Apple announced the MacBook Neo, a $599 laptop powered by the A18 Pro chip, the same silicon inside the iPhone 16 Pro. It's the first Mac to run on an iPhone chip and the most affordable laptop Apple has ever made, arriving in four colors with a 13-inch Liquid Retina display and 256GB base storage. Pre-orders are live now; units ship March 11. (TechCrunch)

President Trump hosted Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI at the White House, where all seven signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, committing to build, buy, or fund their own power for AI data centers without passing costs to households. The move follows growing political backlash as AI data center sprawl has driven up utility bills across communities. This signals that cloud providers are being held accountable for the energy they consume, which is good for long-term cost stability. (Washington Post)

German startup Neura Robotics is raising $1.2B, backed primarily by Tether — the stablecoin issuer that underpins much of the crypto market — at a €4 billion valuation. It's one of the largest funding rounds in robotics history and marks Tether's first major move into physical AI. When crypto capital starts flowing into humanoid robots, the race to put AI in a body is more serious than most founders are treating it. (Bloomberg)

Google's March 2026 Pixel Drop rolled out this week, bringing agentic Gemini actions to Pixel 10 devices. The AI can now open apps, navigate them, and complete multi-step tasks like ordering food on DoorDash, booking Uber rides, or placing grocery orders without any input from you. Gemini operates inside a secure virtual window you can watch in real time or ignore entirely. (9to5Google)

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek reportedly signed SB 1546, making Oregon one of the first states to pass a law specifically governing AI chatbot safety, requiring disclosure when consumers interact with AI and setting baseline protections for users of AI-powered products. A similar measure is now pending in Washington state. If you're building any consumer-facing AI product, Oregon's law is the early template for what's coming federally. (Transparency Coalition AI)

For four months, Longyearbyen, Svalbard, has sat in the darkness of the long polar night. Sitting well within the Arctic Circle, the world's northernmost town has not seen the sun since late October. That changes this Sunday.

Though the sun technically cleared the horizon in February, the steep mountains surrounding Longyearbyen have kept it in shadow. But on March 8, residents of the world’s northernmost town will gather to witness sunlight finally reaching the valley floor.

Each year, a crowd gathers at the sykehustrappa, the only remaining steps of a hospital destroyed during a World War II bombardment. Local tradition dictates that the sun is not "officially" back until its rays hit these specific stairs. When the first sliver of gold finally touches the wood, the crowd erupts into cheers and songs led by children. This moment kicks off Solfestuka, a week-long celebration dedicated to emerging from darkness.

During the festival, the local supermarket, Svalbardbutikken, hosts a "Fruktfest" with massive quantities of imported exotic tropical fruits such as mangosteens, rambutans, and guavas. They contrast bizarrely against the frozen tundra. Everyone eats solboller (sun buns), which are sweet, custard-filled pastries dusted with yellow sugar. There’s also a satirical musical revue, "Full Tank," and outdoor church services where congregants huddle in parkas.

The week of Solfestuka serves as a collective exhale for a town that has spent a third of the year in darkness. By the end of the festival, headlamps are tucked away and sunglasses finally come back out as the town prepares for the shift toward the continuous light of the Arctic summer. For the people of Longyearbyen, that first glint on the old wooden steps is the definitive signal that they have successfully navigated another winter at the top of the world.

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