On Wednesday, Apple refreshed its budget iPhone line. However, this isn't the iPhone SE 4; it's the iPhone 16e. It's the first time in a while Apple has added a letter to its current iPhone series (like the iPhone 6S or iPhone 5c), which might have you wondering: Should I buy the iPhone 16, or the iPhone 16E? The TL;DR: The iPhone 16e is remarkably similar to the iPhone 16. For most people, this is likely the iPhone to buy, and comes with enough of what you're looking for in the iPhone/iOS experienceespecially when you consider the money you save. However, in order to make this iPhone more affordable than its other devices, Apple did have to cut some corners. I doubt many of these decisions will be dealbreakers for people looking to buy an iPhone without spending a ton, but there are some key differences hidden underneath the surface of these two sibling devices. DisplayWhether you buy an iPhone 16 or iPhone 16E, you're going to get a 6.1-inch "Super Retina XDR" display. What that really means is you'll be using a bright, colorful, high-res OLED display that's exactly the same size between both phones.However, while both iPhones have the same sized 6.1-inch display, the 16e's doesn't get quite as bright. Apple says it typically reaches 800 nits of brightness, and 1200 nits for HDR content. The 16's display, on the other hand, reaches 1000 nits of brightness normally, 1600 nits for HDR content, and 2,000 nits when outdoors. The 16's is also a bit higher res, with a resolution of 2556 x 1179 versus the 16e's 2532 x 1170, but both displays are 460 ppi. The biggest difference you'll notice, besides how these displays look outdoors, is at the top of the screen. The iPhone 16 has Apple's Dynamic Island, which, aside from housing the Face ID camera, also sports digital widgets for different functions on your iPhone. The 16e, on the other hand, has a traditional notch, the same one you'd find on the iPhone 14. If you're used to the notch, it's going to be the same experience here, but you do miss out of the two key perks of the Dynamic Island: those widgets, and the small bump in screen real estate that comes with shrinking this cutout. PerformanceBoth iPhones are running the A18 chip, which is Apple latest iPhone SoC. On the 16e, that gets you a six-core CPU, four-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine. That's about the same on the 16, except it gets an extra GPU core. You won't notice that extra core in many simple tasks, but it likely will help during intensive gameplay sessions, as well as for longevity. It's a minor bump, however, and likely not something to base a purchase decision on. The A18 chip means the iPhone 16e is compatible with Apple Intelligence, which the third-generation iPhone SE (as well as iPhones as new as the iPhone 15) are not. That's a perk if you're really into AI features, but if you're the kind to disable them immediately, you might not care for it. CameraFlip the 16 and 16e around, and you'll notice a big difference right away: The 16e only has one camera, while the 16 has two.That solo camera on the 16e is quite similar to the 16's main shooter: They're both 26mm 48MP "fusion" lenses, with an aperture of /1.6. The 16e's has optical image stabilization, while the 16's has "sensorshift" optical image stabilization, which can offer a quicker stabilization. The 16e has "Hybrid Focus Pixels" while the 16 has "100% Focus Pixels:" That means all the pixels in the iPhone 16 are used to focus the image, while only some are used on the 16e. Both cameras offer "super-high-resolution" photos, in both 24MP and 48MP options. Both cameras also support 12MP "2x telephoto" zoom at 52mm. You also get a number of perks on both iPhones: 10x digital zoom, night mode, portrait mode, etc. Based on paper specs, you'll probably achieve similar results between both of these cameras. However, what you're missing on the 16e is the 12MP ultra-wide lens. If you're going to pick one camera, you'll want the main shooter, but it is nice to have the ultra-wide for those times it's difficult to get your entire subject in frame at once.The iPhone 16 also comes with some video perks over the iPhone 16e, including 4K Dolby Vision cinematic mode, 2.8K Dolby Vision Action mode, Spatial video recording, QuickTake video for 4K Dolby Vision at 60 fps, and Macro