Here’s what happened in crypto todayNeed to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.

Researchers open source Sky-T1, a ‘reasoning’ AI model that can be trained for less than $450So-called reasoning AI models are becoming easier — and cheaper — to develop. On Friday, NovaSky, a team of researchers based out of UC Berkeley’s Sky Computing Lab, released Sky-T1-32B-Preview, a reasoning model that’s competitive with an earlier version of OpenAI’s o1 on a number of key benchmarks. Sky-T1 appears to be the first truly […]
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Blinkenlights-First Retrocomputer Design[Boz] wants to build a retrocomputer, but where to start? You could start with the computery bits, like say the CPU or the bus architecture, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, [Boz] built a righteous blinkenlights array.
What’s cool about this display is that it’s ready to go out of the box. All of the LEDs are reverse-mount and assembled by the board maker. The 19″ 2U PCBs serve as the front plates, so [Boz] was careful not to use any through-hole parts, which also simplified the PCB assembly, of course. Each slice has its own microcontroller and a few shift registers to get the bits lit up, and that’s all there is to it. They take incoming data at 9600 baud and output blinkiness.
Right now it pulls out its bytes from his NAS. We’re not sure which bytes, and we think we see some counters in there. Anyway, it doesn’t matter because it’s so pretty. And maybe someday the prettiness will lure [Boz] into building a retrocomputer to go under it. But honestly, we’d just relax and watch the blinking lights.

In Praise of Simple ProjectsHackaday was at Chaos Communication Congress last week, and it’s one of those big hacker events that leaves you with so much to think about that I’m still processing it. Just for scope, the 38th CCC is a hacker event with about 15,000 attendees from all around Europe, and many from even further. If I were to characterize the crowd on a hardware-software affinity scale, I would say that it skews heavily toward the software side of the hacker spectrum.
What never ceases to amaze me is that there are a couple of zones that are centered on simple beginner soldering and other PCB art projects that are completely full 20 hours of the day. I always makes me wonder how it is possible to have this many hackers who haven’t picked up a soldering iron. Where do all these first-timers come from? I think I’m in a Hackaday bubble where not only does everyone solder at least three times a day, some of us do it with home-made reflow ovens or expensive microscopes.
But what this also means is that there’s tremendous reach for interesting, inviting, and otherwise cool beginner hardware projects. Hands-on learning is incredibly addictive, and the audience for beginner projects is probably ten times larger than that for intermediate or advanced builds. Having watched my own son putting together one of these kits, I understand the impact they can have personally, but it’s worth noting that the guy next to him was certainly in his mid-30s, and the girl across the way was even a few years younger than my son.
So let’s see some cool beginner projects! We’d love to feature more projects that could lure future hackers to the solder-smoky side.

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CES 2025: SanDisk’s new Creator storage drives could be ideal for producers and DJsCES 2025: SanDisk has launched a range of new storage solutions for its Creator Series, with “speed, capacity, durability and portability top of mind” for the home, studio, and beyond.
According to the brand, the series features a professional-grade collection of products with vibrant colours to celebrate creativity and individuality. There are eight solutions in the range that may be of use for music makers, with two further additions aimed towards gamers inspired by the Fortnite Peely character.

READ MORE: Best DJ gear: 7 of the best USB sticks for DJs in 2024

At a glance, the Creator Series includes the following which might be useful for producers and DJs:

Phone SSD (starting at £91.99)
MicroSDTM Card (starting at £14.99)
SD UHS-II Card (starting at £49.99)
Phone Drive (starting at £39.99)
USB-C Flash Drive (starting at £24.99)
Pro Portable SSD (starting at £121.99)
Desk Drive (starting at £303.99)
PRO Dual Drive with both USB-A and USB-C (starting at £40.99)

