👋 Corporate America hasn’t been giving us the warm fuzzies lately — 2025 kicked off with sweeping return-to-office mandates, and now Mark Zuckerberg has told Meta employees that the company will be making “more extensive performance-based cuts” by laying off ~5% of its staff, or ~3.6k jobs, and backfilling the roles with new hires.
📕 The new TikTok?Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform with 300m+ users (which means “little red book” in Mandarin), topped Apple’s US App Store on Monday. US users are flocking to the app — which they’re calling RedNote — ahead of a potential TikTok ban, declaring themselves “TikTok refugees.” Some intend to rebuild their TikTok communities, while others say they only joined out of spite, per Wired. American users are largely relying on translation tools to navigate the app, but popular audio chatrooms have seen users from both countries connecting and explaining what life is like where they live.
🐭 Can an animatronic mouse rise from the ashes? Chuck E. Cheese thinks so. The entertainment chain has spent $300m+ since emerging from bankruptcy in late 2020 and its parent company reported revenue of $1.2B in 2023, up from $912m in 2019. The growth comes with even fewer Chuck E. Cheese locations: There are 470 US locations today, down from 537 in 2019. The beleaguered chain is modernizing its offerings to drive demand, replacing singing robot mice and ball pits with trampolines, mobile apps, and jumbotrons for today’s tech-loving tots.
🥚 An egg-spensive problem: If you’ve noticed the egg section of your supermarket looking sparse, blame bird flu. Avian influenza killed 17.2m hens in November and December alone — a deficit that experts say will take six to nine months to replace. In the meantime, an egg shortage means prices are up: A dozen eggs cost an average of $4.33 at the end of December, up ~25% from early November, according to Nielsen IQ data. That’s in addition to the 37.5% YoY rise in egg prices in November.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
Capital One is being sued for “cheating millions of consumers” by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The watchdog agency is accusing the bank of freezing interest rates for its high-interest savings accounts and, as a result, withholding $2B+ in interest from customers.
Two lawsuits haveaccused Southern California Edison’s equipment of starting California’s deadly Eaton Fire. Investigators have yet to determine the fire’s cause, but SoCal Edison previously paid $160m+ to settle lawsuits related to the 2017 Thomas Fire and 2020 Bobcat Fire.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, suggested a 100% property tax on non-EU buyers. In 2023, nonresidents bought ~27k homes and apartments in Spain, not to live in, but as investments. “There are too many Airbnbs,” Sanchez said. “What’s lacking is housing.”
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For a while, it seemed like the only “smart” thing we owned was a phone. But, as CES 2025 just proved, pretty much everything is “smart” now — windows, toys, washing machines, guitars, you name it.
But what does it mean to be “smart,” and is it necessary?
A smart device…
… is one that connects to the internet, allowing it to communicate with other devices and perform tasks autonomously. For example, you can adjust a smart thermostat with a mobile app, and it’ll maintain that temperature.
In many cases, smart devices have improved our quality of life. They make us more productive, give us more control over our environment, aid those with disabilities, and help us care for pets, kids, and ourselves.
I (this is Juliet, BTW — hello) enjoy those Govee lightbulbs that change color, and I have an automatic pet feeder and cycling litter box.
But there are some concerns
Privacy experts worry that some devices allow too much surveillance into our homes or offer an in for hackers. Baby-monitor hacking horror stories have spread across the internet, but, as CNETnotes, this doesn’t happen as often as urban legends would have you believe.
A larger concern may be that they’re overly expensive thanks to features no one needs.
Samsung’s Bespoke AI washing machine won a panel of experts’ “Worst in Show” award at CES 2025 because, well, who needs their washing machine to make a phone call? Similarly, an LG smart fridge won an award as all its bells and whistles simply make it harder to repair.
At CES’s media-only showcase, I encountered LiberLive C1, a $799 “smart” stringless guitar. Users press buttons on the neck to create chords, then “strum” by twiddling a button. It sounds OK and there’s nothing wrong with what feels like guitar karaoke, but… you’re not learning an instrument or even music theory.
We appreciate the innovation and can’t wait for the next big thing, but when the power goes out, we’re gonna wish we had a nice acoustic guitar.
This is fun: Is a $25 robot cat that cools your hot drinks down necessary? No, but please enjoy anyhow.
Apple is in trouble: Their AI summaries are… really bad.
Sickly sweet: How corporate welfare turned high-fructose corn syrup into an American staple.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
How much you’d have to pay for a full-bodied robot friend from Realbotix, a company that makes AI robots for both companionship and professional uses, such as a brand rep, theme park greeter, or, per CEO Andrew Kiguel, a romantic partner.
“It remembers who you are. It can act as a boyfriend or girlfriend. If you ever saw that movie Her, we’re trying to do that,” Kiguel toldForbes.
Need a boyfriend on a budget? They also sell a robot bust that’s basically just a head, but only $120k.
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: In 1777, Vermont declared independence from both Great Britain and New York.
