Reviews of NVIDIA's new RTX 4060 graphics card are out and frankly, even
including the DIY salad kit from Safeway, it is hard to imagine a bag
more mixed. I'm Riley Murdoch, this is TechLinked and you will be disappointed
to learn this card is decidedly underpowered in terms of hardware.
Compared to its predecessor, the RTX 3060, the 4060 has fewer GPU cores,
fewer RT cores, fewer AI cores and less memory. So, NVIDIA made the card half
off. The PCIe lanes, I mean, it's got half as many. Now, the 4060 does see a
substantial performance boost with DLSS 3 and specifically the new frame
generation feature, which is probably why NVIDIA allowed a small handful of
reviewers to post early sneak peeks of the 4060 a few days before the official
review embargo lifted. So long as those reviewers only showed benchmarks of
NVIDIA approved games and emphasized its AI upscaling capacity.
Like how the Olympics only shows off athletes who use steroids. They're the
best. In a normal world, NVIDIA would weather significant backlash from the
strategy, be forced to apologize and commit to do better. But, we live in the
real world where everyone and their cat is giving NVIDIA direct access to their
bank accounts in exchange for mountains of AI cards. Sure, boycott this product
launch. I mean, uh best of luck.
Starfield, the hotly anticipated new game from Bethesda, is officially
partnering with AMD and PC gamers are
big mad. Not just because that's a
anagram. Thank you. Admittedly, gamers don't really do small or medium mad, but
there's a reason this time. AMD has been taking a lot of heat recently for the
fact that a large percentage of AAA AMD partner games lack support for NVIDIA's
DLSS and Intel's XCSS upscaling, despite
the fact that a majority of NVIDIA partner titles do support AMD's FSR
upscaling. Make it make sense. Of course, even if Starfield does lack DLSS
support, PC gamers with GeForce cards will still be able to enable FSR 2 due
to AMD's more open approach to upscaling. This kind of anti-competitive
behavior on all sides reminds me of my visit to the donkey sanctuary because
I'm supposed to be having a fun time, but it's nothing but jackasses as far as
the eye can see. This possible lack of DLSS has also raised concerns that the
game might perform poorly on release. But, come on. It's a Bethesda game. You
manage to make it to 5 seconds of gameplay before your first bug.
It's a big mutated bug. And reviews are also out for the Pixel
Fold and somebody has already broken it.
Early reviews have been positive. The Fold is a well-rounded device with a
thin form factor, relatively large screen and top-notch premium hardware,
just as Google promised. However, the big concern with foldables and Google
hardware in general is always durability, especially for the hinge
that makes all the difference between a foldable and a breakable. We don't want
to make those anymore. We're we're we're past that. A reviewer from Ars Technica
holds the questionable honor of being the first to turn Google's much-hyped
foldable phone into an $1,800 foldable paperweight. Though, luckily for them,
the Pixel Fold is the first foldable to date to offer DIY repair through iFixit
on release, which probably should have been the case for some previous foldable
models given how these launches have gone. The Ars Technica reporter's phone
died after 4 days of light use, in part
because the protective plastic layer on top of its ultra-thin glass doesn't
quite stretch to the edge of the screen. Hey, this sounds familiar. But, also
because the two halves of the display are so close when folded, users can wind
up smashing small debris into the screen, potentially puncturing the
delicate OLED where it's exposed. Ars Technica's Pixel Fold appears to have
died due to a near microscopic perforation between the end of this
protective plastic layer and the beginning of the bezel bordering the
screen. Funnily enough, everyone freaked out about the Pixel Fold's huge bezels
when they first saw them, but little did we know this was an Achilles ankle
situation. Normally, you say Achilles heel, but we're just kind of quirky
today. We're just kind of you know. What's going on with my frames? Looks
like your GPU need a little upgrade with our sponsor, Newegg. Wait, are you
gaming at work? To be a nice big brother, it's time to pass on your old
GPU to your sibling. Oh my god, thank
you. And get yourself a better GPU with Newegg. Like the powerful RX 7900 is now
less than $1,000. And you say your budget's tight? No worries. Newegg has a
ton of GPUs that are great bang for your buck. Get this, this, this or all of
them if you're greedy like me. Now, go to newegg.com and get yourself an early
Christmas gift or for whatever reason. Oh, but I want a new GPU, too.
