tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27882164375263121192024-03-17T12:00:34.558+02:00ForsArtificial intelligence cannot compensate human stupidityGeorge B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.comBlogger2087125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-50269398440721659232024-03-17T12:00:00.176+02:002024-03-17T12:00:00.126+02:00ScreenRant: “12 Biggest Dune 2 Book Changes from Denis Villeneuve’s Sequel”<blockquote><p>The director’s affinity for Herbert's original novel is well-chronicled, meaning that this adaptation should appease most readers <a title="Where To Watch Dune 2: Showtimes & Streaming Status" href="https://screenrant.com/where-to-watch-dune-2-showtimes-streaming/" target="_blank">watching <i>Dune 2</i></a>. Villeneuve once again did the work to adapt the second half of the book as closely as possible while still fitting within the confines of a nearly 3-hour runtime and building on any already established differences. However, this did mean that <i>Dune 2</i> changed the book on more than one occasion. Whether it is entire characters missing from the story, character arc changes, or other story details differing, these are the biggest book differences in <i>Dune 2</i>.</p>
<cite><a title="12 Biggest Dune 2 Book Changes From Denis Villeneuve's Sequel" href="https://screenrant.com/dune-2-book-changes-different/" target="_blank">Cooper Hood</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">As I <a title="Empire: “Dune: Part Two will have Gurney Halleck playing The Baliset”" href="/2023/09/dune-part-two-gurney-halleck-baliset.html">suspected</a> – and <a title="Wired: “I found David Lynch’s Lost ‘Dune II’ Script”" href="/2024/02/david-lynch-dune-sequel-script.html">dreaded</a> – <span class="booktitle">Dune: Part Two</span> makes several substantial changes to the book, revisions that are inexcusable to me and alter the narrative and characters beyond recognition. As I said before, I refuse to watch this movie in theaters, but from what I’ve read, this is nothing more than weak fanfiction that failed to grasp what drives the main characters and the intricate lore of the book. Then again, Herbert’s son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson worked as creative consultants – and praised the result; what better warning that the movie is disrespecting the original material than attaching these two to it?! I’m aware that commenting on a movie without watching it sounds presumptuous, and what follows is a rather long rant, so feel free to skip it if you don’t care about this topic.</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha pointing a knife at Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides in Dune Part Two" class="graph" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkysXoVOgMCDUFDaz8R4vonED2w9h6_Sid60OaBZbW2z04ITwcJpk7H7i1lYmkIbmmi8b156kAD9RmwMeKR83ZJMP0AE1j5-NYQFy4wFtPt8oNHGBUCgRyf9-QgzjXPNt9jc4A9-eFGEw_ZhdnKG2VezS5hKjIOxOMqSu_9OxcAeDnDTrPUxSb4xU0b9Nk/s1600/Austin-Butler-Dune-Part-Two.jpg"/>
<figcaption> Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha pointing a knife at Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides in <span class="booktitle">Dune: Part Two</span> </figcaption></figure>
<h4>Dune 2 removes The Book’s 2 Year Time Jump</h4>
<p align="justify">It might seem like a slight change, but this to me is the fundamental point where the adaptation goes sideways. This leaves too little time for Paul and Jessica to embed themselves into Fremen culture, for Paul’s relationship with Chani to develop, for him to wrestle with the ominous visions of Jihad and ultimately don the mantle of Kwisatz Haderach, and for the Fremen to accept Paul as their leader and Messiah.</p>
<h4>The Fallout of Jamis’ Death is Forgotten</h4>
<p align="justify">This point speaks to the watering down of Fremen culture in the movies compared to the book, most likely because Villeneuve wasn’t comfortable depicting its overt Muslim/Arabic aspects for his intended Western audience. As in current Muslim cultures, it is customary for Fremen to have more than one wife; after killing Jamis, Paul ‘inherits’ his wife and children. This becomes relevant later, as Paul forcibly marries Irulan to take control of the Imperium; as a raised Fremen, book Chani would accept this arrangement as somewhat in line with her native culture, whereas the movie goes in a different direction, changing her role and the importance of her culture in the process.</p>
<p align="justify">Some Internet chatter seems to suggest Jamis returns multiple times in Paul’s visions, and that Stilgar identifies this image of Jamis with malevolent desert spirits, djinns. I sincerely hope that I misunderstood this, as it has no basis in the books and makes Paul sound delusional – and Stilgar foolish for following a man who sees ghosts. If we read this as seeing alternative paths where he didn’t slay Jamis, this is not really how Paul’s visions work; he can see past events through Other Memories, and future possibilities branching from the present. But as soon as he makes a choice, the discarded possibilities fade from the landscape of visions, as they are no longer reachable – so once Jamis is dead, he shouldn’t be a part of the spice visions any longer.</p>
<h4>Count Fenring’s Role is Removed from Dune 2</h4>
<p align="justify">I’m willing to let this one pass, as this character, as compelling as he is in the books, has a minor role in the first novel and zero presence in the sequels. Then again, his wife Lady Margot and her unborn daughter by Feyd-Rautha are also absent from later novels, so she could have been just as easily written out to make room for poignant moments with the main characters.</p>
<h4>Thufir Hawat is Completely Missing from Dune 2</h4>
<p align="justify">In contrast, this might seem a minor omission, but in the books Paul’s Mentat training was one of the key ingredients to him becoming the Kwisatz Haderach – Thufir’s character has a very compelling and emotional arc in the second half as well. Villeneuve did not include the term ‘<a title="I just find it so (irrationally) hard to love a Dune adaptation that doesn’t have Mentats in it." href="https://www.reddit.com/r/dune/comments/1bahsnx/i_just_find_it_so_irrationally_hard_to_love_a/" target="_blank">mentat</a>’ in the first movie, and now he disappointingly removes the characters as well, erasing a large chunk of Dune lore in the process.</p>
<h4>Alia Atreides’ Dune 2 Role is Very Different from The Book</h4>
<p align="justify">Not sure what Villeneuve was smoking here thinking that a fetus speaking telepathically to its mother would be easier to digest for audiences than a two-year-old with mature intellect. Not a fan of this change because it diminishes Alia for potential future movies. Likely this was linked to skipping the time-jump, either as a consequence or even <a href="https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/dune-2-changes-timeline-time-jump-alia-jon-spahits-interview" title="'Dune 2' Writer Reveals Why They Changed the Book's Wildest Twist" target="_blank">the reason for it</a>, which makes it more egregious. If you wanted to hide Alia, you could have relegated her to one of the remote desert sietches for the final act of the movie – no need to rewrite the whole sequence of events to avoid Alia being born.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Counterpoint: Alia’s the only thing that really works 100% of the time in Lynch’s movie <a href="https://t.co/M8vEz0NSAq">https://t.co/M8vEz0NSAq</a></p>— Muad’Dib time. (@muaddibstyle) <a href="https://twitter.com/muaddibstyle/status/1767669287253074058?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
<h4>Dune 2 leaves out Chani & Paul’s First Son & His Tragic Fate</h4>
<p align="justify">Not a huge deal to omit the first Leto II (confusing, right?) from the story – except that it strips a great deal of depth from Chani’s and Paul’s relationship. This process has begun with pointless changes in the first part; there Villeneuve gender-swapped Liet-Kynes, who in the books is Chani’s father (I don’t recall if there is any family connection between the two in Villeneuve’s adaptation). Kynes’ murder adds to the kinship between Chani and Paul, as they initially grow closer due to their shared grief over the loss of their fathers as a result of the Harkonnens and the Emperor’s machinations.</p>
<h4>Dune 2 makes Chani Part of the Lisan Al Gaib Prophecy</h4>
<p align="justify">We’re deep into horrendous fanfic territory with this one. In the book, Chani’s Fremen name, Sihaya (desert spring), comes from Kynes’ promise of ecological transformation, that Arrakis could one day cease to be <em>Dune</em> and become a lush garden, a vision that was embraced by Fremen society just as much as Bene Gesserit implanted prophecies. Another crucial aspect of the book first sidelined by Villeneuve, and now butchered into this…</p>
<p align="justify">Another related scene I heard about on YouTube (I think) made my head hurt as well: Jessica using the Voice on Chani to force her to bring Paul back from his Water-of-Life-induced coma… Book Fremen would have taken Jessica’s water over such an affront, Reverend Mother or not, as they were quite superstitious and wary of ‘witchcraft’. This also ignores Chani’s role as Sayyadina, basically Reverend Mother in training – such a rift between the two would almost amount to a schism in the Fremen religious establishment.</p>
<h4>Gurney gets His Revenge on Rabban Harkonnen in Dune 2</h4>
<p align="justify">Inconsequential change. I feel that the book does it better though, as it sticks with the overall theme that in life you rarely get what you want – and if you do, it may be a poisoned fruit… Paul gets his revenge on the Harkonnen, but starts a holy war in the process.</p>
<h4>Paul doesn’t kill Baron Harkonnen in The Book</h4>
<p align="justify">Also rather minor, but ties into Alia’s changes by diminishing her role with no real upside. Book Alia and her scene with the Baron was a distillation of the terrible unleashed forces of the Fremen and Other Memories – if a two-year-old girl can wreak havoc, imagine what her older brother and a planet-full of fanatics can do; movie Alia is a gross <abbr title="Computer-generated imagery">CGI</abbr> fetus puppeteering her mother…</p>
<h4>Feyd-Rautha’s Death is Changed after a very different Fight with Paul</h4>
<p align="justify">The minutia of the fight itself are not that relevant, but removing the poisoned blades completely alters Feyd-Rautha’s character from a genuine Harkonnen who plays dirty to ensure victory (and a spoiled heir who hasn’t won a single fair fight because his opponents were generally servants too afraid of defeating him) to someone honorable(?).</p>
<h4>The Great Houses don’t challenge Paul’s Ascension to Emperor in The Book</h4>
<p align="justify">It sort of makes sense in the movie context as setup for the sequel and the Jihad, but only because Villeneuve glossed over the role of the Spacing Guild in the game of Houses, and how essential <a title="Not showing the importance and power of spice is one of the biggest mistakes of the modern movies!" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/dune/comments/1b8bi8p/not_showing_the_importance_and_power_of_spice_is/" target="_blank">spice</a> is to interstellar travel. I seem to remember someone mentioning that in the movie Paul is threatening to use the Atreides nuclear arsenal against spice, but I prefer not to delve into it too much, it’s such a monumentally stupid idea.</p>
<h4>Chani doesn’t leave at the End of Dune</h4>
<p align="justify">I have no words for how wrong this change is – the result of Villeneuve’s <a title="Dune News Net: “Villeneuve sees Zendaya as a Star of Dune: Part Two”" href="/2021/09/dune-part-two-zendaya-protagonist.html">obsession</a> to have her play a more leading role. It completely betrays Chani’s character from the books, her close relationship with Paul (which evidently hasn’t had the same trajectory in the film), and the role Paul played in Fremen society at that point. I have no idea how Villeneuve intends to adapt <span class="booktitle">Messiah</span>, given how much this ending diverges from the original text.</p>
<p align="justify">The underlying issue here is that Villeneuve can’t refrain from putting a Western, modern, however you might call it, spin on this story that is <em>supposed to be foreign</em>, set some 20.000 years in the future on a faraway planet. The idea that somehow young Fremen are less religious and thus more reluctant to embrace the prophecy and Paul’s role as Messiah is contrary to the books – there is growing discontent in Fremen ranks, but only years later, in <span class="booktitle">Dune: Messiah</span> – and I see it as a product of contemporary American thinking (old people = conservative, young people = progressive).</p>
<p align="justify">This artificial divisiveness diminishes the core message of the books, that blindly following a messianic leader can lead to decay and destruction. It also undermines the Fremen as a formidable fighting force – if some resist Paul’s leadership, there’s less troops to subdue the Imperium – and runs contrary to their history – the extreme environment on Arrakis and Harkonnen oppression have forged strong bonds between them that make such quibbles over political matters seem trivial. In other words, a core advantage of the Fremen on the battlefield and for their survival on <i>Dune</i> is that they’re <em>united</em>, among themselves and behind Muad’dib.</p>
<p align="justify">The spice orgy, another element ignored in the movie (can’t have sex and liberal drug use on screen!), provides another avenue for bonding between members of the tribe, which might increase their susceptiveness to messianic messages and religious fanaticism.</p>
<p align="justify">Also, a modern movie can’t have a leading female character staying faithful to her long-time partner! Chani needs to be assertive, strong, independent – never mind that Chani in the books was all that and she <em>chose</em> to stay at Paul’s side as concubine whose status was above his lawful wife in every aspect except appearances. Political marriages were quite common in Feudal systems, and as mentioned before having multiple wives was common among Fremen; Chani leaving because Paul ‘betrayed her for another women’ makes her sound like a hotheaded teenager, not a battle-hardened Desert warrior…</p>
<p align="justify">I’m at least comforted in my frustration that more <a title="Most of the stuff I was excited to see adapted from the book either didn't happen or were changed so much that they left a bad taste in my mouth." href="https://www.reddit.com/r/dune/comments/1b3ux5y/comment/ksyxq4d/" target="_blank">people</a> seem to have <a title="Mixed feelings about Dune: Part 2" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/dune/comments/1b6n9zr/mixed_feelings_about_dune_part_2/" target="_blank">woken up</a> to the fact that Denis Villeneuve has lost the plot with this adaptation. There is <a title="Raw, no attention to details and all around very glued together film" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/dune/comments/1b4owm9/comment/kt5evo2/" target="_blank">growing</a> <a title="I want Dune, not some weird fan fiction version of alternate timeline Dune." href="https://www.reddit.com/r/dune/comments/1b7frkp/comment/ktimlza/" target="_blank">disapproval</a> on the <a title="God created Reddit to train the faithful" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/dune/" target="_blank">Dune subreddit</a>, which was overwhelmingly <a title="Book readers, did you like Part 2 better than 1?" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/dune/comments/1b78ap2/book_readers_did_you_like_part_2_better_than_1/" target="_blank">effusive</a> for <a title="Dune: Part One" href="/2021/10/dune-part-one.html">the first movie</a>. A couple of excellent essays critique <a href="https://dunenewsnet.com/2024/03/chani-empowered-woman-stereotype-dune-part-two-movie/" title="Chani and Women Stereotypes in Dune: Part Two" target="_blank">Chani’s portrayal</a> and Villeneuve’s <a href="https://dunescholar.com/2024/03/04/dune-part-twos-treatment-of-women-is-an-abomination/" title="Dune: Part Two's Treatment of Women is an Abomination" target="_blank">treatment of Jessica</a> and the Bene Gesserit. Of course, that means too little, as Villeneuve seems too self-absorbed and proud of his misguided direction to course-correct for the final movie in the trilogy.</p>
<p align="justify">It might seem hypocritical to be so dismissive of this adaptation while I enjoyed <a class="booktitle" title="‘The Wheel of Time’ (Prime Video, season 1)" href="/2023/08/wheel-of-time-season-one.html">The Wheel of Time</a> series, another recent example where fans riled against what they saw as a betrayal of the source material. Maybe I would have felt the same had I read those books, but to me the main difference is that writers on <span class="booktitle">The Wheel of Time</span> have strived to stay true to the characters and their plots converge on key moments from the series, even while taking a different path to get there. In <span class="booktitle">Dune</span>’s case, the more we advance, the further plot and characters diverge from the source.</p>
<p align="justify">As for the sequel… I see two ways Villeneuve might continue the story to bring it to a conclusion of sorts. One would be that Chani was already pregnant with Paul’s twins as she fled into the desert. She might die at birth and call for Paul at the last minute to entrust the children to him. In this case the timeline is accelerated further; the visions of a grown-up Alia speak against this chain of events, but she might continue to be a vision in Paul’s (or Jessica’s) mind.</p>
<p align="justify">Alternatively, Chani gives birth and raises the children in secret far away in the southern desert, fomenting unrest and eventually leading a rebellion against Paul’s theocracy, aiming to replace him on the throne with his son Leto II. I think this is the most likely route Villeneuve will take to continue propping up Chani’s role. Maybe Leto even commits to his second skin by the end of the movie before confronting his father, merging a small part of <span class="booktitle">Children of Dune</span> into the third movie as well.</p>
<p align="justify">A wilder theory would be that Paul himself, robbed of Chani’s love and companionship, would undergo the worm transformation by the end of the movie to cement his rule over humanity. That would be quite a departure from his book arc, but I wouldn’t put it past Villeneuve to degrade things even further. Although, on second thought, he will probably shy away from these weirder aspects of <span class="booktitle">Dune</span>, as he has constantly done up to now, and do something utterly plain like Chani defeating Paul in a duel with the help of Alia.</p>
<p align="justify">On a final note, I was astonished by how popular the second movie became on Twitter, inspiring lots of funny tweets and <a href="https://twitter.com/Sietchposting" title="Dune Sietchposting" target="_blank">memes</a>. Here are some of my favorites:</p>
<ul class="q-list">
