InstaFarm’s patented 4-by-4-inch compostable trays come pre-filled with about a half-inch of soil (“sourced from Amish Country in Pennsylvania,” according to InstaFarm) and organic, non-GMO seeds, with the nutritional info for the final-product microgreens listed on top. They come in over a dozen varieties of nine-packs for $23, including individual cultivars, smoothie- and salad-specific blends, and even plain trays for growing your own greens or garden starts. It is worth noting that the trays are easily saturated paperboard designed for one-time use.

For comparison, Vego’s hydroponic microgreens planter, which I used last year, is just $60 for two units, while Gardyn’s is $100. Neither produces a volume of greens anywhere close to the InstaFarm, but again, $500 can buy a lot of store-bought microgreens.

InstaFarm has an app, but it doesn’t add much to the experience, other than the ability to activate night mode (which then turns off the light for up to 10 hours). More helpful is the button on the top of the unit that comes with a sticker describing how many presses are required for any function you’d need.

Every 90 minutes, a metal nozzle arm pops out and moves along each shelf, sensing each tray and its plants’ height, humidity, and temperature. Once the nozzle is done sensing, it dispenses an appropriate blast of water, much like the spray heads in the produce section of the grocery store. If you have cats, they may be very interested the first time they hear the nozzle whirring and moving slowly over the shelves. (The first quick, unexpected spray was an entertaining event in my house.) Sometimes, this sensing was more accurate in theory than in practice—for some reason, the sensor consistently overshot the watering volume for the red beet greens (but only the beet greens), causing the tray to overflow daily.

After a few weeks, I noticed the nozzle making a slight mechanical noise once it finished its rounds, as it slowly retracted back to its resting position. It wasn’t loud—it reminded me of the sound the bullwheel makes at the top of a ski lift—but because the InstaFarm was sitting on my dining room table, it was noticeable. And I should also note it was on my dining room table because, despite the website’s claims the unit can fit under most kitchen cabinets, it was just slightly too tall for mine. This made it difficult to site, as it does take up an approximate 6-by-18-inch footprint. Given how easy it is to clip the greens off for salads, smoothies, and other meals, its most natural habitat is probably the kitchen, so you may want to measure more than once to make sure it will fit your space.

Greens Aplenty

Photograph: Kat Merck

Just as the directions claimed would happen, I had lush, usable microgreens in about five days. For my first growing round (I’ve now been through four), I was overly excited and placed a tray on every slot. Unless you have a large family that eats microgreens for every meal, I don’t recommend this. I tried gamely to use them all, but after the traumatic experience of putting a tray’s worth of radish microgreens in a strawberry smoothie (so spicy, so radishy), I decided to share some of my first-grown trays with friends.

OPPO has officially confirmed that the Find X9S and Find X9 Ultra will launch in India on May 21. The new flagship smartphones are designed for users who prioritize photography and video creation, featuring upgraded Hasselblad camera setups. Alongside the camera upgrades, both smartphones also include large silicon-carbon batteries and dedicated cooling systems for stable performance.

OPPO Find X9 Ultra and X9S: Specs

OPPO has designed the Find X9S with a slim 7.99mm body while still offering premium camera and video capabilities. The device includes three 50MP cameras tuned with Hasselblad technology for consistent imaging results. It also supports Dolby Vision recording and AI features to enhance photos, videos, and everyday usability.

The Hasselblad Master Camera System is a key highlight of the Find X9 series. The purpose of the system is to ensure that the photos produced have balanced colors, good detail, and a consistent photography experience across all the camera sensors on the phone. Another technology OPPO uses to make their images even better is the LUMO Image Engine, which provides high dynamic range, improved clarity, and lower noise levels.

The OPPO Find X9 Ultra features some powerful video tools that are helpful for movie-makers and content creators. The device can capture videos at 8K/30fps and 4K/120fps speeds using all of its cameras. The company also includes features such as O-Log2 and ACES support for pro editing software, as well as a dedicated LUT.

Furthermore, OPPO is focusing on battery life and thermal management with the Find X9 Ultra. The mobile has a 7050mAh battery and an advanced cooling system designed to meet the rigorous demands of creative tasks.

