👀 Phone killer just dropped

A new gadget’s gunning for your screen time—and it’s not playing nice.

Author

Matt Altebrando
April 04, 2025

Happy Friday. Hope your phone's enjoying its final days—because this week, Meta decided glasses are the future. Meanwhile, Amazon is launching satellites to blanket the globe with internet, and we found 5 gadgets that are actually worth your money (and won't end up in your junk drawer).​

Tech's getting louder, weirder, and more wearable—let's get into it before your glasses start reading this for you.

What’s Merging Today:
• Amazon's Project Kuiper to launch first satellites 🚀
• Meta's smart glasses aim to replace your iPhone 👓
• Goodyear surges on tariffs, RH crashes hard 📉
• Merge Tools & Finds you'll actually use 🛠️

SIGNAL, NOT NOISE

Amazon's Project Kuiper Set to Launch 📡

Image created by The Morning Merge with AI assistance

Amazon is gearing up to launch its first 27 Kuiper internet satellites under the "Kuiper Atlas 1" mission on April 9, 2025. This initiative aims to deploy a global high-speed internet service with over 3,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit, directly competing with SpaceX's Starlink network. The launch will take place at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, utilizing an Atlas 5 rocket provided by United Launch Alliance. Project Kuiper represents a significant step in Amazon's strategy to expand its web services and satellite communication capabilities. ​

💡 Takeaway: With Project Kuiper, Amazon is not just aiming for the stars but also looking to revolutionize global internet connectivity, positioning itself as a formidable player in the satellite internet arena.

MERGE MARKETS

S&P 500

5,396.52

-4.84% 

Dow Jones

40,545.93

-3.98%  

NASDAQ

16,550.60

-5.97%  

10-Year

4.04%

-15 bps 

Bitcoin

$82,443.55

-0.03%  

GT

$10.18

+11.62% 

RH

$149.36

-40.10% 

*Stock data as of market close on April 3, 2025. Crypto data as of 6:00 PM ET.

🏁 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT): A rare tire stock turbo boost — GT surged over 11% after Trump’s new tariffs made foreign rubber pricier. Suddenly, being made in the USA is more profitable than patriotic.

📉 Restoration Hardware (RH): RH went down like a $12,000 sofa dropped off a loading dock — shedding 40% in a single day after weak earnings, a brutal outlook, and a direct hit from tariff headwinds. When you sell luxury furniture built overseas… Trump’s new tax isn’t your friend.

🧨Tariff Turbulence : Trump’s sweeping 10% baseline tariff on imports — with extra heat on China — rattled markets. While old-school industrials cheered, retailers and global brands braced for impact. It’s the kind of move that makes you rethink your supply chain… and maybe your IKEA haul.

AI ON THE MOVE

Meta’s Smart Glasses Are Coming for Your Phone 🤖

Image created by The Morning Merge with AI assistance

Meta is going full Iron Man. As soon as later this year, the company plans to launch Hypernova — a sleek new pair of smart glasses with a built-in display, camera, speakers, microphone, and AI assistant. You’ll control it all using a neural wristband that reads your hand movements.

Hypernova is designed to do everything your phone does: take calls, show texts, pull up directions, display apps — just, you know, without the phone. It’ll even talk back thanks to Meta’s custom AI model, built for real-time, on-the-go interactions.

These aren't your average Ray-Bans. The price? Between $1,000 and $1,400. The promise? Total liberation from screen addiction — or at least fewer drops on your face in bed.

💬 Prediction: These glasses won't fully replace your phone yet… but they’ll spark the next war in consumer AI hardware. Apple Vision Pro? Too big. Humane AI pin? Too early. Hypernova? Maybe just right.

🧠 Bonus: Meta also plans to release a second-generation version of these glasses in 2027 with even more advanced AR and AI capabilities baked in.

MERGE TOOLS

This week’s tools to save time, impress coworkers, and maybe blow your mind.

  • Consensus – Ask a question → get answers based on real academic research.

  • Guidde – Turn screen recordings into step-by-step tutorials, instantly.

  • Supernormal – AI notetaker joins your meetings, sends you the highlights.

  • AutoRegex – Translate plain English into perfect Regex. No crying required.

  • Arc Browser – A reimagined browser that organizes tabs into “spaces,” auto-archives clutter, and includes built-in notes, screen capture, and sidebar multitasking.

🛒 MERGE FINDS

Real-life AI gadgets you’ll actually want to use.

💡 We only recommend stuff we love.

🗞️ WHAT ELSE IS MERGING

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