1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,360 The names news, tech news. And just like Bond's new video game, today's stories require hardware 2 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:09,920 that doesn't exist. Let's get into it. In a refreshing bout of corporate honesty, 3 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:16,160 Dell showed up to CES 2026 and basically said, our bad. First, head of product, Kevin Turwiggle, 4 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:23,040 Kevin admitted that people don't actually care about AI PCs, stating that it's become clear 5 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:28,640 that consumers are not buying based on AI. After a solid year of every tech company screaming 6 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:33,360 AI PC at us like a pack of seagulls fighting over French fries in a McDonald's dumpster, 7 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:38,160 Dell just stopped. Their CES briefing was described as the most pleasingly 8 00:00:38,160 --> 00:00:46,480 un-AI presentation in five years. Imagine that. A hardware company talking about actual hardware 9 00:00:46,480 --> 00:00:52,480 instead of chatbots. Second, remember when Dell killed the XPS brand last year and renamed everything 10 00:00:52,480 --> 00:00:58,080 Dell Premium? Well, everyone hated that. Sales tanked and the COO openly admitted the rebrand 11 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:05,200 was a mistake. So now XPS is back with a full redesign. The new XPS 14 and 16 are Dell's 12 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:11,200 thinnest laptops to date at 14.6 millimeters, sporting the Intel Panther Lake chips, 13 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:18,240 and they've gone all in on Intel Arc integrated graphics. No discrete GPU options at all. The 14 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:23,360 displays can drop to one hertz during static content, which lets them achieve a reported 15 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:30,320 27 hours of battery life. And they've shaved almost a full pound off the XPS 16. Prices for 16 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:36,560 these new laptops are starting at $2049 with the XPS 13 returning later this year at a lower price 17 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:45,600 point. They also dropped a huge 52-inch 6K ultra-wide monitor for $2,900 for when you need to look at 18 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:51,280 every single spreadsheet. All the spreadsheets. Wi-Fi 8 is apparently already here. While it 19 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:56,800 won't technically be fully released until 2028, companies are already showing off products using 20 00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:02,640 the new standard before everyone has even had the chance to adopt Wi-Fi 7. Leading the charge is ASUS 21 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:08,640 with their new ROG Neocore router concept. This weird D20-shaped AI router will apparently improve 22 00:02:08,640 --> 00:02:13,600 range and latency for gamers using Wi-Fi on their battle stations, and it boasts twice the data 23 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:18,080 throughput recorded with Wi-Fi 7. Can the AI part help me hit a nat 20 on a fumble rule? 24 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:24,160 Let's hope! Meanwhile, Xixel is already pitching Wi-Fi 8 to carriers and enterprise customers 25 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:30,080 with its AI-ready connectivity gear, with the goal of future-proofing clients years ahead of the new 26 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:35,600 rollout. Even the Silicon Makers are getting on the train early with MediaTek revealing its new 27 00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:41,280 FiLogic Wi-Fi 8 chips that likely will be seen in most of the network equipment that comes out 28 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:45,200 in the next few years. While the full benchmarks for these new standards haven't been fully released 29 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:49,920 yet, the big thing all these companies seem to be pushing is that the new generation is not going 30 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:55,600 to show a massive jump in network speeds. Instead, the focus is on the reliability benefits of the 31 00:02:55,600 --> 00:03:00,000 new spec. And honestly, if you're your family's resident tech expert this holiday season, 32 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,200 you might even trade some speed for increased reliability at this point. 33 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:11,760 CES storage news wasted zero time getting weird. Connor, the long-forgot 90s hard drive manufacturer 34 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:17,280 showed up with products that look nothing like traditional hard drives, including a phone backup 35 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:23,840 drive and a bizarre hybrid gadget that's part external drive and part 65-watt charger. It's 36 00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:29,920 kind of like a second computer that plugs into your computer to make it compute better. But it's a cube, 37 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:35,440 and you know, not a computer. Kind of weird. Right next to that, we get a glimpse of where 38 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:40,880 modern SSD design is heading, and it's surprisingly minimal. Micron unveiled the 3610, 39 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:49,920 making the industry's first PCIe 5.0 QLC SSD packing up to 4TB of storage into a tiny, 40 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:57,600 single-sided DRAM less M.2 drive that can still somehow push about 11GB per second. 41 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:02,080 It's an OEM-only model for now, but hey, if it's cheaper, then that's a win-win in my books. 42 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:06,960 That announcement pairs nicely with Fizen's new DRAM less Gen 5 storage controllers, 43 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:12,800 which reportedly offer big savings in power draw along with an 8TB capacity. 44 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:17,840 And then there's Hoem, the company best known for professional camera gimbals, casually dropping 45 00:04:17,840 --> 00:04:22,720 one of the most creator-focused drives at the show. Their new SSD-1 offers all the regular 46 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:28,160 things a USB drive normally would, but comes with an expandability option that the company says 47 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:34,400 marks the first time you can actually upgrade the storage on an external SSD. Another neat feature 48 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:39,600 is the dedicated microphone input, allowing for direct audio recording. Clearly this thing 49 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:43,200 is designed for people on the go. You know what? Kind of like our sponsor. 50 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,560 The first rule of QuickBits is that you're not allowed to talk about QuickBits. 51 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:51,760 The second rule of QuickBits is do not talk about QuickBits. But here's the QuickBits. 