Designator

One of Meta’s Offices Was Briefly Overtaken by a Rogue Squirrel

A rogue squirrel, reportedly delivered in a package, briefly overtook Meta's Bangkok office, injuring one employee and providing levity amid low company morale.

John Deere owners will get the right to repair equipment under FTC settlement

John Deere owners will gain the right to repair their own agricultural equipment following a new settlement reached with the Federal Trade Commission.

We made Grok 4.5, GPT-5.5, and Claude build the same apps

A comparison of Grok 4.5, GPT-5.5, Claude Opus 4.8, and Fable 5 evaluated their ability to generate interactive web applications from single prompts, measuring performance and output quality.

8 Jul5 min read

Despite ‘misgivings,’ judge approves Elon Musk’s $1.5M SEC settlement

A judge approved a $1.5 million SEC settlement with Elon Musk despite having significant misgivings about it.

Lovable reportedly in talks to double its valuation to $13.2B

Lovable, a Swedish vibe-coding startup, is in talks to raise $300 million at a $13.2 billion valuation.

8 Jul2 min read

The Verge

Meta is reportedly working on smart glasses that would be recording all the time

Meta is developing smart glasses that continuously record audio and frequently snap photos.

Why is the Google Store selling a Galaxy Watch 8?

The Google Store is selling the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 with a $20 discount until July 14.

Feds demand autonomous vehicle companies stop interfering with first responders

NHTSA demands autonomous vehicle companies stop interfering with first responders and law enforcement.

Ars Technica

Suspecting AI cheating, Ivy League prof ordered an in-person final; scores fell 50%

An Ivy League professor's in-person final exam revealed suspected AI cheating, with scores falling 50% from the take-home midterm.

8 Jul5 min read

The Verge

The whole Pixel line could get more expensive this year

Google's upcoming Pixel 11 and Pixel Watch 5 lineups may see price increases, with the Pixel 11 potentially dropping its 128GB storage option and the Pixel Watch 5 costing $50 more.

The Verge

Gaming laptops are too expensive right now, but this one’s a good value

The MSI Katana gaming laptop, featuring an RTX 5060 GPU and Intel Core i7 CPU, offers a good value at $1,133.67 despite current high RAM costs.

8 Jul5 min read

Apple to produce Made in America wireless chips with Broadcom

Apple signed a $30 billion multiyear deal with Broadcom to design and produce U.S.-made wireless connectivity chips for Apple products, investing $1.5 billion in Broadcom's Colorado facility.

Mistral's Robostral Navigate: a state of the art robotics navigation model

Mistral's Robostral Navigate model enables robots to autonomously navigate complex environments using only a single RGB camera, achieving state-of-the-art performance on unseen benchmarks.

Venus Aerospace raises $90M Series B to build a new kind of rocket engine

Venus Aerospace secured $90 million in Series B funding to advance its Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine, shifting focus from passenger travel to hypersonic weapons and high-speed space vehicles for defense.

Galaxy Z Fold 8 leaks in official-looking renders, confirming some final details

Leaked renders of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 reveal a passport-like design, a 5.5-inch QHD+ outer display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, and a 7.6-inch QHD+ inner display with a 4:3 aspect ratio.

Blue Origin reportedly raising $10B at $130B valuation

Blue Origin is raising $10 billion at a $130 billion pre-money valuation from investors including Coatue Asset Management.

Galaxy Watch 9, Ultra 2, and Z Flip 8 sure do look like Samsung sequels in official-looking renders [Gallery]

Leaked renders show the Galaxy Watch 9, Ultra 2, and Z Flip 8 with minor design tweaks.

US Food and Drug Administration rejects petition to set PFAS limits in food

The US Food and Drug Administration rejects a petition to set limits on toxic PFAS in food despite evidence of widespread contamination.

Ars Technica

US rare earths flow to Asia as domestic demand is slow to emerge

US rare earths produced by Washington-backed companies are being sold to Japan and South Korea due to slow domestic demand.

Cloudflare Meerkat - Globally distributed consensus

Cloudflare introduces Meerkat, a globally distributed consensus service for managing control-plane state.

Tiny data centre used to heat public swimming pool

A tiny data centre is heating a Devon public swimming pool, saving the centre thousands of pounds in energy costs.

8 Jul11 min read