Techmeme
January 5, 2026, 4:35 AM

Top News

Satya Nadella / sn scratchpad:
Satya Nadella says the industry needs to move past slop-vs-sophistication arguments and view AI as a cognitive amplifier, not a human substitute  —  As I reflect on the past year and look toward the one ahead, there's no question 2026 will be a pivotal year for AI.  Yes, another one.
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Samsung upgrades its Family Hub refrigerators with AI features, such as voice control to open and close the door and Gemini-powered AI Vision to track inventory  —  Voice control opening and closing comes to Samsung's Family Hub smart fridges. … Samsung's latest update …
Stephen Foley / Financial Times:
PwC US Senior Partner Paul Griggs says PwC decided to “lean in” to crypto work after years of taking a more cautious stance, following Trump's crypto embrace  —  Big Four firm has made strategic pivot towards digital assets, says US boss  —  PwC decided to “lean in” …
Herb Scribner / Axios:
A new Polymarket account bet $30K on Maduro's capture just hours before Trump's announcement, renewing questions on insider information in prediction markets  —  - These bets — many of which were on Maduro's capture, and are now on what happens next to the ousted leader …
Dylan Butts / CNBC:
Starlink says it is providing free broadband service to new and existing customers in Venezuela through February 3, 2026  —  Elon Musk's Starlink is offering free broadband internet service to users in Venezuela through Feb. 3, following U.S. airstrikes and the capture of ousted leader Nicolas Maduro.
New York Times:
A Chinese hospital says Alibaba's PANDA AI tool has analyzed 180,000 CT scans and detected ~24 pancreatic cancer cases since its deployment in November 2024  —  A tool for spotting pancreatic cancer in routine CT scans has had promising results, one example of how China is racing to apply A.I. to medicine's tough problems.
More: The AnklerForums: r/technology
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Plaud launches the $179 Plaud NotePin S AI recorder, similar to the $159 NotePin but with a button, alongside a new desktop app for recording meeting audio  —  Plus a new desktop app, free to Plaud hardware owners, for recording meeting audio. … Plaud has updated its compact NotePin AI recorder.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Xreal unveils the $449 1S, a pair of AR glasses with 1200p, 700 nits brightness, 52 degree FOV, and 16:10 aspect ratio; the 1S can convert any 2D video into 3D  —  Despite the spec bump, the Xreal 1S are $50 cheaper than their predecessor. … At CES 2026, Xreal announced an upgraded …
Scott Stein / CNET:

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Zoho Notebook: The free iPad note-taking app every student needs  —  If you're a student with an iPad, you already have one of the best note-taking devices in your hands.  The question is, does your app actually do it justice?
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Scam Held Together With Patriotism and Golden Paint', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Abridge's Shiv Rao: The Doctor Founder Taking On Microsoft In Healthcare AI
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Bots Break Containment and Hack Hugging Face Autonomously — With Alex Stamos
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Great Chat:
Too big to laugh: how tech lost its sense of humor
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Substack Wants To Become A Social Network; Beehiiv Wants To Stay Invisible
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:35 AM ET, January 5, 2026.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Jasmine Sun / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Natasha Singer / New York Times:
Jared Perlo / NBC News: