DOGE Didn’t Cut Government Waste. It Was Government Waste.

Summary:
Look, I get it. Government waste is real. Bureaucratic bloat is real. The desire to have a federal government that spends taxpayer money wisely and operates without unnecessary friction? That’s a pretty standard and quite reasonable desire in American politics. So when Elon Musk showed up promising he could cut $2 trillion in federal spending […]

Google expands Personal Intelligence, which lets Gemini tailor its responses by connecting to Gmail and other Google services, from paid users to all US users (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)

Summary:

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google expands Personal Intelligence, which lets Gemini tailor its responses by connecting to Gmail and other Google services, from paid users to all US users  —  Google announced on Tuesday that it's expanding Personal Intelligence, its feature that allows its AI assistant to tailor …

After three months, Samsung is ending sales of the $2,899 Galaxy Z TriFold

Summary:
Samsung didn't offer an explanation for its decision, but it's not exactly a surprise.

Intel unveils the Core Ultra 200HX Plus CPUs for high-end gaming laptops, offering an Intel Binary Optimization Tool to improve native performance in some games (Antonio G. Di Benedetto/The Verge)

Summary:

Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
Intel unveils the Core Ultra 200HX Plus CPUs for high-end gaming laptops, offering an Intel Binary Optimization Tool to improve native performance in some games  —  The new flagship Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus is accompanied by a Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus.

What is KubeVirt and why it’s growing

Summary:

KubeVirt is an open-source project that brings virtual machines into the Kubernetes control plane, letting teams run VMs and containers

The post What is KubeVirt and why it’s growing appeared first on The New Stack.

Tel Aviv- and Seattle-based Native, which helps companies monitor security across cloud providers, emerges from stealth with an $11M seed and a $31M Series A (Chris Metinko/Axios)

Summary:

Chris Metinko / Axios:
Tel Aviv- and Seattle-based Native, which helps companies monitor security across cloud providers, emerges from stealth with an $11M seed and a $31M Series A  —  What to read next

Harness Extends AI Security Reach Across Entire DevOps Workflow

Summary:

Aqara Launches Matter-Certified G350 Indoor Camera

Summary:
Smart home accessory company Aqara today announced its new HomeKit and Matter-compatible Camera Hub G350.


Billed as the first Matter-certified camera for multi-platform homes, the G350 is a 4K indoor camera with a dual-lens system, combining a 4K wide-angle lens and a 2.5K telephoto lens that enables up to a 9x hybrid zoom.

It features a motorized pan-tilt mechanism and can rotate 360 degrees, allowing its automatic tracking to follow people and pets, wherever they roam. It additionally includes 940mm invisible infrared LEDs for clear night vision with no conspicuous red glow.

The G350 can also detect faces, pets, and six specific sounds like a baby crying, someone coughing, or a dog barking, while two-way audio and a live vie [...]

Here's Where Apple is Hosting More 50th Anniversary Events Following New York

Summary:
After hosting a surprise Alicia Keys concert at its Grand Central store in New York last week, Apple is turning to Asia for more 50th-anniversary celebrations. So far, it has been discovered that there will be events held in China and South Korea.


Apple's retail store at Taikoo Li in Chengdu, China is temporarily closed this Wednesday, March 18, according to the store's page. While nothing has been officially announced by Apple, photos shared on social media suggest that the company is preparing to host a music or dance performance on the plaza in front of the store.

On the same day, Apple is hosting a [...]

Memo: Satya Nadella says ex-Snap executive Jacob Andreou will lead Copilot for commercial and consumer clients; Mustafa Suleyman will focus on new AI models (Jordan Novet/CNBC)

Summary:

Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Memo: Satya Nadella says ex-Snap executive Jacob Andreou will lead Copilot for commercial and consumer clients; Mustafa Suleyman will focus on new AI models  —  Microsoft said Tuesday that it's bringing together the engineering groups for its commercial and consumer Copilot assistants, which have yet to gain broad adoption.

World launches AgentKit, a software development tool that enables sites to verify that a real human is behind the purchasing decisions of AI shopping agents (Lucas Ropek/TechCrunch)

Summary:

Lucas Ropek / TechCrunch:
World launches AgentKit, a software development tool that enables sites to verify that a real human is behind the purchasing decisions of AI shopping agents  —  World, co-founded by Sam Altman, is dedicated to creating what it calls “proof of human” tech—ID verification tools …

Switch 2's new "Handheld Mode Boost" can run original Switch games at 1080p

Summary:
Switch games running at 720p can look worse on the Switch 2's 1080p display.

