Meta's Master Plan: Your Wallet, Your Screen, Your World

Manslaughter, Full Throttle, No Brakes: Tesla FSD Faces Its Day of Reckoning

A woman dead inside her home, a driver charged, and a damning black box. Plus: AI hype, supersonic skies, and Meta's mysterious new app. • Tesla driver faces manslaughter charges over Texas crash that killed a woman inside her home A Texas man has been charged with manslaughter after his Tesla, allegedly running Full Self-Driving, accelerated to 73 mph and crashed into a home, killing 76-year-old Martha Avila. Phone data showed the driver had been Googling complaints that Tesla's FSD was 'too timid' weeks before the crash. • Meta has a new app called Pocket that is absolutely nothing like the old Pocket Meta has launched a new app called Pocket — no relation to Mozilla's defunct read-it-later service — that lets users create and share AI-generated interactive 'gizmos' in a social feed format. • The best July 4th sales we found so far With Amazon Prime Day just wrapped up, retailers like Best Buy and REI are keeping the deal momentum going with July 4th sales offering discounts on tech, gaming gear, and outdoor equipment. • Thiel Capital’s Jack Selby nabs stakes in hot startups like Etched through Arizona connections Phoenix-based VC firm Copper Sky Capital, founded by ex-PayPal exec and Thiel Capital veteran Jack Selby, scored an early stake in $5B AI chip startup Etched by leveraging Arizona's semiconductor ecosystem and TSMC's new local fab. • IQM, Europe’s first public quantum company, admits the future of the tech is uncertain Finnish quantum computing firm IQM became Europe's first public quantum company after listing on Nasdaq via a SPAC merger at a $1.9 billion valuation, but shares struggled on debut after the company itself warned in its prospectus that large-scale commercial quantum computing 'may never occur.' • Jersey Mike’s IPO illustrates how bad the AI hype has become Jersey Mike's IPO filing mentions 'AI' 22 times despite being a sandwich chain, highlighting how absurd the pressure to signal AI relevance has become for companies going public. • Newly discovered PamStealer isn't your typical macOS malware Security firm Jamf has discovered PamStealer, a sophisticated new macOS malware that disguises itself as a clipboard manager app and uses a multi-stage, stealthy approach to steal credentials and sensitive data from Mac users. • FAA proposal: Supersonic airliners can fly over US cities if they’re quiet The FAA has proposed lifting its 53-year ban on overland supersonic commercial flights, replacing it with a noise-based standard requiring sonic boom overpressure below 0.11 pounds per square foot — roughly 17 times quieter than the Concorde. • Michigan football loses out to South Carolina for five-star CB Joshua Dobson Michigan football missed out on five-star cornerback Joshua Dobson, who chose South Carolina over the Wolverines in a high-stakes recruiting battle. • Latest intel on Wednesday's loaded list of football commitments A wave of high-profile football recruiting commitments is expected to dro

The Deal That Died Across the Atlantic

A $3.7B merger cleared the US and got killed by the UK. Plus: AI models treated like weapons, and the internet's founding father calls it a career. • Cleared by the US, derailed by the UK: Getty’s Shutterstock merger falls apart Getty Images is killing its $3.7 billion merger with Shutterstock after UK regulators demanded Shutterstock sell off its entire editorial business as a condition of approval, even though the US DOJ had already granted unconditional clearance. • Meta is adding ridiculous ‘rate limits’ and a soft paywall to its smart glasses Meta is quietly introducing a soft paywall on its Ray-Ban smart glasses, limiting the Conversation Focus audio feature to just 3 hours per month for free users — despite the feature running entirely on-device with no server costs. • Anthropic’s long-sidelined Fable 5 is greenlit to return Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 is coming back online after weeks of being blocked by a Trump administration export control directive tied to jailbreak concerns, following negotiations that resulted in new government oversight commitments. • The ‘Father of the Internet’ is finally retiring Vint Cerf, 83-year-old co-inventor of TCP/IP and Google's chief internet evangelist for the past 20 years, is retiring next week — closing out one of the most consequential careers in tech history. • Trump drops restrictions on Anthropic’s Mythos and Fable models The Trump administration has lifted export restrictions on Anthropic's Mythos and Fable AI models, with Anthropic set to restore public access starting July 1 after weeks of negotiations with the Commerce Department. • Wayve launches $85M employee tender offer at $8.5B valuation UK self-driving startup Wayve is launching an $85 million tender offer letting employees cash out vested equity at the company's $8.5 billion valuation, reflecting a broader AI startup trend of using liquidity events as retention tools. • June research roundup: 6 cool science stories we almost missed Scientists are uncovering the physics behind soccer's most deceptive moves just as the FIFA World Cup heats up, while archaeologists score a historic win by fully reading a 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scroll for the first time. • Reddit will require you to log in to use old.reddit.com Reddit will require users to log in to access old.reddit.com within the next month, citing the need to combat abusive scraping and automated traffic targeting the legacy interface. • Amazon blames piracy apps with malware for killing new Fire Stick sideloading Amazon is defending its decision to drop sideloading from new Fire Sticks by citing malware risks from piracy apps, though critics note the move also conveniently locks down ad controls and user tracking under its new proprietary Vega OS. • Amtrak keeps $1.6B East River Tunnel project on pace for 2027 finish Amtrak is keeping its $1.6 billion East River Tunnel rehabilitation project on schedule for a 2027 completion, a critica

