Samsung's SolarCell Remote may be the first-ever to wirelessly charge via your router.

The South Korean tech giant took the solar-powered Eco Remote it introduced at last year's CES and gave it a remarkable upgrade for CES 2022 : the ability to harvest RF signals from your router to maintain a charge.

The concept of RF Energy harvesting is not new. The ubiquity of RF signals from Wi-Fi and outdoor cellular systems makes them an attractive, low-power energy solution for systems that can't necessarily be connected to AC or DC wiring. But this may be the first time the technology has been employed in consumer electronics. Unlike other wireless charging solutions, such as the near-field Qi, the Eco Remote remote control doesn't have to be very near or in contact with the router (it only works with 2.4GHz RF signals). RF Energy Harvesting can - unobstructed - reach devices up to 40 meters away.

Since the remote doesn't need a charging base and employs a pair of wireless charging technologies (solar and RF energy harvesting), it can constantly sip energy from your router and, if face down, the solar panel on the back that can charge via your end table lamp. According to Samsung, the remote doesn't need or even have batteries. There must be some place to store the sipped energy, however. Samsung told us, "There is no lithium-ion battery in the remote." What it does have, according to Samsung, is a capacitor. A capacitor can store small amounts of energy. Unlike batteries that do it chemically, capacitors do it physically in a form akin to static electricity.

"Whether it’s a bright and sunny day or the middle of the night, the battery stays fully charged by collecting routers’ radio waves and converting them to energy," Samsung representatives told TechRadar.

The SolarCell Remote is made from recycled materials and now comes in black or white (the previous model was available in black, only). Samsung said it ships with every 2022 Samsung QLED 4K and 8K TV .

Cyberpunk 2077 has been patched, but you'll still look ugly

With the Cyberpunk 2077 1.5 patch finally arriving onto both PC and console platforms, the highly anticipated (and for many, highly disappointing) Sci-Fi RPG from CDProjekt Red has received some great quality-of-life upgrades that make the game feel like it arguably should have done at launch – though I still have a massive gripe with it.

Over a year on since the game's controversial launch and you still don't have the ability to 'transmog', or cosmetically alter your characters clothing, which sounds like a minor issue, but for a game that's so dependent on aesthetic, it makes you look like a total ass if you're trying to get the best possible stats from your outfits. If every NPC was beholden to the same rules as your playable character V, Night City would be a metropolis of clowns.

For those unaware, transmogrification is a term popularized by World of Warcraft for a system that lets you to apply the look of a particular piece of clothing to a different piece that has better stats. This allows you to have almost full control over what your outfit looks like without having to wear a hideous ensemble of unmatched clothing in order to personalize your character build to your needs.

Admittedly it's not a common feature to see in an RPG, but given the game was so heavily marketed on its futuristic style, I'd expect there to be an easier way to make my character look more in keeping with the theme, and fashionably at that.

That said, It's not impossible to create a suitable outfit using the existing game mechanics, but it is hard work. If you find that perfect top to match the rest of your gear then you can pump upgrades into it until it's suitably specced to not be a downgrade from your current fit, but this takes time and some grinding. I don't expect to look like a total baddie in the early stages of the game, but I'd love to at least not look as though my character had hastily robbed a Party City for the first 20-30 hours of gameplay.

In fact, you can't even recolor or dye the clothing items you have to make things match a little more seamlessly, which would have helped the fact that most of the clothing options in the game are dreadful . Thankfully, having a lifetime of playing The Sims has taught me that if you don't do a good enough job, t he modding community will step up to help , but they shouldn't have to.

Cyberpunk fashion has so much potential, and this feels rather squandered. Bear in mind that the game was initially released back in December 2020, we could have had DLC packs for outfit collaborations with techwear brands or designers by now if CDProjekt Red didn't have to spend the last few months making the game playable post-release.

Does V wearing a crummy outfit actually affect the game? Of course not, and if you're happy to run around to grind your perfect outfit or just plonk on the first pink mini-skirt and military helmet combination you see then more power to you - I never want to discourage you from playing something you enjoy. I just wish that as much effort had been placed into the clothing within the game as was put into the marketing.

Cyberpunk 2077 upgrades we actually got

It's not all doom and gloom: the patch does at least allow you to finally customize V mid-game. Previously, once you'd left the character creation screen you couldn't make changes to them, which given the game is based in a city where body modifications are so commonplaceade no sense.

It was left to the modding community to provide a solution for those playing on PC, while console users just had to make do. Now, everyone can switch up V's appearance by looking in a mirror, though you're stuck with the physical face that you selected at the beginning.

We also got some fresh customization options including new hairstyles, colors and makeup options, but no additional clothing was mentioned. You can also get a new apartment by accessing a website from your apartment's PC, letting you move into digs in Japantown, Northside and Corpo Plaza and customize them how you see fit.

YouTuber OneDragon also found a bunch of changes that were not mentioned within the patch notes, some of which are specific to your choice of outfit in-game.

The full list of these undocumented balance changes have been listed by Reddit user Headin2sound who also mentions that changes have been made to nerf your crit damage, reducing it from 100% to 50% and every point in Reflexes now gives 0.25% crit chance instead of 1%.

For all its faults, I really do enjoy CyberPunk 2077 , but it's likely we will see a few more patches roll through before people can forgive its disastrous launch, and I certainly hope that a few of them will include some new threads and treads.

Nvidia and AMD GPUs are getting easier to buy – is the nightmare finally over?

If you’ve been trying – and failing – to buy a new graphics card recently, then the good news is that the nightmare might be finally over, with stock of AMD and Nvidia GPUs seemingly much more plentiful so far in 2022 – and that’s helped lower prices as well.

The report by 3DCenter (and reported on by Wccftech ), shows that the availability of many graphics cards is now the best it’s been since the start of 2021, and is continuing to improve. The stock situation looks particularly good with European retailers, who are getting more units in, which should hopefully make buying the GPUs easier.

One of the worst side effects of the GPU shortage was that the low stocks and incredibly high demand meant that what GPUs were in stock were sold for prices that were hugely inflated compared to the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price). So, if you did find a GPU in stock, you may still not have been able to buy it.

The good news is that with the increased supply of GPUs, it looks like prices are falling again. They’re still not below – or anywhere near – the MSRP, but prices are dropping. As 3DCenter’s report highlights, AMD GPUs are now selling at an average of 45% over the MSRP – a big increase over what they should be selling for, but still a drop from the 63% over the MSRP they were selling at last month.

Nvidia’s GPUs were even worse, and last month they were selling for a huge 77% above MSRP on average. Thankfully, they have also dropped, and now sell on average for 57% MSRP.

That’s still far too much, especially for the high-end GPUs, but at least things are going in the right direction.

Analysis: Dare we dream?

This is all very welcome news, but does it mean we’ll soon get to a position where buying a GPU isn’t a complete nightmare?

We suggest you don’t get your hopes up just yet. GPU prices still have a way to fall to even reach MSRP, and while Nvidia and AMD are continuing to release new GPUs, they are still selling out as fast as they appear in stores. We expect a much-hyped launch like the upcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti will be hard to get hold of, as it’s unlikely that Nvidia will produce lots of units (and there are even rumors that Nvidia’s stock difficulties are what’s delayed the GPU in the first place.

Many of the issues that have resulted in limited GPU stock, such as the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic and chip shortage , remain, and the current price drops could be due to a recent crash in cryptocurrency.

Cryptominers are still a key influence on the GPU market, and if there’s another boom, we may see GPU stocks again become sparse with miners (and scalpers) bulk buying GPUs, which would also drive up GPU prices.

So, while this news is positive for potential GPU buyers, it may not last.