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India

New Delhi Snapshot: Connaught Place, Seen from Above

Here’s one of New Delhi’s most bustling areas as glimpsed from Parikrama, a rotating restaurant 24 stories high.

Not a view you get to take in every day.

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Newley's Notes

NN 143: Alex Jones’s Very Bad Week; Wither Snapchat?; White Shark Breach

Hi, friends. Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes.

Here are ten items worth your time this week:

šŸ–„ļø 1) By me at Newley.com: Book Notes: ‘The Master Switch,’ by Tim Wu. The book’s subtitle: “The Rise and Fall of Information Empires.” An archive of my Book Notes posts is here.

šŸš« 2) Apple Kicked Alex Jones Off Its Platform, Then YouTube And Facebook Rushed To Do The Same [Buzzfeed News] — “In all, the actions will currently seriously limit Jones’s ability to reach his massive audience,” John Paczkowski and Charlie Warzel wrote. “Twitter and Periscope remain one of the sole major platforms to still host Jones.”

ā†˜ļø 3) Snapchatā€™s Users Slide in Latest Setback for Social Media [WSJ]– After it appears that user growth is slowing at Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat “reported its first quarterly decline in daily users, sending its stock price gyrating,” my colleague Marc Vartabedian reported. The number of daily users fell 2% to about 188 million, the first such decline in seven years.

šŸ¤– 4) Robotics-related link of the week: All Is Full of Bjƶrk Bots [Slate] — “I couldnā€™t escape the feeling Iā€™d seen this sort of robot design before, and in a strikingly similar context,” Benjamin Frisch writes. “Then I realized where I recognized it from: the seminal video for Bjƶrkā€™s ‘All Is Full of Love.’ā€

šŸ“¹ 5) This week in surveillance/fashion-related news: Camouflage from face detection [CV Dazzle] — Click through to read how “avant-garde hairstyling and makeup designs” can be used to “break apart the continuity of a face.”

šŸ“š 6) Shot: Gutenbergā€™s Revenge [Strategy+Business] — Why “the consumer market for physical, printed books is holding its own in an increasingly digital world.”

šŸ’Æ 7) Chaser: 17 Places Book Lovers Need to Visit [Conde Nast Traveler] — Gorgeous pics, ranging from a trippy bookshop in Yangzhou, China to a three-story library in Rio de Janeiro and a monstary in Prague.

šŸ”„ 8) No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man [Smithsonian American Art Museum] — In the first exhibit of its kind, the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. is showing artwork from the legendary desert party.

šŸ—£ļø 9) 10 of the best words in the world (that don’t translate into English) [The Guardian] — My favorite: “sisu.” Runner up: tiĆ”o (ę”).

šŸ¦ˆ 10) Crazy-ass shark-related video of the week: White shark surprise breach off Wellfleet, MA. [YouTube/Atlantic White Shark Conservancy] — Title says it all. (Thanks, Milo!)

If you like this newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If you received this from a pal, you can sign up here.

šŸ‘Š Fist bump from New Delhi,
Newley

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India Journalism Tech

India Looks to Curb U.S. Tech Giantsā€™ Power

Thatā€™s the headline of my most recent story, which came out Monday and was in Tuesday’s print Wall Street Journal.Ā 

It begins:

Indian policy makers are looking for ways to tamp down American tech behemoths, a shift that could crimp growth potential in one of the biggest remaining open markets for their expansion.

India wants to slap new rules on Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.ā€™s Google, Facebook Inc. and other firms, using a page from Chinaā€™s playbook to take control of its citizensā€™ data and shelter homegrown startups.

The proposed rules, which have emerged in recent weeks in a series of private, draft government policies, have U.S. tech companies concerned, according to Ā  familiar with the matter. American firms are betting billions on the Indian market because, unlike Chinaā€™s, it has been relatively open to foreign competitors. That might be about to change.

ā€œIt is unprecedented and it needs to be taken very seriously,ā€ said Vinay Kesari, a Bangalore-based technology lawyer specializing in regulatory matters who has worked with U.S. tech firms. ā€œIt could have huge implications.ā€

Click through to read the rest.

