Overview
A year-end burst of real progress, from quieter supersonic flight and eVTOL test miles to Megachargers topping 1.2 MW. Satellite internet widened its footprint, AI crept deeper into daily work, and phone agents stepped closer to doing tasks for you. Research voices reminded us the theory still lags the practice, while developers kept things playful with terminals and 3D splats running in the browser.
The big picture
Aviation and networks are moving fast, with cleaner flight experiments, urban air mobility rehearsals, and charging and connectivity infrastructure scaling in tandem.
NASA’s X-59 makes its first flight
NASA shared a look back at the X-59’s maiden flight, a key step in testing quiet supersonic tech that could turn sonic booms into a gentle thump over land. The clip puts faces to the programme, including test pilot Nils Larson, and hints at regulatory questions to come if community noise trials go well. 🔗 Post link
Joby’s 2025 Wrapped points to first routes
Joby recapped a year of piloted tests across the US, Japan and Dubai, plus partnerships that make vertiports and operations feel closer to real service. The tone is clear, 2025 was groundwork and 2026 is meant to bring paying passengers into the picture. 🔗 Post link
Tesla pushes 1.2 MW on the Semi Megacharger
A short test video shows power climbing past the 1 MW design target, which points to quicker turnarounds for long‑haul runs if the curve holds. Fleets are already asking for sustained stats, not just the peak. 🔗 Post link
Redesigned Tesla Semi spotted with higher efficiency
First sightings list a new light bar, a 15% efficiency gain to about 1.7 kWh per mile, and a 500 mile headline range, with 1.2 MW peak charging to match the lab result above. Real‑world range will swing with loads, terrain and charge windows. 🔗 Post link
Starlink says it now covers 155+ countries
A quick map animation marks activations in 35+ new markets this year, taking service to regions where fibre is thin on the ground. The scale matters for disaster response, education and small businesses that simply need a reliable link. 🔗 Post link
Inside the AI stack, data, tooling and workflow expectations are shifting as end‑of‑year launches and hot takes set the tone for 2026.
Scale AI closes the year on a Meta deal and record contracts
“New era loaded” wraps a year that included Meta taking a 49% stake and a strong Q4 with US government work, plus a wave of robotics data and new enterprise customers. It underlines where data suppliers sit in the model training race. 🔗 Post link
Grok gains Google Drive access for company search
X Freeze shows Grok querying internal docs with permission controls and citations, pitched for legal, finance and research cases. It leans on Collections and Studio features that try to keep answers grounded in your files. 🔗 Post link
Ben Awad’s 2026 coding outlook, AI does most of the typing
Awad argues engineers should let AI write the bulk of code, switch tools as models jockey for the lead, and lean on AI‑written tests with lighter reviews. He also notes the current friction, pointing to studies where seasoned devs are slower with today’s tools. 🔗 Post link
Nader Dabit ships a Typeform‑style clone with Claude in 35 minutes
A single prompt to Claude Opus 4.5 yields OpenForm with Next.js, shadcn, Supabase, themes and analytics, plus a polished demo. The replies cheer the speed and ask about the unglamorous bits like spam controls and scale. 🔗 Post link
Agents and interfaces are getting more lifelike and more helpful, from your phone to your avatar.
AGI Mobile wants to actually use your apps
AGI Inc. comes out of stealth with a voice agent that taps and swipes through your phone to book, buy and organise on command. It starts foregrounded for trust, with background mode on the horizon and Android first. 🔗 Post link
Apple patent hints at reactive visionOS Personas
A filing suggests Personas that respond to scene cues, with rain, wind and light changing how your avatar looks. It is a small step that could make meetings and shared spaces feel less static. 🔗 Post link
Culture, research and craft reminded us what still rests on human judgement, even as tools improve.
Terence Tao on LLMs, simple maths, messy theory
Tao says the maths behind training is accessible, but we still lack a framework that predicts where models succeed or fail, so progress is led by experiments. That gap is steering much of today’s research agenda. 🔗 Post link
The Thiel Fellowship’s call on Dylan Field
A clip recalls how Figma’s founder waved off SAT scores and offered a contrarian line about chocolate, the sort of answers the fellowship prized before funding his dropout path. It rekindles the debate on selection signals and routes into building. 🔗 Post link
Playful experiments kept the timeline lively, and they point at where creation workflows are heading.
Subway Surfers, but as your terminal background
A Ghostty fork puts a looping game behind your shell, equal parts chaos and charm. It shows how modern terminals and GPUs open the door to frivolous mods that still delight builders. 🔗 Post link
15 MB Gaussian Splat runs smoothly in the browser
A single Midjourney image turned into a web‑friendly 3D scene points to lighter world models and faster prototyping. Expect more single‑image to interactive pipelines in the year ahead. 🔗 Post link
Why it matters
Quiet supersonic tests and eVTOL progress suggest air travel could change at both extremes, long‑haul and last‑mile. Pair that with 1.2 MW truck charging and broader Starlink coverage and you get a transport network that is cleaner, faster to turn around, and harder to knock offline.
Inside companies, data access and coding practice are in flux. Grok’s file‑aware search, plus arguments for AI‑first coding, will compress build cycles, but teams will need guardrails and better test habits. Rapid prototypes like OpenForm show what is possible, while studies and day‑to‑day pain remind us productivity gains are not automatic.
Phone‑level agents and reactive avatars point to more natural interfaces. If agents execute tasks you speak and avatars reflect context cues, trust, safety and privacy move to the front of design. That is where on‑device processing, transparency and consent will matter.
Finally, Tao’s reminder about theory not keeping pace explains the mood of the field, progress is empirical, fast, and sometimes surprising. The playful hacks and browser‑ready 3D demos are not just fun, they hint at new creation loops where mockups become worlds and tools fade into the background.
