it's day two of our CES 2025 coverage
and the tech news continues to pour in it feels neither pity nor shame only a
cold compulsion to make AI like its
whole thing Lenovo showed off the world's first laptop with a camera under
the display the yoga slim 9i along with
the world's first rollable laptop display in the thinkbook plus Gen 6 and
some of the world's first Snapdragon X powered Min PCS running Windows on ARM
but the biggest world's first to me which is what really matters get your
own show is the world's first Steam OS handheld not made by Valve all of those
leaks were surprisingly accurate but they couldn't have predicted its full
name would be the Lenovo Legion go s 8
in1 powered by Steam OS because it would
be hard to predict someone choosing that uh it'll launch in May starting at 500
bucks for the version with a last gen ryzen Z1 extreme but there will actually
be a Windows version 2o which will launch in January with the newly
announced ryzen Z2 go for 730 bucks but
it'll come with 3 months of PC game pass and what I can only imagine is a
desperate bribe from Microsoft no all of
the gamers please don't switch to Steam OS it can't give you full screen ads
like I can yeah that's we we don't want
those huh both Steam OS and Windows
version versions of the Legion go s will have a $600 tier as well with a ryzen Z2
go later this year but if you want the beefiest option Lenovo did say a proper
second gen Lenovo Legion go nons is in
the works but that won't run Steam OS ah
not so fast valve took this opportunity to announce that a Steam OS beta will be
released this month that anyone can install on other handhelds handhelds
like the GPD Win 4 maybe whose website
made it sound like another official steam o handheld until valve told The
Verge they did not work with GPD on official Steam OS support I feel like
that was given away by the stretched out picture of Cat Mario on the website but
I've been wrong before maybe you can install Steam OS on Acer's Nitro Blaze
an 11-in handheld that's so massive I
think the guy in this marketing image is just chuckling at
it is this a joke we'll get back to see s news but first meta has announced it's
shifting away from using third-party factchecking services in favor of a
community notes style model on Facebook Instagram and threads in a video and
blog post Mark Zuckerberg and meta's new PR Chief Joel Kaplan said their focus is
now on restoring free expression for no
particular current events related reason so they're also lifting restrictions on
discussion of some sensitive topics that would have previously led to moderation
interestingly multiple times meta's blog post specifically references rival
social media site X run by Elon Musk the
guy who was never actually going to fight Zuck in the ring but pretending
was fun for a while I guess meta's new LAX moderation policy also applies to
meta themselves because they took the liberty of serving an Instagram user
with unsettling AI generated images of himself in his feed after he used a meta
AI tool to edit a selfie meta apparently took that to mean he wants to be
surprised by a fake image of himself reflecting on life in an endless Maze of
mirrors where he's the main focus and he
looks thrilled now back in September meta said their testing serving content
in Facebook and Instagram feeds created by their AI just for you not of you
which is the issue here meta told 404
media that you can't opt out of seeing otherworldly versions of yourself in
your feed but other platforms are experimenting with similar features so
you may just have to get used to AI poking you like a toddler and saying hey
uh look I drew a picture of you I don't care where are your parents and and and
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plans just download the s app and use code TechLink at checkout okay we're
coming back to CES News for the quick bits these ones are a little different
but hey that's okay yesterday I told you
I'd cover some more NVIDIA stuff so here GeForce now is officially getting a
native app for the steam deck later this year and expanded browser based support
on various mixed reality headsets too so I guess Microsoft is right and all of
those are an Xbox what no what what one
thing from the note I didn't cover yesterday was Project digits a tiny
$33,000 desktop computer powered by the company's Blackwell GPU and their 20
core Grace CPU on a pretty standard looking mobile chip this is an ARM-based
APU in a Mac Mini looking form factor
could NVIDIA just Leap Frog qualcom and start their own RPC Revolution probably
not with this these are meant for researchers and people comfortable
plopping another $3,000 piece on top of the first one to run their AI waifu
locally long distance is hard speaking of AI companions NVIDIA announced that
generative AI powered NPCs called co-
playay characters will drop soon in pubg
and nraa blade point where they'll help you find loot and swear to loyally hold
off bad guys so you can run away and heal if AI can't love then what is that
oh you're not a gamer don't worry NVIDIA's project r2x desktop assistant
is here to answer the question what if clippy was hot I found a hot AI girl and
trapped her in my Monitor now because I feel like I'm neglecting them if I don't
mention them there are a buttton of new laptop models on display at CES as usual
updated gaming and lifestyle models from ASUS refreshed Elite books and a new
Snapdragon X powered Omni Studio allinone from HP MSI had some pretty
wild 18in gaming laptops to show off with lots of dragon related influences
it's what the people want and Acer had a number of notebooks to show off but not
all of them had a chassis made partially out of crushed oyster shells like the
Aspire Vero 16 so that's the one that gets the mention I don't make the rules
and you know what let's cover Sony's CES announcements which once again involved
reminding everyone they're working on a car with Honda it's called the Aila do
we remember this yes but since it's 2025
5 it has to ship with an AI personal agent of course what is new is the
shipping estimate of 2026 and the price
it starts at
$89,900 but hey but that comes with a
three-year subscription to all the AI stuff which is at least uh Toyota
corolla's worth Sony also gave their mysterious nextg XR headset a name Zin
with with an X I guess the nicotine pouches aren aren't Big in Japan but
good news you won't need the headset to enjoy Sony's future immersive
entertainment concept a box covered in
displays and sensory doohickeys that will drop you into the world of The Last
of Us and even let you smell what Ellie smells turns out the clickers are just
ripping it all the time it's mold and
gas it's not it's not good and we're going to let it rip again tomorrow so
come on back for more no it'll be it'll be Tech news that's not we're not RI
okay that's disrespectful