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Disney’s employee troubles: A former Disney employee will plead guilty to computer fraud and identity theft. The guy was fired and charged after hacking restaurant menus. He added fake allergy-safe labels to items that contained things like peanuts and dairy, and he snuck in a swastika and references to mass shootings. Jail’s gonna be a whole new world for him.
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.
After Casey Colvin’s home burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire, he went looking for his rescue dogs. A firefighter found Tika Tika Tika, but little Oreo ran away. Luckily, Casey was smart and had an AirTag on the pup’s collar. He tracked her down near the rubble of his home. Grab some tissues before you watch the heartwarming video.
Starlink’s cheaper internet service plan. The catch? You have to keep your data usage under 50GB, then you’re cut off. The regular plan is $120 per month, so it’s a good price if you use it as a backup and don’t do much that’s data-heavy. Starlink is my backup, and I’d be over 50GB way too fast with my show and podcast recordings!
👨🚒 DIY firefighting: A 60-year-old man saved his home from the Palisades fire with some special equipment he’d purchased in advance. He soaked his house with water pumps, sprinklers and a hydrogel retardant he mixed in his backyard hot tub. Sadly, the homes surrounding him weren’t as lucky. Here’s the video showing how he did it.
Of head and neck cancer by drinking three to four cups of coffee per day. Researchers dug into 14 studies with over 25,000 people. They found heavy coffee drinkers had a 30% lower risk of oral cancer. Even decaf helps. For tea drinkers like me, there’s a 9% risk reduction for both and 29% lower for hypopharyngeal (lower throat) cancer. I hate cancer.
Watching ads on Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. About half of all new Disney+ subscribers picked the cheaper ad-supported option. That’s helping the streamer rake in $321 million in operating income, a huge turnaround from their reported $387 million loss a year ago.
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.
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.
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.