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">feyd-rautha: your bene gesserit tricks won't work on me<br><br>margot: *shows a little shoulder*<br><br>feyd-rautha: that said,</p>— Stolen Dune (@StolenDans) <a href="https://twitter.com/StolenDans/status/1764673404102201452?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2024</a></blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ok so we lost control of our perfectly bred psychic warrior but don’t worry, he’s no match for our galaxy’s baldest, horniest nephew</p>— dune opinions account (@fellawhomstdve) <a href="https://twitter.com/fellawhomstdve/status/1764648993798156454?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2024</a></blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this but for the last several weeks I just sort of assumed that Bene Gesserit was another member of netanyahu’s cabinet</p>— “holden” “seidlitz” (@jock__derrida) <a href="https://twitter.com/jock__derrida/status/1767881586689651199?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2024</a></blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">[explaining dune] imagine if anakin liked sand</p>— bald ann dowd (@ali_sivi) <a href="https://twitter.com/ali_sivi/status/1764854792411549854?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2024</a></blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Paul: May thy knife chip and shatter<br><br>Feyd: You were actually supposed to be a girl and we were supposed to get married and breed powerful psychic emperors<br><br>Paul: what<br><br>Feyd: …May THY knife chip and shatter</p>— dune opinions account (@fellawhomstdve) <a href="https://twitter.com/fellawhomstdve/status/1765002186654675203?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2024</a></blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The realization that Star Wars is just a worse version of Dune is actually depressing me. I’ll just be sitting here and then realize “that’s why Luke grew up on a desert planet” or “that’s why the Jedi use blades” or “Darth Maul is just Feyd Rautha” or “the ‘Emperor’ huh?”</p>— MOSCHINODORITO (@moschinodorito) <a href="https://twitter.com/moschinodorito/status/1765198725658358252?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2024</a></blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">its cool watching dune and realizing every other major franchise is just dune in disguise</p>— Sage Hyden (@sagehyden) <a href="https://twitter.com/sagehyden/status/1765399115590971415?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2024</a></blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">if i ever write a beautifully haunting science fiction book and die do NOT let my son keep writing them. he doesnt know me. he will never know me. and he definitely doesn’t know what i had in store for Mr. Donut and Mrs. Donut</p>— carter hambley (@carterhambley) <a href="https://twitter.com/carterhambley/status/1765958459974197732?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2024</a></blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dune is impossible to spoil because it thrives off knowing inevitable futures so knowing what happens at the end doesn’t spoil the experience. The book will open chapters with “the guy you’re about to meet is the traitor everyone’s worried about, heres his first scene” <a href="https://t.co/BlW22o61sr">https://t.co/BlW22o61sr</a></p>— Kingly (@JedKingly) <a href="https://twitter.com/JedKingly/status/1765006627965489183?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2024</a></blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I watched a fun movie about a doddering emperor whose regime depends on resource extraction from a desert hinterland and who not-very-covertly supports a brutal counter-insurgency. It was nice to escape into fantasy for a bit. <a href="https://t.co/F8E5ot4GvZ">pic.twitter.com/F8E5ot4GvZ</a></p>— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) <a href="https://twitter.com/HeerJeet/status/1765905720447262997?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2024</a></blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">i've said this before, but villeneuve is really a perfect specimen of artistry fully captured by the neoliberal imaginary. it's a cinema of subtraction and limited horizon. it never challenges what's possible, only affirms for its audience what isn't. <a href="https://t.co/Y6JdnZwHii">https://t.co/Y6JdnZwHii</a></p>— Hit Factory Podcast (@HitFactoryPod) <a href="https://twitter.com/HitFactoryPod/status/1767646782354555209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2024</a></blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">So much of the depth of the books is stripped away in the film. <br><br>With CHOAM, there’s this implication that the entire feudal imperium is effectively just an abstraction of a capitalist monopoly; which makes you think about where our society is headed. <a href="https://t.co/2vZ7NC6uMj">https://t.co/2vZ7NC6uMj</a></p>— shu (@shuofsin) <a href="https://twitter.com/shuofsin/status/1767653283609366726?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2024</a></blockquote></li></ul><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-18260581427337479142024-03-10T12:00:00.037+02:002024-03-10T12:00:00.121+02:00USA Today: “Donald Glover’s ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ is so weird you’ll either love it or hate it”<blockquote><p>As for the overall tone and mood of the series, it isn’t to my taste and will likely be a hard sell for many. I can see what Glover was trying to do: Subvert expectations and make a series about marriage that also happens to have spies. It could have been profound, but it just doesn’t gel into something cohesive. “Smith” was originally meant to be a collaboration between Glover and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag” and “Indiana Jones 5”). Bridge departed due to creative differences, and this is one of the only times I believe that the phrase isn't a euphemism for some deeper conflict. Maybe they would have had more chemistry, but Bridge’s style and humor are brash and obvious, and Glover clearly wanted a more intimate, stranger vibe.</p>
<p>He certainly achieved strange. And that probably wasn’t for the best.</p>
<cite><a title="Donald Glover's 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' is so weird you'll either love it or hate it" href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2024/02/02/mr-and-mrs-smith-review-2024-amazon/72397177007/" target="_blank">Kelly Lawler</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">It’s amazing how many <a title="Mr & Mrs Smith review – Donald Glover and Maya Erskine’s romance feels like it makes the universe better" href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/feb/01/mr-mrs-smith-review-donald-glover-and-maya-erskine-romance-feels-like-it-makes-the-universe-better" target="_blank">glowing</a> <a title="Donald Glover and Maya Erskine Make a New and Improved ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’" href="https://variety.com/2024/tv/tv-reviews/mr-and-mrs-smith-review-donald-glover-maya-erskine-1235892231/" target="_blank">reviews</a> for this series (and a whole lot of <a title="An Architectural Digest Home Tour Turned Spy Show" href="https://www.vulture.com/article/mr-and-mrs-smith-prime-review-donald-glover-maya-erskine.html" target="_blank">critics</a> who <a title="Review: Donald Glover’s ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ evokes ‘Atlanta,’ putting the focus on mood and characters" href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2024-02-02/mr-and-mrs-smith-review-donald-glover-maya-erskine" target="_blank">contorted</a> <a title="'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' are back — so are the fights and bewitching on-screen chemistry" href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/01/1228129090/mr-mrs-smith-review-donald-glover-maya-erskine" target="_blank">words</a> beyond meaning to <a title="Mr. & Mrs. Smith, a Love Story for Awkward Sickos" href="https://www.thecut.com/2024/02/review-mr-and-mrs-smith-prime-video-reboot.html" target="_blank">sound</a> <a title="Mr & Mrs Smith, review: a fresh, witty remake that just lacks Brangelina's sexual chemistry" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2024/02/01/mr-mrs-smith-review-amazon-prime-donald-glover-maya-erskine/" target="_blank">positive</a>) I skimmed to find a <a title="‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ somehow feels bold & boring at the same time" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/02/entertainment/mr-and-mrs-smith-donald-glover/index.html" target="_blank">few</a> that somewhat <a title="Donald Glover's 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' is so weird you'll either love it or hate it" href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2024/02/02/mr-and-mrs-smith-review-2024-amazon/72397177007/" target="_blank">match</a> my impressions of the show. I guess this is one of the instances where <a title="Mr. & Mrs. Smith: Season 1 | Rotten Tomatoes" href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/mr_and_mrs_smith_2024/s01" target="_blank">the Rotten Tomatoes score</a> accurately reflects its quality – a 90% critics rating together with a 66% Audience Score is the marking of a poor series in my view.</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="Still image from the Prime Video series Mr. & Mrs. Smith showing Mrs. Smith seated working on a laptop and Mr. Smith standing reviewing documents" class="graph" data-original-height="933" data-original-width="1400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqSOvOh9onay7g7llWQArhG69UXNy2a9ImBmZqxZgDQUPXJL7L99RHR3XjWvTrwjPez1AfHGNGnYg9OtOtmtKuNBfjFyBV54e-noJF-u40DkXQKwZGX-8zApykCmPR__lpQBYjB8NzmIANyzvr8gSOBiA4oialrDe_tYOCQ4jkssw7gekcA4mPUvVBL2wa/s1400/Mr-Mrs-Smith-Prime-Video.webp"/>
<figcaption> In Prime series <a class="booktitle" href="https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Mrs-Smith-Season-1/dp/B0CLRQ7M7Z" title="Watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith - Season 1 | Prime Video" target="_blank">Mr. & Mrs. Smith</a>, Donald Glover and Maya Erskine achieve their dream life through some truly terrible work-life balance. <small>Photo: David Lee/Prime Video</small> </figcaption></figure>
<p align="justify">I understand and appreciate the <a title="The Dark Delights of a Millennial “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”" href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/the-dark-delights-of-a-millennial-mr-and-mrs-smith" target="_blank">concept</a> behind the series, but the execution left a lot to be desired. The chemistry between the two lead actors was almost nonexistent, and their sudden shift from a professional partnership as mercenary spies to ‘loving’ couple facing modern relationship issues felt forced and pointless – particularly after they jointly decided the previous episode to avoid mixing business with pleasure.</p>
<p align="justify">It certainly doesn’t help that the thriller ingredient of the series was contrived and implausible. As I was watching I kept wondering: are these the worst spies in fiction? Despite being explicitly instructed to cut all ties to his earlier existence, Mr. Smith often calls his mom, tells her where they live, and even finds her a new home to be closer to her. The episode where they meet another couple of Smiths is even more egregious: you would think at least Jane, later praised as the more cerebral of the two, would question if this couple is really who they claim to be. For all they knew, they could be agents from a competing company/agency sent to root them out. But no, they invite them to their home as if they’re old friends, and even get suckered into completing one of their missions…</p>
<p align="justify">I enjoyed some aspects of the show. The opening episode had promise; the one where they undergo couple’s therapy had the best humor, dry as it was; and the ending was action-packed and filled with twists and turns, at which point the series finally felt closer to the original movie. The rest unfortunately was boring, redundant filler.</p>
<div class="star25">My rating: 2.5</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-66698243170220951522024-03-09T20:25:00.023+02:002024-03-09T20:25:00.119+02:00The eXiled: “The Day America’s Empire Died”<blockquote><p>It was on this second visit to ruins of Tskhinvali, as dusk approached and the violence seemed to already acquire a kind of abstract tone, that I started to realize that I was looking at something much bigger than the current debate about Russian aggression or who was more guilty of what — pulling the camera much farther back on this scene, I understood that I was looking at the first ruins of America’s imperial decline. It’s not an easy thing to spot. It took years after the real collapse for Russians to finally accept that awful reality, and to adjust accordingly, first by retrenching, not overplaying an empty hand, slowly building up without making any loud noises while America ran wild around the world bankrupting itself and bleeding dry.</p>
<p>And now it’s over for us. That’s clear on the ground. But it will be years before America’s political elite even begins to grasp this fact. In the meantime, Russia is drunk on its victory and the possibilities that it might imply, sending its recently-independent neighbors into a kind of frenzied animal panic. Experience has taught them that it’s moments like these when Russia’s near abroad becomes, once again, a blood-soaked doormat in the violent epochal shifts — history never stopped here, it just froze up for a decade or so. And now it’s thawing, bringing with it the familiar stench of bloated bodies, burned rubble, and the sour sweat of Russian infantry.</p>
<p>We have entered a dangerous moment in history — America in decline is reacting hysterically, woofing and screeching and throwing a tantrum, desperate to prove that it still has teeth. Which it does — but not in the old dominant way that America wants or believes itself to be. History shows that it’s at this moment, tipping into decline and humiliation, when the worst decisions are made, so idiotically destructive that they’ll make the Iraq campaign look like a mere training exercise fender-bender by comparison.</p>
<cite><a title="The Day America’s Empire Died" href="https://exiledonline.com/the-day-americas-empire-died/" target="_blank">Mark Ames</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">Another <a title="War on the Rocks: “The August War, Ten Years On: A Retrospective on the Russo-Georgian War”" href="/2022/05/retrospective-russo-georgian-war.html">perspective</a> on the <a title="Russo-Georgian War" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Georgian_War" target="_blank">2008 Russo-Georgian War</a>. While the author’s assertions about American’s imminent decline are quite hyperbolic in my opinion – he frequently shares similar takes on Twitter, so I’m familiar with his point of view – it’s remarkable how well some of these conclusions have materialized years later in <a title="Foreign Policy: “Liberal Illusions caused the Ukraine Crisis”" href="/2022/01/ukraine-russia-nato-liberal-illusions.html">Ukraine’s invasion</a>.</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="President George W. Bush and President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia holding hands" class="graph" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="1000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzrmJjCE5Urt7SqoZK6Rt2sI2CpatK00dUai1rb29DmjYc4AfzVxFGi3Ook4ZWjAT1t2qqiPFiYx-qxuTt5rm3e-yKaO5p7DReeA-lWU6exm8f2locigzowMxBzfZk9zyB64uc-gUsTOd3XxIlpoevryUfXDbA8oVF_YA_av3bU8uBmalwwvHwUBJ54zu2/s1000/Bush-Saakashvili-Freedom-Square.jpeg"/>
<figcaption> President George W. Bush and President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia react to the cheering of thousands of Tbilisi citizens in Freedom Square Tuesday, May 10, 2005 <small>White House photo by Eric Draper</small> </figcaption></figure>
<p align="justify">The article reminded me of the often-presumed link between the United States’ <a title="The Atlantic: “Our Cynicism about Afghanistan Comes at a Cost”" href="/2021/05/us-cynicism-afghanistan-cost.html">messy withdrawal from Afghanistan</a> and Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, the argument being that Putin concluded that the US was weak, and he could expand Russia’s reach through military means and with minimal losses. Here we can see an example of something similar happening more than a decade prior (a US-trained military collapsing in days), which has not prompted Russia to further armed conquest.</p>
<p align="justify">I think that a proper takeaway is more limited in scope, namely Putin concluded not that the US is particularly weak or in decline, but that it would likely refrain from a full military response in an area it doesn’t consider critical to its strategic interests – and Afghanistan, Georgia, and Ukraine all belong to this category, no matter how stridently some might insist the defense of Ukraine is crucial to the future global order.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-8554185203958121632024-03-06T22:25:00.002+02:002024-03-07T13:20:51.729+02:00The Lightroom Queen: “What’s New in Lightroom Classic 13.2 & Lightroom Ecosystem (February 2024)?”<blockquote><h4>Sort Order</h4>
<p>There are a few new options in the Sort Order pop-up: City, State, Country, Aperture, Focal Length, Shutter Speed, and ISO Speed.</p>
<h4>Filters & Smart Collections</h4>
<p>There are a few new options in the Metadata Filter and Smart Collection criteria:</p>
<ul><li>Uses Masking shows images that have any kind of mask.</li>
<li>Uses AI Mask shows images that have an AI-based mask (Sky, Subject, Background, Object or People).</li>
<li>Uses Lens Blur uses the Early Access Lens Blur tool.</li>
<li>Uses Healing shows images that use any kind of healing adjustment (Clone, Heal or Remove).</li>
<li>Uses AI Heal shows images that use the AI-based Content-Aware Remove tool.</li></ul>
<cite><a title="What’s New in Lightroom Classic 13.2 & Lightroom Ecosystem (February 2024)?" href="https://www.lightroomqueen.com/whats-new-in-lightroom-2024-02/" target="_blank">Victoria Bampton</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">Nice to see Lightroom expanding its sorting and filtering options, but as I have recently discovered, they remain oddly underdeveloped.</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="Screenshot of the Modern Lightroom Info panel showing only basic data" class="graph" data-original-height="1351" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-anTJau_Gxb700eO2sNz0bHvylGyG7w5m36x4lgtKphTjVgJKEVgfXU1gU-SGzBc2A6D3f20nq2Sad89NLzqR0jOZh6IT2C2cjDmNQw_LUhYyzb8bn_EdYbL1vFdHBHmtgmkYrPjo6DfFX6WKogH3ycwrniAUa_sG9NTkIUVn5uHE7ZTsaP9laYatf_b8/s600/Modern-Lightroom-Info-panel.jpg" srcset="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-anTJau_Gxb700eO2sNz0bHvylGyG7w5m36x4lgtKphTjVgJKEVgfXU1gU-SGzBc2A6D3f20nq2Sad89NLzqR0jOZh6IT2C2cjDmNQw_LUhYyzb8bn_EdYbL1vFdHBHmtgmkYrPjo6DfFX6WKogH3ycwrniAUa_sG9NTkIUVn5uHE7ZTsaP9laYatf_b8/s640/Modern-Lightroom-Info-panel.jpg 640w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-anTJau_Gxb700eO2sNz0bHvylGyG7w5m36x4lgtKphTjVgJKEVgfXU1gU-SGzBc2A6D3f20nq2Sad89NLzqR0jOZh6IT2C2cjDmNQw_LUhYyzb8bn_EdYbL1vFdHBHmtgmkYrPjo6DfFX6WKogH3ycwrniAUa_sG9NTkIUVn5uHE7ZTsaP9laYatf_b8/s1280/Modern-Lightroom-Info-panel.jpg 1280w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-anTJau_Gxb700eO2sNz0bHvylGyG7w5m36x4lgtKphTjVgJKEVgfXU1gU-SGzBc2A6D3f20nq2Sad89NLzqR0jOZh6IT2C2cjDmNQw_LUhYyzb8bn_EdYbL1vFdHBHmtgmkYrPjo6DfFX6WKogH3ycwrniAUa_sG9NTkIUVn5uHE7ZTsaP9laYatf_b8/s1920/Modern-Lightroom-Info-panel.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 35em) 75vw, 100vw" />
<figcaption> Modern Lightroom doesn’t display the Metering Mode of the exposure in its ‘Info’ panel (top right) </figcaption></figure>
<p align="justify">A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to photograph a live <a href="https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/ovo" title="OVO : Touring Show | Cirque du Soleil" target="_blank">Cirque du Soleil</a> show together with a group of photographers. While talking about the best settings to capture images in the relative low light environment, one of them brought up that some people recommend using the <a title="Spot metering" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metering_mode#Spot_metering" target="_blank">Spot</a> <a title="Metering mode" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metering_mode" target="_blank">metering mode</a> instead of the default <a title="Multi-zone metering" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metering_mode#Multi-zone_metering" target="_blank">evaluative metering</a> (on Canon cameras at least). While I’m not convinced spot would be the right choice under those circumstances, this led to another interesting question: is it possible to compare the results afterwards, meaning to classify RAW images in Lightroom based on their in-camera metering mode?</p>
