(panting)
- [Man] Are you okay?
- Sorry I'm late, you guys.
I was busy making myself pretty
before I hosted TechLinked.
- [Man] Okay. You know you look good.
- You probably can't tell though.
So you know how we recently reported on how miners
were already finding workarounds
for the RTX 3060 hash rate limiter?
Well, it looks like another one has been uncovered
and it is ludicrously simple.
An HDMI dummy plug that costs six bucks.
Although miners were already aware
that there's a beta driver floating around
that enables Ethereum mining on one graphics card,
this dummy plug actually allows a multi-GPU setup.
You see, part of how the limiter works
is by requiring a monitor
to be connected to each graphics card.
But these cheap little dummies can fool the card into
thinking there's a monitor connected.
- [Man] It's unhackable.
- In fact, I have one right here.
There, that's the one.
They're also useful for virtualization.
So that's why we've got a bunch of them lying around.
One user was able to mine Ethereum
at a total of 192 mega hashes per second,
on a four-way 3060 setup.
So, it shouldn't take him too long to make back
the $24 he spent on those four little plugs.
- [Man] Could've spend more on (indistinct).
- You know how Apple has been selling iPhone 12s
without a charger, ostensively to reduce the E-waste?
Well, one State in Brazil is not buying it,
as the state of Sao Paulo
has nailed Apple with a fine of nearly 2 million US dollars.
That's right. US dollars.
The State's consumer protection agency was concerned that
Apple's environmentally friendly explanation
was just a cover to screw over consumers
and was also upset about Apple's claims
about the iPhones water resistance.
Now, 2 million bucks is chump change to a company like Apple
but the bigger deal here is that
they might end up being forced to include chargers
when selling iPhones in Brazil, which is a huge market.
Samsung, actually ended up having to do this
with their phones.
So maybe Brazil's fight against Apple
will go a little better than that time
they had to play Germany.
Hey, got them.
If you're into mechanical keyboards,
there's a good chance that Cherry switches
lie underneath your key caps
but so far only on desktops.
Well, with one exception but we won't talk about that.
It looks like that whole thing is about to change though
as Cherry has released information
on its upcoming Ultra Low Profile switches for laptops,
also known as ALP switches.
Wait, no. Not that.
As you might expect, the switches are tactile
and give acoustic feedback.
So, they'll probably appeal to fans of Cherry MX Blues
and importantly, they'll support RGB backlighting.
As far as when you'll be able to get your hands on some,
it looks like Alienware will be one of the first companies
to feature the new switches.
Though you will have to dig pretty deep
into your pockets for the money to get one
because the cheapest laptop they offer
with the Cherry switches, starts at $1,800.
And then, guess what?
You get to pay another $150 for the switches themselves.
But is any price too much for tactile satisfaction?
- [Man] You might as well buy a magic keyboard.
- Yeah, r/MechanicalKeyboards would say, "No."
- [Man] And an iPad.
- And you know who else would say no?
No, bad segway.
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- Now for the Quack Bots.
You remember how Microsoft promised Dolby Vision HDR support
for the Xbox Series X and S?
Well, guess what?
It looks like it's finally starting to arrive
for a few games such as Gears 5 and Borderlands 3,
and only for Xbox Insiders.
But, it should be released to the general public
before the end of the year.
Hopefully we'll see more titles supporting it soon
as I can't wait to play Tackling Simulator 2021
in glorious HDR.
- [Man] You can only play three times a week.
- On PlayStation 5. Just kidding.
Acer has reportedly been hit with a major ransomware attack
with a group of criminals demanding 50 million US dollars.
As for how Acer got hacked in the first place,
it looks like a security flaw in Microsoft Exchange
left their network exposed.
Acer has so far been tight lipped on the situation.
So, let's just hope that
Predator monitor you've been eyeballing
won't suddenly shoot up in price.
- [Man] Hopefully, they don't release the source code.
- And if you're in the market for an iMac,
you should know that your buying options
are continuing to shrink.
Apple has already said, "No more iMac Pros."
That's exactly how they said it.
And now, there are no more 21.5 inch models
with a 512 gigabyte or one terabyte SSD.
That leaves your storage options for 21.5 inch iMacs,
quite limited, indeed.
The move comes ahead of the transition to M1 Processors,
but it would be nice if people who need an iMac now,
could actually store things in it, instead of in a Ness
where everyone should be storing their data
instead of on their computers internal drive.
It's been well-publicized
that Microsoft's latest Windows updates
have given users major problems when trying to print,
including blue screens and graphical glitches.
Microsoft has since released a fix,
but now users are reporting problems getting it
through Windows Update.
The good news, is that you can download
and install the patch manually,
but hey, feel free to continue being dumbfounded
at how printers still always seem to find a way
to mess with us.
Just die already.
- [Man] (indistinct) it's for the movie.
- And CD Projekt Red has given us details
on what it's upcoming 1.2 Patch for Cyberpunk 2077
will address.
Does anyone care anymore?
One big fix will be how police behave.
They should no longer be instantly appearing out of thin air
right behind you.
- [Man] Just like in real life.
- And the other reported fixes involve
being able to unstick cars that get stuck on obstacles
and having more flexibility when it comes to assigning keys.
Hopefully, when it comes out
this patch won't cause more problems, again.
And that's our show.
Come back on Wednesday for another episode
that we hopefully won't have to issue a correction for.
Did we do that?
- [Man] I don't think we've ever had to do that.
It was right every time-
- Maybe we should have sometimes.
- [Man] I don't think so.
- Remember when we said no one's buying iPhones
and it turns out that one was like
the best selling whenever?
- [Man] I haven't seen an iPhone since.