- You know, this show's kind of a big deal now.
We even have our own TechLinked Hype Squad!
(energetic music) (Jessie grunts)
Wait...
Jessie, what...
Wait, where are the rest of them? You're not...
We have one person, that's not...
(Jessie growls)
AMD released a new version of Radeon software on Tuesday
that brought support for Team Red's
long awaited FidelityFX Super Resolution technology,
which is supposed to help increase frame rates in games
with minimal sacrifices to quality.
Isn't that how things normally work
when you just change the settings?
And according to our very own Anthony,
FSR basically succeeds.
4K ultra quality looks the best,
while at lower qualities,
things start to look a little mushy.
But the technology is free for anyone to implement,
so hopefully we see the tech improve over time
as it's included in games that people actually play
and not "Godfall."
Unfortunately, this release came alongside
AMD dropping support for Radeon GPUs
older than the 400 series
as well as Windows 7 and any 32-bit versions
of that same operating system.
Aw, right when FSR may have made
some old GPUs viable again!
There's something going on here.
I think these companies want us to buy new things
instead of keeping old things forever.
- [James] But they won't let us buy the new things!
(Riley stammers)
- It has to make sense!
Microsoft has become the second company in the world
to reach a $2 trillion market cap
after Apple hit the milestone first back in August.
- Stop this train. - Please stop.
And no, it's not because of Xbox Games Pass,
even though that's awesome.
It's because of growing demand
for the company's Azure Cloud Services during the pandemic.
Which is all very interesting,
but I'd rather talk about the Xbox stuff
because Microsoft has begun rolling out Series X hardware
for use in Xbox cloud gaming, as noticed by users
who found new high-quality options in certain games.
Now you can appreciate the prettier graphics
as you die in-game because your character threw a grenade
a full second too late.
The latency isn't that bad.
- [James] You got Stadia baggage, don't you?
- Yeah, it's just that I...
You tested them all, they weren't that bad.
The latency... - They're okay.
- But for Xbox players who prefer
playing off the physical console,
Microsoft also announced three "designed for Xbox" monitors
from Phillips, ASUS, and Acer
which will work great with an Xbox,
and a PS5,
and a PC,
and basically anything because they're monitors.
- [James] But they're designed for it.
- They have Xbox badges. They're very fancy.
- [James] Thank you very much.
- Yep.
And John McAfee,
the notorious creator of the McAfee antivirus software
and international man of mystery,
has reportedly been found dead in the Barcelona prison
where he was being held.
Did you not hear this?
The local justice department indicated
it was likely a suicide,
but the story is taking on an Epstein-esque quality
with many theorizing that McAfee may still be alive.
The news broke mere hours after a Spanish court
had approved McAfee's extradition back to the U.S.
for tax evasion charges.
And McAfee has previously claimed that in the future,
if it ever looks like he killed himself,
it was probably the government.
He also faked a heart attack in Guatemala one time
to escape the authorities,
so who knows what the heck is going on.
- [James] If I ever die, it was Linus.
- The memelord may be gone,
but the meme lives on.
Hold on, I gotta change my shirt real quick.
- [James] Big 21 million!
- Now it's time for Quick Bits,
brought to you by a different way
to get a quick dose of the news, Morning Brew.
(slurps) Ah!
It's a free daily newsletter
delivered right to your virtual door every weekday,
combining everything happening
in the business, finance, and tech space
into a super-easy-to-consume format.
It's like what coffee does for caffeine.
You see how the name...
See the analogy here?
With Morning Brew you don't need to go looking for news
because it's already looking for you,
in your Morning Brew daily newsletter.
While I understand you come to us for tech news
and to find out whether we've run out of intro ideas yet,
this is a whole nother thing
and I promise I won't be offended.
It takes less than 15 seconds to subscribe,
so do that for free at the link below.
(slurps) Ah!
Delicious.
Every episode, there's one Quick Bit that I keep for myself.
In the past, the E.U. has prioritized protecting users
from companies that collect their data,
but now they're investigating Google's FloC system
because it allows Google to hide user data
from other advertisers.
Well, which is it, Europe?
I guess the deal is that if your data
is going to be collected,
then it has to be collected equally by all parties.
I'm sorry, we have to send these nudes to the whole county.
It's only fair.
Equal distribution.
If you're tired of Google's hijinks,
you might want to try out Brave Search,
which was just launched by the makers
of the privacy-focused Brave browser
and is based on Brave's own index of the web,
independent from Google's.
Although if Brave Search can't find what you're looking for,
it might still pull from other engines, including Bing,
so just be aware you may have that on your conscience.
Interacting with Bing in any way.
- [James] Bada Brave, bada Bing.
- Bada Bingity.
Epic Games has made its Easy Anti-Cheat
and cross-platform voice chat services
available for free to all developers,
even if they release their games on Steam.
Free games? Free services?
Epic's strategy for dominance seems to involve
waving free things in front of everyone's face
until they finally like you.
And it might pay off,
although it seems like the free thing that Apple got
was a lawsuit.
- [James] That ain't free.
(explosion booms) That costs a lot.
- Square Enix has fixed a bizarre bug in "Marvel's Avengers"
that displayed the IP addresses
of PlayStation 5 players on screen,
which would make livestreaming the game somewhat dangerous
if anyone was streaming "Marvel's Avengers."
I've got some zingers today.
They're not great, but it's unlike me.
And NVIDIA has released Canvas, its AI-powered app
that generates photorealistic landscape images
from disgustingly simple doodles barely resembling images.
You'll need an RTX GPU to use the app,
if you're looking for a way
to get a false sense of accomplishment.
"I drew that!"
No you didn't.
- [James] I'm gonna put my father's art on the fridge
and impress the other parents.
- See, that would be nice, 'cause it's a toddler.
Hmm, I guess that's the use case.
You totally finished watching this episode!
Nice job! Yeah! (audience applauds)
Come on back on Friday for more tech news
and the TechLinked Hype Squad will cheer you on even more!
Man, we went from one to zero. This is just...
It's going downhill here, okay.