Categories
Newley's Notes

🕯️ NN 153: New Apple Gadgets; Netflix Intrigue; Reggie’s Leap

Here are ten items worth your time this week:

💰 1. Everything Apple announced at its Brooklyn event [Quartz] – TLDR: New iPad Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Mini. My WSJ colleague Tripp Mickle has the context on Apple’s corporate strategy here: raising prices:

The announcements amplified Apple’s recent strategy of boosting total revenue by jacking up prices. A year after lifting its flagship iPhone price to $999, the company is raising prices for new versions of the MacBook Air by 20%, the Mac mini by 60%, and the iPad Pro by about 25%.

👎 2. Tech-meets-terrorism story of the week, take one: Cesar Sayoc’s Path on Social Media: From Food Photos to Partisan Fury [NY Times] – “His vehicle, a white van plastered with right-wing slogans, came to resemble a Facebook feed on wheels,” Kevin Roose writes.

💬 3. Tech-meets-terrorism story of the week, take two: Gab.com goes down after GoDaddy threatens to pull domain [The Verge] – Robert Bowers, accused of killing 11 people and injuring six in an anti-Semitic attack last weekend, had taken to the platform in the past.

🎥 4. Must-read WSJ Page One Netflix story: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks [WSJ] This is a remarkable piece of reporting by my colleagues Shalini Ramachandran and Joe Flint about Netflix’s unique corporate culture. Among the many vivid anecdotes:

When Netflix’s Singapore office opened in 2016, employees said they were shocked by the frequency of firings. A Korean employee who left earlier this year from the Singapore office said the culture encouraging harsh feedback at times reminded her of North Korea, where mothers are forced to criticize their sons in front of the public.

🔌 5. Electric vehicle related stat of the week: “Nearly half of the world’s electric vehicles are in 25 cities.”. And China is leading the way. That’s from the International Council on Clean Transportation.

📚 6. Book-related shot: Tiny Books Fit in One Hand. Will They Change the Way We Read? [NY Times] – “Dwarsliggers” are “tiny, pocket-size, horizontal flipbacks that have become a wildly popular print format in the Netherlands.” I want one bad!

💡 7. Book-related chaser: The New Canon: What’s the most influential book of the past 20 years? [Chronicle of Higher Education] – Scholars from various disciplines list their pics. Fantastic food for thought here.

📱 8. Tech curiosity of the week: Why a Helium Leak Disabled Every iPhone in a Medical Facility [Vice/Motherboard] – Bizarre. (Thanks, Eric!)

🥡 9. Internet silliness of the week: The Reddit Forum That Guesses Who You Are Based on What’s in Your Fridge [New Yorker] – All about the Fridge Detective subreddit.

😂 10. Amazing, uplifting, simply wonderful dog video of the week: Leaping into Monday like! [Instagram] – Magestic stuff from Reggie the miniature Aussie bulldog.

👊 Fist bump from New Delhi,
Newley

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *