'Agentic' Windows double-down, Epic Games/Unity collab, Pebble vs Rebble + more!

Summary

TechLinked Podcast Summary – Nov 20, 2025

Episode Title: ‘Agentic’ Windows double-down, Epic Games/Unity collab, Pebble vs. Rebble + more!
Host: Linus Media Group
Theme: A fast-paced rundown of the hottest and weirdest tech news, with irreverent analysis and banter.

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Main Theme / Episode Purpose

This episode delivers recent tech and gaming news, tackling controversial product changes, unexpected collaborations, and colorful community dramas. The hosts blend insightful breakdowns with lively humor, keeping listeners both informed and entertained.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Microsoft’s "Agentic" Windows Features

[00:29]

• Microsoft persists in pushing an “agentic OS”—a Windows system with AI agents that work in the background with access to shared folders.
• Despite user backlash (“No one wants to use an agentic Windows...”), Microsoft’s support articles emphasize enhanced productivity, but users remain skeptical, fearing less control and more security risks.
• The hosts reference a Verge writer’s experiment using Copilot as intended:

  “Copilot made his computer feel incompetent, projecting it had a crisis of confidence. But apparently it's competent enough to install malware.” (Host, 00:29)

• Security is a real concern due to possible vulnerabilities to malicious prompts via emails, docs, webpages.
• The hosts lament Microsoft’s stubborn direction, suggesting fun alternatives (e.g., someone making a Windows 95 3D maze screensaver into a playable game).

2. Epic Games and Unity Team Up

[02:07]

• Unity developers can now publish games directly inside Fortnite via its Island Discovery system.
• This gives small dev teams access to Fortnite’s massive audience and its creator economy payouts.
• The host frames this as part of Epic CEO Tim Sweeney’s “open metaverse” vision:

  “People can not just play, but live their entire lives as Homer Simpson Avatar who communicates entirely through K Pop inspired emotes.” (Host, 02:33)

• The collaboration will also let Unity support games made with Unreal Engine on Epic’s new Commerce Dashboard for managing payments, pricing, and digital catalogs.
• The hosts remark on the unexpected depth of collaboration between two rival game engines, joking about “living in Timothy Sweetner’s metaverse.”

3. Pebble vs. Rebble: Smartwatch Community Schism

[03:09]

• The Pebble smartwatch, recently revived, faces new drama. Community is divided between:
  • Core Devices: Led by the original founder, making new hardware.
  • Rebble: A nonprofit running the Pebble App Store and cloud services since the original company shutdown.
• A now-collapsed deal would’ve had Core build a new app store front while Rebble ran the backend.
• Disputes erupted over data control—Rebble accuses Core of potentially planning a closed, proprietary store and scraping their app data. Core wants a public archive.

  “Both sides claim they’re protecting Pebble’s future, which looks increasingly uncertain as long as mom and dad keep fighting. Please stop. But hey, at least the watches still tell the time, right?” (Host, 04:28)

4. Quick Bits

[05:44 and onward]

• Cloudflare Outage:
  Major outage knocked out ChatGPT, X, and other services after a bot management file overload. No cyberattack, but it’s the third big outage in a month.
• AMD FSR Redstone:
  New AI-powered upscaling tech launches Dec 10. Buzzwords include “neural radiance, caching, and ray regeneration.” Also, GPU price hikes may be incoming.
• Google’s Gemini 3:
  Newly released "smartest AI model yet" with enhanced understanding of text, images, audio. Integrated into Google Search and the Gemini app.

  “But being that it’s a Gemini, is it ever really going to get away from the stereotypes that it’s indecisive, impulsive, unreliable and nosy?” (Host, 07:13)

• Russia’s SIM Card Lockdowns:
  Russia now disables mobile internet for up to 24 hours on re-entry for travelers, to prevent drone navigation. Automation causes chaos in border regions.

  “Phones that reconnect after being on foreign networks get automatically quarantined until users prove... that they’re a human, not a quadcopter.” (Host, 08:20)

• TikTok AI Content Controls:
  TikTok adds a new slider for AI-generated content and invisible watermarking (readable only by TikTok) to flag AI videos, rolling out soon.
• Light-hearted banter and quick jokes sprinkled throughout, maintaining the irreverent tone.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Microsoft’s AI ambitions:

  “For some reason, Microsoft seems hell bent on making Windows worse instead of better." (Host, 01:47)

• On Epic and Unity’s collaboration:

  “Maybe Timothy Sweetner is right. This already is his metaverse and we’re just living in it.” (Host, 02:57)

• Pebble vs. Rebble drama:

