Welcome back to your daily memorandum talking tech, business, AI, markets, and more. 🗞️

In today’s edition we are tackling the following:

🥚 Meta unveils a Tamagotchi-style keychain wearable for its Muse AI agent.
🧬 Anthropic claims its new biology lab has already made a major discovery.
🍔 McDonald's CEO says high inflation & sluggish traffic are here to stay.
📺 Disney+ & Hulu raise prices, joining the growing wave of streaming inflation.
🤝 Trump greets China's Xi planeside in Washington as trade truce is extended.

TECHNOLOGY

• Meta unveils a Tamagotchi-style keychain wearable for its Muse AI agent (Engadget)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Mashable, PCMag}}

  • Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Muse Charm at Meta's Connect event, saying it will ship in time for December holidays.

  • Muse's cute avatar, nicknamed 'Jolly' internally, lives on a tiny screen that users activate with a fingerprint tap.

  • Pitched as the fastest way to reach Muse without glasses, the gadget gives Meta a low-stakes wearable experiment.

• Anthropic claims its new biology lab has already made a major discovery (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, TOI, Decrypt}}

  • Anthropic says an enzyme system hidden in bacteriophage DNA can cut, copy, and paste DNA like CRISPR.

  • Claude reportedly did most of the work, using about 950 agents and 210M tokens over 21 hours.

  • Researchers must still validate the find, and CEO Dario Amodei acknowledged a Stanford team found something similar.

• Meta introduces its first camera-free AI glasses to ease privacy concerns (CNA)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, The Guardian}}

  • Ray-Ban Meta Audio, unveiled at Connect 2026, starts at $349 and was designed by partner EssilorLuxottica.

  • The audio-only device handles music, podcasts, calls, speech translation, and conversations with Meta's AI assistant, Muse.

  • Meta faced backlash over wearers secretly filming people, and the new glasses could also rival Apple's Siri-powered AirPods.

BUSINESS

• McDonald's CEO says high inflation & sluggish traffic are here to stay (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: NY Post, Reuters, Yahoo!}}

  • Chris Kempczinski warned the broader restaurant industry will keep feeling pressure from rising costs and flat visits.

  • Speaking on CNBC's 'Squawk on the Street,' he said the company isn't expecting conditions to change.

  • Kempczinski will share more details on McDonald's plans to grow sales at its upcoming investor day.

• Disney+ & Hulu raise prices, joining the growing wave of streaming inflation (CBS)
  ^{_{More: Variety, TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • The ad-free Disney+ and Hulu bundle climbs to $21.99 monthly, while ad-free stand-alone plans hit $21.49 each.

  • Disney's streaming revenue from Disney+ and Hulu rose 11% to $5.5B in Q3, helped by earlier price hikes.

  • Disney is reportedly exploring a free Disney+ tier to compete more directly with YouTube and Tubi.

• Federal regulators investigate Comma.ai's hands-off driving tech after two fatal crashes (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Business Insider, TechCrunch, The Verge}}

  • NHTSA says five crashes involved Comma.ai devices failing to detect slow or stopped vehicles in their lane.

  • The crashes killed three people and injured up to 11, while some may have involved modified software.

  • In February, a RAV4 running FrogPilot, a third-party openpilot fork, struck a stopped first responder vehicle in Louisiana.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Trump greets China's Xi planeside in Washington as trade truce is extended (AP)
  ^{_{More: Bloomberg, Reuters, SCMP}}

  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the pact, which scales back tariffs, now runs until January 10, 2027.

  • Unsure a bigger deal is possible, Bessent said upcoming summits in China and Florida allow more talks.

  • Xi's three-day visit is expected to focus more on pomp than substance amid tensions over AI and Taiwan.

• AI leaders tell the UN that increasingly powerful systems pose security risks (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Business Standard, FOX}}

  • Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told the 15-member Security Council that poorly managed AI could threaten humanity.

  • OpenAI's CEO said international cooperation is needed to manage the rapidly advancing technology.

  • An AI expert also warned the dangers posed by the technology are both real and imminent.

• PitPro's first tire-changing robot clocks in at a shop in Canada (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, Business Wire}}

  • Installed at a Kal Tire in Calgary, the system can swap four tires in under 15 minutes

  • CEO Jeremy Conrad says tire shops face severe labor shortages, with workers often quitting within a year.

  • Two oven-sized robots use sensors and robotic arms to remove lug nuts, pull wheels, and fit new tires.

