TLDR 2024-03-13

TikTok Photos πŸ“±, next-gen AI dev πŸ‘¨β€πŸ’», startup comp trends πŸ’°

πŸ“±
Big Tech & Startups

TikTok prepares to challenge Instagram with 'TikTok Photos' (2 minute read)

The latest TikTok app APK contains strings that mention a standalone app called TikTok Photos. TikTok appears to be considering offering a more dedicated photo experience that will allow users to sync their existing photo posts from the main TikTok app. There is no official launch date and TikTok has not confirmed the existence of the app. A leaked icon for the app is available in the article.

Apple to allow iOS app downloads direct from websites in the EU (4 minute read)

Apple's new iOS web distribution feature is a new way to distribute iOS apps in EU markets without the need for a separate app store. App developers considering the option will need to adhere to Apple's strict rules. It will allow apps to be installed from website domains registered with App Store Connect. Apple appears to be limiting the option to large developers with a good standing around for at least two years.
πŸš€
Science & Futuristic Technology

Stratolaunch launches 1st rocket-powered flight of hypersonic prototype from world's largest airplane (4 minute read)

Stratolaunch successfully launched its first rocket-powered prototype vehicle from a carrier plane on March 9. The dart-shaped Talon-A1 is an advanced air-launched vehicle designed to launch from a huge dual-fuselage carrier plane and travel at hypersonic speeds. Stratolaunch is now ramping up its plans to manufacture a fully reusable version of the vehicle. Pictures of the Talon-A1 test vehicle taken during its powered flight test are available in the article.

The U.S. now has a drug for severe frostbite. How does it work? (7 minute read)

Iloprost, a drug that can prevent the need to amputate frozen fingers and toes due to frostbite, has been approved as a treatment for frostbite by the FDA. The drug has already been used to treat frostbite for years in a number of European countries and elsewhere in the world. It works as a vasodilator, widening blood vessels and improving blood flow. Iloprost prevents blood clotting and is also used to treat blood pressure-related illnesses.
πŸ’»
Programming, Design & Data Science

Introducing Devin, the first AI software engineer (4 minute read)

Devin is a fully autonomous AI software engineer created by Cognition Labs. It is designed to work alongside engineers or independently complete tasks for engineers to review. Devin can plan and execute complex engineering tasks requiring thousands of decisions, recalling context at every step, learn over time, and fix mistakes. It actively collaborates with users, reporting on its progress in real time and accepting feedback. Devin can use unfamiliar technologies, build and deploy apps end-to-end, autonomously find and fix bugs in codebases, train and fine-tune its own AI models, and more.

Building Meta’s GenAI Infrastructure (11 minute read)

This article shares details on two versions of Meta's 24,576-GPU data center scale cluster. These clusters support the company's current and next-generation AI models as well as AI research and development across GenAI and other areas. Meta's long-term vision is to build artificial general intelligence that is open and built responsibly to be widely available so that everyone can benefit from it. Its infrastructure is designed to power this ambition.
🎁
Miscellaneous

State of startup compensation, H2 2023 (20 minute read)

This report shares insights about startup hiring in 2023, a year that saw headcount at VC-backed startups experience a net decline for the first time in at least five years. There were more total job departures in VC-backed startups last year than there were new hires. Startups were still hiring, but their priorities shifted. Compensation strategies shifted as well.

Bluesky launches Ozone, a tool that lets users create and run their own independent moderation services (3 minute read)

Ozone is a tool that lets individuals and teams collaboratively review and label content on Bluesky. Bluesky plans to open up the ability for individuals and teams to run their own independent moderation services later this week. Users will be able to subscribe to additional moderation services on top of Bluesky's default moderation. Installing filters from independent moderation services will be as easy as following another account. Moderation service filters will be available on the desktop version of Bluesky first - a mobile version will be available soon.
⚑
Quick Links

Transformer Debugger (GitHub Repo)

Transformer Debugger is a tool that supports investigations into specific behaviors of small language models by combining automated interpretability techniques with sparse autoencoders.

Discord to Bring More Games, Apps with New Development SDK for Chats (4 minute read)

Discord's new development SDK platform will allow developers to embed an iframe within the platform to enable users to access games and apps directly through the chat platform.

Telegram eyes IPO as user numbers close in on 1 billion (3 minute read)

Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov says the company hopes to become profitable within the next two years.

Ubicloud wants to build an open source alternative to AWS (5 minute read)

Ubicloud wants to offer an open-source layer of core cloud computing services that allows developers to build their own cloud on top of affordable bare-metal servers.

A formula for responsive font-size (1 minute read)

Instead of defining font-size piecewise, just use this one-line function: 1rem + 0.25vw.

Devin, the first AI software engineer (2 minute video)

Devin is an autonomous agent that solves engineering tasks through the use of its own shell, code editor, and web browser.
Get the most important tech, science, & coding news in a free daily email. Read by +1,250,000 software engineers and tech workers.
Join 1,250,000 readers for