Jizhi Dynamics launches the multi-form embodied robot TRON 2
China Media Group unveils the mascot for the 2026 Spring Festival Gala
Hainan Free Trade Port completes island-wide customs closure
Volcengine officially releases the Doubao Large Model 1.8
OpenAI announces developers can submit apps to ChatGPT
Rumors You Can Just Glance At
Apple adjusts App Store and iOS rules in Japan
On December 18, Apple announced a series of adjustments to the App Store and the iOS system in Japan to comply with the regulatory requirements of the Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA). Under the new rules, developers are allowed to offer third-party payment methods within their apps, direct users to websites to complete purchases, or distribute apps through alternative app marketplaces, alongside the introduction of a new fee structure. The overall framework is similar to the EU’s DMA, but differs in areas such as the parallel presentation of payment options, app distribution channels, and interoperability requirements.
In addition, the MSCA is driving several system-level changes, including allowing users to choose default browsers, search engines, and navigation apps during setup, as well as opening the side button to eligible third-party voice assistants. In terms of protections for minors, Apple has introduced stricter restrictions on payments and external links for children’s apps and underage users. These changes began rolling out with the iOS 26.2 update and apply only to iOS apps distributed in Japan. Source
Jizhi Dynamics launches the multi-form embodied robot TRON 2
On December 18, LimX Dynamics announced the launch of its multi-form embodied robot TRON 2 and opened pre-orders, with a starting price of RMB 49,800. The product features a modular design that allows a single core body to rapidly switch between multiple configurations—such as dual-arm, bipedal, and wheeled-leg forms—covering use cases ranging from fine manipulation to mobility across complex terrain.
In terms of system capabilities, TRON 2 is equipped with high-degree-of-freedom embodied dual arms and all-terrain locomotion, and supports the integration of multimodal perception components. The product offers open APIs and standardized hardware interfaces, enabling compatibility with mainstream Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, and is accompanied by secondary development tools and a data platform, targeting applications in research, industry, and embodied intelligence–related fields. Source
China Media Group unveils the mascot for the 2026 Spring Festival Gala
China Media Group has revealed the mascots for the 2026 Spring Festival Gala: four fine horses named “Qiqi,” “Jiji,” “Chichi,” and “Chengcheng,” which made their debut together. According to the announcement, the mascot designs draw inspiration from iconic depictions of horses across different periods of Chinese history, incorporating traditional motifs such as flowing cloud patterns and mountain-cloud patterns, symbolizing auspicious wishes for success and a bright future. Source
Hainan Free Trade Port completes island-wide customs closure
According to the official Hainan Free Trade Port WeChat account, starting December 18, 2025, the Hainan Free Trade Port will officially implement an island-wide customs closure. After the closure takes effect, the relationship between Hainan and areas outside the island will be defined as the “first line,” with “outside the island” including not only foreign countries and regions, but also Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.
The account also released two catalogues. The first is a prohibited and restricted list, covering goods and items that are banned or restricted from import and export; goods and items not on the list may move freely. The second is the catalogue of taxable imported goods (also known as the “zero-tariff negative list”): goods not included in this catalogue may enter the free trade port exempt from import duties. After the customs closure, the policies of “zero tariffs, low tax rates, and a simplified tax system” will gradually be extended to a broader scope.
For businesses, the Hainan Free Trade Port means a wider range of policy benefits with lower thresholds; for individuals, it means that purchasing various products in Hainan will become more affordable. Source
Volcengine officially releases the Doubao Large Model 1.8
At the Volcano Engine Force Core Power Conference held on December 18, ByteDance officially released Doubao Large Model 1.8. The model has been specifically optimized for multimodal agent scenarios, with enhanced capabilities in tool invocation, complex instruction understanding, and OS agent–related functions, significantly improving its planning and execution performance when handling complex tasks.
Volcano Engine stated that in multiple public benchmarks, Doubao 1.8 achieved best-in-class or near-best results in tasks such as visual reasoning, general visual question answering, spatial understanding, and video understanding; it ranks among the global leaders on the general agent benchmark BrowseComp; and in foundational language model capabilities such as mathematics and reasoning, its overall performance is also close to that of the world’s top general-purpose models. Doubao 1.8 is now available on Volcano Engine and has opened its API to enterprises and developers. Source
OpenAI announces developers can submit apps to ChatGPT
On December 17, OpenAI announced that the previously launched ChatGPT app feature is now open for developer submissions. Developers can apply for listing in accordance with the app submission guidelines in order to publish their apps on the ChatGPT platform. OpenAI stated that it has provided a range of resources to help developers build higher-quality applications.
At the same time, an app directory has gone live within ChatGPT. Users can browse recommended apps or search through all published apps in the directory. The directory can be accessed via the Tools menu, or directly by visiting chatgpt.com/apps. Developers can also use deep links on other platforms to take users directly to their app’s dedicated page within the directory.
In the current early stage, developers can set up outbound links within their ChatGPT apps to guide users to their own websites or native apps to complete transactions for physical goods. In the future, OpenAI will explore additional monetization options, including digital goods, and will provide further details based on real-world usage and interactions between developers and users. Source
In addition, ChatGPT has also been integrated into the Apple Music app, allowing users to search for songs and generate playlists directly within Apple Music. Source
Rumors You Can Just Glance At
In the latest Android 2512 Canary build, the system has added a new “Satellite” Quick Settings tile along with a “Satellite Connectivity” settings page, which displays availability status and lists apps that support satellite networks. The tile will show as enabled, available, or unavailable depending on whether the user’s carrier plan supports NTN (Non-Terrestrial Network) roaming. Code indicates that the system will present different lists of satellite-enabled apps based on whether the device and plan support LTE-NTN or narrowband NB-NTN. In addition to the already announced Google Maps, Messages, and WhatsApp, apps such as AccuWeather, Google Weather, Snapchat, and X also appear on the candidate list. This suggests that satellite communication capabilities within the Android ecosystem may continue to expand, though these features are still in testing and development. Source
According to Bloomberg, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew revealed in an internal memo that TikTok and ByteDance have signed binding agreements with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX to establish a U.S. joint venture primarily owned by American investors, advancing TikTok’s long-delayed divestment plan. The transaction is expected to be completed on January 22, 2026, pending multiple preparatory steps and regulatory approvals. Source
After earning the Platinum trophy in Black Myth: Wukong, I’d been hoping that one day I could own a 1/12-scale articulated figure of the Destined One. So when Inart unveiled a gray prototype at an exhibition, I already knew that once it went on sale, I’d definitely pick one up. Only recently—after players who paid in full had already received their figures and enjoyed them for over a month—I finally got the payment notice for my deposit order and received my very own 1/12 Destined One.
You Truly Delight Me, Little Monkey
Although I’d previously bought a 1/12 Zhu Bajie, once I got my hands on this Destined One, I still couldn’t help but marvel at the level of detail. Even at a 1/12 scale, it manages to present distinct textures through a mix of hard plastic, soft rubber, and fabric clothing. The armor’s surface details and weathered paintwork are especially refined. There’s even a wire embedded in the tail, allowing you to pose it freely into whatever shape you like.
To be honest, before buying it I was a bit worried about articulation. Zhu Bajie’s articulation hadn’t been particularly impressive, but this figure exceeded my expectations. In addition to the poseable tail mentioned earlier, the lower body uses a soft rubber armor combined with fabric clothing to avoid restricting hip movement, leaving thigh articulation completely unhindered. To better convey dynamic poses, the forearms include ball joints, and even the feet feature individually articulated joints for the big toe and the other four toes.
The accessories are also impressively abundant. I went with the Deluxe Edition, which adds a long staff for displaying the “staff stance,” a pair of swinging-staff effect parts, and—most importantly—the monkey head. Compared to the standard version’s head with the “bronze monkey mask,” the look without the headpiece actually better evokes my impression of the Destined One. Among the shared accessories, the weapon “Beast Staff · Ermine” uses a three-section assembly with metal pegs and foolproof design, so there’s little worry about damage. In addition, there’s a Shrinking Talisman and two interchangeable gourds, making the overall play value quite high.
A Big, Full Box (Even the Accessories Are Packed in Three Layers)
That said, the weapon itself does have some weight—especially once the effect parts are attached—so you’ll need to spend a bit of time adjusting the wrist joints to keep it from drooping under the load.
All in all, this Destined One figure exceeded my expectations. While ¥608 admittedly isn’t cheap, compared to some Japanese manufacturers that charge over ¥1,000 RMB for figures that come with only a few extra hands, Inart’s offering feels like excellent value for money.
@西鸽: Li Auto AI Glasses Livis (Olive Green, Matte, Non-prescription, Sunglasses Lens)
Reference price: ¥1,869.15 (after subsidies)
Colleagues at my company are using various AI glasses, to the point where they’ve practically become everyday office gear. I’d also been curious to try a different brand. It just so happened that Li Auto put the Livis smart glasses on sale, so I quickly picked up a pair and wanted to share my impressions.
I didn’t watch the launch event and had no idea what features they offered. The next day I checked the official site, thought the glasses looked pretty good, and placed an order. Since I didn’t need prescription lenses, they shipped directly and arrived on the third day. Since these are Li Auto glasses, I naturally wondered whether they would integrate with Li Auto vehicles. I drive a Li ONE—an older model that doesn’t even get system updates anymore—so I didn’t expect full support from a new smart device. After looking into it, though, it turns out there’s basically no support at all.
First, I assumed there would be a HUD feature. The Li ONE doesn’t have a HUD, so I thought maybe smart glasses could serve as a kind of “physical add-on” for older models. But that’s not the case. What’s a bit funny is that I asked this same question to a Li Auto staffer, Doubao, and Gemini:
Only Gemini clearly told me that these glasses do not have an in-lens HUD, and even pointed out the gap between product marketing and user understanding. Kind of interesting.
Of course, being able to see a HUD clearly doesn’t mean the glasses themselves have one. According to the AI, the intended meaning of this marketing point is that wearing the glasses lets drivers see the car’s built-in HUD more clearly—the glasses themselves do not include a HUD.
So how much linkage is there between the Livis glasses and the Li ONE? Basically none. With the glasses already connected to my phone, I can give voice commands to the glasses, which then pass them to the Li Auto Assistant app on my phone. That app itself already has simple vehicle controls, like unlocking doors or opening windows and the trunk. If I’m outside the car, this just saves me from taking out my phone; if I’m inside the car, it’s not practical at all, because it would trigger both the glasses and the in-car system’s “Li Auto Assistant” at the same time.
The product page on the official website is also very vague about Li ONE integration—what exactly you can “use immediately” isn’t really explained.
So it’s pretty clear: if you don’t have an L-series or newer Li Auto vehicle, the Livis glasses are essentially just a smart voice assistant that works with your phone (via the Li Auto Assistant app), plus an independent device with audio recording, music playback (the sound quality is much better than bone-conduction), and photo/video recording.
The version I bought is the sunglasses model. For office use, it’s fine as a Bluetooth audio device for listening to music and recording, but wearing sunglasses indoors feels odd, which rules out another usage scenario.
So in the end, let’s just look at the appearance. At the very least, my kids say they look cool. And I do enjoy wearing the Livis while chasing after them and recording videos—it’s a lot more convenient than holding up a phone.
@Microhoo: DJI Mini 5 Pro
Reference price: ¥4,788 (standard kit)
I’ve always felt that the Mini series is the hidden gem among all DJI drones. Because of DJI’s precise product segmentation—and the fact that many people mistakenly label it as “entry-level”—the Mini lineup ends up landing right at that “good enough” sweet spot. The result is a bit awkward: if you just want to buy a drone to play around with, nearly ¥5,000 isn’t cheap; but if you’re looking for a serious aerial creation tool, its overall strength can feel just a bit short, making it tempting to stretch up to the Air or even the Mavic series.
With expectations already low, when the Mini 5 Pro was announced I barely glanced at DJI’s official release. I only registered that it had switched to a 1-inch sensor and didn’t look much further. But over the past few months, after seeing countless hands-on experiences shared by creators across different platforms, I slowly pieced together the full picture of what had changed—and suddenly realized that the Mini I’d always wanted had finally arrived.
For other drone models, I usually recommend going “as complete as possible,” because a real-world flight time of just over twenty minutes passes in the blink of an eye, and extra batteries mean more peace of mind. But since the core appeal of the Mini 5 Pro is its compactness—its footprint is about the size of a smartphone—I actually think the standard kit is perfectly fine. I mainly use it in scenarios like hiking and mountaineering, where minimizing weight is critical. When I come across a great vantage point, I fly it, then toss it back into my bag and plug in a charging cable. Especially since the Mini 5 Pro’s internal storage has been upgraded to 42GB, that’s more than enough for a single trip’s worth of shooting.
My only real regret is that, even though the screenless remote included in the standard kit is already very lightweight, it’s still an extra thing to carry. Before getting it, I had imagined that the Mini series might be able to fly directly via a phone connection like the Neo, so I could just slip it into my pocket and go. In reality, that’s not possible—you still need the remote. That said, it’s understandable. With the Mini 5 Pro’s new transmission technology, its flight range has improved significantly, and combined with its strong acceleration, using just a phone would probably mean flying out of signal range in the blink of an eye. Still, I hope DJI will consider ultra-lightweight users and add a simplified phone-only control mode in the future, even if it comes with heavily limited range and speed.
