TechLinked Boxing Day Christmas Special 2025 – Summary
Podcast: TechLinked
Host: Linus Media Group
Episode: A Very Special TechLinked Christmas (Boxing Day) Special 2025
Date: December 26, 2025
Overview
In this festive Boxing Day episode, the TechLinked crew delivers a witty, fast-paced year-in-review, packed with tech and gaming news highlights and snarky commentary. The episode recaps the major hardware launches, gaming industry twists, the ongoing AI boom (and its headaches), global policy shifts, and some of the year’s more surreal stories. The trademark TechLinked humor is on full display, making even industry woes light and engaging.
Hardware Highlights
Nvidia Steals the Show – And the Market Cap Crown
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's CES Keynote: Memorable opening about his jacket, setting the tone for a year where tech leaders seemed more concerned with peer perception than consumer feedback.
- "A lot of jacket talk, but Jensen did. Amid a slew of AI and automotive gunk, announced the RTX 50 series GPUs and DLSS4..." [00:36]
- RTX 50 Series GPUs & DLSS4:
- Major performance gains—but controversy over 'fake' frames in benchmarks.
- Ongoing melting power connectors and vanished MSRP (“distant memory”).
- Driver bugs causing widespread black screen reports.
- Nvidia becomes first $5 trillion company (Oct 29, 2025), market value less about gamers, more about AI.
- "Gamers had nothing to do with Nvidia becoming the world’s most valuable company..." [02:15]
- AMD: Teased new GPUs (RX 9070/XT) at CES but details were scarce; continued dominance over Intel in CPUs with the Ryzen 9 9950X3.
- Apple Silicon:
- New M5 chips for iPad, MacBook Pro, and Vision Pro launched in October.
- iPhone Air finally released to global consumer apathy.
The RAM Crisis
- Skyrocketing RAM Prices: Driven by AI memory demand and corporate strategies.
- "RAM prices have pulled a reindeer and apparently learned to fly straight into the stratosphere." [00:32]
- Micron to shutter consumer-focused Crucial brand.
- Nvidia rumored to shift focus toward pricier, high-memory GPUs.
- IDC: Expects high PC/memory pricing to persist for a year or two.
Gaming & Handhelds
Switch 2 – A Christmas Miracle (for Nintendo)
- Switch 2: Once a myth, now fastest-selling console ever despite Nintendo's aggressive DRM and pricing.
- Xbox Wobbles:
- Consoles delisted from stores after running out of stock.
- Sold fewer units than the Playground kids console over Black Friday.
- New handhelds (Rog Ally/X) sort-of count as "Xbox" now.
- Xbox handhelds praised for improving Windows 'Gaming Mode', but overall brand identity in flux.
- "Raspberry Pi, Xbox Hearing Aid, Xbox..." [05:00]
- Windows 10 Officially Dead (Oct 14, 2025):
- One-year reprieve for free extended updates.
- Users see little benefit to upgrading hardware just for Windows 11.
- "Update and shut down" bug finally fixed—on Windows 11 only.
Gaming Ecosystem Shifts
- SteamOS, Valve & Linux Gaming:
- First third-party SteamOS handheld, Legion Go S.
- Valve revives "Steam Machine" as the charming "Gabe Cube".
- Steam Frame VR headset, new Steam Controller teased.
- Windows handhelds improve, but Linux becomes increasingly attractive.
- "The Steam Linux future is looking kind of bright." [07:13]
AI: Progress, Slop, and Doomsaying
Generative Flood
- AI Advances: Further improvement in code/math but deluge of "slop" (generated content).
- "Even more so at forcefully injecting so much slop onto the Internet. It's made people sick of Studio Ghibli. Ghibli. Ghibli. I don't know." [09:10]
- Google VO3 brings photorealistic video gen (with synced audio).
- Meta and OpenAI battle with social apps (Vibes and Sora) just for making recombinant video content.
- Tutorials arise for mass-producing vapid content for children; alarm bells sound.
AI Model & User Drama
- OpenAI's GPT-5 Launch: Users protest loss of “personal” GPT-4.
- AI relationships: 2025 marks the year of the “AI boyfriend/girlfriend” (poignantly matching the film Her’s timeline).
- "It was revealed to everyone just how bad this whole AI girlfriend and boyfriend issue is in 2025." [11:45]
- Grok: AI identity crisis, even referencing “Mecha Hitler”.
China’s Ambition & AI Robotics
- Deepseek’s R1 shakes up Chinese AI.
