WEBVTT

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tech tech tech. How to take it out. What, what's that all about?

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Well, I'm gonna tell you. NVIDIA GPUs could be getting

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some imminent price hikes with one report citing claims from industry insiders

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that some variants of the RTX 5090 could end up retailing for nearly $5,000

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as soon as January 2026, a month in which many of you

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are currently already living. Comment below with how your 2026 is going so far.

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This alleged cost increase is almost certainly thanks

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to skyrocketing DRAM costs. RAM makes up a huge chunk of a graphics card's price.

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Now, I don't know if the 5,000 number is accurate,

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but the RTX 5090 launched at a $2,000 MSRP,

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and it's already hard to find anywhere under 3,000,

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which is so, so sad for the people just trying to scrape enough together

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to buy the most powerful gaming GPU on the planet. But it's becoming pretty clear

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that price hikes on PC components outside of just RAM and SSDs are inbound.

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For example, in a leaked letter to their partners, ASUS is saying they'll raise prices

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on at least some products, starting on January 5th, 2026.

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The letter indicates that memory and storage components are so expensive and scarce, scarce, scarce,

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that ASUS can no longer absorb the cost.

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They'd like to absorb some more of your money instead.

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Wait a minute, January 5th, that's the first day of the Consumer Electronics Show

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in Las Vegas, where this year, all the keynotes are just gonna be guys

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walking on stage to be like,

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welcome. Same shit, but more expensive. Woo, come on, please clap.

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AI, but actually I take it back

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because some companies are starting to pre-announce

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some of the fun and wacky tech they'll show off at CES,

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as is tradition. GameSir is teasing a wireless Swift Drive controller

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with a tiny steering wheel built right into the pad

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that provides force feedback effects for racing games, like the Namco JogCon PlayStation controller

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from back in 1998. Finally, I can drive virtual cars in modern games,

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just like I do real cars, with both my thumbs in the middle of the wheel.

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Wait, whoa, watch out, you mess with the nerd, you get the horns.

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GameSir also showed off a full-on wireless wheel

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and pedal set with its own Turbine fan to simulate airflow and haptic effects

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for total and complete immersion. Meanwhile, one netbook teased the new 1X Sugar Wallet,

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an eight-inch gaming handheld with a folding OLED screen

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powered by a Qualcomm Gaming Platform flagship processor,

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my favorite type of Qualcomm Gaming Platform processor.

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Price and launch details are still up in the air, but I'm into that thing.

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It's like the handheld that could've been if Sony and Nintendo ended up working together after all

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in the good timeline. Utopia.

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Speaking of Nintendo, Epilogue has shown off the SN operator,

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a USB connected dock that lets you plug your old Super Nintendo cartridges

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straight into a PC, Mac, or Steam Deck,

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and then play or archive them digitally with saved backups and emulator support built in.

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It's 60 bucks US and supposedly ships in April, which is great news for cartridge owners

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who don't wanna fiddle with the DIY archiving kits

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out there. The not so great news, Nintendo may still find a way to sue your ass.

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They are just not as cool as our sponsor. You might know the quick bits

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for their contributions to tech news, but they're also amazing battle wrappers.

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Hey, they have a show tonight. You should, oh, it's already over.

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Cause they're so quick. Another RX 9070 XT has suffered a burn injury

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on its 12 volt two by six power connector with Redditor Divine Threshold claiming it lasted a year

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before joining the extremely exclusive

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melted 12 volt connectors club. I'm jealous.

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But at least he got a year of gaming out of it, unlike the guy who ordered a GPU and got rocks instead.

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Some good news for him though. He finally got his RTX 5080 from Best Buy

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after he figured out the shipping weight somehow mysteriously increased during transit.

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To celebrate, he got a tattoo of the ASUS Tough logo

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on a pile of rocks. Not sure why you'd want to commemorate a shipping snafu

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in which someone stole an expensive item from you, but whatever sinks your boat.

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Game Store GOG is officially breaking out on its own.

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If that's what you call parent company CD Project Redd

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selling GOG to Michael Kacinski,

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the original co-founder of both GOG and CD Project Redd

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who is now an independent entrepreneur despite still holding many CD Project Redd shares.

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Anyway, the DRM free storefront says nothing is changing for users.

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That's the important part. Your library is safe, but big changes are coming.

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GOG is teasing more ambitious plans to revive classic PC games starting next year.

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Basically, it's the same good old GOG old games

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just readopted by its biological father who was only partially absent,

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but is now giving this whole full-time parenting thing a shot, I call that character growth.

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The US is giving Samsung and SK Hynex temporary permission to keep shipping chip making tools

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into their Chinese factories through 2026

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easing pressure after earlier export waivers were revoked.

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The goal is to reportedly keep memory production running in the short term,

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especially as AI demand pushes prices even higher.

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But at the same time, China is pulling in the opposite direction.

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Beijing is now requiring chip makers to use at least 50% domestically made equipment

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when expanding their manufacturing capacity, forcing fabs to choose local tools

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even when foreign options could offer a cheaper solution.

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But are the chips still domestic if they're made by foreign machines?

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Hey, remember solar freaking roadways? No, that's okay.

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Because now we have charging freaking roadways.

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Florida is building a highway that can wirelessly charge EVs while you drive.

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Yes, charging freaking roadways. A stretch of state road 516

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will have inductive charging coils underneath the asphalt

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delivering up to 200 kilowatts to compatible cars

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as they roll along. It's meant to extend range, not fully charged vehicles,

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but it could definitely be a step in the right direction. Will it work?

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Maybe. Will it be wildly expensive and only support a handful of cars at first?

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I have so fricking lulely. Charging freaking roadways, man!

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Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a tiny flexible under scalp implant

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that could help restore lost senses by shining patterned light

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directly through the skull into the brain, which is something you can do, apparently.

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The wireless device avoids drilling into the brain and has already helped mice

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relearn how to interpret sensory signals. It sounds fantastic,

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as long as there's some sort of fail-safe to prevent a pickle-rick situation.

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And Atlas Data Storage announced what it called

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the world's first scalable DNA data storage offering

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earlier this month. The system can pack up to 60 petabytes per liter

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of gene-carrying juice and could last for thousands of years.

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Sounds like something ChatGBD just came up with, but okay.

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Unfortunately, encoding and decoding data using the four chemical bases in DNA

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isn't really cheap or fast. Sequencing currently costs around $30

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per roughly 250 gigabytes and takes significant time.

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So it won't be replacing tape at scale for years.

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Still, it's pretty cool. Soon we'll be living in less of a cyberpunk dystopia

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and more of a bio-sci-fi, genetically engineered dystopia.

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That's exciting. You know what else is exciting? That there's gonna be more tech news on Friday.

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So you should come back then. Happy New Year, everyone. We'll see you in 2026.

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Heck, depending on where you live, we might already be seeing you in 2026.

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Have they solved the RAM crisis yet over there?

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Let me know.