🎸 Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire! Metallica’s new concert just dropped on the Apple TV app. It was filmed with immersive 180-degree video and 3D sound, making you feel like you’re there. Apple’s thinking this is a great way to get you to try their Vision Pro. Book a free demo at the Apple Store to watch a preview.
The future of laptops
My job is to keep you ahead of the curve, so you know what’s worth your hard-earned money and what’s just hype. One reader recently asked me: Where are laptops going next? Let’s break it down.
🤖 AI is baked in
As AI gets better, imagine a bot that automates boring laptop tasks like booking flights, ordering groceries or organizing your files. Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs promise to do just that.
AI-powered laptops will also soon learn your habits, adjusting settings based on how you work. Think battery optimizations on the fly, automatic background noise cancellation and predictive typing that actually gets it right.
Should you buy an AI-powered laptop now? Nope. Wait until the end of the year when the tech is more developed.
🔮 Designs are futuristic
Laptops haven’t changed very much over the last five years. They’re all basic clamshells, but that’s starting to shift. Thinner screens, dual-display setups and foldable laptops are on the rise. The Asus Zenbook Duo has two built-in screens, while Lenovo just showed off a laptop with a screen that expands on demand, compact when you carry it, bigger when you need it.
Future laptops could let you swap out components like LEGO blocks instead of replacing the entire machine. Imagine upgrading your processor, storage or RAM just by snapping in a new piece.
🕺🏼Who wants a laptop dance?
In the next five years, expect to see gesture and voice controls, maybe eye-tracking or brain-controlled interfaces (seriously). Instead of a trackpad or touch screen, you might just think about what you want to do and your laptop will respond.
We’ll also have laptops powered by kinetic energy (think: charging your laptop just by typing).
Holographic displays will replace traditional screens. Imagine opening your laptop and seeing a floating, 3D workspace instead of a physical screen. Your next laptop might not even have a screen at all — just a virtual display that adjusts to wherever you’re working.
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
100 days
How long an Australian man lived with an artificial titanium heart while waiting for a transplant. It’s the longest anyone has survived using the technology, which is still in trials. If it keeps proving successful, this could be the answer for people with heart failure.
⚖️ Google’s in trouble: The DOJ wants them to sell off Chrome, saying it has too much control over online search. They aren’t wrong … it has 3.4 billion users worldwide. Google’s clapback? Forcing a sale would hurt consumers, damage the economy and pose a national security risk. The case moves forward in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
26 terabytes
The size of Western Digital’s new $569.99 hard drive designed for Network-Attached Storage systems, letting multiple people store and share massive amounts of data. The first hard drive, the IBM 305 RAMAC, was introduced in 1956 and cost around $50,000 (over $500,000 today adjusted for inflation). It had a whopping 5MB of storage! 😲
Feeling left behind? Download NetSuite’s free knowledge drop, “The CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.” No matter what you do, you should know more about AI. It’s not going anywhere.
About $100
The expected price tag of Grand Theft Auto 6. This leaked on a Swiss store’s website but got quickly deleted. Hardly a steal? It’s actually about the same as the $50 original GTA from 1997 in today’s dollars. The game should be out later this year.
🐱 Purrfectly at home: Kevin Mohn built a two-story “Up North Cat Condo” (paywall link) to keep stray cats warm in the chilly Minnesota winter. Now over 3 million people watch the livestream here. What’s the difference between a cat and a comma? A cat has claws at the end of its paws and a comma is a pause at the end of a clause.
A new AI chatbot hit the web: Manus isn’t your typical China-owned chatbot. Think of it like a digital worker that gets stuff done on its own. I tried it for a new business I’m starting, and it even drew prototypes. You’ll need to fill out the invite to try it. Remember, this is China, so nothing confidential.
Get your refund: The FTC is sending $25.5 million worth of payments to 736,375 scam victims. Restoro and Reimage tricked folks with fake pop-ups and ads into thinking their computers were infected when they weren’t. Check your PayPal if that’s you.
🙏 A nurse says her Oura Ring saved her life: Nikki had been dealing with night sweats and fatigue but brushed it off — until her Oura app kept warning her that her body was under stress. That push made her see a doctor, where she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer with the same symptoms. The Oura Ring is FSA or HSA eligible, btw.
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
🏥 Paging Dr. Holo: Cancer patients in rural Tennessee and Mississippi can now talk to their oncologist via hologram. Your doctor appears in a $70,000 box and communicates via a camera. Proto Hologram (paywall link), famous for concert tech, makes it. Patients feel like the doctor’s in the room. Check out a pic of this cool setup toward the end of this newsletter.
82%
K-12 schools hit by cybercriminals from July 2023 to December 2024. That’s over 9,300 incidents. Most happened when staff fell for phishing scams. But they didn’t just lose data. Some attacks forced schools to close and affected meals and special education services.
Update your iPhone and iPad ASAP! Apple found a serious security bug that could let hackers bypass protections if you load malicious web content. Affected devices include the iPhone XS and later, iPad Air 3rd gen and later, multiple iPad Pros, plus plenty of others. Go to Settings > General > Software Update.
$5,000
Price of Lamborghini’s baby stroller. The Reef AL Arancio is like a supercar for infants. It has car-like brake pedals, Italian leather and Lamborghini’s iconic logo. They teamed up with Silver Cross to create this “super stroller.” Only 500 were made, so these bougie babies will stand out.
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👽 Just for the record, sleeve them alone: This is wild. NASA launched the Voyager 1 and 2, each carrying a Golden Record filled with photos and audio representing life on Earth almost 50 years ago. Think a nursing mother, nature pics and human speech. The kicker? Both spacecraft are experiencing major power problems. Aliens are more into comet books anyway.
Stopping gunshot wounds in seconds? It’s now possible. The FDA approved Traumagel, an algae- and fungi-based hemostatic gel administered via medical syringe. It’s safer and less painful than gauze, and it finds where it needs to go on its own. Just imagine how useful this will be for soldiers in the field.
First foldable iPhone will be over $2,000! Apple is going with a book-style design that’s “AI-driven” for multitasking. It’ll have a 7.8-inch crease-free inner display and a 5.5-inch outer display. Leaks also say Face ID is out this time, replaced by a Touch ID side button. As for the release? Most likely late 2026 or early 2027.