Tiktok has been fined 345 million euros, around 368 million USD, for failing to properly protect
children's privacy. It's supposed to be sealed in little boxes and then shipped to the CCP,
not the other way around. I'm James Schreib. This is TechLink, and this is the press release
from the Irish Data Protection Commission, which is actually the lead privacy regulator for the whole
European Union and not just for hermit sheep farmers who just want to be freaking left alone.
The DPC found that from July to December 2020, not only were children's Tiktok
profiles set to public by default, the family pairing settings allowed adult users to pair
their account to a child's account without verifying their parent or guardian status,
and then enable direct messaging. Tiktok has since changed many of the relevant settings,
but the news is more relevant than ever, considering Tiktok's increased efforts to
beat Elon Musk at creating the Everything app. The whole alphabet, not just one letter.
The company just launched its previously in beta Tiktok shop feature, which will allow creators
to work with sellers and earn commission on product orders, there's so many pairs of words,
that can also be fulfilled directly by Tiktok. And since 40% of the 18-24 year old search for
stuff on Tiktok instead of Google, Tiktok added Wikipedia blurbs to the top of search results,
so the first thing you see is not a complex topic explained purely through interpretive dance.
Honestly, I might learn better that way. DanceGPT. AMD's recently launched Radeon RX 7700 XT and
7800 might be the last of their kind according to GPU leaker Kepler underscore L2. Their sources
reportedly claim that Team Red's plans for its upcoming Navi 4 based cards don't involve any
high-end GPUs, just mid-range ones, similar to AMD's previous RDNA1 and Polaris generations.
To hear that Radeon RX 8800 or 8900 XTX won't exist is unfortunate news for people with
the thousand bucks burning a hole in their pockets, but it sounds like they should invest
in flame retardant pants instead. But why would AMD leave NVIDIA unchallenged at the top?
Well, Italian tech site Bits and Chips claims that Team Red has to sacrifice gaming GPU output
at TSMC to pump up production for their AI accelerator cards because AI just has to take
our jobs and our hobbies. None of this is confirmed, but if true, it might not be the worst thing.
TSMC will eventually get their Arizona fab up and running,
increasing their output so that gamers and AI can live in harmony.
And if GPUs are to fall one node behind, NVIDIA's Maxwell generation showed
you can crank out more performance while reusing last-gen tech.
So let's just head to the Winchester, grab a pint and wait for this whole thing to just
blow over. Leon Lee has filed a patent lawsuit in California against Phanteks,
claiming Phanteks D30 fan series isn't allowed according to this cool written document the
US government gave them. Said document is a patent Leon Lee filed in 2019 for an illumination fan
connectable with at least one illumination fan for a computer that have connectable
ports that allow for cable-less daisy chaining. So they got pretty upset when they found out
Phanteks D30 RGB fans have connectable ports that allow for cable-less daisy chaining.
But Phanteks have refuted these claims, saying their D30 fans are an original idea and have been
issued patents in multiple countries to date. But I'm sure if you don't want to date them,
you can just put them in your computer. Thanks guys. Phanteks further claimed they consulted
with patent lawyers during the development of their product and pointed out they have their own
US patent for their fan connection technology. I guess now it comes down to whose cool written
document has the best words. It's like a rap battle, but soul-suckingly boring.
Hey, who's that at the door? Quick bits, but they said you died in the war. Come on in.
Google has expanded its iFixit partnership to include parts for the Pixel tablet,
the thing that launched in June and you already forgot about. Unfortunately, I still can't fix
the Pixel watch and neither can you or Google for that matter. They can't supply replacement parts
because they don't exist, apparently. So if you crack or scratch your watch's glass bubble that
looks more likely to get hit than a drunken shirtless frat boy with his arms out saying,
what? What? Your only option is to buy a brand new one. But at least Google will now give Chromebooks
released from 2021 onward 10 years of software updates, up from 8 following backlash for selling
Chromebooks that were already several years into their update window. Chrome OS will also be adding
adaptive charging and an energy save remote to keep their garbage batteries alive and cooking
your laptop just a little bit longer. The primary benefit, of course, will be to help
underfunded elementary schools to keep their massive stock of half-dead Franken devices
in circulation until the government one day decides to buy them new ones, which
should be in about a decade and will probably end up costing parents.
HP has unveiled the new Spectre Fold, which is a lot like Spectre all caps, but instead of
being a fictional terrorist organization, it's a 17-inch foldable tablet that doubles as a laptop
and triples as a desktop PC, if you needed to. This isn't the first foldable desktop slash tablet
laptop, or as I like to call them, daplets, but it is the first one to charge you $5,000 for a PC
powered by a last-gen Intel Core i7-1250U. However, the Spectre Fold does come with a kickstand,
plus a magnetically attached keyboard and stylus, and it's less than an inch thick when folded,
but also surprisingly hefty at three and a half pounds, heavy enough to quadruple as a weapon
to kill James Bond. It's been done. The upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 will be powered by an NVIDIA
Ampere-based chip, according to Leaker, and name you just heard five stories go Kepler and Square
and corroborated by fellow Leaker co-pied-7 Kimi, who further suggested it will be made using
Samsung's 8nm process. This suggests that the Switch 2's chip may be a custom version of NVIDIA's
Oren chips, normally found in autonomous robots and vehicles. If the launch date rumors are true,
next year might mark the release of the world's first self-driving console.
It can dock at docks, like lake docks. And the US Army has greenlit the next
phase of development for the HoloLens, a mixed-reality device previously known to make
hardened military professionals throw up so hard they see God. Apparently, the HoloLens has overcome
that little puke problem performing well during a recent field test. Now Microsoft will work on
integrating the device with tactical cloud computing, among other features that probably won't make
soldiers violently ill. There are, famously, very few toilets available on the battlefield.
Including your pants. And if you're not already on the toilet watching this show, come back on Monday for more toilet humor and more tech-linked. Hope you have a good weekend full
of foods high in dietary fiber.