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THE DAILY INDEX

Technology, AI, software, security, crypto and business

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

META MIGHT BE MAKING ANOTHER SMARTWATCH, AND IT STILL HAS A CAMERA

Meta is reportedly working on a smart watch designed to complement both the company's smart glasses and Quest headsets. The device will be able to see the world around the user through built-in cameras. Meta planned to launch a similar pair of smartwatches in 2022. More information about the project is likely to be revealed during the company's annual developer conference, Meta Connect, set to kick off on September 17.

THE USELESS USECALLBACK

`useCallback` and `useMemo` are often misused, leading to unnecessary complexity and overhead without actual performance gains. This article goes over scenarios where memoization is pointless, such as when passing props to non-memoized components or using props directly as dependencies within `useCallback` or `useEffect`. A real-world example is shown from the Sentry codebase to illustrate how seemingly memoized values can be invalidated by non-memoized dependencies.

SOLANA CO-FOUNDER CALLS MEMECOINS, NFTS ‘DIGITAL SLOP'

Solana co‑founder Anatoly Yakovenko labeled memecoins and NFTs “digital slop” with no intrinsic value, comparing them to exploitative loot boxes, prompting Base creator Jesse Pollak to counter that the content itself can hold fundamental worth. Yakovenko conceded memecoin activity was crucial to Solana's rise but argued it was akin to Apple's revenues from loot boxes rather than meaningful innovation. Data shows memecoins made up 62 % of Solana dApp revenue in June and drove roughly $1.6 billion in H1 2025. Pump.fun and PumpSwap have captured most of the market share, though rivals like LetBonk are now challenging their dominance in 24‑hour launchpad revenue.

ELECTRIC AIR TAXI FLIES FROM ONE AIRPORT TO ANOTHER AIRPORT

A full-scale, piloted winged tilt-rotor eVTOL designed for commercial service flew from one airport to another for the first time ever earlier this month. Vertical Aerospace's vehicle flew 17 miles, during which it reached speeds of 115 miles per hour and an altitude of 1,800 feet. The prototype has a fixed-wing configuration with eight propellers. It was designed to accommodate one pilot and four passengers or cargo and travel a maximum range of 100 miles. Video of the flight is available in the article.

GOOGLE'S LINUX TERMINAL PLAYS A BIG PART IN TURNING ANDROID INTO A TRUE DESKTOP OS

Google released a Linux Terminal app earlier this year, but only recently published documentation for it. The app is aimed at letting developers build Android apps directly on Android devices and will eventually allow users to run full-fledged graphical Linux apps and games. This could eventually transform Android into a first-class desktop platform that rivals macOS and Windows. The app currently doesn't support ARM-based CPUs.

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