TLDR 2024-12-20

Google is reportedly planning to add an AI Mode option to Search that will enable users to get conversational answers instead of search results. AI Mode will be accessible via a tab near the top of the search results page. It will include links to external websites below its conversational answers. Other companies, such as Perplexity AI, Reddit, and OpenAI also offer conversational AI search capabilities.

SpaceX's satellite-to-cell Starlink texting service is now operational in New Zealand through telecommunications company One NZ. Starlink texting can take up to 10 minutes or longer, but most messages should be sent and received within three minutes during the initial rollout. The service is only supported on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and OPPO Find X8 Pro - the list of eligible devices is expected to grow next year. The satellite service is free for existing One NZ customers on paid-monthly plans.

Virginia may become the site of the world's first grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant - if all goes to plan. Commonwealth Fusion Systems is a startup that plans to make a multibillion-dollar investment into building the facility near Richmond. The plant will be able to produce enough energy to power 150,000 homes. The path forward for the project is unlikely to be smooth as the technology has not yet been proven viable.

Blue Origin may ignite the seven main engines on its New Glenn rocket soon at Launch Complex-36 in Florida. It will be the final test before the rocket goes on its debut flight. This will be the first time Blue Origin has ever fired all of the BE-7 engines together. Blue Origin could still launch New Glenn this year - some employees have been asked to work on Christmas Day.

Flaws in the API for the McDonald's McDelivery system in India enabled several exploits such as the ability to order any number of menu items for ₹1, the ability to retrieve the details of any order, the ability to view admin KPI reports, and more. This article covers how these flaws were discovered and how they could be exploited. It looks at the technologies that the fast food company uses and explains how to secure them against attacks. McDonald's India has a bug bounty (McDonald's USA doesn't) - the researcher was rewarded a $240 Amazon gift card.

Mizu is a lightweight and customizable JavaScript library that makes building powerful web apps easy. It allows developers to render content wherever it is needed however they want through user-friendly APIs. Mizu is compatible across a wide range of JavaScript and TypeScript runtimes and all major browsers. It adapts to developers' needs, whether they're serving content, generating static websites, or creating dynamic pages in the browser, without the hassle of bundlers, transpilers, or countless dependencies.

Spotify is rumored to be filling its most popular playlists with stock music attributed to pseudonymous musicians, or 'ghost' or 'fake' artists, presumably to reduce royalty payouts. The company might be making the tracks itself. Playlists created by the company are becoming crucial sources of revenue for independent artists and labels. Spotify denies claims that it is creating its own fake-artist tracks. This article looks at these ghost artists and the evidence pointing to Spotify's role in them.

A Redditor claims that they have a final release Switch 2 and its dock. A moderator said that the user offered sizable proof of their claim. The Redditor confirmed that the Switch 2 will have magnetically attached JoyCons rather than the slide-on controls in the original Switch. They say they will release pictures of their console on Christmas Day. Nintendo may be revealing the device as early as January.

The LG Signature OLED T is a fully wireless and transparent 77-inch OLED TV.

1X Technologies' Neo humanoid robot is scheduled to debut in 2025 - it will not be fully autonomous but will be paired with a human operator capable of directing the robot from afar.

It's possible to make an Apple Watch work with an Android phone using open source applications, interoperable protocols, and third-party services.

Clay is a high performance 2D UI layout library that features microsecond layout performance, a flex-box-like layout model for complex, responsive layouts, WebAssembly support, and more.

Microsoft recently published a post lauding its success in convincing users to use passkeys instead of passwords - it credited the uptake to unavoidable passkey solicitations.

Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, available in AI Studio, has the ability to reason over complex problems in fields such as programming, math, and physics.