video recording. But to be clear, you can shoot normal 4K Dolby Vision video on both iPhones. On the front, you get the same 12MP selfie camera with an aperture of /1.9. Where the 16 wins here is in its extra Portrait mode controls and "latest generation" Photographic Styles, but for most selfies and FaceTime calls, there won't be much difference. ButtonsIf you're coming from an older iPhone, you might be surprised to see the omission of a ringer switch. In its place is the Action button, just as you'd find on the iPhone 16. While the Action button can still flip your iPhone to silent mode, you can also assign a different function for it instead. Perhaps you'd rather the Action button launch the camera, your flashlight, or a Shortcut, which opens up the possibilities. However, the iPhone 16 does come with a button the 16e does not: Camera Control. As the name suggests, this button gives you added controls over your iPhone's camera, including the ability to launch the camera from the button, snap photos, or zoom. Cellular and batteryThe iPhone 16e is Apple's first iPhone to ship with a proprietary cellular modem, which the company calls C1. All other iPhones use modems from Qualcomm. You probably won't notice any network gains from Apple's own C1 modem, but there is one benefit: battery life. Apple says the 16e has the "best battery life ever on a 6.1-inch iPhone." According to the company's stats, that translates to up to 26 hours of video playback, 21 hours of streaming video, and 90 hours of audio playback. Compare that to the iPhone 16, which achieves up to 22 hours of video playback, 18 hours of streaming video, and 80 hours of audio playback. That said, you won't be charging the iPhone 16e with MagSafe, as the device isn't compatible with Apple's magnetic charging standard. If you don't have any MagSafe products already, you won't notice this omission, but if you do, it might be a frustrating downgrade.ColorsThe iPhone 16e only comes in two colors: Black or White. The 16, on the other hand, Black, White, Pink, Teal, or Ultramarine (purple). It's an interesting choice, but considering how most people slap a case on their iPhones as soon as they buy it, the color probably doesn't matter as much here.Smaller features There are a number of smaller features here that are exactly the same: The 16e and 16 both have USB-C, which means you can finally ditch your Lightning cables (unless you still have Lightning accessories). You can also treat both the same around water, since the 16 and 16e are rated IP68 water and dust resistant. That means the phones can handle submersion in six meters of water for up to 30 minutes.Both the 16 and the 16e come in three storage sizes: 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. They're quite similar in size and weight, too. iPhone 16e is 5.78 x 2.82 x 0.31 inches, and weighs 5.88 ounces, while the iPhone 16 is 5.81 x 2.82 x 0.31 inches and weighs six ounces.PriceObjectively, the iPhone 16 is a better iPhone than the 16e, since it's essentially a 16e, just with a bunch of added perks (minus the extra battery life, that is). However, the price is what is supposed to make the 16e the bargain here. The iPhone 16 starts at $799, which, while cheaper than the $999 iPhone 16 Pro, is still quite expensive. The 16e is indeed less expensive, but it isn't cheap. It starts at $599 for the 128GB model. The iPhone SE 3, on the other hand, launched at $429, which itself was $30 more expensive than the iPhone SE 2 before it. "Budget" iPhone clearly means something different now. Everything is pricey these days, which needs to be taken into consideration here. Yesterday, you could buy an iPhone 16 for $800. Soon, you can pre-order most of the 16's best features in the 16e for $600. If you can live without the brighter screen, the Camera Control button, the ultra-wide camera, and the extra photography controls, that's $200 well saved. Plus, you won't need to run to find a charger as frequently as you would with the iPhone 16. Pre-orders for the 16e start Feb. 21. The iPhone will be available starting Feb. 28.