<p align="justify">The answer was a disappointing no… Lightroom Classic shows the metering mode from the <abbr title="Exchangeable Image File">EXIF</abbr> data on its ‘Metadata’ panel for individual files, but I have found no way to select images based on this field – short of third-party add-ons. The new Lightroom (despite being praised by some as <a title="Matt Kloskowski: “What’s the Future of Lightroom (Podcast Episode 7)”" href="/2023/11/the-future-of-lightroom.html">the inevitable future of editing</a>) is more primitive still, as this information is nowhere to be found.</p>
<p align="justify">What’s more striking about this omission is that even in Windows Explorer you can add the metering mode as a new column in the Details view, and then filter or sort it just like any other standard file property. This may provide a possible workaround: you could manually add tags to files in Windows Explorer based on the metering mode, and only then import them to Lightroom, which should keep the manual tags – granted, I haven’t tried this method, so it might not work as expected. So, despite this recent update, there seems to be considerable work pending in Lightroom to improve its organizing tools.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-2498940539326114602024-03-01T17:55:00.027+02:002024-03-01T17:55:00.128+02:00TechCrunch: “Mozilla downsizes as it refocuses on Firefox and AI”<blockquote><p>Specifically, Mozilla plans to scale back its investment in a number of products, including its VPN, Relay and its Online Footprint Scrubber. Mozilla will also shut down <a title="Hubs - Private, virtual 3D worlds in your browser" href="https://hubs.mozilla.com/" target="_blank">Hubs</a>, the 3D virtual world it <a title="Hubs by Mozilla: A new way to get together online" href="https://blog.mozvr.com/introducing-hubs-a-new-way-to-get-together-online/" target="_blank">launched</a> back in 2018, and scale back its investment in its <a title="Local Timeline | Mozilla.social" href="https://mozilla.social/" target="_blank">mozilla.social</a> Mastodon instance. The layoffs will affect roughly 60 employees. Bloomberg previously reported <a title="Firefox Maker Mozilla is cutting 60 Jobs after Naming New CEO" href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/firefox-maker-mozilla-cutting-60-191639445.html" target="_blank">the layoffs</a>.</p>
<p>Going forward, the company said in an internal memo, Mozilla will focus on bringing “trustworthy AI into Firefox”. To do so, it will bring together the teams that work on Pocket, Content and AI/Ml.</p>
<cite><a title="Mozilla downsizes as it refocuses on Firefox and AI: Read the memo" href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/13/mozilla-downsizes-as-it-refocuses-on-firefox-and-ai-read-the-memo/" target="_blank">Frederic Lardinois</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">It’s frankly astounding how much time and resources Mozilla has <a title="MIT Technology Review: “Firefox Maker Battles to Save the Internet—and Itself”" href="/2015/06/firefox-battles-to-save-itself.html">squandered</a> over the years chasing the latest tech hype instead of investing in its one successful product. Public tech giants can easily afford various wasteful side-projects and course corrections, and examples abound: from Google’s countless aborted social media attempts and <a title="Ars Technica: “A decade and a half of instability: The history of Google messaging apps”" href="/2021/08/history-google-messaging-apps.html">messaging products</a> to the perpetually work-in-progress <a title="The Atlantic: “Inside Waymo’s Secret World for Training Self-Driving Cars”" href="/2017/10/inside-waymos-secret-simulation-facilities.html">self-driving cars</a>, to Meta’s exorbitant <a title="CNBC: “Mark Zuckerberg envisions 1 billion people in the metaverse”" href="/2022/06/zuckerberg-billion-people-metaverse.html">VR ambitions</a>, and most recently, Apple’s <a title="Apple to Wind Down Electric Car Effort after Decadelong Odyssey" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-27/apple-cancels-work-on-electric-car-shifts-team-to-generative-ai" target="_blank">failed electric car project</a>. But a non-profit, existing at the goodwill of donors alone, should be more focused and disciplined. Who can forget the time when Mozilla attempted to build <a title="Ars Technica: “First look: Mozilla's Boot2Gecko mobile platform and Gaia UI”" href="/2012/02/ars-technica-first-look-mozilla.html"><em>an entire mobile OS</em></a>, a feat even Microsoft failed at?</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="Mozilla's logo on a building" class="graph" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7tAIHrC-Gfo8uGUEza48dJ5E3j-VDdQbn-RGhbUZjaUIxdll_hX7yIbOhfd6ePzC0RBIeU3MANQguI7qJV95Ihymb3diIHrhS5OYnki9rClgGT7sr03Xe1hLRcALl5nj3g9kLOfXE_uDhe4g9aPE0Nm29lCy3kHayYKhmFw5OKEbRXJ1zzo-xWnxdY3wW/s1600/Mozilla-logo.webp"/>
<figcaption> AP Photo/Jeff Chiu </figcaption></figure>
<p align="justify">The bit about scaling back Mozilla’s Mastodon instance is quite telling for the <a title="Café Lob-On: “Why did the #TwitterMigration fail?”" href="/2023/07/twittermigration-mastodon-fail.html">lack of success</a> of this distributed alternative to Twitter. The launch and massive initial interest in <a title="Independent.ie: “No Instagram Threads app in the EU”" href="/2023/07/no-instagram-threads-app-eu.html">Threads</a> has likely attracted most of the target audience for this type of product, with the rest remaining on Twitter or forming alternative communities on <a title="Bluesky" href="https://bsky.app/" target="_blank">Bluesky</a>.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-26117340381432762382024-02-29T21:50:00.003+02:002024-03-01T15:34:47.649+02:009to5Mac: “Apple Music’s Spatial Audio royalties mean a pay cut for Indies, say labels”<blockquote><p>When Apple Music said it was <a title="Apple Music will now pay 10% higher royalties to artists for Spatial Audio music" href="https://9to5mac.com/2024/01/22/apple-music-spatial-audio-bonus/" target="_blank">paying 10% more in Spatial Audio royalties</a>, there were those among us who cynically wondered whether this meant everyone else would be paid less.</p><hr>
<p>But a <i><a title="Independent record labels push back on Apple’s pay plans" href="https://www.ft.com/content/dc5a6ef2-acc6-456f-830a-84baad7c3db0" target="_blank">Financial Times</a></i> report says that the total royalty payout is remaining unchanged, so the 10% extra for <a title="Spatial Audio Archives - 9to5Mac" href="https://9to5mac.com/guides/spatial-audio/" target="_blank">Spatial Audio</a> tracks comes at the expense of other musicians.</p>
<blockquote><p>The tech group is not paying more money in total: rather, that extra 10 per cent will come out of a fixed pot of money. As a result, songs that are not “spatial” will receive less money.</p></blockquote>
<p>Indie labels say this means it benefits the big labels – who can afford the added production expenses – at the expense of independent ones, who can’t.<p>
<cite><a title="Spatial Audio royalties mean a pay cut for Indies, say labels" href="https://9to5mac.com/2024/02/02/spatial-audio-royalties-controversy/" target="_blank">Ben Lovejoy</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">Shoutout to Apple die-hards who keep claiming that the company pays more royalties than the competition, while understanding <a title="Protocol: “Blame cheap music for Joe Rogan being on Spotify”" href="/2022/02/spotify-earnings-joe-rogan.html">next to nothing</a> <a title="REDEF: “Less Money, Mo’ Music & Lots of Problems: A Look at the Music Biz”" href="/2015/08/less-money-mo-music.html">about the music business</a>, and thus is allegedly ‘more supporting of artists’. Here is a clearcut example of Apple leveraging its position as a streaming provider to prop up its own proprietary music format – and taking money from artists in the process, as if it were a struggling startup, not the company with the highest valuation on the stock market. A move that manages to be at the same time blatantly greedy, anticompetitive, and hostile to musicians.</p><a name='more'></a>
<img alt="Spatial Audio royalties controversy" class="graph" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2VXY0-kGmcLX5zZCco8_tNw6444iHKxAQgGfUkKhFojEKlPRyZQCHKpFK4PpXyw3UM-LIdUWeH_60J7gy6dCXIKFTwbQWz3SOL4npNUJLadEk5VfGSxh2JCzEfe_y2QVU7yNtGCB1OSJSZLuXBw75zLsxsxb5av-fojgSMQ2vGG9fNhecsuuvn6oFaKQF/s1500/Spatial-Audio-royalties-controversy.webp"/>
<blockquote><p>London-based Beggars Group says that the costs of converting existing songs to Spatial Audio costs around $20,000 per album, and multiplying that by its 3,000-album back catalog would cost more than $30M.</p></blockquote>
<p align="justify">I strongly doubt that the extra 10% for Spatial Audio (and only from Apple Music streams, which I’m pretty sure is <a title="Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021" href="https://www.midiaresearch.com/blog/music-subscriber-market-shares-q2-2021" target="_blank">not leading</a> in overall streaming volume) would make up for these high fixed costs of remastering songs for Spatial Audio, except for maybe the top 1–5% of artists…</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-61405178036223499822024-02-27T22:05:00.006+02:002024-02-29T01:19:39.747+02:00Social Media Today: “Instagram rolls out Achievement Awards for Creator Milestones”<blockquote><p>Instagram’s trying out another way to incentivize creators, with a new <a title="Instagram just launched “achievements” in the Professional Dashboard" href="https://twitter.com/liahaberman/status/1724454651242877403" target="_blank">“Achievements” display</a>, available in “Creator Mode” in the app, which allocates different badges for engagement milestones, like reaching 100 total post likes, 1,000 video plays, and more.</p><hr>
<p>The most immediate example that springs to mind <a title="I lost my Snapstreak. How do I restore it? – Snapchat Support" href="https://support.snapchat.com/en-US/a/snapstreaks" target="_blank">Snap Streaks</a>, which have almost become religion to many Snap users over the years. To start a Snap streak, you and a friend have to send a Snap to each other every 24 hours for three days, then keep sending reciprocal Snaps every day to uphold the streak.</p>
<p>Some Snap users have maintained <a title="The Longest Current Snapchat Streak" href="https://www.alphr.com/longest-snapchat-streak/" target="_blank">6 year long streaks</a> (and counting), and that compulsion has kept many users coming back to the app.</p>
<cite><a title="Instagram Rolls Out Achievement Awards for Creator Milestones" href="https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-rolls-new-achievement-awards-creator-milestones/699814/" target="_blank">Andrew Hutchinson</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">And just like that the gamification of Instagram is complete! Apparently, it was not enough to chase likes, comments, and views, now Instagram wants to become Steam as well…</p><a name='more'></a>
<img alt="Screenshot of Instagram achievements screen from the Android app" class="graph" data-original-height="2288" data-original-width="1080" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf-opxCF5p8uh0zCuJl0E2V_pGoQcJws5W8B_-EX_bncH5hqt7XTodFqZC49IHgcDxxl0VBxlGORulyiv1KregreettGlH_Kcvv9QDBFxaU8Rp_XJLGIrtNMdK_xvxzbvfZYJqv6A_ayN2cUJWjOitIxUnoMfXr31mLXyyHRbtMt-biBKIOlap7Ov6EVZI/s600/Instagram-achievements.webp" srcset="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf-opxCF5p8uh0zCuJl0E2V_pGoQcJws5W8B_-EX_bncH5hqt7XTodFqZC49IHgcDxxl0VBxlGORulyiv1KregreettGlH_Kcvv9QDBFxaU8Rp_XJLGIrtNMdK_xvxzbvfZYJqv6A_ayN2cUJWjOitIxUnoMfXr31mLXyyHRbtMt-biBKIOlap7Ov6EVZI/s640/Instagram-achievements.webp 302w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf-opxCF5p8uh0zCuJl0E2V_pGoQcJws5W8B_-EX_bncH5hqt7XTodFqZC49IHgcDxxl0VBxlGORulyiv1KregreettGlH_Kcvv9QDBFxaU8Rp_XJLGIrtNMdK_xvxzbvfZYJqv6A_ayN2cUJWjOitIxUnoMfXr31mLXyyHRbtMt-biBKIOlap7Ov6EVZI/s1464/Instagram-achievements.webp 691w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf-opxCF5p8uh0zCuJl0E2V_pGoQcJws5W8B_-EX_bncH5hqt7XTodFqZC49IHgcDxxl0VBxlGORulyiv1KregreettGlH_Kcvv9QDBFxaU8Rp_XJLGIrtNMdK_xvxzbvfZYJqv6A_ayN2cUJWjOitIxUnoMfXr31mLXyyHRbtMt-biBKIOlap7Ov6EVZI/s2288/Instagram-achievements.webp 1080w" sizes="(min-width: 35em) 35vw, 100vw" />
<p align="justify">I stumbled upon this feature these past days, as the app prompted me to join a ‘Daily story challenge’ after sharing a story. Tapping on the prompt led me to the screen above with the headline ‘Achievements’. This is supposed to be a <a title="Achievements on Instagram" href="https://help.instagram.com/861576054837748" target="_blank">feature reserved</a> for creators and professional accounts, so I’m not sure how it showed up in my account. It could be a limited test for a wider roll-out, or a mere bug – I don’t even see a “Professional Dashboard” anywhere in the settings. I have recently unlinked my Facebook account from Instagram, a change introduced <a title="Meta will let EU users unlink their Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger info ahead of DMA" href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/22/24046645/meta-facebook-instagram-messenger-digital-markets-act-unlinked" target="_blank">to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act</a>, which might have confused some servers in the process. I have seen <a title="Achievements not working properly" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Instagram/comments/18mpi9f/achievements_not_working_properly/" target="_blank">complaints</a> on Reddit that achievements keep resetting, so a bug may be the more likely explanation.</p>
<p align="justify">I personally don’t see the point of introducing an achievements system unless it’s tied to some form of reward. Certainly, people don’t need <a title="The New Yorker: “The Age of Instagram Face”" href="/2020/08/the-age-of-instagram-face.html"><em>more</em> pressure</a> to post constantly, particularly teenagers who might develop anxiety and addictive behaviors. There has been no mention of monetary incentives, but I guess Instagram could boost the reach of certain accounts based on their individual achievements.</p>
<p align="justify">This move also seems to suggest that engagement on the platform is declining, thus incentivizing Instagram to invent new ways of attracting and retaining users. Nothing surprising of course, given the fierce competition from TikTok and the general <a title="Digital Photography Review: “Instagram alienates photography community after CEO’s recent statement”" href="/2021/07/instagram-alienates-photography-community.html">lack of direction and purpose</a> on Instagram’s part, which over the years <a title="Bloomberg: “Mark Zuckerberg is Blowing Up Instagram to Try and Catch TikTok”" href="/2022/06/facebook-copies-tiktok-app.html">piled</a> numerous <a title="Instagram Blog: “Introducing Instagram Stories”" href="/2016/08/instagram-stories.html">loosely</a> <a title="The Wall Street Journal: “Instagram challenges BeReal and adds Notes Short-Message Feature”" href="/2022/12/instagram-notes-short-message.html">related</a> features on top of what once was a clean photo sharing app…</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-44813356318647363902024-02-24T22:50:00.011+02:002024-02-24T22:50:00.126+02:00The Atlantic: “What is Joe Biden doing on TikTok?”<blockquote><p>On Monday evening, Jon Stewart returned to the hosting chair of <i>The Daily Show</i> after nearly a decade away—and he spent a nontrivial portion of his opening <a title="Jon Stewart Tackles The Biden-Trump Rematch That Nobody Wants | The Daily Show" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpBPm0b9deQ" target="_blank">segment</a> roasting Joe Biden’s first TikTok video. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@bidenhq/video/7334529963066019114" target="_blank">That post</a>, which the Biden-Harris campaign uploaded during the Super Bowl on Sunday, featured the president answering silly, rapid-fire questions about the big game: <em>Jason Kelce or Travis Kelce?</em> The performance was cheeky but decidedly low energy. Biden’s voice is a little raspy, and at one point, he gets very excited about chocolate-chip cookies.</p>
<p>Stewart played the clip in the context of the press’s multiday fixation on Biden’s age. When it ended, he eyed the camera and offered some advice to the campaign’s social team. <q>Fire everyone</q>, he deadpanned. <q>Everyone. How do you go on TikTok and end up looking older?</q> The audience howled.</p>
<cite><a title="The Moneyball Theory of Presidential Social Media" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/02/joe-biden-tiktok-account/677453/" target="_blank">Charlie Warzel</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">The <a title="The Biden campaign joins TikTok" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/11/biden-campaign-joins-tiktok-00140905" target="_blank">Biden campaign joining TikTok</a> is the final nail in the coffin for any meaningful <a title="BuzzFeed: “US TikTok User Data has been repeatedly Accessed from China, leaked audio shows”" href="/2022/07/tiktok-tapes-us-user-data.html">regulation of TikTok</a> in the US – not that this was <a title="The New York Times: “How to Fix the TikTok Problem”" href="/2023/03/blog-post_31.html">in any way likely</a> to begin with. Leave it to US politicians to always put their electoral chances above the interests of the constituents they’re supposed to represent.</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="The TikTok logo is seen on a cell phone on Oct. 14, 2022, in Boston" class="graph" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="980" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYCwZCVbdYCA7Z3PJn63VG0-UuT2ral4OSSjRnD64iUhVcJboag_VlULpxTH8Kq0np80Q3Dmbjg9ojAF_xNrJVXs2956Q9Fq3u0fK4AzY55yvITblAhyphenhyphenZlXP49UHhTBzmuNc1HT6dWH-Nh_x8j_ftYT3RBmgRD7ScaOffkZ0LecfkT_OVK5nzJxlDP3uZI/s1600/TikTok-logo-cell-phone.webp"/>
<figcaption> In <a title="White House: No more TikTok on gov't devices within 30 days" href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-politics-united-states-government-ap-top-news-business-95491774cf8f0fe3e2b9634658a22e56" target="_blank">February 2023</a>, the White House gave all federal agencies 30 days to wipe TikTok off all government devices, as the Chinese-owned social media app comes under increasing scrutiny in Washington over security concerns. <small>AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File</small> </figcaption></figure>
<blockquote><p>The point is that it’s harder than ever for a political candidate to purposefully attract or direct attention. There are so many eyeballs, in so many different places, that it is tough for any <em>one</em> thing on any platform to matter in the same way it did in 2016 or 2020. Conversations can still coalesce around a single topic—unfortunately for the Biden campaign, the president’s age is currently one of those stories—but these are not moments candidates can control, and they don’t flow from social media the way they used to. No candidate illustrates this better than Trump, whose time in the fever swamps of Truth Social has left his online presence severely diminished. His all-caps posts, which would’ve led cable news in 2016, barely register in the press today.</p></blockquote>
<p align="justify">The article does a pretty good job of assessing the pros and cons of a TikTok presence for the purposes of a presidential campaign, but, just as most American media outlets, stays silent on another of those ‘unfortunate’ stories for Biden: his staunch support for Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s cruel military campaign in Gaza. No amount of TikTok-ing will be enough to divert attention away from this issue, especially for TikTok’s young demographic.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-54564822368777885982024-02-23T15:05:00.018+02:002024-02-23T15:05:00.128+02:00The American Prospect: “The Airbus Advantage”<blockquote><p>In the wake of the midair blowout of a door on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 earlier this month, the lead that Airbus has taken over Boeing in the manufacture and sales of the world’s commercial aircraft has, not surprisingly, grown. It’s actually been growing for some time: Last year, Airbus delivered 735 new planes to airlines and leasing companies, <i>The New York Times</i> <a title="Airbus is Pulling Ahead as Boeing’s Troubles Mount" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/business/airbus-boeing.html" target="_blank">reported</a>, while Boeing delivered just 528. Airbus had an order backlog of 8,600 new planes, against Boeing’s 5,626. This month’s blowout reinforced the public’s—and consequently, the airlines’—doubts about Boeing’s commitment to safety, which soared after two disastrous crashes of its 737s in 2018 and 2019.</p>
