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Google’s shiny new AI assistant takes over your Chrome browser to do stuff like book flights, fill out forms and do your shopping. Sounds a little scary knowing how much Gemini has screwed up, but it’ll be handy if it works. It can’t fill out credit card or billing info, fyi. Watch it in action here.
#BigChange for Instagram: As of today, you can no longer follow a hashtag (e.g., #healthycooking). Instagram pulled the plug, saying its hashtags are a mess of spam, bots and irrelevant posts. Try the “Explore” tab instead.
🏴☠️ Yarr, the booty: Bitcoin millionaire Jon Collins-Black set up a real-life treasure hunt to promote his new book, “There’s Treasure Inside.” He buried five treasure chests worth over $2 million across the country. They’re filled with actual treasure, too — items owned by Pablo Picasso and George Washington, shipwreck bounty, gold, and rare Pokémon cards. Such a great marketing idea!
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Estimated worth of meth seized by the Indian Coast Guard. The 13,227-pound stash was found on a “fishing” boat traveling from Myanmar equipped with one of SpaceX’s Starlink systems for navigation. Police are demanding to know who bought it.
💿 Let it go: LG is done making Blu-ray players, joining the likes of Samsung and Sony. Some Blu-ray player models are still available until they sell out. If you want a soon-to-be artifact, get moving.
Not a joke: Two teenage boys in Pennsylvania thought it’d be fun to grab nearly 350 videos and photos of their female classmates from social media, use AI to make the girls appear naked, and then spread the pics around. They’re now facing 59 child porn charges. This is just getting worse.
The state of our country: Scumbags are selling merch glorifying the UnitedHealthcare CEO killer. Amazon had the decency to pull “Deny Defend Depose” shirts, but they’re still on eBay, apparently because they don’t break any rules. Really? Trolls review-bombed the McDonald’s where the guy was caught, too, calling workers rats and snitches. What is wrong with people?
🍩 Krispy Kreme’s security hole: The doughnut giant’s fessing up about a Nov. 29 security breach that took down its online ordering system in parts of the U.S. Along with your credit card details, it’s a safe bet your deep, dark secrets (like how many times you bought a doughnut on the way to work) were leaked, too. Sing it with me: “Doughnut go breaking my heart. I couldn’t if I fried.” Yeah, that was bad.
It’s going to be hard to tell what’s real anymore: TV maker TCL just debuted five fully AI-generated movies at the former Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood … which TCL owns the naming rights to. There’s a rom-com, a sci-fi flick, a documentary, a superhero movie and a film about a woman who turns into a slug (no idea), all streaming free on TCL TVs. I’m surprised the big media outlets aren’t talking about this. It’s a huge blow for any actor (or wannabe).
Of YouTube watched every single day. That beats out all other streaming services. It’s the only streaming platform to top 10% of the viewing market share in 2024. In second place? Netflix, with 7.7%.
Eclipse on demand: I thought this was interesting. The European Space Agency launched a high-tech mission to create artificial solar eclipses. Using two satellites flying in perfect formation, scientists can peek at the sun’s outer layer, normally studied only once every 18 months. Bummer … We can’t watch the show from Earth.
