WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.760 Welcome to Tech News, National Geographic Edition. Here in the vast 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:14.640 digital savanna, we observe the tech industry in its natural habitat. Shh, 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:17.360 don't startle it. Let's watch. Oh, it's 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:22.920 It's me. I I have to Okay. It really seems like NVIDIA will launch their N1 00:00:19.840 --> 00:00:24.840 and N1X ARM-based SoCs in the first half 00:00:22.920 --> 00:00:28.840 of this year with Dell and Lenovo already on board with laptop designs, 00:00:26.720 --> 00:00:33.520 according to insider sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. As previous 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:38.080 leaks have indicated, the N1X is essentially expected to be a 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:41.320 consumer-focused version of the GB10, a 00:00:38.080 --> 00:00:43.960 superchip that powers NVIDIA's DGX Spark 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:50.160 Enterprise mini PCs with up to 20 ARM cores, a massive 6,144 00:00:46.960 --> 00:00:52.920 CUDA core iGPU, and don't forget that 00:00:50.160 --> 00:00:58.240 sweet, sweet unified memory. But while ARM-powered Windows laptops have come a 00:00:55.560 --> 00:01:03.320 long way, they're still not great for gaming. So, why should gamers care? 00:01:01.160 --> 00:01:08.680 Well, one reason might be that, as much as we rag on NVIDIA for caring more 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:10.520 about AI than us, they do still put 00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:16.440 resources into gaming. I mean, look, they're hiring software engineers to 00:01:12.520 --> 00:01:19.200 work on native speed x86-64 00:01:16.440 --> 00:01:23.640 gaming on Linux/ARM64 platforms. They're hiring someone to 00:01:21.720 --> 00:01:28.920 make the gaming experience better for a niche within a niche. Maybe Jensen does 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:33.040 still have a gamer soul hiding beneath all those layers of leather jackets. 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:37.600 They protect him from the outside, all the hurtful words. However things shake 00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:43.000 out, with a full reveal anticipated at the NVIDIA GTC keynote on March 16th, 00:01:40.960 --> 00:01:48.560 the laptop market is heating up and Qualcomm and AMD are sweating profusely 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:52.800 through their quarter-zips. Samsung took the wraps off the Galaxy S26 phone 00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:58.320 lineup at an Unpacked event this morning, completely shocking the world 00:01:55.600 --> 00:02:02.840 by unveiling new smartphone tech that isn't just chat GPT with extra steps, 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:08.320 although that was there, too. Samsung says the new Galaxy S26 Ultra features 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:12.440 the world's first privacy display on mobile, which makes your phone screen 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:18.120 completely opaque when viewed from outside of the primary user cone in 00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:23.240 front of the phone the cone of brain rot, maybe we could call it. And it can 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:26.920 even selectively blackout parts of the screen like sensitive message 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:31.959 notifications from your landlord that say in all caps, for the last time you 00:02:29.440 --> 00:02:36.880 cannot pay rent in Funko Pops. It is up to you to sell them for money first. It 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:40.880 is not legal tender. The way the privacy display works is 00:02:38.760 --> 00:02:46.080 kind of cool. Every other pixel in the grid is a narrow pixel with little 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:49.840 donuts above it that modulate how much light escapes to the sides, and you 00:02:48.200 --> 00:02:53.840 can't eat them. But at least they're in there. The rest 00:02:51.600 --> 00:02:58.000 of the features are fairly standard new phone stuff to Cameras are largely the 00:02:55.920 --> 00:03:02.519 same, but apparently let in more light now with a new super steady mode that 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:06.280 can keep footage level with the ground. There's a few more AI photo editing 00:03:04.519 --> 00:03:11.320 options to help you construct false memories of things that never happened, 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:14.400 very fun. But there's a couple cool AI 00:03:11.320 --> 00:03:16.560 features, too. Ask Samsung's Bixby AI 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:19.920 assistant to change your phone settings and it will present you with a toggle 00:03:17.920 --> 00:03:24.680 for the feature you want, hopefully, right there in the chat interface. 