TLDR 2018-10-04

One of the big new features in iOS 12 is an app called Shortcuts, which allows power users to write scripts for their iPhones. There is now a script called Police that will activate the front facing camera and save the file to Dropbox if you just say the trigger phrase, for example "Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over."

Google will be rolling out a new version of Assistant over the next few weeks. The updates will give users more visual feedback for tasks like checking the weather and managing smart home devices instead of relying solely on voice commands. However, the most exciting part of this update in my opinion is for developers. Assistant will now allow developers to sell digital goods as well as recurring subscriptions directly through Assistant. In addition, developers can sync their applications with Assistant by signing users in using Google Sign In with a simple tap or even a verbal confirmation instead of requiring users to type in a full username and password.

This is an open source Chrome extension that will let you easily get rid of annoying elements on any web page (things like pop ups, those "this site uses cookies" notices, and things like that). Pretty nifty.

Really long, popular thread on Hacker News about advice for junior developers. There's life advice, career advice, technical advice, tough love and more. Couple highlights: "Being valuable to the person who's employing you is what makes you progress in your career." and "Do not try to understand everything in order to do something."

This is a new and quickly growing subreddit about iPhone Shortcuts (scripts that you can run using the new Shortcuts App). If you're the kind of person who likes to tinker with scripts on your own devices, there's a lot of cool stuff here, the subreddit already has 45k subscribers.

We have found about 3800 exoplanets (that's planets that orbit a star outside of our solar system). Now scientists think they've spotted the first exomoon, a Neptune-sized object that appears to be orbiting a Jupiter-sized exoplanet called Kepler-1625b 8000 light years away from earth. Scientists want to look at it some more with the Hubble telescope to confirm that it is indeed an exomoon, but they're pretty sure that this is the real deal.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc. unveiled its first passenger capsule, the Quintero One. It's essentially a super futuristic looking train type thing, it's 105 feet long, weighs 5 tons, and has no windows. It is designed to go up to 750 miles per hour.