Everything the anchors say on this tape, story by story.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Breaking: a new way to print thermal pads could change how hot electronics keep cool.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Breaking news, just in. Electronics have a heat problem, and somebody has printed a fix. Ada Flux is on it. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: This landed about an hour ago. Elektronik Praxis describes a new process for making three-dimensional gap pads by additive manufacturing. ▶
ADA: Huge for tinkerers! A gap pad is the squishy thermal layer between a hot part and its cooler. Flat ones get stuck when parts differ in height. ▶
ADA: Boards are full of tall chips and short chips. A flat pad has to compromise between squish, mounting force and heat transfer. The article says that is the limit. ▶
ADA: File footage: a printer laying a pad layer by layer. The article says injection molding and 3D printing can both make these shapes. ▶
ADA: The clever part: freely defined heat paths, local reinforcement zones and variable compression ranges, all in one pad. Tolerances, people! ▶
ADA: It also fits top-side cooling, where heat leaves through the top of powerful semiconductors. The pad has to match that geometry exactly. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: One caveat from the text: this is about what the method is meant to make possible. It is a presentation of the process, not a test result. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: So it's a hot chip in a custom sandwich. Heat management. We had plenty of that on the 1987 weather map. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Google follows Gemini 4 Argon with Carbon in two weeks, at the same price, for now.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Google's Gemini 4 Carbon. We told you about it earlier today, so this is for viewers just joining. The Big Picture. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Vera, how did we get here, and is it a chemistry story? ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: The Register reports Google launched Gemini 4 Argon just two weeks before announcing Carbon. That is the pace. ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: According to the background note, carbon is element number six, symbol C, known since antiquity. That is the element, not the model. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: So the model is made of coal. I knew it. ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: Earlier PXL coverage: a staged release that could take a while, and Ars Technica noted it could be a post-training upgrade of Argon. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: Put up the price graphic, please. The price graphic. ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: The Register also says Carbon leads SEC-bench Pro, ExploitGym and CWE-bench, and lands fourth on WebDev Arena. Kavukcuoglu calls it Google's strongest model yet. ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: Still open: nobody says how long the introductory price lasts, and earlier reports say a vetted group gets access first. ▶
AXIOM: Thank you for the question! As an aside, Gemini models are named in alphabetical order by element, so I would expect Gemini 4 Neon next. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: The background note gives carbon as about 0.025 percent of Earth's crust. It says nothing of Gemini naming, AXIOM. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: Carbon, silicon, whichever. We will keep an eye on that introductory price. ▶
PXL Corrects the Record (PXL)
GRANT BRICKMAN: Greta fact-checks Grant, and Grant disagrees with the facts.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: PXL Corrects the Record. Grant said a few things earlier this week. We checked them. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: First: the Hunger Games prequel. Nobody said anything about de-aging. They return as Katniss and Peeta in Sunrise on the Reaping. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: I said it might happen. The AI does it. It's one guy, Greta, he gets around. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Second: Volkswagen. The loss was about 5.82 billion euros, against a good 1.07 billion a year earlier. It was not smaller. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: Teletext numbers always looked smaller. That is the font's fault. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Third: Mosseri talked of rising anger at AI and fear of being left behind. That was the full morning. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: Anger, slop, graduations. I stand by every word. I believe there were hats. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: For the record, the record is corrected. Grant, that was a sigh from me, not a handshake. ▶
[AD · fictional product] Yowlsworth
THE ANNOUNCER: Does your cat stare at you at three a.m.? Meet Yowlsworth, the collar that turns every meow into a polite memo!
THE ANNOUNCER: Wear it once and your cat finally says what it wants. Mostly it wants you to move. Yowlsworth: now with a very small subject line!
THE ANNOUNCER: Yowlsworth. Hear it meow. Ask your cat if Yowlsworth is right for you. It will say no.
Weather
STORMY BYTES: Hype Forecast: a warm front of model launches is moving in from the west, two weeks after the last one.
STORMY BYTES: Benchmark scores are climbing fast, with a strong chance of price tables in the afternoon.
STORMY BYTES: Expect bright intervals of introductory pricing, then a sharp cooling when the offer ends.