🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #172

Halfway through the week - happy Wednesday!

#HoneyExtension - PayPal Honey is a popular browser extension that promises users the best deals when e-shopping. A new investigation has revealed how the Honey extension actually works, and apparently, it’s scamming both the creators who promote it and the customers who rely on its discounts.

#TechRivalry - Apple has criticized Meta's repeated requests to access its software tools. The European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) mandates that Apple allow interoperability with rivals and app developers. Apple claims that granting these requests to Meta will expose sensitive data including messages, emails, app usage, photos and even passwords.

#AI-Battle - Contractors working to improve Google’s Gemini AI are comparing its answers against outputs produced by Anthropic”s competitor model Claude, according to internal correspondence. Google would not say if it had obtained permission for its use of Claude in testing against Gemini.

Ten-minute Food Delivery: Zing Joins The Quick Commerce Game
Zing, a new player in the quick commerce game, is promising to change that with its 10-minute food delivery service. Founded by Tarun Arora, former COO of Inshorts, and Rachit Sahi, and backed by Azhar Iqubal, founder of Shark Tank India.

Mcdonald's Mcdelivery App In India Exposed By API Flaws
You know McDonald's, the fast-food giant? They have a food delivery app in India called McDelivery, which has over 10 million downloads. A security researcher found some big flaws in its API, which allowed them to order food for just 1 rupee, hijack and track other people's orders, and access sensitive driver information. The researcher worked with McDonald's India to fix the issues before they could be exploited by bad guys.

Meesho Ditches Amazon Elasticache For Redis Cloud, Scales To 140 Million Customers
Meesho is one of India's fastest-growing e-commerce platforms. They just made a big switch from Amazon ElastiCache to Redis Cloud on Google Cloud Platform, to handle their huge growth and high traffic. This move helped them serve 140 million customers and 800,000 sellers, especially during big sales events.

India's Ministry Of Consumer Affairs Unveils AI-powered Complaint Filing System
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Gupshup have launched a web-based Generative AI virtual assistant for complaint filing – ‘Jagriti’ Jagriti is equipped with cutting-edge text-to-speech and speech- to-text capabilities, providing step-by-step assistance in filing complaints.

Karnataka Government Announces Rajiv Gandhi Entrepreneurship Program
Karnataka is a major hub for startups and innovation in India. They just announced a new program to support 30 selected innovators with a monthly stipend of Rs 25,000 for 12 months, helping them navigate through the ideation phase. This is a huge opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs and startups in the state.

Microsoft Diversifying AI Models Away From OpenAI
Microsoft 365 Copilot was launched in March 2023. It uses OpenAI's GPT-4 AI model, but the high costs and slow speeds have reportedly prompted Microsoft to reduce its reliance on OpenAI. The company is also training its models such as the newly developed Phi-4. The approach aims to reduce operational costs and potentially pass the same savings to its customers.

Telegram Hits Profitability
Telegram is a popular cloud-based instant messaging app with over 950 million monthly active users. In a post, founder Pavel Durov announced the company has reached profitability with over $1 billion in revenue in 2024, surpassing expectations.

Base UI | Base UI is an open-source library of accessible, unstyled UI components for React.

Musoq | SQL Syntax without any database

console.delight()
Javascript developers know you can use console.log() to log text and variables to the console. Did you know you could also render (limited) CSS, SVGs, and even HTML in it?!

Ask HN: How Do You Future Proof Your Career In Light Of LLMs
The Hacker News post discusses the impact of large language models (LLMs) on software engineering careers. It explores concerns that LLMs could automate tasks typically handled by junior to mid-level engineers, potentially leading to a major transformation of the field. The thread features community advice on adapting to these changes, emphasizing skills like leveraging LLMs effectively, steering automation, and focusing on higher-level problem-solving.

Amazon Reconsiders Managerial Bloat
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s message on an increased ratio of individual contributors to managers raises a much bigger question about organizational structure. Morgan Stanley analysts suggested that Amazon could cut as many as 14,000 management positions. Amazon thinking involves a broader rethink of how to rightsize the largest corporations.