JOMO: A daily digest of interesting tech, product and design news

[Akshay.Kanade]

Sold? | JOMO for 25th Apr

In today’s JOMO: The ‘best’ font for online reading, the no-AC campaign and most likely Twitter’s been sold by the time you read this

In the news

Apple is actively removing outdated apps from the App Store, even if they’re fully functional - XDA

According to several developers, Apple is warning them about removing their outdated apps from the App Store if they don’t submit a new version within 30 days. So those who have perfectly working apps will have to submit an updated version within 30 days just for the sake of staying on the App Store.

This is going to open a can of worms. What is Apple’s rationale? Just unable get my head around this one.

Start-up Pony.ai says it’s the first self-driving company to get a taxi license in China - CNBC

The license allows Pony.ai to operate 100 self-driving cars as traditional taxis in the Nansha district of the southern city of Guangzhou, the company said.

Ola Electric shares ride data to say overspeeding caused accident, slammed - The New Minute

“This disclosure basically tells customers that Ola doesn’t just track you. It also reserves the right to publish data about your riding behaviour and share it with the world. Essentially, they’re doxxing customers, and can do this to anyone. In terms of pure optics, how stupid is Ola’s communication/decision making team? Targeting a customer in public? Who does this? This doesn’t come across as a thought through decision, but a panicky, knee jerk reaction,”

So many questions: does Ola take consent from users to track them continuously? Are they allowed to share this data publicly? Do insurance firms get this data? Wonder if they are tracking this Ola bike too

Twitter set to accept Musk’s $43 billion offer - Reuters

New products, features, launches

Twitter is reportedly working on a vibe check feature - Verge

Making a simple status message sound cool. Yawn

Google Play makes bizarre decision to ban call-recording apps - Ars Technica

As part of Google’s crackdown on apps that use Android’s accessibility APIs for non-accessibility reasons, Google says call recording is no longer allowed via the accessibility APIs. Since the accessibility APIs are the only way for third-party apps to record calls on Android, call-recording apps are dead on Google Play.

Why??

Interesting read

RIP CNN+, March 2022-April 2022 - Ars Technica

CNN+, the streaming-only fork of CNN with a mix of exclusive content and the news network’s Video on Demand archives, will shut down at the end of the month—only 31 days after it debuted.

Uber drivers in India are turning off AC to protest low pay as temperatures soar - Rest of World

Drivers for the app-based ride-hailing companies are refusing to turn on their air conditioning in an effort to push for increased commissions, following a series of fuel price hikes. The “no air-conditioning campaign” will continue until the government fixes a base fare for app-based cab services.

Best Font for Online Reading: No Single Answer - NNGroup

Among high-legibility fonts, a study found 35% difference in reading speeds between the best and the worst. People read 11% slower for every 20 years they age.

Fascinating research work by Nielsen Norman Group

Cool Products, websites and tools

Material Icons Guide
Material Icons are available in five styles and a range of downloadable sizes and densities. The icons are based on the core Material Design principles and metrics.

Super useful and of-course free to use. Also they have an easy Figma plugin

Poll for the day

Would you be ok to travel in a Robo-taxi?

Sure!

Nope

What’s a robot-taxi

Curated from:

Morning Brew, Verge, Techcrunch, Techmeme, CNBC, Hacker News, Product Hunt and more

[Akshay.Kanade]

Sold! | JOMO for 26th Apr

In today’s JOMO: Amazon as a service, how to keep Figma clean and ofcourse, the deal

In the news

Reddit is spending $1 million to fund its users’ best ideas and competitions - Verge

“We will invite communities to submit ideas for projects, events, contests, giving, almost anything you can think of to bring people together for inspiration and delight,” the company said in its announcement. Projects can ask for between $1,000 and $50,000, and Reddit will start issuing grants in June.

TikTok was the top app by worldwide downloads in Q1 2022 - TC

This is inspite of the ban in India

Twitter and Elon Musk agree to $44 billion deal to take the company private - Morning Brew

Startups, funding etc

FirstCry plans $1 billion IPO, may seek Sebi nod next month - ET

Startup IPOs are back?

