WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.560 Do not get this twisted. We've got some high-quality tech news for you today. However, 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:10.960 I am saving my bandwidth for CES next week, so I will just calmly state this is today's intro bit. 00:00:11.600 --> 00:00:17.920 Thank you. Grock, the edgiest chatbot, decided the best way to start off the new year was by generating 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:23.360 sexualized images of minors following a lapse in its safety systems. 00:00:23.360 --> 00:00:28.240 Now the worst kind of Twitter users were apparently able to get Grock to bypass filters 00:00:28.240 --> 00:00:33.600 that are supposed to block this kind of content entirely, despite those filters having never 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:40.000 been successful at preventing Grock from generating incredibly weird, heinous sh** constantly in the 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:46.000 past. XAI says the issue has been fixed and the safeguards tightened, but that is not exactly 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:51.760 comforting. When the failure was, oops, we released some CSAM, it's almost like having a 00:00:51.760 --> 00:00:57.040 not-safe-for-work spicy mode on one of the world's most prominent social media platforms 00:00:57.040 --> 00:01:02.720 is maybe not the best idea. Now these incidents capped off a week of complaints after people 00:01:02.720 --> 00:01:09.600 realized that any degenerate can ask Twitter's resident Goonbot to neutify every photo ever 00:01:09.600 --> 00:01:14.400 tweeted directly in the replies to said tweet. But there's nothing we can do guys, you know, 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:21.440 this is just the world we live in now. Instagram CEO Adam Massari says that AI slop is so common 00:01:21.440 --> 00:01:27.600 it may be more practical to label real content instead of labeling fake content. That's right, 00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:31.680 apparently there's so much AI generated slop that it's outnumbering the real people who just 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:35.840 want to show us important stuff like their Warhammer collections. I want to see those, 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:42.000 if they're real. In fact, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is now blogging about how maybe we don't 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:47.040 even need to call it AI slop now, because maybe that hurts some people's feelings who have put 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:52.560 mind-boggling amounts of money into tools that let people make that stuff you're calling slop. 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:58.480 Think about how those people maybe might feel. ASUS has reportedly told partners that it won't 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:04.480 release any new Zen phone or ROG Android phones in 2026, but says it's not abandoning phones 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:10.080 entirely and will keep supporting existing models. Reports indicate the pause is driven by weak sales 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:15.200 and tough market conditions, with ASUS framing it as a temporary step back rather than a full 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:20.800 exit from smartphones. Our writers told me that they didn't even know ASUS made phones until today, 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:26.080 so this must be tragic news for the five of you watching this on your ROG phone. 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:32.240 Does kind of explain the weak sales, though. In more phone news, Weibo tipster Smart Chip Insider, 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:39.600 he sounds like he knows a lot, claims LPDDR6 RAM could be about 20% more expensive than the 00:02:39.600 --> 00:02:44.960 previous generation standard, meaning only the most premium 2026 Android flagships, 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:52.160 and likely just the 16GB variants, will bother using it while everyone else will stick with LPDDR5X. 00:02:52.160 --> 00:03:00.240 Well, Smart Chip Insider? I want some smarter chips inside my phones. You know what I'm saying? 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:05.520 The phone market is a mess, but there is a glimmer of hope. A report out of South Korea indicates 00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:12.560 Samsung looks set to keep Galaxy S26 prices the same as the S25 lineup, a relief for 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:19.200 buyers. However, the phones aren't expected to see any significant upgrades to battery capacity, 00:03:19.200 --> 00:03:23.840 which I'll take. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, even if that horse is the same horse from 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:29.120 last year was just a slightly different saddle. The horse cost the same in this economy? Leaked 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:34.720 PlayStation 5 ROM keys have exposed a foundational piece of the console's security, potentially 00:03:34.720 --> 00:03:40.320 enabling early, hardware-level jail breaks that Sony can't patch with software updates. 00:03:40.320 --> 00:03:44.720 The best part? This all started with some guy who just really wanted to play Beat Saber with 00:03:44.720 --> 00:03:50.480 custom songs. Security researcher Smash Stacking noticed the console version of Beat Saber 00:03:50.480 --> 00:03:55.760 didn't support community tracks. So rather than simply swapping to PC like a normal person, 00:03:55.760 --> 00:04:01.680 he spent months attempting to reverse engineer the PS5, eventually presenting his discovery of 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:07.200 multiple exploits on stage at the Chaos Communication Congress conference. 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:11.440 While he didn't name the console he was working with during his presentation, 00:04:11.440 --> 00:04:17.520 a set of boot ROM signing keys quietly appeared online soon afterward. If they turn out to be 00:04:17.520 --> 00:04:23.760 valid, they could allow researchers to decrypt and study Sony's bootloader, a permanent crack in 00:04:23.760 --> 00:04:30.160 the security chain for the PS5 akin to the PlayStation 3's infamous signing key failure. