🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #95

Happy new week! Let's start Monday with positivity and enthusiasm!

#NewAppAlert - So, you know how easy it is to send reminders to your friends and family on WhatsApp? Well, this guy Mustafa Yusuf has created an app that lets you do the same, but for tasks! And the best part is, the other person doesn't even need to use the app to receive the reminder!

#PhotographyTech - Google's been working on this new AI-powered assistant for Photos, and it's supposed to let you find specific memories by talking to it like you would a person. Apparently, you can ask it questions about your photos, like where you went on vacation or what you ate at a restaurant, and it'll give you the answer. It's still in beta, but I heard it's supposed to get better before it's widely available.

#IncognitoMode - No, not the Chrome one that’s used for you-know-what… The tech mogul behind Swiggy is making waves again, and this time with an incognito mode for private ordering of food. We are sure there are other evidences of food though besides your app… like the wrapper your food comes in? Duh! You can’t erase that though!

#WhatsApp - Imagine this. You have WhatsApp. Your cousin however insists on using Signal… and your Boomer Dad wants to use SMS. How can all of you chat together? Well, WhatsApp is taking a first step towards it - Meta's finally talking about those third-party chats on WhatsApp and Messenger! They're making it so users can put all their messages in one inbox or keep them separate, and introducing new notifications to link chats from newly supported apps. Rumor has it they'll even let us create groups with people in third-party chats next year!

Rapido Raises $200 Million in Series E Round, Becomes Unicorn Startup
Rapido, a ride-hailing startup that competes with giants Ola and Uber, has raised $200 million in a Series E funding round at a valuation of $1.1 billion. The company plans to use the funds to scale operations across India and expand its four-wheeler ride-hailing services. This marks the second major fundraising round this year, following a $180 million Series D round in April.

Telegram Updates Policy to Allow Reporting of Private Chats
Telegram, a popular messaging app used by nearly 1 billion monthly active users, has quietly updated its policy to allow users to report private chats to its moderators, marking a shift away from its previous stance of not processing any moderation requests for private chats.

Staticrypt | Password protect a static HTML page, decrypted in-browser in JS with no dependency. No server logic needed.

Anthropic Quickstarts | A collection of projects designed to help developers quickly get started with building deployable applications using the Anthropic API

Loading SVG Icons as Components with @svg-use
This post introduces @svg-use, a set of tools and bundler plugins, to load SVG files as components via SVG's <use href> mechanism. You will learn how to load SVG icons as components, analyze the pros and cons of inlining SVG, and explore future web standards for facilitating this pattern.

Management's Unspoken Goals
A beaten saying goes "The fish rots from the head down." People often don't do what they're told, but what they expect to be rewarded for. Managers may praise goals, but unconsciously prioritize different things. This leads to mismatch between goals and rewards, causing productivity to suffer. Unremarkable work may impress managers more than important but unremarkable goals. Those paid to follow management's words have ample time to analyze and remember past decisions. They often ignore requests and become valued, while those following important but unremarkable goals sink into obscurity.

Software engineers have to upskill faster than anyone else
Software engineers need to continuously upskill and reskill to stay relevant in the rapidly changing tech landscape, according to a recent article highlighting the ever-accelerating pace of technology advancements.