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80,000
That’s how many Bitcoins just moved after 14 years. That same stash is worth over $8 billion today, shifting wallets without a single test transaction. If you’re wondering about the ROI, it’s 13,800,000%.
🔥 Fire stick buffering? Your device doesn’t actually turn off, it just goes to sleep. A quick restart might help performance issues. Go to Settings > My Fire TV (or Device & Software) and hit Restart. Or hold the Select and Play/Pause buttons on your remote for a few seconds to reboot it.
ChatGPT, take the wheel: In a simulated space mission, researchers handed ChatGPT the controls of a spacecraft, and it didn’t crash into a moon. In fact, it placed second (behind math), beating several AI systems trained like actual astronauts. Translation: A chatbot that forgets what you just said five seconds ago can still land a spaceship. Allegedly.
⏰ Clock is TikTokin’: Look for a new app just for U.S. folks ahead of a forced sell-off of the communist Chinese phenomena to American investors. It drops Sept. 5, and yeah, you’ll need to download it. Trump says the deal is “pretty much” done.
250 million
That’s how many views over 9,000 pirated movies and shows pulled on YouTube, before anyone noticed. From Netflix exclusives to box office hits, pirates uploaded it all (paywall link). YouTube’s algorithm even gave them a boost.
Scam emails
Scam emails? So 2022. Phishers now are spinning up entire scam sites faster than you can microwave leftovers. Okta, a login security company, caught bad actors using v0 (a site-building AI tool by Vercel) to launch convincing login clones, including one of Okta’s own.
🛩️ Amelia Earhart mystery: Another team is trying to find out what ever happened to the famous pilot who disappeared 88 years ago. They’re heading to Nikumaroro, a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. Why now? A satellite image revealed something odd, called the “Taraia Object,” that could be part of her missing plane. Stay tuned.
⏩ 2x speed frying memory: A new study says bingeing podcasts and videos at warp speed might make you dumber or at least worsen memory retention. Turns out 2x pushes the brain past its “working memory” limit, especially for older adults. Teens? Basically brain athletes for TikTok TED Talks. The rest of us? Toast.
Have mandatory cybersecurity classes at work? New research from Purdue found anti-phishing training may make workers worse at spotting scams. Turns out, binge-watching security videos doesn’t build instincts, it builds false confidence. One group even clicked more after “interactive” training. That’s right: Your IT team’s monthly guilt-trap quiz might be actively hurting.
🕵️ Data breach exposes stalkerware: Catwatchful was pitched as a “parental control” app. In reality, it lets people secretly spy on phones, texts, calls and GPS. Then it leaked everything: 26,000 victims’ data, stalkers’ logins and more. Google’s investigating, but it’s still up. Congrats to the stalkers, now you’re the ones being watched.
$1.5 billion
That’s how much Figma could raise in its IPO, if Wall Street swipes right. That would match CoreWeave for biggest tech IPO of the year. Still a bit of a haircut, given that Adobe tried to buy it for $20 billion in 2022. Now it’s flaunting 91% margins like it’s back on the dating scene with a six-pack.
2 days
How long it took AI to figure out why some superbugs are immune to antibiotics. The shocker? A team of microbiologists spent 10 years getting to the same answer. The bot even came up with four new ideas they hadn’t considered. And get this: It couldn’t have copied them … their research wasn’t published.
🤖 You’ve got a friend in me: AI leaders like Musk, Zuckerberg and Microsoft are pushing bots as personalized friends (paywall link) to combat loneliness, but more importantly, for user engagement and data tracking. AI companions are constantly being tweaked with just enough bias to keep you loyal, as seen with Musk’s Grok being “retrained” after backlash for leaning too liberal.
Stop trolls on Instagram: You can filter out nasty comments. Go to Profile > Settings and activity > Hidden Words (under How others can interact with you). Tap Manage custom words and phrases to build a block list, then toggle on Hide comments. Anything with those words stays hidden from your followers.
🧠 New brain tech: This is amazing. Researchers developed an implant that helps people who can’t speak communicate again. Casey Harrell, for example, has ALS and now has his brain signals turned into text and read aloud by a computer in his old voice. The best part? It’s 97% accurate, making it the most advanced system yet.
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TSA gets it right: Gold Star families now have free PreCheck, plus a discount for military spouses, and TSA is adding expedited lanes in 10 cities. It’s part of their July 4th rollout that finally makes airport lines suck a little less to thank families for their service to our country.
🧲 Battery boy: A mom demanded an X-ray for her screaming toddler. Good move, because he’d swallowed a button battery, which was frying his throat from the inside. He was originally misdiagnosed with a stomach virus. He’s recovering after several procedures, and Mom basically saved his life by refusing to be gaslit by triage.
Free TV isn’t free: Amazon is torching the Freevee app. It’s dead by August 2025. All that “Watch Free with Ads” content is getting absorbed into Prime Video. Jeff needs the money.