We Have To Go Back…

So I'm thinking about combining my love of tech news with my love of sausage. And soon, I'll try rebranding TechLinked as TechLinks, where I tell you a variety of tech news stories while eating a variety of delectable meats. It worked for hot ones. Microsoft is pulling official support for Windows 10 in less than two weeks. So naturally, users appear to be flocking to the only other version of Windows that makes sense, Windows 7. Huh? Yep, a slew of articles has popped up to tell you that according to StatCounter, Windows 7 has gone from only having a 2% share of the Windows version market to a 9.6% share, an increase of nearly five times. Because who doesn't miss the safety and warmth we all enjoy inside our mother's wombs? I say we go back! There's just one issue here. StatCounter isn't exactly an infallible source when it comes to market share, because the site doesn't just count the number of users out there using a given OS. It counts the number of page views on websites that have embedded the StatCounter tracker, because they're interested in usage numbers. And the problem with that is page views aren't going to tell you how many devices are running a certain Windows version. It's just gonna tell you how many pages, only on StatCounter's affiliated websites, are being loaded on a, say, Windows 7 device. So it could be that Windows 10 users are running away from the impending support cutoff, back into the arms of the devouring mother. But this could also be explained by, you know, someone booting up a ton of existing Windows 7 PCs and suddenly browsing like mad. Also, weird time to abandon Windows 10 when everybody essentially gets a year of extended security updates for free, and when the new Windows 11 25H2 update that just is dropping now actually makes the start button less dumb. Okay, but counterpoint, when you used Windows 7, your mom made you dinner all the time. And maybe she will again. OpenAI has announced that they're launching Sora 2, their new flagship video and sound generation model, inside a new app also called Sora. OpenAI's announcement comes a week after Meta unveiled Vibes, their new feed to discover and create video content that we just totally missed reporting on last week. I wonder why. No one cares! Ha! According to Sora 2's launch video, it will generate videos that include sound and better physics and body mechanics to improve realism. I did see a skateboard video that really tricked me. Great, now when folks wanna share their nightmare fuel with people, you won't just have to see this stuff, but you'll hear it too. And it'll all be more realistic than ever. You're welcome. On top of that, you can even make cameos in your videos, essentially deep faking yourself into these horror shows just by recording a one-time video. Thankfully, OpenAI says they've built ways to avoid doom scrolling and sloptimized feeds. Is that a quote? Yeah. From you or from them? From them. They came up with the term sloptimized? Yeah. They're just leaning into it. So that way you'll have more control over what their algorithm is showing you. And sure, you know, why not? I'll take them at their word. Look what a great job they did with ChatGPT's parental controls. Dammit, when I look up sausage content, I want it to be wholesome. It's a tall ask. But this is just one part of the AI wave crashing over us all this week. For example, Meta is doing their users a solid. The tech giant will start collecting your AI chat data to serve you personalized ads on December 16th. But on the plus side, they're giving you a heads up first. Oh my God, Zuck is so cool now. He's like one of the bros. Meta's announcement came alongside a post featuring Instagram boss, Adam Masseri, desperately trying to tell you and convince you that Meta's products don't eavesdrop on you through your microphone. Those eerie ads for the thing you were just talking to your friend about pop up because of all the other ways they spy on you, but not the microphone. That would be too far. If you want AI to listen to your microphone though, Google is finally rolling out Gemini for home, replacing its venerable Google Assistant in nearly every Nest and Google Home device that's still functioning. And launching two new Nest cams and a doorbell featuring the highest resolution ever seen in the lineup. AI is in your house now. And if nothing gets its way, all up in your phone too. The company, nothing that is, has just launched what it calls a first step towards an AI native operating system. And what normal people would call a store for apps made by VibeCoding. It's called the Nothing Playground and will host essential apps. You know, apps for people who just cannot go without filling their phone with slop apps. I wish I could call them slaps, but they don't. But our sponsor does. Aha, War Thunder, the most comprehensive vehicle combat game ever made. And you can play it for free on PC consoles and even