Welcome back to Week in Review! Lots in store for you today, including Wix’s latest acquisition, Meta’s new smart glasses, a look at the new Digg, and much more. Have a great weekend!
Smart specs: Meta and Oakley have teamed up on a new pair of smart glasses that can record 3K video, play music, handle calls, and respond to Meta AI prompts. They start at $399 and have double the battery life of Meta’s Ray-Bans. A $499 limited-edition Oakley Meta HSTN model will be available starting July 11.
Unicorn watch: Wix bought 6-month-old solo startup Base44 for $80 million in cash after it quickly gained traction as a no-code AI tool for building web apps. Created by a single founder and already profitable, Base44’s rapid rise made scooping it up irresistible.
Sand to the rescue: Finland just turned on the world’s largest sand battery — yes, actual sand — which stores heat to help power the small town of Pornainen’s heating system and cut its carbon emissions. The low-tech, low-cost system is built from discarded fireplace soapstone, is housed in a giant silo, and can store heat for weeks, proving you don’t need fancy lithium to fight climate change. You just need a pile of hot rocks.
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Image Credits:Rebecca Bellan
We’re back, baby: VanMoof is back from the brink with the S6, its first e-bike since bankruptcy — and it’s sticking to its signature custom design, despite that being what nearly killed the company. Backed by McLaren tech and a beefed-up repair network, the new VanMoof promises smoother rides, smarter features, and (hopefully) fewer stranded cyclists.
Space lasers: Baiju Bhatt, best known for co-founding Robinhood, is now building lasers in space. His new startup, Aetherflux, has raised $60 million to prove that beaming solar power from orbit isn’t a fantasy, with a demo satellite set to launch next year and early backing from the Department of Defense.
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