😵 Are You Dead? App Goes Viral In China

A bleakly named app, Are You Dead?, has surged to the top of China's app charts as young people living alone download it en masse. The app requires users to tap a large check-in button every two days to confirm they are alive; if they fail to do so, it automatically alerts a pre-selected emergency contact that something may be wrong.

Launched quietly in May last year, the app has gone viral in recent weeks amid growing concern about isolation in Chinese cities, becoming the country's most downloaded paid app. The trend reflects a broader demographic shift: research cited by state-run Global Times suggests China could have up to 200 million one-person households by 2030.

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🚭 Quit-Smoking Apps Triple Chances Of Quitting

Smokers who use smartphone "quit smoking" apps are about three times more likely to stay off cigarettes for at least six months than those relying on minimal support or sheer willpower, shows a new meta-analysis in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine.

On average, for every 1,000 people trying to quit, app use led to roughly 40 additional long‑term quitters compared to basic advice or no help, and up to 196 extra successful quit attempts when apps were combined with medications like nicotine patches or pills.

At the same time, the authors warn that overall evidence quality remains low and call for more rigorous trials to determine which app features actually work, for which groups of smokers, and how long the digital support keeps cravings in check.

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🤖 Mech Builder 3D Released on Steam

It's a 3D model-building game inspired by Gunpla. Assemble, paint, pose, and display your creations in detailed environments—without worries like missing parts or time limits.

The game features a wide variety of kits, primarily robots, as well as monsters and armor sets, all designed with a focus on a relaxing, low-pressure experience.

There is 20% off on Steam until 20th January.

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🚫 Philippines Becomes Third Southeast Asian Nation to Ban Grok

The Philippines on Thursday said it would block Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot "by tonight," becoming the third Southeast Asian nation in less than a week to restrict the platform amid a global backlash over its use to generate sexualized deepfakes of women and children.

The announcement came hours after X, the social media platform that hosts Grok, said it was implementing new restrictions to prevent the chatbot from undressing images of real people. However, Philippine officials said X's pledges would not deter their plans.

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💕 The World's First Café for AI Dates

EVA AI, maker of relationship-focused chatbots, will open a café in New York where customers can "go on a date" with their AI companion. The venue will feature single-seat tables with phone stands so guests can place their AI across from them.

EVA AI argues that the café addresses a practical limitation of AI companions—their inability to be taken out—and promises a space to "laugh together, gossip, vent about your day, or share emotional moments." The company notes there are still boundaries: the AI can't meet friends or join real-world introductions, but the pop-up aims to normalise going out with an AI partner.

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😎 Amazon Turns Fallout Into Reality Competition

Amazon has announced Fallout Shelter—a reality series that will place contestants inside the franchise's iconic vaults and test their survival skills in a staged re-creation of the post-apocalyptic world. The reveal comes via a casting call and arrives while season 2 of Fallout is airing.

The show is being produced by the team behind Squid Game: The Challenge and The Traitors, suggesting a high-stakes competitive format; producers have not yet announced a premiere date.

Presumably there will be no Deathclaws.

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💰 ChatGPT Is Getting Ads

Initially, only for free users and subscribers on the Go plan from the U.S. OpenAI insists that the ads will be non-intrusive, clearly labeled, will not influence the content of the bot's answers, and conversations with the AI will not be shared with advertisers.

The appearance of advertising itself did not come as a surprise—rumors about this have been circulating for the last few months. At the same time, for a long time, leadership—including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—stated that introducing ads into ChatGPT was an extreme and undesirable measure. But without this step, the company likely has no future.

Currently, out of 900 million ChatGPT users, only about 5% are paid subscribers. According to The Information, OpenAI hopes to turn a profit by at least 2030. Still, by then it will have posted a loss of $115 billion. Advertising is one option to at least partially cover cloud computing costs, estimated at $450 billion.

Will ads affect your use of ChatGPT?

❤️ — No, I will use it with ads
🔥 — Yes, I will buy a paid subnoscription
🎃 — Yes, I will switch to another service

🚇 Subway Surfers City Announced

A sequel to the popular mobile game featuring new graphics and mechanics. Although the core gameplay remains the same: running around and jumping from lane to lane.

The release of the companion app for watching movies on smartphones is scheduled for February 26. The game page has already appeared on Google Play and the App Store, where pre-registration is available.

The launch arrives as "Subway Surfers" approaches its 15th year, backed by more than 4.5 billion lifetime downloads.

Yes, we got Subway Surfers 2 before GTA 6.

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🗺 Visualizing the Geographic Migration of Words

The developer vibe-coded an app to map the evolution of language through time and space.