your phone. Somehow they managed to fit faithful recreations of more than 2,500 historical and modern tanks, planes, helicopters, and ships from 10 major nations in there with intricate vehicle modeling and a sophisticated damage system. Just try to pick your jaw up off the floor when you're at the helm of the most powerful war machines of our time, okay? There's simply no game better suited for fans of military history. So join a worldwide community of over 70 million players in epic PVP battles today. Check out War Thunder for free on PC, console, and mobile using our links in the description. On Tech Links, the sausage show, this part of the show will be called Quick Bites. And that means that unfortunately they'll never be quite as fast as the Quick Bits on account of the chewing. Apple is getting pestered by the Brits again. The UK government has issued another order demanding access to the encrypted cloud storage of Apple's users. However, the UK government was specifically this time saying we want the British user data if we have a warrant and if there's a threat to national security. This is not the first time the UK government has tried to pull this off, sending a similar order back in January. But in August, US National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard, said that the US had pushed the UK to drop their mandate for Apple to provide a backdoor. Well, these hooligans are back at it again and Apple will now need to defend its walled garden standing as a bastion of user privacy. I'll admit it's weird every time I find myself cheering for a mega corporation, but you know what they say about strange bedfellows? Is that a British thing? Sounds like it. Microsoft is increasing the price of some of their Xbox Game Pass membership tiers. The PC Game Pass is going from $11.99 a month to $16.49. And more glaringly, the monthly cost of Game Pass Ultimate is going from 20 bucks all the way up to 30 bucks. Now, since Microsoft doesn't seem to care about selling consoles, they need to get your money somehow. I mean, we knew this was coming. These price hikes do include some benefits though. PC and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers now get access to Ubisoft Plus Classics and Ultimate users get exclusive access to improved cloud game streaming quality and resolution, up to 1440p on select games. I have some friends that swear Game Pass is genuinely too good a deal to pass up. Well, how about now, Frederick? Qualcomm has announced a complete victory over ARM in their long-running legal dispute over licensing agreements. If you don't remember, this whole thing kicked off when Qualcomm acquired Nuvia, who had different ARM licenses than Qualcomm, which resulted in ARM suing Qualcomm for making products using those licenses. And basically, this recent court win allows Qualcomm to keep selling chips with designs developed by Nuvia. Do we cheer for that? I don't know. Naturally, this whole situation isn't actually over, as ARM declared that they plan on appealing the ruling, which is great, because, you know, we love updating you on licensing litigation. Exhilarating. Intel's recent GPU driver updates appear to have resolved some reported CPU overhead issues with their ARC GPUs. Hardware Unboxed confirmed that Intel's latest drivers significantly improved the B580's performance in some games like Spider-Man Remastered, where using a B580 with the new drivers paired with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600 CPU saw the average FPS increase by 31 frames. That's, that is some frames. It's worth noting that these improvements are due to game-specific updates, and you won't see the same results in every game, but it is nice that Intel is refining their GPU's performance. Keep working, Intel. You're gonna be a real competitor in the tech industry someday. And I'm sorry I had a time to any arachnophobes, but they're building spider robots. That builds you houses. Build a house and get out of here. Crest Robotics has introduced Charlotte, a spider-looking robot that could be used to build structures on Earth and other planets or moons. The Robugs Extrusion System collects sand, earth, and other materials, binds them in fabric, compresses them, and poops them out as layers for a building, as you do, with the aim being for Charlotte to construct homes in a single day. Now, on a positive note for the arachnophobes, they want Charlotte to be used to build a moon base, so you might get the catharsis of seeing a spider shot far away from you into space. You'll definitely also get the catharsis of seeing more tech news if you come back on Friday. Now, do that, and if you don't mind, I have to continue to argue about Italian versus Polish sausages with my vegetarian co-writer. I think Polish might be better, but I do love that Italian sausages are sweet and spicy. I don't care. It's some people's job to make sausages. What about the economy? Checkmate.