It’s also worth mentioning that while light weight is the Mini 5 Pro’s standout trait, its biggest advantage is actually traveling abroad with it. Multiple generations of the Mini series have kept their weight at 249g not out of obsession, but because under the drone regulations of most countries, drones under 250g are exempt from complicated registration and filing procedures. This is especially true in places like Europe and Japan, which are ideal for aerial sightseeing and often have specific exemptions or simplified processes. This is the main reason I’ve always been drawn to the Mini series. As mentioned earlier, it’s not an entry-level product for beginners at all—instead, it’s a true “all-rounder” suited to most people.
The two most important upgrades of the Mini 5 Pro are, first, its 50MP 1-inch sensor camera. Almost every user has praised it as a “Pocket 3 that can fly.” I’m not sure whether it’s the same sensor used in the Pocket 3, but after watching some comparison videos, the image quality is strikingly similar. In situations with drastic changes in ambient light and white balance, however, the Mini 5 Pro responds noticeably faster than the Pocket 3—likely thanks to improvements in the new chip’s processing power. Given how well-regarded the Pocket 3 is, I don’t think the Mini 5 Pro’s imaging quality will feel outdated anytime soon, at least until display technology enters its next generation.
I also took a couple of photos—one outdoors at noon with extreme dynamic range, and one in a pitch-black city scene—just to get a sense of its imaging capabilities.
The other major upgrade is the “full trickle-down” of obstacle avoidance. Building on the previous generation’s omnidirectional obstacle sensing, the Mini 5 Pro adds a forward-facing LiDAR sensor that was previously reserved for flagship models. This not only improves obstacle avoidance but also makes it effective in low-light environments. That said, I’d still treat it as an emergency measure—when it comes to crashing drones, there are only two outcomes: zero or one. Don’t take chances; always fly carefully.
Like its predecessor, the Mini 5 Pro supports lossless vertical shooting, and thanks to a greater rotation angle, it can now perform horizon-breaking camera moves similar to those on the Mavic 4 Pro. All of this can be achieved through the built-in one-tap video creation features. Which brings me to my recurring plea: since DJI is already lowering the barrier to entry as much as possible, I really hope they’ll eventually offer a phone-only control option to further reduce what you need to carry in certain scenarios.
All things considered, the Mini 5 Pro is, in my view, the first truly “complete” small drone. Especially when you factor in regulatory weight limits, its overall capabilities exceed expectations. Compared with other models, it fits into more use cases as well. Unless you’re a commercial aerial photographer, the Mini 5 Pro is an extremely reliable choice. Once I’ve got the time and money, I’ll definitely be taking it out on more trips.
@Lotta: BlanBunny The Wizard of Oz Tea Book Gift Box
Reference price: ¥127
If you’ve ever wandered through the commercial streets of tourist attractions, you may already be familiar with the brand BlanBunny. Its teal-blue, European-style vintage storefronts, giant rabbit statues wearing top hats, and richly ornate gift boxes often make it one of the most eye-catching shops on the street, tempting passersby to step inside. Even though the relatively high prices often persuade people to leave empty-handed, there’s usually one or two finely made items that end up quietly saved in a wishlist or buried deep in a shopping cart—just waiting for a good deal to trigger an impulse purchase.
The Wizard of Oz gift box was exactly such a purchase during the Double 11 shopping festival. Inside the box are 10 different teas, two sachets of each, enough to brew 20 cups in total. It includes some sweet-and-tangy fruit and floral teas that I’m not particularly fond of, such as Grape Serenade and Creamy Strawberry Oolong; some pure teas that I do enjoy, like Gardenia Yuhua Tea, Jasmine White Tea, and Osmanthus Oolong; as well as more exotic herbal options, including South African rooibos and mangosteen yerba mate.
The tea is packaged in a rather distinctive perforated aluminum stick, designed to be brewed by stirring. As you stir, the color of the tea gradually releases into the water, which adds a bit of playful charm to the process. That said, for lighter-flavored teas like Osmanthus Oolong, the infusion does need to steep longer than it would in a standard tea bag.
Even the most monotonous workdays occasionally need a splash of non-routine color, and that’s exactly what draws me to BlanBunny—their lavish design. Each tea comes with its own illustration and a Wizard of Oz-themed name, and the gift box cover even includes a detachable illustrated booklet and a tea “map.” Compared with Japanese brands that are also known for extravagant packaging—where small candies or sweets can easily cost over a hundred yuan—BlanBunny doesn’t feel overly superficial. In terms of design and visual richness, it’s every bit on par with Japanese brands, making it a great choice as a small gift when meeting friends.
Baidu Mind Map announces the specific shutdown date
Leica to support the Capture One tethered workflow
Let’s Encrypt introduces a Generation Y certificate hierarchy
FIFA to jointly launch a new game with Netflix
Xiaomi releases the MiMo-V2-Flash model
On December 16, Xiaomi released the open-source MoE model Xiaomi MiMo-V2-Flash. The model has a total of 309B parameters, with 15B active parameters, and is designed specifically for agentic AI with a strong focus on speed.
According to Xiaomi, MiMo-V2-Flash ranks in the global Top 2 among open-source models across multiple agent benchmarks. Its coding capabilities surpass those of all other open-source models and are on par with the flagship closed-source model Claude 4.5 Sonnet, while its inference cost is only 2.5% of that model’s and its generation speed is doubled.
The model adopts a hybrid architecture combining Global Attention and Sliding Window Attention (SWA) at a 1:5 ratio, with a window size of 128, a native context length of 32K, and extended training up to 256K.
Xiaomi also launched an online AI chat service, Xiaomi MiMo Studio (https://aistudio.xiaomimimo.com), where users can experience Xiaomi MiMo-V2-Flash. The service supports deep reasoning and web-connected search. Source
Adobe Firefly updates its video editing features
On December 17, Adobe rolled out an update to Adobe Firefly, introducing a new video editor that supports precise, text-prompt–based editing. The update also brings in multiple third-party models for image and video generation, including Black Forest Labs’ FLUX.2 and Topaz Labs’ Astra.
With the new editor, users can modify video elements, colors, and camera angles using text prompts. A timeline view has also been added, making it easier to adjust frames, audio, and other video properties.
In addition, Topaz Labs’ Astra model can be used to upscale video resolution to 1080p or 4K. Black Forest Labs’ FLUX.2 image generation model is set to arrive in the app as well, alongside a newly launched collaborative canvas feature.
Adobe stated that the FLUX.2 model is available starting today across all Firefly apps, while Adobe Express users will gain access to the model beginning in January next year. Source
Baidu Mind Map announces the specific shutdown date
On December 16, Baidu Mind Map announced via an official notice that, due to product adjustments, the service will be officially discontinued on March 31, 2026. Baidu also reminded users to export and save important data locally in advance to avoid potential data loss. Source
Leica to support the Capture One tethered workflow
On December 11, Leica announced a partnership with Phase One to bring tethered shooting workflow support to Leica cameras and the Capture One photo editing software.
When a Leica camera is connected to a computer running Capture One, photos can be transferred directly, and the camera can be remotely controlled from the computer, allowing photographers to shoot and edit simultaneously. Since Capture One also has an iPad version, this workflow can be used in on-location shooting scenarios as well.
However, at present, Leica cameras do not support wireless tethered shooting. Only the SL3, SL3-S, M-EV1, M11-P, and Q3 models can display a live view feed while shooting. In addition, Phase One is offering a benefit to Leica users: all registered Leica members who own eligible camera models can receive a free three-month trial of Capture One Pro. Source
Let’s Encrypt introduces a Generation Y certificate hierarchy
On December 17, the free digital certificate provider Let’s Encrypt announced via its blog that it is transitioning from the X-generation root certificate system to the Y-generation certificate hierarchy. This change involves issuing two new root certificates (ROOT CAs) and six intermediate certificates. The new certificates will be cross-signed by the existing X-generation root certificates X1 and X2.
ACME profiles are currently undergoing transitional adjustments. By May 13, 2026, the default profile will switch to the new Y-generation certificate hierarchy. However, due to upcoming root program requirements, the new intermediate certificates do not include the TLS client authentication extended key usage. As a result, starting in February 2026, Let’s Encrypt will discontinue support for TLS client authentication. Users who encounter issues or need more time to migrate to the Y-generation certificates may continue using the tlsclient profile until May 2026, after which the new profile must be enabled.
In addition, beginning this week, some users may start seeing newly issued Y-generation certificates. This also marks the official rollout of Let’s Encrypt’s short-lived certificates, including support for issuing short-lived TLS certificates to IP addresses—meaning TLS certificates can now be issued without relying on domain names.
FIFA to jointly launch a new game with Netflix
On December 18, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) announced that it will collaborate with Netflix to launch a new FIFA football game. The game will be led in development by the Delphi Interactive team, with Netflix Games handling publishing, and will be closely themed around the 2026 World Cup. However, neither party disclosed concrete details about the game’s content or development progress, stating only that information related to the gameplay experience will be revealed in 2026. Source
In the field of industrial design, designers usually don’t like holes—some even outright hate them.
The reason is simple: a hole means dust can get in, water can get in, and the messy internal circuit boards might be exposed. As a result, most electronic products have long pursued “sealing.” But if you look back at product history over the past sixty years, you’ll find that holes never actually disappeared. On the contrary, they gradually evolved—from an unavoidable functional flaw, to a standardized interface, and eventually into a decorative symbol.
To understand why today’s phone cases and power banks have holes, we need to rewind the timeline back to the 1950s.
Holes That Had to Be Made
Representative figure: Dieter Rams
Keywords: order, heat dissipation, untouchable
In the 1950s and 1960s, Dieter Rams, a designer at Germany’s Braun, faced a very practical physical problem: electrical devices generate heat when they operate; radios need to produce sound, and speakers cannot be completely sealed off. At the time, there was no liquid cooling, nor the acoustic guidance technologies we have today. Opening holes in the enclosure was almost an inevitable choice.
Rams’s solution was thoroughly “German.” If holes had to be made, then they should be made with absolute rigor. Take the classic T3 pocket radio as an example: its front speaker area is covered with 121 tiny circular holes.
T3 Pocket Radio
These holes have two defining characteristics:
Extreme regularity: they are arranged in a strict geometric grid, with perfectly consistent spacing.
Refusal of interaction: the holes exist purely for the machine’s operation.
This kind of design conveys a sense of precision and cool industrial aesthetics. Even today, the speaker grilles on both sides of the MacBook keyboard continue this line of thinking—function only, with no room for error.
Turning the Wall into a Grid
Representative object: pegboard
Keywords: standards, storage, universality
In postwar America, another kind of “hole” began to gain popularity in garages and hardware stores: drill holes into hardboard at one-inch intervals, and it becomes a universal storage system.
The emergence of the pegboard marked an important turning point in the history of industrial design: the birth of standardized interfaces. As long as the hole spacing is standardized, you can go to a store and buy hooks, storage baskets, or even bungee cords from any brand. You no longer need to drill a new hole in the wall just to hang a new hammer.
From that point on, this kind of design moved from the garage into homes around the world, becoming a core logic of storage.
IKEA SKÅDIS series products
An Accidental Decoration
Representative brand: Crocs
Keywords: plug-ins, individuality, rebellion
In 2005, the design logic of holes underwent a third shift.
This time, the change came from an “accident.” Because the shoes were originally designed for boating, the large holes on the uppers of early Crocs were purely functional, meant for drainage and ventilation.
That was until a housewife named Sheri Schmelzer began stuffing handmade charms into those holes, turning functional “openings” into interfaces for personal expression. This is how Jibbitz were born.
Crocs product decoration examples
This moment completely changed the manufacturer’s thinking, and the meaning of holes shifted with it—they could now serve as “slots” for displaying individuality.
This transformation also represents a reversal of power. In the first stage, designers had the final say; in the second, holes were a compromise made for practicality; by the third stage, users gained interpretive authority. Whether to plug in a cartoon character or a slogan spelled in letters depends entirely on the user’s mood that day.
SSPAI “Twisty Power Bank”
Having walked through these three stages, we can now look at SSPAI’s newly launched “Twisty Power Bank” and clearly see where its design logic comes from.
Most power banks on the market today are still stuck in the first stage, obsessing over being “perfectly sealed.” The Twisty Power Bank deliberately goes in the opposite direction. It adopts a “third-stage” design philosophy similar to Crocs—an open interface.
This product has just passed China’s latest 3C safety certification, and its design shows three very distinct characteristics:
Physical negative space: The body uses an asymmetrical structure. The battery cell and circuit board are concentrated in the cylindrical top section (27.4 mm thick), while the lower half is an ultra-thin metal plate only 4.5 mm thick. On this metal plate, the designers directly reserved six standard circular holes.
Handing over the “right to define” to users: These six holes have no electrical function—they don’t dissipate heat or conduct electricity. They exist purely for you to “twist” things into. You can treat them like Crocs holes, snapping in the included decorative plugs; you can design and 3D-print your own stand; or you can even hang a set of keys. It turns a cold, utilitarian digital accessory into a DIY-friendly EDC (everyday carry) item.
Each of the six holes on the Twisty Power Bank has a diameter of 9 mm and a depth of 4 mm, supporting any accessory that can be secured with screws. For this launch, we’ve curated eight officially licensed Disney accessories from “Curious Hole Things,” and you can choose one of them as a free gift at checkout, so you can decorate your power bank the moment you start using it.