<cite><a title="The Airbus Advantage" href="https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-01-18-airbus-advantage/" target="_blank">Harold Meyerson</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">After the <a title="The New York Times: “Boeing built Deadly Assumptions into 737 Max, Blind to a Late Design Change”" href="/2020/10/boeing-737-max-crash.html">fatal crashes</a> a <a title="The Seattle Times: “Former Boeing pilot indicted on fraud charges related to 737 MAX crashes that killed 346”" href="/2021/10/boeing-pilot-737-max-fraud.html">couple of years ago</a>, <a title="On Jan. 5, the plug door of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 blew out mid-flight, forcing the plane into an emergency landing with a large hole in the fuselage" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-23/what-the-latest-737-max-incident-means-for-boeing" target="_blank">more</a> <a title="New problem found on Boeing 737 Max planes" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/04/business/boeing-737-max-holes-hnk-intl/index.html" target="_blank">issues</a> with <a title="FAA warns of safety hazard from overheating engine housing on Boeing MAX jets during anti-icing" href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/faa-warns-of-safety-hazard-from-overheating-engine-housing-on-boeing-max-jets-during-anti-icing/" target="_blank">Boeing’s 737 Max planes</a> have come to light this past month, leading to more aircraft <a title="F.A.A. Orders Airlines to Ground Some Boeing 737 Max 9 Jets After Midair ‘Incident’" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/business/alaska-airlines-flight-portland-landing.html" target="_blank">being grounded</a> and inspected. And, unsurprisingly, this erosion of trust in Boeing’s quality and safety protocols has made customers <a title="United CEO casts doubt on 737 Max 10 order after Boeing's recent problems" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/23/united-ceo-casts-doubt-on-boeing-737-max-10-order.html" target="_blank">reconsider their orders</a> and gradually shift to the (European) competition. In an industry with extra-long cycle times from order to final delivery, it will be that much harder for the company to reestablish trust and turn things around.</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="Two A350 planes in front of a factory bathed in golden sunset light" class="graph" data-original-height="1358" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0B_CLe35AzzQ5tK34dDWBD1Pi5oGy1rbNRmTKK6iE3-AhxbsHuH9ifoWHUdw5cFsYefj7jFopoyhKTNA5VEaM0Fg6XkIytayJzbp8aAFlanSHzwJAool2-BatX9dhOq4WI-gV1NiM2uxW693rbquItrE-wQne358mtbqY-rgGO2Vv75VILJq7ipWWFvDT/s600/A350-passenger-aircraft-Airbus-factory.webp" srcset="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0B_CLe35AzzQ5tK34dDWBD1Pi5oGy1rbNRmTKK6iE3-AhxbsHuH9ifoWHUdw5cFsYefj7jFopoyhKTNA5VEaM0Fg6XkIytayJzbp8aAFlanSHzwJAool2-BatX9dhOq4WI-gV1NiM2uxW693rbquItrE-wQne358mtbqY-rgGO2Vv75VILJq7ipWWFvDT/s640/A350-passenger-aircraft-Airbus-factory.webp 640w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0B_CLe35AzzQ5tK34dDWBD1Pi5oGy1rbNRmTKK6iE3-AhxbsHuH9ifoWHUdw5cFsYefj7jFopoyhKTNA5VEaM0Fg6XkIytayJzbp8aAFlanSHzwJAool2-BatX9dhOq4WI-gV1NiM2uxW693rbquItrE-wQne358mtbqY-rgGO2Vv75VILJq7ipWWFvDT/s1344/A350-passenger-aircraft-Airbus-factory.webp 1344w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0B_CLe35AzzQ5tK34dDWBD1Pi5oGy1rbNRmTKK6iE3-AhxbsHuH9ifoWHUdw5cFsYefj7jFopoyhKTNA5VEaM0Fg6XkIytayJzbp8aAFlanSHzwJAool2-BatX9dhOq4WI-gV1NiM2uxW693rbquItrE-wQne358mtbqY-rgGO2Vv75VILJq7ipWWFvDT/s2048/A350-passenger-aircraft-Airbus-factory.webp 2048w" sizes="(min-width: 35em) 75vw, 100vw"/>
<figcaption> A350 passenger aircraft at the Airbus factory in Blagnac, France. The company announced it had delivered more planes and taken more orders in 2023 than Boeing. <small>Stephane Mahe/Reuters</small> </figcaption></figure>
<blockquote><p>In sum, Airbus’s clear leadership over Boeing in matters of flight safety stem in good measure from their differences in ownership and worker power—that is, from the European model of mitigating laissez-faire capitalism with a measure of public and worker power, and from the American model of subjecting corporate policy almost entirely to the demands of investment institutions. Which, if you track the value of Boeing’s stock, hasn’t worked out that well for those investment institutions, either.</p>
<p>By the way, just how outsourced is Boeing production? Only yesterday, it was revealed the door plug that blew out of the Alaska Airlines plane wasn’t actually produced in Wichita. It was <a title="Boeing 737 MAX 9 Part in Plane Blowout Was Made in Malaysia, Official Says" href="https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/boeing-737-max-9-part-in-alaska-airlines-blowout-was-made-in-malaysia-official-says-220a8fc5" target="_blank">produced in Malaysia</a>, where I very much doubt that workers’ concerns about speed of production and quality oversight have much impact on their managers. More significantly, the fact that the Malaysian production of the door plug didn’t come to light until yesterday—12 days after the blowout—suggests just how profoundly outsourcing can obscure the public visibility required for corporate accountability.</p></blockquote>
<p align="justify">The linked article does an excellent job of laying out the reasons behind Boeing’s declining reliability, and how the single-minded pursuit of profits over all other considerations (safety, worker satisfaction, environmental damage) ends up hurting the company over the long term. And you can tell things have gotten out of control when a former Boeing senior manager declares <a title="‘I would absolutely not fly a Max airplane’: Ex-Boeing manager raises alarm on jets returning to service" href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-30/boeing-max-9-flying-again-after-door-panel-blowout" target="_blank">he wouldn’t fly a Max airplane</a>…</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-16395526059765972162024-02-18T15:00:00.009+02:002024-02-18T15:00:00.123+02:00Wired: “I found David Lynch’s Lost ‘Dune II’ Script”<blockquote><p>Inside the folder lay the stuff of fans’ dreams, never made public until now: 56 pages dated “January 2nd-through-9th, 1984”, matching Lynch’s “half a script” statement. Complete with penned annotations by Herbert, the <i>Dune II</i> script shows Lynch was still enthusiastic about the material, lending new significance to minor details in the ‘84 film. He also cracked a way to tell the complex story of Herbert’s 1969 novel <i>Dune Messiah</i>, easily the least cinematic book in the series due to its emphasis on palace intrigue over action, along with the inner turmoil of a reluctant dictator (Paul Atreides) in place of a traditional hero’s journey. It may ring of sacrilege to some, but Lynch’s <i>Dune II</i> would have bested Herbert’s book—and been one hell of a movie.</p><hr>
<p>Scytale’s 12-year odyssey reanimating “dead Duncan Idaho” into the <a title="Ghola | Dune Wiki | Fandom" href="https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Ghola" target="_blank">ghola</a> named Hayt on the nightmarish Bene Tleilax world (mentioned by Paul in <em>Dune</em>) constitutes the entire opening 10 minutes of the script. Lynch calls the planet Tleilax <q>a dark metal world with canals of steaming chemicals and acids</q>. Those canals, Lynch writes, are lined with <q>dead pink small test tube animals</q>. Initiating <i>Dune II</i> with a focus on Scytale foregrounds him to primary antagonist, unlike Herbert’s book where myriad conspirators work against Paul.</p>
<cite><a title="I found David Lynch’s Lost 'Dune II' Script" href="https://www.wired.com/story/david-lynch-dune-sequel-script-unearthed/" target="_blank">Max Evry</a></cite>
</blockquote><p align="justify">I’m deeply skeptical of people claiming that a particular movie adaptation would best the original work – especially an adaption from which we only have an unfinished script and nothing else. The passages describing Lynch’s vision for the Tleilaxu are surreal, but for me they are quite removed from Herbert’s admittedly scarce description. My impression of the Bene Tleilax in the books is that they are disciplined and immensely secretive – very much opposed to the gaudy style of the Harkonnens. Their main area of expertise is genetic engineering – so flesh alterations: yes; machinery: not so much; even flesh alterations would be uncommon, as the Tleilax always strive to not draw unwanted attention to themselves and their agents.</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in Dune: Part Two" class="graph" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0e8oxYt_SO2r-eYpgK-BKZPQaOM_q-EkQxwiL6PG7r1M385y-he5gkmSy9d17mHY0icS8877Z1YrBrRYNTlaNe2o7fIBX2QIPv623WoWDIqo8Xfd-1GSWIt_3Q7kWzGI9D8p0Yh_8_cr0itWRFXS1FPU0lfNJMfKPKysSgTPs8IcN8Bs9otPXevmMl-G6/s600/Paul-Chani-Dune-Part-Two.jpg" srcset="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0e8oxYt_SO2r-eYpgK-BKZPQaOM_q-EkQxwiL6PG7r1M385y-he5gkmSy9d17mHY0icS8877Z1YrBrRYNTlaNe2o7fIBX2QIPv623WoWDIqo8Xfd-1GSWIt_3Q7kWzGI9D8p0Yh_8_cr0itWRFXS1FPU0lfNJMfKPKysSgTPs8IcN8Bs9otPXevmMl-G6/s640/Paul-Chani-Dune-Part-Two.jpg 640w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0e8oxYt_SO2r-eYpgK-BKZPQaOM_q-EkQxwiL6PG7r1M385y-he5gkmSy9d17mHY0icS8877Z1YrBrRYNTlaNe2o7fIBX2QIPv623WoWDIqo8Xfd-1GSWIt_3Q7kWzGI9D8p0Yh_8_cr0itWRFXS1FPU0lfNJMfKPKysSgTPs8IcN8Bs9otPXevmMl-G6/s1280/Paul-Chani-Dune-Part-Two.jpg 1280w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0e8oxYt_SO2r-eYpgK-BKZPQaOM_q-EkQxwiL6PG7r1M385y-he5gkmSy9d17mHY0icS8877Z1YrBrRYNTlaNe2o7fIBX2QIPv623WoWDIqo8Xfd-1GSWIt_3Q7kWzGI9D8p0Yh_8_cr0itWRFXS1FPU0lfNJMfKPKysSgTPs8IcN8Bs9otPXevmMl-G6/s1920/Paul-Chani-Dune-Part-Two.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 35em) 75vw, 100vw"/>
<figcaption> Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in <i>Dune: Part Two</i>. <small>Niko Tavernise—Warner Bros</small> </figcaption></figure>
<blockquote><p>In his novel, Herbert demonstrated unrest among the Fremen through conversation; in his script, Lynch laid out opposition to Paul’s rule via a more cinematic form: a knife fight. An anonymous Fremen warrior challenges Paul to a duel, but Paul’s partner Chani (who would have been played, like she was in Lynch’s first film, by Sean Young) says he has to kill her first before getting a stab at Paul. Chani makes short work of this warrior, putting him on the ground with two kicks and a knife to the neck: <q>If I kill them … the word spreads that even the concubine of Paul kills the strongest of the challengers.</q></p>
<p>This scene is also a showcase for Young’s Chani as a fierce combatant. Despite being a trained dancer and athlete, Young had no real fight choreography in <i>Dune</i>. <q>I never had major fights in that show</q>, Young confirmed to me during interviews for my book.</p></blockquote>
<p align="justify">One thing this partial Lynch script nails though is the Paul-Chani dynamic from the quotes above. A stark contrast to the trailers for <span class="booktitle">Dune: Part Two</span>, where Zendaya appears to challenge the prophecy and thus Paul’s claim as Mahdi of the Fremen. I honestly can’t tell where Villeneuve is going with this one, as it seems a huge departure from the books that could cause further ramifications later – all stemming from his intention of <a title="Dune News Net: “Villeneuve sees Zendaya as a Star of Dune: Part Two”" href="/2021/09/dune-part-two-zendaya-protagonist.html">giving Chani more screen time</a> in the second movie.</p>
<p align="justify">Personally, I felt increasingly put off by each new trailer and <a title="Denis Villeneuve on Dune: Part Two and His Future in Film" href="https://time.com/6589871/denis-villeneuve-dune-part-two-interview/" target="_blank">reveal</a>, to the point that I’m not sure I want to watch <span class="booktitle">Part Two</span> – certainly not when it comes out in cinemas. Recent rumors that there would be <a title="‘Dune: Part Two’ director decided to tell sequel story his own way" href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/dune-part-two-director-decided-tell-sequel-story-his-own-way-2024-02-08/" target="_blank">no time jump between movies</a> seem to indicate that Villeneuve stripped out the character of Alia or <a title="Anya Taylor-Joy Confirms Surprise 'Dune 2' Role at London Premiere" href="https://variety.com/2024/film/news/anya-taylor-joy-dune-2-role-1235912248/" target="_blank">drastically reduced her role</a> to a couple of visions and a ‘<a title="6 Ways Dune 2's Alia Atreides Story Will Change The Original Book" href="https://screenrant.com/dune-2-story-different-alia-atreides-change/" target="_blank">voice from the womb</a>’, which sounds awful and an utterly unnecessary deviation from the book. I suspect that, despite <a title="Empire: “Dune: Part Two will have Gurney Halleck playing The Baliset”" href="/2023/09/dune-part-two-gurney-halleck-baliset.html">my low expectations</a> of Denis Villeneuve’s <a title="Dune: Part One" href="/2021/10/dune-part-one.html">adaptation</a>, there is still ample room for disappointment…</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-40809464111724788432024-02-11T12:00:00.088+02:002024-02-11T12:00:00.134+02:00The Guardian: “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire review – Zack Snyder’s Netflix disaster”<blockquote><p>In film school, some professors use the familiar example of Star Wars to teach Campbellian mythmaking, the theories that identify and codify the narrative units re-contextualized since Grecian times. Snyder demonstrates a clear fluency in these concepts with his classically minded scripting, except he forgot the part where the archetypes are meant to be refreshed through novel contexts. On the humble farming planet of Wherever in the galaxy of Who Cares, the broad outline of a Hero (Sofia Boutella, terse and humorless and physically perfect, just how Snyder likes ’em) must defend her village from a faraway notion of an Evil Empire. They rose to power in some great cataclysm of yore during which our Hero’s family was killed, and the Final Boss took her in to teach her the combat skills she’d one day use to take her revenge. Snyder mistakes exposition for world-building, the lugubriously delivered reams of backstory removing the audience from the fantasy rather than immersing them in it.</p>
<p>To topple the Mini-Boss (Ed Skrein, his British accent and high cheekbones marking him as a baddie) come to appropriate her people’s grain, she and her Sidekick (a neutered Michiel Huisman) bop around the cosmos rounding up sympathizers to their cause, including a self-interested yet caddishly likable mercenary we’ll call Not Han Solo (Charlie Hunnam, more visibly awake than most of his scene partners). They are most easily referred to by their function both because they exist as little more than sketches, and because the muddy sound mix isn’t doing viewers any favors, but especially because their names are often long and difficult to retain.</p>
<cite><a title="Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire review – Zack Snyder’s Netflix disaster" href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/15/rebel-moon-review-zack-snyder-netflix" target="_blank">Charles Bramesco</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">As I wrote down a couple of impressions on <a class="booktitle" title="Sight and Sound: “Saltburn review: a black comedy designed to shock”" href="/2024/01/saltburn-review.html">Saltburn</a>, I might as well mention <span class="booktitle">Rebel Moon</span> too, since I bothered watching it last December on Netflix. While I wouldn’t rate it as low as one star as the article above does, I largely agree with the assessment that this movie is a <q>dull and self-serious mess</q>.</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="side-img right"> <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81464239" title="Watch Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire on Netflix" target="_blank">
<img alt="Official Netflix Rebel Moon Promo Art by Rico JR" class="graph" data-original-height="1750" data-original-width="1400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc2swPkw_WrgRy3aU7iZ31h0SWpUkRASTcqh677-eCJ6ijefxi-Ni4AGcTzZ8UDbTfbsZHYFi5ILtkPUcK41mi7S7Mk7z_bpQ5aSdy9_Hhefqvjs7ikMb3KsbbBJU-XIOWP83JC_j29lOkZ0NCKRt_carWtJGRABymZuiQx8e0Fr3E3DEukUybEBGLrXvt/s600/Official-Netflix-Rebel-Moon-promo-art.jpg" srcset="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc2swPkw_WrgRy3aU7iZ31h0SWpUkRASTcqh677-eCJ6ijefxi-Ni4AGcTzZ8UDbTfbsZHYFi5ILtkPUcK41mi7S7Mk7z_bpQ5aSdy9_Hhefqvjs7ikMb3KsbbBJU-XIOWP83JC_j29lOkZ0NCKRt_carWtJGRABymZuiQx8e0Fr3E3DEukUybEBGLrXvt/s640/Official-Netflix-Rebel-Moon-promo-art.jpg 512w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc2swPkw_WrgRy3aU7iZ31h0SWpUkRASTcqh677-eCJ6ijefxi-Ni4AGcTzZ8UDbTfbsZHYFi5ILtkPUcK41mi7S7Mk7z_bpQ5aSdy9_Hhefqvjs7ikMb3KsbbBJU-XIOWP83JC_j29lOkZ0NCKRt_carWtJGRABymZuiQx8e0Fr3E3DEukUybEBGLrXvt/s1195/Official-Netflix-Rebel-Moon-promo-art.jpg 956w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc2swPkw_WrgRy3aU7iZ31h0SWpUkRASTcqh677-eCJ6ijefxi-Ni4AGcTzZ8UDbTfbsZHYFi5ILtkPUcK41mi7S7Mk7z_bpQ5aSdy9_Hhefqvjs7ikMb3KsbbBJU-XIOWP83JC_j29lOkZ0NCKRt_carWtJGRABymZuiQx8e0Fr3E3DEukUybEBGLrXvt/s1750/Official-Netflix-Rebel-Moon-promo-art.jpg 1400w" sizes="(min-width: 35em) 25vw, 100vw"/></a>
<figcaption> Official Netflix Rebel Moon Promo Art <small><a href="https://julienricojr.com/portfolio/official-netflix-rebel-moon-promo-art/" title="Official Netflix Rebel Moon Promo Art by Rico JR" target="_blank">Rico JR</a></small> </figcaption></figure>
<p align="justify">Even with my relatively limited cinematic knowledge, it was immediately obvious how the movie borrows heavily from <span class="booktitle">Star Wars</span> and <a class="booktitle" title="Seven Samurai (1954) - IMDb" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047478/" target="_blank">Seven Samurai</a> at both plot and world-building levels. The ‘bullied farmers persuade veteran fighter to defend them’ storyline does falter rather quickly when translated into a space opera setting: you would think that a galactic empire that has mastered <abbr title="Faster Than Light">FTL</abbr> travel, instantaneous communication in a surreal <abbr title="Virtual Reality">VR</abbr>-like environment, and sentient robots, would surely be able to feed its space navy without pirating crops from space Amish communities.</p>
<p align="justify">Moreover, I’m not quite sure what a handful of outcasts could do to defend the village if the space Nazis decided to bomb it from orbit; depending on the precision of their weapons, they could easily wipe out the settlement leaving the crops and granaries intact. Or they might simply portal out to a different system and find other food supplies; it’s not like that village was the last remaining farmland in the universe.</p>
<p align="justify">Glaring plot holes aside, the movie feels disconnected and rushed – and sure enough, Zack Snyder announced there’s a considerably longer director’s cut ready to be released. Characters disappear without notice, written off with no mention later; others, like the pacifist robot evoking the purer times when the royal family was alive, return abruptly as if the director initially introduced them for exposition and later rushed to bring them back for the final act for no tangible role.</p>
<p align="justify">This reflects – again – how Netflix’ <a title="Vulture: “The Netflix Binge Factory”" href="/2018/12/vulture-netflix-binge-factory.html">content strategy</a> is to <a title="Bloomberg: “The Phone Company didn’t Destroy HBO. Will the Cable Guy?”" href="/2022/04/phone-company-did-not-destroy-hbo.html">churn out content</a>, <a title="Forbes: “Netflix’s ‘Queen Cleopatra’ appears to have The Worst Audience Score in TV History”" href="/2023/06/netflixs-queen-cleopatra.html">regardless of quality</a>; movies and series running in the background as people scroll TikTok and are readily forgotten by the next day. With <span class="booktitle">Rebel Moon</span>, Netflix’ calculus appears to be that it scored a recurring ‘blockbuster’: subscribers will watch this abridged version of part one, then the director’s cut in a couple of months after it has faded from memory, then part two, likely with two distinct cuts as well. I’m now curious if Snyder filmed a black-and-white version…</p>