FUTURISM

• Vogue sends robots down the Vogue World runway, leaving viewers unimpressed (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, Vogue}}

  • The magazine's annual traveling spectacle wrapped its Milan edition this week and moves to San Francisco next year.

  • Marketed as a tribute to Italian craftsmanship and "the human touch," the show ended with unclothed Unitree robots.

  • Valentino creative director Alessandro Michele's pained reaction went viral as the robots waved and urged onlookers to clap.

• Meta takes another shot at VR, this time with IMAX-ready glasses (IGN)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Mashable}}

  • Meta VR Glasses arrive next spring from about $1.3k and are five times lighter than the Quest 3.

  • Zuckerberg called the device a breakthrough after Meta scaled back VR and shifted its focus from the Metaverse.

  • Built for entertainment, the glasses offer 5K micro-OLED displays, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and a pocketable battery puck.

• Eight Sleep's Pod 6 shrinks, adding solo sizes that start under $2k (CNET)
  ^{_{More: Mashable, Business Wire, Yahoo!}}

  • Its 50% smaller footprint fits most bed frames, and it adjusts each side's temperature 20% faster.

  • With nine times more sensors, it tailors temperature for each sleeper and ignores pets or kids in bed.

  • The Pod 6 is out now in over 37 countries, with standard sizes costing about $2.7k.

• Stay ahead of AI at work*

  • Cut through the hype. Roko’s Basilisk distills the day’s AI breakthroughs, market moves, and workable workflows into a five-minute brief.

  • Get one sharp deep dive, fast Quick Hits, and a witty pro tip, plus links that actually matter.

  • Join 100k+ readers who start decisions here each morning.

CONTENT

• Bending Spoons' Luca Ferrari’s journey from a $40k start to beating private equity (All-In Podcast)

  • Luca Ferrari details Bending Spoons' in-house tech stack, shrinking teams, and its strict '10 out of 10' standard.

  • He covers using debt as an accelerant, the risk of rising rates, and rival bidders for deals.

  • Ferrari also explains what the company acquires, why it skips building from scratch, and its Milan outsider advantage

• Your weirdest interests might spark your best ideas, says Replit's Amjad Masad (a16z)

  • Amjad Masad and Gagan Biyani join Erik Torenberg to rethink education for a generation growing up with AI.

  • Masad values young people's willingness to question assumptions and backs project-based learning over chasing grades.

  • He calls starting a company a possible "premature optimization," and the group asks if founders professionalize too early.

• Oscar-winning writer Michael Arndt teaches the craft of telling great stories (David Perell)

  • Arndt, who worked on 'Toy Story 3,' explains Pixar's lasting success and what defines a Pixar-level team.

  • Having read thousands of screenplays, the 'Little Miss Sunshine' writer explains how to spot a good script.

  • He also covers what makes a great villain, why act one matters, and his rollercoaster framework.

EXTRAS

• YouTube's new conversational tool lets creators edit videos using plain language (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, Mashable}}

  • The chat-based editor, unveiled at Made On YouTube, works on both long- and short-form footage.

  • YouTuber Happy Kelli said a one-hour shoot can take 10 hours or more to edit.

  • In her demo, the AI picked the best dance take per outfit before she added music and transitions.

• LinkedIn launches new tools to fight fake profiles & fabricated work histories (WSJ)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch}}

  • Members can now vouch for each other's experience, while businesses gain controls over who associates with their brand.

  • LinkedIn's existing verification tools have already confirmed 115M users and over 700k companies on the platform.

  • Product VP Oscar Rodriguez said faking credibility has never been cheaper, calling authenticity the internet's most valuable currency.

• F-35 fighter parts reportedly end up with Chinese authorities in Hong Kong (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: NY Post, AP, Straits Times}}

  • A UPS shipment of a cockpit canopy and weapons bay door from Australia was diverted in late May.

  • Lockheed Martin's fifth-generation stealth fighter is sold only to Washington's closest partners and allies.

  • A $24B F-35 sale to Saudi Arabia, approved last week, has some lawmakers worried about Chinese access.

AND MORE

• Qantas workers launch a 24-hour strike across four Australian airports.

• Even Americans who rely on AI daily still worry about the technology.

• Athyna: Hire vetted LATAM engineers and save up to 70% on salary costs.*

• Zoox sidelines Atlanta test fleet after workers report toxic gas exposure symptoms.

• Honda reportedly plans $2.5B investment in a new Ohio hybrid vehicle plant.

• If Amazon can't figure out how to eliminate carbon emissions, who can?

• China's 'Lipstick King' faces slowing growth & AI disruption in livestream shopping.