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◼ “DALL·E: Creating Images from Text”. This GPT-3 for images, generating images from text descriptions such as “a chair shaped like an avocado”. Uncanny. AI is everywhere. Link
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: .
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◼ “Embrace the Grind”. Great career advice. Link See also: Teller’s seven secrets of magic. Link See also: Watch Penn & Teller explain sleight of hand. Link (Video)
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Goats, Baby Sharks, and American Internet.
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◼ “The end of the American internet”. Link
◼ Genshin Impact, a Chinese free-to-play open-world RPG, has grossed over $100m in two weeks. One to watch. Link
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Popsicles, Olive Branches, and Skins.
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◼ “A robot wrote this entire article. Are you scared yet, human?”. AI is everywhere. Link
◼ After TikTok, Tencent seems to be under scrutiny by the US government. Tecent is owning, holding stakes, or has publishing deals with Riot, Epic, ActivisionBlizzard, Roblox, Discord and other. This might get ugly. Link
FiveThirtyEight discussing a tricky question – and one that was unthinkable not so long ago:
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Billie Cocaine, Pig Brains, and Home Circus.
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◼ Epic vs Apple (and, let’s not forget, Google): Apple and Google removed Fortnite from the App Stores, but Apple was blocked by a judge from removing Epic’s full developer license, a move that would have affected the Unreal Engine severely and which felt retaliatory. Epic is forfeiting quite a bit of revenue to fight this. Legally, all this seems to boil down to how to define the relevant markets.
See also: Ben Evans' take on “App stores, trust and anti-trust”.
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◼ TikTok, meanwhile, is now shy of a CEO and still up for a government-forced sale. Fitting these strange times. Link
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Removals, Roses, and the Return of Magic.
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◼ Epic released a feature that woud bypass in-app purchase in Fortnite on Apples and Googles app stores. Google and Apple pulled Fortnite from the app store within hours. This was Epic’s wanted and expected result: within even fewer hours, they sued Apple and Google for anti-competitive behavior. I have a LOT of thoughts on this. But for now: hand me the popcorn, this is getting interesting…
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See also: “Epic Games, a plucky corporate underdog worth $17 billion.”
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◼ Speaking of popcorn: Trump issued two executive orders to “ban” TikTok. Nomnomnom, delicious. Link
See also: “Oval Office Brawl” – dibs on that name for a game! More popcorn, please.
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And let’s not forget: “Key money”. Can’t make this stuff up.
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A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Frog vomit, Space Travel, and Cube Juggling.
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◼ Fascinating research into how stage magicians use priming techniques to influence choices. Psychology meets magic. Link
◼ “A Powerful Lesson in Discrimination”. If you’ve never watched any of Jane Elliott’s lessons, you absolutely should and now is better than never. Link
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Sudoku, Solitaire, and Penguin Poop.
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◼ The new trailer of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming movie “Tenet” premiered – in Fortnite.
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I had some more thoughts on this, which you can find in this post:
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◼ Facebook partners with Shopify to announce “Facebook Shops”, allows businesses to list their products directly on their Facebook Page, Instagram profile, Stories or in ads. Link
Warner Brothers just premiered the latest trailer of the upcoming Christopher Nolan film Tenet – in Fortnite. This got a lot of attention in the media. As a marketing coup, it’s safe to say that it has worked spectacularly well given all this additional buzz and exposure.
Here, I am more interested in another angle: how much of that is a gimmick? Would any media outlet still report excitedly about a movie trailer being shown exclusively in a video game in 2-3y? Will watching an entire movie from within a video game become the norm? And how much of that means that we are all about to dive into the “Metaverse”?
It’s is also interesting to ponder for whom this is ultimately most beneficial. So let’s take a brief look.
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Retro Futuristic Space Comics.
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◼ Epic’s Unreal 5 engine demo on the PS5 sure looks yummy. Link
◼ Facebook would like to acquire Giphy, the Internet’s quintessential GIF search engine powering every animated joke in anything from iMessage to Twitter to Slack, for $400m. This might cause some anti-trust headaches. Link
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Trolls, Metaverse, and Silly Walks.
