TLDR 2019-01-04

Apple's App Store had it's biggest week ever with $1.22 billion in sales between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. It then had it's biggest day ever on New Year's Day, when customers spent $322 million. Gaming and self-care were the most popular categories, with Fortnite being the most popular game.

The first picture of the Samsung Galaxy S10 has leaked. It looks like the bezels on the top and bottom are smaller than before, and the front facing camera is just a "hole-punch" style circle in the upper right hand corner. The phone will also have the ability to wirelessly charge other compatible devices like handsets and watches.

Genetic engineers have created tobacco plants that are 40% larger than normal by genetically modifying them to photosynthesize more efficiently. It's the first time scientists have been able to enlarge plants by this much. Tobacco was chosen because it grows quickly and is easy to genetically modify, but the technique will soon be applied to food crops like potatoes, soybeans, and cowpeas.

GM's Cruise self-driving division will team up with DoorDash to test autonomous food delivery in San Francisco, starting in early 2019. Cruise has 180 vehicles and over 400 safety drivers, and will be using the service to start experimenting with commercial uses of its self-driving technology as it doesn't yet have a license from the state to operate as a ride-sharing company.

This is an introduction to modern Javascript with very small lessons and an online code editor where you can immediately apply those lessons. It requires a GitHub account to get started, but the design is nice and the exercises are really easy to follow.

Jetpack is a wrapper around Webpack that makes it easier to use, it can be used as a drop-in replacement for webpack, webpack-cli, webpackdev-server, and webpack-dev-middleware. It's sort of a set of sane defaults for Webpack that's an alternative to more specific Webpack configurations like Create React App or Next.js.

At next week's Consumer Electronic Show (CES), a number of futuristic devices will be unveiled, including 8k TVs, foldable screens on phones, tablets, and TVs, virtual assistants including Alexa Auto, Amazon's in-car virtual assistant, smart home gadgets like fridges, ovens, and even toilets, autonomous cars, and 5G devices. Should be fun!