From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief for July 17th. Quick one from Theo — five tech stories from overnight, ordered by how much they made me sit up. Let's get into it. First, from IEEE Spectrum AI. How to Make an Invisible Drone. The clever part isn’t the propeller shape—it’s the spin rate. By whirling at 15‑25 Hz the drone blurs into a translucent smear, exploiting the eye’s 100 ms integration window so the solid frame fuses with whatever’s behind it. What makes this version stand out is that the whole geometry was fed into an optimizer that minimized a perceptual similarity metric while still satisfying the physics of flight. The algorithm shuffled carbon‑fiber rods, batteries, and counterweights until the components lined up in a way that left almost no visual overlap as it spun. Control comes from a single motor; tiny speed pulses timed each rotation steer the craft, while overall thrust handles altitude. The result is a passively stable, single‑motor platform that can tra

From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief for July 17th. Quick one from Theo — five tech stories from overnight, ordered by how much they made me sit up. Let's get into it. First, from SiliconAngle. EU orders Google to share search data with rivals, broaden Android feature access. So, the EU just dropped a new set of rules on Google, essentially forcing them to share search data with their competitors. This is a big deal because it's been super hard for other search engines to get their foot in the door, and now they'll have access to the same data Google uses to power their own search results. The EU's also telling Google to open up Android to other companies, so they can integrate their own features and services into the operating system. This is a huge shift because, up until now, Google's had pretty tight control over what gets added to Android. It's not clear yet how this will play out, but it's definitely a significant change under the hood. The European Commission's using th

From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief for July 16th. Quick one from Theo — five tech stories from overnight, ordered by how much they made me sit up. Let's get into it. First, from The Decoder. OpenAI is now using AI to attack its own AI, and it's working better than humans ever did. I was reading this thing and it really caught my attention - OpenAI's been using a model called GPT-Red to simulate cyber attacks on their own AI systems. What's wild is that GPT-Red's been able to successfully breach their defenses in 84% of test scenarios through this self-play training. That's way higher than what human red teamers can accomplish, who only managed to get in 13% of the time. This GPT-Red model is actually feeding into their newer models, like GPT-5.6 Sol, to make them more secure. It's like they're using AI to test the limits of AI, and it's actually working really well. Next. Second, from AI News. Neko Health raises $700 million to expand AI body scans in the US. Neko Health has

From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief for July 16th. Quick one from Theo — five tech stories from overnight, ordered by how much they made me sit up. Let's get into it. First, from XDA Developers. Someone converted their Steam library into SSD "cartridges", and you slot them in like a Game Boy. I stumbled upon this thing where someone took their Steam library and converted it into these custom SSD cartridges, kind of like the old Game Boy cartridges. They're actually just modified USB sticks, but they're designed to look and feel like those retro cartridges. Each one has a unique game installed on it, and you have to physically insert them into a custom dock for them to work. It's not just a novelty, either - the creator says it's actually faster and more convenient than loading games from a traditional SSD. Next. Second, from The Register. Even HP resellers thought the price of toner and ink was too high – so HP India facilitated an illegal cartel. HP’s Indian arm got slapped

From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief for July 15th. It's Theo. July 15th, tech roundup — five stories, here's number one. Let's get into it. First, from TechCrunch AI. Anthropic’s newest ad is creeping people out. Anthropic has consistently attempted to depict itself as the ethical foil to other AI companies. This latest marketing stunt — which leans into criticism of AI as a way to make Anthropic seem aware of the responsibility it carries — would appear to be more of the same. Next. Second, from TechCrunch AI. Apple opens its new Siri AI to everyone with the iOS 27 public beta. If you’ve been waiting to try Apple’s revamped Siri without installing a developer beta, you now can. The company on Tuesday released the iOS 27 public beta, giving iPhone owners early access to its AI-powered assistant and other new features before the software’s official launch this fall. Up next. Third, from TechCrunch AI. OpenAI’s first hardware device is reportedly a screenless speaker that can m

