00:01.49
Andy Young
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the A25 Technologies podcast. I’m Andy, founder and CEO of A25 Technologies.
00:08.92
Tim
And I’m Tim, senior tech here at A25. This is episode 69. We got some fascinating topics lined up today.
00:17.37
Andy Young
That is right, Tim. So think we’re covering everything from tariffs, the old Trump tariffs, as they’ll be known in history, probably, how they affect IT prices, all the way to quantum computing breakthroughs, and then some real interesting AI limitations.
00:33.79
Andy Young
So let’s dive right in.
00:36.00
Tim
Right.
00:36.90
Andy Young
So have you been keeping up on the latest tariff stuff?
00:41.70
Tim
Unfortunately, yes. President Trump just implemented the 10% tariff increase on Chinese imports back in February, and it’s already having a ripple effect across the tech industry.
00:52.26
Andy Young
Yeah, it’s pretty significant. And, uh, The impact on consumer electronics in particular is pretty major, which most of our listeners would be interested in And think what you’re looking at right now on financial radar is about $66.7 billion dollars will be the impact on cell phones alone.
01:03.02
Tim
Hmm.
01:14.47
Andy Young
Then you’ve got another $37.5 billion Yeah. on computers yeah
01:20.66
Tim
Wow. The price increase are really what’s going to hit the consumers. We’re expecting laptops and telvis to go up by 45%. Smartphones by near 26%. Video game consoles, 39%. Sheesh.
01:29.41
Andy Young
Whoa.
01:29.84
Tim
Yeah. video game consoles thirty nine percent geesh
01:34.77
Andy Young
Whoa. That’s, yeah, that’s substantial. And of course there’s TVs, monitors, right? They’re expected to go up 9%. Any other, like if we would have started with that, you know, like 9%, we’d be like, well, that’s, that’s pretty big. Yeah. I mean, but
01:48.94
Tim
20, 30, 40. Right.
01:49.48
Andy Young
Laptop’s going up 40%.
01:50.14
Tim
Jeez.
01:50.40
Andy Young
Yeah. yeah
01:51.80
Tim
Up, up, up, up.
01:52.22
Andy Young
TV’s meh. So yeah, you add it all up. andim Analysts are estimating that these tariffs could add to an average household about 2,700 a year in expenses.
02:04.87
Tim
cheese
02:05.40
Andy Young
So, I mean, you extrapolate that out to a small business. I mean, you’re anywhere, depending on how many employees you have, you know?
02:12.12
Tim
ah but but but
02:13.31
Andy Young
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you got 20, 20 to 30 employees. You’re probably looking an extra 30 grand. Yeah. That’s a budget buster.
02:23.36
Tim
right unlocked previous trade conflicts Apple products aren’t exempt this time around woohoo
02:30.13
Andy Young
Apple. Yeah. So that’s going to be really, you know, the the cost of all of this is to be a big change for our clients. So um on top of that, at this same time, we’ve got all these tariffs.
02:44.17
Andy Young
And then we also have this return to office mandates. or we have these returned office mandates that are coming out that, um yeah.
02:51.61
Tim
Please.
02:54.00
Andy Young
So, yeah you know, you now all of a sudden to have extra spending and an extra requirement for these offices to get new machines, right?
03:04.71
Andy Young
Cause they’ve kind of been pushing, oh, you know, we got you all new machines during COVID. These are fine. Let’s carry it out. Well, now the rubber’s hitting the road and those machines, you know,
03:16.73
Andy Young
they’re not really doing much. So like, you know, how does that affect IT spending?
03:22.80
Tim
Very, yeah. um More companies are requiring the employees back in office like you were talking about.
03:28.88
Andy Young
Yep.
03:29.22
Tim
We’re seeing shifts in IT budgets and now companies are having to reinvest their office infrastructure while maintaining remote capabilities.
03:38.74
Andy Young
Well, didn’t even think of that. Yeah. You got the remote side too. so yeah, it’s hybrid more.
