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Another week, another edition of the latest tech stories and tidbits:
🤖 OpenAI acquires ex-Apple designer Jony Ive’s startup to create AI-driven physical devices and expand into intuitive hardware design.
🛠️ Lesson of the Week: Learn how to optimize queries for faster, smoother performance.
🧠 Anthropic’s new Claud Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 models boost reasoning, coding accuracy, and developer tools with no price increase.
📱 Weekly Tech Tip: Make your iPhone calls clearer with Voice Isolation.
🚀 What’s New: Refined star scoring, new level map panels, and performance improvements.
📕 Book of the Week: “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek.
Get a Quick Lesson In
Jony Ive & OpenAI Join Forces
OpenAI has acquired io, a device startup founded by ex-Apple designer Jony Ive, for nearly $6.5 billion, marking its largest acquisition to date.
The collaboration aims to develop AI-integrated physical devices, moving beyond traditional hardware to more intuitive, AI-optimized tools.
Ive’s design firm, LoveFrom, will lead creative efforts as part of OpenAI’s broader strategy to shape the future of “physical AI.”
Read OpenAI’s official release here.
Lesson of the Week
This week’s lesson is from our skill, “Working with Dashboards.” Learn how to optimize queries for faster, smoother performance.
Question of the Week:
What best describes methods used to optimize expensive dashboard queries?
Select one
A) Optimize joins
B) Add more columns to the query
C) Use indexed columns
D) Remove unnecessary columns
See if you’re right–the answer is at the bottom!
The Most Advanced Claude AI Model Is Here
Anthropic has launched Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4, delivering major upgrades in coding accuracy, reasoning depth, and agentic performance.
Opus 4 sets new benchmarks for long-duration tasks and memory retention, while Sonnet 4 offers a practical, high-performance upgrade now powering GitHub Copilot.
Both models support tool use, extended reasoning, and enhanced developer workflows via Claude Code and updated API features—available immediately with no pricing changes.
Weekly Tech Tip
Make Your iPhone Calls Clearer with Voice Isolation
If you want clearer phone calls in noisy environments, try using Apple’s hidden Voice Isolation feature. Introduced in iOS 16.4, it blocks out background noise so your voice comes through more clearly.
To turn it on:
- Start a phone call.
- Swipe down from the top-right corner to open Control Center.
- Tap Mic Mode or Phone Controls.
- Select Voice Isolation.
This setting will stay on for future calls until you turn it off.
To turn it off: Repeat the steps above and select Standard instead.
What's New
Our recent updates include stricter star score requirements, new level map panels for easier progress tracking, and backend fixes to boost performance.
Book of the Week
Simon Sinek’s concept of The Golden Circle emphasizes that the most inspiring and successful leaders and organizations start with a clear understanding of why they exist.
Unlike most who focus on what they do or how they do it, influential leaders begin with a purpose that inspires loyalty and drives innovation.
Through compelling examples, Sinek demonstrates how starting with why leads to sustained success and deeper influence.
Lesson of the Week Answer:
A, C, & D.