Summary: Don’t worry tech fans, even though we start with a bit of some football news we quickly get back to tech with news from AMD and Amazon, a record holder gets removed, Sega announces an official retro reboot, and The Meg hits YouTube! All this PLUS a rapid fire quiz show, a great new segment called “I Just Reddit”, and a very Quiet Weekly Garnish! ----more---- Another new football league is coming … and it’s launching next year! The XFL won’t be the only new professional football league set to launch over the next couple of years. The Alliance of American Football was unveiled at a press conference in New York. This new league has an official debut date (Feb. 9, 2019) and a TV partner (CBS Sports Network). “I think this will be complementary to the NFL,” said former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, who will serve as the AAF’s head of player relations. AMD unveils its second-generation Ryzen CPUs With last year's Ryzen processors, AMD made a grand re-entry into the world of high-performance desktop computing. Now its improving on those designs with its second-generation Ryzen chips, which are a bit faster and more efficient. And, due to fan demand, AMD is also throwing in free "Wraith" coolers with every CPU. The big takeaway this year: AMD is in an even better place to compete with Intel. Alexa is beating the crap out of Siri! Surprise, surprise, turns out Apple’s debut foray into the world of voice assistant-enabled speakers isn’t quite living up to the company’s initial expectations. According to a Bloomberg report, the company is slashing the number of monthly HomePod orders from 500,000 to 200,000 due to some disappointing sales. Apple retail store workers cited in the Bloomberg story claim to be selling “fewer than 10 HomePods a day.” Apple’s no stranger to lackluster sales when it comes to new products, but the HomePod seems to be fighting a war on multiple fronts, and doing poorly in each one. Twin Galaxies Removes Former Donkey Kong Champ Billy Mitchell's High Scores Controversial arcade game player Billy Mitchell’s record scores have been removed from the Twin Galaxies leaderboards following a dispute earlier this year that many were performed using an arcade emulator. The ruling, which comes after a lengthy arbitration process, also bans Mitchell from further participation on the leaderboards, bringing an end to the King of Kong star’s high-score glory. All of Mitchell’s records on Twin Galaxies, an organization that tracks video game records and high scores, have been scrubbed. These marks included a 1,062,800-point score for the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong, as well as scores set between 2005 and 2007. Sega announces the Mega Drive Mini Sega is getting in on the nostalgic, miniature console trend. Yesterday at Sega Fes 2018, It announced that it will release the the Mega Drive Mini, a miniature version of the Mega Drive, sometime in 2018. The company also announced that it would be bringing a number of classic games to the Nintendo Switch this summer. Sega says that the tentatively-named Mega Drive Mini is being released in conjunction with the console’s 30th anniversary, and that it will carry a number of classic games. The company has dabbled with retro hardware before: it has licensed its name to hardware company AtGames (which has also done retro Atari consoles) to produce Genesis clones, including the Sega Genesis Flashback that Polygon wasn’t a huge fan of. On Facebook, AtGames revealed that the forthcoming Mega Drive Mini will be powered by its hardware. GEEK OFF Live life as a character in skyrim or fallout? The Meg Trailer Has Dropped What if megalodon sharks still lived in the deep of the sea? I Just Reddit (by Adam) I just read a discussion titled “What's the funniest name you've heard someone call an object when they couldn't remember its actual name?” Weekly Garnish: A Quiet Place John Krasinski hits a home run with this new thriller that also stars his real life wife, Emily Blunt, as his on screen wife. Just beware of loud snack eaters in the theater! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Music Listen/Follow us on Spotify Listen on TuneIn Subscribe on Stitcher Be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts and leave a review, lets us know what you think. You can reach us at the digitalSoup podcast website, Facebook or on Twitter @thedigitalsoup. We are also on Instagram so follow us for extra bonus material and show highlights! Have a follow up thought to anything we discussed or have an idea on what we should talk about in a future episode then drop us a message on Twitter or our Facebook page or better yet record the message on your computer or phone and email it to jason@digitalsouppodcast.com and we will play it on the air. Thanks for listening!! What the guys are doing outside the podcast: Jason - http://www.youtube.com/GameGuru jason@digitalsouppodcast.com Adam - https://twitter.com/StarfieldEscape adam@digitalsouppodcast.com Dave - http://www.davidszweduik.com/ dave@digitalsouppodcast.com