03:41.96
Tim
Mm-hmm.
03:43.79
Andy Young
So, yeah, you’ve got an interesting dual investment situation right now in between tariffs and return to office. And, yeah, I mean, companies can’t just abandon their remote setups, but they also need to refresh the in-office technology, too.
03:58.07
Tim
Oh boy.
04:00.21
Andy Young
Yeah.
04:00.65
Tim
um I mean, exactly. And these tears on top of that, I two departments are really feeling the squeeze. Here it comes.
04:08.10
Andy Young
Yep. So, you know, and I do feel bad for your clients and for us. We’re not exempt, you know, and it’s just the reality of doing business though. And it’s hard and sometimes to sit and watch the prices go up and think, is it really worth this much money for this? That was, you know, 40% less last year.
04:29.55
Andy Young
um
04:29.98
Tim
Hmm.
04:30.09
Andy Young
So if anything, it could be ah really good opportunity to evaluate, you know, and what’s the What’s the end of 2025 going to look like?
04:41.17
Andy Young
You know, if we’re we’re thinking we got the cash now, do we go ahead and invest in that infrastructure?
04:42.15
Tim
Right.
04:46.74
Andy Young
Because we know it’s only going to go up probably. so yeah.
04:49.97
Tim
Better do it soon.
04:52.14
Andy Young
Yeah, well, you know, infrastructure is fun. So let’s shift gears just a little bit. Still in the hardware realm, but more cutting edge. ah China has a new quantum computer.
05:05.14
Andy Young
And this pretty impressive stuff.
05:09.34
Tim
Mm-hmm. It really is. They unveiled a type. Oh, geez. Go with me on this. Tiana 504 quantum computer with 504-cubit chips.
05:20.67
Tim
They’re calling it IZionc or something I know, right?
05:24.08
Andy Young
Yeah. Yeah. It’s a mouthful. You know, and we we we need to brush up on our Chinese, right? Yeah. Yeah. So 500 cubic, that’s a ah big threshold to cross.
05:37.95
Andy Young
It’s pretty significant milestone and a new domestic record for China.
05:43.83
Tim
oh What a fine and interesting collaboration behind it, especially with China tele Telecom Quantum Group, the Chinese Academies of Science, the Quantum C-Tech all work together on this one.
05:55.92
Andy Young
cool to see that collaboration. And i think the University of Science and Technology of China also announced another quantum ah processor recently.
05:57.69
Tim
I know.
06:06.52
Tim
Yes, the Zucon Z3.
06:10.31
Andy Young
I think that’s how you say it.
06:10.68
Tim
they’re claiming They’re claiming it a million times faster than Google’s Sycamore processor, that which is bold and clean.
06:11.31
Andy Young
Yeah, yeah.
06:19.36
Andy Young
Yeah. And then I think it’s six-fold faster than the willow. ah But so we’re talking abstract. What does this mean for the average person? Like, are we going to see any you know practical application soon, do you think?
06:32.20
Tim
Yeah, well, they’re integrating the quantum computer into China’s telecoms, Tiana Quantum Cloud but Platform, which has already attracted over 12 million visits from users in more than 50 countries. So the technology is becoming more accessible.
06:48.50
Andy Young
Ooh.
06:49.34
Tim
the Yeah. Wow.
06:50.44
Andy Young
Yeah, it’s definitely definitely a space to watch there. I was reading, too, that the Zhuchun Z3 processor, and that quantum processor was um stable for 720 milliseconds. And during that time, it produced like 100 million instructions.
07:10.90
Tim
Cheers.
07:11.16
Andy Young
And um to put that, like, the instruction just isn’t, like, something that’s small. This is enormous. So right now there’s a… traditional kind of computer supercomputer that we have called the frontier and it’s the fastest.
07:24.98
Andy Young
Um, and computer scientists have proven is what this thing did in basically 700 or a hundred milliseconds, um, would have taken the frontier traditional computer supercomputer right now, 6.4 billion with a B years to complete.