We’ve also included an SSPAI logo sticker, letting you freely mix and match your own style. Below are real-world photos of styled setups from SSPAI’s offline store at Houhaihui in Shenzhen:
Solid fundamentals, preserved: Beyond being fun, it’s still a competent power bank. With a 5000 mAh capacity, support for 20 W wired fast charging and 15 W magnetic wireless charging, and a weight of 146 g, it stays comfortable when attached to the back of an iPhone. Thanks to its ultra-thin bottom section, it doesn’t feel like a bulky slab in your hand.
The Twisty Power Bank is now officially on sale. Feel free to click the link below to check it out and make a purchase.
From Braun’s precise grids to the decorative holes of the Twisty Power Bank, industrial design has not become increasingly complex. If anything, it has grown increasingly relaxed.
The Twisty Power Bank is a product of that sense of ease. It doesn’t force you to accept some lofty aesthetic. It simply leaves a few holes and asks you, “What would you like to put here?”
China approves its first batch of L3 autonomous driving models
OpenAI launches GPT Image 1.5
Google Labs introduces experimental AI agent CC
Bambu Lab launches the “Let’s Make It” Creator Fund
Google to shut down the “Dark Web Report” feature
Steam 2025 Year in Review page goes live
Merriam-Webster names “slop” as Word of the Year
Rumors You Can Just Glance At
X reaffirms ownership of the Twitter trademark
On December 16, X Corp. filed a lawsuit in federal court in Delaware against startup Operation Bluebird, accusing the company of attempting to revoke X’s ownership of the Twitter brand.
On December 2, Operation Bluebird submitted a petition to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office seeking to cancel X’s federally registered Twitter and Tweet trademarks. The lawsuit centers on whether X still retains trademark rights to the Twitter brand following its rebranding in 2023. In its complaint filed in Delaware, X argues that the Twitter brand remains valid, noting that millions of users continue to access the platform via twitter.com, and stating that “rebranding does not equate to abandoning original trademark rights.” Source
Around the same time, TechCrunch also discovered that X had updated its Terms of Service. The revised terms state that, effective January 16, 2025, nothing in the agreement grants users the right to use the X name or the Twitter name, including any X or Twitter trademarks, logos, domain names, other distinctive brand features, or other proprietary rights—despite Elon Musk having publicly stated in 2023 that he would abandon Twitter-related branding. Source
China approves its first batch of L3 autonomous driving models
On December 15, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially announced China’s first batch of entry permits for L3 (conditionally automated) driving vehicles. The approved models include the Changan SC7000AAARBEV all-electric sedan and the Arcfox-branded BJ7001A61NBEV all-electric sedan, designed respectively for urban congestion scenarios and highway driving.
Both models will carry out on-road pilot programs in designated areas of Beijing and Chongqing, marking a critical step as China’s L3 autonomous driving moves from the testing phase toward commercial application. Source
OpenAI launches GPT Image 1.5
On December 17, OpenAI released GPT Image 1.5. The new model promises up to a fourfold increase in image generation speed compared with its predecessor, improved prompt adherence, and more precise image editing capabilities that maintain visual consistency throughout the editing process. It also delivers greater reliability when handling smaller, denser text and large numbers of small-sized faces in images.
The model has now been fully rolled out to all ChatGPT and API users. Source
Google Labs introduces experimental AI agent CC
On December 16, Google Labs announced the launch of an experimental AI agent called CC. The agent can connect to services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive to help users stay on top of their daily schedules. Each morning, CC sends a “Today’s Agenda” briefing to the user’s inbox. In addition to schedule overviews, key tasks, and summaries of recent updates, the briefing may also include email drafts and calendar links when needed. Users can control CC and submit custom requests by replying to or directly sending emails, as well as use it to add personal information or jot down thoughts and to-do items.
CC is now available in early access to Google account holders aged 18 and above in the United States and Canada, initially rolling out to Google AI Ultra users and paid subscribers. Source
Bambu Lab launches the “Let’s Make It” Creator Fund
On December 15, Bambu Lab announced the launch of the “Let’s Make It” Creator Fund. The fund aims to provide long-term financial, technical, and resource support to makers around the world, with each project eligible to receive up to RMB 1 million. Both individual creators and small studios are welcome to apply.
The “Let’s Make It” Creator Fund is open on an ongoing basis with no application deadline. Applicants can submit project proposals through Bambu Lab’s official website, and the same applicant may submit multiple projects. After evaluation, the review committee will work with selected applicants to determine specific support plans. This is currently the largest maker grant program by funding amount known in China. Source
Google to shut down the “Dark Web Report” feature
On December 16, Google informed users via email that its security check tool “Dark Web Report,” which scans for personal data and password leaks, will be discontinued on February 16, 2026. Starting January 15, 2026, the feature will no longer provide new monitoring results; from February 16, 2026 onward, the feature and its associated data will no longer be available.
Google stated that while the report tool could provide basic information, user feedback indicated that it failed to offer practical follow-up actions. As a result, Google has decided to shift its focus toward developing tools that deliver clearer and more actionable guidance. Source
Steam 2025 Year in Review page goes live
On December 17, the 2025 Steam Year in Review page officially went live. The statistics period for the 2025 Steam Year in Review runs from the very first second of January 1, 2025, to the very last second of December 14, 2025 (GMT). It does not include playtime in Offline Mode or while disconnected from the internet, nor does it count time spent running tools, unreleased, preloaded, pre-release, or disabled games, or other non-game software.
Users can set the visibility of their Steam Year in Review page to “Friends Only” or “Public.” All adult members in a Steam Family will also automatically have permission to view the Steam Year in Review of every other member in that family, while child members do not receive any special access privileges. Source
Merriam-Webster names “slop” as Word of the Year
The well-known dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster recently announced that slop has been selected as its Word of the Year for 2025, reflecting the widespread proliferation of low-quality AI-generated content across the internet. The term originally emerged in the 18th century to describe mud or sludge, but today it is more commonly defined as “low-quality digital content mass-produced by artificial intelligence.” Merriam-Webster president Greg Barlow said that the surge in searches for slop indicates growing public awareness of false and low-value content. Source
Rumors You Can Just Glance At
After reviewing Paramount’s all-cash offer of USD 30 per share and taking into account Paramount’s financing structure and regulatory approval pathways, Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly planning to reject the previously proposed USD 108.4 billion hostile takeover bid from Skydance Media. According to sources familiar with the matter, the Warner Bros. Discovery board plans to recommend that shareholders accept the existing Netflix deal, with a related announcement potentially coming as early as Wednesday. Source
In response to claims by video creator @MLID that Samsung plans to gradually discontinue solid-state drives based on the SATA interface, wccftech contacted Samsung for comment. A Samsung spokesperson issued a brief response stating that rumors about Samsung phasing out SATA or other SSD products are false. However, as the response did not specifically address SATA SSDs, whether Samsung will discontinue its SATA SSD lineup remains unclear and is expected to become clearer next month. Source
Google to bring real-time voice translation to Google Translate
Astell&Kern’s IRIVER returns to the Chinese market
Meituan announces suspension of the “Tuan Haohuo” business
China Mobile releases a 6G transmission technology white paper and prototype
Ant Group’s AI health app AQ renamed Ant Afu
Rumors You Can Just Glance At
vivo releases the S50 series smartphones
On December 15, vivo held the S50 series launch event, unveiling multiple new products.
The vivo S50 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor, featuring a 6.59-inch display and a 6,500mAh battery, with support for 90W wired fast charging. It uses an ultrasonic under-display fingerprint sensor and the Ultra low-frequency global antenna. For imaging, it is equipped with a 50MP periscope telephoto camera using a 1/1.95-inch Sony IMX882 sensor, a 50MP main camera with a 1/1.56-inch Sony LYT-700V large sensor with advanced stabilization, and a 110° ultra-wide, low-distortion lens. The device focuses on 3× telephoto Live Photo shooting, and supports features such as Live Photo passerby removal, AI-customized beauty effects, film-style filters, and highlight slow-motion camera movement. The vivo S50 is available in Confession, Leisurely Blue, Inspiration Purple, and Deep Space Black, priced from CNY 2,999 (12GB+256GB) to CNY 3,599 (16GB+512GB).
The vivo S50 Pro mini is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, with a 6.31-inch display and a 6,500mAh battery. It supports 90W wired fast charging and 40W wireless charging, and also features an ultrasonic under-display fingerprint sensor and the Ultra low-frequency global antenna. In terms of imaging, the S50 Pro mini shares the same ultra-wide and periscope telephoto lenses as the S50, while its main camera uses a 50MP 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX921 ultra-sensitive bionic large sensor. The vivo S50 Pro mini is available in Confession, Inspiration Purple, and Deep Space Black, priced from CNY 3,699 (12GB+256GB) to CNY 4,299 (16GB+512GB). Pre-orders for both S50 models start today, with official sales beginning on December 19.
In addition, vivo Pad5 Pro has introduced a new matte display edition, featuring a 3.1K high-definition matte screen produced with nano-level crystalline etching technology. The 12GB+256GB version is priced at CNY 3,699, while the 16GB+512GB version costs CNY 4,199, and is available starting today. Source
On December 14, iRobot—the company that pioneered the robot vacuum category—issued an announcement stating that it has reached a restructuring support agreement with its secured creditors and primary contract manufacturer, Shenzhen Shanchuan Robotics Co., Ltd., and its subsidiaries. Under the agreement, Shanchuan Robotics will acquire iRobot and obtain 100% ownership.
Following the completion of the acquisition, iRobot will become a wholly owned private company of Shanchuan Robotics and will be delisted from Nasdaq. Previously, Shanchuan Robotics had assumed iRobot’s USD 190 million loan. The acquisition will relieve iRobot of this debt, as well as an additional USD 161.5 million in loans owed to Shanchuan Robotics related to contract manufacturing. Shanchuan Robotics is one of the world’s largest contract manufacturers of robot vacuum cleaners. Source
Google to bring real-time voice translation to Google Translate
On December 12, Google published a blog post outlining the next phase of upgrades for Google Translate. Google will introduce real-time natural speech translation powered by Gemini across its apps. The Google Search app will deliver more natural and accurate text translations. With Gemini support, Google Translate will provide more precise translations of idioms, implied meanings, localized expressions, and slang. This feature will first launch in the U.S. and India on both app and web, supporting mutual translation between English and nearly 20 languages including Spanish, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, and German.
At the same time, Google Translate is rolling out a beta Android app in the U.S., India, and Mexico that supports real-time natural speech translation—users can activate it simply by wearing headphones—with support for over 70 languages. The feature is expected to expand to the iOS app and more regions in 2026. In addition, the built-in language learning features within Google Translate will be extended to 20 new countries and regions, including Germany, India, and Sweden. Source
Astell&Kern’s IRIVER returns to the Chinese market
On December 13, South Korean digital audio brand IRIVER announced its return to the Chinese market via an official post on Xiaohongshu. IRIVER stated that it will focus on the Hi-Fi audio and CD player segments going forward, and that full-scale operations in the Chinese market will soon begin. Brands under the IRIVER umbrella include Astell&Kern, ACTIVO, and IRIVER. Source
Meituan announces suspension of the “Tuan Haohuo” business
On December 15, Meituan’s Tuan Haohuo business issued an internal email stating that, after research and discussion, the grocery retail management team has decided to suspend the Tuan Haohuo operation and refocus on exploring new retail formats. As an exploratory initiative within Meituan’s parcel-delivery e-commerce efforts, the business accumulated experience in product retail. However, in recent years, as the grocery retail sector has continued to innovate, parcel-based e-commerce has struggled to meet the needs of instant retail users. “We will follow the trend and proactively seek change,” the email said.
Regarding personnel affected by this adjustment, Meituan noted that internal communication will be conducted, with detailed follow-up plans to be explained. Tuan Haohuo is a B2C e-commerce business incubated by Meituan. It launched as a mini program in August 2020, was promoted to a top-level entry within the Meituan app in December 2020, and was later renamed Meituan E-commerce. Source
China Mobile releases a 6G transmission technology white paper and prototype
On December 15, China Mobile published an article stating that, at the 2025 China Information and Communications Conference and the academic annual meeting of the China Institute of Communications, it released the China Mobile 6G Transmission Technology White Paper along with the “China Mobile 6G Transmission System Prototype 1.0.”
The white paper proposes that the core concept of 6G transmission is to move from “connectivity” toward “beyond connectivity.” By deeply integrating three key elements—dynamic intelligence, multidimensional coordination, and end-to-end security—it aims to build an integrated 6G intelligent collaborative transmission network architecture consisting of a service perception layer, a coordinated transmission packet layer, a coordinated transmission channel layer, and a coordinated transmission medium layer. Source
Ant Group’s AI health app AQ renamed Ant Afu
On December 15, Ant Group held its Ant Health AI strategy and brand upgrade launch event, announcing that Ant AQ has been renamed Ant Aifu, alongside the release of a new version of the app. The Aifu app will focus on three core health functions: health companionship, health Q&A, and health services. It has already partnered with the health commissions of 8 provinces and municipalities, as well as the medical insurance authorities of 18 provinces and municipalities through the “Yibaor” program, forming a network of 200 hospital-based medical AI agents, and has launched joint AI research initiatives with 16 institutions. Source
Rumors You Can Just Glance At
According to Tom, host of the Moore’s Law Is Dead channel, citing sources from multiple distribution and retail channels, Samsung is preparing to gradually exit its SATA SSD business and plans to halt SATA SSD production in the long term. If Samsung removes its SATA SSD production lines, it will inevitably put upward pressure on prices across the entire SSD market, including both SATA and NVMe products. This also signals that the era of low-cost SATA SSDs may be coming to an end. Source
Earlier this month, the GNOME Shell Extensions store banned AI-generated extensions from being listed. Source
At the Black Hat Europe conference on December 11, Microsoft Vice President Tom Gallagher announced that Microsoft will immediately expand the scope of its bug bounty program. Any critical vulnerability that has a direct and verifiable significant impact on Microsoft online services will now be eligible for a reward. Source
According to the Financial Times, the UK government is considering requiring Apple and Google to build age-verification systems and explicit-content detection algorithms directly into their operating systems. Until users complete adult verification via biometric methods or official identification, all explicit content would be blocked by default. Source
Many LG webOS TV users have reported that after completing a recent webOS system update, a non-removable Microsoft Copilot app appeared on the home screen. Source
Welcome to this edition of Pi Review. You can use the table of contents to quickly jump to the sections you’re interested in. If you’ve discovered other apps worth checking out, or topics you’d like us to cover, feel free to join the discussion in the comments.
