In the days leading up to the TikTok ban in the U.S. on Sunday, U.S. users flooded the Chinese app RedNote, which offered a similar experience to their favorite short-form video app. The app, which is listed in the U.S. App Store under its Chinese name Xiaohongshu, quickly became the No. 1 free app in the U.S. But after Trump paused the ban, use of RedNote in the U.S. rapidly declined. By Monday, RedNote had lost over half its daily active users in the U.S. after reaching a high of 32.5 million daily actives on the day of the ban.

According to digital market intelligence company Similarweb, RedNote’s daily active users in the U.S. declined by 54% on Monday when enforcement of the ban was put on hold. President Trump offered TikTok a 75-day extension of the deadline, allowing TikTok more time to negotiate a deal that would keep it alive in the U.S.

App intelligence provider Sensor Tower saw a similar trend as the week continued. Per its estimates, the average U.S. mobile daily active users for RedNote from January 20 to 22 declined by roughly 17% compared with the week prior (January 13 to 19).

TikTok users had originally joined RedNote en masse to send a message to lawmakers and Meta alike. According to one report, also citing Sensor Tower data, some 700,000 U.S. users flocked to RedNote within two days as the ban deadline approached. By Thursday, Similarweb said that RedNote had reached 3.4 million daily active users across iOS and Android in the U.S., a 133.8% week-over-week increase.

The U.S. users joining RedNote were signaling that the government’s fears of the “national security threat” poised by a Chinese-owned app with access to U.S. users’ personal data was not a concern to them. In addition, they wanted to demonstrate that would rather join another Chinese app than return to Instagram to use Reels.

There were several reasons why so many U.S. TikTok users made this decision. Some found the ban hypocritical, given that Meta had profited off their user data for years, many said in their videos, while others simply didn’t care if China had their data or not.

As one popular TikTok sound put it, “You’re telling me the Chinese government has access to all of my personal data and what they chose to do with that information is psychologically manipulate me via algorithmic content into reading smutty books about fairies.”

(The sound references the fantasy books loved by the readers in TikTok’s sizable “BookTok” community, such as Sarah J. Maas’s “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series. In other words, they didn’t see TikTok as any sort of threat.)

As the TikTokers engaged on RedNote, surprising cultural exchanges began to occur.

Users asked each other about the cost of living in their area, while Chinese and U.S. users alike wanted to know if their government had characterized the other society accurately. U.S. users, for instance, asked about China’s social credit system, while RedNote’s Chinese users asked if it was true that many Americans had to work two jobs to pay their bills. Food, healthcare, and the accuracy of U.S. TV movies and shows, like “Friends,” were among the numerous topics discussed.

However, RedNote’s position as a top app in the U.S. was a trend that isn’t likely to last, at least as long as TikTok is available. For one, RedNote is localized in Mandarin, prompting many to turn to Duolingo to study the language. The language-learning app saw a 216% spike in U.S. usage, it said. However, learning a new language is challenging — and many users may have given up in time.

In addition, unlike TikTok, RedNote is focused on the Chinese market. TikTok benefitted from being a global app — something TikTok itself pointed out when arguing in the Supreme Court about why it would no longer be the same if forced to sell.

Ahead of the ban, TikTok’s U.S. daily active users surged to a record high for the past year, as 106.8 million users on iOS and Android engaged with the app on Sunday.

• The FBI’s missive follows three previous ones in as many years
• Statement is aimed at educating businesses and warding off domestic collaborators
• Suggested remedies include employing endpoint protection on computer systems and checking applications for “typos and unusual nomenclature”

The FBI has claimed North Korean IT workers are extorting US companies which have hired them by leveraging their access to steal source code.

In a statement, the agency warned domestic and international firms employees turned threat actors, “facilitate cyber-criminal activities and conduct revenue-generating activity” using stolen data “on behalf of the regime.”

When the US Food and Drug Administration opened the door for hearing aids to be sold over the counter in 2022, I was all in. Prescription hearing aids are criminally expensive, and several OTC models have proven that you don’t need to visit a hearing aid shop in a mall to get a product that gets the job done. I’ve tested 38 hearing aids to date, and 29 have been available over the counter. All of my favorite hearing aid products have been OTC models. Until now.

Starkey is a major name in the hearing aid business, and it’s not some white-label company that slaps a logo on someone else’s product (an epidemic in this industry). Starkey has been around since 1967, and while it no longer designs or manufactures its own digital signal processing chips, it is intimately involved with hearing aid development—and famously brags that it has outfitted everyone from Ronald Reagan to Mother Teresa with its hearing aids.

Now, with its new Edge AI RIC RT hearing aids, Starkey takes a position at the very top of the heap in product quality and performance thanks in large part to a new audio processor that includes an integrated neural processing unit—just like our laptops and phones. Starkey says this is the only NPU-powered hearing aid line on the market.

