Tech Crawl: A downgrade for AMD, and is Winnie the Pooh an Internet criminal?

Happy Tuesday, Austin. Here’s hoping your work week is off to a good start.

Here’s a look at some of the tech-related stories making waves and generating buzz around the internet this morning:

A downgrade for AMD

Advanced Micro Devices shares are down about 3 percent in Tuesday morning trading after the chipmaker's stock was downgraded by Barclays.

Barclay's analyst Blayne Curtis wrote that it's unlikely that AMD’s products can achieve enough traction to merit the stock’s current valuation, which has been at between $13 and $14 per share in recent weeks.

AMD's shares have surged in the past year, after the company revealed details about the performance of its new computer processor architecture, called Zen. 

Industry response to Zen and its related products had previously been mostly positive for AMD, which employs about 1,500 people in Austin and has a significant portion of its operations here. 

UPDATE: AMD on Tuesday issued the following statement to CNBC responding to the Barclays downgrade: “We are confident in the performance and value we are delivering to the server market with Epyc, as well as our long-term roadmap. Moreover, our customers and the ecosystem are excited about the return of competition to the data center, as demonstrated by the strong show of support at our launch event less than 30 days ago." 

Samsung trying to make best of Galaxy Note 7 debacle

As most of us recall, Samsung suffered a major black eye last year with the recall scandal around its Galaxy Note 7. Samsung was forced to issue a global recall for the Galaxy Note 7, after a battery flaw was discovered that caused some of the phones to explode and sometimes burst into flames.

Now, the tech giant is trying to get some positive media attention from the whole Galaxy Note 7 mess by announcing that  it plans to recover gold and other metals and components from recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to reduce waste. Samsung said it expects to retrieve 157 tons of gold, silver, cobalt, copper and other metals from millions of smartphones that were recalled.

Winnie the Pooh, Internet criminal?

Government censorship of the Internet is usually not a laughing matter, but you have to chuckle at yesterday’s decision by Chinese regulator to block the nation’s access to -- wait for it -- Winne the Pooh.

It seems Chinese officials took offense to some memes comparing Chinese President Xi Jinping and the cartoon  bear. 

The Pooh ban has since been lifted, but the whole thing is pretty entertaining.