🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #160

Motivated for Monday? Let's make it happen!

#BillGates - Bill Gates' recent comment calling India a "laboratory" has sparked outrage among Indian netizens, with some calling him out for having too much power and influence, while others defend him, saying he was referring to development.

#BookingDotcom - So someone's trip showed up in a stranger's Booking[dot]com account and they can't remove it, and the company says it's just how the platform works, but isn't that a little sketchy?

#InstantMillionaire - So, there's this teenage kid who created his own cryptocurrency and made a ton of money in like 8 minutes! He released a billion units, bought 5% of them, livestreamed on Pump[dot]Fun, and people went wild! The price skyrocketed, he cashed out for almost $30k, and then the price plummeted.

#Instagram - So Instagram is pulling the plug on its Basic Display API, which affects a bunch of apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Day One. Those gorgeous Instagram pics won't be automatically importing to your journals or dating profiles anymore.

Mahindra Renames Electric Car After Indigo Lawsuit
Mahindra and Mahindra is a major Indian multinational car manufacturer, and IndiGo is India's largest airline. Today, Mahindra announced that it will rename its new electric car from "BE 6e" to "BE 6" after IndiGo sued them for trademark infringement over the use of "6E", which is IndiGo's widely used brand name.

Mobikwik's IPO Ambitions Shrink
MobiKwik is an Indian fintech firm offering a popular mobile wallet app. It's backed by big investors like Peak XV and ADIA. They're now going public, but have cut their IPO target to $69 million, down from $255 million in 2021, due to struggles competing with India's UPI protocol.

Amazon Web Services Enters Generative AI Arena
Amazon Web Services (AWS) just announced it's entering the Generative AI space. They introduced 4 new foundation models that can process text, images, and videos, and are more affordable and faster than others in the market. The models are integrated with AWS's Bedrock service, making it easy for developers to use them. This is a big deal because it puts AWS in the same league as other GenAI services.

Uber Launches Robotaxi Service In Abu Dhabi
Uber, a ride-hailing company, and WeRide, a Chinese self-driving startup that develops autonomous vehicle technology for taxis and trucks, have partnered to launch a robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi, offering autonomous vehicles with safety drivers, with plans for driverless vehicles by 2025.

Google Extends Update Support For Pixel 6 And 7 By 2 Years
Google has extended the update window for Pixel 6, 7, and Pixel Fold by 2 additional years. Pixel 6 is now supported till 2026, Pixel 7 till 2027, andPixel Fold till 2028. The company has also extended the supported for Pixel Fold to 5 years.

Nasa Delays Artemis Missions To 2026 And 2027
NASA the US space agency had named Artemis as their program to return humans to the Moon. They just delayed the crewed missions again - Artemis II to April 2026 and Artemis III to 2027. They're doing more work on the Orion heat shield to ensure safety after some issues with the uncrewed test mission.

OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Pro For $200/month
OpenAI has launched a new subscription plan for ChatGPT, its AI-powered chatbot platform. The $200-per-month tier provides unlimited access to all of OpenAI’s models, including the full version of its “reasoning” model.

Microsoft Edge - Introduced Copilot Vision, a new AI-powered feature that analyzes on-screen content to provide assistance and answers to user queries.

Samsung One UI 7 - Updated Gallery and Phone apps with new design, including bottom navigation icons and a separate search section in the Gallery app.

Reactjs - Version 19 launched

Google Photos - Added a yearly recap feature that generates a highlight reel of notable photos, complete with graphics, effects, and captions created by Gemini.

Grok - This AI by Twitter / X has now expanded availability to free users with limited messaging capacity of 10 messages every 2 hours.

Google Docs - Introduced "Help me create," an AI-powered feature that generates formatted documents from scratch based on user input and context.

Google Wallet - Digital ID support added, allowing users to store a digital version of their passport for use as a generic form of ID.

Steel Browser | Open Source Browser API for AI Agents & Apps. Steel Browser is a batteries-included browser instance that lets you automate the web without worrying about infrastructure.

Latex CSS | LaTeX.css is a CSS library that makes your website look like a LaTeX document

The AI Paradox In Software Development
AI-assisted tools boost productivity, but a "knowledge paradox" emerges: experienced devs use AI to accelerate existing skills, while juniors struggle to learn from AI-generated code, leading to "house of cards code" that collapses under real-world pressure, highlighting the importance of human expertise in software development, AI-assisted development.

The Shiny Object Syndrome
From the author: I feel like my own side projects haunt me sometimes. I want to build new and shiny things, I buy domain names, I get 90% of the way there… and then eh. Time for something new and Shiny again. I really don’t know how to overcome this. Probably with good ol’ “discipline” or something.

Elderly-friendly Android Course
A software engineer creates a 100-class, 8-hour video course to teach Android basics to seniors, overcoming marketing challenges and the "chicken-egg problem" of assuming prior knowledge, using tools like Davinci Resolve and FFmpeg to create an accessible learning experience.