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Book Notes Tech

Book Notes: ‘The Master Switch,’ by Tim Wu

From time to time I share notes about the books Iā€™ve been reading, or have revisited recently after many years.

These posts are meant to help me remember what Iā€™ve learned, and to point out titles I think are worth consulting. They’re neither formal book reviews nor comprehensive book summaries, but simply my notes from reading these titles.

For previous postings, see my Book Notes category.

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

Published: 2010
ISBN-13: 978-0307269935
Amazon link

Brief Summary

All new communications media are at first open, but come to be dominated — closed — by corporations. “The cycle” is happening again with the internet.

My Notes

In this meticulously researched and prescient* 2010 book, Columbia University Law Professor Tim Wu, who famously coined the term “network neutrality,” shows how radio, film, television and cable all began as wide-open playgrounds for hobbyists. Then large corporations took over, exercised monopoly control, and have stifled innovation.

Wu says this represents “the cycle.” As he writes, “information empires” eternally “return to consolidated order however great the disruptive forces of creative destruction.”

What is “the master switch“? Wu takes the phrase from CBS executive Fred Friendly, who:

…thought that the shortage of TV stations had given exclusive custody of a ‘master switch’ over speech, creating ‘an autocracy’ where a very few citizens are more equal than all the others.’

  • It’s important to note that the book was published in 2010, the same year that the Arab Spring began. Eight years ago there was, in my mind, a much more utopian view of what the web could become: a place for free speech to blossom, where everyone can have a voice and speak truth to power.

That was, of course, long before the rising skepticism of how platforms like Facebook and Twitter wield their power, and long before “fake news” and Russian trolls. And it was, of course, before Obama’s 2015 net neutrality rules — and before FCC Chairman Ajit Pai rolled them back last year.

My notes on other tidbits from history that I enjoyed reading about:

  • RCA dominated radio, then suppressed the release of TV until they could control the medium, Wu writes.
  • In the 1940s AT&T killed through a series of lawsuits an inventor’s simple, useful contraption called the Hush-a-Phone; it was, Wu writes, an example of a corporation stifling innovation.
  • The breakup of the Hollywood monopolies, in which studios owned theaters and produced fairly bland content, gave rise to the “new Hollywood” and classic films of the 1970s, such as “The Godfather” and “Bonnie and Clyde.”
  • At Apple, Steve Wozniak wanted openness (i.e. Apple II, which could be tinkered with); Steve Jobs wanted things closed (i.e. the Mac, which was sealed). Wu says Wozniak told him “That was Steve. He wanted it that way. The Apple II was my machine, and the Mac was his.”
  • Google wants the web to remain open, even though it has enormous power. Wu writes:

    In fairness, it must be allowed that Google has remained more committed to openness than any information empire before it. What now seems possible, if unprecedented, is a well-defended Internet monopolist running a mostly open system.

  • Wu recounts an interesting Google anecdote:

    In the fall of 2010, I was on Google’s campus speaking of cycles, of open and closed, centralization and decentralization. A senior employee raised his hand. “You have a good point,” he said. “When you’re a new company, getting started, openness seems really great, because it offers a way in. But I have to admit, the bigger you get, the more appealing closed systems starts (sic) to look.”

  • Finally, Wu says the stakes are much higher when it comes to the web, compared to other media. That’s because “our future…is almost certain to become an intensification of our current reality: greater and greater information dependence in every matter of life and work, and all that needed information increasingly traveling a single network we call the internet…already there are signs that the good old days of a completely open network are ending.”
Categories
Newley's Notes

Newley’s Notes 142: Apple Soars; Google in China; QAnon; Wingsuit Craziness

Edition 142 of my email newsletter went out on Monday.

If youā€™d like NN delivered to your inbox before itā€™s posted here, simply enter your email address at this link. Itā€™s free, itā€™s fun, itā€™s brief, and few people unsubscribe.


Hi, friends. Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes.

