from the working-for-the-weekend dept

For many years now we’ve had two regular posts that come out on the weekends: our This Week In Techdirt History posts on Saturdays, and our Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week posts on Sundays. Sometimes we switch it up a little bit, replacing the history post with a special promotion or (as will be happening again soon!) with our Winner Spotlight posts for our annual public domain game jam.

This has been rolling along smoothly and we don’t plan any major changes, but we occasionally discuss whether there are tweaks we should make, and since I’m on vacation this week (and thus not around to write today’s comments post) we thought it would be a good time to check in with our readers and find out what you think.

In general, the weekend posts don’t get a lot of traffic, though that’s never been our reason for doing them anyway: they are for our community of commenters and long-time readers who we know appreciate them. Nevertheless, the relatively small audience for these posts is why we try not to expend too much time and effort creating them every week, as we’re all very busy around here and there are always a lot of projects on the go!

So with that in mind, we want to know: do folks like these posts? Is there stuff we can do to improve or refresh them going forward? Is there something else entirely you’d like to see as a weekly feature? Sound off in the comments, and we’ll be discussing the possibilities over the coming weeks.

There’s one change that we’ve already talked about and will likely be rolling out after the upcoming run of game jam winner spotlight posts: since Techdirt’s history has grown so long, and since frankly nobody wants to be repeatedly confronted with the fact that 2021 is already five years behind us, we’re going to ditch the “five years ago” section in the history round-ups and instead look at posts from ten, fifteen, and twenty years ago. Next year when we celebrate our 30th birthday, we might even change that up again to ten, twenty, and thirty year sections. Reaching further back just seems more fun and interesting than reminiscing on the recent past.

Also on the history posts, there’s a question I’d love some reader feedback on: is the “paragraph format” with a brief summary of some posts from the week worth keeping? Or would it be just as good (perhaps better) to go with just a bullet-list of selected headlines? Or something else?

As for the comments posts, these are our longest-running and most important tradition, as we’ve always valued our community of commenters and we want to highlight your contributions. However, as you know if you read them every week, lately it’s often been a struggle to populate the “funny” side of the list, and admittedly the quality of the Editor’s Choice selections can vary a lot, as it depends on how much time we (and especially I) have had to follow and engage in the comments on a given week.

So again we want your feedback: should anything change about the comment posts? Should we pivot away from Editor’s Choice and instead feature the top three winners-by-vote in each section (maybe retaining a single Editor’s Choice comment on each side, or just one for the week?) And how should we handle it when it’s a slow commenting week and there just aren’t enough highly-voted comments to make a post? (On especially slow weeks on the funny side, sometimes the “winners” are really just the chance recipients of a trickle of idle votes, and not really comments that make any sense to feature).

There’s also a similar question about the comments posts as there was about the history posts: is the brief written summary (in which I try to explain the context of a comment if and when it’s absolutely necessary to understand the comment itself) worthwhile? Or would a more dry bullet list that simply quotes and links to the winning comments and their authors suffice, leaving readers to go check out the full context as they wish?

Beyond these specific questions, we’re open to any and all thoughts on how the weekend posts should change (if they should change at all) and suggestions about anything else you might like to see. We’re not in a rush to make any changes, but it’s worth getting the conversation started. Let us know in the comments. (And if any suggestions are especially popular and get lots of votes, maybe they’ll turn up in next week’s winning comments post!)

Bryte Balance Pro

Photograph: Julia Forbes

The Bear Elite Hybrid comes in three firmness levels, but the firmest option has provided the support our spines have needed without feeling like we’re lying on a brick, thanks to optimal pressure relief. Special for Sleep Week, use code WIRED40 for 40 percent off.

I’m very nitpicky when it comes to mattresses (I guess I’m in the right job), but when I find a mattress I love, I become insufferable about it. Nolah Evolution is a longtime favorite (it’s what I sleep on myself) with its balanced approach to pressure relief, lumbar support, and temperature regulation. As part of its Sleep Week promo, and because the brand knows how much I love this mattress, Nolah has a special deal just for you: Take 30 percent off sitewide, plus an additional $50 off when you use code WIRED50 through March 16.

