The Daily Index — Tuesday, August 27, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

APPLE WORKING ON NEXT-GEN HUMANLIKE AI ‘PERSONALITY' THAT'S NOT SIRI

Apple is reportedly developing an AI personality entirely separate from Siri for future Apple robotics devices. The company's first robotics projects are not expected to debut until 2026 or 2027. Apple will ship a brand new Apple Intelligence-fused Siri in iOS 18.1 later this fall. However, many of Siri's most powerful new capabilities aren't scheduled to arrive until sometime in 2025.

9to5mac.com · 2 min

TLDR AI

ANTHROPIC REVEALS SYSTEM PROMPTS FOR CLAUDE

Anthropic has added system prompts and updated dates for all models.

docs.anthropic.com · 8 min

TLDR Web Dev

HOW APPLE BUILT ICLOUD TO STORE BILLIONS OF DATABASES

Apple's iCloud and CloudKit were built using a combination of Cassandra and FoundationDB. Cassandra, which is being actively improved by Apple engineers, handles exabytes of data and millions of queries. FoundationDB powers CloudKit, Apple's cloud backend service. It provides key features like transactional guarantees and solves scalability issues that Cassandra alone could not address. Each iCloud user gets their own database, resulting in billions of databases. This is made possible by the Record Layer's stateless architecture and resource allocation using a “record store” abstraction.

read.engineerscodex.com · 10 min

TLDR Crypto

WYOMING IS PUSHING CRYPTO PAYMENTS AND TRYING TO BEAT THE FED TO A DIGITAL DOLLAR

Wyoming plans to launch the Wyoming stable token, a US-dollar-backed stablecoin, in Q1 2025. Its goal is to facilitate faster and cheaper transactions while introducing a new revenue stream for the state. The token will serve as a model for a federally digitized dollar, and the state will invest reserves into Treasury Bills to fund public schools. If successful, Wyoming hopes to expand to tokenizing other assets like commodities and real estate.

cnbc.com · 5 min

TLDR Product

PROFITABLE ON DAY 1

Business owners may mistakenly claim profitability based on minimal expenses, but true profitability means being able to afford to pay others to do your job and sustaining a business without depleting personal savings. Building a genuinely profitable business takes time and early stages often involve financial struggle, so they should focus on realistic goals and sustainable growth instead of premature profit claims.

longform.asmartbear.com · 4 min

TLDR

APPLE'S IPHONE 16 LAUNCH EVENT IS SET FOR SEPTEMBER

Apple's next big event will be on September 9 at 1 PM ET at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park. The company is expected to launch the iPhone 16 lineup during the show, which has the tagline 'It's Glowtime'. Apple Intelligence features will likely be a big part of the event. The company is also rumored to launch the Apple Watch Series 10 and two versions of AirPods.

theverge.com · 2 min

TLDR

FOR HIS SECOND TRIP TO SPACE, BILLIONAIRE HAS GRANDER, RISKIER ASPIRATIONS

Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is scheduled to head into space for the second time later this week. The itinerary for the trip includes the first ever spacewalk by private astronauts. The mission will travel farther than anyone has traveled since the Apollo 17 mission went to the Moon in 1972. It will pass through regions of intense radiation while testing new technologies and gathering data on the effects space has on the human body.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 14 min

TLDR

HOW DO YOU 3D PRINT GLASS?

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana are working to adapt artisan glass-blowing techniques to a robotic platform. They have developed a technique that uses a laser to heat the surface of a glass rod so it can be deformed to create 3D shapes. It is able to create the transparent solid structures needed in optical, microfluidic, and photonic devices. The method can deposit glass at 15 cubic millimeters per second. A picture of the glass 3D printer is available.

spectrum.ieee.org · 4 min

TLDR

FIXING A BUG IN GOOGLE CHROME AS A FIRST-TIME CONTRIBUTOR

This post presents an overview of the process of submitting a bug fix to Chromium/Google Chrome from beginning to end. It aims to give some perspective for developers looking to try it. The post covers how the bug was discovered and fixed, testing and code review, and more. The process can take a while and a good bit of effort, but it is a valuable experience in seeing how software gets built at Chromium's scale.

cprimozic.net · 19 min