React Activity, Storybook 9 Beta, and AI as a Collaborator, Not a Crutch
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The React team’s been on a roll lately with new experimental updates. Last episode we covered View Transitions, and today we discuss Activity. Activity is a component to hide and show parts of the UI while maintaining the component’s state and continuing to render at a lower priority when it’s not visible on screen. Storybook 9 beta is out now, and it seems to be transitioning from a frontend workshop for building UI components in isolation to a one-stop shop for all your frontend testing needs. Component testing, interaction testing, accessibility testing, visual testing, test coverage reports, and all bundled into a library that’s 48% smaller than Storybook 8. Microsoft recently released a paper from researchers at Cambridge and Carnegie Mellon studying how AI coding assistants have allowed developers to engage in less critical thinking and independent problem-solving, and how the skills to do both could deteriorate if this over-reliance on AI continues unchecked. Addy Osmani, engineering lead for Google Chrome, shares tips on how to use AI as a collaborator and not a crutch, so devs can be faster and more efficient, but also keep their coding skills sharp. There’s a new independent web browser in the making called Ladybird. Built using a web standards approach, and backed by a non-profit funded entirely by sponsorships and donations the browser hopes to launch a targeted alpha release in 2026. And finally, Apple has had to update its App Store guidelines around external payments and links after it lost a legal battle where it was found to have knowingly implemented anti-patterns to prevent app developers from pointing to alternative payment options outside of the app store (which would have bypassed Apple’s 30% commission through App Store purchases). The moral of this story? Be careful what you put in writing on company channels, as it may become public knowledge in the future.