🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #347

Happy Wednesday! Keep that mid-week energy high!

#Win-UI - Microsoft apparently intends to open source the UI for Windows 11. Calling it WinUI, they have outlined their plans on how they intend to do that.

#Imgur - Probably one of the earliest image uploading tools out there, thanks to Reddit. It’s now involved in rebellion from its own users. Ever since it got acquired, the new owners are apparently censoring stuff that they don’t agree with and not necessarily bad. Users are spamming the site in protest.

Apple Opens Its Fourth Retail Store In India
Close on the heels of its announcement of the third retail store in Bangalore, Apple’s announced a new retail store opening in Koregaon Park in Pune.

Android Verification Requirement Coming Next Year
Android will require all apps to be registered by verified developers in order to be installed by users on certified Android devices. This creates crucial accountability, making it much harder for malicious actors to quickly distribute another harmful app.

Australian Regulators Warn Kick Could Face $49m Penalty
Kick is a live streaming platform that allows users to broadcast live video game footage, often with a focus on community engagement and interaction. It's similar to Twitch, but with a slightly different tone and style. A popular streamer died on Kick recently. The Australian government is now investigating the platform for potentially allowing that streamer to be subjected to extreme violence and abuse. They're talking about fines of up to $49 million.

Spotify - You can now send Direct Messages to other users on Spotify. This is probably one of the weirdest features we have heard of for an music app.

Gemini - Advanced Image Editing Model - Nano Banana - from Google DeepMind integrated with Gemini

Google Translate - Real-time Live Conversations in over 70 languages with Audio and On-screen Translations.

YouTube Hype - Hype feature now available in India, allowing fans to support emerging creators by giving their videos a boost on the platform.

Windows Terminal - Improved windowing architecture, new UI for New Tab dropdown menu, and expanded settings options.

ShipFilez - 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 The ultra-fast, no-frills way to transfer unlimited data, files, and videos. Lightweight, speedy, and seamless - ShipFilez is perfect for anyone who hates waiting and hates limits even more. Make file-sharing friction a thing of the past - ship it, don’t stall it.

Humble Tech Book Bundle: Software Architecture 2025 by O’Reilly - Stack your digital bookshelf with pro-level software architecture content at a “pay-what-you-want” price. From evolutionary architecture to domain-driven design, these O’Reilly titles offer foundational strategies and real-world patterns.

Cursor CLI - Unleash your AI coding partner straight from the terminal. Install in one line, chat, refactor, automate - and even resume sessions - all without switching apps. Use the latest models (GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, and more), steer edits live, and bake in custom rules for seamless dev workflows.

Free Workshop - How To Build An Agent
This article provides a crash course on building a coding agent, demystifying the concept and its internal workings. You will learn how to create a basic agent using LLM tokens and understand the fundamentals of concurrent AI assistance.

Optimizing PWAs For Different Display Modes
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are a fantastic way to turn web applications into native-like, standalone experiences. They bridge the gap between websites and native apps, but this transformation can be prone to introducing design challenges. The author covers how we can modify our app depending on what display mode is applied to mitigate these issues.

Effective Communication Is Key To Success In Tech
There are many people in Silicon Valley who spend their time building things, but they don't always know what to build. This is where information connectors and collectors come in, and their success depends on one crucial skill: communication. Communication is unavoidable, and to get most people most of the time, we must employ strategies such as layering our message, considering the second-order audience, communicating defensively, using repetition, and maintaining channels.