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Here’s what you can expect from today’s newsletter

• 🍸 My Problem

• 📰 Headlines

• 🎁 Giveaway

• 🛠️ Tools

• 🤑 Deals

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Hi ,

Happy Sunday (or Monday, depending on your reading time)!

Alright, I need to get something off my chest.

I have a problem.

And no, it’s not that kind of problem. I’m talking about an entirely different beast. It’s a problem that has profound effects and can impact my friends, family, and coworkers.

And that’s lifetime deal SaaS products, aka. LTD’s

Now, combine that with the seduction of a 'lifetime deal,' and you've got my Achilles' heel.

Running a business isn’t easy, but thankfully, there are tools that make it easier to manage. The kicker here is that most of these products are hella expensive.

So instead of paying $99 a month for a product you know you’re going to use a lot, you pony up $400 upfront and take the lifetime deal. I mean, it’s a no-brainer, right? And for the most part, it is.

But no one ever tells you that once you take your first hit, there’s no coming back; you’re instantly hooked on the high that is LTDs, chasing the dragon into whatever marketplace it takes you.

Want to see what I’m talking about? Head on over to AppSumo. This website acts as a launchpad for many early-stage startups looking to infuse customers into their products. They do a really good job at it, too (If I had a really cool product and needed customers, I would use AppSumo).

Anyway, take a look at what they have on the front page.

There’s a bunch of useful stuff here. The cost of admission here goes as low as $29! Mind you, some of these usually cost around $29 per month.

So you can see the value here: instead of paying $29 per month like some kind of jerk, I’m absolutely going to take the lifetime deal and pay that one-time fee. I mean, who wouldn’t?

While LTD’s are great and all, some potential risks are associated with it. For example, the founder or actual company could very well tank the product and put a halt to development because they ran out of money or the resources to develop said product. But hey, that’s the risk you take.

The other side could be that the product isn’t what was advertised. Thankfully, AppSumo’s platform has a strong, opinionated user base that’s not afraid to leave a bad review. If a product sucks, the community will be sure to let every other user know about it. 

What’s even better (and here’s where I think my problem stems from) is that AppSumo gives you a 60-day window to try the product. If you aren’t satisfied with it, you can return it for a full refund, no questions asked.

So what happens is that I buy something and then realize I don’t really need this or think to myself, “damn, this product sucks,” and proceed to return it for AppSumo credit (because let’s be real, I want to keep chasing that high), essentially repeating the whole cycle all over again.

Now, I’m not writing this to plug AppSumo or anything, even though I’m an affiliate, but I just wanted to express what this website is doing to me. Whether it’s helping or putting a dent into my company’s finances, well, the jury is still out.

In my twisted love affair with LTDs, the magnetic allure of "just one more deal" keeps drawing me back, pushing me into a loop of discovery, excitement, and, sometimes, disappointment.

But here’s what I discovered: the real addiction isn’t to the deals but to the continuous pursuit of optimization, to making everything around me work just a tad bit smarter and smoother.

Anyway, sorry for the long rant. Here’s the final takeaway: find the right balance and make choices that propel us forward. Let's keep chasing that high – but do so with our feet firmly on the ground.

📰 THE HEADLINES

Apple shocks employees by scrapping ambitious electric car project

Apple cancels its electric vehicle project "Project Titan," opting instead to focus on generative AI and signaling layoffs in the car project team.

🚘 End of the Road for Titan: Apple ceases development on "Project Titan", its anticipated electric car project.

🔄 AI Future: The former car project team is now tasked with generative AI initiatives.

📉 Layoffs Announced: Leadership announces an unspecified number of layoffs resulting from the project's discontinuation.

🔍 Persistent Challenges: Despite years of speculation and effort, faced by high staff turnover and project uncertainties, Apple struggled to fulfill its automotive ambitions.

🤖 AI Investment Surge: Redirecting focus, Apple is upping its stakes in AI, developing its own AI model, Ajax, and preparing to launch new AI features.

Elon Musk sues OpenAI over abandonment of AI for Humanity mission

Elon Musk sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, accusing them of prioritizing profit over their original mission of benefiting humanity through AI development, with significant claims regarding the GPT-4 model and OpenAI's relationship with Microsoft.

📜 Legal Action: Musk files a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman in San Francisco, alleging that they deviated from their founding purpose of profit-making in partnership with Microsoft.

🔏 Closed-Source Concerns: The suit criticizes OpenAI for making the GPT-4 model proprietary, a move allegedly driven by profit motives rather than safety, transforming it into a "closed-source de facto subsidiary" of Microsoft.

🌐 Mission Misalignment: Musk seeks to reinstate OpenAI’s original nonprofit and open-source ethos, claiming the current trajectory benefits a few, including Microsoft, over the broader welfare of humanity.

🤖 Advancements in AI: Asserts GPT-4’s superior reasoning capabilities and hints at a more advanced AI model, "Q Star," potentially nearing true artificial general intelligence (AGI).`

COOL STUFF

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Google’s answer to ChatGPT is absolute trash. Its CEO even admits it

Google CEO Sundar Pichai committed to structural reforms and enhancing guardrails around the Gemini AI app after it produced problematic content related to race, emphasizing the urgency of maintaining user trust and addressing biases.

