Designator

The FCC is cracking down on DJI tech that dodged the foreign drone ban

The FCC is fining eight companies $25,000 each for allegedly evading the US foreign drone ban.

Einstein's relativity rules chemical bonds in heavy elements, new research shows

Einstein's relativity affects chemical bonds in heavy elements, altering their structure.

10 Jul4 min read

Bluesky’s interim CEO, Toni Schneider, drops the ‘interim’

Toni Schneider drops interim status to become permanent CEO of Bluesky.

Ars Technica

China recovered its first reusable rocket and showed a new way to do it

China recovered its first reusable rocket using a sea-based net system.

10 Jul9 min read

Apple sues OpenAI for allegedly stealing hardware secrets

Apple sues OpenAI for allegedly stealing hardware secrets from former Apple employees.

10 Jul4 min read

The Trump phone is not a serious phone

The "Trump phone" is a real but unserious device, characterized by cheap gold plastic, dated design, an incorrectly rendered American flag logo, and irregular camera lens spacing.

10 Jul8 min read

EU threatens Meta with fines over addictive features on Facebook and Instagram

The EU is threatening Meta with fines for Facebook and Instagram's addictive design features, including infinite scroll and personalized algorithms, which violate the Digital Services Act.

Florida ransomware negotiator convicted for helping ransomware gang extort US companies

A Florida ransomware negotiator received a five-year prison sentence for conspiring with hackers to deploy BlackCat ransomware against U.S. companies and extort over $10 million.

10 Jul5 min read

Empathy for the optimizers

The public reaction to biohacker Bryan Johnson's autoimmune disease diagnosis reveals a societal tendency to mock extreme longevity pursuits rather than understand the underlying motivations for biohacking.

10 Jul9 min read

Ars Technica

Volkswagen Group tells its board how to fix it, unions disagree

Volkswagen Group proposes cutting its model lineup in half to improve profitability amid declining market share and profit margins.

Instagram’s Adam Mosseri: If you don’t like AI, ‘then you shouldn’t have it in your feed’

Instagram head Adam Mosseri stated that users who dislike AI content should not have it in their feeds, but the platform will not filter it out automatically.

Write code like a human will maintain it

Developers should write code with maintainability in mind, as LLMs learn from existing code patterns.

Successful Companies Go Blind

Successful companies can develop competence blindness, losing sight of what made them successful due to rapid growth and hiring practices.

Scarf has moved away from Haskell

Scarf has moved away from Haskell due to compilation time and ecosystem friction issues.

Punk, or why I don't stream anymore

Spectacle and performative culture have killed the authentic hacker culture of participation and self-improvement.

10 Jul4 min read

Would you host part of an AI data center in your home?

Sunrun is launching a pilot program to place AI compute nodes in customers' homes with solar and battery storage systems.

Star Just Ate a Planet, and It's Not Done Yet

Astronomers observed a sun-like star consuming a planet, expanding into a red giant and engulfing the world in a process that offers a glimpse into Earth's eventual fate.

10 Jul

Wired

Thousands of ‘Pokémon Go’ Players Descend on Times Square to Defeat Mewtwo

Niantic celebrated Pokémon Go's tenth anniversary by staging a massive, real-world battle against Mewtwo in Times Square, fulfilling a promise from the game's original 2016 launch trailer.

Focus

Early Facebook engineer reflects that intense focus on core product, despite brutal startup conditions, was crucial for success, arguing that even "good" distractions collectively create drag.

OpenAI says GPT 5.6 is the ‘preferred model’ for Microsoft Copilot 365 amid breakup chatter

OpenAI announced GPT 5.6 will be the "preferred model" for Microsoft 365 Copilot, aiming to quell rumors about a potential split between the two companies.

Don’t want to invest in Elon Musk? Two new ETFs explicitly exclude him

Two new exchange-traded funds, the Nasdaq-100 Ex-Elon Enterprises ETF and S&P 500 Ex-Elon Enterprises ETF, will allow investors to avoid companies associated with Elon Musk.

Microsoft’s carbon emissions went up 25 percent last year

Microsoft's 2026 sustainability report reveals a 25 percent increase in carbon emissions, reaching 34 million metric tons, primarily due to datacenter expansion and AI infrastructure demands.

9to5Google

Google starts rolling out local Documents backup on Android, lets you turn off SMS & RCS

Google is rolling out a new "Documents" backup option for Android, allowing users to automatically save downloaded documents to Google Drive for accessibility and safety.

9 Jul2 min read