Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Apple has been chasing the dream of a glass iPhone for a decade. On Monday, Jefferies said it was dead and downgraded the stock. Bloomberg then reported the 2027 Pro is alive — but it’ll be “glass-centric,” not all-glass.

The 20th-anniversary iPhone won’t quite be Jony Ive’s single-slab-of-glass dream, but it looks to be as close as Apple can actually build.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Apple’s glass iPhone isn’t dead after all

• YouTube makes it harder to earn money

• The fight over a giant orbital mirror has begun

• Myspace plans its comeback

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

APPLE

🍎 Apple’s glass iPhone isn’t dead after all

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Apple’s 20th-anniversary iPhone isn’t dead. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports the glass-centric Pro redesign is still headed for 2027 — hours after Jefferies analyst Edison Lee told clients Apple had killed it.

The details:

• The 2027 Pro models (V73 and V74 internally) reportedly put glass on the front and back, curving it into the sides around a metal band.

• Bloomberg says it will be “glass-centric,” not all-glass. A more aspirational design-studio version was dropped after Apple hit problems joining the panels.

• Apple locks iPhone designs a year before a fall debut, so the 2027 hardware is likely already in advanced testing and largely fixed, barring late hitches.

• Earlier, Gurman reporting described a curved device with no display cutout, implying an under-display Face ID, but Apple hasn’t yet confirmed anything.

Why it matters: This redesign isn’t just an anniversary flex: Bloomberg says it’s coming to both 2027 Pro models, potentially setting Apple’s next flagship design language. John Ternus inherits the launch just months into the CEO job, with iPhone revenue up 22% last quarter and still generating roughly half of Apple’s sales.

YOUTUBE

💸 YouTube makes it harder to earn money

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: YouTube is doubling the price of admission to full monetization. Starting February 1, 2027, new creators need 8K watch hours or 20M Shorts views before they earn a cent from ads or subscriptions.

The details:

• Full ad and Premium monetization will now require 1K subscribers plus either 8K qualified watch hours in 365 days or 20M qualified Shorts views in 90 days.

• The lower YPP tier isn’t changing, meaning smaller creators can still unlock fan funding and Shopping before qualifying for ad revenue.

• Creators earning from Shorts will need to maintain 10M qualified Shorts views over 90 days; falling below that pauses Shorts ad and Premium revenue.

• Existing partners must accept the terms by Jan. 31, 2027, and remain active: 1K watch hours/year, 1M Shorts views in 90 days, or two long-form videos/quarter.

Why it matters: YouTube is turning ad monetization from an early milestone into a much steeper gate, rewarding channels that can prove sustained scale rather than one viral run. For Shorts creators, the math is especially brutal: 20M views in 90 days means roughly 222K views every single day just to unlock ad and Premium revenue.

REFLECT ORBITAL

🪞 The fight over a giant orbital mirror has begun

Image source: Reflect Orbital

The Rundown: Reflect Orbital has won FCC approval to test a satellite that will unfold a 60 ft. mirror in orbit and aim reflected sunlight at Earth after dark, reviving a sci-fi pitch while intensifying fears over light pollution, astronomy, and safety.

The details:

• The California startup’s Eärendil-1 demo is licensed to operate for up to two years, testing if orbital reflectors can deliver localized “sunlight on demand.”

• With Reflect Orbital aiming for 50K satellites by 2035, it says the beam would light a defined area briefly in what the company calls a soft, moonlike glow.

• Astronomers and dark-sky advocates warn the project could disrupt observations, saturate telescope detectors, and damage researchers’ eyesight.

• The FCC cleared the satellite's spectrum but ruled optical astronomy outside its scope; four groups have since petitioned to reverse it.

Why it matters: The test exposes a regulatory blind spot for orbital infrastructure: a communications regulator can authorize the spacecraft and its radio links without fully adjudicating what a bright, steerable object might do to the night sky, ecosystems, and scientific research.

SOCIAL MEDIA

 💾 Myspace plans its comeback

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Myspace is planning a reboot, with owners Tim and Chris Vanderhook teasing a relaunch in a new documentary, CNBC reports. Social media users sick of algorithmic feeds are cheering, but analysts say nostalgia doesn’t buy market share.

The details:

• The comments come in Myspace, a Tommy Avallone documentary. "We're just waiting for the right time to do it," Tim Vanderhook says.

• The brothers rebuilt Myspace from scratch in 2013 and lost roughly $150M. "It just became an onslaught of losses," Tim said.

• Myspace drew about 115M monthly visitors at its 2008 peak, but Facebook overtook it as users favored cleaner design over highly customizable profiles.

• The hard part: Rebuild the creative identity without the friction that killed it, then sell ads against Meta, TikTok, and YouTube with a fraction of the reach.

Why it matters: A Myspace reboot would test whether social-media fatigue is a real opening for smaller, less algorithmic networks or just a download spike that drops in a month. Its odds depend less on taking users from Instagram than on turning music and customization into a niche young users adopt without inheriting the old friction.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Apple is reportedly testing DRAM from CXMT — the Chinese chipmaker Washington labeled a military company — for iPhones and MacBooks sold in China.

Google’s Made by Google hardware event on Wednesday is expected to unveil slab and foldable Pixel 11 phones, new watches, and possibly a first AirTag-style tracker.

Erebor, a newly chartered, digital-first U.S. bank for crypto, AI, and defense startups, is nearing a $1.5B funding round that would value it at around $8B, the FT reports.

Spotify is reportedly testing a "Skip Ahead" button that lets Premium subscribers in the U.S. and UK jump past podcast ad breaks with one tap.

Google’s AI team has reportedly warned job applicants that the company’s automated HR screening filters can be unreliable.

A security researcher wrapped a car in a machine-generated pattern and drove it past a Flock camera at Def Con to keep the software from classifying it.

Lyntris, a U.S. defense-tech company combining AI, autonomy, sensing, and satellite-payload businesses, is targeting a valuation of up to $2.53B in an IPO.

Google has begun distributing rival Android app stores through the Play Store in the U.S., starting with Aptoide Games.

China's Long March 7A rocket blew up 85 seconds after liftoff Monday night, taking the ChinaSat-4B comsat with it, in the country's fourth launch failure this year.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin spent $100M+ fighting California's Prop 40, a one-time 5% wealth tax that would cost him $13.3B, reports TechCrunch.

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• Read our last AI newsletter: Meta returns to its open-source roots

• Read our last Tech newsletter: OpenAI builds a $400 AI donut

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• Today’s AI tool guide: Go from idea to website with ChatGPT Work + Codex

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Rowan, Zach, Shubham, Jennifer, and Nate — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. OpenAI’s first device will be a donut-shaped, screenless smart speaker…and it’s arriving in 2027, with cameras, mics, sensors, and a light that tells you when it’s listening.

Amazon lost money on Alexa for years to build that market; OpenAI wants the top of it, on a timeline Apple’s home hub and a live trade-secrets suit both get a vote in.

In today’s tech rundown:

• OpenAI’s answer to Alexa is a $400 AI donut

• A SpaceX rocket slams into the Moon

• The first mRNA flu vaccine arrives

• Meet Fathom, Ford’s sub-$30K electric pickup

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🍩 OpenAI’s answer to Alexa is a $400 AI donut

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: OpenAI is developing a $300–$400, donut-shaped AI speaker that could bring ChatGPT into the home as a portable, screenless companion in 2027, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported.

The details:

• Gurman says the device is donut-shaped and will be built from "high-quality metal" for a premium look, with distinct moving parts.

• Price lands somewhere between $300 and $400 per unit, against an Amazon smart speaker line that runs from $40 to $240.

• It's roughly hockey-puck-sized, one-handed to carry around the house, with cameras, microphones, and sensors, plus a light to show when it's listening.

• LoveFrom is designing it, release is pegged for sometime in 2027, and Apple's trade-secrets suit against OpenAI is still live. OpenAI denies any wrongdoing.

Why it matters: An always-on ChatGPT that sees, hears, remembers context, and acts on it is a much bigger deal than anything Alexa has attempted. Amazon shipped Alexa devices for years at a loss, and Apple's home hub lands with iOS 27, which leaves OAI defining a category on a 2027 timeline it doesn't fully control.

SPACEX

🚀 A SpaceX rocket slams into the Moon

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: A SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage that spent 18 months drifting off course hit the moon this week at 5,400 mph, leaving lunar orbiters to hunt for a fresh, human-made crater.

The details:

• After delivering two commercial landers in January 2025, the burnt-out upper stage spent a year and a half wandering in an unstable orbit.

• Impact came near Einstein Crater on the sunlit western limb, the hardest patch of the Moon to watch from Earth. No one filmed the collision.

• ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile caught sodium and lithium spectral lines in a plume — sodium from lunar soil, lithium likely from the rocket.

• NASA expects a 60 ft. wide and 12 ft. deep crater; South Korea's Danuri orbiter returned before-and-after frames, with further analysis currently underway.

Why it matters: Four tons of abandoned hardware hit the Moon, and the only reason anyone knew where to point a telescope was one independent astronomer running orbit fits on his own website. NASA’s take is that dumping spent upper stages on the lunar surface is technically safe, which could get trickier as lunar traffic grows.

BIOTECH

💉 The first mRNA flu vaccine arrives

Image source: Moderna / Images 2.0

The Rundown: Moderna’s mFlusiva has become the first FDA-approved mRNA flu vaccine in the U.S., opening a new front for the technology that reshaped the COVID-19 vaccine market.

The details:

• The shot is approved to prevent influenza A and B in adults 50 and older, with conventional approval for ages 50 to 64 and an accelerated nod for 65 and up.

• Phase 3 study enrolled 40,805 adults across 11 countries and found mFlusiva reduced confirmed flu-like illness by 26.6% relative to a standard-dose vaccine.

• Side effects ran heavier than the comparator — injection-site pain, fatigue, headache, muscle ache — mostly mild and gone in a day or two.

• The FDA initially refused to review the application because Moderna used a standard-dose comparator, but then accepted a revised filing two weeks later.

Why it matters: mRNA has moved from pandemic technology into the annual flu business. The U.S. distributes well north of 100M flu doses a year, and mFlusiva’s efficacy data removes a major roadblock for Moderna’s COVID-flu combo. The next test is whether it can take share from the flu vaccines that many Americans already buy.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

🛻 Meet Fathom, Ford’s sub-$30K electric pickup

Image source: Ford

The Rundown: Ford has named its long-promised affordable electric pickup the Fathom, setting a $28,350 starting price for the first vehicle built on a new platform meant to make EVs cheaper (and profitable) at scale.

The details:

• The midsize Fathom is scheduled to reach customers in fall 2027, with preorders and a full vehicle reveal planned for early that year.

• Base price is $28,350 — $29,945 with destination and delivery, landing just under the $30K mark Ford has been promising since 2025.

• Fathom is the first vehicle on Ford’s Universal EV Platform, built at the Louisville Assembly Plant on a new modular process Ford calls unicasting.

• Five seats, a large touchscreen, a digital key, and bidirectional power. Apple Maps is built into the OS, and CarPlay and Android Auto are also supported.

Why it matters: Slate already beat Ford to the sub-$30K electric truck, but Slate is a startup with one Indiana plant selling a pickup that ships totally stripped down. Fathom is the first serious attempt by a legacy automaker to build a cheap EV at volume, and Ford has said the platform underneath it has to carry Model e to break even by 2029.

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📰 Everything else in tech today

Hadrian raised $1.37B at a ~$8B valuation, betting that robot factories can help rebuild the U.S.’s capacity to produce weapons and aerospace hardware at speed.

A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567M and impose stricter teen-safety measures on Facebook and Instagram after finding it failed to protect children.

BMW is facing backlash after pushing promotional banners for the movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day to the infotainment displays of newer cars worldwide.

TikTok reportedly will lay off 250 employees and close its Nashville office — home to some content-moderation staff — on October 5.

Tesla and SpaceX will invest an initial $16.8B to build Terafab, a planned 100M-square-foot advanced chip-manufacturing complex in Grimes County, Texas.

Trevor Noah will host Made by Google 2026 on August 12 at 6 p.m. ET in NY, fronting a celebrity-heavy lineup including Stephen Curry, Alex Cooper, and Shubman Gill.

Nothing could reportedly launch as many as six new smartphones in 2027, suggesting an unusually aggressive expansion of its handset lineup.

Google Wallet is letting U.S. parents load and supervise a spendable balance for children and teens without opening them a bank account.

Nikita Bier stepped down as X’s head of product after just over a year, saying he will continue as an adviser while taking a break from the 24/7 role.

Ocean-powered data-center startup Subsea Cloud is reportedly eyeing a $2B valuation as investors bet on underwater infrastructure for AI’s cooling demands.

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• Read our last AI newsletter: AI designs viruses never seen in nature

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Biohackers head to Big Sky Country

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Musk's moon factories need robots

• Today’s AI tool guide: Turn any idea into an AI-powered site with Lovable

• RSVP to next workshop on Aug. 12: Catch up on AI fundamentals

See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, Jennifer, and Nate — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Montana just put experimental medicine on the open market. For a $12,500 fee and a Phase I safety readout, any biotech company can clear a private review board, set its own price, and sell straight to patients — no terminal diagnosis required, no FDA review.

The first clinics open by December, and Silicon Valley’s longevity set is already lining up.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Silicon Valley’s push to sell experimental drugs

• SpaceX to nab Louisiana’s damaged coast

• Even more bad buzz for Flock’s AI cameras

• Apple steers buyers away from MacBook Air

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

BIOTECH

 💊 Silicon Valley’s push to sell experimental drugs

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Montana is reportedly set to become Silicon Valley’s biotech and longevity playground — a state where startups sell experimental drugs directly to consumers, set their own prices, and move around the FDA entirely.

The details:

• A new licensing scheme lets companies whose drugs cleared Phase I pay $12.5K to a review board for the right to sell them through Montana clinics.

• Unlike traditional right-to-try laws, patients in Montana no longer need to be terminally ill to access these experimental drugs.

• Silicon Valley startups and investors see the framework as a way to shorten the path from early safety data to real-world revenue and data collection.

• Longevity investor Niklas Anzinger runs the first review board from Honduras' Próspera, where a clinic sells experimental stem-cell and gene therapies.

Why it matters: Montana is the first test of state deregulation meeting Silicon Valley’s willingness to move fast on human biology, and it rewrites who gets experimental medicine, when, and at what price. The first clinics open around year’s end, with critics warning that it could turn Montana into a de facto medical-tourism zone.

SPACEX

🚀 SpaceX to nab Louisiana’s damaged coast

Image source: SpaceX / Images 2.0

The Rundown: SpaceX is closing on roughly 130K acres of Louisiana marsh — land ExxonMobil is transferring to settle decades of coastal-damage suits — for what could be a Starship spaceport, Ars Technica reports.

The details:

• The site is an 18-mile stretch called Pecan Island, in Vermilion Parish, about 45 miles southwest of Lafayette, with a permanent population of around 100.

• State lawmakers have already passed an incentive package for aerospace firms — including liability shields and property‑tax breaks — tailored to lure SpaceX.

• Henry Hub — the U.S. natural gas benchmark — sits just up the road, and the Gulf plus the Intracoastal Waterway can give barge access for boosters.

• The deal reportedly includes coastal restoration for one of North America’s most fragile wetland buffers against hurricanes.

Why it matters: If finalized, the Pecan Island deal would be SpaceX’s biggest land grab yet and a key plank in Musk’s plan to fly Starship at factory scale. Louisiana offers a clear downrange corridor, deepwater access, and a business‑friendly legislature, if SpaceX can prove its next spaceport won’t wash away with the coast.

FLOCK

🚔 Even more bad buzz for Flock’s AI cameras

Image source: The Atlas of Surveillance map / EFF

The Rundown: At least 50 police officers have been accused or charged with misusing license-plate readers to stalk people — 46 of them on Flock’s network — and cities are pulling the cameras down just as police lean on them harder than ever.