New Apps Worth Noticing
While SSPAI has long been dedicated to discovering and introducing high-quality apps across platforms, there are still many excellent apps—whether in design, functionality, interaction, or overall experience—that we haven’t yet covered. Some may be long-standing apps, others newly released. We’ll introduce them to you here.
RecordMaster: A Recorder Can Be Colorful Too
Platform: Android
Keywords: Recording
@Peggy_: In the SSPAI homepage feature Deep Dive | What Exactly Is Material 3 Expressive? Using Android 16 Stable as an Example, editor Clyde offered readers a detailed explanation of the M3E design language, its evolution, and its strengths and weaknesses. Compared with large companies, independent developers are often able to respond more quickly to the latest design guidelines, giving rise to many new apps. RecordMaster, the app introduced today, is one such product born from this context.
Starting with the basics, RecordMaster is a voice recorder app built around the newer M3E design language. When you open the app, the main interface features just a simple add button. Tap it to enter the recording screen, then tap “Record” to start recording. During recording, the interface displays a waveform that changes with the audio volume. The animation is smooth, and the rich use of color makes the recording process feel far less monotonous.
Like many recorder apps, RecordMaster allows you to pause and resume recording at any time. Once you stop, the app shows the exact storage path of the current recording, making it easy to organize later. By default, recordings are sorted by recording time and displayed sequentially on the main screen.
As your collection grows, RecordMaster also supports organizing recordings by folders, making it easier to manage different types of audio files. Of course, since all recordings are stored locally, RecordMaster currently does not support speech-to-text conversion, nor does it offer instant syncing of recorded audio. For users who prioritize data privacy, however, this fully local storage approach can actually be an advantage.
If you’re looking to try a recorder app with a distinctive design, you can download and try RecordMaster via its GitHub page. The app is completely free and only requires microphone access.
Eney: A Local Intelligent Companion for macOS
Platform: macOS
Keywords: AI assistant, intelligent companion
@ElijahLee: Eney is an AI-driven Mac assistant developed by MacPaw. Positioned as a local-first intelligent companion, it allows users to use natural language to have it carry out a wide range of tasks—rather than merely offering suggestions or answering questions.
After installing Eney, you must grant it Full Disk Access for it to function properly. During the initial setup, Eney downloads AI models that power its various skills. Once installed, a small round bubble with two eyes appears in the lower-left corner of the screen—cute and unmistakable, this is your AI companion. You can summon it by clicking the icon or by double-tapping the Option key.
Eney’s core selling point is completing tasks on macOS through natural language. You can speak to it as you would to a person, telling it what you want to do, and it will carry out the operation automatically—such as scheduling meetings, writing emails, searching files, or editing videos. For these tasks, Eney doesn’t just provide instructions; it actually performs them.
At present, however, Eney’s “intelligent companion” role isn’t quite that intelligent. In my brief testing, using natural language to “add a meeting in the macOS Calendar app” failed—it couldn’t even open macOS apps. This may be related to system permissions, but oddly enough, entering “find yesterday / today / tomorrow” does allow Eney to retrieve the corresponding calendar events and open Calendar. When it comes to launching apps, you must type the app’s name directly; using natural language like “open xx app” results in an error instead. Eney also can’t check the weather. In conversational scenarios, the model frequently hallucinates—for example, describing Heated Rivalry as a book about technology and business competition. All in all, at this stage, Eney doesn’t seem dramatically different from Siri in terms of results 😓.
Eney places strong emphasis on local-first processing and privacy protection. Its models are sourced from HuggingFace, downloaded during setup, and run locally, enabling many tasks even while offline. The downside is that model size and capabilities are limited: it can handle unit conversions, invoke CleanMyMac to clean disk space, retrieve system status, perform local searches, compress images, and so on—but the results may not always be satisfying. User data isn’t uploaded to the cloud arbitrarily; only for more complex tasks (such as long-form summaries) will cloud processing be used, and only with your consent.
Eney is currently in beta, with features under active development. The app runs only on Macs with Apple silicon and is included as part of the Setapp subscription—only Setapp members can install and use it.
AirShare: A Cross-Platform Tool for Fast File Sharing
Platform: macOS / Windows / Linux
Keywords: File transfer
@化学心情下2: In an ideal world, sending files should work just like Apple’s AirDrop—select the device you want to send to, wait for confirmation, and the transfer is done, without any complicated pairing or setup. Unfortunately, tools this seamless are still largely “Apple-only” at the moment (even though Google has achieved partial AirDrop compatibility with the Pixel 10). So when you need a similar experience across platforms, third-party tools become the only option.
AirShare is one such file transfer tool. It supports Windows, Linux, and macOS (mobile operating systems are not supported for now), making it well suited for quickly sharing files within small teams—as long as all devices are on the same local network.
When it comes to sending files, AirShare supports transferring single or multiple files, as well as entire folders over a local network. On the receiving end, when a sender initiates a transfer, you’ll see a notification in the system notification area showing who sent the files, their total size, and what files are included. Once you click Accept, the files are automatically saved to the default Downloads folder.
Within the AirShare app itself, you can also view a dedicated receive dialog that displays the sender’s device, the file list, file sizes, and total transfer size. From there, you can choose to reject, accept, or view more detailed information about the files.
AirShare offers both a free version and a Pro version. The free version supports local network transfers only, with a file size limit of 200 MB and a transfer history retained for seven days. The Pro version removes size limits and allows file transfers over the internet. You can download the client from AirShare’s official website, with support for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
App Updates You Shouldn’t Miss
Beyond brand-new apps, many familiar faces on the App Store are constantly iterating, adding more interesting and practical features. At sspai, we aim to help you filter the app updates worth paying attention to, so you can quickly catch up on what’s new from apps and their developers.
Darkroom 7.0: A New Engine and New Lighting Tools
Platform: iOS / iPadOS / macOS
Keywords: Image editing
@Snow: Darkroom, a cross-platform photo editing app available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, rolled out its major 7.0 update last week. The new version adopts an entirely new rendering engine, which the developers say significantly improves smoothness and stability during editing. Two new lighting tools have also been added, opening up new creative and expressive possibilities for your photos.
Within the editing tools, you’ll now find two brand-new adjustment sliders—Bloom and Halation—under the Tone section. These additions help fill a long-standing gap in Darkroom’s simulation of vintage lighting effects. Bloom is similar to the popular “black mist” filters of recent years, simulating light diffusion beyond natural boundaries to create a soft, dreamy atmosphere. Halation, on the other hand, mimics a classic film photography effect, where the edges of bright areas bleed a subtle red-orange glow into darker regions. This tool brings a warm, cinematic feel to strong light sources and high-contrast images. If you want to learn more about Bloom and Halation, Darkroom has prepared a professional guide with more detailed explanations and comparison examples.
As a long-time Darkroom user, I have to say that smoothness and stability have always been its most persistent pain points. In older versions, entering or exiting the edit view, zooming images, or working with RAW files would occasionally result in stutters or crashes. The most frustrating issue was when the entire editing preview would intermittently fail—adjustments produced no visual feedback at all, leaving force-quitting the app as the only solution.
After the update, image stability has improved noticeably. Over the past few days, I haven’t encountered crashes or complete preview failures. That said, during zoom operations, version 7.0 still suffers from intermittent preview loss and missing animations. As for perceived smoothness, things feel a bit more “mysterious.” Beyond the new rendering engine, the app has also tweaked the interaction logic when entering the edit view from the library. In the new version, you can swipe left or right to switch between images, swipe down to return to the library, and swipe up to enable editing tools. However, before enabling the editing tools, you can’t zoom with one- or two-finger gestures or tap to compare edits. Once the tools are disabled, gestures and taps work again. This design may indirectly improve perceived smoothness, but the inconsistent interaction logic hardly feels like a true optimization—at least to me.
One improvement that does deserve praise is that version 7.0 removes zoom restrictions in the editing view. You can now zoom all the way in to pixel level to check fine details, zoom out beyond “fit to view” to evaluate the overall composition, or use the Zoom option in the extended menu to quickly switch between preset ratios. The new version also supports adjusting the canvas background color, allowing you to use neutral tones to better judge color and contrast.
Version 7.0 also brings a number of upgrades to video editing. It adds support for slow motion, Apple ProRes, and 8K video, with improved loading efficiency compared to previous versions, and most adjustment tools can be reused. A new draggable timeline with timecode has been added for video clips, supporting frame-by-frame positioning as well as fast forward and rewind. A real-time histogram is also available, making it easier to fine-tune visuals with precision. Unfortunately, the stability gains seen in photo editing don’t fully carry over here. Video clips may load to a black screen or briefly go black when switching between portrait and landscape; the histogram overlay can disappear intermittently; certain adjustments—such as distortion correction—can cause preview glitches; and there are even inexplicable auto-play issues. In short, video editing still falls well short of being reliably usable.
Overall, the two new lighting tools introduced in Darkroom 7.0 are genuinely useful, and image editing stability and smoothness have improved. However, the slight changes in interaction logic may take some getting used to for long-time users. While video editing has seen major feature upgrades, its stability issues mean it’s still not recommended as a primary tool. For a more detailed breakdown of what’s new in Darkroom 7.0, you can check the official changelog on the website.
Paste: A Brand-New Power Search with Keyword Prediction, Smart Filters, and Image Search
Platform: iOS / iPadOS / macOS
Keywords: Clipboard management
@Vanilla: Paste can be considered one of the most long-standing clipboard managers on macOS. Its biggest strength lies in its UI and interactions, which feel almost like a native app and deliver an excellent user experience. Of course, as Apple has introduced system-level clipboard features of its own, it has become harder for Paste to rely solely on a “system-like” experience to convince users to pay for a subscription to a similar tool. As a result, Paste has continually tried to add features not available in the system clipboard, such as Pinboard, sharing, and previews—but for someone as frugal as me, that still wasn’t quite persuasive enough. Recently, Paste introduced Power Search, comprehensively upgrading clipboard search across three dimensions: keyword prediction, smart filtering, and image search. In terms of functionality, it can be said to fully surpass the system clipboard.
First, Power Search adds keyword prediction. When we type Chinese characters or letters into the search box, Paste performs real-time predictive matching based on the input. It also applies intelligent error correction to the keywords: if no results exactly match what you typed, Paste will still try to surface similar matches.
Second, Power Search supports smart filtering. We can directly enter parameters in the search box—such as file type, app name, date, or device—or click the filter button on the right side of the input field to select them. By using these filters alone or in combination with keywords, we can conduct precise searches and more quickly locate the clipboard history we’re looking for.
Finally, Power Search supports image recognition. When we copy photos, screenshots, or documents, Paste can recognize the text within them, allowing us to search using keywords and even highlight matched text in the preview view. However, in my own testing, I was unable to reproduce this feature when searching Chinese or English text in photos and screenshots, despite what was mentioned in the official update. I can’t be sure whether this is a bug or just an isolated issue on my end.
Image source: Paste official blog
After this update, I believe Paste offers plenty of motivation for heavy Mac users—such as writers, designers, developers, students, and researchers—to give this clipboard enhancement tool a try. It not only manages clipboard content effectively, but more importantly enables fast and precise searching through that content.
Paste can be downloaded from the App Store and requires a subscription to use. Pricing is 28 RMB per month or 168 RMB per year; the family plan costs 398 RMB per year; and a one-time lifetime purchase is 598 RMB, covering both Mac and iOS clients. You can also purchase team plans based on seats, or access Paste for Mac and Paste for iOS through a Setapp subscription.
Xiaoxing Accounting 4.0: Fully Adapting to Material 3
Platform: Android
Keywords: Expense tracking
@大大大K: The Android expense-tracking app Xiaoxing Accounting rolled out its 4.0 Beta major update last Sunday. The biggest change in this release is its long-awaited full adaptation to Material 3.
Upon entering the main interface, you’ll notice the new UI feels more “standardized.” The previously immersive homepage data display has been replaced with a card-based layout; search is now pinned to the top as a search bar; and the quick-access entry at the bottom of the screen has been expanded to include templates, a calendar, expense reimbursement management, and more.
As for core expense-tracking features, the overall layout hasn’t changed much, and the original interaction logic still applies. The most notable improvement is the numeric keypad. In earlier versions, tapping the calculation button would pop up a separate calculator keypad, which felt somewhat disjointed. In the new version, the calculation button appears directly within the existing numeric keypad and is accompanied by a scaling animation, making the recording flow noticeably smoother.
