🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #215

Mondays are for fresh starts - make it a good one!

#Fitbit - So Fitbit's been having some major battery drama, like, for real. They had to push out a firmware update to stop their Versa 3 and Sense watches from overheating, but now users are saying their battery life is basically non-existent. Some people are only getting a day's use out of them, and they're not happy about it. This isn't the first time Fitbit's had battery issues, btw.

#InternationalSpaceStation - So, Elon Musk just dropped a bombshell saying the International Space Station should be deorbited ASAP, like in 2 years, and it's got major implications, especially since SpaceX is already contracted to do it in 2030, but Musk wants it done sooner.

#HumanoidRobot - This one’s a bit eerie… creepy too on some levels. Clone Robotics released video footage of its Protoclone humanoid robot. The robot uses synthetic muscles to create unsettlingly human-like movements. The company hopes the robot will one day be able to operate human tools.

Meta Expands To Bengaluru, India With New Engineering Hub
Meta, a tech giant and parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is setting up a new engineering hub in Bengaluru, India, hiring for 41 positions, despite recent layoffs, signaling a shift in its global engineering strategy.

Scoopwhoop Sold To WLDD Amid The Good Glamm Group's Cash Crunch
ScoopWhoop is a digital media unit that creates content mainly for a male audience, and The Good Glamm Group is a company that focuses on beauty products. Anyway, The Good Glamm Group just sold ScoopWhoop to WLDD, a 7-year-old digital marketing firm, because it didn't align with their plans and they're struggling with a cash crunch.

Zepto Café Hits 100,000 Daily Orders
Zepto is a quick commerce major that offers 10-minute food delivery services in India. Its dedicated app, Zepto Café, has now surpassed 100,000 daily orders just two months after its launch, with a projected annualised GMV of $100 million and a steady-state gross margin of 50%.

Microsoft Unveils Revolutionary Palm-sized Chip
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed a groundbreaking palm-sized chip, claiming it's more powerful than all other computers, marking a significant milestone in the company's pursuit of innovative technology.

ChatGPT Hits 400 Million Weekly Active Users
ChatGPT just announced that 400 million people use it every week! That's double what it was just a few months ago. This is a big deal, especially since there's been some competition from a new AI assistant called DeepSeek. But it looks like ChatGPT is still growing strong, and they're making some changes to make it even easier to use.

ChatGPT - Expanded availability of Operator AI agent to ChatGPT Pro subscribers in multiple countries, allowing users to perform tasks autonomously.

Amazon Chime - Support will end on February 20, 2026, with new account sign-ups no longer accepted as of February 19, 2025.

Grok - Introduced new reasoning models, Grok 3 Reasoning and Grok 3 mini Reasoning, which can "think through" problems and fact-check themselves before giving out results.

Bluesky - Added reply controls, profile search, and improved search and translation options.

Fullsoak | A no-build TypeScript fullstack SSR-first framework for developing fast web applications with a shallow learning curve

Smolmodels | Build ml models in natural language and minimal code

Developer Icons | A collection of well-optimized SVG tech logos for developers and designers—customizable, scalable, and free.

Custom CSS Functions For Dynamic Theming
This reading teaches you how to use custom CSS functions to dynamically change your website's theme based on the user's operating system light/dark color scheme setting. You'll learn how to apply this function to various CSS properties, such as font size, border style, and color, to create a seamless theme transition.

Estimating Effort: A Cautionary Tale
A personal anecdote about installing a washing machine reveals the challenges of estimating effort, a common struggle for software developers. The author's 10-minute task turns into a 4-hour ordeal due to unexpected blockers, highlighting the importance of considering unknown unknowns and the complexity of seemingly simple tasks.

Tiktok's Enshittification
Social media giant TikTok is following a familiar pattern of platform decay, prioritizing profits over users. "Enshittification" occurs when a platform exploits its users and business customers to maximize shareholder value, ultimately leading to its own demise.