The details:

• A report found at least 50 U.S. police officers charged with or accused of using license plate readers for unauthorized purposes, including stalking.

• Flock told the Washington Post it has more than 120K cameras across over 6K communities, recording 20B plate scans a month.

• Roseville, California’s own audit of 1,427 alerts found 71% came from misread plates — the kind of error that has ended in armed traffic stops and arrests.

• Six cities have cut or suspended contracts, and activists are mapping camera locations through open-source "DeFlock" campaigns.

Why it matters: Flock’s defense is that misuse is statistically rare against a million cases solved — but at 20B scans a month, rare still means a lot of people. The unresolved question is whether a private camera network that maps where anyone has been is ordinary police gear or something courts have to treat differently.

APPLE

🍎 Apple steers buyers away from MacBook Air

Image source: Apple

The Rundown: Apple’s MacBook Air is suddenly hard to find, Bloomberg reports, with delivery times slipping weeks out as it gets caught in a broader “Ramageddon” memory crunch driven by surging AI infrastructure demand.

The details:

• Retail and online availability for the MacBook Air has slipped into late-August delivery windows, an unusual constraint for Apple’s highest-volume laptop line.

• Apple is actively steering customers toward the entry-level MacBook Pro, even flagging Air listings with “subject to availability” messaging.

• The shortage is partly tied to a global squeeze on memory supply, as hyperscalers and AI data centers soak up DRAM and related components.

• Apple is also reportedly prioritizing production of the 14-inch MacBook Pro ahead of an anticipated M6 refresh.

Why it matters: Anyone shopping for laptops this fall is competing with AI data centers for the same chips. Apple put “subject to availability” in its own marketing, which is not something it does — and if memory availability stays tight, expect that language and the planning behind it across the broader PC market too.

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Amazon just became the fifth public company to cross a $3T market capitalization, as AWS revenue hit $42.2B with 39% operating margins.

Bending Spoons is buying Airtable for $1.28B in cash — a company worth over $11B at the 2021 peak — in its first acquisition since going public last month.

Palantir lifted its annual revenue forecast to roughly $8.15B, sending its shares up about 14% after hours; U.S. government revenue rose 90% to $809M.

Eli Lilly will let a limited number of severely obese patients access retatrutide, its unapproved next-gen obesity drug, before the FDA filing planned for Q1 next year.

Apple filed a new complaint in the UK challenging a fresh government order that would force it to create a backdoor into encrypted iCloud data for British users.

Apple briefly removed Telegram from the App Store after finding child sexual abuse content on the platform, then reinstated the app once Telegram deleted the material.

TikTok is finalizing confidential settlements to resolve three trials in the social‑media addiction litigation, in cases brought by minors who allege the app’s design is addictive.

Google released a short teaser video hinting at its upcoming Pixel 11 Pro Fold, a next-gen foldable phone that will be fully unveiled at its August 12 hardware event.

Google’s latest Google Health update lets Fitbit data like workouts, steps, vitals, and sleep sync directly into Apple Health on iPhones, without any third-party workarounds.

Snap beat Q2 revenue estimates Monday, with sales up roughly 19% to $1.60B against analyst expectations of $1.54B — a lift from FIFA World Cup ad budgets.

Microsoft is bringing Xbox 360 games to PC and rolling out a disc-to-digital program that turns Xbox game discs into account-tied digital licenses.

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• Read our last AI newsletter: AI giants head to the White House

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Disney plots its Netflix makeover

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Attack drones are coming to schools

• Today’s AI tool guide: Build a project where humans and agents work

• RSVP to next workshop on Aug. 5: No-code product building

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Rowan, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Disney’s new CEO wants Disney+ to stop acting like a digital cable box and start thinking like Netflix. Josh D’Amaro is reportedly plotting a tech-heavy overhaul built around sharper recommendations, smarter personalization, and a much bigger platform play.

The Mouse already owns the characters, the parks, and the screens — now it needs to master the recommendation algorithm.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Disney overhauls Disney+ to close Netflix gap

• Apple now leases iPhones for $18 monthly

• DJI’s vlogger camera gets global release (except U.S.)

• UK startup launches ‘world’s first’ painless tattoo

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

DISNEY

🪄 Disney overhauls Disney+ to close Netflix gap

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Disney’s new CEO Josh D’Amaro is plotting a radical overhaul of Disney+ to finally make the Mouse’s flagship streamer look and feel like it belongs in the same league as Netflix, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

The details:

• D’Amaro is reportedly signaling a more aggressive tech-first strategy for Disney+, pushing product, personalization, and data over legacy TV habits.

• The company is rethinking its content playbook, aiming to narrow the gap with Netflix on must-watch originals while better integrating Disney’s vast IP library.

• Back in May, Disney also said it was exploring a “super app” that would merge Disney+ with the company’s various park and cruise apps into a single platform.

• Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN cleared $20B in sales last year, third behind Netflix and YouTube, but subscriber growth stalled and the share price followed.

Why it matters: D’Amaro came up through the parks at Disney, where prices climbed steadily on his watch. Disney+ has already run that experiment with price hikes, ads, and password crackdowns. The recommendation engine is the harder problem, and Disney concedes that closing that gap is the whole point of the overhaul.

APPLE

🍎 Apple now leases iPhones for $18 monthly

Image source: Apple

The Rundown: Apple killed its own iPhone Upgrade Program this week and handed device leasing to Klarna, cutting the entry price for a new iPhone to under $18 a month as it tries to pull more upgrades away from the carriers.

The details:

• The program launched this week in the U.S.: iPhone from $17.99/mo, Watch and iPad from $11.99, and Mac from $24.99.

• Terms run 12 or 24 months on iPhone and Watch, 24 or 36 on Mac and iPad, with a soft credit check and no monthly leasing fee.

• The old iPhone Upgrade Program is dead; it cost north of $42/mo via Citizens Bank and bundled AppleCare, with AppleCare+ now a separate line item.

• The timing tracks the memory-chip shortage the industry calls "RAMageddon," which pushed Apple into price hikes on Mac and iPad while sparing the iPhone.

Why it matters: The price doesn’t drop, but it gets sliced thin enough to swallow, and a four-year replacement cycle starts looking like a two-year one. It also shows how tech companies are increasingly relying on financial plumbing, not just product design, to drive sales and lock in loyalty.

DJI

📸 DJI’s vlogger camera gets global release (except U.S.)

Image source: DJI

The Rundown: DJI’s new Osmo Pocket 4P is the kind of pocket-sized creator camera (priced at around $700) that makes old-school vlogging rigs look clunky — but it’s only available if you’re living outside the U.S.

The details:

• The 4P is a slick upgrade: a dual-lens pocket gimbal with a 1-inch main sensor, a 60mm telephoto lens, 17 stops of dynamic range, and 4K/240fps capture.

• DJI is positioning it as a more serious “pocket cinema” camera, with a built-in tele lens for talking-head shots, close-ups, and compressed portrait framing.

• The FCC added DJI to its Covered List last December, leaving the Pocket 3 the newest Pocket Americans can legally buy.

• The main U.S. rival is Insta360’s Luna Ultra, a $769.99 pocket gimbal camera co-engineered with Leica and sold in the U.S. now.

Why it matters: A national-security rule written for foreign drones is now keeping DJI’s creator cameras out of the U.S. Since December, the FCC has added three more categories to its Covered List in two actions — routers, power inverters, and “advanced robotic devices,” a definition wide enough to catch robot vacuums.

CIPHERX

🧜🏽‍♀️ UK startup launches ‘world’s first’ painless tattoo

Image source: CipherX

The Rundown: London’s CipherX has swapped the tattoo gun for a patch of dissolving, ink-filled microneedles — 15 minutes on the skin, permanent when it comes off, and the company says you won’t feel it.

The details:

• The patch sits on the skin for 15 minutes while ink-and-biopolymer microneedles dissolve below the surface.

• Designs cap out at a 15 mm circle in carbon black, with options like tiny hearts and stars at £50 a pop and aftercare running 48 hours instead of weeks.

• CipherX ran roughly 500 test tattoos before launching in London on July 23. Customers pick a design online and redeem it at a pop-up.

• Founder Ferdinand Kohle, a Cornell-trained materials scientist, built it around his own needle phobia after working on injection devices.

Why it matters: The microneedle patch isn’t new: Georgia Tech patented ink-loaded dissolving patches in 2017. CipherX’s news is that someone finally manufactured it in volume and sold it. Meanwhile, Blackdot has developed an AI-powered tattoo device it says is faster, more accurate, and less painful than traditional tattoos.

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Satya Nadella told investors this week that Microsoft will fold Copilot chat, Code, Cowork, and Autopilots into a single “super app” for consumers and businesses.

Bryan Johnson, who has spent $2M a year reverse-engineering his own aging, posted on X that he wonders whether he’s taken “this whole longevity thing too far.”

LinkedIn is rolling out a “seems like AI slop” report button, new slop-detecting classifiers, and private dashboard flags for posts that read as inauthentic.

The U.S. Space Force handed SpaceX $1.6B across two task orders for 18 Falcon 9 launches out of Vandenberg through the end of 2027.

EU regulators plan to classify OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Roblox as “very large online platforms” under the bloc’s strictest digital rules, Bloomberg reports.

Google wired its Nano Banana image generator into Google Earth, letting users conjure AI reconstructions of historical sites and mock up real estate projects.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems raised another $1B, with $4B total, to finish Sparc, the reactor it says will produce more energy than it consumes by 2027.

Amazon’s and Walmart’s shopping bots can spot fake “Made in USA” labels and say nothing, according to the debut study from Lina Khan’s Columbia Law Center.

Airbus flew an A350-1000ULR nonstop from Melbourne to Toulouse in 24 hours and 24 minutes, covering 23,076 km to set a distance record for commercial aircraft.

A cancer vaccine that hijacks leftover COVID immunity to make tumors visible to the immune system just cleared mouse trials; human sarcoma studies are next.

A UCLA-led team turned unsorted mixed plastic into 90%-pure hydrogen with hot lye, locking most of the carbon into solid mineral instead of the air.

eBay will pay $55.7M to the Massachusetts couple its employees stalked with death threats, live insects, and a bloody pig mask over unflattering newsletter coverage.

Florida is redirecting nearly $200M in unspent federal EV-charger money into 32 eVTOL landing pads at golf courses, luxury apartment buildings, and airports.

Spotify is rolling out User Notes, letting listeners attach a caption to any track in a playlist, turning a playlist into something closer to a diary.

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• Read our last AI newsletter: OpenAI’s escaped AI claims another victim

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See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. EssilorLuxottica sold 7M+ Meta glasses in 2025. Now the creep factor has caught up: a forced update killing tampered cameras, two banned pickup-artist Instagram accounts, activist posters over Meta ads in New York, London, and D.C.

The hardware works, but the consent doesn’t — and Apple has until its reported 2027 launch to find a better answer.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Meta’s glasses are triggering a privacy panic

• Apple is now the world’s most valuable company

• Michigan data center gets sued for noise

• SpaceX to catch Starship with giant chopsticks

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

META

👓 Meta’s glasses are triggering a privacy panic

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Meta made smart glasses mainstream, but nonconsensual filming, a reported facial-recognition feature, and a single LED as the only signal to bystanders now threaten to make them a surveillance cautionary tale instead, The Verge reports.

The details:

• Activist groups in New York, London, and Washington, DC, have plastered over Meta glasses ads with posters casting the product as surveillance tech.

• Meta’s latest privacy patch will disable the camera if the glasses’ privacy light is physically tampered with, but critics say it’s too little, too late.

• Instagram is also removing Meta-glasses videos that exploit or harass unsuspecting people, which opens a messy new moderation front.

• Critics say Meta has undercut its own privacy message via facial recognition, floating always-on recording, and loosening controls on voice-data training.

Why it matters: Meta succeeded where Google Glass failed by making camera-equipped eyewear look normal — but it also means normalizing the possibility that anyone nearby is being recorded or identified. If Meta cannot build credible consent into the product, it risks handing both Apple and Google a privacy-shaped opening.

APPLE

🍎 Apple is now the world’s most valuable company

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Apple closed at a record high Monday and took back the title of world’s most valuable public company from Nvidia, ending a 13-month run at the top for the chipmaker that built the AI boom.

The details:

• Apple shares climbed roughly 1% to a record high Monday, lifting its market cap to about $4.93T; Nvidia dropped nearly 5%, shrinking to around $4.78T.

• Apple briefly passed Nvidia on July 17, only for the two companies to trade places again as their valuations hovered just below $5T.

• Apple is up ~24% in 2026, versus just 5–6% for Nvidia — a surprising reversal for the company Wall Street spent the AI boom dismissing as a laggard.

• Nvidia’s latest slide followed reports that it could provide ~$250B in financial backing for OpenAI data centers, reviving investor fears about the AI buildout.

Why it matters: For the past two years, Wall Street rewarded the companies spending and selling most aggressively into the AI infrastructure boom. Apple’s return to No. 1 suggests investors are now finding value in a more capital-light approach: put AI into devices and services without matching the data-center spending spree dollar for dollar.

DATA CENTERS

🎧 Michigan data center gets sued for noise

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Residents of Dowagiac, Michigan, just filed a proposed class action lawsuit against a 30MW AI and bitcoin data center across the street, alleging it has emitted a high-pitched whine 24 hours a day since 2022.

The details:

• The suit targets Alliance Cloud Services — a Hyperscale Data subsidiary — on nuisance and negligence claims.

• Residents say the sound carries through closed windows and over the television; one neighbor compared it to a clogged vacuum running full blast.

• Dowagiac adopted its first industrial noise ordinance in March — 65dB by day, 55dB at night — and the city fined Hyperscale for violating it.

• CEO William Horne said the site is moving from crypto toward AI and robotics for $100M, and has bought adjacent land as a sound buffer.

Why it matters: Residents near Microsoft’s $7.3B Wisconsin data center have filed a similar class action, and complaints elsewhere point to infrasound that never registers on a decibel meter but can be felt indoors. Hyperscale has offered to buy out anyone the noise drives off — a weak deal on a street where families have lived for a century.

SPACEX

🚀 SpaceX to catch Starship with giant chopsticks

Image source: SpaceX

The Rundown: SpaceX’s best Starship reentry yet ended with the spacecraft floating in the Indian Ocean and its booster smashing into the Gulf — Elon Musk now wants the next flight to finish between the launch tower’s giant metal chopsticks.

The details:

• Ship 40 deployed 20 Starlink V3 satellites — Starship’s first real satellite payload — relit in space, then splashed down west of Australia.

• Not enough Raptors restarted for the landing burn: the booster slammed into the Gulf and broke apart after May’s separation failure on Flight 12.

• Hours later, Musk said SpaceX will try to catch the ship with Starbase’s chopsticks on Flight 14.

• Stock closed at $115 Friday, down from a post-IPO peak above $200, then slid 2% after hours on the booster failure.

Why it matters: Starship has now proved it can survive reentry, deploy real satellites, and restart an engine in space. But the booster’s failed landing burn is a reminder that catching either stage with a tower still depends on Raptors relighting flawlessly at exactly the right moment.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Amazon’s Leo proposed a constellation of up to 5,105 satellites that will deliver direct-to-phone voice, messaging, data, and emergency services starting in 2028.

CXMT closed up 466% in its Shanghai debut Monday, making Beijing’s decade-long memory project the most valuable company on the mainland market.

The Exploration Company, a European space startup, is seeking at least $300M to build reusable spacecraft and could be valued above $2B, the Financial Times reports.

An Atlanta activist, Samuel Tunick, is facing federal charges after border agents say he used a GrapheneOS “duress code” that wiped his phone during an airport search.

Apple is being sued by users who say a fake Bitcoin wallet app in the App Store helped scam them out of a combined $1.8M, arguing that Apple failed to properly vet the app.

