point four so yeah I guess there's flexibility there so I don't hate it yeah I think people will get used to it and I do appreciate that Google tried to make certain workflows easier although then we're getting into the registered versus unregistered debate about whether you know it is unreasonable or just tightening the system to require all developers to register again i'm i'm actually two minds about that of course freedom of freedom of android but then also the reality of of bad actors out there and how many bad actors are for sure and i think that the the reasons are are good it's good to want to protect your users uh when you when you made that point about the high pressure and the 24-hour security delay.

22:03I think that changes my mind on it a little bit. I think at the same time, the majority of people are not encountering that situation and they're still going to have to wait 24 hours. So that's an interesting kind of flip side to that. But I think overall that's a noble cause, I suppose. All right. Well, OpenAI has confirmed that it plans to release a desktop super app that combines its ChatGPT app, Atlas browser, and Codex coding app into one app. The effort will be led by applications chief. Oh, crap. Fiji SEMO. Thank you. Fiji SEMO. I'm so sorry. I should have asked. With support from President Craig Brockman, SEMO says that this new strategy is all about continuing to position the company towards higher productivity use cases.

22:48SEMO says the shift doubles down on Codex's momentum and high productivity use cases. But it also signals open AI's need to show discipline while it faces pressure from Anthropic and Google. Yeah. I think my question on this is something like Codex is, obviously it's used by a lot of people. There's a lot of people who know and understand why they might use Codex. Having it in the same app, I guess what I'm thinking is like there's different audiences for some of these things, right? Like Codex is very specific for someone who either has a mind for coding or is a developer and wants to use it as an advanced tool or all those things, that's not the everyday user necessarily.

23:33And so does it kind of confuse things to have it all in a single app? Or, you know, yeah, I don't know. I'm a little kind of curious on that one. I'm curious because we talked about micro apps before, right? Yeah. When people learn it. But that's usually done through not codecs. It's usually done through chat GPT app, right? Because it has integrations and things like that. Right. So I agree with you. It's a little bit of a munch. i mean and not that not that there's something inherently bad functionally or ethically or whatever by putting all these things together it's just yeah confused i think that's just one thing with and i think the concept of everything app is not new right like like this is just doing it with with like open ai's products the thing with those kind of apps i feel like yeah like they're kind of watered water down like each individual feature and it as you said it kind of just confuses the experience so i'm i'm kind of curious like i guess if you're someone who's excited for this write in and let us know but i i agree i'm just not sure yeah yeah and i think open ai right now has a bit of a perception of product sprawl and that maybe this might be an effort to kind of make it seem a little less reactive in their strategy right now a little bit more intentional but uh yeah yeah i'm also not surprised i guess it makes sense when you've got a million things you know can can you kind of unify them in one way that that makes sense and i suppose we'll see the answer to that very soon all right well do you need a snazzy gift for a co-worker or colleague well guess what we have so many ideas for you over at dailytechnewsshow.com store we have mugs t-shirts mouse pads all with our new dtns logo they are great great gifts and um also importantly a great way to support the show.

25:23This episode is brought to you by Capital One. Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI. They already deployed one. It's called Chat Concierge and it's simplifying car shopping. Using self-reflection and layered reasoning with live API checks, it doesn't just help buyers find a car they love. It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing, and estimate trade-in value. Advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they stack. That's technology at Capital One. If you've looked into using AI for customer support, you've probably noticed most existing solutions are off the shelf and don't quite fit your company's needs.

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26:50And now some quick headlines that are good to know might make you look smarter in the future or this weekend, whichever comes first. All right. Well, an Assurant report shares that smartphone trade-ins hit a record of$6.4 billion in 2025, with richer carrier incentives driving the trend. Even still, the report finds Android users are holding onto their phones longer than iOS users, nearly four years on average. Oh, that's so interesting to me. Oh, interesting. Hey, you know what? Longer support. It really does help, I think. Hell yeah. Oh, excuse me. Heck yeah. Heck yeah. The March 2026 Pixel Watch software update is messing with Fitbit tracking for some users.

27:30It's inflating steps, distance, and calories. No word from Google either on the issue to acknowledge it or when to expect a fix. Well, Microsoft launched MyImage 2 text-to-image model to the MyPlayground, promising realistic images and strong in-image text, along with heavy filters and usage caps that some are saying might limit its real-world value. Might hold it back just a little bit. Amazon has acquired Swiss robotics startup River. That's the creator of four-legged delivery robots. They're testing safer, more automated delivery drop-offs inside of Amazon's mega logistics network. Who knows?

