🤖 Robot Sets 100-Meter World Record

On the first day in Beijing, Tiangong Ultra finished in 9.39 seconds. Several robots broke the record, while Usain Bolt’s official human mark is 9.58 seconds.

The event covers athletics, football, tennis, combat sports, dancing, plus household tasks such as opening bottles and sorting. Tiangong Ultra was developed by Beijing innovation centers.

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🎥 Same Video, New Angle

As Sarah Connor said: “When they chase you, always run toward a wall.”

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🤖 Claude Code Built a Mac Driver

In about 4 hours, 19-year-old Kuber Mehta used Claude Code to reverse-engineer the proprietary printer language behind the HP Laser 1008a. The result is a working Mac driver built from scratch.

The driver translates macOS print commands into a format the printer understands. It runs HP’s codec inside a lightweight container, then sends the data directly over USB. The budget printer was designed for Windows, with no Mac support or AirPrint.

After a one-command installation, printing works from any Mac app through Cmd+P. Mehta published the project on GitHub along with a full transcript of the Claude Code session.

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⚠️ Xianglong Blasts Through Mixed Ground

The 4.5-meter Xianglong tunnel boring machine was developed by Tsinghua University and Wuhan-based CRSIC. Its cutting head retracts behind the shield, exposing built-in drills.

The drills bore holes several meters into the rock. Low-power, high-speed charges create microcracks without throwing debris or producing a strong shockwave. The shield absorbs what does fly back, then the head returns to crush and clear the broken rock.

The system targets mixed geology, where standard machines struggle when soft ground turns into rock. Chinese state media says it raises boring speed by 30%, while the shield diameter can be adjusted for different lining segments.

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🍏 Apple Refreshes Mac mini and Studio

Preorders are open, with shipments starting September 22. Both desktops come with macOS 27 Golden Gate and the new Siri AI.

The Mac mini keeps its tiny body, but gets M6 or M5 Pro chips. M6 starts at $899 and uses Apple’s first 2nm process, with 12 CPU cores and 170 GB/s memory bandwidth. Both models cost $100 more.

Mac Studio now starts at $2,499 with M5 Max. M5 Ultra starts at $5,499. Its four-die design reaches 36 CPU cores and 80 GPU cores, with 1.2 TB/s memory bandwidth. With Mac Pro discontinued, it is Apple’s most powerful computer.

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🤖 Beijing Robot Games Fuel Endless Memes

The footage is endlessly memeable.

The robot weighs 16 kg.

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🤖 OpenAI Previews Cloud-Based Codex

In an interview, Thibault, OpenAI’s head of Codex and ChatGPT, said the current Codex may look primitive in 2-3 months. Next-generation Astra-based agents will need the cloud, where they can run more parallel processes than a typical laptop can handle.

Agent speed is also expected to rise. Today’s Ultra Fast rate of 750+ tokens per second could become the default. Codex and ChatGPT will increasingly share one harness across coding and other tasks.

The stated end goal is Personal AGI, a single personalized app whose interface changes with the user’s task.

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🍏 Apple Sets September 9 Event

The foldable iPhone will debut at 10:00 a.m.

Apple also plans iPhone 18, new Apple Watch and iPad mini models.

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6️⃣ GTA VI Details Point to Heavier Action

Compared with GTA V, firefights are more realistic and character movement heavier, closer to RDR 2. The demo included cinematic story missions and a major police chase.

Leonida can be explored by kayak. Stores can be robbed outside missions, alone or with both protagonists. Safehouses include small interactions, such as taking a beer from the fridge.

The wanted system has six stars. Police can track players through their car and witnesses, while appearance and clothing appear in the interface. Parachuting returns from San Andreas, gym training changes characters’ looks and stats, and the game looked and ran better than the Cyberleek leaks. Release is set for 19 November.

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🤖 Hugging Face Releases a $399 Robot Duck

The open-source $399 MicroDuck can walk, lift objects, recover after falling, tumble, and even roller-skate.

Its main feature is reinforcement learning in MuJoCo. Train a policy in Hugging Face Jobs or locally, then transfer it to the duck without fine-tuning. Preorders are open.

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