1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,360 Oh you like tech news? Well, tech news doesn't care what you think about it. 2 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:10,480 Tech news just is. And there's a lesson for all of us there. 3 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:16,960 Intel's next-gen gaming graphics cards, codenamed Battle Mage, could be alive after all. 4 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:23,760 A shipping manifest spotted by Twitter user JosephK972 listed a product-designated Intel 5 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:31,760 BMG B580, which is either the name of the successor to Intel's alchemist-based A580 6 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:35,200 or meaningless text the devil planted to deceive us. 7 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:40,720 But there are other signs. Previously accurate leaker golden pig upgrade posted on Weibo, 8 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:47,120 indicating Intel would be at least demonstrating Battle Mage's performance in December, 9 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:54,480 and others have agreed. Data miner Tomas Goronsky fueled Intel GPU rumors even more 10 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:58,960 by spotting references to Intel's follow-up to Battle Mage Celestial. 11 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:03,840 For now, that's all these are, rumors. But they're encouraging, given that recent 12 00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:09,760 comments by Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger made it sound like his company is getting out of the discrete 13 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:14,480 GPU game. And even if it's not, you might want to temper your predictions. People thought the 14 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:22,560 first ARC GPUs would take AMD and NVIDIA down a notch, and they were pretty good at encoding video. 15 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:26,880 Gaming got a lot better with driver updates, but I'm gonna get ready for Intel to subvert 16 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:32,720 expectations once again and launch a graphics card for spreadsheet power users. They don't have one 17 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:38,960 yet, it's just for them. Announcing Battle Mage in December may help Intel avoid being overshadowed 18 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:45,120 by NVIDIA, who's expected to reveal their RTX 50 series GPUs at CES in January. 19 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:51,840 Accordingly, reports are emerging of RTX 40 series GPU stocks dwindling. NVIDIA's board partners are 20 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:59,120 apparently shipping final batches of the RTX 4080 Super and 4070 Super, while the 4060 might stick 21 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:06,240 around a little longer. Production of the China-specific RTX 4090D, specially built to avoid 22 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:13,120 US sanctions, has apparently been done for some time, and with no desire to be subject to whatever 23 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:19,280 sanctions the US decides to put on the RTX 50 series, PC Partner, one of the world's largest 24 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:28,720 graphics card manufacturers behind brands like Zotac, Inno3D, and Manly, with an eye, has ironically 25 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:34,480 cowardly fled from Hong Kong, moving their headquarters to Singapore. The US can't sanction 26 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:38,720 them there, and if they show up to try, they'll get arrested for chewing their gum too loudly or 27 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:45,040 something. But is NVIDIA's Blackwell architecture underlying the RTX 50 series ready for prime time? 28 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:50,720 After insisting that corporate customers like Microsoft and Meta use NVIDIA's in-house server 29 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:56,240 rack design instead of building their own, the company's Blackwell data center GPUs have apparently 30 00:02:56,240 --> 00:03:02,480 been overheating, reportedly due to that very in-house design being unable to properly cool 31 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:08,400 72 chips at once. But I'm sure those overheating issues won't carry through to NVIDIA's famously 32 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:13,840 well-cooled flagship gaming GPUs that have barely had any heat-related issues, except for all the 33 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:19,600 times you're thinking of. Google is reportedly planning to slowly replace Chrome OS with the 34 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:25,760 Android operating system, taking over Chromebooks from the inside out, like Cordyceps fungus 35 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:31,520 assimilating an ant, which is always discomforting to see. Poor ants. Thankfully, no one cares about 36 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:36,880 Chromebooks, which is partially why Google has been explicitly planning to do this since June. 37 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:43,280 But an insider source told Android Authority that this Chrome OS Android hybridization is turning 38 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:49,360 into full Android assimilation, meaning we're looking at a future full of Android laptops. 