Weekly digest

Consumer tech is clearly exhausted by safe, black rectangles and has pivoted to pure extremes. Engineers are either cramming data-center compute into unfeasible form factors or turning basic peripherals into quirky design experiments. The practical value is debatable, but the market has certainly become less boring.

The centerpiece of this horsepower obsession is the OneXPlayer Super X Pro tablet. Stuffing 192GB of RAM and an AI-focused processor into a 12.5mm chassis directly collided with the laws of physics, requiring an external liquid cooling loop to function properly. It stands as a prime monument to excessive mobile engineering.

At the opposite end, wearables are retreating into unabashed retro-escapism. The $80 My Play Watch proudly ditches smart notifications altogether, letting users brawl in Street Fighter II directly on their wrists while still quietly tracking steps. It is an intentional, playable antidote to perpetual pinging.

Practical gadgets are attempting to stand out through distinctive aesthetics and modularity. CMF introduced $59 wireless speakers shaped like milk cartons, proving budget desktop audio can look playful without a hefty price tag. Meanwhile, mobile creators get the $99 Elgato Wave Go, a transformer wireless microphone aiming to juggle multiple field recording setups.

Rounding out the week, modders continue solving problems purely because they can. Running Xbox Cloud Gaming on a jailbroken PlayStation 5 using AI-assisted code proved to be an impressive technical flex that ultimately delivers little more than an impractical headache for actual gaming.

Hardware manufacturers are violently swinging between over-engineered brute force and nostalgic novelty. Consumers must now decide whether external water pumps and milk-carton plastics actually improve daily life or just clutter desks.