Google Pixel fold 📱, Tesla's lithium refinery 🪨, AI text to video 🤖

Daily Update 2022-09-12

“The perfect overview of engineering productivity.” Swarmia finds bottlenecks without spying on developers (Sponsor)

Bottlenecks are almost always processes, not people, and you can find them without invasive tracking or soul crushing micro-measurement.

Swarmia rallies software teams around meaningful metrics that help ship better code faster - think DORA, not lines of code written.

Over 1,000 teams use Swarmia to gain visibility into well-researched metrics around focus, delivery, collaboration, and quality. “The perfect overview of engineering productivity” - Roland Fiala, SVP of Engineering, Productsup.

Swarmia is free for small teams and offers a 14-day free trial

📱

Big Tech & Startups

Google Pixel foldable and a ‘Pro’ tablet hinted at in Android 13 code (3 minute read)

Developers have uncovered code that hints at a Pixel foldable and a new 'Pro' tablet in the first Android 13 quarterly platform release beta. The foldable Pixel is codenamed 'Felix' and it may include a 64-megapixel Sony primary sensor and a 10.8-megapixel Samsung telephoto lens on the back of the phone. The device folds horizontally similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold. The Pro tablet is codenamed 't6pro' or 'tangorpro'. Google confirmed an Android-powered tablet in May, but the 'pro' moniker indicates that it is working on a higher-end version of the tablet too.

Tesla plans a 'license to print money' aka lithium refining factory in Texas (2 minute read)

Tesla is planning to build a lithium refining factory in Texas. It has filed an application with the Texas Comptroller's Office to obtain relief on local property taxes. Construction of the plant could start as soon as the fourth quarter of 2022. Tesla has been trying to enter the lithium mining and refining industry since 2014. It bought lithium claims on 10,000 acres in Nevada in 2020.

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Science & Futuristic Technology

China plans three missions to the Moon after discovering a new lunar mineral that may be a future energy source (2 minute read)

China has discovered a new lunar mineral called Changesite-(Y). The mineral contains helium-3, which could be a future energy source. China aims to launch 3 unmanned missions to the moon over the next 10 years. Moon mining could become the next source of tension between countries.

Runway teases AI-powered text-to-video editing using written prompts (2 minute read)

Runway recently posted a teaser video of its text-to-video AI-powered video editor. The editor can make and edit videos from written prompts. It can apply effects, remove objects, and create character masks. Runway runs on Google Chrome. It is currently in closed early access testing. The teaser video is available in the article.

💻

Programming, Design & Data Science

Chard (GitHub Repo)

Chard is a simple async/await background task queue for Django. It uses Django's ORM to keep track of tasks.

Use.GPU (Website)

Use.GPU is a set of declarative, reactive WebGPU legos. It allows developers to build incremental apps with minimal recomputation. Use.GPU features a built-in shader linker and binding generator that eliminates a lot of GPU programming while maintaining flexibility. It can be used to create complex GPU graphics with custom rendering pipelines.

Startup? Make your app Enterprise Ready with WorkOS (Sponsor)

WorkOS APIs enable you to ship complex enterprise features in minutes instead of months. This means you can focus entirely on core product features rather than SSO and MFA. “Integration was straightforward, pleasant, and fun” – Bryant Chou, Webflow CTO

Want to meet the WorkOS team? Stop by their booth at the SaaStr Conference this week and add SSO to your app.

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Miscellaneous

AI Revolution - Transformers and Large Language Models (16 minute read)

Transformers and natural language processing are still in their early days, but the area will likely explode over the next five years. The ability for machines to interpret and act on information will be one of the most transformative shifts since mobile or the cloud. This article looks at the industry and its potential. The article identifies opportunities in the industry and predicts the different types of companies that may arise in the coming years.

Text Is the Universal Interface (12 minute read)

A part of the Unix philosophy is to write programs that handle text streams, as text is a universal interface. Early software developers noted the power of composable tools that operate on and modify streams of text. AI is starting to be able to process and understand text. These advances are opening up opportunities for entrepreneurs and engineers. This article looks at how the technology is being applied and some of the companies currently using large language models as their core engines.

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Quick Links

Convoy is an open source tool to receive and publish webhooks the right way (Sponsor)

Convoy enables you to send webhook events to users, customers, and platforms reliably, securely in a scalable manner. Get started for free with our OSS or hosted version.

Your Career Is Just One-Eighth of Your Life (7 minute read)

This article contains career advice for white-collar workers.

Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read? (Hacker News Thread)

This Hacker News thread discusses what good code looks like and provides many examples of good code.

Netflix Reportedly Wants To Move Away From Binge Model Releases (3 minute read)

Netflix wants to move to more week-to-week releases to keep audiences engaged for longer.

How does Amazon handle build and release? (4 minute read)

This GitHub gist discusses Amazon's overall build and release structure, which is world-class and unmatched in open source.

Nvidia’s flagship AI chip reportedly 4.5x faster than the previous champ (2 minute read)

Nvidia's upcoming H100 Tensor Core GPU delivers results up to 4.5 times faster than Nvidia's current fastest production AI chip.

Ransomware gangs switching to new intermittent encryption tactic (3 minute read)

Intermittent encryption encrypts only parts of the target files' content, making the encryption process faster while still locking the data away for good.

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Google Pixel fold 📱, Tesla's lithium refinery 🪨, AI text to video 🤖

Daily Update 2022-09-12

Big Tech & Startups

Science & Futuristic Technology

Programming, Design & Data Science

Miscellaneous

Quick Links

What did you think of today's newsletter?

Older messages

YC's biggest moonshots 🚀, US Congress launches API 👨‍💻, Tesla Supercharger voting ⛽

Apple hardware announcements 📱, GitHub Copilot's effect on dev productivity 👨‍💻, Snap's leaked turnaround plan 📈

Google Pixel event 📱, Meta's high-end VR headset 🥽, leaving bad work environments 👨‍💻

Apple Watch leaks ⌚, using AI as a co-author ✍️, tips on maintaining open source projects 👨‍💻

Airpods Pro 2 🎧, iPhone passes Android in US📱, dealing with location-based pay 👨‍💻

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