<p align="justify">It was amusing though to see two actors in leading roles, and on opposite sides of the conflict, who years ago portrayed the same character in <a class="booktitle" title="Game of Thrones season 6 micro-reviews" href="/2016/07/game-of-thrones-season-6-micro-reviews.html">Game of Thrones</a>.</p>
<div class="star20">My rating: 2.0</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0Bucharest, Romania44.4267674 26.102538416.116533563821157 -9.0537116 72.737001236178855 61.2587884tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-69185820996116889982024-01-30T23:25:00.001+02:002024-01-30T23:25:00.120+02:00The Keyword: “Nearby Share for Windows on Android is now available”<blockquote><p><a title="The New Nearby Share App for Windows | Android" href="https://www.android.com/better-together/nearby-share-app/" target="_blank">Nearby Share for Windows</a>, available as an app download on PCs around the world, has now been installed by more than 1.7 million people. With photos and videos being the most popular file types to send, we’ve seen over 50 million files transferred between PC and Android devices since launch. No need to search for any cables or cords – sharing media to your own devices or with nearby friends and family is possible with just a few clicks.</p>
<p>Today marks the official launch of Nearby Share with Windows, offering improved performance and new functionality that can make it even easier for you to share content and stay productive.</p>
<cite><a title="Nearby Share for Windows on Android is now available" href="https://blog.google/products/android/nearby-share-windows-android/" target="_blank">Ronald Ho</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">I have never been quite satisfied with most methods to share files between phones and PCs. The initial way of connecting them with a USB cable has the fastest transfer speed, so it’s great for backing up photos (especially because I shoot RAW on my smartphone as well) and other files, but for a small number of files it’s unwieldy to gather the cable and navigate folders to locate the files. Uploading them to OneDrive or other cloud services can also be time-consuming, as the app sometimes logs you out and you still have to search for the files. I could never get used to Microsoft’s <a title="Sync Your Smartphone to Your Windows Computer" href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/sync-across-your-devices" target="_blank">Phone Link</a>, as in its earlier iterations it failed to connect more often than not and newer versions were obnoxious with its constant notifications and permissions requests – not to mention I simply don’t need most of its features.</p><a name='more'></a>
<img alt="Screenshot of device visibility settings in Nearby Share for Android" class="graph" data-original-height="1470" data-original-width="1080" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf5y6MPgTtdZ5vPn8PJf6DDBFaxjsXMxMToQ4JaA-oYVUt9YhqDks6AG7B-9PrEugQA5vb50vTeZH5s-KLSC0EEX14iRpSjTcpAMNbm2PpxxcYNT0x2pKf6R_yPhQueYdCyJ69mrY0FoYnRCJ4KRqUbJlCmqFHRk2tN33MFV4dyt82Sm7fHZIpcGJFPQQL/s1600/Android-Nearby-Share.webp"/>
<p align="justify">Compared to these alternatives, Google’s Nearby Share is fast and seamless to use, ideal for sending a few files back-and-forth, when I need screenshots from my phone for a blog post for instance. The Windows app adds a context menu entry ‘Send with Nearby Share’, and on Android it’s integrated into the share sheet, so it’s easy to access on each device.</p>
<p align="justify">The only issue I came across is that sharing from my PC to my Galaxy smartphone only works when the device visibility on the phone is set to ‘Everyone’ – curiously, I can send the other way around, phone to PC, with both set to ‘Your devices’, while ‘Contacts’ doesn’t work in either direction. You must also keep the PC app running in the background for it to receive files, which I generally don’t do, but I also don’t need this on a regular basis.</p>
<p align="justify">Earlier this month, Google announced <a title="Google is Adding Samsung's Quick Share Feature to All Your Android Devices" href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/google-is-adding-samsungs-quick-share-feature-to-all-your-android-devices/" target="_blank">a collaboration with Samsung</a> to merge the Quick Share and Nearby Share features, which should presumably make it available to more Android users. I’m not convinced this is going to lead to massive adoption, as outside of Apple’s ecosystem people are just sending files and photos via messaging apps, which have the added benefit that you don’t need to be in Bluetooth range. But I’ll happily keep Nearby Share for my personal use, as long as Google is willing to support it.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-57955561045633673262024-01-24T15:35:00.015+02:002024-01-24T15:35:00.134+02:00Engadget: “Apple Vision Pro hands-on, redux: Immersive Video, Disney+ app, floating keyboard and a little screaming”<blockquote><p><strong>Dana</strong>: Sitting up close in the center of Apple Immersive and spatial videos reminded me of Jimmy Stewart’s character in <i>It’s A Wonderful Life</i>: I was both an insider and outsider at the same time. In one demo, we saw Alicia Keys performing the most special of performances: just for us, in a living room. In a different series of videos — these meant to demonstrate spatial video — we saw the same family at mealtime, and a mother and daughter outside, playing with bubbles.</p>
<p>As I watched these clips, particularly the family home videos that reminded me of my own toddler, I felt immersed, yes, but also excluded; no one in the videos sees you or interacts with you, obviously. You are a ghost. I imagined myself years from now, peering in from the future on bygone videos of my daughter, and felt <em>verklempt</em>. I did not expect to get teary-eyed during a routine Apple briefing.</p>
<cite><a title="Apple Vision Pro hands-on, redux: Immersive Video, Disney+ app, floating keyboard and a little screaming" href="https://www.engadget.com/apple-vision-pro-hands-on-redux-immersive-video-disney-app-floating-keyboard-and-a-little-screaming-180006222.html" target="_blank">Cherlynn Low & Dana Wollman</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">Apple’s <a title="Los Angeles Times: “Forget the metaverse. For $3,500, Apple offers a new way to be alone”" href="/2023/06/apple-makes-its-own-reality.html">Vision Pro</a> is nearing launch, and last week we saw another round of <a title="Apple Vision Pro hands-on, again, for the first time" href="https://www.theverge.com/24040075/apple-vision-pro-hands-on-virtual-reality" target="_blank">hands-on</a> reporting from various tech journalists. I enjoyed this one from <a title="Apple Vision Pro hands-on, redux: Immersive Video, Disney+ app, floating keyboard and a little screaming" href="https://www.engadget.com/apple-vision-pro-hands-on-redux-immersive-video-disney-app-floating-keyboard-and-a-little-screaming-180006222.html" target="_blank">Engadget</a> the most, as I think it hits the main points of contention in terms of user experience:</p><a name='more'></a>
<ul><li>fitting the device and its <a title="But by the end of my demo, I started to feel the weight of the headset bringing me back to the real world" href="https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/1747321365412393347" target="_blank">weight</a> seem to be the <a title="Third time: Damn this thing is heavy" href="https://twitter.com/MKBHD/status/1747367564093624348" target="_blank">most frequent</a> complaints from people who tried it – and keep in mind this was still an Apple-controlled setting and the total time wearing the Vision Pro was under half an hour! While the weight is comparable to other VR headsets, its <a title="Fun fact: Oculus Quest Pro weighs more than Apple Vision Pro!" href="https://twitter.com/MKBHD/status/1748438156297244764" target="_blank">distribution</a> matters, as for instance the Quest Pro puts a lot of that weight into the battery behind your head, balancing the screen on the front.</li>
<li>the virtual keyboard was also criticized as unfinished and clunky. As with the iPad, another Apple product that was supposed to replace traditional computers, text input is currently better <a title="The Vision Pro virtual keyboard is a complete write-off at least in 1.0" href="https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/1745907431564063208" target="_blank">with a Bluetooth keyboard</a>.</li>
<li>the Engadget hands-on mentions several ‘<a title="Google Wave and the uncanny valley of communication" href="/2014/11/google-wave-and-uncanny-valley.html">uncanny valley</a>’ moments because the visual experience is so immersive, but lacks support from other senses, in particular touch, and can stir up feelings of being distant or excluded.</li>
<li>my favorite bit was about meditation: buying a $3,500+ device to meditate for a couple of minutes (before the fatigue and neck strain kick in) is a peak consumerism moment for me.</li></ul>
<blockquote><p><strong>Dana</strong>: This was one of the more frustrating aspects of the demo for me. Although there were several typing options – hunting and pecking with your fingers, using eye control to select keys, or just using Siri – none of them felt adequate for anything resembling extended use. It took several tries for me to even spell Engadget correctly in the Safari demo. This was surprising to me, as so many other aspects of the broader Apple experience – the pinch gesture, the original touch keyboard on the original iPhone – “just work”, as Apple loves to say about itself. The floating keyboard here clearly needs improvement. In the meantime, it’s harder to imagine using the Vision Pro for actual work. The Vision Pro feels much further along as a personal home theater.</p></blockquote>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="Joanna Stern wearing the Apple Vision Pro" class="graph" data-original-height="1880" data-original-width="1880" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-XkT_WYpqhjh99GC-Gz7e3OsS1Q46t0Dx53wCsHsmPZWgESazQ4cs5bLk0L3zJlCBwe_TYU578JU9uN8Az1voP9akg1NoZbWeOAlzX-rVIGzTEh-mcn7KEv1Pb7MYgs0nkUWuxWJ8gn3QaheGrqqX2yVjh64di-zkj-bVstzgMd-Mts8ynSP9X5nyGbe0/s600/Joanna-Stern-Apple-Vision-Pro.jpg" srcset="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-XkT_WYpqhjh99GC-Gz7e3OsS1Q46t0Dx53wCsHsmPZWgESazQ4cs5bLk0L3zJlCBwe_TYU578JU9uN8Az1voP9akg1NoZbWeOAlzX-rVIGzTEh-mcn7KEv1Pb7MYgs0nkUWuxWJ8gn3QaheGrqqX2yVjh64di-zkj-bVstzgMd-Mts8ynSP9X5nyGbe0/s640/Joanna-Stern-Apple-Vision-Pro.jpg 640w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-XkT_WYpqhjh99GC-Gz7e3OsS1Q46t0Dx53wCsHsmPZWgESazQ4cs5bLk0L3zJlCBwe_TYU578JU9uN8Az1voP9akg1NoZbWeOAlzX-rVIGzTEh-mcn7KEv1Pb7MYgs0nkUWuxWJ8gn3QaheGrqqX2yVjh64di-zkj-bVstzgMd-Mts8ynSP9X5nyGbe0/s1260/Joanna-Stern-Apple-Vision-Pro.jpg 1260w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-XkT_WYpqhjh99GC-Gz7e3OsS1Q46t0Dx53wCsHsmPZWgESazQ4cs5bLk0L3zJlCBwe_TYU578JU9uN8Az1voP9akg1NoZbWeOAlzX-rVIGzTEh-mcn7KEv1Pb7MYgs0nkUWuxWJ8gn3QaheGrqqX2yVjh64di-zkj-bVstzgMd-Mts8ynSP9X5nyGbe0/s1880/Joanna-Stern-Apple-Vision-Pro.jpg 1880w" sizes="(min-width: 35em) 50vw, 100vw"/>
<figcaption> I really do wear that battery pack well, if I do say so myself. <small><a title="I really do wear that battery pack well, if I do say so myself" href="https://twitter.com/JoannaStern/status/1747335628654625274" target="_blank">Joanna Stern</a></small> </figcaption></figure>
<p align="justify">Several articles and <a title="Books, Calendar, Home, Maps, News, Podcasts, Reminders, Stocks, Shortcuts and Voice Memos are strangely not going to be optimized for visionOS" href="https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/1748331909518971108" target="_blank">tweets</a> detailed the lack of optimized apps for visionOS, ranging from Apple’s own apps to large streaming companies like <a title="YouTube and Spotify won’t launch Apple Vision Pro Apps, Joining Netflix" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-18/youtube-and-spotify-join-netflix-in-not-launching-apple-vision-pro-apps?sref=9hGJlFio" target="_blank">Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify</a>. Not entirely surprising: building apps for this radical new experience would require significant investment for developers with highly uncertain payoffs. Small developers would prefer to focus on more immediate profitability, while large companies can afford to wait and see how the ecosystem develops before committing to ‘spatial computing’. Apple is also notorious for its tight controls and high fees collected from its App Stores, which the recent lawsuit from Epic failed to challenge, so developers are <a title="Apple Vision Pro: Lack of Netflix, YouTube, App Store Tensions Threaten Device" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-01-21/apple-vision-pro-lack-of-netflix-youtube-app-store-tensions-threaten-device-lrnjwjb3" target="_blank">understandably reluctant</a> to contribute to yet another store which would benefit Apple much more than them.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-70029622255385834702024-01-19T18:55:00.003+02:002024-01-25T17:19:44.339+02:00Semafor: “The incredible shrinking podcast industry”<blockquote><p>Apple has quietly tightened its reporting of how many people listen to podcasts, sending shock waves through an embattled audio industry still reeling from the end of the COVID-era production bubble.</p>
<p>The shift, Apple wrote in a <a title="Notice: Updates to Automatic Downloads - Apple Podcasts for Creators" href="https://podcasters.apple.com/5349-ios-17-automatic-download-improvements" target="_blank">blog post</a>, was technical: The dominant podcasting platform had begun switching off automatic downloads for users who haven’t listened to five episodes of a show in the last two weeks.</p>
<p>But while few users noticed the shift, some of the biggest podcasts in the world saw their official listener numbers drop dramatically. Long-running shows that publish frequently were hit particularly hard. A user who listened to a show like The New York Times’ <i>The Daily</i> a few times, subscribed, but stopped listening would continue to count as a download indefinitely. Even better under the old rules: For people who listened to a show, dropped off for a while, but started listening again later, Apple would automatically download every show in between. The arrangement drove big download numbers, a crucial metric for ad sales and a sign of the vast reach of podcasts as a medium.</p>
<cite><a title="The incredible shrinking podcast industry" href="https://www.semafor.com/article/01/14/2024/the-incredible-shrinking-podcast-industry" target="_blank">Max Tani</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">The title is somewhat misleading, as podcasting hasn’t suddenly shrunk overnight, but was instead revealed to have been smaller than previously reported. Not exactly <a title="Bloomberg: “Podcasting hasn’t produced A New Hit in Years”" href="/2022/01/podcasting-no-new-hits.html">a novel issue</a>, as I have <a title="The Guardian: “‘It’s the way the industry is going’: how YouTube is transforming podcasting”" href="/2022/09/video-podcasting-youtube.html">written before</a> on this blog, but a reflection of the constant hyping and <a title="Vulture: “Podcasting is Just Radio Now”" href="/2022/11/podcasting-just-radio.html">inflated expectations</a> that is associated with basically every new trend in tech circles.</p><a name='more'></a>
<img alt="Image of a microphone used in podcasting overlaid with the text Is anyone out there" class="graph" data-original-height="934" data-original-width="1400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcQrbIL6HF9ZFVkaonASgyy0tTj6S9efloySGK0QpfxQIkeEwbFOqWamRZ4XPt35GI4woMKJUSf_HM_tqCfg4G5yuHT0hch8lMEPsM-t125VA1XUyKVgEMy2_bc7fui8vYxgTb9GJB4vyzyj7ZcugeCIg5BI468Jhe9ZvSI_RVaoVKokIJ1tLNGS_wmcQG/s1400/Microphone-question.webp"/>
<p align="justify">Counting downloads has always been a terrible metric to judge the success of a software or app. One of the earliest examples I remember is Mozilla constantly touting <a title="Are people in Germany really switching browsers?" href="/2010/02/are-people-in-germany-really-switching.html">Firefox’ download numbers</a>, while Chrome was <a title="Andreas Gal: “Firefox marketshare revisited”" href="/2017/07/firefox-marketshare-revisited.html">capturing</a> all the traffic and users. Even nowadays there’s no shortage of <a title="Nobody Uses Threads Anymore, It’s Too Crowded" href="https://daringfireball.net/2023/07/nobody_uses_threads_anymore" target="_blank">people citing</a> <a title="App Store Rankings as a Proxy for Social Network Momentum" href="https://daringfireball.net/2023/12/app_store_rankings_as_a_proxy_for_social_network_momentum" target="_blank">download figures</a> to <a title="The Verge: “Threads launches for nearly half a billion more users in Europe”" href="/2023/12/threads-european-union-launch.html">promote new apps</a>, while being soundly contradicted by <a title="Threads app usage plummets despite initial promise as refuge from Twitter" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/14/threads-app-slump-daily-active-users-twitter-competition" target="_blank">usage data</a>. Any industry avoiding putting forward more realistic metrics about active users, either daily or monthly, should be an immediate red flag for investors.</p>
<blockquote><p>But privately, reactions to the change have ranged from mild annoyance to legitimate alarm. Some advertising deals were inked under the assumption that shows had audiences they no longer have. The update also means that some shows could struggle to meet minimum download agreements. The fact that no major podcasts would talk about how much they lost is a sign that many big shows aren’t ready to admit how much their audiences have shrunk.</p>
<p>It’s also another demonstration of the power that tech platforms continue to wield over media, a faint echo of the inflated Facebook video metrics that sent advertisers and publishers alike down a garden path a few years ago. Spotify’s pullback from podcasting resulted in hundreds of layoffs last year. A small tweak with little warning from Apple sent even the biggest podcasts into a frenzy, wondering what will happen to audiences, how it could impact revenue and talent deals.</p></blockquote>
<ins><p align="justify">I don’t have any insights into which metrics are reported by podcasting apps back to podcast owners or how are they calculated, but one metric that should be checked is which episodes people mark as played without starting. That should inform creators what topics their followers are (not) interested in.</p>
<p align="justify">The background for this is that I notice increasing content bloat in some of the podcasts I follow, meaning the feed is crammed with more and more episodes. The goal seems to be reaching a cadence of an episode daily, and some even resort to republishing old content. I rarely have the time or the interest to listen to this extra content – even less to revisit two-three years old conversations. It feels as if these podcasts are trying to monopolize the attention of their audience to the point that they don’t listen to anything else.</p></ins><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-9485810517840205752024-01-16T22:25:00.002+02:002024-01-16T23:49:17.306+02:00The New York Times: “Apple’s Newest Headache: An App that upended its Control over Messaging”<blockquote><p>Since it was introduced on Dec. 5, Beeper Mini has quickly become a headache and potential antitrust problem for Apple. It has poked a hole in Apple’s messaging system, while critics say it has demonstrated how Apple bullies potential competitors.</p>
