🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #219

Happy Friday! Time to finish the week on a high note!

#Malware - Microsoft has removed two popular VSCode extensions, 'Material Theme – Free' and 'Material theme Icons – Free,' for allegedly containing malicious code. The extensions are very popular, having been downloaded nearly 9 million times in total. 😱

#Instagram - Instagram Reels may move into its own app, code-named Project Ray, with longer videos and better recommendations, but it's all just rumors for now, and honestly, it's a risk that could either pay off or totally alienate their current users. 🤯

#Windows11 - Apparently, Microsoft's own Copilot is spilling the tea on how to pirate Windows 11, and the company doesn't seem to care. A former Microsoft engineer even shared some tips and tricks on social media. 😆

The Pact Between DPIIT & PayTM
Paytm is a leading Indian fintech company, and DPIIT is the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. They've signed an MoU to support startups in fintech and manufacturing sectors by providing mentorship, infrastructure, market access, and funding opportunities, aiming to foster innovation and growth in India.

Zepto Expands Services In Tamil Nadu
Zepto has strengthened its presence beyond Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The quick commerce company is now serving several districts including Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Vellore and Salem.

Apple 16E - Review
Apple released the iPhone 16E, its cheapest phone yet, but it's not cheap. It's an iPhone that does iPhone things, but it's probably missing at least one major feature for any given buyer. The 16E is a modern design with a 6.1-inch OLED screen, but it lacks features like Dynamic Island, MagSafe, and an ultrawide camera lens.

Bitcoin Plummets 23% From Record High
Bitcoin, a digital currency that uses cryptography for secure financial transactions, hit a record high in January after Trump's inauguration due to optimism about crypto-friendly policies, but has since dropped 23% to $83,741.94 today, wiping out $800 billion in global cryptocurrency markets, as enthusiasm ebbs away and investors realize Trump's impact may be overestimated.

IBM Finalizes $6.4b Hashicorp Acquisition
IBM, a legacy tech company, has completed its acquisition of HashiCorp, a software firm known for Terraform, a tool for automating infrastructure management across clouds, in a multi-billion dollar deal that will boost IBM's hybrid cloud credentials.

AWS Unveils Ocelot, A Quantum Computer Chip With 90% Cost Reduction In Error Correction
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced its own quantum computer chip, dubbed Ocelot. It uses something called cat qubits which also offer error resistance benefits. O Celot reduces the cost of implementing error correction by up to 90%.

None. Nada. Nothing to see here.

Omni Parser | A simple screen parsing tool towards pure vision based GUI agent

Scira | Scira (Formerly MiniPerplx) is a minimalistic AI-powered search engine that helps you find information on the internet. Powered by Vercel AI SDK!

Convex Backend | The open-source reactive database for app developers

Creating Smooth Checkbox Animations With Reanimated
Learn how to build a beautiful checkbox component with smooth animations using Reanimated, covering color transitions, layout animations, and container width adjustments, and understand how layout animations simplify complex calculations.

Evaluating Engineers
Google Engineer's Heuristic: A simple way to gauge an engineer's strength is to count how often you think "Oh nice catch, I didn't think of that!" when working with them, indicating they're adding value and insight to a project.

Jiohotstar's Record-breaking Streaming Feat
The recent ICC Champions Trophy 2025 match between India and Pakistan was a thrilling spectacle. JioHotstar reported a staggering 60.2 crore (602 million) views during this high-stakes encounter. With the introduction of the free mobile subscription feature, the engineering team had to prepare for nearly 50 million simultaneous streams.