Retro tech is making a comeback, and this week, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) put hard numbers to that trend in terms of music consumption habits. Surprisingly, the organization reported that CDs ' yes, the shiny, round things that Spotify supposedly killed ' are growing once again. According to the RIAA's new report, CDs generated $171.1 million in revenue during the first half of 2026 ' up 58.6% from roughly $107.9 million in the first half of 2025 ' on 17.5 million units sold, up 45.7% from about 12 million units in the same period last year. That rebound is all the more interesting because it follows a rough 2025. Last year's full-year report showed CD revenue had actually fallen 7.8% for the full year, from $338.9 million in 2024 to $312.4 million in 2025, while units sold dropped 11.6%, from 33.3 million to 29.5 million. The growth comes amid a surge of renewed interest in simpler tech, like so-called dumbphones, digital cameras, typewriters, landlines, and physical media like CDs and vinyl, among other categories. For Gen Z, the demand for these devices represents a sort of yearning for an era of tech they never got to experience ' where you had more control over when you engaged with technology and how, and tech itself had less room to invade your life with its notifications, addictive apps, and algorithms....

Researchers from MIT have designed a new qubit architecture that enables qubits to interact with each other much more quickly while remaining very stable. This advance could someday help scientists build practical quantum computers that can run long, complex algorithms with high accuracy. Qubits, which are the building blocks of a quantum computer, usually only store data and rely on other electronics to perform operations and communicate. But qubits are so fragile and error-prone that it is difficult for scientists to connect enough qubits before they lose their information and need to be reset. The MIT team designed a dual-purpose qubit with two separate parts: one component that stores data and one component that interacts with other qubits and electronics. This design improves the reliability of the qubit and enables it to operate with a reduced error rate, so it can perform more computations in the same time span. While this research is still in its early days, it holds the potential to help scientists build large-scale, useful quantum computers that can solve real problems which are too difficult for traditional supercomputers to handle....

The fundraise is a testament to the enduring need for social apps that connect people with one another more directly, instead of through personalized algorithms filled with creator content and now, often, AI slop. 'Something that has to be true and will be true is that people will still want to see more of their friends,' Sharp told TechCrunch in December, referring to how For You-style feeds have taken over today's social media. 'The photos and videos you take will need to find a place where they can reach the intended audience,' he said. Business Insider first spotted the SEC filing, which is under the startup's name, Lone Palm Labs. The filing, dated August 19, indicates the funding itself was closed in December. PitchBook now estimates the startup is valued at over $100 million. Launched in 2023 as more of a personal photo journal, Retro has since expanded its feature set to let users privately share photos of their week with friends; create shared albums; view and share recaps; or 'rewind' to time-travel back through photo memories....

Most digital tools are designed for efficiency, not exploration ' and that can stymie innovation. New research shows that standard algorithms channel team members toward popular, familiar information, leading them to independently converge on the same ideas. But the researchers uncovered a surprisingly simple fix: By using algorithms designed to surface diverse, uncommon information, domain experts can avoid 'ideation bubbles' and generate ideas across entirely new solution spaces. Algorithmic tools promise to democratize access to knowledge and thus spark creativity and innovation, but research we conducted revealed a hidden risk: Those tools may be silently narrowing organizations' creative potential by suppressing the value of expertise. The fault lies not with the experts but with the hidden architecture of the tools they use. The invisible design choices embedded in algorithmic tools fundamentally shape creative output. Standard algorithms behind search, discovery, recommendations, or large language models (LLMs) are designed around exploitation logic: They prioritize popular, relevant results, which reinforces what users already know instead of challenging them to explore. When such tools are designed for efficiency rather than exploration, they channel users toward conventional information, creating what we call ideation bubbles: clusters of similar ideas that represent a dangerous homogeneity of thought....