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The US announces an increased $25 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelas President Maduro on day he's sworn in for a third term.

(Image credit: Matias Delacroix)

• TCL unveiled three new smart glasses at CES 2025
• Two boast AR capabilties, the other is for AI and video capture
• No precise price or release date details have been shared yet

As someone who has tested a lot of smart glasses I know first-hand how much variety there is in this sector of tech – despite being under the same umbrella, there’s as much similarity between the Halliday specs, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, Xreal One Pro AR glasses, as there is between electric cars, bikes and scooters as ‘electric vehicles’ – so usually companies focus on one type at a time. TCL isn’t afraid to tackle smart glasses from all angles however, with it announcing three very different smart specs at CES to suit every type of smart glasses wearer.

The most impressive is the RayNeo X3 Pro. It boasts the same Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipset as the Ray-Ban specs, but goes a step beyond its rival in other areas. The X3 Pro has a dual-camera setup – one for snapping pictures and for AI vision, while the other helps deliver AR features like hand-tracking – and full-color micro-LED screens built into the lenses.

This allows you to see apps and notifications in your field of view, and in my demo, I got to see how the RayNeo X3 Pros could help on my next trip thanks to their real-time translation. My demo with them was short but they seriously impressed me, and kinda put the standard Ray-Ban Meta specs to shame.

(Image credit: TCL)

Though if you want a simplified, display-less approach you’ll be after the RayNeo V3. They strip out the screens but come equipped with a 12MP Sony IMX681 sensor to facilitate first-person content capture and voice-guided insights – with those being relayed by on-device speakers and three in-built microphones.

What’s most impressive was how thin these glasses look – noticeably slimmer than Meta’s Ray-Bans – and how light they are – just 39g. I’d love to try wearing these for a whole day to verify my suspicions, but they could be the best smart glasses for comfort while still boasting useful tools.

Lastly, you have the entertainment-focused RayNeo Air 3 specs. Like other similar AR smart glasses you connect these to a compatible USB-C device via a cable to have the device’s screen appear as a massive floating window in front of you – a 201-inch virtual screen to be precise.

With in-built speakers to boot these specs are an upgrade on previous RayNeo Air smart specs which offer you a wearable home-cinema setup that is ideal for making your travels fly by. I'll want to test them out further, but if I could I would have never left the demo and spent all day playing Mario Odyssey with them.

We’re still waiting on pricing details on all these glasses in the RayNeo CES 2025 lineup, but TCL says they’ll be revealed closer to their respective launches. The X3 Pro and Air 3 will drop first in “mid-2025” with the V3 landing “later in the year.”

We’re covering all of the latest CES news from the show as it happens. Stick with us for the big stories on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok for the latest from the CES show floor!

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A large area of greater Los Angeles had unhealthy air Friday, due to particulate matter from large wildfires. Here are tips for breathing cleaner air indoors if its smoky outside.

(Image credit: Mario Tama)

Prominent right-wing influencers are claiming that the response to the Los Angeles wildfires was hampered by workplace diversity policies. It's part of a wider strategy to discredit those policies.

(Image credit: DAVID PASHAEE/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty)

Close to a million migrants will be shielded from deportation for up to 18 months.

(Image credit: Ben Curtis)

Delta's Las Vegas Sphere keynote was the hot ticket at this year's CES -- and it ended up stealing the entire show.

"We are going to do everything we can in this round to get all the American hostages, living and dead, out," Ambassador Jacob J. Lew tells NPR. His tenure as President Biden's envoy ends this month.

(Image credit: Maya Levin for NPR)

Jackery's new solar roof is almost indistinguishable from a regular roof. Is it better than solar panels?

As extreme wildfires become the new norm, scientists are trying to crack how to save lives.

As usual, the show ran the gamut from the silly to the innovative to the practical.

• Orico announces MiniLink, "a one-stop storage and dock", for the Mac Mini M4
• It adds up to nine ports as well as an SSD
• The taller, cheaper MiniDock allows you to store the Mini vertically

The Mac Mini M4 is known for its compact size and sleek design, but could always do with more ports.

ORICO aims to solve this issue with two distinct products, the MiniLink and the MiniDock.

Each will expand port availability, with the Mini Dock offering up to 10 ports, while also providing SSD storage options.

ORICO MiniLink and MiniDock for the Mac Mini M4

ORICO’s MiniLink is the brand’s latest offering, marketed as a "one-stop storage and dock" solution. It comes with nine additional ports and also includes an SSD slot giving users the option of a built-in SSD for immediate use or the option for a DIY installation.