Your Supply Chain Is the Weakest Link

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro secrets hit the dark web after a supplier breach. Plus: Russian hackers cracking Signal with embarrassingly simple tricks. • T-Mobile is booting customers from its oldest plans T-Mobile is forcing customers off legacy plans — including old Sprint, T-Mobile One, and Magenta Max plans — onto current rate packages, with some subscribers facing higher monthly bills. • After a great start, DC’s new cinematic universe is already slowing down DC Studios' second film in its rebooted cinematic universe, Supergirl, is bombing at the box office and getting panned by critics, raising serious questions about James Gunn's long-term plan for the franchise. • Leaked iPhone 18 Pro photos reportedly wound up on the dark web Leaked iPhone 18 Pro photos and component lists surfaced on the dark web after a ransomware attack on Apple supplier Tata Electronics, giving the world an early — and unauthorized — look at Apple's next flagship. • Crypto exchange OKX wants AI agents to hire and pay each other Crypto exchange OKX is launching OKX AI, a marketplace where AI agents can autonomously hire each other, make stablecoin payments, and build on-chain reputations — betting the 'agentic economy' becomes a trillion-dollar market within five years. • The AI jobs debate just got messier A new report from Ramp and Revelio Labs challenges the AI-kills-jobs narrative, finding that companies spending heavily on AI are actually growing headcount faster — including entry-level roles — but the benefits may be limited to already well-resourced, tech-forward firms. • Vibe coding platform Base44 launches own model as AI startups seek defensibility Base44, the vibe coding platform Wix acquired for $80 million last year, is launching its own custom AI model called Base1, trained on tens of millions of user interactions — a bid to reduce costs and build long-term defensibility against both rival startups and frontier AI labs. • US offers $10 million for info on group behind Signal and WhatsApp hacking spree The US State Department is offering $10 million for information on two Russian state-linked hacker groups that have compromised thousands of Signal and WhatsApp accounts belonging to government officials, military personnel, and journalists through sophisticated phishing scams. • South Korea to spend $1T on more memory chip production and humanoid robots South Korea is committing $1 trillion across three megaprojects to double memory chip production, build massive AI data centers, and deploy humanoid robots commercially by 2028 — but labor unions and energy demands are already creating friction. • US renewable boom passes key milestone in April U.S. solar power officially surpassed coal-fired generation in April 2026 for the first time, with official EIA data confirming the milestone a month ahead of preliminary May estimates. • Which former Buckeyes have been acquired by NBA teams this summer? Several former Ohio State Buckeyes baske