From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief for July 15th. It's Theo. July 15th, tech roundup — five stories, here's number one. Let's get into it. First, from XDA Developers. Microsoft pauses Windows 11's July update for some Dell devices because they're randomly shutting down. Microsoft pulled the July Windows 11 roll‑out for a handful of Dell laptops after spotting a nasty side effect: the update was spiking CPU temps enough to trigger sudden power‑off events. The problem showed up in internal testing, so the patch was halted before it reached the broader audience. Dell’s affected models are mostly the XPS and Latitude lines, where the new driver stack apparently conflicted with the firmware’s thermal controls. Users with those machines will stay on the previous build until Microsoft ships a fix, while the rest of the Windows 11 fleet continues to receive the update as planned. Next. Second, from Hackaday. AIM-ing For a More Open Platform Than Discord. I’ve been digging into the o

From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief for July 14th. Theo here. July 14th, tech desk. Five stories from the last twenty-four hours — here's where I'd start. Let's get into it. First, from The Decoder. Claude responds with more warmth in Hindi and more rigor in Russian, showing how language shapes AI answers. A new Anthropic study maps hundreds of value concepts derived from thousands of individual terms onto four core dimensions. It reveals systematic differences across Claude models and languages, but also raises methodological questions. Anthropic has published a study examining which values Claude expresses in conversations and how those values shift depending on the model and language used. Next. Second, from The Decoder. PixVerse's $2B valuation shows investors still believe AI video generation has room for another winner. PixVerse just closed an extended Series C that pushed its valuation past the $2 billion mark. What’s interesting is how the round wasn’t a single big ch

From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief for July 14th. Theo here. July 14th, tech desk. Five stories from the last twenty-four hours — here's where I'd start. Let's get into it. First, from Ars Technica. SpaceX is gearing up for Starship's 13th test flight later this week. The 13th full‑scale Starship test is set for Thursday evening, with a launch window opening at 5:45 pm CDT. The main mechanical change is a real payload: twenty Starlink V3 satellites placed in the ship’s deployer. The deployer’s pulley‑cable system will push each satellite out one‑by‑one through a side hatch, letting engineers attempt brief laser links with other LEO craft. Those links aren’t for the commercial network, but they’ll confirm the new V3’s ability to communicate with the older Starlink fleet, a needed step before full deployment. Next. Second, from Slashdot. Over 200 Economists Say 'We Must Act Now' On AI's Economic Impact. An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Hundreds of

From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief for July 13th. Theo, July 13th. The systems update — five tech stories that bear on what's coming next. Let's get into it. First, from AI News. AI agent crawlers now need permission. Here’s how to get it. AI agent crawlers, the bots that fetch pages in real time on behalf of a person waiting for an answer, will be blocked by default on a slice of the web from September 15 onwards. Cloudflare announced the change on July 1, and most of the coverage since then has focused on Google. The more useful part is what it asks of everyone building agents, and what it offers them in return. Cloudflare has replaced its single block-AI-bots switch with three categories. Search covers bots that index a page to answer questions about it later. Next. Second, from IEEE Spectrum AI. Building a Foundation Stack for General-Purpose Robots. This article is brought to you by X Square Robot. Large language models gave artificial intelligence a working recipe. Pre

From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief for July 13th. Theo, July 13th. The systems update — five tech stories that bear on what's coming next. Let's get into it. First, from INDIA HICKS. An Unexpected Journey.. Carrying Grief, Finding Joy. I was really struck by this writer's honest take on carrying grief. They're still adjusting to the loss of their mom, but what's interesting is how they're starting to notice that their sadness is changing shape. It's not gone, but they're starting to feel like they're carrying it, rather than being carried by it. That's a huge difference. The writer's sons, Felix and Conrad, just launched their clothing brand, Idle Assembly, and it's a big deal. Felix is the creative force, and Conrad is the one who's really driving the business forward. It's amazing to see brothers working together like this, especially when they're also carrying on their family's legacy. The writer got to celebrate the launch with their sons in Miami, and it was such a spec