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◼ No, Covid-19 is nothing like the flu. Link
◼ “Esports and the Dangers of Serving at the Pleasure of a King” – thoughtful piece by Matthew Ball on the issues that may hinder esports growth. Link
◼ “There are decades when nothing happens, and then there are weeks when decades happen.” Ben Evans on how the Covid-19 shock might accelerate disruptive transitions in various industries. Link
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Fraggles, Teens, and Swimming Naked.
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◼ “COVID and forced experiments”. Very insightful post by Ben Evans. Many things we usually do offline, we are now forced to do online. What will stick? What will revert? Link
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Bedfellows, Adversaries, and the French.
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◼ Apple and Google are working together to enable proximity tracking on iOS and Android phones. Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. Link
◼ “How to Transition Between Work Time and Personal Time”. Some simple tips, although I’d argue that “routine” and “plan” are not part of most small kids' vocabulary. Link
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Cookies, Mentos, and Bread.
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◼ Apple now allows “premium subscription video providers” (Amazon) to charge consumers directly – no 30% cut to Apple. In turn, these apps play nicely with Siri, tvOS, Airplay etc. And it’ll look good to anti-trust regulators. Still, this and changing default apps in iOS? Hell must be an ice palace by now. Link
◼ Should you wear a face mask? “Face masks for COVID-19: A deep dive into the data”. Link
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Zoombombing, IKEA, and Hell.
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◼ Apple is considering letting users change the default email, browser, music apps in iOS. In other news: hell is freezing over. Link
◼ Luxury brands are preparing for spending collapse as most people plan to cut back on nonessential purchases. This might seem insignificant but it is just one tip of one large iceberg as these effects of Coronavirus ripple through the supply chain from Italy to Bangladesh, affecting tens of thousands of people. Link
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Magic, Eras, and Goodbyes.
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◼ “Some People”. Stay safe everyone! Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Black Swans, Backdoors, and War Zones.
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Some hopefully useful links related to the current crisis:
◼ “How to Wash Your Hands Properly”. This is less to protect yourself but others. Link
◼ “How to Prevent Loneliness in a Time of Social Distancing”. Buy some chocolate too. Link
◼ “How to Avoid Shaking Hands”. In Spain, this includes no kisses for hello and goodbye. Accepting temporary awkwardness is much better than spreading the virus. Link
◼ The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic and The Guardian are all providing free access to Coronavirus updates and reporting. Links: NYT | WP | WSJ | TA | TG
◼ Working from home means far less physical exercise for all of us. Try e.g. these apps for the “7 minute workout” for some easy ways to stay fit and nimble. Links: iPhone | Android
Stay safe everyone and be mindful of others!
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Penguins, Dogfooding, and Unicorns.
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◼ “How Games Make Money”, an interesting new podcast. Useful particularly if you’re new to the business. Links: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast
◼ League of Legends maker Riot will launch a F2P shooter “Valorant” in summer, “looks like Overwatch meets CS:GO”. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Empires, Toddlers, and Origami.
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◼ “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos”, a feature-length documentary into Amazon and its founder. Watch at home, it’s long. Link (Video)
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Millenials, Tycoons, and Physicists.
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◼ Instagram has made $20 billion (!) from ads. Insane. This is also considerably more than YouTube’s estimated $15b and with a higher profit margin, since YouTube shares revenue with content creators (Instagram doesn’t). Link
◼ “Supercell’s off year”. Well, $1.56 billion revenue and $577m profit is not bad for an off year. But it’s clear that they are looking for the next big thing. Link
See also: Supercell’s CEO’s take in his blog post. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Devils, Rockstars, and Cyborg Jellyfish.
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/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66258822/vlcsnap_2019_11_01_14h16m00s345.0.jpg "Diablo, Blizzard Entertainment")
◼ Ben Evan’s fantastic “Tech in 2020” presentation. Lots of food for thought. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Princes, Clouds, and Dark Patterns.