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.The Sennheiser CX Plus True Wireless earbuds are down to $54.99 (their lowest price, according to price-tracking tools) on Woot, a massive drop from their usual $179.99. This deal runs for the next three days or until stock runs out, and if youre a Prime member, shipping is free (otherwise, youll have to shell out an extra $6, and shipping isnt available to Alaska, Hawaii, or PO boxes). Additionally, they come with a two-year Sennheiser manufacturer warranty, so you're covered if anything goes wrong. Sennheiser CX Plus True Wireless Earbuds $54.99 $179.99 Save $125.00 Get Deal Get Deal $54.99 $179.99 Save $125.00 Available in black, these earbuds come with four sizes of silicone ear tips for a more comfortable and snug fit. They use Bluetooth 5.2 and support multiple codecs, including AAC, AptX, and AptX Adaptive for high-fidelity playback (though LDAC is missing). Plus, their 7mm dynamic drivers push a 5Hz to 21kHz frequency range, delivering a well-balanced sound signaturethe bass hits hard without distortion, and the highs remain crisp even at high volumes. The touch controls are well-designeda single tap on the left earbud toggles transparency mode, while the right earbud handles playback. Double and triple taps manage track navigation (backward on the left, forward on the right) and voice assistants, respectively. If that doesnt work for you, the companion app lets you customize controls. The Smart Control app also includes EQ adjustments, though the three-band EQ is somewhat basic, according to this PCMag review.Noise cancellation on the CX Plus is above average, especially for a budget-friendly pair. It does well with low-frequency sounds like plane engines, and cuts down mids and lows in crowded spaces, but higher-pitched noises reportedly leak. Battery life is rated at around eight hours per charge, with the case adding another 16 hours (your mileage may vary). And, with an IPX4 rating, they can handle sweat and light rain; if you need something more waterproof, though, the Jabra Elite 7 Pro ($154.99) might be a better choice, though it costs nearly three times as much.

The new iPhone 16e is designed to get Apple Intelligence into as many hands as possible. The company recently began activating its AI features by default during iOS setup, suggesting a harder push to spur adoption and establish iOS as an AI-first platform. But since Apple Intelligence has up till today only been available on the iPhone 16 series (and just the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max before that), there hasn't been a sub-$600 iPhone that can run the latest suite of tools. So the addition of the $599 iPhone 16e to Apple's lineup isn't surprising. What was slightly unexpected was the framing. The iPhone 16e's arrival was heralded by feverish speculation about a new iPhone SE, which was last released three years ago for a starting price of $429. Though the iPhone 16e is cheaper than the rest of the iPhone 16 family, its price certainly isn't what we might consider "budget" or "entry-level." Apple Intelligences arrival on a lower-cost iPhone is thanks to one of its biggest upgrades from the SE: the A18 chip (the same processor from the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus). That makes it Apples cheapest AI-equipped model by $300. However, that's quite a bump up from the (now-retired) iPhone SE's $429. Fortunately, theres no skimping on the Apple Intelligence features for the cheaper model; you get all the AI goodies found in the more expensive iPhones. That includes AI writing tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, Visual Intelligence, ChatGPT integration and notification summaries. Apple The phone has a much bigger display than its predecessor: 6.1 inches, up from the 2022 iPhone SEs mere 4.7 inches. Its also the first entry-level model to adopt modern iPhones full-screen design with Face ID. (Pour one out for the now-retired home button.) However, it doesnt have the Dynamic Island found on recent higher-end models. It also gets the Action button, the customizable physical shortcut on the phone's side. It debuted in the iPhone 15 Pro series and is found in all iPhone 16 models. The iPhone 16e also complies with EU standards by switching from Lightning to USB-C, which is probably the least surprising thing about it. It also lacks MagSafe charging, sticking with standard Qi wireless charging at up to 7.5W. A list of geeky tech specs doesnt tell the whole story but can still serve as a starting