<p>Apple was caught by surprise when Beeper Mini gave Android devices access to its modern, iPhone-only service. Less than a week after Beeper Mini’s launch, Apple blocked the app by changing its iMessage system. It said the app created a security and privacy risk.</p><hr>
<p>The Justice Department has taken interest in the case. Beeper Mini met with the department’s antitrust lawyers on Dec. 12, two people familiar with the meeting said. Eric Migicovsky, a co-founder of the app’s parent company, Beeper, declined to comment on the meeting, but the department is in the middle of a four-year-old investigation into Apple’s anticompetitive behavior.</p>
<p>The Federal Trade Commission said in <a title="Interoperability, Privacy, & Security | Federal Trade Commission" href="https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc/2023/12/interoperability-privacy-security" target="_blank">a blog post</a> on Thursday that it would scrutinize “dominant” players that <q>use privacy and security as a justification to disallow interoperability</q> between services. The post did not name any companies.</p>
<cite><a title="Apple’s Newest Headache: An App that Upended its Control Over Messaging" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/technology/apple-iphone-beeper-mini.html" target="_blank">Tripp Mickle & Mike Isaac</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">The ‘green bubble’ iMessage situation in the US is beyond absurd. I can’t quite decide which is worse: grown people caring so much about kindergarten-level status signaling, or Apple being eager to exploit this social dynamic to grow iPhone sales. Actually, I guess I can: when you have Tim <a title="Tim Cook says ‘buy your mom an iPhone’ if you want to end green bubbles" href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/7/23342243/tim-cook-apple-rcs-imessage-android-iphone-compatibility" target="_blank">‘buy your mom an iPhone’</a> Cook openly deriding Android users on stage it’s abundantly clear that Apple’s entire strategy is to degrade the experience of anyone daring to venture outside their ecosystem.</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="A man in a white sweater stands in a yard before a wooden fence" class="graph" data-original-height="1281" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmy-3k8eEpPBV-Pvrt1BYYe6fBdDN2q6MS88YswzOc5JtwDY3YL8LZD4Ak-WGHIc13a4tJzMqKi0-bX0jP77k2d0KZKSH4U1SacrytgFO_dhTVLv_yYQ7T-npkw_FTrHw9XyKYhLzqYygkY5w911tZ4grSuxpFqpS-GFYsBswBp0ySztgQAr9jMWptRaoO/s600/Eric-Migicovsky-Beeper-creator.jpg" srcset="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmy-3k8eEpPBV-Pvrt1BYYe6fBdDN2q6MS88YswzOc5JtwDY3YL8LZD4Ak-WGHIc13a4tJzMqKi0-bX0jP77k2d0KZKSH4U1SacrytgFO_dhTVLv_yYQ7T-npkw_FTrHw9XyKYhLzqYygkY5w911tZ4grSuxpFqpS-GFYsBswBp0ySztgQAr9jMWptRaoO/s640/Eric-Migicovsky-Beeper-creator.jpg 640w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmy-3k8eEpPBV-Pvrt1BYYe6fBdDN2q6MS88YswzOc5JtwDY3YL8LZD4Ak-WGHIc13a4tJzMqKi0-bX0jP77k2d0KZKSH4U1SacrytgFO_dhTVLv_yYQ7T-npkw_FTrHw9XyKYhLzqYygkY5w911tZ4grSuxpFqpS-GFYsBswBp0ySztgQAr9jMWptRaoO/s1280/Eric-Migicovsky-Beeper-creator.jpg 1280w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmy-3k8eEpPBV-Pvrt1BYYe6fBdDN2q6MS88YswzOc5JtwDY3YL8LZD4Ak-WGHIc13a4tJzMqKi0-bX0jP77k2d0KZKSH4U1SacrytgFO_dhTVLv_yYQ7T-npkw_FTrHw9XyKYhLzqYygkY5w911tZ4grSuxpFqpS-GFYsBswBp0ySztgQAr9jMWptRaoO/s1920/Eric-Migicovsky-Beeper-creator.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 35em) 75vw, 100vw"/>
<figcaption> Eric Migicovsky created Beeper to build a single messaging app that could send texts across multiple services. <small>Helynn Ospina for The New York Times</small> </figcaption></figure>
<p align="justify">As for Beeper Mini, I don’t see how they could expect Apple to let them get away with these workarounds. As much as I enjoy criticizing Apple, they clearly have the right to shut down unauthorized access to iMessage servers. Their issue though is one of perception: they appear as the big, bad bully cutting off <a title="Protocol: “A new email startup says Apple’s shaking it down for a cut of its subscriptions”" href="/2020/06/hey-email-app-store-rejection.html">small developers</a>, the same developers they should be attracting and growing through the App Store. Had Apple not insisted on keeping iMessage exclusive, these situations could have been avoided – and the company could have developed <a title="Use iMessage apps on your iPhone and iPad" href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206906" target="_blank">ways to monetize</a> a much larger user base over the years. Another <a title="Reuters: “Apple warns India’s EU-style charger rules will hit local production target”" href="/2024/01/apple-india-charger-rules.html">self-inflicted wound</a> because Apple cannot think beyond its tight ecosystem and the <a title="The New York Times: “Profits Without Production”" href="/2013/06/profits-without-production.html">monopoly profits</a> it <a title="The New York Times: “Their Businesses Went Virtual. Then Apple Wanted a Cut.”" href="/2020/08/apple-app-store-airbnb-classpass.html">collects</a>.</p>
<p align="justify">While I don’t have much faith that US regulators would take meaningful action in this situation – especially in an election year – it’s possible that the prospect of litigation (which could potentially uncover all sorts of <a title="The New York Times: “What Years of Emails and Texts Reveal about Your Friendly Tech Companies”" href="/2020/08/amazon-facebook-congressional-hearings.html">backroom deals</a>) and regulation may move Apple to relax their rules and consider opening their ‘walled garden’ ever so slightly. Already we have seen them suddenly announcing <a title="Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year - 9to5Mac" href="https://9to5mac.com/2023/11/16/apple-rcs-coming-to-iphone/" target="_blank"><abbr title="Rich Communication Services">RCS</abbr> support</a>, and Apple could soon <a title="App Store to Be 'Split in Two' Ahead of EU iPhone Sideloading Deadline - MacRumors" href="https://www.macrumors.com/2024/01/15/app-store-to-be-split-in-two/" target="_blank">‘split’ its App Store</a> to comply with EU regulations. It may also face an <a title="U.S. Moves Closer to Filing Sweeping Antitrust Case Against Apple" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/technology/antitrust-apple-lawsuit-us.html" target="_blank">antitrust case</a> from the <abbr title="United States Department of Justice">US DOJ</abbr> targeting the company’s strategies to protect the dominance of the iPhone (including: how Apple locks competitors out of its iMessage service).</p>
<p align="justify">All in all, the <a title="Apple’s $85bn-a-year services business faces legal reckoning" href="https://www.ft.com/content/0f2fba8b-612e-4a27-80e0-ad3c3e5f47eb" target="_blank">outlook</a> for the revenues Apple is reporting under the ‘services’ umbrella is rather cloudy – and the hardware business isn’t doing much better either, as in 2023 Apple suffered its <a title="Apple's stock underperformed top tech peers in 2023 due to longest revenue slide in 22 years" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/29/apple-underperformed-mega-cap-peers-in-2023-due-to-revenue-slide.html" target="_blank">longest revenue slide in 22 years</a>, with four straight quarters of declining sales.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-28224963386304665862024-01-14T22:50:00.017+02:002024-01-14T22:50:00.124+02:00Artifact News: “Shutting down Artifact”<a href="https://artifact.news/" title="A Farewell from Artifact" target="_blank"><img alt="Artifact-News-logo" class="logo right" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimEjqO6zn8rzBv7kRBnNCwvEK-n1wg-6-7BWvRP8gZ-S5RITfSmw-KwaLt-RhYaonsaqh3rAuhei5khUnYBOhP5YQL_p_bUjyB6kSD5vXv6xGw4used-4mzAbc8_dHESZ1F_OHl2rrgmf20nWYr3xeId7UBNEuFuGVCr5rSoUiLUCjny_-g0_j8dP8hZ5P/s400/Artifact-News-logo.webp"/></a>
<blockquote><p>We’ve made the decision to wind down operations of the Artifact app. We launched a year ago and since then we’ve been working tirelessly to build a great product. We have built something that a core group of users love, but <mark>we have concluded that the market opportunity isn’t big enough to warrant continued investment</mark> in this way. It’s easy for startups to ignore this reality, but often making the tough call earlier is better for everyone involved. The biggest opportunity cost is time working on newer, bigger and better things that have the ability to reach many millions of people. I am personally excited to continue building new things, though only time will tell what that might be. We live in an exciting time where artificial intelligence is changing just about everything we touch, and the opportunities for new ideas seem limitless.</p>
<cite><a title="Shutting down Artifact." href="https://medium.com/artifact-news/shutting-down-artifact-1e70de46d419" target="_blank">Kevin Systrom</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">I could have told you that a year ago, Kevin… Most of what <a title="Platformer: “Instagram’s co-founders are mounting a comeback”" href="/2023/02/instagrams-co-founders-artifact.html">I wrote</a> back then as the app was gearing up for launch has been confirmed after I started using it.</p><a name='more'></a>
<p align="justify">The recommendation algorithm was weaker than Google News in my opinion, serving me predominantly either news about movies and celebrities I don’t especially care about, or headlines I already saw elsewhere. Despite its numerous woes, Twitter still manages to surface content I find relevant and insightful, which rarely happened on Artifact. On some level it’s understandable as I’ve been on Twitter for more than a decade, enough time for its algorithm to learn my interests inside and out.</p>
<p align="justify">This highlights a side issue with new apps and services promising improved recommendations: for their algorithms to have good results, they either need access to historical data on your personal interests (something no competitor would share without compensation and would break privacy expectations and regulations as well), or to convince users to shift most of their consumption to the new app (very hard to achieve without good content, leading to a chicken-and-egg problem). There are rare exceptions such as <a title="Stratechery: “The TikTok War”" href="/2020/08/the-tiktok-war.html">TikTok</a>, which arguably has created an entirely new market and grabbed the top spot in the process.</p>
<p align="justify">The Artifact app was rather slow to load articles, even on a fairly recent Android phone (I upgraded to the Samsung Galaxy S22 early last year), and of course it displayed ads embedded on websites, which did nothing to improve the overall experience. I enjoyed <a title="Medium: “Announcing Circa News 3”" href="/2014/09/announcing-Circa-News-3.html">Circa</a> much more, and its concept was at least fresh and innovative. Artifact unfortunately felt like a mediocre attempt to take on Google – or Apple – News that failed to live up to its promises.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-7170791553393570822024-01-14T14:10:00.001+02:002024-01-14T14:10:00.124+02:00The Guardian: “Uruguay’s green power revolution: rapid shift to wind shows the world how it’s done”<blockquote><p>Uruguay imports its oil, so it had a problem. Demand for energy in the country had grown by 8.4% the previous year and household energy bills were increasing at a similar rate. The 3.4 million-strong population was becoming restless. Lacking alternatives, <a title="Uruguay firma Acuerdo Energético con Brasil" href="https://www.montevideo.com.uy/Noticias/URUGUAY-FIRMA-ACUERDO-ENERGETICO-CON-BRASIL-uc65622" target="_blank">President Tabaré Vázquez was forced to buy energy from neighbouring states</a> at higher prices, even though Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay <a title="El desarrollo y la provisión de servicios de infraestructura: La experiencia de la energía eléctrica en Uruguay" href="https://repositorio.cepal.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a50bedaa-008b-433d-a629-e92bc84c39fd/content" target="_blank">had a mutual aid agreement in case of emergency conditions</a>.</p>
<p>To escape the trap, Vázquez needed rapid solutions. He turned to an unlikely source: <a title="Ramón Méndez Galain - Kleinman Center for Energy Policy" href="https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/people/ramon-mendez-galain/" target="_blank">Ramón Méndez Galain</a>, a physicist who would transform the country’s energy grid into one of the cleanest in the world.</p>
<p>Today, the country has almost phased out fossil fuels in electricity production. <a title="Uruguay logra más de 90% de energías renovables en la matriz eléctrica en un contexto de más de tres años de sequía" href="https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-industria-energia-mineria/comunicacion/noticias/uruguay-logra-90-energias-renovables-matriz-electrica-contexto-tres-anos" target="_blank">Depending on the weather, anything between 90% and 95% of its power comes from renewables</a>. In some years, that number has crept as high as 98%.</p>
<cite><a title="Uruguay’s green power revolution: rapid shift to wind shows the world how it’s done" href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/dec/27/uruguays-green-power-revolution-rapid-shift-to-wind-shows-the-world-how-its-done" target="_blank">Sam Meadows</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">A good illustration of how to turn a crisis (the <a title="Causes and Consequences of the Oil Shock of 2007–08" href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2009a_bpea_hamilton-1.pdf" target="_blank">Oil Shock</a> of 2007–08) into an opportunity to overhaul energy generation towards multiple goals: drastically reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, while at the same time cutting dependence on fossil fuels and their volatile prices. There is considerable effort involved (from finding land for wind farms to connecting new plants to the grid and securing backup energy sources when renewable power generation is lower than demand), but solutions are available. Once renewable systems are up and running the ongoing costs are lower and the country can develop without being affected by future energy shocks. The key ingredient is evidently vision and political will, to get the process going and to see in through – something that is sorely <a title="The New York Times: “John Kerry’s Sales Pitch to Save the Planet”" href="/2021/10/john-kerry-climate.html">lacking</a> in the US…</p><a name='more'></a>
<blockquote><p>The biggest challenge, however, was to change the “narrative” about renewables. Back then, sustainable energies were still surrounded by many misconceptions, says Galain: they were too expensive, too intermittent or would raise unemployment – and changing these stories proved vital to getting buy-in from all levels of society.</p>
<p><q>No one believed we could do it. We needed new solutions. We needed to do things differently</q>, he says. <q>Today, even members of that cabinet say to me: <q>When you were saying those things on TV in 2008, we were thinking, how are we going to explain this when we fail?</q></q></p>
<p>Galain says there needed to be a “strong national narrative” to make it work. <q>I told people this was the best option even if they don’t believe climate change exists. It’s the cheapest and not dependent on crazy fluctuations [in oil prices].</q></p></blockquote>
<p align="justify">Norway underwent a similar transformation triggered by comparable conditions (<a title="1970s energy crisis - Wikipedia" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_energy_crisis" target="_blank">the 1970s energy crisis</a>), but the country is still an <a title="Norway’s energy paradox: How oil and gas are at odds with green tech start-ups" href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/12/05/norways-energy-paradox-how-oil-and-gas-are-at-odds-with-green-tech-start-ups" target="_blank">important producer and supplier</a> of fossil fuels, so I can’t give them much credit for being a <a title="Norway is Planning to Profit From Climate Change by Exporting Renewable Energy" href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/31/norway-is-planning-to-profit-from-climate-change/" target="_blank">role model</a> for climate action. The <a title="Foreign Policy: “Liberal Illusions caused the Ukraine Crisis”" href="/2022/01/ukraine-russia-nato-liberal-illusions.html">Russian invasion of Ukraine</a> in early 2022 triggered another energy crisis for the European Union, but it remains to be seen how much these pledges to wean off fossil fuels will stand the test of time. So far, the EU has <a title="The assumption that the drastic reduction of Russian gas imports to Europe gives the EU "energy independence" is false" href="https://twitter.com/DionisCenusa/status/1743209890581987498" target="_blank">diversified</a> its fossil fuel imports away from Russia, but that’s still a long way from achieving “<a title="EU drop in Russian gas imports raises hopes of energy independence" href="https://www.ft.com/content/46d2f5a7-37ab-4196-bd00-754b9dfe7fb0?shareType=nongift" target="_blank">energy independence</a>”.</p>
<figure class="center"><img alt="Two men ride horses along a track on a plain, in the background are several wind turbines" class="graph" data-original-height="1174" data-original-width="1760" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Ce99qC8sb97mlE1uImd2rwweVhEFni4OWl2yGaCJ7D65NgxyVWa73amq3Rano40XkdHS_fkHKL37pJeKno3dAfBacGpLYoMV7w2ckiuluiWXcOZTFPYKhaQHLZdK1J0pV66USXC-_fd1kbQ4TjrYcZkutUnXlOTAIt42ozNCn9WyhI168g3HTAdoAo8I/s1760/Uruguay-beef-farmers.webp"/>
<figcaption> Beef production is a primary industry across the country and some farmers have added windfarms to their land. <small>Photograph: Alessandro Cinque</small> </figcaption></figure>
<p align="justify">The good news is that renewable energy capacity is <a title="Analysis: World will add enough renewables in five years to power US and Canada - Carbon Brief" href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-world-will-add-enough-renewables-in-five-years-to-power-us-and-canada/" target="_blank">rapidly expanding worldwide</a> – well, worldwide with an emphasis on China, which added almost half of the world’s new renewable energy capacity in the 2017-2022 period. As with electric vehicles, a sustained centralized policy is driving rapid growth in areas where most people wouldn’t have expected China to compete or be an important player.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-74286239686928646542024-01-07T12:00:00.049+02:002024-01-07T12:00:00.125+02:00Sight and Sound: “Saltburn review: a black comedy designed to shock”<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGJ6C8K6" title="Watch Saltburn | Prime Video" target="_blank"><img alt="Poster for the Saltburn movie" class="side-img right" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjslZKW7YvjSJa4s5Ilm9HcKIXOjN-W14WCEu8QxGOqsmkPdj2SOJ5A1r4-D28fbc4E3-pDC1ELlmiPojZ9kmE29wlfqYPhWC-LDIw7neF-TL9RPGp7_8WFi8jzdIRbuJl1BzyVmoF_UkIQvwEDKYD1NrNq-k-iBPKzohlnSPYxvdxv_f0rhDxchAVUYJs6/s600/Saltburn-poster.jpg"/ srcset="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjslZKW7YvjSJa4s5Ilm9HcKIXOjN-W14WCEu8QxGOqsmkPdj2SOJ5A1r4-D28fbc4E3-pDC1ELlmiPojZ9kmE29wlfqYPhWC-LDIw7neF-TL9RPGp7_8WFi8jzdIRbuJl1BzyVmoF_UkIQvwEDKYD1NrNq-k-iBPKzohlnSPYxvdxv_f0rhDxchAVUYJs6/s640/Saltburn-poster.jpg 480w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjslZKW7YvjSJa4s5Ilm9HcKIXOjN-W14WCEu8QxGOqsmkPdj2SOJ5A1r4-D28fbc4E3-pDC1ELlmiPojZ9kmE29wlfqYPhWC-LDIw7neF-TL9RPGp7_8WFi8jzdIRbuJl1BzyVmoF_UkIQvwEDKYD1NrNq-k-iBPKzohlnSPYxvdxv_f0rhDxchAVUYJs6/s1280/Saltburn-poster.jpg 960w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjslZKW7YvjSJa4s5Ilm9HcKIXOjN-W14WCEu8QxGOqsmkPdj2SOJ5A1r4-D28fbc4E3-pDC1ELlmiPojZ9kmE29wlfqYPhWC-LDIw7neF-TL9RPGp7_8WFi8jzdIRbuJl1BzyVmoF_UkIQvwEDKYD1NrNq-k-iBPKzohlnSPYxvdxv_f0rhDxchAVUYJs6/s1920/Saltburn-poster.jpg 1440w" sizes="(min-width: 35em) 25vw, 100vw"></a>
