Things of note for the week ending August 15th, 2014.
— Whirlwinds of Light, via This is Colossal.
1. Smartphones leak, dumb phones don’t
International master of misadventure, John McAfee, spoke at Def Con recently and one of the things that picked up as a headline over at the Wall Street Journal was the following:
‘On the subjects of privacy and security, McAfee said smartphones are spying on American consumers, who don’t bother to read user agreements. “The most promising privacy thing is stupid phones,†he said. “I’m dumping all my smart phones.â€
He said he had started brownlist.com, to collect complaints against large corporations. He also said he has an app for Android phones that tracks privacy permissions for various apps.’
A few things:
- This is not news.
- This could be the start of a new trend against all things privacy-related.
- I get the impression that this is especially not news to the people it matters most to.
Something to think on maybe?
If you want to stay clean, and prevent THE MAN from getting his dirty hands on your lovely, lovely data. Go get a dumbphone. Like a Nokia 106 for example.
2. There’s a hexagonal hurricane on Saturn
The above was first sighted back in the 1980s, when the NASA Voyager probes flew past Saturn for the first time. In the 30+ years it takes Saturn to pass around the Sun, we can finally get to see it again.
And the New York Times has made a gorgeous, sub-three-minute video to help tell the story –
This is my favourite item this week. By a long shot.
– via Mental Floss
3. Planes IRL vs Planes Hollywood-style
I really, really liked this photo-essay. Interesting for not only seeing how crazy big planes can be (in contrast of your average human being) but also gaining an insight into how plane scenes are shot on film.
4. Samsung + New Ad Space
I’ve never owned a Samsung phone (something about the version of Android that it runs combined with the achingly boring product design really puts me off) however every now and then you have to applaud the epic trolling enjoyed by its marketing team over Apple (‘Screen Envy‘ definitely made me chuckle).
One of Samsung’s latest was this little video poking fun at ‘wall huggers’ – aka – iPhone users who have to sit next to plug sockets all the time while their [poorly-powered] iPhones charge. It seems, not happy with its near-15m views, Samsung has taken this down another level. Literally.
‘Samsung Galaxy S5 with Ultra Power Saving Mode. So you have the power to be anywhere but here’
A super smart use of ambient media in conjunction with an already well-established viral video. Contextually relevant and guaranteed to hit your target market. I think this is great.
Well done, Samsung.
Sidenote: I guess this makes me a Samsung blogger now, right? Christ.
5. Behind the Scenes of Guardians of the Galaxy’s aliens
Seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet? If not, why not? It’s not ‘just another superhero movie’, nor is it ‘one of those Marvel films that I know nothing about’ neither is it ‘a film for geeks’. GotG is probably the summer blockbuster of 2014 (with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes running a close second).
So yeah, see it.
Now that’s out of the way, Fast Co.Create has published a [completely spoiler free] behind the scenes look at some of the make up and special effects that went into creating the aliens that appear in said film.
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Bonuses this week:
- This Louis CK interview is a long read, but both excellent and worth your time.
- Anagramatron hunts for tweets that are anagrams of each other. It’s so brilliantly bizarre that it’s my recommended Tumblr of the week!
- If you’re a male social media expert who happens to be vegan, single, and an active Tinder user, I’d recommend not reading this AMAZING comic strip.
Did you like this stuff? Did you find any of its interesting? If you did, do me a favour and tell your friends. I’d really appreciate it, cheers.
Have a great weekend.
