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Tom Dotan and Berber Jin, reporting late last night for The Wall Street Journal (News+):

Apple is no longer in talks to participate in an OpenAI funding round expected to raise as much as $6.5 billion, an 11th hour end to what would have been a rare investment by the iPhone maker in another major Silicon Valley company. Apple recently fell out of the talks to join the round, which is slated to close next week, according to a knowledgeable person.

I just observed the other day that the tumultuous (to say the least) leadership situation at OpenAI seems incongruous with Apple’s.

Also surely related, to some degree, is this report on OpenAI’s financials that dropped yesterday from Mike Isaac and Erin Griffith at The New York Times:

OpenAI’s monthly revenue hit $300 million in August, up 1,700 percent since the beginning of 2023, and the company expects about $3.7 billion in annual sales this year, according to financial documents reviewed by The New York Times. OpenAI estimates that its revenue will balloon to $11.6 billion next year.

But it expects to lose roughly $5 billion this year after paying for costs related to running its services and other expenses like employee salaries and office rent, according to an analysis by a financial professional who has also reviewed the documents. Those numbers do not include paying out equity-based compensation to employees, among several large expenses not fully explained in the documents.

Rob Pike, on Mastodon:

OpenAI: We lose a little on every sale but we make it up in volume.

Sometimes color grading is fun. Sometimes it’s a drag. It’ll def be a better experience if you’re doing it with something you’ve built! Check out John Park’s build for this neocontroller color grading input box

The Silver Surfer is a ridiculous concept for a “hero.” He wasn’t even a hero, he was a herald for a gigantic planet-devouring celestial creature named Galactus. What does the Silver Surfer surf on? Why does he even have a surfboard? What planet does he come from that also developed board sports? Maybe it might have made more sense if the Silver Surfer was the Silver Solar Windsurfer? What are solar winds? Here’s more from Centauri Dreams:

In search of ever-higher velocities leaving the Solar System, we need to keep in mind the options offered by the solar wind. This stream of charged plasma particles flowing outward from the Sun carves out the protective bubble of the heliosphere, and in doing so can generate ‘winds’ of more than 500 kilometers per second. Not bad if we’re thinking in terms of harnessing the effect, perhaps by a magnetic sail that can create the field needed to interact with the wind, or an electric sail whose myriad tethers, held taut by rotation, create an electric field that repels protons and produces thrust.

But like the winds that drove the great age of sail on Earth, the solar version is treacherous, as likely to becalm the ship as to cause its sails to billow. It’s a gusty, turbulent medium, one where those velocities of 500 kilometers and more per second can as likely fall well below that figure. Exactly how it produces squalls in the form of coronal mass ejections or calmer flows is a topic under active study, which is where missions like Solar Orbiter come into play. Studying the solar surface to pin down the origin of the wind and the mechanism that drives it is at the heart of the mission.

See more!

PiMyLifeUp shares a neat Pi-powered home assistant kiosk. Check out the full tutorial on how to get your own set up.

A kiosk is a great way of interacting with your Home Assistant setup. It can give the user access to a wealth of information on a single screen, or with the addition of a touch screen, it can actually be used to control things around your home.

There are many different ways that you can set up a kiosk for the Home Assistant software. However, many of these ends up feeling either incredibly unstable, buggy or just super unresponsive. For example, we used to use a couple of Android tablets to act as our kiosks, but there were just continual random and unexplained issues. You would walk away for the tablet to randomly get stuck on a lock screen that you have previously disabled.

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

The reports are in and makers are up. RPI posted “higher than expected” profits in its first earnings report. Via the Financial Times:

The company reported a gross profit of $34.2mn in the first six months of 2024, higher than internal forecasts and a 47 per cent increase on the same period in 2023. Revenue for the period was $144mn, up from $89.3mn last year. It kept its full-year outlook unchanged.

Founder Eben Upton is quoted:

“I have become more bullish since the IPO about the quality of the domestic investor base here,” he said. “Just because there aren’t a lot of companies like us listed in the UK, doesn’t mean they can’t understand what we do.”

Read more!

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

Are you subscribed to the Adafruit Youtube channel? If you’re not already subscribed, click here! http://adafru.it/subscribe . It’s a free and easy way to keep up with our newest episodes. Here’s some of what we’re up to.

