thetechboytest123

Hello, this is TheTechBoy with a discussion.        Recently, someone posted that their DoorDash driver submitted an AI-generated image of their doorstep and faked the delivery to collect payment. Instead of thinking about this logically and realizing that you couldn't get a high-resolution photo of a door to make this work convincingly—the picture looked like clip art—and that the driver somehow defied the laws of physics by delivering instantly, people freaked out, even though the AI image looked obviously fake.       However, this does pose some real challenges. People are faking all kinds of content online, and as long as it's not malicious, I'm okay with that. But what if you want to verify something authentic? What if you need proof like an order confirmation or a dating app profile?      The answer isn't to stifle progress and halt tech—it never is. It's just simple solutions. Require people to take confirmation photos in-app. Man...

      There is a growing trend online to call great technology "slop." Sidenote but the slop is one of tge most annoying words know to man. Now yes, I will admit that artificial intelligence-generated content can be inaccurate or fake-looking at times. But most of what the annoying commenters online are calling "slop" is just good content. It's become a fun word amongst the worst people known to man: Redditors and Instagram commenters who are pushing against the pro-tech agenda. This content is genuinely fun, and the people pushing "slop" are just mad because they have nothing; they believe it is just "resistance." Under their cover, it's either faux empathy or pretending care about water. The term exploded in 2025. Merriam-Webster even made "slop" their Word of the Year, officially defining it as the flood of low-quality AI junk clogging our feeds. The doomers scream that real human creativity is drowning in this soulless zombi...

     AI is so cool. This has been a fun way to use it, though I wish it could be better. I imported SSALTW (the book) into Gemini and gave it the prompt: “Let me play as President Allison, Elijah, Vera, Ethan, or Molly.” It would generate some scenarios and polling data, kind of like the game The Campaign Trail. However, it would go off track sometimes, not sticking to the source material—for instance, asking about what would happen if Allison dated the star basketball player, something that never happened in the text and doesn’t even fit the story.      The first game it ran gave stats for each character. Ethan got the skill to “perceive” attacks, Allison started with higher polling, Vera had “indestructible,” Elijah had the ability to blow up the rule book, and Molly got dirty tricks. I thought this was fun, giving people abilities inferred from the text. However, when you selected an option, the AI would often tell you the results of the option before yo...

     People online are saying that RAM prices are rising and that phones will revert to 4GB of RAM, laptops to 8GB, and once again they are blaming AI for this change. The claim that phones will have 4GB of RAM is most likely exaggerated bait, though not completely false—recent reports from late 2025 indicate that rising DRAM costs could push entry-level and budget smartphones back toward 4GB or 6GB configurations in 2026, while mid-range models might stick closer to 8GB. High-end flagships are unlikely to drop below 12GB. Similarly for laptops, mid-range models may increasingly ship with 8GB to manage costs, though 16GB remains recommended for most users.      That said, let's assume this trend happens... in this modern era, who cares? Apart from on-device AI features, what truly groundbreaking new apps or tech developments are we seeing that demand massive RAM? Not much, in my opinion. People don't do as much heavy multitasking on their phones or computer...

In my last article, I noted that the Internet had a problem. The walls were taken down, but we could not find anything. Innovation was dying, and computers just became more boring, sadly. YouTube also has this problem. YouTube is the premier video hosting site. As some of you may know, I have a wide variety of interests—from tech, to podcasts, to slice of life, to hacking, to OSINT, to history, to sports, etc. So why is my feed just geared toward not just a few podcasts, but basically only these podcasts? People blame the "algorithm" on TikTok for being too accurate and promoting "echo chambers," and far be it from me to ever defend TikTok or China, but here in the United States of America... I'd like our algorithms to be better. I like watching channels about people I have never heard of. Maybe someone will go do a deep dive on Jake Daugherty or IShowSpeed, and I will learn about them and what scandals they have participated in. Maybe they will be talking about...

