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LA: Landlords are trying to squeeze fire victims

Amid reports that some Los Angeles rental price listings have been exponentially hiked since the fires began, officials are threatening to prosecute “anyone who thinks they’re going to take advantage of the people who have been through this tragedy,” LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said on Sunday.

“It’s called price gouging. It is illegal. You cannot do it,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at another press conference over the weekend. His office has seen some “businesses and landlords … jack up the price,” of rent in the past week, he said, even though California’s anti-price gouging laws make it illegal for landlords to raise rent by more than 10% in the first 30 to 180 days after a disaster is declared.

“[The laws] are just being ignored right now,” Selling Sunset’s star realtor Jason Oppenheim told the BBC, saying an Oppenheim Group client who lost their home in the fires found a rental property that was previously priced at $13,000/month—they offered $20,000/month, and the landlord countered with $23,000 (a ~75% hike). It’s not the only example:

A Bel Air home located in an evacuation warning zone was listed on Zillow this weekend at $29,500/month—an 86% hike from its September 2024 price, according to LAist.
Another realtor raised an Encino listing from $9,000/month as of Jan. 3 to $11,500 after the fires started, according to the LA Times. The realtor then backpedaled to abide by the 10% rule, which she said she didn’t know about.

For context: Los Angeles rent was already high, averaging $2,820/month compared to $1,983/month nationally, according to Zillow.

To help residents, this weekend CA Governor Gavin Newsom extended the state’s disaster-triggered price gouging law to last through January 2026 for LA County and suspended some environmentally-friendly construction rules for wildfire victims. The road to rebuilding is expected to cost $50–$150 billion.—ML

Does everything need to be smart?

For a while, it seemed like the only “smart” thing we owned was a phone. But, as CES 2025 just proved, pretty much everything is “smart” now — windows, toys, washing machines, guitars, you name it.

But what does it mean to be “smart,” and is it necessary?

A smart device…

… is one that connects to the internet, allowing it to communicate with other devices and perform tasks autonomously. For example, you can adjust a smart thermostat with a mobile app, and it’ll maintain that temperature.

In many cases, smart devices have improved our quality of life. They make us more productive, give us more control over our environment, aid those with disabilities, and help us care for pets, kids, and ourselves.

I (this is Juliet, BTW — hello) enjoy those Govee lightbulbs that change color, and I have an automatic pet feeder and cycling litter box.

But there are some concerns

Privacy experts worry that some devices allow too much surveillance into our homes or offer an in for hackers. Baby-monitor hacking horror stories have spread across the internet, but, as CNET notes, this doesn’t happen as often as urban legends would have you believe.

A larger concern may be that they’re overly expensive thanks to features no one needs.

Samsung’s Bespoke AI washing machine won a panel of experts’ “Worst in Show” award at CES 2025 because, well, who needs their washing machine to make a phone call? Similarly, an LG smart fridge won an award as all its bells and whistles simply make it harder to repair.

At CES’s media-only showcase, I encountered LiberLive C1, a $799 “smart” stringless guitar. Users press buttons on the neck to create chords, then “strum” by twiddling a button. It sounds OK and there’s nothing wrong with what feels like guitar karaoke, but… you’re not learning an instrument or even music theory.

We appreciate the innovation and can’t wait for the next big thing, but when the power goes out, we’re gonna wish we had a nice acoustic guitar.

This is fun: Is a $25 robot cat that cools your hot drinks down necessary? No, but please enjoy anyhow.

Walmart introduces new (but very similar) logo

With the subtlety of Clark Kent removing his glasses, Walmart introduced its first new logo in years yesterday. The revamped design might look like the brand team went overboard with the “Ctrl + B” shortcut in the asset folder, but it actually pays homage to the company’s past.

It marks Walmart’s first redesign since 2008, when the retailer removed the star from the middle of its name. The company says the heftier logo was inspired by the font on a Walmart trucker hat worn by founder Sam Walton nearly four decades ago.

The retail giant also traded in its old, more muted blue storefronts and font color for a brighter color it calls True Blue.
Its signature spark design is also beefier.

Walmart said it started rolling out the new branding and colors last October, starting with its store in Springdale, Arkansas.

Big picture: The refresh comes as Walmart continues to hold its own against in-person and online retailers like Target and Amazon. US stores saw sales jump 5% last quarter, while online sales spiked 22%, with the biggest push coming from Walmart’s growing army of high-income shoppers.—MM

TikTok “refugees” flock to another Chinese app

Like grounded teenagers looking to spite their parents, Americans are prepping for an impending TikTok ban in the US by downloading a similar Chinese video-sharing app, RedNote.

The short-form video and photo platform known in China as Xiaohongshu became the Apple App Store’s most downloaded app last week after the Supreme Court signaled it would allow the TikTok ban to go through on January 19.

Unlike TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance but is unavailable in China, RedNote caters to Chinese users. The scores of self-described “TikTok refugees” from the US hopping over the Great Firewall (China’s system for managing its isolated internet) have created an unusual space for digital exchange between citizens of the two adversarial nations.

Cultural bridge

American newcomers to RedNote have been posting about their desire to learn Mandarin and asking for Chinese memes. Meanwhile, China-based users are offering Americans tutorials for using the app and soliciting help with their English homework.

But…Americans might find that RedNote is missing some of the stuff they’re used to seeing on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. While the app is rich in lifestyle content largely targeted at women, the strictly censored app has a taboo on politics and socially sensitive topics that its moderators might deem inappropriate, including LGBT issues and drugs.

Analysts say that the app would have to loosen its moderation policy to become a viable TikTok substitute that competes with Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts.
If Chinese apps like RedNote or the similarly surging Lemon8 do catch on stateside, US officials might find themselves playing whack-a-mole with TikTok alternatives that it views as a national security threat, China analyst Daria Impiombato told the Washington Post.

It might not be over for TikTok…as Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government is weighing allowing Elon Musk to buy the app, though ByteDance denied this. And yesterday, a group of Democratic senators introduced a bill to extend the ban deadline by another 270 days.—SK