LITS bits:
This week Matt and Griff talk about how HBO is renaming itself again, the Pope's trading card craze, Collage students using AI to "cheat", Apple and BYOD, Coinbase's breach due to bribery, Regeneron buying 23andMe, why your IT budget might be dangerously low, and much more!
Have a listen and find details about each topic below:
Maximum Confusion
Just when we got used to calling it Max, HBO decides to bring back the full name. That’s right — HBO Max is back from the dead.
To recap:
- HBO Now? Gone.
- HBO Go? Long gone.
- HBO Max? Rebranded as Max.
- Max? Back to HBO Max.
At this point, we wouldn’t be surprised if they just called it "The Streaming Service Formerly Known as HBO."
The Pope’s Trading Card Just Outsold LeBron & Wembanyama
Did you get your hands on the limited-edition Pope Leo XIV trading card? If not, you’re one of the unlucky ones — all 133,000 cards have been snapped up. Yes, this is real. Yes, it’s made by Topps.
Notable collections:
- LeBron James: 86k cards
- Victor Wembanyama: 113k cards
- Shohei Ohtani: 653k cards
- Pope Leo XIV: 133k (!) cards
Not even the first of its kind — a mint-condition Pope John Paul II card sold for $1,800 a few years back. Holier than thou, indeed.
Everybody’s Cheating (But Also Learning?)
This year’s college grads were the first to enter higher education with ChatGPT in their backpacks. And oh boy — did they use it.
- Students admit large chunks of their work were AI-generated.
- Profs say this bypasses critical thinking.
- Students counter that AI is just the modern calculator.
Meanwhile, new research shows that students who actually ask questions and engage with AI learn better and retain more complex ideas.
So maybe it's not about banning AI — it's about how you use it.
📎 The “everyone is cheating” article
📎 The pro-AI learning research
Apple Devices in the BYOD Crosshairs
With Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) now the norm post-pandemic, attackers are increasingly targeting iOS devices. Why?
- BYOD makes it hard to apply security policies.
- iOS has broad device support — iPhones and iPads.
- Attackers are exploiting this consistency.
Ironically, Android’s fragmentation is now a security advantage. 😬
The Coinbase Breach Was... Bribery?
Coinbase’s recent customer data breach wasn’t the work of elite hackers — it was good old-fashioned bribery.
- Attackers paid overseas customer service reps to leak data.
- Coinbase had outsourced support to cut costs.
- That savings just turned into a lawsuit magnet.
Regeneron Buys 23andMe (for Pocket Change)
Once valued at $6 billion, 23andMe was just acquired by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for... $256 million via bankruptcy auction.
- Co-founder Anne Wojcicki resigned earlier this year.
- Regeneron gains access to a massive biobank of genetic data.
- They promise to uphold privacy, but concerns linger.
What’s next? Probably a very genetically-optimized drug pipeline.
Is Your IT Budget Dangerously Low?
The Center for Internet Security recommends:
- IT budgets = 5% of revenue
- 20% of that should go to cybersecurity
Yet most companies — especially SMEs — fall far short. That might explain why ransomware payouts are hitting new highs every quarter.
📎 Why Your IT Budget Is Dangerously Low
That’s a wrap for this edition. Whether you're rebranding your streaming platform again, defending your honor in college, or collecting Vatican collectibles — 2025 is proving to be anything but boring.
Catch you next week. ✌️
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