• Electronics Show and Tell Wednesdays 7:30pm

Electronics show and tell every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET.

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Every Wednesday night at 8pm ET join us for our weekly live video & chatroom! Visit http://adafruit.com/ask for more info. You can ask anything about electronics, kits at Adafruit or just stop in to meet other makers who are building cool things!

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Hang out with Noe & Pedro Ruiz every week and discover 3D printing! Get your 3D news, projects, design tutorials, shop talk and more each week..

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Each week Ladyada shows the newest great electronics at Adafruit!

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Join Ladyada streaming live for circuit board layout design, code writing, surface mount soldering and more fresh engineering and even some gaming! If Ladyada’s working on it, you’ll find it here first.

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Chip Shortage includes videos about the ongoing chip shortage in the electronics industry. Adafruit founder Ladyada discusses the current state and highlights products that are hard to get or possibly “unobtainium”.

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Project builds, hacks, and mods from John Park’s Workshop!

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This playlist highlights Adafruit manufacturing right here in NYC!

And so much more!

iA, which has been shipping a version of iA Writer for Android for 7 years:

By September, we thought we had honored our side of the new agreement. But on the very day we expected to get our access back, Google altered the deal.

We were told that read-only access to Google Drive would suit our writing app better than the desired read/write access. That’s right — read-only for a writing app.

When we pointed out that this was not what we had, or what our users wanted, Google seemed to alter the deal yet again. In order to get our users full access to their Google Drive on their devices, we now needed to pass a yearly CASA (Cloud Application Security Assessment) audit. This requires hiring a third-party vendor like KPMG.

The cost, including all internal hours, amounts to about one to two months of revenue that we would have to pay to one of Google’s corporate amigos. An indie company handing over a month’s worth of revenue to a “Big Four” firm like KPMG for a pretty much meaningless scan. And, of course, this would be a recurring annual expense. More cash for Google’s partners, while small developers like us foot the bill for Android’s deeply ingrained security shortcomings.

Developing serious productivity apps for Android sounds like fun. (See also the footnote on how stunningly rampant piracy is on Android, too.)

The Pi Foundation 7″ Touchscreen Display for Raspberry Pi lets you create interactive projects such as tablets, entertainment systems, and information dashboards. Via Raspberrypi.org

The Touch Display is compatible with all models of Raspberry Pi except the Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero 2 W, which lack a DSI connector. The earliest Raspberry Pi models lack appropriate mounting holes, requiring additional mounting hardware to fit the stand-offs on the display PCB.

…

You can mount a Raspberry Pi to the back of the Touch Display using its stand-offs and then connect the appropriate cables. You can also mount the Touch Display in a separate chassis if you have one available. The connections remain the same, though you may need longer cables depending on the chassis.

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

#circuitpythonparsec
How to bootload with an external button when you don’t have physical access to your board!

Thanks to Tod Kurt for the tip!
code example here:
https://github.com/jedgarpark/parsec/blob/main/2024-09-27/code.py
To learn about CircuitPython: <a href=”https://circuitpython.org”>https://circuitpython.org</a>

NEW PRODUCT – Adafruit Sunken USB Type C Breakout Board

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When you want a svelte USB C build, a ‘sunken’ type connector that straddles the PCBA will let you keep your build super slim. This breakout gives you all the contacts for a USB Type C connector, but lower than the classic ‘horizontal’ USB-C breakout and a vertical version.

USB C features a symmetric/reversible connector, more data pins, and higher current output capability. But, for most developers, the pin usage you know and love from older USB will work just fine. This breakout gives you all the basics you need and a resistor configuration that mimics classic USB 2.0 for a downstream connection

The two 5.1K resistors on the CC pins indicate to the upstream port to provide 5V and up to 1.5A (whether the upstream can supply that much current depends on what you’re connecting to.

For most usages, you can connect VBUS to your 5V input, GND to ground, and D+ and D- as you expect. You can monitor the CC and SBU pins to determine cable polarity or send side-band data. Or leave them disconnected.

For more details, we like this Introduction to USB C app note.

In stock and shipping now!

We’re always game for a fun, low-stakes build with a great design, like this build from Un Kyu Lee on YouTube:

With its charm, Dr. Love effortlessly steals the spotlight, making it a memorable gift for those special connections. It’s not your typical business card giveaway – it’s a delightful surprise that leaves a lasting impression.

