TLDR 2024-06-06

Apple and OpenAI have forged a partnership to integrate OpenAI's ChatGPT into iOS. The agreement will be a key focus of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next week. The partnership is likely a short- to medium-term relationship for Apple, which is developing its own AI features. Apple is still in talks with Google about using Gemini in its devices. The company is also looking beyond chatbots - it is currently working on a mobile robot that can follow users around and handle chores on their behalf and AI features for its AirPods and cameras.

Nvidia became the second most valuable company in the world on Wednesday afternoon as its market capitalization hit $3.01 trillion. It became a $1 trillion company in May 2023, hitting $2 trillion in February this year. The company reported $14 billion in profit in May. Its AI accelerators make up between 70% and 95% of the market share for AI chips. Nvidia has plans to launch a new AI chip every year.

Boeing's Starliner crew capsule successfully blasted off on June 5 with two humans on board. The NASA-backed spacecraft is expected to rendezvous with the International Space Station at 16:15 UTC today. Previous launch attempts fared badly and there were many issues during Starliner's development. A video of the launch is available in the article.

Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) in Australia have developed a night-vision film that weighs less than a gram and can be placed across existing lensed frames. The technology captures visible and non-visible light in one image, unlike traditional night-vision systems which capture side-by-side views from each spectrum, resulting in a better-quality view of what's in the dark. It could change the way people work and play after dark. Details about how the tech works are available in the article.

Technical debt is when developers make a decision to borrow against their future productivity in order to achieve earlier product delivery, and because of that decision, they must make recurring interest payments in the form of wasted effort. While engineers hate waste, management sees the issue in terms of costs. If there are significant cost savings by spending time reducing wasted effort, then managers will see it as a good investment, otherwise they may think developers should just keep on wasting that effort. Companies exist to make money, not reduce wasted effort.

Being an engineering manager can be more rewarding than you think. The output is not as instant as with programming, but it allows you to focus on creating better outcomes. This article contains lessons learned from a year of being an engineer manager: everyone requires a unique approach, business outcome matters, and meetings are not bad if you get value from them.

The Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) plans to file registration documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission later this year. It aims to begin facilitating trades in 2025 and host its first listing in 2026. The exchange will be entirely electronic, but it will have a physical presence in downtown Dallas. It plans to compete for primary and dual listings and attract listings of exchange-traded products.

BYD picked Brazil for its first car-making hub outside of Asia after its founder met with the Brazilian president last year. The company has taken over an abandoned Ford factory in Camaçari. It plans to invest over a billion into the project and start producing electric and hybrid automobiles this year. The site will also produce bus and truck chassis and process battery materials. BYD is also looking for lithium mining assets in the country.

Researchers have developed a stretchy organic light-emitting diode display that maintains 87 percent active OLED coverage when stretched.

Coinbase's Smart Wallet is designed to reduce hurdles for new users looking to get started in the DeFi space.

A gene called ETS2 is central to the inflammatory behavior of macrophages and their ability to damage the bowel in inflammatory bowel disease.

Apple's caution and secrecy, as well as the care it takes in upgrading devices, have hobbled its early efforts in the AI arena.

A list of tips on how to maintain the motivation to work as a solo developer.

Distributed systems offer better availability, durability, utilization, latency, specialization, isolation, and ability to deal with change than single-machine systems.