🔄 Immediate Action: Sundar Pichai acknowledged the controversial responses from the Gemini AI app as unacceptable, promising structural changes to correct biases.

🛑 Suspension and Criticism: Google paused the Gemini image creation tool because it generated inappropriate content, sparking significant criticism for biases, including accusations of anti-white sentiment.

🔧 Guardrail Overhaul: Google has initiated efforts to improve Gemini's guardrails to reduce bias and improve response accuracy, with Pichai noting substantial progress.

📜 Pichai's Promise: In a detailed memo, Pichai emphasized Google’s mission to provide unbiased, accurate information and announced comprehensive actions to fix and improve AI products.

🚀 Future Focus: Despite the controversy, Google aims to leverage its infrastructural and research capabilities to develop AI products that enhance the user experience and uphold trust.

SOMEWHAT NOTABLE

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Headlines worth checking out

Google Maps is about to get 10X better: Google appears to globally roll out “glanceable directions while navigating” on Maps, which shows real-time ETA and turn-by-turn directions on the lock screen

🚨 Hope you don’t own any of these home security cameras: These video doorbells can be hijacked by anyone who's close to them, researchers find. All someone needs to do is download an app, hold the doorbell's button for eight seconds, and they can pair the camera with their phone.

Flop rock: inside the underground floppy disk music scene: Did you know there’s an underground floppy disk music scene? Well, there is, and it’s flaprock: I don’t think you’re ready for this.

Samsung has revealed a new wearable device that promises to revolutionize health tracking. Focusing on sleep, movement, and vitality, this gadget is set to be a game-changer. Stay tuned for more details on this exciting development.

Get ready for the OnePlus Watch 2, the brand's latest smartwatch: This smartwatch boasts an impressive battery life of 100 hours. But here's the twist: it runs on two different operating systems.

Meta will showcase advanced AR glasses at the developer conference: Meta is gearing up to unveil its highly anticipated AR glasses, codenamed Orion, at this year's developer conference.

Sony to lay off 900 staff, shut down London studio, and others: Sony has announced a significant reduction in its workforce, which will impact several of its first-party studios, including Insomniac Games, Guerrilla, Naughty Dog, and Firesprite.

🎁 Giveaway(s)

We recently partnered with Bonbon, and they’ve been feeding us (well, really, our readers) with giveaway prizes. Instead of nagging you guys about each one, we made a dedicated page that lists them all. You can find that page here or on our newsletter homepage here.

If you enjoy getting free stuff, make sure to check back on that page for new giveaways. We will update it once a week with new giveaways and contest information.

🤖 Tools

Meco: A distraction-free space for reading newsletters outside the inbox. The best part? It’s completely free.

Fable: Helps you increase website conversions from your existing funnel with really cool interactive demos.

Lapse is a photo app that requires users to wait to share unedited pictures as they are “developed” like film.

KnowledgeOwl: Builds a shareable knowledge base for your product documentation, call center knowledge, and whatever else you can think of.

Leo by Brave: AI-powered assistant that can create real-time summaries of webpages or videos, generate long-form content, and more on Android

Arc Search: A new search engine that uses AI to find various sites related to your query.

Photoroom: AI-based photo editing app. If Canva made an app for your pictures, this would be it.

💸 Deals

Get 33% off Anker’s Soundcore Life Q20 headphones

Don't miss out on getting the Soundcore Life Q20 headphones for just under $40.

Pixel Tablet now available for $449, a record-breaking $150 off

The 256GB version of the Pixel Tablet is only $449 for a little while.

Sneaky Jabra flash sale hooks you up with 30% off sitewide

Jabra is offering a 30% discount on all their products until 2/29, so take...

Get Soundcore’s $100 Space A40 earbuds for just $53

If you're on the lookout for great earbuds, these ones from Anker are discounted...

Stock up: Xbox controllers are down to a record low, now $44

If you need a spare Xbox controller because one of your stupid friends broke...

New Samsung Galaxy Book4 series drops with huge discounts

Samsung's new Galaxy Book4 laptops already come with a discount.

Learn 24 languages with Rosetta Stone’s $159.99-lifetime deal

Rosetta Stone is offering a lifetime subscription for all 24 languages for a one-time fee for just $160

Get lifetime access to Microsoft Office Pro for just $30

Say goodbye to subscription fees and hello to endless productivity

Get 3 months of free Audible Plus with new Amazon promo

🎬 Apple TV+ free trial 🍿

🍿 Paramount Plus gifts free month for new subscribers

Free money: Score a $100 PSN for $87

This Verizon offer gets you a free iPhone 15. No trade-in req’d

Quick, score 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just $26

Huge discount on top-tier LG C3 TV: $1,300 off, exceptional value

Sketch out the savings with this Apple Pencil deal, now just $80

Samsung’s 50″ The Frame TV gets a rare $400 discount

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