The hottest APIs Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Apple Advance Commerce API, Highnote $90M, Perplexity Sonar

The API Changelog • 1 implied HN point • 28 Jan 25
🕹 Technology APIs Software AI Fintech Commerce
  1. Apple launched a new Advanced Commerce API to help developers manage in-app purchases more easily. This API supports apps with large content libraries and complex subscription needs.
  2. Highnote raised $90 million in funding to improve its card issuance platform, aiming to streamline payment processes for businesses. The company is expanding its offerings to make payments easier for small and large enterprises.
  3. Perplexity introduced an API called Sonar that integrates generative AI search capabilities into applications. This tool promises to provide accurate answers and is aimed at making AI-driven tools more accessible for developers.

The New API

The API Changelog • 3 implied HN points • 03 Jan 25
🕹 Technology APIs Development Software Integration Architecture
  1. The new API is all about flexibility. It will change itself to fit what users need instead of sticking to old rules.
  2. Users can communicate with the new API using any format or style they like, whether it's REST or GraphQL. It adapts automatically to what makes sense for each user.
  3. Developers won't have to worry about the technical details as much. They can focus on creating useful features because the API will manage itself behind the scenes.
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USAF Aircraft Maintenance Standard, xAI $6B, Postman Leak

The API Changelog • 3 implied HN points • 31 Dec 24
🕹 Technology AI Digital Tools Data security APIs Fintech
  1. ChatGPT and Sora experienced service outages, affecting many users. This situation shows how important it is for digital services to have strong systems, especially during busy times.
  2. The U.S. Air Force is creating a new standard for aircraft maintenance that will help both military and commercial aviation. This is a big step towards improving safety and efficiency in aircraft upkeep.
  3. A major leak revealed that thousands of Postman Workspaces exposed sensitive data like API keys. This highlights how crucial it is to secure digital information to prevent cyber risks.

Unpacking OpenAI's Dev Day

Tanay’s Newsletter • 132 implied HN points • 15 Nov 23
🕹 Technology AI APIs Developers
  1. OpenAI announced GPT-4 Turbo with longer context length, better cost, and improved function calling.
  2. OpenAI introduced multimodal capabilities in GPT-4 including image generation, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and vision API.
  3. OpenAI unveiled the GPT Store allowing users to create and monetize custom mini GPTs, fostering indie entrepreneurship and potentially reshaping interface design.

Rapid Development Of Intelligent Generative AI APIs

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 19 implied HN points • 19 Apr 24
🕹 Technology AI APIs Development Software Automation
  1. Intelligent APIs use AI to add advanced features, making it easier for developers to integrate smart tech without deep knowledge of AI. They can improve apps in many areas like e-commerce and healthcare.
  2. Sometimes, just connecting an API to a language model isn't enough. It often needs extra logic or intelligence to function better, enhancing the user experience.
  3. The GALE platform helps automate tasks using generative AI, allowing businesses to streamline processes. This lets teams focus on more important and creative work.

LG ThinQ API, Boomi + Rivery, McDonald's Delivery Flaw

The API Changelog • 3 implied HN points • 24 Dec 24
🕹 Technology APIs Software Innovation Security Funding
  1. LG has opened its ThinQ API for developers, allowing for smarter home tech integration. This helps create innovative and connected home solutions.
  2. Boomi is set to buy Rivery to improve data management and integration. This will make it easier for companies to handle their data effectively.
  3. A serious security flaw was discovered in McDonald's delivery app, potentially allowing free orders. McDonald's acted quickly to fix the issue, showing their dedication to online safety.

Demystifying API Gateways: What They Are & Why They Matter

Engineering At Scale • 75 implied HN points • 11 Feb 24
🕹 Technology APIs Microservices Architecture Security Performance
  1. API Gateway acts as an intermediary in microservices, handling client requests, and routing them to the appropriate microservices, simplifying communication for clients.
  2. API Gateway enhances security by authenticating and authorizing requests, provides rate-limiting to prevent attacks, and improves performance through caching and protocol conversion.
  3. Downsides of API Gateways include increased latency due to an extra hop, potential single point of failure, and added complexity to the system architecture.

SmartBear Hubs with HaloAI, Quantifind $22M, BeyondTrust API Key Breach

The API Changelog • 1 implied HN point • 21 Jan 25
🕹 Technology AI APIs Cybersecurity Fintech Software
  1. OpenAI is launching its new o3-mini AI model soon. This model is smaller and more efficient, designed to help developers create voice apps quickly.
  2. Quantifind has raised $22 million to improve how financial crime is detected using AI, making it easier to find suspicious transactions.
  3. BeyondTrust faced a security issue where a compromised API key led to unauthorized access, highlighting the importance of keeping such keys safe.

