Archive

Rachel Youn makes humanlike, kinetic floral sculptures out of used household electronics

Cath VirginiaApr 17

Emma RothApr 17

This startup sells dead company data for AI training.

SimpleClosure, a startup that helps struggling companies shut down, launched a new tool for businesses that want to sell off old code, Slack messages, emails, and workspace information to data-hungry AI companies, as reported by Forbes:

The demand for this real-world enterprise data has spurred on a new industry of ‘reinforcement learning gyms,’ which specialize in using defunct company data to build simulated environments where AI agents can practice navigating real workplaces.

The ‘AI is inevitable’ trap

David PierceApr 17

The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

Jess WeatherbedApr 17

A giant cell tower is going to space this weekend

Thomas RickerApr 17

Jay PetersApr 17

Bluesky has been dealing with a DDoS attack for nearly a full day.

As a result, users have been experiencing “intermittent interruptions in service for their feeds, notifications, threads and search,” Bluesky says. The company first got a report of “intermittent app outages” at around 2:40AM ET this morning.

Bluesky says it has not seen “any evidence of unauthorized access to private user data” due to the attack. It will share another update no later than 1PM ET on Friday.

Bluesky Service Interruption

[Bluesky]

Jay PetersApr 17

This is the Way.

Disney released the “final trailer” for The Mandalorian and Grogu ahead of its May 22nd debut in theaters. It looks fun! And Grogu is still so dang cute.

Richard LawlerApr 16

A new Android 17 beta reveals plans for “Pixel Glow” light animations.

Google just released the fourth beta for Android 17 today, and now, 9to5Google and Android Authority point out that it contains mentions of a new lighting feature that we might see on the next round of Pixel phones.

The Pixel Glow details say it “uses subtle light and color on the back of your device to inform you of important activity when it’s face down,” when interacting with Gemini, or when favorite contacts are calling.

Pixel Glow 'visual feedback' tool might just hint at big Pixel 11 hardware changes

[Android Authority]

Richard LawlerApr 16

Now the White House is reportedly preparing for access to Mythos.

Despite Anthropic’s ongoing battle with the Pentagon, Bloomberg reports that the White House Office of Management and Budget’s CIO told government officials that it is preparing for their agencies to use Anthropic’s cybersecurity-focused AI model.

White House Works to Give US Agencies Anthropic Mythos AI

[Bloomberg]

YouTube’s mobile app finally lets you share timestamped videos

Jay PetersApr 16

Stevie BonifieldApr 16

Threads is finally getting direct messages on the desktop.

A new “Messages” tab appears in this preview of its redesigned web layout that head of Threads, Connor Hayes, posted on Thursday, as Engadget reports.

Threads got DMs in 2025, but only on Android and iOS. Hayes noted that users will start to see Messages on the web version “over the coming weeks.”