Saatva recently played a big role for Team USA at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, and there are many mattresses in its line that we’re fans of. Its Saatva Classic is currently in testing and has shown to have great potential in alleviating back pain. Review coming soon. For Sleep Week, you can take $400 off a mattress order of $1,000, the Saatva Classic included.

Birch

Birch’s Luxe Natural is our favorite organic mattress—a well-rounded option made with natural materials that will help you move with ease between sleeping positions. Plus, it’s not bad for back pain, either. For Sleep Week, it’s running a 27 percent off promo with WIRED27, just for WIRED readers, until March 15.

Our favorite hybrid mattress, the Sapira Chill offers softer memory foam layers that provide a cushioning feel at pressure points. The pocketed coils work to improve internal airflow and provide strong support for sensitive spines. Use code WIRED50 for an extra $50 off on top of the 30 percent off sale happening now until March 11. Heads up, this excludes the Leesa Kids and Studio mattresses.

Avocado

Avocado’s all about organic mattresses, offering natural materials backed by extensive certifications to boot. The Avocado Green, in particular, is a great fit if you’re looking to keep things fresh with responsive support while taking an eco-friendly route with your bed. There are three firmness levels, but the base “firm” option gives your spine a boost against back pain. For Sleep Week, use code WIRED50 for an extra $50 off orders over $500. Fine print: You can combine with other redline sale discounts, but it can’t be combined with other codes. Exclusions apply.

Best Sleep Week Sheet Sales

Coyuchi Cloud Soft Organic Sateen Sheet Set

Photograph: Nena Farrell

Coyuchi is a pick in nearly all of our sheets guides, and makes our favorite organic sheets we’ve tried. The brand offers quality, natural materials, and consistent performance, no matter what type of material you land on. Whether you’re getting through the last of the winter blues and need to swaddle yourself in flannel sheets or are looking ahead to warmer days with all-season linen sheets, this is one brand where you can’t go wrong. Till March 31st, you can take 20 percent off Coyuchi’s Organic Relaxed Linen Sheet Set, Cloud Soft Organic Sateen Sheet Set, or Cloud Brushed Organic Flannel Sheet Set with code WIRED20. Some fine print for you: this discount can’t be applied to sale colorways, taxes, shipping costs, e-gift cards, gift wrapping, Coyuchi + Rejuvenation Rugs and Runners, 2nd Home Renewed products, or non-Coyuchi-branded products.

As a gal with sensitive skin, I don’t always love linen, which can feel scratchy. A close friend told me about Piglet in Bed, which specializes in European flax linen bedding, and after testing the duvet cover and pillowcases (review coming soon), I can now consider myself a linen fan. Plus, who can argue with whimsical patterns and colors? Take 20 percent off bedding and inserts for Sleep Month, no code needed.

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Cozy Earth pajamas. The brand’s bamboo viscose sheets are just as breathable and soft, and WIRED editor Kat Merck’s teen is completely obsessed with the trendy faux-fur Cuddle Blanket. I am always watching for Cozy Earth sales to score a deal on some new bamboo sheets, and the opportunity has finally arisen. You can take 20 percent off with code WIRED in honor of Sleep Week. This sale will end on Saturday, March 14, so don’t wait.

We love Ettitude’s Signature Sateen Sheet Set for its uber-soft and breathable feel. It is also backed by many certifications, including Oeko-Tex (showing that no harmful chemicals are present where you lay your head), Eco-Cert, and Change Climate. Till March 15, you can take 25 percent off the entire site, no code necessary.

Sijo

Sijo makes some of our favorite eucalyptus sheets, and the brand’s bamboo set, which is currently in testing, is very solid as well. WIRED editor Kat Merck is also a huge fan of Sijo’s duvet covers, which come with eight—yes, eight—anchor points inside, so duvet inserts will stay put no matter how much middle-of-the-night kicking, pulling, or tug-of-war goes on. Everything on the site is 20 percent off through Sunday, March 15, with the discount applied at checkout.

