📡 Annoying as f* 😒
Welcome to this week’s Pulse!
Catching a cold always sucks, but this time, mine has taken it to a whole new level of sucking! I hope you stay well, and I’m pretty sure my cold won’t reach you through Pulse [he wrote wearing a 😷 and after washing his hands with 🧼].
So last week, I came to you at night (not as a dream, though; did I?) and many of you liked it; so, I decided to try it again - in a very 👻 friendly way. Let’s see how it goes…
Now, let’s dive in.
- Ben from [ perspective ix ]
📰 News
Iran shuts down country’s internet in the wake of fuel protests [TechCrunch] - Hope everyone’s okay…
Disney+ surpasses 10 million subscribers on first day despite tech problems that affected the service throughout the day. The app has been downloaded more than 3.2 million times [Verge].
Wikipedia’s Founder, Jimmy Wales, has quietly launched a Facebook rival social network, which is funded by donations instead of advertising. It already has 50,000 members and Jimmy Wales thinks up to 500 million people could join the social network [ZDNet].
Apple launches Research app, 🇺🇸 users can enrol in three health studies [9to5Mac].
Remember Motorola’s Razr? It’s coming back as a $1,500 flip-phone with folding 6.2" screen [Register].
Facebook is secretly using your iPhone’s camera as you scroll your feed [TNW] - what the actual fuck, Facebook!?
Instagram just took its divisive ‘hidden likes’ experiment global [TNW] - how do you feel about that? Answer the poll of the week!
🧠 Insights
Annoyed or Annoying? - Credit: Matthew T Rader on Unsplash
Annoyed
Does being annoyed serve any useful purpose?
If it does, are there classes you can take or experiences you can pay for that help you become annoyed? We have gyms to get fit and mindfulness exercises to get calm, but I’m not sure I’m seeing a widespread movement toward seeking annoyance.
So, if being annoyed is simply a side effect of something else we do, and it’s not actually useful, why do we work so hard to amplify the annoyance we feel? Why create a narrative, push hard against the powerless bureaucrat or the stuck pickle jar simply to make ourselves even more annoyed?
The only person who is getting taught a lesson is us.
From Seth Godin’s Blog.
🗳 Poll of the Week
How do you feel about hidden number of likes on Instagram?
📊 Statistics
How Influencer Marketing Costs Exploded - Credit: Statista
How Influencer Marketing Costs Exploded
A new analysis by marketing firm Izea looked at the growing costs of sponsored content on a range of platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. It found that the costs behind influencer marketing have exploded over the past five years and that brands are willing to spend big to promote their posts.
When it comes to Instagram, the average cost of a sponsored photo has climbed 44 percent between 2018 and 2019. In 2015, the average cost was $381 and that now stands at a hefty $1,643. The cost of sponsoring a Twitter status has climbed from $34 in 2015 to $422 this year. YouTube was the priciest platform in the analysis and a sponsored video now averages $6,700. That’s still considerably cheaper than in 2017 when it averaged close to $8,000.
via Statista.
Deep Tech Trends 2019
Key trends in ‘Deep Tech’ covering 💡IoT 🤖Robotics 🏥Health Tech 🚀Frontier Tech and 🔬Biotech. Made by the SOSV team.
📱 Tools & Apps
Brave: Browse faster and more secure. Get paid to see ads, if you chose to. It’s now available on both iOS and Android. (You can support me by downloading it, too.) [Download]
Glyphy: Copy & paste glyphs with ease.
Pinngle: Free calls and vide chat. [iOS | Android] (with everything going on in Iran and the Internet shutdown, you can make free direct calls to Iran with Pinngle at the moment. If you have friend and family you can’t reach online… Hope everyone’s okay…)
🎧 Audio Stimulation
The Future of Audio with Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify.
This week’s guest on Patrick OShaughnessy’s Invest Like the Best is Daniel Ek, the founder and CEO of Spotify.
In his conversations with Daniel, Patrick OShaughnessy, found him to be one of the most interesting and thoughtful business leaders in the world. You’ll see what I mean as you listen to their conversation.
🐦 Tweets of the Week
Update: It has now been 24 hours since #Iran implemented a near-total internet shutdown following hours of partial blackouts amid widespread protests.
The ongoing disruption constitutes a severe violation of the basic rights and liberties of Iranians⏱
📰https://t.co/1Al0DT8an1 https://t.co/i7sudrB3I4
May god have mercy on the soul of the person who takes this job https://t.co/KIICvWUIQK https://t.co/P1rO13yjle
🎮 Fun Stuff
Somebody save this dude! - Credit: Reddit/u/DJFWB
Super giant squirrel stealing an avocado - Credit: Reddit/u/bunnies1231
This is not goodbye...
This is. *coughing*
Ciao