The Daily Index — Friday, October 31, 2025 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

ANDROID 17 WILL PUT FULL-SCREEN APPS ON YOUR ALWAYS-ON DISPLAY

Google plans to add a new capability called Min Mode to Android's Always-On Display (AOD) in Android 17. Min Mode will use the same low-power technology as AOD to display full-screen interfaces from apps. Developers must register a 'MinModeActivity' component in their apps for them to work with the feature. Min Mode has the potential to reshape the definition of an 'idle' phone.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 3 min

TLDR AI

OPENAI NOW SELLS EXTRA SORA CREDITS FOR $4, PLANS TO REDUCE FREE GENS IN THE FUTURE

OpenAI is selling extra credits for its Sora AI video generation tool through Apple's App Store. An extra 10 video generations costs $4. The app currently has a limit of 30 free generations per day. That rate will likely decrease as OpenAI starts to monetize the platform. OpenAI reportedly plans to monetize Sora by letting entities license out their copyrighted material.

engadget.com · 1 min

TLDR Dev

SPRINGS AND BOUNCES IN NATIVE CSS: THE MAGIC OF THE LINEAR() TIMING FUNCTION

The `linear()` CSS timing function is a powerful tool for creating complex animations like springs and bounces natively. Unlike Bézier curves, `linear()` allows you to define animation curves using a series of points, allowing for more intricate and physics-based effects. While `linear()` offers flexibility, it has limitations regarding time-based durations, interrupt handling, and potential performance concerns that can be mitigated by using CSS variables and falling back to cubic-bezier curves for older browsers.

joshwcomeau.com · 18 min

TLDR InfoSec

NEW TEE.FAIL SIDE-CHANNEL ATTACK EXTRACTS SECRETS FROM INTEL AND AMD DDR5 SECURE ENCLAVES

TEE.Fail is a side-channel attack that targets DDR5 memory systems which uses a $1,000 interposition device to physically monitor memory traffic and extract cryptographic keys from Intel TDX/SGX and AMD SEV-SNP trusted execution environments. The attack exploits weaknesses in AES-XTS deterministic encryption used by both vendors, enabling attackers to record memory operations between CPU and DRAM, extract ECDSA attestation keys, and compromise confidential virtual machines by faking attestation processes. Both Intel and AMD have classified this as an out-of-scope physical attack with no planned mitigations, leaving software countermeasures as the only defense option despite their high implementation costs.

thehackernews.com · 4 min

TLDR Crypto

MASTERCARD POISED TO ACQUIRE ZEROHASH FOR ~$2 BILLION

Mastercard is in late-stage talks to acquire crypto infrastructure startup Zerohash for $1.5-2 billion, following the company's $104 million funding round in September at a $1 billion valuation. The potential acquisition comes after Mastercard lost a bidding war for stablecoin startup BVNK to Coinbase, which entered exclusivity for a deal reportedly worth around $2 billion. Zerohash, founded in 2017, provides broader infrastructure than stablecoin-focused competitors like Bridge and BVNK, offering APIs for crypto trading platforms and tokenization alongside stablecoin payment rails.

fortune.com · 6 min

TLDR

TIM COOK SAYS MORE AIS ARE COMING TO APPLE INTELLIGENCE

Apple plans to embed more third-party AI tools into its operating systems. The company is on track to release an AI-upgraded Siri next year. It is open to pursuing mergers and acquisitions if it thinks it will advance its roadmap. The company recently released fourth quarter earnings results that showed it raked in a record $102.5 billion over the past few months, an 8% increase compared to the same period last year.

theverge.com · 3 min

TLDR

SPACEX AND BLUE ORIGIN BOTH SUBMITTED PLANS TO GET ASTRONAUTS BACK TO THE MOON FASTER, NASA SAYS

SpaceX has pitched NASA a 'simplified mission' to put astronauts back on the moon following criticisms over delays. The company is behind schedule on building its lunar landing system for NASA's Artemis III mission, which caused NASA to reopen the landing contract for the mission. Blue Origin also submitted a plan. It has been developing a lunar lander for NASA and plans to launch a smaller-scale version of it, known as the Blue Moon Mark 1.

cnbc.com · 4 min

TLDR

WORLD'S FIRST UNDERWATER HABITAT IN DECADES TO UNLOCK SECRETS OF 95% OF OCEANS

DEEP, a UK-based subsea engineering firm, has unveiled a prototype of an underwater habitat designed to allow scientists to live and carry out research beneath the sea's surface for days at a time. The Vanguard pilot human habitat is part of an ambitious effort to make long-term underwater living possible. The prototype can support up to four crew members for up to a week. Currently, most expeditions can only allow scientists to stay submerged for a few hours at a time.

interestingengineering.com · 5 min

TLDR

ML KIT'S PROMPT API: UNLOCK CUSTOM ON-DEVICE GEMINI NANO EXPERIENCES

AI is making it easier to create personalized app experiences. The ML Kit GenAI Prompt API for Android enables developers to send natural language and multimodal requests to Gemini Nano to support custom, app-specific GenAI use cases. It allows developers to create unique features with complex data transformation. The API uses Gemini Nano on-device to process data locally, enabling offline capability and improved user privacy.

android-developers.googleblog.com · 3 min