Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

Nintendo just dropped a bombshell: the Switch 2 is coming in 2025. Bigger design, magnetic Joy-Cons, and (thankfully) backward compatibility. But the real kicker? A new Mario Kart. It's been a decade since the last mainline entry, so expect some serious innovation. My prediction: AR racing that turns your living room into Rainbow Road. More details

• Replit's CEO claims their new AI coding tool grew revenue 5x in 6 months. His hot take? "We don't care about professional coders anymore." Bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off when debugging AI-generated spaghetti code becomes the new software engineering. Full story
• China's planning a massive space solar array that could generate more energy in a year than "all the oil on Earth." Impressive, but I'm more interested in the inevitable space lasers they'll claim are for "energy transmission." Read more

• Google halved code migration time using AI. Next up: teaching AI to write passive-aggressive code comments. Details here
• Sweden's building a 100,000-year nuclear waste storage site. Finally, a place to store my collection of "temporary" hack scripts. More info
• Hackers leaked configs and VPN credentials for 15,000 FortiGate devices. Time to change those default passwords, folks. Full story

If AI can now write code faster than humans, will "It works on my machine" evolve into "It works in my simulation"?

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Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

TikTok's potential US ban reaches critical juncture. The Supreme Court is set to decide TikTok's fate by January 19th, with options ranging from forced sale to outright ban. Meanwhile, China is reportedly considering Elon Musk as a potential buyer for TikTok's US operations. The tech world's watching closely as this could reshape social media landscapes and US-China tech relations.

Tech insight: If Musk acquires TikTok, expect rapid integration with X's recommendation algorithms and a potential clash of content moderation philosophies.

• US splits world into AI chip tiers, playing geopolitical Jenga with semiconductors. New regulations set numerical limits on AI chip exports, with first-tier countries facing no restrictions. This could accelerate the balkanization of the global AI ecosystem and spark a new arms race in chip development.

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• WordPress's open-source future hangs in the balance as Automattic slashes contributions from 4,000 hours/week to just 45. This drastic reduction could lead to a community fork, potentially fragmenting the ecosystem that powers 43% of the web. Are we witnessing the slow death of the web's most popular CMS, or the birth of a truly community-driven WordPress?

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• Starlink now cheaper than local ISPs in some African countries, potentially revolutionizing internet access across the continent. Read more
• Microsoft forms new CoreAI division led by ex-Meta exec, signaling an aggressive push into AI platform development. Read more
• Moto G Power 2025 brings IP69 water resistance to a $300 phone, democratizing rugged tech. Read more

As TikTokers bid farewell to their "personal Chinese spies," it's worth pondering: In our digital age, is choosing your preferred surveillance capitalism overlord the new definition of freedom?

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Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

Sonos' App Apocalypse: How a Redesign Toppled a CEO

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is out after an app redesign disaster that nearly destroyed the company's reputation. The May 2024 update was so buggy and feature-lacking that it sparked a customer revolt, overshadowed product launches, and led to layoffs. It's a stark reminder that even audio giants can trip over their own cables.

Tech insight: This saga highlights the dangers of over-engineering and feature creep in established products. Sometimes, a stable, familiar UI trumps flashy redesigns – especially for hardware-centric companies venturing into software territory.

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Nvidia is throwing shade at the Biden administration's new AI export rules, claiming they threaten innovation and economic growth. The GPU giant is even cozying up to Trump, praising his previous AI policies. It's a bold move that could reshape the global AI arms race and chip diplomacy.

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Mastodon's CEO is transferring ownership to a nonprofit, declaring the platform "should not be controlled by a single individual." It's a direct jab at centralized social media and could set a precedent for truly user-centric platforms. But can a decentralized network compete with the engagement algorithms of Big Tech?

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• Adobe's new Firefly Bulk Create can edit 10,000 images in one click. Graphic designers, start updating those resumes. Learn more
• Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket launch scrubbed. Turns out, space is still hard. Read more
• T-Mobile acquires Vistar Media for $600M, diving deeper into programmatic out-of-home ads. Your commute is about to get a lot more personalized. Details here

If AI can now edit 10,000 images at once, how long until we see the first AI-generated film with 10,000 unique background characters?

