Pocket, an app for saving and reading articles later, is shutting down on July 8, Mozilla announced today. 

The company sent an email with the subject line “Important Update: Pocket is Saying Goodbye,” around 2 p.m. EST and I immediately started wailing when I saw it. 

“You’ll be able to keep using the app and browser extensions until then. However, starting May 22, 2025, you won’t be able to download the apps or purchase a new Pocket Premium subscription,” the announcement says. Users can export saved articles until October 8, 2025, after which point all Pocket accounts and data will be permanently deleted. 

The Mozilla-owned Pocket, formerly known as "Read It Later," launched in August 2007 as a Firefox browser extension that let users save articles to... well, read later. Mozilla acquired Pocket in 2017. 

“Pocket has helped millions save articles and discover stories worth reading. But the way people save and consume content on the web has evolved, so we’re channeling our resources into projects that better match browsing habits today,” Mozilla said in an announcement on Distilled, the company’s blog. “Discovery also continues to evolve; Pocket helped shape the curated content recommendations you already see in Firefox, and that experience will keep getting better. Meanwhile, new features like Tab Groups and enhanced bookmarks now provide built-in ways to manage reading lists easily.” 

In that announcement, it also said it’s sunsetting Fakespot, Mozilla’s failed attempt at consumer-level AI detection tools. The Distilled announcement post says the company made the choice to shut down these products because “it’s imperative we focus our efforts on Firefox and building new solutions that give you real choice, control and peace of mind online.” It also says the choice will allow Mozilla to “shape the next era of the internet – with tools like vertical tabs, smart search and more AI-powered features on the way.” Which is what everyone wants: more AI bloat in their browsers. 

The “Pocket Hits” newsletter will continue, the company says, under a new name starting June 17. “We’re proud of what Pocket has made possible over the years — helping millions of people save and enjoy the web’s best content. Thank you for being part of that journey,” the company said.

As I said, I’m upset! I use the Pocket Chrome extension almost daily, and it’s become a habitual click for articles I want to save to read later even though I fully know I never will. Before the subway had Wi-Fi, back when I commuted to work 45 minutes each way every day, I used Pocket to save articles offline and read outside of internet access. Anecdotally speaking, Pocket was a big traffic driver for bloggers: At all of the websites I’ve worked at, getting an article on Pocket’s curated homepage was a reliable boost in viewers. 

404 Media contributing writer Matthew Gault suggests copy-pasting links to articles into a giant document to read later. Now that Pocket is no longer with us, I might have to start doing that. 

Pocket and Mozilla did not immediately reply to a request for comment. 

• Airbnb's CEO said he's heard from founders facing a challenging fundraising landscape amid economic uncertainty.
• Brian Chesky said that while a stable economy is needed, there's a "silver lining" to building a business in tough times.
• The Airbnb cofounder said on Michelle Obama's podcast that a tough economy bakes "discipline" into your company culture.

Brian Chesky is no stranger to starting a business in tough economic times.

Chesky cofounded Airbnb in 2007 and built the business during the 2008 financial crisis. In a recent podcast conversation with Michelle Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, Chesky said it was challenging to get the business off the ground during a recession, even with some of the advantages and connects he and his founders had that other entrepreneurs might not have.

However, he said there was one "silver lining" to growing the business during tough times, which might resonate with founders facing today's economic uncertainty.

"A lot of great companies have been started in a recession," he said in a Wednesday episode of "IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson."

"And the one, I don't want to say it's a good thing, but what it does is it teaches you a certain type of discipline," he said. "A tough economy teaches you a discipline that gets institutionalized into your culture."

By comparison, a strong economy might give founders more cushioning to "perpetuate bad strategies and be a little less disciplined," Chesky said.

"I think the good news is a lot of great entrepreneurs are incredibly resourceful, and they will find a way to work," the Airbnb cofounder said. "But we absolutely need like a very stable economy."

Chesky said that entrepreneurs he's spoken with recently told him "a lot of fundraising, for all intents and purposes, was kind of on hold."

"A lot of limited partners and investors are just like hunkering down. And what we know about investors, they don't like uncertainty," he said.

