How DeepSeek crashed the AI party The DeepSeek story contains multitudes. It’s a story about the stock market, whether there’s an AI bubble, and how important Nvidia has become to so many people’s financial future. It’s also a story about China, export controls, and American AI dominance. And then, somewhere in there, there’s a story about technology: about how a start…

Trump’s first round of tariffs is almost here Electronics, avocados, vegetables, cars, tractors, crude oil — these are some of the things that could soon get more expensive for US consumers. Under President Donald Trump’s proposed plan, goods coming in from Mexico and Canada will be subject to a 25 percent tariff beginning on February 1st. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt ha…

Sam Altman’s Stargate is science fiction Stargate is a staggering power grab. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has spent the past year seeking an absurd amount of computing power to train the company’s AI models — one report says Japanese officials literally laughed at the amount of electricity he demanded. The stakes were clear: without massive computing resources, OpenAI risked losing groun…

Dell is making everyone return to office, too Dell is the latest tech company to announce it’s ending its hybrid and remote work policy. Starting March 3rd, Dell employees will have to show up in person five days a week. In an email obtained by Business Insider, CEO Michael Dell writes that “all hybrid and remote team members who live near a Dell

TikTok traffic is recovering, but it’s still not back in app stores TikTok’s traffic is almost back to normal despite its delayed return to US app stores, according to Cloudflare Radar data seen by CNBC. The “DNS traffic for TikTok-related domains” is around 10 percent lower than the levels before its abrupt shutdown, David Belson, Cloudflare’s head of data insight, told CNBC. To compare, TikTok’s traffic dipped…

Nvidia’s RTX 5090 is out of stock because it was barely in stock Nvidia warned of stock shortages earlier this week, and now its launch of the $1,999 RTX 5090 yesterday is being branded a “paper launch” after people camped outside retailers only to find a handful of cards available, if any at all. Reddit users have been tracking inventory for RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 cards at

This crowdfunded E Ink QWERTY phone isn’t vaporware after all When the Minimal Phone was first announced this time last year, you might have been forgiven for thinking it was vaporware. But one year — and many delays — later, the world’s first Android phone with both an E Ink display and a physical QWERTY keyboard has begun shipping to backers. In broad strokes, the

Dr Disrespect’s Midnight Society studio shuts down before releasing its first game Midnight Society, the game studio co-founded by Dr Disrespect (real name Herschel “Guy” Beahm) has shut down, killing the first-person shooter title it was developing. The studio made “significant” layoffs in September after terminating its relationship with the controversial streamer in June due to “inappropriate” messages he exchanged with a m…

Google’s Gemini AI app is getting faster with Flash 2.0 Google announced Thursday that the Gemini app is getting its Gemini 2.0 Flash AI model. The upgraded model “delivers fast responses and stronger performance across a number of key benchmarks, providing everyday help with tasks like brainstorming, learning or writing,” the company said in a post. The change is rolling out to Gemini’s web and

Meta warns that it will fire leakers in leaked memo Moments after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s all-hands comments to employees were widely leaked, a company executive warned in an internal memo that leakers will be fired. “We take leaks seriously and will take action,” Meta’s chief information security officer, Guy Rosen, said in an internal memo I’ve seen. “When information is stolen o…

Intel cancels AI chip, talks painful past and simplified future Last quarter, amid turmoil and restructuring, chipmaker Intel announced one of the largest corporate quarterly losses of all time — $16.6 billion, ten times worse than its $1.6B loss the quarter before. But in today’s Q4 2024 and full-year earnings release, Intel’s not hurting as badly: the company just announced a mere $126 million quarterly

Mark Zuckerberg to employees in leaked all-hands meeting: ‘buckle up’ Tensions were high inside Meta ahead of Mark Zuckerberg’s first all-hands meeting of the year. Employee-submitted questions for the CEO touched on a couple of big themes: concerns about his announcement that “low-performers” would be let go on February 10th, his MAGA-fueled changes to Meta’s content moderation policies and DEI programs, …

Intel reveals foundries lost $13 billion last year, hints at what’s next Last quarter, amid turmoil and restructuring, chipmaker Intel announced one of the largest corporate quarterly losses of all time — $16.6 billion, ten times worse than its $1.6B loss the quarter before. But in today’s Q4 2024 and full-year earnings release, Intel’s not hurting as badly: the company just announced a mere $126 million quarterly

Apple reports best-ever earnings even as iPhone revenue slips As has become an annual tradition, Apple just reported blockbuster earnings for the company’s most recent holiday quarter. “Today Apple is reporting our best quarter ever, with revenue of $124.3 billion, up four percent from a year ago,” CEO Tim Cook said in a press release. Revenue was up nearly across the board for the

Meta’s Ray-Bans smart glasses sold more than 1 million units last year Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed sales figures for the company’s Ray-Ban smart glasses for the first time, telling employees that over 1 million units were sold in 2024. In remarks during an all-hands meeting seen by The Verge, Zuckerberg posed a question to staff about whether sales would go from 1 million to as much

YouTube Premium’s 4x speed and other experimental features now available to subscribers After announcing some new experimental features for YouTube Premium subscribers earlier this month — and that multiple experiments can be tested at once — the company has added one it promised was on the way: the ability to watch videos at 4x speed, as reported by Android Police. I’m personally a 1.5x to 2x sicko

Polestar’s new polar EVs can race through the snow Polestar is building one-of-a-kind versions of its EVs that are ready for whatever the winter brings. The company took the long-range, dual motor versions of its newest vehicles, the Polestar 3 SUV and Polestar 4 coupe (with performance packs), and turned them into rally-style vehicles that can rip through snowy terrain. The company is also

Chip race: Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Nvidia battle it out for AI chip supremacy The rise of generative AI has been powered by Nvidia and its advanced GPUs. As demand far outstrips supply, the H100 has become highly sought after and extremely expensive, making Nvidia a trillion-dollar company for the first time. It’s also prompting customers, like Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, Amazon, and Google to start working on their own

The FCC is investigating NPR and PBS Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr has ordered investigations into NPR and PBS with the goal of slashing the money given to the government-funded organizations, The New York Times reports.  The investigations are ostensibly about PBS and NPR’s member stations’ sponsorships, according to a letter from Carr obtained by the Times. “I am conc…

Amazon Music Unlimited is getting a price hike Amazon has raised the price of its Music Unlimited service in the US, Canada, and the UK, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. In an update on its website, Amazon says it’s raising the price for Prime members from $9.99 to $10.99 per month (or $99 to $109 / year), while the plan for non-Prime