Month: September 2016

Things of note for the week ending Sunday September 25th, 2016.

It’s Sunday. It’s 19:23. And I’m settling down to write this week’s edition. There are a few things in my inbox that I’ve emailed myself throughout the week and a few other favourites/likes from Twitter that need to go in too.

Shall we dive on in?

1. SNAP / SPECTACLES (DON’T SKIP)

You may have been under a rock  this week if you missed this one. But stay tuned… there’s something really, really interesting here.

If you did miss it however, in a sentence: Snapchat rebranded itself as Snap Inc and, at the same time, announced a new set of $129 glasses (nay – spectacles) that can snap a 10 second circular video that you can then share direct from your phone.

And it’s that last part that has really caught my attention.

A new video format.

Not landscape.

Not portrait.

Circular.

Why circular?

This is what it looks like in action:

So simple. So innovative.

The landscape vs portrait argument: null and void in one fell swoop.

Well done, Snap. I’m certain that Spectacles will be a complete sell out (it helps when on limited sale) but it’s this video capture/sharing technique that’s the real thing to look at here. This will be copied and copied and copied.

Just watch.

Oh – and as a bonus thing here: if you’re talking to someone at a party/over dinner/in the pub and they say ‘Ewww, it’s just Google Glass but for Millennials’ – just reel off this perfect counter point after counter point.

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2. HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW MUCH EFFORT YOU PUT INTO NOT BEING ASSAULTED?

Hard reading.

Incredibly hard reading.

So read it.

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3. I USED TO BE A HUMAN BEING

Another day, another article endorsing the whole digital detox thing. In fairness, it’s barely been two months since OFCOM announced research stating that nearly a third of the UK’s internet users had ditched their devices – so it follows that a few more would be give it a go.

There may be a sense of mockery in the words above but they are merely in jest. I tried this (and dabble with it occasionally – maybe once or twice a year now) way back when I spent a month on the trans-mongolian railway… it was a refreshing experience. One I’d recommend in a heartbeat – both the detox and the train ride.

But this isn’t about me.

This is about Andrew Sullivan, in Select/All.

He writes:

“I had sensed a personal crash coming. For a decade and a half, I’d been a web obsessive, publishing blog posts multiple times a day, seven days a week, and ultimately corralling a team that curated the web every 20 minutes during peak hours. Each morning began with a full immersion in the stream of internet consciousness and news, jumping from site to site, tweet to tweet, breaking news story to hottest take, scanning countless images and videos, catching up with multiple memes. Throughout the day, I’d cough up an insight or an argument or a joke about what had just occurred or what was happening right now. And at times, as events took over, I’d spend weeks manically grabbing every tiny scrap of a developing story in order to fuse them into a narrative in real time. I was in an unending dialogue with readers who were caviling, praising, booing, correcting. My brain had never been so occupied so insistently by so many different subjects and in so public a way for so long.”

The man has a point.

Question: when was the last time you unplugged?

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4. EVER TRIED RIDING 2000 MILES WITH A BROKEN SHOULDER?

Laura Scott has.

I know Laura from the internet. We even met in real life once – shortly before Laura was about to set off on this journey. I followed it closely – across Twitter and Instagram – and the pain points along the way were palpable.

This is her incredible story.

On personal note: I have so much respect for your commitment and effort, Laura.

I can’t wait to read about your next adventure.

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5. DID YOU ENJOY BEING A GIRL?

Plan International published its findings on what it’s like to be a girl in the UK today. The State of Girls’ Rights In The UK (PDF) is sobering reading (so I say to you again: make yourself read it).

Included in the paper are the top ten best and worst places to live in the UK if you’re a girl.

Emerald Street asked two writers what it was like growing up at opposite ends of that list; a stark comparison.

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6. A REAL AND TRUE THING THAT MIGHT ACTUALLY BLOW YOUR MIND A LITTLE BIT

Did you know that Australia is drifting so fast that GPS – that’s the global positioning system – needs to be adjusted so it stays correct. Over the past ten years or so, the continent down under has drifted a little under five feet. As the director of cartography at the National Geographic, Damien Saunder, says: [it would seem] ‘Some countries are more stationary than others’ – amazing.

Amazing.

More here, via Nat Geo.

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7. ‘THE TERM ‘MILLENNIAL’ IS USELESS’

Shocker.

