TLDR 2025-06-04
Apple A20 chip ⚡, SpaceX financials 💰, rebuilding GUIs 🧑💻
Musk Says SpaceX Revenue Will Near $16 Billion in 2025 (2 minute read)
SpaceX is on track to generate about $15.5 billion in revenue in 2025. The startup is privately owned, so information about its performance is rare. SpaceX's two main business lines are its launch operation and Starlink. Elon Musk claims that commercial revenue at SpaceX will exceed NASA's entire budget next year. A large part of the startup's cash is flowing toward Starship.
Beyond 2nm: Apple's A20 chip to introduce new packaging breakthrough (2 minute read)
Apple's A20 chip, built on TSMC's second-gen 2nm process, will be used in the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max, and iPhone 18 Fold. The processors use Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module packaging, which allows different components to be integrated directly at the wafer level. The technique, which connects the dies without needing an interposer or substrate, brings both thermal and signal integrity benefits. This is a big leap in chip design and shows how technologies once reserved for data center GPUs and AI accelerators are making their way into smartphones.
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Science & Futuristic Technology
Human Brain Cells on a Chip for Sale (5 minute read)
Australian startup Cortical Labs' CL1 is a code-deployable biological computer that fuses human brain cells on a silicon chip to process information via sub-millisecond electrical feedback loops. A tool for neuroscience and biotech research, the CL1 offers scientists a new way to study how brain cells process and react to stimuli. It uses live human neurons capable of adapting, learning, and responding to external inputs in real time. The CL1 will begin shipping in the summer at $35,000 each, or $20,000 when purchased in 30-unit server racks.
Neuralink competitor Paradromics completes first human implant (5 minute read)
Neurotech startup Paradromics implanted its brain-computer interface in a human for the first time on May 14. The patient was already undergoing neurosurgery to treat epilepsy. The brain-computer interface was implanted and removed from the patient's brain in about 20 minutes during that surgery. The procedure demonstrated that Paradromics' system can be safely implanted and record neural activity. The startup plans to kick off a clinical trial later this year to study the long-term safety and use of its technology in humans.
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Programming, Design & Data Science
Quarkdown (GitHub Repo)
Quarkdown is a modern Markdown-based typesetting system that can seamlessly compile projects into print-ready books or interactive presentations. It uses a Turing-complete extension of Markdown to ensure ideas can flow automatically into paper. Quarkdown brings functions and other syntax extensions to Markdown, opening up unlimited possibilities. Developers can define their own functions and variables within Markdown and create libraries to share with other users.
Why GUIs are built at least 2.5 times (25 minute read)
Your mental model for 'what making software is' is extremely important when trying to figure out how to 'manage' it. A lot of what is essential for making great products will look like 'waste' when viewed through a manufacturing lens. When 'making software' is viewed as a process of discovery, developers behave completely differently - they might try to get something into users' hands as fast as possible or run parallel experiments in production with different versions. The goal isn't just to produce, but to find out what should be built.
Meta and Yandex are de-anonymizing Android users' web browsing identifiers (21 minute read)
Meta and Yandex Are embedding tracking code into millions of websites to de-anonymize visitors. The code abuses legitimate Internet protocols, causing browsers to send unique identifiers to native apps installed on a device. It bypasses core security and privacy protections provided by the Android operating system and the browsers that run on it. Currently, the only way to protect against the tracking is to refrain from installing the Facebook, Instagram, or Yandex apps on Android devices.
Does AI Progress Have a Speed Limit? (34 minute read)
The external world puts a speed limit on AI development. Systems need to be tested in real-world conditions to encounter failures they can learn from. Edge cases can be learned, but that will often need to happen while doing real tasks. This creates a speed limit in two ways: you have to wait to collect that data and some people may be reluctant to try out the technology while the system works out its bugs.
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