Welcome back lovely PCWorld fans as I try my best to bring you some interesting news this week. It
was a rather quiet week, as it usually is before a massive launch like we’re about to experience.
In this video, I'll cover what’s going on with the new USB-C logos and why you should care,
the aforementioned launch of Microsoft Windows 11, and Amazon’s New World is out of Beta but
it doesn’t sound like it should be. This video is a quickie, so let’s get to it!
USB is USB, right? I mean, so long as the connection fits it should work as expected, right?
Yeah, not so much in reality. In the past, one of the biggest things we had to worry about
was getting the plugin in the right direction. We also had to know whether it was USB 1, 2,
and the speeds we were working with. With USB-C things have gotten a bit more complicated,
and with the upcoming USB 4 that retains the same format,
it was time to update the logos used on devices. So it has been.
The latest round of updates for Certification makes it quite clear the expectations of the
cable or device you’re using. Starting off with Certified USB4 the packaging logo will
notice the Speed while the port will do the same. Don’t forget about the power support too, as USB
4 will handle up to 240 watts of power chagrin along with data so that all needs to be clear.
The next is going to be the labeling for those certified 240-watt cables, as not just any old
cable lying around the house will support that! And of course, you’ll have the labels on the
certified charger for 240 watts. That one is easy because if it doesn’t have the logo, don’t assume
it can work. Unless you’ve got a fire extinguisher handy and a pension for destroying your tech.
Got all that? Clear as mud right? Good. Now let's talk about something that is much more clear.
Alright, this is officially the last news segment where I’ll ever have to talk about the upcoming
launch of Windows 11. That's because it’s launching THIS WEEK. That’s right folks,
if you’ve gotten sick of Windows 10 and want the new hotness, you’ll be able to jump right
into it in a few day’s time now. But if you’re cautious and wanting to hang back on the big 10
like me then it doesn’t seem like you’re really going to be missing out on much.
According to Mark Hachman’s full review over on PCWorld.com, which
you’ll find linked in the description, it doesn’t seem like we’re in for a life-changing experience.
After all, his headline doesn’t bury the lead and puts it right there in your face “An unnecessary
replacement for Windows 10”. Now that doesn’t mean it’s bad, but sometimes things feel like they
change just for the sake of making changes. So are you ready for Windows 11 or are you sitting back
and letting others go first on this one? Well, maybe you should sit this next news piece out.
In the world of PC gaming, Amazon’s MMORPG The New World has officially released and
has been the biggest release of the year so far on Valve’s Steam platform. This game was
riddled with graphics card killing issues early on during its open beta stage and caused quite
the stir. With the game going gold and hitting the retail market things should be good now, right?
Don’t count on it. According to the report by PCGamesN
all is not well in the New World, and it’s not just EVGA RTX 3090 owners this time.
Unfortunately, it still seems to be an issue with more reports of dead GPUs trickling in.
Killing high graphics cards that are hard to get ahold of right now is not a good thing. It seems
that once again the biggest vendor being hit is EVGA, but Gigabyte has joined the list as well.
User reports point to affected cards including the RTX 3090 of course, but now the RTX 3080 Ti,
3080, 3060 Ti, as well as the mobile RTX 3000 Series laptop parts as well. Even some
Radeon owners report having cards overheating or crashing, but it doesn't seem to be killing them.
I can and will certainly advise avoiding this title for the time
being. Perhaps share this information with anyone you know eager to play New World
so they’ll at least have a heads up and not a surprising lock up.
And with that, we bring this quiet week to a close. Hopefully, now you’ll have a better
idea of what’s going on when you see the updated USB-C logos and you can better explain to your
less tech-savvy acquaintances what’s going on. Prepare your systems, or not, for the
impending launch of Windows 11 in just a few days. Maybe that update could help Amazon’s New World
from killing your graphics card but I wouldn’t count on it. Thank you all for joining me this
week while we caught up on the biggest PC news of the week and if you enjoyed
it let me know by hitting that thumbs up and subscribing for even more PC Hardware goodness.