🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #259

Good morning! Friday's here - let's end the week with a win!

#DisabilityRights - So, Swiggy and Zepto are in trouble with the Delhi High Court for their apps not being accessible to people with visual impairments. They're being sued for violating disability rights and the Constitution of India.

#IITMadras - Ather's IPO is making waves, and IIT Madras is set to rake in a whopping Rs 50 crore profit from its 0.5% stake in the company. The founders, Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, are selling shares worth Rs 64 crore, while Binny Bansal's Rs 3.1 crore investment is now worth Rs 92 crore - a 30X return!

#Gemini - Sissie Hsiao, the former head of Google's Gemini, spilled the tea on the chatbot's user numbers in court, revealing a massive jump to 350 million monthly users, but still a long way to go to catch up with ChatGPT.

India's Big Four IT Firms Fear US Tariffs Will Hit Tech Spend
India’s big four IT services players are all concerned that the USA”s new tariffs regime may see some of their customers spend less on tech. Infosys, Tata Consulting Services (TCS), Wipro and HCL Tech – have all expressed concerns about tariffs impacting their business.

Cars24 Acquires India's Largest Automotive Forum Team-BHP
CARS24 is a big player in the used car marketplace in India, and they just acquired Team-BHP, which is a huge online community of car enthusiasts that's been around since 2004. They'll be using CARS24's tech and AI to improve their platform, but Team-BHP will still be run independently. This is a big deal for the Indian used car market, which is expected to grow a lot in the next few years.

Databricks Invests $250 Million In India To Advance Data And Ai Innovation
Databricks is a popular data and AI company that helps businesses make sense of their data. They just announced a huge $250 million investment in India over the next 3 years, creating jobs, a research centre and training programs to boost data and AI skills in the country.

Wipro Launches Github Centre Of Excellence In Bengaluru
Wipro, a global IT services company, just launched a GitHub Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru to integrate AI and GitHub tools into its software development lifecycle, aiming to boost productivity and innovation.

Discord CEO Steps Down
Discord co-founder and CEO Jason Citron is stepping down and will be replaced by former Activision Blizzard and King exec Humam Sakhnini, according to a press release. Sakhnini takes over on April 28th. Citron will stay on the board of directors and serve as an advisor to the CEO.

Microsoft Word - Enhanced Copilot referencing capabilities, allowing users to reference entire folders and larger documents.

Linktree - Adds features for selling courses, digital products, and sponsored links, as well as a shop for earning commissions on products from major brands, and a rewards program for creators.

LG Smart TVs - Added support for Xbox app, allowing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to stream select titles directly to their TVs.

Gmail - Data classification labels are now generally available, allowing organizations to categorize emails using custom labels and define rules to protect sensitive information.

YouTube - Introduced a new AI Overviews feature in search results, displaying a video results carousel with clips from relevant videos for certain search queries.

Perplexity - Introduces new voice assistant for iOS, enabling web browsing and multi-app actions for tasks such as booking reservations, sending emails, and playing music.

LinkedIn - Expanded verification system now available for integration on external websites and platforms, allowing users to display a "Verified on LinkedIn" badge on their profiles.

Adobe Firefly - Introduces Image Model 4 and Image Model 4 Ultra for enhanced image generation, revamped Video Model, Text to Vector module, and integration of non-Adobe AI models.

Actor Core | Stateful Serverless That Runs Anywhere. The easiest way to build stateful, AI agent, collaborative, or local-first applications. Deploy to Rivet, Cloudflare, Bun, Node.js, and more.

dAWShund | Putting a leash on naughty AWS permissions

Liam | Automatically generates beautiful and easy-to-read ER diagrams from your database.

How To Write Error Messages That Actually Help Users
Digital products are littered with dead ends, meaningless error codes, and infuriating whimsy that leave our users frustrated and stuck. Here’s how to create error messages that help users recover quickly.

Lessons From A Decade Of Growth: How Figma Scaled Through Community And Credibility
Ten years after Figma was founded, the company has grown to 1400 employees and millions of users. The company has learned a lot over the years, including how to build credibility with your audience.

Tech Burnout
Creator's Dilemma: Former tech designer Patrick Morgan shares his personal struggle with burnout, discussing how his creative passion turned into a compulsion to prove himself, and his journey to rediscover his authentic creative voice.