The Daily Index — Tuesday, December 12, 2023 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

IOS 17.2 ARRIVES WITH NEW JOURNAL APP AND SPATIAL VIDEO CAPTURE SUPPORT

iOS 17.2 is now available for compatible devices. The update includes a new Journal app designed to get users writing about events in their lives with prompts that draw from data on their phones. The update also adds the option to record spatial videos. Other features include the ability to set the iPhone 15 Pro's Action Button to translate phrases, new Weather widgets, new features for the Messages app, Qi2 support for the iPhone 13 and 14, and more. Apple also recently released watchOS 10.2 and tvOS 17.2.

theverge.com · 3 min

TLDR AI

META’S AUDIO FOUNDATION MODEL

Meta recently teased a foundation AI model for audio. It has released the paper along with more samples and compelling demos. The main goal of the project was to generate controllable audio content with styles all from the same model.

ai.meta.com · 8 min

TLDR Web Dev

SIMPLIFYING COMPLEXITY: THE JOURNEY FROM WEBSOCKETS TO HTTP STREAMS

This article discusses the need to capture tablet screen gestures and transmit them to a browser for local actions. To do these actions, the author initially considered using WebSockets for message exchange due to their suitability for handling streams of messages. However, WebSockets were hard to test and debug, so the author eventually moved towards developing with HTTP streaming. HTTP streaming is a method that Airbnb uses to improve its web performance too.

blog.owulveryck.info · 7 min

TLDR Crypto

US SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN INTRODUCES BILL TO "CRACK DOWN" ON BITCOIN AND CRYPTO

US Senator Elizabeth Warren has proposed a bill to tackle alleged misuse of cryptocurrencies in various illegal activities like money laundering, drug trafficking, and sanctions evasion. The bill calls for increased regulation within the sector, specifically by extending Bank Secrecy Act responsibilities, and is supported by a coalition from the Banking Committee. This news gave the crypto market a scare but is not being viewed as too threatening given Warren’s poor record of getting bills over the finish line.

nasdaq.com · 2 min

TLDR Product

RESEARCH PROJECTS VS. PRODUCT DISCOVERY

Research projects provide deep insights for strategic shifts, while product discovery is an ongoing, team-driven process addressing immediate uncertainties. Outsourcing research doesn't substitute for continuous product discovery, which requires active stakeholder collaboration and other tools for effective user interaction and decision-making.

herbig.co · 2 min

TLDR

MISTRAL AI, A PARIS-BASED OPENAI RIVAL, CLOSED ITS $415 MILLION FUNDING ROUND

Mistral AI has closed its Series A funding round, raising around $415 million. The company, which is valued at roughly $2 billion, is opening up its commercial platform today. The platform will allow developers to access the Mistral 7B model, Mistral-medium, and the new Mixtral 8x7B model, which uses a router network to process input tokens and choose the most apt group of parameters to give answers. Mixtral 8x7B has been released under the Apache 2.0 license and is available as a free download.

techcrunch.com · 3 min

TLDR

THE RACE BETWEEN INTEL, SAMSUNG, AND TSMC TO SHIP THE FIRST 2 NM CHIP

The world's leading semiconductor companies are racing to make 2-nanometer processor chips to power the next generation of technologies. Smaller transistors mean less energy consumption and higher speeds. The chip industry pulled in well over $500 billion in global chip sales last year and demand is projected to grow further. Several companies say they will be ready to ship 2nm ships in 2025.

arstechnica.com · 7 min

TLDR

GM’S HYDROGEN ‘POWER CUBES’ WILL BE USED IN CEMENT MIXERS AND TERMINAL TRACTORS

General Motors will use Autocar's hydrogen fuel-cell technology to power a range of its heavy-duty work vehicles. Hydrotec power cubes are lightweight, enabling large payloads, excellent range, and quick refueling. The first vehicles with the power cubes will go into production in 2026. Hydrotec technology is currently being sold to commercial and military customers, but there are plans to offer residential versions of the technology in the future.

theverge.com · 2 min

TLDR

WHY ARE WE SURPRISED THAT STARTUPS ARE SO FREAKING HARD?

Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang recently said that if he could be 30 again, he wouldn't start a company as the work he put into Nvidia wasn't worth it. This article explores Huang's statement from a founder's perspective with a focus on figuring out why it's such a surprise to people that building a startup would be hard. No matter how successful a company is, nearly every founder says that the work was much harder than they thought it would be. This doesn't happen in fields like sports, where athletes work hard for decades but they are never surprised about how hard it was.

every.to · 10 min