India Launch Date and Expected Availability

OPPO will officially launch the Find X9S and Find X9 Ultra in India on May 21. The company is expected to reveal pricing and sale details during the event itself. The launch further shows OPPO’s strategy to expand its premium flagship portfolio in the Indian smartphone market.

Elementary school is tough.

There are playground politics, multiplication tables and learning to read.

Imagine dealing with all that in a new language — or even a whole new country.

That’s the added challenge for kids who are learning English at the same time they’re learning everything else as their peers.

It’s an issue that Sarah Walters and her colleagues were determined to tackle in Troy City Schools, a public school district made up of nine campuses roughly an hour north of Cincinnati. The area is home to an automotive manufacturer that brings some employees — and their families — over from Japan.

Roughly 3 percent of 4,000 students have primary languages like Spanish, Ukrainian and Japanese, a relatively small population compared to the most recent national average of 11 percent.

But that small group is making big gains. Looking to close the literacy gaps that have plagued schools since the pandemic, the district took a big swing to increase literacy among its English learners. It trained 116 staff members — including every elementary teacher, intervention specialist, paraprofessional and principal — in the Orton-Gillingham approach.

They say it’s paying off.

Walters, a literacy instructional support specialist, says that helping multilingual students master their grasp on English is vital. Like any other student, the foundation that they lay in reading and math will affect their learning from that point on.

“We want to help the students continue to thrive, and really everything that we’re thinking about with our student services is equitable learning opportunities,” Walters says.

Moving Toward Equity

Federal data shows that English learners’ achievement scores lag far behind their peers on average, and have made little improvement over the past two decades.

Troy City Schools was eager to close widening literacy gaps that surfaced after the onset of the pandemic, Walters says, which was particularly hard on English learners like those at Concord Elementary. A big hurdle was phonics, the letter sounds that make up words.

“We were seeing a lot of student frustration and wanting to give up,” Walters recalls. “Students being very withdrawn, those social-emotional impacts.”

Back in 2020, English-language instruction was inconsistent and fragmented across classrooms.

Yet, even with the desire to boost English learner scores, the program took some time.

Following the pandemic, Troy City Schools mulled over the changes for three years before it had enough funding to deliver on it, according to Danielle Romine, director of Elementary Teaching and Learning for the district. The effort was funded through post-COVID relief grants and budget allocations made by the district’s leaders.

As a literacy specialist, Walters became certified in the Orton-Gillingham method through the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education. It’s an approach that folds movement and touch into learning reading and spelling. She’s now responsible for supporting and training staff to successfully use the techniques.

Walters says teachers and staff were trained to utilize drills that connect literacy concepts through visuals, sound and movement. Students might use flash cards as a visual element or tap their fingers to each letter as they spell out a word. Students also learn the origin and history of words to strengthen their ability to decode them. For example, a “red word” is one that does not follow phonics rules.

“Our multilingual learners love it because no longer are they being told, ‘That’s just the way it is,” Walters says.

After an initial summer training on the Orton-Gillingham approach, teachers spoke so highly of the method that requests for training grew among staff.

Initial Promise

“In a school district, if you want to get something out, just tell a teacher, because it [will] spread like wildfire,” Romine says.

And the data are showing promising results, Walter says. The district-wide third grade reading proficiency had plummeted to 56 percent in 2021-22 but had risen to 81 percent by 2023-24 — slightly higher than its pre-COVID achievement rate. The most recent state data shows Concord Elementary far surpassed its target goal for English proficiency among multilingual students.

Walters has heard from teachers who say that the approach has helped some English learner students make lightning-fast gains in reading. One educator told her that two students from Japan who joined the elementary school in the fall were conversing in English by December. Another student’s phonics diagnostic score shot up by 38 points in the same timeframe.

Now, the district is working to spread the method beyond its own campuses.

“Eventually, our goal is to support the entire community, or the entire county because Sarah having that training [enables her] to support teachers from other districts, as well,” Romine says.

But for English learners, ensuring they’re on grade level in reading goes beyond measuring their success in the classroom.

Walters says that the district is thinking about long-term learning for children who, for example, may be in the U.S. for a few years before returning to Japan.

