It's Friday! Let's end the week with success!
Geek Gossip
#SoraSlump - OpenAI’s Sora app is struggling after its stellar launch. New data suggests the app is seeing declines in both app downloads and consumer spending, as the early hype about the AI video social network wears off.
#Anthropic - AI is coming for our jobsss… How many times we have heard of this rhetoric. Right? Well, Anthropic, the company claiming this along with the others, recently helped the UK government to build an AI chatbot - for job seekers!
#SecurityFlaw - Few days ago, we had shared how Google reported a bug with WhatsApp in public only because WhatsApp refused to fix it in time. Well, good news - WhatsApp finally fixed the security issue.
Latest Updates
Elon Musk's SpaceX And XAI In Talks To Merge
Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI are in discussions to merge ahead of a blockbuster public offering. The combination would bring Musk’s rockets, Starlink satellites, the X social media platform and Grok AI chatbot under one roof.
Apple Acquires Q[dot]ai For $2 Billion
Apple has bought Israel-based Q[dot]ai, a startup that specializes in AI and computer vision, in a deal reportedly valued at nearly $2 billion. This acquisition could boost Apple's AI capabilities and possibly lead to AI-powered wearables.
Linux Gaming Collective Takes Shape
The Open Gaming Collective (OGC) will collaborate on improvements to the Linux gaming ecosystem. The collective will centralize efforts around critical components like kernel patches and input tooling. Bazzite, the gaming-focused Linux distribution, is one of the founding members.
Snapchat Launches New AR Glasses Subsidiary, Specs Inc.
Snap Inc has announced a new subsidiary called Specs Inc for its upcoming AR glasses. The AR glasses will work similarly to Apple Vision Pro, displaying digital items on top of your surroundings. Specs is scheduled to launch sometime later this year, but no release date has been confirmed yet.
Tesla Drops Model S And Model X From Lineup
Tesla is discontinuing the Model S sedan and Model X SUV to make room for its new humanoid robot, Optimus, which is expected to be a huge moneymaker, potentially adding $20 trillion to Tesla's market value.
Changelog
Blinkit - Introduces NCMC Bharat Yatra Card for seamless public transport transactions across multiple Indian cities.
Signal - Pin messages to the top of 1-1 and group chats for easy reference.
PyCharm - Supports Google Colab as a core feature, allowing users to connect their notebooks to the cloud-based service for remote execution and collaboration.
Google Maps - Gemini navigation now available for walking and cycling, allowing users to interact with hands-free prompts and voice commands.
NVIDIA GeForce Now - Cloud gaming service expanded to Linux with native app, supporting over 4,500 games and high-performance streaming at up to 5K resolution and 120 fps.
Patreon - Requires all creators to switch to Apple's in-app subscription billing by November 1, 2026.
Microsoft Teams - Multiple quality of life improvements.
Trending Projects / Code Repositories
Gambit | Agent harness framework for building, running, and verifying LLM workflows
Agent Browser | Browser automation CLI for AI agents
Stfu | A tiny app that plays back the same audio it hears, delayed by ~2 seconds, to annoy people who play their videos loudly in public places.
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!
The DigitalOcean Gradient AI Hackathon is a global online competition where developers build and ship full-stack AI applications using DigitalOcean’s Gradient AI platform, from model training to deployment on GPU-backed cloud infrastructure. Projects are judged on implementation, design, impact, and creativity. The total cash prize pool is USD 20,000, plus DigitalOcean credits for winners. More details here.
Miscellaneous
How X Decides What 550 Million Users See - The X / Twitter Algorithm
This web page provides an overview of the CandidatePipeline framework, a modular foundation for recommendation stages. Key component types include Sources, Hydrators, Scorers, and Filters, which work together to rank posts. The pipeline interface is defined by the CandidatePipeline trait, with concrete implementations like PhoenixCandidatePipeline. The primary goal is to funnel a massive corpus of posts down to a manageable set of candidates for ranking.
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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.
