Links

Links for September 23, 2026

1. "Toys ‘R’ Us is opening 120 new stores as grownup collectors fuel toy sales"

   "Toy sales among adult-only households have now outpaced households with children for toy sales, growing 16% through June, according to market research group Circana, equivalent to 55% of total toy industry receipts. Toy sales among all adults are growing 25%, only slightly behind the teen group at 33%. Together, teens and adults generated nearly 60% of the industry’s incremental dollar gains in the first half, Circana said."

2. "Claude Opus 5.5 Intelligence, Performance and Price Analysis (Max) | Hacker News"

   good discussion, tracks with my observation that medium - high is the best efficiency/ROI

   also side note, Opus 5.5 is p good, Fable-class behavior but much faster (speculation is it's distilled from a Fable 6-type model, hence it's fewer parameters than the prior Opus and hence better performance [& economics] for inference).

   Haven't tried the new Sol yet. The new Luna is way better, the older one was price efficient but mediocre; this one is quite decent and "fumbles less" on low-medium complexity tasks

3. "The current balance of power in open models" "The current balance of power in open models | Hacker News"
4. "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy | Hacker News"

   Apple changes its rules for personalised advertising in apps

5. "How we made claude.ai 3x faster in two weeks"
6. "I don't want the details" "I don't want the details | Hacker News"