New products, features, launches

Google Play launches its own privacy ‘nutrition labels,’ following similar effort by Apple - TC

The company says it will begin to roll out the new Google Play Data safety section to users on a gradual basis, ahead of the July 20th deadline that requires developers to properly disclose the data their app collects, if and how it’s shared with third parties, the app’s security practices, and more.

Interesting read

Beyond Aggregation: Amazon as a Service - Stratechery

I think it’s meaningful that “Buy With Prime” is the first major initiative of new CEO Andy Jassy’s regime; I don’t think it’s an accident that it is so clearly inspired by AWS.

11 steps to keep Figma clean - UX Collective

We all probably already know how it is to receive a project from someone else. Not everyone works the same way, it’s what makes our field so varied. We need to spend some time focusing on adapting. In this article, I will go over 11 steps that may help you and your teammates in organizing your work in Figma.

Super useful if Figma is your daily use product

Poll for the day

Are you thinking of quitting Twitter?

Yes

No

I’m not on Twitter!

Curated from:

Morning Brew, Verge, Techcrunch, Techmeme, CNBC, Hacker News, Product Hunt and more

[Akshay.Kanade]

Nocoder | JOMO for 28th Apr

In today’s JOMO: A selfie drone, dirt on Netflix and who wants to be a nocoder

In the news

China’s Weibo shows user locations to combat ‘bad behaviour’ - Reuters

Weibo , China’s equivalent of Twitter, told users on Thursday it would start to publish their IP locations on their account pages and when they post comments, in a bid to combat “bad behaviour” online.

If it wants to Google could do this too: it kinda already knows your approx IP address, location. But it uses this info for better ad-targeting, for now

Startups shed flab amid slowdown in large funding rounds - ET

Over the past few weeks, more than 1,800 contractual and full-time employees have been fired from ed-tech firm Unacademy, social commerce startups Meesho and Trell, online learning platform Lido Learning and furniture rental startup Furlenco.

Startups, funding etc

Notice something? This space has been rather blank for quite a while now.

New products, features, launches

Google may now remove search results that dox you - Verge

Google says it’s expanding the types of personal information that it’ll remove from search results to cover things like your physical address, phone number, and passwords. Before now, the feature mostly covered info that would let someone steal your identity or money — now, you can ask Google to stop showing certain URLs that point to info that could lead someone to your house or give them access to your accounts.

Snap’s first drone, Pixy, fully revealed in FCC photos - Verge

It’s small: rulers in the photos indicate the drone is roughly 130 millimeters wide and 120 millimeters tall, which translates to approximately 5.1 inches by 4.7 inches.

Your own selfie drone. Snap has made a number of new product and feature launches around AR lenses, shopping etc. Check them out here

Interesting read

Autocorrect Explained: Why Your iPhone Adds Annoying Typos While Fixing Others - WSJ

Tpying truble? During the iPhone’s first 15 years, its keyboard software has evolved, but it still sometimes flubs your lines. Here’s how it works and what you can do about it.

Netflix’s Big Wake-Up Call: The Power Clash Behind the Crash - Hollywood Reporter

Several important Netflix creators voice a very consistent theory about what’s gone wrong with the streamer’s culture. They see a link between Netflix’s problems and the 2020 fall of Cindy Holland, who played a key role in launching the service’s originals — brilliantly and often expensively — with House of Cards, Orange Is the New Black and Stranger Things, among others.

Surprising how so much ‘dirt’ is unearthed after Netflix’s fall. Where were all these reports earlier?

Cool Products, websites and tools

Become a Nocoder

Learn everything about no-code without spending 200+ hours

Yet to try it, but definitely should be helpful. Sadly it’s paid with no option to try. So back to Youtube, I guess. Btw, if you access this from India, do check the ‘Parity Deals’ up top

Unpopular Opinion for Zoom

Zoom Meetings app to break the ice with fun, casual polls!

Are we still using zoom? Argh

Poll for the day

Would you like to learn no-code?