Receiver in Canal

There’s nothing particularly inventive about the way the Edge AI RIC RT (which stands for “receiver in canal, rechargeable with telecoil”) looks, built on the classic, teardrop-shaped behind-the-ear design, though it is available in your choice of seven colors. Each aid weighs 2.62 grams, which is competitive for a behind-the-ear hearing aid. (To compare, the Jabra Enhance Select 500 weighs 2.56 grams.) A single button on the back of each aid controls volume: down on the left aid, up on the right aid.

As these are prescription aids, you’ll need an audiologist to fit and tune them. Rather than sending me to a local doctor, Starkey took the unusual step of flying its chief hearing health officer, Dave Fabry, to my home to complete this task. Fabry brought a suitcase full of equipment to re-create what the doctor’s office experience would normally be like, only at my dining table. Afterward, he gave me a training session on the aids and walked me through the My Starkey app, just like a standard audiologist.

Fabry also outfitted me with custom eartips molded to fit the exact shape of my ear canals. (This type of service would be at the discretion of your audiologist.) This is a simple process that involves jamming putty into your ears and waiting for it to harden. This putty can then be used to create a bespoke eartip that fits perfectly—although the usual collection of open and closed eartips in various sizes are also included in the box.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company plans to significantly up its capital expenditures this year as it aims to keep pace with rivals in the cutthroat AI space.

In a Facebook post Friday, Zuckerberg said that Meta expects to spend $60 billion-$80 billion on CapEx in 2025, primarily on data centers and growing the company’s AI development teams. That projected range is around double the $35 billion-$40 billion Meta spent on CapEx last year.

Zuckerberg also wrote that Meta plans to bring around one gigawatt of compute online this year, roughly the amount of power consumed by 750,000 average homes, and expects the company’s data centers to pack over 1.3 million GPUs by year-end.

Meta’s investments come as AI rivals pour billions into their own infrastructure projects. Microsoft plans to spend $80 billion on AI data centers in 2025, while OpenAI is contributing to a joint venture, Stargate, that could yield it hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of data center resources.

Now that Netflix has unveiled which titles will be leaving in February 2025, take this as your sign to get a head start on catching the best Netflix movies before it’s too late. But while Netflix doesn’t tend to remove a huge amount of titles each month (which is a good thing), there are always one or two gems thrown into the mix that I know I’ll miss dearly. As for this month, those movies are Pearl (2022) and Stand By Me (1986), but there are plenty new additions on the way to make up for it, looking at everything coming to Netflix in February.

When it comes to Netflix series, I find that these are less prone to being axed from Netflix’s library. This month, only two TV shows (Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Mindy Project) are being removed compared to over 30 movies, so with that said, you can’t say that Netflix isn’t one of the best streaming services when it comes to TV content.

Everything leaving Netflix in February 2025

Under the executive order, DOGE teams, which “will typically include one DOGE Team Lead, one engineer, one human resources specialist, and one attorney” will be dispatched to various agencies. They will be granted “access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,” ostensibly with the goal of streamlining data sharing across federal agencies.

A former USDS employee who spoke to WIRED on condition of anonymity called the repurposing of the Digital Service an “A+ bureaucratic jiu-jitsu move.” But, they say, they’re concerned that DOGE’s access to sensitive information could be used to do more than just streamline government operations.

“Is this technical talent going to be pointed toward using data from the federal government to track down opponents?” they ask. “To track down particular populations of interest to this administration for the purposes of either targeting them or singling them out or whatever it might end up being?”

Got a Tip?

Are you a current or former employee with the US Digital Services or another government agency impacted by DOGE? We’d like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact Vittoria Elliott at vittoria_elliott@wired.com or securely at velliott88.18 on Signal.

It appears, however, that the first order of DOGE is to weed out people in agencies that might push back on the Trump administration’s agenda, starting with existing USDS staff, and hire new people.

“DOGE teams have a lawyer, an HR director, and an engineer. If you were looking to identify functions to cut, people to cut, having an HR director there and having a lawyer say, ‘Here’s what we’re allowed to do or not do,’ would be one way that you would facilitate that,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, noting that DOGE’s potential access to federal employee data could put “them in some sort of crosshairs to be fired.”

When Musk took over Twitter, he brought in outside help from his close circle as well as his other companies to transform the company, a move he appears to be repeating.

Who exactly is going to be part of DOGE is a particularly thorny issue because there are technically two DOGEs. One is the permanent organization, the revamped USDS—now the US DOGE Service. The other is a temporary organization, with a termination date of July 4, 2026. Creating this organization means the temporary DOGE can operate under a special set of rules. It can sequester employees from other parts of the government, and can also accept people who want to work for the government as volunteers. Temporary organizations can also hire what are known as special government employees—experts in a given field who can bypass the rigors of the regular federal hiring processes. They’re also not subject to the same transparency requirements as other government employees.

