Monday is here - time to reset, refresh, and refocus!
Geek Gossip
#A16Z - There's been all these rumors about A16Z, the venture capital firm opening an office in India. Don't believe it. One of their partners straight-up denied it on X, saying it's all just fake news. Guess they're scaling back their global ambitions.
#Microsoft - Microsoft announced new features for OneDrive and Copilot at a special event. The big news? Microsoft Word will soon automatically save new documents to OneDrive. The change is apparently designed to make it “easier for users to back up and access their documents”.
Latest Updates
Made In India iPhone Exports Hit Record $10 Billion
Apple's Indian manufacturing partner Wistron has achieved a significant milestone, exporting over 10 billion dollars worth of iPhones from India, a first for the country.
Indian Fintech Startup Super Money Partners With Juspay For Direct To Consumer Checkout
Super[dot]money, a financial service platform spun off last year by Walmart-owned Flipkart, has quietly partnered with payments infrastructure firm Juspay. The move could help Super[dot]money reach new customers and build visibility among D2C brands.
Uber Expands Intercity Motorhomes Campaign To Mumbai, Bangalore, And Pune
Uber has announced the expansion of its limited-edition Intercity Motorhomes campaign to Mumbai, Bangalore, and Pune. The campaign, which allows riders to book custom-designed, caravan-styled Motorhomed for outstation road trips, will continue in Delhi NCR until December 31, 2025.
VTU Partners With Qnu Labs To Establish Quantum Communication Lab
Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has partnered with the quantum cryptography startup, QNu Labs, to set up a quantum communication lab. The lab was announced at the India Mobile Congress 2025, being held in Delhi. The initiative will provide hands-on experience to more than four lakh students across VTU’s 200 affiliated colleges.
Discord Hack Exposes 70,000 Users' Personal Data
Social media and communication platform Discord has been hit by a significant data breach, with hackers claiming to have stolen 1.5 terabytes of sensitive data, including over 2.1 million government-issued ID photos. Discord disputes the scale, saying around 70,000 users were affected.
Apple Doubles Security Bounty Rewards To $2 Million
Apple is doubling its top security bounty award to $2 million for researchers who can develop exploits similar to sophisticated mercenary spyware attacks, and introducing a new flag system to accelerate payouts for verified vulnerabilities. The company is also expanding bounty categories, including one-click WebKit sandbox escapes and wireless proximity exploits, and offering bonuses for Lockdown Mode bypasses and vulnerabilities in beta software. The updated program will go into effect in November 2025, with a complete list of new categories, rewards, and guidelines to be published on the Apple Security Website.
Changelog
Meta - Adds Hindi and Portuguese translations to Meta AI, expanding global accessibility for creators and users.
Figma - Leverages Google's Gemini 2.5 Flash for 50% reduction in image generation latency times.
Netflix - Introduces a new slate of party games, including LEGO Party!, Boggle Party, Pictionary. Yes - Netflix has games too!
Ollama - New web search api is now available
Heroku - The PaaS company introduced Heroku Vibes, a web-based experience that uses natural language to build and deploy full apps with AI-powered automation.
Trending Projects / Code Repositories
Chatkit Js | A batteries-included framework for building high-quality, AI-powered chat experiences. It’s designed for developers who want to add advanced conversational intelligence to their apps fast - with minimal setup and no reinventing the wheel.
Fleet Code | Light-weight control pane to run CLI coding agents(Claude Code, Codex) in parallel
Ut | A fast, lightweight CLI utility toolkit for developers and IT professionals. ut provides a comprehensive set of commonly-used tools in a single binary, eliminating the need to install and remember multiple utilities or search for random websites to perform simple tasks.
In Case You Missed It
🎁 We now have a dedicated page to list all events. We will be updating this page EVERY WEEK. We will of course be publishing new (and coming-soon) events in this section but for a comprehensive list of events, check the link(s) below:
This link is EXCLUSIVELY accessible by subscribers of Heap Heap Hurray!
Startups - here’s one for you. Participants pitch AI startup solutions for Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) and non-BFSI domains to L&T Finance ahead of their RAISE’25 event. Two winners each receive ₹25 Lakh in prize money, with opportunities for PoC collaboration with L&T and potential equity funding via L&T Innovation Fund. Register here.
Developers compete in Agentic AI Unleashed: AWS & NVIDIA Hackathon, building agentic applications using Llama-3, NVIDIA NIM inference services, and AWS infrastructure. There are 4 non-cash prizes: Grand Prize winner gets an NVIDIA RTX 6000 ADA GPU (≈ $6,900) plus swag and credits; second place wins an MSI RTX 5090 (≈ $2,500); third gets an NVIDIA RTX 5080 (≈ $1,250); and a Most Valuable Participant also wins an MSI RTX 5090. Participate here.
Interested in linux kernel level programming? eBPF Summit: Hackathon Edition invites developers, tinkerers, and open source enthusiasts from all backgrounds to get hands-on with this cutting-edge kernel technology that’s being used to build the future of cloud native networking, observability, and security. Prizes are non-cash: winners in three categories receive Credly badges, Linux certification vouchers (50%), eBooks, swag kits, a 1:1 session with experts, and a chance to present on livestream. More details here.
Miscellaneous
Climbing The Corporate Ladder With Soft Skills
As an engineer, moving from senior to staff, you write less code and apply more soft skills. The higher you go, the more you use your technical knowledge to enable others. Focusing on soft skills is key to success. I identified areas where I excel, such as networking, communication, being supportive, and being outspoken. These skills are crucial for engineers looking to advance in their careers.
Git Survival Essential Commands For Troubled Times
Git is the ultimate tool for managing chaos in your codebase. Here's a look at some of the worst Git situations you can get yourself into. And how to get out of it.
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We believe in sharing great resources, and these newsletters are some good ones. They offer sharp, focused insights - especially around tech topics we might only touch on briefly.
If you're into cryptocurrency and blockchain, we recommend Cryptogram - it dives deep into the space, which we don’t often cover in detail.
For startup enthusiasts, Rustic Flute is a must-read, especially since we’ve noticed many of you love staying on top of the latest in the startup world.