Yesa

Already know it, want to improve

Nope

Curated from:

Morning Brew, Verge, Techcrunch, Techmeme, CNBC, Hacker News, Product Hunt and more

[Akshay.Kanade]

Uber profits, not just yet | JOMO for 4th May

In today’s JOMO: Uber on path to profitability (really?), Twitter copies Google Plus and Wordle turned out to be a great buy for NYT

In the news

Uber reports surging revenue as drivers return, but posts massive loss on investments - CNBC

Uber’s revenue was up 136% year-over-year to $6.9 billion. The company reported a net loss of $5.9 billion for the first quarter, which it said was primarily due to its equity investments in Grab, Aurora and Didi. Uber said it expects to generate “meaningful positive cash flows” for full-year 2022

Startups, funding etc

LottieFiles raises $37M Series B to make the animation format even more ubiquitous - TC

Quick commerce firm Zepto valued at $900 million, gets $200 million - ET

Neobank Open Becomes 100th Unicorn Of India, Raises $50 Mn From IIFL

- Inc42

New products, features, launches

Twitter Circle will let you selectively tweet to up to 150 followers - TechCircle

Twitter Circle is essentially like a private group on any social media platform, which lets users form an admission-only forum to host closed discussions. However, unlike such groups, there would be no way for a person to apply to be a part of a Circle on Twitter – unless you choose to personally message someone and request them to add you in their Circle.

Circles? Remember something? Google Plus

Interesting read

Buying Wordle brought ‘tens of millions of new users’ to The New York Times - Verge

The company announced its quarterly earnings on Wednesday and credited Wordle for a huge jump in new subscribers. “Wordle brought an unprecedented tens of millions of new users to The Times,” Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said in an earnings release, “many of whom stayed to play other games” and drove the company’s best gaming-related quarter ever.

The Google Incentive Mismatch: Problems with Promotion-Oriented Cultures

For instance, when I was leading Google Sheets, we had a lot of small bugs and usability issues, often in areas where we weren’t at parity with Excel. Users wanted us to implement disjoint selections, fix our charting UI, add the ability to insert and delete ranges of cells – pretty standard spreadsheet fare, and very reasonable requests. However it was a constant struggle to prioritize these types of issues vs. “bigger impact” projects. Our engineers cared about the product and wanted to polish it. But they also wanted to be promoted. And so we would deprioritize product polish for projects that looked better to a promotion committee.

Excellent read

Poll for the day

Do you remember Google Circles?

Er, no

Oh ya

Curated from:

Morning Brew, Verge, Techcrunch, Techmeme, CNBC, Hacker News, Product Hunt and more

[Akshay.Kanade]

Ok Mama…. now CEO change | JOMO for 5th May

In today’s JOMO: Twitter will have a new CEO (guess who?), forgetting passwords for good and Starbucks tries to be ‘cool’

In the news

Elon Musk expected to serve as temporary Twitter CEO after deal closes - CNBC

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has only been at the helm for a few months, and until now, it was unclear whether Musk would seek to install a new chief executive once his takeover of the company is complete.

Meanwhile, Musk has secured $7bn in funding from new investors, including Oracle’s Larry Ellison, a16z, Sequoia et al

Facebook plans to reduce hiring as revenue growth slows and inflation concerns increase - CNBC

Edtech unicorn Vedantu lays off 200 employees - ET

About 120 of these employees were on contract while 80 were full-time employees, Vedantu told ET. Almost all were from the company’s academic teams, working as assistant teachers

New products, features, launches

Apple, Google, Microsoft Back ‘FIDO’ Tech to Dump Passwords on Websites and Apps - CNET

The FIDO Alliance – FIDO is short for “fast identity online” – said Thursday it’s working with the three companies to begin offering passwordless technology to websites and apps.

Now you can play Fortnite on your iPhone or Android for free with Xbox Cloud Gaming - Verge

Design, UX and Research

50 Design Systems examples to learn from (for your next project)

The OG’s design systems are material design and human interface guidelines. These were, in many ways, the beginning of what design systems looked like earlier when digital mobile OSes arrived on smartphones for the first time. Designers looked at these, learned many helpful design practices, and are still the gold standard of design systems.