An open‑source project built a 3D‑printed, low‑field portable MRI scanner called OSI2 ONE for under $70K — under 7% of a typical $1.1M full‑size MRI.

Google is testing a new home-screen widget for Android that surfaces its Live Translate feature directly from the Google Translate app.

Google is folding ad-supported Peacock Premium into full-price YouTube Premium subscriptions in the U.S. “in the coming months.”

Rivian sued the U.S. government for a full refund plus interest on the Supreme Court–voided IEEPA tariffs since the ruling alone doesn’t guarantee importers get paid back.

Patreon cut 20% of its staff — 93 people — with CEO Jack Conte telling employees the core business is fine, but the cost structure needed resetting.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Moonshot lets Kimi K3 loose

• Read our last Tech newsletter: DARPA’s light-based quantum computer bet

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: A $1.7B computer for the physical world

• Today’s AI tool guide: Make precise image edits on real photos with AI

• RSVP to next workshop on July 30: ChatGPT Sites for beginners

See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. DARPA wants to know if utility-scale quantum computers can be a reality…and it's going all in to find out.

The R&D arm of the U.S. Department of Defense just made a massive bet on PsiQuantum, a California-based startup taking an unconventional approach to quantum computing — building the computer out of light.

In today’s tech rundown:

• DARPA bankrolls a light-based quantum computer

• Neuralink patients drive wheelchairs by thought

• An 18-in-1 EV you can build like LEGO

• This startup built a trackpad for the tongue

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

QUANTUM COMPUTING

🤑 DARPA bankrolls a light-based quantum computer

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: The Pentagon's moonshot factory, DARPA, just awarded PsiQuantum $125M under its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, aimed at testing whether the startup's light-based quantum computer can move from blueprint to utility-scale reality.

The details:

• PsiQuantum is building fault-tolerant quantum computers that use individual photons as qubits — the units that store and process quantum information.

• This approach lets the company make its chips in standard semiconductor fabs and cool its systems far less aggressively than superconducting rivals require.

• With this award, it plans to invest in essential infrastructure at its Milpitas and Chicago facilities and fund testing across hardware, components, and software.

• PsiQuantum is one of only two companies, alongside Microsoft, to reach the program's final phase, where DARPA scientists work inside the startup.

Why it matters: Quantum computers are often described as perpetually ten years away. But the U.S. is pushing hard to change that and ensure the machines that arrive are actually useful. When feasible quantum computers land remains unknown, but with dozens of startups in the U.S. alone and big tech piling in, the race is surely on.

NEURALINK

🧠 Neuralink patients drive wheelchairs by thought

Image source: Neuralink

The Rundown: Elon Musk’s Neuralink shared a clip of its clinical trial participants with paralysis driving a brain-computer interface-powered wheelchair — steering, reversing, and adjusting their chairs using only their thoughts.

The details:

• The 1,000+ electrodes in Neuralink’s brain implant record neurons firing in the motor cortex, just as a participant thinks about moving in a particular direction.

• A decoding algorithm converts these brain signals into on-screen cursor movement, which appears in a custom app with a live feed of what’s ahead.

• As the cursor moves, custom electronics convert its position into analog signals driving the chair — up for forward, down for reverse, left/right to steer.

• Study participant Alex said driving became "second nature" in minutes with the BCI, and that it beats a joystick that forces his head into a hunched position.

Why it matters: Going from thought-to-cursor to actual hardware control is a step up for Neuralink, showing how its technology can help millions living with paralysis. But rivals like Synchron are chasing the same results without opening the skull, leaving open whether the richer signal from an implant is worth the operating table.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

🚗 An 18-in-1 EV you can build like LEGO

Image source: Envo

The Rundown: Canadian EV maker Envo opened preorders for its Utility Personal Transporter, a modular electric platform the company says buyers can configure into as many as 18 vehicle types, including a golf cart, ATV, cargo hauler, and a commuter.

The details:

• UPT is built on an aluminum T-slot frame that resizes in length and width, with suspension, motors, and modules bolted on without requiring any welding.

• The vehicle can be collapsed for easy transport and scaled up as needed with add-ons like drivetrains, battery packs, wheels, seating, and cargo beds.

• Buyers can configure a build on Envo’s site or start with a preconfigured one, with the option to buy components individually at a later stage.

• Production is slated for late fall with first deliveries in early 2027, four years after Envo began developing the platform.

Why it matters: Most EV startups pick a category and defend it. Envo is going after multiple at once, from farm work and airport logistics to last-mile delivery. That spreads one platform's cost across markets too small to serve individually, but also brings a challenge, as each buyer comes with their own different definition of good enough.

TECH FOR GOOD

❤️ This startup built a trackpad for the tongue

Image source: Augmental

The Rundown: MIT Media Lab spin-off Augmental opened the U.S. sales of MouthPad, a custom-fit retainer with a touchpad on the palate that turns tongue and head movements into cursor control for phones, tablets, and computers.

The details:

• The 1mm-thick device, 3D-printed in dental resin from a scan of the user's mouth, pairs over Bluetooth as a mouse for desktop and mobile platforms.

• Tongue presses and sip gestures handle clicks, and either the tongue or head can drive the cursor, all read by a pressure-sensitive pad and motion sensor.

• The company is targeting the device at people with quadriplegia, ALS, or severe motor limitations, with 100+ already using it — some up to 16 hours daily.

• Augmental also debuted VOX, a $200 stethoscope-like microphone that hears speech through the body so users can dictate at a whisper.

Why it matters: With these devices, Augmental is building a Skinware category aimed at giving people with disabilities computer control without invasive brain implants. The catch here is access — the device costs $1,400 with no insurance coverage, takes six months to build, and requires enough tongue dexterity and oral health to qualify.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Neurotech startup Science Corp. launched PRIMA in Europe, the first device to restore central vision in people with advanced age-related macular degeneration.

New York-based Light opened pre-orders for its $299 Light Flip, a 5G flip phone with no social media, browser, or touchscreen to help users escape doomscrolling.

Google introduced selfie video as a new account recovery option, letting users regain access with facial verification if they're locked out.

Uber laid off 10% of its customer service team, citing an effort to “simplify operations, strengthen in-person collaboration and continue to embrace AI,” Bloomberg reported.

Ford partnered with Apple to make Apple Maps the default navigation system in its next-generation EVs, with map data also powering BlueCruise hands-free driving.

The EU fined Google €890M ($1B) for illegally favoring its own services in Search and restricting app developers from directing users to cheaper payment options.

U.S. regulators plan new safety rules for flush electric car door handles popularized by Tesla after fatal crashes left occupants trapped inside vehicles.

Apple's iOS 27 beta hints its expected leasing program may include a "Restricted Mode" that locks down devices when customers miss payments, 9To5Mac reported.

Jack Dorsey launched Buzz, an open-source Slack alternative that combines team messaging, GitHub, and AI agents in a single workspace.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Black Forest Labs trains video AI to run robots

• Read our last Tech newsletter: China’s plan to knock an asteroid off course

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: A $1.7B computer for the physical world

• Today’s AI tool guide: Edit videos faster with AI (for non-editors)

• RSVP to next workshop on July 30: ChatGPT Sites for beginners

See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. China just took a major step forward in planetary defense, detailing its effort to knock an asteroid off its course as it flies by Earth.

The mission is ambitious and will demand some serious engineering. But, if successful, it would mean a major boost for how we can protect ourselves against undetected space rocks — including potentially life-threatening ones.

In today’s tech rundown:

• China’s plan to kick off a 98-ft asteroid

• Anduril and Archer bring the ‘Thunder’

• First-of-its-kind pill cuts bad cholesterol

• Brain implant lets paralyzed man feed himself

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

SPACE TECH

🚀 China’s plan to knock a 98-foot asteroid off course

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: China just detailed plans for its first planetary defense mission — slamming a projectile into a ~98-foot asteroid at over Mach 26, as it passes within roughly 4.3M miles of Earth around 2030.

The details:

• NASA tested a similar deflection mission in 2022, but this one will strike nearly 50% faster to shift the asteroid's orbit around the Sun relative to Earth.

• The composition of the target, 2015 XF261, is also different; it’s likely a solid rock that is smaller but tougher than the 525-foot rubble pile NASA deflected.

• Two spacecraft will share the job: an impactor flying straight at the rock, and an observer that will swing past Venus and watch the collision and its aftermath.

• The team will only learn the asteroid's shape, spin, and size in the final months before impact, with the projectile locking on and hitting it autonomously.

Why it matters: Teams routinely miss small asteroids until they're close. The 2013 Chelyabinsk rock that hurt 1,000+ people went undetected until it hit. If China cracks this mission, it'll be the first proof the harder half of planetary defense — deflecting a small, solid rock on purpose — actually works.

DEFENSE TECH

🚁 Anduril and Archer bring the ‘Thunder’

Image source: Anduril

The Rundown: Anduril and air taxi manufacturer Archer Aviation unveiled Thunder, an unmanned attack aircraft built to fly as a wingman alongside crewed helicopters, as cheap drones make low-altitude combat deadlier than ever.

The details:

• Thunder lifts off vertically, then tilts its rotors to fly like a plane, launching without a runway while keeping the range and speed of fixed-wing flight.

• A pilot assigns the aircraft objectives instead of flying it remotely, and it can navigate even without GPS using onboard sensors and computer vision.

• The goal is to provide pilots with an autonomous wingman that could carry weapons, sensors, and supplies while sharing what it sees in real time.

• Thunder will make its first flight in 2027, opening a defense market for Archer that skips the certification layers holding up its commercial air taxis.

Why it matters: Thunder is another step in Anduril's push to use autonomy to keep the pilots safe on the battlefield. For Archer, it's a boost for a business whose commercial air taxis have been stuck in certification for years. That said, whether crews will trust a machine to fly that fast and low right next to them remains to be seen.

HEALTH TECH

💊 First-of-its-kind pill cuts bad cholesterol

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: The FDA just approved Merck's Lipfendra, a first-of-its-kind pill that can significantly lower "bad" cholesterol — matching the injectable drugs that have long been out of reach for the public due to high prices.

The details:

• Lipfendra is a once-daily pill that blocks a liver protein that keeps cholesterol in the blood, the same target as injectables that have been around for a decade.

• In trials, it lowered bad cholesterol by nearly 60%, matching the standard first-line treatment shots in adults whose levels stayed high even on statins.

• Fewer than 1 in 10 users had side effects, mainly dizziness or diarrhea, though the pill has to be taken on an empty stomach.

• A month's supply will run about $300, with insurance coverage still unclear — the factor that decides whether it actually reaches more people than shots.

Why it matters: Heart disease kills 20M people a year, and high cholesterol is one of the biggest causes. Injectable versions of this drug already cut heart attacks and strokes by up to 20%, but few people ever started treatment, put off by the needle and the price. The pill fixes the needle. Now, it’s all about making it affordable.

TECH FOR GOOD

❤️ Brain implant lets paralyzed man feed himself

Image source: Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research

The Rundown: Three years after a paralyzed man received a brain-computer implant, researchers report that he can feed himself and drink on his own — and that his nervous system has partially rewired itself, with gains holding even when the device is off.

The details:

• Keith Thomas, paralyzed in a 2020 accident, can now grasp and lift fragile objects, like hollow eggshells, about 90% of the time while conversing.

• Two electrode arrays read movement signals from his brain, following which AI decodes his intent and sends electrical stimulation to forearm muscles.

• As the muscles worked, sensors fed signals back to his brain, improving arm strength and wrist sensation — gains that stayed even when the device was off.

• This, the researchers say, is evidence that the therapy prompted real neural repair rather than just routing around the injury.

Why it matters: Most brain-computer implants are permanent workarounds: switch off the machine and the ability vanishes. What's different here is that some of Thomas's strength and sensation stuck without it. Scaled up, that could give people back what matters most: things like feeling a loved one's hand, or wiping one’s own eyes.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Colossal Biosciences, known for its de-extinction work on the dire wolf, is reportedly seeking funding at a $20B–$30B valuation, more than doubling its value in a year.

YouTube updated its monetization policies to curb AI slop, targeting repetitive content, emotionally manipulative videos, and AI personas discussing sensitive topics.

Samsung launched its first U.S. credit card with Barclays, deepening its push to build a financial ecosystem around Samsung Wallet and challenge Apple's fintech play.

The FCC approved a California startup to test a giant mirror satellite that reflects sunlight after sunset, despite concerns over its impact on astronomy and wildlife.

Hackers breached Craneware, an accounting software company serving thousands of U.S. hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies, stealing employee, customer, and partner data.

Hugging Face revealed an autonomous AI agent breached its systems, compromising internal datasets and service credentials after exploiting a server vulnerability.

Chinese startup Xingshu Tiansuan launched the first satellites in its planned 1,000-satellite AI computing network, taking on SpaceX in the race to bring AI into orbit.

Skyroot Aerospace successfully launched India's first orbital rocket, with Vikram-1 placing satellites into orbit on its debut mission.

U.S. defense startup X-Bow launched Buckler, a sub-$100,000 drone interceptor designed to make large-scale air defense affordable.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Claude disproves an 87-year-old math problem

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Prozac’s maker goes psychedelic

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: The world’s first humanoid cage fight

• Today’s AI tool guide: AI note-taking with a “Captain’s Log”

• RSVP to next live workshop on July 22: No-code product building

See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Eli Lilly just spent $2.8B on one of biotech’s strangest acquisitions: a nasal spray for depression that works in one clinic visit.

The company that gave the world Prozac now thinks the future of antidepressants isn’t a daily pill — it’s a supervised, 90-minute trip that keeps working for months. With J&J’s ketamine spray already pulling in blockbuster revenue, Big Pharma’s psychedelic race is officially on.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Lilly drops $2.8B on psychedelics

• OnePlus pulls the plug on the U.S. and Europe

• The iPad Mini finally getting its glow-up

• This smart ring claims to rival a blood pressure cuff

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

BIOTECH

🍄 Lilly drops $2.8B on psychedelics

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Eli Lilly just agreed to acquire AtaiBeckley — maker of a fast-acting DMT nasal spray — for $2.8B upfront, dropping the company that invented Prozac into the strangest corner of mental health medicine.

The details:

• Lilly is paying $6.75 per share in cash, with up to $1B more tied to development and regulatory milestones — a potential $3.8B total.

• The centerpiece is BPL-003, a 5-MeO-DMT nasal spray in Phase 3 for treatment-resistant depression, with Phase 2b patients improving by day two.

• AtaiBeckley’s pipeline includes other psychedelics (one related to MDMA) built to rebuild neural connections instead of tweaking neurotransmitters.

• The deal is Lilly’s ninth acquisition this year, on top of $10B+ in upfront commitments — and puts it on a collision course with Johnson & Johnson.

Why it matters: Lilly turned antidepressants into a mass-market product with Prozac, and now it’s wagering that harder-to-treat depression care moves from daily pills to a few clinic-administered doses a year. With J&J’s ketamine-based Spravato already clearing $1B annually, psychedelic medicine has started being a pharma category.

ONEPLUS

🔌 OnePlus pulls the plug on the U.S. and Europe

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: OnePlus — the brand that taught Android fans to expect flagship specs at mid-range prices — is exiting the U.S. and Europe, retreating to China as parent company Oppo restructures around a brutal memory-chip crunch.

The details:

• New OnePlus phones will stop shipping to North America and Europe, ending a 12-year run that began with the cult-favorite OnePlus One.

• Western owners will be moved off OxygenOS and onto Oppo’s ColorOS, with Oppo pledging continued updates.

• Sister brand Realme gets the mirror-image treatment: it exits China entirely to focus on overseas markets in the same cost-cutting shakeup.

• By 2027, the pullback is expected to reach nearly every market outside China — including India, once OnePlus’ biggest stronghold.

