🍎 Apple's beef with social media platforms ramps up
Edition 1 - 29/04/21
👋 Hello, we’re Haystack and welcome to our once a month edition of our newsletter. Each month we share all the latest goings on in all things tech. 👨💻
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💥 Big Tech & Start-ups
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
Clubhouse came and went, didn't it?
Is the future of social networks audio? There has been a surge of social networks releasing their audio functionalities, such as the launch of Twitter’s spaces in April of this year, with other platforms such as LinkedIn also confirming it’s working on a rival audio experience. Spotify also now has skin in the game, as they’ve recently acquired Betty Labs, maker of new up and coming live audio app Locker Room.
With this surge of new audio features, can Clubhouse keep up? Here’s a breakdown of their install figures from the past few months, originally shared by @chriscantino on Twitter 📉
January: 2.4M
February: 9.6M
March: 2.6M
April: ..? What do you think? 🤔
🔭 Science & Future Tech
Using tech for good ✊
Last week was #EarthDay2021, so we want to highlight some cool British startups helping the environment. 🌎
This month, Clim8 Invest released their app, an investment platform to help consumers invest in companies dedicated to tackling climate change.
An algorithm designed by students at the University of Bath could help to save African elephants from extinction. The algorithm scans large areas of land in short periods of time and is much more efficient and safer than previous techniques used. 🐘
Earlier this year, Xampla, a next generation plastics startup announced raising €6.8 million to support their growth. Their aim? To replace microplastics and single-use plastics with its entirely natural plant-protein alternatives.
💻 Programming, Design & Data
Good ideas deserve to be found by Facebook - Youtube
Apple's beef with big social media platforms ramps up with the latest iOS 14.5 release
Apple's iOS 14.5 release is a nod to their vision for a more privacy-conscious future. 8 months ago at their WWDC, they hinted at big changes, alongside the damnation of IDFA and the use of device-level data being leveraged by Social Media and AdTech at the expense of users. As a result, Mark Zuckerberg and the usual suspects kicked off - big time. This culminated in a heavy-hitting ad campaign, in the form of TV ads, newspaper listings, and a very odd, somewhat out-of-touch YouTube video. But, what does all of this mean for big tech and our data?
Check out the full write up here.
Top 5 iOS 14.5 features
Unlock your iPhone… While wearing a mask
Data tracking transparency
Swanky new emojis
Siri now supports multiple voices to encourage diversity
Support for AirTags
⚙️ Random useful tool of the month
Sourcery - Grammarly for code
Ever submit hellishly complicated code for review only to be ridiculed by your colleagues for not simplifying things? No? Just me? Anyway, Sourcery aims to alleviate some of your "grammatical" coding errors and helps condense your code into its simplest state. The creator's aim is to have Sourcery be, "like having a pair programmer always working next to you", which sounds great in my book - having someone staring over your shoulder while you code has always felt a bit 🤷♂️ to me.
FYI - Sourcery is only compatible with Python at the moment and it's still basically early access but we'll be keeping an eye on its progress! Check it out here.
♻️ Blog Round-up
Developer Stories: Meet Laura
The latest addition to our Developer Stories series, featuring Laura - an aspiring frontend developer. "Up until a couple of years ago, I’d never done any coding at all". Read more
Common Hobbies of Programmers
Different types of programmers have different types of hobbies. But most of the hobbies that programmers/developers have are common. Read more
Learn Programming For Free
A plethora of resources are available online to help you learn to code for free. The question is - which ones are worth using? Read more
Top Remote Friendly Companies
More companies are reflecting on their working from home policies as some of us transition back to the office. Find out the top remote friendly companies. Read more
Q&A
Your questions answered
Whatever your questions, send them our way and we will find an expert to answer them! This week we’ve spoken to our own self-taught lead dev, Duarte, about his favourite tools and resources.
Q. How and why did you get into Software Development?
A. My journey into coding started when I took on a website project and quickly realised I bit off more than I could chew! To complete the project I started looking up tutorials, video courses and anything I could get my hands on…
Q. Any recommendations for specific tools or resources to develop your knowledge?
A. Build a library of bookmarks on your browser. The documentation websites you check out every day (e.g. reactjs.org, docs.mongodb.com), resources you can download (e.g. icons, fonts, freebies). Mine bookmarks are in the hundreds but I also keep the ones I use the most on my toolbar for quick access.
Subscribe to tech news, there’s plenty out there daily.dev, ui.dev, This week in React, etc. There’s plenty to choose from whatever your flavour.
Twitter is often a good place to be at the forefront of technologies news. Most popular technologies will have a Twitter page, and it’s usually where new major releases are first announced. It’s also good to see what’s been retweeted, often you’ll find cool projects other devs are doing with that library. Follow a couple of developers that you’re working on the tools you like, for example, if you use React, follow @reactjs and Dan Abramov @dan_abramov.
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