Interesting read

Starbucks plans a ‘global digital community’ around coffee with an NFT loyalty program - Verge

We plan to create a series of branded NFT collections, the ownership of which initiates community membership, and allows for access to exclusive experiences and perks. The themes of these collections will be born of Starbucks artistic expressions, both heritage and newly created, as well as through world-class collaborations with other innovators and like-minded brands.

Distraction, genius or trying to sound cool? Is business that bad?

Twitter warns of possible employee exodus before Musk completes purchase - Ars Technica

Twitter’s stated list of risks includes “whether advertisers continue their spending on our platform” and “our inability to attract and retain key personnel and recruit prospective employees, and the possibility that our current employees could be distracted, and their productivity decline as a result, due to uncertainty regarding the merger.”

Poll for the day

Do you forget passwords often?

Yes! That’s me

No, only when I need them
Nope

Curated from:

Morning Brew, Verge, Techcrunch, Techmeme, CNBC, Hacker News, Product Hunt and more

[Akshay.Kanade]

Hiring as a ‘privilege’ | JOMO for 9th May

In today’s JOMO: Insta likes NFTs, Bitcon and a Hugging Face

In the news

Uber CEO tells staff company will cut down on costs, treat hiring as a ‘privilege’ - CNBC

“It’s clear that the market is experiencing a seismic shift and we need to react accordingly,” Khosrowshahi said. Uber will now focus on achieving profitability on a free cash flow basis rather than adjusted EBITDA, he added.

Not want you want to hear if you plan to join Uber. And especially if you already are at Uber in one of ‘redundant roles’

Bitcoin slips below $35K, down nearly 50% from its all-time high - Marketwatch

Startups, funding etc

Hugging Face reaches $2 billion valuation to build the GitHub of machine learning - TC

Hugging Face is building the GitHub of machine learning. It’s a community-driven platform with a ton of repositories. Developers can create, discover and collaborate on ML models, datasets and ML apps.

New products, features, launches

Instagram will begin testing NFTs this week - Verge

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a video today that a small group of US users will have the ability to display NFTs on their feed, stories, and in messages. NFT details are displayed in a similar way to tagged profiles and products and are named “digital collectibles.” Clicking on the tag will display details like the name of the creator and owner.

Interesting read

Apple Keeps Its Tap-to-Pay Feature to Itself to Protect Revenue - Bloomberg

Apple’s next antitrust battle is over payments. More specifically, its control of the iPhone chip that handles NFC, or near field communications. For now, iPhone users must use Apple Pay if they want to buy something via phone tap, and that’s been increasingly frustrating to rival financial apps.

Tech startups feel the pinch from rising interest rates - Morning Brew

Sentiment in Silicon Valley is the “most negative since the dot-com crash,” investor David Sacks tweeted. Layoff announcements are becoming more common than funding rounds, companies are scaling back growth plans, and even the LaCroix is starting to taste a little flat.

Gonna be the same story back home

Ecommerce sales gallop despite big rebound in offline business - ET

India’s largest consumer goods maker, Hindustan Unilever, said in its earnings release that in the March quarter, digitized sales across platforms including ecommerce channels and internal ordering app Shikhar were more than 20% of its overall sales.

Poll for the day

Have you been Bitconned?

Huh, what??

No, dont own bitcoin

It’s an investment!

Curated from:

Morning Brew, Verge, Techcrunch, Techmeme, CNBC, Hacker News, Product Hunt and more

[Akshay.Kanade]

Crypto coins sat on a wall… | JOMO for 11th May

In today’s JOMO: … Crypto coins had a big fall, Airbnb’s ‘big’ ‘redesign’ and the future of work is a big Deel

In the news

Crypto Is Collapsing (For Now) - Vice

Coins are down across the board, the NFT market has evaporated, and the short-term future of cryptocurrency seems grim.

TBH, even the long term future. But we shall see. While on crypto….