Here are ten items worth your time this week:

šŸŽ 1) Apple sees strong quarter ahead as earnings top estimates [Axios] — The micro: iPhone revenue rose 20% compared to a year earlier and services sales rose 31%. The macro, from my colleague Tripp Mickle: The results show how Apple is “finding ways to grow amid a contracting global smartphone market that is roiling its rivals,” he writes. And:

The companyā€™s services business reported record revenue of $9.55 billion, a 31% increase from a year earlier, strengthening the case that Apple is in the midst of a transformation from a device-driven business into one increasingly reliant on sales of subscriptions and software.

šŸ’ÆšŸ’ÆšŸ’ÆšŸ’ÆšŸ’Æ 2) … and Apple later marked a milestone: Appleā€™s Market Cap Hits $1 Trillion [WSJ] — It’s the first U.S. firm to surpass $1 trillion in market cap. Click through for an amazing graphic showing the stock’s rise.

šŸ” 3) This week also saw two interesting Google-China stories. First: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal [The Intercept] — The service “will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest,” Ryan Gallagher reports.

šŸ‡ØšŸ‡³ 4) And second: Google Developing News App for China [The Information] — The news app “will comply with the countryā€™s strict censorship laws,” Wayne Ma and Juro Osawa report.

ā‰ļø 5) Bizarre story of the week: What Is QAnon: Explaining the Internet Conspiracy Theory That Showed Up at a Trump Rally [NY Times] — TLDR: It’s super weird and totally nonsensical. There’s more from Know Your Meme.

šŸ“š 6) Meet the YouTube Stars Turning Viewers Into Readers [New York Times] — ConcepciĆ³n de LeĆ³n speaks with “BookTubers,” young book fans who have become influencers on YouTube.

šŸ„¤ 7) The Decline and Fall of Diet Coke and the Power Generation That Loved It [New Yorker] — “To an astonishing extent,” Nathan Heller writes, “the age of Diet Coke — its rise, its reign, its fall — maps onto a historical bracket that began with the launch of MTV and ended with the emergence of social media: the era of the power of the image in a mainstream burnished form.”

šŸ’„ 8) Venezuela President Maduro survives ‘drone assassination attempt’ [BBC] — NicolĆ”s Maduro was speaking at a gathering in Caracas when “Two drones loaded with explosives went off near the president’s stand, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said,” the BBC reports. Meanwhile, Reuters’s Joseph Ax has some analysis:

Wherever the investigation leads, Maduroā€™s allegations raised the specter of unmanned aerial vehicles being used by militant groups or others to launch bombing, chemical or biological attacks, a tactic that has long worried security experts.

šŸ’” 9) Tech longread of the week: Growing Up Jobs [Vanity Fair] — Lisa Brennan-Jobs recounts her difficult relationship with her father, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

šŸŒŒ 10) Mind-blowing video of the week: Stars orbiting the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way [YouTube] — “This time-lapse video from the NACO instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile shows stars orbiting the supermassive black hole that lies at the heart of the Milky Way over a period of nearly 20 years.”

ā›°ļø Honorable mention: Formation Wingsuit Terrain Flying at the Mettlehorn in Switzerland [YouTube] — Title says it all. Insane.

If you like this newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If you received this from a pal, you can sign up here.

šŸ‘Š Fist bump from New Delhi

Newley

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Newley's Notes

Newley’s Notes 141: Back from Summer Break!; Data-Siphoning Apps Exposed; Pachelbel’s Chicken

Edition 141 of my email newsletter went out last Sunday.

If youā€™d like NN delivered to your inbox before itā€™s posted here, simply enter your email address at this link. Itā€™s free, itā€™s fun, itā€™s brief, and few people unsubscribe.


Hi, friends. Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes.

šŸ‡ŗšŸ‡ø So, I’m back after a few weeks of summer holiday. Anasuya and I enjoyed the 4th of July (and biscuits and grits and burgers and sausages and going out on the water) with family and friends in Beaufort, S.C..

We celebrated a milestone birthday with family in central Pennsylvania.

We caught up with amigos in Washington, D.C., and then spent nearly a week in New York working and eating and visiting with pals and colleagues.

It was fantastic to be back in the U.S., see people close to us, and — let’s not forget about the beautiful game — watch the conclusion of a memorable World Cup (Croatia almost did it, but a dynamic and exciting France were deserving winners).

