Five things on Friday #265

Things of note for the week ending Friday, July 27th, 2018.

Things of note for the week ending July 27th, 2018 (I’m taking August off so this is the last edition until September).

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TO THE THINGS.

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1. THE DARK KNIGHT: TEN YEARS ON

THE DARK KNIGHT is inarguably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. It is ten years old this month and it still holds up.

And this Village Voice article is a great look at its themes and why it still resonates so strongly today.

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2. THIS PLAYLIST IS EVERYTHING

Here in the UK we have a music album compilation/tradition known as ‘NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC‘ – you can date someone within the nearest year or so by what their very first edition was and this month, NTWICM hit #100.

To celebrate, the AMAZING Popjustice put together the DEFINITIVE NTWICM Spotify playlist – and it is effing phenomenal.

Go listen to some bangers RIGHT NOW.

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3. LATEST VOICE ASSISTANT STATS

National Public Radio in the US dropped its latest Smart Audio Report and it has some really interesting stats on the what and why people use smart home assistants – aka smart speakers.

A few nuggets of interest include:

  • Ownership skews female and slightly older
  • For early adopters, smart speakers are now the number one way they consume audio
  • Nearly 40% of people purchase smart speakers to help them reduce screen time.

The whole report is super interesting and definitely worth 15mins of your time to consume and consider.

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4. MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS

This week I learned about the documentary about THE NATIONAL called ‘Mistaken for Strangers‘ – up until I went to put this into the newsletter, I thought it was new. I was going to show you the trailer and then tell you how excited I was to see it.

Turns out it isn’t new at all and that you could probably find it online quite easily.

So I intend to do that this weekend.

You should do the same.

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5. AN INTERESTING TREND IN VR

This week, Sega released a free update to the PS4 game ‘Sega Classics’. The update brings PSVR support to the game and the actual VR experience is that of sitting in an old bedroom from the 1990s and playing the classic games you grew up playing.

Like this:

Which, while funny, is a bit weird (you can see a video of it in action here).

So there’s a general trend here.

Here’s Netflix VR:

And here’s the BBC doing the World Cup.

You can see it, right?

I really like that VR can take you away to different places and immerse you in new and fantastic experiences. Sitting on a sofa and playing a game or watching a movie in a different environment to the one you’re in is not my idea of an amazing VR experience.

I’m not sure I like it that much. So hurrah for free PSVR updates but boo to tacking on a room build to what is simply the standard app/game experience.

What do you think?

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THE ESSENTIALS

This week. 

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THE BONUS LINK SECTION OF BONUS BONUS LINKS

Until next time…

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