Daily Tech News 11 October 2025

• Just when we were starting to worry about things getting boring again China has blocked exports of rare-earth elements to the rest of the planet. (MSN)
  
  There are 17 rare-earth elements, used in electronics (particularly magnets) and chemistry, and China has shut off sales of 12 of them. China gained control of the market not because it has massive resources - Vietnam by itself has half the proven reserves of China - but because rare-earth elements are stinky and China didn't mind the smell.
  
  Past tense, because a lot of China's rare-earth production these days comes from slave camps in Myanmar and not from China at all.
  
  President Trump has announced a 100% tariff on all imports from China in response.
  
  This is hardly the first time China has pulled this shit - the same thing happened in April. Which seems like hundreds of years ago, but trust me, it wasn't.
  
  
  
• And share prices in Australian mining companies are booming as a result, because Australia is currently the largest Western producer of rare-earth metals. (MSN)
  
  Because the funny thing is that rare earth elements aren't all that rare. Vietnam, as I mentioned, Brazil, India, Australia, and the US itself all have millions of tons of reserves.

• Meanwhile, China has cracked down on Nvidia AI GPU imports. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Okay. Not sure that anyone cares.
  
  
  
• The US Senate has passed a bill forcing American AI chipmakers to give priority to American customers. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Okay. Not sure that anyone cares.
  
  
  
• China banned the research company that discovered Huawei was violating US bans on using Taiwanese technology to make its chips. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Apparently China cares.
  
  
  
• And finally, a Singapore company denies that it helped smuggle $2 billion worth of Nvidia AI processors into China, a move now banned by both China and the US. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  I'm sure they do.
  
  
  
• Intel's 18A (1.8nm) process node has entered production ahead of TSMC's 2nm node. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It's hard to precisely compare the two since products aren't shipping to consumers yet, but Intel's 18A process looks to be somewhere between TSMC's 3nm and 2nm - 20% denser than TSMC's 3nm but 20% behind the upcoming 2nm process.
  
  But it certainly seems to be a leading-edge process and Intel is not repeating the years of 14nm+++.
  
  
  
• Amazon's Echo Show has abruptly turned into a billboard they expect you to pay for. (The Verge) (archive site)

  At Amazon's hardware event last month, I asked Panay how ads fit into his mission to build products customers love. He said that if it's relevant, it's not an ad, "it's an add-on."

  Translation: Fuck you.

  "There are moments on the product where ads aren't always bad," he told me, explaining that if the customer is looking for something specific, and the ad gets them to that faster, it can be a good thing.

  Translation: You're too stupid to know what's good for you anyway.

  My experience of these ads has not been that they're an "add-on." They're intrusive and annoying, showing me products I'm not even slightly interested in, such as elderberry herbal supplements, Quest sports chips, and tabletop picture frames. (Well, the last one might be an option if I remove the Show from my desk.) And, unlike some of the previous ad experiences on the Show, they cannot be turned off.

  Translation: Cory Doctorow might be a filthy commie but he's not wrong. Well, he's still 100% wrong on the solution, but he has correctly identified the problem.

  I asked Amazon if they can be disabled, and spokesperson Lauren Raemhild replied via email, saying, "Advertising is a small part of the experience, and it helps customers discover new content and products they may be interested in. If customers don't like a suggestion, they can swipe to skip to the next screen card, or directly provide feedback by tapping the Information icon or pressing the screen."

  Translation: No, seriously, fuck you.
  
  
  
• We're all about to be in wearable hell. (The Verge) (archive site)
  
  No, no we're not. Normal people don't wear four smart watches and an AI ring at the same time.
  
  (Honestly, this article reads like one of the drones that infested tech companies before they all got fired recently complaining My new job is so awful. Sometimes they expect me to get up in the morning.)

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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