🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #258

Cheers to Thursday! The weekend is almost here!

#Oscars - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acknowledged the existence of generative AI yesterday in new rule changes. Rather than dictate its use or require disclosures, the Academy simply says using AI doesn’t, on its own, hurt a movie’s chances.

#GoogleChrome - With the possibility that Google could get broken up and they may have to sell Chrome, guess who’s signing up as a potential buyer? OpenAI.

Google Shifts Pixel Production From Vietnam To India Amid US Tariff Concerns
Google primarily manufactures its phones in Vietnam. But not too long ago, the giant shifted some of its manufacturing to India for its “Make in India’ campaign. Google is in talks with its local contract manufacturers — Foxconn and Dixon Technologies, to move a significant part of Pixel production to India. Now, due to US tariffs, Google is considering moving its Pixel production from Vietnam to India, where it already has some manufacturing operations, to avoid potential taxes and tariffs.

UAE Becomes First Country To Use AI To Write Laws
UAE just approved initiatives to integrate AI into its legislative process via a Regulatory Intelligence Office, tracking laws' impact on society/economy, suggesting updates & monitoring effects, a move experts call "very bold" & unprecedented.

EU Fines Apple And Meta €700 Million For Breaching Digital Markets Act
The European Union has fined Apple and Meta a combined €700 million for violating its Digital Markets Act. Apple was fined €500 million for restricting app developers from informing customers of alternative offers, while Meta was fined €200 million for forcing users to either consent to personalized advertising or pay for ad-free versions of its platforms.

WhatsApp - Added "Advanced Chat Privacy" setting to prevent chat exports, auto-media downloads, and mentions of Meta AI, with plans to expand protections in the future.

Google Chrome - No changes to third-party cookie handling, abandoning plans for standalone opt-out prompt.

Trust Lifecycle Manager - TLS Certificate lifetimes will official reduce to 47 days.

Google Slides - New professionally designed templates added for creating business proposals, product pitches, marketing plans, and more.

Character AI - Introduced AvatarFX, an AI video model that allows users to generate animated, speaking avatars from uploaded images.

Google Messages - Introduces Sensitive Content Warnings feature to automatically blur nude images and alert users when sending or receiving sensitive content.

Pinterest - Added a new prompt that reminds minors to take breaks during school hours, encouraging them to put the app down and stay focused on their studies.

Threads - Ads now available to all eligible advertisers globally, with select markets displaying ads to users at launch.

VS Code Agent Mode Just Changed Everything - Discover how VS Code's new Agent Mode is revolutionizing the coding experience. This feature introduces AI-powered assistance directly within your development environment, streamlining tasks like code generation, debugging, and documentation. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting out, Agent Mode offers tools to enhance productivity and simplify complex workflows.

Yatish Mehta | No 'Pundit' Intended - In this engaging talk from wroc_love[dot]rb 2025, Yatish Mehta delves into the intricacies of authorization in Ruby applications. He explores the challenges developers face when implementing access control and offers insights into effective strategies and tools to manage permissions seamlessly. Whether you're a Ruby enthusiast or a developer interested in application security, this presentation provides valuable perspectives on building robust authorization systems.

Building A Code-editing Agent In Less Than 400 Lines Of Code
Learn how to create a fully functioning, code-editing agent using a Large Language Model (LLM), a loop, and sufficient tokens. This tutorial guides you through writing a program from scratch, resulting in a functional agent that can edit code and converse with users.

Spotify's App Release Process
Spotify's Release team ensures smooth app releases to 675 million users by balancing speed and quality, using trunk-based development, feature flags, and careful coordination to mitigate potential issues and prioritize bug fixes.

Impossible Components
In his latest post, Dan Abramov explores the concept of "Impossible Components"—React components that seamlessly span both server and client environments. By dissecting a component that reads a file on the server and manages state on the client, he demonstrates how to split logic into backend and frontend parts using React Server Components. This approach maintains a clean, top-down data flow, enabling developers to create components that feel cohesive despite operating across different environments. It's a compelling read for anyone interested in the future of React and full-stack development.