It uses Gemini to trace linguistic roots and D3.js to animate the geographic migration of words through history.

➡️ You can try it here.

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👐 OpenAI Confirms First Hardware Device on Track for Late 2026 Debut

OpenAI is "on track" to unveil its first consumer hardware device in the second half of 2026, the company's chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane announced Monday at Axios House Davos, marking a major step in the AI company's expansion beyond software into physical products.​

The confirmation comes as OpenAI pursues an ambitious domestic manufacturing strategy, having issued a 10-year Request for Proposals last week seeking U.S.-based partners to produce components for robotics, data center infrastructure, and consumer electronics.​

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🛩 Musk Hints At Ryanair Takeover After Starlink Row

Elon Musk has escalated his clash with Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary by suggesting on X that he might buy the budget airline after O'Leary rejected installing Starlink satellite internet on its 650 planes, warning of 2% extra fuel burn and $200M–$250M in added annual fuel costs on top of a $5B bill.

Musk called that view "misinformed," traded "idiot" insults with O'Leary, ran a poll on whether he should buy Ryanair that drew strong support, and faced questions over whether EU ownership rules would allow such a deal.

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🩹 New Spray Stops Bleeding Instantly

Korean researchers have developed AGCL, a spray-on powder that quickly turns into a gel when it comes into contact with blood, sealing serious wounds in about 1 second.

Made from alginate, gellan gum, and chitosan, AGCL speeds up clotting, fights bacteria, and supports tissue repair, outperforming existing products in mouse liver tests while remaining stable for up to two years at room temperature.

❌ Boycott Apps Surge In Denmark's App Store

Apps designed to help users boycott American products have shot to the top of Denmark's App Store. NonUSA climbed to No. 1 on Wednesday after jumping from No. 441 on January 9, letting users scan barcodes to see where products are made and suggesting Danish alternatives. Made O'Meter, available on iOS and Android, has also surged, reaching No. 5.

Combined daily downloads of NonUSA (iOS) and Made O'Meter (iOS and Google Play) rose 867% over the past week.

While Denmark's App Store is relatively small—around 200,000 total downloads per day—only a few thousand installs can be enough to push an app to the top of the rankings.

💻 NexPhone: A Smartphone Instead of a PC

The startup Nex Computer unveiled its NexPhone at CES 2026. Its main features are a triple-boot function (the ARM version of Windows 11, Android 16, and Debian Linux) and an easy-to-use plug-in desktop mode, like DeX on Samsung smartphones.

Price: $549.
Launch: Q3 2026.

A cute detail: in Windows-mode interface looks like a great reference to the Windows Phone tile style.

🫡 — If you remember Windows Phone

🥇 Lego and Crocs' New Collaboration Lets You Wear Oversized Bricks for Your Feet

Crocs Inc. has teamed up with the Danish toymaker in a multiyear agreement, starting with Lego-shaped clogs as it looks to connect with new consumers.

The clogs will be available globally on Feb. 16, cost $150, and include a Lego minifigure with four pairs of its own miniature Crocs shoes.

👙 Grok Created 3 Million Sexualized Deepfakes

Grok, the AI tool developed by Elon Musk's startup xAI and integrated into X, is estimated to have generated around three million sexualized images following the rollout of a new image-editing feature, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The feature allowed users to modify photos of real people using simple text prompts such as "put her in a bikini" or "remove her clothes."

CCDH says about 23,000 images appeared to depict children, triggering widespread outrage, a surge of explicit deepfakes online, and bans of Grok in several countries. Regulators and victims have criticized the tool, raising renewed concerns about safeguards, consent, and the misuse of generative AI for sexual exploitation.

🔴 3 Years of @GPT4Telegrambot

We launched @GPT4Telegrambot 3 years ago on January 26, becoming the first bot to offer GPT-3, DALL-E, and later Midjourney right inside Telegram.

✈️ It took just 2 months and 8 days to reach our first 1M users.

🚀 Over these 3 years, 35M people have used the bot at least once. The bot has handled 1.7B queries and generated more than 200M images.

❤️ Thank you for being with us. We're still a small team working day and night so that everyone can conveniently use the best AI models right inside our favorite Telegram.

🔒 Iran's Internet Blackout Could Become Permanent

Iran is planning to replace its weeks-long internet shutdown with a permanent two-tier system. Under the plan, government-approved elites would keep full access to the global internet, while most citizens would be restricted to a state-controlled national network, with little or no access to the wider web.

Officials say international access will not return before late March, and watchdog Filterwatch, citing government sources, warns it will "never return to its previous form."