Now, the district is working to spread the method beyond its own campuses.

“Eventually, our goal is to support the entire community, or the entire county because Sarah having that training [enables her] to support teachers from other districts, as well,” Romine says.

But for English learners, ensuring they’re on grade level in reading goes beyond measuring their success in the classroom.

Walters says that the district is thinking about long-term learning for children who, for example, may be in the U.S. for a few years before returning to Japan.

“We want students to have success across math, science, everything,” Walters says. “So it’s important that we get them up to speed as quickly as possible, because those long-term impacts could really be harmful for them. That early literacy is key.”

AI has already moved into some of the most emotionally fragile parts of life, from eulogies to dead-person chatbots that promise one more exchange with someone who’s gone. Now the same technology is being pulled into tarot card readings.

A 2026 study examined how tarot practitioners use AI when reading cards for themselves, and the shift lands far outside the usual productivity script. Tarot card readers are bringing ChatGPT into questions that are personal, symbolic, and often unresolved.

The uneasy part is the handoff. Tarot asks people to sit with uncertainty, but ChatGPT is built to turn messy inputs into a confident answer.

Why would readers ask AI

The study found two broad patterns among practitioners. Some used AI as a shortcut when a spread felt hard to untangle, especially when the cards pointed in more than one direction.

That’s where ChatGPT becomes seductive. Tarot lives in interpretation, and interpretation can be slow. A chatbot can take clashing symbols and return something that sounds clean, complete, and ready to believe.

The problem starts when clean becomes too clean. A reading often works because it leaves room for doubt, self-reflection, and competing meanings. ChatGPT doesn’t know the full emotional history behind the question, even when its answer sounds sure of itself.

How far can this spread

The same instinct already runs through grief tech, faith-adjacent AI, and private decision-making. People aren’t only asking chatbots to organize life anymore. They’re asking them to help make sense of it.

Tarot makes that shift easier to see because the work is openly symbolic. A reader pulls cards, weighs context, and looks for meaning in the tension between possible interpretations.

The study also found a more careful use case. Some readers asked AI to challenge their assumptions, compare readings, and surface blind spots. In those moments, the useful part wasn’t certainty. It was resistance.

Who gets the final say

The line to watch is control. ChatGPT can add another angle, but it shouldn’t become the authority that ends the reading.

A safer approach keeps the reader in the loop. The bot can offer a possible interpretation, but the person still has to weigh it against the cards, the spread, the question, and their lived context.

That distinction reaches beyond tarot. As AI slips deeper into grief, faith, advice, and memory, the practical rule is simple enough. Let it widen the question before you let it close one.

from the cue-the-spider-man-meme dept

Complaining about automagic enforcement of copyrights on the internet through copyright bots is so old hat at this point so as to be cliché. But there is a very good reason for that. Even in the narrower realm of PC gaming, we have seen examples of how copyright enforcement has ensnared totally innocent games, or fallen victim to clear fraud and abuse, resulting in the delisting of those games from platforms like Steam. This often happens in the all important early release windows for these games and, to be sure, it’s smaller indie studios that are hurt the most by this failed process. It’s incredibly frustrating to watch all of this in the macro and then witness the major platforms do absolutely nothing about it.

This, in fact, despite the absolutely absurd situations all of this produces. Take the demo for Wired Tokyo 2007 that was supposed to be released recently, but wasn’t, all because indie dev Daikichi dared to use intellectual property existing outside of the game. Except, of course, that said IP was the property of Daikichi itself.

As reported by VGC via GameSpark, a post to X from the developer lays out the situation, in which they explain that (via machine translation) “the motif of a board game I personally created in the past, placed within the game Wired Tokyo 2007, is getting caught by Steam’s side as third-party intellectual property.” As a result, Valve has blocked the release of the game’s promised demo which is currently listed as “Coming soon.”

The copyright-violating aspects, as claimed by Valve, include “dinosaur themed card-games shown on the environment within your app in gameplay,” which refers to a board game called Dinostone, created by one Daikichi. In Daikichi’s response, they link to the Board Game Geek page for their table-top game, which lists the same developer name.