Why it matters: OnePlus’ exit closes the book on one of Android’s most influential challenger brands in the West, narrowing choice just as phones get pricier and upgrade cycles drag on. The move exposes how rising component costs and competition are pushing Chinese vendors to pull back, leaving OnePlus owners in a support limbo.

APPLE

🍎 The iPad Mini finally getting its glow-up

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Apple is preparing to give the iPad mini its biggest upgrade in years — an OLED screen, arriving as soon as October — before refreshing the rest of the tablet lineup through 2027, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The details:

• The new mini, code-named J510, would be the first non-Pro iPad with OLED, the display tech the iPhone has carried since 2017 and the iPad Pro since 2024.

• Gurman previously reported the mini would gain a vibration-based speaker system and increased water resistance.

• A refreshed entry-level iPad, code-named J581, follows in Q1 2027 — a smaller update, with a faster chip being the most notable change.

• New 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Airs land in spring 2027, alongside new iPad Pro models, completing OLED’s slow trickle-down through the lineup.

Why it matters: The mini has spent years on Apple’s slower upgrade track, but it is now poised to become the first non-Pro iPad with OLED. That upgrade may carry a premium: the current mini already starts at $599 after Apple’s recent price increase, and rising display and memory costs could push the next model even higher.

VITAL SIGNALS

❤️ This smart ring claims to rival a blood pressure cuff

Image source: Vital Signals

The Rundown: Vital Signals, a startup from ex-Google and Skydio exec Tom Moss, just unveiled the Signal Ring — a $399 smart ring promising continuous, cuffless blood pressure monitoring with zero calibration, shipping in October.

The details:

• The ring combines a high-speed optical sensor with proprietary algorithms, with Vital Signals claiming its readings are as accurate as a traditional arm cuff.

• Unlike Apple Watch or Oura, it displays actual systolic and diastolic numbers in its app, with no calibration required or subscription attached.

• Moss, who founded Vital Signals after a hypertensive crisis, targets people with hypertension and cardiac conditions, with insurer tie-ins in the pipeline.

• Battery lasts roughly three days, and a charging case holds four extra charges; U.S. pre-orders are open now at $399.

Why it matters: Signal Ring is pushing smart rings beyond sleep scores and fitness tracking toward one of medicine’s most important vital signs. If the accuracy claims hold up outside the company’s own testing, Oura, Apple, and the rest have a new bar to clear.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek’s body-scanning health startup Neko Health raised $700M in funding to expand its preventive health clinics, including a first U.S. site.

The NTSB found that the Tesla driver who blamed Autopilot for a fatal Texas crash had fully pressed the accelerator pedal, overriding the system and reaching over 70 mph.

Blue Origin revamped its employee stock option plan to offer more ways for workers to cash out, including outside funding rounds and tender offers.

Meta introduced a feature that notifies parents if its AI chatbot detects a teen discussing suicide or self-harm, aiming to enhance safety but raising privacy concerns.

The EU ordered Google to give rival search engines and AI assistants comparable access to Android features and Google Search data.

Uber is buying German food-delivery company Delivery Hero in a roughly $14.8B deal, offering €41.50 per share to expand Uber Eats’ international footprint.

European defense AI startup Helsing raised $1.8B in a Series E round, valuing the Munich-based company at $18B.

The U.K. is proposing rules that would default 16- and 17-year-olds’ social media apps to a midnight–6 a.m. shutdown and turn off infinite scroll and autoplay.

The NHTSA rejected Tesla’s bid to avoid a recall, ordering fixes for nearly 20K Model 3 and Model Y vehicles whose headlights can exceed legal brightness limits.

COMMUNITY

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• Read our last AI newsletter: Moonshot’s Kimi K3 closes the frontier gap

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Meta’s Louisiana data center hits $50B

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Toyota’s secret humanoid hits $1.1B

• Today’s AI tool guide: Use OpenAI's new GPT-Live to plan any trip fast

• RSVP to next workshop today @ 2PM EST: Get knowledge work done with AI

See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Meta just supersized its Louisiana data center into a $50B, 5-gigawatt colossus — and the construction boom is already cutting local teachers’ bonus checks bigger than their annual salaries.

Richland Parish, with a population of 20K, is suddenly home to one of the largest AI infrastructure investments on Earth. The catch: the money and the megaproject run on very different clocks.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Meta’s Louisiana data center hits $50B

• China lands its first reusable rocket — in a net

• EU moves to get kids off social media

• This wearable paints onto your skin

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

META

🤑 Meta's Louisiana data center hits $50B

Image source: Meta / Images 2.0

The Rundown: Meta is supersizing its Louisiana AI megaproject into a 5-gigawatt, $50B-plus data center — while the construction boom is already delivering some local teachers massive bonus checks.

The details:

• Hyperion, Meta’s data center in Richland Parish, is expanding from a planned 2 gigawatts to 5, pushing its projected cost from $27B to more than $50B.

• Meta says LA businesses have already landed over $1.6B in contracts, with $1B-plus earmarked for roads, water systems, and other local infrastructure.

• The construction boom helped Richland Parish award eligible certified teachers bonuses as high as $50,935, while support staff got up to $17,472.

• The bonuses aren’t a Meta donation: they come from a local sales tax supercharged by the buildout, a windfall expected to last through construction.

Why it matters: The bonuses are real, but they’re funded by the temporary part of the deal: sales taxes on a construction boom that ends by the early 2030s. The permanent part — property taxes on a $50B facility — is what Meta negotiated down, so the parish’s biggest year may already be behind it before Hyperion even switches on.

SPACE TECH

🚀 China lands its first reusable rocket — in a net

Image source: CASC

The Rundown: China just became the second country to recover an orbital-class rocket booster — and it skipped the SpaceX playbook entirely, catching the booster in a net at sea.

The details:

• The 63m Long March 10B launched from Hainan, placing a satellite into orbit before its first stage returned to the recovery ship six minutes after separation.

• Instead of carrying heavy landing legs, the booster deployed four hooks near its grid fins, which snagged steel cables stretched across a moveable net.

• China plans to relaunch the recovered booster before year-end, while using the vehicle to test technology for its commercial and crewed-lunar ambitions.

• Its day job is satellite launches, but the Long March 10B shares its first stage with the rocket that will carry China’s new crew capsule.

Why it matters: Moving the landing hardware onto a ship could leave the rocket lighter, simpler, and able to carry more cargo — a clever alternative to copying Falcon 9 bolt for bolt. But SpaceX’s real advantage is hundreds of landings and routine reflights; China has caught one booster, and now it has to prove it can do it again.

SOCIAL MEDIA

🛑 EU moves to get kids off social media

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: The EU is preparing to turn its child-safety concerns into access rules — panel co-chairs told Brussels on Monday that under-13s should face EU-wide restrictions on social media until tech companies prove they are safe.

The details:

• Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sketched her own tiers: no screens before 3, supervised access under 13, gradual access for teens.

• Instagram, TikTok, and most major platforms prohibit under-13 signups — the report is effectively saying self-enforcement failed.

• A legal proposal lands within weeks, but member states are split on age: Spain wants 16, France 15, while Estonia and Belgium call age bans unenforceable.

• On Friday, Brussels preliminarily found Facebook and Instagram’s addictive design in breach of EU law, warning Meta to change features.

Why it matters: Australia, the UK, Turkey, and Indonesia have already banned younger teens from platforms — but the EU would be the largest market to codify the idea that social media is unsafe for kids until proven otherwise. The proposal itself is now a given; the fight is over the cutoff age and how far the restrictions reach.

WEARABLES

🎨 This wearable paints onto your skin

Image source: Wanqing Zhang

The Rundown: Researchers at Penn State, MIT, and China’s Suzhou Institute developed a wearable you paint straight onto your skin — a conductive polymer that breathes like skin and tracks your heart, muscles, and brain waves.

The details:

• The material tracked muscle activity, heart rate, and brain waves, including EKG readings that held 95.1% consistency before and after sweating.

• At body temperature, the paint let through over 10x more water vapor than Tegaderm, the standard medical-grade film.

• The ink combines a conductive polymer with a common soft plastic, and Penn State has already filed a provisional patent on the formula.

• The team’s favorite use: cartoon electrodes that make monitoring kid-friendly, with “tattoos,” human-machine interfaces, and plant biometrics further out.

Why it matters: The weak point of every wearable is where it meets the skin, and paint solves that more elegantly than a strap or adhesive does. But the safety report so far is light — one 24-hour skin test, preliminary toxicity screens, unresolved MRI questions — so the Pikachu tattoos are on hold for now.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

X updated its algorithm to show users more posts from mutuals — people they follow who follow them back.

Europe is testing solid-state air conditioners that cool with stretched metals, semiconductors, magnets, and compressed crystals, ditching refrigerants.

Firefox is joining Chrome and Edge on the browser-update treadmill, shifting to twice-monthly releases as Mozilla races to ship features and security fixes faster.

Netflix is reportedly exploring 24/7 “always-on” live TV channels and possible bundles with services like Peacock as it scrambles to counter slowing engagement.

A Bronx hospital laid off 12 nurses after rolling out AI-powered software, an early test of what happens when healthcare automation starts cutting into clinical jobs.

Disney+ is reportedly weighing making part of its streaming library free to watch, a move that would help it compete with YouTube and Tubi as free ad-supported services.

Ireland’s data centers reportedly swallowed 23% of the country’s electricity in 2025, nearly matching every home combined, despite years of grid restrictions.

Intel is pouring around $5.7B into its Irish chip plant to ramp production of AI-era server processors, after dropping planned factories in Germany and Poland.

Tech billionaires including Peter Thiel, Steve Chen, Bill Gates, and Evan Spiegel are strictly limiting their own kids’ screen time — Thiel to just 90 minutes a week.

A coalition of 12 states led by California filed a federal lawsuit Monday to block Paramount Skydance’s $110B takeover of Warner Bros.

Waze is adding AI features including a Motorcycle mode, a “Less Chatty” voice option, and deeper Gemini integration for voice searches and reports.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: 200+ researchers put AI’s job shock on clock

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Netflix’s binge model is backfiring

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: NEO’s new humanlike hands

• Today’s AI tool guide: Find winning ad angles with Claude and Meta data

• RSVP to next workshop on July 17: Get knowledge work done with GPT 5.6

See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Netflix built an empire on binge-watching — now the binge model might be turning against it.

The streamer’s flagship shows are losing up to 70% of their audiences between seasons, and with YouTube stealing the daily-viewing crown, even Netflix is rethinking its signature move. The fix it’s testing? Go shorter.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Netflix’s binge model is losing its grip

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

• Meta stakes $13B on Canadian data center

• Scientists keep donor eyes alive after death

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

NETFLIX

📺 Netflix’s binge model is losing its grip

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Netflix’s flagship shows are losing 30-70% of their audiences between seasons, per Bloomberg — a sign that the binge model that made the streamer dominant may now be its liability.

The details:

• Avatar: The Last Airbender opened its 2nd season with 8.7M views in 4 days versus 21.2M for season 1; Beef dropped 70%, and The Night Agent lost 50%.

• Long gaps could play a part: Beef and One Piece both took three years to return, giving audiences ample time to move on.

• In a new move, Netflix is adding short-form videos from publishers including BuzzFeed, Condé Nast, and Hearst, launching August 3 in the U.S.

• Meanwhile, YouTube overtook Netflix in daily viewing time for the first time in 2025, and app ReelShort raked in ~$1.2B in consumer spending, up 119%.

Why it matters: Binge-dropping made Netflix king, but the format shows its age in a feed-scrolling world where a three-year wait between seasons is an eternity. The streamer is reportedly studying the trend — a sign even Netflix suspects its signature move needs a rework.

BLUE ORIGIN

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

Image source: Blue Origin

The Rundown: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is reportedly raising $10B in its first-ever outside funding round, valuing the rocket maker at $130B — a deal that lands just weeks after rival SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO.

The details:

• Hedge fund Coatue Management is set to contribute $4B, with Bezos adding $2B of his own, with the remaining $4B coming from institutional investors.

• Since its founding in 2000, Blue Origin has been financed almost entirely by Bezos personally, largely through sales of his Amazon stock.

• The raise comes just after Blue Origin’s rocket exploded on a launchpad, with the company still rebuilding the pad and investigating the root cause.

• At $130B, Blue Origin would rank among the most valuable pure-play space companies, topping Lockheed Martin’s roughly $122B market cap.

Why it matters: The raise signals that building a SpaceX rival requires institutional-scale capital, not just Bezos’ checkbook. But outside money also brings outside pressure: at a reported $130B valuation, it will need to show investors it can turn big NASA contracts into reliable launches, not delays and pad rebuilds.

META

🇨🇦 Meta stakes $10B on Canadian data center

Image source: Meta

The Rundown: Meta said it’s breaking ground on its first Canadian data center — a 1-gigawatt, AI-optimized facility in Sturgeon County, Alberta, backed by more than CAD $13B (~$10B USD).

The details:

• The site is Meta’s 33rd data center globally and its largest outside the U.S., according to VP of data center development Gary Demasi.

• The facility will draw the equivalent of 750K homes’ worth of power, running on new natural gas generation Meta is funding and connecting to Alberta’s grid.

• Meta says the project will support over 3K construction workers at peak and more than 300 permanent operational jobs.

• The site will reportedly use a closed-loop, liquid-cooled system with dry cooling, meaning no operational water use for cooling.

Why it matters: Meta’s Alberta site will be its largest data center outside the U.S., with the province pitching cheap energy and light-touch regulation as the next AI frontier. But running it on gas-fired power shows how AI’s appetite keeps colliding with Big Tech’s climate promises.

BIOTECH

👁️ Scientists keep donor eyes alive after death

Image source: Images 2.0. / The Rundown

The Rundown: A Barcelona-led team built a fluid-pumping box that keeps freshly removed eyeballs viable — and light-responsive — for hours after death, potentially clearing one of the biggest hurdles to whole-eye transplants, MIT Tech Review reports.

The details:

• The device pumps oxygen-rich fluid through the eye’s artery inside a chamber that holds temperature and pressure steady, with a window for live imaging.

• Untreated pig eyes degenerated within 24 hours even when chilled; perfused eyes stayed “significantly more viable,” some responding to light for 10+ hours.

• Light sensitivity, lost the instant an eye leaves the body, returned after about 15 minutes of perfusion.

• In humans, the team perfused one eye from each of six donors; the treated retinas held up better than their untreated pairs.

Why it matters: The first whole-eye transplant, an NYU Langone procedure in 2023, produced a viable eye but no vision — one of several hurdles being the speed at which donor eyes degrade after death. A device that keeps retinas viable and light-sensitive for hours could help move eye transplants toward a real clinical option.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Apple just signed a $30B-plus multiyear deal with Broadcom to design and build more than 15B custom wireless connectivity chips on U.S. soil.

Elon Musk announced that X will send users a DM via X Chat whenever a post they’ve liked, replied to, or reposted receives a Community Notes correction.

New York will become the first U.S. state to ban smart glasses across all its courthouses, covering all 1,240 state, county, city, and town courts starting July 20.

Sonos cut several of its most senior design and product leaders — many with a decade-plus at the company — in its recent 3% layoffs.

Slate Auto is partnering with Crayola to offer five vehicle wraps in signature crayon colors for its $24,950 bare-bones electric truck.

Explorers used an ROV and the Alvin submersible to capture the first images of Ernest Shackleton’s last ship, Quest, 1,280 feet down in the Labrador Sea.

SpaceX is deploying Starlink satellites at a record-setting pace in 2026, already more than 100 ahead of last year’s record cadence in the first half of the year.

X added a built-in video editor to its iOS app to push creators toward original content over stolen reposts, which product chief Nikita Bier says plague even top accounts.

Block agreed to pay $45M to settle claims from 46 states that Cash App failed to protect users from fraud.

