Asus confirms AI-driven price increases amid supply chain strain
In a letter recently sent to its partners, Asus confirmed that some of its products will soon undergo a significant price increase. The Taiwanese manufacturer stated that the change is essential for facing the challenges of this new era of AI-driven computing, although a significant portion of PC consumers are...
Read Entire Article
Americans lost $330 million to Bitcoin ATM scams last year, FBI says
The US now has more than 45,000 Bitcoin ATMs where people can insert cash (or scan a crypto wallet QR code) to buy Bitcoin and have it sent to a wallet. Some machines also let you sell Bitcoin and receive cash in return.
Read Entire Article
Analysts warn AI demand could push consumer tech prices up 20%
The supply imbalance is due to the escalating build-out of AI data centers and the mass production needs of consumer electronics. As cloud computing giants such as Amazon and Google lock in long-term contracts with chipmakers to guarantee supply for their AI servers, makers of personal computers and smartphones are...
Read Entire Article
Starlink to lower its SpaceX satellites as near-misses pile up in low Earth orbit
Michael Nicolls, SpaceX's vice president of Starlink engineering, said on Thursday that all SpaceX satellites operating at around 550 kilometers (342 miles) will be reconfigured to a new 480 kilometers (298 mile) orbit across the course of the year.
Read Entire Article
Instagram says in the age of AI, you can't assume what you see online is real
Mosseri said the traditional, more intimate feed was "dead" years ago. What replaces it now, he suggested, is a world in which users must adapt to a new default assumption: that not everything they see is real. "For most of my life I could safely assume photographs or videos were...
Read Entire Article
OpenAI's employee compensation dwarfs every major tech IPO of the past 25 years
Internal financial disclosures show that OpenAI is distributing more equity per employee than any major technology startup on record. Its stock-based compensation – averaging roughly $1.5 million per worker across a staff of about 4,000 – far exceeds the benchmarks set by historical peers, according to data the company shared with investors.
Read Entire Article
A microwave-sized factory is now running in space and can hit 1,000°C
The company's prototype, launched aboard a SpaceX rocket in the summer, is designed to test how the space environment can enhance material performance. In microgravity, semiconductor atoms can form into a near-perfect crystalline structure, while the vacuum above Earth virtually eliminates contamination from airborne particles. The combination promises to yield...
Read Entire Article
Doom can now run as your Windows screen saver
Developer Wiaam Suleiman recently released Doom Screen Saver, a lighthearted project that turns Doom into a fully functional Windows screen saver. Everything the tool needs is packed into a single .scr file, a portable format that remains in use for modern versions of Windows, even if it has long since...
Read Entire Article
Used Nintendo 3DS consoles are commanding nearly Switch 2 prices amid retro gaming boom
As spotted by Pirat_Nation, multiple used Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL units are currently listed on eBay, with prices ranging from roughly $250 to $350 depending on the model and the condition of the device.
Read Entire Article
After getting rocks instead of an RTX 5080, this buyer finally got a replacement – and a commemorative tattoo
At the start of December, Redditor GnarDead posted that the $1,200 Asus TUF RTX 5080 he'd bought from Best Buy arrived with some worrying signs: it wasn't concealed inside a plain cardboard box to hide the product's identity, shipping labels had been placed directly onto the box itself, and the...
Read Entire Article