point. Heres how the new entry-level iPhone compares to Apples previous model and its two biggest Android-running rivals: the Google Pixel 8a and Samsung Galaxy A35 5G. (Although the A35 isn't quite in the same price range, it serves a similar niche in Samsung's lineup.) iPhone 16e iPhone SE (2022) Google Pixel 8a Samsung Galaxy A35 5G Price $599 / $699 / $899 $429 / $479 / $579 $499 / $559 $400 Dimensions 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.8 mm (5.78 x 2.82 x 0.31 inches) 138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3 mm (5.45 x 2.65 x 0.29 inches) 152.1 x 72.7 x 8.9mm (6 x 2.9 x 0.4 inches) 161.7 x 78 x 8.2 mm (6.37 x 3.07 x 0.32 inches) Weight 167g (5.88 ounces) 144g (5.09 ounces) 188 g (6.7 oz) 209 g (7.37 oz) Screen size 6.1 inches 4.7 inches 6.1 inches 6.6 inches Screen resolution 2,532 x 1,170 (460 ppi) 1,334 x 750 (326 ppi) 1,080 x 2,400 (430 ppi) 2,340 x 1,080 (389 ppi) Screen type OLED Retina HD LCD 60Hz Super AMOLED up to 120Hz SoC Apple A18 Apple A15 Bionic Tensor G3 Exynos 1380 RAM N/A 4 GB 8 GB 6 / 8* GB * Non-US only Battery "up to 26 hrs video playback" 2,018mAh 4,492 mAh 5,000 mAh Storage 128 / 256 / 512GB 64 / 128 / 256 GB 128 / 256 GB 128 / 256* GB MicroSD up to 1TB * Non-US only Rear camera(s) 48MP, f/1.6 Wide: 12 MP, f/1.8 Wide: 64 MP, f/1.89 Ultrawide: 13MP, f/2.2 Wide: 50MP, f/1.8 Ultrawide: 8MP, f/2.2 Macro: 5MP, f/2.4 Front camera 12MP, f/1.9 7 MP, f/2.2 13MP, f/2.2 13MP, f/2.2 Water / dust rating IP68 IP67 IP67 IP67 Wi-Fi WiFi 6 (802.11ax) 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) Bluetooth v5.3 v5.0 v5.3 v5.3 OS iOS 18 iOS 18 Android 15 Android 14 One UI 6.1 Colors / finish Black / White Aluminum Midnight / Starlight / (Product)Red Aluminum Obsidian / Porcelain / Aloe / Bay Navy / Lilac Update, February 19 2025, 1:46PM ET: This story has been updated to add more context about the iPhone 16e in the intro, covering the speculation that Apple was planning to launch a new model of the iPhone SE.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/apple-just-unveiled-the-iphone-16e-heres-how-it-compares-to-the-competition-171306637.html?src=rss

Instagram is rolling out an update for its messaging system that adds several new tools. These features could allow Instagram to better compete with direct-messaging rivals like Apple iMessage and various third-party platforms.First up, theres music-sharing. The update lets users share tunes in both one-on-one messages and group chats. Just open up the sticker tray and tap on the Music option. This will open up a search bar of Instagram's audio library. There are a couple of caveats here. The song has to be available via Instagram and clips are maxed out at 30 seconds.Direct messages will also now have a translation tool that works with 99 languages. The functionality here looks incredibly simple. Users just have to hold down a message and tap Translate. The translated message should appear directly below the original one. Easy peasy.MetaTheres a new way to pin messages, images or even Reels to the top of chats. Hold down the message and tap Pin. Instagram says folks can pin up to three messages per conversation. I could see this being handy to keep oft-requested information at the ready, though itll likely be used primarily for memes (not that theres anything wrong with that.)Instagram will also let people schedule messages by long-pressing the send button. This can be used to plan messages up to 29 days in advance. Finally, the platform has introduced a way to invite people to a group chat via a QR code. All of these tools begin rolling out today to iOS and Android users worldwide. A web update is in the works but isnt available just yet.Instagram sure has been busy adding new features to its software. It recently began testing a dislike button for comments. The platform announced that it was working on a video-editing app, similar to CapCut. The service even expanded the length of Reels to three minutes, likely to compete with TikTok. It also recently got rid of third-party fact checkers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-adds-a-whole-slew-of-new-dm-features-in-latest-update-184535399.html?src=rss

The announcement of the new iPhone 16e has also seen Apple quietly discontinue three iPhones, ending the iPhone SE product line in the process.