See more on YouTube and GitHub

There’s no shortage of game builds in the Adafruit Learning System:

• DOOM Keeb
• Adabot Operation Game
• Plush Game Controller
• LedGames – a BeagleBone Black 64×64 LED Game
• DIY Bluetooth Gamepad
• Dragon Drop: a CircuitPython Game for MacroPad
• Custom Bluetooth Cherry MX Gamepad

The Python for Microcontrollers Newsletter is the place for the latest news involving Python on hardware (microcontrollers AND single board computers like Raspberry Pi).

This ad-free, spam-free weekly email is filled with CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Python information (and more) that you may have missed, all in one place!

You get a summary of all the software, events, projects, and the latest hardware worldwide once a week, no ads! You can cancel anytime.

Try our spam-free newsletter today! 

It arrives about 11 am Monday (US Eastern time) with all the week’s happenings.

And please tell your friends, colleagues, students, etc.

Please sign up > > >

Annie Isobel Hall is a jumper (US: sweater) maker and illustrator, creating hand made knitwear using a Brother KH950i knitting machine in London, UK.

My garments are mostly one offs and everything is sold through commissions. Commissions are taken on a first-come-first-served basis until my waiting list is full. I reopen commissions around once every three months, please check my instagram bio for the next date.

The latest one celebrates computers with a “Hello World” theme.

See Annie’s site here and Instagram.

The Adafruit Feather ecosystem is so rich with hardware diversity, we wanted to share them, one each day. Today is the Adafruit Radio FeatherWing – RFM69HCW 433MHz – RadioFruit!

Add short-hop wireless to your Feather with these RadioFruit Featherwings. These add-ons for any Feather board will let you integrate packetized radio (with the RFM69 radio) or LoRa radio (with the RFM9x’s). These radios are good options for kilometer-range radio, and paired with one of our WiFi, cellular or Bluetooth Feathers, will let you bridge from 433/900 MHz to the Internet or your mobile device.

These radio modules come in four variants (two modulation types and two frequencies) The RFM69’s are easiest to work with, and are well known and understood. The LoRa radios are exciting, longer-range and more powerful but also more expensive.

• RFM69 @ 433 MHz – basic packetized FSK/GFSK/MSK/GMSK/OOK radio at 433 MHz for use in Europe ITU 1 license-free ISM, or for amateur use with restrictions (check your local  amateur regulations!)
• RFM69 @ 900 MHz – basic packetized FSK/GFSK/MSK/GMSK/OOK radio at 868 or 915 MHz for use in Americas ITU 2 license-free ISM, or for amateur use with restrictions (check your amateur regulations!)
• RFM98 @ 433 MHz – LoRa capable radio at 433 MHz for use in Europe ITU 1 license-free ISM, or for amateur use with restrictions (check your local amateur regulations!)
• RFM95 @ 900 MHz – LoRa capable radio at 868 or 915 MHz for use in Americas ITU 2 license-free ISM, or for amateur use with restrictions (check your local amateur regulations!)

This is the RFM69 @ 433 MHz version These are +20dBm FSK packet radios that have a lot of nice extras in them such as encryption and auto-retransmit. They can go at least 500 meters line of sight using simple wire antennas, probably up to 5Km with directional antennas and settings tweakings

• SX1231 based module with SPI interface
• Packet radio with ready-to-go Arduino libraries
• Uses the license-free ISM bands
• +13 to +20 dBm up to 100 mW Power Output Capability (power output selectable in software)
• 50mA (+13 dBm) to 150mA (+20dBm) current draw for transmissions
• Range of approx. 350 meters, depending on obstructions, frequency, antenna and power output
• Create multipoint networks with individual node addresses
• Encrypted packet engine with AES-128

Currently tested to work with the Feather ESP8266, Teensy 3 Feather, WICED Feather, Feather 32u4 and Feather M0 series, some wiring is required to configure the FeatherWing for the chipset you plan to use.

The Radio FeatherWing Guide provides details and use examples.

