🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #279

Happy Friday! Time to celebrate all your hard work!

#StoleniPhones - Many iPhones stolen in the US and Europe end up in one building in China | Shenzhen, China. One victim whose iPhone 15 Pro was snatched from his hands in the street was able to track its 6,000-mile journey to the place many locals in Shenzhen refer to as “the stolen iPhone building’

Mobikwik Discontinues Buy-Now-Pay-Later Offering, Shifts To Secured Lending
MobiKwik is a digital payments company that offers various financial services. They're discontinuing their popular BNPL (buy now, pay later) product, Zip, due to tighter regulations and economic concerns. Instead, they're focusing on longer-term, secured lending options like EMI-based credit and Rupay Credit Card.

Coinbase Hacked: 70,000 Customer Data Stolen
Coinbase says nearly 70,000 customers' data was handed over by overseas support staff who were bribed by criminals to give up the goods. The crypto giant confirmed users would be receiving direct communications from the company about the attack.

Signal Blocks Microsoft's AI-powered Screenshot Feature
Signal is a popular messaging app known for its end-to-end encryption and strong focus on user privacy. Today, it updated its Windows app to block Microsoft's Recall feature, which takes screenshots of all active windows every few seconds, from capturing Signal conversations. This new "screen security" feature is enabled by default on Windows 11 devices.

Russia Implements Mandatory Tracking App For Foreign Nationals
The Russian government has introduced a new law that makes installing a tracking app mandatory for all foreign nationals in the Moscow region. The new proposal was announced by the chairman of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, who presented it as a measure to tackle migrant crimes.

TED - Introduces "TED Shorts", a short-form video feature with a swipeable vertical feed of TED Talks and original content, powered by AI-driven personalization.

Android 16 - Adds AI-powered wallpaper and lock screen features, including live-updating weather animations and automatic subject framing.

Instagram Edits - Enhanced cropping options with specific area or aspect ratio selection.

Amazon - Added AI-powered short-form audio summaries to select product pages in the Amazon Shopping app. Customers can tap “Hear the highlights” to listen to key product insights generated from reviews and product info using LLMs. Currently in limited U.S. rollout, with plans to expand in the coming months.

Xtool | Cross-platform Xcode replacement. Build and deploy iOS apps with SwiftPM on Linux, Windows, macOS.

Juvio | UV kernel for Jupyter

Render Hooks | Inline render-block-stable React hooks

Spotify's Release Management Process
Spotify's Release team ensures smooth app releases to 675 million users, balancing speed and quality, using trunk-based development, feature flags, and careful coordination to mitigate potential issues and prioritize bug fixes.

The Joy Of Alt Text
Bluesky's innovative approach to alt text highlights its importance beyond accessibility, enabling creative expression and inclusivity in online interactions, even in low-bandwidth environments or limited internet access, making it a joyful and unique aspect of online culture.

Default CSS Habits
Web developer Jeremy Keith shares his default CSS habits, including using logical properties, preference queries, custom properties, and fluid typography. He also shares reusable CSS snippets for styling figcaptions, focus-visible links, and typography, and discusses using cascade layers for easier overwriting.