There are five quick bits and five only.
If you add more or take any away, their quantum structure will become
dangerously unstable. I don't believe that. You didn't sell
that at all. Google reportedly canceled its lightweight AR glasses project
during its mass layoffs earlier this year, according to Business Insider.
It's unclear whether the glasses were intended to be full AR or simply some
kind of smart heads-up display, but it doesn't matter now because you're not
getting them either way. Apple has likewise postponed their lightweight AR
glasses indefinitely, while Meta plans to ship their own version in 2027.
Although, given how things are going, wouldn't necessarily believe that one,
either. It's all going to be big headsets from now on. Yeah. I want to wear helmets anyways.
They keep me safe. I want to look like Daft Punk. Damus, a potential Twitter
rival, has been removed from Apple's App Store over a feature that allows users
to tip other users in Bitcoin. According to Apple, these transactions amount to
in-app purchases, of which Apple is owed a 30% cut.
Don't do that, says Apple. Hot tip. Damus says Apple is abusing its in-app
purchase guidelines because, well, no digital content is unlocked by tipping
and thus no purchase is taking place. I,
however, would like to ask a separate question. Namely, when Chipotle charges
me $2 for extra guac, is that a microtransaction? And should I treat it
as a microaggression? Dolly Parton, Britney Spears, Taylor
Swift and Adele are all protesting outside of Meta's London headquarters
after they claim they were repeatedly banned from Facebook and Instagram for
impersonation. To be clear, these are not the real Parton, Spears, Swift and
no last name given. They're musical tribute acts. In theory, Meta's policy
against impersonation is intended to crack down on malicious malicious
Melissa's actions both malicious and delicious impersonation. Even
nutritious. Not cover bands. However, their automatic moderation keeps
flagging entertainers even after their accounts have been repeatedly
reinstated. It's just a prank, guys.
A Meta spokesperson recommended that tribute acts make it clear in their bio
or profile that they're not the real individual as if it had never occurred
to them to clarify that they're not actually Shania Twain. I do that every
day. Pope Francis is teaming up with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics to
create an AI ethics handbook. It's not
the Bible was good enough. Turns out, this might feel like it's coming out of
nowhere, but this is actually far from the first time that the Pope has
commented on artificial intelligence. In early 2020, His Holiness Papa Frank I
love it when you call ME EL PAPA. PARTNERED with Microsoft and IBM on the
creation of a set of principles for the ethical use of AI, including that
technology should respect privacy, consider the needs of all human beings
and operate transparently and without bias. And not put Popes in fluffy
jackets. While you and I might not have seen the AI apocalypse coming, turns out
the Holy See had 20/20 vision. And a
college in New York is suing a cleaning company for $1 million in damages after
one of their staff allegedly destroyed decades worth of research by turning off
a lab freezer in order to mute an annoying alarm sound. I shouldn't be
laughing, but
I'm so sorry. In September 2020, an alarm sounded indicating that the
freezer temperature was fluctuating, though not yet at a level that would
damage the cultures inside. COVID restrictions meant that it couldn't be
repaired for a week, so lab officials put up a sign and locked the freezer
outlet and socket to stop anyone from unplugging it. Undeterred, the cleaner
resorted to turning off the circuit breaker, destroying the samples over the
course of the next several hours. It's like how sometimes you're just too tired
to figure out the snooze alarm and instead, you just burn your entire house
down. And we won't burn your house down if you
come back on Friday for more tech news. Your mortal enemy?
The line The line has been drawn in the sand. So, make a decision.