API Documentation for Machines

The API Changelog • 6 implied HN points • 22 Nov 24
🕹 Technology AI APIs Documentation Development Software
  1. API documentation should be structured and easy for machines to read. Using known formats like OpenAPI helps AI agents understand the API better, making it easier for them to use.
  2. Clearly define all operations and parameters in the documentation. AI agents need specifics about input types and constraints to avoid confusion.
  3. It's important to document errors and provide examples. Even machines need clear guidance on what each error means to function properly.

Building a Working Recommendation Engine from Scratch

Building a Recommendation Engine • 3 HN points • 04 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Algorithms Programming APIs Data Management Machine Learning
  1. A recommendation engine can work without complex machine learning. Instead, it can be built using straightforward connections between content to suggest things users might like.
  2. Using an API from a platform like Are.na allows easy access to user content and helps find connections between different channels, making recommendations more relevant.
  3. It's important to filter out content that users already know or follow to give them fresh and exciting recommendations. Regular updates to the recommendations can also help keep things interesting.

API Renaissance: The Dawn of API Unicorns Supporting Invisible Apps

Alex Furmansky - Magnetic Growth • 58 implied HN points • 26 Apr 23
🕹 Technology AI APIs Startups Innovation Future
  1. The future may see billion-dollar startups without websites or apps, catering more to AI bots than humans.
  2. Apps are evolving to serve AI, with a focus on efficient endpoints for AI bots instead of human interactions.
  3. APIs are becoming crucial for AI interactions, leading to opportunities in API generation, documentation, accountability, authentication, paywalling, revenue generation, and marketplace exchanges.

The Future of Network Observability and Network Automation

Internet Dynamics • 58 implied HN points • 06 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Networking Observability Automation Data Analysis APIs
  1. Network observability is crucial for network automation to handle real-time mitigation and remediation.
  2. Observability solutions need to consider topology, alerts, correlation, suppression, policy, and meta-data for effective network monitoring.
  3. Future approaches to observability and automation should recognize and manifest common components like Topology, CMDBs and Meta-data.

Introducing Masked-AI, An Open Source library that enables the usage of LLM APIs more securely

Adam’s Notes • 58 implied HN points • 30 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Open Source APIs Data security Python Machine Learning
  1. Use Masked-AI to securely access LLM APIs by replacing sensitive data with placeholders.
  2. Be cautious of sharing sensitive data with third-party APIs like OpenAI and consider privacy risks.
  3. Consider alternative models like Meta's Llama while waiting for self-hosted options to run large language models.

Standard Semantics

davidj.substack • 95 implied HN points • 01 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Data Modeling Semantic Layers APIs Standardization
  1. Having a standard interface for semantic layers is crucial to prevent failure and ensure compatibility among different layers.
  2. SQL APIs offered by semantic layers may not be truly SQL, leading to potential confusion and challenges in querying data.
  3. Supporting REST HTTP interfaces for semantic layers enables a broader range of use cases, including data applications for internal and external purposes.

📝 Guest Post: Caching LLM Queries for Improved Performance and Cost Savings*

TheSequence • 217 implied HN points • 10 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Language Models APIs
  1. Using a semantic cache can improve LLM application performance by reducing retrieval times and API call expenses.
  2. Caching LLM responses can enhance scalability by reducing the load on the LLM service and improving user experience by reducing network latency.
  3. GPTCache is an open-source semantic cache designed for storing LLM responses efficiently and offers various customization options.

One step closer to a Universal Age API

Tech + Regulation • 19 implied HN points • 08 Apr 24
🕹 Technology APIs Online safety Privacy Social media
  1. Meta is working on a Universal Age API that helps determine what apps users can access based on their ages. This is aimed at keeping kids and teens safer online.
  2. The plan includes steps for platforms to share age information, resolve any conflicts, and improve user experiences by not asking for age repeatedly. This will help ensure that kids aren’t exposed to inappropriate content.
  3. There’s a push for better age verification methods and standards to protect younger users online. Different platforms could collaborate to share age data for a safer internet.

Which Llama-2 Inference API should I use?