Best Sleep Week Pillow Deals

As seen on Shark Tank, buying a Pluto pillow involves taking a quiz that combines AI functionality with human craftsmanship to completely customize a pillow to your needs. I reach for my Pluto pillow every night to help with cervical alignment, and it has just the right amount of fluff for me. Pluto is doing a special promo for WIRED readers: Use code WIRED for 20 percent off Pluto’s flagship products, no bundle necessary. Offer is live through Saturday, March 14.

Caitlin Kalinowski spent 16 months building OpenAI’s physical AI programme. On Saturday, she said the company moved too fast on something too important.

The week that began with Anthropic being blacklisted by the Pentagon and ended with OpenAI taking its contract has now claimed OpenAI’s most senior hardware executive.

Caitlin Kalinowski, who joined OpenAI in November 2024 to lead its robotics and consumer hardware division, announced her resignation on Saturday on X. Her statement was short, direct, and more candid than anything OpenAI itself has said about the deal.

“AI has an important role in national security,” she wrote. “But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.”

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In a subsequent post, she was more precise about the nature of the complaint. “It’s a governance concern first and foremost,” she wrote. “These are too important for deals or announcements to be rushed.”

Kalinowski was careful to frame her departure in personal terms. “This was about principle, not people,” she wrote. “I have deep respect for Sam and the team.”

That last note carries some weight: Sam Altman has himself acknowledged that the Pentagon deal was “definitely rushed,” and that the rollout produced significant backlash.

What Kalinowski’s resignation adds to that admission is a name and a title: the most senior person at OpenAI, whose job was to bring AI into physical systems, has decided that the process by which it will now enter weapons systems and surveillance infrastructure was not good enough.

What the deal involved

The sequence of events that led here unfolded over roughly a week. Anthropic, which had been the only AI company cleared to operate on the Pentagon’s classified networks, following a $200 million contract awarded in July 2025, spent several weeks in tense negotiations with the Defense Department over the terms of continued use.

Anthropic’s position was that its models should not be deployed for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon, under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, insisted on language permitting use “for all lawful purposes,” without specific carve-outs.

On 28 February, with negotiations collapsed, President Trump directed all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology and called the company “radical woke” on Truth Social.

Hegseth formally designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk to national security, a classification previously reserved for foreign adversaries, and one that requires DoD vendors and contractors to certify they do not use Anthropic’s models.

Hours later, Altman posted on X that OpenAI had reached its own agreement to deploy its models on the Pentagon’s classified network.

OpenAI’s stated position is that its deal includes the same core protections Anthropic sought: no mass domestic surveillance, no autonomous weapons.

The company published a blog post outlining its approach and arguing that its cloud-only deployment architecture, retained safety stack, and contractual provisions, anchored to existing US law rather than bespoke prohibitions, make its agreement more robust than any previous classified AI deployment, including Anthropic’s.

What Kalinowski’s departure means for OpenAI

Kalinowski’s career before OpenAI was unusual in its breadth. She spent nearly six years at Apple as a technical lead on the Mac Pro and MacBook Air programmes, including the original unibody MacBook Pro, before moving to Meta’s Oculus division, where she led virtual reality hardware for more than nine years.

Her final role at Meta was heading Project Nazare, later named Orion, the augmented reality glasses initiative Meta unveiled as a prototype in September 2024 and described as the most advanced AR glasses ever made.

She joined OpenAI the following month.

During her 16 months at OpenAI, Kalinowski built out what the company describes as its physical AI programme, including a San Francisco lab employing roughly 100 data collectors training a robotic arm on household tasks.

Her departure leaves that effort without its most experienced hardware leader at a moment when OpenAI has staked considerable ambition on moving beyond software.

OpenAI confirmed her resignation on Saturday and said in a statement: “We believe our agreement with the Pentagon creates a workable path for responsible national security uses of AI while making clear our red lines: no domestic surveillance and no autonomous weapons.

