- Riley, I just covered the Peek Performance event
on Mac Address.
- [Riley] Yeah, yeah. This is TechLinked.
- Yeah, but people could just go to Mac Address.
- [Riley] No, no.
They could do that too, but this is a different channel.
TechLinked.
- I have to say all this stuff again?
- [Riley] You love iPhones.
- That wasn't the most exciting thing at the event.
At Apple's Peek Performance event yesterday,
the company announced a refreshed $429 iPhone SE
with the same A15 Bionic chip found in the iPhone 13 lineup
and a new iPad Air powered by the same M1 chip
in the iPad Pro.
But if you think that's exciting, well,
you probably didn't watch the rest of the stream.
Surprising everyone who thought that the M1 Max
represented the maximum performance the M1 chip could offer-
- [Riley] Makes sense. - Yep.
Apple announced the M1 Ultra,
which is essentially a pair
of M1 Max chips squished together
and not Apple's version
of the CIA's psionic abilities program.
- [Riley] Or that's what they told you.
- The M1 Ultra or Max will power the new Mac Studio,
a Mac mini with a big air cooler
in its giant forehead,
which starts at $2,000 because with the Ultra,
it may give Apple's current Mac Pro a run for its money.
- [Riley] Is that true?
- I didn't write this.
- [Riley] I mean, I wrote that,
but I don't know whether it's true.
- Yes, well, they did have
bars that showed it faster than the Mac Pro,
so that means something.
What the scale of those bars is, is a great question.
What the bars represent is another great question.
But don't forget the matching 5K Studio Display,
which is 1,600 bucks,
and another 400 for an adjustment arm.
Modifying monitor height is a privilege.
Rotation?
Apple won't even let you pay for that.
It's too dangerous.
- [Riley] You could beam yourself,
and if you rotated it, whoa!
- Actually, they said if you want rotation
you have to get the VESA mount.
That was the whole pitch for the VESA mount.
All right, enough about Apple.
Many (indistinct)-based PC's have been experiencing
intermittent stuttering on recent builds
of Windows 10 and 11,
which is exactly what you don't wanna have happen
in the middle of an electronic supply shortage.
But Team Red has finally given us some insight
as to the probably cause,
a flaw in some motherboards' built-in
trusted platform module or TPM.
- [Riley] The Phantom Menace.
- Eh.
I guess it wasn't trustworthy after all.
AMD is currently working to fix the issue
but until then, you can also pick up
a discrete TPM module, which mercifully,
aren't usually very expensive, plug it into your motherboard
and switch over to it in your (indistinct) settings.
Just make sure to turn off BitLocker and Windows first.
As for when we can expect a fix,
look for it through your motherboard or PC manufacturer
during the first half of May.
But if it's not here by then...
That'll be a good time to head outside anyway.
- [Riley] May flowers, et cetera.
- Mm.
Amazon is facing backlash today after a report
from the non-profit Tech Transparency Project
indicating that some of their suppliers in China
have been using forced labor.
Although low pay and poor working conditions
in Chinese manufacturing plants have long been
the focus of concern, these allegations are more serious,
as the suppliers in question have been linked to
so-called "reeducation camps" where ethnic minorities are
detained and put to work by the Communist Party of China.
Amazon, of course, has denied working with any suppliers
that use forced labor, and stated that they take action
when suppliers are found to violate their standards.
Actions which may or may not include helping executives
escape to Mars on a Blue Origin rocket.
- [Riley] And we know that they work now, so that's good.
- And I think Amazon just announced a stock buyback today,
so all the money they could invest in the factories
is just going to buy back their stock.
- [Riley] I'm glad they succeeded.
- So great to see them invest in something so useful.
Oh no, I feel a Riley coming on.
- Now it's time for Quick Bits,
brought to you by Wealthfront,
the automated investment platform
that builds a portfolio based on your risk tolerance
to help grow your money long-term.
If you've kept putting off investing because you thought
it had to take a ton of time and research,
great news, it doesn't have to.
Wealthfront makes it super easy to get started.
You can simply set up your account
and let Wealthfront take care of the rest
while you put your feet up and drink daiquiri's
or you can build your own portfolio,
with hundreds of investment options
across tech, healthcare, real estate and more
and they're always adding new ETF's over time,
each and every one hand selected and vetted by experts.
You can explore all these investments
right on their website.
Whatever your investment goals are,
Wealthfront gives you the tools
to build a portfolio you're excited about.
So check them out at the link below
and get a special sign-up bonus.
- Quick Bits are information, and information is massless.
But they can still smart if they hit you fast enough
so keep your head down.
- [Riley] Whoa!
- Remember those old Volkswagen hippy buses?
They're fittingly getting an eco-friendly makeover
as VW is releasing the ID Buzz later this year
or more like ID Buzz-bus.
Buzz bus, bus buzz? (Riley laughs)
Essentially a modern full electric version
of the iconic vehicle from the 1960's.
Europe will get it first,
but the American version, due out in 2023,
will have an extra row of seating
and VW even says it's planning
a self-driving pilot program for 2025,
powered by an AI that's just a little high,
to stay true to its roots.
- [Riley] Yeah, dude.
- And like every other self-driving car,
just drives a little high.
Have you seen Teslas?
I know some of you have been waiting patiently
for Intel's new Arc Alchemist graphics cards
but be prepared to wait a little longer.
According to a report from Igor's Lab,
we won't be seeing the cards until either May or June.
It's a little disappointing to get news of another delay,
especially with the tight GPU market,
but Intel appears to be doing
some extra quality and stability testing.
Think of it as waiting for the pie to cool
a bit before you bite into it.
You wanna taste those frames, baby.
- [Riley] Mm, what kinda pie are we talkin' here?
- Uh. - [Riley] Rhubarb?
- Google announced that Android will soon have the ability
to archive apps, which will shrink the app size by 60%
by removing certain parts of it.
If you need to use it again,
your phone will quickly restore the code that it needs.
Sounds like great option for phones
with not a lot of storage, or as a way for users
to punish apps that have misbehaved.
I said no tracking, you're going in the hole.
- [Riley] Not the hole!
- Also, Apple instituted this like, in iOS 8 or 9.
- [Riley] I don't care about that.
I don't care.
- Another reason why to watch Mac Address.
- [Riley] Stop.
- HBO is the latest company
to face accusations of mishandling user data,
with a class action lawsuit claiming that
the network has been sharing users viewing history
with FaceBook without user permission.
No word on how much the suit is seeking,
but hopefully everyone will get at least enough money to
pay for a subscription of HBO Max, or all the other services
that are almost certainly doing the same thing.
- [Riley] Everything sucks! (laughs)
- And LimeWire of all things is back from the dead.
We all remember it as a not particularly legal way
to download music, but it's being relaunched this May
as a digital collectables marketplace.
So yeah, they're gonna sell NFT's.
Part of the appeal, if you can call it that,
is that they'll take regular credit card payments
so you don't have to know anything about crypto
to pretend that you're getting into art
when you're actually getting into gambling.
- [Riley] That's all the fun!
Larping!
- It's crypto that takes money from a credit card...
- [Riley] What kind of an ape are you?
- I'd wager it's a safe bet
that this episode is over, thank goodness.
But if you just can't stay away,
come back on Friday for more tech news.
It'll cure what ails ya, depending on what ails ya.
- [Riley] What do you mean "Thank goodness?"
- This isn't a Mac Pro.