📡 All you need to get through this is...
Welcome to this week’s Pulse — from a 🔒⬇️🇬🇧
Hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy.
I’ve spent so much time at home that I didn’t even realise it’s Sunday! But I’m guessing I’m not alone in this…
Although working from home isn’t new to me, but I think these past few days, I’ve been given the gift of time and I’m trying to make the most of it. Hopefully, it’ll pay off.
Meanwhile, here’s a couple of questions I’m hoping you could answer by replying to this email:
What are you doing in quarantine to pass the time? making something? learning something? what’s taking your time?
Are you interested in joining a community of Pulse readers? (on Slack? Telegram? Facebook?! — your call!)
Just remember, now we’re all part of a chapter that will appear in high school history books — all of us; together!
Now, let’s get going!
— 𝕭𝖊𝖓 𝔣𝔯𝔬𝔪 [ 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝖎𝖝 ]
are we still using days of the week at this point?
🗞 NEWS
Apple launches an app and a website that provides information and guidance on COVID-19, in partnership with CDC, FEMA, and the Coronavirus Task Force [Apple] — find accurate information about the virus and see if you should seek testing.
Google to donate $800M+ to fight COVID-19 [Axios] — including $250m in ad grants to WHO, $340m Google Ads credits for SMBs, $200m fund to improve SMBs’ access to capital
Airbnb suspends marketing to save $800 million, top executives take pay cut [Reuters]; Bird lays off about 30% of workforce [TechCrunch]; Lyft is referring drivers to jobs at Amazon after massive ridership decline [Verge]; and
Instacart workers are planning a nationwide strike due to company refusing to provide basic protections like hazard pay, hand sanitizer, and paid leave for those with pre-existing health conditions [Vice] — it’s a difficult time…
A vulnerability affecting iOS 13.3.1 and later prevents VPNs from encrypting some traffic, potentially exposing user data or leaking IP addresses [ProtonVPN] — apparently, there’s a not-100-percent-reliable-temp-workaround, but Apple’s the only one who can fix it.
Analyst estimates Facebook and Google could lose $44B+ in 2020 global ad revenue due to COVID-19 [Variety] — that’s a pretty hefty loss… but not compared to the lives we lost to it…
YouTube changed the default video resolution to standard definition worldwide for a month to ease internet traffic [Bloomberg] — following Netflix’s lead, but 480p default is pretty scary!
Brave partners with Binance to include a widget on the new tab page that lets users buy, trade, and receive cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether — Brave is my default browser, and I highly recommend it. Download it here 🦁. You can try out the new widget in Brave’s nightly release.
Spotify will no longer work with third-party DJ apps starting on July 1 [Verge] — and this’s gonna suck for developers like Algoriddim.
🧠 INSIGHTS
Hello 👋 - Credit: Vladislav Klapin on Unsplash
To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.
A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free youtube channel; they will come to your chef’s table once a month. If you have roughly a thousand of true fans like this (also known as super fans), you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune.
Read more on the Technium by Kevin Kelly (KK).
this is not a new concept/article, but it’s more relevant than ever with everything going on around the world.
hopefully, it will help you; and also make you consider supporting Pulse and me; either here or on Patreon.
📊 STATISTICS
Coronavirus tracked: the latest figures as the pandemic spreads
The countries affected, the number of deaths and the economic impact.
everything you need to know from a credible source. and it’s free to read.
Number of new patrons per day on Patreon - Credit: Patreon
COVID-19 and the Creative Economy
A large number of creators are launching on Patreon. More than 30,000 creators launched in the first 3 weeks of March 2020 alone, and these new creators are acquiring patrons faster than usual.
Creators have expanded their earnings on Patreon during this time period. This is driven by two factors:
Patron acquisition: An unusually large number of fans are subscribing to creators on Patreon.
Patron retention: We’ve seen slightly more pledge deletion, but not nearly enough to offset the increasing numbers of new pledges.
Read more on Patreon.
and you can support me too… i joined a while back, but launched my page this week
Video chat apps & pandemic - Credit: Statista
Video Chat Apps Rise to Prominence Amid Pandemic
As a significant part of the world population is currently on lockdown in an attempt to contain the coronavirus pandemic, people are turning to technology to work, communicate and stay in touch with their loved ones.
Unsurprisingly, workplace communication tools such as Slack and Teams have seen a jump in usage as working from home has become the new norm in recent weeks. People are also making use of similar tools in their personal lives, however, leading to a spike in downloads of video chat apps.
According to Priori Data, global downloads of Skype, Houseparty and Zoom each surged by more than 100 percent in March, with the latter proving particularly popular among people meeting up virtually while being confined to their homes. The videoconferencing app was downloaded nearly 27 million times this month, up from just 2.1 million times in January.
While Zoom is definitely the rising star among video chat apps, Skype remains far ahead in terms of active users.
Read more on Statista.
📱 TOOLS & APPS
Google Podcasts: not new, but is now available on [iOS]
i’ll still to Breaker though… [iOS | Android]
Flat Icons: 20,000 unique, customisable icons with free lifetime updates.
design stuff while quarantined!
🔍 SPOTTED
Instagram is working on “Support” stickers encouraging users buy gift cards or donate to the businesses that they want to support, especially during this difficult time
This is part of Instagram’s efforts to help out SMBs during COVID-19 https://t.co/StyGxEvyNF
🎧 AUDIO STIMULATION
1918 Flu - Throughline
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic it’s tempting to draw comparisons to the most severe pandemic in recent history - the 1918 flu.
But as much as we can learn from the comparison, it’s important to also understand just how much these two pandemics differ. This week, what we can learn from what happened then and, just as importantly, where the comparison should end.
just remember that podcast downloads in the US have fallen ~10% and total unique visitors are down ~20% since the start of March [WWD] — commute and gym are the most popular podcast consumption platforms… and they’ve been disrupted…
🐦 TWEETS of the WEEK
one of the biggest observations i’ve had from quarantine is that it’s important to marry someone you actually like
👆sooooooooooo true — and have you? 👇
Has someone tried turning 2020 off and on again?
Now I know why dogs get so excited to go for walks
i need to practice social distancing from the refrigerator.
this quarantine got me questioning who i really am https://t.co/FMSeprzpKl
and here’s a 🧵 from Slack’s CEO… worth going through 👇
My day job (also: night job) is CEO of Slack, a publicly traded company with investors to whom I am a fiduciary, 110k+ paying customers of all sizes, and thousands of employees I care about very, very much. The last few weeks have been 🤯😳😢 Here’s what it's been like. [Thread]
😂 FUN STUFF
Behind every successful woman is an unsuccessful man not wearing any pants:
https://t.co/GZsKPsXhub
I proudly present to you: @stevewoz in a 1983 Datsun 280ZX commercial https://t.co/CvDGpsazPW
Well @Spotify your recommended list is uhhhhh….. on point today. https://t.co/PoFZBE5YYv
That's all for this week...
Stay home and stay safe people — please!
will leave you with this… a HUGE THANK YOU to all health workers
and a big shoutout to my amazing wife. she’s one of those health workers… stay safe 💛
⛑👍 A Magnus Fusion 212 pilot took to the sky over Hungary today to show their appreciation for healthcare professionals. - Credit: @flightradar24
See you next week; same place, around the same time…
Ciao