The Curious Technologist

US Cities Have Too Many Bus Stops—and It’s Slowing Everyone Down

The Problem with Frequent StopsBuses in American cities crawl along at average speeds of just 8 miles per hour—barely faster than walking. One major culprit is stop frequency: US buses typically stop every 700-800 feet, while European systems use 1,300-foot...

Google API Keys Weren’t Secrets—Until Gemini Changed the Rules

The DiscoveryIn November 2025, Truffle Security researchers made an alarming discovery: Google AI Studio API keys—commonly embedded in public code for services like Google Maps—could also access the powerful Gemini AI API without developers' knowledge or explicit...

Jimi Hendrix Was a Systems Engineer in Disguise

Beyond the MythJimi Hendrix is remembered as a guitar god, a psychedelic icon who redefined rock music in the 1960s. But beneath the cultural legend lies something more technical: Hendrix was essentially a systems engineer working with analog circuits instead of...

Mac mini production will start at Apple’s new Houston facility

Apple announced a major expansion of its U.S. manufacturing footprint in Houston, revealing that Mac mini production will be moved to a new facility later this year. The company said the Houston site will also house expanded advanced AI server manufacturing and a new...

I’m Helping My Dog ‘Vibe Code’ Games

When a small cavapoo named Momo started pawing at a keyboard, Caleb Leak turned that accident into a repeatable system that turns nonsense keystrokes into playable games. The experiment pairs simple hardware (a Bluetooth keyboard and Raspberry Pi) with Claude Code, a...

Get $30 in Samsung Credit by Reserving a Galaxy S26 Ahead of Unpacked

Quick take: Samsung is offering a $30 promotional credit to people who register their interest in the Galaxy S26 lineup before Unpacked. You don’t need to pay or enter payment details to reserve — just sign up on Samsung’s website or the Shop Samsung app and apply the...

Diode: Build, Program, and Simulate Hardware in the Browser

The Diode homepage presents a compact promise: bring a hardware workshop to the web. At a glance, the site positions itself as a browser-based environment where users can build, program, and simulate hardware components without installing desktop software. What the...

Apple to Build a Single Desktop Mac in the U.S.; It’s More Symbolic Than Structural

Apple says it will start making one desktop Mac model in the U.S. later this year. The move is limited and unlikely to reshape its global supply chain.

A first look at Microsoft’s new Xbox Series X console

It’s clear the Series X was designed primarily for the vertical orientation. That’s how Microsoft always shows it in marketing materials. And the console looks awkward, with the bottom stand poking out to the side when laid horizontally. Almost as if it... fell over....

Oculus founder’s Ghost 4 military drones use AI for surveillance and attack

  Palmer Luckey rose to tech fame for inventing the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset that helped generate interest in the technology. Now he's got a different type of tech product to show off: the Ghost 4 military drone. Built by Luckey's new company,...