DescriptionThis week, Steam is leaving the orchard, Bezos is headed to Congress, and Universal is not invited to the AMC party.ParticipantsScott ErtzHostScott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLuGHiTz Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the DDR community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bar Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and judging engineering notebooks at competitions. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors.Avram PiltchHostAvram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.OpeningPowered by TeknoAXENifty GiftiesPowered by Microsoft StoreClearview AI wants to add facial identification to contact tracingSince the concept of contact tracing was first announced, it has faced privacy and accuracy concerns. While Apple and Google addressed concerns, other firms who have been tapped for additional technologies are still under fire. One of the most recent to draw attention is a company that is used to the negative spotlight - Clearview AI. Many people around the world have been worried about the privacy and accuracy of the technology. These are definitely two topics that should stay as far apart as possible.read full articlePiltch Point with Avram PiltchPowered by PureVPNExtra LifePowered by RazerSteamVR for macOS is coming to the end of its very short lifeThis past year has seen a lot of changes to the landscape of the virtual reality market. We saw the end and then open sourcing of Google Daydream. This was followed closely by Gear VR closing shop. This week, another big hit is coming to the landscape, with SteamVR support likely coming to an end for Apple computers. This would include older and current OSX and macOS implementations.read full articleNews From the TubesPowered by RiffTraxCongress calls Jeff Bezos to testify about Amazon's use of seller dataLast year, as part of its inquiry into the way big tech companies use their market positions to compete with those who rely on these companies, Amazon representatives were asked about their use of data. In particular, Nate Sutton, Amazon's Associate General Counsel was asked about the company's use of seller data on its platform to determine its own product offerings. Mr. Sutton said that Amazon does not use information about its sellers to compete against them. Those words are at the center of a new controversy for the company.read full article* DRM Not IncludedPowered by Amazon PrimeAMC to boycott future Universal films over distribution disagreementWith movie theaters closed thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown, movie studios have had to make big decisions about the future of their films. Many studios have moved the release dates for their blockbusters into the far future, altering their timelines. Most notable has been the Marvel studios releases, some films being pushed over a year past their release dates. Other studios have adjusted their release styles instead. The biggest alteration was for Trolls World Tour.read full articleClosingPowered by Tech Podcast Network