Issue 2294 - Wednesday 19 March 2025

The News

Nvidia-fest reminds us it’s the only company making bank from the AI boom

Nvidia’s time at the top continues as the company releases its new gear (IT News). After the DeepSeek dip, Nvidia’s stock price has pretty much recovered on the idea that demand for their chips will stay strong even if AI models are easier to make because, well, people will just use more AI. Now, the chipmaker has dished about updates to its top of the line chips at its software developers conference. Honestly, the chip benchmark stats could be gobbledegook and they would make more sense to me but here’s a write-up if you are interested (The Verge). Other announcements of note: a lineup of “AI personal super computers” that are affordable enough to be bought by non-Big Tech people (TechCrunch) and an AI foundation model for robots (Reuters). All-in-all, nothing revolutionary this time but nothing to suggest yet that Nvidia’s good times won’t keep going.

A recent history of Tesla owners having a really bad time

You know, I’m starting to feel bad for Tesla owners. There are constant reports of their vehicles being set on fire in the US (The Verge). All this incidents means Tesla insurance costs are up, too (Gizmodo). Someone has set up a website allegedly doxxing Tesla owners across the country (404 Media, $) which seems like a very bad idea to me. For all the criticism of Elon Musk, many owners do not share his fringe and extreme beliefs, did not know about them and perhaps even purchased their vehicles long before the world’s richest man got as radicalised as he is right now. I get the point of anti-Tesla activism but it’s probably wise to focus on protesting against the company rather than the owners.

Also in Tesla-related news: a YouTuber showed how the Musk-owned carmaker’s decision to used cameras rather than lidar means that it was fooled by a Wile E. Coyote-style fake wall that’s painted to look like road. And BYD just announced a very fast charging tech (The Verge). The only silver lining for Tesla right now is that it just got approval to start testing robotaxis in California (The Verge).

The RePebble is facing some Apple-sized roadblocks

The RePebble is here! Pebble cofounder Eric Migicovsky has released two new e-ink watches under his new company Core Wearables for pre-order (ericmigi). They’re a pretty basic offering at the moment but promises a one month battery life and a touch screen on the Core Time 2.

What I found particularly interesting was Migicovsky’s warning that people shouldn’t compare the devices to an Apple Watch because “there is NO way for a 3rd party smartwatch to compete”. He wrote a full post explaining all the limitations that non-Apple developers have which I recommend reading (ericmigi). Even if you like being in Apple’s walled garden, there’s no denying that it’s making it much harder to make new, cool and different gizmos.

Leftovers

Oh, Also

HDMI to hose adaptor

I want (X).

Bargains

Thank you for the Bargain feedback on the forum post yesterday! I got a range of answer saying “keep everything” to “highly curate the list”. I think what I’m going to do is try prune down the list when it gets too far beyond 20+ items. So on days where there’s less (like today), I’ll keep the stuff that passes the bar for not being dogshit. On days where there’s more, I’ll be more discerning. Have more thoughts? Pop into the forum, Slack or send me an email.

General

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

🗣️ Have any feedback, a tip or just want to chat? Send me an email or Signal message. I promise to reply!

💬 Want to hang out with other Sizzlers? There’s a subscriber-only Slack server and forum if you want to procrastinate and chat about tech-related news.

🗣️ The Sizzle is on Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn if you’re feeling social.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the Beehiiv customer portal.

🎁 Make someone's day and gift them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

💔 Don’t want this any more? I won’t take it personally. There’s a unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email or here’s a guide.

Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

The Sizzle is created on Gadigal land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.