07:44.68
Tim
Geez, it’s a huge difference.
07:45.50
Andy Young
Yeah. So that’s going to be, ah It’s going to be interesting to see this race of quantum computing heat up globally.
07:50.12
Tim
Fast.
07:54.56
Tim
It’s a race.
07:54.54
Andy Young
Yeah. Cause yeah. Can you imagine that in a cloud that in two, yeah.
07:58.97
Tim
Yeah. that’s but
08:00.53
Andy Young
Two milliseconds effectively you’ve done hundreds, hundreds of millennia of processes that a traditional computer would do.
08:07.54
Tim
Right.
08:10.74
Andy Young
It’s wild.
08:12.01
Tim
That is wild.
08:13.01
Andy Young
Yeah. So let’s ah bring it back here. Maybe software, something a little more consumer facing. Samsung is releasing their new operating system, their Samsung One UI 7.
08:26.42
Andy Young
Tim, you’re you’re an Android expert, right?
08:27.24
Tim
Wow.
08:29.76
Andy Young
You roll around with Android.
08:31.04
Tim
I’m an Android expert.
08:33.28
Andy Young
Hardly. Now, what can you tell us from what you do know about this upcoming release?
08:37.28
Tim
Oh, yeah. This is pretty exciting for this one, the the especially rolling out the One UI 7 starting April 7th.
08:45.31
Andy Young
Ooh, pretty fun. Are there any devices that you know of that are going to go ahead and get this that are already out?
08:52.62
Tim
Initially, it would be available for the Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy Z Fold 6, and the Z Flip 6. And it should be starting around April 10th.
08:58.92
Andy Young
Ooh.
09:01.40
Andy Young
Man, just in a couple weeks.
09:03.44
Tim
Yeah, it’s coming up.
09:03.54
Andy Young
Dang. Man, that is pretty fast. So, you know, let’s say you’re on the fence and you’re like, what am I really going to get out of this? What features do you think that that that are real standout features?
09:15.27
Tim
Yeah, they got they’ve gone with a bold new design with a simple home screen and redesigning widgets. They also have Now bar that provides real-time updates unlock screens without having to unlock your phone.
09:28.90
Tim
Mm-hmm.
09:28.97
Andy Young
that’s kind of convenient. That’s pretty cool.
09:33.66
Tim
It is. ah They also are learning heavily into AI driven interfaces for more natural devices and interaction and the whole experience is streamlined with the better personalization options.
09:39.98
Andy Young
All right.
09:46.25
Tim
Okay.
09:46.91
Andy Young
All right. So I am not an iPhone user. You are ironically, but ah you know, I’ve sat on the pixel platform for a while, but you know, going to say those sound kind of cool.
09:52.53
Tim
ah yeah
10:03.80
Andy Young
do you, you know, maybe next phone, look at a Samsung, you know,
10:08.02
Tim
Oh, well, maybe. ah
10:10.69
Andy Young
Maybe.
10:10.95
Tim
I mean, I know we’ve all been trying to trying and convert you for years this, whichever. Get
10:15.01
Andy Young
Yeah, yeah. Get off the Pixel. Get onto something else. Who knows? Maybe even get really wild. Go on iPhone.
10:20.00
Tim
give me
10:20.40
Andy Young
um
10:20.70
Tim
both.
10:22.13
Andy Young
Batman
10:22.72
Tim
you Just get both. but
10:25.21
Andy Young
scenario of cell phones.
10:25.83
Tim
Every gadget gets a go. Yeah.
10:28.61
Andy Young
need to get all those wonderful phones. ah Yeah. No, as a side note, there it’s kind of interesting. There’s an operating system called Murinu, I think.
10:38.83
Tim
Hmm.
10:39.15
Andy Young
Murinu, I think. M-O… Yeah. M-U-R-E-N-A. And it’s a… um Basically, it’s a de-Googled Android interface.
