Takeaways from CES on the iPhone's 10th anniversary (The 3:59, Ep. 159)

We're back from CES!

With the biggest show in tech wrapped up, we review our takeaways from the Las Vegas showcase. Razer's concept tri-screen laptop, titled Project Valerie, certainly left an impression on our team, as did Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, being available on ... well, everything.

 

Trump offers olive branch to tech leaders

For President-elect Donald Trump, it's kiss-and-make-up time.

Trump met with more than a dozen executives from the biggest tech companies in the US -- a roundtable fraught with potential for awkwardness given Trump's repeated attacks on tech and the philosophical disagreements he has with some of the executives.

The president-elect instead pledged to do "anything we can do" to help continue the industry's success.

VR is here, but it hasn't really arrived -- yet

Cool new headsets? Check.

3D interactive, immersive experiences? Check.

Customers? Um.

There's been a lot of hype around VR over the past year, but for all the money being thrown at the virtual-reality market from Facebook, Google and Microsoft, among others, it's still not clear whether the next major change in how we think about computers is going to be driven by VR.

 

Steve Ballmer brags he beat Bill Gates in math competition

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.

ballmercoco.jpgEnlarge Image

He's pleased with himself.

Photo by Team Coco (screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

It's a story some have already heard.

Samsung takes wraps off $150 million fund for early startups

Are you building the next big thing in virtual reality, artificial intelligence or the internet of things? If so, you probably would be interested in the $150 million fund announced Wednesday by Samsung Next, formerly known as the Samsung Global Innovation Center.

The latest fund targets pre-seed (typically used to build a core team and initial prototypes) to series B investments, David Eun, president and founder of Samsung Next, said in a statement from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Samsung's venture arm on Wednesday also announced its rebranded name and new website.