52 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:58,320 New rumors suggest NVIDIA is prepping to bring the RTX 3060 back into production in Q1 of 2026, 53 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:02,080 as memory shortages and sky-high prices refuse to calm down. 54 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:06,400 Adding credence to earlier board channel's claims that the company's supply of factory 55 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:12,320 new 3060s were running low. Funnily enough, this lines up nicely with what NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wong 56 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:18,080 said when asked by analysts about pricing pressure, floating the idea of resurrecting older GPUs 57 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:24,000 and maybe even backporting newer AI features to them instead of waiting on bleeding edge silicon. 58 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:29,760 AMD isn't immune either. During a CES Q&A, Ryzen chief David McAfee was asked directly 59 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:35,680 about soaring RAM costs and replied that reintroducing products back into the AM4 ecosystem 60 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:42,160 is something AMD is very actively working on. So if you missed buying those parts during the 2021 61 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:48,080 chip shortage, now's your chance. IO Interactive has unveiled the PC system requirements for their 62 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:53,760 upcoming James Bond game 007 First Light. The intro makes sense now. And fans were shaken, 63 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:58,720 not stirred, to discover some of the listed hardware just doesn't exist. 64 00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:05,280 The minimum specs called for an Intel Core i5-9500K, which Intel just never made. 65 00:06:05,280 --> 00:06:11,600 There is an i5-9500, sure, but there's no K variant. Meanwhile, the recommended spec 66 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:19,120 demanded a RTX 3060 Ti with 12GB of VRAM. Except that card only came with 8GB. 67 00:06:19,840 --> 00:06:26,400 Even setting aside the phantom parts, these specs are pretty brutal. 32GB of RAM and 12GB 68 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:32,960 of VRAM just to hit 1080p 60fps. But at this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if you need to get one 69 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:38,320 of NVIDIA's new Ruben supercomputers with some of those goo pods from the Matrix as a power supply. 70 00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:43,520 Luckily, the game doesn't launch until May 27th. And at the rate that Tesla, Unitry, and NVIDIA are 71 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:48,640 hurtling us towards Matrix dystopia territory, we might be getting those pods sooner than you think. 72 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:55,360 Elon Musk's XAI is having a bit of a week. Governments across the UK, EU, France, India, 73 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:59,440 Brazil, and Malaysia have all launched investigations after researchers found 74 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:04,800 Grok was generating thousands of deep fakes an hour, including images of miners. 75 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:09,760 These governments stated that it was illegal, appalling, and disgusting, calling for immediate 76 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:15,680 action with regards to improving safeguards on the chatbot. X's response? It was to threaten their 77 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:20,800 users. The company released a statement saying that anyone prompting illegal content will face 78 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:24,960 consequences without giving any details on how they plan to improve safeguards. 79 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:28,880 As this rolling train wreck continues, Musk announced that Tesla will build its own 80 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:33,440 2nm chip fab, claiming that way for isolation meant traditional clean rooms were 81 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:38,800 unnecessary and promising to eat a cheeseburger and smoke a cigar inside of their new facility. 82 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:43,760 We here at TechLink look forward to witnessing him destroy a $60 billion machine the same way I 83 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:49,200 destroyed my 1997 Honda Civic back in high school by hotboxing it and dropping a Big Mac into the 84 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:54,400 transmission. Samsung is in hot water after a Texas court issued a restraining order, 85 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:59,120 blocking the company from allegedly using automated content recognition to capture 86 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:04,960 screenshots from smart TVs without proper consent. The lawsuit claims Samsung TVs could 87 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:09,840 grab screenshots multiple times per second and monetize viewing habits through ads. 88 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:15,440 This comes after a string of lawsuits towards other major TV brands for spying on Texans, 89 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:20,560 although those lawsuits didn't end up with restraining orders. Except for Hisense, they got 90 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:25,440 one. Samsung hearing is on the 9th with the actual order expiring on the 19th, meaning that the 91 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:31,360 company has only two days to get on up over to Texas and lawyer up to explain why their TVs are 92 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:37,360 seemingly watching themselves. It's the year of the keyboard to duck in at CES because these 93 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:44,560 keys are stuffed. Corsair unveiled the Galleon 100SD edition, a mechanical keyboard with a full 94 00:08:44,560 --> 00:08:51,840 5-inch stream deck LCD built right in, plus 8K polling and dual rotary dials. Keychron also dropped 95 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:58,400 their Q Ultra series with 660 hours of battery life and also 8K polling. Because you know, 96 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:03,200 you need a keyboard to be able to play your 9 or 10 consecutive playthroughs of Baldur's Gate 3, 97 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:09,360 HP responded with the Elite 4 G1A, a full Windows 11 PC crammed into a keyboard. 98 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:14,000 It's got an AMD Ryzen AI 300 chip, 50 plus tops of MPU performance, 99 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:19,920 upgradeable RAM and storage, and Wi-Fi 7. CES gave it an innovation award for finally making 100 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:25,360 computers portable. Let's ignore the laptops, of course, and many PCs, and you know what, 101 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:29,120 ignore the Raspberry Pi's too. And that's the tech news. If you need me, I'm going to be hunting 102 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:34,880 down an RTX 3060 Ti with 12GB of VRAM. Dr. No and Goldfinger must have teamed up to steal the 103 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:40,800 world's supply. Money penny, start my 1997 Honda Civic and get me my Big Mac.