The settings interface has also been reworked in Xiaoxing Accounting 4.0. In previous versions, all settings were listed at the top level and divided by tags. While this made items quicker to find, the accumulation of options often felt cluttered. Version 4.0 organizes settings into categories such as ledgers, display, recording settings, and reports, and many options have been reassigned within the hierarchy. Since settings are typically accessed infrequently, this categorized structure is much clearer from a usability standpoint.
For more detailed changes, you can refer to the update log. It’s worth noting that this release is still a Beta version, and there are some minor bugs related to data calculations and UI display. If your current version is below 3.7, it’s recommended that you first update to 3.7 and manually back up your data before trying the 4.0 update, to avoid potential data incompatibility issues. You can now upgrade to Xiaoxing Accounting 4.0 Beta for free on Coolapk.
FocusFour: When Your To-Do List Blurs Your Focus, the Four Quadrants Make Things Clearer
Platform: HarmonyOS / iOS
Keywords: Productivity, Four Quadrants, SSPAI
@轻舟_: If you’ve followed FocusFour on SSPAI before, you may have already witnessed its journey from a co-creation project to release. Recently, FocusFour has launched a native HarmonyOS version. If most of the time your problem isn’t that you don’t know what to do, but that you don’t know what to do first, then FocusFour—built around the “Four Quadrants of Time Management”—might be worth a try.
As a task management tool, FocusFour doesn’t try to hold everything for you. Instead, it repeatedly reminds you, in a very intuitive way, to distinguish between what is important and what is urgent. In FocusFour, tasks are no longer arranged simply by time, but placed into four quadrants. This approach is straightforward and grounded in reality, quickly making you realize that truly important things are actually quite few. Compared with endlessly ticking off completed items, this view is more about helping you make choices than about keeping records.
The newly released HarmonyOS version of FocusFour currently focuses on local data. There’s no complicated setup and no extra learning cost, and it’s completely free. When you open the app, the first thing you do isn’t figuring out “how to use it,” but deciding “where to place this task.” The overall experience of the HarmonyOS version continues the design philosophy of the earlier co-creation release: a clean interface, natural interactions, and no attempt to trap you with features.
If you relate to any of the following:
You have lots of things to do, but spend every day busy with “not-so-important” tasks
Important tasks are always pushed to tomorrow
You’ve tried many tools, but in the end only stick with a single list
You want a tool that helps you make judgments rather than adding more burden
And you also happen to be using a HarmonyOS device, then FocusFour may be worth trying—especially since there aren’t many apps of this type on the HarmonyOS platform. FocusFour will continue to evolve, keeping feature parity with the iOS version, and will add capabilities such as task analysis, widgets, and notification reminders. When it comes to task management, doing a little less can sometimes be more effective.
Mozilla Firefox (Windows | macOS | Linux): Updated to v146. On Windows 10 devices, users can enable the browser backup feature, which backs up browser data such as passwords and bookmarks to the local device on a daily basis. On macOS, an independent GPU process is now enabled by default, among other changes.
Today, I want to talk with you about a topic that causes a quiet ache—sometimes even a sense of frustration—for all university instructors, whether you’re a newcomer who has just stepped onto the podium or a veteran with twenty years of teaching behind you.
You’re standing at the lectern. You’ve carefully prepared your slides. You’ve just reached the point you believe is the most exciting, the concept that should spark a reaction. You lift your head expectantly and sweep your gaze across the room, ready to meet those looks of sudden understanding.
But there aren’t any. What you see is a sea of bowed heads. Worse still, that usually well-behaved student in the front row has tucked their phone inside the textbook, fingers swiping at full speed; a few guys in the corner have screen glow lighting up their faces, more focused than they ever look when listening to you; even those who seem to be taking notes stare blankly, as if they’re merely transferring text from the slides to their laptops, their minds already checked out.
In that moment, your emotions are probably all mixed together. Is it anger—how can this generation be so disrespectful? Is it disappointment—maybe I’m not teaching well enough; maybe I can’t compete with short videos? Or is it resignation—the sense that this is just the environment we’re in now, and no one can change it?
In fact, this isn’t just your predicament. It’s a shared pain point for educators around the world. But today I want to offer you a conclusion that may feel a bit counterintuitive: students looking down is not because they’re lazy, lacking self-control, or disrespecting you; nor is it because your lecture isn’t engaging enough.
The root cause is that our traditional classroom, as an attention system, has its parameters set incorrectly. Within this system, “looking down” is an inevitable, stable Nash equilibrium.
As long as the system’s parameters remain unchanged, no matter how angry you get, how earnestly you plead, or how much you perform a one-person show during those 45 minutes—so long as that equilibrium exists, students will instinctively slide toward the state that feels more comfortable for their brains: looking down.
In this article, I want to take you through this classroom system the way we would dismantle a complex engineering problem. We’ll think in terms of system redesign and use three concrete “knobs” to shift the classroom’s equilibrium—from “looking down” back to “looking up.”
Misreading
When we see students looking down, our first instinct is often to blame individual character. We think, “This class has a bad attitude.” And so our countermeasures usually revolve around control: stricter roll calls, forcing students to hand in their phones, or suddenly raising our voices to jolt them awake.
Or we turn the blame inward: “Am I just too boring?” So we try to turn the class into a stand-up routine—cramming in jokes, performing at full throttle, hoping sheer intensity will wrest attention back.
Unfortunately, these conventional fixes rarely work—and often backfire. Strict control can create opposition, turning students into “defensive look-downers”: to avoid being singled out, they bury their heads even lower, pretending to read while mentally shutting the door. And trying to out-entertain smartphones with “better lecturing” is a battle doomed from the start. Remember: the recommendation algorithms behind those phones are dopamine traps engineered by thousands of top engineers and tens of thousands of servers. How could you possibly defeat that in a one-on-one, flesh-and-blood showdown?
The more painful truth is this: the traditional lecture-based classroom is rewarding looking down. Why? Think about the core task in a typical lecture. Students are supposed to listen and take notes. That’s a one-way input process. The brain is in a low-energy, receptive mode. If, at that moment, a source appears that offers higher frequency, more immediate, and more intense stimulation—like a smartphone—the brain will almost instinctively choose it. If listening to a lecture is passive, and scrolling a phone is also passive, why not choose the one that feels better?
This isn’t a moral failing. It’s biology.
There’s also a subtler trap we need to watch out for. Many instructors think that as long as students aren’t on their phones and are staring at their laptops typing notes, “head-down” is no longer a problem. Wrong. As early as 2014, Mueller and Oppenheimer showed in their well-known study The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard that students who take notes on laptops often fall into a state of mindless transcription. Like typewriters, they record every word they hear, feeling productive because they’ve captured everything—yet their brains never engage in deep processing. This kind of “mechanical looking down” is an even more deceptive form of pseudo-learning. They look busy, but they’re still not truly “online.”
So the “looking down” we need to address actually consists of three fundamentally different system states:
The first is screen-driven looking down: the classroom’s return on attention per unit time is lower than that of a phone, so attention drifts naturally. The second is mechanical looking down: the classroom rewards recording rather than thinking, and students choose low-energy transcription. The third is defensive looking down: the interaction cost in class is too high (for example, fear of being mocked for a wrong answer), so students lower their heads to avoid social risk.
None of these problems can be fully solved by “teaching more brilliantly.” They all point in the same direction: a design flaw in the classroom system.
Without redesigning the system, we’re pitting our bodies against the laws of nature. How good do you think our odds are?
The Vulnerability
Before prescribing a cure, we have to get the diagnosis right. Why is our classroom system so fragile—so easily defeated?
Here’s a brutal downward-spiral model you may never have consciously noticed.
First, the physiological decay of attention. Research by Bunce and colleagues shows that in lecture-based settings, as time passes, the likelihood of mind-wandering increases while memory retention declines. Without intervention, by the middle to later part of a 45-minute class, students on average drift off every 3–4 minutes.
At that point, the externality of digital devices enters the scene. This isn’t just about students actively using their phones. More troubling is that the mere presence of a phone is itself distracting. A 2023 UNESCO report synthesizing data from 14 countries found that even when a phone is simply lying on the desk, its “mere presence” consumes cognitive bandwidth—because the subconscious must devote effort to suppress the urge to “just take a quick look.”
And looking down is contagious. An OECD 2024 report (Students, Digital Devices and Success) offers a striking statistic: 59% of students said they were distracted because they saw classmates using devices nearby. This is a negative externality. Once one person in the room starts looking down, the cost of staying focused rises for everyone around them. More students then give up resisting and join the downward gaze.
Finally—and most painful for teachers—the negative feedback loop of teacher–student interaction.
This is truly a tragic closed loop. As early as 1993, Skinner and Belmont identified this pattern: the less engaged students are (heads down, silent), the harder it is for teachers to receive positive feedback. Think about it—when you throw out a joke and no one laughs, ask a question and no one responds, doesn’t your enthusiasm cool instantly? You unconsciously reduce interaction, speed up your delivery, and just want to get through the material. And the more you retreat into “reading from the script,” the more students feel the class is dull—and the lower their heads sink.
This is our current reality: lecture mode leads to attention decay → phones provide a low-cost escape → peer effects accelerate collapse → teachers and students “discourage” each other.
The system is now locked into a low-head equilibrium. To break out, will patchwork fixes suffice?
It has to be rebuilt.
Rebuilding
How do we rebuild? The core principle can be summed up in one sentence: we must turn the classroom from an information input field into a thinking workflow. By adjusting three system-level “knobs,” we can fundamentally change the game rules of the classroom. These three knobs are: output density, device friction, and feedback visibility.
Let’s look at them one by one.
Output If pure “input” (listening) can’t fully occupy students’ cognitive bandwidth, then we use output to fill it up.
Active learning works not because it’s fun, but because it forces presence. Freeman et al.’s landmark meta-analysis published in PNAS—Active learning increases student performance—provided hard evidence long ago: the failure rate in traditional lecture classes is 1.5 times that of active-learning classes.
What we need to do is break a long 45- or 90-minute session into a series of 10–15 minute micro-cycles. The endpoint of each cycle must never be “the teacher finished explaining,” but rather “the students produced something.”
You need to build a library ofhigh-frequency output modules. Think of them like LEGO bricks you can snap into the gaps of your lecture at any moment.
For example, the simplest one: predict–verify. Before revealing an experimental result or completing a formula derivation, pause and ask students to write down their prediction: “Which way do you think the curve will go next?” or “What effect will this parameter change have?” Give them 60 seconds—they must write it down. The moment the pen moves, heads naturally lift. Because the explanation that follows is no longer irrelevant noise; it becomes the “answer reveal” that confirms whether their prediction was right or wrong.
Another example, designed specifically to combat mechanical looking-down, is the one-minute retrieval. After explaining a complex concept, don’t ask, “Does everyone understand?”—that’s a useless question. Instead say: “Alright, close your laptops. Without looking at your notes, take one minute to write down the three key elements of the concept we just covered.” You’ll see students who were previously typing at full speed suddenly freeze, brows furrowed. This is the moment when real learning begins.
There’s also error dissection. Put a typical incorrect solution directly on the screen and ask: “At which step is this wrong? And why?” This kind of fault-finding task excites the brain far more than deriving everything from scratch.
All these activities share the same traits: low threshold, low risk, fast feedback. Don’t design big projects that require half an hour of discussion. Stick to micro-tasks that can be completed in 30 seconds to two minutes. They act like speed bumps, forcibly interrupting students’ inertia toward their phones and guiding attention back to the act of thinking in the present moment.
Friction
I know many teachers struggle with the question of whether to ban phones. Ban them, and you worry students will resent it—or even file complaints. Don’t ban them, and watching the situation unfold can be infuriating.
Let me share something from my experience sitting in on classes as a teaching supervisor: I’ve personally seen students dutifully hand in their phones at the door—only to pull out an iPad mini, prop it up on the desk, and carry on. In fact, a 2025 study by the LSE (We Shouldn’t Ban Smartphones) offers a very smart alternative: for adult students, instead of imposing bans, use guided use.
Your goal isn’t to turn phones into contraband. It’s to use physical and rule-based design to increase the friction of phones as entertainment tools, while lowering their friction as learning tools. I recommend a highly practical strategy called “closed by default, opened on demand.”
You can establish a device agreement with students in the very first class. This isn’t a one-sided decree, but a shared understanding built around protecting everyone’s attention. You should explain that phone use affects others—and if they doubt it, show them the OECD research.
The agreement is simple:
Offline on entry: Phones are placed in bags or a designated storage area (physical separation). Laptops are closed by default. Clear on-windows: Each class includes two or three clearly defined “open-device windows.” For example, when looking up information, doing an online poll, or watching specific materials, you give a clear instruction: “Okay, open your devices—we have three minutes to complete this task.” Immediate closure: As soon as the task ends, devices are closed again.
The benefit of this approach is that you’re not taking away their right to use technology—you’re redefining the default path. What used to be a zero-cost action (“just check my phone for a second”) now becomes a high-cost behavior that requires breaking the rules. And when phones stay in bags, the cognitive interference caused by their mere presence—to oneself and to others—naturally disappears.
Feedback
The first two knobs address what students do and what they use. The final knob tackles a deeper question: where does motivation come from? As we’ve said, the negative feedback loop in teacher–student interaction is deadly. To break that loop, we need to introduce a new variable: visible data feedback.
In traditional classrooms, feedback is invisible. Students don’t know whether they’ve actually learned anything, and you don’t know how much they’ve taken in. This ambiguity is fertile ground for disengagement. Now, we need to make feedback explicit.