Anora is just one of the new movies coming to Hulu in March 2025. Here's the full list of the titles coming to the platform next month.

With its stunning destruction and fluid dynamics, Wt FX pushed the limits of simulation artistry in Alien: Romulus. Trillions of individual assets are painstakingly built to produce a realistic, chaotic collapse as the Romulus station is ripped apart by freezing debris as it sinks into the planets rings.A special challenge that required sophisticated fluid models to portray its unexpected velocity in space was zero-gravity acid Xenomorph blood, which added to the intensity. The realism was further enhanced by a quick decompression event, which gave each scene a visceral, immersive quality. Combining technical mastery with the uncanny beauty of the Alien universe made this project a dream come true for FX artists.The post The FX Simulations of Alien: Romulus Wt FX appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Use DNEGs Skeleton Crew VFX breakdown to delve deeply into a galaxy far, far away!It took a masterful fusion of elaborate creature animation, expansive interplanetary settings, and top-tier visual effects to bring the Star Wars universe to life. DNEGs episodic team pushed the limits of visual effects expertise with everything from grandiose space sequences to immersive planetary landscapes.Using state-of-the-art computer graphics, dynamic simulations, and careful compositing, Skeleton Crew creates an aesthetically spectacular journey that adheres to the cherished Star Wars style, demonstrating once more how powerful the VFX Force is!The post Skeleton Crew VFX Breakdown by DNEG appeared first on Vfxexpress.

This week, the startup Humanewhich raised $240 million to build an iPhone-killing Ai Pinannounced its sale to HP for $116 million. While far short of the companys original $1 billion asking price, its astonishing that the brand scrapped for anything at all. A product that had promised to change the world instead became a worldwide laughingstock, indicative of the worst tendencies of Silicon Valley-founder hubris. Universally panned, Humane sold fewer than 10,000 units. Sometimes, its returns outpaced its sales. Units could catch fire.Humane cofounders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno thanked their few loyal customers by announcing their Pins would no longer work in 10 days. Well, for anything but checking the battery level.This investment will rapidly accelerate our ability to develop a new generation of devices that seamlessly orchestrate AI requests both locally and in the cloud, said Tuan Tran, president of technology and innovation at HP, in a press statement. Humanes AI platform Cosmos, backed by an incredible group of engineers, will help us create an intelligent ecosystem across all HP devices from AI PCs to smart printers and connected conference rooms. This will unlock new levels of functionality for our customers and deliver on the promises of AI.Heh. I can understand why the world was fooled by the Ai Pin when it launched in 2024. I have a little less sympathy now for HP execs, who have just completed one of the most tone-deaf acquisitions in corporate history.The Ai Pin was flawed from the beginningMystique around Humane had been swirling for years by the time Chaudhri took the stage at TED in May 2023 to present the idea of the disappearing computer. After spending his career at Apple working on some of its most important launches such as the iPhone, he pitched a screenless AI interface that allows us to get back to what really matters: a new ability to be present. By simply asking his computer to catch me up, it was able to cut through endless notifications to tell him what was important. By Chaudhri holding up a candy bar, his computer could tell him if it jibed with his lactose intolerance condition. And when his wife (and company cofounder) called, well, her name magically appeared right on his hand.Little did the audience realize: The computer had merely disappeared into Chaudhris jacket with a needle and thread.Even a bad magic trick can fool people who want to be fooled. And Humanes vision struck a chord with a society that felt guilty for using its phones all the time. Freeing our eyes and hands sounded like liberation, and the promise that an AI could do everything from translate languages in real time to examining the foods youd eaten that the day to determine if youre aligned with your diet seemed like the sort of just-out-of-reach magic that could finally be real. And, wait, was that a LASER BEAM THAT JUST SHOT ONTO HIS HAND?