Google set its Made by Google event for Aug. 12 in NYC, where it’s expected to unveil the Pixel 11 lineup.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: OpenAI sends GPT-5.6 to Work

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Microsoft axes nearly 5K jobs

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Ex-Tesla scientist’s faceless humanoid

• Today’s AI tool guide: Use 60% less Fable tokens with an orchestrator

• RSVP to next workshop on July 22: No-code product building

See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Microsoft axed 4,800 jobs on Monday, and two-thirds of those belong to Xbox — where new CEO Asha Sharma just delivered the bluntest memo in the division’s 25-year history.

“Our business today is not healthy,” she told staff, before detailing 3,200 cuts and five studios heading for the exits. The retreat comes less than three years after Microsoft closed its $69B Activision Blizzard deal — still the largest gaming acquisition ever made.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Microsoft axes 4,800 jobs, and Xbox takes the hit

• The anti-Meta smart glasses just became a unicorn

• Alibaba fights the U.S. blacklist, and wins round one

• Big Tech drastically undercounts AI’s water use

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

MICROSOFT

🪓 Microsoft axes 4,800 jobs, and Xbox takes the hit

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Microsoft axed 4,800 jobs Monday — 2.1% of its global workforce — with two-thirds of the pain landing on Xbox, where new CEO Asha Sharma is orchestrating what she calls the most significant restructuring in the division’s history.

The details:

• The gaming division sheds 3,200 roles — about 20% of its staff — by mid-2027, with 1,600 cut Monday and the rest staggered across the fiscal year.

• Five studios are out: Double Fine and Compulsion go independent, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs head to buyers, and Arkane enters review.

• Sharma’s memo is unsparing: Xbox runs at margins 3–10x lower than comparable businesses and lost 64 cents per dollar invested in studios.

• The cuts land as Microsoft is last among megacap tech stocks, down 19%, with investors fretting that AI could eat into its enterprise software business.

Why it matters: This is Microsoft conceding that its buy-everything gaming era — capped by the $69B Activision Blizzard deal — built an empire too bloated to compete on margin. After a decade of acquiring studios, Xbox’s new growth plan is letting them go.

EVEN REALITIES

🦄 The anti-Meta smart glasses just became a unicorn

Image source: Even Realities

The Rundown: Shenzhen startup Even Realities just raised $150M at a $1B valuation — a bet, led by Meituan and Tencent, that the future of smart glasses doesn’t include a camera. 

The details:

• The pre-Series B round adds delivery giant Meituan to a backer list that already includes Tencent, Hillhouse, Sequoia China, and Northern Light Venture Capital.

• Founded in 2023 by ex-Apple engineers, the company’s G2 glasses pair a heads-up display with a tap-and-swipe companion ring; no camera included.

• Real-time translation transcribes audio to text instead of storing recordings, data is encrypted, and the stack is built to clear Europe’s privacy bar.

• Even claims profitability at a premium price — $599 frames, roughly $1K average orders — with the U.S. as its fastest-growing market.

Why it matters: While Meta and Snap race to put cameras and AI assistants onto everyone’s face, Even Realities wants to prove there is a real market for glasses that show you things without watching anyone. If a three-year-old startup can hit profitability selling privacy as a feature, the smart glasses race just found its contrarian.

ALIBABA

🛑 Alibaba fights the U.S. blacklist, and wins round one 

Image source: Long Wei / VCG via Getty Images

The Rundown: A federal judge just ordered the Pentagon to stop treating Alibaba as a Chinese military company — at least where a new lobbying ban is concerned — while the court weighs whether the restriction violates the Constitution.

The details:

• The Pentagon added Alibaba to its 1260H list of alleged Chinese military companies in June, expanding the roster to include 188 firms in total.

• A provision bars the DoD from contracting with any company whose lobbyists also represent a listed firm, and Alibaba says all of its 20-plus lobbyists withdrew within a week.

• Alibaba sued on June 23 seeking removal from the list, arguing it doesn’t work with the Chinese military.

• Judge Eumi K. Lee’s order holds until she rules on Alibaba’s motion or 60 days after a hearing — and the Pentagon agreed to the temporary pause.

Why it matters: A 1260H listing carries no automatic penalties, but the new lobbying rule gave it real consequences — no major firm will represent a listed company if it costs them their defense clients. With Baidu and BYD disputing their designations too, the blacklist now faces its first constitutional test.

AI

💧 Big Tech drastically undercounts AI’s water use

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Microsoft, Google, and Amazon consume far more water than they report — because most of it evaporates upstream, at the power plants running their data centers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The details:

• Hyperscalers report only on-site cooling water; among the big four, only Meta also counts the water consumed at the power plants supplying its electricity.

• The omission is huge: U.S. data centers’ indirect water use has historically run ~12x their direct consumption, per Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

• In water-stressed Phoenix, data centers draw ~3% of city water today — a share Ceres projects could top 20% by 2031.

• Community pushback is mounting, with $170B in data-center capacity blocked, stalled, or canceled since 2024, per Carbon Direct.

Why it matters: The real footprint is roughly 12x what shows up in sustainability reports, per WSJ — and no one is required to disclose it. With hyperscalers racing to build in water-stressed markets, communities are being asked to share their scarcest resource based on numbers that dramatically undersell the ask.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

A Texas DoorDash driver was charged with manslaughter after overriding his Tesla’s FSD by flooring the accelerator, killing a woman inside her home.

Uber has paused its Uber Eats expansion into five European markets where Delivery Hero operates, fueling speculation it wants to buy the German giant.

Micron just broke ground on a $9.3B expansion of its Hiroshima plant to churn out the HBM chips feeding Nvidia’s AI processors, backed by up to $3.2B in Japanese government subsidies.

Bentley just teased the Torcal, its first-ever EV — a fastback-style electric SUV that gets its full reveal in London on September 23.

Klarna has applied for a Utah bank charter to launch Klarna Bank USA, a move that would let the BNPL giant become a full-fledged U.S. consumer bank.

Tesla is now taking U.S. orders for the Model Y Long Wheelbase starting at $61,990, nearly a year after its China debut, with deliveries slated for September.

Broadcom said it will expand its deal with Apple through 2031 to develop and supply custom chips, calming investor fears of Apple designing Broadcom out of its devices.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Meta sizes up GPT-5.5 with Watermelon

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Sony kills the game disc

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: This $8K robot can do your laundry

• Today’s AI tool guide: Build any mobile app idea in 15 minutes with Replit

• RSVP to next workshop on Wednesday: Create short form videos with AI

See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Sony is getting out of the physical game business after a three-decade run. Starting in January 2028, new PlayStation releases will be digital-only, turning the collector’s shelf and the GameStop trade-in counter into artifacts of another era.

It’s the ending everyone saw coming: what used to be a game you owned is quietly becoming a file you’re allowed to access.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Sony pulls the plug on PlayStation discs

• Apple plans 5 new iPhones — if it can find the chips

• Google’s 8-year Android fight ends in $4.7B defeat

• Lilly’s next injectable target: hair loss

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

SONY

📀 Sony pulls the plug on PlayStation discs

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Sony will stop pressing physical discs for all new PlayStation games starting in January 2028, ending three decades of boxed console releases as the company goes all-in on digital.

The details:

• Every new title after the cutoff will be sold digitally only via the PlayStation Store and third-party retailers.

• Sony says that digital downloads made up 85% of full-game sales on PS4 and PS5 in its most recent quarterly results, versus 15% for discs.

• It’s part of a larger trend: GameStop has reportedly shuttered more than 1,300 stores over the past two fiscal years as game buying moved online.

• Sony announced it’s also winding down the PlayStation Store on PS3 in select markets this year, with global PS3 and Vita store closures to follow in 2027.

Why it matters: The announcement landed days after GTA 6 fans discovered the game’s “physical” edition is just a download code in a box. With Sony now formalizing the disc’s death, players will keep paying $70 or more per title — but for a license that can be revoked or delisted at will, with no disc to resell, lend, or keep.

APPLE

🍏 Apple plans 5 new iPhones — if it can find the chips

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Apple is reportedly planning at least five new iPhone models between late 2026 and mid-2027 — and telling suppliers to crank out 10M foldables this year — even as an AI-driven memory shortage squeezes its supply chain.

The details:

• Reports say Apple told suppliers to prepare 10M foldable iPhones this year, up from 7M–8M units, and has secured components for 80M phones.

• IDC pegs the foldable iPhone Ultra’s average selling price at around $2,500, with higher-storage versions hitting $3K, the most expensive iPhone ever.

• Counterpoint expects it to grab 29% of global foldable display orders in 2026, just behind Samsung’s 31%.

• Apple is also reportedly readying 4 new iPad Pro models with faster chips, an entry-level MacBook Pro, and its first M7 processor, all targeted for early 2027.

Why it matters: AI demand has nearly quadrupled memory prices in three quarters, forcing Apple to raise prices and hunt for chips wherever it can find them — reportedly even from blacklisted Chinese suppliers. Apple’s biggest product push in years looks to be running right into the industry’s worst component squeeze.

GOOGLE

⚖️ Google’s 8-year Android fight ends in $4.7B defeat

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Europe’s top court just killed Google’s last appeal against its record €4.1 billion ($4.7B) Android antitrust fine, ending an eight-year legal fight over how the company locked its search engine and apps onto the world’s most popular mobile OS.

The details:

• The Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed the appeal, confirming the penalty for Google Search’s abuse of a dominant position via Android.

• The original €4.34B fine in 2018 targeted deals forcing phone makers to pre-install Search, Chrome, and the Play Store while barring rival Android versions; a lower court trimmed it to €4.1B in 2022.

• Google said the judgment ignores its investment in keeping Android “open, interoperable and free.” Alphabet shares dipped about 1% premarket.

• It’s Google’s second final EU defeat, after the €2.4B Shopping fine was upheld in 2024 — plus a €2.95B adtech penalty added last year.

Why It Matters: The ruling closes out the last of the Commission’s big three Google cases from the 2010s — the era when Brussels used competition law as its main weapon against Big Tech — just as Sweden’s $1.5B PriceRunner award showed those old fines are now fueling a second wave of private damages suits.

BIOTECH

💉 Lilly’s next injectable target: hair loss

Image source: Absci Corp.

The Rundown: Eli Lilly put $40M into a $100M raise for Absci, whose AI-designed antibody ABS-201 targets pattern baldness and endometriosis, with the CEO floating a future combo shot pairing hair regrowth with a GLP-1.

The details:

• ABS-201 blocks the prolactin receptor, a hormone receptor tied to both hair growth and reproductive health; no approved injectable currently treats either.

• The Phase 1 trial showed the drug was well tolerated across all doses with no serious side effects, sending Absci shares up 36% last week.

• Absci plans a global Phase 2 endometriosis study this year, and wants to jump to Phase 3 for male pattern hair loss in late 2027, pending FDA talks.

• Hope Medicine’s HMI-115 blocks the same prolactin receptor — Phase 2 endometriosis data is published in The Lancet, plus a Phase 2 hair-loss trial.

Why it matters: Lilly turned weekly injections into a routine for millions, and it’s now betting the model works beyond weight loss. One antibody covering both hair regrowth and endometriosis — a condition that has been drastically underserved — would stretch injectables from obesity blockbusters into far broader medical treatments.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Microsoft plans to lay off thousands of employees across the company in the coming week, hitting sales, engineering, and Xbox, The Information reports.

Meta now caps its smart glasses’ Conversation Focus hearing-amplification feature at 3 free hours a month, charging $20/month for just 15 hours.

AI data center builder Crusoe is in talks to raise about $3B in a new round that could roughly triple its valuation to around $30B, Bloomberg reports.

Meta launched Pocket, an app born from its Gizmo acquisition that lets users generate and share AI-prompted mini games through a scrollable discovery feed.

Tesla delivered over 480K vehicles in Q2 — its best quarter since late 2025 — as cheaper Model 3, Y, and Cybertruck variants beat Wall Street expectations.

Honor’s ultra-thin Magic V6 foldable — with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and a 6,600mAh battery — launched in the UK and Europe at £1,999.99/€2,299.99.

Lime raised $167M in its Nasdaq IPO at a $1.66B valuation, going public after nine turbulent years to help pay down roughly $1B in liabilities.

Florida’s new HB 1217 bans cities and counties from pursuing net-zero emissions goals, forcing rollbacks in at least 10 local governments.

Samsung is reportedly developing its first rollable-screen smartphone — possibly called the Galaxy Z Slide or Z Roll — targeting a launch in the first-half of 2028.

Amazon said its Atlas V launch of 29 satellites — bringing its Leo constellation to 396 — gives it enough coverage to start initial commercial internet service later this year.

COMMUNITY

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• Read our last AI newsletter: Altman invites Washington inside AI industry

• Read our last Tech newsletter: WhatsApp’s ‘usernames’ reservation race

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Apptronik opens massive ‘Robot Park’

• Today’s AI tool guide: Delegate team tasks to Claude inside Slack

• RSVP to next workshop on July 8: Create Short Form Videos with AI

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Meta is bringing one of Telegram's signature features to WhatsApp — usernames.

Starting this week, the 3B users of the messaging service can reserve a username and skip sharing their phone number to chat. Privacy win, sure, but get the safeguards wrong, and it opens the gates to a wave of scams.

In today’s tech rundown:

• WhatsApp opens username reservations

• Chinese supercomputer crowned world's fastest

• Apple suffers one of its biggest leaks in years

• NASA to rescue falling space telescope

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

META

💬 WhatsApp opens username reservations

Image source: Meta

The Rundown: Meta just opened reservations for usernames on WhatsApp, allowing users to set their custom handle (like they do on Instagram) and share that with people they want to chat with — instead of providing their phone number.

The details:

• While usernames launch later this year, Meta opened reservations to ensure users can lock in preferred handles, with each name unique to one person.

• The feature, similar to what Telegram has offered since 2014, will keep users from sharing their phone numbers with everyone they want to chat with.

• However, unlike Telegram, usernames won’t come with a directory to browse, and people will need to know an exact username to contact a person.

• Meta will also back this up with a four-digit key that users can set as an additional layer of security before someone messages them on their username.

Why it matters: WhatsApp is hardening the privacy layer, ensuring you never have to share your number again when messaging your handyman or bookstore manager. But usernames can also lead to scams — a fake handle looks just as trustworthy as a real one, and without a number, there’s no way to check who you're actually talking to.

SUPERCOMPUTING

🧠 Chinese supercomputer crowned world’s fastest

Image source: China News Service / Getty Images

The Rundown: China's LineShine supercomputer, housed at the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, dethroned the U.S.'s El Capitan as the world's fastest supercomputer — and it did it without using a single GPU.

The details:

• LineShine surpassed El Capitan by almost 22% in the latest TOP500 rankings, hitting 2.198 exaflops, or more than two quintillion calculations per second.

• The machine runs roughly 14M Arm-based CPU cores, packed into 45,000 LX2 processors, all built and assembled through China's LingKun platform.

• It skips GPUs — the Nvidia chips most supercomputers run on and the exact hardware the U.S. has restricted China from buying — relying on CPUs instead.

• Teams are already using LineShine for heavy workloads like testing a decade of weather predictions in hours and atomic-scale simulations of materials.

Why it matters: The U.S. spent years betting that cutting off GPU supply would slow China’s technology progress. LineShine is proof of the opposite — Beijing just built the world's fastest machine using the chips that Washington did not restrict. The U.S. can always write a longer list, but it can't unteach China how to win without permission.

APPLE

📱 Apple suffers one of its biggest leaks in years

Image source: AFP / Getty Images

The Rundown: A ransomware group just hit Tata Electronics, one of Apple's key manufacturing and supply chain partners, and leaked 200K+ internal files on the dark web, including the iPhone 18 Pro's supplier list and photos and videos of the device.

The details:

• The files map iPhone 18 Pro components — chips, battery parts, camera modules — to the suppliers that make them, information Apple never disclosed.

• They also include drop-test photos and videos of what looks like iPhone 18 Pro in grey, carrying Apple's internal codenames and confidentiality markings.