Coinbase revenue drops 27% from a year ago, stock slides - CNBC

The stock has lost more than 70% of its value since late March, as a broader slide in tech stocks and the value of cryptocurrencies hit Coinbase particularly hard

Startups, funding etc

Fueled by the remote work revolution, Deel more than doubles valuation to $12B with new raise - TC

Deel is an example of a company that was in the right place at the right time, aided by what appears to be strong execution. The company claims to allow businesses to hire in less than five minutes employees and contractors without needing a local entity. It also says that it gives companies the ability to pay teams in more than 150 currencies with “just a click.”

New products, features, launches

Apple will drop iPhone Lightning port in favor of USB-C in 2023, claims analyst - Verge

If there is anything good that has emerged out of the supply chain crisis, this has to be right up there. No more going around asking: ‘Do you have an iPhone charger’. Also count on Apple to ship a new iPhone without a new cable

Twitter’s new policy highlights its efforts to combat spam and duplicative tweets - TC

An example of a violation is identical or near-identical content tweeted by an individual account or several accounts. Another example is a duplicate or copy-pasted tweet that Twitter thinks will “disrupt the experience of others.” Twitter notes that it won’t limit the visibility of retweets or tweets that include existing content alongside unique content or commentary.

Good move

Design and Research

Airbnb’s Summer 2022 redesign adds new Categories and Split Stays - Verge

The design look supernice. But, Brian Chesky calling it the biggest change at Airbnb in over a decade, is quite a stretch, especially for a user. Lot of smart work seems to have gone into this, to categorise properties, but to the end user, most of it will feel minor. You can check out Airbnb’s launch post here

Interesting read

Twitter made a browser game to help explain its privacy settings - Verge

Twitter introduced the game as part of a bigger push around its privacy policy, which the company has rewritten. “We’ve emphasized clear language and moved away from legal jargon,” Twitter said on its Safety account. “Beginning today, you can see the updates to our privacy policy and terms of service in the app via settings and on our redesigned privacy policy site.”

Lovely lovely lovely. Play it here: https://twitterdatadash.com/

Cool Products, websites and tools

Acapela

All your work notifications in one inbox

Nirvana! Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Kinda like what the word stands for. Also there is a song called Acapella

Poll for the day

Do you have an iPhone charger? #IKYKYK

Hehe

No!

How is this even a poll?

Curated from:

Morning Brew, Verge, Techcrunch, Techmeme, CNBC, Hacker News, Product Hunt and more

[Akshay.Kanade]

Imagenination | JOMO for 24th May

In today’s JOMO: Snap snaps, the great return (from startups to IT) and Google enters the ‘text-to-image’ chat

In the news

Snap falls 39% on pace for worst day ever, dragging other stocks with it - CNBC

The tumble comes after Snap issued a warning on Monday to investors saying it won’t meet its own targets for revenue and adjusted earnings in the current quarter.

Down, down, down

UK fines Clearview just under $10M for privacy breaches - TC

Tech professionals return to IT companies, captives after start-up dreams lose shine - ET

According to data shared by talent consulting company Han Digital, around 40-50% of employees leaving startups are getting absorbed by IT companies, consulting and product companies and global captive centres (GCCs).

Startups, funding etc

Delhivery’s market debut more than doubles SoftBank stake value to $1 bn - ET

Stunning market debut, especially considering the market sentiment

New products, features, launches

TikTok to launch LIVE creator subscriptions this week - TC

Interesting read

OpenAI: Look at our awesome image generator! Google: Hold my Shiba Inu - TC

The AI world is still figuring out how to deal with the amazing show of prowess that is DALL-E 2’s ability to draw/paint/imagine just about anything… but OpenAI isn’t the only one working on something like that. Google Research has rushed to publicize a similar model it’s been working on — which it claims is even better

Super super cool developments. With Google getting into the fray one can expect more rapid developments and usable offerings. Check out some of the sample images generated by text (at the end of the doc)

Klarna’s layoffs signal a broader buy now, pay later slowdown - Morning Brew

Last week, the WSJ reported that Klarna was currently looking to raise money at a valuation closer to $30 billion, a 30% cut from its valuation peak. And Klarna’s not the only one getting a shave: Shares of Affirm, the US BNPL giant, have dropped almost 75% this year.

