Chips & Jackets 🎰🧥

👀 TLDR:

In this week’s What’s Appening, we are live from CES 2025 in Las Vegas! Not really. We are stuck in colder climes, but we do have all the best bits from the tech hardware show, including super PCs, AI glasses, furry robots, and Jensen Huang’s sparkling leather jacket. We also have room for news on the Vision Pro, Meta’s big safeguarding changes, OpenAI being too successful with a payment plan, the app economy in 2024, and more!

🎬 Our Top Take

💡💾 CES 2025 – New TVs, Super PCs, Furry Robots, and a lot of AI

You’ll know that we mostly focus on the software side of things – or at least products that house apps – in What’s Appening, but CES is the biggest tech hardware show of the year, so we couldn’t let it pass. On Day 1, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, dressed to impress in a luminous leather jacket, dominated with his keynote. It focused a lot on robotics & AI, and the CEO is certain that stuff like robotaxis (Nvidia is partnering with Uber) is closer than you think. What blew us away, however, was the Nvidia “Project Digits” PC. Costing $3K, the PC fits in the palm of your hand and is many, many times more powerful than, say, a MacBook. The target market? Developers looking to run powerful AI models. Also on the stage, Samsung had everyone drooling over its Frame Pro ‘wall art’ televisions, Halliday’s AI Glasses look set to give the Meta Ray-Ban partnership a run for its money, and Sony told us it was making a car. Finally, Yukai Engineering unveiled Mirumi. What is Mirumi? Hmmm. It’s a cute furry robot that hangs on your handbag and, well, reacts to things. It’s hard to explain the allure, but you can check out the full details here. CES 2025 is taking place in Vegas all week, so we will report back next Tuesday on any other weird and wonderful announcements from the world’s biggest hardware show. #CES2025 Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Craft

This week’s pick is Craft, a sleek app that helps you stay organized without overcomplicating things. The latest update introduces Collections for grouping related notes, better document styling, and simple task management tools that sync with your calendar. It’s clean, intuitive, and just works the way your brain does. Craft is available on Apple devices, Windows, and the web - with Android on the way. Check out Craft here and see if it fits your workflow!

🧐 Stat of the Week: 110B Downloads

📈📉 Apps – Signs of Growth and Leveling Out in Global App Economy

We love this time of year, as there is always a treasure trove of data looking back at the previous year in apps. The good news is that global consumer spending in apps is continuing to grow, up 15.7% from 2023 to $127 billion. Google Play actually saw a decline, so it is the Apple App Store that’s the real winner here. However, we should also point out that inflation will play a role in app revenues. Indeed, the number of app downloads saw a slight decline at 110 billion (down 2.3%). Another figure of note is that only 5% of apps globally offer subscriptions, but they account for 48% of the total revenue. #AppEconomy Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

We’re gearing up for something extra special later this month! The 3Advance team is flying and training in from all over - Chicago, Austin, Atlanta, New Jersey, New York, and even the UK - to gather in the DMV. To celebrate, we’re hosting a Happy Hour on Friday, January 25, at our favorite Irish pub, Ireland’s Four Courts in Arlington. We’ll be there from 5-7 PM, catching up over pints, laughs, and good conversation. If you’re local, we’d love for you to join us - RSVP here. No need to dress up - just show up as you are, and let’s hang out! We’re so excited to get the whole remote team together and would love to see some familiar faces while we’re at it. Hope to see you there - cheers!

📣 Promos

🤖 Get your free AI consultation: Book Now
🎧 Listen to our What’s Appening Podcast
🎥 Watch on YouTube / Facebook / LinkedIn
📱 Enjoy our ‘shorts’ on TikTok / Instagram
🔔 Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you’ll always know what’s appening in tech.
🌐 Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok
💬 We appreciate you and we’d love to hear your feedback. Just hit ‘Reply’!