China's AI One-Two Punch Makes US Export Controls Look Like a Speed Bump

China matches top US cybersecurity AI and claims the world's fastest supercomputer — without a single American chip. The containment strategy may be backfiring. • China’s Z.ai claims it can match Mythos on cybersecurity China's Zhipu AI has released GLM-5.2, an open-weight model that researchers say matches Anthropic's Mythos in bug-finding and cybersecurity tasks, signaling a major narrowing of the AI capability gap between the US and China. • Suno launches Spark incubator program to feed independent artists to its AI machine AI music platform Suno has launched 'Spark,' an incubator offering grants, mentorship, and marketing support to independent artists — but the fine print includes sweeping licensing rights, a non-disparagement clause, and a class-action waiver that are already drawing backlash. • China claims the world’s fastest supercomputer China has reclaimed the title of world's fastest supercomputer for the first time since 2018, with the LineShine system displacing America's El Capitan on the TOP500 ranking. • California law targeting loud streaming ads takes effect on July 1 California's new law banning streaming ads louder than the content they accompany takes effect July 1, potentially forcing platforms to quietly reshape their ad delivery nationwide. • Ford rehires ‘gray beard’ engineers after AI falls short Ford rehired 350 veteran 'gray beard' engineers after AI-driven quality systems underperformed, and the move is already paying off with lower warranty costs and a top JD Power ranking. • Writer Ian Bogost says ‘The Small Stuff’ can help us reclaim our lives from too much convenience Writer and academic Ian Bogost has a new book called 'The Small Stuff' arguing that convenience technologies — from automatic toilets to electric vehicles — have 'dematerialized' daily life, stripping away meaningful sensory experiences, and that individuals can reclaim them without waiting for big societal fixes. • Why did this journal retract two 1940s papers by Max Planck? Two 1940s papers by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Planck were quietly retracted by journal publisher Springer Nature — apparently by algorithm — due to copyright or duplication concerns, despite no scientific misconduct whatsoever. • Apple and Audi alumni have made a luxe EV based on the moon buggy Amble, a Lisbon-based startup founded by alumni of Apple, Audi, and Cowboy ebikes, has emerged from stealth with the Amble One — a $25,000 moon buggy-inspired electric vehicle targeting luxury hospitality and short-range mobility. • South Korea plans to train entire military as "drone warriors" South Korea announced plans to train all 450,000 active-duty military personnel to operate drones as a 'second personal weapon,' directly inspired by drone warfare lessons from Ukraine and the ongoing threat from North Korea's 1.2 million-strong military. • What the data center boom is exposing about construction safety The explosive growth in data cente

AI Is Dismantling the Gatekeepers

From a garage Alzheimer's drug to orbital data wars, AI is decentralizing everything. Plus: who really benefits when Congress fast-tracks kids' safety laws? • Nest’s quest to fix your thermostat The Verge's Version History podcast drops a new episode tracing the origin story of Nest, examining how Apple/iPod legend Tony Fadell left retirement to reinvent the humble thermostat and bet on the smart home future. • Ad-free streaming is a luxury now Ad-free streaming has effectively become a premium luxury product as major platforms widen the price gap between ad-supported and commercial-free tiers, with nearly half of US subscribers now opting for cheaper, ad-supported plans. • TMD’s keyless bike lock is a $280 solution to a $60 problem TMD, a company that built keyless security systems for bank ATMs, has launched a Bluetooth-enabled bike lock for $280 — but real-world testing reveals some serious convenience trade-offs that make the steep price hard to justify. • Indian payments chief thinks AI will be heavily involved in next era of digital payment growth India's top payments official says AI will power the next wave of UPI growth, targeting over a billion daily transactions by driving user onboarding, fraud detection, and credit access. • Instagram is testing more ways to customize ‘Your Algorithm’ Instagram is expanding its 'Your Algorithm' customization feature with new gestures and controls, including pull-down menus, swipe-up prompts on Reels, and per-Reel preference buttons. • SoftBank’s CEO isn’t the only one with questions about Elon Musk’s orbital data center hype SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is publicly questioning the viability of Elon Musk's orbital data center concept, saying the costs are prohibitive and the timeline is too slow to address AI's urgent compute needs. • Guy in his basement creates a drug to treat Alzheimer's disease using AI A researcher named Douglas Yao claims to have invented a novel Alzheimer's drug called PAC-832 using AI, designing and synthesizing it in a home garage lab — potentially marking a new era of decentralized drug discovery. • Kids act would require age checks to get online Congress is rushing to vote on the KIDS Act, a sweeping internet regulation package that critics say will effectively force age verification for all online users despite disclaimers to the contrary. • More evidence of life on Mars but still no life (2025) NASA's Perseverance rover has found its clearest potential biosignatures yet on Mars — two chemicals typically linked to microbial activity — but scientists still can't rule out non-biological explanations, continuing a long pattern of tantalizing but inconclusive Martian discoveries. • CBS Sports predicts 2026 win-loss record for all 16 SEC programs CBS Sports has released early 2026 win-loss projections for all 16 SEC programs, giving college football fans and analysts a first look at how the conference pecking order might shake out two seasons fr