• Tata Electronics also works with Tesla, with leaked files including Model Y charge-port and drawings related to the Model 3's "Project Highland" redesign.

• Apple said it is investigating the matter and working with Tata, which has hired a global consultant for a deeper forensic audit.

Why it matters: Apple controls almost every detail of how its products reach the public, but it doesn't always have full control over how securely its suppliers operate. This breach shows that risk clearly. The leak didn't come from inside Apple, but it's Apple's secrecy and its product pipeline that are taking the hit.

NASA

🔭 NASA to rescue falling space telescope

Image source: Katalyst Space / NASA

The Rundown: NASA is launching an ambitious rescue mission on July 1, where a robotic spacecraft will fly to its 20-year-old Swift space telescope and push it back up to a safer orbit — before it falls and burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.

The details:

• With recent solar activity increasing atmospheric drag, Swift's orbit has been decaying faster than expected, putting the telescope on track to fall and burn.

• Katalyst Space has built the rescue craft, which will first study Swift and then use its robotic arms to grab and push it 150 miles upward to its original altitude.

• Once the gamma-ray telescope is back in its original place, NASA will restart its full system and telescope operations, which it says could take a month or more.

• The entire rescue, launch included, costs NASA about $30M, with science chief Nicky Fox saying they can't afford to build a replacement if Swift is lost.

Why it matters: Until now, a dying satellite gave NASA two choices: build a replacement, or let it go. This mission tests a third option — pay a private company a fraction of the rebuild's cost to extend the life of the one already up there. It won't work in every case, but it can definitely bring down the cost of saving some missions.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

A Waymo robotaxi was caught driving into an oncoming traffic lane in Los Angeles before correcting course, adding to a string of recent autonomous driving mishaps.

The Trump administration discussed a SpaceX stock donation for Trump Accounts, a children's savings program launching next week, Semafor reported.

T-Mobile is retiring legacy wireless plans and automatically migrating customers to newer 5G offerings, with some bills increasing by an average of about $4 per line.

Amazon agreed to pay $2.25M to settle U.S. claims that it failed to provide records needed by identity theft victims to investigate fraudulent purchases.

Colossal Biosciences and the U.S. government are creating a BioVault to preserve the DNA and cells of some 2,300 endangered species, for future de-extinction efforts.

Comcast is splitting into two public companies, spinning off NBCUniversal and Sky into a standalone media org while retaining its broadband, wireless, and cable business.

Meta reportedly hired contractors to pose as minors and test how rival chatbots handled prompts about suicide, drugs, and self-harm, as part of safety benchmarking.

Apple said it is releasing security updates earlier than usual, citing AI-driven cyber threats that are shrinking the window between vulnerability disclosure and exploitation.

Australia's competition regulator sued Amazon, alleging it used unfair contract terms to force Prime Video subscribers to pay extra to avoid ads.

Apple is seeking U.S. approval to buy memory chips from blacklisted Chinese chipmaker CXMT to ease rising component costs, the Financial Times reported.

IBM introduced the world's first sub-1 nanometer chip architecture, packing 100 billion transistors into a fingernail-sized chip.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Meta’s brain-reading AI leaves letters behind

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple's big price hike

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Agility Robotics going public at $2.5B

• Today’s AI tool guide: Automate any manual task with Record & Replay

• RSVP to next workshop on June 30: Master AI video editing

See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Apple just hiked Mac and iPad prices, with the company citing a memory chip market so broken that CEO Tim Cook called it a “hundred-year flood” — and said he’d never seen anything like it in over 40 years.

The AI infrastructure boom eating up global DRAM supply is now hitting your wallet too — and Apple is warning this might just be the beginning.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Apple raises prices, blames AI chip crunch

• Slate’s $25K electric truck is open for preorders

• Zoox’s new robotaxi is a sweeter ride

• YouTube Shorts just got even shorter

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

APPLE

🍎 Apple raises prices, blames AI chip crunch

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Apple just hiked prices on its Macs and iPads by $100–$200, or more on some models, blaming soaring memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI boom — with shares dropping in their worst session in over a year.

The details:

• MacBook Neo jumped from $599 to $699, Air from $1,099 to $1,299, and Pro from $1,699 to $1,999. iPad Pro rose to $1,199 and Air to $749.

• iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods were spared for now, but Apple hinted more products could follow.

• DRAM prices surged nearly 100% in Q1 2026 and are set to jump another 58–63% this quarter, a crisis some analysts have dubbed “RAMageddon.”

• Apple shares fell over 6% Thursday, as incoming CEO John Ternus prepares to inherit the memory crisis when he takes over on September 1.

Why it matters: This isn't just an Apple story — Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo, and others have all raised prices or flagged increases, meaning the AI infrastructure buildout is now hitting consumer hardware. IDC estimates the PC market will contract 11.3% this year, with the cheapest laptops at greatest risk of disappearing entirely.

SLATE

🛻 Slate's $25K electric truck is open for preorders

Image source: Slate Auto

The Rundown: Jeff Bezos-backed EV startup Slate opened pre-orders for a $24,950 electric pickup truck — what it says is the cheapest new truck in America — that ships with hand-crank windows and no infotainment screen by design.

The details:

• Slate’s truck opens at $24,950 with base range bumped to 205 miles (up from 150); SUV conversion version: $29,950. First deliveries are expected this year.

• Every truck ships in gray composite; buyers customize via wraps and bolt-ons — skipping the factory paint shop is core to hitting the price point.

• Pre-orders are live via direct sales only, and Slate has granted Carvana a warrant to purchase its shares in a likely distribution tie-up.

• For comparison, the Chevy Bolt starts at $28,995 with 262 miles of range; Ford is prototyping a $30K electric midsize pickup due in 2027.

Why it matters: The $7,500 federal EV tax credit is gone, emissions rules are loosening, and major automakers are shelving affordable EV programs, making Slate’s timing a bit tricky. If the company can actually manufacture at scale at a price even lower than the popular Bolt, it could genuinely expand who can afford to go electric.

ZOOX

🚖 Zoox’s new robotaxi is a sweeter ride

Image source: Zoox

The Rundown: Amazon’s Zoox just unveiled a production-ready refresh of its bidirectional robotaxi — the same boxy silhouette with more creature comforts and built to roll off the line at up to 100 units a week.

The details:

• This refresh is about comfort, with ergonomic seat padding, fluted charging pads to keep phones in place, bigger cupholders, and a more vivid touchscreen.

• On the outside, Zoox relocated its bidirectional reflectors and added two-way audio, enabling riders to communicate with support tech and first responders.

• The updated vehicles are currently giving free rides in Austin, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Miami.

• Zoox is awaiting an NHTSA exemption to run up to 2,500 driverless vehicles — public comments closed in April, and the decision is still pending.

Why it matters: Zoox designed its robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals, which means existing NHTSA safety standards don’t straightforwardly apply — an exemption is a prerequisite for the first paying customer. Amazon has $1.2B in, a production-ready vehicle, and four test cities, while Waymo logs 500K paid rides a week.

YOUTUBE

👀 YouTube Shorts just got even shorter

Image source: YouTube

The Rundown: YouTube is rolling out its most significant Shorts redesign yet — ditching the dislike button, swapping likes for hearts, adding 2x playback speed, and introducing a distraction-free viewing mode.

The details:

• 2x playback speed lets users burn through Shorts even faster — YouTube’s framing: “absorb information more quickly or find your favorite part faster.”

• The dislike button is gone entirely — users who want to push back on content are now limited to “Not Interested” and “Don’t recommend this channel.”

• The thumbs-up is out too, replaced by a heart emoji — a small but telling cosmetic shift toward a warmer, more algorithmically frictionless experience.

• The new “Clear Screen mode” strips all icons and text from the playback view, giving users a clean, uninterrupted look at the video itself

Why it matters: YouTube was a bit late to short-form video — Shorts launched years after TikTok and Reels had locked in user habits. Ditching the dislike button and engineering for speed shows it’s betting on frictionless engagement over pretty much everything else.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Samsung Group reportedly plans to announce a $648B, 10-year investment in South Korea spanning semiconductors, AI, batteries, and displays.

Apple is skipping the M6 Pro and Max high-end chips entirely, jumping straight to an AI-focused M7 in 2027, Bloomberg reports.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he wants Australia’s social media ban for children strengthened after a study showed it has done little to curb teen use.

The FCC launched a sweeping review of the ~$2B E-Rate program that subsidizes internet access for schools and libraries, citing screen time concerns.

Disney is paying $50M to settle claims it forced YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream to bundle ESPN, inflating subscriber costs.

NHTSA is proposing to eliminate the manual brake pedal requirement for fully autonomous vehicles to accelerate robotaxi deployment on U.S. roads.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly ordered a small team to build “Arena,” a dedicated prediction-market app separate from Meta’s social media platforms.

A second worker was killed at BYD’s Szeged, Hungary factory construction site on June 18 — struck by a truck — marking the second fatality in four months.

Spain now requires mobile carriers to keep networks running for at least four hours during power outages to ensure people can still make calls and access mobile data.

The Trump administration barred Chinese-owned Swedish EV maker Polestar from selling new EVs in the U.S. starting with the 2027 model year.

Bumble is reportedly working with Morgan Stanley to explore a potential sale amid slowing growth in the online dating market.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: White House reins in OpenAI's GPT-5.6

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Meta’s employee tracking hits a wall

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Agility Robotics going public at $2.5B

• Today’s AI tool guide: Give your AI agent a credit card (safely)

• RSVP to next workshop on June 30: Master AI video editing

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Meta started logging its own employees’ keystrokes, mouse movements, and screenshots to train its AI, then accidentally exposed that data to the entire company.

The initiative, mandatory for most U.S. staff, captured computer usage before a permissions error left private conversations visible companywide. Meta has paused the program, but the backlash is just getting started.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Meta pauses employee tracking program after leak

• Instagram wants to be your next streaming service

• Microsoft locks in 20 years of gas power

• Stanford finds the off switch for aging joints

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

META

👁️ Meta pauses employee tracking program after leak

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Meta accidentally exposed employee keystroke data companywide while running a mandatory AI training program that most staff didn’t know was collecting their private conversations and performance records, Wired reports.

The details:

• Meta launched the Model Capability Initiative (MCI) in April, logging keystrokes and mouse movements from most U.S. employees for AI training data.

• A report was filed after employees found that collected data — including private conversations — was visible to far more workers than intended.

• Meta classified it as a SEV 2, paused the program, and said there’s no indication that the data was improperly accessed.

• Internal backlash was already brewing: a 1,500-person employee petition opposing the program predated the breach.

Why it matters: Meta’s employee tracking plan was already controversial before the data exposure. Now, the issue is bigger than whether the company should collect this kind of workplace data at all — it’s whether employees can trust Meta to handle it safely when they have little choice but to participate.

INSTAGRAM

📺 Instagram wants to be your next streaming service

Image source: Instagram

The Rundown: Instagram is making a serious play for the living room, expanding its TV app to Samsung devices while testing episodic series, long-form video, and live creator programming — formats it has never supported before.

The details:

• The Samsung rollout extends the TV app’s reach; it had been limited to Amazon Fire TV and Google TV devices since launching last December.

• New features include personalized channels, Stories support within the TV app, and the ability to cast Reels directly from your phone.

• Instagram is also beginning to recruit creators to produce episodic content, serialized stories broken into one-to-three-minute installments.

• Meta had already been testing a “Series” feature for episodic Reels on Instagram and Facebook earlier this month.

Why it matters: YouTube already overtook Netflix and other streaming services as the most-watched video provider on U.S. televisions in 2025, and Instagram is hoping creators can pull off a similar shift. If episodic and live formats gain traction, Meta starts competing for the TV attention that streamers have spent billions trying to keep.

MICROSOFT

🙊 Microsoft locks in 20 years of gas power

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Chevron and Microsoft just signed a 20-year deal to build a 2.67-gigawatt gas-powered data center in the Permian Basin in West Texas, which the Wall Street Journal says could become one of the largest data centers in the U.S.

The details:

• Chevron’s subsidiary Energy Forge One signed a 20-year PPA with Microsoft for Project Kilby, a co-located gas power and data center complex in Texas.

• The 2K-acre Reeves County site will reportedly run on GE Vernova and Caterpillar turbines fed by Chevron’s Permian Basin gas.

• Chevron is partnering with Joulent on development, targeting FID by the end of 2026, first power in 2028, and $10B+ in tax revenue.

• The co-located design delivers power directly to Microsoft, limiting grid impact while giving Chevron cash flows decoupled from oil and gas price swings.

Why it matters: AI workloads are pushing tech giants to lock in decade-long energy supply deals, creating a new market for fossil fuel companies to plug directly into the data center buildout. Project Kilby marks Big Oil’s clearest bet yet that AI’s power hunger — not the energy transition — is the next growth frontier.

BIOTECH

🦵🏽 Stanford finds the off switch for aging joints

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Stanford researchers found that blocking an aging-related protein called 15-PGDH led to the regrowth of lost knee cartilage, raising hopes for a drug that could treat osteoarthritis without joint replacement surgery.

The details:

• Stanford blocked 15-PGDH, a protein that doubles in aging joints, and saw dramatic cartilage regrowth in mice via both injections and systemic doses.

• It works by reprogramming existing cartilage cells: the share of cells building healthy hyaline cartilage jumped from 22% to 42% after treatment.

• Human cartilage removed during knee replacement surgeries also showed less cartilage breakdown and new cartilage generation after one week.

• A 15-PGDH inhibitor is already in Phase 1 clinical trials for age-related muscle weakness and has shown a safe profile in healthy volunteers.

Why it matters: Osteoarthritis affects 1 in 5 U.S. adults and costs roughly $65B in healthcare annually, yet no approved drug can slow or reverse the underlying disease. This joins a wave of regenerative approaches, including University of Colorado scientists testing a slow-release injectable that nudges cells to regrow cartilage.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Oracle said it cut about 21K jobs — 13% of its workforce — in the past year and that its growing use of AI has already replaced some roles and could drive further layoffs.

A Tesla plowed into a Texas home killing a 76-year-old woman — but the company says the driver, not Autopilot, had the pedal floored at 73 mph; NHTSA is investigating.

SpaceX has seen ~$400B wiped from its market value as its post-listing rally reversed, marking one of the largest single-day losses recorded for a public company.

WhatsApp’s CEO, Will Cathcart, is stepping down after seven years and will be replaced by Kunal Shah, founder of Indian fintech CRED.

Lucid slashed 18% of staff — around 1,500 jobs, its second major cut this year — as the struggling EV maker races to launch its first mass-market vehicle.

Claude Guillemot, who co-founded Ubisoft with his four brothers in 1986, died at 69 in a plane crash in the French resort town of La Baule

Rivian owners filed a class action suit against the EV maker, alleging it spent five years falsely promising hands-free, eyes-off driving that hasn’t yet been delivered.

Octopus Energy and CATL formed a joint venture called Swaptopus to roll out a network of battery swap stations for heavy trucks across Europe.

AI drug discovery firm Insilico Medicine signed a $2.5B deal with South Korea's SK Biopharmaceuticals to develop neuroimmune therapies using its Pharma.AI platform.

Trump signed two executive orders to accelerate U.S. quantum computing, directing federal agencies to help build a powerful research-grade quantum computer by 2028.

Italian software roll-up Bending Spoons — which owns Vimeo, AOL, and Eventbrite — is seeking to raise $1.62B in a Nasdaq IPO at a ~$19B valuation.

COMMUNITY

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• Read our last AI newsletter: Sakana’s Fugu aims at the frontier

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Xbox's studio crisis gets bigger

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: GM replaces 1K workers with 50 robots

• Today’s AI tool guide: Cut typing time in half with AI voice commands

• RSVP to next workshop on June 25: Get consultant-grade strategy from AI

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Major blows just landed at Xbox. Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory are racing to spin out of Microsoft to avoid closure — while Ninja Theory staff were reportedly told the studio is shutting down anyway.

