Tech's Summer Disruption

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Hey, welcome back to Tech.

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Between the Lines, I'm Between Two Pixels and finally Finn Circuit is back in the studio.

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Dude, you missed a wild one last week.

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I had to hold down the fort with the creator.

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It got weird.

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Yeah, I heard I leave you alone for one episode and suddenly you're interviewing an AI that wants to replace us both Typical.

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But hey, I'm back and I brought my skepticism with me.

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What did I miss, besides existential dread?

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Oh, just the usual WWDC Apple's liquid glass everywhere, vision OS and a million beta updates, plus the Xbox and Meta news dropped right after.

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It's been a summer of like non-stop disruption.

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I barely slept.

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You never sleep.

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But yeah, the tech world's been on a bender.

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Let's get into it before something else launches mid-show.

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Okay.

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So Microsoft just dropped this new Xbox app for Windows 11 insiders.

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Right now it's on the ROG Ally handhelds, but it's coming to more devices soon.

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The big thing it pulls in your Steam Battlenet and Game Pass games into one unified library.

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No more launcher roulette.

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Well, unless you're an Epic or GOG diehard then you gotta wait till like 2026.

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So let me get this straight Microsoft's answer to Launcher Hell is another Launcher.

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I mean sure it's unified, but I've seen this movie before.

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Remember when every music service wanted to be your one-stop shop and you still ended up with five apps.

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Yeah, but this time it's actually working, at least for the people who got into the Insider program.

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Social feeds are full of people showing off their all-in-one libraries.

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I remember in college mid-tournament I'd be alt-tabbing between Steam and Battlenet, praying nothing crashed.

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This would have saved me like so many headaches and probably a few friendships.

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You say that now, but wait till they add ads or some premium feature.

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And what about the ROG Xbox Ally?

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That's the new handheld right.

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Yeah, the ROG, xbox Ally and the Ally X are coming this holiday.

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They're basically souped-up Windows handhelds, but with Xbox branding and this new app baked in.

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It's like Microsoft's finally admitting that PC gaming and console gaming are merging.

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I'm here for it.

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I'll believe it when I see Epic and GOG in there.

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Until then, it's just another round of launcher musical chairs.

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But hey, at least you won't have to explain to your grandma why her game won't launch, because she clicked the wrong icon.

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Speaking of Xbox everywhere, did you see the MetaQuest 3S Xbox Edition?

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It's $309,.

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Comes with the Elite Strap and you get three months of Game Pass Ultimate.

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But it's super limited stock, like Blink, and you'll miss it.

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Yeah, and the scalpers are already circling.

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I saw people on X drooling over the design.

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But let's be real.

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Half of those headsets are going to end up on auction sites for double the price.

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Remember the PlayStation VR 2 launch?

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Same story, different headset.

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Totally.

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But I gotta admit the everything is an Xbox thing is kind of genius.

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Microsoft's putting Xbox on handhelds, on VR, on toasters Okay, maybe not toasters, but you get what I mean.

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It's all about the ecosystem now.

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And with Game Pass Ultimate you can cloud stream over 100 games, save, sync the works.

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It's wild.

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Wild, sure, but is it sustainable?

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Limited runs just make the hype worse.

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Playstation did the same thing Short supply, long wait lists and then a bunch of angry fans.

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It's like they want the scalpers to win.

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I don't get it.

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Yeah, but it does make the VR market feel I don't know more exclusive, like if you get one you're in this club, but I wish they'd just make enough for everyone.

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The tech's cool, but the FOMO is real.

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FOMO is the business model kid Always has been.

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But hey, if you snag one, let me know if it actually makes Game Pass and VR worth it or if it's just another dust collector next to your old Kinect.

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Alright, shifting gears.

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Apple dropped iOS 26 Beta 2 this week.

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They tweaked the liquid glass interface, fixed the control center so you can actually see the icons now, and added 3D parallax wallpapers.

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Oh, and there's a live radio widget in Apple Music.

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People are loving the polish, but, as always, they want better notifications.

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It's like Apple just give us notification stacks already.

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You know, I remember when a phone was just a phone.

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Now it's a glass sandwich with more widgets than my desktop in 98.

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But I'll give Apple this the liquid glass thing looks slick.

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At least you can read the settings now without squinting.

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And Samsung's not sitting still July 9th, Galaxy unpacked in New York they're dropping the Z Fold 7 and Flip 7, both with one UI8.

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The Fold 7 is like crazy thin, 3.9mm unfolded and the camera bump is massive.

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But that's because it's rumored to have a 200MP main sensor.

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That's like more megapixels than my first 10 cameras combined.

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A 200MP camera.

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What are you photographing the moon?

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And don't get me started on folding phones.

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I used to fold paper maps.

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Now you want me to fold my phone.

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Next thing you know they'll make a phone that folds into a paper airplane.

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Hey, don't knock it till you try it.

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The Flip 7's got a bigger cover display 4 inches edge to edge, and both are running the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip Plus one UI8 is supposed to be way faster, with new AI features and even prepping for XR headsets.

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There's even rumors of a tri-fold phone teaser.

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Samsung's going full sci-fi this year.

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Sci-fi, sure, but I'll stick to my trusty ThinkPad.

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At least it doesn't fold in half when I drop it.

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But I'll give Samsung credit.

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The specs are impressive, even if I don't need a phone with more RAM than my old server rack.

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All right, before we wrap, quick detour.

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Tesla's Robotaxi finally launched in Texas, or well launched.

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It's been a mess, tons of hype, but the rollout's been rocky and there's a lot of misinformation flying around.

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Some people think it's fully driverless everywhere, but that's not really the case yet.

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Color me shocked.

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A Tesla launch with more questions than answers.

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I've seen more reliable rollouts from Windows ME.

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People are already arguing online about what the robo-taxi can and can't do.

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I'll believe it's real when I see one pick up my groceries without running over my mailbox.

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Yeah, it's early days, the tech's promising, but the reality is it's not quite the sci-fi future yet.

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Maybe by the time we get the trifold phone we'll have RoboTaxis that actually work as advertised.

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Or maybe we'll just have more beta tests and more angry Texans.

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Either way, it's a good reminder Don't believe the hype until you see it in your driveway.

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All right, that's a wrap on this week's Summer of Disruption.

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We hit Xbox's Unified Gaming, meta's VR Colab, apple's iOS 26, polish Samsung's Foldable Madness and Tesla's RoboTaxi Chaos.

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If you want to snag a $50 Samsung credit for Unpacked, check out our website Links in the show notes.

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Thanks for tuning in.

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Folks, Remember, don't fold your phone unless you're sure it'll survive, and don't trust a robo-taxi with your pizza.

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We'll be back next week with more tech, more skepticism and probably more launch drama.

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See you next time, finn, and thanks to everyone for listening.

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Stay curious, stay geeky and don't forget to reserve your spot for the next episode.

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Later Between Later, everyone.