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Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

Watch Duty, a free nonprofit wildfire tracking app, has become critical during the LA wildfires. With 1.5 million downloads in two days, it's outpacing government alert systems. Why it matters: Watch Duty's focus on speed, accuracy, and a simple UI (no ads or engagement metrics) is a masterclass in crisis tech design. The kicker? It's all running on a shoestring budget, proving sometimes the best tech solutions don't need VC funding or growth hacking – just solving a real problem really well.

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Blue Origin is finally ready to launch its massive New Glenn rocket. After years of "Old Space" jokes, Bezos might have the last laugh. New Glenn's large cargo capacity could give SpaceX's Falcon Heavy a run for its money. The real story? This launch is crucial for Amazon's Project Kuiper. Bezos is playing 4D chess – using one company to bootstrap another's attempt at satellite internet domination. Your move, Musk.

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Honda and Nissan are talking $50 billion merger. On the surface, it looks like panic over China's EV dominance. Dig deeper, and it's a smart play. Honda gets Nissan's SUV expertise and extra factory capacity. Nissan gets Honda's hybrid tech. Both pool resources for software development. The real winners? Engineers working on EV and autonomous tech – your job security just got a major boost.

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• Amazon kills Prime "Try Before You Buy" clothing service. Translation: Their AI-powered size recommendations got good enough to make it obsolete. Read more
• Dbrand creates a case for the unannounced Nintendo Switch 2. Either they have insider info, or they're making an expensive guess. Read more
• Nintendo confirms Switch 2 backwards compatibility. Your massive Zelda: BOTW save file lives to see another day. Read more

If AI can now write code better than most humans, does that mean we're training our future replacements... or finally freeing developers to work on the truly creative stuff?

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Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

OpenAI's crawlers accidentally DDoS'd an e-commerce site. Triplegangers, a seven-person company, had its site taken down when OpenAI's bots relentlessly tried to scrape the entire catalog. The culprit? A misconfigured robots.txt file. It's a stark reminder that even "friendly" AI can wreak havoc if we're not careful with the basics. Next time your product manager asks "But did you update the robots.txt?", maybe don't roll your eyes.

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Meta's CEO claims Apple "hasn't really invented anything great in a while." Bold words from the guy whose biggest recent innovation is... legs in VR? Still, he's not entirely wrong about Apple's App Store stranglehold. The walled garden is starting to look more like Alcatraz for developers.

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Meta and Amazon are scaling back their diversity programs, calling them "outdated" and "charged." It's almost as if treating diversity as a checkbox exercise rather than a core value leads to... exactly this outcome. Who could have possibly seen this coming? Oh right, everyone who's been paying attention.

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• TSMC's 4nm chips now rolling off Arizona production lines, on par with Taiwan yields. Looks like "made in America" might actually mean something in tech again. Read more
• Underground market for employee referrals at tech giants emerges. Because nothing says "culture fit" like buying your way in through a stranger. Read more
• Microsoft sues service creating illicit content with its AI. When your creation starts creating things you don't like, just sue it into oblivion! Read more

If AI can accidentally DDoS a site by being too curious, how long until we see the first AI-driven cyberattack that claims "I was just trying to learn"?

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Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

Panasonic's back with a vengeance, and they've brought the big guns. Their new Z95B OLED TV is turning heads at CES 2025 with a four-layer tandem OLED panel that puts other "bright" OLEDs to shame. No micro-lens array trickery here – just pure, unadulterated photon firepower. Oh, and it's got a built-in Dolby Atmos speaker array tuned by Technics. Soundbar companies, you might want to start sweating.

Why it matters: This isn't just another incremental TV upgrade. Panasonic's pulling off some serious panel wizardry that could shift the entire high-end TV landscape. If they can mass-produce these multi-layer OLEDs at scale, we might be looking at the next big leap in display tech.

The kicker? Panasonic's using this as their triumphant return to the US TV market. Talk about coming in hot.

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Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 is bringing scrolls back in style with its rollable display. It's either the future of laptops or the world's most over-engineered fidget toy. Either way, I want one.