[Image: Humane/TED]The next time the Ai Pin arrived on stage, it (well, a prototype of it) would be worn on the lapel of Naomi Campbelltrue supermodel royaltyat Paris Fashion week. The closest parallel I could remember was Beyonc donning an Apple Watch around its announcement. The product was starting to feel too big to fail. Its investorsincluding Tiger Global Management, Microsoft, Qualcomm Ventures, and Softbank, alongside individuals including Salesforces Marc Benioff and OpenAIs Sam Altmanfed an $840 million valuation. It felt like something that deserved to be taken seriously.Naomi Campbell wore a prototype of Humanes Ai Pin at the Coperni spring/summer 2024 show during Paris Fashion Week. [Photo: Francois Durand/Getty Images]Still, the TED Talk had struck me as funny for reasons I couldnt articulate. Later, Chaudhri canceled an on-stage interview with me where hed promised to speak about the product for the first time. He also declined an interview after my in-person demo (Ive experienced a hundred or more product walkthroughs in my career, and Ive never been unable to ask a question of the company after any of them, except this time with Humane). What I generously interpreted as shynessChaudhris soft-spoken magnetism cannot be deniedseemed, increasingly, to be protecting a thin veneer.Five months before Marques Brownlee nuked the Ai Pin into oblivion by calling it the worst product hed ever reviewed, Id been saying the same to friends in the industry who eagerly asked about my experience with the device. It was difficult to explain to people that this wasnt hyperbole, that when I arrived in San Francisco in November 2023, the demo was really that bad. That every query took painfully long to answer, even inside a perfectly closed environment. That all the magical dietary foodstuff computations didnt seem to work. That I was expected to ooh and ahh when the Pin told me the weather. That I wasnt even allowed to use the device myself.Still, Chaudhri and Bongiorno (who, note, always wore the Pin on a thick jacket lapel to support its weight) had already planned for countless special-edition releases, with the Pin in all sorts of limited-edition candy colors. It didnt work, mind you. The Ai Pin was nothing more than a smartphone without a screen, stuck to your chest. Its limited capabilities somehow put technology in the way more. But the entire brand and packaging promised to usher us into a new era of computing, because Humane was focused more on optics than function.The project didnt seem salvageable, though I was actually surprised (impressed?) when the world of tech reviewers mirrored my initial take. These are people who review Android phones for a living! And they hated the thing.Where this leaves HPHumane was always going to sell as scrap. There was just too much invested in the company for there to be nothing to show. Its carefully engineered chipset (the Ai Pin used little off-the-shelf hardware) is unlikely to be worth much of anything outside the device itself, but perhaps HP has a purpose. Humanes 300 patents around various AI/UX interactions likely have an appeal to any tech company, if only because AI isnt going anywhere. And the purchase price isnt beyond what companies will spend to acquire tough-to-recruit technologists.Im more surprised that HP has made such a public bet on the ashes of Humane, which has been immortalized in memes as a pile of bogusness. If this was some attempt at capturing whatever lingering spirit was left in the Humane brand, the two companies snuffed it out when bricking their devices.HP says that Humane will form HP IQ, HPs new AI innovation lab focused on building an intelligent ecosystem across HPs products and services for the future of work. For a company thats still making billions in profits annually from predatory printer ink subscriptions, perhaps its a fitting end. The worst AI company of the past decade will linger as some sort of smart notification that your magenta is low.

