T TECH T CHECK IT OUT. WHOA, WHOA, WHOA. WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT? THEN, WELL, I'm
going to tell you. NVIDIA GPUs could be getting some imminent price hikes with
one report citing claims from industry insiders that some variants of the RTX
5090 could end up retailing for nearly $5,000 as soon as January 2026, a month
in which many of you are currently already living. Comment below with how
your 2026 is going so far. This alleged
cost increase is almost certainly thanks to skyrocketing DRAM costs. RAM makes up
a huge chunk of a graphics card's price. Now, I don't know if the $5,000 number
is accurate, but the RTX 5090 launched at a $2,000 MSRP, and it's already hard
to find anywhere under 3,000, which is
so so sad for the people just trying to scrape enough together to buy the most
powerful gaming GPU on the planet. But it's becoming pretty clear that price
hikes on PC components outside of just RAM and SSDs are inbound. For example,
in a leaked letter to their partners, ASUS is saying they'll raise prices on
at least some products starting on January 5th, 2026. The letter indicates
that memory and storage components are so expensive and scarce scarce scarce
that ASUS can no longer absorb the cost.
They'd like to absorb some more of your money instead. Wait a minute. January
5th, that's the first day of the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas
where this year all the keynotes are just going to be guys walking on stage
to be like, "Welcome." Same but more
expensive. Woo! Come [laughter] on, please clap. AI. Uh, but actually, I
take it back because some companies are starting to pre-announce some of the fun
and wacky tech they'll show off at CES. As is tradition, Games is teasing a
wireless swift drive controller with a tiny steering wheel built right into the
pad that provides force feedback effects for racing games like the Namco Jogcon
PlayStation controller from back in 1998. Finally, I can drive virtual cars
in modern games just like I do real cars
with both my thumbs in the middle of the wheel. Wait, whoa, watch out. You mess
with the nerd, you get the horns. Game also showed off a full-on wireless wheel
and pedal set with its own turbine fan to simulate air flow and haptic effects
for total and complete immersion. Meanwhile, OneBebook teased the new 1x
sugar wallet, an 8-in gaming handheld with a folding OLED screen powered by a
Qualcomm gaming platform flagship processor. [music]
My favorite type of Qualcomm gaming platform processor. Price and launch
details are still up in the air, but I'm into that thing. It's like the handheld
that could have been if Sony and Nintendo ended up working together after
all. In the good timeline, utopia. Speaking of Nintendo, Epilog has
shown off the SN Operator, a USB connected dock that lets you plug your
old Super Nintendo cartridges straight into a PC, Mac, or Steam Deck, and then
play or archive them digitally with save backups and emulator support built in.
It's 60 bucks US and supposedly ships in April, which is great news for cartridge
owners who don't want to fiddle with the DIY archiving kits out there. The not so
great news, Nintendo may still find a way to sue your ass. They are just not
as cool as our sponsor, UG, Green, and their Magflow magnetic power bank. The
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realtime LED display shows exactly how much power remains. Two USBC ports and a
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two-way fast charging with a built-in USBC carry strap means I can recharge my
gear. my sherpa's gear or the power bank itself mid expedition compact, flight
safe and tough enough for booby trap tombs or you know just going to work or
school or whatever. UG Green's Magflow magnetic power bank keeps adventurers
moving. Check it out in the link below. You might know the Quick Bits for their
contributions to tech news, but they're also amazing battle rappers. Hey, they
have a show tonight. You should Oh, it's already over because they're so quick.
Another RX970 XT has suffered a burn
injury on its 12volt 2x6 power connector
with Redditor Divine Threshold claiming it lasted a year before joining the
extremely exclusive melted 12vt
connectors club. Ah, I'm jealous. But at least he got a year of gaming out of it,
unlike the guy who ordered a GPU and got rocks instead. Some good news for him
though. But he finally got his RTX 5080 from Best Buy after he figured out the
shipping weight somehow mysteriously increased during transit. To celebrate,
he got a tattoo of the ASUS TU logo on a
pile of rocks. Not sure why you'd want to commemorate a shipping snafu in which
someone stole an expensive item from you, but whatever sinks your boat. Game
store GOG is officially breaking out on its own. if that's what you call parent
company CD Project Red, selling GOG to
Michael Kasinski, the original co-founder of both GOG and CD Project
Red, who is now an independent entrepreneur despite still holding many
CD Project Red shares. Anyway, the DRM free storefront says nothing is changing
for users. That's the important part. Your library is safe, but big changes
are coming. GOG is teasing more ambitious plans to revive classic PC
games starting next year. Basically, it's the same good old GOG old games,
just readopted by its biological father, who was only partially absent, but is
now giving this whole full-time parenting thing a shot. I call that
character growth. The US is giving Samsung and SKH temporary permission to
keep shipping chipmaking tools into their Chinese factories through 2026,
easing pressure after earlier export waiverss were revoked. The goal is to
reportedly keep memory production running in the short term, especially as
AI demand pushes prices even higher. But at the same time, China is pulling in
the opposite direction. Beijing is now requiring chipmakers to use at least 50%
domesticallymade equipment when expanding their manufacturing capacity,
forcing fabs to choose local tools even when foreign options could offer a
cheaper solution. But are the chips still domestic if they're made by
foreign machines?
Hey, remember solar freaking roadways?
No. That's okay, cuz now we have
charging freaking roadways. Florida is building a highway that can wirelessly
charge EVs while you drive. Yes,
charging freaking roadways. A stretch of State Road 516 will have inductive
charging coils underneath the asphalt, delivering up to 200 kW to compatible
cars as they roll along. It's meant to extend range, not fully charged
vehicles, but it could definitely be a step in the right direction. Will it
work? Maybe. [music] Will it be wildly expensive and only
support a handful of cars at first? Abso freaking lutul. CHARGING FREAKING
ROADWAYS, MAN. Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a
tiny flexible under scalp implant that
could help restore lost senses by shining patterned light directly through
the skull into the brain, which is something you can do. Apparently, the
wireless device avoids drilling into the brain and has already helped mice
relearn how to interpret sensory signals. It sounds fantastic as long as
there's some sort of failsafe to prevent a pickle Rick situation. And Atlas Data
Storage announced what it called the world's first scalable DNA data storage
offering earlier this month. The system can pack up to 60 pabytes per liter of
gene carrying juice and could last for thousands of years. Sounds like
something Chad GBD just came up with, but okay. Unfortunately, encoding and
decoding data using the four chemical bases in DNA isn't really cheap or fast.
Sequencing currently costs around $30 per roughly 250 GB and takes significant
time. So, it won't be replacing tape at scale for years. Still, it's pretty
cool. Soon, we'll be living in less of a cyberpunk dystopia and more of a bioci
genetically engineered dystopia. That's exciting. You know what else is
exciting? That there's going to be more tech news on Friday. So, you should come
back then. Happy New Year, everyone. We'll see you in 2026. Heck, depending
on where you live, we might already be seeing you in 2026. Have they solved the
RAM crisis yet over there? [laughter] Haha. Let me know.