Chaos & Amazement #2522 Meta’s AR+AI Helmet, Echo Hunter, and a Sad Emotional Support Kangaroo

May 31, 2025

Meta teams up with defense startup Anduril to build “EagleEye,” an AR+AI helmet for U.S. soldiers (or “warfighters” as they insist on calling them). Its founder is Palmer Luckey, the same guy who founded Oculus before it became Meta’s VR darling. https://www.anduril.com/article/anduril-and-meta-team-up-to-transform-xr-for-the-american-military/
After 15 years (!), WhatsApp finally has a native iPad app. It supports split view, screen sharing, full video calls — no more hacks or browser workarounds. As someone who's been iPad-only for over a decade: pure joy. Took them long enough. https://www.theverge.com/news/674596/whatsapp-ipad-app-meta-availability
More traditional publishers are tiptoeing onto Substack—not to reinvent themselves, but to market what they already do. Like social media, but with one key difference: you get the email addresses. Here’s one example, from BBC History: Life Lessons from History, by
Dr David Musgrove
. More here: https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/magazines/how-bbc-history-is-bringing-content-about-the-past-to-tomorrows-audiences/

Wall Street Journal tested Google Veo and Runway to create this AI film. What I learnt? Google’s new AI video tool is clumsy on its own but game-changing when used to enhance real footage. Sadly, it’ll also spawn a flood of lazy AI junk.
AI film maker Kavan the Kid made a 22 minute science fiction film calle Echo Hunter. He used Midjourney with omnireference for visuals, upscaled in Topaz/Magnific, animated in Kling 2.0, then layered real actor performances using Runway Act One for facial nuance — a wild, hybrid workflow.

Emotional support kangaroo rejected entry to plane. Outrageous! He was clearly holding a valid boarding pass.
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This made my day: The Cast of Buena Vista Social Club: Tiny Desk Concert