For Microsoft’s gaming empire, it’s a brutal turn: the $69B Activision Blizzard deal didn’t fix the business, and now even Xbox’s most beloved creative shops are on the chopping block.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Xbox reset puts cult studios on the brink

• UK bans social media for under-16s

• Fox buys streaming giant Roku for $22B

• Solid-state AC could cut cooling’s CO2

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

MICROSOFT

🕹️ Xbox reset puts cult studios on the brink

Image source: Ninja Theory

The Rundown: Microsoft is deepening cuts at Xbox Game Studios again, with Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory racing to spin off and avoid closure — though Ninja Theory staff were reportedly told their studio is shutting down anyway.

The details:

• Bloomberg reports that Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory are in active negotiations to spin off from Microsoft to avoid closure.

• Ninja Theory staff were told on an internal call Monday that the studio is closing, though they’re hoping it finds a buyer, The Verge reports.

• Ninja Theory had just unveiled Senua, a new chapter in its Hellblade series, on June 7, and Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan left the company last week.

• It’s the fallout from new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's “reset”: she’s told staff Xbox’s annual revenue fell by nearly $500M over five years while hardware costs quadrupled.

Why it matters: This is the clearest evidence yet that Microsoft’s decade of gaming acquisitions — including the record $69B Activision Blizzard deal — hasn’t solved Xbox’s profitability problem, and acclaimed studios aren’t safe anymore. It’s the same belt-tightening that drove last year’s 9K Microsoft job cuts.

TECH POLICY

🇬🇧 UK bans social media for under-16s

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday that the UK will ban social media for under-16s, claiming the measures will go “further than any country in the world” to protect children from online harms.

The details:

• The ban covers Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X, while messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal stay accessible.

• The UK will also block livestreaming and stranger contact for under-16s, with curfews and infinite-scroll limits under consideration.

• Tech companies bear enforcement responsibility and face steep fines, with a target rollout by spring 2027.

• The UK joins Spain, Malaysia, France, Denmark, Norway, and Australia, which became the first country to implement such a ban in December.

Why it matters: Major platforms are pushing back, arguing it would be hard to enforce at scale and push teens onto riskier, unregulated sites. Early signals from Australia, where around 70% of parents polled in March said their children remained on banned platforms, suggest enforcement may be the law’s weakest link.

FOX & ROKU

📺 Fox buys streaming giant Roku for $22B 

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Fox is acquiring streaming pioneer Roku for $22B in cash and stock, merging its news, sports, and Tubi streaming business with Roku’s connected-TV platform to create the third-largest television company in the U.S.

The details:

• Fox is paying $160 a share for Roku — $96 in cash plus 0.9693 shares of Fox Class A stock per share — backed by a $12B loan it lined up for the deal.

• The deal pairs Fox’s news and sports networks and its Tubi platform with Roku’s connected-TV OS, the Roku Channel, and data from 100M households.

• Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood will join Fox’s board once the deal closes, and Roku says it’ll keep running as an “open, partner-friendly” platform.

• The move leaves existing Fox shareholders with about 73% of the combined company — Fox shares fell sharply after the announcement.

Why it matters: This hands a legacy broadcaster direct ownership of one of streaming’s biggest platforms and its trove of first-party viewer data — the ad-targeting currency that’s been migrating from traditional TV to tech platforms for years. It also shows live sports and news, paired with CTV scale, are a winning formula.

CLIMATE TECH

🥶 Solid-state AC could cut cooling's CO2

Image source: SHoP Architects/MIMiC Systems

The Rundown: Solid-state ACs — ditching compressors and refrigerants for currents, magnets, or pressure shifts — are entering pilot programs as global AC demand is set to triple by 2050, per MIT Technology Review.

The details:

• Brooklyn’s Mimic Systems shifts heat via thermoelectric current via materials like bismuth telluride, with a room-scale unit piloting in a Vancouver apartment.

• Germany’s Magnotherm is piloting a magnetocaloric system — cooling by magnetizing and demagnetizing materials — in a supermarket chain.

• A Hong Kong team’s elastocaloric device reportedly cools below 0°C; the UK’s Barocal is developing pressure-based barocaloric tech.

• Conventional AC hits a coefficient of performance of 3; thermoelectrics lose efficiency fast on big swings, limiting them to niche uses like car-seat cooling.

Why it matters: ACs already eat up 7% of global electricity and 3% of greenhouse-gas emissions, a load set to triple by 2050 as their use surges while the planet heats up. Even a modest foothold for solid-state systems could meaningfully cut that footprint and reduce reliance on CO2-intensive refrigerants.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Elon Musk says SpaceX could hit $1T in annual revenue by 2030, a forecast made just days after the company’s record IPO that valued it above $1.75T.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told CNBC the company is working on over 40 designs of new AI devices, including jewelry, earbuds with cameras, and watches.

Chinese leaker Instant Digital posted that a touchscreen MacBook is “100% confirmed,” adding to Gurman and Kuo reports of touchscreen MacBook Pro models.

Chinese Tesla drivers are using tiny plastic doll heads mounted near the rearview mirror to trick the cabin camera into thinking they’re watching the road, Wired reports.

Johnson & Johnson CEO Joaquin Duato reportedly said curing certain cancers is a realistic goal, adding that AI is already helping the company develop medicines faster.

The FBI built a 22K-square-foot replica town in Huntsville, Alabama, to train investigators on real-world cyberattacks.

Apple reportedly built a fully customizable Camera app internally but held it back from iOS 27 to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro instead, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

A new Data Center Watch (10a Labs) study found that data center opponents blocked or delayed at least 75 projects worth a combined $130B in Q1 2026.

French AI startup Mistral is in talks to raise around €3B ($3.5B) at a valuation of €20B (~$23.2B), nearly doubling its September €11.7B (~$13.6B) valuation.

UT Austin’s water-harvesting jacket fabric pulls 14–30 oz. of drinkable water from the air daily and could scale to backpacks or tents.

COMMUNITY

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• Read our last AI newsletter: Why 100+ security experts say the Fable 5 ban backfires

• Read our last Tech newsletter: SpaceX posts biggest IPO in history

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: UBTech’s ultra-realistic robot girlfriend

• Today’s AI tool guide: Vet business opportunities with NotebookLM

• RSVP to our next workshop on June 17: Build a Marketing Creative Studio 

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. SpaceX just pulled off the biggest IPO in history, raising $75B in a single night. It also makes Elon Musk something no human has ever been: a trillionaire, at least on paper.

The nearly $1.8T price tag is riding on rockets and Starlink today — and orbital data centers and a Martian city tomorrow. With 85% of the vote, Musk alone holds the controls.

In today’s tech rundown:

• SpaceX IPO raises record-breaking $75B

• Amazon’s awfully thirsty data centers

• David Sinclair tests age-reversal pill on people

• Researchers find superbug killer in old dirt

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

SPACEX

🤑 SpaceX IPO raises record-breaking $75B

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: SpaceX priced the largest IPO in history Thursday night — 555.6 million shares at $135 apiece, a $75B raise that values the company at $1.77T — and makes Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire on paper.

The details:

• SpaceX is now the seventh most valuable U.S. company, ahead of Tesla, and the raise more than doubles Saudi Aramco’s 2019 record of $29.4B.

• Musk’s stake is worth $866.5B at the offer price, plus $320B in Tesla — past the trillion-dollar mark, on paper.

• The company lost $4.9B on $18.7B in 2025 revenue, yet its filing projects more than $28.5T across its markets.

• Retail got around 30% of the allocation, triple the norm or more, and new exchange rules could put SPCX in the Nasdaq 100 within 15 trading days.

Why it matters: Investors just handed a money-losing company a $1.8T valuation built on future orbital data centers and Mars bases. It makes Musk the first trillionaire in the process, with a fortune Oxfam says grew by more than $1M a minute over the past year — all amid months of renewed protests and political blowback around Musk.

AMAZON

💧 Amazon’s awfully thirsty data centers

Image source: Amazon

The Rundown: Amazon disclosed for the first time that its data centers used 2.5B gallons of water worldwide last year — 5% of what metro Seattle uses annually — a number it’s framing as proof it cools server farms better than the competition.

The details:

• Water use fell 2% from 2024 despite a bigger footprint, hitting 0.12 liters per kilowatt-hour — sevenfold better than the industry average, Amazon claims.

• However, it excludes colocation sites — a fifth of Amazon’s 2024 computing power — and the water burned generating its electricity.

• Amazon says it will be “water positive” by 2030 and claims it’s 75% of the way there; 26 data centers already run on reclaimed water, with projects underway.

• Amazon is the last of the big four to disclose water levels — Google, Meta, and Microsoft have reported the numbers since at least 2020.

Why it matters: The numbers land in the middle of a politically charged fight over data center resource use, with Amazon’s hometown of Seattle now weighing moratoriums on new construction. Researchers say, too, that only granular, site-level data will reveal what these facilities actually cost the communities around them.

LONGEVITY

💊 David Sinclair tests age-reversal pill on people 

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Harvard longevity scientist David Sinclair says his confidential oral drug, SL-100, could reverse aging across the entire body, not a single organ, and he plans to give the test to volunteers in a bid to win XPrize’s $101M age-reversal contest.

The details:

• SL-100 uses chemical reprogramming to mimic the embryonic gene, and, unlike gene therapy, it can travel via the bloodstream to reach the whole body.

• The Saudi-funded XPrize awards its grand prize for a 10-year improvement in immune, cognitive, and muscle function after one year.

• Critics are skeptical: Harvard’s Vadim Gladyshev found chemical rejuvenation toxic in mice, and Sinclair hasn’t published any animal data.

• Sinclair carries a credibility problem, having resigned from a longevity-research post in 2024 over a dog age-reversal claim one scientist called a “lie.”

Why it matters: Whole-body rejuvenation has been the holy grail of longevity science, but no one has proven it works in humans, or even agreed on how to measure it. Skepticism of Sinclair’s mystery drug runs high, even as billions of dollars continue flowing into longevity companies chasing the promise of eternal youth.

SCIENCE

🦠 Researchers find superbug killer in old dirt

Image source: Images 2.0 (E. coli) / The Rundown

The Rundown: Scientists sifting through a 75-year-old soil bacterium’s chemical leftovers just discovered manikomycin, an antibiotic that kills superbugs by blocking a ribosome site no drugs have ever hit, with new research published in Nature.

The details:

• Manikomycin comes from the same soil microbe behind 1950s oxytetracycline, but a sharper fractionation method surfaced molecules overlooked for decades.

• It works by latching onto a spot on the bacterial ribosome called the E-site, blocking the cell’s used tRNA, and shutting down protein production.

• It wiped out drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, E. coli, and Salmonella in the lab — only about one Klebsiella in a hundred million survived to pass it on.

• Manikomycin doesn’t persist long enough in the bloodstream to work in people and misses Gram-positives like staph, so it’s only a lead compound.

Why it matters: By 2050, drug-resistant infections could directly kill 1.91M people a year, and the Gram-negative bugs manikomycin targets are among the hardest to treat. After years of writing off old soil strains as tapped out, drugmakers are finding novel-mechanism candidates — like Roche’s zosurabalpin — hiding in plain sight.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Oracle plans ~$70B in net capital spending in fiscal 2027 — nearly double the $55.7B it just spent — to build AI data centers for customers like OpenAI and Meta.

Reddit just rolled out video comments to all users, letting people record or upload one clip per reply in public, safe-for-work communities.

Xiaomi filed with China’s industry ministry to add an extended-range EV to its lineup, its first move beyond pure battery-electric cars like the SU7 and YU7.

DoorDash launched Ask DoorDash, an in-app AI chatbot that lets users order food and groceries via voice, text, or visual inputs through an “Ask” button in the search bar.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government introduced legislation that would ban social media for Canadians under 16 unless companies meet a set of safety standards.

BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting this week that BYD will become the world’s largest automaker by scale within five years.

Microsoft’s Xbox division is reportedly planning major job cuts next month, as new CEO Asha Sharma overhauls the gaming unit to stem declining revenue.

Pokémon Go players’ 30 billion location scans reportedly helped train a navigation AI now bound for U.S. military drones.

Deezer launched a free AI music detector that lets users of 20 rival streaming platforms scan their playlists for fully AI-generated tracks.

Bluesky rolled out group chats for up to 50 people, the first concrete move in a strategy that focuses on smaller, user-controlled communities.

The90, a startup founded by Fitbit veteran Stacy Salvi, launched The Gem, a $300 smart pendant necklace that tracks real-time UVA and UVB exposure.

COMMUNITY

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• Read our last AI newsletter: Jeff Bezos’ $41B ‘artificial general engineer’

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple’s iOS upgrade is less flash, more fix

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Europe’s humanoid moonshot gets $1.4B

• Today’s AI tool guide: Use this X + Openclaw setup to write viral content

• RSVP to our next workshop on June 18: Build a Marketing Creative Studio 

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Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Apple used its WWDC to recast iOS 27 as a cleanup release: faster apps, quicker photo loads, and a new slider that walks back the Liquid Glass look it spent all of last year defending.

Siri grabbed the stage lights, but a stack of overdue, low-key upgrades slipped in without much fanfare. While foldable iPhone rumors still gather steam, Apple is busy making old iPhones feel new again.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Apple announces iOS 27, dials back Liquid Glass

• Altman’s eyeball-scanning startup cuts staff

• Instagram finally lets you reorder your grid

• Pentagon brands Alibaba, BYD military firms

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

APPLE

🍎 Apple announces iOS 27, dials back Liquid Glass

Image source: David Paul Morris/Getty Images

The Rundown: Apple used its WWDC keynote to recast iOS 27 as a speed-and-cleanup release — extending support back to the iPhone 11 and walking back its divisive Liquid Glass look — even as Siri and Apple Intelligence took the headline slot.

The details:

• iOS 27 continues to support every iPhone from the iPhone 11 and iPhone SE 2nd gen forward, preserving Apple’s unusually long software runway.

• Apple touts performance gains: app launches up to 30% faster, photos loading up to 70% faster after capture, and AirDrop transfers up to 80% faster.

• A new transparency slider lets users dial Liquid Glass up or down — an opt-in retreat after last year’s backlash — alongside sharper, more layered app icons.

• iCloud Shared Albums opens to Android and Windows, AirPods gain custom EQ, Maps gets a richer Flyover, and Health adds perimenopause tracking.

Why it matters: Stretching iOS 27 back to the iPhone 11 keeps a massive base of aging phones on current software — a win for security and app developers, though it may undercut the hope that obsolescence would push upgrades. The Liquid Glass walk-back is the more telling move: Apple rarely concedes a design miss this quickly.

TOOLS FOR HUMANITY

👁️ Altman’s eyeball-scanning startup cuts staff

Image source: Tools for Humanity

The Rundown: OpenAI has kicked off what could be the decade’s blockbuster IPO just as CEO Sam Altman’s other bet, iris‑scanning startup Tools for Humanity, is reportedly cutting staff amid revenue struggles and regulatory blowback.

The details:

• OpenAI confidentially filed its S-1 with the SEC, setting up a public debut that analysts expect to rank among the largest in history.

• Tools for Humanity — the company behind Worldcoin’s eyeball-scanning Orb — is cutting staff after failing to turn its biometrics pitch into real revenue.

• The startup is valued at $2.5B with backing from a16z, Bain Capital, and Khosla Ventures, but is downsizing anyway, Business Insider reports.

• Worldcoin’s push to pay people about $50 in crypto for their biometric data has triggered bans, fines, and privacy probes in countries like South Korea.

Why it matters: OpenAI may be barreling toward a blockbuster IPO, but not everything in Altman’s orbit is moving that fast. His iris-scanning crypto venture is a harder sell than AI — especially once regulators show up — and a $2.5B valuation only goes so far when the product asks people to hand over their biometrics for tokens.

