The Daily Index — Wednesday, April 3, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

APPLE'S SPATIAL PERSONAS FOR THE VISION PRO BRING YOUR FACETIME CALLERS INTO THE ROOM

The Apple Vision Pro's new Spatial Personas feature creates floating animated portraits in users' session spaces, using AI to sync the avatar to match users' head, mouth, and hand movements. It uses real-time movement tracking to create a more personal sensation of the other user being in the room. 2D tiles are still the default. The feature works with up to five users on a FaceTime call. Spatial Personas is still in beta.

techspot.com · 3 min

TLDR Web Dev

JAVASCRIPT VISUALIZED - PROMISE EXECUTION

This blog post shows how to use promises in JavaScript to enable non-blocking async tasks. It breaks down the process from start to finish. Promises can trigger an asynchronous action if a handler is attached by either then or catch. Since the handlers are pushed to the Microtask Queue, you can handle the eventual result in a non-blocking way. This makes it easier to handle errors, chain multiple operations together, and keep your code more readable.

lydiahallie.framer.website · 7 min

TLDR InfoSec

SHOPPING PLATFORM PANDABUY DATA LEAK IMPACTS 1.3 MILLION USERS

A data breach at PandaBuy, an online shopping platform, has exposed the personal information of over 1.3 million customers. Two threat actors allegedly exploited multiple vulnerabilities to gain access. The leaked data includes usernames, names, phone numbers, emails, IP addresses, order details, addresses, and more.

bleepingcomputer.com · 3 min

TLDR Crypto

SILK ROAD BITCOIN WORTH $2B MOVED BY U.S. GOVERNMENT: ON-CHAIN DATA

A wallet thought to belong to the US government transferred 30,175 Bitcoins on Tuesday morning. According to Arkham Intelligence, the destination of the transfer is Coinbase, suggesting that the government may be planning to sell the coins. The Department of Justice seized 50,000 Bitcoins from the Silk Road website in 2022. The last sale of these coins was in 2023.

coindesk.com · 1 min

TLDR Design

APPLE’S AI PROBLEM IS A UX PROBLEM, TOO

Apple is considering using Baidu's Ernie and other third-party AI engines to enhance its capabilities. This could lead to challenges in consistency and privacy concerns due to cloud reliance and Ernie's alleged ties to the People's Liberation Army cyber warfare division. It could also pose a significant hurdle in delivering a unique user experience in the competitive AI market.

fastcompany.com · 5 min

TLDR

TESLA SHARES FALL AFTER DELIVERIES DROP 8.5% FROM A YEAR AGO

Tesla reported a drop in vehicle deliveries in the first quarter. Deliveries are the closest approximation of sales reported by Tesla. The numbers for the quarter fell far below even the most bearish of analysts' expectations. Tesla faced numerous challenges in the first quarter. The company has scheduled an earnings call on April 23 to discuss quarterly results.

cnbc.com · 3 min

TLDR

BLINK TO GENERATE POWER FOR SMART CONTACT LENSES

A team from the University of Utah has developed an all-in-one hybrid energy-generation unit designed specifically for eye-based tech. The device combines a flexible silicon solar cell with a device that converts electrolytes within tears into energy. It can reliably supply enough electricity to operate smart contacts and other ocular devices. The system is an exciting development in the realm of smart contact lenses as the field has been held back by a lack of a sustainable power source.

spectrum.ieee.org · 3 min

TLDR

NEW BRAIN CAP LETS PEOPLE PLAY VIDEO GAMES WITH THEIR MINDS

Researchers have created a wearable brain-computer interface (BCI) that allows wearers to play games using their minds. The cap can be used without extensive calibration or the invasive surgical procedures required by other BCIs. It has been tested on healthy people with no motor impairments who were able to use it to control robots within minutes. The technology has yet to be proven on people with disabilities.

futurism.com · 3 min

TLDR

BUN 1.1

Bun is an all-in-one toolkit for running, building, testing, and debugging JavaScript and TypeScript. Its 1.1 update contains thousands of bug fixes, tons of new features and APIs, and Windows support. This post details the changes in Bun 1.1. The Bun team is currently hiring for its in-person team in San Francisco.

bun.sh · 37 min