🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #166

It's Tuesday - keep that hustle strong!

#MagicMouse - Apple's working on a new Magic Mouse design, finally addressing those annoying complaints like the pesky charging port. The redesign is still in the works, but it's about time, those ergonomic issues and charging woes have been around for 15 years!

#SatyaNadella - Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that Google makes more money from Windows than Microsoft itself. He also spoke about the growing competition between traditional search engines and AI-driven tools like ChatGPT.

At the time of publishing, it’s been a slow news day - not much to talk about. We moved most of the minor news to the ChangeLog section below so you can read up on what’s changed but otherwise, there’s not much “News”.

This could be a recurring theme as Christmas and News Years approach - USA and Europe pretty much come to a standstill for their biggest festival. We may now see major updates coming in only in the New Year.

Wipro Acquires Applied Value Technologies In $40m Deal
Wipro (Indian IT giant) has signed an all-cash deal to buy Applied Value Technologies (US-based IT consulting firm) for $40 million. This deal aims to boost Wipro's application services capabilities and drive new growth opportunities, part of its broader business turnaround strategy.

EU Signs €10.6 Billion Contract For Iris Satellite Constellation
Heard of SpaceX's Starlink network? Well, the European Space Agency (ESA) just signed a huge deal to build its own rival network called IRIS, which will provide secure satellite communications and compete with Starlink. It's a big deal for the EU and will have both commercial and security uses.

ChatGPT - Added a new "Santa Mode" to Advanced Voice Mode, allowing users to converse with a simulated Santa Claus through voice interactions, available until early January.

Adobe Camera Raw - Adds Reflection Removal tool, a technology preview that uses AI to eliminate distracting reflections in photos taken through windows, currently available for RAW images.

Google Maps - Updates accent color to a dark shade of teal and text labels to black to enhance visual appearance and readability on Android devices.

Himalaya | CLI to manage emails

Json5 | JSON5 — JSON for Humans

Posting a different type of job today. The Perplexity Residency Program. In the tech industry, a "residency program" for tech talent is like an internship / bootcamp, but longer. Google, and other top tech companies have them too. Perplexity is hiring for a 3-month residency program in San Francisco HQ. It involves a take-home project, virtual onsite interviews, training & work on scaling their applications with a team. Desired skills include. NextJS, TypeScript, Python, Docker, and AWS. Go check it out!

A Letter To Open-source Maintainers
A heartfelt letter to new open-source maintainers emphasizing a "baseline" where maintenance is not obligatory. It's okay to step away from a project without feeling guilty. Be aware of bad reasons to stay, such as "only I can do this" or "people will be sad or angry". Consider your own happiness and well-being before deciding to leave.

AI Trends To Watch In 2024: Overcoming Challenges In LLMs, Agentic AI And Dynamic Data Access
Confluent's survey shows 81% of IT leaders prioritize AI/ML in 2024 budgets. However, hurdles remain, including Large Language Models (LLMs) "hallucinations", agentic AI transparency, and dynamic data access demands. Developers must adapt testing approaches, apply machine learning techniques, and leverage event-driven architectures to build reliable AI systems.

Microsoft Ditches Passwords?
Microsoft is eliminating passwords with passkeys, offering a faster sign-in experience with face, fingerprint, or PIN. Blocking 7,000 password attacks per second, Microsoft sees passkeys as a solution.