Use simple classroom interaction tools—Feishu spreadsheets, Questionnaire Star, Rain Classroom, or even a show-of-hands vote—to visualize the outcome of every output point. For example, after covering a concept, put up a multiple-choice question and have the whole class vote. A few seconds later, a bar chart pops up on the screen: “Wow—60% chose B, 30% chose C.”
At that moment, something magical happens.
For students, they instantly see where they stand. “So many people made the same mistake I did!” That sense of social comparison immediately activates their competitive instinct and curiosity. They urgently want to know: Why is B wrong? Why is C correct? When you speak again at that point, every word lands. Everyone is listening, ears pricked.
For you, this is nothing short of a lifeline. You’re no longer shadowboxing against thin air—you’re seeing real evidence of learning. You know where they’re stuck and where you can move faster. That sense of control reignites your teaching enthusiasm. Your eyes light up, your tone lifts, and that energy flows right back to the students.
See? That deadly negative feedback loop can be flipped—by something as simple as a bar chart.
Validation
After all this theory, I know you might still feel uncertain. Does this actually work in a real classroom? Will it turn chaotic? Will there even be time to finish the material?
Let’s walk through a hypothetical 45-minute class.
First 5 minutes: a high-energy launch. The moment the bell rings, do not say, “Last class we talked about…” and start reading slides. Instead, throw out a prediction question or a cognitive conflict. “Everyone, for this concept, our intuition usually tells us that A is correct. But today I want to show you that under certain conditions, B is actually the truth. Take out a piece of paper—or open the voting link on your phone. I’ll give you two scenarios. Predict which one will flip the outcome. You have one minute.” At this point, phones are in students’ hands—but no one is scrolling social media. Everyone is staring at the question. Knob A (output) and Knob B (device guidance) are activated simultaneously.
Minutes 5–15: focused explanation and closure. Reveal the predictions, build suspense, then launch into ten minutes of dense, focused explanation. During these ten minutes, laptops stay closed and phones go away. Because of the setup, students are now listening for one thing: why their prediction was wrong. After ten minutes, cut it off immediately. “Alright, now use the theory we just covered to explain this counterexample. Turn to the person next to you and explain it to each other—30 seconds each.” Instantly, the room fills with a low buzz. This is peer mirroring, the natural enemy of defensive looking-down. No one dares to stay silent when their neighbor is watching.
Minute 25: the deep-water zone and data feedback. You enter the hardest concept. After explaining it, drop a trap question. “On this question, 80% of students from previous years got it wrong. Give it a try.” Students submit their answers. The bar chart appears on the screen—and sure enough, it’s a sea of red. You smile and say, “See? This is exactly where everyone falls into the pit. Let’s take a look at how that pit was dug.” This is where Knob C—feedback visibility—kicks in. Students don’t feel defeated; they feel intrigued. You follow up with targeted clarification while their attention is at its peak.
Minute 40: the exit ticket. In the final two minutes, don’t rush to assign homework. “Please take out your phones and scan the code. Fill in two blanks:
What was the most surprising idea you learned today?
What’s the one question you’re still confused about?”
This gives students a final metacognitive reflection—and gives you invaluable material for planning the next class.
As a bonus, it also takes attendance.
Now ask yourself: in these 45 minutes, did students have time to scroll short videos? To zone out? Their attention was fully occupied by one designed task barrier after another. Were they tired? Absolutely—more tired than listening to a one-person monologue. But this kind of tiredness is productive difficulty. It’s the bodily sensation of real learning taking place.
Risk
Rolling out this system isn’t without risk. The biggest pitfall, in fact, is student backlash driven by their subjective experience.
A 2019 study by Deslauriers (Study shows students learn more with active learning) uncovered a fascinating phenomenon: in active-learning classrooms, students’ objective performance improves, yet subjectively they feel like they’re “learning less”—and they feel worse about the experience.
Why? Because it’s cognitively demanding. Listening to a teacher deliver a smooth, polished lecture feels like watching a movie—effortless and satisfying—so students think they understand everything. This is the “illusion of learning.” But once they’re required to do the thinking themselves, friction and frustration kick in.
If you don’t manage expectations in advance, students may complain: “Why aren’t you teaching anymore? Why do you keep making us do the work ourselves? Are you just slacking off?” That’s why, before implementing this system, you must make a candid system declaration.
Put Deslauriers’ chart—subjective experience vs. actual learning—up on the screen and tell them plainly: “Over the next few classes, you may feel more tired than before. You might even feel a bit lost. That’s normal. Research shows that this discomfort is what it feels like when your brain is building muscle. We don’t want the illusion of ‘I get it.’ We want the real thing—actually having learned it.”
At the same time, show your own vulnerability. Tell them: “I need your feedback too. Teaching to a silent room drains my battery as well. We need to recharge each other.” This kind of honest communication can transform the teacher–student relationship from “manager vs. managed” into an alliance of learning partners.
Of course, reform doesn’t have to happen all at once. Don’t try to deploy every tactic in your very next class—that’s asking for a crash.
I recommend following a Minimum Viable System (MVP) path:
Phase 1 (first two weeks): stop the bleeding. Do just two things:
Announce the device agreement (closed by default).
Insert three simple “pause points” per class (e.g., one-minute retrieval). The goal is simply to halt the attention leak.
Phase 2 (one month): rebuild. Introduce peer discussion and live polling. Start putting feedback data on the screen. At this point, you’ll feel the classroom atmosphere shift—the dead, heavy silence begins to crack.
Phase 3 (mid-semester): solidify. Turn the process into habit. Students walk in knowing phones go into bags; when you reach a hard concept, they expect a vote. Now you’re free to refine more advanced output modules.
I know by now you’ve noticed I’ve left out one crucial piece. You’re right—this also requires support from the school’s broader academic administration system.
Change
This kind of teaching reform demands more effort from instructors, but it spares them from lecturing to thin air; students endure more frustration, but gain far more training as a result. On the surface, this looks like a clear improvement.
However, if the evaluation system remains unchanged, this reform simply will not happen. As long as a teacher is psychologically tough enough to read from the same slides year after year—unfazed by a room full of bowed heads—there’s no need to invest any extra time or energy in teaching. Students may even find such teachers more “approachable,” because they don’t “make things difficult.” In the university classroom, that kind of teacher becomes a rare safe harbor.
And so, when student evaluations roll around, the teachers who quietly read their slides rank in the top 10%; those who seriously pursue reform and help students learn more end up at the bottom of the school.
This isn’t alarmism—it’s backed by solid research. Active learning improves students’ capabilities, yet their subjective evaluations decline. And student evaluations of teaching—sorry to say—are precisely a form of measurement based on subjective reporting. Unless you expect to rely on teachers who truly love the profession and run on pure passion, any rational choice will push teachers to compete at one thing: how not to trouble students.
Academic administration can change this by adjusting evaluation methods for teachers who undertake instructional reform—protecting the motivation of those willing to try and to take risks. For example, student evaluation data for these teachers could be collected but not used, with them defaulted to the top tier among evaluated faculty.
You might object: what’s to stop everyone from continuing to read slides and simply claiming they’ve reformed—free-riding on the system?
A few years ago, that might have been a real problem. Today, most universities already have full classroom video recording systems. Having multimodal AI perform simple, real-time analysis of classroom interaction poses no technical difficulty. When a claimed reform diverges sharply from the actual interaction data, the administration can assign two or three teaching supervisors from different disciplines to observe the class and make a final call.
Of course, this isn’t the whole story. Both teachers and academic systems still have many adjustments to make. One article can’t cover everything, nor can it fully anticipate the rapidly evolving technological landscape (such as AI). Conditions vary across countries and even across institutions, so the only honest approach is to respond pragmatically as challenges arise.
After all, this wave of teaching reform didn’t begin because teachers were “looking for trouble.” It was forced by dramatic changes in technology and society that have rapidly eroded the effectiveness of traditional lecturing. If things continue unchecked—teachers contentedly lecturing to empty air, students calmly present in body but wandering in mind, and both sides tacitly agreeing to a generous curve at term’s end—then the actual outcomes of education will inevitably drift away from the goals and mission of the university.
Conclusion
After all this, it really boils down to a single idea:
Don’t try to pit your individual charisma against a meticulously engineered world of digital temptation. What you need to do is design a new system—one that makes looking up worthwhile, looking down inconvenient, and thinking inevitable.
When you first see the entire class erupt into discussion over a poll result; when you first notice those once-empty gazes snap back into focus; when, after class, you receive exit tickets saying, “Professor, this class went by so fast today”…
The image above comes from an article I wrote previously. You’ll realize that all this effort is worth it—because the essence of education has never been about filling a vessel with water, but about lighting a flame. And rebuilding this system is about helping you strike that match.
May your classrooms be filled with students who lift their heads, eyes shining with light.
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Market regulator drafts compliance guidelines to curb “selling cars at a loss”
Motion-sensing game console Nex Playground gains popularity in the U.S.
Musk seeks evidence from Alipay in lawsuit accusing Apple of monopoly practices
OpenAI begins selling physical merchandise
Central authorities signal continuation of national subsidies next year, with policies to be optimized
Doubao mobile assistant clarifies it cannot capture screenshots of banking keyboards
Rumors You Can Just Glance At
Market regulator drafts compliance guidelines to curb “selling cars at a loss”
On December 12, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) released the Automobile Industry Price Conduct Compliance Guidelines (Draft for Public Comment) and opened it for public feedback. The document emphasizes that automobile manufacturers and dealers that “sell cars at a loss” through various means will face significant legal risks.
The Guidelines first detail pricing conduct requirements for automobile manufacturers, calling for: the establishment of end-to-end pricing management systems covering vehicle sales and financial services; clear and transparent rebate policies that respect dealers’ independent pricing rights; prohibitions on price collusion, below-cost sales aimed at excluding competitors, and price discrimination; and requirements that “paid unlock” features disclose free-use periods and fee standards to protect consumers’ right to be informed.
The Guidelines also specify pricing conduct requirements for automobile dealers, including: clear price marking and strict separation of vehicle prices from sales service fees; standardized promotions; bans on deceptive pricing, false reference prices, and failure to honor pricing commitments; encouragement for platforms to provide two-way alerts for conspicuously low prices; and strict prohibitions on charging without providing services, duplicate charges, and passing on improper fees.
In addition, the Guidelines encourage companies to establish internal compliance management systems covering price decision-making, contract management, internal oversight, and risk prevention, so as to prevent pricing violations at the source.
In response, automakers such as Changan Automobile, BYD, BAIC Group, and XPeng have successively stated their support and indicated they will actively comply with the Guidelines.
Since the beginning of this year, regulators have continued to roll out measures to curb “involution” in the auto industry. In March, a senior official at the National Development and Reform Commission criticized disorderly competition in the car market, noting that some companies were sacrificing profits to grab market share, and pledged efforts to rectify market chaos and regulate competition. In May, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said oversight of involution-style competition would be intensified. In June, under regulatory guidance, automakers committed to shortening supplier payment terms to 60 days; in September, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers further issued initiatives to standardize practices.
Motion-sensing game console Nex Playground gains popularity in the U.S.
According to The Wall Street Journal, during the 2025 U.S. holiday shopping season, a motion-sensing game console called Nex Playground unexpectedly emerged as a market “dark horse.” Launched by Silicon Valley startup Nex, Nex Playground topped Amazon’s Toys & Games rankings during Black Friday and sold out at brick-and-mortar retailers such as Walmart and Target. Data shows that its single-week sales surpassed Microsoft’s Xbox, trailing only Sony’s PS5 and Nintendo’s Switch 2, ranking third in overall U.S. game hardware sales.
Priced at $249 (approximately RMB 1,757), Nex Playground’s core appeal lies in completely abandoning traditional controllers in favor of capturing player movements via built-in cameras and AI-powered computer vision. Unlike conventional consoles, the product targets family and parent–child scenarios, encouraging kids to “get moving” in the living room rather than slumping on the couch—an approach that has resonated strongly with parents. In addition, Nex secured the IP licensing rights to Bluey, a children’s animated series with exceptionally high viewership on streaming platforms, which became a key driver behind the surge in sales.
Nex’s success stems from a high-risk business pivot. The company originally started by developing an AI basketball training app and once received investment from NBA star Steve Nash. After recognizing the market ceiling of a single sports-focused app, the team leveraged its core vision technology to first pivot into AR game development, and then crossed over into the supply-chain-intensive hardware sector, aiming to fill the gap left by the discontinuation of the Nintendo Wii in the motion-gaming market.
The commercial returns from this transformation have been striking. Two years ago, the device sold only 5,000 units; this year, sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday surpassed 300,000 units, with full-year sales projected to reach 600,000. Company revenue is expected to grow from roughly $3 million annually to $150 million, with profitability anticipated for the first time.
Musk seeks evidence from Alipay in lawsuit accusing Apple of monopoly practices
According to 9to5Mac, newly disclosed court filings show that in xAI’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, Elon Musk’s company sought documentary evidence from foreign tech firms including China’s Alipay and South Korea’s Kakao. The aim is to argue that Apple preserves its iPhone hardware monopoly and high pricing by restricting the growth of “super apps.”
In the case, xAI alleges that Apple not only entered into exclusive agreements with OpenAI and suppressed the visibility of competitors such as Grok in the App Store, but also used ecosystem rules to block “super apps” that integrate instant messaging, payments, transportation, and e-commerce. Musk’s team contends that such apps reduce users’ dependence on a specific operating system, making it easier for consumers to switch from iPhones to other brands, and are therefore deliberately constrained by Apple.