INSTAGRAM

📸 Instagram finally lets you reorder your grid

Image source: Instagram / Images 2.0

The Rundown: Instagram is finally giving users full control over their profile grid, letting you drag‑and‑drop old posts into a new, non‑chronological layout so your feed can look thoughtfully curated instead of random.

The details:

• Users can now long-press any post, tap “Reorder grid,” and drag posts into any order regardless of when they were published.

• It’s mobile-only (iOS and Android apps); pinned posts stay locked to the top and go grayed out in the reorder screen.

• Instagram head Adam Mosseri teased the feature last year, partly as damage control after Instagram swapped square thumbnails for taller crops.

• Reverse-engineer Alessandro Paluzzi found “edit grid” code back in 2022, Instagram shelved it, and he flagged renewed work in early 2025.

Why it matters: Reordering turns the grid into a curated storefront for Instagram’s 2B-plus users, letting creators and brands control what visitors see first. It pushes the profile away from a chronological diary toward a deliberate, customizable self-portrait — and turns layout into one more thing creators are expected to optimize.

TECH POLITICS

🛑 Pentagon brands Alibaba, BYD military firms

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: The Pentagon just reclassified the “Chinese military company” label on Alibaba, Baidu, and BYD, dragging three of Beijing’s most familiar consumer brands into the heart of the U.S.–China security standoff.

The details:

• The expanded roster now runs to nearly 200 Chinese firms, with AI heavyweights Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent now alongside EV giant BYD.

• The tag stops short of sanctions for now, but blocks access to U.S. defense contracts and research dollars.

• It also revives names that flickered on and off a February draft, among them memory-chip makers YMTC and CXMT.

• Beijing calls it discriminatory, the companies deny any military role, and even U.S. critics warn that it brands nearly every big Chinese tech player a threat.

Why it matters: The Pentagon’s move drags China’s biggest consumer tech brands into the center of the U.S.–China security fight, raising risks for supply chains, investment, and growth plans. It also broadens “military‑civil fusion” so far that almost any major Chinese tech firm could be treated as a de facto defense company.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

SpaceX unveiled its first AI data center satellite, a prototype dubbed “AI1” that Musk describes as a draft of the company’s planned space-based computing network.

Meta removed the hidden “NameTag” facial recognition code from its Meta AI smart glasses app after Wired exposed that the unreleased system had already shipped.

Apple is expanding parental controls with automatic image filtering that blurs inappropriate photos and FaceTime content for child accounts.

NASA’s upcoming Artemis IV astronauts will wear a new Prada-designed garment under their spacesuits, using circulating chilled water and oxygen tubing for cooling.

French authorities fined Nintendo around $40M for misleading consumers about long-running stick-drift issues in the Switch’s Joy-Con controllers.

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas told CNBC the company is on track for a 2028 IPO, regardless of how rivals Anthropic and OpenAI fare in their own imminent listings.

Google agreed to pay SpaceX $920M per month for access to roughly 110K Nvidia GPU-powered compute units hosted in SpaceX data centers.

Michigan lawmakers proposed federal legislation that would bar Chinese-branded vehicles from driving on U.S. roads due to national security concerns.

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has flown faster than the speed of sound for the first time.

Researchers developed a laser‑etched solar surface that turns seawater into drinking water while recovering its salts as reusable solids instead of brine waste.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Apple’s new Siri AI overhaul is here (sort of)

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Google turns search into creator hubs

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Amazon’s robot army gets chatty

• Today’s AI tool guide: Cut recurring meeting times with Claude + Granola

• RSVP to our next workshop on June 18: Build a Marketing Creative Studio

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Google is handing creators and publishers a claimable Search profile that turns the top result for their name into a self-curated hub of their work and links.

The move answers Google’s AI Overviews, which have been eating into the traffic creators used to get from search. The catch is you need 100K followers to qualify — and Google’s sign-off on your changes.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Google built a Linktree for creators

• Block’s $25 wand pays by wave

• 23andMe returns with genome moonshot

• Researchers solve space laundry problem

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE

🔗 Google built a Linktree for creators

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google is rolling out claimable Search profiles for high-follower creators and publishers in the U.S., turning the top result for their name into a self-curated hub of their content and links.

The details:

• Eligibility requires a public account with at least 100K followers on Instagram, YouTube, or X — or 300K on TikTok-only — and an owner who’s 18 or older.

• Each profile aggregates videos, articles, and posts into one feed, paired with a bio, avatar, website, cross-platform links, and the option to pin individual posts.

• A Follow button wires the profile into Google Discover, nudging the creator’s content toward followers’ personalized feeds.

• Google pitches it as a creator-run heir to the knowledge panel, though any edit to a name, bio, or link sits in “Pending” until Google signs off.

Why it matters: The rollout lands as AI Overviews siphon clicks off the open web, with Seer Interactive logging a 61% drop in organic click-through when an Overview surfaced on a query between June 2024 and September 2025. A Google-hosted Linktree keeps that discovery — and the audience — parked inside Google’s own walls.

BLOCK

🪄 Block’s $25 wand pays by wave

Image source: Block / X

The Rundown: Jack Dorsey’s Block just launched a sparkly, wand-shaped Cash App device with an embedded chip that lets customers make contactless in‑store payments, much like tapping a card or phone.

The details:

• The $25 NFC “Wand” — a pearlescent, star-shaped keychain charm — pays by tapping it against a checkout terminal.

• It’s the first of “Cash App Tags,” a hardware line that Block says it will stretch into clothing, jewelry, and other form factors.

• Users get instant spend alerts and can lock, unlock, or deactivate a lost tag from the app.

• Cash App says on X that the “first drop of The Wand = SOLD OUT,” with more NFC tags “coming soon.”

Why it matters: Apple Pay and Google Wallet won the contactless market, but Block is betting the opposite — that Gen Z wants a flashy object to wave around — and only dropping a small number to build appeal. Whether a $25 charm becomes a must-have or a novelty depends on whether the follow-up Tags do anything a phone tap can’t.

23ANDME

🧬 23andMe returns with genome moonshot 

Image source: TechCrunch / Wikimedia Commons

The Rundown: 23andMe is back from bankruptcy as a nonprofit, with founder Anne Wojcicki having repurchased the company and its 13M-person DNA database, and a stated ambition to reach 100M users to fuel AI-driven health research.

The details:

• Wojcicki bought back the company’s assets, including its massive DNA database, for about $305M in a court-approved auction.

• The institute holds DNA from 13M people and wants to push that to 100M, the scale Wojcicki argues an “AI world” demands for meaningful medical discovery.

• Some 2M customers deleted their data amid the bankruptcy fallout, forcing new limits on how the company can use sensitive genetic information.

• A partnership with HealthEx will let members fold their electronic medical records in alongside DNA, labs, and lifestyle data — for now, only in beta.

Why it matters: The relaunch of 23andMe, paired with its HealthEx deal to plug genetic data directly into medical records, could create one of the richest datasets for AI-driven drug discovery and personalized care. But bringing that much data into a single ecosystem also raises the stakes on privacy, consent, and governance.

SPACE TECH

🧺 Researchers solve space laundry problem

Image source: Gabe Xu et al.

The Rundown: Researchers have shown that a jet of cold plasma can disinfect fabric on spaceships without water-intensive washing — a possible fix for one of the grubbier problems of long-duration space missions.

The details:

• The handheld device fires a room-temperature plasma plume that floods fibers with reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, rupturing bacterial cells on contact.

• On cotton seeded with skin microbes, treatment dropped colony counts from roughly 250K to about 60K per mL, outperforming the ISS’s current process.

• The University of Alabama in Huntsville team imagines a plasma washer plus combined jet-and-vacuum tools for clothes, suits, and cabin surfaces.

• It kills microbes but won’t lift stains, plus it still needs wider microbial testing and fabric-durability work before any mission counts on it.

Why it matters: Water and cargo mass are scarce on the way to the Moon and Mars, and astronauts currently just wear the same few pieces of clothing on repeat. A plasma “wash” could stretch garment life and cut resupply, making a permanent off-world presence a little more livable.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Data center developer Switch is in talks to raise billions of dollars in new funding at a valuation of at least $50B, The Information reports. 

Google has reportedly been laying off staff across its Cloud division, including key cybersecurity teams such as the Threat Intelligence Group and parts of Mandiant.

Netflix is rolling out generative AI and voice-based tools to help viewers cut through content overload with more tailored recommendations.

Waymo will send its retired robotaxi batteries to B2U to reuse them as grid storage for renewable-heavy power in California and Texas.

AI research startup Lila Sciences is reportedly in talks to raise about $2B in a Series B round that would value the company at $8.5B pre-money.

Apple will start requiring App Store users in Texas to verify their age to comply with the state’s new app store law.

Amazon is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit in Seattle alleging that Ring’s facial-recognition feature unlawfully captures images of people passing by doorbell cameras.

Revolut began a limited beta rollout of its India app, onboarding thousands of users from a 450K-strong waitlist for UPI-enabled wallets and cards.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Anthropic confronts the RSI clock

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Microsoft’s first AI-native laptop

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Sam Altman’s stealth robotics bet

• Today’s AI tool guide: Stress test business ideas with Perplexity

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Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, {{ first_name | tech enthusiasts }}. Microsoft just dropped its most powerful Surface ever — and it could actually give the MacBook Pro some real competition.

The new Surface Laptop Ultra pairs Nvidia’s freshly announced RTX Spark superchip with up to 128GB of unified memory and a petaflop of AI compute. Microsoft’s just first in line, with a whole wave of Nvidia-powered Windows laptops landing this fall.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Microsoft’s first truly AI-native laptop

• BYD will cover costs if its self-driving crashes

• Apple delays AI glasses to late 2027

• New pill moves the needle on pancreatic cancer

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

MICROSOFT

💻 Microsoft debuts its first truly AI-native laptop

Image source: Microsoft

The Rundown: Microsoft just unveiled the Surface Laptop Ultra at Computex — the first laptop built on Nvidia’s new RTX Spark platform, shipping this fall with pricing still TBD, and gunning straight at the MacBook Pro.

The details:

• The Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra is an RTX Spark machine offering up to 128GB of unified memory, “aimed at creators, developers, and AI builders.”

• Spark “superchip” packs 20 ARM CPU cores, a Blackwell GPU with 6,144 CUDA cores, and up to a petaflop of AI compute.

• The unified memory pool is dynamically allocated between CPU and GPU, enabling AI creation, 3D rendering, and multi-model workflows.

• The 15-inch chassis features a mini-LED PixelSense Ultra touchscreen, hitting up to 2K nits of peak HDR brightness — Surface’s brightest display so far.

Why it matters: No price has been confirmed, but analysts expect it to land in MacBook Pro 16 territory — around $3K at entry, potentially hitting $7K fully loaded. With Asus, Acer, Dell, and others already lining up RTX Spark devices, the race for the Windows on ARM premium segment is just getting started.

TOGETHER WITH GITLAB

🚀 GitLab’s AI dev event is here

The Rundown: GitLab Transcend streams live from London June 10-11 with an agenda built for developers — packed with live demos of Duo Agent Platform, agentic AI use cases from your peers, and The Developer Show hosted live by Colleen Lake.

With GitLab Transcend, you’ll get:

• Live demos of Duo Agent Platform

• Agentic AI use cases from your peers

• The Developer Show with Colleen Lake

• An agenda built for developers

Register today.

BYD

🚙 BYD will cover costs if its self-driving crashes

Image source: BYD

The Rundown: Chinese EV powerhouse BYD said it will pay for crash damage when drivers in China are using its God’s Eye 5.0 driver-assistance system, positioning itself as the first automaker to take financial responsibility for an autonomous-driving feature.

The details:

• BYD will cover repairs, third-party property damage, and injuries if Urban Navigate on Autopilot is used legally and still triggers an at-fault crash.

• The company backs the pledge with a fleet of more than 3.15M ADAS-equipped vehicles, over 124M miles of God’s Eye driving data logged daily.

• When BYD rolled out a similar guarantee for its smart parking feature last year, usage jumped from 21% to 93%.

• Tesla, meanwhile, has repeatedly contested liability for Autopilot crashes, as Chinese EV makers gain ground on range, charging speed, and features.

Why it matters: BYD taking on crash liability marks a pivotal shift from marketing autonomy to seriously underwriting it, that too at an impressive scale of 3.15M vehicles. If the move pays off, it could reset consumer expectations and pressure rivals like Tesla, which still puts the onus of crash liability on the driver.

APPLE

👓 Apple delays AI glasses to late 2027

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Apple has pushed its AI-powered smart glasses back by about a year, with the iPhone-tethered “N50” eyewear now targeting a late-2027 debut, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports.

The details:

• Apple shifted the roadmap from a late-2026 reveal and early-2027 ship date after development delays caught up with the project.

• The Ray-Ban Meta-style frames are designed as lightweight, screenless AI companions — cameras, mics, and an on-device assistant with no display.

• The delay buys Apple time to get the multimodal AI right, the difference between a wearable that feels inevitable and one that is experimental.

• In the meantime, Meta, Google, and several wearable AI upstarts get more time to entrench themselves before the Cupertino giant arrives with its own version.

Why it matters: Siri looks on track to debut at the end of this year, but Apple is conceding that the visual AI may not be ready to make the glasses feel truly magical. The year-long wait, though, could hand Meta and every other face-worn AI upstart a wide-open runway to own the category before the company even shows up.

BIOTECH

💊 New pill moves the needle on pancreatic cancer

Image source: Anne Weston, The Francis Crick Institute (micrograph of pancreatic cancer cells)

The Rundown: A once-daily oral pill called daraxonrasib just became the first drug to nearly double survival in previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer, offering a rare glimmer of progress against one of the deadliest malignancies.

The details:

• In the phase 3 trial of 500 patients, daraxonrasib extended median overall survival to 13.2 months compared with 6.7 months on chemotherapy.

• The once-daily RAS(ON) inhibitor cut the risk of death by 60% and nearly doubled progression-free survival to 7.2 months vs. about 3.6 months on chemo.

• Patients on daraxonrasib tolerated side effects better than those on chemo, and about a third saw their tumors shrink by 30% or more on imaging.

• Already on an FDA fast track with expanded access open, the drug targets KRAS‑driven tumors that underlie most pancreatic cancers.

Why it matters: Pancreatic cancer has resisted targeted therapies for decades. A 60% reduction in the risk of death is a number oncologists have never seen in any phase 3 trial in this indication. The same KRAS mutation drives other major cancers, meaning daraxonrasib just validated an entirely new therapeutic path.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Malaysia started enforcing its Online Safety Act, barring under-16s from social media and forcing platforms to implement mandatory ID checks or face fines up to $2.5M.

Google is opening its first international flagship Google Store in Tokyo this summer, marking its first directly managed retail location outside the U.S.

NASA chief Jared Isaacman told CNBC that repairing Blue Origin’s damaged New Glenn launch pad will take “serious time,” with a 2028 recovery plausible.

Meta is developing an AI-powered pendant, based on tech from its 2025 acquisition of wearable startup Limitless, The Information reports.

Apple is reportedly building a new Apple Cash tool that lets iPhone users snap a photo of a receipt to split the bill with friends via Wallet and Messages.

Ultrahuman’s new Photon is a $249 handheld red-light therapy device that syncs with its smart rings to turn your data into personalized recovery or skin treatments.

GLP‑1 weight‑loss drugs were linked to markedly slower progression to stage 4 disease in several major obesity‑related cancers in a large Cleveland Clinic study.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Nvidia corners the AI agent stack

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Meta launches paid tiers across its apps

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Nvidia’s plug-and-play humanoid

• Today’s AI tool guide: Turn Claude sessions into better skills w/ daily audits

• RSVP to our next workshop on June 18: Build a Marketing Creative Studio

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team