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◼ How to delete what Facebook knows about your life outside of Facebook. Useful. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Austria, axes, and Africa.
◼ Fascinating insights on influencer marketing economy in China. Brave new world. Link
◼ More Deconstructor of Fun predictions: “What Happens When the Hypercasual Party Ends?” It’s a hypercompetitive, hypersaturated hypercasual beyond-hypergrowth market. Also, hyper. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Kings, ducks, and Roman Emperors.
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◼ “2020 Predictions #1: Prepare to Crown the New King of Puzzle Games”. We’ll see about that. Link
◼ The 2020 “State of Mobile” report by App Annie. Lots and lots of interesting figures. Want one? 204 billion downloads. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: deepfakes, liquid people, and immortal avatars.
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◼ “2019 Year In Review” from Superdata/Nielsen. Lots of stats and figures on games and interactive media overall. Key take-aways: mobile titles earn almost 3 out of every 5 dollars spent – and 4 out 5 dollars are spent in F2P. Link
◼ Liquid people, walking barcodes, and designing intelligence: Fjord’s 2020 Trends (Fjord is Accenture’s design and innovation unit). My favorite: digital doubles. Uncanny. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: harbingers, sex toys, and cat videos.
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◼ “Harbinger customers” are people that consistently buy products that get discontinued, buy real-estate that underperforms, and donate to losing political candidates. Fascinating. Link Here’s the PDF of the actual research paper: Link
◼ Yearly reviews are for losers. App Annie looks at the Top Apps & Games of the last decade. Candy is #2 in downloads. Can you guess #1? Link
◼ Christmas crazy-time is here – it’s also a good moment to think about giving back. If you are looking for great charities, look at Givewell.org. They provide independent, data-backed research and recommend few but highly effective charities. I’ve been donating to the Against Malaria Foundation for several years now, on their recommendation. Go do some good, people. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Drunk shopping, Slot Machines That Walk in Bars, and Lush Lava."
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◼ “52 things I learned in 2019.” These yearly posts by Tom Whitwell are amazing to read and a pure treasure trove! Just take #8: “Drunk shopping could be a $45bn /year industry, and only 6% of people regret their drunk purchases.” Sit back, read, enjoy. Link
◼ If you just have time for one of the things of this list, take this one from games: “1,500 Slot Machines Walk into a Bar: Adventures in Quantity Over Quality.” Smart, funny, questionable. sad… this story got it all. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: China Switch, Female Office Rivalries, and Sagrada Familia.
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◼ Tencent will start selling Nintendo’s Switch console in China next week, the first time the Japanese company’s flagship product will be distributed officially in the world’s largest videogame markets. This could be big for Nintendo. Link ($)
◼ The persistent myth of “female office rivalries”: there’s no evidence that women are more hostile to other women than men are to other men. So let’s bury that myth, shall we? Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Aesthetic Intelligence, Propaganda Machines, and Anxious Achievers.
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◼ AI is industrializing drug discovery. AI everywhere, the hallmarks of general purpose technology. How we can leverage this more in games? Link (Video)
◼ Top 1% of mobile publishers take 82% of downloads and 95% of in-app purchases. This isn’t new but a good reminder – and it won’t go away. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Emotion Recognition, New responsibilities, and a 1000 Degrees.
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◼ Emotion recognition is China’s new surveillance craze. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Playing god, Tinder, and Trolling Trump.
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◼ How does Zynga make the decision on whether to retire a live game, reinvest in it, or ramp up work on a sequel? Link
◼ Are game designers playing god? Richard Bartle, game designer lecturer at Uni Essex thinks we might. Completely irrelevant to your day-to-day work – but it’s the kind of fun stuff Elon Musk discusses in the hot tub. Link
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Gen Z, Sleep, and Zombie Ants.
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Delicious Digest is was a (roughly) weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting.
