🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #108

Happy Thursday! One more day to the weekend—stay strong!

#MKBHD - This gossip refuses to die down! Marques Brownlee is doubling down on their app, claiming that the $50 fee is justified… and that they will improve the quality of wallpapers on it… He's got the nerve to promise to "improve" the app, but not actually drop the price! And don't even get me started on the creepy permissions he's asking for...

#Samsung - This one’s weird and probably funny too. Samsung launched the pre-order page for their Galaxy 24 FE phone… except, they are yet to announce that model!

#Amazon - Amazon Employees are asking their CEO to reconsider the mandate to return to office. They are “strongly dissatisfied,” according to an anonymous survey created by Amazon employees. Hundreds of employees responded to the survey.

#Antitrust - It’s not the government or public that is suing Microsoft, it’s Google! Google accuses Microsoft of leveraging its Windows software to lock customers into its Azure cloud services. The search giant wants EU regulators to force Microsoft to remove restrictions on using cloud services from rivals. Microsoft said that it has “settled amicably similar concerns raised by European cloud providers”

Bharti Airtel Launches Ai-powered Spam Detection System
Bharti Airtel launches a free AI-powered spam-detection system for all customers. The feature will alert customers in real time to suspected spam calls and text messages. The company claims the solution is India’s first network-based, AI- powered, spam- detection system.

AI-powered Legal Research Revolutionizes Indian Courts
Lexlegis[dot]ai, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Language Model, is transforming legal research in India by providing concise and accurate answers to legal questions.

India's Space Ambitions Take Off
India's government has signed off on three big space missions. Chandrayaan-4 is a Moon lander, a space station module, and a Venus orbiter. The sums involved – a combined $1.8 billion – are very modest.

OpenAI’s Creepy AI Voice Assistant Rolls Out
OpenAI, a company that uses artificial intelligence to generate human-like text, has just released its latest feature, Advanced Voice Mode (AVM), which allows users to interact with chatbots in a more conversational way. The AVM can already speak in over 50 languages and has been fine-tuned to mimic the tone and pace of a human conversation. Expect some interesting and possibly creepy conversations with this feature.

Xbox Unveils Cipher Series And Ghost Cipher Controller Editions
Microsoft launched a new collection of accessories for the Xbox Design Lab service, featuring transparent cases and chromatic D-pads and paddles. The Cipher Series draws inspiration from 90s and 2000s translucent tech, and the Ghost Cipher controller has gray and bronze accents and a clear top case.

Spotify AI Playlist feature expands to additional English-speaking regions, including the US, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand.

Google Enhances Street View imagery in nearly 80 countries, brings Street View to four new countries, and adds sharpened satellite imagery and historical imagery viewing capabilities to Google Maps and Google Earth.

iPhone Allow Audio Playback While Recording Videos

WhatsApp Mark all unread messages as read with the new "Read All" feature.

Fish Speech | Brand new Text To Speech solution

Kamal Proxy | Lightweight proxy server for Kamal

Tanstack Router
TanStack Router is a fully-featured client-side JavaScript application framework with rigorous type safety, ideal for building robust and efficient web applications. With its robust routing and navigation system, it's perfect for building task management systems like Jira.

Session Replay Tech Revealed
Session replay, a powerful tool for product development, allows users to replay user sessions in software products. It's not a simple screen recording, but rather a reconstruction of code changes that occur during user interactions. This technique combines quantitative data from product analytics with qualitative insights from session replay, giving developers a deeper understanding of user behavior.

Building For Scale Before Having Users
Designing an app for millions of users is expensive and time-consuming. You don’t need a super-scalable solution from day one. You need something that works well for the users you have right now. Focus on building a product that meets the needs of your first users.