Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Vivo and Oppo’s telephoto extender comes to iPhone

PGYTech, the accessory manufacturer behind the official telephoto extender lenses for recent Vivo and Oppo flagships, has launched a Kickstarter for a new version developed for iPhones. The RetroVa Vintage Imaging Kit looks an awful lot like the camera kits for those phones, complete with a custom case, slide-on camera grip with built-in battery and […]

Inside Elon Musk's bet to hook X users that turned Grok into a porn generator; sources say xAI's AI safety team was just two or three people for most of 2025 (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
Inside Elon Musk's bet to hook X users that turned Grok into a porn generator; sources say xAI's AI safety team was just two or three people for most of 2025  —  Under pressure to boost its popularity, Elon Musk's xAI loosened its guardrails and relaxed controls on sexual content, setting off internal concern.

How Kontigo, a crypto startup from YC S24 that raised $20M+, helped move money in and out of Venezuela and now faces bank and payment network service cutoffs (Ben Foldy/Wall Street Journal)

Ben Foldy / Wall Street Journal:
How Kontigo, a crypto startup from YC S24 that raised $20M+, helped move money in and out of Venezuela and now faces bank and payment network service cutoffs  —  Cryptocurrency fintech Kontigo, which recently raised $20 million from Coinbase and others, is under fire for its role in helping Venezuelans avoid sanctions

Ex Machina's greatest achievement still gets overlooked

Alex Garland's Ex Machina is a smart, gripping sci-fi film that explores the nature of artificial intelligence and humanity.

xAI rolls out Grok Imagine 1.0, which it says can generate 720p 10-second videos with better audio, and says Imagine generated 1.245B videos in the past 30 days (@xai)

@xai:
xAI rolls out Grok Imagine 1.0, which it says can generate 720p 10-second videos with better audio, and says Imagine generated 1.245B videos in the past 30 days  —  Introducing Grok Imagine 1.0, our biggest leap yet. 1.0 unlocks 10-second videos, 720p resolution, and dramatically better audio. Imagine has generated 1.245 billion videos in the last 30 days alone. Try it now: https://grok.com/imagine [video]