Meet Zig: the Modern Alternative to the C Programming Language

Systems-oriented developers already have programming languages like C, C++, Rust, and Go, notes InfoWorld.

But now, “we also have Zig, a newer language that seeks to absorb what’s best about these languages and offer comparable performance with a better, more reliable developer experience.”

Zig is a very active project. It was started by Andrew Kelley in 2015 and now seems to be reaching critical mass. Zig’s ambition is rather momentous in software history: to become the heir to C’s longstanding reign as both the go-to portable low-level language and as a standard to which other languages are compared….

Currently, Zig is being used to implement the Bun.js JavaScript runtime as an alternative to Node.js. Bun’s creator Jarred Sumner told me “Zig is sort of similar to writing C, but with better memory safety features in debug mode and modern features like defer (sort of similar to Go’s) and arbitrary code can be executed at compile-time via comptime. It has very few keywords so it’s a lot easier to learn than C++ or Rust.”

Zig differs from most other languages in its small feature footprint, which is the outcome of an explicit design goal: Only one obvious way to do things. Zig’s developers take this goal so much to heart that for a time, Zig had no for loop, which was deemed an unnecessary syntactic elaboration upon the already adequate while loop. Kevin Lynagh, coming from a Rust background, wrote, “The language is so small and consistent that after a few hours of study I was able to load enough of it into my head to just do my work.” Nathan Craddock, a C developer, echoed the sentiment. Programmers seem to really like the focused quality of Zig’s syntax.
While Zig is “approaching” production-ready status, the article notes its high degree of interoperability with C and C++, its unique error-handling system, and its elimination of a malloc keyword (leaving memory allocation to the standard library).

“For now, the Zig team appears to be taking its time with the 1.0 release, which may drop in 2025 or later — but none of that stops us from building all sorts of things with the language today.”

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Apple Launches Its New Classical Music Streaming App For Preorder

Apple is launching a new music streaming service focused on classical music. TechCrunch reports: Based on its 2021 acquisition of Amsterdam-based streamer Primephonic, the new Apple Music Classical app will offer Apple Music subscribers access to more than 5 million classical music tracks, including new releases in high-quality audio, as well as hundreds of curated playlists, thousands of exclusive albums and other features like composer bios and deep dives on key works, Apple says.

However, while the app is being announced today, it’s only available for preorder on the App Store for now. The release date will be later this month, on March 28. In addition, the app will only support iOS devices running iOS 15.4 or newer at launch. Apple Music Classical will present a simple interface for engaging with classical works. Users will be able to search by composer, work, conductor or even catalog number, to locate recordings. These can be streamed in high-quality audio of up to 192 kHz/24-bit Hi-Res Lossless. And thousands of recordings will be available in Apple’s immersive spatial audio, as well.

The app will also let users dive into the recordings to read editorial notes about the composers and descriptions of their key works. Famous composers will have their own high-resolution digital portraits available, which Apple commissioned from artists. These were designed with color palettes and artistic references from the relevant classical period, Apple notes, and more will be added in time. At launch, portraits will be available for Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin and Johann Sebastian Bach. The service will continue to be updated with new music over time, too. There’s no additional charge for Apple Music Classical if you’re an Apple Music subscriber. Android support is coming “soon.”

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Apple Readies Its Next Range of Macs

According to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is readying a new batch of Macs to launch “between late spring and summer.” This includes a 15-inch MacBook Air and a new 24-inch iMac. From the report: Apple’s next iMac desktop is at an advanced stage of development called engineering validation testing, or EVT, and the company is conducting production tests of the machine. The next iMac will continue to come in the same 24-inch screen size as the current model, which was announced in April 2021. The versions being tested also come in the same colors as the current iMac, a palette that includes blue, silver, pink and orange.

The new iMacs will, of course, be more powerful — with a new M-series chip to replace the M1. There also will be some behind-the-scenes changes. The computer will see some of its internal components relocated and redesigned, and the manufacturing process for attaching the iMac’s stand is different. While development of the new iMacs — codenamed J433 and J434 — has reached a late stage, it’s not expected to go into mass production for at least three months. That means it won’t ship until the second half of the year at the earliest. Still, this is a great development for anyone disappointed that Apple’s all-in-one desktop hasn’t been updated in nearly two years.

Aside from the iMac, Apple is scheduled to launch about three new Macs between late spring and summer, I’m told. Those three models are likely to be the first 15-inch MacBook Air (codenamed J515), the first Mac Pro with homegrown Apple chips (J180) and an update to the 13-inch MacBook Air (J513). The big remaining question is which processors these new Macs will run on. We already know the Mac Pro will include the M2 Ultra, which will provide up to 24 CPU cores, 76 graphics cores and the ability to top out the machine with at least 192 gigabytes of memory. We also know that Apple has developed the next iMac on the same timeline as the M3 chip, so I’d expect it to be one of the company’s first M3-based machines.

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Apple’s ‘iMessage’ Texts are Coming To Windows (with Limitations)

Microsoft “is adding iPhone support to its Phone Link app on Windows 11,” reports MacRumors. “The app allows iPhone users to make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and view an iPhone’s notifications directly on a PC.”

Notably, the app brings limited iMessage functionality to Windows. After pairing an iPhone with a PC via Bluetooth and granting some permissions on the iPhone, users can send and receive iMessages and SMS text messages in Phone Link, but there is no support for group chats or sending photos and videos.

The Verge notes you won’t see the full message history in conversations, “as only messages that have been sent or received using Phone Link will be displayed.”

Microsoft isn’t using blue or green bubbles in Phone Link either, as the company isn’t able to differentiate between a standard text message and one sent via iMessage. The Phone Link integration for iOS is basic compared to what’s available for Android, but Microsoft has never supported messaging or calls for iPhone users before, so this is a step in the right direction….

