CES 2020 - Intel kinda teased its next-gen Thunderbolt 4 technology at CES 2020 this week, but didn't go into detail about it -- and now, we know why.

Thunderbolt 4 is essentially a re-branding of Thunderbolt 3, with ex-TweakTown staffer and now Tom's Hardware contributor Paul Alcorn talking with Intel during CES. Alcorn writes: "Intel confirmed it referenced USB 3.1 in the presentation, meaning Thunderbolt 4 is in fact not faster than Thunderbolt 3".

Articles started flying quick and fast out of CES 2020 that Intel had teased Thunderbolt 4, after it had pushed out slides that its new Tiger Lake architecture had integrated Thunderbolt 4. Confusion happened pretty quickly, with Intel trying to clarify by saying: "Thunderbolt 4 continues Intel leadership in providing exceptional performance, ease of use and quality for USB-C connector-based products".

CES 2020 - Acer unveiled its Predator Thronos Air 'gaming chair' last year for an eye-watering price of $29,000 and now it is coming to the US. The first-gen units weren't available in the US, and had everything built-in -- the new chairs are much cheaper, dropping a bunch of now optional upgrades and no more built-in Acer Predator gaming PC.

The expensive Acer Predator Thronos Air gaming chair has received a bunch of changes to get down from its original price of $29,000 when fully equipped. The new Predator Thronos Air starts at $13,000 and drops the fully-motorized, remote-controlled arm, a built-in chair in the pod itself, an an Acer Predator ready-to-rock-and-roll gaming PC. The new one, doesn't have any of this.

Acer will sell all of these parts separately, which is why the price is down from $29,000 to $13,000 -- as it doesn't have any of that gear, and a full gaming rig, built-in. If you want to throw your own, and most likely much more powerful gaming PC into the Acer Thronos Air, then it'll only start from $13,000. You can still mount 3 x large 27-inch monitors into the Acer Predator Thronos Air, and is still "modular, adjustable, and customizable".

CES 2020 - Samsung was showing off its upcoming flagship consumer SSD at CES 2020, with the new 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD based on the new PCIe 4.0 standard.

Samsung's new 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD will be pushing some huge sequential read/write speeds, with the company promising up to 6.5GB/sec reads, and up to 5GB/sec writes. Samsung will be making its new 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD available in 250/500GB and 1TB capacities.

We're already seeing a ceiling being hit of around 5GB/sec on these new PCIe 4.0-based SSDs, but Samsung is pushing a new boundary here up at 6.5GB/sec. Later this year we'll see the next-gen Phison E18 NVMe SSD controller, which will unlock up to 7GB/sec on both read/write. Samsung said it will have more information on its new 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD in Q2 2020.

Tesla goes from strength to strength hitting the New Year, with the electric vehicle maker now worth more than any American vehicle manufacturer at any point ever -- a milestone that topples even Ford Motor Company's all-time high in 1999.

Back at Tesla's IPO in 2010, you would've purchased a single share of $TSLA for $17 but now you're looking at an insane $470 per share. Tesla has continued to impress through the years, with 2019 being one of their best yet on strong Model 3, Model S, and Model X sales as well as the introduction of their exciting new Cybertruck.

Tesla has also got its new Gigafactory operational in Shanghai, China -- with Elon Musk flying into the country and even dancing for the crowd on stage. Tesla will be building its new Model Y electric vehicle in Shanghai at its new Gigafactory 3, with the company also teasing an all-new "built for China" model that will be announced in the future.

CES 2020 - Alienware demos its new innovative dual-screen laptop that's all screen and no keyboard.

Alienware's new experimental Concept Duet laptop doesn't have a keyboard or any buttons. It's basically two 13-inch screens that fold together via a clamshell clamp that're both fully integrated in an Intel-powered Windows 10 platform. The screens are full touchscreen panels with pen support similar to a souped-up, high-powered Nintendo 3DS, and the device can be folded vertically like a book, horizontally like a traditional laptop, and can also use one screen as a kickstand for tabletop use (or folded into a tablet for single-screen use).

