AI help for your holiday tasks, Vision Pro's killer app, and Google's new AI
Plus, my latest video (another new one), a deep dive on tariffs, a weird 7,500 year old head, and how smartphones widen the digital divide
I’m David Gewirtz. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. It’s been an exciting week. Let’s dive in.
My latest video
This is my last video for 2024. It’s a fun one, and I think you’ll like some of the flashbacks. Enjoy!
My articles
Let’s kick it off with a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET.
10 ways AI chatbots can help you with holiday tasks - and 30 sample prompts: AI can help you maximize your holiday cheer and minimize the chaos. Use these 30 AI prompts to tackle everything from meal planning to travel stress, all while staying on budget and organized.
Apple Vision Pro finally delivers a killer feature justifying the VR headset's price - see my test results: It's a shame Apple didn't include the ultra-wide Mac virtual display when it launched the Vision Pro. The product would have made so much more sense.
Secret Agentspace: Google announces new AI tool to help enterprises turn silos into lakes: Google's new enterprise offering provides a fresh way to blend data silos and extract business value from previously barricaded data. Here's why it could be a game changer for your business.
Google's Gemini 2.0 AI promises to be faster and smarter via agentic advances: Google's Gemini 2.0 brings advanced features like multimodal outputs, long context understanding, and native tool use. Can this agentic AI model surpass its rivals and lead the next AI wave?
How ChatGPT's data analysis tool yields actionable business insights with no programming: Curious about AI-driven data insights? ChatGPT's advanced tools simplify data analysis, helping you handle complex datasets, find insights, fix errors, and uncover trends in minutes.
Tool of the week
These special-purpose pliers recently came in super-handy removing a stripped screw from a stud. The screw was at a precise position on the stud, so i couldn’t just cut it down and leave it in the wall. But its Phillips head had completely stripped. I did a bunch of searching, and these pliers came up.
They have special tooling that lets them grip the head and simply unscrew it. Worked like a champ. They’ve now taken up permanent residence in my “grip tools” drawer.
Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
With all the discussion of tariffs coming in 2025, this deep dive video offers a fascinating look at how China uses Mexico to try to avoid US tariffs.
This is a great story by YouTuber Gerald Undone about coincidence and random occurrence. Are we living in the Matrix? You be the judge.
Interesting reads
And now, some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
Fascinating blog post from Microsoft about some of the inside thinking and UI design challenges involved in trying to convince users to move to passkeys.
This 7,500 year old clay head has archeologists puzzled.
ZDNET’s Jason Perlow’s is on fire this month with another must-read article. This time, it’s The $200 Android vs. the $1,000 iPhone: How our digital divide keeps growing
Send in your projects
I’d like to regularly spotlight a reader project or two here. Your project doesn’t have to be a big Kickstarter launch. If you’ve built something cool, it has some pretty pictures, and you’re proud of it, I might be able to share it here.
If you have a photogenic reader project, send an email to me at david@zatz.com with the subject “READER PROJECT,” a few pictures, and a short one-paragraph description. If you have a social media link or a link to the project, include that, too.
Both my EPs are now streaming
Available on all your favorite streaming services.
More clicky
I’ve got a lot happening all over the web. Here are links to my various stuff:
House of the Head: home for my published music
ZATZ Labs: where I host my published software projects
Feel free to dig around, visit, and say hey!
Leave some comments
Substack supports comments, so feel free to leave some. I promise to read them. Just, please, let’s keep our personal politics out of any discussion.
That should do it for this week. This newsletter is really starting to pick up subscribers. Please help it out by sharing links on all your socials.
Have a great week!