  “Both sides claim they’re protecting Pebble’s future, which looks increasingly uncertain as long as mom and dad keep fighting. Please stop. But hey, at least the watches still tell the time, right?” (Host, 04:28)

• Cybersecurity/metaphor humor:

  “Cloudflare’s... crashing harder than a real housewife.” (Host, 05:54)

• On Google’s new AI personality:

  “Is [Gemini] ever really going to get away from the stereotypes that it’s indecisive, impulsive, unreliable and nosy?” (Host, 07:13)

• Border controls in Russia:

  “Phones… get automatically quarantined until users prove... that they’re a human, not a quadcopter.” (Host, 08:20)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Microsoft "Agentic" Windows News: 00:29–01:56
• Epic Games & Unity Collaboration: 02:07–03:03
• Pebble vs. Rebble Drama: 03:09–04:28
• Quick Bits: 05:44–08:34
  • Cloudflare outage: 05:44
  • AMD FSR Redstone: 06:23
  • Google Gemini 3: 06:59
  • Russia’s SIM crackdown: 08:04
  • TikTok AI controls: 08:34

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Tone and Delivery

The episode is rapid-fire, irreverent, and tongue-in-cheek, often lampooning big tech ambitions and playing up oddities in the week’s news. Hosts riff off each other's jokes but pivot quickly to ensure dense, info-rich coverage.

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For listeners short on time: This episode delivers up-to-the-minute tech news with a healthy dose of snark and memorable commentary, all in under ten minutes per segment.

Transcript

[A]

So good, so good, so good.

[B]

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[C]

I always find something amazing. Just so many good brands.

[A]

I get an extra 5% off with.

[C]

My Nordstrom credit card Total Queen treatment.

[B]

Join the Nordy Club at Nordstrom Rack to unlock our best deals. Big gifts. Big, big perks. That's why you wreck I've been working.

[C]

On the funniest tech news intro ever. It's not ready. You're not. It's too soon. You're not ready for it yet. Tech news first, maybe later. Be good. Microsoft has heard Windows users loudly saying they don't want an agentic os, but that's clearly because you just don't get it. You're confused. It's okay. Let them explain in their support article, which describes how secure AI agent workspaces will give agents access to shared folders and allow them to work in the background for you, completing tasks while you do other weird human things. Gross. But despite Microsoft's helpful explanation, enthusiasts don't seem to be swayed. No one wants to use an agentic Windows, and so one intrepid writer from the Verge took one for the team and spent a week trying to interact with Copilot the way Microsoft wants us to, and found that Copilot made his computer feel incompetent, projecting it had a crisis of confidence. But apparently it's competent enough to install malware. As Microsoft's own article states, these kinds of agents would still be vulnerable to malicious prompts that may be embedded in emails, documents, or webpages. For some reason, Microsoft seems hell bent on making Windows worse instead of better. Like why not do what this programmer did and turn the OpenGL 3D maze screensaver from Windows 95 into a playable game demo thing?

[A]

What the wait, James, it's your shirt.

[C]

He already did that. But there are so many more screensavers. Do the pipes one next. We have a shirt for that too.

[A]

I didn't even know you were this.

[C]

Lttstore.Com I did that on purpose. Epic Games and Unity are joining forces to let Unity developers publish their games directly inside Fortnite through its Island Discovery system, and in doing so, tap into its creator economy payouts, giving small dev teams instant access to to one of the biggest audiences in gaming. The plan goes along perfectly with Tim Sweeney's vision of Fortnite as an open metaverse, where people can not just play, but live their entire lives as Homer Simpson Avatar who communicates entirely through K Pop inspired emotes.

[A]

Do one.

[C]

I don't know.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

The agreement will also see Unity support games made with Unreal Engine on their recently announced Commerce Dashboard, which lets creators manage pricing, payments, promotions, and digital catalogs on multiple platforms. We're talking about a fairly deep collaboration between two of the most popular game engines here. Maybe Timothy Sweetner is right. This already is his metaverse and we're just living in it.

[A]

Zuck's right over there.

[C]

Zuck's in. Hi. That's meta. Meta. Yeah.

[A]

That's so meta.

[C]

Pebble, the once discontinued fan favorite smartwatch seemed like it was flying high after being revived, but now it's hit some turbulence. The community finds itself torn between Core Devices, which now builds new pebble hardware under original founder Eric Migogoff's geek skin. Gee, and Rebel. That's hilarious that they're called Rebel, the nonprofit that has maintained the Pebble App Store and cloud services since the original company shut down. Just weeks ago, both sides announced a deal. Core would build a new app store front end, Rebel would continue running the back end, and together they'd support all pebble users, new and old and dead. Probably such an old device. But talks broke down over who ultimately controls the app Store data, which consists of roughly 13,000 apps and watch faces that Rebel has maintained since the servers were shut down in 2018. Rebel says core demanded unrestricted access, which they fear could allow Core to build a closed proprietary store and leave Rebl behind. And they also accused Core of scraping their publicly available data in violation of the agreement. Core counters that the data shouldn't belong to anyone. What they want is an open public archive to keep pebble accessible. And that the scraping Rebel's referring to was just Eric using a simple web tool to browse watch faces.