<blockquote><p>Cycling to class one day, Felix gets a flat tyre – and who should be there by the side of the road, ready to sacrifice his own steed but Oliver? A bike loan is, apparently, all that is required to secure intimate friendship with the most popular man on campus. This is the first jarring example of the story’s superficial treatment of its characters, an issue that becomes increasingly ruinous as the film swings for psychodrama territory, with the fatal flaw that the script offers caricatures rather than people. The central relationship between a beautiful, rich, golden boy and a homoerotically yearning nobody calls to mind <i>The Talented Mr. Ripley</i> (1999), and the comparison does <i>Saltburn</i> no favours. While Anthony Minghella’s film thrums with shifting psychological currents that build an overpowering tension, Fennell undercuts every suggestion of genuine drama with pop-culture-savvy punchlines to the point of diminishing returns.</p>
<cite><a title="Saltburn review: a black comedy designed to shock" href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/saltburn-ostentatious-black-comedy-designed-shock" target="_blank">Sophie Monks Kaufman</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">I came across <a class="booktitle" title="‘Saltburn’ Review: A Promising Young Man Takes a Seedy Turn" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/movies/saltburn-review.html" target="_blank">Saltburn</a> on the front page of Prime Video; the description sounded intriguing enough and I saw a couple of offhand mentions on social media as well, so I decided to watch it. I can’t report the level of shock or outrage that some expressed at the explicit scenes, nor the enthusiasm other critics displayed. It was just a bad movie without direction or purpose that elevated excessive images to conceal its hollowness.</p><a name='more'></a>
<p align="justify">The main issue of the story for me was the central character Oliver, his lack of internal coherence as the movie slowly unveils his supposed master scheme. From the opening scenes the actor felt <a title="Saltburn review – Emerald Fennell’s indulgent country house thriller" href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/nov/19/saltburn-review-emerald-fennell-barry-keoghan-rosamund-pike-indulgent-country-house-thriller" target="_blank">too mature for the role</a>; I was expecting him to be a teacher at Oxford, not a junior student. He repeatedly monologues about his infatuation with Felix in short interludes, and his extreme sexual displays are meant to attest to this searing, yet unsatisfiable desire. But at the same time, we get glimpses of darker intentions via his manipulations, spreading rumors and discord in the Catton household.</p>
<p align="justify">The <a title="Saltburn Ending Explained: What Really Happened To Felix" href="https://screenrant.com/saltburn-ending-explained/" target="_blank">final revelation</a> that his end-goal all along was insinuating himself into the clan and eliminating its members one by one to inherit their estate falls flat and unrealistic. Are we supposed to accept that he was so avid about Felix that he violently wailed on his grave (and crying was merely the beginning…) but was planning to murder him all along and did so in cold blood while meticulously covering his tracks?! Oliver is clearly supposed to be a sociopath, but I do not grasp why this buildup around his wild passion. Was that a misdirection for the audience? A tale he told himself to pass the decades as he waited for his plan to come to fruition?</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Proud Saltburn lover like yeah sometimes a hot boy with a cigarette and an eyebrow piercing will make you go insane that’s just life babe</p>— runes (@varunikask) <a href="https://twitter.com/varunikask/status/1728509297963999388?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 25, 2023</a></blockquote>
<p align="justify">These two halves of Oliver as are portrayed here are hard to reconcile in my view, and it makes the whole thing a rambling mess. As if the writer couldn’t decide between these competing motivations and instead <a title="“Saltburn” is a “Brideshead” for the Incel Age" href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/saltburn-is-a-brideshead-for-the-incel-age" target="_blank">picked thrilling bits from both</a> that fit poorly together in the final story. I suppose the moral should be that the only thing more <a title="'Saltburn's' Critics Are Right, It Whitewashes the Upper Classes" href="https://variety.com/2023/film/columns/saltburn-critics-emerald-fennell-upper-class-satire-1235815525/" target="_blank">sickening</a> than people with power and wealth are the people craving to replace them.</p>
<p align="justify">The movie has its moments though, and they mostly revolve around Rosamund Pike’s lines. A particular standout for me was the lunch scene in the aftermath of Felix’ death, as shock and grief overcome people who never expected to experience these raw feelings in their lifetimes and are struggling to mask them with paper-thin layers of politeness and empty conversations. But isolated scenes cannot compensate for a lack of vision overall.</p>
<div class="star25">My rating: 2.5</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0Bucharest, Romania44.4267674 26.102538416.116533563821157 -9.0537116 72.737001236178855 61.2587884tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-20797315493511251452024-01-01T22:10:00.001+02:002024-01-01T22:10:00.119+02:00Reuters: “Apple warns India’s EU-style charger rules will hit local production target”<blockquote><p>India wants to implement a <a title="EU agrees single mobile charging port in blow to Apple" href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/eu-countries-lawmakers-clinch-deal-single-mobile-charging-port-2022-06-07/" target="_blank">European Union rule</a> that will require smartphones to have a universal USB-C charging port, and has been in talks with manufacturers about introducing the requirement in India by June 2025, six months after the deadline in the EU. While all manufacturers including Samsung have agreed to India’s plan, Apple is pushing back.</p>
<p>Apple has for years offered a unique lightning connector port on its iPhones. The EU, however, estimates a single charger solution would save about $271 million for consumers, and India has said the move will reduce e-waste and help users.</p>
<p>In a closed-door Nov. 28 meeting chaired by India’s IT ministry, Apple asked officials to exempt existing iPhone models from the rules, warning it will otherwise struggle to meet production targets set under India’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, according to the meeting minutes seen by Reuters.</p>
<cite><a title="Exclusive: Apple warns India's EU-style charger rules will hit local production target" href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-warns-indias-eu-style-charger-rules-will-hit-local-production-target-2023-12-05/" target="_blank">Aditya Kalra & Munsif Vengattil</a></cite>
</blockquote><p align="justify">Typical example of Apple’s arrogance and entitlement: they want to receive fiscal incentives from the government for investments in local manufacturing, but also special exemptions from an upcoming USB-C regulation to keep selling older – and by then cheaper – iPhone models on the Indian market. Ironically, this issue was brought on by Apple’s own obstinance and greed, as the company <a title="MacRumors: “The EU wants All Phones to Work with Interoperable Chargers, Here’s what that means for Apple’s Lightning Port”" href="/2020/10/eu-charging-standard-proposals-apple.html">kept the Lightning port around</a> for so long to collect <a title="MFi Program" href="https://mfi.apple.com/en/faqs" target="_blank">licensing fees</a> from accessories manufactures.</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="Apple iPhones on display inside India's first Apple retail store in Mumbai" class="graph" data-original-height="1337" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU3jOBPxq95jK86yH0cVLKOAHDtnsCaBicCxHQG2UPhVh-WoJgPHvG8ELQVrKSwa_wwVtUXGzfTIaZnl0FON4akqn0QBZU_B_gqFYEg8RA8Wu4hIbiUJi_9IjKXPBQedccv2PO1ZS_uxI2dNPGOVCRjx_INdlwDCoT9q8Zo9awbfs8YWw2Qt4dbIoF13ng/s600/iPhones-Apple-store-Mumbai.jpg" srcset="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU3jOBPxq95jK86yH0cVLKOAHDtnsCaBicCxHQG2UPhVh-WoJgPHvG8ELQVrKSwa_wwVtUXGzfTIaZnl0FON4akqn0QBZU_B_gqFYEg8RA8Wu4hIbiUJi_9IjKXPBQedccv2PO1ZS_uxI2dNPGOVCRjx_INdlwDCoT9q8Zo9awbfs8YWw2Qt4dbIoF13ng/s640/iPhones-Apple-store-Mumbai.jpg 640w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU3jOBPxq95jK86yH0cVLKOAHDtnsCaBicCxHQG2UPhVh-WoJgPHvG8ELQVrKSwa_wwVtUXGzfTIaZnl0FON4akqn0QBZU_B_gqFYEg8RA8Wu4hIbiUJi_9IjKXPBQedccv2PO1ZS_uxI2dNPGOVCRjx_INdlwDCoT9q8Zo9awbfs8YWw2Qt4dbIoF13ng/s1280/iPhones-Apple-store-Mumbai.jpg 1280w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU3jOBPxq95jK86yH0cVLKOAHDtnsCaBicCxHQG2UPhVh-WoJgPHvG8ELQVrKSwa_wwVtUXGzfTIaZnl0FON4akqn0QBZU_B_gqFYEg8RA8Wu4hIbiUJi_9IjKXPBQedccv2PO1ZS_uxI2dNPGOVCRjx_INdlwDCoT9q8Zo9awbfs8YWw2Qt4dbIoF13ng/s1920/iPhones-Apple-store-Mumbai.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 35em) 75vw, 100vw"/>
<figcaption> Apple iPhones are seen inside India’s first Apple retail store during a media preview, a day ahead of its launch in Mumbai, India, April 17, 2023. <small>Reuters/Francis Mascarenhas</small> </figcaption></figure>
<p align="justify">Unfortunately for Apple, I don’t think they have much leverage in this case (except for quietly bribing key Indian officials): among US tech companies, Apple has the <a title="What it would take for Apple to disentangle itself from China" href="https://www.ft.com/content/74f7e284-c047-4cc4-9b7a-408d40611bfa" target="_blank">largest exposure</a> to China, being highly dependent on the country for manufacturing <em>and</em> as a key sales market. We saw Apple <a title="The New York Times: “Apple’s Silence in China Sets a Dangerous Precedent”" href="/2017/08/apple-vpn-china-dangerous-precedent.html">repeatedly</a> <a title="The New York Times: “Censorship, Surveillance and Profits: A Hard Bargain for Apple in China”" href="/2021/05/apple-china-censorship-data.html">concede</a> to the demands of Chinese authorities to keep <a title="The New York Times: “How China built ‘iPhone City’ with Billions in Perks for Apple’s Partner”" href="/2017/01/iphone-city-foxconn.html">their privileges</a>. Many companies have looked to diversify manufacturing away from China amid ongoing US-China geopolitical tension, and India <a title="Foreign Affairs: “Why India can’t replace China”" href="/2023/01/why-india-cant-replace-china.html">seems</a> like the obvious destination, if only for its large population. This potential scale is especially important for Apple’s operations, so if India’s government stands its ground, I’m fairly confident Apple will concede in this case as well and swallow any potential losses.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-73268713608357913092023-12-29T19:25:00.001+02:002023-12-29T19:25:00.134+02:00ZDNet: “Can Microsoft recover from the collapse of its Surface business?”<blockquote><p>In the chart above, I’ve projected what the Surface revenue number might look like if the company rebounds to a loss of only 24%, repeating this year’s performance. Basically, they’re back to what the business was in 2016 and 2017, which is… not good?</p>
<p>At Microsoft, a division needs to be able to bring in $10 billion of revenue per year to be considered a “needle mover”. Surface once looked like it was on its way to building that kind of steady, growing business. It doesn’t anymore.</p>
<p>Maybe this explains the sudden departure of Windows & Devices boss Panos Panay, just days ahead of the company’s fall Surface showcase event. His portfolio had expanded dramatically in recent years to cover not just Surface devices but also Windows 11. A <a title="Why Microsoft Windows Boss Panos Panay Made a Surprise Move to Amazon" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-microsoft-windows-surface-panos-panay-left-for-amazon-2023-9" target="_blank">report in Business Insider</a>, quoting “anonymous insiders”, says Panay was <q>unhappy with recent changes in the Windows + Devices division</q>, including <q>significant cuts to simplify the Surface business ... and focus more on Microsoft’s hits rather than the more experimental devices the company funded in flush times.</q></p>
<cite><a title="Can Microsoft recover from the collapse of its Surface business?" href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/can-microsoft-recover-from-the-collapse-of-its-surface-business/" target="_blank">Ed Bott</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">I’m going to play the contrarian here and say that, first of all, a collapse of the Surface business doesn’t make a noticeable dent in Microsoft’s financial results, secondly the entire PC market, including Apple, recorded lower sales than expected after people rushed to upgrade their devices during the pandemic, and finally <a title="Oaktree Capital Management: “Sea Change”" href="/2023/02/sea-change.html">higher interest rates</a> drove companies to <a title="The New York Times: “Layoffs by Email show what Employers really think of Their Workers”" href="/2023/02/mass-tech-layoffs-email.html">reduce headcounts</a>, <a title="CNBC: “Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers for ‘multi-year’ savings”" href="/2023/04/google-cut-down-employee-laptops.html">cut costs</a> wherever possible, and slash extraneous projects – all external factors that <a title="Goldman Sachs Research: “The Risks of a Higher Rate Regime”" href="/2023/11/risks-of-higher-rate-regime.html">marked the entire tech sector</a> over the course of 2023. On top of that Surface devices are more premium than the average PC, so naturally their sales are more impacted by lower demand and lower disposable incomes caused by inflation.</p><a name='more'></a>
<p align="justify">That being said, <a title="The Verge: “Microsoft Surface defined 10 years of Windows PCs — can it nail the next 10?”" href="/2022/10/microsoft-surface-ten-years-history.html">Surface devices</a> have become relatively stagnant, with few design changes over the years. I personally never understood the infatuation of some tech journalists with Panos Panay; he may be great at delivering presentations and ‘pumping up’ products, but his concrete results seemed underwhelming. He was put <a title="Windows Central: “Microsoft’s Head of Industrial Design for Surface now also heading design team for Windows”" href="/2020/06/windows-start-tiles-design.html">in charge of Windows design</a> three years ago, and all we got was the <a title="The Verge: “Windows 11’s widgets can now trigger notifications on your taskbar”" href="/2022/08/windows-11-widgets-notifications-taskbar.html">directionless</a> and permanently <a title="ZDNet: “Windows 11: Is Microsoft having its Spinal Tap moment?”" href="/2021/06/windows-11-its-one-louder.html">unfinished</a> <a title="The Verge: “Windows 11 is a new and refreshing approach to an old and familiar home”" href="/2021/07/windows-11-hands-on-preview.html">Windows 11</a>. And if he’s expecting freedom and funding for experimental devices in his new role at Amazon, I think he’s going to be sorely disappointed – see the above external factors hitting Amazon just as hard.</p>
<p align="justify">As a side-thought, the guy he’s replacing, Dave Limp, became <a title="Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to replace CEO Bob Smith with outgoing Amazon exec Dave Limp" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/25/blue-origin-ceo-bob-smith-out-replaced-by-outgoing-amazon-exec-dave-limp.html" target="_blank">CEO of Blue Origin</a>, which is a much cooler job in my book – frankly, working on space exploration would be my dream job – even as the challenge of competing with SpaceX will be formidable.</p>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="Surface Laptop Studio 1 vs Surface Laptop Studio 2 side by side" class="graph" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZHhz0Zf8rBK3uZd2EssVGt9PVqo1120OMM-3_VB-52LRipEemzzY4cCIYT8YLvbNxqqsOHiHJmpgc1e64zw1e4C_JTSfbFwo1nBEi9H3YkHuObLXsuGbPBNFm6AiuR7NExi0BYdASkGExX-hIkYYv2Q3jWojyPnXVCUOOjTZYz1z_EHZ2jPdHvw_Vd7y1/s1200/Surface-Laptop-Studio-1-vs-2.jpg"/>
<figcaption> Surface Laptop Studio 1 vs Surface Laptop Studio 2. <small>(<a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/surface/microsoft-surface-pro-10-laptop-6-major-update-intel-arm-ai-2024" title="First details on Microsoft's AI-powered Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 for 2024" target="_blank">Image credit</a>: Daniel Rubino)</small> </figcaption></figure>
<p align="justify">A <a title="First details on Microsoft's AI-powered Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 for 2024" href="https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/surface/microsoft-surface-pro-10-laptop-6-major-update-intel-arm-ai-2024" target="_blank">recent exclusive report</a> hints at the future of the Surface line in 2024, featuring ‘next-gen’ AI, Arm chips and design upgrades. The Surface line is far from dead, though I suspect customers will be more enticed by newer designs than by nebulous AI features, which to me sound increasingly like hollow marketing speak.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-51897683845337052752023-12-28T18:55:00.003+02:002023-12-29T17:17:50.108+02:00Ethan Zuckerman: “How Big is YouTube?”<blockquote><p>Here’s how this works: YouTube URLs look like this: <code>https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=vXPJVwwEmiM</code></p>
<p>That bit after “watch?v=” is an 11 digit string. The first ten digits can be a-z,A-Z,0-9 and _-. The last digit is special, and can only be one of 16 values. Turns out there are 2^64 possible YouTube addresses, an enormous number: 18.4 quintillion. There are lots of YouTube videos, but not that many. Let’s guess for a moment that there are 1 billion YouTube videos – if you picked URLs at random, you’d only get a valid address roughly once every 18.4 billion tries.</p>
<p>We refer to this method as “drunk dialing”, as it’s basically as sophisticated as taking swigs from a bottle of bourbon and mashing digits on a telephone, hoping to find a human being to speak to. Jason found a couple of cheats that makes the method roughly 32,000 times as efficient, meaning our “phone call” connects lots more often. Kevin Zheng wrote a whole bunch of scripts to do the dialing, and over the course of several months, we collected more than 10,000 truly random YouTube videos.</p><hr>
<p>Once you’re collecting these random videos, other statistics are easy to calculate. We can look at how old our random videos are and calculate how fast YouTube is growing: we estimate that over 4 billion videos were posted to YouTube just in 2023. We can calculate the mean and median views per video, and show just how long the “long tail” is – videos with 10,000 or more views are roughly 4% of our data set, though they represent the lion’s share of views of the YouTube platform.</p>
<cite><a title="How Big is YouTube?" href="https://ethanzuckerman.com/2023/12/22/how-big-is-youtube/" target="_blank">Ethan Zuckerman</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">Fascinating method – and fascinating results! If these are anywhere near accurate, in 2023 there was a new YouTube video for every other person living on the planet! The stats also highlight the extreme inequality in traffic between a tiny minority of popular uploads and the typical YouTube video, which can’t even top 10,000 views.</p><a name='more'></a>
<a href="https://tubestats.org/" title="TubeStats" target="_blank"><img alt="Chart for the Yearly estimated size of YouTube between 2006 and 2023" class="graph" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAyN3inQv2SpWX-XEZGmfguS5DzRI3HFXPTs5D-EVuuIDAo-qxkK2Fst70TK3klQqoKvhg-0qfrpBOK1XMPYCW-Mohr6D5TtQTkQoDi_L4BAzCH43z9Q1uN2VxjjmRQTcy2ZWJNQo53KrwKMixTBU9RC1bAlZYeHr9ahGUREf9z2Jc1ECE2TlLK2xvOh89/s1320/Yearly-estimated-size-YouTube.webp"/></a>
