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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and the team discuss Facebook’s new Instagram Kids scandals, some of Amazon’s announcements, and more.
Rick in Baton Rouge, Louisiana listens on 710 KEEL and asked: “With the shortage of brand new vehicles and computer chips, is that going to affect other consumer electronics? And are we able to produce – or can Ford, or any of the other manufacturers produce their own chips – or are they dependant on foreign companies or – where do those chips come from?”
Rick, its already affecting other industries, though the scale at which they are affected may be different.
The semiconductor market, like everything else these days, is global and that goes for both the finished product and the raw materials that make up the chips.
Producing them locally isnt always physically possible, but assuming the raw materials are there, the cost is also a concern, so effectively producing them locally, even where possible, is likely not viable for anything that isnt a strategic concern.
For example, building expensive chips locally for a power stations controllers could probably be subsidized, but building a $100 chip for a $600 phone or computer wont help anyone.
Theres another big and very obvious problem with building chips where theyre not currently being built: If you had the raw materials, and you could do it cheaply enough, then youd still need the machinery, the facilities, and the workforce. Intel is building factories in the US right now, but they probably wont be ready before this particular shortage ends.
Its just not worth the trouble to work around a problem that is expected to last between a few months and a year in a very slow and very expensive way like reworking where and how the industry produces components.
Danny in Texas calling in with a question for Kam”I have a YouTube channel and I would like to know what the best software is to make YouTube Videos on Android.”
Danny, there are lots of apps to make YouTube videos on Android and many are free so look around until you find one you like, but here are some recommendations.
Vlogit is free and it’s great. It has a simple user interface and it will allow you to add text and animations, filters, trim the video and share to social media.
Power Director is also free and it may work better for you if you want to run commentary easily. It allows you to record a voice track to layer over the video. You can also add other soundtracks by dragging and dropping.
FilmoraGo may work for you too, it’s free but has in app purchases and it will allow you to create clips for YouTube and to make custom square 1:1 clips for Instagram as well.
You can also record the video on your phone and edit it on a computer if you want way more options and more powerful software, but it will take more work.
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