TLDR 2022-09-08

Apple hardware announcements šŸ“±, GitHub Copilot's effect on dev productivity šŸ‘Øā€šŸ’», Snap's leaked turnaround plan šŸ“ˆ

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Big Tech & Startups

Hereā€™s everything Apple announced today at its ā€œFar Outā€ iPhone event (4 minute read)

Apple announced new iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods at its Far Out event. There will be four new iPhones: iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max. They will feature free satellite connectivity for two years and start shipping on September 16, except for the iPhone 14 Plus which will start shipping on October 7. The new Apple Watch Ultra features a physical button and the new AirPods Pro has more effective noise cancellation. Both the Apple Watch Ultra and AirPods Pro Series 2 will start shipping on September 23. Details about the new devices are available in the article.

This is Snapā€™s turnaround plan (19 minute read)

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has revealed how the company plans to grow its revenue and user base next year. The company aims to grow Snapchat's user base by 30% and increase revenue to $6 billion by the end of 2023. It plans to achieve its goals by increasing its penetration in at least one new large country or demographic and onboarding more 30- to 40-year-olds. Snap recently laid off 20% of its workforce and cut projects. The company remains committed to developing augmented reality technology.
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Science & Futuristic Technology

A memory prosthesis could restore memory in people with damaged brains (6 minute read)

A memory prosthesis appears to boost people's ability to remember new information. It works by mimicking what happens in the region of the brain that plays a crucial role in memory. The prosthesis has been tested in 24 people who had implanted electrodes for studying their epilepsy. Those who had the worst memory performance saw the biggest improvements. The researchers hope that the device will be able to help people with memory loss due to brain injuries, aging, or degenerative diseases.

Korean nuclear fusion reactor achieves 100 millionĀ°C for 30 seconds (3 minute read)

Scientists from South Korea have succeeded in running a stable reaction at 100 millionĀ°C for 30 seconds. The approach the scientists used boosts temperatures at the core of the plasma and lowers them at the edge. The reaction was stopped due to limitations with hardware. Longer periods should be possible in the future. Some scientists believe that the challenges left in fusion research should be achievable, but it will be difficult to commercialize the technology.
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Programming, Design & Data Science

Difftastic, the Fantastic Diff (8 minute read)

This article talks about the development process for Difftastic. Difftastic is a structural diff tool that compares files based on their syntax. The article covers how Difftastic was built, realizations the developer had while building it, the issues encountered when building the tool and how they were overcome, and the future of the tool.

Research: quantifying GitHub Copilotā€™s impact on developer productivity and happiness (6 minute read)

When GitHub Copilot launched in preview in 2021, early users reported that it improved developer productivity. Developers tend to view productivity as the ability to stay focused on tasks, make meaningful progress, and feel good at the end of a work day. GitHub Copilot shoulders the boring and repetitive work of development and reduces cognitive load. It allows developers to work significantly faster, helps them focus on more satisfying work, and makes coding more fun.
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Miscellaneous

Here's a First Look at iPhone 14 Pro's New Dynamic Island Notch (2 minute read)

Apple has introduced a new pill-shaped notch called the Dynamic Island in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models. The Dynamic Island takes up less space than the previous notch and can morph into different shapes and sizes. This article looks at the Dynamic Island and explores some of its functions. A gallery of images showing what the Dynamic Island looks like is available in the article.

Ask HN: Is it okay to just bootstrap it, even when VCs are knocking? (Hacker News Thread)

This Hacker News thread discusses whether to continue bootstrapping a business or sell when approached with an offer. Some successful startup founders enjoy working with their clients and may feel like they don't want to sell their business to larger corporations. Both routes have their pros and cons. At some point, business owners will have to decide how to exit, and venture capital firms can help immensely with this.
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Quick Links

Google is reportedly cracking down on employee travel, telling managers to nix happy hours and other team meetups (2 minute read)

Google sent an email to some senior managers to tell them to limit employee travel to only business-critical trips.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says he has no plan to force workers to return to the office (2 minute read)

Amazon has no plans to order corporate employees to return to the office, but it will proceed adaptively as it learns.

ducks (Read the Docs Repo)

ducks is a tool that indexes Python objects for fast lookup by their attributes.

When Developers Leaveā€Šā€”ā€ŠWhere Does the Knowledge Go? (4 minute read)

Knowledge of projects, processes, and technology in many companies has dropped as more developers resign.

Everything Apple didnā€™t announce at its iPhone 14 event (5 minute read)

This article discusses the rumors leading up to Apple's Far Out event, what could still be coming in the future, and rumors that have been proven to be false.

Starbucks, Ikea will be new ā€˜gas stationsā€™ for electric car drivers (3 minute read)

Ikea is partnering with EV infrastructure firm Electrify America and Starbucks is teaming up with Volvo to make charging stations more accessible.
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