Iran fires ‘dancing’ ballistic missile with solid fuel and 1,240-mile range

Summary:
Iran has confirmed the use of its Sejjil medium-range ballistic missile as part of the...

Crypto trading firm GSR says it is acquiring Autonomous and Architech for $57M, expanding into token advisory and capital markets services (Krisztian Sandor/CoinDesk)

Summary:

Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk:
Crypto trading firm GSR says it is acquiring Autonomous and Architech for $57M, expanding into token advisory and capital markets services  —  The firm, best known for being one of the oldest crypto market makers, acquired Autonomous and Architech to combine token launch services, trading and trea

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review: Private and performant

Summary:
If you want to spend $1,300 on a phone, it might as well be this one.

iPad Deals on Amazon Include $50 Off 11th Gen iPad and $100 Off iPad Mini 7

Summary:
Amazon this week is taking $50 off Wi-Fi models of Apple's 11th generation iPad, as well as $100 off the iPad mini 7. Prices start at $299.00 for the 128GB Wi-Fi iPad, down from $349.00, which is a solid second-best price on this model.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

iPad

The AI blind spot debt: the hidden cost killing your innovation strategy

Summary:

In today’s AI rush, I’ve seen even the most disciplined organizations find it nearly impossible to enforce the hard-won lessons

The post The AI blind spot debt: the hidden cost killing your innovation strategy appeared first on The New Stack.

Sauce Labs Makes AI Agent for Creating and Running Tests Available

Summary:

Beats Teams Up With Nike for Special-Edition Powerbeats Pro 2

Summary:
Apple's Beats brand is launching its first hardware collaboration with Nike today, debuting a new special-edition Nike-branded version of the Powerbeats Pro 2. Featuring Nike's "Volt" color palette with a matte black and Volt-speckled charging case with Nike's "Just Do It" slogan printed inside the lid, the buds themselves sport the Nike Swoosh logo on the right ear bud and the Beats "b" logo on the left ear bud.


Aside from the Nike-focused design, these are the same ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ 2 that were introduced last year, with the signature Powerbeats wraparound earhooks for stability, Active Noise Cancelling with Transparency mode, built-in heart rate monitoring, and up to 45 hours of battery life when tapping into the cha [...]

Apple Helping to Expand Music Education to More Students and Schools

Summary:
Apple is expanding its partnership with the Save The Music Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting music education in U.S. public schools. The organization donates musical instruments and technology to schools and much more.


"We're thrilled to be expanding our partnership with Save the Music, bringing music education to even more schools across the country," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Apple's expanded partnership will help to bring music programming to nearly 50 more schools.

Cook visited the Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts in New York City to listen to music created by students there. In a short video, the students can be seen using [...]

Unique ion pump made by scientists can revolutionize desalination, energy projects

Summary:
A new device has no gears and requires no fuel. It doesn’t even use a...

Sources: OpenAI signed a deal with AWS to sell its AI services to US government agencies for both classified and unclassified work, amid the Anthropic-DOD spat (The Information)

Summary:

The Information:
Sources: OpenAI signed a deal with AWS to sell its AI services to US government agencies for both classified and unclassified work, amid the Anthropic-DOD spat  —  OpenAI on Friday signed a new contract with Amazon Web Services to sell its AI to U.S. government employees for both classified …

Baidu is integrating OpenClaw with its Xiaodu devices to work as voice-controlled remotes, joining Tencent and Alibaba in racing to capitalize on agentic AI (Bloomberg)

Summary:

Bloomberg:
Baidu is integrating OpenClaw with its Xiaodu devices to work as voice-controlled remotes, joining Tencent and Alibaba in racing to capitalize on agentic AI  —  Baidu Inc. is betting on the breakout success of OpenClaw to offset a decline in its core business.

World’s first 4D printing tech turns sulfur waste into self-moving soft robots

Summary:
A joint research team has developed the first 4D printing technology built from industrial sulfur...

Apple TV Releasing Comedy Film Starring Keanu Reeves Next Month

Summary:
Apple today shared a trailer for "Outcome," a dark comedy film starring Keanu Reeves, Jonah Hill, Cameron Diaz, David Spade, Martin Scorsese, and others. The original film will be available to stream on Apple TV starting Friday, April 10.

