Systems design approach to LLMs, Chrome's @function rule, and new affordable AI releases. And trending news and tools as always.

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Welcome, Developers! πŸ‘‹

Today, we're covering Chrome's new CSS @function rule for dynamic stylesheets, systems design approaches to better LLM prompting, and fresh AI model releases with competitive pricing. Plus insights on effective human oversight in AI workflows and Google's upcoming Android app verification requirements.

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πŸ”– The Reading Room

Articles we have hand-picked for you:

5 Useful CSS Functions Using the New @function Rule

Chrome 139 introduces the @function rule, allowing developers to write reusable CSS logic that accepts arguments and returns dynamic values. This moves beyond simple custom properties to enable actual computation and conditional logic within stylesheets. Currently Chrome-only but progressing through W3C standards. 

By Una Kravets β†’

Systems Design Approach to Prompt Engineering

Understanding how LLMs process information through attention mechanisms can improve your prompts significantly. Structure matters more than word choice because models calculate relationships between all tokens simultaneously, not sequentially like humans read. 

By Alex Chesser β†’

Recently released AI models

  • Gemini 2.5 Flash: Google launched a new image generation model with editing capability. The model offers character consistency, prompt-based editing, and multi-image fusion at $0.039 per image. Available now via Gemini API and Google AI Studio for developers.

  • Grok Code Fast 1: Grok Code Fast 1 aims to be a highly optimized and economical model that excels at agentic coding workflows while maintaining strong performance across TypeScript, Python, Java, Rust, C++, and Go. It costs just $0.20/$1.50 per million input/output tokens.
  • DeepSeek v3.1: DeepSeek-v3.1 is new a open-weight model that's free to configure or host like its competitors; gpt-oss, Qwen etc. It trails behind frontier models but costs just $0.56/$1.68 per million input/output tokens if used via API.

Redefining β€˜Human in the Loop’

Most "human in the loop" AI systems fail spectacularly: rejecting job candidates before recruiters see them, frustrating customers with unhelpful bots. The problem isn't human involvement, it's humans lacking genuine authority, time to think, and contextual understanding to question automated decisions effectively.

By Tey Bannerman β†’

Google will block sideloading of unverified Android apps starting next year

Google is creating a mandatory verification system for all Android developers, even for those developing apps outside the Play Store. Soon, unverified apps will refuse to install on Android devices. This is possibly in response to courts forcing Google to allow other app stores and marks a significant change from Android's traditionally open nature.

By Ryan Whitwam β†’

⏳ Back in Time

Most clicks from last newsletter:

πŸ”— The Link Lounge 

Unordered finds from around the web:

Find something cool? You can send us links to feature here via email.

🧰 The Toolbox

Tools and products we're excited about today:

google-spreadsheet

This library provides an intuitive wrapper around Google Sheets API, enabling developers to easily read, write, and manage spreadsheet data, cells, rows, worksheets, and document sharing through simplified methods.

Learn more β†’

ImageJS 

ImageJS processes images in JavaScript/TypeScript, enabling operations such as loading, saving, pixel manipulation, filtering, cropping, and geometric transformations. It also performs mask operations, statistical analysis, and batch processing, supported by strict type definitions.

Learn more β†’

react-window

React Window optimizes rendering of large lists and tabular data within React applications. It provides components that efficiently display extensive datasets, mitigating common performance challenges associated with rendering many items.

Learn more β†’

Puck 

Puck functions as a visual editor for React, enabling users to build custom drag-and-drop page layouts. It integrates existing React components for content creation and management directly within your application framework.

Learn more β†’

Get Enterprise Ready Without Slowing Your Roadmap

WorkOS brings enterprise features to your app in minutes, not months.

  • Add SSO, SCIM, and RBAC in a few lines of code.

  • Onboard customers instantly with a secure self-serve portal.

  • Trusted by OpenAI, Cursor, and Vercel to scale with confidence.

Focus on building what makes your product great. WorkOS handles the rest.

Make your app enterprise ready today β†’

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