YouTube experiences widespread technical problems playing videos, a new device can apparently inject the music into your head without headphones, and the internet argues over how fast the new Arm-based Macbook Air really is.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Thursday November 13, and I’m your host Alex Coop.
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YouTube users in multiple regions globally encountered issues for more than an hour while playing videos on the site Wednesday. According to monitoring site DownDetector, user-reported YouTube problems began spiking at around 7 p.m. ET. The issues were most prominent in the Northeast U.S., the U.K. and Western Europe, as well as in Mexico, Australia and South America. Around 95 per cent of the issues reported were with watching videos, per DownDetector. Variety reached out to Google for comment about the outage but didn’t get any more details. The site as of right now is up and running.
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New futuristic audio technology from Noveto Systems, an Israeli company, promises to envelop you in a sound bubble allowing you to enjoy your music without bothering others in the room without headphones. The company provided The Associated Press with an exclusive demo of the desktop prototype of its SoundBeamer 1.0 before its launch today. The listening sensation is straight out of a sci-fi movie, according to reporter Louise Dixon. The 3-D sound is so close it feels like it’s inside your ears while also in front, above and behind you. The technology uses a 3-D sensing module and locates and tracks the ear position by sending audio via ultrasonic waves. This creates sound pockets by the user’s ears. Sound can be heard in stereo or a spatial 3-D mode that creates 360 degree sound around the listener, the company said.
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And lastly, everyone is dunking on Apple over its claim that its new Arm-based Macbook Air is faster than 98 per cent of other PC laptops. Apple’s website restates the claim by stating: “M1 is faster than the chips in 98 percent of PC laptops sold in the past year.” PCWorld’s executive editor chimed in about the controversy, noting in a recent editorial that Apple doesn’t say what tests it’s basing its claims on, or where it sources the comparable laptops. Some Reddit users defended Apple, saying the claim was clearly not comparing the Mac Air with a beefed up RTX-equipped notebook, and rather the mid-tier machines that largely dominate the market.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Baneet Braich, thanks for listening