Keanu Reeves and Jonah Hill in "Outcome"

IBM closes its $11B deal for data streaming company Confluent; IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says he expects IBM will maintain or grow its head count over five years (Belle Lin/Wall Street Journal)

Summary:

Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal:
IBM closes its $11B deal for data streaming company Confluent; IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says he expects IBM will maintain or grow its head count over five years  —  Deal will help companies access their data for AI agents, says IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, as he brushes off AI's risk to IBM's busin

Lenovo unveils world-first 1,000Wh/L silicon-anode battery for extended laptop life

Summary:
Lenovo has introduced a new proof-of-concept battery technology, unveiling the world’s first 1,000Wh/L silicon-anode battery...

Qualcomm says it plans to buy back another $20B worth of shares and is raising its quarterly cash dividend, after unveiling a $15B buyback in November 2024 (Lynn Doan/Bloomberg)

Summary:

Lynn Doan / Bloomberg:
Qualcomm says it plans to buy back another $20B worth of shares and is raising its quarterly cash dividend, after unveiling a $15B buyback in November 2024  —  Qualcomm Inc., the largest maker of smartphone processors, plans to buy back another $20 billion worth of shares and is raising …

iPhone 19e Could Feature 120Hz ProMotion Display

Summary:
Apple's iPhone 19e could come with an LTPO OLED display that would bring 120Hz ProMotion technology to its most affordable iPhone for the first time, based on a new report out of Asia.


According to ZDNet Korea, the fourth-generation model in Apple's entry-level e-series – expected to arrive in early 2028 – could adopt a low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) panel, making the display technically capable of dynamically adjusting its refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz. It's the same underlying panel technology used across the current iPhone 17 lineup and the iPhone Air.

The recently launched iPhone 17e uses a 60Hz low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) TFT panel, and the report suggests next year's iPhone 18e will use the same [...]

Chinese scientists unveil world’s coldest alloy that could shrink quantum fridges

Summary:
A team of scientists in China has discovered a new rare-earth alloy that is so...

Samsung to Discontinue Galaxy Z TriFold After Just Three Months

Summary:
Samsung is set to discontinue the Galaxy Z TriFold globally after just three months on sale (via Bloomberg).


The company will start by ceasing sales of the device in Korea, where it has been on sale since December. Samsung plans to discontinue the device in the United States once it clears its inventory.

Samsung's website already lists the TriFold as "sold out," but customers are still able to buy the device at Samsung stores. It launched in the United States in January and costs $2,899.

The Galaxy Z TriFold is Samsung's first smartphone that has a larger total di [...]

Firefighting drones head to Aspen—can they suppress a blaze before humans arrive?

Summary:
Seneca's drones carry foam, fly at night, and don't need an on-site pilot.

Q&A with Kalshi co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara on suing the US government, solving market making, agentic and insider trading, ethics, and more (John Collison/Cheeky Pint)

Summary:

John Collison / Cheeky Pint:
Q&A with Kalshi co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara on suing the US government, solving market making, agentic and insider trading, ethics, and more  —  Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara are the co-founders of Kalshi, the first federally regulated prediction market in the US.

France unveils new containerized launcher that can strike targets 93 miles away

Summary:
France is preparing to expand its long-range battlefield strike capability with a new rocket launcher...

Managed OpenClaw bids to kill hidden token tax on AI agents

Summary:

Featherless is a serverless platform specialist that provides API-based access to open-source AI models via a supporting infrastructure. The concept

The post Managed OpenClaw bids to kill hidden token tax on AI agents appeared first on The New Stack.

Why agentic AI stalls in production — and how a control plane fixes it

Summary:

For SREs, platform engineers, and AI/ML teams, agentic AI makes many promises that are hard to ignore. Autonomous agents that

The post Why agentic AI stalls in production — and how a control plane fixes it appeared first on The New Stack.

PayPal expands access to its PYUSD stablecoin from the US and the UK to 70 countries in total, including Colombia, Panama, Peru, Singapore, Uganda, and Malawi (Ben Weiss/Fortune)

Summary:

Ben Weiss / Fortune:
PayPal expands access to its PYUSD stablecoin from the US and the UK to 70 countries in total, including Colombia, Panama, Peru, Singapore, Uganda, and Malawi  —  PayPal is dramatically expanding the map of countries where users can send and receive its branded stablecoin.

Mastercard agrees to acquire London-based stablecoin payments infra startup BVNK for up to $1.8B, including $300M in contingent payments, set to close in 2026 (Reuters)

Summary:

Reuters:
Mastercard agrees to acquire London-based stablecoin payments infra startup BVNK for up to $1.8B, including $300M in contingent payments, set to close in 2026  —  Mastercard (MA.N) said on Tuesday it would buy stablecoin payments infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8 billion.

