We're down a Dan this week (boo), but we filled the hour anyway. On this episode: the latest dope on the Nintendo Switch; the new Nvidia Shield TV; Microsoft's new Xbox update; why Samsung's Note 7 kept blowing up (it's officially out); an Apple AirPods competitor; Tesla is stealing employees from Apple; and Essential, a new smartphone contender brought to us by Andy Rubin.

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• The Nintendo Switch will launch on March 3rd for $299 — In essence, the Switch brings together the home console and portable sides of Nintendo’s business. The actual game console is housed in a tablet, which can connect to a television through a dock. According to Nintendo, the tablet has has a battery life ranging from 2.5 to 6 hours depending on the game; the company estimates a game like Breath of the Wild will last around three hours, for instance. (The Switch also charges over USB-C.)
• Nintendo America on Twitter: what's in the box
• Nintendo Switch will get its own paid online service | The Verge — a premium online service would replace its previous model of letting players access multiplayer for free. Nintendo stresses that it will be an improvement over its past game-specific services.
• Nvidia’s new Shield TV | The Verge — if you have the original and were hoping for an upgrade, you won’t really find much of one here.
• Microsoft is finally rebuilding the Xbox One dashboard for speed | The Verge — “Every Xbox One will see an update coming to the Guide that will make it faster to complete common tasks,”
• Galaxy Note 7 investigation results leaked early | Phandroid — The battery couldn’t breathe and the safety software didn’t work. It was a perfect storm for phone failure.
• The Bragi Headphone is finally shipping | The Verge — The Headphone is available on Bragi’s website now for $149.99, with Bragi estimating that orders should arriving within two weeks.
• Tesla Is Snatching Apple's Stars to Make Itself the New Apple | WIRED — Apple’s innovation machine is losing another key cog to a company that has lured so many others away from the House That Jobs Built.
• Report: co-founder of Android preparing to launch new phone company | Bloomberg — Just over two years after leaving Google, Andy Rubin is preparing to take on the smartphone industry he helped create.
• Facebook no longer clearly labels edited posts | The Verge — In order to check whether a post has changed, you need to click the drop-down menu on the top right corner of post and see if “View edit history” is available.
• Microsoft bought an AI startup from Toronto | The Verge — with this acquisition we are, as Wayne Gretzky would say, skating to where the puck will be next — machine reading and writing.”
• Nissan picks London for first European on-road autonomous car tests | Reuters — The government has said it wants to encourage the development and testing of autonomous driving technology in Britain, helping build an industry to serve a worldwide market it reckons could be worth around 900 billion pounds ($1.1 trillion) by 2025.
• Stolen Razer Project Valerie appears on Chinese auction site | HEXUS.net — The machines, which went missing from the Razer Press room about 4pm PST on Sunday, 8th January, have now surfaced in mainland China.
• SpaceX lands its Falcon 9 rocket at sea, following first launch since August | The Verge — The feat brings the total number of recovered SpaceX rockets to seven, as two other Falcon 9 vehicles have successfully touched down on solid ground after a launch.
• Facebook rolls out fake news filter in Germany | The Verge — German politicians have warned of the effect that fake news could have on federal elections slated for this fall, following a spate of fabricated articles and hoaxes during the US presidential election.