The ports in this dock include USB-A and USB-C options, an HDMI port for external displays, and both SD and microSD card slots.

Furthermore, the MiniLink’s removable base reveals the SSD mount; likely compatible with M.2 or SATA drives. With ultra-fast 40G SSD speeds, expect quick file transfers and smooth performance, even with large quantities of data.

MiniLink has two models, the M47P model (7-in-1) is listed for $84.99 while the M49P model (9-in-1) sells for $169.99.

Orico is also launching a budget-friendly MiniDock that allows you to store your Mac Mini vertically, saving valuable desk space.

The MiniDock is designed to maintain the Mac Mini's cooling efficiency with a ventilation system that aligns with the Mini's own cooling fan to enhance airflow.

The 10-in-1 hub adds essential ports like USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

The MiniDock also supports built-in or DIY SSD storage, giving users the option to increase their Mac Mini's storage capacity.

The Orico MiniDock has five models, offering anywhere from no-built-in storage up to 4TB. The SSD-less option costs $69.99 while the 512GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB models cost $129.99, $169.99, $219.99 and $319.99 respectively.

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The updated Model Y appeared on Tesla's websites in China and elsewhere with no announcement.

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Here are some hints and the answer for Wordle No. 1302 for Saturday, Jan. 11.

While Supreme Court justices pressed both sides in Friday’s oral arguments, experts say it’s hard to see how TikTok gets enough votes to survive.

Atlanta has seen nearly 1,000 flights grounded, while more than 34,000 Arkansans have lost power.

(Image credit: Joe Raedle)

• AMD’s Frank Azor was interviewed by a Spanish YouTuber about RDNA 4
• The exec told us that the RX 9070 will be a ‘very competitive product’
• Pricing was also mentioned, in a vague way, and some gamers are taking it as a bad sign – but that’s jumping the GPU gun

AMD has given us some clues as to the price points RDNA 4 graphics cards will land at, albeit some very vague hints, courtesy of one of Team Red’s execs – and a good deal more interesting info on the next-gen GPUs besides.

All this comes from Frank Azor, AMD’s head of consumer and gaming marketing, who has been busy this week, firing some weighty flak at Intel’s Arrow Lake in the CPU world, and then sharing these fresh GPU details in another interview.

This chat was with Michael Quesada, a Spanish YouTuber who has a PC gaming channel. We should note that the conversation is in Spanish, and so the quotes we have here (courtesy of VideoCardz) are a translation (made with help from Spanish tech site El Chapuzas Informatico).

Quesada kicked off by questioning Azor on the flimsy RDNA 4 announcement at CES 2025, which provided very scant details, besides the names and existence of the RX 9070 and 9070 XT – why was this so light on information?

Azor repeated the assertion already made by AMD that there simply wasn’t time in the 45-minute CES 2025 keynote to fit in RDNA 4 and properly do it justice.

The marketing chief told us: “What are we announcing here? With the announcements of RDNA 2 and RDNA 3, we had dedicated events to present the architecture and performance improvements. We can’t cover that in five minutes. If we had, everyone would be angry with us for not giving the new graphics cards the attention they deserve.

“That’s why we decided to reserve the announcement of the new graphics cards for a separate event where we can give them proper focus.”

Azor also poured cold water on any idea that the next-gen Radeon graphics cards might be delayed (as some theorized as to why AMD kept its 9070 revelations very bare).

Everything remains on track, we’re assured, and here’s where Azor made a very interesting statement. The translation in this case is direct from YouTube (and what I could make of it), so take this with a large dollop of caution, but the AMD exec appears to admit that the other reason Team Red didn’t reveal specs and pricing for the RX 9070 is that the firm wanted to look at what Nvidia was announcing and react to that.

In other words, AMD needed to ensure that RDNA 4 is competitive with what Nvidia was doing with RTX 5000, a theory I put forward earlier this week. (Not just me of course – it’s an obvious enough thought, really, but Azor is, translation wobbles aside, saying this was indeed what AMD was up to).

The most interesting part of the interview, though, is the clues about pricing I mentioned at the outset, which cropped up later.

Azor observed: “We’re going to bring a very competitive product [with RDNA 4]. Everyone will benefit from this launch. It will be worth the wait.

“The Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7900 GRE offered aggressive pricing for their performance. The market responded well, especially in a landscape where prices are constantly rising.”

“AMD remains focused on delivering value for money. When we announce RDNA 4, we’ll introduce a powerful graphics card – not a $300 card, but also not a $1,000 card.”