We recognise that people have strong views about these issues and we will continue to engage in discussion with employees, government, civil society, and communities around the world.”

The wider picture

The fallout from OpenAI’s Pentagon deal has not been limited to internal dissent. ChatGPT uninstalls reportedly surged 295% following the announcement, and Anthropic’s Claude climbed to the number-one position in the US App Store, displacing ChatGPT. As of Saturday afternoon, the two apps remained first and second, respectively.

What Thursday’s resignation of the company’s robotics chief confirms is that the deal’s costs for OpenAI are still being counted. Altman wanted to de-escalate a confrontation between the government and the AI industry. He may yet have succeeded. Whether the price of that de-escalation, in talent, in trust, and in the specific question of who was right about the guardrails, was worth paying is a question that will take longer to answer.

DJI has introduced a new Inspire 3 Basic Package. This gives filmmakers a cheaper way to get hold of its flagship cinema drone without buying the full production kit.

The new bundle via My News Desk, trims down the accessories while keeping the core hardware intact. This means you still get the DJI Inspire 3 paired with the Zenmuse X9-8K Air gimbal camera. It is the same full-frame imaging system used on the standard Inspire 3 package. Not bad when you consider the standalone prices of some of the best drones.

Batteries aren’t magic. They’re chemical. And, like most things built by humans, they wear down over time. I don’t need to tell you this—anyone who has owned a MacBook knows that battery life gets worse and worse as it ages. But what if I told you it’s possible to slow that process down?

One common bit of advice is to only charge your devices up to 80 percent most of the time. Battery University, funded by a consultancy that helps large companies get more out of batteries, suggests this based on its research. So does the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

But how do you actually follow this advice? The good news is that your MacBook already does this, sort of, and there’s a great free application that allows you to go even further.

Built-In Optimization

Your Mac is designed to only charge up to 80 percent—at least, under some circumstances. By default, Mac devices learn your charging and usage routines and juice up your battery based on that. According to Apple, “Your Mac delays charging past 80 percent when it predicts that you’ll be plugged in for an extended period of time, and aims to fully charge the battery before you unplug.”

What does this mean? Well, for example, if you tend to charge your laptop overnight, your Mac will charge up to 80 percent, then wait until morning to top off the last 20 percent. The idea is to minimize the amount of time the battery is fully charged in a way that you won’t even notice.

The nice thing about this feature is that you don’t have to do anything to look out for your battery’s health. Your Mac is already doing what it can to only charge up to 80 percent whenever your routine suggests it won’t affect you.

(This feature is actually a macOS setting that’s toggled on by default. You can find it in Settings > Battery > Battery Health, where you can toggle this protective setting off, though you should keep reading to figure out if that’s best.)

If you’d rather not think about how charged your battery is, ever again, stop reading. If you want more control, though, I have some advice.

Take Control With a Free App

There are a few potential issues with Apple’s approach. The first is that you’re not in control. You might, for example, discover your MacBook isn’t fully charged if you wake up earlier than usual to catch a flight, and then you’re stuck with a partially charged battery on a long travel day.

For me, though, the bigger issue is that my daily battery usage just isn’t very routine. I do a lot of my work at my desk, where my computer is plugged into my monitor, which also charges it. I like to move around my space throughout the day, though, which means I’m unplugging at random times. And sometimes I put my laptop in my bag and work at the library or a coffee shop. It would be nice to be able to make sure I’m fully charged when I do that.

You get the idea: Not everyone’s routines are predictable. If this sounds familiar, and you’d like to take direct control of your MacBook charging, I recommend the free and open source app named Battery.

This application lives in your menu bar and forces your laptop to only charge up to 80 percent. You can allow full charging at any time, though, by clicking the menu bar icon.

This is going to require a bit of planning and attention on your part. You’re going to have to remember to enable a full charge before you need it, and then turn the limit back on when you know you won’t need it.

But for someone like me, who mostly uses their MacBook at their desk, it feels like a way to ensure my battery stays healthy as long as possible.