Samsung Semiconductor has just announced its new 5nm Exynos 2100, the latest and greatest SoC to do battle with Qualcomm, and the processor that will power the company’s upcoming Galaxy S21 series in many regions.
“Let me explain…”:
In the hand, though:
🍎 Apple is revealing …something this morning, with Tim Cook appearing on CBS morning TV with Gayle King to talk about something “bigger and better” than a product announcement, and related to a new initiative. Speculation is it’s something COVID-19 or vaccination-related, rather than anything new with iOS or services. One thought doing the rounds: Apple stores become vaccination sites? Apple Wallet storing proof of vaccination information in a useful way? Who knows. Anyway, you’ll see it on CBS This Morning …this morning (Twitter).
🍏 Also, Apple held talks with EV startup Canoo in 2020, as the “secretive” push into EVs gets a little less secretive. The detail is that Apple was interested in the scalable EV platform (The Verge).
📲 Leaked Oppo Find X3 Pro images show the phone’s ‘microscope’ camera (Android Authority).
🆕 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 announced, offers Ampere power for $329, and the RTX 30 series is coming to laptops as well (Android Authority).
💻 CES 2021 Day 2: Acer launches five new laptops, including refreshed Predators and more (Android Authority).
🍟 A wrap of what’s new from Intel and AMD at CES 2021 (Android Authority).
📦 Nvidia and AMD address the great GPU shortage, and there’s not a lot of great news (The Verge).
🚁 GM surprises with Cadillac eVTOL air taxi at CES 2021 (CNET).
😷 N95 masks, gamer style: Razer’s crazy face-mask prototype revealed (Ars Technica).
📺 I missed this yesterday: new LG 2021 TVs will integrate Stadia and GeForce Now, as the step towards gaming natively within smart TVs (and eventually, no console hardware?) continues, arriving mid-2021 (TechCrunch).
🎧 Anker takes aim at Apple’s AirPods Pro with the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro (Android Authority).
🦊 Mozilla brings its VPN to Mac and Linux, for $5/month (Engadget).
👕 Facebook has asked employees for caution by not wearing company-branded clothing or logos in public due to the risk of incidents or attacks due to the political crisis (The Information).
💳 VISA is calling off the $5.3B Plaid acquisition after the DOJ pushed back, as Plaid stays private and enormously important for fintech. Future: IPO? SPAC target? (TechCrunch).
⛓ The old story of people losing access to their stash of Bitcoins is back and freshly told in this Times piece, and you really have to feel sorry for some people. I lost some Bitcoin too when formatting a laptop! (NY Times).
🌆 Just in case you thought Elon Musk was the only person investing in a wild future and possibly not quite investing enough in the issues we face right now like greenhouse warming: Saudi Crown Prince asks and answers: What if a city, but it’s a 105-mile line? Called THE LINE, it is truly unusual and perfect for Weirdness Wednesday but I’ve popped it here (Gizmodo).
♨ “My quest to survive quarantine—in heated clothes”: “When I take the dog for a walk, the heated clothes are unusual enough to elicit questions from strangers, but I dream of a world where heated gear is a household staple rather than a novelty. It rules.” (Wired).
WandaVision is coming to Disney Plus this Friday, and WandaVision is going to be weird.
WandaVision, featuring an unlikely coupling between “a chaos magician and a density-changing synthezoid” is Marvel’s first new content in 2021, ahead of a raft of superhero titles including Hawkeye, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, She-Hulk, and Ms Marvel.
But WandaVision is being presented as Marvel Studios first classic 90s sitcom TV, complete with half-hour episodes, and the first show will be in black and white, with a studio audience and 4:3 screen ratio. One show will be like the Brady Bunch. Another like Malcolm In The Middle. I have no idea if those are good things, but it sounds like there’s enough backing to make it work.
Some quotes:
Anyway, there’s plenty of MCU related stuff in the read, so if you’re into that, it’s a rich vein.
Cheers,
Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor