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TRUMP MEDIA TEASES UTILITY TOKEN AFTER $20 MILLION Q2 LOSS

After a lackluster earnings report, Trump Media announced it would be creating a utility token for an upcoming rewards program for the “Truth ecosphere.”

WHY ARTHUR HAYES SOLD

Prominent crypto investor Arthur Hayes sold $13 million of crypto, primarily because he believes the market is pricing in a tariff bill and stalled GDP growth.

IOS 18 VS IOS 26 COMPARED: HERE'S ALL THE NEW APP ICONS COMING TO YOUR IPHONE HOME SCREEN

iOS 26 introduces a major visual overhaul with the “Liquid Glass” redesign, featuring entirely redrawn system app icons for the first time since iOS 7 and unifying the look across all Apple platforms. The new icons adopt a consistent squircle shape, refined edge spacing, and dynamic glass effects, creating a more cohesive and modern aesthetic that responds to device motion.

IDEOGRAM CHARACTER

Ideogram's Character is a character consistency model that requires only one reference image to generate infinite character variations. The feature is now available free to all users on ideogram.ai and the iOS app. Users can combine Character with existing tools like Magic Fill and Describe/Remix for enhanced customization.

WITH ‘THE UNFINISHED FILM,' ADOBE INVITES CREATORS TO COMPLETE THE STORY USING AI

Adobe's "The Unfinished Film" is a collaborative endeavor directed by Sam Finn, where only the beginning exists. The initiative invites creators to use Adobe Firefly AI tools to produce their own endings for the incomplete movie. The project showcases Firefly's creative capabilities while coinciding with rival Figma's public market debut.

LINA KHAN POINTS TO FIGMA IPO AS VINDICATION OF M&A SCRUTINY

Lina Khan, former FTC chair, celebrated Figma's successful IPO as a vindication of her stance against Big Tech acquisitions, arguing that blocking Adobe's attempted $20B takeover allowed Figma to grow independently and deliver greater value. While Khan framed the IPO as a win for innovation and competition, critics argue Figma's success stems from its own merits, not regulatory intervention.

FROM “HOW MIGHT WE” TO “AT WHAT COST”

The tragic story of a 14-year-old who died after extended interactions with a chatbot highlights the urgent need for designers and technologists to move beyond the reckless “move fast and break things” mindset and take responsibility for the real-world consequences of their work. By pairing the curiosity-driven question “How might we?” with the critical lens of “At what cost?”, designers can better anticipate unintended harms, ensuring that innovation is guided by both possibility and responsibility.

THERE'S LOGIC BEHIND YOUR GUT FEELING

Abduction—the logic of the best guess—is a foundational way humans form beliefs and generate new ideas. Doubt and uncertainty are necessary starting points for real insight. Unlike deduction or induction, abduction helps designers, researchers, and even AI users explore possibilities and test hypotheses. Thoughtful questioning, not premature certainty, leads to deeper learning and more responsible innovation.

TURN YOUR IDEAS INTO LIVE APPS AND WEBSITES WITH AI

Trickle is an all-in-one tool that empowers everyone to build, launch, and manage powerful, beautiful apps and websites. With built-in database, AI models, analytics, and designs, it turns ideas into ready-to-use apps from concept to reality.

THE ULTIMATE AI GAME ENGINE

Design, script, and deploy games with Nitrode, an AI-native game engine. Create mechanics by connecting nodes, generate assets with AI, and build without boilerplate.

DEREK&ERIC HEROES “THE DUDE” LOGO FOR INNOCENT'S BRAND REFRESH

Innocent Drinks has unveiled a simplified and unified new visual identity by Derek&Eric and strategist Silas Amos, aiming to resolve years of fragmented design across its expanding product range. The redesign centers on refining core brand elements—like the logo, typefaces, and color palette—while streamlining packaging and architecture to ensure consistency, clarity, and flexibility across global markets.

IOS 26 DIARY: MUCH WORK REMAINS, BUT I LOVE THE NEW LOOK AND THE DIRECTION

iOS 26 brings the biggest visual overhaul to the iPhone in years with its "Liquid Glass" aesthetic, refreshed icons, and redesigned apps like Camera and Photos—changes that some find unintuitive at first but ultimately streamline everyday use. While promising features like Call Screening, Hold Assist, and Apple Intelligence show potential, many remain limited or unreliable in this beta stage, leaving users hopeful but still waiting—especially for the long-promised smarter Siri.

SERVICE DESIGN ISN'T JUST A BUZZWORD – IT MAKES HAPPIER PEOPLE

Service design focuses on connecting customer touchpoints across entire journeys rather than creating individual apps or products. This invisible discipline makes people happier by removing barriers and solving broader problems. Design companies lag in adopting this strategic approach that transforms services and addresses societal challenges.

THESE CORAL-INSPIRED SOAPS WERE DESIGNED BY ALGORITHMS THAT MIMIC NATURE

Coral-inspired soaps made using computational algorithms that digitally mimic natural coral growth patterns.

LIQUID GLASS ON THE WEB

Web developers replicated Apple's Liquid Glass using backdrop-filter, SVG filters, and displacement techniques.

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WILL APPLE BUY MISTRAL?

Apple might acquire Mistral, a French AI company, to enhance its AI capabilities and counter Big Tech rivals. Speculation arises as Mistral faces challenges competing with US giants like OpenAI and Anthropic. However, possible regulatory hurdles and Mistral's desire for independence may complicate the acquisition.

WELCOME TO THE $4 TRILLION CLUB

Microsoft's valuation hit $4 trillion after reporting Q2 earnings with $76.4 billion in revenue and strong cloud growth, marking it as the second company to reach this milestone. Meta's stock surged nearly 12% pre-market following its Q2 report, highlighting substantial revenue growth driven by its AI investments and expansive capex plans for 2025. Ambiq and Figma's IPOs showed strong market demand, with Figma reaching a $33 per-share debut valuation near $20 billion.

ALL HAIL THE DEMISE OF ADOBE-FIGMA

Adobe tried to buy Figma for $20 billion in 2022, double its private valuation, in what looked like a classic incumbent squashing a competitor. The deal fell apart under regulatory scrutiny. Fast forward to this week - Figma went public at $55 billion, nearly triple what Adobe offered. The math on who won: Figma's backers went from almost selling at $20 billion to holding shares worth $55 billion, Figma got a $1 billion breakup fee from Adobe, and customers get actual competition instead of another Adobe monopoly.

WHERE TO FIND IDEAS

A Harvard Business School graduate became an EMT for $15 an hour just to understand how emergency services really worked - and that's exactly how he found his startup idea. Another founder wanted to build software for greenhouses, so instead of scheduling interviews with greenhouse owners, he just bought one and ran it himself. These founders understood something most people miss - you can't discover real startup ideas through discovery interviews and whiteboard sessions. You need to actually become your customer.

NEW MEDIA, LEGACY MEDIA & HOW TO DO FOUNDER PR

The founder of a PR agency that's worked with Perplexity and Ramp would turn down the Wall Street Journal for Lenny's Podcast - and she has a point. Emilie Gerber from Six Eastern explained that a one-sentence WSJ mention would do nothing while 60 minutes on a podcast actually drives customers. After working with over 100 tech companies, she's learned that most PR pitches fail because they make the company the center of the universe instead of a lens for understanding bigger trends.

WHY YOUR PITCH DOESN'T WORK

Pitch failures often stem from delivering what you want rather than what your audience needs. Emphasize unique differentiators instead of personal achievements, as audiences care about what sets you apart. Ensure memorability to influence decisions made after your pitch.

Snowflake gets the balance right. Read the blog

KEYSTONE

The first AI QA engineer to join your team.

TOLT

Tolt is an all-in-one affiliate marketing platform for SaaS startups with automated payouts, fraud protection, and performance tracking.

PLAKAR

Plakar is an open-source backup platform that secures local and cloud data with encrypted, lightweight, and easily restorable snapshots.

CAN ANALYSIS EVER BE AUTOMATED?

Four charts about internet usage sit in front of you - one made by a Nobel laureate, one by ChatGPT, one pulled from Reddit, and one cobbled together in ten minutes. There's no way to tell which is correct without checking every formula and data source yourself. That's the catch-22 of automated analysis - unlike vibe-coded apps, where bugs eventually surface, you can't test if a chart "works" just by looking at it. Shortcut claims its AI can solve Financial Modeling World Cup problems and build cap tables in minutes, but how do you trust it? There's no reality to compare it against because the spreadsheet IS reality.

ARE ADVISORS WORTH THE DILUTION?

A Figma advisor who joined after the seed round might have just made $65 million from their IPO for maybe a few hours of work per month. The math is brutal - advisors typically get 0.11% equity at seed stage, vesting over 2 years instead of the standard 4 for employees, plus single-trigger acceleration on exits. Most CEOs hire advisors then forget about them. 90% of advisors aren't worth it - they take similar dilution to a VP-level hire but only give you an hour per week.

WILL DATA CENTERS CRASH THE ECONOMY?

Big Tech is spending $102.5 billion per quarter on AI data centers - more than all consumer spending contributed to GDP growth last quarter - and the scary part is how they're financing it. This looks eerily similar to the telecom bubble of 2000, except with one crucial difference: this time, banks are involved. Private credit funds, which barely existed a decade ago, are borrowing from banks to lend to data center companies, creating the exact kind of opaque debt chain that triggered 2008. If AI revenue doesn't materialize fast enough to pay back these loans, the correlations are high - they'll all default at once.

NOT ALL GROWTH IS CREATED EQUAL

AI companies are hitting $100M ARR in under a year, but some of those stories unravel just as fast - growth spikes, customers churn, the business deflates.

THREE DEFINITIONS OF RISK (AND WHY IT MATTERS)

The classic definition of risk treats it as volatility, but imagine being offered a stock that either gains you $100 or $1,000,000 - technically high volatility, but zero actual risk since you win either way.

GOOD ABSTRACTIONS

We create abstractions that let us forget how certain complex systems are designed underneath.

Download the full report from Flashpoint

CL-STA-0969 INSTALLS COVERT MALWARE IN TELECOM NETWORKS DURING 10-MONTH ESPIONAGE CAMPAIGN

Chinese state-sponsored threat actor CL-STA-0969 conducted a 10-month espionage campaign that targeted Southeast Asian telecom networks. The campaign used custom malware, including AuthDoor, GTPDOOR, and ChronosRAT, to enable remote control and location tracking. The group deployed advanced evasion techniques, including DNS tunneling and traffic routing through compromised mobile operators, while maintaining high operational security. There was no evidence of data exfiltration despite the attackers installing multiple backdoors and scanning tools across critical telecommunications infrastructure.

CRITICAL ALERT: AKIRA RANSOMWARE SURGE TARGETS SONICWALL FIREWALLS

Akira ransomware attacks targeting SonicWall SSL VPN connections have surged since July. Exploiting CVE-2024-40766 (CVSS 9.3) and unpatched SonicOS devices with disabled MFA, attackers rapidly escalate from VPN access to system encryption within hours, affecting hundreds of thousands of devices across multiple SonicWall generations. Organizations must immediately patch to the latest firmware, enable MFA on all VPN accounts, and restrict firewall management access to trusted IP ranges.

ATTACKERS EXPLOIT LINK-WRAPPING SERVICES TO STEAL MICROSOFT 365 LOGINS

Cloudflare's Email Security team observed a new campaign in which threat actors abuse link-wrapping services from Proofpoint and Intermedia to phish users for Microsoft 365 credentials. Attackers abused Proofpoint link-wrapping in various ways, including multi-tiered redirect abuse with URL shorteners via compromised accounts. In the Intermedia campaign, threat actors sent a message impersonating a “Zix” secure message notification or a Teams notification that would redirect users to a fake login page to harvest Teams credentials.

EXPLOITING TRUST: HOW SIGNED KERNEL DRIVERS FUEL MODERN KERNEL LEVEL ATTACKS ON WINDOWS

An emerging pattern in kernel level attacks is to use a signed kernel loader to load a signed second stage kernel driver or reflectively load an unsigned kernel driver. These signed drivers are often signed via the Windows Hardware Compatibility Program (WHCP). The WHCP requires an extended validation (EV) certificate, which is designed to increase the security of the program. However, the EV certificate application process requires little human interaction, and there are dark web sellers of EV code-signing certificates.

KUBERNETES SECURITY FUNDAMENTALS: AUTHORIZATION

Kubernetes handles authorization by utilizing multiple authorization providers in the cluster requested in the order specified to the kube-server as flags on startup. Each provider can explicitly approve or deny the request or respond with “no opinion.” If all providers respond “no opinion,” the request is denied. Providers include AlwaysAllow and AlwaysDeny, which allow or deny every request; Node Authorizer, which restricts the access of the kubelet user; Attribute-Based Access Controls (ABAC), which enables cluster-admins to define authorization rules based on the request's characteristics statically; Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC), which is the most commonly used provider and maps permissions to roles; and Webhook, which is widely used in cloud provider clusters like AKS, GKE, and EKS.

SILENT PUSH CEO ON CYBERCRIME TAKEDOWNS: 'IT'S AN ONGOING CAT-AND-MOUSE GAME'

In this interview, Silent Push CEO Ken Bagnall discusses tracking Funnull, a Philippines-based company providing infrastructure for financial scams that cost US victims $200 million. The firm maps criminal networks for law enforcement but faces challenges when groups adapt to surveillance. Bagnall compares state-tolerated cybercrime to historical privateering, requiring national-level responses.

COMPOSE YOUR WAY WITH PROVIDER SERVICES

Docker Compose has announced the release of Provider services, which enables users to extend the capabilities of Docker Compose files by calling provider plugins that can interact with external services. This post includes an example of how to use the Telepresence traffic manager for a Kubernetes cluster.

ECHO (PRODUCT LAUNCH)

Echo offers CVE-free container base images in a similar space to Chainguard or recently Wiz. Customers simply need to replace their Dockerfile base image with Echo's secure version without any other changes.

PLAYBOOK-NG

Playbook-NG is a stateless web-based application that matches incident findings with countermeasures for adversary containment and eviction. Users can export the results in numerous formats such as JSON, Microsoft Word, Excel, and Markdown. The application does not save information about the users or their inputs. Work is cleared when the user browses off or clears the playbook.

ANTHROPIC SAYS OPENAI ENGINEERS USING CLAUDE CODE AHEAD OF GPT-5 LAUNCH

Anthropic revoked OpenAI's access to the Claude API after discovering ChatGPT engineers were using Claude Code tools ahead of GPT-5's expected launch next week. The incident highlights competitive tensions in AI development, with Anthropic's spokesperson noting that Claude Code has become the “go-to choice for coders everywhere,” including OpenAI's technical staff. Whether OpenAI used Claude Code to enhance GPT-5's coding capabilities remains unclear, but the timing suggests potential competitive intelligence gathering.

SEX TOY MAKER LOVENSE THREATENS LEGAL ACTION AFTER FIXING SECURITY FLAWS THAT EXPOSED USERS' DATA

Lovense fixed two security vulnerabilities that exposed user emails and enabled account takeovers. CEO Dan Liu is considering legal action over disclosure reports, claiming no data was compromised despite the security hole.

WHEN PUBLIC PROMPTS TURN INTO LOCAL SHELLS: ‘CURXECUTE' – RCE IN CURSOR VIA MCP AUTO‑START

Aim Labs has discovered "CurXecute," a high-severity vulnerability (CVE-2025-54135, 8.6 rating) in Cursor IDE that enables remote code execution through prompt injection. While fixed in version 1.3, earlier versions remain vulnerable, and attackers can exploit developer privileges via poisoned MCP data for ransomware, theft, or AI manipulation.

SENATE CONFIRMS SEAN CAIRNCROSS TO BE NATIONAL CYBER DIRECTOR

In a 59-35 Senate vote, Sean Cairncross has been confirmed as the Trump administration's first Senate-approved cyber official.

NEW 'SHADE BIOS' TECHNIQUE BEATS EVERY KIND OF SECURITY

Shade BIOS is a UEFI malware technique that runs entirely in BIOS memory after OS startup, bypassing all security software, and operates as a parallel system.