The Creator Phone SSD, Creator microSDTM Card, and the Creator SD UHS-II Card are all apt for those who work on projects while on the move, and offer a varying range of capacities and prices to suit space and budget needs.
For those with multi-device workflows, the SanDisk Creator Phone Drive features both Lightning and USB Type-C connectors, and offers up to 256GB of storage for ease when moving important documents between devices. The SanDisk Memory Zone app on Android mobile devices can also be used to automatically back up your files. A simplified version of this is SanDisk Creator USB-C Flash Drive, which is what it says on the tin – a drive equipped with a USB Type-C connector only – and is “designed for content creators who demand performance and durability wherever they are”, with up to 1TB of storage capacity.
Taking another step up is the SanDisk Creator Pro Portable SSD, available in capacities up to 4TB, ready for ultra-demanding creative workflows. It hosts NVMe (non-volatile memory express) performance for efficiently transferring, editing, and backing up uncompressed, large files, and even AI-generated assets.
If portability isn’t an issue, then the SanDisk Creator Desk Drive might be more suited to your set up. A compact hub for creative content, this desktop SSD delivers read speeds up to 4x faster than a regular desktop hard drive. As for the speediest offering in the Creator Series lineup, the SanDisk Extreme PRO Dual Drive takes the title. With both USB-A and USB-C connectivity, this solid state flash drive is SanDisk’s fastest dual drive so far, with read speeds up to 1,000MB/s and write speeds up to 900MB/s.
While many products in the Creator Series are available now, some do not launch until spring. To find out more and view the range, head over to SanDisk. 
The post CES 2025: SanDisk’s new Creator storage drives could be ideal for producers and DJs appeared first on MusicTech.

DIY and Independent Musician News Last WeekLast week in DIY and independent musician news, readers tuned into topics including music marketing strategies for 2025, new public YouTube Audience stat, top music schools and more.
The post DIY and Independent Musician News Last Week appeared first on Hypebot.

Last week’s Top Music Business News: Spotify exposé, NIVA survey, MoreIt was a busy week by any definition and the music industry was no exception. To make sure, you didn't miss anything important we off a roundup of last week’s top music business news.
The post Last week’s Top Music Business News: Spotify exposé, NIVA survey, More appeared first on Hypebot.

Instead of Spending Big on a Pultec EQ, Try Analog Obsession’s FREE Poortec!
Who doesn’t love a Pultec EQ? However, not everyone has the budget for that particular hardware classic. If you’re light on cash after Christmas, Analog Obsession’s free Poortec is the EQ for you! On Friday, the indie dev launched the new Poortec EQ for macOS (VST3, AU, AAX) and Windows (VST3, AAX). The Poortec is [...]
View post: Instead of Spending Big on a Pultec EQ, Try Analog Obsession’s FREE Poortec!

MIRANDA LAMBERT’S MUTTNATION FOUNDATION KICKS OFF 'RELIEF FOR RESCUES' FUNDRAISERThree-time GRAMMY winner Miranda Lambert’s MuttNation Foundation, in partnership with Tractor Supply Company, announced the return of the annual Relief for Rescues fundraising event. The Relief for Rescues Fund provides financial support for shelter animals impacted by disasters such as floods, fires, hurricanes and tornadoes. From January 12 through 22, customers can donate to the Relief for Rescues Fund during checkout at any Tractor Supply store location, online at TractorSupply.com or via the Tractor Supply mobile app. Launched in 2023, the Fund has raised over $1 million and has already allocated over $600,000 to support shelter animals impacted by natural disasters. “At Tractor Supply, we’re passionate about animals and dedicated to supporting them however we can,” said Kimberley Gardiner, Tractor Supply’s chief marketing officer. “Natural disasters often leave more pets without homes and put extra pressure on shelters. That’s where the Relief for Rescues Fund comes in—it allows us to quickly provide financial support and help ease that strain. We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished so far with Miranda, MuttNation, our amazing Team Members and our customers. This year, we’re excited to keep that momentum going and make an even bigger impact together.” The fund is actively supporting the Southern California region currently impacted by ongoing wildfires and recently deployed $250,000 to provide critical assistance to 31 animal shelters and organizations across multiple states in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The money distributed helped animal rescues access more efficient emergency response and provided food, supplies, veterinary care, transport services for displaced pets and assistance with shelter repair.  “Our Relief For Rescues Fund allows MuttNation to help shelters when they need us the most,” said Lambert. “It’s been heartbreaking to see the devastation in California unfold, and we’re grateful that our Fund and the generosity of our donors has allowed us to respond quickly. 100% of your support goes directly to those impacted by disasters.” Tractor Supply and MuttNation Foundation have collaborated since 2019 and together also support MuttNation’s Mutts Across America program, providing annual grants to animal shelters nationwide. Additionally, Tractor Supply is the exclusive home for MuttNation pet products, with a percentage of all MuttNation sales going to MuttNation Foundation to further support its mission to promote and facilitate adoption of shelter pets. To learn more, visit TractorSupply.com/MuttNation. The post MIRANDA LAMBERT’S MUTTNATION FOUNDATION KICKS OFF 'RELIEF FOR RESCUES' FUNDRAISER first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