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Bonus items this week are as follows:

• Is this the best Batman film ever made?
• LA / SF
• Tribes
• Google has opened its Daydream VR platform up to developers
• If you were a Symbian user way back when and you REALLY miss the killer Twitter app, Gravity. @Janole has launched Gravity Forever – for Android. Go get.

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PS. The keen-eyed among you will have noticed the odd numbering of this week’s issue. I numbered last week’s issue incorrectly. Normal service will return at some point soon. Although to be fair, ‘normal’ around these parts is fairly hard to come by.

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Last note: thanks to all of you for the emails, Whatsapps, Tweets, SMS’s, Voicemails (for real), Carrier Pigeons (this is a joke) of congrats re: the new gig.

You know who you are.

Yes, you.

Thank you.

Super super excited and there’s a whole bunch of stuff I’ve been working on that I can hopefully start talking about soon.

Seasons change and, as I am wont to say: bring. it. on.

Until next time…

 

Whatley out x

 

Things of note for the week ending Sunday September 18th, 2016.

Hello fam. I’m just back from a three day work trip to Barcelona (with the best looking team in the world) and it struck me that I hadn’t written this week’s newsletter. Bums. Please forgive my brevity. I am hungover, a touch sunburnt, and very very tired.

Normal service to resume next week. Although I don’t know what really counts as normal when it comes to this thing, mind.

Shall we?

1. WHAT IS SUPERMAN ABOUT?

Although it has a dig at the underrated Superman Returns (really), this piece on what Superman is actually for is pretty bang on.

I enjoyed reading this.

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2. ZAPPED

Dave Trott on why he thinks we’re in ‘Generation Bland‘.

This made me think.

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3. APPLE AND DIVERSITY

Apple wrote an email with the words ‘off the record’ in it. Mic published it. And it’s a doozy.

This made me say ‘fair play’.

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4. MARS

The Mars Rover has been busy again. Stunning.

This one made say ‘Wow!’

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5. TYPECAST AS A TERRORIST

Riz Ahmed writing in the Guardian. Best thing on the list this week.

This one made me go ‘Ach’

UPDATE: NOW WITH LINK.

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6. SEX WITH YOUR PARTNER, EVERY DAY, FOR A YEAR

A good read on learning what you need.

This one stayed with me.

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7. WANT TO SEE THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF SPACE EXPLORATION ON A SINGLE MAP?

Of course you do.

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Bonuses this week are as follows:

• The curse of compulsive phone checking
• Selective Hearing
• Interesting Times

And that’s me, done.

I don’t even have a gif for you.

Oh, hang on.

Let me check.

Yes I do.

This is basically me, in about 30 seconds (after I’ve hit publish).

Have a great week x

 

 

Things of note for the week ending Sunday 11th September, 2016.

1. 15

Fifteen years ago, I was working at Good Morning Television – aka GMTV – on London’s Southbank (literally five minutes from where my office is now).

Working in TV-land meant there were always TVs on everywhere. Everywhere. The one in my office was above my desk. It was coming up to about 2pm I think when someone said, ‘Oh my God, look’. I looked up, and everyone was looking up above me, at the TV.

We were watching a live feed from New York. I remember seeing the second plane hit, live, and being in shock. We had no idea what we were witnessing.

It’s a small, little known fact but back then, GMTV wasn’t just a TV show. It had its own news team, outside of ITN, Reuters, and the BBC etc. It was its own weird little entity.

Within the next 30mins or so, every news correspondent in the building must’ve come into our office demanding flights to New York. ‘We can’t get them. New York is closed.’ we’d say, and we’d carry on watching the TV. I remember a few days later, those flights finally took place (all except for one savvy correspondent, Lara Logan, who flew the other direction – to Afghanistan – but that’s a whole other story).

There were rumours we were going to be evacuated too. Every tall building was suddenly a target. We were right near Westminster, the building was filled with media / news etc… we were surely next.

The brain does funny things in crisis.

Waking up on the 12th was the first time I woke up feeling afraid. Terrorism was something I’d read about / barely remembered from the days of the IRA etc. The world was – and still is – a very different place.

This morning, Sunday September 11th, I woke up, made my son breakfast, drank some coffee and read this account of the movements of Air Force One by those that were either onboard or simply encountering her on that day. A long, sobering piece that you should find the time to read today.