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:36.320 Days later, developer Gazine Dev made a Twitter post demonstrating a potential jailbreak method 00:04:36.320 --> 00:04:40.960 using Star Wars Racer Revenge, a somewhat rare and forgotten PS4 game. 00:04:41.520 --> 00:04:45.920 Running code from the physical copy of the game appears to trigger a debug mode 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:51.760 on the PS5, meaning that as of right now this is the most promising potential jailbreak path yet 00:04:51.760 --> 00:04:57.200 for the console and instantly it caused resale prices for that game to explode online. 00:04:57.200 --> 00:05:02.400 Now this method is still in the early stages and nothing has been made publicly available yet, 00:05:02.400 --> 00:05:06.640 but no doubt the seven or eight people in the world who would be able to actually make something 00:05:06.640 --> 00:05:11.360 using these leaks and hide their tracks well enough to avoid getting sued into oblivion by Sony, 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:19.120 see this is a huge win! We are not bringing the Quickbits to Vegas with us. Not after what happened 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:26.000 last time. Pebble has revived its round-faced smartwatch with a new Pebble Round 2, a slim 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:31.600 $200 watch with a 1.3-inch color e-paper screen up to two weeks of battery life, basic health 00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:37.280 tracking and voice features available to not pre-order now for a May release. It drops things 00:05:37.280 --> 00:05:42.960 like a heart rate sensor to stay affordable, but keeps the classic Pebble vibe, thin stainless 00:05:42.960 --> 00:05:48.400 steel build and iOS and Android compatibility focusing on simplicity and nostalgia over high-end 00:05:48.400 --> 00:05:52.320 features. I mean even if you don't really care about Pebble, we've already taken the time to 00:05:52.320 --> 00:05:57.600 learn the difference between Pebble, Rebel, Repebble, etc. So it's worth pointing out that hey, 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:04.800 there's a new old watch coming its round! Brand new New York Mayor Zaron Mamdani banned Flipper Zero 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:11.680 and Raspberry Pi devices at his inauguration, but the interesting part isn't quite what was banned, 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:16.960 it's how. These weren't listed as categories like wireless tools or computers, they were 00:06:16.960 --> 00:06:23.360 singled out by brand name right next to weapons and drones. The Flipper Zero ban is at least 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:27.920 kind of understandable given its reputation, but Raspberry Pi is literally just a tiny 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:31.200 general-purpose computer. Maybe they thought it was made out of fruit and they were going 00:06:31.200 --> 00:06:37.360 by airline rules? I don't know. California has launched a new delete request and opt-out platform, 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:43.520 aka drop, which lets residents submit a single request to more than 500 data brokers to delete 00:06:43.520 --> 00:06:48.080 their personal information like email, phone number, and other sensitive details. The state says 00:06:48.080 --> 00:06:54.400 the tool, which went live January 1st under the California Delete Act, it just sounds like you're 00:06:54.400 --> 00:06:59.120 trying to delete the state, aims to give people more control over their privacy and could help 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:04.480 reduce spam and fraud, though brokers don't have to start processing these requests until later 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:09.520 in 2026. Now I genuinely think this is cool, I've said it before, but I find it very telling that 00:07:09.520 --> 00:07:15.040 the state most concerned with your cybersecurity is also the one that houses all of the data-hungry 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:20.400 big tech companies. California understands the mind of the psychopath because they are the asylum. 00:07:20.400 --> 00:07:27.520 A UK company, Spaceforge, fired up a furnace in a mini-satellite that can reach up to 1,000 degrees 00:07:27.520 --> 00:07:34.720 Celsius to test making semiconductors in space where the microgravity and vacuum let impurities 00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:40.880 naturally separate, producing purer chips than on Earth, theoretically. Now the furnace got a ride 00:07:40.880 --> 00:07:46.080 from a SpaceX rocket up into orbit in June and it's a milestone because it's a step towards 00:07:46.080 --> 00:07:52.240 orbital manufacturing for ultra clean tech materials with bigger space fabs and re-entry tests 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:57.120 planned in the future. Because it's not safe having all the fabs in the chip manufacturing 00:07:57.120 --> 00:08:03.840 just in Taiwan, put it up in space that way no one can get to it. And some tech startups 00:08:03.840 --> 00:08:08.560 have apparently decided the best way to boost productivity isn't better tools or fewer meetings. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:15.440 No, it's free nicotine pouches. Reports have emerged of a trend where offices stock fridges 00:08:15.440 --> 00:08:21.760 and vending machines with sesh pouches, pitched as a focus aid for developers grinding through long 00:08:22.640 --> 00:08:29.360 AI assisted work days. Doctors are unsurprisingly not thrilled, pointing out that nicotine is still 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:34.800 addictive even if it skips the smoke. What? I thought I was addicted to the clouds. But hey, 00:08:34.800 --> 00:08:40.560 if coffee and soylent had a baby, it would be like this. Guess nerds need some lip dinner too. 00:08:40.560 --> 00:08:45.040 I'll tell you what though, I might need some kind of stimulant to get through next week when 00:08:45.040 --> 00:08:49.600 ses happens. We're gonna have a new episode every day of the week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:54.000 Thursday, Friday. So we'll see how that goes. Come back on Monday. We'll find out.