28:09You might see an Amazon robo-delivery robot thing on the streets sometime soon. All right. Well, the U.S. government has disrupted four mega IoT botnets that hijacked more than 3 million devices to launch DDoS floods exceeding 30 terabits per second at Department of Defense systems and other high-value targets. And the U.S. president's new national AI framework has been issued. It's aiming to block strict state rules on AI and then also a light touch on safety guardrails, speech requirements, and also the rules that would litigate around the build out of data centers in the U.S. All right. Well, thanks to TexZeexplore in the subreddit for submitting this story.

28:59that Meta is secretly adding an AI detector to Meta AI, giving users the ability to flag AI-generated content in feeds according to a leaked AI detector menu option. Yeah, I realize it put in secretly. That makes it sound so devious or whatever. It's just they haven't announced it yet, and it's in the code, and somebody uncovered it in the code, so there you go. And U.S. prosecutors say two super micro insiders have used fake middlemen, dummy servers, and doctored audits to illegally funnel billions of dollars worth of NVIDIA-powered servers into China. Of course, they were defying U.S. export controls to make that happen.

29:37Supermicro shares fell 25 % on the news. All right, those are the essentials for today. Let's dive a little deeper. Yeah, Counter-Strike 2 just made what you might think is a small change to their reload mechanism, But Tom Merritt caught up with Chris Ashley, who tells us why it's caused a big backlash amongst players. Chris Ashley, welcome back to DT &S, my friend. Hey, man. Thanks for always having the red carpet ready for your boy. Absolutely. When you get a break from the barbecue and tech truck, I will take it every single time. I was super happy that you gave me a shout. And I was like, you know what?

30:16the time the stars have aligned coming home we're coming home to detail yes it feels good feels good uh so let me see if i understand this right counter-strike 2 made what on the surface might be a small change it's the way you reload in the past if you had say two bullets left in a 10 bullet cartridge it would just add eight and you go from there when you press reload now if you press reload if i've got this right if you've got two bullets left and you reload you lose those two bullets it's like you threw them on the ground and you get a fresh thing of 10 is that is that correct that is correct that's exactly what they um what they changed and i i don't play counter strike but you know the shooter is a shooter and the system um is definitely going to have an impact on a lot of players and it's and it really is because of muscle memory so you know when i play shooters i am a guy that also reloads like i'll take a couple shots maybe you know peek peek out take a couple shots peek back in reload because there's no penalty for doing that right you just spam it right yeah you just keep going and it's all good but here um yeah you lose those bullets and there's any and especially going to become harder for folks because bullets is a is a premium in this game so the magazines because it's not infinite a lot of games just give you infinite primary ammo whereas special weapons like sniper rifles or rocket launchers have limited ammo but it seems um that's not the case here in counter-strike that uh all ammo is pretty uh precious so you know the folks that like to spray and play as we call it are definitely going to run into issues with this and i'm kind of shocked that they made this change so deep into the history of counter-strike because this game has been out forever so you know maybe it's to drive engagement maybe it's just to be you know give a different feel to the game who knows but uh in the end uh it's definitely gonna impact a lot of players i believe yeah it certainly put counter-strike to you know back front and center in the the gaming press uh so it sounds like there has been ammo management it's not like you you could just you know not think about it at all It just changes the way you think about it.