Really.

I wept when I finished it.

A horrid, horrid day.

One that will never be forgotten.

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Hard to follow that.

I’m just going to publish what I’ve gathered this week below with no changes.

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2. WHEN INFINITY GETS BORING (+ PS4 PRO STUFF)

Another week, another post/link/comment about No Man’s Sky (I think this might turn into a general gamery section actually – there are a few other bits to cover off).

New Scientists has published the above named article this week. Quote:

“All of the screenshots that came out to promote the game were phenomenally beautiful. But of course these shots were hand-picked to show the best that the game could produce. Not every world looks like that – and you don’t see such variety when moving from one planet to the next. You need to explore a lot of worlds to find those interesting places. But after a number of them –  20 or 50, wherever your threshold lies – the thrill of planet hopping fades.”

And, in all fairness, I think they have a point. I’m still playing – dipping in and out, trying to find the perfect ship etc – but it’s just a a grind now and I’m not enjoying it as much as before. I’ve decided to put it back on the shelf for the interim and wait for the next content update.

That said, the game is deeply tranquil and it is still quite enjoyable to just go and fly around for a bit, and find different materials etc… well, we’ll see. But my play-time has definitely dropped off.

Also this week: the PS4 Pro was announced.

The lack of a UHD Blu-Ray player onboard seems like a real misstep for me and was super close to being a deal-breaker. But then two things happened: first, my buddy, Matt pointed out that if anybody has any clear visibility on how well 4K blu-rays are selling, then it’s Sony. It might not be cost effective to put a high-end player in this machine if the whole world is going digital… and I think he might be right. The second thing (also via Matt) was that I watched this 4K Horizon: Zero Dawn gameplay trailer via the 4K YouTube app on my Sony TV – AND IT LOOKS RIDICULOUS. Honestly, if you’re reading this on your phone, then just add that trailer to your YouTube Watch Later list and find a way to see it at the highest quality available… it’s immense.

Can I justify a new machine right now? No, probably not. Especially with PSVR around the corner. Can I campaign my family and friends to get me GAME vouchers for my birthday and Christmas and put them towards this machine? Probably yes.

So let’s see.

PS. If you’re unsure about the PS4 Pro, Kotaku has a good take that’s worth reading.

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3. NEW PHONE TIME OF YEAR

I’m considering a new phone. My Sony Z5 broke and I managed to lay my hands on a Huawei (wah-way) P9 which is really, really impressing me.

It may still be a contender.

If you’re considering a new phone here are two things that might be of interest. One: I asked Twitter what phone I should get – here is what it said. Two: I asked Stefan – my podcasting partner in crime – which phone I should get on Episode 178 of The Voicemail and you can listen to that here.

Hope that’s useful.

Related: this made me laugh.

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4. DUREX EMOJI

The Durex Eggplant emoji flavour story was pretty big this week but my favourite take on it comes from Fast Co Create:

“Last year the brand launched a campaign for a condom emoji, to give young people a way to talk about safe sex that didn’t involve actual words. However, the condom wasn’t added to the the Unicode Consortium’s official emoji alphabet, so the brand may have found the perfect troll to protest the decision. While the new flavor is still just a concept, the brand’s campaign for a safe-sex emoji continues. Until then, feel free to just use an eggplant + balloon.”

Good quick reading.

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5. MCDONALD’S + ADVERTISING

You may or not be aware but apparently McDonald’s has just appointed itself an ‘agency of the future‘ model, via Omnicom. If you know everything or if you know nothing about this, these two opposing views on the news are well worth your time.

• Mark Ritson (for)
• Ad Contrarian (against)]

I must admit, I’m closer to the contrarian…

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6. NEW IPHONE THIS WEEK

Unsurprisingly, The Register was not invited. I’ve had my fair share of run ins with them but, that aside, I had to doff my hat to this epic trolling of Apple’s comms team.

Made me chuckle.

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7. CIALDINI’S 7TH

Familiar with Cialdini’s six six principles of influence? You should be.

Apparently he’s adding a seventh.

Details here.

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Bonuses this week are as follows:

• Here is an exceptional rant on Silicon Valley only choosing to solve the hard problems that it wants to solve.
• When you change the world and no one notices.
• Ach.
• Don’t tell me how to hold my phone.

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Right, I’m outta here.