He believes investors will "sit this one out until things stabilize."

"And if they don't stabilize, we're going to be in for a very prolonged kind of dry spell for fundraising," he said. "If you did not go to a prestigious school, if you weren't, like, purely a team of technical engineers, if you're not trying to create an AI company, you're just trying to create a business, that will be more difficult."

Airbnb isn't the only successful business to emerge from the Great Recession. Companies like Uber, WhatsApp, Venmo, and Square also started around the time of the 2008 financial crisis.

"It's always a great time to start a business — and some of the most successful businesses are started during recessions," certified financial planner Cary Carbonaro previously told BI. "Adversity is the mother of invention."

• Nearly 30 M1A1 Abrams tanks will roll down Constitution Ave. in DC for the Army's 250th birthday.
• The service is finalizing plans to prevent the heavy 70-ton tanks from damaging the road.
• Engineers will use steel plates and track pads to protect roads during the parade.

The powerful M1A1 Abrams tank, with its heavy armor and 120mm cannon, is a massive hulk of steel, and dozens are set to hit the streets in the nation's capital next month.

Nearly 30 of the tanks are expected to rumble down Constitution Avenue as part of the US Army's 250th anniversary celebration on June 14, set to coincide with President Donald Trump's birthday.

The street, which runs parallel to the National Mall and serves as a major route for city traffic, isn't built to easily accommodate each tank's nearly 70-ton frame. Most cars weigh only about two tons.

So how is the Army going to keep its tanks from chewing up Constitution Avenue? The service's engineers are putting the finishing touches on plans to protect the busy street's pavement from biting tracks.

Officials aren't too concerned with the straight path down Constitution, which will likely see a single file of tanks. It's turning points that will be the most vulnerable to tears from the heavy tracked vehicles.

"We are targeting those areas that we have concerns," said Army Col. Jesse Curry, Executive Officer for the Army's Chief of Engineers, during a media roundtable with reporters on Wednesday. "Particularly the areas where the surface of the pavement would typically, you know, receive an exaggerated level of stress."

To prevent such stress, military engineers are figuring out which turn points will be layered with steel plates at least one inch thick.

Such large plates are commonly seen on city streets where heavy equipment is used, Curry said, adding that equipment staging areas and the parade route were specially chosen to minimize weight-related damage.

Heavy tracked vehicles like the M1A1 often make turns by using differential steering — one side will roll forward while the other reverses, or the tracks will operate at a different speed. That can cause tracks to "pinch," a problem for asphalt.

Inbound parade tanks will also don new "track pads," rubber components that create some separation between the metal tracks and the pavement, Curry told reporters.

Additional measures to prevent damage are still being examined, with help from DC's Department of Transportation, the National Park Service (which oversees maintenance of the National Mall), and the Federal Highway Administration.

The tanks and other vehicles, such as Bradley fighting vehicles and Strykers, will arrive in the DC area via rail and will then depart to parade staging areas via heavy-duty trailers, similar to those used to move houses down highways.

Troops will not be conducting any full-scale rehearsals for the parade, a notable deviation from typical military planning. Normally, complete rehearsals are an important part of any military mission, including small unit ceremonies.

Officials said Wednesday that while the Army has been planning a major 250th birthday event for two years, the idea to include heavy vehicles like tanks and other armored vehicles in a parade only arrived this year. The officials did not specify how the idea originated.

Even moving at a slow parade pace, any military activity using heavy equipment and vehicles is fraught with concerns that require meticulous planning for safety precautions, especially when it comes to the equipment offloads required to stage for such a parade. Large vehicles must rely on ground guides to ensure no one is inadvertently run over.

Officials said Wednesday that Hercules wreckers will be available to recover any tanks that break down. How roads might handle the behemoth 70-ton M88 Hercules recovery vehicle with a downed tank on its trailer bed is unclear.

Apple is expediting its plans to compete with Meta’s popular Ray-Ban smart glasses. Bloomberg reports today that Apple is now aiming to release smart glasses “at the end of next year.” Simultaneously, the company has dropped its plans to release an Apple Watch with a built-in camera.