LLMs for Engineers • 39 implied HN points • 31 Oct 23
🕹 Technology AI Development Open Source APIs Machine Learning Cloud Computing
  1. TogetherAI was found to perform the best overall in terms of cost, speed, and accuracy, closely followed by MosaicML.
  2. It's important to understand your specific needs when choosing an API, like cost and speed requirements, to find the best fit.
  3. Experimenting with system prompts can lead to major improvements in performance, so don't hesitate to try different settings!

Back-end for Front-end Pattern in Ecommerce

Cristian’s Substack • 39 implied HN points • 10 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Development Architecture APIs Microservices Patterns
  1. Back-end for Front-end (BFF) pattern helps reduce front-end complexity by acting as an interface between front-end and microservices/APIs.
  2. BFF pattern separates front-end requirements from back-end concerns, making the application easier to maintain and more resilient to API changes.
  3. Implementing BFF pattern can improve error handling, maintainability, and performance in an ecommerce platform by allowing for better control over API consumption and reducing network steps.

Using OpenAPI Overlays to Differentiate Consumer Personas

The API Changelog • 4 implied HN points • 08 Nov 24
🕹 Technology APIs Documentation Security Development Tools
  1. API documentation can be tailored for different users to protect sensitive operations. This is important because revealing too much information can become a security risk.
  2. Using multiple OpenAPI documents can be challenging to maintain, as changes need to be updated in each separate document.
  3. OpenAPI Overlays help manage different user needs without complicating maintenance. They allow adding or changing API operations based on user types easily.

Data Monetization Strategies

astrodata • 19 implied HN points • 25 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Data Monetization User Interfaces APIs
  1. When designing a data delivery layer, focus on maximizing the value customers can realize from your product by integrating data into their workflows effectively.
  2. Understand your customers' needs and workflows to choose the best data delivery options like user interfaces and machine interfaces, which can be combined for a cohesive solution.
  3. Data delivery options range from BI dashboards for insight viewing to APIs for seamless integration and data marketplaces for extending the reach of data products.

Open Banking +

Fintech Across the Pond • 19 implied HN points • 24 Jan 24
💰 Finance Fintech Payments APIs
  1. Open banking lacks a scalable commercial model, hindering broader adoption.
  2. SPAA aims to address the commercial gap in open banking by introducing premium APIs.
  3. SPAA enables new payment features and access to enhanced data assets for better functionality.

Orphan, Shadow, and Zombie APIs

The API Changelog • 4 implied HN points • 02 Nov 24
🕹 Technology APIs Software Development Cloud Data Management
  1. APIs can be categorized based on their usage and management status. Knowing if an API is 'orphan', 'shadow', or 'zombie' helps understand if it's being used or managed properly.
  2. An 'orphan' API is one that is documented but not used, wasting resources without serving a purpose.
  3. A 'shadow' API is used but not documented or managed, while a 'zombie' API is outdated but still running, consuming resources without support.

The API Integration Nightmare

The API Changelog • 4 implied HN points • 31 Oct 24
🕹 Technology APIs Software Development Integration Networking
  1. APIs are meant to connect different applications, but integrating them can be really frustrating. Many developers face issues with poor documentation and unclear instructions.
  2. Experimenting with APIs often reveals surprises, like missing parameters or unexpected responses. This can make it feel like you’re constantly troubleshooting without getting anywhere.
  3. Managing multiple APIs adds even more stress because they often don’t follow the same standards. This can lead to lots of headaches when trying to make everything work smoothly together.

Resolving Mac Appstore rejections due to deprecation

jDeploy Newsletter • 28 implied HN points • 20 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Development Software APIs Frameworks
  1. Be mindful of using non-public or deprecated APIs when developing Mac Appstore applications as it can lead to rejections.
  2. One way to fix dependencies on deprecated APIs is by building and inserting a custom version of the deprecated framework into the app bundle.
  3. Changing bundle IDs when necessary and updating dependencies in dynamic libraries using tools like install_name_tool can help in resolving issues and getting the updated version accepted on the Mac Appstore.

Sort Product Update – September 2024

Database Engineering by Sort • 7 implied HN points • 03 Sep 24
🕹 Technology Software APIs Data Management Product Updates Collaboration
  1. The Sort API is now live and allows users to manage their data workflows completely online. You can access all the features you find in the Sort web app through the API.
  2. There’s a new feature called the Sort Playground that makes it easier for users to try out and request data changes. It’s user-friendly and allows anyone to add or edit data easily.
  3. Sort is open to feedback and suggestions from users. If you have ideas for improvements, you can reach out to them directly.