121: Chrome DevTools Gets AI Superpowers

Front-End Fire

This week is a news roundup while cohost Jack is away for a hackathon in SF.

First up, is how Chrome DevTools has added AI to its panels. Now users can ask Gemini to explain console errors, make CSS changes via in the elements tab, and explain traces collected in the performance panel.

HTMX has also jumped from v2 to v4 (alpha), rebuilding the internals after 5 years of maintaining the project. Upgrades include: going from XMLHttpRequests to fetch, explicit attribute inheritance, and improved history caching.

Angular’s meta-framework AnalogJS also just launched 2.0 which offers file-based routing, better Vite ecosystem support, and unified SSR, SSG, and islands-style hydration in one cohesive setup.

Rumor has it that next year Apple will be using Gemini to drive Siri, as it continues to try and get Apple Intelligence to work reliably.

GitHub has officially disabled classic token creation for npm publishing in an effort to reign in the supply chain attacks we’ve reported on for the last few months.

And last but not least, a company called NEO has a home assistant robot available for preorder now. The robot can clean, fold laundry, do dishes, and so on, but here’s the kicker: it’s a human piloting it remotely. Is this really the robot enhanced future we imagined?

Timestamps:

• 1:16 - Chrome DevTools gets a bunch of AI features
• 8:39 - htmx v4 alpha
• 14:25 - AnalogJS 2.0
• 17:09 - Apple allegedly to use Gemini to drive Siri
• 22:13 - GitHub disables classic token creation for npm
• 27:38 - NEO home robot
• 35:58 - What’s making us happy

News:

• Paige - HTMX goes right from v2 to v4 (alpha)
• TJ - Chrome DevTools gets a bunch of AI features

Lightning News:

• AnalogJS 2.0
• Apple allegedly to use Gemini to drive Siri
• GitHub’s disabled classic token creation for npm
• NEO home robot

What Makes Us Happy this Week:

• Paige - The Survivalists novel
• TJ - Pokemon Legends Z–A game

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