Enterprise AI automation startup Standard Template Labs raised a $49M seed co-led by Iconiq and CRV, a source says at a $300M post-money valuation (Natasha Mascarenhas/Bloomberg)

Summary:

Natasha Mascarenhas / Bloomberg:
Enterprise AI automation startup Standard Template Labs raised a $49M seed co-led by Iconiq and CRV, a source says at a $300M post-money valuation  —  The deal is Iconiq's first-ever startup incubation.  —  Standard Template Labs, founded by former Datadog Inc. President Amit Agarwal …

Brendan Carr Pretends To Be Tough, Demands Broadcasters Support Disastrous War

Summary:
Brendan Carr is once again doing Brendan Carr stuff. Carr has threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of broadcasters that tell the truth about Trump’s disastrous war in Iran. In a post over at Elon Musk’s right wing propaganda website, Carr insists that news outlets that are “running hoaxes and news distortions” (read: telling the […]

Darton Commodities: the global cobalt shortage is set to persist through 2030, after Congo limited exports in 2025; the DRC accounts for 70%+ of global supply (Annie Lee/Bloomberg)

Summary:

Annie Lee / Bloomberg:
Darton Commodities: the global cobalt shortage is set to persist through 2030, after Congo limited exports in 2025; the DRC accounts for 70%+ of global supply  —  A global cobalt shortage is expected to persist through the end of this decade as export restrictions from top producer Democratic Republic …

Your database is about to become an AI tool. Is it ready?

Summary:

For 25 years, I’ve watched the database sit behind layers of protection: firewalls, VPNs, connection poolers, role-based access, and even

The post Your database is about to become an AI tool. Is it ready? appeared first on The New Stack.

US Army plans new ‘Center of Excellence’ for explosives to boost RDX, HMX production

Summary:
The United States Army is moving to overhaul its munitions infrastructure by setting up a...

Russia’s 1,250 MWe nuclear reactor unit with 100-year-lifespan reaches full power

Summary:
The first light-water reactor at the new Russian nuclear facility, Kursk II, has now reached...

World’s most powerful collider spots new heavy proton-like particle with charm quarks

Summary:
Researchers at CERN have utilized the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator to detect...

From monolith to global mesh: How Uber standardized ML at scale

Summary:

Introduction: the scaling wall In 2015, Uber’s growth was outpacing its infrastructure. As the company evolved from a luxury car

The post From monolith to global mesh: How Uber standardized ML at scale appeared first on The New Stack.

Java 26 Arrives With AI Integration and a New Ecosystem Portfolio — What It Means for DevOps Teams

Summary:

Apple Watch AFib History Feature Launches in Mainland China

Summary:
Apple today launched its atrial fibrillation history feature for Apple Watch in mainland China.


Since 2022, Apple Watch in the U.S. has supported AFib History, which allows users diagnosed with atrial fibrillation to view an estimate of how frequently their heart is in this type of irregular rhythm.

The feature analyzes pulse rate data collected by a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor to identify episodes consistent with AFib and provides the user with a retrospective estimate of AFib burden (a measure of the amount of time spent in AFib during past Apple Watch wear). Apple says the feature is intended for individuals aged 22 years or older who have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation by a [...]

World’s most powerful AI supercomputer dedicated to fusion energy begins work

Summary:
The UK government announced on Monday that it will invest £45 million, about $60 million,...

AI Brain Fry, Zombie Projects, and Gentleman Vibe Coders - Related to your interests, Monday

Summary:

KubeCon EU is next week, in Amsterdam, and I’m talking at VMUG Amsterdam tomorrow about what private equity does to enterprise software companies. If you’re at RAI, come say hi. AI might have written some of the below; we’re still working on keeping it under control for “helpful” content generation.

Related to your interests

• When Using AI Leads to Brain Fry - In my experience, it’s not so much AI doing this as AI being a tool that makes people so productive that they experience getting a lot of shit done. Being hyper-productive is exhausting, but in a good way like (so I am told) exercising is exhausting but ultimately “good.” // Related: ‘AI brain fry’ affects employees managing too many agents - Those who reported having to maintain a high degree of AI oversight reported spending 14 percent more mental ene

Making AI Write Android Code Our Way: A Practical Guide to Agent Skills

Summary:

Turning knowledge into reusable AI agent instructions for a small, fast-moving team.

We're a small Android team at Medium, just a handful of engineers maintaining and evolving the Medium Android app. Our codebase follows Clean Architecture with Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Hilt, Apollo GraphQL, and a growing number of feature modules. Like most Android teams, we have strong opinions about how code should be structured: where ViewModels get their data, how analytics events flow, how feature flags are checked, what a "new screen" looks like from Fragment to preview function.