Under evidence-gathering requests sent to judicial authorities in China and South Korea pursuant to the 1970 Hague Evidence Convention, xAI asked Alipay and KakaoTalk to provide their App Store ranking histories, revenue data, and internal strategic assessments on “how super apps affect users’ willingness to switch smartphones.” Under the Hague Convention, judicial authorities in one contracting state may request evidence from the competent authority of another contracting state in civil or commercial matters. xAI is expected to submit similar requests to other leading Asian app developers, including WeChat and Grab.
Musk has long sought to transform the social platform X (formerly Twitter) into a Western-style “super app” akin to WeChat. While the lawsuit initially appeared to stem from a dispute over Grok’s App Store ranking, the expanding scope of evidence collection suggests the case’s core has clearly shifted toward Musk’s ambitions for an all-in-one app.
OpenAI begins selling physical merchandise
According to Business Insider, to mark its 10th anniversary, OpenAI has opened its official merchandise store, OpenAI Supply Co., to the public for the first time. Previously, the store was accessible only to internal employees. After OpenAI shared the store link on X, it quickly sparked a buying frenzy, with most popular sizes of hoodies and T-shirts already sold out.
The store currently lists 10 items available for purchase, largely themed around OpenAI’s technological vision and geek culture. For example, there is a set of Pokémon-style collectible trading cards featuring models such as Sora 2 and GPT-5, as well as several apparel designs incorporating elements of “artificial general intelligence” (AGI). Beyond the items for sale, the website also showcases a large archive of past merchandise, including hats printed with the “1-800-CHATGPT” phone number and retro designs featuring San Francisco city motifs.
Central authorities signal continuation of national subsidies next year, with policies to be optimized
According to Yicai, the Central Economic Work Conference held in Beijing from December 10 to 11 made it clear that next year China will “adhere to demand-driven growth and build a strong domestic market,” and will optimize the implementation of the “Two New” policies.
The so-called “Two New” policies refer to large-scale equipment upgrades and the trade-in program for consumer goods, the latter of which is commonly known as the “national subsidy.” The conference’s clarification that the “Two New” policies will be optimized in 2026 indicates that national subsidies will continue next year, though with adjustments to specific measures.
To boost consumption, China issued RMB 150 billion in ultra-long-term special government bonds in 2024 to support consumer goods trade-ins. Given the strong results that year, China doubled the amount in 2025, issuing RMB 300 billion in ultra-long-term special bonds for the same purpose. The 2025 national subsidy program also expanded on the 2024 scope, adding three categories of digital products—smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches/bands—as well as four categories of home appliances, including microwave ovens, water purifiers, dishwashers, and rice cookers.
Data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that from January to November this year, consumer goods trade-ins drove related product sales exceeding RMB 2.5 trillion, benefiting more than 360 million instances of consumers. Among them, over 11.2 million vehicles were traded in, more than 128.44 million home appliances were replaced, subsidies covered over 90.15 million purchases of phones and other digital products, more than 12.91 million electric bicycles were traded in, and over 120 million home renovation and kitchen/bathroom “refresh” items were upgraded.
Experts interviewed said that the national subsidy budget in 2026 may see a moderate increase over 2025 levels, with further optimization of funding allocation—potentially expanding into service consumption—to better leverage fiscal spending to stimulate consumption, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, and support economic growth.
Doubao mobile assistant clarifies it cannot capture screenshots of banking keyboards
On December 13, in response to recent online claims that the “Doubao Mobile Assistant” exploits special permissions to steal private information such as banking keyboard inputs, the Doubao team issued a statement clarifying that this interpretation is incorrect. The company said the assistant uses the system’s native screenshot APIs and strictly follows Android’s underlying security mechanisms, making it impossible to capture protected interfaces such as those used by banking apps.
The core of the controversy centers on the use of permissions such as READ_FRAME_BUFFER. Doubao explained that the assistant employs a “virtual screen” technology, running third-party apps within a virtualized environment. While this permission allows reading the graphics buffer for AI inference, on Android, once an app invokes the FLAG_SECURE interface (as is typically the case during sensitive steps like password entry), the system returns black-screen data at the graphics rendering layer for any screenshot or screen-recording request. As a result, even with screen-reading permissions, no actual content can be seen.
Regarding the CAPTURE_SECURE_VIDEO_OUTPUT permission, Doubao said its practical purpose is to ensure that users can visually view protected pages normally when operating in small-window modes such as the “Dynamic Island,” rather than seeing a completely black screen. This, however, does not change the page’s inherent screenshot-blocking properties.
Doubao added that the mobile assistant currently operates on a workflow of user command → screenshot upload to the cloud → model feedback. Because the multimodal large models required for interface analysis have massive parameter sizes and are constrained by current mobile chip performance, screenshots must be uploaded to the cloud for processing. The company emphasized that screenshots are taken only when explicitly triggered by user commands, and uploaded data is used solely for real-time visual understanding and reasoning, with no cloud storage after the task is completed.
The technical preview version of the “Doubao Mobile Assistant” was released on December 1 and preinstalled on the nubia M153 engineering prototype jointly developed by ByteDance and ZTE, which was sold in limited quantities. On December 3, after encountering risk-control restrictions that prevented normal use of WeChat, Doubao removed the assistant’s ability to operate WeChat. On December 5, Doubao announced plans to standardize and adjust certain AI phone-operation capabilities, including—but not limited to—score farming, incentive farming, and scenarios involving financial apps and games.
Rumors You Can Just Glance At
According to Macworld, a leaked internal build of iOS 26 reveals some of Apple’s future development plans. Among them, iOS 26.4—expected to be released in spring 2026—will include a revamped Siri integrated with Apple Intelligence and based on Google’s Gemini model, along with a redesigned Health app interface. The code also indicates Apple is developing a new verification system that checks device integrity before Apple ID sign-in, meaning devices that have been “jailbroken” or otherwise modified without authorization may be unable to access online services such as iCloud. In addition, the Apple TV app may add a “Sports” subscription, and the Freeform app is set to gain folder management features.
On the hardware side, AirPods Pro 3 will leverage the built-in U2 ultra-wideband chip to support “outdoor Precision Finding” within the Find My network. Looking further ahead, iOS 27 is expected to improve the Photos app’s “Featured” functionality and AirPods pairing mechanisms, while iOS 28 plans to add sleep-tracking metrics such as “time in bed” for Apple Watch. macOS 28 is also slated to receive the Health app.
☕️ TL;DR Recommended recent highlights: [Korean Drama] The Price of Confession、[Film] Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc、[Film] Ordinary Accident、[Film] A Familiar Touch、[Mexico] The Death of a Girl、[Thai Series] The Betrayal at Wat Phra Si — Season 2、[UK Series] Shetland — Season 10、[Chinese] The Big Deal Maker、[Anime] Ranma ½ Season 2、[Documentary] No Name
A few notable trailers: the first teaser for the Street Fighter live-action film, a new trailer for Extreme Judgment, the official trailer for Kaguya-sama: Love Is War — The Stairway to Adulthood, a new trailer for Fate/strange Fake, and the first teaser for The Boys Season 5.
A few entertainment news items: main visual for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run, A Step into the Past premieres December 31, Drama Stories releases its first official poster, and Supergirl debuts a teaser poster.
@利兹与青鸟: Ahn Yoon-soo is accused of murdering her husband Lee Ki-dae. Although Yoon-soo insists she is innocent, she is sentenced to life in prison. Her orphanage background and her neighbors’ descriptions of a gentle Yoon-soo seem at odds with each other, hinting that she may not be as simple as she appears. Nurse Moo-eun, after years of exploitation, poisons the couple she works for. She calmly waits at the crime scene for the police to arrest her, confessing everything with chilling composure. The two women meet in prison, and Moo-eun offers to take the blame for killing Lee Ki-dae—on one condition: Yoon-soo must help her kill someone.
The series uses cold, muted tones to create a chilling atmosphere, and its visuals carry a strong sense of texture. The suspenseful narrative is tightly woven. Who is the real killer of Lee Ki-dae? How will Yoon-soo fulfill her promise? What secrets are the two women hiding? These questions draw the audience deeper, and the plot indeed takes unexpected turns, unraveling more and more cases until everything becomes increasingly enigmatic. The bloody confrontation near the end is especially memorable. Jeon Do-yeon and Kim Go-eun shine in their dual-leading roles—both adversarial and empathetic toward each other, completing their own redemption arcs through vengeance and the pursuit of truth. Beneath a gripping crime story, the drama explores themes of public shaming, prejudice, and arrogance, exposes the darkness of human nature, and ultimately lets the truth return to the light.
[Film] Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
Keywords: Manga Adaptation / Fantasy / Action / Romance
Also known as: 劇場版 チェンソーマン レゼ篇 / Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
Runtime: 100 minutes, with a post-credits scene; Douban link
My heart was taken by Reze—perhaps never again will joy and sorrow feel the same.
@SHY: After defeating Katana Man, Denji—the boy who can transform into Chainsaw Man—meets Reze, a girl working at a café. Their relationship quickly deepens. Yet just as things are about to move forward between them, Reze’s hidden identity leads to an explosive turn of events. Swept up by fate, where will Denji and Reze end up?
Although this film lost “Mr. Cinematic” Nakayama Ryū—its famously beleaguered director who delivered a much-criticized TV adaptation—the new director, Tatsuya Yoshihara, picks up the mess left by his mentor and delivers a true dragon-slaying performance, achieving global acclaim and box-office success. With MAPPA returning for production—with staff largely unchanged—this theatrical version adopts a new creative direction that abandons the TV series’ pseudo-live-action aesthetic. Instead, it fully embraces the strengths of animation, channels the spirit of the original manga, and presents exhilarating visuals and direction that far surpass the TV adaptation.
Adapted from one of the manga’s most beloved arcs, the film masterfully balances atmosphere—fusing a tender, emotional love story with roaring, explosive action sequences. With a score by Kensuke Ushio placed exactly where it belongs, the film becomes an audiovisual feast. Even a person as small as a mouse can burn bright like fireworks—this cruel, aching tale lingers long after the credits roll. This triumphant theatrical adaptation not only redeems the franchise but also stands as one of the best animated films—and one of the best films—of the year.
[Film] Ordinary Accident
Keywords: Action / Thriller / Crime / Adventure
Also known as: It Was Just an Accident / A Simple Accident / Un simple accident
@潘誉晗: One day, Narufar drives out with his wife and daughter. Midway through the trip, their car breaks down in front of a storage warehouse. After receiving help from the warehouse owner, Narufar goes inside to look for tools. The sound of his prosthetic leg scraping against the floor immediately puts warehouse employee Bashid on high alert. Years ago in prison, Bashid had been cruelly abused by a guard—and that guard made this exact sound when he walked. Believing Narufar to be that guard, Bashid plans to bury him alive in revenge. When Narufar denies the accusation, Bashid decides to gather former inmates to confirm his identity.
Although banned from filmmaking for 20 years, director Jafar Panahi secretly shot this film and ended up winning the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. During the award ceremony, Juliette Binoche praised the film for “restoring our sense of life through shared humanity and freedom,” and rightly so. Faced with the dilemma of confronting their torturer or seeking revenge, the victims’ choices command deep respect—they are not brutal people, and even after inhuman suffering, they still hold onto kindness. The film is crafted with remarkable skill. Though it does not graphically portray the violence of the past, the actors’ words make the audience feel the weight of despair all the same.
@利兹与青鸟: Ruth, an elegantly dressed elderly woman, moves with practiced ease as she prepares her signature sandwich in her beautifully decorated home. Although she occasionally wears a vacant expression, nothing outwardly reveals that she is suffering from memory decline. And yet—the toasted bread meant for the plate ends up on the drying rack, and Steve, who should be recognized as her son, is instead treated as a stranger. Half coaxing and half tricking her, Steve brings Ruth to a high-end countryside care facility. The environment is tastefully warm, offering dining, reading, games, nursing, medical exams—everything one might need. The doctors and caretakers are attentive, but even so, it is difficult to feel that living here could ever be enjoyable.
With delicate cinematography, thoughtful framing, and a gentle, tranquil tone, the director sketches the emotional journey of a proud elderly woman confronting her cognitive decline—subtle and deeply authentic. Newly arrived, Ruth insists she is no different from anyone else and refuses to accept the reality of her fading memory. She clearly remembers her date of birth, her home address, the recipe for her signature dish; she can prepare a refined meal more skillfully than someone half her age, and her handwriting remains beautiful. Yet her question, “Am I going to live here for the rest of my life?” pierces the heart like an arrow. The loneliness, loss of autonomy, and helplessness wash over the audience, prompting reflection on what it means to face aging.
@潘誉晗: One day, Win and Game are brought before Councilwoman Ai. Pointing to the lawn behind her, she claims she will build a hospital there—one that, once completed, will bring immense merit. Unfortunately, she lacks the funding and needs Win and Game to help her raise 1 billion baht within six months. It turns out that the seemingly kind councilwoman is actually the mastermind pulling all the strings. Win and Game want to refuse, but once Ai threatens their families, they have no choice but to comply. Meanwhile, after successfully escaping to the U.S., Belle begins building her own life from scratch.
Although The Believers Season 2 has slightly lower ratings compared to Season 1, the finale considered, the series is still worth recommending overall. It continues the first season’s bold spirit—unafraid to take risks with its setups—and this season escalates the scams even further, intertwining them with politics and power struggles. In Season 1, the protagonists devised scams to pay off debt; in Season 2, they act out of desperation to protect their families, bringing deeper, darker motivations into play—money laundering for the councilwoman. Exploiting people’s suffering to sell faith-based anxiety, then weaponizing that faith for profit and crime… as the Buddha said, all of this is sin.
