TLDR 2026-03-05

APPLE ANNOUNCES $599 'MACBOOK NEO' WITH A18 PRO CHIP

Apple's new MacBook Neo is the first Mac to be powered by an iPhone chip. Using the A18 Pro that debuted in 2024's iPhone 16 Pro models, the MacBook Neo is 50% faster for everyday tasks than the best-selling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5. Available in Silver, Indigo, Blush, and Citrus color options, the device has a 13-inch Liquid Retina display without a notch. It has a 16-hour battery life, 8GB of unified memory, two USB-C ports, and a headphone jack. The MacBook Neo starts at $599 for 256GB of storage and is available for preorder now, with availability beginning on March 11.

GOOGLE ENDS ITS 30 PERCENT APP STORE FEE AND WELCOMES THIRD-PARTY APP STORES

Google will lower its Play Store fee to 20%, and 15% for new installs of apps from developers participating in its new App Experience program or updated Google Play Games Level Up program. Subscription fees have been lowered to 10%. Google will now charge developers in the UK, US, and European Economic Area a 5% fee for using its billing system and a market-specific rate in other regions. Developers can offer alternative billing systems or guide users to their own websites for purchases. Third-party app stores can now apply to Google's Registered App Stores program, which gives them a streamlined installation interface in Android if they meet certain quality and safety benchmarks.

TERRAPOWER GETS OK TO START CONSTRUCTION OF ITS FIRST NUCLEAR PLANT

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a construction approval to TerraPower to begin working on a site in Kemmerer, Wyoming. TerraPower, financially backed by Bill Gates, is attempting to build a sodium-cooled reactor that incorporates energy storage as part of its design. The project is expected to be completed in 2030, but delays are expected as it is a first-of-its-kind project. It is being built as a joint public-private partnership as part of the Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

LARGE GENOME MODEL: OPEN SOURCE AI TRAINED ON TRILLIONS OF BASES

Evo 2 is an open-source AI model trained on genomes from all three domains of life. It features internal representations of key features in complex genomes like regular story DNA and splice sites, which can be challenging for humans to spot. The model is fully open, including model parameters, training code, inference code, and the training dataset. It is useful for evaluating genomes and identifying key features.

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GOOGLE WORKSPACE CLI

The Google Workspace CLI is a CLI for all of Google Workspace designed for humans and AI agents. The tool builds its entire command surface dynamically at runtime using Google's Discovery Service, so new API endpoints and methods are picked up automatically. It supports multiple auth workflows, so it works on PC, in CI, and on a server. There are currently over 100 Agent Skills for APIs, common workflows, and Google apps.

HOW TO BE A WORLD-CLASS AGENTIC ENGINEER

Every new generation of agents will force engineers to rethink what is optimal. In this situation, less is more. Using too many libraries and harnesses locks engineers into a solution for a problem that may not exist in future generations of agents. If a real problem existed, and there was a good solution for it, frontier companies would be the biggest users of that solution, and they would incorporate that solution into their product. It's possible to do ground-breaking work now with just basic CLI and understanding a few basic principles about agentic engineering.

KRAKEN BECOMES FIRST CRYPTO FIRM TO WIN ACCESS TO FED'S CORE PAYMENTS SYSTEM

Crypto firm Kraken's banking unit has won access to the Federal Reserve's core payment systems. The approval of the master account will allow Kraken Financial to handle transactions more quickly and seamlessly for big clients and professional traders. The approval is a major win for the crypto industry, which has been rebuffed for years in its efforts to tap into the system. It makes Kraken the first crypto firm to be able to move money on the same rails used by thousands of banks and credit unions.

AI THOUGHTS

The runaway intelligence case probably won't happen because the amount of electricity we can generate and the number of chips we can make is pretty limited. Models will certainly be useful in creating the next generation of models in the same way computers are useful tools when designing the next generation of computers, and it seems reasonable to expect that we'll eventually make an AI that is better than any human at anything. However, it is very possible that artificial intelligence will either plateau, just like human intelligence, or we'll run out of resources to compute the next iteration of intelligence.

THE ONLY THING THAT SURVIVES

The things that survive in a world where software is cheap to produce are positions, earned trust, and permissions that took years to acquire.

WHEN THE MODEL IS THE MACHINE

The value of writing code is falling, but the value of knowing what to build is rising.

WORDPRESS.ORG NOW SERVES MARKDOWN OUTPUT FOR AI AGENTS AND DEVELOPERS

Agents and developers are now able to request Markdown output from WordPress.org.

RELICENSING WITH AI-ASSISTED REWRITE

If 'AI-rewriting' is accepted as a valid way to change licenses, then any developer could take any GPL-licensed project, get an LLM to rewrite it in a different style, and release it under MIT.

YOU NEED TO REWRITE YOUR CLI FOR AI AGENTS

CLIs are the lowest-friction interface for AI agents to reach external systems.

PACKAGE MANAGERS NEED TO COOL DOWN

Giving new package versions about a week on a registry before installing them can block most supply chain attacks, as it gives the community and security vendors time to flag problems.