The Amped Journal

Vercel, the web infrastructure company, introduced Run SDK, a tool that executes code written by AI agents inside a lightweight QuickJS secure context rather than a full sandbox, CEO Guillermo Rauch said. The company says the approach is faster and cheaper for "Code Mode" agent execution, where models write and run code as part of completing a task.

Vercel made Connect generally available, calling it a fix for "the hardest problem in building agents": secure connectivity to services and data. A single command creates an authenticated MCP (Model Context Protocol) client for a service like Notion that an agent can query on behalf of the logged-in user.

US consumer spending in the Apple App Store fell 6% year over year in the second quarter, per Sensor Tower data, reversing 9% growth the year before, while global spending grew just 3%. The decline follows a 2025 court ruling in Apple's case against Epic Games that lets developers route users to external payment links, bypassing Apple's commission - RevenueCat's CEO says web revenue share has jumped from 20% to 26% since. Gaming revenue fell 4.5% worldwide while non-gaming app revenue grew 14.6%, prompting developers including Epic's Tim Sweeney to debate whether higher prices to offset lost commissions could hurt reinvestment.

Developer Shawn "swyx" Wang, a prominent AI engineering commentator, warned against using Codex's "locked use" capability, saying it relies on unstable macOS features and locked him out of his Mac keychain twice in one week. Other developers pointed him to Apple developer forum threads acknowledging it as a known bug.

Pieter Levels, founder of Nomad List and a prominent voice in the indie-hacker "build in public" scene, observed that even as more apps than ever are being shipped - aided by AI coding tools - sales growth for builders has slowed. He later clarified he meant growth, not sales themselves, reflecting concern that AI-lowered building costs are flooding the market faster than demand can absorb.

Vercel added SNI (Server Name Indication) encryption to counter what CEO Guillermo Rauch called unjust censorship by internet service providers and telecom carriers - including a major carrier that recently blocked the entire '.tools' domain extension as "sus," breaking encrypted connections for every site using it. The feature is aimed at preventing that kind of blanket domain-level blocking.

A federal judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's request to overturn her sex-trafficking conviction on "new evidence" grounds, the Associated Press reported. Maxwell, the former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, was convicted in 2021 for her role in recruiting and grooming victims for Epstein's abuse.

After congressional Republicans let enhanced federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans expire in January, millions of Americans - including many in Florida - have had to decide whether to keep insurance that in some cases doubled or tripled in cost, or go without coverage, the Associated Press reported. The lapsed subsidies have become a flashpoint between the parties over health-insurance costs ahead of the midterms.

Sen. Darline Graham won the Republican Senate primary in South Carolina, securing a spot on November's general election ballot, the Associated Press reported. She sought the nomination for the seat long held by her late brother, longtime Sen. Lindsey Graham; AP's dispatch did not provide further detail on the race.

A fire at a hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, killed 14 newborns, officials told the Associated Press. Details on the cause of the fire were not immediately available.

Zephyr Development Co. announced a project with R.E. Michel Co., a wholesale HVAC and refrigeration distributor founded in Baltimore in 1935, to build a nearly 26,000-square-foot facility on North 23rd Street in Wilmington. The class-A building will house R.E. Michel's receiving, storage, distribution and customer service operations, with room to expand. Construction is expected to start in the fourth quarter of this year, according to the Greater Wilmington Business Journal.

Developers are planning a new 7-Eleven convenience store and gas station at Carolina Beach Road and Shipyard Boulevard, on the 2.6-acre site of a former Dollar Tree that closed earlier this year. Florida-based Encore Real Estate would demolish the existing building and construct a roughly 4,800-square-foot store with an eight-pump fuel canopy. ERD Carolina Beach LLC bought the property for $3.3 million last week; it would be the fourth 7-Eleven to open in the Wilmington area in recent years.

Eleven new tenants signed leases at Leland Village, a nearly 132,000-square-foot shopping center under construction in Leland, developer Branch Properties announced. New additions include Handel's Ice Cream - the chain's first Wilmington-area location - along with First Watch, Domino's Pizza, Wingstop, Qdoba, Chase Bank, Hollywood Feed, FS8 Pilates, Glo MedSpa, Mattress Firm and Sport Clips. The center, anchored by Publix, Marshalls and Ulta Beauty, is now 93% leased, with Publix slated to open in early 2027.

New Hanover County commissioners unanimously approved rezoning a nearly one-acre site at 8086 Market Street to allow a new PNC Bank branch, replacing Uptown Market, a furniture and home goods store. Developers plan to tear down the existing 10,000-square-foot building and construct a roughly 3,000-square-foot bank with a drive-thru.

The state will hold a public hearing Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Arboretum Education Center on competing applications from Atrium Health, Novant Health and UNC Health to add hospital beds in New Hanover County. The three systems' June proposals range from Atrium's $395 million, 42-bed hospital near Porters Neck to UNC Health's $852 million, 150-bed hospital at Shipyard Boulevard and South 17th Street. Anyone wishing to speak can sign up in person and will be called at random; the case is being reviewed by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.