Sike!!      Anyway, AI does accentuate a problem that we have already had online, which is lost historical knowledge. Whenever a new technology like AI breaks through, as in 2022, the internet collectively forgets how something was done pre-ChatGPT and generative AI. We see this with smartphones as well, with the internet largely forgetting you could text to Google, that there were multiple phone OSes, and even dumbphones had apps on them, laptops had built-in modems, non-internet-based comm tech, etc.       When I was growing up and still today, the answer to most things was "computer," as in "how did they do that 'computer'?" "how did that graphic work 'computer'?" But I never learned what those programs were. I never really learned how people did stuff on the computer, and now with AI, that will be the answer. In 2025, you could probably use AI instead of CGI to make a movie, and more companies will do that, but now, like all the featur...

I don’t care.      There has been a trend on the internet to hate AI. And most of the time, more often than not, the people doing it are just annoying—watermelon-flag-in-their-name, “quote-unquote” artists who are mad that their job drawing figures on DeviantArt is dead. Sometimes people try to get philosophical about it, saying the “heart” and “soul” behind a project are gone because AI was used, and that it’s not truly creative. Here is my message to these people: I don’t give a crap.      Quite frankly, I do not care. AI has made me more productive, and I don’t care about the message behind a book or TV show. I care if it is good. If it’s fun to look at. Are the lines good? That’s why I like Zoey 101 even though they had some CGI in it (Quinn’s weapons), and that’s why I did not like Saturdays —because it was boring as heck. What even was that show? I care about the quality of a show or a book. Is it fun to read? Yes or no? If yes, then I like it. I ...

     Samsung Notes has this really cool and useful feature that we’ve wanted for a long time — you can finally solve math equations right on your phone!       First, check the Galaxy Store and make sure Samsung Notes is updated on your device. Then create a new note and tap the three dots at the top right corner of the screen. At the bottom, you should see “Turn on Math Solver.” Turn it on. Next, select the pen or highlighter option and write a math problem. It doesn’t handle algebra or irrational numbers, but it works great for exponents, division, addition, and multiplication.      Be sure to write the equals sign at the end of the equation and write it linearly. The solver is fast and accurate, and it displays the solution in the same color and pen style you selected. The ink is also moveable and editable, just like a regular note. God bless and tech talk to you later!

     Grok AI, the xAI chatbot, seems to be down. As ChatGPT's performance has been declining, I decided to use Grok to help me edit my latest article about an interesting new phone (stay tuned for that piece). However, the models would not load. I then sent a simple test message that said 'Hi,' and received no response.  The Grok website itself still loads, and I can initiate a chat, but I get no response from the server. This incident highlights why offline AI is so important, as it would lead to fewer glitches and server outages, and why over-reliance on the internet is a risk. I have not seen any widespread reports of this outage, but I will update you when the service becomes available for me. 5:14 CST Grok inside of X seems up God bless and Tech Talk To You Later!

This was my reaction to the rumored Google–Perplexity deal, in which AI company Perplexity offered to buy Google Chrome for $34.5 billion at the same time the DOJ is trying to force Google to sell Chrome. This is a bad deal for multiple reasons. First of all, the DOJ should not be forcing Google to sell Chrome. Chrome does not have a monopoly over the browser market. The browser that comes preinstalled on 80% of desktops worldwide is Microsoft Edge — and it still gets ignored. Microsoft literally has to beg users to stick with Edge. Every time someone types “Google” or “Chrome” into Edge, it throws up ads telling you to use Bing, Copilot, and Edge… and people still click away. The free market has decided, overwhelmingly, that they want Chrome. The DOJ should not punish companies for being successful. Perplexity, of course, wants Chrome for the user base — despite having just released its own Chromium-based AI browser, Comet. And while Perplexity’s offer massively undervalues Chr...