32:40And I even saw some folks saying like, well, way back in the day, this is all the way it works. So they're just going back. But I think you hit on the thing that explains to me the backlash against it is muscle memory change. You know, if I've been doing it this way for a decade and suddenly I have to remember like, oh, wait, I have to wait until I'm out and then reload. You can't reload at the same time that's the most convenient or whatever. It changes the strategies. yeah but but i think honestly in my personal opinion i think it's actually a good change um and because um the division two just recently came out with an update uh this past month where they created a a whole different game type call uh i think it's called realistic mode um and essentially it's like headshots like instantly kill you you take way more damage you heal a lot less so you have to play you know most of these games you just go out like a tank you just walking through um he-man um you know command uh whatever uh you know and just tanking everything and now they're like now we created a mode where you have to be careful you're not going to be able to just heal up and go back into the fight no um you you got to be careful and one of those things is ammo as well so you know you don't have infinite ammo in gunfights you do have to kind of limit it and and pay more attention to it that's always the tension with video games right between wanting to be realistic but also wanting to be fun yeah so yeah you have to keep the fantasy part of it you know because that's where the fun is right doing stuff that you can't do but oftentimes you find that you know a bit of realism also helps too um destiny did a really good job with that aspect of it my opinion because they had weapons that did both and this was also kind of shocking to me is that they made the change but they didn't make it risk reward it's literally just risk um on the reload part of it and so what i mean by that is uh you know dusty would have weapons that okay you reload you drop all the ammo you have but the reload is faster so now risk reward whereas i may lose these extra bullets but i can re-engage in this gunfight that i'm in much faster and potentially get to kill because i gave up on the the ammo so i you know i would have thought that would probably been the better way to go sure but um you know how it truly shakes out still remains to be seen and i think the other aspect of it too which i why i think overall is still a good change there's always this fine line in gaming between skill and uh players who lack skill but can still compete and i understand from a game studio perspective you want as many people playing your game as possible but i i i always find it uh amazing you know who the game studio actually caters to because the hardcore gamers are the ones that are going to spend the money they're going to buy every single update they're going to buy all types of cosmetics and stuff like that whereas your casual gamers you know they're just going to watch youtube videos to see what they need to do and they're just going to do it they're not going to put the time in um to uncover all that stuff and they're definitely not going to spend the money on extra cosmetics yet it always seems to me that the uh these you know studios they cater to the casual gamer more than the hardcore gamers because you know i think they take the opposite approach which we see a lot in this world is where it's like we know you're gonna be here so we got you so what do we do to get to other folks here you know what i mean but something like this that always annoys you know hardcore gamers is like here i am i bust my tail i got these weapons i've been got these skills together and this guy comes in just spinning around in circles and he's you you know, competing with you and in an often case is killing you with less skill, which you can clearly tell is less skill, but, you know, it's just because of the way the system works out.

36:51So I think something like this helps to kind of tamp that down a little bit and say, okay, let's, you know, let's keep things on the skill level. So that's the way it adds an element to competitive gaming too, where you, For sure. You now have to have a little more of a management skill to add to the strategy and everything, too. I could see that. Yeah. And sometimes it's like, you know, I don't want to reload. You know, I got this guy weak, but I don't want to reload because, you know, I don't want to lose that ammo. Whereas it's like, I don't care. I'm going to reload. I'm going to lose these bullets, but I'm going to finish that guy off.

37:28You know what I mean? That's just a choice you make in competition. And that comes into play. So I think it's overall, I think it's a very interesting and probably a good choice. Anytime I see like a bunch of negative comments come out like that, a lot of times it's probably the best.

37:46Yeah, they object too much. They protest too much, as the saying goes. Well, Chris, man, thank you so much for taking a moment to give us a little aspect or a little insight into this aspect of the shooter change. I really appreciate it. I know you're kicking ass with the barbecue and tech stuff out there. Tell folks a little bit about that before we let you go. Yeah. So we started a podcast on DTNS called Barbecue and Tech. It got super popular. And then later on in life, I had the opportunity to start a food truck called Barbecue and Tech. And, you know, I've never done a food truck, but I worked in the restaurant industry.

38:26And as it turns out, it's pretty popular now. So we've got a lot of gigs we've been picked up. We've done a lot of catering for companies, lawn care companies. We've done health care companies, just catering for all their employees. And then we have different events that are reaching out to us and say, hey, we heard your food is excellent. We'd love for you to come out and do our event. So we've got all types of things coming up, especially this year, too. So super happy about it and just really, really having a great time slinging this barbecue. The tech we find that still works great. My solar panels are working awesome.

39:08Keeping my battery running, my anchor battery, even though I've had to replace that anchor battery twice just for different various issues. One, it caught on fire while charging. Yeah, that's an issue. A little issue. Thank God I was there. yeah but uh the cool thing is anchor replaced it both times very you know quick little troubleshooting it's like okay we're sending in a new one this is a four thousand dollar battery they sent me twice oh wow yeah so it's just cool to see you know you know these tech companies out there um my new remote uh wireless thermometers are working great you know just being able to sit at home and have you know having to have not having to run like at this point i can smoke up to eight to 10 briskets at a time and not having to run 10 cables out of the smoker is awesome so just some cool tech stuff that's still coming out of all of this too but some great barbecue that's that's been coming out of it so really happy with it well folks uh follow barbecue and tech on instagram uh so that you can salivate and if you're actually in the area you can go taste it i'm looking forward to doing that myself one of these days yeah we've had a few fans of yours come out and check out the barbecue which is always exciting so very fantastic man chris thank you so much i appreciate it good to see you good to see you brother well little change uh big impact what else is new in the world of technology all right uh we end every episode of dtns with some shared perspectives and today two johns that is two different johns have thoughts on the macbook Neo.