10:52.75
Andy Young
So you can still get apps and everything, and they can run in a private little sandbox. But it’s pushed from a European Union standpoint of data privacy.
11:05.22
Andy Young
So could be interesting, too, to keep your eyes on down the road. But anyway.
11:09.66
Tim
right
11:10.85
Andy Young
Back to hardware here real quick. NAI. NVIDIA just had a new announcement. They’ve been on an incredible run lately. But but what’s going on?
11:20.61
Tim
well that’s an understatement uh jensen hung just announced blackwell ultra series at the annual gtc conference
11:28.43
Andy Young
So we got a new AI chip, it sounds like. When do you ah do you think this is going to hit market? Or what are they saying as far as when it will hit market?
11:36.00
Tim
The Blackwell Ultra chips are available the second half of 2025, which is coming. What’s really interesting is they already announced Blackwell’s system, the Vera Rubin chip system, expected 2026. Mm-hmm. Oh, right on.
11:50.99
Andy Young
Dang. Yeah, I think they probably found some pressure from, you know, you’ve got all kinds of competitors really kind of pushing up against them, whether it’s AMD or TMSC.
12:04.68
Andy Young
But yeah, so yeah, they’re not slowing down at all, are they?
12:04.82
Tim
oh right
12:07.70
Tim
Hmm. No, not even close. They even got the Finman chip plan for 2028. They introduced the GTX workstation black based on the Blackwell chips, so which positioned to compete with Apple’s High and Max.
12:13.45
Andy Young
course.
12:20.84
Tim
Ooh.
12:21.31
Andy Young
Dang.
12:22.46
Tim
Hmm.
12:23.67
Andy Young
Yeah. And I think, um I think the DGX is also capable to run ai within offices.
12:35.13
Andy Young
So if you wanted an offline AI model,
12:38.17
Tim
right
12:38.23
Andy Young
that was kind of air gapped, you know, it’d give you that opportunity, which is nuts to think about. um They really had staggering growth. And i think so since chat GPT launched, they’ve had a six fold increase, which is staggering.
12:58.42
Andy Young
Yeah. Yeah.
12:58.87
Tim
Well, that’s right. Since late 2022, their business absolutely exploded and there’s really a capitalizing the AI boom.
13:07.63
Andy Young
Yeah. And ah by no means do we give investment and advice on here, but if you were lucky enough to buy in roughly around the chat GPT launch or shortly after, and’s a that’s a fancy investment.
13:12.27
Tim
Mm-hmm.
13:21.46
Tim
Mm-hmm. Yes.
13:23.21
Andy Young
Yeah. um And I think maybe a year or two ago, there was the 10 for one split as well. I think, or was it a six for one split?
13:30.64
Tim
Mm-hmm.
13:31.80
Andy Young
Maybe was six one split. Yeah. Something else had a 10 one split around that time, but yeah.
13:37.31
Andy Young
Yeah, pretty nice pretty nice. So speaking of AI, last last topic here that we’re going kind of pound on. And it’s kind of fascinating because, as you know, I’d say ever since a young age, you know, time’s whatever to me. and i don’t I try to be a timely person.
13:58.54
Andy Young
It’s never anything meant to be disrespectful. But ah time flies for me sometimes. I’ll get into something and… you know, 28 hours later, I’m like, oh, we’re in a different day.
14:06.86
Tim
Oh, it’s a time.
14:08.64
Andy Young
Okay. And I’m not alone. This AI system seemed to be struggling with telling time. And it seems like such a basic skill.
14:18.12
Tim
Hmm. It really does. Researchers from University of Edinburgh shows that even advanced AI models correctly interpret clock hand positions less than 25% the time. 25%. Right, right. Oh, we know that time.
14:33.44
Andy Young
I’m better than that, at least.
14:34.84
Tim
right right oh we know at that time
14:34.92
Andy Young
You know, hey, yeah, that is surprisingly bad. So what you think makes it so difficult for AI to tell the time on a traditional clock?