     OpenAI released GPT-5 yesterday and to test it out I had it write an article about itslef, based on the research at this link. I then prompted it to make the 'listicle' it wrote more like an article. Here is the article in full.  OpenAI has unveiled GPT-5 , calling it the company’s “smartest, fastest, most useful” AI model so far. The release marks a major leap in artificial intelligence capabilities, with improvements across reasoning, factual accuracy, coding, health advice, and creative expression. Available immediately to all ChatGPT users—with varying access levels depending on subscription—GPT-5 represents a unification of OpenAI’s previous models into a single, adaptable system. One Model, Multiple Modes Unlike past versions, GPT-5 operates as a unified system . It includes: A fast-response model for everyday questions. GPT-5 Thinking , a deeper reasoning mode for complex problems. A real-time router that decides which mode to use based on the ...

       Hello, and welcome to the 1st article in our month-long 5-year anniversary celebration!! Gemini's share screen with live is a feature in Google Gemini that lets you chat with Gemini like a real person. Also, like I do multiple times in my podcast, it allows you to share your screen and essentially chat with it via voice.         Think of it like an advanced circle to search. Call up Gemini and click the Share screen with live button. Then you can just chat with whatever is in the area. It can do math, adding up how much you spent just from numbers on the screen, tell you facts about a sea turtle, and even chat with a paused YouTube video.        To turn it off, just swipe down and click X on Gemini Live. God bless, and tech talk to you later!! 

        Samsung One UI 7 update brought Audio Eraser to my Samsung S24 Ultra, and it works really well. The tool, unfortunately, is only present in Samsung Gallery for now, rather than a system-wide feature. It allows you to enhance voices, remove music, and reduce background noise in videos using Galaxy AI. SHUT UP PAISLEY!!                                  Original Video         To use it, just open a video in Samsung Gallery and click the speaker icon on the right. For a shortcut, click the Galaxy AI icon when you open the video. Here I have a video I made of someone talking overlaid with the SSALTW RIZZ NATIONAL ANTHEM song.  To just hear the voice, you would click the music icon and click mute. This will use AI to delete the song, and in my experience, it sounded pretty good and does it quickly 'on the fly' as well.         ...

Hello, this is TheTechBoy with a special article.       Face swapping on Android phones usually means you have to use some AI website with "credits" and server wait times. The Play Store is infested with horrible apps that claim to be able to swap faces, but they are just web portals. However, I found one that does it all locally.       This application is called FaceSwapL and it allows you to swap faces via live camera, a photo, or even a video. I tested the photo face swapping, and essentially, you have to import your face image, the image of the face that will be swapped onto the original photo, and it will save. Whenever you want to do a swap, tap the image and then import your image and crop.         After this, the software will automatically swap it. Unfortunately, the application leaves a huge watermark, so you will have to erase it, and to save images, you have to click the save button. I recommend disconnecting the app from Wi...

     Finally! Google Notebook LM is an app on Android. Last year, I gave it 'Tech Product of the Year' because of its sheer usefulness. It allowed me to ask questions about SSALTW, import my own PDFs and data, and ask questions about one specific site and not billions and billions of sites like ChatGPT.   The mobile application is on Android and iOS and is free to use for now. This is one of Google's coolest products, and I hope it doesn't go the way of the Google Graveyard or have exorbitant pricing schemes once the AI bubble dries up.

How to Set Perplexity as Your Default Assistant on a Samsung Phone           If you want to change the default assistant on your Android phone from Gemini to another option, such as Perplexity or Samsung's Bixby, here's how to do it on a Samsung device. This is useful if you have another AI application like Perplexity and want to access it quickly on your screen. It can also be helpful for running an AI influencer account, where you might want to emulate real-life people's outfits or create prompts based on them, as shown in this video.      Ensure Perplexity is installed on your device. Then, go to Settings and type "assistant" in the search bar. This will appear under Display . Scroll to the bottom where it says Default Digital Assistant App and toggle it on. This will display the available assistant options. Select Perplexity . Now, you can swipe on the screen to bring up Perplexity while still keeping Circle to Search active. To describ...