The Daily Index — Tuesday, April 9, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

MICROSOFT IS CONFIDENT WINDOWS ON ARM COULD FINALLY BEAT APPLE

Microsoft will unveil its vision for AI PCs at an event in Seattle on May 20. The company is confident that its new Arm-powered Windows laptops will beat Apple's M3-powered MacBook Air in both CPU performance and AI-accelerated tasks. The laptops will feature Snapdragon X Elite processors from Qualcomm. Microsoft is planning to ship consumer models of its Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 with Snapdragon X Elite processors instead of the Intel Core Ultra processors that the business-focused versions have.

theverge.com · 5 min

TLDR AI

SAM ALTMAN AND JONY IVE SEEKING FUNDING FOR PERSONAL AI DEVICE

Sam Altman and Jony Ive, former Apple design chief, have officially joined forces to develop an AI-powered personal device that won't resemble a smartphone. They are currently seeking funding of up to $1 billion.

macrumors.com · 1 min

TLDR Web Dev

DISTRIBUTED SQLITE: PARADIGM SHIFT OR HYPE?

Distributed SQLite databases sacrifice consistency, transactions, and scalability. Traditional databases like PostgreSQL, paired with effective HTTP caching for speed, are better choices than using distributed SQLite. The upside to SQLite databases is that they are really fast, but at some point, the maintenance overhead outweighs the speed benefits.

kerkour.com · 6 min

TLDR Crypto

BASE TVL HITS $4 BILLION AS TRANSACTIONS PER SECOND SURPASS ETHEREUM

Coinbase’s L2 continues to grow in popularity, becoming the third-largest Ethereum L2 by total value locked. It recorded an all-time high of over 36 transactions per second, with over 3 million transactions each day this weekend. Memecoins have been very popular on the L2, causing DEX daily volumes to surpass $1 billion last week.

unchainedcrypto.com · 2 min

TLDR Product

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passage.1password.com

TLDR

GOOGLE LAUNCHES ANDROID FIND MY DEVICE NETWORK

Google has launched the Find My Device network for Android-based products. The Android Find My Device network can use the millions of existing Android devices to track down lost, stolen, and missing Android products. The network uses Bluetooth and works even when Android devices are offline and do not have a cellular or Wi-Fi connection. The network will also work with third-party Bluetooth trackers starting in May.

macrumors.com · 2 min

TLDR

ELON MUSK JUST GAVE ANOTHER MARS SPEECH — THIS TIME THE VISION SEEMS TANGIBLE

Elon Musk gave a 45-minute speech at SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas last weekend about making life multiplanetary, the booster for Starship, the upper stage, and SpaceX's plans to ultimately deliver millions of tons of cargo to Mars for a self-sustaining civilization. SpaceX has now completed 327 successful launches, with 80% of those involving used boosters. This performance has given Musk confidence that reusability can be achieved with the Super Heavy booster that powers Starship. While SpaceX's goals seem audacious, the company has proven that rocket reusability is a very viable thing, so its other goals appear a lot more achievable.

arstechnica.com · 6 min

TLDR

A SECRET CLIMATE EXPERIMENT IN ALAMEDA

A group of scientists launched a stream of microscopic salt particles off the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier last Tuesday in Alameda, California, as part of an experiment to limit global warming by increasing cloud cover to reflect sunlight away from Earth. Very few people knew about the project beforehand as geoengineering projects are controversial and the team was concerned that critics would try to stop them. The experiment will run through the end of May, and visitors are able to view the experiment.

politico.com · 7 min

TLDR

META’S X COMPETITOR THREADS INVITES DEVELOPERS TO SIGN UP FOR API ACCESS, PUBLISHES DOCS

Meta's Threads has introduced developer documentation and a sign-up sheet for interested parties ahead of its API's public launch planned for June. The documentation details the API's current limitations and endpoints. Developers can use the API to track analytics and publish posts and media, among other things. Threads accounts are limited to 250 API-published posts and 1,000 replies every 24 hours, with a text post limit of 500 characters.

techcrunch.com · 3 min