00:03:22.200 --> 00:03:29.120 Finally, an audio eraser can strip background noise from third-party apps 00:03:26.600 --> 00:03:35.560 like Instagram now, not just Samsung ones. The S26 Ultra starts at the same 00:03:31.239 --> 00:03:38.640 price as the S25 Ultra, $1,300 USD, 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:41.959 while the S26 and S26 Plus have gotten 00:03:38.640 --> 00:03:45.800 $100 price hikes. They start at $900 and 00:03:41.959 --> 00:03:48.200 $1,100 USD, respectively. Although, the 00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:52.960 base model does come with 256 gigs of storage instead of 128 this year, so 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:57.440 it's not all just storage crisis stuff. But still, for those prices, you could 00:03:54.440 --> 00:03:59.800 pick up a few pairs of the new $250 00:03:57.440 --> 00:04:04.200 Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, which have been redesigned with what Samsung calls a 00:04:02.320 --> 00:04:08.160 real metal blade. >> For your ears? They've got bigger 00:04:05.880 --> 00:04:12.240 woofers and are shaped for all-day comfort, as long as you're careful not 00:04:09.959 --> 00:04:15.360 to accidentally put the metal blade end in first. It's I'm still like picking it 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:19.359 up. I got to be careful. Feels awesome though. 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:25.120 Every time I Every time I listen to something, it's like I'm a samurai. 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:30.280 Department of War is going toe-to-toe with Anthropic over ethical restrictions 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:35.000 baked into its AI model Claude in the ultimate nerds versus jocks slugfest. 00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:40.200 This is what we've been waiting for. Defense Secretary, or 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:43.200 war secretary, Pete Hegseth summoned 00:04:40.200 --> 00:04:45.360 Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to the 00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:49.560 Pentagon on Tuesday to deliver an ultimatum. Let the government use Claude 00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:54.080 for mass domestic surveillance of US citizens and/or making targeting 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:58.200 decisions in physical attacks without human input, or Amodei's going to get a 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:04.520 hell of a swirly. And I'll make you do my homework. >> Uh no. Hegseth reportedly threatened to 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:08.760 designate Anthropic as a supply chain risk, blocking it from working with the 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:13.960 government and a wide swath of affiliated companies, or maybe Hegseth 00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:19.720 will invoke the Defense Production Act to force Anthropic to adapt its model to 00:05:16.840 --> 00:05:23.520 the military's needs. Or maybe even bolt. I know that doesn't make sense, 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:27.040 but I'm just so angry right now because you keep saying words I don't 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:32.320 understand. The Pentagon has given Anthropic until Friday to comply, but 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:36.120 Anthropic reportedly does not plan on budging. A senior government official 00:05:34.200 --> 00:05:40.200 commented that taking this action against Anthropic would be massively 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:45.160 disruptive for the Pentagon because Claude is currently the only AI model 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:49.440 used in classified defense systems. The Pentagon is currently addressing this 00:05:46.680 --> 00:05:55.240 issue by signing a deal to bring xAI's Grok into classified defense networks, 00:05:52.520 --> 00:05:59.680 which has real pouty teenager energy. Oh, you're not letting me use your AI to 00:05:57.080 --> 00:06:04.360 autonomously kill people? Fine, I'll just go hang out with Mecha Hitler. How 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:10.480 do you like that, Dad? Go to your room. Now, Anthropic has budged on a separate 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:14.920 safety pledge, the commitment to never train an AI model unless they could 00:06:12.400 --> 00:06:19.000 guarantee it would be safe first, which seems hard to 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:23.840 to be fair. Why? Well, to paraphrase their chief science officer, other AI 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:29.280 companies are never going to