14:45.31
Tim
um I mean, especially if it gets worse when Roman numerals or styles clocks, I mean, the challenge just needs to be a combination of the spatial awareness, context, and the basic math required for reading time.
14:53.06
Andy Young
Yeah.
14:59.78
Tim
Hmm. Interesting. Okay.
15:03.36
Andy Young
yeah Yeah, it sounds like it’s sitting there and looking at these clock hands and like, I don’t know, man, I don’t know. So, yeah, something that most of us learn as a child in these sophisticated AI systems that can spit out these novels in 20 minutes are stumped.
15:23.76
Tim
Geez.
15:23.86
Andy Young
Yeah.
15:24.100
Tim
I mean, calendar-based questions are problematic, too. They say AI models to get calculations wrong about 20% of the time. Mm-hmm.
15:33.54
Andy Young
wow I mean, that’s a good reminder. You got all these advances in AI, but there are still these fundamental gaps between what AI can do, what it’s capable of, and then like basic human skills.
15:46.67
Tim
Absolutely. It’s humbling to see limitations in the systems can are otherwise perform incredibly complex tasks. Got
15:54.02
Andy Young
Yeah, you know, I know that chat GPT is like, hey, um you know if you get the phone app or even perplexity, if you get the phone app, it’s like, I can remind you about this. And um just for the the giggles of it, sometimes I was like, sure, remind me at this time.
16:03.97
Tim
it. Right.
16:10.08
Andy Young
And I always thought maybe I’m doing it wrong because it never worked that well. But now it’s um interesting to see that it might be tied into this somehow.
16:22.14
Tim
Hmm. Hmm. Right.
16:23.12
Andy Young
Yeah, that it it can’t… Yeah, the way that its relational database works because it’s not linear necessarily, it could be a real…
16:29.85
Tim
right
16:31.90
Andy Young
um Real quandary. Yeah. Well, and I think too, some things are um standard, right? Like you look at the clock and there’s no computation really required with telling time.
16:46.66
Andy Young
It’s largely spatial. I think if you’re looking at a traditional clock, you know, like you look at big hand first, you get idea of where big hand is.
16:51.72
Tim
right right so you to be delayed though
16:56.24
Andy Young
And then you look at bigger hand. Why do we call it? Why do call the hour hand? It should be the little hand.
17:06.58
Tim
attention
17:06.51
Andy Young
but We’ve discovered why this confuses AI.
17:09.60
Tim
right’s like oh what they can do
17:11.42
Andy Young
big Why is the hour the big hand? It’s the smallest. Anyway, that might just be my own idiocracy coming through.
17:15.70
Tim
and ready
17:19.60
Andy Young
man, who knows? All right. Well, hey, before we wrap up today, we wanted to take a moment to talk about ways that you can support the show if you’re enjoying what you hear.
17:33.20
Tim
That’s right. The podcast has been growing steadily and we’re grateful for all of our listeners out there.
17:38.42
Andy Young
We are. And we want to let you know the easiest ways that you could support us is really to share the podcast, right? we We enjoy doing this. It’s something that, you know, we get a kick out of.
17:50.16
Andy Young
So if you’ve got friends in the space, you’ve got colleagues or really anyone you think that might benefit from or benefit from these tech discussions, that would be awesome.
17:50.44
Tim
Mm-hmm.
18:01.20
Andy Young
So word of mouth is incredibly powerful and we’d appreciate if you’d share that.
18:04.25
Tim
Absolutely. Hey, if you’re listening on Apple podcasts, as Spotify, or any platform that allows reviews, we appreciate any, uh, feedback or rating or review.
18:16.36
Tim
it helps us find other shows and let us know what you’re enjoying.
18:20.35
Andy Young
That is true. Yes, they do. You know, the reviews make a difference. They really, especially good reviews.
18:24.79
Tim
yeah Absolutely.