39 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:55,520 Google sources also told Android Authority that a new Pixel tablet 2 is on the way with a keyboard 40 00:03:55,840 --> 00:04:02,480 case. An Android headline says their insider source tipped them off to a high-end Pixel laptop 41 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:09,120 with a premium build, codenamed Snowy, being developed at Google. Neither outlet confirmed 42 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:13,440 whether their Google sources were friends, and perhaps often had free lunch together in the 43 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:18,720 Google cafeteria, because that's irrelevant to anyone but me. If this news about Android laptops 44 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:23,680 is irrelevant to you, I guess you can go build a risk-5-powered framework laptop with a new 45 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:29,600 mainboard. Is that what you're looking for? Quick bits absolutely care what you think about them, 46 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:35,680 but they will never admit that. Valve added support for NVIDIA's DLSS 3 with frame generation 47 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:41,840 and optical flow AI to the experimental version of its proton compatibility layer last week, 48 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:47,120 as well as adding playable status for a slew of new games and fixes for games like Doom Eternal, 49 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:53,120 Jedi Outcast, and most importantly, Skull and Bones. DLSS support means Linux gamers with NVIDIA 50 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:58,720 graphics cards have one less technical issue to spend inordinate amounts of time trying to solve, 51 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:03,200 although I'm not sure whether that's what they actually want. This might be bad news for them. 52 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:08,240 Microsoft's new marketing campaign is in full swing, which consists almost entirely 53 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:15,360 of showing devices that are obviously not an Xbox and saying defiantly, this is an Xbox. 54 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:22,080 Some people have taken this to mean there won't be any more Xbox Xboxes, but Phil Spencer told 55 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:28,400 Rolling Stone that there will definitely be future consoles called Xbox. It's just hard to 56 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:34,000 know exactly what he means by that when there's now billboards everywhere calling a laptop an Xbox 57 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:42,240 for your lap. Cringe, replies Twitter user Volt Dweller. That is not an Xbox. That is a laptop. 58 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:47,520 You can't pull the wool over these eyes. I know what an Xbox is. I am not an Xbox. 59 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:55,200 Much of the internet has celebrated Casio's newest device, which Gear Patrol says belongs to a 60 00:05:55,200 --> 00:06:01,600 burgeoning watch trend, which is, I guess, making watches for your finger. And it's honestly fair 61 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:07,520 to call it a trend at this point because Casio's Ring Watch comes shortly after Timex also launched 62 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:17,040 a, frankly, much uglier one. I'm sorry Timex. That's right Casio's CRW0011JR is a ring that 63 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:23,040 looks like a watch and is actually also a watch complete with alarms and a stopwatch function 64 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:28,960 unlike the rings they released last year that resembled, but were not actually watches. I have 65 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:35,760 to imagine Volt Dweller was also mad about that. This is not a watch. Who watches those? Not me. 66 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:41,680 AI search company Perplexity is trying a new way to make themselves useful. Now the LLM powered 67 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:47,840 service can apparently be trusted to buy stuff for you, or at least for Perplexity Pro subscribers. 68 00:06:47,840 --> 00:06:53,760 Said subscribers can click the new buy with pro button to have the AI automatically fill in your 69 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:58,880 saved shipping and billing information and check out with select products from select merchants, 70 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:05,360 which Perplexity says just made shopping online 10 times more easy and fun. And I would like to 71 00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:10,320 see the math on that. So you're thinking Perplexity's got to be taking a cut of these sales, right? 72 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:14,080 But a spokesperson told the Verge that they don't and that right now, 73 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:20,080 quote, there's no commercial element involved here. They're just so passionate about shopping. 74 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:24,400 The AI got you chicken thighs instead of a toothbrush? Worth it. What a thrill. 75 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:30,160 And to celebrate Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary, Valve released a freaking two hour documentary 76 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:35,360 about the project, revealing some interesting details about why the cliffhanger ending of 77 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:42,160 Half-Life 2 Episode 2 wasn't carried on with an Episode 3. Lord Gabe Newell himself explained 78 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:46,720 that although they, quote, could have shipped it, it wouldn't have been that hard. Continuing the 79 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:53,120 story just to finish it would be, quote, copping out of their obligation to gamers to provide some 80 00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:59,280 meaningful gameplay innovation. And can I just say no? Gabe went on to say he couldn't figure out 81 00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:04,480 why doing Episode 3 was pushing anything forward, the story. You'll be pushing the story forward. 82 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:09,680 I want to know, Gabe. Throw a reverse gravity gun in there or something. Just finish the story. 83 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:13,440 Anyways, I better tell you to come back on Wednesday for more tech news before I say 84 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:19,520 anything to the lord of PC gaming that I might regret. You do not want to mess with anyone with 85 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:24,960 wraparound prescription glasses. That he looks in that he could do something bad. And they're not 86 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:27,680 even Oakleys, they're Nikes. It's another level.