Tech news. Gotcha. Don't do the blood. It's gross. Images of the Xbox branded
handheld known as Project Kennon have leaked and so have images of the ASUS
ROG Ally 2. Coincidence? I think
not because it looks like they're just
the same device. An Indonesian regulatory listing for the handheld was
first spotted by 91 Mobiles and then connected to an FCC listing which
included photos of white and black variants of the devices taken by someone
who is apparently trying to disguise them by making them look as gross as
possible. I hope this person gets medical attention soon because they
appear to suffer from a condition that makes their fingers sweat dust. The
leaked listings also revealed one variant has a Ryzen Z2 chip with 16 gigs
of memory and another has a Z2 Extreme with 32 gigs. Jez Cordon at Windows
Central, who was first to get the word out about Project Canon, thinks we may
learn more about both of these devices at Computex. And I am looking forward to
it because despite looking like just black and white variants of the same
device, the black one pretty clearly has an Xbox button, while the white one does
not. Uh, now old Jez also claimed a
proper firstparty Xbox handheld is coming in 2027 alongside a new
traditional console, but these handhelds are probably both just going to run
Windows. So, what are they? Uh, Xbox
PCs, which is a thing now apparently. Ah, we'll just have to wait to find out
whether these devices are two sides of the same coin or ju just one side of a
of a one-sided coin. Microsoft officially announced two new
Surface devices, a 13-in Surface Laptop and 12in Surface Pro that are a bit
cheaper than the existing 13.8 in laptop and 13-in Pro because uh they're worse.
Both devices are only available with 8 core Snapdragon X Plus chips and don't
have magnetic Surface Connect charging ports anymore. They both come with a
decent 16 gigs of RAM, which is good uh because it's the only option. The 13-in
laptop starts at 900 USD, while the 12-in Surface Pro starts at 800 instead
of 940 for the 13-in, but its keyboard
lies flat now instead of ergonomically popping up. And the keyboard also can't
be used as storage for the Surface Slim Pen, which now sticks to the back of the
tablet like a hastily hidden piece of gum. But don't worry if you lose it
because it popped off while shoving your expensive device into your backpack.
It's super easy to purchase replacements on the Microsoft store where the
keyboard still costs an extra 150 bucks
and you can pick up a 45 watt charger for $70 if you maybe, you know, need to
charge your laptop for some reason. That launch video sure was fun though,
Microsoft. Kudos for that. A New York Magazine article has gotten some
traction for describing how for many students, university is now basically a
place to test their ability to use AI. The article partially follows Roy Lee,
the guy behind that AI app that promises to help you cheat at everything, except
the use case explicitly shown in their ad, which maybe says something about the
critical thinking development that is being missed by these students using AI
to write large chunks of their essays for them. Like this student who is asked
by writer James D. Walsh, if she recognizes the irony in depending so
heavily on AI to write her paper, which is about school hindering students
cognitive ability to think critically. She acknowledges the risk, but then
essentially says there's no putting the genie back in this bottle. Okay, this
university crisis has been covered for years at this point, but nothing seems
to have significantly changed. possibly because at least in North America, we're
kind of in a crisis over what university is for and what it should look like.
Many go to college just looking for a rubber stamp so they can get a better
job. A job that verified Twitter accounts are constantly saying will be
gone soon along with our critical thinking skills. But hey, at least we
made some funny AI memes along the
way. That's what it's all about. And our
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business. I'll have quick bits dry,
shaken up, and don't stir it around. I'm not really a big bond guy. I
don't know what the NVIDIA has revealed. The official release date of the RTX
5060, May 19th. Just don't hold your
breath because it's got 8 GB of VRAM and hardware unboxed found that the 8 GB
version of the RTX 560Ti performed worse
than the Intel Arc B580, which is much
cheaper. Thankfully, videocards.com spotted a listing for AMD's own 60 tier
card, the RX960 XT with 16 gigabytes of
VRAM, which is at least double
that of the number eight. In a time when
every company is upping prices, Intel has announced a $100 price cut for its
Core Ultra 7265K and KF desktop
processors, which was greeted by fans with cries of It should have been that
price when you launched it. Oh man, this
is the coolest thing since the Core 2 Duo. No, not the Intel processor. The
new smartwatch from Pebble creator Eric Migakovsky, which he showed off in a
podcast he called Tick tock. Spelled differently though. This guy's big into
stepping on other brands to NVIDIA and MediaTek may show off their ARMbased
Windows PC processor cenamed N1 at
Computex in miday. According to mysterious sources who spoke to German
outlet computer base, possibly in
German, but our team could not confirm that. A company
called Physical Intelligence has shown off household robots powered by their
new PI05 AI model, following spoken
instructions and successfully performing household tasks in several Airbnbs they
had never seen before. A use case I know is not in the Airbnb terms and
conditions. I'm suing. But to really be a part of the family, these bots will
need a sense of touch, which Amazon just added to their warehouse robots.
Although Amazon added it so they can feel pain and thus be punished properly
for missing their quota. It's a bit different. And researchers at Oregon
State University have discovered a new species of electrically conducting
bacteria they've called electrothri yakonensis.
Maybe we can use these to make better biomed devices or use them instead of
wires. Uh why? Look, I don't know. But it makes
more sense than electrocuting bugs into playing music. And you know what would
be music to my ears? You coming back here on Friday for more tech
news. I can almost hear it.
Nope, that's the bugs.