Quantum Leaps, Soccer AI, and Water-Free Data Centers
Episode description
Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.
MAIN CHARACTERGoogle's quantum chip just flexed on classical computers. Their new Willow chip solved a problem in minutes that would take a regular supercomputer longer than the age of the universe. We're talking 10 septillion years vs. 5 minutes. Plus, it's way better at error correction, which has been quantum's Achilles' heel. Looks like the quantum future just got a lot closer, folks.
SPICY TAKES-
Apple's walled garden just got its first hole. A Norwegian payment app called Vipps is now allowed to use the iPhone's NFC chip for tap-to-pay, breaking Apple Pay's monopoly. EU regulators are probably high-fiving right now. Wonder how long until this spreads to other countries?
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Manchester City is crowdsourcing their next kit design... with AI. Fans can use text-to-image tools to create uniform designs, and the winner becomes the official third kit for 2026-2027. Can't wait to see what "soccer jersey but make it cyberpunk" looks like on the pitch.
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Microsoft's new data centers use zero water for cooling. That's down from 125M+ liters per year for a typical center. Mother Nature says thanks.
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Poker cheaters allegedly used tiny hidden cameras to peek at dealt cards. Ocean's Eleven, eat your heart out.
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A Linux code optimization boosted SSD RAID performance by 89%. Somewhere, a sysadmin just shed a tear of joy.
If AI can design soccer jerseys and run on our laptops, how long until it's designing the next AI chip to run on?
Thanks for reading!