Apple is developing a MacBook Pro with a touch display for late 2026 or early 2027. The new machines will have thinner and lighter frames and M6 chips. Their displays will use OLED technology, the same standard used in iPhones and iPad Pros. Apple will be retiring the notch and adopting a hole-punch design. The new MacBook Pros will likely cost a few hundred dollars more than current versions because of pricier components.
DoorDash and Waymo have entered into a partnership that brings Waymo’s driverless Jaguar SUVs into DoorDash’s delivery fleet. Waymo will deliver orders from DoorDash’s DashMart store starting in Phoenix. It plans to add more restaurants, retail, and grocery stores over time. Customers will have to go to the vehicle and unlock its trunk with the DoorDash app to retrieve their orders.
Science & Futuristic Technology
Helion has been granted a Conditional Use Permit to start the next phase of development for its commercial fusion power plant. This clears the way for the construction of the fusion generator building of the company’s Orion fusion power plant in Malaga, Washington. Helion plans to deliver electrons to the grid before the end of this decade. The company’s approach of rapid iteration and testing has enabled it to make steady progress toward a commercial fusion power plant. It was the first private fusion company to achieve 100 million degrees Celsius plasma temperatures, generally considered the required operating temperature for commercial fusion feasibility.
Chinese scientists have achieved three breakthroughs that could be key to unlocking all-solid-state batteries. The first is iodine ions, which actively attract lithium ions in the interface between the electrode and the electrolyte, plugging the gaps and enabling a better bond. The second is a polymer material that can be bent 20,000 times and twisted into a twist without breaking. The third is a type of ‘shield’ on the electrolyte surface that passes needle penetration tests and can handle temperatures of over 120 degrees Celsius. The breakthroughs could result in a 100-kilogram battery pack that delivers over 1,000 kilometers of range.
Programming, Design & Data Science
Claude Skills are awesome, maybe a bigger deal than MCP (11 minute read)
Claude Skills are folders that include instructions, scripts, and resources that Claude can load when needed to improve performance on specific tasks. Each skill has a Markdown file telling the model how to do something, optionally accompanied by extra documents and pre-written scripts the model can run to help it accomplish tasks. At the start of a session, Claude scans all available skill files and reads a short explanation for each one, which is very token-efficient. Skills are easy to share - the upcoming Cambrian explosion in Skills will make the MCP rush look pedestrian by comparison.
How to tame a user interface using a spreadsheet (4 minute read)
Spreadsheets are one of the greatest user interface design tools ever created. They allow designers to focus solely on layout positioning and hierarchy without worrying about type sizes or software choices. Spreadsheets can occupy as many dimensions as required by using multiple sheets. This post provides some examples of layouts solved using spreadsheets.
Miscellaneous
How much can Tesla pay Elon Musk? Delaware’s Supreme Court will decide (11 minute read)
The Delaware Supreme Court heard the latest set of arguments over Elon Musk’s compensation package for Tesla on Wednesday. The pay package could hypothetically be worth well over $100 billion as of mid-October. A panel of justices will weigh whether the package was an extraordinary move that reflected undue influence or inadequately informed shareholders, or a properly conducted business decision. Meanwhile, Tesla’s board of directors has proposed a new, future compensation package that could make Musk the world’s first trillionaire if fully realized.
YouTube Just Ate TV. It’s Only Getting Started (34 minute read)
YouTube has grown from a user-generated circus into the most powerful platform on Earth in two decades. The platform has become a dominant force in media, and there are signs the company is close to breaking through to the other hours people are spending on their TV sets. YouTube has paid out more than $100 billion to its creators, artists, and media partners over the past four years. Sports is in many ways the final frontier for YouTube to conquer.
Quick Links
You Still Need to Think (3 minute read)
Agents don’t remove the human job of setting goals, choosing constraints, and judging outputs.
The real reason Google DeepMind is working with a fusion energy startup (3 minute read)
AI may make fusion power possible by finding robust paths to generating net energy and by directly controlling reactors’ operations.
How I Reversed Amazon’s Kindle Web Obfuscation Because Their App Sucked (6 minute read)
Amazon puts some real effort into its web obfuscation.
Amazon shares a ‘first look’ at new nuclear facility (2 minute read)
Amazon entered an agreement with Energy Northwest about a year ago to support the development of up to 12 advanced reactors by the early 2030s.
World’s first truly free software phone? That’s the FSF’s new ‘long game’ (5 minute read)
The Free Software Foundation’s LibrePhone initiative aims to create a completely free smartphone software ecosystem.
Don’t Waste Your 20s Not Taking Big Risks (2 minute read)
Even if you fail, you’ll have that experience, and if you do want to come back to it later, your learning ramp is going to be much shorter because you’ve already invested that time.