(Image credit: YouTube / Michael Quesada) Analysis: Careful with that pitchfork, Eugene

There’s some refreshing plain speaking here, then, from Azor, regarding why AMD’s reveal was tissue-thin for details on the RX 9070 models, and the lack of any pricing. It was to better pitch RDNA 4 to be competitive with what Nvidia has cooked up with the RTX 5000 series.

The part of the interview relating to RDNA 4 pricing has predictably got every forum and social media outlet buzzing. Does this mean AMD is thinking about a $650 price tag for the RX 9070 XT, some folks are asking – as that’s the average of the two mentioned low and high prices (a total $1,300, divided by two).

Of course, it’s never going to be as simple as that. But whatever the RX 9070 XT and its vanilla sibling end up costing, AMD is going to make the price to performance ratio stand up and compete with Nvidia’s RTX 5070 in the mid-range.

Simply given AMD’s chosen name change – to the RX 9070, versus the RTX 5070 – the pricing has to make sense in terms of that showdown. The MSRPs will be “very competitive” as Azor puts it, based on the relative performance provided by RDNA 4 – and as we don’t know how peppy the RX 9070 XT will be yet, trying to work out pricing averages doesn’t make any sense. Neither does running down to cellars, looking for pitchforks and torches, while muttering about a $650 Radeon flagship being a rip-off based on past performance rumors for Navi 48.

Let’s not engage with that kind of nonsense. The main point to focus on here is not the dollar amounts Azor chose to mention – and the exec used such a huge spread, of course, to make them kind of meaningless – but what he said about the RX 9070 GPUs being very competitive with Nvidia. And that these next-gen offerings will match the RX 7900 GRE for price/performance, this is the other key point to home in on. That’s an excellent value graphics card and one that remains top of our list of best GPUs, in fact, where it has sat for some time.

AMD could well be waiting to test the RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti itself before finalizing pricing for RDNA 4 here. If I had to call a most likely price point, the recently aired rumor of $479, or around the $500 mark, seems more likely than anything higher than the RTX 5070’s MSRP ($549). But again, whatever it turns out to be, that price needs to be viewed through the lens of the card’s performance.

Roll on that incoming full RX 9070 launch event, then, so we can finally find out where price and performance will shake out. The rumor mill believes that an announcement is likely coming in just a couple of weeks (RDNA 4 pre-orders might kick off on January 23 based on one retailer leak). If true, that means the RX 9070 variants could be on sale at the end of January, ahead of the RTX 5070 models which aren’t out until February.

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• Trend Micro spots piece of malware being advertised as PoC fork for a major Windows vulnerability
• The malware acts as an infostealer, grabbing vital system information
• These types of attacks are often conducted by nation-states

Cybercriminals are targeting security researchers with fake proof-of-concept (PoC) solutions, trying to infect their computers with infostealing malware, experts have warned.

Cybersecurity researchers Trend Micro, who spotted the new campaign in January 2025, noted how the crooks would publish a PoC for a popular, critical-severity vulnerability, to draw the attention of the cybersecurity crowd.

The researchers would then grab the PoC for analysis, and would end up installing a piece of malware, instead.

Stealing vital PC information

In this particular case, the crooks were advertising a fork of a legitimate, existing PoC for LDAPNightmare, a vulnerability discovered earlier in January, and consisting of two flaws, CVE-2024-49112, and CVE-2024-49113.

The former serves as bait here, since it is a 9.8/10 severity flaw, affecting Windows Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), and allowing for remote code execution (RCE).

In its writeup, Trend Micro researcher Sarah Pearl Camiling said “both vulnerabilities were deemed as highly significant due to the widespread use of LDAP in Windows environments.” Both flaws were patched in December 2024, through the Patch Tuesday cumulative update.

In the fake PoC, the crooks replaced some of the legitimate files with an executable named “poc.exe”. This would deploy a PowerShell script which would, in turn, deploy another script that steals data from the computer.

Here is what the infostealer goes for:

- PC information
- Process list
- Directory lists (Downloads, Recent, Documents, and Desktop)
- Network IPs
- Network adapters
- Installed updates

This type of attack is nothing new - criminals have regularly been observed applying the same tactics in the past.

Although this was not hinted at in the report, these types of attacks are often conducted by nation-state actors, in an attempt to gather vital intelligence regarding the cybersecurity practices of large tech organizations, government firms, critical infrastructure players, and more.

Via The Register

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