TLDR

TLDR 2025-09-15

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01BIG TECH & STARTUPS

GOOGLE GEMINI IS THE TOP FREE IPHONE APP

Gemini for iPhone is the top free app in the US App Store. ChatGPT is in second position, and Threads is third. The Gemini app ranks second in Canada and the UK. It has seen more than 23 million new users since its launch. Google's new image editing model has been a viral hit due to how it maintains character likeness and consistency.

9to5google.com1 min read

ELON MUSK'S BORING COMPANY COMPLETES VEGAS LOOP TUNNEL TO AIRPORT

The Boring Company has successfully completed a 2.26-mile tunnel for the Vegas Loop system in Las Vegas. The tunnel, aimed at alleviating surface congestion in one of America's busiest tourist destinations, stretches from a site near Harry Reid International Airport in the south to the Westgate Resort in the north. There will be eight stations along the route, including key stops at Virgin hotels and the Hughes Center. The tunnel is part of a broader plan to create a 68-mile network with over 100 stations to connect major landmarks.

links.tldrnewsletter.com3 min read

02SCIENCE & FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY

PROMISING NEW EPILEPSY DRUG DELIVERS 80% REDUCTION IN SEIZURES

Rapport Therapeutics' experimental compound, RAP-219, reduced seizures by an average of 77.8% in a Phase 2a study. Almost a quarter of participants remained seizure-free over the two-month treatment period. The study raises hopes for patients who suffer from seizures despite being on multiple medications. Rapport plans to meet with the US Food and Drug Administration and then launch two Phase 3 trials next year. It is also developing a long-acting injectable version to address medication adherence, a frequent challenge in epilepsy.

newatlas.com4 min read

NASA ANNOUNCES DISCOVERY OF LIFE ON MARS WITH HIGH DEGREE OF CONFIDENCE

An analysis of the Martian Sapphire Canyon mudstone core found minerals and textures that are often linked to microbial activity. While nonbiological chemistry could also explain the signals, the finding is the closest scientists have ever come to discovering life on Mars. More data is needed to rule out nonbiological sources.

earth.com7 min read

03PROGRAMMING, DESIGN & DATA SCIENCE

Sponsored

HOW END-TO-END OBSERVABILITY BREAKS DOWN SILOS

When frontend and backend teams operate in silos, they create performance bottlenecks that can lead to user churn. Read this Datadog eBook [8] to learn how unified observability delivers full-stack visibility, reduces MTTR, and ensures every user experience is

datadoghq.comSponsor

GET EXCITED ABOUT POSTGRES 18

Postgres18 adds asynchronous I/O, which means faster reads for many use cases. This is a part of a bigger series of performance improvements planned. Asynchronous I/O allows workers to optimize idle time and improve system throughput by batching reads. It provides a more predictable and better-performing method for batching operations at the database level. Writes will continue to be synchronous as this is needed for ACID compliance.

crunchydata.com9 min read

UTF-8 IS A BRILLIANT DESIGN

UTF-8 was designed to represent millions of characters from different languages and scripts and still be backward compatible with ASCII. Every ASCII-encoded file is a valid UTF-8 file, and every UTF-8 encoded file that only has ASCII characters is a valid ASCII file. This post gets into how UTF-8 works. A link to a playground for visualizing and playing around with UTF-8 encoding is available in the post.

iamvishnu.com9 min read

04MISCELLANEOUS

A.I.'S PROPHET OF DOOM WANTS TO SHUT IT ALL DOWN

Eliezer Yudkowsky, the founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), a Berkeley-based nonprofit that studies risks from advanced artificial intelligence, believes that building powerful AI systems is a terrible idea that will end in disaster. He recently released a book co-written with MIRI's president aimed at stopping the development of AI. The book claims that everyone on Earth will die if any company or group anywhere on the planet builds an artificial superintelligence using anything remotely like current techniques. While some may see Yudkowsky as an extremist or a crank, he is a central figure in modern AI history, and his influence on the industry is undeniable.

links.tldrnewsletter.com14 min read

‘MORE EGALITARIAN': HOW NEPAL'S GEN Z USED GAMING APP DISCORD TO PICK PM

14 governments representing three parties have taken turns at governing Nepal since 2008, when the country adopted a new constitution after abolishing its monarchy. After recent protests, the country's citizens used a virtual poll on Discord to elect its new leader. A Gen Z group called Hami Nepal ran a channel where a debate on the country's future was livestreamed. After hours of debate, participants selected former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sushila Karki to lead Nepal.

aljazeera.com10 min read