stop never stopping, so Anthropic is not actually 00:06:26.840 --> 00:06:34.000 contributing any additional risk to the ecosystem, which is basically just them 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:38.640 saying, "We're committed to safety, but we're also committed to money and 00:06:36.640 --> 00:06:44.000 winning, which is super self-aware and honestly super wise." I believe it was 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:49.440 Marcus Aurelius who said, "Never regard something as doing you good if it makes 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:52.880 you betray a trust, unless you're about to lose an AI arms race to Elon Musk, 00:06:51.280 --> 00:06:57.760 then it." That's almost as good as his meditation on integrity. If it is 00:06:55.640 --> 00:07:01.919 not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it. And if it's a 00:06:59.520 --> 00:07:06.960 sponsor spot, watch it. Here we go. Odoo, running a kingdom is no small 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:11.600 affair. One must manage alliances, dungeons, and alliances to get one's 00:07:09.280 --> 00:07:16.200 cousin out of a dungeon. He's always getting in there. Fortunately, Odoo 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:21.040 brings together all aspects of business management into one platform with a full 00:07:18.760 --> 00:07:25.800 suite of integrated apps, and you only use the app you apps your kingdom 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:27.680 requires. Odoo CRM app lets me send 00:07:25.800 --> 00:07:32.800 quotes to neighboring kingdoms in just a few clicks, whatever those are, schedule 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:37.560 meetings with visiting dignitaries, and Odoo even automatically plans the 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:42.480 next activity based on my pipeline. And since any king worth his salt must 00:07:39.320 --> 00:07:44.880 collect tithes, Odoo auto creates and 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:49.680 sends invoices, tracks open payments with clear statuses and due dates, and 00:07:47.480 --> 00:07:55.040 sends reminders for those who have forgotten their contribution. It even 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:59.680 converts currencies automatically, which is essential when trading with the 00:07:56.960 --> 00:08:04.360 French. And for managing one's court, the employees app, one can sort the 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:09.000 entire royal staff into an org chart from the hand of the king all the way 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:13.680 down to your one cousin who was banished and lives in the Bella Tower. It's for 00:08:11.080 --> 00:08:18.280 the best. Use our link for a free 15-day trial with no credit card required. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:23.640 Again, I don't know what it is. I'm sure it's helpful, though. And here we see 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:28.000 the quick bits in the wild, often moving in packs of five. Scientists believe 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:33.240 they communicate through a series of rapid-fire headlines. Fascinating 00:08:30.080 --> 00:08:35.840 creatures. Remarkably savage. Discord is 00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:43.039 delaying its global age verification rollout to the second half of 2026. CTO 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:45.280 Stanislav Vishnevsky, coming at the 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:49.839 problem with the energy of a beleaguered substitute teacher, posted that many of 00:08:47.520 --> 00:08:54.960 you walked away thinking we're requiring face scans and ID uploads from everyone 00:08:52.560 --> 00:08:59.160 just to use Discord. That's not That's not what's happening. He went on to 00:08:56.880 --> 00:09:03.240 clarify that over 90% of users will never need to verify their age to keep 00:09:00.920 --> 00:09:08.080 using Discord exactly as they do today. That said, Discord stressed they'll 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:11.920 still meet any legal obligations for age verification, which currently means 00:09:09.640 --> 00:09:16.680 using third-party vendors like KID in the UK and Australia, with Brazil soon 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:22.120 to follow. The company will use the delay to learn how to write a blog post 00:09:19.760 --> 00:09:28.600 properly, I guess. I Product listings for budget HP laptops have been spotted 00:09:24.880 --> 00:09:31.240 advertising 1.2 terabytes of storage, 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:35.600 the catch being that 1 terabyte of that is just a 1-year free trial of Microsoft 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:40.920 OneDrive cloud storage. Uh Reddit user BMR99 posted several 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:45.560 links to