The Daily Index — Friday, April 12, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

MACS TO GET AI-FOCUSED M4 CHIPS STARTING IN LATE 2024

The entire Mac lineup may get the M4 chip in late 2024 and early 2025. The chip will start appearing in the iMac, MacBook Pros, and Mac mini machines first before being implemented into the MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. The M4 processor is expected to come in at least three varieties. It will feature an improved Neural Engine with an increased number of cores for AI tasks.

macrumors.com · 1 min

TLDR AI

COHERE LAUNCHES NEW RERANK 3 MODEL

Cohere has released its newest foundation model, Rerank 3, purpose-built to enhance enterprise search and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) systems. The model is compatible with any database or search index and can also be plugged into any legacy application with native search capabilities. Rerank 3 can boost search performance or reduce the cost of running RAG applications with negligible impact on latency with a single line of code.

txt.cohere.com · 8 min

TLDR Web Dev

WEEKEND MAINTENANCE KICKS AN ITALIAN BANK OFFLINE FOR DAYS

Italian bank Sella has been offline for days after a weekend system update caused a database problem. It is working with Oracle to resolve the unexpected issue. The extended downtime shows the importance of having a good backup strategy. While "blackout" windows for maintenance are common in banking, they might inadvertently lead to weaker engineering practices compared to industries that require zero-downtime migrations.

open.substack.com · 6 min

TLDR InfoSec

APPLE ALERTS USERS IN 92 NATIONS TO MERCENARY SPYWARE ATTACKS

Apple has sent threat notifications to iPhone users in 92 countries warning them about potential targeting by mercenary spyware attacks. The alerts state that Apple detected attempts to remotely compromise the users' iPhones, likely due to who they are or what they do. The warnings come amid rising concerns over state-sponsored efforts to influence elections, though Apple did not comment on the timing.

techcrunch.com · 3 min

TLDR Crypto

ETH ETF LOW CHANCE OF MAY APPROVAL

JPMorgan estimates that the chances of spot ether ETF approval in May are no more than 50%. The company suggests that, based on recent litigation outcomes and decreasing concentration in Ethereum staking, the SEC will eventually have to approve spot ether ETFs.

coindesk.com · 1 min

TLDR

HUMANE AI HANDS-ON: MY LIFE SO FAR WITH A WEARABLE AI PIN

While the Humane AI Pin could be the future of wearables, it doesn't currently have enough consistency or connectivity. This article reviews the device and describes what it is like using it. There is still a lot of room for improvement, for example, the laser display can be hard to read and the interface can be difficult to navigate. The device also overheats after a few minutes of use.

cnet.com · 9 min

TLDR

ESA SATELLITES TO TEST RAZOR-SHARP FORMATION FLYING

The European Space Agency will launch a mission later this year to demonstrate precision formation flying in orbit to create artificial solar eclipses. The mission will involve a pair of spacecraft that will fly about 144 meters apart, with one spacecraft acting as a disc to block out the sun from the other spacecraft. This will allow the ESA to study the Sun's highly ionized atmosphere. The formation flying technology could be used for other future missions as well.

spectrum.ieee.org · 3 min

TLDR

RESEARCHERS FIND A NEW ORGANELLE EVOLVING

Endosymbiosis is a process in which a once free-living organism is incorporated into a cell. This can result in the organism becoming an organelle, a compartment within cells surrounded by membranes that performs specialized functions. Researchers may have found a new case of the extremely rare event. An organelle devoted to fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere is being observed in the process of specialization. Called a nitroplast, the organelle is limited to a single lineage of algae, likely due to its relatively recent origin, with the relationship between the nitroplast and its host cell only dating back about 100 million years.

arstechnica.com · 4 min

TLDR

I ASKED 100 DEVS WHY THEY AREN'T SHIPPING FASTER. HERE'S WHAT I LEARNED

The things that slow devs down depend on the company size, culture, the nature of the product, and the composition of the team. This article looks at what engineers from big tech companies think is slowing them down. Many devs say that build, compile, and deployment times are the main things slowing them down. Other factors include dependency bugs, complicated codebases, development processes, tests, and reviews.

greptile.com · 14 min