We will make mistakes, said Elon Musk during an Oval Office press conference last week, a toddler son slung on his shoulders like a shield. But well act quickly to correct any mistakes.His remarks came in response to a reporter whod noted Musks previous incorrect claim that the U.S. had spent $50 million on condoms for Gazans. (On X, Musk even suggested this money had actually ended up with Hamas.) Since then, his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has made severe mistakes, some of which are reportedly still being corrected as of this writing.Slipups are, of course, expected in the heady early days of a startup, and perhaps even in a new administration. But the mistakes Musks DOGE are making are the kind that have catastrophic consequences hanging in the balance, seemingly without any corresponding appreciation of their magnitude.What happens when his team makes one that cant quickly be corrected?As if we never said goodbyeJust days after Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins acknowledged that Musks DOGE team had been working with the department for weeks, the USDA announced on Tuesday that it had mistakenly fired several agency employees over the weekend. Those employees had been working on the governments response to the current, increasingly worrisome bird flu outbreak. The agency has since realized its error, and is now in the process of reversing those firings. Still, it seems like an extraordinary lapse in judgment to fire such essential workers in the first placeand evidence of profoundly misguided and underinformed cost-cutting efforts.It was not an outlier, however. The USDA firings marked the second announced instance of DOGE mistakenly cutting essential personnel just since last weeks press conference.On Friday, the Trump administration scrambled to reinstate a group of nuclear safety employees it had let go the day before, halting the firings of 350 federal employees (or those whose correct contact information it could find, anyway). Although DOGE has been cleaning house throughout the government since Trumps January 20 inauguration, last week was a particularly busy one, as DOGE executed mass firings across multiple federal government agencies.But only after workers with sensitive jobs involving, say, the U.S. nuclear arsenal were let go did anyone at DOGE seem to understand that those roles might be important.As the Associated Press reports, National Nuclear Security Administration deputy division director Rob Plonski described the firings on LinkedIn as undermining the very systems that secure our nations future. Plonski also added: Cutting the federal workforce responsible for these functions may be seen as reckless at best and adversarily opportunistic at worst.The previous week, a few hundred employees at the Small Business Association (SBA) were also accidentally fired . . . three days before they were then officially fired.Why this sounds so familiarAll of these mistakes echo what happened at Twitter after Musk took over in 2022, when it turned out that some of the people he mass-fired were actually keeping Twitter functional, and he had to hire some of them back. (Babies got thrown out with the bathwater is how he later described those indiscriminate firings.)Musks recent mistakes, though, arent just limited to firings. A 25-year-old DOGE staffer named Marko Elez was mistakenly given read/write access to part of the payments system for the U.S. Treasurya system that disburses trillions of dollars every year.Elezs access was quickly rescinded, but its unclear whether his receiving it actually was a mistake, or if DOGE simply got caught. (Apparently, keeping on a worker who trumpeted his flagrant racism online is not considered a mistake by Musk. When Elez resigned after the Wall Street Journal exposed his racist tweets, Musk made a public display of hiring him back.)And what are all these mistakes even in service of? When will the supposed spoils from the great austerity push make a demonstrable difference? Musk claims DOGE has already uncovered tremendous fraud, but the proof does not support those claims. Most recently, on Sunday, he declared, This might be the biggest fraud in history, when tweeting about a perceived discrepancy in Social Security records. His claim proved easily debunkable.Musk and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt mainly seem to apply the fraud label to anything they find merely disagreeable, like $57,000 worth of spending relating to climate change in Sri Lanka. And some of DOGEs line-item savings announcements are riddled with mistakeslike an $8 billion contract for the Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agency that turned out to be $8 million.It should be no surprise that Musk has already walked back his earlier vow that DOGE would cut about $2 trillion from the federal budgetor that these cuts may not be as beneficial as advertised. Musk has a long track record in the tech world of overpromising and under-delivering. In 2019, for instance, he confidently predicted Tesla would produce a million autonomous Robotaxis by the end of 2020. He reiterated that done-by-next-year promise in an earnings call last year, when he promised that Robotaxis would be coming in 2025.Even accounting for pandemic-related delays, and assuming his latest promise even holds up later this year, Musks original pledge is still off the mark by miles.For now, its mainly just Democratic politicians, critical press outlets, and massive public demonstrations sounding alarm bells over Musk and DOGEs recklessness. No elected Republican officials who might hold any sway seem to be pushing back. (At least not officially; reports describe Republican lawmakers privately warning Trump officials about reckless DOGE cuts.) The question now is whether it will take a true catastrophe for top lawmakers to realize it was a mistake to ever toss Musk the keys to the U.S. governmentand whether well even be able to afford it if that does come to pass.