40:43All right. Well, on the notion of repairability, John S. says, the EU repairability laws that are always mentioned carry with them a very large stick. If you create a device which does not meet the EU law, that device will be unable to be sold in the EU after a specific date written into the law. If Apple intends to have the device in market after those dates, they have to enable the repairability features now. The manufacturer I was working with has been doing a lot of this over the last several years based on the intended in-market sales lifespan which could also include unsold inventory that needs to stay for sale longer than intended thank you john s for that and then on the education aspect of the neo john barger writes one thing i don't hear anyone discussing is the management of the devices for from a school it department's perspective the google admin console is incredibly robust and fairly inexpensive that's $30 to$40 per device for a perpetual license, Apple doesn't have an in-house equivalent.

41:45So the school would need to buy a third-party management platform like Jamf. He says, I spoke to a friend on mine who's an IT director for a nearby school. He uses a Mac and iPhone for his personal gear. However, he said that, quote, they would have to pry the Google admin console for my cold, dead hands, end quote. LOL, he's not moving the school off Chromebooks anytime soon. Yeah, this has been the argument that I've really kind of clung to around the discussions around, oh, the Neo's going to overtake schools and everything. I mean, Google, say what you will about Chromebooks, and some people call them cheap and whatever, but, I mean, they are accessible, they are effective at doing what they do, and there is a really well-fleshed out program and support framework around all of that, which when you're talking about school after school district across the country is necessary.

42:45Yeah, and thanks to John S for that little bit of nuance, but a very important fact about the repairability law, that it has to be in place now. So that makes a lot of sense. Really great insights. Thank you guys. Very good. All right, well, what are you thinking about? Do you have some insight for us? Well, we would love to hear it. Feedback at DailyTechNewsShow.com. We would love to hear it. And thank you for letting us hear it to both of the Johns, John S. and John Barger. Also, thank you to Chris Ashley for the wonderful interview and contributing to today's show. And thank you for being along for Daily Tech News Show.

43:18You can keep us in business. All you got to do to do that is become a patron at Patreon.com slash DTNS.

43:30This week's episodes of Daily Tech News Show were created by the following people. Host, producer, writer, Tom Merritt. Host, writer, Jason Howell. Co-host, Sarah Lane. Co-host, Rob Dunwood. Co-host, Wintwood Dow. Producer, Anthony Lemos. Producer, Roger Chang. Editor, Hammond Chamberlain. Editor, Victor Bognat. Contributing producers, Kevin Tech, Noel Cow, and Brandon Richards. Science correspondent, Dr. Nikki Ackermans. social media producer and moderator Zoe Detterding, our mods, Beatmaster, WScottis1, BioCow, Captain Kiffer, Steve Guadarrama, Paul Reese, Matthew J. Stevens, a.k.a. GadgetVirtuoso, and J.D.

44:06Galloway, mod and video hosting by Dan Christensen, music provided by Martin Bell and Dan Luters, art by Len Peralta, Acast ad support from Tatiana Matias, Patreon support from Bobby Wagner, and our guest this week, Andy Beach, And thank you to all our patrons who make the show possible.

44:28The DTNS family of podcasts. Helping each other understand. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.

44:41This episode is brought to you by Capital One. Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI. They already deployed one. It's called Chat Concierge and it's simplifying car shopping. Using self-reflection and layered reasoning with live API checks, it doesn't just help buyers find a car they love. It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing, and estimate trade in value. Advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they stack. That's technology at Capital One. Still waiting in line? Again? That's time you'll never get back. Save time and money with Stamps.com.

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From the publisher

 Google will add a 24-hour delay for users sideloading unauthorized apps, and Chris Ashley tells us why Counter-Strike 2 players are upset with a seemingly small update.



Starring Jason Howell, Huyen Tue Dao and Chris Ashley.


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