These startups are making smarter canes for people with visual impairmentsThe white cane for the 21st century. While many tech companies have increasingly worked to make technology more accessible for the blind and visually impaired, canes haven’t benefitted much from these advances. London-born WeWalk takes a more traditional approach to the white cane. Beyond the bulkier handle, not much sets the company’s product apart visually […]
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Bitcoin corporate treasury shareholder proposal submitted to Meta"Due to its verifiable fixed supply, Bitcoin is the most inflation-resistant store of value available," the proposal read.

Bit-Banging the USB-PD ProtocolFor one-off projects, adding a few integrated circuits to a PCB is not too big of a deal. The price of transistors is extremely low thanks to Moore and his laws, so we’re fairly free to throw chips around like peanuts. But for extremely space-constrained projects, huge production runs, or for engineering challenges, every bit of PCB real estate counts. [g3gg0] falls into the latter group, and this project aims to remove the dedicated USB-PD module from a lighting project and instead bit-bang the protocol with the ESP32 already on the board.
The modern USB power delivery (PD) protocol isn’t quite as simple as older USB ports that simply present a 5V source to whatever plugs itself into the port. But with the added complexity we get a lot more capability including different voltages and greater power handling capabilities. The first step with the PD protocol is to communicate with a power source, which requires a 1.2V 600kHz signal. Just generating the signal is challenging enough, but the data encoding for USB requires level changes to encode bits rather than voltage levels directly. With that handled, the program can then move on to encoding packets and sending them out over the bus.
After everything is said and done, [g3gg0] has a piece of software that lets the ESP32 request voltages from a power supply, sniff and log PD communication, and inject commands with vendor defined messages (VDM), all without needing to use something like a CH224K chip which would normally offload the USB-PD tasks. For anyone looking to save PCB space for whatever reason, this could be a valuable starting point. To see some more capabilities of the protocol, check out this USB-PD power supply that can deliver 2 kW.

Life Without Limits: A Blind Maker’s Take on 3D PrintingIn the world of creation, few stories inspire as much as [Mrblindguardian], a 33-year-old who has been blind since the age of two, but refuses to let that hold him back. Using OpenSCAD and a 3D printer, [Mrblindguardian] designs and prints models independently, relying on speech software and touch to bring his ideas to life. His story, published on his website Accessible3D.io, is a call to action for makers to embrace accessibility in their designs and tools.
[Mrblindguardian]’s approach to 3D printing with OpenSCAD is fascinating. Without visual cues, he can still code every detail of his designs, like a tactile emergency plan for his workplace. The challenges are there: navigating software as a blind user, mastering 3D printers, and building from scratch. His tip: start small. Taking on a very simple project allows you to get accustomed to the software while avoiding pressure and frustation.
His successes highlight how persistence, community support, and creativity can break barriers. His journey mirrors efforts by others, like 3D printed braille maps or accessible prosthetics, each turning daily limitations into ingenious innovations. [Mrblindguardian] seems to be out to empower others, so bookmark his page for that what’s yet to come.
Accessible tech isn’t just about empowering. Share your thoughts in the comments if you have similar experiences – or good solutions to limitations like these! As [Mrblindguardian] says on his blog: “take the leap. Let’s turn the impossible into the tangible—one layer at a time”.

I am fully blind, and this is how I 3d design and print independantly byu/Mrblindguardian inprusa3d

How to create the perfect sample: 5 tips and techniques
2x GRAMMY-nominated music producer John Smythe breaks down the process for how he creates a perfect sample, from ideation to completion.

New public YouTube Audience stat: What it means for artistsA new public YouTube audience stat provides a new metric for artists and he industry to measure and market popularity.
The post New public YouTube Audience stat: What it means for artists appeared first on Hypebot.