This phone is made in the USA
“Kim, I love my iPhone 16 but hate it’s made in China and apps track everything you do including your bowel movements. Is there a phone made in the USA that doesn’t track you?” — Paul in Tampa, Florida
Well, Paul, there’s exactly one, the $1,999 Liberty Phone from Purism. If the name makes you want to stand up and salute, you might sit right back down when I tell you the rest.
More YouTube ads incoming: I’m talking about 30-second unskippable ads on TVs. These used to be part of special deals, but now more advertisers can run them in regular campaigns. And yep, the six- and 15-second ones are still around, too. The fix? Fork over $13.99 a month for Premium.
Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition
It’s finally here for $399, a year after it was announced. For $100 more, you get a back-and-green theme, a pre-paired Xbox controller, the Xbox Cloud Gaming app pre-installed, an Elite Strap and three months of Game Pass Ultimate. Specs match the regular $299 3S, so think of it as a collector’s item.
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$4.20 flat fee
What it costs to ride Tesla’s new robotaxi in Austin, Texas. Right now, about 10 self-driving Model Ys are on the road, with a Tesla employee riding shotgun just in case. Elon says 1,000 more are coming in the next few months, with San Francisco and LA up next (paywall link). Good luck, traffic.
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Nearly 1,000
That’s how many ships a day are getting their GPS signals jammed near Iran’s coast (paywall link). It’s making navigation harder and riskier. It’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow but essential route that handles about 20% of the world’s oil.
🔥 Banned phone alert: In 2025, the Samsung Galaxy Note7 is still banned from all U.S. flights. Yes, the one from 2016 that tried to reinvent “fire emoji” as a hardware feature. Apparently, a lot of people are getting a deal on the Note7 and using it. The TSA just went viral on TikTok for reminding people it’s still too explode-y to board a plane.
The $100M cold email: Mark Zuckerberg is personally sliding into researchers’ DMs (like key OpenAI personnel) with $100 million job offers (paywall link). He’s hosting dinners, reading white papers and, yes, planning people’s desk locations himself. It’s like a Black Mirror reboot of Undercover Boss, except the boss is a billionaire trying to build Skynet.
Two notes
That’s all it took to write the world’s most terrifying tuba solo. Jaws turns 50 this month, and all composer John Williams needed was just E and F played faster and louder. This helped create a shark so scary, we thought twice about going in a swimming pool.