<p align="justify">The growth curve looks exponential, which raises the question: how long can this proliferation of video content continue? We are accustomed to think of the digital realm as limitless, a place where you can create anything and multiply it however many times you want, because each new copy is essentially free. But at the scale of YouTube, the system may start hitting its constraints in terms of server space to store video files and bandwidth to deliver them to viewers. Earlier this year, Google updated its <a title="Updating our inactive account policies" href="https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/updating-our-inactive-account-policies/" target="_blank">inactive account policy</a> to inform users that they may start deleting accounts and their contents after 2 years of inactivity – they wrapped this announcement in a narrative of security, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the ongoing costs of keeping old content around were a factor as well.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-48084186722827912472023-12-28T12:40:00.002+02:002023-12-28T17:13:01.940+02:00noyb: “noyb files GDPR complaint against Meta over ‘Pay or Okay’”<blockquote><p><strong>“Freely given” consent at a high price?</strong> Under EU law, consent to online tracking and personalized advertising is only valid if it is “freely given”. This is to ensure that users only give up their fundamental right to privacy if it is their genuine free will to do so. Meta has now implemented the exact opposite of a genuinely free choice: Facebook alone will introduce a “privacy fee” of up to €12.99 per month if users do not consent to their personal data being processed for targeted advertising. Each linked account (such as Instagram) will cost another €8, making a total of €251.88 a year for one person using Instagram and Facebook. By comparison: <a title="Earnings Presentation - Q3 2023" href="https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_earnings/2023/q3/presentation/Earnings-Presentation-Q3-2023.pdf" target="_blank">Meta says</a> its average revenue per user in Europe between Q3 2022 and Q3 2023 was $16.79. This equates to an annual revenue of just €62,88 per user – and puts the monthly fee way out of proportion.</p>
<p>Felix Mikolasch, data protection lawyer at <i>noyb</i>: <q>EU law requires that consent is the genuine free will of the user. Contrary to this law, Meta charges a “privacy fee” of up to €250 per year if anyone dares to exercise their fundamental right to data protection.</q></p>
<cite><a title="noyb files GDPR complaint against Meta over “Pay or Okay”" href="https://noyb.eu/en/noyb-files-gdpr-complaint-against-meta-over-pay-or-okay" target="_blank">noyb</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">Back at the end of October, <a title="Facebook and Instagram to Offer Subscription for No Ads in Europe" href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/10/facebook-and-instagram-to-offer-subscription-for-no-ads-in-europe/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> (or I should say Meta, since this applies to multiple products) introduced an advertising-free subscription for EU users at the whopping monthly price of €9.99. It was obvious from the start that this limited choice between consenting to tracking and ‘<a title="The New York Times: “Shoshana Zuboff explains Why You Should Care about Privacy”" href="/2021/06/shoshana-zuboff-apple-google-privacy.html">privacy as a luxury</a>’ does not comply with <a title="Baekdal Plus: “Inside Story: What I did to get GDPR Compliant”" href="/2018/05/get-gdpr-compliant.html">the principles of <abbr title="General Data Protection Regulation">GDPR</abbr></a>, so it’s good to see this move immediately <a title="noyb files GDPR complaint against Meta over “Pay or Okay”" href="https://noyb.eu/en/noyb-files-gdpr-complaint-against-meta-over-pay-or-okay" target="_blank">challenged</a> – the European Consumer Organisation <a title="Meta Platforms' ad-free service targeted in EU consumer complaint" href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/meta-platforms-paid-ad-free-service-is-targeted-eu-consumer-groups-complaint-2023-11-30/" target="_blank">has filed a complaint</a> as well, calling out Meta’s practice as amounting to charging for privacy.</p><a name='more'></a>
<blockquote><p>Max Schrems: <q>Fundamental rights are usually available to everyone. How many people would still exercise their right to vote if they had to pay € 250 to do so? There were times when fundamental rights were reserved for the rich. It seems Meta wants to take us back for more than a hundred years.</q></p></blockquote>
<img alt="Meta Pay or Okay illustration" class="graph" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLVpzzRYXFnzBl7_Rwb6j9F813bLYJVqdsuTvvTA48Qqf7K0P57_KFpy174nK3QGpN6vTurT6RTBaRpM_r62cU-0Ch5nV7ipSJUb7a54DrRPy3tlVSj3ObJPoX1hkgPpzbLWg9LZkWcSL89ahs3w8GV1-ozdiIbYOnozx46m4LKwWdNwUV34vZDctpQBg/s1200/Meta-pay-or-okay.webp"/>
<p align="justify">The more you think about it, the more Facebook’s behavior looks more blatant. For one, there’s no guarantee that by paying the ad-free subscription the company will stop collecting data on your activities on the platform and elsewhere, so people end up paying for the illusion of privacy. Moreover, the majority of Facebook’s content, be it in the main app, Instagram, or more recently <a title="The Verge: “Threads launches for nearly half a billion more users in Europe”" href="/2023/12/threads-european-union-launch.html">Threads</a>, is user-generated, so the company avoids the high media expenditures that may justify subscriptions for television and music. Thirdly, Facebook is charging creators fees to promote their posts because it controls the opaque and ever-shifting ranking <a title="TechCrunch: “How Instagram’s algorithm works”" href="/2018/06/how-instagram-feed-works.html">algorithm</a> in their feeds, a <a title="rainylune: “Why your Instagram Engagement Kinda Sucks Right Now”" href="/2020/12/instagram-engagement-kinda-sucks.html">common complaint</a> of influencers. <ins>At every point Facebook is collecting money <em>and</em> data on its users, and then turns around and demands even more to pretend to comply with privacy regulations!</ins> Launching a subscription is simply another way for Meta to create revenue streams and present them to investors to boost their share price, with privacy as cover.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-51525307385703597612023-12-25T16:50:00.029+02:002023-12-26T00:18:02.451+02:00Ars Technica: “Gmail unleashes ‘email emoji reactions’ onto an unsuspecting world”<blockquote><p>You can now reply to an email just like it’s an instant messaging chat, tacking on a “crying laughing” emoji to an email instead of replying. Google has a whole <a title="Reply to emails with emoji reactions" href="https://support.google.com/mail/answer/14080429?visit_id=638319434506118031-3649702038&p=emoji_reactions&rd=1" target="_blank">support article</a> detailing the new feature, which allows you to <q>express yourself and quickly respond to emails with emojis</q>. Like a messaging app, a row of emoji reaction counts will appear below your email now, and other people on the thread can tap to add to the reaction count. Currently, it’s only on the Android Gmail app, but it’s presumably coming to other Gmail clients.</p>
<p>Of course, email is from the 1970s and does not natively support emoji reactions. That makes this a Gmail-proprietary feature, which is a problem for federated emails that are expected to work with a million different clients and providers. If you send an emoji reaction and someone on the email chain is not using an official Gmail client, they will get <em>a new, additional email</em> containing your singular reactive emoji. Google is not messing with the email standard, so people not using Gmail will be the most affected.</p><hr>
<p>If the idea of emoji reactions to email has you selecting the puke emoji, as far as we can tell, there’s no way to just turn this off.</p>
<cite><a title="Gmail unleashes “email emoji reactions” onto an unsuspecting world" href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/10/gmail-unleashes-email-emoji-reactions-onto-an-unsuspecting-world/" target="_blank">Ron Amadeo</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">This so-called feature rolled out to my Gmail account on the web just last week, and I have to say it’s a serious contender for most useless update of 2023 – too bad Silicon Valley doesn’t have something like the <a title="The Razzies!" href="https://www.razzies.com/index.html" target="_blank">Golden Raspberry Awards</a>. Not only is it utterly unoriginal, since every messaging app and social network has something similar, it fits very badly into the more longform and serios medium of email. At this point, most personal communication flows through messaging, not email, and the types of discussion taking place over email are not well suited to quick emoji reactions.</p><a name='more'></a>
<a href="https://blog.google/products/gmail/gmail-emoji-reactions/" title="Thumbs up for new emoji reactions in Gmail" target="_blank"><img alt="Different emoji float around a Gmail desktop inbox. A mobile screen shows an image of a dog with the emoji reactions toolbar underneath it." class="graph" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgjY4sK1dUUqVU_xSnGO7Q3_fHdzco3gWVqiG94xiExaO3WITO_32zNKulrvdfsFKZ4UY9ISS5vTUEVwVji79tfWATwNa_cjw2qecgeh0YyJJMMiM2rBTvu5maug_Q-usYeStZtVH7LjRiUevQirwO0ue-GNNdKD0C34joXOKIeI8zcsSK5rMcTF4-vWy4/s1600/Gmail-emoji.webp"/></a>
<p align="justify">For me, mail has become the home of low-value newsletters (I switched the more significant ones to <a title="Feedbin Blog: “Feedbin’s First Year”" href="/2014/03/feedbin-first-year.html">Feedbin</a>), discussions about job offers and interviews (although some of that happens directly on LinkedIn), and travel planning (which, again, is partially shifting to WhatsApp) – none of these require or will be improved by emoji reactions.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-3846596387716086232023-12-23T13:55:00.001+02:002023-12-23T13:55:00.125+02:00The Verge: “Threads launches for nearly half a billion more users in Europe”<blockquote><p>Meta’s Twitter competitor, Threads, is now available in the European Union, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced. <q>Today we’re opening Threads to more countries in Europe</q>, Zuckerberg <a title="Today we're opening Threads to more countries in Europe" href="https://www.threads.net/@zuck/post/C01LXhDrCAM" target="_blank">wrote in a post on Threads</a>. The launch follows the service’s <a title="Instagram’s Twitter competitor, Threads, is available now" href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/5/23784263/instagram-threads-app-download-iphone-android" target="_blank">debut in the US and over 100 other countries</a> across the world, including the UK, in July 2023. But until now, Threads hasn’t been available to the 448 million people living in the EU, and the company has even <a title="Meta confirms it is blocking EU-based users from accessing Threads via VPN" href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/14/meta-is-blocking-eu-based-users-from-accessing-threads-via-vpn/" target="_blank">blocked EU-based users from accessing the service via VPN</a>.</p>
<p>To coincide with today’s launch, Meta is giving users in the region the ability to <a title="Introducing Threads: A New Way to Share With Text | Meta" href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/07/introducing-threads-new-app-text-sharing/#:~:text=Update%20on%20December%2014%2C%202023%20at%203%3A05AM%20PT%3A" target="_blank">browse Threads without needing a profile</a>. Actually posting or interacting with content will still require an Instagram account, however. The move was earlier <a title="Meta’s Threads to Launch in Europe in App’s Biggest Expansion Since Debut" href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/meta-threads-europe-launch-98448df5?mod=followamazon" target="_blank">reported by <i>The Wall Street Journal</i></a>.</p>
<cite><a title="Threads launches for nearly half a billion more users in Europe" href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/14/23953986/threads-european-union-launch-eu-meta-twitter-rival" target="_blank">Jon Porter</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">Looks like <a title="Independent.ie: “No Instagram Threads app in the EU”" href="/2023/07/no-instagram-threads-app-eu.html">I was right</a> that Threads would launch in the European Union before having full ActivityPub compatibility. Threads is <a title="Threads is officially starting to test ActivityPub integration" href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/13/24000120/threads-meta-activitypub-test-mastodon" target="_blank">starting to test this</a>, but it’s limited and one-sided at this stage, meaning you can’t post from other ActivityPub networks to Threads, nor move your account between services – a cynic might say this is a great tactic to improve the reach of Threads posts while giving nothing in return to the wider fediverse.</p><a name='more'></a>
<img alt="Threads logo in front of EU flag" class="graph" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="976" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO4pKPkuh8W-RaLK2t0qeC82t5nNbtNnebazdKwgRonmuWE2MdWbxYNmpS2oTCSBOb7ZL98JLk2uKXg3OxqzJugxRWZTgpKQ1K8gxOEcjUFLzz9lwt8VlLsmMfhfx4JLlO1_XO2FzLLreyPyELlHGPjngi4cYMPfgtE_1RmLVt4iwKXDJ-KIEp8b_0IPfV/s1600/Meta-Threads-EU.jpg"/>
<p align="justify">Evidently, I joined Threads the moment it became available, mostly out of curiosity than any expectation for a great experience. And having low expectations certainly helped, because my timeline is dominated by the sort of crap that made me <a title="Twitter vs. Facebook for the Everyday-Man" href="/2014/05/twitter-vs-facebook-for-everyday-man.html">avoid Facebook</a> for several years now. There are photography related posts in the mix, but that’s an artifact of Threads running on your Instagram social graph and pushing people to connect with the same people they follow on Instagram. This is the flipside of having fulminant growth by piggybacking on an existing network: you get the initial buzz, but interest quickly dies down when people keep seeing unoriginal content.</p>
<p align="justify">The thing is, I’m not interested in seeing the same content in another app, so I’m probably going to start unfollowing (or muting) the accounts I follow on Instagram and search for other interests to follow – but that involves a sustained effort I’m not quite sure I want to make in Threads yet. This harkens back to a remark on Twitter in its early days, that each person’s experience is defined not by the app itself, but by the accounts they follow and interact with.</p>
<p align="justify">For me, Threads has <a title="Where’s Your Ed At: “The End of the Honest Internet”" href="/2023/07/end-of-the-honest-internet.html">a long way to go</a> to compete with Twitter, both in terms of content and features. On the features side, what I’m missing now is a solution to schedule posts – I want to share my blog articles and links, but I don’t want to spam my followers with multiple links at once – and a section to keep track of my likes – on Twitter I would like tweets to save them for later and use the information for my articles or retweet them, which seems impossible on Treads at the moment.</p>
<p align="justify">I also dislike the constant and heavy-handed promotion of Threads in Instagram – as if that app needed <a title="Bloomberg: “Mark Zuckerberg is Blowing Up Instagram to Try and Catch TikTok”" href="/2022/06/facebook-copies-tiktok-app.html">any more junk bolted onto it</a>: there’s a mini-carousel of Threads in the feed (that can’t be dismissed apparently), and a new button to share content to Threads (which compounds the issue of having the same content posted across apps, thus little differentiation between Threads and Instagram).</p>
<p align="justify">Ironically, Threads may be a better place to <a title="Wired: “Forget New Twitter—Retro is a New Instagram”" href="/2023/07/retro-app-launch.html">share photos</a> than Instagram, because it doesn’t have the same constraints on aspect ratios that the photo feed on Instagram stubbornly maintains.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788216437526312119.post-25381956036041567132023-12-22T12:35:00.002+02:002023-12-22T18:13:23.927+02:00Euronews: “Behind the global scam targeting WhatsApp users with fake job offers”<blockquote><p>According to Keith Rosser, who is both a group director at Reed and co-director and chair of <a title="JobsAware - Protecting worker rights" href="https://www.jobsaware.co.uk/" target="_blank">JobsAware</a>, a non-profit looking out for the safety of the UK labour market, this scam began in November 2022. It became “huge” in the UK, he says, from March 2023.</p>
<p><q>We’re receiving dozens of reports a day, specifically about WhatsApp-based scams copying the names of legitimate recruitment firms, both job boards and recruitment agencies</q>, Rosser told Euronews Next.</p>
<p>JobsAware receives about 50 such complaints a day, and they believe only 5 per cent of victims reach out to them, bringing the approximate number of people getting these texts in the UK to 1,000 per day.</p>
<p>The UK’s communications regulator OFCOM <a title="Scale and impact of online fraud revealed - Ofcom" href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2023/scale-and-impact-of-online-fraud-revealed" target="_blank">recently found that</a> nearly one in three Britons had encountered fake employment ads, and Rosser believes most of them were targeted by this specific WhatsApp scam.</p>
<cite><a title="Behind the global scam worth an estimated €100m targeting WhatsApp users with fake job offers" href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/10/23/behind-the-global-scam-worth-an-estimated-100m-targeting-whatsapp-users-with-fake-job-offe" target="_blank">Aylin Elci</a></cite></blockquote>
<p align="justify">I have started receiving similar scam messages over WhatsApp since last month, from phone numbers in Iraq and the Philippines. I obviously blocked them immediately, though it was notable that some of them were written in Romanian, probably intended to reach more people here. The recent availability of AI tools to generate text and translate it into various languages clearly makes it much easier for these kinds of schemes to proliferate. It will be interesting to see whether Facebook will implement measures to prevent or limit these frauds – or if they can, considering the end-to-end <a href="/2016/05/what-if-apple-is-wrong.html" title="MIT Technology Review: What if Apple is Wrong?">encryption</a> in WhatsApp messages would make it impossible for the company to scan the contents of texts in transit.</p><a name='more'></a>
<figure class="center"> <img alt="Illustration of multiple scam messages sent to British numbers via WhatsApp" class="graph" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq2Kr_CNR47-U16Qr110Hsn4o4H5aF7ImTTKPc6LYEOTj0BOe6eOqpzFeutwJ9RvOHben3-jmof7XXOwRbUo8WoZQ64NTCnfAu99joaEJnM-rVmDP13cA5IeZiNtSu6nyKAT1TcVfogH8hsyYyQrpfOloLsUPuqulaVvnP0PxJ5Wq8ziFsuAKvW7KoT5me/s1600/Euronews-Next-scam-messages-WhatsApp.webp" srcset="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq2Kr_CNR47-U16Qr110Hsn4o4H5aF7ImTTKPc6LYEOTj0BOe6eOqpzFeutwJ9RvOHben3-jmof7XXOwRbUo8WoZQ64NTCnfAu99joaEJnM-rVmDP13cA5IeZiNtSu6nyKAT1TcVfogH8hsyYyQrpfOloLsUPuqulaVvnP0PxJ5Wq8ziFsuAKvW7KoT5me/s640/Euronews-Next-scam-messages-WhatsApp.webp 640w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq2Kr_CNR47-U16Qr110Hsn4o4H5aF7ImTTKPc6LYEOTj0BOe6eOqpzFeutwJ9RvOHben3-jmof7XXOwRbUo8WoZQ64NTCnfAu99joaEJnM-rVmDP13cA5IeZiNtSu6nyKAT1TcVfogH8hsyYyQrpfOloLsUPuqulaVvnP0PxJ5Wq8ziFsuAKvW7KoT5me/s1280/Euronews-Next-scam-messages-WhatsApp.webp 1280w, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq2Kr_CNR47-U16Qr110Hsn4o4H5aF7ImTTKPc6LYEOTj0BOe6eOqpzFeutwJ9RvOHben3-jmof7XXOwRbUo8WoZQ64NTCnfAu99joaEJnM-rVmDP13cA5IeZiNtSu6nyKAT1TcVfogH8hsyYyQrpfOloLsUPuqulaVvnP0PxJ5Wq8ziFsuAKvW7KoT5me/s1920/Euronews-Next-scam-messages-WhatsApp.webp 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 35em) 75vw, 100vw" />
<figcaption> Euronews Next has been through dozens of scam messages sent to British numbers via WhatsApp. </figcaption></figure><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr/><p>Follow future articles: <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default">RSS</a> | <a href="https://exde601e.blogspot.com/p/email-subscription-form.html">email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=exde601e">Twitter</a></p></div>George B. Mogahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13619656378366308760noreply@blogger.com0