🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #200

Hello Monday, let's make this week amazing!

#OpenAI - So OpenAI's been using a Reddit forum to test its AI models' persuasive abilities, but it's unclear how they accessed the data and Reddit's not commenting.

#AR-Glasses - Apparently, Apple's scrapped its plans for AR glasses, codenamed N107, after the team struggled with performance issues and design changes... yeah, it's like they just couldn't get it together, and now Meta's gonna own the market!

#DeepSeek - DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup known for its DeepSeek-R1 LLM model, has publicly exposed two databases containing sensitive user and operational information. The unsecured ClickHouse instances reportedly held over a million log entries.

Shein Relaunches In India Via Partnership With Reliance Retail
Shein is a Chinese fast-fashion platform that was banned in India in 2020 due to diplomatic tensions. In a surprising move, it's relaunching in India through a partnership with Reliance Retail, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, under strict conditions to ensure data sovereignty.

Budget 2025: India Allocates Rs 20,000 Crore For Private Sector R&d, Deeptech Fund Of Funds
The Indian government has announced a major initiative to boost research and development in the private sector, allocating Rs 20,000 crore for this purpose. A deeptech-focused Fund of Funds will be established to nurture startups, and 10,000 fellowships will be provided for technological research. The government also announced a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for Education with a total outlay of Rs 500 crore, and plans to launch its own indigenous AI model.

Indian Railways Launches ‘SwaRail’ SuperApp
IRCTC, India’s Railway services has launched a Super App - A single app with multiple services and features - namely ticket booking, platform tickets, PNR enquiries, food ordering, rail madad, and freight services. Currently in beta, the app can be downloaded from both Google Play and Apple App Stores.

Indian Tech Giant Tata Technologies Hit By Ransomware Attack
Indian tech giant Tata Technologies hit by ransomware attack. Company suspends some of its IT services following a ransomware attack that impacted the company network.

Ola Electric Launches Gen 3 Scooters
Ola Electric is a big player in India's electric vehicle market, founded by Bhavish Aggarwal. They just launched their new Gen 3 Scooters, which are a big upgrade from their previous models. Prices start at Rs 79,999 and go up to Rs 1,69,999. The new scooters have better performance, efficiency, and range, with some models reaching speeds of 141 km/h and ranges of 320 km. They're also offering discounts on their older models.

Zepto Launches Instant Exchange And Returns
Zepto has launched instant exchange and returns for select product categories. The service will cover categories such as electronics, apparel, toys, sports, and kitchenware. Customers will be able to return or exchange items within a 1-day, 3-day and 7-day window.

Netflix Streams Tudum Live On Its Platform For The First Time
Netflix's next Tudum fan event will take place on May 31 in Los Angeles. For the first time, the company will stream the event live on its own platform.

Google Offers Early Exit Program To Us Android, Pixel Employees
Google has distributed a memo to all US employees working on Android, Pixel hardware, and other projects that offers a “voluntary exit program”, which basically guarantees severance for those willing to leave the company. This comes after they merged their Android and hardware teams last year and might be a precursor to layoffs if not enough employees take the offer.

Dell To End Hybrid Work Arrangement, Mandates Office Work 5 Days A Week
Dell Technologies intends to end its hybrid work arrangement in March, requiring those previously allowed to toil from home part-time to spend their entire five-day work week within corporate walls. Remote workers further away will be allowed to continue their long-distance employment relationship.

WhatsApp - A summary of all the updates that landed in WhatsApp in January 2025

Zomato - Introduced Zomato Quick, a new in-app food delivery service offering fast food and instant meals in approximately 15 minutes, with a dedicated fleet of delivery partners.

ChatGPT - Released 'o3-mini' model for free users, offering improved performance in science, math, coding, and reasoning problems.

YouTube - Expands access to Communities feature for more creators, renaming Community tab to Posts.

Threads - Introduces dedicated "media" tab for photos and videos and adds ability to tag people in shared photos.

Gemini - Upgraded to Gemini 2.0 Flash AI model, delivering faster responses and improved performance for tasks like brainstorming, learning, and writing.

Microsoft Copilot - Added "Think Deeper" feature, leveraging OpenAI's o1 reasoning models to deliver detailed, step-by-step answers to complex queries, available to all users.

Syntax Finder | Find Ruby syntax patterns with Prism.

Evo | Next-Generation, CRDT-Based Version Control. No Merge Conflicts.

Browser AI | Run local LLMs inside your browser

Designing A Google Calendar Clone: A Comprehensive Database Design Tutorial
Learn how to design a database for a complex project by building a clone of Google Calendar. This tutorial covers the approach, problem description, and step-by-step design process, from logical modeling to physical table design, including data attributes, relationships, and schema implementation.

Open-closed Principle In React
The Open-Closed Principle (OCP) states that software entities should be open for extension but closed for modification. In React terms, components should be easy to extend without changing their existing code. This article explores how to apply OCP in modern React applications, including techniques such as component composition, higher-order components, and custom hooks.