The problem? Those opinions lived in PR review comments, Slack threads, and the heads of engineers who'd been around long enough to know the patterns. When AI coding assistants arrived, they could generate Kotlin code but not our Kotlin code. The output was gener

The Temu People Asked A Sports Reporter To Not Use Its Name As Shorthand For Crap Quality

Summary:
Normally, a post about the signing of an NFL free agent wouldn’t make it anywhere near these here Techdirt pages. Today, that is not the case. The site For The Win posted a mildly interesting report on the Tennessee Titans signing wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson to a 4 year, $78 million contract. But wait, you’re […]

America’s Diminished Place In The World And The Consequences Of Not Impeaching

Summary:
It has long been clear: Trump needs to be removed from office before he can inflict even more damage than he already has. But he doesn’t just need to be stopped; for America to have a future he also needs to be repudiated. Impeachment speaks to each need, to both make clear his behavior is […]

10 Audio Improvements in Apple's New AirPods Max 2

Summary:
Apple refreshed the AirPods Max today, and the main new addition is an H2 chip that replaces the H1 chip. The H2 chip has previously been used in the AirPods 4 and the AirPods Pro 2 and later, but it's new to the AirPods Max. It brings multiple audio improvements alongside an updated high dynamic range amplifier.


We've listed all of the audio features that are new to the AirPods Max according to Apple.

• Active Noise Cancellation - The AirPods Max 2 have up to 1.5x more active noise cancellation because of the more powerful H2 chip and a new computational audio algorithm that detects and counters external sound.


• Adaptive Audio - Th

A Reddit Post, An AI Hallucination, And Two Lawyers Who Never Checked Citations Walk Into A Dog Custody Case

Summary:
We’ve been covering the growing parade of lawyers submitting AI-hallucinated case citations to courts for a while now. It keeps happening, and courts keep having to deal with it. But the pattern is usually the same: a careless attorney uses ChatGPT to draft a brief, the fake citations get spotted by the opposing side or […]

Nvidia brings together AI labs to build the next generation of open base models

Summary:

Nvidia on Monday announced the Nemotron Coalition at its GTC conference. This new coalition of AI labs will pool expertise,

The post Nvidia brings together AI labs to build the next generation of open base models appeared first on The New Stack.

Nvidia’s NemoClaw is OpenClaw with guardrails

Summary:

At its annual GTC conference, Nvidia on Monday announced the Nvidia Agent Toolkit, which brings together open models, runtimes, open

The post Nvidia’s NemoClaw is OpenClaw with guardrails appeared first on The New Stack.

Trump Gets $10 Billion Kickback To The Treasury For Offloading TikTok To His Billionaire Buddies

Summary:
We’ve discussed at length how Trump’s “fix” for TikTok’s problems basically involved forcing the sale of the platform to his greedy billionaire buddies (with the help of pathetic Democrats). The deal fixed none of the real issues Trumpland pretended to be concerned about (national security, privacy, propaganda), and China still maintains a significant ownership stake. […]

Standing up for the open Internet: why we appealed Italy’s "Piracy Shield" fine

Summary:
Cloudflare is appealing a €14 million fine from Italian regulators over "Piracy Shield," a system that forces providers to block content without oversight. We are challenging this framework to protect the Internet from disproportionate overblocking and lack of due process.

Apple's First Lightning iPhone is Now Obsolete

Summary:
The iPhone 5 that launched back in 2012 is now considered obsolete, according to Apple's list of vintage and obsolete products. Apple moved the iPhone 5 and the 8GB iPhone 4 from the vintage list to the obsolete list today.


A device is "vintage" when it has been five years since it was last distributed for sale, and "obsolete" at the seven-year mark, though Apple sometimes stretches its timelines. For vintage products, Apple retail stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers can provide repairs if the required parts are available. Devices that are obsolete are generally not eligible for repair and Apple stops providing repair components.

Apple released the iPhone 5 in 2012 and discontinued it in 2013 after launching the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c. The iPhone 5 [...]

Cursor built a fleet of security agents to solve a familiar frustration

Summary:

Cursor‘s security team has built a fleet of AI agents that continuously monitor and secure the company’s codebase, and it

The post Cursor built a fleet of security agents to solve a familiar frustration appeared first on The New Stack.