Things of note for the week ending Sunday September 4th, 2016.

Monochromatic edition. Because why not?

Come on in, the water’s lovely.

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THING ONE: DARK

“It’s been seven months since Emma died and two weeks since I started building a bot from her texts. I’m feeding every word she sent me into the system, every thought, every feeling.”

If you’re reading this near to someone, read the whole thing aloud.

It’s dark, poignant, and beautiful.

‘My Dead Girlfriend’s Bot‘

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THING TWO: LONG READS

It’s been two weeks since the closure of Gawker.com (if you know nothing of what I speak – start here with this New York Times report in May, then read this follow up piece, and then finally this round up from The Guardian) and, irrespective of your opinion who was in the ‘right’ on this one (most people are either: Tech billionaire throws tantrum! or Gawker invade privacy!), in its 14 years of history, Gawker has published some hella amazing articles.

Buzzfeed asked its own staff for their favourite Gawker pieces and pulled together a fantastic list (NOT a listicle) of Stories to Remember Gawker By.

Some seriously fantastic writing.

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THING THREE: NOT COOL

Frith Hookway writes:

‘In a similar vane as name dropping, name bombing is when someone’s name is used as a catalyst for getting something done faster.

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For example, in an email or meeting we might say “so-and-so has asked for this by the end of the day” or “I’m doing work for you-know-who so really need everyone to pitch in”.

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Without even thinking about it, I know I’m guilty of this. Many of us probably are.’

You’ve probably done this. I definitely have.

It’s not cool. I’m going to stop.

Are you?

Read more: ‘Name bombing: the not cool way of getting things done’

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THING FOUR: SPACE, MAN

Next on this week’s list of things, is ‘Never go to space it’s terrible omg‘(yes, that’s the actual title). A brilliant piece from Leigh Alexander that delves into the physical and psychological challenges that lie ahead for any ambitions star-travellers among us.

A sobering read (and bizarrely reminiscent of my recent play time on No Man’s Sky (if there’s one thing that this game manages to do it’s capture the real feeling of insignificance in a truly inconceivably large universe)) it looks at how much work our astronauts have to put into surviving the most hostile environment you can possibly imagine.

The known knowns are interesting.
The unknown knowns blow your mind (the Buzz Aldrin about halfway in, for example).
The unknown unknowns are the things that’ll literally stop us dead.

Our planet will attempt a manned trip to Mars in my lifetime. This piece goes some way to explain just how hard that’s going to be for those that will be onboard.

Go read.

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THING FIVE: DIE DRAGON DIE

One of the wonderful (and yet super hard to communicate clearly) things about gaming online is the huge sense of camaraderie that can come from achieving a seemingly insurmountable feat. With death at hand, a clutch victory in the closing seconds of any match can go down in legend among your fellow players and, in many cases, forge life-long friendships along the way.

I speak from experience.

With that in mind, I read this story this morning about a band of brothers and sisters who put aside their differences to defeat an undefeatable creature and, in doing so, triggered a chain of events that had the senior management at Sony Online Entertainment sit up and pay attention.

Even if you’re not a gamer – this is an excellent read:

The Surprising And Allegedly Impossible Death Of EverQuest’s ‘Unkillable’ Dragon

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Bonuses this week are as follows –

• Weird short vines/gifs.
• I laughed harder at this than I should’ve done.
• Got a smashed screen on that iPhone? I like these.
• I can’t stop watching this amazing queue control.
• Steward and McKellan are coming back to the West End.

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And finally, a couple of years ago I went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and, with my good friend Robbie, caught 18 different shows/performances/plays over the course of three days.

The very last one we saw was a one woman show by Pheobe Waller-Bridge.

The name of that show? Fleabag.

In my post-Fringe write up I wrote:

And it was.

Utterly, utterly brilliant.

That was three years ago.

Today, Fleabag is back. Waller-Bridge has adapted it for TV and you can find it on BBC iPlayer and, I believe very soon, on Amazon Prime. It is superb.

So superb that it gets its own separate section in this weeks THINGS.

Google it.

Find it.

Watch it.

Talk to others about it.

Then go and read all the other amazing things that have been written about it.

Waller-Bridge deserves every success off the back of this.

That is all.

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Right, I’m outta here.

Thanks for reading.

If you could do one thing for me this week it would be to tell a friend about this newsletter.

Until next time…