@潘誉晗：One day, Win and Game are brought before Councilwoman Ai. Pointing to the lawn behind her, she claims she plans to build a hospital there—one that, once completed, would bring immense merit. Unfortunately, she currently lacks the funds. She needs Win and Game to help her raise one billion baht within six months. It turns out that the seemingly kind public figure is actually the mastermind behind everything. Win and Game initially refuse, but once Ai threatens their families, they are forced to comply. Meanwhile, Belle—who successfully fled to the United States—begins building her own career on her own terms.
Although the second season of The Believers has slightly lower ratings than the first, considering the impact of its ending, it remains very much worth recommending. Continuing the boldness of Season 1—both in subject matter and narrative structure—this season escalates the fraud schemes and links them to politics and power struggles. In Season 1, the protagonists devised scams to pay off debts; in Season 2, they must act for the sake of their families, bringing deeper, riskier motivations into play—namely, the councilwoman’s money laundering. Exploiting people’s suffering to sell religious anxiety, then weaponizing that faith to commit fraud and crimes—thus, as the Buddha says, all of it is sin.
[UK Series] Shetland Season 10
Keywords: Drama / Crime
Also known as: Shetland Season 10
Runtime: ~45 minutes per episode × 6 episodes; Douban link
A traditional and classical Scottish detective story.
@潘誉晗：One day, Tosh and Ruth receive a call from a colleague while on duty—there has been a murder, and the circumstances are extremely strange. The victim is a 76-year-old woman, strangled behind her own home, her body deliberately positioned facing the sea as if conveying a message. She had been dead for some time, but due to her remote residence, no one discovered her sooner. The person who finally found her was a neighbor who occasionally checked in on her and brought food. But when police investigate, they discover that this woman—who relied on her neighbor’s charity—actually had £400,000 in savings.
Season 10 of the Shetland series continues its signature slow-burn narrative style. Under its cold, austere tone, the mystery grows as biting and chilly as the Atlantic winds sweeping across one’s face. Combined with the vast, desolate backdrop of the Shetland Islands, the story carries an air of solemnity. Following a distinctly classical detective approach, the investigators adhere to the most traditional—and fundamental—logic of deduction. Starting from the victim’s personal relationships, they peel back the layers one by one. As the truth gradually emerges, so too does the complex nature of human character.
The art of doing business: from earning a living to building a nation.
@潘誉晗：At Manchun Courtyard in Ningguta, a crowd gathers—these are medicine traders who have come for a rare thousand-year-old ginseng root. But to everyone’s shock, the ginseng mysteriously disappears. To prove his innocence, the gatherer Su Shuhe takes his own life. Witnessing this tragedy, Gu Pingyuan, who is overseeing the auction, resolves to seek justice on Su’s behalf.
Adapted from Zhao Zhiyu’s novel of the same name, the series follows the legendary rise of Gu Pingyuan—a scholar wrongfully exiled—who transforms step by step from an outcast to a fugitive to a major figure in commerce. Ningguta, a place of exile for disgraced officials in the late Qing dynasty, is a frozen purgatory in the eyes of those banished there. Desperate to escape, exiles resort to every means possible, setting the stage for the story’s initial tragedy.
Amid such harsh circumstances, Gu Pingyuan embodies the core traits of a compelling leading protagonist—using his intellect to solve problems, helping others while advancing his own goals. As he changes roles and ventures into business—establishing a foothold through banking houses, growing through tea trade, and expanding into the salt industry—he never forgets his identity and duty as a Chinese citizen. The full-scale on-location filming lends the late-Qing-era business drama rich texture, and several side storylines are equally captivating.
[Anime] Ranma ½ Season 2
Keywords: Manga Adaptation / Comedy / Romance / Slice of Life
Also known as: らんま1/2 第2期 / Ranma ½ Season 2
Runtime: 23 minutes per episode × episode count TBA, updated weekly on Saturdays
If you really hated it, you wouldn’t make it this hard.
@SHY: Centered on Saotome Ranma and Tendo Akane, whose engagement was arranged by their elders, the chaotic everyday life continues. Gosunkugi vows to find Ranma’s weakness; the master’s master, Happosai, is unsealed; Shampoo returns with her great-grandmother Cologne, followed closely by her childhood friend Mousse; and Ranma’s other fiancée, Ukyo, suddenly appears, adding fuel to the fire.
With director Kōnosuke Uda and animation studio MAPPA returning at the helm, the second season maintains standout quality. Its fresh visual style and music sustain a relaxed, pleasant viewing experience, while the content remains highly engaging. Rumiko Takahashi’s brand of absurdist comedy thrives as the cast grows—one eccentric after another takes the stage, erupting into nonstop, slapstick chaos. Amid the ever-inventive episodic stories, Ranma and Akane’s bond deepens, keeping a smile on viewers’ faces throughout.
While following the original manga’s narrative spine, the new adaptation also makes thoughtful modernizations to elements constrained by their era. Happosai—arguably the most controversial character—still embodies his lecherous nature, but boundary-crossing behaviors are significantly toned down and swiftly punished, aiming to reduce audience discomfort. By fully channeling the manga’s essence without rigidly clinging to convention, the series becomes more than a classic remade in a new bottle—it’s a romantic comedy that earns its place in a new era.
A group of people who refuse to slide along a predetermined track.
@利兹与青鸟: This documentary is an exclusive production by SMG’s Real Media, airing on Dragon Television while also releasing weekly online every Tuesday. Over three years, the team filmed six stories about young people—among them a young film director, a professional athlete, and a blind massage therapist. Some once enjoyed moments of acclaim for their talent, yet all are ordinary people who carry dreams while remaining largely unknown. With calm, restrained camerawork, the documentary enters their lives, bearing witness to the anxieties and perseverance of a younger generation.
Each episode approaches its subject from a different perspective, revealing distinctive sparks that also reflect our own lives. Sunil, who once won the top directing prize at the Beijing Film Academy, returns to a quiet, uncelebrated routine after graduation; seen through his brother’s eyes, a father calls him “grand in thought, weak in action,” while Sunil feels his family pressures him too hard. Jiu-jitsu athlete Miao Jie, expected to retire at 22, persists until 36, trapped in a painful loop of effort and “effort that leads nowhere.” Graduates from a school for the blind studying massage come to Shanghai for internships, living vibrant lives no different from others—yet still keeping company with solitude in the dark.
Their stories are both a small slice of the many and unmistakably resilient and unique.
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[US Series] Murdaugh Murders: Deadly Dynasty @潘誉晗: On June 7, 2021, police received a call from a man reporting that his wife and younger son had been shot dead on their family estate. The man belonged to the Murdaugh family, a powerful local legal dynasty. As the investigation unfolded, police discovered that the caller himself was the true perpetrator. Adapted from the real-life Murdaugh family murder case, the series exposes how this family—long dominant in the local justice system—manipulated the law and concealed crimes, prompting viewers to rethink human nature and the rule of law.
[Thai Series] Prison Love Chaos @潘誉晗: Often described as the “Thai version of Orange Is the New Black,” this series is adapted from a novel. It follows Belle, who is framed with drugs at a bar and wrongfully sent to prison, where she faces relentless oppression. During her incarceration, she meets Claire and receives her help on multiple occasions. With a strong, immersive atmosphere, the show not only depicts a taboo romance unfolding behind bars, but also portrays the stories of many female inmates. Subplots are layered with foreshadowing and hidden threads, adding a strong sense of suspense.
[US Series] The Abandoned @潘誉晗: Jasper Valley is home to vast silver deposits, coveted by Constance Vanness, the matriarch of the powerful Vanness family. She plans to mine the silver and blast a road straight through the valley, but faces resistance from four households led by Fiona. This Netflix historical Western, set during the frontier era of the 1850s, centers on the rivalry between two formidable female leaders. Beneath a land dispute lies a deeper struggle over power—and the protection of family.
[Documentary] Even Angels Have an Internship @利兹与青鸟: Produced by Bilibili, this documentary focuses on the growth stories of five medical students interning at Xiangya Second Hospital of Central South University. Rotating through departments such as orthopedics, breast surgery, ultrasound medicine, and cardiology, they participate daily in ward rounds, patient briefings, and assisting in surgeries. The documentary candidly presents the hardships, pressure, pain, danger, confusion, achievements, and joy of medical students, hoping to foster greater mutual understanding and respect between doctors and patients.
On December 12, the first teaser for the live-action film adaptation of Street Fighter was unveiled at The Game Awards (TGA). The film is set for a North American release on October 16, 2026. Directed by Kitao Sakurai, the cast includes Jason Momoa, 50 Cent, David Dastmalchian, Noah Centineo, Roman Reigns, Olivier Richters, Andrew Koji, and Eric André, among others. Source
On December 9, the film Extreme Judgment released a new trailer and is scheduled to premiere in North America on January 23, 2026. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov and starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson, the story is set in a society where AI courts have fully taken over the judicial system. Its creator, Rayven, finds himself accused of murdering his wife and must prove his innocence within 90 minutes. Source
On December 9, the anime Kaguya-sama: Love Is War — The Stairway to Adulthood released its official trailer, announcing that the opening theme will be performed by Masayuki Suzuki feat. Aoi Koga. The special one-hour episode is scheduled to air on December 31. Adapted from Aka Akasaka’s manga of the same name, the project is once again directed by Mamoru Hatakeyama, with Tetsuya Kawakami and Rena Iwasaki serving as chief animation directors, and produced by A-1 Pictures. Source
On December 6, the TV anime Fate/strange Fake released its “True” trailer and announced that it will begin airing on January 3. Adapted from Ryohgo Narita’s Fate spin-off novel series, the anime is directed by Shun Enokido and Takahito Sakazume, with music composed by Hiroyuki Sawano and animation production by A-1 Pictures. The story depicts a false Holy Grail War unfolding in Snowfield, a city in the western United States, following the Fifth Holy Grail War. Source
On December 7, the series The Boys released the first teaser for its fifth and final season, set to premiere on Prime Video on April 8, 2026. This is Homelander’s world, ruled entirely by his volatile will. When Butcher reemerges wielding a virus capable of wiping all superheroes off the map, he sets in motion events that will permanently change the world—and everyone in it. Source
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The Copenhagen Test released a trailer: Starring Simu Liu and Melissa Barrera, with Thomas Brandon (Legacies) serving as writer, creator, showrunner, and executive producer. The story follows Alexander Hale, a first-generation Chinese American and intelligence analyst who discovers that his brain has been infiltrated—allowing the perpetrator to see and hear everything he experiences, as if watching a live stream from his perspective. Premieres on Peacock on December 27.
Pretend Family released a special trailer: Produced by Han Sanping, written and directed by Li Taiyan, and starring Jackie Chan, Peng Yuchang, and Zhang Jianing, with Pan Binlong and Li Ping also in leading roles. The film tells the story of a group of strangers, each with their own agendas, who accidentally come together to form a family. It is scheduled for nationwide release on January 1, 2026.
Billie Eilish: Gentle Impact Tour 3D Film released a trailer: Directed by James Cameron and Billie Eilish, with Cameron employing 3D technology to film multiple concerts from Billie Eilish’s tour this year. The film will be released in North America on March 20, 2026.
The film Just Enough released a dated trailer: Directed by Zhang Xuanpeng, with Shen Teng serving as artistic advisor, and starring Yin Zheng, Pan Binlong, Huang Cailun, Zhang Yiming, and Liang Chao. Adapted from the South Korean film Director Kim vs. Director Kim vs. Director Kim, it follows “internet-famous fake master” Jin Mao, who wins a competition by sheer luck and is then chosen by capital investors to return to his hometown and build a kung fu-themed town. The film is set to premiere on December 27. Source
📽 Film & TV News Weekly
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run — Key Visual Released On December 9, the anime JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run unveiled its key visual and announced a 2026 release on Netflix. Directed by Yasuda Kimura and Hideya Takahashi, with animation by david production, the story centers on the century-spanning STEEL BALL RUN race—a horseback competition crossing the North American continent. Drawn by the promise of a $50 million grand prize, formidable adventurers enter a fierce battle. Source
A Step into the Past Set for December 31 Release On December 10, the film adaptation of A Step into the Past released its dated trailer and poster, confirming a December 31 theatrical release. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Huang Yi, the film is executive produced by Louis Koo and co-directed by Wu Hyun-hui and Lai Chun-lung. The cast includes Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Jessica Hsuan, Sonija Kwok, and Joyce Tang. As mentor and disciple Xiang Shaolong and Zhao Pan face off, decades of tangled grudges are finally set to reach a reckoning. Source
The Drama Story Releases First Official Poster On December 9, A24’s new film The Drama Story, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, released its first official poster and trailer, with a North American release slated for April 3, 2026. Written and directed by Dream Scenario filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli and produced by Ari Aster, the film tells a romantic love story that takes an unexpected turn on the eve of a couple’s big day.
Supergirl Releases Teaser Poster On December 11, DC’s new film Supergirl debuted a teaser poster and its first trailer. Adapted from the comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the film is directed by Craig Gillespie (Cruella, I, Tonya), with a script by actor and playwright Ana Nogueira (The Vampire Diaries, Hamilton). The cast includes Milly Alcock, Jason Momoa, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Eve Ridley. The film is scheduled for a North American release on June 26 next year.
