🔗 Blockchain Letter
It really whips the llama's ass.
A BIT OF A STRETCH
Watch this HomePod ad
HomePod is a somewhat a boring product. It's a Siri-powered smart speaker, albeit a great sounding one. But we all know Siri has some catching up to do compared to Google's Assistant and Amazon's Alexa.
That said, the ad Apple and Spike Jonze created for HomePod is anything but boring. It's reminds me of his Kenzo perfume ad, in a good way.
• HomePod — Welcome Home by Spike Jonze — Apple (YouTube, 04:01 watch)
GET LESS LIT
Dumb phones will save us all
How can we become less attached to our smartphones? It's an important question, with no clear answer. You could turn off the red notification dots. Or turn on greyscale mode. Neither option is a perfect fix.
The original Light Phone was a big hit for this reason. It allowed you leave your smartphone at home and take a 'dumb' phone out with you instead. You could make calls (using your phone number) and store nine other numbers. Pretty refreshing.
Now they are making a Light Phone 2, this time a bit less dumb. It pushes beyond the limits of the original, but not by much. You'll be able to send basic text messages, set an alarm, or even hail a ride… but no apps.
The only bummer is that it's not available until April 2019. So, if you're the impatient type, check out the new Nokia 8110 (a.k.a. the Matrix phone) that was re-released last month.
• Light Phone 2 (Indiegogo, 07:00 read + 01:47 watch)
• Nokia’s banana phone from The Matrix is back (The Verge, 00:45 read + 03:46 watch)
• How Tiny Red Dots Took Over Your Life (NY Times, 07:00 read)
• Is the Answer to Phone Addiction a Worse Phone? (NY Times, 03:00 read)
YEAH, ANOTHER DRONE THING
Blast drones out of the sky like Duck Hunt
While it may look like something from a sci-fi movie, the DroneGun Tactical is very much real. The idea is simple: point it at a drone—like the one your annoying neighbour's kid got for Christmas—and pull the trigger. A special jamming frequency gets blasted through the air to kill it in its tracks.
This new, lighter version of the gun (the old one had a huge backpack) weighs only 15 pounds and has a range of up to 1 km. Fun!
And if guns aren't your thing, there's always eagles.
• DroneGun Tactical (DroneShield)
• So, Dutch Cops Are Teaching Majestic Eagles to Hunt Drones
(WIRED, 01:15 read + 02:42 watch)
• DroneGun Video June 2017 (YouTube, 00:49 watch)
THIS MIGHT BE HELL
Doom is even more terrifying with Tim Allen
Remember Doom? The classic '90s shooter game? How about Home Improvement? YouTuber and evil genius Marisa Kirisame combined the two. Everything in Doom is now Tim Allen's signature grunt.
Enjoy.
• AEUHHH???? (YouTube, 05:10 watch)
DATA BLUES
Facebook isn't listening to your mic, but they are tracking your data
Is Facebook listening to you through your microphone to target ads? Short answer, no.
But we've all been there. When you see the same ads follow you across websites, Facebook, and Instagram, it's a bit spooky. Instead of voice recordings, they scrape your online activity and physical purchase data. Still not great. Watch this video to learn about some simple device settings that will limit Facebook's influence.
• Facebook Really Is Spying on You, Just Not Through Your Phone’s Mic (The Wall Street Journal, 03:45 watch)
IT REALLY WHIPS THE LLAMA'S ASS
Winamp is back from the grave
Nerd alert! The best MP3 player software from 1998 has been rebuilt in HTML5 for the modern browser. I can already hear the 56K modem booting up in the background. (If you're feeling nostalgic, you can listen to that and other sounds from the '90s here.)
Fun fact: the first thing I ever 'designed' on a computer was a Winamp skin. Give it a download here and load it into the web player to see how cool it never was.
• Winamp 2 JS (GitHub)
• Museum of Endangered Sounds
BUY LOCAL
Opendesk is changing how we buy furniture
Furniture shopping sucks. More so if you get lost in IKEA. That's why Opendesk is so refreshing. Instead of a storefront, they pair you with a local company to make your furniture.
They have a wide range of designs, all made using digital fabrication. (Meaning: shapes cut from wooden sheets by computer-controlled CNC machines.) Once you select a design, they send over digital specs and work with your local maker to complete the build.
I tried this recently when I bought my new desk, and I can't recommend it enough. What's even better: they can adjust the sizing of most pieces to suit your space. So in my case, I went with the smallest size of their Studio Desk.
• Opendesk
P.S.
The Canadian Air Force bombed Miami
Don't worry, it was only a raft. How do we know it was the RCAF? Because the soldiers came by later that day to pick up the raft and apologize.
50 Cent is not a Bitcoin millionaire
Despite TMZ's intrepid journalism, and 50's public confirmation, he didn't make millions on Bitcoin. The guy just likes favourable press.
This is the hardest game ever
Watch the video at the link for what the creator describes as "the most hardest, irritating, frustrating game EVER." And if you want to torture yourself, give it a try here.
Do they swear a goddamn lot in Suits?
You're goddamn right they do. Specifically, 459 counts of goddamn and 460 counts of bullshit.