This new Phone Link support arrives alongside a big new Windows 11 update that includes AI-powered Bing on the taskbar, a screen recording feature, better touch optimizations, and more. If you’re interested in testing this new Phone Link support for iOS, it will be available for Windows Insiders in the Dev, Beta, and Release Preview channels, but Microsoft is kicking off testing with a “small percentage” of testers this week.

Thanks to ttyler (Slashdot reader #20,687) for sharing the news.

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Wing Debuts a Rideshare-Style Drone Delivery Network

Alphabet’s Wing is debuting a Wing Delivery Network platform that relies on decentralized and highly automated pickups. Engadget reports: Drones charge and deliver in whatever locations make the most sense for the broader system. If demand surges in a given area, more drones can operate around the nearest pads. Crucially, your local restaurant or store doesn’t have to do much to take advantage of the network. An AutoLoader system lets shops simply latch a package to a curbside pickup location and walk away — the drone handles the rest. Businesses have to order drones, but they don’t have to manage the fleet or make employees wait for an aircraft to arrive.

The technology is also meant to scale elegantly. It’s relatively easy to add new pad locations as usage grows, and the drones can double as scouts that expand the network. The drones can even make sure they’re allowed to fly in a given area. Wing expects “elements” of the Delivery Network to deploy over the next year, with demonstrations taking place worldwide in 2023. Provided all goes according to plan, the brand wants to handle “millions” of deliveries by mid-2024, at prices that beat conventional ground-based delivery.

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2024 Ford Mustang Drops AM Radio From Infotainment

The new 2024 Ford Mustang is losing its AM radio receiver, reports The Drive. A Ford spokesperson confirmed the feature’s deletion, citing that “countries and automakers globally are modernizing radio by offering internet streaming through mobile apps, FM, or digital.” From the report: The availability of AM radio in new cars has declined over the last decade with shifts in media consumption habits, with AM radio’s audience evaporating in Europe and accounting for only a small minority of the U.S. population. […] It’s a trend of concern to current and former U.S. emergency officials, who recently wrote the Secretary of Transportation a letter advising action on AM radio’s disappearance. AM radio is a crucial component of the U.S.’s national alert network, with just 75 stations reaching more than 90 percent of the country’s population. Officials are concerned that AM receivers’ decreasing availability in new cars could compromise their ability to reach citizens during emergencies.

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Disney Reconsiders Making Content For Others

Disney CEO Bob Iger Thursday said the studio may resume making films and television shows for its rivals, marking a departure from recent years, when its production resources were harnessed to launch and grow its marquee Disney+ steaming service. Reuters reports: Iger told the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco that streaming services have traditionally relied on a volume of fresh content to attract subscribers. He said he hopes to embrace a more curated HBO-like approach of making a few high-quality shows built around its major brands, as he works to lift Disney+ to a profit.

“As we look to reduce the content that we’re creating for our own platforms, there probably are opportunities to license to third parties,” Iger said. “For a while, that was something we couldn’t possibly do because we were so favoring our own streaming platforms. But if we get to a point where we need less content for these platforms, and we still have the capacity of producing that content, why not use it to grow revenue?” Iger also talked about the possibility of licensing content to third parties, noting that Seth MacFarlane’s animated series “Family Guy” draw viewers both on Disney-owned Hulu, as well as on the Roku streaming service.

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Crypto Bank Silvergate Capital To Shut Down

Silvergate Capital, the publicly-traded parent of Silvergate Bank, said Wednesday that it would liquidate the bank, just days after saying future operations would be uncertain. Axios reports: “In light of recent industry and regulatory developments, Silvergate believes that an orderly wind down of Bank operations and a voluntary liquidation of the Bank is the best path forward,” a press statement reads. While the bank’s demise had everything to do with its choice of industry — FTX’s collapse sent the entire crypto world in hunt of liquidity, causing a run on deposits at Silvergate — balance-sheet problems in today’s high-rate environment is not a crypto bank-specific stumbling block. Silvergate’s troubles were in plain sight in that respect.

When customers pulled more than $8 billion from its platform late last year, the bank got a $4.3 billion assist in home loan advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB). It effectively benefited from an implicit government backstop. But between having to pay those loans back right away and other investment losses, its outlook was grim, even before the company filed a registration statement saying so.

The overwhelming majority of bank liquidations are announced on a Friday afternoon, to give the FDIC a full weekend to shore up the institution and reassure depositors before the next business day. The fact this happened on a Wednesday is an indication of just how quickly Silvergate imploded. “Crypto exchanges, platforms and stablecoin issuers at least have the excuse that they don’t have direct access to central bank liquidity,” Frances Coppola, an economist and writer of blog Coppola Comment, said in a recent post about the bank. “But Silvergate does — and yet it didn’t use it.” That would appear to be an oversight for the bank, but also its regulator.

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Microsoft Is Testing File Recommendations In Explorer

Microsoft is starting to test a system called File Recommendations in File Explorer, which does exactly what the name suggests — when you visit the home tab, it shows specific files that you may want to open at the top. The Verge reports: In a blog post, the company says the current version is only available to some Insiders in its Dev Channel who have installed the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23403 update and will only work if you’re logged in with an Azure Active Directory account (meaning that currently, this feature feels squarely aimed at business users). For those that do have it, it’ll suggest cloud files that you own or that have been shared with you.

Microsoft says it plans to “monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone,” so it seems as if it’s aware that the feature could be controversial. Part of that may be just down to the fact that not everybody will want unexpected results in their file browser — though based on the screenshot, you will be able to collapse the Recommended section.

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