Anthropic doubles Claude usage outside peak hours — but it won’t last forever

Summary:

AI labs keep searching for ways to pull developers deeper into their ecosystems. The latest move comes from Anthropic, which

The post Anthropic doubles Claude usage outside peak hours — but it won’t last forever appeared first on The New Stack.

ICE Officers Admit To Arrest Quotas During Court Testimony

Summary:
It’s not that arrest and ticket quotas don’t exist. They do. They always have. They always will. It’s that they’re illegal. Courts have repeatedly criticized quotas because they create incentives so perverse they’d make /b/ board denizens uncomfortable. Since they’re presumptively illegal, most law enforcement agencies will use any word but “quota” to describe these. […]

Daily Deal: Mag 3 Ultra Qi2 25W 3-in-1 Foldable Charger

Summary:
Power all your Apple essentials-without the clutter. The Mag 3 Ultra Qi2 25W 3-in-1 Foldable Charger delivers fast charging for your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods all at once. The new Qi2 25W makes charging 70% faster, reaching from 0 to 50% in just 30 minutes! Magnetic charging also lets you power up your Apple […]

Apple’s AirPods Max 2 bring H2 chip, boosted ANC in April for $549

Summary:
Apple's over-head headphones get an update after over five years.

AirPods Max 2 Reveal iOS 26.4 Launch Date

Summary:
Apple today introduced the second-generation version of its over-ear AirPods Max headphones, and some of the software requirements in the fine print give us some insight into when Apple's iOS 26.4 update will be released to the public.


To use several of the added features like Live Translation, the AirPods Max 2 will need to be paired with an iPhone running iOS 26.4, an iPad running iPadOS 26.4, or a Mac running macOS Tahoe 26.4.

The AirPods are set to launch in early April, which means iOS 26.4 and its sister updates will need to launch during the same time frame. iOS 26.4 will be here by the first week of April, and it could even launch [...]

Turns Out The DOGE Bros Who Killed Humanities Grants Are Kinda Sensitive About It

Summary:
Much of last week I had been working on a different article than the one this became. The American Historical Association, the Modern Language Association, and the American Council of Learned Societies — all plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Humanities over DOGE’s mass grant cancellations — had uploaded the full […]

COMMENT to the MCP Rescue

Summary:

The COMMENT command has been in Postgres for decades. It allows text descriptions to be attached to almost any database object. During its long history, it was mostly seen as a nice-to-have addition to database schemas, allowing administrators and developers to more easily understand the schema. Tools like pgAdmin allow you to assign and view comments on database objects.

Now, in the AI era, there is something else that needs to understand database schemas — MCP clients. Without database object comments, MCP clients can only use the database schemas, object names, and constraints. With database comment

AirPods Max 2's Digital Crown Has a Useful New Feature

Summary:
While the new AirPods Max 2 have the same overall design as the previous AirPods Max, the Digital Crown has received a small but useful upgrade.


On the AirPods Max 2, a new Camera Remote feature allows you to press the Digital Crown to take a photo and start or stop video recording while using Apple's Camera app or compatible third-party camera apps on an iPhone or iPad.

Apple says this feature requires AirPods Max 2 that are running the latest firmware and paired with iPhone and iPad models running iOS 26.4 or iPadOS 26.4 or later. Those software versions are still in beta testing, but they will be released in time for the AirPods Max 2 launch in early April, barring any unforeseen delays.

Here are a [...]

Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone on reviving the web’s homepage

Summary:
Today, I’m talking with Jim Lanzone, who is the CEO of Yahoo. It’s basically impossible to sum up the Yahoo story, but the short version of it is that a long time ago Yahoo paid Google to run the search box on its website, and basically everything has gone sideways since. You’ll hear Jim refer […]

Apple Acquires Final Cut Pro Plugin Company MotionVFX

Summary:
Apple today acquired MotionVFX, a major developer of plugins, visual effects, and motion graphics tools for Final Cut Pro.


MotionVFX is a Polish software company founded by Szymon Masiak in 2009. It creates high-quality plugins, transitions, templates, and visual effects (VFX) for video editors, specializing in tools for Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Apple Motion. From MotionVFX's website today:

We are extremely excited to share that MotionVFX is joining the Apple team to continue to empower creators and editors to do their best work.

For over 15 years, we've been on a mission to create world-class, visually inspiring content and effects for video editors. From the very beginning, we’ve been all about

Apple's M4 iPad Air Drops to New Low Prices on Amazon, Get Up to $100 Off

Summary:
Last week, Amazon introduced discounts on the brand new M4 iPad Air, and you can still get up to $100 off these brand new models today. Additionally, Amazon has deepened the discounts on a few of these models, and all remain in stock with free delivery around March 21.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Specifically, Amazon has up to $80 off the 11-inch M4 iPad Air and up to $100 off the 13-inch M4 iPad Air. All of these discounts have been automatically applied and do not require a coupon code [...]