“It’s not a third party,” says Daikichi on X. “It’s just me wanting to use my own intellectual property rights myself.” They add, “I have no idea what the meaning of this is at all.”

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In an incredible response from Valve, the platform is demanding Daikichi provide some form of documented agreement to license the images used in the game, or else provide a documented letter of authorization from an attorney in order to get the demo approved for release. This is a “papers, please!” moment in video gaming, and it makes no sense.

The situation gets even more Monty-Python-esque from there. Daikichi decided their best course of action was to send a signed letter to itself, signed by itself, authorizing itself to use the assets it had created in the game it also had created.

Then over the weekend, rather wonderfully, the developer says they “created a signed document granting myself permission to use all of my created works, including board games, and resubmitted it for the demo review.”

We’ve crossed the Rubicon, folks. And now Valve is in the uncomfortable situation of having to choose between accepting this “evidence” of IP ownership when the evidence is literally a dev writing himself a letter like a crazy person, or else Valve refuses to accept it and a developer remains unable to release a game demo because they used their own property within it.

It’s a choice that only has two wrong outcomes. Sympathy is in short supply, however, as this is the result of the guilty-first process Valve has come up with for copyright takedowns on its platform.

Filed Under: automated takedowns, copyright, dinostone, steam, wired tokyo 2007

Companies: daikichi, valve

SaaS

CAD: Cost Anomaly Detection or Create Astounding Debt?

The world of AI is exciting, but there are plenty of expensive pitfalls ready to catch out the unwary, as one Register reader found when taking Anthropic’s Claude Opus for a spin courtesy of Amazon Bedrock.

Our reader managed to run up Bedrock charges totaling $30,141.33 in April 2026, despite using AWS Cost Anomaly Detection (CAD) to avoid any nasty surprises. Thirty-three days before our reader’s first use of Bedrock, the threshold in CAD was set to “Absolute ≥ $100 AND Relative ≥ 40%” so alerts should have fired if things got too spendy.

As for which services to monitor, our reader chose “AWS Services,” which Amazon says “tracks all AWS services automatically.” Except it apparently doesn’t, at least not in the way our reader expected. The problem is that AWS Marketplace isn’t supported by CAD, so costs incurred wouldn’t trigger an alert. 

And how are Anthropic Claude models billed? Through the AWS Marketplace.

After burning through our reader’s AWS Activate credits (totaling $8,026.54 in this case), Amazon started charging for model inference on the Bedrock Marketplace, racking up $30,141.33, plus another $675.07 in AWS infrastructure charges, without a peep from the CAD service.

“The credits masking made it worse,” our reader told us. “AWS Activate credits did cover the first ~$8k of charges, which meant the Marketplace billing was silently working for weeks before the credits ran out. There was no notification when credits were exhausted – the charges simply started accumulating as invoiced amounts.”

The first warning that things were mounting up came in the form of a surprisingly large invoice.

Corey Quinn, a cloud economist at the Duckbill Group and occasional contributor to this publication, told The Register: “It’s unintuitive that Bedrock model spend is Marketplace unless you’re entirely too familiar with AWS.”

Quinn told us he does most of his Claude inference directly with Anthropic to take advantage of the company’s real-time billing, alerts, cutoffs, per-key limits, and so on. The approach has avoided some potentially expensive mistakes.

As far as AWS is concerned, the lack of CAD support for AWS Marketplace charges makes it all too easy to run up a big bill without realizing it, particularly when it comes to AI usage.

This could be regarded as a cautionary tale. If one digs deeply enough into the AWS documentation on CAD, there is a line that warns that AWS Marketplace is an unsupported service. However, it isn’t clear that Claude on Bedrock is billed through the AWS Marketplace. The fact that Marketplace billing bypasses the monitoring tools compounds the issue, and could easily leave a customer getting an unpleasant surprise at invoice time. 

An AWS spokesperson told The Register: “AWS offers multiple tools to help customers manage spend, including AWS Budgets, which covers Amazon Bedrock spend on AWS Marketplace and other services. As noted in our documentation, AWS Marketplace charges are not currently supported by Cost Anomaly Detection. Customers with questions should reach out to AWS Support.” ®