Nvidia’s New Chips’ Meta Adds Teleprompter & Virtual Writing to it’s Ray-Bans; Roborock Robot Vacuums Climb Stairs; Free AT&T WiFi on American Airlines

Posted: January 6, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Nvidia’s latest greatest Rubin computing architecture was announced at CES by CEO Jensen Huang. Techcrunch.com reports that the system is now in production and will ramp up further this year. Huang told CES attendees “Vera Rubin is designed to address this fundamental challenge that we have: The amount of computation necessary for AI is skyrocketing.” Huang told the audience. “Today, I can tell you that Vera Rubin is in full production.” The Rubin architecture replaces the Blackwell architecture Nvidia has as the top tier for AI. The system is designed to address a bottleneck in AI computing…it introduces an ew tier of storage that connects externally to the compute device, and allows users to scale their storage pool more efficiently. This Rubin system runs three and a half times after than the Blackwell on training tasks and five times after on inference tasks. It is also more thrifty when it comes to electricity use. 

Meta showed a couple of cool features at CES that it is adding to its Ray-Ban Display glasses. According to theverge.com, users are getting an option to text on their glasses without the use of their phone or keyboard. As long as they have the Meta Neural band on their wrist, they can wrote on any surface…a desk top, your leg, whatever is handy. The feature will work with WhatsApp and Messenger. The Display glasses are also getting a new teleprompter feature…that lets users copy notes from their phone into customizable text cards that display on the glasses. The Neural Band is used again here…to navigate through the cards. The teleprompter feature is getting a phased rollout this week.

One knock on robot vacuums is that they aren’t as handy for homes with stairs. Well, that is about to change with Roborocks new Robot Vacuums. Bgr.com notes that The Roborock Saros Rover is a demo item so far, but the company showed it off at CES…not only climbing stairs, but sliding down a ramp, jumping, and even dancing! The company says the final release date and list of features…to say nothing of price…are ‘to be announced.’  Well-heeled people with stairs who would love to automate vacuuming are doing a happy dance!

Free AT&T WiFi will be available on every American Airlines flight later this year. Androidauthority.com reports that in order to get the freebie, you will need to sign  up for American’s AAdvantage loyalty program. It is high speed, satellite-based WiFi. Delta and United already have high speed WiFi on board, via partnerships with T-Mobile and Starlink. So far, American has 900 mainline aircraft fitted with the high speed WiFi…they claim they will have more satellite-equipped aircraft than any other carrier when finished equipping the fleet. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Samsung-Google Gemini AI to 800 Mil. Galaxys; Alexa Plus Website Now Open to All; Kodiak Incorporates Bosch Tech for Self-Driving Semi-Trucks; Anker Smart Lock Uses Face ID

Posted: January 5, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

A big announcement from Samsung Co-CEO TM Roh at CES…and not about a specific device. Androidheadlines.com reports that the CEO says the company will double the number of Gemini-powered mobile devices it makes this year, bringing the total to 800 million. Samsung is adding these features to TVs and home appliances as well. The “Galaxy AI” brand is known by 80% of consumers. But there is a global memory chip shortage that could cause prices for smartphones and other electronics to go up in 2026. With the majority of Samsung smartphones featuring Google’s Galaxy AI, and with Apple now going with Google as well, that means about 80% of smartphones will be running Google’s Galaxy AI. This should send shock waves through the halls of OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, Anthropic…maker of Claude, and at Microsoft too. I will go out on a limb and say I won’t be surprised if an antitrust suit gets filed by Google’s competitors over this. Apple can point out that they have used ChatGPT and find Google to be better…will that fly? We won’t know for a while…but if a suit is filed, I called it.

A few users have already gotten Alexa Plus, but now it is officially available to anyone under an early access program. According to theverge.com, you can sign up at alexa.com and start using the new web interface for Amazon’s new AI chatbot. The Plus is baked in on all new Echo devices and as an update to older ones. As with a number of AI tasks, it is still much easier and faster to use a keyboard and mouse or trackpad to the task than trying to get the chatbot to do it via voice commands. Here’s a cool feature though. You can upload documents, email, and images to the Alexa Plus website, and the AI will pull out important info for you. It can automatically add appointments to your calendar, or spit out your kids’ activity schedules or grocery lists. 

Self-driving truck company Kodiak AI is partnering with Bosch on a system of hardware and software that can be fitted to standard big rigs and give them autonomous driving capabilities. TechCrunch.com notes that Kodiak has already developed and designed a self-driving system with redundant systems for braking, steering, sensors, and computers. In January 2025, Kodiak’s self-driving trucks began making driverless deliveries for Atlas Energy Solutions in the oil-rich Permian Basin of West Texas and eastern New Mexico. So far, Kodiak has delivered 8 self-driving trucks out of an order of 100 to Atlas. The Bosch deal is intended to turn semi trucks — regardless of manufacturer — into driverless ones. Bosch will supply Kodiak with a variety of hardware components, including sensors and vehicle actuation components such as steering technologies. 

A flood of new items and announcements flowing out from the CES…Consumer Electronics Show this week. Macrumors.com reports that Anker has dropped a number of new products under its Eufy and Soundcore brands. One of interest is a $300 Matter-enabled smart lock…the E40. Now, there are plenty of smart locks, and some that use your fingerprint or your nearby smartphone to unlock your door. This one integrates with Apple Home, and uses a cam for a face scan using Apple’s Face ID. The cam also doubles as a security camera, and has night vision and wide-angle coverage. I haven’t upgraded my smart lock in years, but this one is tempting.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

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