[A]

Eric does that all the time.

[C]

He doesn't scrape.

[A]

He's not a scraper.

[C]

Both sides claim they're protecting Pebble's future, which looks increasingly uncertain as long as mom and dad keep fighting. Please stop. But hey, at least the watches still tell the time, right? This is caps locked and you're gonna have a lot of extra time on your hands thanks to our sponsor, Wolfbox.

[A]

It's the portable air duster for blowing dust off stuff and or just cleaning in general. The Wolfbox comes with a full wolf pack of options with three adjustable air levels and four different nozzles so you're ready to clean in any scenario. Cleaning up the kitchen ain't the same as cleaning up a campsite, so get you an air duster that can do both. Speaking of camping, the Wolf Box has a flame retardant handle and square bottom, just how I like them, and it can be used to extinguish fires. It's wireless, portable, handheld, lightweight, and has an optional removable battery so you can double its usage time. When you use this air duster, you're gonna be saying who let the dogs out? Cause it's got powerful wind speed and wind pressure, just like those dogs chasing Liam Neeson in that movie. You know the one. Wolf Box Black Friday sale starts November Twentiet There are big deals across all platforms so don't miss out.

[C]

Got another call home from school. The quick bits are in trouble again. They just cannot sit still and listen Too much sugar Cloudflare had a major outage yesterday that knocked out big services like ChatGPT and X for thousands of users. The outage came after a change in permissions caused too many entries to be added to a file connected to Cloudflare's bot management system, causing it to buckle under the load and crash out harder than a real housewife. Cloudflare says they fixed the issue and stressed that there was no sign of a cyber attack. However, this was the third major Internet outage in a month and people are starting to wonder what can be done to prevent these crashes and what backups we have in place for when they do happen. Like how I always keep an extra new toothbrush in the house just in case the data center powering my normal one goes down. AMD is officially launching its next AI powered, upscaling tech FSR Redstone on December 10. In a tweet, AMD exec Jack Quinn declared that where darkness ends, Redstone begins before showing off a pretty bland, seemingly Marvel Studios title card inspired video. At the moment, not much is known about FSR Redstone, but words like neural radiance, caching and ray regeneration wow. Have been thrown around. And those sound hella fancy. I guess AMD is hoping it's fancy enough to justify the reported desire to increase GPU prices, according to a post on China's board channels. With memory prices increasing, a price hike on AMD's GPUs is imminent. Obviously. I'll tell you AMD, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland together on screen. This is not Disappointed. Again, disappointed. Google just launched Gemini 3, which it's calling its smartest AI model yet. You would hope. If Google's benchmarks are to be believed, Gemini 3 might actually be a new era of intelligence, considering it's apparently significantly better at understanding text, images, audio, and a lot of other stuff than some of its competitors can even understand. My wife the new Gemini is built into both the Gemini app and Google Search from day one. But being that it's a Gemini, is it ever really going to get away from the stereotypes that it's indecisive, impulsive, unreliable and nosy? Russia is now cutting mobile Internet for travelers re entering the country for up to 24 hours, claiming it stops Ukrainian drones from using SIM cards for navigation. The system has caused chaos in border regions where roaming happens accidentally. This happens to me all the time.

[A]

Oh man.

[C]

Phones that reconnect after being on foreign networks get automatically quarantined until users prove using captchas or by dialing a call center, that they're a human, not a quadcopter.

[A]

Oh it's every day I keep telling people, not a quadcopter.

[C]

Riley keeps buzzing in my ear and TikTok is rolling out a new Internet AI generated content slider in its Manage Topics settings so you can choose to see more or less slop in your for you feed. TikTok is also working on invisible watermarking to make AI videos easier to spot. But they're invisible. The watermarks that only TikTok can read will help them identify AI content, even if it's edited or re uploaded. The platform announced that these features will be rolling out in the coming weeks. What do you think the person who slides their AI content slider to only AI is like I bet they're a Gemini. And I bet you'll be back on Friday for more tech news. I've gotta go. I wanted to keep working on my funny intro a bit, but now I've got a parent teacher conference about the quick bits to go to. They're not even my frickin kids.