Projects

Would you like to see this FeatherWing in action? Check out the project below:

• Two Player Game System for PyGamer and RFM69HCW Radio Wing

Video:

Discord is a great place to hang with people you like who like the things you like. We like it. Here are Adafruit, there’s a great Discord community where we explore Adafruit projects, plans, and customer projects, as well as hang out during our live shows! Here’s how to run Dicord on your Raspberry Pi, from PiMyLifeUp:

While Discord does not offer an official client for Linux ARM systems, plenty of third-party solutions exist. These solutions are pretty simple as most of them just load the web browser version of Discord but make it act and feel like the native application.

In particular, this guide will be showing you how to install and use a third-party Discord client called ArmCord on your Raspberry Pi. ArmCord is a lightweight Discord client that uses a newer version of Electron.

Learn more!

NASA’s podcast “Universo curioso de la NASA” shares incredible stories from NASA’s Hispanic and Latino workforce with Spanish-speaking audiences from around the world. Its second season is being released this month in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Via NASA

Lee este comunicado de prensa en español aquí.

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, NASA is releasing new content for Universo curioso de la NASA, the agency’s first Spanish-language podcast, now in its second season. A five-week season starts Tuesday with new episodes released weekly.

Listen to the preview of the second season of Universo curioso de la NASA.

In each episode, Universo curioso highlights the contributions of NASA’s Hispanic and Latino workforce to the agency’s work in Earth and space exploration for the benefit of all.

“Through the Universo curioso de la NASA podcast, we are thrilled to tell the story of NASA’s efforts to open space to more people from across the world,” said Tonya McNair, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. “In the second season, you’ll hear from NASA’s Hispanic and Latino workforce, like flight director Diana Trujillo and astronaut Marcos Berríos, helping lead some of the agency’s most vital space exploration missions and inspiring the world through discovery.”

Episodes focus on some of NASA’s top missions, bringing the wonder of exploration, space technology, and scientific discoveries to Spanish-speaking audiences around the world.

Learn more!

The de minimis exemption is a special rule for small packages. When companies (mostly in China) ship small, low-cost packages to the U.S. and if the package is worth less than $800, it gets in faster and doesn’t need to pay extra fees, or much/any customs documentation. This rule was made in 1930 to make trading easier, but a lot has changed since then!

The current Administration announced that they’re going to try to stop the misuse of the de minimis exemption. The administration plans to issue new rules for data collection for these shipments, exclude goods subject to U.S. trade tariffs, and require electronic certificates of compliance for consumer products. And, the administration is calling on Congress to pass further reforms to modernize rules like the de minimis exemption. I think this has been announced a few times, and it’s an election year, so unclear to me if anything is really going to happen.

From CNBC –

“…”report – Shein and Temu and determined the two companies are “likely responsible for more than 30 percent of all packages shipped to the United States daily under the de minimis provision, and likely nearly half of all de minimis shipments to the U.S. from China.”

Related:

• “U.S. to leave global postal union next month barring last-minute action; exit could send global parcel rates soaring”.
• The United States to Remain in the Universal Postal Union.
• Sweden adds fee per package plus VAT for packages from China.

Elizabeth Lopatto, reporting for The Verge:

X is preventing users from posting links to a newsletter containing a hacked document that’s alleged to be the Trump campaign’s research into vice presidential candidate JD Vance. The journalist who wrote the newsletter, Ken Klippenstein, has been suspended from the platform. Searches for posts containing a link to the newsletter turn up nothing.

Posting this just in case there remained an iota of a thought in your head that Elon Musk is actually a radical “free speech” absolutist and not just someone who blew $44 billion buying Twitter to warp the entire platform in the direction of his own weird un-American political agenda.

Urzhiataer shares:

Here an easy DIY for building a Fiber Lamp using WLED. Based on an original idea of andrei.erdei, but completely redesigned (bigger with 36 leds, improved, simpler with WLED)

This fiber lamp is controlled exclusively in WIFI via the WLED interface (power on/off, choice of effects, etc.)

download the files on: https://www.printables.com/model/962890-fiber-lamp-wled

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

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Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

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Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil

Shared by EndK7 on Printables:

Tiny articulated Skeleton Dragon Keychain now available to download! This dragon is very unique with lots of details and fast to print as a keychain. It’s also very flexible and I provide you a 3mf Multicolor File to highlight some spots Print in Place model, printable without Support Structures.

Download the files and learn more

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!