Now we’ve returned to Delhi and are getting back into the swing of things. Thankfully, while we were away, the blistering heat gave way to the monsoon rains, so the weather is cooler.

On to this week’s NN…

Here are ten items worth your time this week:

šŸ“µ 1) By me: App Traps: How Cheap Smartphones Siphon User Data in Developing Countries — [WSJ] The story, which I wrote with my colleagues Josh Chin, Myo Myo and Kersten Zhang, ran on the front page of our Business and Finance section and online July 5. It begins:

For millions of people buying inexpensive smartphones in developing countries where privacy protections are usually low, the convenience of on-the-go internet access could come with a hidden cost: preloaded apps that harvest usersā€™ data without their knowledge.

One such app, included on thousands of Chinese-made Singtech P10 smartphones sold in Myanmar and Cambodia, sends the ownerā€™s location and unique-device details to a mobile-advertising firm in Taiwan called General Mobile Corp., or GMobi. The app also has appeared on smartphones sold in Brazil and those made by manufacturers based in China and India, security researchers said.

I worked on this piece for a some time and am proud of it because it involved some deep digging and hit on some important themes. Several outlets picked it up, as well.

šŸ“‰ 2) Shot: Facebook Suffers Worst-Ever Drop in Market Value [WSJ] — TLDR: Shares plummeted 19%, wiping out nearly $120 billion in market value, with investors concerned about decelerating growth.

ā¬‡ļø 3) Chaser: Twitter User Numbers Slip as It Shuts Fake Accounts; Stock Drops [WSJ] — TLDR: Twitter slipped more than 20% after it said its global monthly active users fell.

šŸ¤‘ 4) And the context: Investors Step Back From Social-Media Highfliers [WSJ] — My colleagues Marc Vartabedian, Yoree Koh and Michael Wursthorn write:

Facebook and Twitter have different business models but each is dependent on grabbing — and keeping — peopleā€™s attention and then showing ads to them. That imperative on occasion has led them to embrace content that is viral or provocative, and now they are trying to find a better balance that will keep users engaged without driving them away. For instance, both are scrambling to clean up their platforms, which were the epicenter of Russian misinformation campaigns around the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In a look at Facebook’s earnings, specifically, Shira Ovide at Bloomberg writes:

If what the company predicts comes to pass, the internetā€™s best combination of fast revenue growth and plump profit margins is dead. All at once, it seemed, reality finally caught up to Facebook.

šŸ›ļø 5) Online shopping-related longread of the week: How E-Commerce Is Transforming Rural China [New Yorker] — Jiayang Fan profiles JD.com, the Amazon of China, which is pushing into the country’s hinterlands.

šŸ—£ļø 6) Speaking of China: Balding Out — A bittersweet essay in which a well known American business school professor, Christopher Balding, describes why he’s leaving China after nine years. My colleague Chun Han Wong in Beijing has more on the wider story.

šŸ—³ļø 7) Interactive of the week: An Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Election [New York Times] — This feature is pretty straightforward, allowing you to zoom in to examine individual precincts to see how people voted. But it’s a reminder of the stark political differences between people in big cities and more rural areas. More info available in an accompanying piece called “Political Bubbles and Hidden Diversity.”

āœØ 8) Not tech-related, but getting lots of buzz online: How Goopā€™s Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrowā€™s Company Worth $250 Million [New York Times] — Taffy Brodesser-Akner on the “most controversial brand in the wellness industry,” and the woman behind it.

šŸ 9) Alpaca-related story of the week: Altiplano review: A brain-tickling board game about…alpacas [Ars Technica] — “Donā€™t let the grinning llamas (alpacas?) fool you,” Tom Mendelsohn writes, “this can be a powerful gaming experience… but only for a certain kind of player.”

šŸ” 10) Silly video of the week: Pachelbel’s Chicken [YouTube] — Yes, that’s Pachelbel’s Canon…played on rubber chickens.

If you like this newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If you received this from a pal, you can sign up here.

šŸ‘Š Fist bump from New Delhi — and I hope your summers are going well, friends!

Newley