18:26.92
Andy Young
You know, if I’m going honest, I’m not interested in one star reviews. Maybe just, you know, if you got a ah suggestion or you’re really offended, just, you know, for ah four star, that’ll get our attention. If we see a four star, we’re going read the comments.
18:41.52
Andy Young
You don’t need to bottom it out for us to, you know, see, we don’t have too many reviews right now. So yeah, we definitely would notice. Yes.
18:47.32
Tim
Reviews, reviews, go, go, go
18:48.42
Andy Young
Yes. And they help boost our visibility. And, you know, they give us feedback. What topics you’re interested in, what you find most valuable, all of that.
18:59.51
Tim
Yeah, another a great way to support us referring to the business of F482825 Technologies. too foreign technologies If know someone who needs IT t support, managed services, cybersecurity solutions, we’d be honored to help them out.
19:11.35
Andy Young
Absolutely, yes. So yeah, at A25 Tech, if you didn’t know, we specialize in comprehensive IT solutions. So no matter your business size, we can help out.
19:24.79
Andy Young
We’re more of a total solution provider for 50 and below. We offer more advisory in a complimentary services for 50 and above employee businesses.
19:33.57
Tim
Mm-hmm.
19:33.86
Andy Young
But whether it’s a network setup, cloud migration, security assessments for HIPAA, DD2345, PCI, any of those, or any ongoing IT management, if you need help finding the best prices on cloud software, which also we’ll see some increases on tariff-related stuff.
19:36.16
Tim
Right.
19:42.40
Tim
who
19:52.92
Tim
it right
19:54.48
Andy Young
Yeah, yeah. um You know, any any of that. Basically, you know, our team is really here to help. so
20:04.76
Tim
Yeah. Don’t forget, you can find more information about our services at 825tech.com or give us call at 800-825-PAGE. Beep, beep. Buzz, buzz. eight two five page
20:16.40
Andy Young
Yes. In case you need help, right? Like back to the nineties of pagers.
20:22.10
Tim
maybe it was bu
20:25.64
Andy Young
Bingo. So we’ve also got a monthly newsletter and you can sign up for that on our website. It delivers tech tips, insights straight into your inbox. We might be increasing that to weekly ah depending on,
20:36.96
Tim
me
20:37.90
Andy Young
Yeah, what’s going on? It might be a ah fun little update. So that can be subscribed out on our website as well. um You can go to 825tech.com or 825technologies.com. ah twenty five technologieslog dot com
20:49.05
Tim
Supporting the podcast helps us bring us the latest tech news and analyze every week. So we appreciate each and every listener.
20:56.38
Andy Young
Yes, we really, really do. So thanks for listening. And I think that covers our topics for today.
21:00.68
Tim
Absolutely.
21:03.36
Tim
Right.
21:03.40
Andy Young
So we went from tariffs and their impact on tech prices to quantum computing breakthroughs.
21:05.82
Tim
Mm-hmm. Right.
21:08.20
Andy Young
We hit on Samsung’s UI, their new update version 7.
21:11.46
Tim
Yeah.
21:12.99
Andy Young
We talked about NVIDIA that they continue to denominate in the AI chip market. Still probably a good investment. And ah talked about AI’s surprising inability to tell time.
21:25.44
Tim
yeah It’s been another fascinating discussion, Andy, as always, technology keeps moving forward. Sometimes it’s unexpected ways. Mm-hmm.
21:31.78
Andy Young
Well, yeah, that is true. And before we go, want to thank all of our listeners listeners for tuning into episode 69 of the A25 Technologies podcast. Remember, if you liked the show, subscribe, leave us a review, share it with friends.
21:47.14
Tim
Right. And don’t forget to check out our website, 825tech.com for more insights on a full range of IT services.
21:53.62
Andy Young
help Until next time, I’m Andy.
21:55.98
Tim
And I’m Tim.
21:57.22
Andy Young
And thanks for listening.