What Hasn't Changed With AirPods Max 2

Summary:
The AirPods Max 2 feature the H2 chip, improved Active Noise Cancellation, and Adaptive Audio capabilities, but the design and much of the hardware remains unchanged.


Most notably, the overall industrial design is identical. AirPods Max 2 retain the same aluminum ear cups, stainless steel headband frame, telescoping arms, and knit mesh canopy introduced with the original model. The dimensions, weight, and overall construction appear to be unchanged, meaning the headphones look and feel the same as previous versions. The knit mesh canopy is also the same despite criticism over time that the fabric can stretch or lose tension with prolonged use.

The Smart Case has also [...]

AirPods Max 1 vs. AirPods Max 2 Buyer's Guide: 25+ Differences Compared

Summary:
Apple has now announced the AirPods Max 2, bringing the first major hardware upgrade to Apple's over-ear headphones since their debut. So how does the new model compare with both earlier versions of ‌AirPods Max‌?


In late 2020, Apple announced the AirPods Max, a whole new AirPods variant with an over-ear design. In September 2024, the company refreshed the AirPods Max's selection of color options and swapped the Lightning port for USB-C, enabling 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio over a wired connection.

Now, with the arrival of the ‌AirPods Max 2‌, Apple has introduced a far more substantial upgrade than the 2024 refresh. The new m [...]

Why AI workloads are breaking traditional Kubernetes observability strategies

Summary:

For most platform engineering and ITOps teams, the ability to orchestrate containerized workloads at scale has transformed development organizations. But

The post Why AI workloads are breaking traditional Kubernetes observability strategies appeared first on The New Stack.

Anthropic makes a pricing change that matters for Claude’s longest prompts

Summary:

Anthropic announced Friday that the 1-million-token context window for Claude Opus 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 is now generally available,

The post Anthropic makes a pricing change that matters for Claude’s longest prompts appeared first on The New Stack.

Apple Announces AirPods Max 2 With H2 Chip and More

Summary:
Apple today unveiled AirPods Max 2, with key upgrades including the H2 chip, increased active noise cancellation, improved sound quality, and features such as Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Voice Isolation, and Live Translation.


The new AirPods Max have the same overall design as the previous generation, with most of the new features coming from the upgrade to the H2 chip:

- Adaptive Audio adjusts the levels of ANC and Transparency in response to the environment automatically to optimize the audio experience.

- Conversation Awareness helps lower content volume and reduce background noise when a user starts speaking to someone nearby.

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AirPods Pro 3 Available for $209.99 on Amazon This Week

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Amazon today has the AirPods Pro 3 available for $209.99, down from $249.00. This is only about $10 higher when compared to the Amazon all-time low price, which has been hard to come by in recent weeks.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This model of the AirPods Pro launched in September 2025 and has 2x better Active Noise Cancellation than the previous generation, better audio quality, a revised fit that's meant to improve comfort and stability, Live Translation fo [...]

When Code Becomes Cheap, Engineering Becomes Governance

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Gemini CLI Plan Mode Separates Thinking From Doing — and Makes Read-Only the Default

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Microsoft Locks Down Discord Server After People Wouldn’t Stop Making Fun Of AI ‘Microslop’

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We’ve noted how Microsoft is a little sensitive about AI slop at the moment. Back in January, CEO Satya Nadella wrote a well-circulated blog post lamenting critics of “AI slop” and demanding the public simply move past such conversations. It was relatively innocuous, but wasn’t received well for some valid reasons. One problem is that […]

Agents write code. They don’t do software engineering.

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Long-running and background coding agents have hit a new threshold. When an agent runs for hours, manages its own iteration

The post Agents write code. They don’t do software engineering. appeared first on The New Stack.

Apple Original Film 'F1' Wins Oscar for Best Sound

Summary:
Apple's original film "F1: The Movie" yesterday won an Oscar for Best Sound at the 98th Academy Awards.


The film, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Joseph Kosinski, received four Oscar nominations in total, including Best Picture. "F1" has already picked up multiple honors across the industry, including Best Editing and Best Sound at the Critics Choice Awards and Best Sound at the BAFTA Film Awards.

