TLDR 2023-09-06

CHROMEBOOKS

Apple is developing a low-cost MacBook series to compete with Chromebook models. The new line could be launched as early as the second half of 2024. It will have a metal casing made out of different materials from other MacBooks. Educational institutions have rapidly adopted Chromebooks over the last few years compared to iPads. This is the first rumor regarding the new MacBook series, so expectations should remain guarded.

Google is rolling out new updates to its mobile apps and services. The At a Glance widget will offer more helpful information about events, travel, and local weather. Wallet will be updated to make it easier to upload passes with barcodes or QR codes. The Lookout app will be able to describe scenes intelligently and answer follow-up questions. Android Auto is getting the ability to join audio-only Zoom and Webex calls. The Android logo has been redesigned.

SAY

More than 200 scientists have signed a letter calling for responsible research into ways to trap carbon dioxide in oceans. The group wants to take urgent action on the climate crisis without triggering any new problems by using oceans to help the fight. There are a lot of unknowns about the side effects of adding more carbon dioxide into the sea. The letter calls for controlled field trials to evaluate carbon removal strategies, third-party reviews of trial results, and safeguards to prevent unintended or adverse consequences.

ADULT CORALS HAVE BEEN SAFELY FROZEN AND REVIVED FOR THE FIRST TIME

A team of researchers from Texas A&M University in College Station successfully froze and revived small colonies of mature corals for the first time. The revived coral in the study only survived a few days after thawing due to stress from the process. Cryopreserving chunks of living corals could save them from extinction. Corals are dying and coral reproduction is struggling due to warming seas and acidity from human-caused climate change.

STRIPE AND FACEBOOK

Raylene Yung became an engineering manager at Facebook in 2011. She then moved to Stripe and watched it grow from 200 to over 1,500 employees over the next four years. Yung built Stripe’s product management team, defined career growth and recruiting frameworks, ran the core Payments business, and spun up the company’s global engineering hub in Singapore. This article features an interview with Yung where she discusses career growth for engineers. In the interview, Yung shares career lessons and covers roadblocks that can appear at every stage of an engineering career. She also provides guiding questions to help readers make the right decisions.

OPENTF

OpenTF is a tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure safely and efficiently. It can manage popular service providers as well as custom in-house solutions. OpenTF features Infrastructure as Code, execution plans, resource graphs, and change automation. It enables developers to declaratively manage cloud infrastructure.

EVERY BILLABLE HOUR IS AMATEUR HOUR

Software engineers can become agnostic about business outcomes as they optimize for versatility and feature shipping efficiency. This can become an issue if they decide to become freelancers as becoming a freelancer forces them into a business owner position. Becoming a professional business owner means becoming an expert in delivering outcomes that add value. Working by the hour makes this goal harder to achieve and it also creates a worse experience for both the freelancer and their clients.

HOW TO DISABLE CHROME’S NEW TARGETED AD TRACKING

Google's new Topics API allows browsers to share information with third parties about a user's interests while preserving privacy. It is designed to replace cookies that track users' actions across the internet. The Topics API was included in Chrome 115. It can be turned off through the Ad Privacy section in Chrome Settings.

DEFAULT

Apple will release the new Vision Pro App Store with the developer beta of visionOS in the fall.

IF YOU CAN USE OPEN SOURCE, YOU CAN BUILD HARDWARE

Building hardware is easier now than ever before.

PUCK

puck is a self-hosted drag-and-drop editor for React.

India's Moon lander and rover will fall asleep next to each other once solar power is depleted and will reawaken when the next lunar day starts around September 22.

IN SOMETHING SPECIFIC AND BORING

This post contains a list of topics that people can study to make the world safer through policy and governance.

U.S. IPO

Arm submitted an updated filing for its upcoming IPO, setting a price range between $47 and $51 - only 9.4% of Arm's shares will be freely traded on the NASDAQ.