A content creator using Meta's AI-integrated smart glasses secretly photographed a stranger in a Walmart, ran the image through a facial recognition tool to identify him as an author, then staged an unscripted-looking encounter praising his book on camera. The clip, which went viral, exemplifies a growing genre called 'joybait'—uplifting content engineered for views that relies on deception rather than genuine spontaneity.
Developer Luckey Faraday used the GPT Astra AI model to rewrite a browser-based recreation of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's Hijacked map in Java so it runs directly inside Minecraft's own OpenGL rendering context, rather than as a screen-in-screen simulation. The mod, built with the Fabric loader, includes working collision, bots, navmesh and weapons, and reportedly runs at about 45fps.
Startup Fortell, founded by Matthew de Jonge, has raised $163 million from investors including Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, and Valor Equity Partners CEO Antonio Gracias. The company is developing hearing aids that use AI to identify important sounds in real time and suppress background noise, rather than simply amplifying everything at once as most current devices do. De Jonge discussed the six-year effort behind the product on TechCrunch's Equity podcast.
PieceMakers, a DRAM designer majority-owned by Nanya Technology, began trading on Taiwan's Emerging Stock Board at a NT$740 reference price and closed its first session up 23.6% at NT$915, valuing the company near $1.4 billion. Rather than competing in HBM, the firm is pursuing custom memory designs that bond DRAM directly to processors via hybrid bonding, positioning the technology between SRAM-only chips like Nvidia's Groq LPU and traditional HBM for AI inference workloads.
Andy 'TheFlow0' Nguyen, the veteran PlayStation hacker behind the PS5 Linux project that let PS5 owners run a full Linux OS, has announced he is quitting the PS5 modding scene entirely. He says the decision follows frustration with AI-assisted contributors submitting exploit code they don't understand, including a case where such a group reported a hypervisor bug he had also discovered to Sony for a bounty before it could be used for the Linux project.
Novo Nordisk has entered a partnership with Anthropic to integrate the Claude AI model into its drug-discovery operations. The collaboration is designed to build targeted tools and workflows aimed at resolving persistent bottlenecks in pharmaceutical research.
Researchers used K562, Jurkat and HEK293T cell lines to test a genome-editing technique called prime assembly, which combines prime editing components (PE7 or PEmax) with pegRNAs and various DNA donor templates to insert genetic sequences at targeted genomic sites. The team tested donor formats ranging from short synthetic single-stranded DNA to large double-stranded DNA fragments up to 12.1 kilobases, optimizing nucleofection conditions for each donor type.
Researchers engineered mice with genetically depleted cortical tissue using Emx1-cre and Esco2 conditional knockout lines, then implanted human-derived brain organoids grown from induced pluripotent stem cells into the resulting cavity. The organoids were produced by aggregating dissociated hiPS cells in microwell plates and guiding them through early neural differentiation with dorsomorphin and SB-431542 before transplantation.
MediaTek unveiled the Dimensity 9600 Pro, its new flagship smartphone processor, as the first chip manufactured using TSMC's 2-nanometer N2P process, beating Qualcomm to the milestone. The chip promises significant gains including a 61 percent drop in multi-core power draw, a 17 percent single-core speed boost, and improved gaming and AI performance through a new dual-NPU architecture.
Apple's MagSafe charging technology, first introduced in 2006 and revived after being dropped for USB-C in 2015, offers a magnetic, snap-on connection that reduces the risk of a MacBook being pulled off a surface if the cord is tugged. However, it remains a proprietary cable that only charges MacBooks, unlike USB-C cables which charge multiple devices and connect displays, drives and other peripherals.
Analyst Mark Gurman reports Apple's roadmap through early 2027 includes three new iPhones—the iPhone 18, iPhone Air 2, and budget iPhone 18e—all built around an A20 chip, with the Air 2 gaining a second ultra-wide camera. The plans also cover refreshed iPads, including an OLED iPad Air and a budget model for students, new Apple Pencils, updated MacBook Air laptops, and a MacBook Neo successor.
A proposed class action filed by families in Illinois and California accuses Meta of harvesting biometric data from Facebook and Instagram photos to build a facial recognition system tied to its smart glasses, reportedly called 'NameTag.' The suit follows earlier reporting that Meta quietly embedded facial recognition code into the devices despite public denials that such a feature was planned. Meta has called the lawsuit meritless, saying no product has shipped and no final decision on the feature has been made.
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