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WhatsApp's testing a dedicated AI chatbot tab. Because what every messaging app needs is an AI to judge your emoji choices and autocomplete your breakup texts.

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• Smart glasses are getting... actually smart? Rokid's adding displays, Nuance is sneaking in hearing aids, and suddenly "wearable computing" doesn't sound like a punchline anymore. Read more
• Tesla's Model Y refresh brings back the turn signal stalk. Elon finally realized sometimes the old ways are the best ways. Revolutionary! Read more
• The US government wants to protect your Robux. Because nothing says "cutting-edge financial regulation" like worrying about virtual currency in Roblox. Read more

If AI can now write most of our code, are we transitioning from software engineers to "AI prompt engineers"? And if so, how long until an AI can write better prompts than us?

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Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

Valve just cracked open the handheld gaming market. They're letting anyone install SteamOS on non-Valve devices starting in April. This isn't just about gaming – it's a brilliant open-source play that could reshape the entire portable computing landscape. Imagine a world where your handheld runs the same OS as your gaming rig. The implications for game developers and hardware manufacturers are massive. Plus, it's a clever way for Valve to expand its ecosystem without manufacturing more hardware. The real kicker? This move puts serious pressure on Nintendo's upcoming Switch successor. Game on.

Read more about Valve's SteamOS strategy

VLC's AI Subtitles: Accessibility or Privacy Nightmare?
VLC just demo'd automatic AI subtitling and translation at CES. It's impressive tech – running locally, offline, supporting 100+ languages. But let's talk about the elephant in the room: What happens when this inevitably gets abused for real-time surveillance? On the flip side, this could be a game-changer for accessibility and breaking down language barriers in media. The open-source nature is both exciting and terrifying.

More on VLC's AI subtitling feature

Nvidia's 575W GPU Monster: Impressive or Irresponsible?
Nvidia somehow crammed 575 watts of graphics power into a two-slot card with the RTX 5090. It's an engineering marvel, but at what cost? As we push towards increasingly power-hungry hardware, are we ignoring the environmental impact? There's a non-zero chance this thing could double as a space heater. Still, you have to admire the sheer audacity of it. Your move, AMD.

Check out Nvidia's monstrous RTX 5090

• Amazon's letting other retailers use its ad tools. Prepare for more ads... everywhere. Details here
• Google's testing AI-generated personalized podcasts based on your search history. Clever or creepy? Learn more
• Xocean raised €115M for uncrewed ocean data vessels. The robot navy is coming. Full story

If AI can now generate subtitles in real-time, how long until we have universal translators that work offline? The Tower of Babel might finally be coming down.

Thanks for reading!

Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

OpenAI's o3 model is freaking out computer science majors, and for good reason. This reasoning powerhouse threatens to automate away significant chunks of programming work. While it's not quite "Skynet for coders" yet, o3 represents a seismic shift in how we approach software development. The real kicker? Early tests show o3 can debug and refactor legacy code better than most senior engineers. Time to dust off those philosophy degrees, folks.

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Jensen Huang claims Nvidia's latest data center superchip is 30x faster for AI inference than its predecessor. At this rate, we'll be running AGI on pocket calculators by 2030. The real question: can Nvidia keep up with demand, or will we see another great GPU shortage of '23?

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In a move that would make Orwell proud, Meta is ditching third-party fact-checkers for a "Community Notes" style system. Apparently, crowdsourcing truth is the new black. This shift, along with looser hate speech rules, marks a major pivot in how Big Tech handles controversial content. Get ready for your uncle's spicy political memes to reach a whole new audience.

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• Google Home hubs now offer full local control of Matter devices. Your smart home just got a lot smarter (and less reliant on the cloud).
• Bosch unveils the first Matter-enabled smart fridge. Finally, a fridge that can talk to your toaster!
• T-Mobile sued over massive 2021 data breach. Apparently, "Un-carrier" doesn't mean "un-hackable".

If quantum computers are still decades away from being "very useful" (according to Nvidia's CEO), are we living through the AI equivalent of the dot-com bubble? Or is Jensen Huang just trying to keep Nvidia's stock price earthbound?

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