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Greetings! Your latest quick tech update is here:
☀️ On this day: On August 21, 1958, Steve Case was born in Honolulu, later co-founding the company that became America Online and mailing free-trial CDs to what felt like every household in the country. AOL's $165 billion merger with Time Warner in 2000 is still routinely ranked the worst corporate deal ever done. Case turns 68 today, and AOL shut off its dial-up service for good on September 30, 2025, after 34 years.
What’s happening:
📱 Meta trial could kill infinite scroll
💬 ChatGPT can now read and reply your iMessages
💬 Slack launches code channels where AI agents build software
📱 Walmart gives up and adds Apple and Google Pay
🔬 AI tool finds new breast cancer patterns in tumor cells
+ 📊 Daily poll and results
+ 📈 Trending tools and resources
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Hand-picked news:
📱 Meta trial could kill infinite scroll ↗️LINK
State attorneys general want a court to strip Meta of infinite scrolling, autoplay video, Instagram Stories, beauty filters, and algorithmic feeds, while Meta warns the penalty could reach a trillion dollars.
California deputy AG Megan O'Neill told the court Meta picks profit over safety, hides how many under-13s use its apps, and builds its model around hooking users and harvesting data.
Forrester analyst Kate Winick compares the case to the 1990s Big Tobacco suits, and Bonta calls Meta first in line. Snap and YouTube may start trimming features before anyone orders them to.
💬 ChatGPT can now read and reply your iMessages ↗️LINK
OpenAI released a Messages plugin for Mac, letting ChatGPT search conversations, draft replies, and send them. Only ChatGPT Work and Codex users can access it right now.
The setup requires several deliberate steps: on-device Messages access, Full Disk Access in System Settings, plus permissions for contact names and automation tools. Nobody installs this by accident.
OpenAI never said whether Apple signed off. Apple cut off Beeper Mini's iMessage access in 2024 and sued OpenAI in July over trade secrets, so goodwill looks thin.
💬 Slack launches code channels for AI agents ↗️LINK
Slack rolled out Slack Code, giving teams shared channels where AI agents write software while humans watch live previews, steer the direction, and approve every deployment before it ships.
Every Slack plan gets access at launch. Teams can connect ChatGPT, Claude, Devin, Vercel, and GitHub agents into a channel, and finished builds archive into a searchable record.
Labs keep racing to build the best coding agent. Slack skipped that fight entirely and went after the room where everyone already argues about what to build.
📱 Walmart gives up and adds Apple Pay ↗️LINK
Walmart brings tap-to-pay to select Walmart and Sam's Club locations on August 24, expands to all US stores by the end of 2026, and reaches gas stations by mid-2027.
Walmart was one of the last major retailers holding out. It backed the failed CurrentC service, launched QR-based Walmart Pay in 2016, and defended that choice publicly as recently as last year.
A Walmart spokesperson told MacRumors in 2025 that Walmart Pay already offered convenient solutions. The company now says customers deserve choice, which is a fairly quick change of heart.
🔬 AI tool finds new breast cancer patterns in tumor cells ↗️LINK
University of Northampton researchers built CenSegNet, an AI system that reads breast tumor samples cell by cell. It analyzed 911 samples from 27 patients and surfaced patterns humans had missed.
The tool separated two centrosome abnormalities. Patients with fewer oversized centrosomes tended to live longer, while extra centrosomes lined up with more aggressive disease and worse outcomes.
The team open-sourced the system and plans to test other tissues. No new molecule, no new drug, just a machine noticing something in data that already existed.
Today’s Poll:
Vote and find out about the result tomorrow.
Yesterday’s Poll Result:
Which one do you use the most?
A) ChatGPT - 42%
B) Claude - 58% 🏆
Reader’s opinion:
“Daily claude code session. Shifted a long time ago, but it's been a while since I gave a shot at ChatGPT for coding. But it's hard to leave claude code once settled in with good CLAUDE .md and project context.”
“Claude is great! I do use Claude, but I use ChatGPT more often than that.”
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