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- [00:01]
Sponsor Voice
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- [00:23]
Tech Journalist
Dear Journal, I've been covering CES 2025 for three days now. The Red Bull has run out. Drums sound in the distance, probably beaten by a smart toilet with robot arms or something. It won't be long now. AMD's lips are still sealed when it comes to their next gen GPUs, but IGN managed to secretly run the internal benchmark in Call of Duty Black Ops 6 on the RX9070 non XT in AMD's CES booth, getting an average FPS of.99 from this. IGN estimates the card might perform somewhere close to Nvidia's RTX4080 super using some kind of PC nerd derivative of girl Math. I couldn't follow it, but the point is AMD's apparent decision to at the last minute withhold all information about their next gen GPUs except their names has only made everyone more curious about them, a lesson they already would have learned had they ever brought a bag of nuts into the squirrel pen. You guys don't have those? Even AMD's GPU board partners seem confused about what's going on. Power Color allowed Leo and the Kit Guru team to look at their RX9070s while pretending that they weren't come in Matt, come close and look at the invisible non existent graphics cards. Meanwhile, Tom's Hardware seems to have inadvertently published a photo of the Navi 48 chip powering the GPU's leading leaky Twitter guy David Huang to estimate the die size at around 390 millimeters squared, which is slightly larger than the AD103 chip powering Nvidia's RTX 4080. We have gotten one concrete piece of information, though. Asus revealed both RX9070 variants have 16 gigabytes of VRAM, which they apparently weren't supposed to reveal as they took down the page shortly after AMD's kinda acting like that friend who will plan a surprise party for you but hide it horribly so you have to act surprised when it happens, which has happened to me so many times. Such a relatable story. The Nintendo Switch 2 leaks may have officially jumped the shark. Accessory maker Genki has published a video on their website of what might as well be the Switch 2, ostensibly to show off the company's protective case for the console. But they know what they're doing, they told Press. The mock up they're showing here is based on the real console, and their website has a popup admitting they can't keep a secret. Oopsie. The video shows in detail the magnetic joy cons releasing at the push of a button, revealing the rumored laser sensor on the rail that may enable mouse functionality. I mean, we'll see. And the video also provides our best look yet at the Switch 2's dock design. Not only that, they were handing around a 3D printed mockup of the console at their CES booth, first shown in a video by French tech outlet Numerama. It's starting to feel a little ridiculous that Nintendo hasn't unveiled the Switch 2 yet. As if to emphasize this, the Nintendo Japan Twitter account just changed their account banner to Mario and Luigi, seeming to gesture at empty space. Just watch Nintendo wait until March 31st and then wait one more day to reveal the greatest April Fool's prank ever. There is no Switch 2. Reddit wakes up in a cold sweat Meta isn't just trying to appease the incoming Trump administration. They're also humoring the EU and launching a test allowing users to browse ebay listings on Facebook Marketplace in the US, France and Germany. The European Commission fined Meta over $820 million last year over Facebook Marketplace being tied to Facebook. Yeah, the EU loves to fine people. They even find themselves sort of. The EU General Court ruled this morning that the European Commission broke its own rules and allowed a German citizen's personal data to be sent to Meta servers in the US when they signed in with their Facebook account on an EU web page. The EU is now forcing itself to pay that citizen €400 in damages. It's not really a fine in the strict sense of the word, but it makes more sense than going pay up. Serves me right. It's only right that you check out our sponsor, Saily, the global ESIM service that helps you save big on travel data plans. Because if you've never booked a trip before, you may not know this, but going to different places isn't free. I know that's silly. I'm with you on this. Thankfully, Asaylee takes a bit of the edge off with affordable ESIM plans that cover 160 countries. And if you're traveling through a bunch of those, you can download just one Esim for your whole trip, because I don't think spending hours every day wandering around looking for free WI fi should be on the itinerary. Saily Esim plans are compatible with most iOS and Android devices, and if yours isn't compatible, you'll get a full refund with chat support available 24. 7 Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily ESIM data plans. Just download the Saily app and use code techlinked at checkout. Dear Journal, the smart toilets found me and said they'd let me live if I gave them quick bits. I said never and now I'm dead. Lesson learned. All right, time for good old fashioned wacky CES stuff. Swipit has unveiled a machine that can essentially reload your phone's battery with a fully charged one in about two seconds, although it's not your phone's internal battery. Swipit's link case, compatible with iPhone and Android, has a battery inside which is swapped out for a fresh one when you dip it into the hub, a toaster looking device that stores and charges extra batteries. It all looks pretty sleek in Swipit's marketing materials, but as demonstrated by Allison Johnson from the Verge, it actually sounds like a 20 year old printer. But that's a small price to pay to avoid buying Anker's new solar panel beach umbrella, which is billed as an alternative to lugging a battery backup to the beach. I mean, maybe you're supposed to be touching grass, but there's no grass on the beach. Anyway, this makes sense. LG had some fun things to show off other than that years old transparent OLED TV that's actually available to buy now for $60,000. How about the Stanmy B2, a portable hangable 27 inch TV? It's even got a kickstand, making it really seem like a giant tablet missing a touchscreen. That's still a little confusing, but it makes more sense than the model from last year that goes in a suitcase, Eh? TV in a suitcase. I got one. But the best thing I think LG showed off was the Aero Cat Tower, a version of one of the company's Aero Tower air purifiers with a cradle on top so a cat can sit on it. Now that's innovation. Where are all the other companies putting cats on things? Eufy showed off their three in one E20 robot vacuum, so named because you can remove the actual vacuum part and use it as a Dyson style handheld with multiple attachments, which will also get you more powerful suction. It's one of those rare CES products that's simultaneously practical and also kind of wacky. But wait till you see roborock's vacuum with a robot arm in it. But not right now. That's for the weirdest tech at CES episode on Friday. I'm saving it. A company called Haliday showed off their smart glasses, which eschews more popular waveguide built in displays for their own Digi window design. It can be controlled either by voice or a control ring on your finger, which can of course summon an AI agent. I'm sure there's more cool things about these glasses, but I was so distracted by the voiceovers in the trailer. I think it's retro revival. People want that nostalgic feel, but with a modern twist. That's the one. I love it. Let's explore some design concepts. And Chinese car company BYD has shown off their Yangwang U9 electric sports car, but apparently it means like admire or something so fair, you know. Anyway, they showed off the car bunny hopping over obstacles at 120km per hour, including a sizable pothole, a bunch of spikes, and worst of all, a chalk rainbow. Wouldn't want to disappoint the kids who drew that. Oh, it ruined it anyway. Well, it was technically graffiti. Those kids are probably going straight to a CCP jail anyway. But not you. You're coming right back here tomorrow for more tech news. Because I'll be damned if I have to endure this pain alone. Ah. Oh wait, I'm dead. I forgot.