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Image Credits: Skip/Arc'teryx

👖 Power pants: Skip exited stealth this week to announce a partnership with outdoor clothing specialist Arc'teryx. The deal is the first to bring Skip's MO/GO technology to market: "powered pants" that utilize a soft exoskeleton technology, developed in-house at Alphabet's X Labs moonshot factory. Read more

🇮🇪 European privacy watchdog has questions for X: X quietly pushed out a change that appears to default user data into its AI training pool for Grok, a move that was spotted by users of the platform. The development has caught the attention of X's European privacy watchdog, the Irish Data Protection Commission, which told TechCrunch it's "surprised" by the platform's move. Read more

Oh, and here's how you can prevent X from using your data. Read more

🚀 SpaceX can resume Falcon 9 launches: Note, it's been just two weeks after the rocket vehicle experienced an anomaly on orbit. The space company had to conduct an investigation, overseen by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, and then identify the probable cause of the anomaly and take the corrective actions it will take to ensure it doesn't happen again. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Apple

🍎 Apple commits to AI safety: Apple joins 15 other Big Tech companies in signing the White House's voluntary commitment to developing safe, secure and trustworthy AI. It will be interesting to see what happens, but we heard Apple loud and clear at WWDC in June: It's going all in on generative AI, starting with a partnership that embeds ChatGPT in the iPhone. Read more

🪙 Ledger launches Ledger Flex: The French startup, mostly known for its secure crypto hardware wallets, launched a new midrange device priced at $249 that features an E-Ink display to navigate the interface and approve transactions with a tap. Read more

🎵 TikTok sings: TikTok is looking to take on YouTube Music and Shazam with a new feature called "Sound Search," which lets you find a sound by singing, humming or playing it. Read more

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Around the web

❌ Hacked: Call it a cautionary tale — well, that's exactly what the founder and CEO of KnowBe4 called it. In a Wired report, Stu Sjouwerman describes what happened when the company unwittingly hired a North Korean hacker. That person then attempted to load malware into the company's network. Read more

💰 Splurging isn't a thing anymore: People making $100,000 and above are not tapping into their discretionary spending power these days, according to MarketWatch. Read more