Dell's main use case for Duet Concept is for productivity and content creation like digital art. It looks pretty convenient for anyone who needs to bring their touch-oriented work with them on-the-go, and the demo showed a Skype call on one screen and a note-taking app on the bottom. Thankfully the Duet has a special magnetic keyboard that attaches to the bottom screen so you type more efficiently.

CES 2020 - Sony reveals just how big its PlayStation 4 platform is with some gargantuan figures, including over 1 billion games sold to date.

Sony didn't drop the big PS5 reveal we wanted at CES 2020, but it did clarify the enormity of the PS4's current dominance over the games industry. Since the PS4's original launch in 2013, Sony has sold over 106 million consoles worldwide, putting it just 49 million away from usurping the PS2's long-standing reign.

Hardware isn't everything though (especially when you sell the hardware at a loss). Consoles are just the beginning and serve as the entry point to an ecosystem. The real money is in software sales, and the PS4's numbers are just outrageous. In 7 years, gamers have bought an incredible 1.15 billion PlayStation 4 games. Rough estimates show the average PS4 owner has 9 games.

Ex-Xbox VP Mike Ybarra won't be buying an Xbox Series X console. The reason? He can play all Xbox exclusives on PC.

Mike Ybarra's recent Twitter comment is brief but speaks volumes about Microsoft's service- and software-first gaming business. Ybarra says he'll buy a PlayStation 5 because he's already a PC gamer, hinting it'd be redundant to own both a gaming PC and Xbox console. Honestly it's pretty true. All first-party Xbox exclusives are coming to Windows 10 PCs day-and-date of release, and that goes with Game Pass too.

This isn't a new development though. As far back as 2016, I said Microsoft's cross-platform synergy basically talks a portion of consumers out of buying Xbox hardware--namely existing PC gamers. This is a point of strength for Microsoft simply because it no longer cares that much about Xbox console sales. It's no longer trying to win over PC gamers by fighting with them, and joining the two platforms and making Xbox into a service rather than a console has been tremendously beneficial.

Interactive 3D renders of the Xbox Series X give an extensive look at the console's current case design, complete with ventilation, ports, and dual-orientation setup.

On the heels of AMD's recent Xbox blunder, key sources recently clarified info on the Xbox SX. Yes, the Xbox Series X has back and bottom thermal vents, and no, it doesn't have two HDMI ports with HDMI pass-through (at least currently).

The info has now also been independently verified with Windows Central, who made a nifty 3D render you can actually rotate and zoom in on. From what we can see, the Xbox SX has a pretty robust vertical-optimized cooling solution that mirrors the thermal cooling found in cases like the Phanteks Evolve Shift X.

CES 2020 - MSI unveiled its new Creator 17 laptop at CES 2020, touting that it was the "world's very first" laptop with a nifty Mini LED display.

Mini LEDs are much smaller traditional LEDs that are used as a backlight in displays, with MSI's new Creator 17 rocking a huge 17-inch 4K panel. The 17-inch panel can dim and brighten with more accuracy than a traditional LCD and LED backlight, with Mini LEDs being super-small down to less than 2mm.

MSI says that the Creator 17 panel can display 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, reach up to 1000 nits of brightness (great for HDR content), and speaking of HDR content we should expect stellar HDR abilities thanks to the high levels of contrast bet ween light and dark areas of images and video on the Mini LED display.

CES 2020 - Portable battery maker Goal Zero has just unveiled its new Yeti X range of portable batteries at CES 2020, with smaller portable batteries all the way through to huge home power backups that will power normal household appliances.

Goal Zero has provided USB-C Power Delivery inside of its new Yeti X portable chargers, with faster solar charging through MPPT (maximum power point tracking). The company has also added regulated 12V ports for better compatibility, for when you plug in power-hungry devices like portable fridges.

The new Yeti X 6000X is "the most powerful Yeti to date" says Goal Zero, and has been made to run critical home circuits for multiple days of power outages. In cases like the current fires raging across Australia where thousands of Australians have all electricity, a portable battery like the one here from Goal Zero and its new Yeti X 6000X would be invaluable.