Oh my goodness. My first time hosting with a Techlink shirt. Nick, can people
buy these or what? Yeah, they can. And if you're in Europe, we have cheaper
shipping now. Cheaper shipping for Europeans. Oh, we love those guys. Get
one. NVIDIA has stubbornly refused to
change the name of their GTX 16 series and instead went and released another
card in the lineup. Disgusting. But it
turns out the GTX 1660 isn't disgusting. It's actually a pretty decent mid-range
card for 220 bucks. NVIDIA isn't releasing a reference version of the
card, but there are a broad range of models from EVGA, MSI, you know, the
usual suspects. Most of the reviews seem to be saying it's a decent successor to
the 6 gig version of the GTX 1060. In fact, almost everyone is saying it's got
optimal performance and power efficiency for its price range. And that to me is
disgusting. We need to hold NVIDIA accountable for this travesty.
I'm almost getting used to it and I don't want to be used to the 16 series.
Valve Steam Link game streaming service has been around for a few years and it's
amassed enough experience points to evolve to Steam Link anywhere. It's
higher form. You guys get this is a Pokemon. Steam Link Anywhere will let
you stream Steam games or as I call it
stream because if you put Steam together and Steam and Stream together it's
stream. So, you can stream from a PC to almost any device that has an internet
connection except iOS devices because Apple doesn't like you. Previously, you
were only able to stream from device to device on the same network. Now, you can
play games on a computer at someone else's house or on your work PC. Just
make sure your cubicle walls are high. And you can stream to Android using the
Steam Link app on Wi-Fi or data. So, just make sure you got an unlimited data
plan and a good signal or you're going to have a a bad time. The news comes
just as the Epic Game Store was accused of pilfering its users Steam profile
information. So, it's a plus one for Valve in the Battle of the Game Stores.
You going to stream games on the bus, Nick? I mean, if they had good games
like Apex Legends and Fortnite, I might. I don't think that's going to work.
You're going to play a competitive FPS on a streaming connection? Yeah. Come
on, Nick. Good gravy. Where's James? And
yesterday, Elon Musk took the wraps off Tesla's fourth mass-produced vehicle,
the Model Y, at a short event in Hawthorne, California. It's actually
just a prototype for now, but the idea is that it's sort of like a SUV version
of the Model 3, and we're not going to
pre-order it, right? I already did. You're the worst. A 300-mi long range
version will start production in fall 2020 and retail for
$47,000, while the 230 mi Model Y will
cost 37,000 and come out in spring 2021.
It's got a panoramic glass roof like the company's other SUV, the Model X. But
Elon Musk remarked during the event that he'll be able to basically do anything
by the end of this year, just with software upgrades. So, who knows? Maybe
the roof will turn into a convertible or something. We'll have to see. Haha. The
reveal of the Model Y completes Elon Musk's middle schooler ambition of
having the names of his cars spell out sexy with a three. We all share in your
pride, Elon. Very cool. Good job. Nice
one. Now, if only he wouldn't tank the stock every time he tried to smoke
marijuana. Yeah. No, that doesn't help. Stop with the tweets. Now, it's time for
Quick Bits brought to you by Apple has had a rough time recently with Qualcomm,
who got some models of iPhones banned from sale in Germany and China. Well, a
US federal judge just ruled that Qualcomm owes Apple nearly 1 billion in
patent royalty rebates. So, that's got to be nice for them to hear until they
hear that Spotify is filing an antirust complaint against them in the EU and
that they actually have to pay Qualcomm 31 million for violating their
patents. Apple and Qualcomm, the couple that love to hate each other. Why do you
guys just make out and get it over with? Huh? Microsoft continues its streak of
big moves with the announcement of Xbox Live on iOS and Android. The service
will actually be part of a family of tools and services called Microsoft
Games Stack, which includes Xbox Live, DirectX, Azure Cloud Servers, and more.
The company will talk more about their multiplatform plans at GDC next week,
where we'll probably also hear more about Project XCloud streaming, and
maybe Xbox Game Pass on multiple devices. Dang, Microsoft. I hope you're
not just building our hopes up for nothing. I hope you wouldn't do us like
that. Oh, you think ray tracing only works on NVIDIA RTX graphics cards?
Wrong. Let me show you something. Krytek published a video of their new real-time
graphics demo featuring ray trace reflections and it's running on an AMD
RX Vega 56. It's probably not an
indication that we'll see games with ray tracing running on the average person's
GPU anytime soon, but it's cool. Google has released the developer beta for the
next version of Android codeen named Q. It brings with it greater privacy
options and support for foldable devices, but also has a desktop mode,
sort of like Samsung's Dex feature. If you've got a Pixel device, you can
download it, although I wouldn't recommend doing that on your main phone.
It's a beta. And also, we don't know what Q stands for yet. And passengers
parked their cars in the long-term lot at France's Leon Exuper airport this
week. That's probably not how you say it, are in for a futuristic treat. Robot
valet that will take your car to a long-term lot during your trip and
retrieve it for you when you return. The robots are made by Stanley Robotics and
will also be tested at London's Gatwick Airport later this year. Normally, I'd
feel weird about a robot taking my car, but these guys have little faces on the
front, which makes me feel like a character from Thomas the Train Engine
is taking my car away, and that doesn't make me feel weird at all. The only
thing I'd feel weird about is continuing this episode any further. So, I'm going
to end it right now. Thanks for watching, guys. Subscribe to TechLink if
you like or want tech news. And if you don't, I've said this before, how did
you get to this point? Are you just trying to waste You're just trying to
waste time in your day? It doesn't make any
sense. Wow. Unexpected.