The film stars Brad Pitt as a once-promising Formula 1 driver whose career was nearly ended by a crash in the 1990s. Decades later, he returns to the sport after being recruited by his former teammate to help save a struggling team, partnering with an ambitious rookie driver. [...]

The Green Side of Observability: Why Less Data Can Mean More Insight

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Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities

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Using Tools: A Meeting Scheduler

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Introduction

LLM are great, but they are trained on public data sets. In some cases, you need the LLM to use data that’s not publicly available or that’s frequently changing. There are several ways to make such data available to LLMs:

• Tool/function calls
• Retrieval-augmented generation (aka RAG)
• MCP

In coding agents, you can also add skills.

In this post we’ll focus on function calling.

How Does It Work?

When interacting with a LLM, you can provide a description of available tools if the model supports tool calling. If the LLM reasons that the best answer is to use one of the tools, , it will return a reply that contains a tool call with the parameters to use. Then you make the function call and return the answer back to the LLM.

Aether OS is a computer in a browser built for the AT Protocol

Summary:
Aether OS puts a full-fledged desktop in your browser that ties directly into the AT Protocol. That means it connects to your Bluesky account and other public records. It offers a pretty full suite of apps, 42 in total, covering text editing, task management, and social media. There's even a rudimentary tracker for making chiptunes, […]

A beginner’s guide to vibe coding

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We talk a lot about vibe coding. And to be honest, I’d heard the term far too many times before

The post A beginner’s guide to vibe coding appeared first on The New Stack.

Ex-Snowflake engineers say there’s a blind spot in data engineering — so they built Tower to fix it

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AI coding assistants might have made it easier to generate software, but getting that code to run reliably — packaging

The post Ex-Snowflake engineers say there’s a blind spot in data engineering — so they built Tower to fix it appeared first on The New Stack.

The fast rise and epic fall of Clubhouse

Summary:
In 2020 and 2021, the social media world seemed to be on the verge of complete change. A new app called TikTok was ascendant, bringing a whole new kind of vertical video to phones everywhere. And another app - not as popular, but growing fast, and already hugely influential among the tech set - looked […]

A practical guide to the 6 categories of AI cloud infrastructure in 2026

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Platform teams and AI engineers are facing an unprecedented wave of decision paralysis. The rollout of NVIDIA’s Blackwell and GB200

The post A practical guide to the 6 categories of AI cloud infrastructure in 2026 appeared first on The New Stack.

Why AI systems are failing in familiar ways

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With the introduction of AI-assisted coding tools and agents, many people hoped we’d solve all the problems for human teams.

The post Why AI systems are failing in familiar ways appeared first on The New Stack.

Tromjaro is a free-trade Linux distribution with plenty to offer

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Imagine having an OS that won’t track you, push ads on you, and not force “free” trials on you. Sounds

The post Tromjaro is a free-trade Linux distribution with plenty to offer appeared first on The New Stack.

TypeScript 6.0 RC arrives as a bridge to a faster future

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TypeScript 6.0 Release Candidate (RC) is here, and in some ways, it’s the most consequential release since the project hit

The post TypeScript 6.0 RC arrives as a bridge to a faster future appeared first on The New Stack.

MCP’s biggest growing pains for production use will soon be solved

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The Model Context Protocol (MCP) has emerged as one of the key building blocks of the agentic AI stack, serving

The post MCP’s biggest growing pains for production use will soon be solved appeared first on The New Stack.

AI layoffs are here, the MCP vs API debate, and the rise of the Mac Mini-powered Agent

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I’m Matt Burns, Head of Content at Insight Media Group. Each week, I round up the most important AI developments

The post AI layoffs are here, the MCP vs API debate, and the rise of the Mac Mini-powered Agent appeared first on The New Stack.

Andrej Karpathy’s 630-line Python script ran 50 experiments overnight without any human input

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On the night of March 7, Andrej Karpathy pushed a 630-line Python script to GitHub and went to sleep. By

The post Andrej Karpathy’s 630-line Python script ran 50 experiments overnight without any human input appeared first on The New Stack.

Wordle’s creator made a fun new puzzle game

Summary:
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 119, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, hope your agents are well, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about Pixar's future and flight MH370 and sports gambling […]

Survey: AI Coding Exacerbates Existing DevOps Workflow Issues

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NanoClaw and Docker team up to isolate AI agents inside MicroVM sandboxes

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Like the idea of OpenClaw-style agents, but their insecurity makes you sweat? The combo of NanoClaw and Docker Sandboxes may

The post NanoClaw and Docker team up to isolate AI agents inside MicroVM sandboxes appeared first on The New Stack.