blatant cases of spec padding in the LTT subreddit showing that with 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:49.880 NAND prices spiking, I guess the new industry standard is just download more 00:09:47.760 --> 00:09:54.400 storage, bro. It's a you problem. Thankfully, Canadians get to avoid this 00:09:52.040 --> 00:10:02.400 specific trap. We have a different one. Some amazon.ca listings advertise 1 TB 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:04.360 drives as 1,024 GB SSDs, which actually 00:10:02.400 --> 00:10:08.840 makes the listing even more deceitful because 1 TB drives usually have less 00:10:06.520 --> 00:10:11.800 than 1,000 gigs of usable space. But I don't know. That still sounds like a 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:15.400 heck of a deal there, but I think you should freaking send it. Tech giants are 00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:19.800 hunting for cheap farmland for their power-hungry AI data centers and have 00:10:17.560 --> 00:10:25.000 offered million-dollar payouts that many US farmers are nonetheless flat-out 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:29.120 refusing, according to a report from The Guardian. But these companies want that 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:33.640 land. Some utility companies have threatened to invoke eminent domain, the 00:10:31.920 --> 00:10:38.200 government's power to seize private property for public use. But for the 00:10:36.040 --> 00:10:43.120 farmers, it ain't about the money. It's about protecting their family legacies. 00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:47.440 They got tegrity. And unlike them Silicon Valley boys, farmers recognize 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:52.720 that God didn't intend for us to eat servers or become romantically entwined 00:10:50.400 --> 00:10:58.240 with AI waifus. It ain't right. Panasonic, the former plasma TV king, 00:10:55.880 --> 00:11:02.360 will no longer make its own television. All Panasonic-branded TVs will now be 00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:07.040 manufactured, marketed, and sold by Skyworth, a Chinese company with the 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:13.600 same name as my high school World of Warcraft character. Skyworth. Skyworth. 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:15.760 It is I, Skyworth. Skyworth CEO pitched 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:20.240 it as a meeting of minds, but the real trade is pretty obvious. Skyworth gets 00:11:18.600 --> 00:11:25.080 to use a legendary brand name to sell TVs in western markets, and Panasonic 00:11:22.680 --> 00:11:28.880 gets to stop spending money making TVs. If it seems familiar, that's because 00:11:26.680 --> 00:11:33.320 it's a very similar deal to the Sony and TCL one that just happened recently. 00:11:30.839 --> 00:11:38.680 This is a bummer for Panasonic, though. They controlled over 40% of the global 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:43.080 plasma market until price sensitivity caused by the 2008 financial crisis 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:48.840 ended up destroying their margins. After that, Panasonic never really recovered. 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:54.200 Don't worry, Panasonic, none of us did. And Spotify and Liquid Death have 00:11:51.280 --> 00:11:58.720 released the Eternal Playlist Urn, a limited edition Bluetooth speaker shaped 00:11:56.640 --> 00:12:05.360 like a cremation urn. It asks you questions about your eternal vibe and 00:12:01.800 --> 00:12:08.000 your go-to ghost noise, all right? Then 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:13.760 generates a playlist that syncs to the urn and plays you into the afterlife. Is 00:12:11.760 --> 00:12:18.640 it a real urn, like for ashes? >> Yeah, you can put ashes in there. 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:23.240 It might screw it up, but the Bluetooth speaker. So, for me, that'll be an 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:28.080 infinite loop of Monster Mash and Fall Out Boy's Sugar, We're Going Down 00:12:25.560 --> 00:12:32.160 Swinging. But given Spotify's history of launching 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:37.520 then bricking physical devices like the car thing, eternity might be more like 2 00:12:35.520 --> 00:12:40.600 years. And I guess you'll have to keep paying for Spotify Premium, otherwise 00:12:39.240 --> 00:12:44.320 you'll be hearing ads for the rest of eternity, which again, according to 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:49.120 Spotify, is just 2 years. So, it's not that bad. And that concludes today's 00:12:46.680 --> 00:12:54.200 episode of Planet Tech. Oh, okay. Join us on Friday when we will watch as the 00:12:51.560 --> 00:12:58.960 AI hype beast performs its mating display for potential investors. It is 00:12:57.400 --> 00:13:02.480 truly so cringe.