The LA fires

January 12, 2025

The LA fires: The sheer destruction is overwhelming, and it may be some time before we fully understand the lives lost and the toll taken. My heart is with everyone affected, and I’m keeping you all in my prayers. As a homeowner in an evacuation zone, I fear the worst for my own property, but material things pale in comparison to the loss of life and safety for so many. This 3D map allows you to zoom in and explore the impacted areas. It’s a stark reminder of the fires’ far-reaching devastation.

Tags: safety, Zoom

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CES 2025: AI everything, waterless coffee maker, wearable for your face

Here’s your 10-second CES recap: TVs are bigger and smarter, laptops are faster and lighter, and AI is everywhere. I sifted through the fluff to bring you the best and weirdest of this year’s consumer tech showcase.

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Best (and weirdest) tech of CES 2025 so far

The annual CES show is underway, so let’s dive into some of the coolest (and, yes, weirdest) gadgets I’ve come across so far.

Foldable phones are so 2024: I told you this would be announced. I’m talking about rollable laptops. Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable has a screen that extends from 14 inches to 16.7 inches when you need more space. Neat! Too bad it starts at $3,499, oof.

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Introducing OMNIA: The health conceptual product designed for CES 2025

I don’t see myself in this: Omnia is a smart mirror, scale and smartwatch hybrid. Stand on the base, and it’ll take your weight and measure your heart health, then it’ll pull in data from any other tracker you use. The AI assistant gives real-time feedback out loud. Reminds me of Lululemon’s Mirror, which was a total flop.

10,000 hours

Saved by Chick-fil-A’s lemon-squeezing robots. Their giant California factory churns through 1.6 million pounds of lemons a day in just 45 minutes. Talk about poultry in motion.

$200 reward

For reporting traffic offenders. In Vietnam, chaotic roads caused 30 deaths per day last year, so authorities got creative. Anyone who turns in a rulebreaker gets 5 million dong (about $200), or 10% of the offender’s fine. No one’s cashed in yet because the fear of being reported actually has drivers following the rules. Snitches get riches.

$4.1 million

Average listing price in Hawaii’s priciest ZIP code. Welcome to 96754 on the “Garden Island” of Kauai. I’ll take this 3,315-square-foot four-bedroom, four-bathroom home that’s a mere $12.45 million. Hey, it’s close to Zuck’s compound he says doesn’t have an underground bunker. Yeah, right.

$900,000 watch

On Zuck’s wrist when he announced Meta went MAGA and put an end to fact-checking. He was wearing the Greubel Forsey Hand Made 1; only a few are made each year. His collection includes a $90,000 De Bethune, a $141,000 Patek Philippe and a $12 Seiko. Next week, I’ll wear my favorite watch on my podcasts and show it to the camera. Spoiler: It’s a Rolex a big daily TV host wears, too.

6 pages

Length of Amazon memos. Keeping it short speeds up decisions. AI robotics startup Swiss-Mile followed suit when they pitched to Jeff Bezos in April. He gave them $22 million for testing delivery bots in Zurich. Less is more.

$1,500 in fines

If you don’t clear snow and ice from your car. That includes the roof! Most states have laws against driving with snow on your car. As an Arizona gal, I had no idea. You’d probably end up paying a lot more than $1,500 if a giant slab of snow hit the person behind you.

$1,300 cellphone bill

After a Royal Caribbean cruise. A passenger forgot to put their phone in Airplane mode and got slapped with roaming charges. If you ever take a cruise or travel overseas, remember to switch on that setting!