The wonderful world of Chinese hi-fi
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg on what’s next for Tumblr
WordPress maker Automattic bought Tumblr from Verizon for pocket change and I don’t usually get excited about corporate deals because they are usually either boring or depressing but this one I am very happy about. I don’t know if Tumblr will ever be an alternative to Facebook et al but Automattic is the best possible company to give it a shot.
Playdate. A New Handheld Gaming System
Panic is making a console. Hardware design by Teenage Engineering.
Who Just Beat the Bay Area in Tech Jobs? Toronto
Apple’s new 2018 MacBook Pros are now available, and the top specs are much faster
Yay! Although I specced out my dream laptop and it came to eight grand.
How Silicon Valley Fuels an Informal Caste System
This is fairly terrifying.
Cooool. Reminds me of the tablets in Westworld.
•Apple is rebuilding Maps from the ground up
Good, in-depth article. The section about the tech in the Maps vans is especially interesting given Apple’s interest in AR and autonomous vehicles.
Facial recognition software is not ready for use by law enforcement
From the CEO of a facial recognition company
Experts Bet on First Deepfakes Political Scandal
YouTube is the preferred platform of today’s teens
They still like Snapchat and Instagram, less so Facebook and Twitter.
Instagram announces IGTV, a standalone app for longer videos
Boooooo. I used to love Instagram but it is getting totally wrecked by Facebook. Isn’t it enough to be the world’s favourite photo sharing platform? Do they have to take on Snapchat and YouTube and who next, Uber? Amazon? The International Criminal Court?
Also, vertical video. What are we, animals?
Rich Intersections
I’m on my lunch, reading this article about Netflix taking over the world and listening to my “Discover Weekly” on Spotify, and it throws up a distinctive-sounding track, so I flip to the band’s bio and read:
ARIWO are a Cuban/Iranian four-piece focused on the rich intersection between electronic music, Afro-Cuban rhythm and Iranian mysticism.
It is an incredible world we live in now, folks. Rich intersections indeed.
The Beam is Sonos’ ambitious attempt to win the living room
Voice-enabled soundbar, at $399 USD
Wind turbines are getting taller, bigger, and more powerful
If I’m reading it right, one of the new big ones (height of Eiffel Tower) could power 1 million homes.
Meet the campaign connecting affluent techies with progressive candidates around the country
The Great Slate, from Pinboard’s Maciej Ceglowski
How Facebook Is Killing Comedy
Deep learning technology is now being used to put Nic Cage in every movie
It didn’t take long to find the best use for this technology.
Artificial intelligence is going to supercharge surveillance
Our Tony Scott future inches closer
Apple Watch Is a Bridge to the Future
Halfway between touchscreens and voice/AI (via birchtree)
We Are Truly F#%ked: Everyone Is Making AI-Generated Fake Porn Now
Edward Snowden made an app to protect your laptop
Why Apple’s HomePod Is Three Years Behind Amazon’s Echo
This sounds to me like a regular Apple development process, and I also don’t see how the Echo and HomePod are in competition (Echo starts at $50, HomePod costs $300 more).
That said, the Echo – or rather, the built-in Alexa assistant – has changed what people expect from a “smart” speaker. As an audiophile-ish smart speaker, HomePod seems more in competition with Sonos, and the latest Sonos One – which has Alexa built in – is the product that blows the HomePod, as we currently understand it, out of the water.