In the best case scenario, this would allow DOGE to move quickly to address issues and fast track necessary talent, as well as build systems that make government services more seamless by facilitating the flow of information and data. But in the worst case, this could mean less transparency around the interests of people working on important government projects, while enabling possible surveillance.

Sony is officially ending production of recordable Blu-rays. In an announcement from Japan spotted by Tom’s Hardware, Sony Storage Media Solutions said it will stop manufacturing the discs in February, alongside recordable MiniDiscs, MD-Data, and MiniDV cassettes, adding, “there will be no successor models.”

This discontinuation doesn’t impact the Blu-rays you can buy with films or TV shows on them; it just affects the blank ones consumers use to record stuff on themselves with PCs or DVRs. Sony hinted at the discontinuation last year, telling the Japanese outlet AVWatch that it would “gradually end development and production of ‘recordable optical disc media.’’

Sony has helped lead the production of Blu-ray since the very beginning. In 2000, the company showed off the first Blu-ray prototypes and later revealed its Blu-ray disc recorders in 2006. Like Sony, LG, Samsung, and Oppo have also started backing away from the format by ending the production of Blu-ray players.

In addition to Blu-ray, Sony’s announcement also affects the MiniDisc — the compact disc format Sony made in 1992 as an alternative to more fragile cassettes and unwieldy CDs. This might make it harder for MiniDisc diehards to get their hands on blank discs, which you can apparently still load music onto using your smartphone.

Flip is a social commerce app that lets shoppers become creators. They can share honest reviews and earn cash based on engagement on the platform. As Flip competes with TikTok Shop and other platforms in a highly competitive market, it has introduced a new creator fund that offers a unique opportunity to help it stand out.

The creator fund quietly rolled out earlier this week and provides up to $100 million worth of equity to participating creators over the next five or so years. Grants range from $6,000 to $100,000, depending on a creator’s level of engagement. Notably, Flip aims to distribute up to $1 million per day for the first 30 days of the program.

The new grant system sets Flip apart from competitors because it offers users equity in the company. Equity funds typically have the potential for substantial long-term returns, so creators who remain with the program could see significant benefits, depending on Flip’s success in the near future. (However, it’s important to note these returns aren’t guaranteed and vary based on market conditions.)

To be eligible, a Flip creator must have over 4,000 followers and at least 10 videos posted in the last 30 days, each garnering around 3,000 views. Flip also accepts creators with at least 20,000 followers on other platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Flip reviews applications and awards grants within 48 to 72 hours, the company notes. 

Payments will occur in five years or sooner in the event of a company sale. In either case, payments will be made in cash. Regarding a potential acquisition, however, Flip President Eddie Vivas shared with TechCrunch, “We don’t currently see an acquisition as an interesting outcome for our company. Our goal is to take the company public one day.” 

Within 72 hours of launching the program, nearly 10,000 influencers have applied, according to Vivas. He said that approximately 22% of the applications came from large influencers. Users can currently view a live leaderboard of all the grants on the creator fund page. As of this writing, the highest grant awarded is $67,000 to Tyler K (@cheftyler).

As TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains unclear, Flip is likely counting on its new creator fund to incentivize more users to actively participate on the platform. 

Amid the current TikTok drama, Flip has seen significant growth, garnering 580,000 new downloads in January alone, according to estimates from app store intelligence provider Appfigures. On Monday, Flip made it to the No. 10 spot in the Overall Top Charts in Apple’s U.S. App Store.

Additionally, Flip is currently gaining about 250,000 new users daily, with people spending an average of 35 minutes in the app every day, according to the company.

To maintain traction and stay competitive, Vivas said that Flip plans to introduce additional social features in the coming months. These include polls, group chats, and “elegant ways to repost,” he said. 

“We are focused on becoming a more full-featured, dynamic social commerce platform building on the base we have today, which is now clearly working,” Vivas said.  

Flip, which launched in 2021, has raised $236 million to date. The company is valued at $1.1 billion.

In today’s rapidly advancing technological landscape, digital transformation is a key driver of innovation across many industries. One of the most impactful technologies leading this revolution is the digital twin. This is a real-time virtual model that replicates a physical object, system, or process. It continuously receives data from its physical twin, creating a dynamic, up-to-date digital replica. This allows users to monitor, simulate, and enhance the object or system without directly interacting with the real-world version.

While the concept of a digital twin isn’t entirely new, its application has exploded due to progress in Internet of Things (IoT) devices, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and big data. Across industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, smart cities, and aerospace, digital twins are helping businesses operate more efficiently, reduce costs, and improve decision-making.