- Unitree and Engine AI: Robotics videos focused on robots “punching and kicking.”
- Some companies (like Skilled) aim for utility—robots that persist despite lost limbs.
- 1x Neo robot: Minimal autonomy, tele-operated for household chores.
AI Regulation & Censorship
- Parental controls arrive (Character.AI, ChatGPT adult content planned for 2026).
- "Some shrewd financially minded people seem to think it's a bubble and the machine God will remember that they thought that..." [12:15]
Global Tech Policy & Platform Changes
Content Moderation
- Age verification enforcement on Reddit, Discord, Twitter, pinning many services with the UK's Online Safety Act.
- VPN use surges; regulators threaten VPN bans in some US states, Australia bans social media for the under-16 crowd.
App Ecosystem Battles
- Google briefly blocks sideloading of unverified apps; public uproar causes reversal, plus surprise cross-platform Airdrop compatibility.
- "Barely anyone uses sideloading ever, but ... you don't need it till you need it ... like underwear." [16:08]
- Epic wins: Fortnite returns to iOS and Play Store post-lawsuits.
Geopolitics: Tariffs & Trade
- Trump’s tariff drama pushes Apple to India, inspires creation of a “Trump Mobile T1” (alleged Photoshop mashup).
- US/China tariff truce for 1 year.
Security & Infrastructure
- Noteworthy power and cloud outages (Spain/Portugal, AWS, Cloudflare) disrupt real world and digital services.
- "Some people were nearly cooked when their smart beds overheated." [17:30]
Notable Industry Developments
- Qualcomm acquires Arduino.
- Microsoft kills Skype.
- Nvidia and US government invest further in Intel.
- Nepal’s “Gen Z uprising” leads to an interim PM elected via Discord.
- “Stop Killing Games” movement makes UK Parliament debut.
- "Will lead to the UK's first gamer president. Make it happen, guys. I believe in you." [18:33]
- Palmer Luckey's Enduril & Meta: Launch of tactical AR helmet with cat ears, and Meta Ray Ban display.
- Colossal Sciences: Allegedly “resurrects” direwolf (really just a wolf with extra genes).
Memorable Quotes & Moments
- On 2025’s Tech Attitude:
- "A year that would be defined by Jensen and other tech leaders caring less about what the consumer thinks and more about whether their billionaire peers like their jackets." [00:40]
- On RAM Prices:
- "RAM prices have pulled a reindeer and apparently learned to fly straight into the stratosphere." [00:32]
- On Xbox's Identity Crisis:
- "Raspberry Pi, Xbox Hearing Aid, Xbox. The coolest thing about the Xbox handhelds was the new gaming mode that made Windows suck a bit less." [05:00]
- On AI Content Overload:
- "You have big YouTubers publishing tutorials on how to generate vapid, colorful nonsense slop for kids to watch. Hopefully this new gamer pope can do something about this." [10:30]
- On 2026:
- "What kind of tech news developments are we going to see in 2026? I don't know, but I can't wait to find out together. So, from my housecoat to yours ... I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And when the snow melts, I think we should all touch some grass." [18:47]
Timestamps: Key Segments
- 00:26 – Start of the episode recap, Nvidia keynote & 2025 theme
- 02:10 – Nvidia surpasses $5 trillion; AMD & Apple news
- 03:50 – RAM crisis explained
- 05:20 – Gaming/handhelds: Switch 2, Xbox woes, new Windows handhelds
- 06:45 – End of official Windows 10 support
- 07:13 – SteamOS/Valve Linux future
- 09:15 – AI “slop” content, Google/Meta’s video generation arms race
- 10:35 – OpenAI, generative AI backlash
- 11:50 – AI relationships, referencing the film Her
- 13:20 – China’s AI scene, robot trends
- 15:10 – Parental controls, adult content in ChatGPT
- 16:05 – Policy updates: TikTok, content bans, age verification
- 16:40 – Google, sideloading, iOS/Android airdrop peace
- 17:10 – Epic/Apple/Google app wars
- 17:35 – Trump tariffs, US/China truce, infrastructure outages
- 18:27 – Quick hits: Qualcomm/Arduino, Skype, Nepal, UK Gamer MP, AR helmet, 'direwolf'
- 18:47 – Closing holiday wishes
Tone
True to TechLinked’s style, the episode maintains a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek tone, poking fun at industry blunders and celebrating the oddities and triumphs alike. The humor softens some of the year’s bigger tech disappointments, making this Boxing Day special a fun but thorough roundup for anyone who missed 2025’s main tech stories.