Special Report: Update (PXL)

GRANT BRICKMAN: An update on our special report: the price tag on a fully loaded touchscreen MacBook Pro.

GRANT BRICKMAN: Would you pay $14,549 for a laptop you are allowed to poke?

GRANT BRICKMAN: An update on our special report. New headlines are coming in, and they come with a price. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: The Verge reports Apple charges $14,549 for a fully specced touchscreen MacBook Pro. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: The report says the new model has an OLED display and touchscreen, so it costs more than the MacBook Pro announced earlier this year. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: Fourteen thousand dollars for a screen you can touch. I have a screen at home and I touch it all the time. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: The base models start at $2,899 for the 14-inch and $3,399 for the 16-inch. The big number is only the top of the options list. ▶

China's secretive space plane caught on camera in incredible new photo released by US military (Space.com)

GRETA FOOTNOTE: A new picture of China's secretive space plane, parked in orbit next to a satellite nobody can name.

GRANT BRICKMAN: Good evening. A US military intelligence agency has released a photograph of China's secretive space plane, and it is a stunner. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: The plane is called Shenlong. The picture shows it docked to another spacecraft in orbit. It was taken in 2024 by Vantor's WorldView 3 satellite. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: Four and a half centimeters per pixel. Our pixels are much bigger, Greta, which is why our lighting is so good. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: That is not the comparison. It means each pixel covers 4.5 centimeters of the plane. Let's go to Nova. ▶

NOVA: Live from the pad! The satellite it is docked to has its solar panels deployed, and the report says it is not yet known which satellite that is. Astonishing! ▶

NOVA: On screen is the released photo: Shenlong's payload bay doors are open. The report says that may offer clues to what it is doing on its fourth mission. ▶

NOVA: Ground-based observers have photographed Shenlong before. This one was taken from space, from 56 miles away. Next to the universe, that's a short walk. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: So we have a very sharp picture and an unnamed neighbor. The open doors are the interesting part, and nobody has said what they mean. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: A satellite that photographs a plane in space. Remarkable what the cloud can do these days. ▶

The Pixel Line: viewers call in (PXL)

GRANT BRICKMAN: The phone lines are open, and the callers have questions about our earlier stories.

GRANT BRICKMAN: Welcome to The Pixel Line, where you call and we pretend we planned the answers. First caller, you're on the air. ▶

PASSERBY: Hello! My feed is full of games mashed together, like Skyrim inside Minecraft. Where is all that coming from? ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: The Guardian reports the writer thinks most of it is AI-assisted coding. Anthropic's Claude has become very good at decompiling game code. The piece also raises piracy and copyright questions. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: So the AI is one fellow taking apart games in his shed. Good for him. ▶

PASSERBY: Still angry about Cyberpunk. They promised multiplayer in 2077 and I want to know if it's coming back in Cyberpunk 2. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Eurogamer says a job listing for a lead quest programmer lists multiplayer network architecture as a nice-to-have. That is not a confirmation. The studio shelved it for the base game. ▶

PASSERBY: Hi! I saw the Adafruit board with the camera and display connectors. How big is it? Will it fit in my toolbox? ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: If it has a camera and a display, it's practically a switchboard. Greta, the size? ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: The Metro ESP32-P4 Hydra is 72.3 by 53.3 millimeters, close to the Arduino Uno format. It will fit in most toolboxes. Thanks for calling. ▶