The Daily Index — Thursday, July 25, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

APPLE MAPS LAUNCHES ON THE WEB TO TAKE ON GOOGLE

Apple Maps is now available on the web. The web version, which is in beta, has most of the functions of the iOS version of the app. It is currently only available in English and is compatible with Safari and Chrome on Mac and iPad and Chrome and Edge on Windows. Apple plans to launch additional features as well as support for other languages, browsers, and platforms.

theverge.com · 2 min

TLDR AI

MISTRAL LARGE 2

Mistral has released a 123B parameter model on par with the newest Llama 3 405b model. It is released under a permissive research license.

mistral.ai · 5 min

TLDR Web Dev

STATE OF REACT 2023

The results of the 2023 State of React survey have been released. React is still the most popular web dev framework. React Server Components was the biggest change since React Hooks were introduced in 2018. Hooks has achieved widespread adoption, but Server Components requires deeper integration, so it may not see the same level of immediate adoption.

2023.stateofreact.com · 12 min

TLDR Crypto

WYOMING SEN. LUMMIS PLANS TO ANNOUNCE LEGISLATION FOR STRATEGIC BITCOIN RESERVE AT NASHVILLE CONFERENCE

Pro-crypto Senator Cynthia Lummis plans to announce legislation for establishing a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville. Under this plan, the Federal Reserve would hold BTC as a strategic reserve asset, similar to how it holds gold and foreign currencies. Lummis is expected to make the announcement on Saturday before Trump speaks, but details have yet to be finalized.

foxbusiness.com · 9 min

TLDR Design

BING'S AI REDESIGN SHOVES THE USUAL LIST OF SEARCH RESULTS TO THE SIDE

Microsoft's new Bing search experience integrates AI-generated answers prominently, relegating traditional results to the side. The redesigned interface for select queries includes AI-generated summaries, additional details like genre history, and links to videos and influential movies, all sourced beneath each section. Google's similar feature, AI Overviews, faced issues with inaccuracy, while Bing's layout aims to provide dynamic, concise search results.

theverge.com · 2 min

TLDR

REDDIT NOW BLOCKS ALL SEARCH ENGINES OTHER THAN GOOGLE FOLLOWING ‘MISUSE'

Reddit has started to block its site from appearing in search engines other than Google. The site has updated its robots.txt file to block all bots from scraping any part of it. It claims the change was being made following an increase in commercial entities scraping the site. Reddit and Google announced a new deal earlier this year allowing Google to use Reddit data to train AI models.

9to5google.com · 2 min

TLDR

AUSTRALIAN SCIENTISTS GENETICALLY ENGINEER COMMON FLY SPECIES TO EAT MORE OF HUMANITY'S WASTE

Australian scientists have genetically engineered black soldier flies to eat organic waste and produce ingredients for making everything from lubricants to biofuels to high-grade animal feeds. The fly larvae can eat double their body weight a day, consuming waste faster than microbes. They are harvested once they turn into pupae. The scientists have created a company to commercialize their work - they hope to have their first genetically engineered flies for use in waste facilities by the end of the year.

theguardian.com · 4 min

TLDR

TEST FLIGHT DEMONSTRATES NAVIGATION BY CELLPHONE SIGNALS

There are many natural and man-made threats that could knock out Earth's global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). There were numerous aviation-related incidents from the Baltic to the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea in 2024. The US Air Force has a novel backup system that uses cellphone towers to calculate a plane's position. The system is able to track planes for horizontal distances of more than a hundred kilometers at altitudes up to 23,000 feet with precision in single-digit meters.

spectrum.ieee.org · 4 min

TLDR

DEVELOPERS WANT MORE, MORE, MORE: THE 2024 RESULTS FROM STACK OVERFLOW'S ANNUAL DEVELOPER SURVEY

This article discusses the results of the 14th annual Stack Overflow Developer Survey. This year's most popular technologies are JavaScript and PostgreSQL. Rust and Markdown are the most admired. Developers are frustrated with technical debt at work, but they don't see AI as a threat. While most developers use or plan to use AI tools, many don't trust the accuracy of the technology.

stackoverflow.blog · 8 min