And here is how they laid of 10% of their workforce: via a prerecorded video

Cool Products, websites and tools

Peerlist

A professional network w/ robust work profiles at its core

Poll for the day

Have you heard of DALL-E?

No

Do you mean WALL-E?

Yes!

Curated from:

Morning Brew, Verge, Techcrunch, Techmeme, CNBC, Hacker News, Product Hunt and more

[Akshay.Kanade]

Helluu World again | JOMO for 1st Aug

In today’s JOMO: Usain’s Bolt slows down, TikTok ‘Music’, that Eternal feeling and we are back!

PS: We’ve been missing because, well as much as we dont want to admit it, work’s been crazy. Not sure if we can push JOMO out everyday, but we shall try. Expect atleast a weekly post or two: how’s that for starters?

In the news

Bolt Mobility has vanished, leaving e-bikes, unanswered calls behind in several US cities - Techcrunch

Bolt Mobility, the Miami-based micromobility startup co-founded by Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt, appears to have vanished without a trace from several of its U.S. markets.

A TikTok Music app could challenge Spotify and Apple - Verge

Considering how intertwined music discovery is with TikTok, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if the company launched a music streaming app of its own. Well, patent filings uncovered by Insider suggest TikTok’s working on just that. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for “TikTok Music” in May

Remember Resso anyone?

Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal plans multiple CEO structures for ‘Eternal’ organisation - ET

“The word Eternal is a mission statement in itself. Eternal means forever, something that will last for more than just a few lifetimes. Boundless, timeless, undying, endless, permanent - are some of the other words that can be used to describe Eternal,” he wrote in the message on July 28.

Gaaass, gyaan, distraction?

Startups, funding etc

UiPath acquires London-based NLP startup Reinfer - TC

Founded out of Romania initially as Deskover in 2005, UiPath is one of the preeminent RPA platforms, helping to automate repetitive software-based tasks at companies including Google, NASA, and DHL

Interesting read

These Companies Know When You’re Pregnant—And They’re Not Keeping It Secret - Gizmodo

In total, Gizmodo identified 32 different brokers across the U.S. selling access to the unique mobile IDs from some 2.9 billion profiles of people pegged as “actively pregnant” or “shopping for maternity products.” Also on the market: data on 478 million customer profiles labeled “interested in pregnancy” or “intending to become pregnant.” You can see the full list of companies for yourself here.

Google CEO tells employees productivity and focus must improve, launches ‘Simplicity Sprint’ to gather employee feedback on efficiency - CNBC

Pichai said: “There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to be for the head count we have.” He asked employees to help “create a culture that is more mission-focused, more focused on our products, more customer focused. We should think about how we can minimize distractions and really raise the bar on both product excellence and productivity.”

Not a bad time to think about productivity given that Alphabet’s workforce jumped 21% last quarter to 174,000 employees. And that is only the full time employees

The second wave of India’s crackdown on Chinese tech is here - Rest of World

In the last few months, at least three major Chinese smartphone makers have faced investigations from India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), the agency responsible for enforcing economic laws. In April, the ED seized over $695 million from Xiaomi Technology India Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Beijing-based Xiaomi group. Earlier this month, the ED seized 119 bank accounts holding over $58 million of Vivo India, which is owned by China’s BBK Electronics. A few days later, the ED accused Vivo’s sister firm, Oppo, of $551 million in tax evasion.

Money, money, money, it’s so funny

Cool Products, websites and tools

Eight photo-centric social sites that are not Instagram - Verge

There are alternatives out there

Yes, but would you use them?

Otherweb

Read the news, discover podcasts and search the web - without clickbait, eye catchers, auto playing videos, paywalls, partisan echo-chambers, or whatever else digital marketers can come up with next.

Sounds like something we all need. Gonna take it for a spin and be back with a review

Docusaurus 2.0

Build great docs websites, focus on your content - by Meta

‘by Meta’ - meh

Poll for the day

Would you use an Instagram alternative?

Sure

No, Insta rocks

I’m not on Insta

Curated from:

Morning Brew, Verge, Techcrunch, Techmeme, CNBC, Hacker News, Product Hunt and more