- There's a mistletoe on the mic boom.
- [Riley] Distancing!
Distancing! No, throw it!
(Riley grunts)
- You still have to kiss me.
Oh, and take note, guys,
there's not gonna be a "TechLinked" on Wednesday,
but we will be back on Friday
with a special Christmas episode.
- [Riley] Ooh!
♪ It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas ♪
Jingle my bells!
- There's smells associated.
There have been plenty of sub-par game launches,
but "Cyberpunk 2077" may go down in history
as one of a handful to spark an actual lawsuit
over a fiasco of a release.
A report has indicated that this isn't even a suit
that will be brought by customers over a defective product.
Instead, this looks like a suit from investors
who felt misled by CD Projekt Red.
One New York-based law firm
that focuses on securities litigation
has already put out a press release
saying it's considering action against the studio
and is encouraging investors to come forward.
This weekend, CD Projekt Red's stock fell by 15%
after Sony announced it was yanking the game
from the PlayStation Store.
So I hope you put your money
in a safer investment, like Bitcoin.
- [Riley] Man, Bitcoin.
- Mmm. - So punk.
- Still hodling.
So far, AMD has only released three CPUs
in its new Ryzen 5000 series,
and although reviews have been very good,
they're slightly more expensive
than we've been used to for Zen chips.
That's kinda what happens with market share, isn't it?
However, it looks like Team Red
will be introducing some new SKUs starting next month.
Reportedly, we'll be seeing a Ryzen 7 5800
and a Ryzen 9 5900,
which should be cheaper than the X variants of those chips
currently on the market,
albeit with lower TDPs, so there.
The other two SKUs are the Ryzen 5 5600G
and the Ryzen 7 5700G,
which both have integrated graphics,
hence the G in the-
- [Riley] Are they worth another G?
- G-Unit!
Although those ones look like they're more for OEMs
than DIY builders.
It'll be interesting to see what the pricing is.
You know, if we're ever able to actually buy them
from someone that isn't a scalper.
But, you know, aren't all corporations scalpers?
- [Riley] Aren't we all scalpers deep down?
(James chuckles)
- There's also news today about Intel's
upcoming 11th-gen lineup.
It looks like, if you're in the market
for a new Core i7 or Core i9,
you'll be getting 8 cores and 16 threads in both series,
while the i5's will stick with 6 and 12, respectively.
Interestingly, all SKUs branded as i5 or higher
will use the new Rocket Lake architecture
and have Intel's new Xe graphics built in.
But if you're going with an i3, Pentium or Celeron,
you'll instead be getting Comet Lake
refreshed with Intel's older UHD 600 graphics.
It appears that clock rates across the board
will be similar to the previous generation,
so hopefully we'll get some good overclocking headroom
with these new chips.
And I'm sure Team Blue hopes
that they can stop getting trounced on by AMD
in the value-for-money department.
- [Riley] I'm ready to feel blue again.
- Today's Quick Bits are brought to you
by the Drop Panda wireless headphones.
Nice timing, guys.
They're THX-certified,
and they claim to be the world's
most distortion-free wireless headphones.
With a closed design to keep your sound contained
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You get 30 hours of wireless life,
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♪ Now it's time for the Quick Bits ♪
A law took effect in the U.S. this weekend
banning ISPs from charging rental fees for a modem
if you bought one for yourself.
It sounds kinda crazy that this was allowed
to go on in the first place,
and although many ISPs
weren't doing anything this egregious,
some, perhaps unsurprisingly,
found a way to make their hapless customers pay for nothing.
Almost as bad as Las Vegas resort fees.
If you're a "Halo" fan that's still rocking an Xbox 360,
it looks like Microsoft is about to
red-ring-of-death your online play,
as the company has announced
you won't be able to play "Halo" using matchmaking
starting in December 2021.
- [Riley] You're breaking the covenant!
- That's actually messed up.
You'll still be able to play custom games
if you have specific friends far away
that you want to invite who also have that old game.
(Riley chuckles)
But forget about matching up
against some rando taunting you
in a language that you don't understand,
or in a voice that's so high-pitched
it makes you even more mad that they're slaying you,
'cause they're 12.
- [Riley] I'm upset!
- OnePlus has a new phone concept,
simply called the 8T Concept,
that features a color-changing back panel.
A special metal oxide film embedded in the phone
can change colors between silver and blue,
and OnePlus thinks that, far from being just for looks,
it could end up being useful
to indicate incoming notifications.
(James hisses)
I don't put the screen on the table, personally.
- [Riley] Orcs are near!
- I like the idea...
What was that? Was that a "Lord of the Rings" reference?
- [Riley] Orcs are near, my phone is blue.
- It's Sting! You've seen it before!
If you're an Apple fan in California,
don't plan on visiting an Apple store anytime soon,
as the company has shut down all of its stores in the state
due to, guess what, the pandemic.
- [Riley] Which one? The-
- However, you can still pick up gear you've ordered online,
and you can also come in for any appointments
you've already made.
(chuckles) Those legacy appointments.
No word on when the stores might reopen in earnest
and allow people to put their grubby little hands
on everything once again.
- [Riley] I've really missed it.
- I just go to swipe.
And Queen Elizabeth's annual Christmas Day address
will now be available on Alexa this year.
Simply ask her to play the queen's Christmas Day message
after 3 p.m. London time on the 25th.
Apparently it'll work
whether you're a loyal subject like me
or a traitor the crown like our friends down south.
I am not a loyalist.
I don't like- - We're Canadian.
- She's a nice lady, I'm sure.
That's our show for today.
Our next broadcast will be on Christmas Day itself,
so tune in once you're done listening to Her Majesty.
God save the tech news.